BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov.5
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Technical investments in the first nine months of 2020 totalled Euro 762 million in the first nine months of 2020 (Euro 650 million in the first nine months of 2019), an increase of Euro 112 million or 17.2 percent despite the slowdown caused by COVID-19, Trend reports citing the company.
Snam is one of the world’s leading energy infrastructure operators and one of the largest Italian listed companies in terms of market capitalization.
“The investments related mainly to natural gas transportation (Euro 634 million compared with Euro 556 million in the first nine months of 2019) and storage (Euro 91 million compared with Euro 77 million in the first nine months of 2019) segments. On the basis of the information available to date, a substantial recovery of the delays compared to the investments planned for 2020 is expected by the end of the year.
“Net cash flow from operating activities (Euro 1,335 million) allowed Snam to entirely cover the net technical investments for the period (net of payables for investments) of Euro 786 million and the disbursements related to the acquisition of jointly controlled interest in OLT (Euro 335 million, including ancillary charges related to the interest acquisition; Euro 307 million net of redemptions for the period) and Iniziative Biometano (Euro 9 million) as well as to the acquisition of the stake in ADNOC Gas Pipelines (Euro 221 million, including ancillary charges), generating a Free Cash Flow of Euro 10 million. Net financial debt at 30 September 2020 totalled Euro 12,805 million, recording an increase of Euro 882 million compared with 31 December 2019, including the non-monetary components, due mostly to the payment to shareholders of the 2019 dividend and the purchase of treasury shares (Euro 893 million in total).
“The fixed capital (Euro 20,137 million) increased by Euro 826 million compared to 31 December 2019, essentially as a result of: (i) the increase in long-term financial receivables (Euro +305 million) following the taking over of the residual portion of a shareholders’ loan from Iren S.p.A. in favour of OLT, against the acquisition of the 49.07% stake in the share capital of the company completed on 26 February 2020 (Euro 332 million; Euro 304 million net of subsequent repayments); (ii) the increase in equity investments (Euro +275 million) mainly following the acquisition of 49% of ADNOC Gas Pipelines, in consortium with five international funds, and the joint control of Iniziative Biometano, as well as the capital increase of TAP, which Snam is obliged to invest in, in proportion to the shareholding owned, by virtue of the agreements signed during the acquisition of the equity investment; (iii) the increase in tangible and intangible assets (Euro +246 million, including the trend in net payables related to investment activities),” the company’s data shows.
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