Rai Way S.p.A.

Good afternoon. This is the Cross-Call Conference Operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the RightWay 9 Months 2022 Results Analyst Conference Call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on their telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Giancarlo Benucci, Chief Corporate Development Officer. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon. Let me start thanking all of you for joining us today and welcome to our nine-month 2022 results presentation. As usual, Aldo will start with the highlights and figures of the period. Adalberto will then illustrate the financial details. And at the end, we will welcome your questions in the usual Q&A session. Let me now hand the call over to Aldo. Please, Aldo, go ahead.

Thank you, Giancarlo. Good afternoon to all of you. Even after a quarterly heavily penalized by the dynamic of energy prices, we are pleased to present today economic results for the first nine months still largely up, despite our electricity bill increased more than 6 million euros in the third quarter 2022 compared to the third quarter 2021. This strong result has been thanks to four key drivers. Firstly, the indexation of our contrast to 2021 CPI. While the impact that rising energy prices are having on inflation this year will be reflected on our revenues in next year in 2023 as we will see later during this presentation. Secondly, the further increase in core revenues in total up by 7%. In particular, we have seen the full impact of the farming aggregates with rye, which in 2021 was effective only from the second half of the year. And we have had a new source of revenues thanks to the regional multiplex business. that led to third-party revenue growth of more than 9% in the nine months and more than 70% in the third quarter alone. The third key factor is the control of operating costs as an effect of the temporary actions to limit discretionary spending as a measure to mitigate rising energy prices. Again, some non-recurring benefits, in particular through a one-off contribution of €2 million, positively affecting our top line. As a result, revenues for the nine months are up 7.4%, while adjusted EBITDA is up 5.2% or €5.7 million compared to 2022. To give a better idea of the underlying trend and the contribution of new initiatives, I think it's worth noting that excluding the negative effects of energy prices and the positive non-recurring benefits, EBITDA growth could have been above 10 million euros, about 12 to be precise. In terms of investments, the level of development capex around 10 million euros lower than last year, reflects the gradual reduction in activities for rail network upgrades and rising investment devoted to initiatives for third parties, mainly the regional reforming investment for third parties that will materially increase once construction of new infrastructure begins. From an operational perspective, Refining activities reached the final stage, focused on the upgrade of the last equipment to DVB-T2 technology and on some network improvement of the new regional networks, both in terms of coverage extension and distribution radio links. When we met in July, negotiations were in advanced stage. Today, we are happy to confirm that the renewal for the next sixth year of the contract with one of our most important M&O customers has signed in recent weeks. This agreement is relevant because, as you know, this segment has been characterized in recent years by pressures on prices and on volumes. This agreement envisages a progressive average Tariff reduction through the activation of new POPs at incentivized rates. A little bit of further network optimization to be progressively recovered through new POPs and POP upgrade to 5G according to our contract framework. New technology and new frequencies are on top of the contractualized perimeter. So all in all, at the end of the new contract period, we expect to reach revenues above the current level, so totally in line with the targeted stabilization path for activity with M&Os. Again, in July, we provided an update on the start of the procurement procedure related to the first set of edge data centers and the provision of the technology components of the content delivery network. The contract for the construction of the 5G data center represented the most important location and about 1.6 megawatts of geographically distributed IT capacity, around half of the total capacity of the project, has been awarded and all permits secured with work starting early next year in order to have the assets available by the end of next year, 2023. Also, the anticipated capex figures of around 25 million for the first five years is broadly confirmed. In terms of expectation for 2022, several factors, including the recent cool down of electricity prices recorded in October, the additional government relief measures, the tax credit, and the effect of the mitigating actions on other costs should allow us to increase our target for BTDA growth, which is becoming more visible and even more significant. So let's now move to slide number six to summarize the key financial of the nine months. Starting with top line, core revenue reached 184.4 million euros, 7.4% higher than the first nine months of last year, driven by the already mentioned effects. Adjusted the BTDA grew by 5.2% to 115.7 million euros, with profitability impacted by energy costs, but still at a remarkable level, close to 63%. At net income level, growth stood at 6.6%. Maintenance capex, maintenance investments, as usual, are still relatively low, as mainly concentrated in the fourth quarter of the year, while development capex are once again supported by refunding, although with the rising contribution of initiatives for third-party customers. Net debt closed at €122 million, substantially stable compared to June, with leverage approaching the one-time ABTDA level as forecasting as an organic basis in our industrial plan. Cash conversion remained very strong, above 90%. And with this, I'll hand over to Adalberto to provide you with details on financial performance. Please, Adalberto, the floor is yours.