Cepsa earns 145 million, 70% less, and blames the Government tax: "It is poorly designed"
“A poorly designed extraordinary tax that has significantly impacted our results and cash generation”. This is how forceful the CEO of Cepsa, Maarten Wetselaar, has shown himself this Friday when analyzing the half-yearly results of the company, which in the period has cut its adjusted net profit to 45 million euros, 70% less compared to the same period. of 2022.
As it did last year, the oil company maintains a pulse of figures with the Government, proving that it contributes more in taxes in Spain than it earns: “Cepsa contributed 2,185 million euros in taxes in Spain, of which 1,265 million were supported by the company and 920 million were collected on behalf of the Spanish Public Treasury”.
Given that the new government rate only taxes income in Spain, the impact of the new tax affects Cepsa to a greater extent than other of its competitors (29% compared to last year's profits), since the The country is highly concentrated in energy, unlike other of its peers, whose turnover is more geographically diversified. Between January and June, the impact of the new tax for Cepsa has been 320 million.
In a context of normalization of energy prices after the escalation of the previous year, the company in the hands of the French fund Carlyle and the state fund of Abu Dhabi, Mubadala, has seen the margins of its refining activity fall, something that has compensated partly thanks to lower energy costs. “The refining margins are still good, although lower than those of the first half of 2022,” the group has qualified.
In this context, the adjusted gross operating result (adjusted ebitda) fell by 57% to stand at 742 million compared to 1,742 million in the first half of 2022. Also to the drop in crude oil prices.
Wetselaar has emphasized that the aforementioned tax coup harms the company “in a context in which Cepsa is carrying out a profound transformation, going from being a traditional oil and gas company to a company at the forefront of the European energy transition”.
Thus, the company has highlighted that sustainable investments represented 39% of a total of 276 million euros in the first half of the year (compared to 218 million in the first six months of 2022), within the framework of the company's strategic plan. company, Cepsa Positive Motion.