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Essen (dpa) - The energy industry has so far come largely unscathed by the Corona crisis.
The Essen-based RWE Group is doing so well that it prematurely published figures for the past year on Friday.
RWE expects "excellent results for the 2020 financial year that will significantly exceed our forecast," said CFO Markus Krebber according to the announcement.
In the summer, Krebber will take over the executive chair at RWE from the current CEO, Rolf Martin Schmitz.
The adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) were according to RWE at 3.2 billion euros.
The management had previously expected a maximum of 3 billion euros.
The group had achieved that much on a comparable basis in the previous year.
The bottom line was that RWE earned 1.2 billion euros last year.
There is no comparative figure for this.
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The overall result, which was above expectations, was primarily a consequence of the "extraordinarily strong development" in energy trading, emphasized Krebber.
At 539 million euros, the result remained below the unusually high result of the previous year of 731 million euros.
RWE had only calculated with 150 to 350 million euros.
A comprehensive swap of business areas with its former rival Eon has made RWE a major producer of green electricity.
Last year, the group expanded its portfolio of wind and solar systems and thus “consistently implemented the growth strategy”, emphasized Krebber.
The result for offshore wind power increased particularly strongly thanks to good wind conditions in the first quarter of the year.
In 2020, however, RWE also earned well with electricity generation from coal and nuclear energy, because the profit per generated kilowatt hour has increased.
In this business area, the Essen-based company achieved an Ebitda of 559 million euros, almost 220 million euros more than in the previous year.
However, the proportion of electricity produced from coal will continue to decrease.
At the beginning of the year, RWE shut down its last two hard coal power plants in Germany.
The lignite power plants will follow step by step.
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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210205-99-318567 / 2
Communication from RWE