Gasum Group H1 2022 – Gasum took action to adapt to an uncertain energy market

Key financial indicators January 1, – June 30, 2022: 

• The Group’s revenue increased by 155.5 per cent to EUR 1,326.3 (519.1) million.
• Operating profit (EBIT) was EUR 56.3 (-65.5) million at profit. Comparable operating profit (EBIT) was EUR 4.6 (-26.2) million
• Cash flow from operating activities was EUR 43.2 (-9.3) million.
• Balance sheet total came to EUR 2,244.0 (1,475.3) million
• Equity ratio was 20.9 (29.5) per cent
• Sales volumes decreased by 30.3 per cent and were 9.2 (13.2) TWh

Gasum Group CEO Mika Wiljanen comments on the first half of 2022:

"General volatility of the energy market as well as Russia’s war against Ukraine and the ensuing geopolitical tensions significantly hit Gasum’s business and performance during the first half of the year. Despite the challenging operating environment, we were able to ensure energy deliveries to our customers and to diversify our procurement portfolio.

The Group’s revenue for the first half of 2022 was EUR 1,326.3 million, operating profit was EUR 56.3 million and adjusted operating profit was EUR 4.6 million. Despite the changes taking place in the operating environment, the profitability of the Group’s business reached the planned level.

The geopolitical situation and the sanctions imposed on Russia and their consequences have resulted in major uncertainty on the energy market. Due to significant contract disputes, Gasum announced in May that it was to take the long-term supply contract of natural gas between Gasum and the Russian company Gazprom Export to arbitration. Gazprom Export cut off natural gas supplies to Finland under the contract on May 21st. During the summer, we are supplying natural gas to our natural gas customers in Finland from other sources via the Balticconnector pipeline and the end of supplies from Russia has not affected the functioning of the Finnish gas market or the availability of gas.

In April, we launched an extensive action program to improve the company’s profitability. Implementation of the program has progressed to plan, and we presented our new organization structure at the end of June. In addition, we also started work on updating our strategy and this is expected to complete during Q3.

Despite the challenging operating environment, we have actively continued our work to bring cleaner energy to our customers in industry, maritime and traffic.

In the industry business, the review period saw us enter into an extensive partnership agreement with Loiste Energia on energy management services with effect from the beginning of April 2022. The partnership agreement extensively covers energy management services such as sales of electricity production, electricity market portfolio management and brokering services, including market analyses and forecasts as well as balance management and 24/7 control room services. Besides these, Gasum is responsible for the continuous planning and optimization of production at Loiste’s CHP plant and hydropower plants. In April, we supplied liquefied biogas to Hafslund Oslo Celsio (earlier Fortum Oslo Varme) to produce district heat for the city of Oslo.

In the maritime business we continued our active engagement with our customers and various stakeholders. The current market conditions are challenging but we do see an increasing interest and demand for LNG as a cleaner shipping fuel.

In the traffic business, we continued expanding our network of gas filling stations by opening new stations in Sipoo, Kotka and Tampere. In addition, we also started work on building a new filling station in Vantaa. In Sweden, we concluded a new transport biogas agreement worth hundreds of millions of Swedish crowns with transport and logistics company Sandahls Logistik, and we are now building two new public gas filling stations next to the logistics company’s terminals. At the same time, Sandahls Logistik will invest in 120 new biogas-powered trucks from Volvo Trucks, which started to deliver them in March this year. The cooperation agreement is one of the biggest in the Nordic biogas sector to date.

We are continuously scaling up our biogas production and Gasum’s ambition is to make 4 TWh of biogas available on the market by 2025 from the company’s own production and from that of our certified European partners. During the review period, we also published our 2021 Corporate Sustainability Report, where biogas plays a key role. In 2021, we enabled carbon emission reductions of 345,000 tonnes for our customers through biogas, we promoted the circular economy by utilizing 880,000 tonnes of waste and waste food as well as 4,000,000 tonnes of wastewater as feedstock in biogas production. We also produced around 1,000,000 tonnes of recycled nutrients.

Despite the challenging operating environment, we will continue to focus on improving our business to be able to serve our customers to the best of our ability. I would like to thank our customers and all our stakeholders for their excellent cooperation with and confidence in Gasum. In addition, I would also like to extend a warm thanks to all our employees for their safe and successful work in exceptionally challenging circumstances."

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