(Finance) – “We accelerated on disposals because we have good assetsso we have a lot of discussions with interested companies and we can sell them quickly. We almost completed everything in six months and maybe we can even exceed the 8 billion euros we announcedbut maybe more in the next few years, for now we are focused on what we have announced. But we certainly have the potential to exceed our initial expectations”. This was stated by the CEO of Eni, Claudio Descalziduring the conference call to comment on the results of the second quarter of 2024.
The Six-Legged Dog’s plan includes disposals for 8 billion euros to keep debt under control and finance initiatives on energy transition. In this sense, Enilive and Plenitude have “attracted new investments with Value Partners at Attractive Multiples on the Path to IPO“. Focusing on the success of the development of the satellite model, the manager recalled that the group will collect 11 billion euros from the creation of the various units at the end of 2024 (9 billion euros from 2022), with Azule Energy accounting for 3 billion euros and Var Energi for 3.9 billion euros.
Speaking about the upward revision of the guidance, with regard to the upstream the CEO said that “the improved production outlook and the increase in GGP confirm the good execution and the focus on capturing gas margins”, while for the transition businesses, “the reiteration of the EBITDA guidance – €2 billion combined – reflects the resilience of Enilive and Plenitude’s business models in a mixed market environment”. On the financial front, “the cash flow remained the basis for distributions shareholders and lower capital expenditures signal better-than-expected progress on the divestment plan and debt reduction.” Thus, “the minimum buyback will be 1.6 billion euros” and “we are now accelerating the pace with an additional buyback potential of up to EUR 500 million to be assessed in the third quarter”,
The company’s top management has received numerous questions about Enilive and Plenitude, and the plans for their listing on the stock exchange. A few days ago Eni signed an exclusive agreement with KKR to enhance the value of 20-25% of Enilive, with the expectation of finalizing the transaction by the end of the year. The sale is expected to value the company between 11.5 and 12.5 billion euros and, similarly to the transaction finalized in the first quarter by Plenitude, will help finance growth. Eni also mentioned the possibility of a subsequent sale of a further share of up to 10%.
On Enilive, “there is a lot of interest, the valuation is very good – said Descalzi – We want to grow, we need money to investand when we manage to find a strong investor – who can help us, shares our values and vision – we want to proceed. I don’t know if we will immediately sell a further 10%, but we want to create value in the company” https://www.Finance.it/DettaglioNews/141_2024-07-26_TLB/. “The market has great appetite, we will see what we can do after the closing with KKR – echoed the CFO Francesco Gattei – This is another positive sign that the assets are attractive and there is potential to unlock value.”
On Plenitude, the CEO said there was “significant interest from large funds and other companies. We have room to move, we need money to invest in large expansion plans. We need to see if these investors are aligned with us to proceed”.
When asked for details on the IPOs, Gattei stressed: “IPO is the goal for both Enilive and Plenitude. The structure will have to take into account certain mechanisms or the behavior of the funds at the time of listing. It is therefore premature to think about the structure of an IPO that will take place in the next few years”https://www.Finance.it/DettaglioNews/141_2024-07-26_TLB/.”We will see, at the right time, what will be the share that the market will be able to absorb, but talking about a percentage now is something extremely premature“, he added.