Antioch
Snail Radio exclusively learned about Afinia’s 2023 financial and operational results, which led, in recent days, to the EPM Board of Directors authorizing a capitalization of 150 billion pesos to avoid a blackout on the Caribbean Coast.
The document shows the serious crisis that the company is going through, warning that By 2024, 1.5 trillion pesos are required to sustain the operation, taking into account all the negative figures of the last year. Caracol Radio has learned that the public services company has a billion and is waiting for a loan with Findeter to make up for the existing deficit.
Afinia financial statements year 2022 -2023. Photo: courtesy.
According to the information held by this station, Although there was an increase in income of $546,435 million mainly due to an increase in users and their consumption, In addition to the increase in the rate, what was received through the rate option decreased as it went from $828,382 million in 2022 to $430,605 million in 2023, income that did not represent cash for the company, since it will be collected later from the user.
Furthermore, in terms of costs and expenses, they also increased to one trillion pesos, mainly due to the purchase of energy, which increased by $722,102 million due to the increase in the purchase price of energy on the stock market and its exposure, with greater intensity since the month of September due to the El Niño phenomenon.
By 2023 A financial expense was obtained given that there was no longer any cash surplus and during this year, an intergroup loan was obtained with EPM for $450,000 million to leverage the investment plan. which generated financial interests.
Results of Afinia’s accounts receivable and debts during 2023. Photo: courtesy.
Total assets increased to 1.6 trillion pesos, due to accounts receivable that increased to $495,972 million due to the contraction of collections. The total balance of the rate option, which has been registered since August 2021, was 1.6 billion and the net property, plant and equipment varied by $623,293 million, which includes the execution of the 2023 investment plan for $862,949. millions.
He Equity increased by $855,202 million due to the capitalization received by EPM for $600,000 million and the retention of profits for the year 2022.
Total liabilities increased by $791,070 million, highlighting the intergroup loan with EPM for $450,000 million destined to finance the 2023 investment plan and the increase in accounts payable to creditors due to the high execution of investments in the last months of the year. 2023.
More information
What happened in 2024?
In these first months of the year, Revenues grew to $264,307 million mainly due to an increase in user consumption by 8%, in the hot season and an increase in the rate.
Regarding costs and expenses, there was an increase of $366,892 million for the purchase of energy, which also grew to $277,376 million due to the increase in the purchase price of energy on the stock market and its exposure, due to the El Niño phenomenon.
Results with cut-off as of March 2024. Photo: courtesy.
The total assets decreased $26,278 million, where the increase in property stands out, net plant and equipment due to the 2024 investment plan and the decrease in the portfolio due to subsidies and advance payments from contractors.
Afinia’s financial situation as of March 2024. Photo: courtesy.
He equity decreased $22,568 million due to the loss for the year accumulated in the year 2024.
Why are there financial difficulties?
Although EPM has made great efforts to improve the provision of service to users on the Caribbean coast, which have allowed the average number of interruption hours is reduced from 122 to 75 and additionally, from 123 interruptions per year to 51.
The biggest problem they face is collection, users on the coast have serious difficulties paying their service bills, added to the increase in rates due to the El Niño phenomenon, which also increased consumption.
As revealed by the Afinia manager, a few days ago, The non-payment portfolio is $2.3 billion and $1.2 billion comes from Electricaribe; That is, there is a debt of $3.5 billion. There are 741,000 customers who do not pay bills, and they estimate that 171 million kWh per month would be being stolen due to fraud.
Added to this are the million-dollar investments that the public services company has had to make; according to their figures, we are talking about 2.3 trillion pesos of the six that are expected over the next few years.
Are investments have gone to improve infrastructure but it feels as if it were a black hole into which capital continues to be injected but cannot find closure.
What is the current administration doing to solve the situation?
This document was analyzed last week at the EPM Board of Directors, which led to, urgently, a capitalization of 150 billion pesos will be authorized to avoid a blackout on the Caribbean coast.
“Of those, 100,000 million pesos were for the purchase of energy. If we had not made that disbursement urgently, there would have been, for example, blackouts on the Caribbean coast. Here we are acting responsibly from EPM, fixing a disaster that we found due to this alleged corruption,” explained Federico Gutiérrez, mayor of Medellín.
At that meeting it was also evident that The investment plan for 2024 requires double what it budgeted in the junction the administration of Daniel Quintero.
“Here we receive information that was presented to us at the junction, which does not correspond to reality. We saw a few months ago how they told us that we had to invest 750 billion this year, but already at last week’s meeting it rose to one and a half billion and in the coming years it would be an investment of six billion,” Gutiérrez warned. .
One of the biggest concerns facing the current administration is that They only have one billion pesos of those 1.5 that are required, and although Findeter has already approved the loan that would allow these resources to be supplied, there is no clarity as to why it has not been disbursed.
