MADRID, Spain, March 26, 2021 (Press Release) -The General Board of Ence – Energía y Celulosa has approved the annual accounts for the 2020 financial year in a session held electronically, due to the health crisis situation and the current state of alarm.
The President of Ence, Ignacio Colmenares, has indicated in his intervention that 2020 has been a complicated year from which, however, the company has come out stronger, thanks to the prudence with which it has faced the pandemic. “Ence is today stronger and more resilient,” he said.
In the Pulp business, 2020 has been marked by exceptionally low market prices, which weighed down on the result for the year. A trend that has been reversed since the beginning of 2021, with the recovery of the price of pulp this year.
In the Energy business, the outlook is very positive. In 2020 Ence has put into operation two renewable generation plants with biomass in Puertollano and Huelva, increasing the installed capacity in independent generation plants by more than 30% compared to 2019. To continue growing in renewables, Ence has a portfolio of mature projects of about 500 MW, which will be ready to start construction at the end of 2021. This will mean multiplying by 2.5 times the current installed capacity.
“Our two businesses are fully aligned with the Green Recovery, promoted by the European Commission. Taking advantage of these advantages, and driven by the effort and good work done in 2020, we will be able to move forward in 2021, with improvements that will be clearly felt in our results, ”said Ignacio Colmenares.
At the corporate level, in 2020 the group successfully closed two strategic operations that have allowed the company’s debt to be reduced by € 335 million this year: the sale of 49% of Ence Energía’s capital to the Ancala infrastructure investment fund Partners and the sale of a 90% stake in the Puertollano solar thermal plant to Q-Energy.
The company prudently analyzes the making of new investments and plans to focus on continuing to improve efficiency, competitiveness and sustainability, as well as propping up its organic growth in Energy, betting on its pipeline.
In relation to the Pontevedra biofactory, the President of Ence has affirmed that the company will continue to defend the continuity of its concession. It is, he has indicated, a completely safe plant whose environmental parameters widely improve the most demanding European and Spanish environmental standards and authorizations, hand in hand with the investments made in recent years.
Finally, the General Meeting of Shareholders of Ence has also approved, at the proposal of the Board of Directors, the re-election of Rosa María García Piñeiro as independent director; the appointment of Javier, Óscar and Gorka Arregui Abendivar as proprietary directors; the ratification of the appointment as proprietary director of Ignacio Comenge Sánchez-Real; the appointment of an independent director, María de la Paz Robina Rosat; and setting the number of members of the Board of Directors at thirteen.