Italgas announces investment plan for 2031 as it integrates Rete Gas 2i

Italgas announced on Thursday that it will invest $19.5 billion by 2031 to modernize its network and integrate 2i Rete Gas, the recently acquired competitor.

The group announced a merger of 5.3 billion euros with 2i Rete Gas last year. It said that it expected the deal to bring efficiencies of up to 250 million euro by then, up from an earlier estimate of 200 millions.

The company said that a digitalisation program for 2i Gas assets will generate additional revenues of more than 100 millions euros by 2031. This is up from an earlier estimate of 80million.

Italgas has a plan to modernise their gas network by installing smart meters, sensors for monitoring pipelines and artificial intelligence.

As Europe's economy decarbonises, the group expects to transport an increasing volume of renewable gases such as biomethane or hydrogen.

Italgas also announced on Thursday that its core earnings for nine months grew by 36% year-on year to 1.369 billion euro and it raised its guidance for this year.

The company forecasts adjusted earnings before taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), which is around 1.87 billion euro for 2025. This is up from the previous estimate of between 1.80-1.85.

The EBITDA is expected to reach 3.0 billion euro by 2031. This represents a growth of 12% per year on average compared to 2024.

Italgas announced that it would increase its dividends annually by at least 5%, using its dividend for 2024 as a basis. It also said that it would pay 65% of adjusted net income per shares. This policy was extended to 2028.

(source: Reuters)