The UTE Board of Directors approved the company’s balance sheet for 2021 on Tuesday. The numbers indicate that the public company ended the year with profits of $17,262 million, equivalent to about US$396 millionreported to The Observer the president of the entity Silvia Emaldi.
The result indicates a return on equity (ROE) which was 13.65%, one of the highest levels in recent years. That ratio had been just 2.42% during the 2020 financial year.
The millionaire profits are explained in 80% by the energy exports to Brazil that had a record year. There was also an increase in domestic demand that was in the order of 3%.
Marketing abroad has been uninterrupted since January, but has gained strength especially since July, when Brazil saw the water deficit that hit the south of its territory worsen and hit the generation of its hydroelectric dams.
The growth of external energy sales was also reflected in the cost of supplying the demand (CAD), which amounted to US$ 776 million. Of that figure, US$ 308 million corresponded to spending on fuel. There was US$133 million (43%) of that fuel that was for export generation, and the remaining US$175 million (57%) to cover domestic demand. 34% of the energy exported was of thermal origin and 66% was of renewable origin.
“The hydrological situation of the Uruguay River and Negro River basins throughout 2021 evolved from normal/weak Niña at the beginning of the year, passing through normal moderately humid situations in the middle of the year, until an extreme dry situation consolidated in both basins over end of the year,” Emaldi said.
For its part, the company’s cash ended the year with US$ 316 million. Last year UTE made transfers to general income for US$70 million, and in February 2022 it transferred another US$116 million on account of the last fiscal year, as requested in November by the Planning and Budget Office (OPP).
They cancel debt with Ancap
“We already fixed that through a financial operation. Ancap is already doing the paperwork to collect it at Banco República. I hope that it will be in these days that I already collect it, ”said Emaldi.
The weekly Search reported last week that UTE had a debt equivalent to some US$50 million with Ancap, and that the oil company had been claiming that its financial backing in April will be highly demanded with the payment of two shipments of crude oil.
