Flughafen Wien AG

welcome and good afternoon ladies and gentlemen welcome to our conference call to have here 2024 numbers of vienna airport thank you for interest in our company with me traditionally uh joint ceo and cfo gunter offner and in a second Also, joint CEO and COO Julian Jaeger will join. I started already the recording of the conference call. A replay will be available very soon after this session on our homepage. And I hand over to Mr. Ofner, followed then by the remarks of Mr. Jaeger and the graphic topics. And we have to hold the traditional Q&A then after our presentation.

Mr. Ofner, please continue.

Yeah, good afternoon and a warm welcome. We have today published our earnings for the first six months of 2024. And it's my pleasure to give you the details, especially in regard of the financial results. So revenue went up by 14% to 488 million. And EBITDA went up from 177 in the first six months of last year to 205 this year, a plus of 15%. interesting and also sustainable. We see positive financial results of 8.5 million as we have repaid our EIB loan last year. We have no additional interest payments. And therefore, we'll see, at least in the coming years, a positive financial result. If you look at our net cash position, it's roughly 350 million. And the average interest rate actually is somewhere So, this provides for good positive results here. So, putting all together, we saw net profit for the period of 108.4 million. after controlling interest 97, so a plus of 31% compared with last year. The reasons are more or less all over the board, so it's higher. traffic and passenger volume it's also growth in all other areas of our company and it's supported as pointed out by a positive financial result so for the full year we see a steady and slight but steady improvement of our expectations if we look at the expenses you see that expenses for consumables and purchased services are seven percent lower than last year this is reflecting uh lower energy prices and also an effect of our own production of electricity. Personal expenses clearly are up 13%, which is partly due higher collective agreements, but also of the growing number of employees. So it's roughly a plus of 7% compared to last year and is triggered by additional traffic and all the operational challenges. Other operating expenses went up 29.5%. Here you see rising maintenance costs and also a surge in other operating expenses, higher incentives and also increase in third-party services. What is very fine is that our EBITDA margin is slightly higher than it was last year with 42%. And EBIT margin is substantially better, 26% compared to 28.4%. Depreciation and amortization is more or less good. uh the same as last year a very slightly increasing number of 66 million all that sums up in our cash flow development 178.3 million it's a little bit less than last year especially due to the fact that Some incentives have been paid out earlier than in the previous period. Free cash flow went up from 45 to 104. And CapEx, as announced, is gearing up. So from 28 million to 83. net liquidity slightly below last year and that is due to the fact that we paid with 118 million the highest dividend ever in the history of the company this is also slightly affecting the equity position but we will fill up it again in the second half of 2024. So equity ratio is slightly below last year, but finally we should end up above the figures of 2023. Besides these financials, some remarks to our investments so the biggest investment right now ongoing is our south extension building but we are also concentrating on increasing our ability to produce electricity on our own from photovoltaics so we added another plant And we will now be able to produce roughly 46 million kilowatt hours per year. And this is accompanied by the fact that we have done a lot for improving our energy efficiency. So we are a CO2 neutral operating airport since last year and we will follow this path also in the coming years. What in any case will be necessary is due to the fact that also Austria now has an overflow of PV electricity that we will most likely next year or 26 invest in a storage plant because this is the only way to fully utilize our PV production for our own needs. What is the most economical way to use it. A very important issue also, especially for the airlines, is that beginning from 2025, sustainable aviation fuels have to be added to the kerosine. And we think it will be possible to do it for the first step. But to meet the goals that are necessary starting from 2030, there is a big lack on investment in producing production facilities. And I'm pretty sure that under the current regulatory framework of the European Union, this regulation will not work. So there are a lot of changes necessary to provide for an incentivized framework that investors are really ready to invest in big production facilities. to provide the amount that is necessary at reasonable cost. And this is a big challenge for the airlines, but for the aviation industry as a whole. And I think a lot of discussion will be necessary, especially on European level, to create a level playing field for all participants and to incentivize investing in production facilities. If we then follow up with our financial guidance, our revenue for the full year will be above 1 billion EBITDA, above 400 million group net profit, clearly above 220 million. and capex at 200 million or around 200 million so in accordance with traffic improvements we will we will see also slightly better financial results finally so that's from my side for now and i hand over to oh sorry if you look at our share price you see that we reached an all-time high at 54 euros right now, which equals a market capitalization of 4.5 billion. So for the first time, we surpassed Fraport with our market cap. That's from my side, and I hand over to Julian.