Spain's Enagas shares fall as it warns of loss after US asset sale
MADRID, July 23 (Reuters) - Shares in Spanish gas grid operator Enagas fell on Tuesday after it warned of a loss for the year after booking a capital hit resulting from the sale of an asset in the United States.
Enagas reported a 210.8 million euro ($229.50 million) net loss for the first half of the year, compared with a 176.8 million euro profit a year earlier. It now expects to post a loss of between 80 and 90 million euros for 2024 as a whole.
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Its shares fell 2.7%, making it the blue-chip IBEX 35 index's worst performer on Tuesday morning.
Excluding the sale impact, Enagas said it would have posted a profit of 148 million euros.
It said it had booked a 360 million euro capital loss on the sale earlier this month of its 30.2% stake in U.S. energy infrastructure company Tallgrass Energy for $1.1 billion. Enagas expects to close the transaction by the end of this month.
The proceeds will allow Enagas to cut its debt by 1 billion euros to 2.4 billion euros this year and thus give it leeway to invest into green hydrogen projects.
Excluding the accounting effects of asset sales, Enagas expects to meet its previous net profit target of between 260 million euros and 270 million euros.
The U.S. sale follows other disposals in Chile and Mexico, as the company refocuses on Spain and Europe.
With Spanish gas demand down for two years in a row, Enagas - in which the state owns a 5% stake - is moving to diversify from its traditional gas business.
Taking advantage of the government's plans to transform the country into a European green hydrogen leader, it wants to transition from its traditional role as a natural gas grid operator to managing a network of hydrogen infrastructure.
It expects net investment of around 3.2 billion euros through 2030 to develop its planned hydrogen trunk network in Spain and its flagship trans-European H2Med corridor.
To help fund the plan, it has slashed its dividend plans for the next three years.
($1 = 0.9185 euros)
(Reporting by Pietro Lombardi and Emma Pinedo, editing by Inti Landauro and Alexander Smith)