E ENI Spa

By Giulia Petroni

Eni SpA has simplified its shareholder remuneration policy as part of its strategic plan for 2023-26 and raised the dividend for the current year.

The Italian oil-and-gas major said at its capital markets day on Thursday that it aims to distribute between 25%-30% of annual cash flow from operations through a combination of dividend and share buyback.

The company has set the 2023 annual dividend at EUR0.94 per share, which represents a 7% increase on year, and said it will launch a 2.2 billion euros ($2.33 billion) share buyback following shareholder approval.

Eni has also outlined its financial objectives, saying it targets earnings before interest and taxes of EUR13 billion in 2023. CFFO before working capital is seen at over EUR17 billion in 2023 and over EUR69 billion over the plan period. The company said this will allow it to organically fund investment and enhance shareholder distributions while maintaining leverage in a 10%-20% range.

Capital expenditure is seen at around EUR9.5 billion in 2023 and EUR37 billion over 2023-26.

Eni expects production to grow at an average of 3%-4% over 2023-26 and plateau to 2030, and said it will progressively increase the share of gas in the portfolio to 60% by the end of the decade. The upstream segment's capex will be between EUR6 billion-EUR6.5 billion on average per year during the strategy plan period.

Write to Giulia Petroni at giulia.petroni@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 23, 2023 07:39 ET (12:39 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.