Finland´s Fortum Q2 operating profit dropped to €35 million from €203 million a year earlier

Helsinki, August 18 - Neftegaz.RU. Fortum reported a year on year drop in its Q2 earnings, at the same time the Finnish company mentioned that Standard & Poor’s and Fitch rating agencies had removed the negative outlook and given it longterm ratings of BBB with a stable outlook.

• 1^st, we agreed to sell 500 MW of solar power capacity in India and signed a comprehensive agreement with Actis targeting potential further investments in solar power plants in India
• 2^nd, we closed the divestment of our Baltic district heating business for a total consideration of approximately €710 million
• And 3^rd, we signed an agreement on the sale of our 50% stake in Stockholm Exergi for €2.9 billion
• These 3 successful transactions bring the value of our portfolio rotation over the last 18 months to a total of €5.2 billion

The company reported comparable Ebitda of €348 million, down from €512 million in Q2 2020.
Comparable operating profit was €35 million, down from €203 million and its operating loss was €840 million, down from a profit of €539 million, mainly impacted by changes in fair values of non-hedge-accounted derivatives.

Fortum is an active participant in renewable energy development in Russia, where the company owns the largest RES portfolio of more than 2 GW, including joint ventures with RUSNANO and RDIF.
The company in which Finland owns 50.8% stake announced a new strategy in December, saying it aimed to divest its retail businesses and become carbon neutral by 2050.

M.Rauramo noted:

• In July, we agreed to sell our Argayash coal-fired combined heat and power plant in Russia
• The fuel switch of the Chelyabinsk CHP-2 unit from coal to gas means that we now have a clear path to cease the use of coal in our Russia segment by the end of 2022
• This leaves the Group’s Russian operations with only 1 coal-fired power plant without a clearly communicated exit path, the Berezovskaya power plant of the Uniper segment

With previously made investment decisions, by the end of 2021, Fortum and its joint ventures will deliver 556 MW of CO₂-free wind and solar energy to consumers in Russia.

In February 2021, the Fortum-RDIF joint venture made the investment decision to build a 116 MW solar plant in Kalmykia.
The 1^st stage of the SPP with a capacity of 78 MW is to be commissioned in 4Q 2021 and the remaining 38 MW in the 2^nd half of 2022.
When commissioned, it will become the largest solar power plant in Russia.