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UK electric utility operating the Drax power plant, largely converted from coal to biomass wood-pellet generation.
UK electric utility operating the Drax power plant, largely converted from coal to biomass wood-pellet generation.
Earns from selling power and from government support for renewable generation: first a subsidy per unit generated, later a fixed-price contract. Pellets come partly from its own mills in North America. Cruachan pumped storage adds grid-balancing income.
In one line: A UK biomass-focused power generator.
Moat: narrow (regulatory licence, scale, installed base). Large-scale converted biomass plant with government subsidy support is hard to replicate.
Headquarters: Selby, UK · Founded: 2005 · Employees: 2,974
Size Drax (DRX.L) is a United Kingdom Utilities company (Electric Utilities) with a market value of $3.88B, the 111th largest of 363 United Kingdom companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at £855.50 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares fell 0.2%, against -8.3% for the median peer and +3.6% for the United Kingdom market (cap-weighted) — 4th highest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue fell 7.8% over the last twelve months (peer median +2.6%); the operating margin is 8.7% (peer median 10.5%).
Valuation It trades at 10.4× forward earnings against a peer median of 12.6× (7th cheapest of 20).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 0% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +5%, so the hurdle is -5 pp: the price already allows for a slowdown.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 3.0 points above its cost of capital (9.3% WACC).
Credit Drax has 1 bond outstanding ($390M), rated BB+ by the agencies and trading like BB- at a weighted spread of 192 bp.
Next results Next results expected around 25 Feb 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | £5.18B | £5.36B | £6.08B | £7.45B | £8.16B |
| Revenue growth | — | -12% | -18% | -9% | — |
| Gross profit | £1.03B | £1.15B | £1.56B | £1.36B | £1.25B |
| EBITDA | £675M | £776M | £1.06B | £844M | £902M |
| Net income | £19.0M | £73.0M | £527M | £562M | £85.1M |
| Free cash flow | £288M | £528M | £471M | £406M | £43.8M |
| Capital expenditure | £256M | £294M | £388M | £441M | £175M |
| Total debt | n/a | £1.08B | £1.29B | £1.56B | £1.59B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drax DRX.L | $3.88B | 0% | -8% | 9% | 10.4× | -0.2% |
| Sse SSE.L | $43.2B | +7% | +1% | 19% | 14.2× | n/a |
| Centrica CNA.L | $9.23B | -25% | 0% | 23% | 13.1× | n/a |
| Rwe RWE.DE | $50.4B | +2% | -34% | 0% | 18.6× | n/a |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | DRX.L | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +9.6% | -1.0% | 2nd highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | -0.2% | -8.3% | 4th highest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -8.8% | -22.0% | 2nd highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | -7.8% | +2.6% | 4th lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 8.7% | 10.5% | 9th lowest of 20 |
| Forward P/E | 10.4× | 12.6× | 7th cheapest of 20 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | -0.2% | 4.5% | 4th least demanding of 10 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +4.8% | +8.9% | 4th lowest of 10 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | -5.0 pp | -0.9 pp | 5th least demanding of 10 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +3.0 pp | -1.7 pp | 2nd highest of 20 |
| EV / EBITDA | 5.8× | 10.5× | 3rd cheapest of 14 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 1.5× | 5.3× | 3rd least indebted of 14 |
| Bond spread | 192 bp | 116 bp | 2nd widest of 4 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drax DRX.L | United Kingdom | $3.88B | 0% | -8% | 9% | 10.4× | -0.2% | +4.8% |
| Tohoku Electric Power 9506.T | Japan | $3.89B | +13% | +17% | 3% | 4.9× | n/a | n/a |
| Pampa Energia SA Sponsored ADR PAM | United States | $3.78B | -19% | +29% | 21% | 7.4× | n/a | n/a |
| TAURON Polska Energia TPE.WA | Poland | $4.02B | -6% | 0% | n/a | 6.1× | 17.0% | +10.4% |
| Guangdong Electric Power Development 000539.SZ | China | $3.64B | -21% | +8% | -1% | n/a | 9.8% | +8.9% |
| TransAlta TA.TO | Canada | $4.15B | +5% | -12% | 8% | 49.9× | 21.9% | +4.1% |
| Tokyo Elec Power Co Hldgs 9501.T | Japan | $4.17B | -31% | -2% | 1% | 3.7× | n/a | n/a |
| AGL Energy AGL.AX | Australia | $4.21B | -3% | -6% | 11% | 10.5× | n/a | n/a |
| Guangzhou Development 600098.SS | China | $3.56B | -3% | +4% | 4% | 14.9× | -1.0% | +9.9% |
| Northland Power NPI.TO | Canada | $4.22B | -4% | +15% | 34% | 14.3× | -1.7% | +3.4% |
| Iren IRE.MI | Italy | $3.54B | -9% | -8% | 9% | 10.6× | 5.5% | +12.0% |
| Algonquin Power & Utilities AQN.TO | Canada | $4.29B | -9% | +6% | 20% | 14.2× | n/a | n/a |
| China Power International Development 2380.HK | Hong Kong | $4.29B | -20% | -5% | 20% | 13.6× | n/a | n/a |
| NLC India NLCINDIA.NS | India | $3.50B | -28% | +17% | 18% | 9.9× | n/a | n/a |
| Jiangsu Guoxin 002608.SZ | China | $4.30B | -1% | +7% | 5% | 12.6× | -0.7% | +10.5% |
| Electric Power Development 9513.T | Japan | $4.39B | +2% | +4% | 10% | 8.2× | 4.5% | +5.4% |
| Avista AVA | United States | $3.37B | -1% | -1% | 19% | 15.0× | n/a | n/a |
| Shenzhen Energy 000027.SZ | China | $4.49B | -8% | +4% | 13% | 11.2× | n/a | n/a |
| Wintime Energy 600157.SS | China | $4.55B | -21% | -9% | 7% | 104.2× | 0.8% | +1.4% |
| Otter Tail OTTR | United States | $3.29B | -11% | +1% | 23% | 14.6× | n/a | n/a |
| GCL Energy Technology 002015.SZ | China | $3.27B | -24% | -3% | 15% | 21.5× | n/a | n/a |
Drax has 1 bond outstanding with $390M face value. The agencies rate it BB+; its bonds trade like BB-. Weighted yield 4.85%, a spread of 192 bp over government bonds.