Italian oil and gas group Eni announced on Friday a 23% drop in fourth-quarter net profit, which it attributed to the volatility of crude oil prices.

This morning, the company reported adjusted operating income of 2.77 billion euros, compared with 3.58 billion a year earlier, below the consensus figure of 2.90 billion.

In a press release, CEO Claudio Descalzi emphasized the resilience of the company's performance in the face of the 5% year-on-year decline in the price of Brent crude and the 57% drop in benchmark gas prices in Europe.

Eni says it generated 1.2 billion euros in free cash flow (FCF) in the fourth quarter, bringing the total for the full year to 7.3 billion euros.

This cash flow enabled it to distribute three billion euros in dividends to its shareholders, and to complete share buy-backs worth 1.8 billion euros.

The Italian group plans to unveil its financial targets for 2024 and provide a strategic update at its Investor Day on March 14.

The share lost 1.6% on the Milan Stock Exchange following this publication, and was one of the biggest decliners on the pan-European STOXX Europe 600 index at the start of the morning.

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