Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure plc

welcome to atlantica's first quarter 2021 financial results conference call atlantica is a sustainable infrastructure company that owns a diversified portfolio of contracted renewable energy power of generation electric transmission and water assets in north and south america and certain markets in india just a reminder that this call is being webcast live on the internet and a replay of this call will be available on Atlantica's corporate website. Atlantica will be making forward-looking statements during this call based on current expectations and assumptions, which are subject to risk and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from our forward-looking statements. If any of our key assumptions are incorrect or because of other factors discussed in today's earning presentation or because of other factors discussed, including the risk factor section of the accompanying presentation, and in our latest reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, all of which can be found on our website. Atlantica does not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements. Joining us for today's conference call are Atlantica's CEO, Santiago Sillaje, and Director of Investor Relations, Lear Perez. As usual, At the end of the conference call, we will open the lines for the Q&A session. I will now pass you over to Mr. Chiaje. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you very much. Good morning, everybody, and thanks for joining our first quarter 2021 conference call. As you have probably seen, in Q1, we had what we believe is a strong performance with revenue growth of 11.8%. and a CAVI increase of 7.6%. With that, our board of directors has declared a quarterly dividend of 43 cents per share, one cent higher than in the previous quarter. Additionally, in April, we announced a new investment of 49% interest in a 600 megawatt wind portfolio in the U.S. And finally, during The first four months of the year, we have closed two previously announced investments, COSO, a 135-megawatt contracted renewable energy plant in California, and our second PV plant in Chile through our investment platform. If we take a look at the results for the quarter on page four, You can see that revenue, as I mentioned before, increased by an 11.8%, reaching $235 million, while adjusted VDA, including unconsolidated affiliates, increased by a 2.5%, up to $170 million. Regarding CAFI, we generated $51 million. $2 million in the first quarter, an increase of close to 7.6% year over year. In terms of performance by sector and geography, on page five, we can see that in North America, revenue increased by 2% up to $60.6 million, while the decrease in EBITDA in the region was due to a collection last year of certain insurance proceeds and to higher OPEX, mostly due to a major scheduled maintenance in Mojave in the first quarter of 2021. South America, revenue in EBITDA increased by a 7 and a 6 percent, respectively, thanks to the contribution of recently acquired assets. In the case of EMEA, revenue and EBITDA increased by an 18% thanks to the contribution from new assets, better solar radiation, and increased performance in certain assets, as well as exchange rate. Looking below at the results by sector, we can see similar effects. In renewable energy, revenue and EBITDA increased thanks to the reasons mentioned previously. While in efficient natural gas, the decrease in EVDA was mainly due to operation and maintenance costs, which, as many of you know, are higher in the quarters preceding major maintenance, something that is expected at the end of this year. Transmission lines continued showing very good availability levels. And finally, in water, you can see a significant increase in revenue on EVDA thanks to the contribution from our third asset in this sector. Moving on to page six, we can see that electricity produced by our renewable energy assets reached more than 600 gigawatt hours in the first quarter. an increase of 15% compared to the same quarter last year. If we look at availability-based contracts in ACT, availability for the first quarter was lower due to scheduled maintenance stops, and these didn't have any impact on revenue. Transmission lines and water assets continued to show high availability levels. I will now turn the call over to Leire to cover the financial part.

Thank you, Santiago, and good morning, everyone. Let's now move on to slide seven to walk you through our cash flow for the first quarter. Our operating cash flow for the first quarter of 2021 reached $147 million, showing an important increase versus the same quarter of last year, mostly thanks to an improvement in variations in working capital. Financing cash flow for the first three months of 2021 includes the positive impact of $131 million, corresponding to the second tranche of the equity raise closed in January, partially offset by scheduled project debt repayment for approximately $23 million, and $51 million of dividends paid to shareholders and non-controlling interest. All in all, the net change in consolidated cash for the first quarter of 2021 was an increase of approximately $200 million. On the next slide, number eight, we would like to review our net debt position. We closed the first quarter of 2021 with net corporate debt of $531 million. With this, our net corporate debt to CAFD pre-corporate debt service ratio stood at 2.6 times, including the impact of COSO investment that was closed in April. Net projected as of March 31st, 2021 was $4,576 million. I will now turn the call back over to Santiago.