EPIF’s precautions during the coronavirus epidemic
17. 3. 2020
Since coronavirus outbreak, EP Infrastructure and its subsidiaries (“EPIF Group”) have been fully aligned with the provisions endorsed by the authorities to combat the virus emergency. On every critical infrastructure asset a special team has been set up to manage the situation, being constantly in contact with the relevant authorities and public officials.
The EPIF Group has two central objectives: guaranteeing the health and safety of its employees, which remains the EPIF Group’s top priority and safeguarding the continuity of the essential energy security service in the countries it operates.
Since 12 March 2020, the EPIF Group has been continuously deploying smart and distant working as a precaution in the areas most exposed to the virus, thus limiting the risks of direct contact in the offices and also allowing parents to be with children in light of the schools’ closure. While not physically being in the offices, the work has not halted as physical meetings and travelling have been replaced by skype calls and virtual working sessions.
In operations, the EPIF Group has secured, with adequate precautionary measures and remote management systems, control rooms, plants and local offices to guarantee normal operations and energy security for the regions where it operates. Physical presence onsite is limited to the bare minimum and consists of strictly divided critical shift teams. Also, plants’ management continues to identify non-delayable works and to define further precautionary measures in the areas subject to the authorities’ provisions.
Furthermore, EPIF Group has been securing constant internal communications from the first day of the emergency, in order to share with its employees the health and behavioral rules established by the authorities.
Despite potential temporary short-term operational limitations, EPIF Group believes its medium- to long-term market position stays robust primarily as its operated assets remain regulated and/or long-term contracted with high quality counterparties. Strong cash conversion ability coupled with a strict control over counterparty credit risk and supplemented with sufficient committed liquidity lines arranged with strong financial houses underpin EPIF Group’s financial stability further cemented by EP Infrastructure’s shareholders’ commitment to investment grade credit rating.
EP Infrastructure, a.s. is an issuer of the following notes:
€750,000,000 1.659% Senior Notes due 2024, ISIN: XS1811024543
€600,000,000 1.698% Senior Notes due 2026, ISIN: XS2034622048
€500,000,000 2.045% Senior Notes due 2028, ISIN: XS2062490649
For further inquiries, please contact:
Filip Bělák
Investor Relations
EP Infrastructure, a.s.
Pařížská 130/26, 110 00 Praha 1
T: +420 232 005 200
F: +420 232 005 400
belak@epinfrastructure.cz
About EP Infrastructure
The EPIF Group is a European energy infrastructure utility focused on gas transmission, gas and power distribution, heat and power generation and gas storage. With principal operations in the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic, the EPIF Group is a unique European entity with a large and diversified portfolio of strategically important infrastructure assets. Measured by EBITDA, the EPIF Group believes it is among the five largest industrial groups based in the Czech Republic.
The EPIF Group highlights
- The EPIF Group holds approximately a 49 per cent. stake in, and has management control over, Eustream. The transmission network of Eustream is part of the Central Corridor which is the largest and the most important piped gas corridor for deliveries of Russian gas to Western, Central and Southern Europe.
- The EPIF Group is an important gas and electricity distributor in the Slovak Republic and is the leading distributor of heat to final consumers in the Czech Republic.
- The EPIF Group holds the largest gas storage capacity in the region of Slovakia, Czech Republic and Austria.