The French utility saw its revenue and operating result grow in 2018, but extra financial costs dragged down the profit significantly.

Sales grew by 4 percent organically in EDF to EUR 68.9 billion and the operating result, EBITDA, hit EUR 15.2 billion – an organic growth of 11.3 percent.

However, EDF had to come to terms with the fact that the bottomline dropped by 63 percent to EUR 1.17 billion.

The lower result is partly due to the fact that the company's financial result was negative EUR 4.8 billion – EUR 2.6 billion worse than the year before.

"The rebound in our results in 2018 has occurred and is in line with our forecasts. We have achieved all our financial objectives and are exceeding all the targets of our performance plan. We have stabilized our net financial debt, strengthened our balance sheet, reached a record for generation in renewable energies, succeeded in overhauling the French nuclear sector and strengthened our supply business through several significant innovations," explains Jean-Bernard Lévy, EDF's chairman and CEO, in the financial report and continues:

"Our performance will not only continue but will be amplified in 2019. This is the result of the daily commitment of the Group’s employees, mobilised in the deployment of the CAP 2030 strategy. With its dynamism, EDF will play a leading role in the implementation of the Multi-Year Energy Plan, which provides the Group with a clear framework and growth opportunities for the coming years."

The company expects it operating result to land between EUR 15.3-16 billion in 2019, while the investment-level will be EUR 15 billion.

EDF works in nuclear power, solar energy and onshore wind. In the past year, the company has also become a competitor to Danish utility Ørsted in offshore wind.

In France, the company currently has three major wind projects under development, and the French utility also owns offshore farms in Belgium and the UK.

Most recently, EDF joined forces with oil major Shell to develop offshore wind in the US, where the two parties have acquired US Wind's 742 km2 license area off the coast of New Jersey, which has a potential of 2.5 GW. Thursday, it was also confirmed that the two companies have now placed a bid in an offshore wind auction in New York.

EDF is also in negotiations to take over French solar company Luxel Group with a capacity of approximately 1 GW solar.

Ørsted has also repeatedly referred to the US as a new important market, and in February, the energy group also bid in the very same tender round in the state of New York.

English Edit: Ida Jacobsen

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