LNG Expansion And Biorefining Ventures Will Shape Future Energy Landscape

Key Takeaways

• Strategic LNG expansion and diversification strengthen Eni's positioning and earnings resilience amid global energy transition shifts.
  
• Growth in biorefining, sustainable mobility, and active portfolio optimization drive higher margins, strengthen cash flow, and support shareholder returns.
  
• Persistent losses in legacy businesses, exposure to geopolitical risks, and delayed renewable cash neutrality heighten financial vulnerability and threaten Eni's future revenue and profit growth.

Catalysts

Operates as an integrated energy company in Italy, Other European Union, Rest of Europe, the United States, Asia, Africa, and internationally.

• Eni's strategic expansion in LNG-highlighted by leading floating LNG investments in Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean, and new ventures in Argentina and Southeast Asia-positions the company to capture rising global demand for diverse and secure natural gas supplies. This geographic and product diversification is expected to drive future revenue and stabilize earnings amid energy transition volatility.
  
• The acceleration of Eni's biorefining and sustainable mobility businesses, including multiple new biorefinery projects and partnerships (e.g., Ares in Plenitude, KKR in Enilive), supports growth in lower-carbon, higher-margin revenue streams. Enhanced market demand and supportive regulatory changes, especially in EU and US biofuels, are likely catalysts for margin expansion and improved return on equity.
  
• Eni's upstream strategy-focusing on organic production growth via exploration successes in Namibia, Ivory Coast, and Norway, ramp-ups in Indonesia/Malaysia with Petronas, and targeted portfolio optimizations-is expected to lift production, strengthen free cash flow, and underpin robust cash returns to shareholders.
  
• Structural transformation in legacy businesses, such as the rapid restructuring of Versalis (e.g., closing loss-making steam crackers and pivoting to platform investments), is anticipated to reverse losses, reduce SG&A costs, and enhance EBIT and free cash flow by 2026, directly benefiting net margins.
  
• Active financial management-including capital recycling through asset sales, strategic partnerships with private equity and NOCs, and cost-efficiency initiatives-allows Eni to reduce leverage, maintain a strong balance sheet, and potentially increase share buybacks, directly improving EPS and enhancing total shareholder return.

Eni Future Earnings and Revenue Growth

Assumptions

• Analysts are assuming Eni's revenue will decrease by 0.5% annually over the next 3 years.
• Analysts assume that profit margins will increase from 2.7% today to 5.8% in 3 years time.
• Analysts expect earnings to reach €5.1 billion (and earnings per share of €1.87) by about July 2028, up from €2.3 billion today. However, there is a considerable amount of disagreement amongst the analysts with the most bullish expecting €6.0 billion in earnings, and the most bearish expecting €3.7 billion.
• In order for the above numbers to justify the analysts price target, the company would need to trade at a PE ratio of 10.6x on those 2028 earnings, down from 19.4x today. This future PE is lower than the current PE for the GB Oil and Gas industry at 15.5x.
• Analysts expect the number of shares outstanding to decline by 4.14% per year for the next 3 years.
• To value all of this in today's terms, we will use a discount rate of 10.21%, as per the Simply Wall St company report.

Eni Future Earnings Per Share Growth

Risks

• Eni's Plenitude renewable energy satellite is not expected to generate cash flow neutrality until between 2035 and 2040, implying prolonged reliance on debt financing and leaving the business vulnerable to rising interest rates, credit market tightening, or delays in scaling renewables-potentially dragging on group cash flows and increasing leverage.
  
• Versalis, Eni's chemicals and downstream business, continues to generate significant losses despite ongoing restructuring, with management explicitly noting a "lack of meaningful economic recovery" in the European chemical sector and only "slight improvement" in margin outlook-indicating persistent margin pressure, negative free cash flow from legacy businesses, and continued drag on group earnings.
  
• Eni's substantial upstream expansion in regions like Africa, Indonesia, and Argentina exposes it to heightened geopolitical, regulatory, and expropriation risks, especially in volatile or emerging markets; these risks could lead to project delays, cost overruns, or outright asset losses, ultimately threatening reserve replacement rates and future revenue.
  
• The company's growth model relies heavily on new LNG and large-scale gas projects (Argentina, Mozambique, Indonesia), but global LNG capacity ramp-up towards the decade's end may result in market oversupply, softer prices, and underutilized assets-directly threatening forecasted revenue and free cash flow contributions from these high-capex ventures.
  
• While Eni is attracting private equity and financial partners to its transition satellites, the increasing role of minority shareholders in key growth engines (Enilive, Plenitude, CCUS) may increase outflows via minority dividends and restrict management flexibility or capital allocation, thereby diluting future net profit attributable to Eni shareholders and adding complexity to financial results.

Valuation

• The analysts have a consensus price target of €15.18 for Eni based on their expectations of its future earnings growth, profit margins and other risk factors. However, there is a degree of disagreement amongst analysts, with the most bullish reporting a price target of €17.5, and the most bearish reporting a price target of just €13.5.
  
• In order for you to agree with the analyst's consensus, you'd need to believe that by 2028, revenues will be €88.5 billion, earnings will come to €5.1 billion, and it would be trading on a PE ratio of 10.6x, assuming you use a discount rate of 10.2%.
  
• Given the current share price of €14.89, the analyst price target of €15.18 is 1.9% higher. The relatively low difference between the current share price and the analyst consensus price target indicates that they believe on average, the company is fairly priced.
  
• We always encourage you to reach your own conclusions though. So sense check these analyst numbers against your own assumptions and expectations based on your understanding of the business and what you believe is probable.