MVV posts record profit, proposes dividend hike, special dividend (updated)

MVV Energie AG

14/12/2023 10:10

(Adds details of sales, investments, reference to German energy
policy in paragraphs 9-11)
       FRANKFURT, Dec 14 (Reuters) - German regional utility
MVV Energie  MVVGn.DE  reported a record annual profit on
Thursday, helped by firmer electricity prices, trading gains and
asset sales, and proposed a dividend increase as well as a
special dividend.
    MVV, based in Mannheim where the city owns a 50.1% stake in
it, said it planned to raise its dividend by 9.5% for its 2023
fiscal year ended in September to 1.15 euros per share, from
1.05 euros in the previous year. 
    It will also propose a special one-off dividend of 0.3
euros.
    "For MVV, 2023 was a strong year in which we leveraged our
climate course and our broad business portfolio successfully,
despite difficult framework conditions," CEO Georg Mueller told
the firm's annual results news conference in Frankfurt.
    Adjusted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) rose to 880
 million euros ($959 million) from 353 million a year earlier,
said MVV, in which Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group's  8306.T 
First Sentier Investors owns a 45.1% stake.
    Mueller noted the results were buoyed by the sale of its
assets in the Czech Republic and the sale of its shares in a
utility in Ingolstadt, Bavaria.
    Operating earnings in 2024 will likely be 10% above or below
400 million euros, versus 747 million in 2023 or 880 million
euros including disposal gains, MVV said.
    Mueller demanded more urgency from the Berlin government in
helping permit wind and solar power installations and in
creating a reliable legal framework for the move to carbon-free
gases and carbon capture. 
        Berlin's long-awaited power plant strategy is delayed
while the financing of national energy transition efforts has
been reduced by a federal court ruling shaving billions of euros
off the country's climate and transformation fund.
        MVV's adjusted turnover grew 79% year-on-year in fiscal
2023 to 7.5 billion euros, it said.
        The company plans to spend around 7 billion euros up to
2033 on low-carbon heat and power generation, customer solutions
and upgrades to its distribution networks.

    ($1 = 0.9172 euros)

 (Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by Jason Neely and Susan
Fenton)
 ((vera.eckert@thomsonreuters.com; +49 30 2201 33654;
@EckertVera;))