National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom received UAH 4.8 billion of net loss in 2020 versus UAH 3.7 billion of net profit in 2019, the communications department of Energoatom said on Thursday.
According to the company’s financial statements for last year, its net income amounted to UAH 45.648 billion, down by 6.6% compared to the previous year (UAH 48.846 billion), and gross profit – UAH 6.837 billion (51% less, UAH 11.569 billion).
At the same time, EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, amounted to UAH 13.3 billion.
As the company said, UAH 4.8 billion of net loss arose as a result of four factors beyond the control of the state-owned enterprise.
The first one is the cost of the exchange rate difference when servicing foreign currency loans. Thanks to them, at present, in particular, the project for the construction of the Central Storage Facility for Spent Nuclear Fuel and the comprehensive (consolidated) program for improving the safety of NPP (Nuclear Power Plant) power units are being implemented. Due to the significant growth of the euro and the U.S. dollar during 2020, the company’s losses in servicing foreign currency loans amounted to UAH 6.601 billion.
The second factor is the compulsory reduction in the volume of commercial products of Energoatom from 80.6 billion kWh to 73.7 billion kWh in accordance with the forecast balance approved by the Energy Ministry in April last year. As a result of balance constraints, some NPP power units were put on reserve for a period of one to three months, others operated with capacity constraints from 10% to 40%. As a result, the company received less than UAH 4.7 billion of income.
The next factor is direct losses due to the discrepancy between the cost of electricity produced by the NPP and the price at which Energoatom supplies it to the population within the framework of public service obligations (PSO) imposed on it by the government. As a result of the sale of half of the electricity produced at a price of UAH 0.01 per kWh, within the framework of the PSO project, losses amounted to UAH 1.2 billion.
The fourth factor is the total debt to Energoatom in the amount of UAH 22.6 billion. Of these, UAH 11.6 billion is the debt of the no longer functioning state-owned enterprise Energorynok, UAH 6.5 billion is the debt of the Guaranteed Buyer and UAH 4.4 billion is the debt of NPC Ukrenergo.
“That is, the operating activity of the state enterprise is profitable, and the net loss at the level of UAH 4.8 billion is explained by the cost of the exchange rate difference when servicing foreign currency loans, losses from the implementation of PSO and balance sheet restrictions, as well as the huge accounts receivable of Energoatom,” the company said.
At the same time, Energoatom plans to complete the first quarter of 2021 with net profit.
