Spanish power provider Holaluz cuts gas sales as prices soar
03/10/2022 13:21
By Emma Pinedo
MADRID, Oct 3 (Reuters) - Spanish power provider Holaluz
HLZZ.MC has stopped selling gas as market prices soar and will
instead focus on providing customers with green electricity, the
company said on Monday.
Barcelona-based Holaluz, which mainly fits rooftop solar
panels and sells power from green energy producers, has also
sold gas for heating since 2015.
The company said it had always intended to close the gas
business in favour of sustainable alternatives, but "the
extraordinary and volatile market situation in the current
unprecedented context of gas prices has accelerated the
decision".
On Friday, European Union countries approved emergency
measures aimed at pulling down prices that are stoking inflation
and inflicting sky-high bills on consumers.
Holaluz co-founder Carlota Pi told Reuters that Holaluz's
gas offer was not good enough following spikes in prices
triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
She said there was a growing gap between the prices that
could be offered under the regulated tariff, which is set
quarterly by the government, and those that could be found on
the free market.
Holaluz is a relatively new entrant to a market dominated by
larger, established utilities, and listed on the growth segment
of the Spanish stock market in 2019.
It said the measure to put an end to 70,000 gas contracts
will reduce its EBITDA, a measure of core earnings, by 3.9
million euros ($3.8 million), in 2022. It was originally
expecting core earnings of 20 million euros.
Next year the impact will be about 6 million euros, it said.
"We are going to absorb this loss because it is better for
our customers, otherwise an average Spanish family of four in a
flat of 80 square metres with heating and hot water would have
to pay 600 euros in a single month when the regulated tariff
allows you to pay 150 euros per month," Pi said.
($1 = 1.0250 euros)
(Reporting by Emma Pinedo; additional reporting by Jesús
Aguado; editing by Isla Binnie and David Evans)
((emma.pinedo@thomsonreuters.com; +918 35 68 34;))