“A poorly designed extraordinary tax that has significantly impacted our results and cash generation.” This is how forceful the CEO de Cepsa, Maarten Wetselaarthis Friday when analyzing the semi-annual 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 in 2022.
As it did last year, the oil company maintains a pulse of figures with the Government, proving that it contributes in taxes in Spain more than it earns: “Cepsa contributed with €2,185 million in taxes in Spain, of which 1,265 million were borne 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 energy is highly concentrated in the country, 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. The company attributes this evolution to the lower volumes of the Exploration and Production business after the sale to TotalEnergies of its Upstream business in the Emirates, one of its main oil enclaves in the Persian Gulf for up to 1,500 million. Also to the drop in crude oil prices.