ACWA Power Q3 business momentum alleviates legacy issues: CEO

The positive momentum in ACWA Power’s business development activities that accelerated in the third quarter of 2023, partly elevated by some project milestones brought forward from the fourth quarter, alleviated the legacy issues from projects that were hit by the pandemic and geopolitical challenges resulting in wider repercussions on global economies and supply chain, said ACWA Power CEO Marco Arcelli.  

In this challenging environment, ACWA Power financially closed eight projects at an investment cost of SAR 45.8 billion in the past nine months of the year. In addition, the company’s agreements, as well as the memorandums of understanding (MoUs), are the engine of the company’s future growth, Arcelli said in a company’s statement commenting on its Q3 2023 figures.  

“This expedited activity in business development is an unmistakable sign of our investment ahead of the curve to support our accelerated growth into 2030 and beyond,” Arcelli noted.  

With the ripples of the high inflationary environment of the past couple of years now expected to continue well into 2024 and the recent geopolitical tensions, Arcelli believed cautious expectations should be raised in the immediate and near future. 

Although ACWA Power’s business model largely allowed the company to rebalance these changes in the long run during the lifecycles of projects, time differences are always possible due to delays in achieving project development milestones as well as in executing identified financial optimization transactions that are part of the return model.

ACWA Power reported a net profit of SAR 1.08 billion in the first nine months of 2023, compared to SAR 883.4 million in in a year earlier period. Q3 2023 earnings stood at SAR 3970.9 million (17% increase year-on-year (YoY).