BAKU, Azerbaijan, Mar. 20
By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:
Total revenue of Italy’s Snam company, net of components offset in costs, was €2,604 million in 2019, up by €76 million (or 3 percent) on 2018, Trend reports citing the company.
“The increase is due to higher regulated revenue (+€62 million; +2.6 percent), essentially due to the natural gas transportation business, which benefits from an increase in tariff parameters and past years’ investments, as well as to the new output-based services (+€3 million) and higher non-regulated revenue (+€14 million; +13.9 percent) reflecting the contribution from services and companies that joined the consolidation scope in 2018, partly absorbed by lower revenues from services regulated by contracts concluded as at 31 December 2018,” the company said in its report.
Net financial expense (€165 million), net of special items, saw a €30 million reduction, equal to 15.4 percent, compared with FY 2018, said the company.
“The reduction is mainly due to lower expenses relating to net financial debt (-€35 million; -17.6 percent), specifically due to the lower average cost of gross debt, down from 1.5 percent in 2018 to 1.1 percent in 2019, thanks to the continuous optimisation of the Group’s financial structure and risk management implemented by Snam, as well as positive market conditions,” reads the report.
Net financial debt was €11,923 million as at 31 December 2019 (€11,548 million as at 31 December 2018). Positive net cash flow from operations (€1,486 million) enabled Snam to fully cover the financial requirements associated with net investments (€1,004 million) and to generate free cash flow of €482 million.
“Net financial debt, after equity cash flow deriving essentially from the payment to the shareholders of the 2018 dividend (€746 million, of which €298 million by way of interim dividend and €448 million as balance) and the purchase of own shares (€39 million), saw a rise of €375 million on 31 December 2018, including non-monetary components related to financial debt (€75 million), mainly relating to changes in the consolidation scope and financial payables recorded in the application of IFRS 16 “Leasing”,” said the company.
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