Grupo EPM Full-Year 2024 Net Income Jumps 28% Year-on-Year

Medellin-based multinational electric-power producer and utilities giant Grupo EPM announced March 18 that its full-year 2024 net income jumped 28% year-on-year, to COP$4.9 trillion (US$1.18 billion).

Corporate-wide group revenues rose 11% year-on-year, to COP$41.5 trillion (US$10 billion). Within Colombia, EPM revenues rose 22% year-on-year, to COP$19.8 trillion (US$4.8 billion).

As for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), EPM Group saw a 9% year-on-year improvement, to COP$11.6 trillion (US$2.8 billion), while Colombia EPM operations contributed COP$8 trillion (US$1.9 billion) in EBITDA, up 16%.

During 2024, EPM allocated COP$1.5 trillion (US$363 million) to continuing construction of the last four generation units of the 2.4-gigawatt “Hidroituango” hydroelectric plant here in Antioquia, due for completion in 2027.

Of EPM’s total 2024 domestic earnings, 29% were reinvested in fixed assets, with the remaining 71% “returned to society through tax payments, investments in communities and the environment, job creation, and contributions to the development of the city of Medellín,” which owns 100% of EPM — and gets 25% of its annual revenues from it.

In 2024, the EPM revenue contribution to the city of Medellin totalled COP$2 trillion (US$484 million).

“In its 2024 financial results, the EPM Group reported investments of COP$5.6 trillion [US$1.35 billion] in projects aimed at improving access, coverage, and quality of public services for more than 9 million people,” according to the company.

At EPM, local investments totaled COP$3.3 trillion (US$799 million), of which 46% went toward completion of the Hidroituango power plant.

“Additionally, COP$117 billion [US$28 million] were invested in the completion of the Tepuy photovoltaic solar park,” the company added.

“In 2024, EPM Group allocated COP$2.4 trillion [US$581 million] to energy distribution and marketing, of which EPM [in Colombia] contributed 33% or approximately COP$806 billion [US$195 million],” according to the company.

“This investment allowed the company to reduce the SAIDI indicator (average duration of power interruptions perceived by a user) by 14% and the SAIFI indicator (average number of interruptions experienced by a user) by 16% compared to 2023.”

As for its money-losing “Afinia” power subsidiary on Colombia’s Atlantic Coast, EPM allocated COP$616 billion (US$149 million) in upgrades “to improve access, coverage, and quality of public services . . . and reduce losses” caused largely by rampant power theft in poorer neighborhoods.

Because of those losses, the Afinia subsidiary recorded an income impairment of COP$346 billion (US$87.3 million), according to EPM.

As for drinking-water, waste-water and solid-waste management services, EPM invested COP$1.2 trillion (US$290.7 million) in “expansion, replacement, and modernization of networks, the installation of new storage tanks, and the expansion and improvement of water treatment and wastewater treatment plants,” according to the company.

Besides investments in Colombia, another 6% “was allocated to the Aguas Antofagasta desalination plant in Chile,” according to EPM.