Fortum Corporation January-March 2021 Interim Report: Results improved in all segments – Uniper cooperation stepped up

FORTUM CORPORATION INTERIM REPORT 12 MAY 2021 AT 9:00 EEST

This release is a summary of Fortum’s January-March 2021 Interim Report. The complete report is attached to this release as a pdf file. It is also available on the company's website at www.fortum.com/investors.

January-March 2021

• Comparable EBITDA was EUR 1,479 (543) million
• Comparable operating profit was EUR 1,171 (393) million
• Operating profit was EUR 1,345 (603) million, mainly impacted by changes in fair values of non-hedge-accounted derivatives
• Comparable share of profits of associates and joint ventures was EUR 67 (551) million
• Comparable earnings per share were EUR 0.94 (0.91)
• Earnings per share were EUR 1.23 (1.05)
• Cash flow from operating activities totalled EUR 831 (562) million
• Financial net debt-to-comparable EBITDA ratio at 1.9 times, below target level of <2 times
• On 12 March, Fortum signed an agreement to sell its district heating business in the Baltics for EUR 800 million
• Management changes at Fortum and Uniper to accelerate cooperation and strategy execution

Summary of outlook

• The Generation segment’s Nordic generation hedges: approximately 80% at EUR 32 per MWh for the remainder of 2021 and approximately 55% at EUR 31 per MWh for 2022
• The Uniper segment’s Nordic generation hedges: approximately 85% at EUR 27 per MWh for the remainder of 2021, approximately 80% at EUR 24 per MWh for 2022, and approximately 35% at EUR 21 per MWh for 2023
• Capital expenditure, including maintenance but excluding acquisitions, is expected to be approximately EUR 1,400 million in 2021

Key figures*

* Uniper has been consolidated as a subsidiary from 31 March 2020. Previously, Uniper's contribution to the income statement was recognised in the Share of profit/loss of associates and joint ventures.

Fortum’s President and CEO Markus Rauramo:

"The start of the year has been very strong for Fortum. We pushed ahead with necessary changes to speed up our strategy execution and the market fundamentals supported our businesses in the first quarter, after a considerably more challenging 2020.

In the first quarter, all our segments recorded higher comparable operating profits than a year ago. Nordic power prices increased significantly from last year, despite the persistently high hydro reservoir levels. The higher power prices were also the main driver for the 14% increase in the comparable operating profit of the Generation segment. The Russia segment improved slightly, supported by the profitable sale of Fortum’s 116-MW solar power project to a partly-owned joint venture for renewable power. This profit offset most of the negative effects from the weaker Russian rouble. Excluding these two effects, the Russia segment’s operative results improved somewhat. While the City Solutions segment had some challenges with its performance in 2020, the district heating business benefitted from the clearly colder weather and also the recycling and waste business improved its performance from last year. Improving power margins and the sale of value-added services continued to strengthen the results of Consumer Solutions.

The performance of our newest segment, Uniper, was very strong in the first quarter; even compared to the very good results in the first quarter of 2020. Uniper’s results represent a significant share of Fortum’s first-quarter results and we can now for the first time report its contribution to Fortum’s comparable operating profit for the full twelve-month period of second-quarter 2020 to first-quarter 2021: EUR 1,074 million. As we consistently have been focusing on strengthening of the balance sheet, this puts Fortum’s leverage for the last twelve months, measured as financial net debt-to-comparable EBITDA, at the level of 1.9 times, which is in line with our long-term target of less than 2.0 times.

This spring Fortum took further steps in order to step up cooperation, realise benefits, and accelerate the strategy execution. We made several changes aimed at leveraging the combined strengths more widely and developing a joint culture based on our common values. Our ambition is that the leadership teams of the two companies would work in a more integrated way to ensure efficient decision making and faster value creation, for the benefit of both companies. At the end of March, Klaus-Dieter Maubach took over as the CEO of Uniper and Tiina Tuomela assumed the role of Uniper’s CFO following the departure of the former CEO and CFO. In April, we announced that Sirpa-Helena Sormunen and Risto Penttinen were appointed General Counsel and Executive Vice President Strategy of Uniper, respectively, moving out of their previous roles in Fortum‘s Executive Management. I am happy to welcome Simon-Erik Ollus, Nora Steiner-Forsberg, Eveliina Dahl, and Nebahat Albayrak as new members of the Fortum Executive Management. Nebahat succeeds Arto Räty who will retire later this year. Earlier this week, we announced big concrete steps towards realisation of the cooperation benefits via the ‘One Team’ approach between Fortum and Uniper. The planning phase of the three strategic cooperation areas has now been concluded and the proposal is to combine the Nordic hydro and physical trading optimisation under Fortum’s Generation segment and to adopt a functional cooperation model in wind and solar development as well as in the development of the hydrogen business.

Also the regulatory development within the EU took several positive steps forward at the beginning of 2021. The EU institutions agreed on the European Climate Law, including the tightening of the 2030 climate target to a 55% reduction of GHG emissions and a goal of climate neutrality by 2050. Furthermore, the first delegated act under the EU Sustainable Finance Taxonomy was adopted. The final version saw a clear improvement regarding hydropower, as the criteria are now aligned with the EU Water Framework Directive, making the bulk of the Nordic CO₂-free hydropower eligible under the taxonomy. The eligibility of nuclear power and gas will be addressed in a separate complementary delegated act in the summer. The expert group of the Commission’s Joint Research Centre concluded that nuclear power generation causes no more harm than other forms of power generation, and Fortum expects the Commission will respect the view of its own scientific body. As for gas, we are glad that the Commission highlighted a clear transitional role for natural gas in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the path towards climate neutrality and expect this role to be reflected in the upcoming legislation."

Changes in reporting

In the first quarter of 2021, Fortum introduced two new Alternative Performance Measures (APM) to provide additional financial performance indicators that better reflect the underlying profitability.

• Comparable net profit, and
• Comparable earnings per share

Comparable net profit is shown after non-controlling interest and adjusted for items affecting comparability, as well as adjustments to share of profit of associates and joint ventures, net finance costs, income tax expenses, and non-controlling interest. Comparable earnings per share is calculated from comparable net profit.

See Note 4.2 and Note 23.

Espoo, 11 May 2021

Fortum Corporation

Board of Directors

Further information:

Investor Relations and Financial Communications: Ingela Ulfves, tel. +358 40 515 1531, Måns Holmberg, tel. +358 44 518 1518, Rauno Tiihonen, tel. +358 10 453 6150, Pirjo Lifländer, tel. +358 40 643 3317, and investors [at] fortum [dot] com

Media: Pauliina Vuosio, tel. +358 50 453 2383

Webcast/teleconference

A combined live webcast/teleconference for media, investors, and analysts will be arranged online on the same day at 11:00 EEST. For the webcast, use the link on www.fortum.com/investors.

To participate in the teleconference and Q&A, dial in using the numbers below:

FI: +358 9 817 10310

UK: +44 333 300 0804

US: +1 631 913 1422

PIN: 92448262#

A recording of the webcast as well as the transcript will be published on www.fortum.com/investors after the event.

Financial calendar in 2021

Fortum will publish its interim reports in 2021:

• January-June Half-year Financial Report on 17 August 2021 at approximately 9.00 EEST
• January-September Interim Report on 12 November 2021 at approximately 9.00 EET

Uniper will publish its interim reports in 2021:

• Financial Results January-June 2021 on 11 August 2021
• Financial Results January-September 2021 on 5 November 2021

Distribution:

Nasdaq Helsinki
Key media
www.fortum.com

More information, including detailed quarterly information, is available at www.fortum.com/investors