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Sogin, the Board of Directors approves the draft 2021 financial statements

31 May 2022

  • The draft 2021 Financial Statements confirm the Company's acceleration and the relaunch of its nuclear decommissioning activities with a 7.2 per cent increase
  • Account discontinuity and transparency: self-cleaning operation concluded with the securing of the financial statements with regard to the ARERA investigation
  • The commitment of the Group's women and men to the physical progress of decommissioning in Italy was central

The Board of Directors of Sogin, a company wholly owned by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance, met yesterday under the chairmanship of Luigi Perri, and approved the draft Financial Statements and Group Consolidated Financial Statements for the year 2021, as illustrated by CEO Emanuele Fontani.

Despite the difficult socio-economic context, the strategic objectives of improving decommissioning progress, making resources more efficient, and advancing the National Repository for radioactive waste and Technology Park project were fully met. 

The physical progress of decommissioning activities was 7.2 per cent, i.e., more than half a percentage point higher than the budget forecast of 6.6 per cent, a considerable achievement compared to the 28.3 per cent achieved over the previous 20 years.

The progress generated EUR 118.3 million, which is higher than the EUR 110.9 million in 2020 and constitutes the best result ever for the Company

The value of production was EUR 228.6 million (EUR 196.1 million in the previous year). 

The EBITDA of EUR 18.1 million is substantially in line with 2020 (EUR 18.6 million).

Sogin's workforce, composed of highly qualified technicians, demonstrates that it knows how to operate even in a particularly complex and constantly evolving context such as the current one. Moreover, it has decreased from 909 employees as at 31 December 2020 to 867 employees at the beginning of 2022, confirming the staff reduction programme of recent years. 

The forecasts of the 2020-2025 business plan and Sogin's commitment to accelerating decommissioning activities, achieving the expected operating and economic results, and guaranteeing the safety of the plants are confirmed, thanks in part to efficient and rigorous planning at every stage of the works.

In 2021, Sogin managed, with the utmost transparency and completeness of information, the public consultation for the location of the National Repository for radioactive waste and Technology Park, the largest ever held in Italy for a strategic infrastructure for the country. On the basis of what emerged during the consultation, which lasted over a year and included a National Seminar, Sogin drew up the proposed National Charter of Suitable Areas (Carta Nazionale Aree Idonee, CNAI), now before the Italian Ministry of Ecological Transition. 

From an economic point of view, the company's 2021 result suffered a decrease, which, however, will allow the company to cope with the possible outcomes of the ongoing investigation by the Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and the Environment (Autorità di Regolazione per Energia, Reti e Ambiente, ARERA), which will end in July 2022, without burdening the next financial statements.

In this regard, during the year, the current Governance continued the internal investigation, which had been started at the end of 2020, in order to verify whether the phases of the acquisition and management of the contracts were in order. 

With a view to total transparency, the Company also guaranteed its full cooperation to the competent Authorities and internal control bodies. The approval of the draft 2021 Financial Statements marks an important point in the self-cleaning operation.

In light of these unforeseeable events and in order to guarantee the soundness of the Company, it was decided to adjust the value of the fixed assets by EUR 3.1 million and to create a provision for risks and charges in the amount of EUR 9 million in the draft 2021 Financial Statements. 

EBIT recorded a negative value of EUR 13.7 million (-1.6 million in 2020), and the 2021 financial year closed with a loss of EUR 10 million due to the abovementioned extraordinary events, in the absence of which an estimated positive result of approximately EUR 2 million would have been recorded.

he Group's EBITDA was positive at EUR 29.2 million, while EBIT, net of depreciation, amortisation and provisions, was negative at EUR 4.4 million.

The good performance recorded at the management and operational level made it possible to mitigate the effects of the extraordinary events that Sogin had to deal with, allowing the effect on the accounts to be limited and the Sogin Group to close 2021 with a loss of EUR 7.4 million.

the same meeting, Sogin's Board of Directors approved the 2021 Sustainability Report, which reports on the Group's environmental and social performance and illustrates the contribution to sustainable development. 

With this financial year," said Sogin's CEO Emanuele Fontani, "we are completing an account transparency operation that enables us to perfect the discontinuity of action with the past and secure the financial statements. The increase in the value of production under the banner of environmental sustainability and the circular economy," added Fontani, "marks the acceleration in the progress of decommissioning, which we are finally able to measure through more reliable and substantial parameters. Moreover, it is a figure that highlights the increased impact of the work of Sogin's men and women to the benefit of the entire country's economic system," he added.​​

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