The CEO of Repsol, Josu Jon Imaz, has ruled out that there will be a large acquisition by the oil company. “That’s not going to happen,” he said on a conference call with analysts to present first-half results. According to the executive, the oil company has a roadmap focused on the transformation of the company through small purchases.
Imaz has once again defined himself as the “most boring CEO in the world”. According to him, one of its main characteristics is to be “prudent and predictable”. However, he insisted that the company is open to “evaluating any possibility that can support its transformation journey”, as well as that it is focused on the distribution of dividend earnings to its shareholders, with “the preservation of the balance sheet and financial strength”.
“There are no major acquisitions planned in the current environment,” he said, adding, however, that the company will continue to evaluate “small acquisitions” such as that of the American Hecate Energy or, more recently, Asterion. Regarding the multi-energy company’s commitment to the race unleashed in the sector for green hydrogen, he indicated that probably in the coming months Repsol will take two large-scale electrolyzers, in Bilbao for Petronor and Cartagena.
Update the strategic plan
However, he assured that investment decisions in this area, as in other businesses, will be made if there is a “double-digit return”. Repsol has cut profit by 44% in the first half compared to the same period of the previous year, to 1,420 million euros, in a context of falling oil prices and energy demand.
Repsol will update its strategic plan during the first quarter of 2024 after achieving all the main objectives set two years ahead of schedule. It will focus on a strategy that will achieve net zero emissions by 2050, while improving the company’s value position. The company has recently acquired 50.01% of CHC Energía and added more than 350,000 customers to its portfolio in one fell swoop, which underpins it as the fourth electricity marketer in the market, behind Iberdrola, Endesa and Naturgy with around 1.5 million customers.
The company led by Josu Jon Imaz has a goal marked in red and is none other than to reach an installed capacity of renewable energy of 20 gigawatts (GW) by the end of the decade. Before, in 2025, it aims for 6 GW. To make the comparison with one of the country’s largest electricity companies, Endesa is committed to multiplying its renewable park by three by 2030, reaching 24 GW of installed capacity.
