State-owned energy supplier ESB owed €5.66 billion to creditors holding its bonds at the end of last year, new figures show.
The group, whose Electric Ireland subsidiary sells electricity and gas, borrows money from capital markets by issuing bonds through another arm, ESB Finance Designated Activity Company.
Accounts recently filed for that business show it owed €5.66 billion in total on foot of those bonds on December 31st last year. That was about €300 million less than the €5.97 billion due 12 months earlier, the figures show.
ESB Finance repaid a €300 million bond in January last year, the date on which it was due.
The bonds – a type of debt that can be bought and sold – fall due for repayment on various dates between 2028 and 2044, but most are due within the next 10 years.
The interest payable varies between 1.125 per cent and 4.25 per cent. The accounts indicate that ESB borrowed the more expensive debt in the earlier years of this decade, when inflation forced an increase in interest rates.
ESB group ultimately guarantees the sums borrowed, which it uses to fund its large investment programme.
The finance arm raises the money and advances it to other companies in the group. They spend it mostly on the expensive infrastructure that the business needs to generate and distribute electricity, including power plants, wind farms and its network.
Those companies owed ESB Finance €5.74 billion at the end of last year, the accounts show.
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In a statement, the group said its capital investment programme aimed to continue connecting renewables, adding capacity and “ensuring safe, secure, and reliable electricity supplies” in the face of more extreme weather.
ESB drew heavy criticism last winter for the pace at which it restored power to some areas following Storm Éowyn.
“Since the start of the year, ESB Finance DAC has not raised new debt,” the group said. However, it pointed out that a group subsidiary, NIE Finance plc, raised stg £350 million to repay debt due in October.
That company borrows cash on behalf of Northern Ireland Electricity Networks Ltd, which ESB owns.
ESB Group is committed to investing in its businesses over the long term, its chief financial officer, Paul Stapleton, pointed out in March when it reported a €706 million profit for 2024.
ESB Networks in the Republic and NIE Networks in the North both plan to double the scale of their investment over the next five years, he said.
