Madrid, February 26, 2019
- On top of these excellent results, we would also highlight the project financing agreement signed with Banco Natixis for the 250MW awarded in the 2017 Spanish auction.
- Solaria continues to strengthen its balance sheet in order to ensure construction of the 1300MW included in its Strategic Plan. Moreover, the Group’s Net Financial debt (NFD) fell -43% and its gearing (NFD/EBITDA) dropped below 3x (2.9x).
SOLARIA clearly managed to achieve significant improvement of its 2018 annual results versus those of 2017. According to the company’s President Enrique Díaz-Tejeiro, “the Company’s performance is still very positive with sharp increases at all levels of the P&L account” with Revenues up +14% to EUR 42.7 million, EBITDA up 13% (to EUR 32 million) and Net Profit jumping +42% (to EUR 21.3 million).
These results were accompanied by substantial strengthening of the balance sheet with net financial debt down sharply, falling by -42% from EUR 163 million to EUR 93.9 million, and financial gearing (net financial debt/EBITDA) declining from 5.7x to 2.9x.
Of the 400MW under construction (announced last December), the Company has already closed a EUR125M financing agreement with the bank Natixis in order to finance the 250MW awarded in the 2017 Spanish tender process.
“Moreover, Diaz-Tejeiro also commented, during this year 2019 we are also considering the possibility of allowing long-term institutional investors to acquire minority (less than 50%) equity stakes in the Group’s operating assets in order to crystallize their value for shareholders and enable acceleration of Solaria’s growth.”