Net income of €4.251 billion in 2022 and historic investments in 2023
Josu Jon Imaz, CEO of Repsol:
€500 M+
Devoted to additional discounts for customers at Repsol service stations in Spain.
€2 B
To increase inventories and guarantee energy supply.
€5 B+
Historic organic investments planned for 2023.
€0.70/share
11% increase in the cash dividend and new share buybacks in 2023.
In 2022, a year marked by uncertainty, volatility, and complex market dynamics due to the invasion of Ukraine, Repsol obtained net income of €4.251 billion, of which close to 64% came from the international business. The profits recorded in 2021 and 2022 (€6.75 billion) have not yet made it possible to offset the losses in 2019 and 2020 (€7.105 billion).
The international economic situation has led to a rise in the price of raw materials, and security of energy supply has become one of the main priorities in Europe. The integrated business model and the 2021- 2025 Strategic Plan were key to the company's positive performance in this environment. At the same time, it drove forward its transformation, consolidating its multi-energy profile, with the goal of achieving zero net emissions by 2050.
The war and the consequent sanctions imposed on Russia by the European Union had a direct impact on the continent's energy markets which are highly dependent on Russian hydrocarbons. Gas prices and, subsequently, crude oil prices rose sharply during the first half of 2022 as sanctions against Russia were announced. Crude oil prices approached $140 per barrel, the highest levels since 2008.
In the second half of the year, fears of a global economic recession and the fall in demand changed the trend and prices fell, with Brent crude prices falling below $80 per barrel in December. As a result, Brent crude averaged $101 per barrel for the year. Meanwhile, Henry Hub gas closed the year at an average of $6.6 per MBtu, well above the 2021 average of $3.9 per MBtu.
Faced with this complex situation, Repsol reinforced its contribution as an essential service for society, in its role as guarantor of energy supply. In 2022, it increased its inventories by more than €2 billion to guarantee the supply to the domestic market and the operation of its refineries.
Additionally, aware of the economic situation that the country and its citizens are undergoing, Repsol made a significant effort to mitigate the effects that the volatility of international fuel prices could have on consumers. To this end, during the last year the company earmarked more than €500 million for additional fuel discounts at its service stations in Spain, in addition to the state bonus implemented between April 1 and December 31, 2022. The company was the first in the market to implement this measure. It was also the first to confirm that it extended its extraordinary discounts, given the continued complex economic situation in Spain, until March 31 this year.
Investments to transform Spanish industry
Repsol's commitment to the energy transition was also evident in 2022 with the implementation of various projects aimed at advancing its decarbonization and transformation. The importance of establishing a model that allows for the future sustainability of industry, a strategic pillar for the company, was highlighted last year at a time of great uncertainty. This activity, in addition to being a solid source of employment (200,000 families’ livelihoods are linked directly to the refining sector in Spain), reinforces the country's energy independence.
In 2022, Repsol invested €4.182 billion to advance the transformation of its activities, 40% more than the previous year. Most of this amount was spent on projects in the Iberian Peninsula and the United States. Specifically, the company invested €1.4 billion in Spain during the year. To boost its multi-energy profile, Repsol plans to make a historic organic investment of more than €5 billion in 2023. A 35% of the total investments will be allocated to low-carbon projects, reinforcing the transformational nature of the investments.
In line with its goal of becoming zero net emissions, 35% of the total investments contemplated in the 2021-2025 Strategic Plan will be dedicated to low-carbon projects, a figure that will increase to 45% in 2030.
The transformation of the company’s major industrial centers, six of which are located in the Iberian Peninsula, accounts for a significant part of the investments. These centers generate significant economic activity and, thanks to the historical solidity of Repsol's industrial project, continue to play an essential role in creating jobs. This is in stark contrast to the European scenario, where 24 refineries have been closed in the last 15 years. In 2023, Repsol will continue to take steps to ensure the future of its industrial centers, with milestones such as the start-up in Cartagena of the first advanced biofuels plant in Spain, to which it will allocate a total of €200 million.
Repsol's commitment to investing in the future of industry in Spain has been constant, even in 2020 and 2021 when the COVID crisis deeply affected refining and resulted in a loss of €612 million. It has made investments in its industrial facilities averaging around €1 billion a year since 2008, which have enabled it to optimize the use of its assets and improve their efficiency and flexibility. This is illustrated by the fact that the facilities have reduced their gas consumption by more than 50%, compared to previous periods.
All this contributed to Repsol's ability to respond better to the tensions in the fuel markets due to the war in Ukraine last year, guaranteeing supply in an environment as unpredictable as the current one.
The situation of the industrial business, as a result of European regulation, led the company to make new impairments in the book value of its assets, mainly its refineries. Their profitability and competitiveness in the long term will be impacted if aspects that are weighing down the sector in Europe, such as the insecurity of the business environment and the regulatory and fiscal pressure, are not corrected. These provisions accounted for most of the specific results for the period, which amounted to €-2.485 billion.
Repsol's activity worldwide resulted in the highest tax contribution in the company's history, exceeding €17 billion for the year, of which more than 70% was paid in Spain. Repsol is the Ibex-35 company that pays the most taxes in the country.
Guaranteeing workers' purchasing power
In addition to investing to ensure the future of the industrial sector and its workers, in 2022 Repsol carried out various actions aimed at guaranteeing employment and maintaining the purchasing power of the company’s employees, implementing salary increases and extraordinary bonuses. Between 2020 and 2022, Repsol increased its workforce in Spain by 5%.
In Spain, the company has ensured that the purchasing power of its employees is preserved by reaching a new Framework Agreement with the unions. This has allowed that the sustainability of industrial employment, competitive salaries, and new teleworking formulas were guaranteed, maintaining the company as a benchmark in this field.
This agreement, indexed to inflation, meant that salaries were revised in 2022 with effect from January 1, 2021. The new agreement covers a broad period that ensures the maintenance of the purchasing power of Repsol’s employees until the end of 2024. The agreement, together with other extraordinary measures for all groups, resulted in a 9.4% increase in the average remuneration of the company's employees in 2022. Furthermore, the good performance during the year will have an additional positive impact on the variable remuneration of those employees who have a part of their remuneration linked to the company's results.
Increased shareholder returns
Cash generation during the year also allowed the company to announce an increase in shareholder remuneration, which remains among the most attractive in the sector and the Ibex-35. This benefits more than 520,000 investors, the vast majority of whom are minority investors and located in Spain.
Cash remuneration will increase by 11% in 2023, to €0.70 gross per share, bringing it ahead of the target set in the Strategic Plan for 2024. To this end, the cash payment distributed to shareholders last January was increased to €0.35 gross per share. A supplementary payment of a further €0.35 gross per share will be added following approval by the Annual General Shareholders' Meeting this year.
In addition, Repsol brought forward its share buyback and redemption target by three years, reaching 200 million redeemed shares by the end of 2022, the amount initially planned for the entire 2021-2025 period.
The Board of Directors of Repsol has resolved to implement an own shares buy-back program where the maximum number of shares to be acquired will be 35 million and to propose to the next Annual General Meeting a capital reduction of 50 million shares through the redemption of own shares.
Net debt was reduced by 61% during 2022, to € 2.256 billion. Liquidity increased to €12.022 billion, enough to cover gross short-term debt maturities four times.
Addition of strategic partners in the Upstream and Renewables businesses
In 2022, Repsol incorporated strategic partners in its Upstream (Exploration and Production) and Renewables businesses, a further step in reinforcing its transformation and its multi-energy and decarbonized profile. Both agreements crystallized the value of these areas and demonstrated the strength of its business model.
In September, Repsol reached an agreement to incorporate EIG, a U.S. institutional investor, as a partner in its Upstream business. EIG will acquire 25% of this business for $4.8 billion, which values Repsol's total Exploration and Production unit at $19 billion. The agreement contemplates a potential IPO in the United States as early as 2026, subject to favorable market conditions.
In June, Credit Agricole Assurance and EIP were announced as partners in Repsol Renovables, with a 25% stake. The transaction values the company's renewables at €4.383 billion, at the end of 2021 and it demonstrates the strength of Repsol's business model and profitable growth in this segment, created just over three years ago.
Statements by Josu Jon Imaz, CEO of Repsol
“Europe and Spain’s energy transitions should be less ideological and more technological; it should be a transition that addresses how to be more sustainable, but also how to guarantee energy supply and cheaper and more competitive energy for citizens and companies."
"The high energy prices we pay today are not only a consequence of the war in Ukraine. The shortage of energy products already existed before. In Europe, we are highly dependent on imports because regulators have preferred to forget the need to invest in oil and gas and in refining capacity."
"Energy prices are going up because demand is rising while, contrary to logic, obstacles are being imposed on the production of some energy products. High prices are no windfall, they are the consequence of bad decisions taken in Europe."
"We are going to allocate more than €5 billion to organic investment this year, 2023, the highest figure in our history. A 35% of our investments will be earmarked to low-carbon projects."
"To consider extraordinary a profit that is obtained from a great investment effort and penalize it against one that is obtained by importing products from other continents without creating a single industrial job is not just unfair but incomprehensible and harmful to the Spanish economy."
"The social debate on corporate profits must be put in context. Populist messages only serve to hinder business activity, provoke distrust in investors, reduce investment and economic activity, reduce tax collection, and put industrial employment at risk. In the face of these messages, Repsol is committed to a responsible approach to society.”
Other milestones in 2022
This document contains information and statements that constitute forward-looking statements about Repsol.
Such estimates or projections may include statements about current plans, objectives and expectations, including statements regarding trends affecting Repsol's financial condition, financial ratios, operating results, business, strategy, geographic concentration, production volumes and reserves, capital expenditures, cost savings, investments and dividend policies. Such estimates or projections may also include assumptions about future economic or other conditions, such as future crude oil or other prices, refining or marketing margins and exchange rates. Forward-looking statements are generally identified by the use of terms such as "expects," "anticipates," "forecasts," "believes," "estimates," "estimates," "appreciates" and similar expressions. Such statements are not guarantees of future performance, prices, margins, exchange rates or any other event, and are subject to significant risks, uncertainties, changes and other factors that may be beyond Repsol's control or may be difficult to predict. Such risks and uncertainties include those factors and circumstances identified in the communications and documents filed by Repsol and its subsidiaries with the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores in Spain and with the other supervisory authorities of the markets in which the securities issued by Repsol and/or its subsidiaries are traded.
Except to the extent required by applicable law, Repsol assumes no obligation - even when new information is published, or new facts are produced - to publicly report the updating or revision of these forward-looking statements.
This document mentions resources which do not constitute proven reserves and will be recognized as such when they comply with the formal conditions required by the system “SPE/WPC/AAPG/SPEE Petroleum Resources Management System” (SPE-PRMS) (SPE – Society of Pretroleum Engineers).
In October 2015, the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA) published Guidelines on Alternative Performance Measures (ARMs), mandatory for regulated information to be published on or after July 3, 2016. The information and breakdowns relating to the MARs used in this document are updated quarterly on Repsol's website.
This document does not constitute an offer or invitation to acquire or subscribe securities, in accordance with the provisions of Royal Decree 4/2015 of 23 October, which approves the Consolidated Text of the Securities Market Law and its implementing regulations. Likewise, this document does not constitute an offer to buy, sell or exchange or a solicitation of an offer to buy, sell or exchange securities in any other jurisdiction.
The information included in this document has not been verified or reviewed by Repsol's external auditors.
