Company says it turned profitable in final quarter of last year and is now trading well
Newly-filed accounts for So Energy show the business made a £78.6m (€93.5m) operating loss in the nine months from April 2022 to the end of December that year.
The accounts reflect a time when wholesale energy prices remained significantly elevated around the world.
At the end of 2022, the company had a retained loss of £222.5m.
The loss in the 2022 period compared with a £151.4m operating loss So Energy made in the 12 months to the end of March 2022.
The accounts show that the gross loss margin narrowed to 5.6pc in the nine-month period in 2022, from 29.3pc in the previous full year.
ESB chief financial officer Paul Stapleton told the Irish Independent earlier this year that he expects So Energy to be profitable this year.
In 2023, ESB’s customer solutions business posted a €12m loss for the year, which compared with a €109m loss in 2022. Those lower losses were due to a better performance by So Energy during 2023.
The UK business returned to profitability in the final quarter of last year and continued to be profitable in the first quarter of 2024. So Energy’s directors said in its newly-filed accounts it will require “materially lower” funding in 2024 than during 2023.
So Energy had a total of £375m in funding spread across five facilities at the end of 2022. They included a £150m standby collateral facility due to expire at the end of 2024 and a £225m facility that matures in 2031.
The directors said the maturity of the £150m standby facility would have to be extended, and that this extension is expected to be finalised this summer.
They said that while as of May this year, the fact the facility expires at the end of 2024 “casts doubt” on So Energy’s ability to continue in business beyond then, there is a “strong expectation” that an agreement to extend the funding will be confirmed.
The So Energy accounts signed off in May this year note that if the market trajectory it saw in 2023 continues this year, customers will have “more favourable tariff options” during 2024.
The accounts note that the number of customers So Energy had at the end of 2022 was 316,000. That was down marginally on the 320,000 it had at the end of March that year.
So Energy said it engaged in no customer acquisition campaigns during the year due to the volatility of the wholesale energy markets.
“Throughout 2022, the unprecedented volatility in the global energy markets resulted in record wholesale energy prices,” the accounts note.
They add: “Wholesale energy prices were significantly impacted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with forward gas prices peaking at over 800 pence per therm in August 2022.
“Despite operating a hedging strategy in line with the company’s hedging policy, the volatile wholesale energy market resulted in difficult trading conditions.”
