By Giulia Petroni/WSJ

BARCELONA,Espana
energiesNet.com 02 21 2022

Repsol SA said Thursday that it swung to a profit in the fourth quarter, reaching pre-pandemic earnings levels in terms of results and business cash-flow generation, and outlined its share buyback plan.

The Spanish energy company reported a net profit of 560 million euros ($636.6 million) compared with a net loss of EUR711 million for the year-earlier period. On an adjusted basis, net profit for the quarter came in at EUR872 million.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in the period more than doubled to EUR2.58 billion from EUR1.26 billion the previous year.

The company said it will redeem 75 million treasury shares, representing around 4.91% of the company’s share capital and launch an additional buyback of 50 million shares, which will be redeemed between the fourth quarter of the year and the first quarter of 2023, once the program is approved at the annual general meeting.

Upstream production in the fourth quarter reached an average of 561,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day. Adjusted income in upstream jumped to EUR624 million, mainly due to higher oil-and-gas realization prices, lower exploration costs and amortization. Production is expected at around 600,000 boe/d in 2022.

For the full year, the company swung to a net profit of EUR2.50 billion from a loss of EUR3.29 billion the year before. Adjusted net income for 2021 was EUR2.45 billion compared with EUR600 million the previous year.

Net debt stood at EUR5.76 billion at the end of the year.

Repsol confirmed that it will propose a dividend increase of 5% to EUR0.63 a share for the current year, as announced in October 2021.

Capital expenditure is expected to be around EUR3.8 billion in 2022, 30% of which is set to be directed toward low-carbon businesses, while cash flow from operations is seen at approximately EUR5.8 billion, according to the company.

Giulia Petroni at giulia.petroni@wsj.com

wsj,com 02 19 2022