Despite the continuing instability in the economy, there were several positive aspects to ENGIE Brasil Energia’s second quarter 2018 earnings. The Company reported a net income of R$ 589.2 million (R$ 0.9026/share), a 20% improvement over the same quarter in 2017. Another indicator reporting favorable growth was Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) at R$ 1,217.9 million, an increase of 42.4% compared with the same period in 2017.

“The good results are a reflection of the capacity to manage the portfolio and also the contribution from recently acquired assets – the Jaguara and Miranda hydroelectric plants – and the improvement in operating efficiency”, declares ENGIE Brasil Energia’s Chief Executive Officer, Eduardo Sattamini. “We expect to maintain our good commercial, financial and operational performance in the second half as well as expanding the contribution from new assets and the client portfolio”. Sattamini adds that over the long run, it is the Company’s intention to invest in retail trading, digitization of processes and in the lengthening of average concession duration through the medium of new plants and transmission lines. “We are looking into the future to anticipate, adapt and lead the energy transition”.

In the second quarter 2018, ENGIE Brasil Energia’s net operating revenue was R$ 2,135 million, an increase of 26.9% (R$ 453.1 million) compared with the same quarter in 2017. Sales in the quarter were 9,582 Gigawatts/hour (GWh), or 4,388 average Megawatts (MW), 7.9% more than was sold in the same period last year. The average price of energy sales agreements in the quarter was R$ 181.56 per MWh, 1.7% higher year-on-year.

INFRASTRUCTURE DEBENTURES

During the quarter, the Company replaced its bridging loan used to acquire the Jaguara and Miranda plants by issuing R$ 1.8 billion in debentures in order to lengthen its debt profile through the intermediary of its Jaguara and Miranda subsidiaries. In July, the Company concluded a further issue of R$ 746 million in infrastructure debentures in two series, with seven and ten year terms, the resources being allocated to the Campo Largo, Jaguara and Miranda operations. “The market response to these issues reflects recognition of the quality of the finance that was structured for the acquisition of the plants, the debenture issue for Jaguara and Miranda being two times oversubscribed while the ENGIE Brasil Energia issue was 1.7 times oversubscribed”, Sattamini said.

WIND FARMS

The Trairi Wind Complex (CE) began operating on a fully remote basis out of the Generation Operations Center at the Company’s head office in Florianópolis during the second quarter. On July 4, the Campo Largo VII Wind Farm in the state of Bahia went into commercial operations, adding a further 29.7 MW of renewable, non-conventional energy to the generator complex. Umburanas, where construction work is in progress, will start operations in 2019. The Campo Largo I and Umburanas I wind complexes, in their initial phases and with capacities of 326.7 MW and 360 MW, respectively, absorbed R$ 766.7 million in investments alone in just the first half of 2018. ENGIE’s wind farm cluster in the region has a total potential capacity of 1.5 GW.

SOLAR GENERATION

ENGIE Brasil Energia took a further strategic step forward in the context of the energy transition with the acquisition of all the remaining shares of ENGIE Geração Solar Distribuída, worth R$ 35.1 million.

DIVIDENDS

The Board of Directors approved the payout of R$ 1,146.0 million to shareholders as interim dividends corresponding to R$ 1.7557267392/share and representing 100% of distributable net income for the first half of 2018. The dividend payout will be made according to cash availability and investments scheduled for the year.