Soltec, a company providing vertically integrated solar energy solutions, held its Annual General Meeting today. After reviewing the progress made in implementing the company’s strategic plan, shareholders have supported Soltec’s management by approving all items on the agenda. The meeting, which represented 77.48% of shareholders, was held in Murcia in person and online.
During the Annual General Meeting, the shareholders supported the management of the company in 2022 and approved the financial statements for the corresponding year. They also voted in a consultative manner on the Company’s annual directors’ remuneration report for 2022 and approved the amendment to the remuneration policy for the period 2022-2025.
Raúl Morales, Chairman and CEO of the company, has highlighted Soltec’s operational strength, commitment to vertical integration and geographic diversification of its projects as a strength against changes in public policies. Additionally, he has confirmed that the company is sticking to its 2023 roadmap. “Against the background of the great dynamics in the solar industry, we at Soltec have confirmed our forecast for 2023,” he explained.
“2022 has been a year of consolidation, growth and paradigm shift, in which energy independence has gained prominence and our role has been seen as crucial for Spain and the world,” explained Morales, who also felt it was urgent to take a step forward to advance the heat pump, the electric car and the development of storage. “The geopolitical and economic disruptions have shown the urgency of betting on the national productive and industrial fabric.”
In his speech, Morales put the year’s first quarter results into context and explained the seasonal nature of the renewable energy business. “2023 started with more seasonality than 2022, as we expected. However, the manager has qualified that Soltec “expects a second part of the year that will be stronger than the first thanks to the concretization of the IRA guidelines (Inflation Reduction Act) in the United States and in Spain thanks to the concretization”. Start of construction of the projects who are in the approval process”.
Finally, the company’s CEO noted that the leadership team is focused on further advancing the strategic plan 2022-2025 based on three pillars: vertical integration, sustainability and innovation. “This strategy marks our path and reaffirms our firm commitment to greater vertical integration at the heart of our corporate strategy. Among other things, we rely on synergies between our three business areas: Industry, Development and Asset Management,” he explained.
Soltec achieved a record annual turnover of 568 million euros at the end of 2022, which corresponds to an increase of 64% compared to 2021. The company reached 13.1 million euros in net profit. Likewise, Adjusted EBITDA exceeded EUR 32.6 million, an increase of EUR 39.5 million compared to EUR -6.9 million in 2021. This EBITDA corresponds to a consolidated revenue margin of 6% and reinforces the positive trend that the company is starting to show the second quarter began the year 2022.
The industrial division has a track record of 15.6 GW with robust operational indicators. The backlog (contracts signed to execution) was EUR 252 million for solar tracker supply contracts and other ancillary services, representing 1.2 GW of solar tracker supply projects. For its part, the pipeline (contracts with a certain probability of execution) amounted to 3,637 million euros.
On the other hand, the project development department ended the year with a pipeline of 14.4 GW of projects at different stages of progress spread across eight countries. Soltec was able to sell 372 MW in Spain and Italy in the entire 2022 financial year. In addition, two other projects totaling 130 MW were rotated in Colombia. Different sales processes are currently managed for open projects in different regions.
The company’s asset management division, announced in 2022, has been realized with 230 MW operating between Brazil and Spain. The Company believes that the additional revenue stream from energy sales will provide it with recurrence, strength and stability, and will help it mitigate existing value chain risks through geographic and business diversification.