PARIS (S&P Global Ratings) Feb. 5, 2020--S&P Global Ratings today said that, despite lower-than-anticipated EBITDA in 2019, Spanish gas utility Naturgy Energy Group S.A.'s financial metrics are still within the expected ranges for the current rating (BBB/Stable/A-2). Naturgy's reported 2019 EBITDA of €4.6 billion is slightly below our projections. Although it increased 13.5% year-on-year, further growth was held back by the challenging operating performance in international liquefied natural gas (LNG) business; lower gas volumes sold and depressed gas prices; and European power generation due to lower hydro output and declining spot power prices to less than €50/MWh from €57.3/MWh in 2018. However, the combination of slightly lower debt thanks to one-off working capital inflows (about €500 million), about €1.7 billion
