Greek conglomerate Metlen Energy & Metals (MTLN) reaffirmed its medium-term guidance despite a sharp drop in FY25 earnings. The firm, which listed in London last summer, has a market cap of €5.3 billion (£4.6 billion) and is a FTSE 100 member.
Work in progress
For the year to December 2025, Metlen posted sales of €7.1 billion (£6.2 billion), up 25% on the previous year. The increase was driven by a doubling of revenue in Infrastructure and Concessions and a strong performance in Renewables.
However, EBITDA fell 30% to €753 million (£650 million) due to cost overruns and delays on major projects. These include the Protos waste-to-energy project in Cheshire, designed to handle 400,000 tons of non-recyclabe waste.
Due to the ‘significant and unexpected’ project losses, the EBITDA margin dropped from 19% to 10.6% last year. Excluding for costs, EBITDA would have exceeded €1 billion, the firm said.
The majority of the group’s revenue and earnings comes from power generation, both traditional and renewable, in the Greek market. The metals businesses is mainly aluminium production and makes up 13% of group revenue.
The infrastructure and concessions business makes up less than 10% of revenue but has bright prospects. It focuses on large-scale transport and urban regeneration projects and has a €2 billion order book.
There’s no getting away from the fact 2025’s results are a mess, and not indicative of the group’s potential. The fact it’s in the middle of its third reorganisation in 10 years also says something about previous management.
The group is leaning heavily into the energy transition and infrastructure work and away from the legacy businesses. Hopefully, becoming a listed company means it gets its house in order in double-quick time.
We searched for news on the defence unit, which has strong ties with the German military-industrial complex. However, all the firm said was it was ‘scaling up’ in order to meet its medium-term objectives.
We’d file Metlen under ‘one to watch’ at this point, as there isn’t exactly a stampede to buy the shares after these results.
Read the press release here: https://www.metlen.com/investor-relations/investor-relations/
