RWE expanded earnings in 2023 but expects fall in 2024

Posting its full financial results on Thursday (14 March), RWE showed a significant ramp up of investments and a largely expanded portfolio with “very good earnings” last year, according to Markus Krebber, the company’s CEO. 

RWE Group’s adjusted Ebitda (adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) for the 2023 financial year amounted to €8.4 billion, while the “core business” Ebitda was €7.7 billion. 

“This was mainly due to higher earnings from international electricity generation and the strong trading performance,” the company said. 

Adjusted net income in 2023 was €4.5 billion, RWE said. 

Within those results, RWE’s onshore wind and solar segment recorded an adjusted Ebitda of €1.2 billion in fiscal 2023 compared with €0.8 billion in fiscal 2022. 

Its offshore wind segment’s performance also grew to an Ebitda of €1.7 billion from €1.4 billion over the time period. 

RWE invested significantly more in 2023 than the previous year, with total investments rising to €11.4 billion net, compared to €4.4 billion in 2022.  

The company said its acquisition of Con Edison Clean Energy in the US accounted for €6.3 billion of 2023’s expenditure.

RWE’s total portfolio expanded by 6.3GW over the course of the year.  

The outlook for 2024 looked less impressive than the 2023 fiscal year, however. 

Commenting on the financial outlook for this fiscal year, RWE said: “RWE expects that it will not be able to match the very good earnings achieved in 2023… It envisages adjusted Ebitda within a range of €5.2 billion to €5.8 billion.” 

Adjusted net income in 2024 is expected to fall from €4.5 billion last year to €1.9-2.4 billion. 

Explaining the forecast, Michael Müller, the chief financial officer at RWE, said: “We confirm today the outlook for fiscal 2024 that we communicated at our capital markets day. Due to the recent significant drop in power prices on the European wholesale markets, we expect a figure at the lower end of the forecast range. We stick to the planned increase in our dividend: this is set to rise to €1.10 per share for fiscal 2024.”