(Alliance News) - Prysmian Spa announced Thursday that it has approved results as of Dec. 31, 2022 reporting a jump in net income to EUR509.0 million from EUR310.0 a year earlier.

In addition, the board of directors will propose to the shareholders' meeting the distribution of a dividend of EUR0.60 per share, totaling about EUR158 million, up from the 2021 dividend, which was EUR0.55 per share.

Ebitda for 2022 is EUR1.29 billion, up 50 percent from EUR927.0 million in 2021.

Operating income, on the other hand, is EUR849.0 million from EUR572.0 million in 2021.

Revenues are up to EUR16.07 billion up 14 percent. Reporting the best growth performance, the company explains in a note, "are the businesses most exposed to the secular trends of energy transition, electrification and digitalization, such as submarine cables and systems for energy interconnections and off-shore wind farm connections, cables for power distribution networks, cables for the renewables and electric mobility sector, datacenters as well as cables for non-residential construction and optical cables. The Projects Segment reports the strongest organic growth of 30 percent, followed by 12 percent in the Energy segment and 11 percent in Telecom."

Free Cash Flow before acquisitions and divestments amounted to EUR559.0 million excluding also flows related to antitrust issues, up 53 percent from EUR365 million in 2021, significantly exceeding the top end of guidance that had been revised upward to EUR500 million last November.

Cash flow generation enabled a significant reduction in net financial debt, which amounted to EUR1.41 billion at year-end from EUR1.76 billion as of December 31, 2021. "This reduction was made possible thanks to free cash flow generated by the Group of EUR559 million, excluding flows from acquisitions and disposals of EUR7 million and excluding disbursements of EUR44 million related to antitrust issues," the company explained in a note.

Regarding the energy and digital transition, the CAPEX investment plan launched by the Group for the period 2023-2025 envisages investments of up to about EUR500 million per year. Capacity upgrades and the new submarine cable plant in the U.S., new cable-laying vessel to go alongside the Leonardo da Vinci, and technological innovation are the main commitments.

In addition, the board of directors will ask the shareholders' meeting for authorization to initiate share buyback programs, which in total shall not exceed 10 percent of the share capital. The minimum price shall not be 10% lower or higher than the reference price that the stock has recorded in the stock exchange session on the day prior to the completion of each individual transaction. Prysmian directly and indirectly owns 4.6 million shares.

"Technological innovation, supply chain effectiveness and efficiency, and customer focus enabled us to fully seize the momentum of the energy transition, electrification, and digitization, leading us to achieve record results that exceeded all expectations," comments CEO Valerio Battista.

"The strong revenue growth was accompanied by the more than 50 percent jump in profits and cash generated and the reduction of debt, with the ratio of adjusted Ebitda falling below 1x, highlighting the further strengthening of the financial structure. The good start to 2023 confirms the competitive positioning we have gained and allows us to give ourselves the goal of consolidating in fiscal year 2023 the record performance of 2022," Battista concludes.

Prysmian trades in the green by 3.6 percent at EUR39.89 per share.

By Chiara Bruschi, Alliance News reporter

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