Eni SpA Posts Profit In Q4 On Higher Sales; Stock Up

(RTTNews) - Italian oil and gas company Eni SpA (E) reported Wednesday a net profit in its fourth quarter, compared to last year's hefty loss. Sales increased from last year, despite weakness in Exploration & Production segment. Eni shares were gaining around 3 percent in Italy.

Claudio Descalzi, Eni's Chief Executive Officer, said, "Looking to the future, we are able to reaffirm our progressive remuneration policy, in line with the expected improvement of commodity prices and our own financial performance."

For the fourth quarter, group net profit was 340 million euros, compared to loss of 8.72 billion euros a year ago. Net profit per share was 0.09 euros, compared to loss of 2.42 euros last year. Profit per ADR was $0.19, compared to loss of $5.30 a year ago.

Consolidated adjusted net profit was of 459 million euros, with a robust upstream recovery, compared to last year's loss of 301 million euros.

Operating profit from continuing operations was 1.64 billion euros, compared to loss of 6.70 billion euros a year ago. Adjusted operating profit of 1.29 billion euros climbed from the prior year's 1.15 billion euros.

Net sales from operations - continuing operations increased 4.9 percent to 15.81 billion euros from 15.07 billion euros a year ago.

Average price of Brent dated crude oil increased 13.2 percent from last year to $49.46 per barrel.

In the fourth quarter of 2016, the Exploration & Production segment's net sales dropped 2.5 percent from last year to 4.86 billion euros. The Gas & Power segment's net sales increased 11.8 percent to 11.99 billion euros.

Further, the company said its Board of Directors intends to submit a proposal for distributing a dividend of 0.80 euros per share for the year, same as last year, at the Annual Shareholders' Meeting convened for April 13, 2017. The final dividend of 0.40 euros per share is payable to shareholders on April 26.

In Italy, Eni shares were trading at 14.96 euros, up 3.03 percent.