Eni restructures its chemicals business to unlock value and improve profitability

Eni, the Italian energy company, announced on Thursday that it had approved a new structure for its business aimed at developing main units, speeding up a revamp of its chemical business, and integrating both its upstream activities and its trading activities.

The new structure aims to unlock some of the "satellite companies" of the group, including Plenitude, Enilive and others. This will be done by bringing in new partners and allowing future public listing.

Eni uses a strategy called satellites, where it creates independent entities that are focused on certain businesses and have some autonomy from the group.

Eni's plan will see the company reorganised into three distinct areas. Each area will be led by an operating chief who will report directly to Claudio Descalzi, the Chief Executive Officer of the group.

Francesco Gattei will head the Transition and Financial division. The Transition and Financial area will oversee Eni's financial and economic strategy, as well as the development of Plenitude, Enilive and renewables.

The Global Natural Resources structure will be led by COO Guido Brusco, and will include the group’s power generation &marketing activities as well as the oil trading.

The group announced that COO Giuseppe Ricci would manage the Industrial Transformation Structure and focus on restructuring Eni’s downstream refining business, Eni Rewind and its chemical business Versalis.

Eni has also named Gattei as General Manager and Brusco a general manager.

Descalzi stated in a press release that "the new organisation will enable us to... accelerate our strategy towards decarbonisation, and maximise value creation".

Eni shares were down 0.2% at 1312 GMT after the announcement. Reporting by Alessandro Parodi, Francesca Landini; editing by Gavin Jones & Jane Merrill

(source: Reuters)