Iberdrola Renewables' Spanish profit down 91%

SPAIN: Iberdrola has blamed a 91% decrease in Q1 net profits for its Spanish renewables operation on government regulation.

by David Weston 30 April 2014

Iberdrola's executives at the Q1 results presentation

The utility company also said EBITDA fell 63% for renewables in its home country.

Last year, the cash-strapped Spanish government ended existing feed-in tariffs for renewables and replaced them with a 7.5% remuneration on profits.

Iberdrola said wind projects were worse affected by the changes rather than other renewable technologies such as solar.

The company's UK arm saw EBITDA increase 32% attributed to an increase in production and a 28% increase in the United States.

Latin American earnings rose 52% thanks to increased capacity in Mexico but this was offset by a 40% loss elsewhere following the sale of Polish wind projects in 2013.

As a whole, Iberdrola's net earnings increased 8.4% in the first quarter to EUR 952.6 million but EBITDA was down 0.3% to EUR 2.1 billion.