Cdp will recapitalize Ansaldo Energia. Word of Ansaldo Energia
Giuseppe Marino, CEO of Ansaldo Energia, stated that Cdp (which controls the company with 88%) will give its support to the financial support maneuver, after the negative results of the first half of 2022. Full details
Interviewed by Secolo XIX , the CEO of Ansaldo Energia, Giuseppe Marino, anticipated that Cassa Depositi e Prestiti will give its support to a financial maneuver that supports the implementation of the new industrial plan of the company.
THE SITUATION OF ANSALDO ENERGIA
Ansaldo Energia – an energy plant company controlled by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (88 per cent) and owned by the Chinese electricity company Shanghai Electric (12 per cent) – reported a negative economic result in the first half of 2022 due to the gas crisis, its main business segment. He therefore made it known that he could not reach the objectives of the 2022 budget and that he could not carry out his old business plan.
The board of directors has given Marino a mandate to discuss with the company's shareholders and shareholders to find an agreement on a financial maneuver that supports the implementation of a new business plan.
MARINO'S WORDS ON CDP
Marino told Secolo XIX that Cassa Depositi e Prestiti is “a shareholder of extraordinary institutional and economic importance and has given us confidence in continuing this work. I feel ”, he added,“ that I can reassure the workers, but also all our interlocutors ”.
In recent days Ansaldo Energia had informed the unions of a possible reduction in working hours in the first and second quarter of 2023: the estimated cut will be 45 thousand hours, 20 percent of the total, in each of the two periods considered. In the second half of next year, then, the reduction could be even greater, reaching 100 thousand hours.
Marino also assured that Cassa Depositi e Prestiti will pay the last 50 million of the previous recapitalization “next October. There are no problems from this point of view ”.
CAPITAL INCREASE AND NEGOTIATION WITH BANKS
The executive also stated that "the improvement" of net debt (787 million euros in the last half-year) "is an essential point of the plan" and "the key to having a company with the financial endowment finally adequate to the present challenges and future ".
According to Marino, this adjustment can be achieved through the renegotiation of the debt with the banks (the company is working with Mediobanca) and the capital increase (as already in 2020). "In just three years," he said, "we have been forced into write-downs of over 600 million" regarding "investments in technologies developed in the past."
THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR ON ANSALDO ENERGIA
The chief executive explained to the newspaper that the war in Ukraine "created tension on the energy market" and exacerbated the rise in inflation. “Some of our clients are delaying investments that were expected in the first half of the year,” Marino said. "Orders are currently blocked for three class H turbines, the most powerful, which we had signed with Enel".
CRITICISM OF PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATIONS
In the interview Marino – CEO since October 2019 – implicitly criticizes the previous administrations of the company, recalling how, at the time of his entry into the company, Ansaldo Energia “owed 1.5 billion against revenues of 984 million: impressive. Last December 31 the debt had dropped to 855 million, with revenues of one billion and 491 million ”.
Giuseppe Zampini was CEO of Ansaldo Energia from 2001 to 2017, and subsequently from February 2018. He was also president of the company, replaced last May by Lorenza Franca Franzino .
THE FUTURE
In the interview, then, Marino lists some orders for gas turbines signed under his administration (with Enel in Italy, Rupsha in Bangladesh, Elpedison in Greece and others), recalling, however, how the crisis in prices and gas supplies has blocked some orders and plans for the conversion of coal-fired plants.
In response to the nineteenth century journalist, who asked him for an opinion on future market spaces for gas turbines given the energy transition, Marino said that "to achieve the growth of renewables it is essential to have gas energy capacity because it guarantees the availability of electricity always, when needed ". Wind power and solar power, on the other hand, are intermittent: they produce energy only in favorable weather conditions (presence of wind and sun, respectively); however, it is possible to store the electricity that they generate in excess at certain times of the day through battery storage systems (which, however, must become more efficient).
Ansaldo Energia plans to build an electrolysers factory – the machinery needed to produce hydrogen from renewable sources – with a capacity of 300 megawatts: it should go into operation in 2026.
“The production capacity of gas turbines, steam turbines and generators and everything we currently produce remains unchanged,” explained Marino.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/ansaldo-energia-ricapitalizzazione-cdp/ on Fri, 05 Aug 2022 12:18:17 +0000.