Central Puerto S.A.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Central Porto's first quarter of 2026 earnings conference call. A slide presentation is accompanying today's webcast and will be also available on the investors section of the company's website, www.centralporto.com slash EN slash investors. All participants will be in a listen-only mode during the presentation. After that, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note, this event is being recorded. If you do not have a copy of the press release, please refer to the investor relations support section on the company's corporate website at www.centralpurto.com. In addition, a replay of today's call will be available in upcoming days by accessing the webcast link at the same section of the Central Puerto's website. Our hosts today will be Mr. Fernando Bolet, Central Courses CEO, Mr. Enrique Teranio, the company's CFO, and Mrs. Maria Laura Pelle, Head of Investor Relations, and Mr. Alejandro Diaz-Lopez, Head of Corporate Finance. Maria Laura, please go ahead.

Thank you very much. Good morning and welcome, everyone. We are joining you today from Buenos Aires with our management team to report on the results of the first quarter of 2026 and to answer any questions you may have. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that today's presentation, as referenced on slide 2, contains forward-looking statements and non-IFRS financial measures, including adjusted EBDR. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risk and uncertainty. Please refer to the full disclaimer in our slide deck and on our website for further information. The company has changed its functional currency from Argentine pesos to USC dollars effective January 1, 2026, so applicable to 1Q26 financial figures. For previous quarters, figures are presented in U.S. dollars. converted from Argentin pesos using the reference exchange rate reported by the Argentin Central Bank at the end of each period. With that, let us move to the highlights of the quarter. Turning to slide 3, the first quarter, 2026, was a strong quarter for Central Puerto, characterized by outstanding commercial execution and continued progress in market normalization following resolution 425. Let me walk you through our key metrics. Adjusted EBITDA reached $120.0 million, representing a 41.6% increase quarter-on-quarter, versus $84.7 million in 4Q25 and 33.4% year-on-year growth versus $89.9 million in 1Q25. This result reflects the full benefit of new generation assets, commercial contracting gains, and the normalization of the wholesale electricity market. Revenues totaled $248.6 million, up 43.8% to order on quarter versus 4Q25, and up 26.7% year-on-year versus 1Q25, driven by higher contracted and spot revenues. The contribution of Brigadier López combined cycle and the new solar farms added in 2025. Total generation for the quarter was 5,420 VAT, a 54.2% increase quarter-on-quarter, largely reflected by obsidian by solar anemone. Total generation for the quarter was 5,420 VAT, a 54.2% increase quarter-on-quarter, largely reflected by obsidian by solar anemone. Total generation for the quarter was 5,420 VAT, a 54.2% increase quarter-on-quarter, largely reflected by obsidian by solar anemone. including the 225.0 million U.S. transfer of Piedra del Aguila shares following the concession award renewal, and 66.0 million U.S. in BSS construction and maintenance works. Our net financial leverage ratio stands at 1.06 times, with net financial debt of 390.8 million against the last 12 months adjusted IVADA of 367.2 million. The phone investment credit outstanding balance is $105.8 million. On the credit rating front, we received an upgrade to 3PA from Moody's Argentina. From a strategic perspective, the concession renewal of Piedra del Águila for 30 years to January 2056 is a landmark achievement, securing a flagship hydro asset under a new long-term framework. Additionally, our BESS project at the central Puerto facility is advancing well. With 60% of site was completed, 32 concrete paths finished, and phase one of the 132-kilometer work done. Market normalization continues under resolution 425, and Central Puerto has achieved a leading commercial position in the newly established term market. More on that on the next slide. Moving to slide four. In the first quarter of 2026, Central Puerto achieved a decisive commercial breakthrough under the new market framework established by Resolution 400-25. Our contracting performance in the newly established term market, we could highlight that. Central Puerto held number one market share in MATP, the contracted capacity segment for thermal and hydro processes. In Amatei, the contracted energy segment for thermal and hydro, Central Puerto held the number two market share. Overall, 44% of our 1Q26 revenues were generated from contracted saves, demonstrating our ability to quickly capitalize the market opportunities. Turning to slide five for the earning summary, first quarter 2026 adjusted EBITDA came in at 120.0 million U.S. dollars, with an adjusted EBITDA margin reflecting efficient operations and a better revenue mix. The 41.7% quarter-on-quarter increase was driven by higher spot revenues from market normalization under Resolution 400-2025. The contribution of the Brigadier-López combined cycle, which achieved its COD in January 2026, with an additional gaze turbine closing the CISEC configuration adding 140 MW. Full quarter contributions from my 2025 solar acquisitions, Capayate and San Carlos, and the solid performance of our wind farms. On the revenue side, the 44% quarter-on-quarter increase to $248.6 million reflected contracted revenues growing from new PPA sales from Brigadier López, active participation in mark contracting, and contributions from Piedra de la Aguila. Spot revenues improving due to market normalization, restored volumes at Central Costanera following its 4Q25 maintenance, and $8 million from self-procured natural gas. On a year-on-year basis, the 33.5% EBITDA growth and 27% revenue growth there scored a structural improvement in our earnings profile. Moving to slide 6 for a review of our generation and availability performance. Total generation for the quarter was 5,420 gigabits, up 54% quarter-on-quarter. This significant jump was primarily driven by the maintenance works of Central Costanera's Mitsubishi and Siemens combined cycle units, which have been under maintenance during 4Q25. the addition of Brigadier López combined cycle, which contributed incremental generation since its COD in January 2026, adding plus 229 megawatts to our installed capacity on a quarter-on-quarter basis. In the first quarter, Central Puerto acquired 100% of the shares of Patagonia Energy S.A., or PESA, for a total consideration of 50 million euros. PESA holds a 10-year conventional exploitation license for the Aguada del Chivato and Aguada de Bocaré blocks in Neuquén Province, valid through May 30, 2031. The investment thesis is compelling for several reasons. The blocks cover over 27,000 oil-focused acres in the northern area of the Vaca-Morta play, an area adjacent to blocks that have already de-risked the black oil window of this world-class formation. Low entry cost per acre and a limited exploratory phase plan with an existing oil treatment plant facility of 1,900 barrels per day already in operation. Solid geological evidence of unconventional hydrocarbon potential in cargo landing zones, assessed by qualified geologists based on existing conventional drilling data. Under a successful development scenario, this is a potential REG-related investment opportunity of up to $600 million to unlock the potential value of these assets. We are currently advancing a de-risking plan backed by international unconventional play experts. Our balance sheet remains solid, though the quarter was capital-intensive due to the Piedra del Águila concession transaction. Total outstanding financial debt stands at $5392 million, against cash and financial current assets of $148.4 million, resulting in a net financial debt of $390 million. Against our last 12 months adjusted EBITDA of $367.2 million, this yields a net leverage ratio of 1.06 times. First quarter 2026 marks a pivotal inflection point for Central Puerto. Our results reflect sustained revenue, margin, and EBITDA growth, driven by strong commercial execution, operational excellence, and the contribution of the new power generation assets incorporated through our capital plan over the past two years. Our 2026 outlook is constructive. We expect continued operational excellence and financial performance, with VEES projects progressing toward their mid-2027 commercial presentation, ongoing market normalization providing further revenue upside, and incremental contracting opportunities with large users and distribution companies materializing as the market matures. We remain firmly committed to delivering long-term value for our shareholders, and we are excited about the opportunities ahead for Central Puerto. Thank you very much for your interest and confidence in Central Puerto. Operator, please open the line for questions.

Thank you very much for the presentation. We will now begin the Q&A section for investors and analysts. If you wish to ask a question, please click on Raise Hand. If your question has already been answered, you can leave the queue by clicking on Put Hand Down. Please hold while we poll for questions. Please hold while we poll for questions. Our first question comes from Matias Cataruzzi with EdCap.

Hi. Good morning. How are you? I got three questions. First, in the first quarter, we observed that Postmanian's generation rebound flowed primarily into the spot market rather than into contracted PPAs. With PPAs volumes growth as we are seeing, it would be more gradual, right, for 2026. Could you share with us how the migrations towards more contracting and PPAs is progressing into 2026? And then I got another question on how do you expect self-procurement in fuels affecting CEPU going forward? Do you expect to access gas transportation capacity through the Imperito Moreno expansion, or do you see a reliance on CAMESA's planned gas going forward? And then I got a final question. Following the closing of the transaction with Patagonia Energy, Could you walk us through the specific timeline for the two shale pilots, and have you been in conversations with other potential operating partners, or does it involve a standalone development?

Okay, thank you. Thank you for your question. Going one by one, the first, that you asked is related to the migration from the spot market to the contracted market. We are, in fact, in the first quarter and right now advancing that area. So for the first 20% that the regulation allows to us to sell to the private consumers, we are full contracted there right now. And so we are now keep going in the other 80% that we can only sell to the distribution companies. It is the regulations as is right now. So we are trying to, we are starting to moving that 80% that we still sell to the spot market to negotiating with distribution companies. Right now, we are having a good advance with them, and we expect that to have more news about that in next quarter. That is the first question. The second you mentioned, I think, is related to the gas transportation. In terms of gas transportation, we participate in the TGS auction. We receive, it was an auction very competitive, so we receive less than we ask. We receive around 400,000 midi cubes and we ask for 1.6 million. So we are still trying to get in the next round of the DGS auction, more gas transportation there. And we are talking with distribution companies also to have more transportation. In terms of the gas itself, we are working. Right now, we are still in the plant gas with Tamesa, but we had advanced conversation with all gas producers to start buying our own gas. So I think that in the next two months, we will have news related to that. It's not easy because there is no producer except Pampa that get out of plant gas. pump up by using their own generation, so there is no private producer yet outside the plant gas, but we have an advanced conversation with some of them, and we expect news for the next two or three months in order to start buying the gas directly, not through CAMESA. And in terms of alternative fuels, like diesel oil, fuel oil, and LNG or import gas, we are working and we are right now buying our own fuel and gas. We are having that set with Amazon. And the last one is the acquisition of PESAS. We are, as Laura mentioned, we are working with a U.S. company in order to develop the development phase for the two pilots, two or three wells that we are thinking on doing in order to confirm the resources there and work for the CENCH with the province. But right now we don't have a fixed timing to comment. But we expect that this is going to happen perhaps last quarter or this year or the first of the next one, because you need to bring all the reading sets, and that's daytime right now, like four, between four and five now. So that would be the timing, but it's not fully closed yet.

Great, thank you. I got a follow-up on generation volumes going forward in 2026. Do you expect BPA... contracted volumes to continue growing during 2026 or to stay steady as you've shown in the first quarter? And what will happen with the spot market generation as well?

No, yes, as I mentioned before, we expect to do, to have, to increase our PPAs, especially with distribution companies. That is the idea that we are looking for. As I mentioned, we are in the private DPAs with big industries. We are almost at 100% of our capacity right now. Regulated capacity, but we have something to do related to distribution companies. We can go up to that 20% when we start a negotiation with distribution companies. So that is the what we are looking for in the next quarters.

Great. And do you have a specific contract timeline of the new contracts? Like they are a year contract, two-year contracts?

Yes. Normally, we are seeing, yes, one year or no more than two years, yes. This is for Telmo contracts. You know, when you go to renewables, that could be perhaps bigger than that, three years, five years.

Okay, great. Thank you. You're welcome.

Next question from Tomar Perushin with Balance.

Hello, good morning. Can you hear me? Okay, congratulations on the result first. I have three questions. I will go one by one if that's okay. Just a quick follow-on of the previous question. First, how much capacity do you consider can be able contracted under energy PPAs with DISCOs and industrial users? And how much have you effectively contracted to date? And do you see it feasible to close BPH with this cost this year?

You asked about capacity, not energy. So capacity, we are fully contracted right now. Our capacity are fully contracted. But previously I talked about energy, so I think. During this year, yes, we can have, of course, this is one by one. Each disco has the process itself, but I expect to have contracts with discos, or perhaps the first ones during this year, yes.

Okay. The second one, regarding the TGS transport capacity, how much additional capacity do you still need to fully cover your fuel needs once planned gas expire? And how challenging do you think this will be considering current bottlenecks in the system?

Well, that's the question. I think it's very big to discuss perhaps in a few minutes. But You need to consider that we more or less consume perhaps between 10 and 12 million metric cubic per day. But this doesn't mean that we need all this film capacity because there is a lot of capacity in the pipelines, except in the wintertime, you know. So we want to have the capacity that we need for the contract that we have. And this is less, much more less than the oil, all the gas that we consume. But as I mentioned, in the TGS bidding process, we asked for 1.6 million and we received 400. So I think we want to at least cover that 1.6. 6 million to have film gas during winter, which is the period that is important to have it. But the rest of the year, the transportation is not a problem. So the problem is during perhaps 30, 45 days during winter. So in that moment is when we're going to need this additional film capacity. But as mentioned, 1.6, 2 million is what we expect to have.

Okay. The last one regarding your acquisition in Vaca Muerta. Do you have an estimated capex for the two or three wheels that you're thinking to develop?

No, not yet, but it's normal. What we expect is the normal values that the industry have there is around 17 million per well.

Okay, thank you, thank you very much. Oh, okay, you're welcome.

Next question from Theodora Nashiva with Sandglass Capital. You can open your microphone. I believe she's having some technical issues. We're going to go ahead with our next question from Marcos Seru with Alaria. Thank you for the presentation. A few questions. Number one, could you explain more about the plans in Vaca Muerta? And second, leverage racial guidance for December 2026. Thank you.

Okay. Well, in terms of Vaca Muerta first, our plan is, of course, entering the area and trying to develop the area that we require. That is our plan. It's an area of 27,000 acres. So that is a lot to do there. So this is the first area. The first time we enter in the online gas business, so we need to reach the area to start understanding the business, and this will take perhaps a couple of years. Of course, we're going to look at opportunities if we appear, but our first focus is to develop this area. And it's an area that could place a rig there, so we need to work for the RE also and to have the same. So this is our main focus right now to develop in Bacamorta. And we're going to see how it works and if we could enlarge that. In terms of leverage, it really depends on the opportunities. We're going to still see opportunities in M&A, in our sector, in energy sector, coming from privates or coming from government options. So that The leverage ratio is going to depend on that opportunities that we can develop there, that opportunities. But we are not expecting gross 2.5 or that area to perfect times. But, well, it will depend on the opportunities appearing and what we can get it or not.

Thank you. Our next question comes from . You can open your microphone. You can open your microphone. Hi.

I hope you can hear me now. Yes. Sorry. Yeah, internet in London is crazy. So, just taking back to the liberalization and spot market, can you, maybe you mentioned it, but I couldn't hear you well, can you mention again what is the realized price in legacy energy and capacity, how you see going forward with PPAs? You mentioned the private ones, but I also saw There's something about Commesa potentially launching a small option again.

If you can... Okay. A lot of questions in one, but going one by one. In terms of prices, that is very... There is no clear market right now, so each negotiation is by each, so depending on the timing, depending on if you are acquiring renewables, if you are acquiring... Hydro, if you're acquiring thermals, so it's not easy to set a price for the whole market, but for sure it's higher than the spot market prices. That's good news. But it's depending on, as I mentioned, the counterpart, if you're acquiring hydro or depending on the technology, but we are seeing better prices, much more better prices than the spot market. In terms of new options, or coming some possible new options, there are one option in place, which is the Al-Masadi option. It's an option for batteries for a system in the oil country, not as the previous one that we win. It was related to AMBA area, to Buenos Aires area. This new option is for the whole country, and this 700 megawatts of capacity, battery capacity, and we are looking to participate there. We are developing projects to participate there. But they are talking about new capacity options, but it's not still launched. They expect to launch some capacity options, thermal capacity options, or perhaps the second half of this year. But we don't have a precision about quantity of megawatts or a specific regulation scheme that's not completely saved by CAMESA yet.

I understand. And isn't that CAMESA launching another thermal auction? Isn't that a step back? The whole idea of this liberalization was to move away from the Commesso PPAs, and now they're doing it again.

Well, nonetheless, because all over the world, the capacity option is launched by the system regulator, you know? It's not easy for distribution companies or privates to go for capacity, you know, because... It depends on the growth of the demand, the whole system. So in Brazil, Brazil do the same, you know, and it's a more free market than it was in Argentina. And Chile, and it's normal that the system regulator launch the capacity in advance, you know, trying to look forward to the whole system demand and try to cover that But it's not energy, you know, it's capacity. So I didn't see it as a bug. Because the electricity there will still be contracted by private companies and distribution companies. But the capacity is different. So I only see that capacity option. No new PPAs related to energy. That It's something that Kamesa said that it's not going back. But capacity, especially when you are trying to look the system for three, four, five, ten years in advance, it's something that the system regulators have a better understanding about the needs of the system in terms of capacity.

Okay, thank you. And just to clarify on thermal spot legacy what is the realized price that you're getting at the moment because it's subject to this frac up well you say in a spot market yeah well that is a combination you know you have a capacity payment and you have a no i'm talking about the attachment

You talk about these packages, the variable price that we receive is depending on what fuel we use. So to say something is around $40,000 per megawatt. Yes, with gas, we gas around $40,000 per megawatt, sorry, not $1,000.

Okay, understood. Thank you.

It's depending on the efficiency of the equipment, depending on the fuel that you use, but it's something around that.

Thank you. This concludes our Q&A session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Fernando Bonet for any closing remarks.

Okay, thank you. Central Puerto is in a growing phase, marked by Piedra del Águila concession extension, portfolio expansion, market normalization, and diversification in strategic sectors. Thank you, everyone, for joining us. and for your interest in our company. This is all for this quarter. Have a great rest of the week and month. You may now disconnect.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.