EPM 2018 results March 2019
EPM Full-Year 2018 Profits Rise 4% Despite Hidroituango Problems
Medellin-based multinational electric power giant EPM reported March 26, 2019 that its full-year 2018 net profits rose 4% year-on-year, to COP$2.4 trillion (US$758 million).
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose 8% year-on-year, to COP$5.1 trillion (US$1.6 billion), while revenues rose 9%, to COP$16.3 trillion (US$5.1 billion).
The company highlighted the entry-into-service of the gigantic Aguas Claras sewage-treatment plant in suburban Bello last year, dramatically reducing contamination of Rio Medellin. The company also boosted clean drinking-water supplies to many more areas.
“Thanks to the good results of last year, during 2019 the municipality of Medellín will be able to fund social investment programs worth COP$1.3 trillion,” added EPM, which is 100% owned by the city of Medellin.
“In a difficult year due to the [diversion-tunnel collapse] at the Hidroituango hydroelectric project, the EPM Group nevertheless achieved positive financial results in 2018,” according to the company.
“On the path towards [utilities services] universalization, the EPM Group reached 2018 coverage in energy services and water supply in excess of 96%” in its Colombia service areas, said EPM president Jorge Londoño de la Cuesta.
“In wastewater treatment, we reached 93.3% and, in Medellin, in solid waste we achieved 99.21%, while in [natural] gas we [service] 84.63% in the region,” he added.
“In addition, our business group undertook directly and in conjunction with other actors in the country a series of environmental actions that enabled protection of 21,282 hectares of forests in 2018, for an accumulated 57,321 hectares in the period 2016-2018.”
Total assets rose 11% year-on-year, to COP$52.5 trillion (US$16.6 billion), while debt rose 15%, to COP$30.5 trillion (US$9.6 billion), because of “disbursement of credits to finance the general investment plan and the Hidroituango hydroelectric project,” according to the company.
