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ESB statement on annual report 2009
ESB is recommending a dividend of €94.4 million for 2009. This, plus a special interim dividend of €185 million approved by the ESB Board last October, brings the total dividend paid by ESB in 2009 to €279.4 million. Over the past eight years, the Company has paid dividends of €815 million to the Exchequer.
Publishing its annual report and accounts for 2009 today, ESB said the Company also provided €400 million in support to the market last year in order to stabilise and reduce electricity prices for all customers, including those of its competitors.
ESB revenues for 2009 amounted to €3.1 billion with profits of €580 million – an increase of €307 million on the previous year that was attributable to the once-off sale of power generation assets to the Spanish utility, Endesa.
Describing the financial performance as "good in a difficult environment", the Company chairman, Lochlann Quinn said ESB made a contribution of €2.7 billion to the Irish economy in 2009 alone.
"Capital investment in 2009 was over €900 million. This brought its total investment in Networks Transmission and Distribution infrastructure to €6 billion over the last decade. As a result, we have one of the safest, most reliable and robust electricity infrastructures in the world", he said.
ESB net debt increased during 2009 by €143 million to €2,231 million.
"This debt level is comfortably within our commercial parameters and allows us to implement our Strategic Framework to establish ESB as the leading sustainable energy company in Ireland while developing business in British and other European markets", the chairman added.
ESB Chief Executive, Padraig McManus, said that ESB had, during 2009, implemented a major reorganisation of its main businesses in preparation for full deregulation of the electricity market. The Company’s power generation business in Ireland and abroad and its consultancy, asset management and investment wings have been brought together under the umbrella of ESB Energy International.
ESB’s regulated and unregulated supply business and its energy services will operate under ESB Energy Solutions.
Last year was a challenging one with the overall reduction in demand for electricity coinciding with increased competition in both generation and supply, the Chief Executive said. ESB’s competitors on the generation side – including Viridian, Scottish and Southern, Endesa and a range of wind generators – are now generating more electricity than ESB on an all-island basis.
More than 400,000 customers had left ESB Customer Supply by the end of 2009 as new entrants to the residential market, Bord Gais and Airtricity, took advantage of falling commodity prices to offer discounts on ESB’s regulated prices, Mr McManus added. This figure rose to just under 600,000 by mid-2010.
On the Networks side of the business, specific sustainability initiatives including the Smart Metering User Trial and a range of Smart Networks initiatives have been rolled out. The Company also launched an initiative with the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan, to promote the use of electric vehicles in Ireland by committing to providing a nation-wide charging infrastructure.
In addition to disposing of generating stations at Tarbert and Great Island to Endesa, ESB also purchased the minority 30 percent interest held by Royal Bank of Scotland in the Synergen CCGT plant in Dublin. In Britain, ESB’s joint venture 840 megawatts power plant with Scottish and Southern Electricity at Marchwood was successfully commissioned.
During 2009, ESB also acquired its first wind farm project in Britain in West Durham and Devon while having five wind farms under construction in Ireland.
"ESB’s financial performance in 2009 enabled us to press ahead with our investment strategy and continued support for the Irish economy in spite of the global downturn", Mr McManus said.
In the current year, ESB completed a deal to acquire NIE Group, the owner of the Transmission and Distribution assets in Northern Ireland.
ESB Annual Report 2009 (Netbook version)
Ends
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