2018 annual results

Marked rebound of the operating performance
Nuclear output in France amounted to 393.2TWh, an increase of 14.1TWh over 2017. This improvement can be explained by the fact that 2017 was heavily penalised by several reactor outages linked in particular to the manufacturing records of the Creusot plant, the “carbon segregation” issue, and the temporary shutdown of the four generation units of the Tricastin power plant.
Hydropower output in France amounted to 46.5TWh (1), an increase of 25.4% (+9.4TWh) over 2017. After a very dry year in 2017, 2018 benefited from good hydropower conditions and an optimised availability of hydropower assets.
In the United Kingdom, nuclear output amounted to 59.1TWh, down 4.8TWh compared to 2017. This decrease can be explained in particular by the Hunterston B inspection and the extension of the Dungeness B outage.
EDF Renewables’ production amounted to 15.2TWh, an organic increase of 15% compared to 2017 thanks to commissionings at the end of 2017.
In addition, EDF Trading achieved solid results by taking advantage of a context of favourable volatility in the commodities market.

Net income
The financial result corresponds to a financial expense of €4.8 billion, €2.6 billion more than in 2017. This evolution is primarily due to the change in the fair value of debt and equity on dedicated assets, which weighs on the financial result (application of IFRS 9 (2)) because of unfavourable market conditions, especially at the end of the year. Conversely, in 2017 the Group realised significant capital gains within its dedicated asset portfolio. Moreover, the unwinding cost recorded in 2018 is greater than in 2017 due to a more pronounced decrease in the discount rate for nuclear provisions (20 basis points in 2018 compared to 10 in 2017).
Net current income excluding non-recurring items amounted to €2.5 billion in 2018, down 13.1% compared to 2017 due to the change in the financial result (excluding the fair value adjustment of financial assets). Net income Group share amount to €1.2 billion in 2018, down 62.9%. In addition to the variation in the financial result, this decrease is explained by the positive effect of the capital gain recorded in 2017 for the sale of 49.9% of the Group’s shareholdings in CTE (3), without equivalent in 2018.

Excellent execution of the performance plan
The good execution of the performance plan was confirmed in 2018 with the surpassing of all targets:
- Operating expenses (4) were reduced by €256 million in 2018 compared to 2017, representing a cumulative reduction of €962 million between 2015 and 2018, exceeding the target of €800 million by the end of 2018 and positioning the Group on the right path to meet the €1.1 billion over 2015-2019 period.
- The Group’s plans to optimise the working-capital requirement delivered a cumulated optimisation of €2.1 billion over the period 2015-2018, which allowed to exceed the €1.8 billion target.
- The €10 billion disposal plan was completed at the end of 2018, two years ahead of schedule.
Together with the capital increase carried out in 2017, the performance plan significantly strengthened the Group’s balance sheet and contributed significantly to the success of Cap 2030 by allocating the necessary resources to the strategy.

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