News

Full Year 2023 Audited Results

14 March 2024

London – 14 March, 2024 – Urenco Group (“Urenco”), an international supplier of uranium enrichment services and nuclear fuel cycle products, today announces its results for the full year ended 31 December 2023.

Summary 

• Revenue up at €1,922.3 million (2022: €1,716.5 million) due to higher pricing levels and a higher volume of uranium product deliveries. 
• EBITDA(i) increased to €886.7 million (€824.6 million in 2022) as a result of the higher revenue and despite increased operating costs. 
• Net income down at €269.8 million (2022: €285.1 million pre-exceptional), reflecting higher depreciation following the impairment reversal in 2022. 
• Net cash increased to €1,032.2 million (2022: Net cash €627.2 million), as cash generation from operating activities continues to be strong. 
• Order book up by 36% since the start of the year to €14.7 billion.
• Sustainability highlights include carbon emissions (scope 1 and 2) down by 5.4% from 2022.

Financial Highlights (€m)	2023	2022
Revenue	1,922.3	1,716.5
EBITDA(i)	886.7	824.6
EBITDA margin %	46.1%	48.0%
Income from operating activities (pre-exceptional items)	441.8	443.8
Exceptional items (pre-tax)(ii)	-	921.4
Income from operating activities (post-exceptional items)	441.8	1,365.2
Net income (pre-exceptional items)	269.8	285.1
Exceptional items (post-tax)	-	888.1
Net income (post-exceptional items)	269.8	1,173.2
Capital expenditure(iii)	282.3	184.0
Cash generated from operating activities	1,048.9	1,133.7
Net Cash/ (Net Debt)	1,032.2	627.2

(i)    EBITDA is earnings before exceptional items, interest (including other finance costs), taxation, depreciation and amortisation and results from joint venture and other investments. Depreciation and amortisation are adjusted to remove elements of such charges included in changes to inventories and net costs of nuclear provisions. Further details on the calculation of EBITDA are set out in note 4 to the Group’s Consolidated Financial Statements contained in the Annual Report and Accounts. 
(ii)    Exceptional items in 2022 relate to the non-cash reversal of previously recognised impairment charges of the USA operations of €921.4 million pre-tax and €888.1 million post-tax.
(iii)    Capital expenditure includes net cash flows on the purchases of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets of €278.4 million (2022: €166.6 million) and on the decrease of capital accruals of €3.9 million (2022: €17.4 million) (included in working capital payables).  

Boris Schucht, Chief Executive of Urenco Group, commenting on the results, said:

“Urenco’s full year results for 2023 demonstrate our ongoing robust financial, operational and sustainability performance.

Last year, we adapted our activities and strategic ambition as governments and customers continued to recognise the role which nuclear energy plays in providing a secure, low carbon energy supply. Countries are diversifying their fuel supplies and agreeing to collaborate on guiding principles to support global, sustainable energy solutions. This was underlined towards the end of the year at the COP28 climate change conference with the declaration of 25 governments to triple their global nuclear capacity by 2050, providing a real momentum behind nuclear. Collectively, these drivers have escalated the demand for our enrichment services in the future. 

Sales revenue for the full year increased to €1,922.3 million (2022: €1,716.5 million) following the agreement of several new customer contracts; and EBITDA rose to €886.7 million (2022: €824.6 million). The increase in EBITDA is due to higher revenue and lower net costs of provisions, in part offset by increased operating costs. Net income decreased to €269.8 million (2022: €285.1 million) reflecting higher depreciation charges following the impairment reversal in 2022. Cash generated from operating activities was €1,048.9 (2022: €1,133.7 million). Net cash was up at €1,032.2 million (2022: net cash €627.2 million) driven by EBITDA and customer payments. 

We have security in our core business through the long-term visibility of our order book. Our order book extends into the 2040s with a value of €14.7 billion, an increase of 36%. This has provided us with the reassurance to push ahead with our capacity programme to extend and refurbish enrichment capacity at our four operational locations. In 2023, we confirmed investments in the USA, the Netherlands and Germany, delivering capacity extension projects of 1.6m SWU capacity. Due to our ageing fleet, these extension projects, together with the ongoing refurbishment programme, are required to keep our capacity stable in the mid and long term.

We are taking steps to develop next generation fuels to make our first deliveries of low enriched uranium plus (LEU+, uranium enriched up to 10%) by 2025 to enable current reactors to work more efficiently. We are also working with the UK and US governments to progress options to develop a civil high-assay low enriched uranium (HALEU – uranium enriched up to 19.75%) facility to power small and advanced modular reactors.  

In relation to our associated services, we are enhancing our stable and medical isotopes production and the responsible management of nuclear materials. 

Delivery is vital to all of this. We have increased our workforce significantly in the last year and expect this will continue. To assist with this, we have created a new employee value proposition to attract and retain talented people. This is while continuing to develop our company culture to attract people from a wide range of backgrounds, with well-trained managers to lead them. I would like to thank our employees for all their hard work during the year and making it a successful one.”

Sustainability and decarbonisation 

Our work on sustainability is vital to what we do. We want to make a positive contribution to global climate change goals, not only as part of our role in the nuclear industry, but also through our commitment to achieve an absolute reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 within our direct operations, and net zero overall by 2040, including within our supply chain. 

Our first Net Zero Transition Plan was published in 2023, outlining what actions we will take. Natural gas, refrigerants and diesel make up the majority of our scope 1 emissions and we are investigating solutions to lower them. We are ensuring all sites have a supply of low carbon electricity by 2030 to tackle scope 2 emissions. This includes building large-scale solar panel installations capable of reducing our sites’ peak electricity demand. We are also continuing to engage with both the nuclear fuel cycle and our supply chain to lower our scope 3 emissions. 

Our scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions (combined) decreased by 5% compared to 2022 and by 30% when compared to our 2019 baseline year. We enriched enough uranium to generate an estimated 760,000 GWh of electricity from nuclear power, avoiding circa 380 million tonnes of carbon emissions . We have maintained our strong performance in the Carbon Disclosure Project, achieving a B score for the second year running for our climate change related activities across the business. 

In other areas of sustainability, our water withdrawal increased by 1.8% compared to 2022 but reduced by 10.6% against our baseline year of 2020 (water withdrawal refers to total water consumption combined with total water discharge). We continue to meet all of our customer deliveries, and the volume of our annual stable and medical isotopes sales equated to approximately two million patient treatments being performed in the medical sector.

Outlook and Order Book

Our presence across four geographies enables us to provide a uniquely secure and diverse supply of enrichment services.

Our purpose is to enrich the future with carbon free energy. We see it as our duty to contribute to energy security and low carbon electricity generation for consumers around the world. We deliver consistently high operational and financial performance and have been serving our customers for more than 50 years, now in 19 countries and with a reliable delivery record.

SWU spot prices are increasing. From US$110/SWU and US$125/SWU at the end of 2022, they have continued on an upward trajectory, reaching US$155.00 and US$159.00/SWU respectively by the end of December 2023, as reported by both Tradetech and UxC.

We are signing new contracts and extending existing ones, growing our customer base and raising our profile in new geographic markets. We have long term visibility in our order book, extending into the 2040s. Its value as of 31 December 2023 was €14.7 billion, based on €/$ of 1 : 1.10 (31 December 2022: €10.8 billion based on €/$ of 1 : 1.07).

We are optimistic about the prospects for our core enrichment business as the market looks for greater capacity in the nuclear fuel supply chain. There are also significant opportunities in the market for advanced fuels and stable isotopes for medical and industrial purposes, which we will continue to explore.

Board

In 2023, Miriam Maes retired from the Board as Dutch appointed Non-Executive Director and we welcomed Renee Jones-Bos to the position. The Board of Urenco greatly appreciates and thanks Miriam for the significant contribution that she has made over the past eight years. 

The Full Year 2023 Audited Financial Results and commentary are available on our Annual Report page. 
 

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