KARLSRUHE (dpa-AFX) - The good result for the first nine months has secured investments in accelerating the implementation of the Energiewende at the Karlsruhe-based energy company EnBW. "After all, we want to invest an average of 4.5 billion per year over the next few years," explained CFO Thomas Kusterer in a statement on Monday. The lion's share will flow into the expansion of renewable energies, the grid and charging infrastructure for electric vehicles and climate-friendly, low-CO2 generation. "Around 80 percent of our investments go to Baden-Württemberg and Germany."

The third-largest German utility had already published preliminary figures for the first three quarters at the beginning of the month, which have now been confirmed. On this basis, Energie Baden-Württemberg (EnBW) raised its forecast for the year and now expects adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (adjusted EBITDA) of 5.9 to 6.5 billion euros. Previously it was 4.7 to 5.2 billion euros. From January to September, EnBW achieved earnings of 4.9 billion euros.

After the first half of the year had already been better than expected, EnBW announced in August that this development would not continue at the same level in the second half of the year. However, partly because the company was able to sell electricity volumes sold in advance at higher wholesale prices than in the previous year, adjusted EBITDA rose sharply to around 2.7 billion euros, particularly in the area of thermal electricity generation - i.e. from coal and gas, for example. In addition, there were negative effects here in the same period of the previous year because gas supply volumes were curtailed and discontinued as a result of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.

EnBW has been largely owned by the public sector since 2011. The Group supplies around 5.5 million customers and had a good 28,000 employees at the end of September (plus 6.2 percent)./kre/DP/mis