ESSEN, Germany (Reuters) -E.ON, Europe's biggest operator of energy networks, plans to raise investments in its businesses by a fifth to 33 billion euros ($35 billion), citing an increased need to connect renewable assets to the power grid.
"This underpins our ambition to play a leading role in advancing and shaping an accelerated energy transition in Europe," Chief Executive Leonhard Birnbaum said, adding this would require certain regulatory conditions.
The company also cut the value of its 15.5% stake in the damaged Nord Stream pipeline to zero as of the end of 2022, down from around 100 million euros at the end of September. The stake's fair value had originally been 1.2 billion euros.
E.ON also proposed a dividend of 0.51 euro cents for 2022, compared with 0.49 euros paid for 2021 and in line with the Refinitiv forecast.
The company also unveiled its forecast for 2023, expecting adjusted Group core profit (EBITDA) of 7.8 billion to 8.0 billion euros and adjusted net income of 2.3 billion to 2.5 billion euros.
In 2022, adjusted EBITDA came in at 8.1 billion euros while adjusted net income was 2.7 billion euros.
($1 = 0.9314 euros)
(Reporting by Christoph Steitz, Editing by Paul Carrel and Friederike Heine)
