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ESSEN (dpa-AFX) - Germany's largest energy supplier Eon is not ruling out further price increases for electricity and gas. "We have to pass on wholesale prices to our customers in the long run," Eon CEO Leonhard Birnbaum said Wednesday. Last year, he said, Eon passed on only about 30 percent of the sometimes extreme price increases in wholesale. "We can't keep this up forever." The price increases for electricity and gas since the beginning of the year were the result of increases in wholesale last year, he said.

He said he can understand the question of why prices are currently rising despite lower wholesale prices. According to Birnbaum, wholesale prices are falling, most of which Eon had not passed on. Eon has around 14 million electricity and gas customers in Germany.

For certain customers, however, there could be price reductions. For example, customers who came into new contracts with a high price level after moving would "tend to see price reductions this year, especially in gas," probably after the summer. Conversely, he said, there will be customers who see further increases, especially before the summer. "That's true for gas and electricity, and it's true across the entire German industry, not just Eon."

The energy group confirmed its 2022 adjusted net profit of €2.7 billion (up 9 percent), which has been known since early February. Adjusted operating profit (Ebitda) was slightly better than predicted, climbing two percent year-on-year to just under 8.1 billion euros. This was driven by the core business (sales and distribution networks), whose earnings increased by more than a tenth. Due to additional investments and catch-up effects on earnings, earnings in the network business grew splendidly, according to the Group. Birnbaum spoke of a "strong result" overall.

The Essen-based company no longer includes nuclear power and the generation business in Turkey in its core business. The division's contribution to consolidated operating profit fell by half a billion euros to 1.1 billion euros - mainly due to the shutdown of two nuclear power plants at the end of 2021.

Eon announced that it would expand its investment program. By 2027, it wants to increase investments by around €6 billion to €33 billion. The majority of the additional amount is to be invested in the energy networks. The Executive Board justified the additional investments by citing rising demand due to the expansion of renewable energies. "The networks are the backbone of the energy transition," it said.

For the current year, the Board of Management expects adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) of 7.8 to 8 billion euros. The core business, i.e., the operation of distribution networks and energy sales, is expected to cushion a decline in nuclear energy revenue. Eon expects adjusted net income to be between €2.3 billion and €2.5 billion, as originally also targeted for 2022.

Eon expects the three remaining nuclear power plants in Germany to be shut down as planned on April 15. Eon subsidiary Preussenelektra operates one of these three power plants, Isar 2 in Essenbach, Bavaria.

The Board of Management confirmed the dividend proposal for 2022 of 51 cents per share. The managers are also sticking to the plan to increase payouts by up to five percent a year until 2027.

At 69,400, the number of employees last year remained almost at the previous year's level. A good half of them worked in Germany./tob/DP/nas