Iberdrola Says 4Q Net Profit Fell, Raises Dividend

   By Marc Bisbal Arias 
 

Iberdrola SA (IBE.MC) said Wednesday that its fourth-quarter net profit fell year-on-year, and that it was raising its dividend.

Net profit was 387.4 million euros ($477.4 million) compared with EUR663.3 million in the year-earlier period. Revenue rose to EUR8.98 billion from EUR7.68 billion, the company said.

On a full-year basis, net profit increased slightly to EUR2.80 billion from EUR2.71 billion. Revenue was also higher in 2017 than in 2016, reaching EUR31.26 billion.

The Spanish utilities company proposed to increase its dividend by 3.2% to EUR0.32, and said it plans to increase it again in 2018.

Meanwhile, Iberdrola updated its strategy for the 2018-22 period. It said that net profit at current exchange rates in 2022 would be between EUR3.5 billion and EUR3.7 billion. It expects earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to be between EUR11.5 billion to EUR12 billion by that date.

The company will target net investments of EUR32 billion during the 2018-22 period, it said. By 2022, it expects to have made more than EUR1 billion in savings by improving efficiency and leveraging synergies, as well as digitalization, Iberdrola said.

Iberdrola said it expects a dividend of around EUR0.4 a share in 2022 and that it will maintain its scrip dividend.

Write to Marc Bisbal Arias at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 21, 2018 03:51 ET (08:51 GMT)

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