The AGL Energy Ltd (ASX: AGL) share price is down 7.3% in early trade on Thursday.
Shares in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) energy provider closed yesterday at $7.94 a share and are currently trading for $7.36 apiece.
This comes after the company reported a steep fall in earnings and profits for the first half of 2023 covering the six months to 31 December (1H23).
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AGL share price sinks as profits plummet
The AGL share price is tumbling after the company reported underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of $604 million, down 16% from 1H22.
Underlying net profit after tax (NPAT) tumbled a precipitous 55% from the prior corresponding half-year, to $87 million.
The energy provider reported a statutory loss after tax of $1.1 billion. That figure includes $706 million of impairment charges (post-tax) from the company's accelerated decarbonisation plans.
The board declared an interim unfranked dividend of 8 cents per share. That's down 50% from the interim dividend of 16 cents per share paid out for 1H22.
On a more positive note, AGL saw its total customer services notch up by 61,000 from the prior corresponding half year, to 4.3 million.
What did management say?
Commenting on the results sending the AGL share price lower today, CEO Damien Nicks said:
Our first half result reflects the impact of plant outages during challenging energy market conditions in July, the prolonged Loy Yang Unit 2 major outage caused by a generator rotor defect, and the closure of Liddell Unit 3 in April 2022, as we indicated in our FY23 financial guidance update in late-September 2022.
On the sustainability front, Nicks said, "The planned closure of the Liddell Power Station in April 2023 will be the next key milestone of [AGL's] accelerated decarbonisation pathway, reducing AGL's annual greenhouse gas emissions by approximately eight million tonnes per annum."
What's next?
The AGL share price also isn't receiving any tailwinds today after the company reduced the top end of its guidance.
The company's new guidance for underlying EBITDA is between $1.25 and $1.38 billion, while the previous guidance was between $1.15 and $1.45 billion.
Guidance for underlying NPAT is now between $200 and $280 million, while the previous guidance was between $200 and $320 million.
"We expect to have higher earnings in the second half of FY23, in line with guidance, and continued positive momentum into FY24," Nicks said.
AGL share price snapshot
As you can see in the chart below, today's selling action has seen the AGL share price dip into the red for the past 12-month period, down 2%.
