Milan, Italy–Italian utility Enel said its net profit more than doubled in 2023 to 3.4 billion euros ($3.7 billion) despite falling electricity and gas prices.
Before exceptional items, profit rose 21 percent to $7.04 billion, in line with the company’s objectives.
“We achieved all 2023 targets that we had already revised upwards last November,” CEO Flavio Cattaneo said in a statement.
Revenue fell 32 percent to $103.62 billion as prices declined as part of a “gradual normalization of the energy sector” after peaking in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Net debt declined only marginally by 0.8 percent to 60.2 billion euros.
The debt, however, would be 53.5 billion euros if units in the process of being sold are excluded, the company said.
Enel, which is 23.6 percent owned by the Italian state, had announced at the end of 2022 it would sell 21 billion euros worth of activities to cut its debt, and says about half those sales have been completed or are underway.
