Total Capital Investment of €303 Million; Long Term Savings for Residential Customers and Dividend to Irish Exchequer of €60 Million
Financial Highlights
• Capital Investment – €303 million
• Operating Profit – €297 million
• Profit after Interest and tax – €173 million
• Dividends – €60 million paid bringing to almost €1.5 billion paid to the Irish Exchequer in the last ten years
Dublin, 29 September 2017
ESB Group today published its Interim Financial Statements for the six months to June 2017 (H1 2017), reporting an operating profit of €297 million and profit after interest and tax of €173 million. ESB continues to deliver value to our customers, with significant long term savings being applied to over one million Electric Ireland residential electricity and gas customers. ESB continued with strong capital investment in critical long term electricity infrastructure benefitting the wider Irish economy.
Operating profit for H1 2017 at €297 million reflected strong operational performance. Profit after interest and taxation for H1 2017 at €173 million was €109 million higher than the same period in 2016, primarily due to the non-recurrence in H1 2017 of negative non-cash fair value movements on inflation linked interest rate swaps reflected in the H1 2016 results..
ESB’s strategic commitment to leading the transition to a low-carbon future powered by clean electricity is demonstrated by our continued capital investment in strengthening our smart network infrastructure; investing in sustainable low-carbon generation solutions like wind and solar and empowering our customers to control how and when they use electricity.
Commenting on the results, ESB’s Group Finance Director, Pat Fenlon said, “In the face of intense competition, the results for the first six months of 2017 reflect a strong operating performance across ESB Group. ESB continues to focus on delivering value and investing in critical long term electricity infrastructure for the benefit of our customers, shareholders and the wider Irish economy, and this is enabled by maintaining a strong financial position.”
Shareholders
A dividend of €60 million was paid in H1 2017. Total dividends paid to the Irish Exchequer over the past ten years amount to almost €1.5 billion.
Customers
In 2016, Electric Ireland, ESB’s supply business, became the first supplier to offer enduring long term savings to its residential electricity and gas customers, with all residential customers able to opt in to benefit from savings of up to 8.5%. In June 2017, Electric Ireland underpinned its commitment to rewarding customer loyalty, by being the only supplier to automatically apply these savings to almost one million of its residential customers. This initiative, made well in advance of winter bills, ensures customers benefit from the best long term energy savings on the market.
Electric Ireland continues to develop innovative offerings for its customers including long term saving and a range of smart home product and services and continues to retain high customer satisfaction ratings.
Irish Economy
ESB invested €303 million in energy infrastructure and other investments during H1 2017.
ESB contributes almost €2 billion annually to the Irish economy through dividends, investments, taxes and jobs. ESB provides significant employment both directly, with over 7,800 employees, and indirectly through contractors and service providers.
The ESB Group Interim Financial Statements for the six months to June 2017 can be found here.
ENDS/
About ESB
ESB operates across the electricity market: from generation, through transmission and distribution to the supply of customers with an expanding presence in the Great Britain generation market. In addition we extract further value through supplying gas and using our networks to carry fibre for telecommunications. ESB is the owner of the distribution and transmission networks in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. It has a 45% share of generation in the all-island market and a 36% share of electricity supply in the all-island market with 1.4 million customer accounts.
ESB contributes almost €2 billion annually to the Irish economy through dividends, investments, taxes and jobs. ESB provides significant employment both directly, with over 7,800 employees, and indirectly through contractors and service providers.