The company will reinforce investment in renewables in the coming months, but guarantees that it does not want to let the debt burden on the main activity increase. Therefore, it considers making asset rotation.

Galp Energia considers selling assets to limit its indebtedness. The oil company led by Carlos Gomes da Silva (photo) will invest more in the coming years in renewable energy and thereby increase shareholder remuneration. In this scenario, the CEO guarantees that he prefers disposals to increase the debt burden.

"We will rotate assets, if necessary, to keep the debt below twice EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization]", guaranteed Carlos Gomes da Silva, in a meeting in London with analysts. At the same event, CFO Filipe Crisóstomo Silva added that the change in the focus of assets is very likely ”.

The value that measures the weight of debt in the oil company's activity is still far from the line drawn by the manager. With a net debt presented on December 31, 2019 at 1,435 million euros (minus 302 million the previous year), Galp Energia's debt to EBITDA stood at 0.7 times at the end of last year.

This justifies the increase in investment, which totaled 856 million in 2019. Between 2020 and 2022, this amount will grow to an average of between 1 billion and 1.2 billion euros per year, with more than 40% going to dedicated to capturing opportunities related to the energy transition and another 10% to 15% will be allocated to renewable electricity generation projects and new businesses.