Elering’s Q1 net profit climbes to 28.4 million euros

Elering’s Q1 net profit grew by 11.4 million euros compared to the same period last year, reaching 28.4 million euros.

Elering’s operating income grew by 20 per cent to 57 million euros. “The most important contributor to the income growth was extraordinary income in amount of 10.9 million euros, which was received by Elering from a successful arbitration dispute. Considering counterparty's request the details of the dispute will remain confidential,” said the chairman of the Elering management board, Taavi Veskimägi.

Due to the warm weather, revenue from the sale of power grid services fell by 1.2 million euros year-over-year in Q1. The warm weather conditions also reduced the volume of gas network services.

On the operating expenses side, expenditures on losses increased by 0.8 million euros due to the higher market price of electricity. All the electricity for compensating losses is purchased by Elering on the power exchange. In connection with new investments, depreciation grew by half a million euros. The company's financial expenses decreased by 2.2 million euros in the first quarter in connection with a successfully refinanced Eurobond in spring 2018.

Overall for Q1, Elering earned an operating profit of 28.9 million euros, compared to 19.7 million a year earlier.

Cash flow from operating activity in Q1 was 45.9 million euros. The company invested 22.1 million euros into assets and 1.7 million euros was received in revenue from auctioning cross-border transmission capacity. The company repaid 2.6 million euros in loans.

Elering’s asset volume as at the end of March was 975.3 million euros and equity was 413.2 million euros.