Framatome’s EBITDA amounted to € 534 million in 2020, i.e. an organic increase of 0.8% despite the effects of the health crisis. Framatome’s performance contributed
€ 271 million to Group EBITDA, reflecting organic growth of nearly 5% compared with 2019.
The resilience of production of fuel assemblies (in France, Germany and the
United States), as well as an improved sales mix compared to 2019 generated this rebound in EBITDA. This growth and the pursuit of the plan to reduce operational and structural costs supported Framatome’s results.
The health crisis impacted the ‘Installed Base’ and ‘Projects and Component Manufacturing’ businesses for a total estimated amount of -€ 47 million.
One of the main achievements for Framatome in 2020 was the signature of an agreement with Rolls-Royce with a view to acquire its Civil Nuclear Instrumentation and Control (I&C) business, which would allow it to strengthen its engineering expertise and command control capabilities.
EBITDA of United Kingdom was up 9.8% in organic terms to € 823 million, despite the impact of the health crisis on the back of a positive price effect.
The health crisis has had an overall negative impact on EBITDA of -€ 182 million, due mainly to the drop in consumption of the portfolio of industrial and professional customers and to the increase in bad debt risks on trade receivables.
Excluding the impact of the health crisis, EBITDA would have increased by 33.4%.
EBITDA was penalised by the decline in nuclear output (1) in 2020, primarily due to Hinkley Point B outage for graphite inspection. Hunterston B came back to service in September whereas Dungeness B is still offline to date. By contrast, EBITDA benefited from higher nuclear realised prices (+£10.3/MWh).
The residential customer segment margin improved, despite a declining customer portfolio in an environment that remains highly competitive.
EBITDA of Italy was up 8.4% despite the effects of the health crisis, totalling
€ 683 million. The resilience against the Covid epidemic was primarily related to the strong upstream/downstream integration business in Italy.
EBITDA for electricity activity was up, thanks to a better contribution from renewable output (hydro and wind) and the performance of services provided to the electricity system thanks to the optimisation of flexibility of the fleet.
For gas businesses, EBITDA benefited from better optimisation thanks to supply contracts flexibility by gas pipelines in a volatile context.
Sales and marketing activities benefited from improved margins on electricity sales to residential and industrial customers, and growth in services to residential customers. However, mild weather conditions at the start of the year had an unfavourable effect on gas margins.
The health crisis impacted Italy’s EBITDA for an estimated amount of -€ 60 million, mainly due to the fall in demand from industrial customers (gas, electricity and services).
The disposal of the majority of the hydrocarbon Exploration & Production (E&P) activities, outside Algeria and Norway and the forthcoming disposal of the E&P business in Norway (2), following the end-December 2020 signature of an agreement, enabled a refocusing on strategic activities.
EBITDA of Other international was up 20.9% organically to € 380 million despite sanitary crisis.
In Belgium(3), EBITDA was up 18.9% in organic terms. EBITDA growth was driven by better generation of the nuclear fleet and more favourable price effects than in 2019. Overall, 2020 benefited from a strong performance in wind farm generation (+26%), thanks to favourable wind conditions and the development of installed capacity. Net installed wind capacity increased to 548MW (4), i.e. +13.5% compared to end-2019. The health crisis had an unfavourable impact on EBITDA estimated at
-€ 26 million due to the decline in consumption and service activities, and the increase of bad debt risks on trade receivable. Luminus continued its development strategy in Belgium, signing an agreement with a view to acquire Essent Belgium (5) (portfolio of circa 330,000 electricity and gas customers).
In Brazil, EBITDA was up 16.7% in organic terms, mainly related to the revaluation in 2019 and 2020 of the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for the EDF Norte Fluminense power plant. This growth was penalised by an unfavourable foreign exchange effect (depreciation of the Brazilian Real against the Euro). The effect of the health crisis in Brazil was non-significant given the Group’s activities in this country
EBITDA of Other activities declined by 44.8% organically to € 261 million.
The gas business was affected by a provision for onerous contracts recorded mainly due to the downward revision of medium- and long-term spreads between the US and Europe.
EDF Trading’s EBITDA amounted to € 633 million, down 11.2% in organic terms compared to an exceptional year in 2019. Against a backdrop of uncertainty related to the crisis and volatility, performances in the trading activities remained robust, generating good 2020 earnings. EBITDA also benefited from the increase in hedging activities, as well as the LNG optimization activities. The health crisis had a limited impact on trading margins.
(1) Size well B output was reduced between May and September 2020 at the request of National Grid. The 2.1TWh loss output has been financially compensated at the EBITDA level.
(2) See Edison’s 30 December 2020 press release.
(3) Luminus and EDF Belgium.
(4) Net capacity at Luminus perimeter. Gross installed wind capacity amounted to 588MW at end-December 2020 (+13.3%).
(5) See Luminus’ press release of 5 February 2021.
