“I would like to clearly deny that we are ready to sell a stake in our regulated network business in the UK,” he said. “No way.”
Scottish Power Energy Networks was one of the higher performing parts of Iberdrola last year, plotting a 12.6 per cent rise in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) to €937.7 million (£808.2 million), or 6 per cent in sterling terms.
Ebitda was also up in the UK generation and retail business, 11.8 per cent to €360.6 million (£310.8 million), or 4 per cent in pounds sterling. Scottish Power grew its customer base by 7 per cent to 5.6 million.
However, it saw the cost of energy efficiency programmes Cert and Cesp rise by 134.5 per cent to €240.4 million (£207.2 million). Scottish Power is understood to have missed its Cert super priority group target, along with British Gas.
Keith Anderson, chief corporate officer of Scottish Power, said he expected the Energy Company Obligation (Eco), which hinges on persuading people to take up the Green Deal, to be even more difficult to meet. “The government has quite optimistic figures ,” said Anderson.
Iberdrola is planning to invest a record £1.3 billion (€1.6 billion) in the UK in 2013, of which 47 per cent will be in networks and just over 40 per cent in renewables.
Commenting on the Energy Bill going through Parliament, Anderson said the most urgent matter was capacity auctions to boost investment in gas generation. “If you want people to bring through investment decisions to get combined cycle gas turbines online in 2016, we need that this year.”
Iberdrola is ahead of profile on its target to sell off €2 billion of non-core assets over the 2012-2014 period, having divested €850 million. “We are moving faster than we were expecting,” said Galan.
Strong results in the UK contrasted with a 36 per cent drop in earnings in Iberdrola’s home country of Spain, which was blamed on new regulations, taxes and lower production.