speaker
Carmen
Conference Host

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Enel Chile's four-year and fourth quarter 2023 results conference call. My name is Carmen, and I will be your host for today. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear a message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw the question, press star 11 again. Please note that today's conference is being recorded. During this conference call, we may make statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements reflect only our current expectations, are not guarantees of future performance, and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. These factors are described in NL Chiles' press release reporting its four-year and fourth-quarter 2023 results, the presentation accompanying this conference call, and NL Chiles' annual report on Form 20F included on the risk factors. You may access our full year and fourth quarter 2023 results press release and presentation on our website, www.nl.cl, and our 20F on the SEC's website, www.sec.gov. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on those forward-looking statements which speak only as of their dates. NL Chile undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements or to disclose any development as a result of which these forward-looking statements become inaccurate, except as required by law. I would now like to turn the presentation over to Ms. Isabella Clemes, Head of Investor Relations of NL Chile. Please proceed.

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

Buenas tardes, good afternoon, and welcome to a New Chile 2003 quarter and full year results presentation. Thank you all for joining us today. Joining me this morning is our CEO, Fabricio Bardelli, and our CFO, Giuseppe Trucchiarelli. As announced yesterday by our board of directors, today is the last day of our CEO, Fabricio Bardelli, after two years in charge of our company. assuming a new position within LSPA in Italy. During the period that the new CEO shall be designing, Giuseppe Turchiarelli shall step in as the interim CEO of Enerchili. I take the opportunity to thank Fabrizio for all his contributions to our company over the years. Now, our presentation and related financial information are available on our website, www.aneo.cl, in the investor section and in our app, Investors. In addition, a replay of the call will be soon available. At the end of this presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions via phone or webcast chat. Through the link, ask a question. Media participants are connected only in mystery mode. In the following slides, Fabrizio will open the presentation with our key highlights of the period, then go through our portfolio management actions, regulatory contest updates, and guidance achievements. Finally, Giuseppe will give us a view of our business economic and financial performance. Thank you all for your attention, and now let me hand over the call to Fabrizio.

speaker
Fabricio Bardelli
Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Isabella. Good afternoon and thanks for joining us. Let's start our presentation with our main highlights on the right page. I want to start with our portfolio management highlights. During the year, we added around 600 megawatts of new renewable energy capacity, including our first-best project. All these additions will support us in our long-term ambition of decarbonization and the continued optimization of our portfolio. As of today, we have received a commercial operation date and a cost from the system operator for 1.4 gigawatts, which is in line with our expectations announced in our last two investors' days. This year, we had a remarkable performance of our generation portfolio. The better-than-expected ideology due to the El Nino phenomenon and all the gas-trading activities' outstanding performance supported the achievement of our goals and targets. On the regulatory side, we have some important news to share. First, the Chilean government presented a draft bill to Congress introducing the stabilization mechanism, the PEC 3.0. a very important positive and important sign of stability to the energy market. At the same time, the regulator has published the final technical distribution report, referring to the 2020-2024 cycle. This step was very important to reduce eventual uncertainty to the distribution business remuneration. I will dig down into those topics later. Finally, I am pleased to announce that we beat all our financial targets for 2023, which reflects our confidence in energy, the future, and solidity. This article will give you more color on this. To conclude, during 2023, we recovered around $358 million related to the stabilization mechanism, the PEC 2, including our target project. which represented around $180 million as positive impact in our next week. Now, let us move to slide four to review how we executed our goals and strategies to work with more efficient generation of photovoltaics. Over the last few years, we have significantly increased our renewable capacity to a diversified pipeline across different areas of the country. increasing our exposure to solar close to the center of consumption, to wind, and more recently, to storage. During 2023, we connected almost 600 megawatts of additional net capacity. In Q4, we connected 106 megawatts related to the last phase of our solar plant, Sierra Gorta, 34 megawatts of La Cabana best, and 13.5 During the year, we have also executed some asset rotation in the form of the sale of 416 megawatts of solar generation assets to Solnitics in the north of Chile, and the sale of our Vasco gas turbine power plant. Both were initiatives aimed at optimizing our portfolio and enticing our capital. Regarding cost, since January 2023, we have received the authorization from the National Electricity Organization to begin commercial operations for 1.4 gigawatts. This includes projects such as Campos del Sol, Valle del Sol, Ciudad Serrae, One Choice, Reynaldo D'Or, and the businesses known as El Manzano and La Cabana. Now, let's look at some updates on the hydrological situation and gas optimization activities. Favorable hydrological conditions during 2023 allowed us to reach a higher-than-expected hydro production, exceeding by 25 percent the level recorded in 2022, and totaling 12.2 terawatt-hours of hydro generation, a scenario that we have not seen since 2010. The ecological situation in our reservoirs is also very positive. Yesterday, once compared to last year's figures, especially in the south, we have increased an updated view of our reservoir levels in the context of our presentation. Rainfalls during 2023 surpassed the last 10-year average period, allowing us to have comfortable water availability until the end of the first quarter of 2024. In fact, as of February 3, 2024, the total available for generation was at 1,800 gigawatt-hours, 150 gigawatt-hours more than the same date in 2023. Regarding our gas optimization and drilling activities, we have guaranteed natural gas and LNG supply to our fleet and executed some very profitable sales to local, industrial, and mining customers, and also to foreign markets. The foreign market sales were reoccurring during 2022 at very attractive prices. And the deliveries were mainly compensated during the first and the fourth quarters of 2023. Totally four cargoes sold abroad. All the hope contributed around $300 million at largest for 2023. For 2024, we also see the situation as very comfortable. For reference, we have already executed a new term agreement with several Argentina suppliers for up to 4 meters cubic meters per day. They are already in operation from October 3rd until at the end of April 2024. Allow me now to outline our combined cycle generation code. In addition, we have already secured new agreements for 2024 winter period with Argentine suppliers for up to 2.6 million cubic meters per day from May to September 2024, giving us security to optimize our portfolio during 2024. Now, let's look at some important updates related to the regulatory context. In January this year, the Ministry of Energy presented a draft bill related to the Stabilization Energy Mechanism with the purpose of continuing the PEC mechanism and mitigating the projected tariff increases to final capital. At the same time, they aimed to improve the Science Protection Mechanism, known as MPC Mechanism, to allow rather remaining of accumulative debt with the generators and establish a transitory subsidy for the most vulnerable clients. Also, during January, the draft bill was reviewed and approved by a special energy commission from the Senate. And now, after the Congress annual leave that ends during the month of February, the draft will be discussed first in the Senate Plenary and then in the Chamber of Deputies. Let me say that we consider the government proposals very solid and aligned with Chile's position and words in incentivizing investments towards the carbonization. Let me explain the TBI proposal, starting with how this mechanism is financed. The TBI considers the three sources of finance. First, a temporary state subsidy until 2026 of a total of $20 million per year. Then, the public service charge, which involves a regulation on official items and that amounts to around $200 million annually. And finally, the climate protection mechanism charge that will be applied only to the related customers up to 2035. Both charges shall have different P's depending on the consumption of each client. With this finance mechanism in place, and also the gradual increase in the targets, which will depend on the time consumption, shall support the recovery of the generator's accounts receivables generated since the enforcement of PEC 1 and PEC 2. In our case, on December 31st, we had an account receivable related to the PEC or readiness of factory of $759 million. In addition, the BDL has confirmed that PEC 1 separate should occur after 2027. Also, the PBL notifies effect 2 by extending the investment limit period from 2032 to 2035 and increasing the total amount of the fund by $3,700 million, totaling $5,500 million. We expect that the PBL will be approved and published soon, in the first semester of 2024. considering the urgency of the decision and the fact that the next regulatory option is scheduled to be held during April. Regarding the distribution tax review, the regulatory final report for the 2020-2024 cycle was published early this month of February, and the tax decree on the distribution 2020-2024 remuneration cycle shall be published within the next few months. And let me say that we had a more positive view of the process once comparing to its beginning. Additionally, by November 2024, we should start the distribution regulatory cycle compiling the 2024-2028 period. We are still at the very beginning of this process. Currently, the external consultant responsible for realizing the reference model company studies has started its work. The results of this study shall be known in the following months. Now, let us move to slide 7 to review our main KPI of 2023 versus our guide. In terms of renewables and best execution, we have achieved our goals, reaching 77% of renewables and best contribution in our metric on 31st December 2023. The latter also enabled us to reach our goal of 34 greenhouse gases pre-production over the total during 2023. Let me point out that our efforts intended to improve efficiency and quality of service to achieve our goals regarding network losses despite a more complex matrix analysis. On electrification networks, we have also achieved our goals. Now, let us review on slide 8 our main financial indicators for the 2020-2023 guidance. During 2023, we experienced a significant improvement in our operations. mostly explained by a more efficient generation mix related to a better agricultural situation and the contribution of our optimization portfolio action plan developed and executed during the last year. The latter, coupled with the conclusion of optimization initiatives such as the sale of Arcadia last October, enabled us to achieve our ABDA and net income commitment. On the last financial indicator, we have reached the upper range of the guidance announced during 2023 investor day. To that end, we provide details on our performance on EBITDA and net income in the following slides. All in all, guidance is our leverage and net debt to EBITDA commitments, making us comfortable recommending the maintenance of the committed payout, which was also the company's Board of Directors' recommendation and work and was also in line with our guidance. Now I will hand over the phone to Giuseppe.

speaker
Giuseppe Trucchiarelli
Chief Financial Officer

Giuseppe, the phone is yours. Many thanks, Fabrizio. Good afternoon to all our investors connected. I will start my presentation with a summary of our main results of the year. To better evaluate our company earnings performance, we present the 2022 figures as a performer that includes the following adjustments. First, the two-year 2022 BDA has been adjusted by the impairment of the crude stock in the write-off of generation projects totaling $134 million. This adjustment worth $63 million in Q4. Likewise, these adjustments affected the bottom line by a total of $83 million in the full year and $41 million in Q4 of 2022. Additionally, we have excluded from these figures in order to better evaluate the operational performance of our company to one of The operational results and capital gain of the sales of Enel Transmissions and the impact of the agreements with Shell, both executed in December 2032, totaling $643 million in the full year and $368 million in the future. These adjustments affected the bottom line by a total of $1,230,000,000 and $1,185,000,000 in the few years and in the Q4 respectively. Regarding the CETO, the figures for 2023 and 2022 have been adjusted only by the status of an institution. It means that 2022 figures include the social agreement. In 2022, in terms of cash, the adjustment amounted to $20 million in the full year and $2 million in the Q4. In 2023, we had excluded $310 million paid in taxes on capital gains obtained from this transaction. Considering these adjustments, let's see how the earnings indicator and SFO performed. As you can see, in the few-year period and the fourth quarter 2023, our earnings indicator presents an important improvement compared to the 2032 figures. Regarding EBITDA and net income, the improvement is mainly explained by a more efficient generation mix, thanks to the outstanding hydro and renewable performance, and due to greater gas trading activity. We will see more details in the following slides. Regarding the CFO, the 2023 Unilever figures show a relevant improvement impacted mainly by the Step 2 factoring executed for around $345 million and other cash management optimization actions. Let me remind you that the Q4 2022 CFO includes $520 million shell agreements. You will see more details later on. Let's review now the progress on capex. Our 2023 total capex reached $804 million, basically in line with our guidance for the year. I would like to highlight that 78% of our total capex was related to the renewable and storage in line with our strategy of rebalancing our portfolio to adapt it to the new market context. In addition, 15% of our capex was mainly related to clients' new connections in Greece, considering the growth in our customer base. Customer capex totaled $78 million, 7% higher than the previous year, mainly associated with a new customer connection. Asset management capex reached $129 million, 36% lower than previous years, mainly due to lower maintenance activity in conventional generation plants and distribution business. Development capex reached $597 million, representing a decrease of 33% versus last year figures, in line with the remaining renewable portfolio under construction. Let's now take a look at the slide 12, where we have the summary of the four-quarter Q3-Q3 EVDA breakdown, accounting for $471 million. First of all, let me remind you that we have included a perform of our four-quarter Q3-Q3 EVDA for comparison purposes. We have been excluded from the 2022 EBDA the impact of the one-off effect from the sales of Transnistria in Chile and the agreement signed with Shell. Taking this into consideration, our fourth quarter 2023 EBDA was around $71 million higher than 2022 performance, mainly explained by the following. First, a positive contribution from IDRO, a renewable asset totaling $41 million, mainly related to the improved hydrology in the port. Second, a positive effect of $83 million on variable costs, mainly explained by lower withdrawal spot price, lower suspension fees, and saving due to lower fuel consumption, both as a consequence of the better hydrology in the field. In addition, a positive contribution of $80 million related to the cash optimization activity, mainly due to increased cash trading activity for 0.9% BTO made in Q4 2023, a very interesting crisis negotiating the end of 2022 when the international prices were very attractive. The above-mentioned effects were partially set by $116 million from lower PPA sales in Q4 2023, primarily due to lower average PPA price, mainly related to lower commodity indexation in the regulated market. $18 million in OPEX, another drop, mainly explained by our new renewable capacity, inflation across all three businesses, and negative effects in NLS. due to a higher recognition of boost margin in 2022, partially offsetting the positive effect in distribution margin of $3 million, mainly due to indemnification. Let's move on to the next slide, where we will review the full year EBDA breakdown summary, accounting for $1,237 million. In this year, 2023, our EBDA increased mainly explained by the following effects. First, a positive contribution from hydro renewables totaling $213 million, mainly related to improved hydrology volume. Second, a positive effect of $94 million in variable costs mainly explained by a lower stock price in the period due to a better ideology since June 2023, a one-off effect of an agreement with one of our TPA suppliers and lower transmission fees, partially upset by a lower thermal generation margin. A positive effect of $81 million related to the gas optimization activities, mainly due to increased gas trading activities from one terabitium in the previous year. And finally, a positive contribution of $27 million in green margin, mainly due to increased remuneration related to indexation, lower financing compensation, and higher demand. The above-mentioned sectors were partially offset by $17 million from lower PPA sales in the full year 2023, mainly due to lower average PPA price due to indexation, partially offset by higher capacity payments in the year. For $1 million in OPEC and other costs, mainly international business, explained primarily by our new renewable capacity and maintenance of plants. And inflation, of course, holds the business. Let's move on to slide 14 to take a look at our generation business, meaning KPI. Net electricity total, 20 total, 100 power as of December 2023, exceeding by 9% the production during 2022. Many due to higher hydro and solar generation. resulting from the improved hydrology and the addition of new projects, respectively. This also affected the lower thermal dispatch, mostly related to the disconnection of Bocca Nino II in September 2022. If we exclude the production of Bocca Nino II in 2022, the real increase in the component generation was equivalent to a growth of 15% coming in by hydro and renewable growth contributions. During 4Q2023, net generation grew by 15% to 6.6 terawatt-hours, mainly due to higher hydro, solar and wind generation. Our energy sales total 30.9 terawatt-hours in 2023, 0.5% higher than the level recorded in 2022. Primarily due to higher sales to pre-customers, it was mentioned that our commitments with our clients were fulfilled with a higher portion of our renewable generation, which also led us to lower energy purchases in the stock market, mainly the non-solar power. Q4 2023, physical energy sales increased by 2.2% to 7.6% mainly due to higher sales to pre-customers. Let me point out that during the last quarter of 2023, our increased renewable production also allowed to reach zero net purchases in the stock market. Now, on slide 15, let's go through the main drivers of our growth net income. Our net income increased by 66%, excluding the net impact of our earlier sales of $183 million versus last year's performance figures. Let me drive you through the main efforts. A greater EBITDA of $358 million, as already explained. Annual depreciation amortization of $22 million, mainly resulting from our new renewable project in operation, which was offset by lower depreciation in energy generation, mainly as a consequence of new investment in power plants that increased the average useful life of property plants and the people. Higher amortization in tangible assets in energy distribution due to the new IP system development, partially offset by lower depreciation and amortization due to the sales of energy transmission in December 2022. A lower back-back mainly related to the client net-edge recovery due to several commercial actions. Regarding financial results and native investments, we recorded a $35 million improvement, primarily explained by $98 million related to higher interest and adjustment due to F2 recognition, $10 million mainly due to equity income linked to non-consolidated companies and capital gains basically associated to the sales of water or thermal power plants, and above the factor were partially offset by lower income related to monetary adjustment, higher financial costs associated to payment schedule optimization agreements with suppliers, and higher financial expense linked to the sales of part of an electric battery business. In contrast, increased by 100%. During the fourth quarter of 2003, net income increased 44% to $426 million, traveling Higher BPA, as detailed in the previous slide. Higher depreciation amortization for $10 million is mainly explained by deterioration business due to new renewable energy projects in operation. Higher financial results and net investment of $13 million, this is explained by depreciation $84 million related to the previously mentioned spectral adjustment, partially offset by higher financial expense linked to the sales of an electric bus business, higher financial costs related to the payment schedule optimization agreement with the supplier, higher financial costs mainly related to the higher cost of that. And basically, flat variation on the quarter in terms of income tax. Moving to the FFO analysis on the next slide, let's review in detail our FFO for this period. Regarding the FFO, the figures for 2023 and 2022 have been adjusted only by the sales of an introduction, but not by the shell agreement executed in 2022. Last year, in terms of cash, the adjustment amounted to $20 million in the familiar. In 2023, we had excluded $310 million paid in taxes on capital gains obtained from this transaction. Our FFO in 2023 reached $986 million, representing an improvement of $334 million. The main effects that explain our FSHO in this period are the following. $1.3 billion coming from a DDA driven by the strong hydrology contribution, gas trading activity, and better results in the distribution business. $406 million negative impact from the cumulative stabilization mechanism effect in our CBO, reducing the cash conversion of the period. This situation has been improved by the impact of the execution of the IGB factoring relative to tax 2, which amounted to $345 million. Working capital reached a positive balance of $88 million as a consequence of cash and machining from the sales of Santa Rosa building, and cash management optimization, partially offset by VAT payments related to stabilization mechanism. Working capital improvement, once compared to last year's figures, mainly comes from the sales of Santa Rosa building and other managerial actions, as well as better collections on distribution business. $34 million in contact net payments, mainly related to tax payments in generation business in 2023, offset by tax recovery from previous periods for both generation and distribution business contributions. Once compared to the income paid in contact pay in 2023 versus last year, the main difference comes from the tax recovery from previous periods obtained during this year. To conclude, regarding financial expense, we paid $299 million. This is explained mainly due to the debt interest relative to the average interest on the gross debt of 4.9%, that reflects also the new interest curve associated to the reward increase fatigue. Once we compare the 2023 financial expenses, with last year's figures, we see an increase also explained by higher average interest rates on the gross debt and monthly payments relative to the revolving trade facility as a bridge instrument for the Tech2 delay. Now, let's look at our liquidity and leverage positions. Our gross debt decreased around $0.3 billion to $4.4 billion as of December 2023, compared to December 2022. This decrease was primarily due to the repayment of revolving tracing lines, partially thanks to the use of the proceeds from Ascadia sales, concluded last October 2023. The average of our best maturity increased to 6.1 years as of December 2023. of a total debt from 37% in September 2023. The average cost of our debt reached 4.9% as of December 2023, mostly owing to the new profile of our debt, the financial market condition and the pre-payment of some rich short-term instruments. In terms of liquidity, we have a comfortable position in order to support the upcoming debt maturity in 2024. and also to cope with possible headwinds in the debt market relative to the economic situation. Talking about 2020, we had approximately $750 million maturing in 2024, including $400 million of the 80 bonds. Aligned with our financing strategy and according to our 2024 financial plan, we are evaluating the best alternatives to face this maturity. This could be done through the payment with cash, the use of long-term committed credit lines, executing a new financing at an initial level, or a mix between the alternatives. Currently, we are in advanced conversation with several banks and financial institutions, which have shown great interest in participating in possible new finances. In the first quarter, we will give you more follow-up on this. Now, I will hand over to Fabrizio for closing remarks. Thank you, Zepen.

speaker
Fabricio Bardelli
Chief Executive Officer

NSG, the Sustainable Business Model, demonstrated its resiliency and optionality. and this outstanding operating and financial results gave the management room to pursue the company's strategy towards decarbonization, electrification, and profitability. As planned, the accredited transaction was concluded last October. With this, our asset rotation plan was successfully concluded. The 2023 results showed a solid operating performance. The better than expected ideology in the gas trading activities during this year, complemented by the several managerial actions we have taken over the last year, supported us in achieving our commitment to all our shareholders. Finally, we would like to announce that the 2024 Annual General Meeting will be held on April 27th, during which our shareholders will deliberate on the final dividend for the 2023 fiscal year. Let me know, and it's over to Isabella.

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

Thank you, Fabricio, and thank you all for your attention. So now let's begin the Q&A session. We will receive questions via phone and chat in the webcast. The Q&A section is open. Operator, please, you may start. Thank you so much.

speaker
Carmen
Conference Host

And as a reminder to our audience, please press star 1-1 to get in the queue and wait for your name to be announced.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

And to withdraw your question, press star 1-1 again. One moment. And our first question comes from the line of Javier Suarez with Mediabanca.

speaker
Carmen
Conference Host

Please proceed.

speaker
Javier Suarez
Analyst, Mediobanca

Hi. Good afternoon, and thank you for the presentation. Several questions on the regulatory side. On slide six, you detail several significant improvement in the outlook for regulation when it comes to the the stabilization mechanism and also the regulation for distribution. So the question for you is if you can, again, clarify the amount of receivables that you have on your balance sheet related to the stabilization mechanism and your latest expectations and the timeframe for the recovery of this amount. and how this new guidance may impact your guidance as presented in the recent business plan of November 2023. And a similar question for the distribution regulatory cycle. You are expecting the publication of the decree during the second half of 2024. You can share with us your latest expectations on this regulatory review and how this compares with the assumptions embedded in your business plan. Then the third question is related to the hydro production and reservoir levels. You can kindly elaborate on how these higher reservoirs that you have for 2024 compared with your assumption in the business plan for 2024 and what we may expect in terms of additional contribution from this additional hydro capacity, I guess. And the final question is, this year we have seen a significant contribution as well from gas trading optimization opportunities. You can start with the expectation for 2024. Many thanks.

speaker
Fabricio Bardelli
Chief Executive Officer

Okay. Thank you very much. So let me try to answer something from the last one. And I will probably change the order in my answer. So that trading is pretty simple. In the end, we usually have, let me say, between $30 and $40 million margin in the normal year. And 2024, So this is the range in which you have to consider our gas trading margin activities for 2024. As we usually experience also in the past, we have some, let me say, growth in these studies. As I say, some we are talking about that. changed drastically in the last two years because of the very particular conditions we experienced in the international LNG market in 2022. That was the moment in which we materialized all our sales that we benefited from in 2022 and 2023 performance. The standard, let me say, expectation for NADO is $30 and $40 million. Then, as a production, as I said, we have some, we have some higher than expected levels in our reservoir. And, of course, it would help us to probably better than expectation in our first quarter. It is difficult to project this in terms of yearly production because starting from the 1st of April, the nursing period would end and new rainfalls would affect the overall production of the year. So what can I say is that we are pretty confident that the first quarter results will be boosted by this additional hydro production and additional water in our reservoirs that we have been experiencing in this first part of the year. Distribution and regulations. Yes. I mentioned that this is a positive piece of news. Of course, we still have to wait for the final decree and all the process, the review process from Contraloría. But we are quite optimistic that this will be the final numbers for for our distribution activity, and there are some upside compared to what we registered in the last three years, because I remember that in the last three years we had to, of course, make our assumptions about the 2020-2024 distribution size. So we have some upside there, and we have probably also some upside compared to what we now can expect for 2024. In the range of $20 million, this is more or less what we can expect as an upside in our distribution business as a consequence of this final report from the regulator. And then your first question about the spec. I will give you a very general answer and then I will let Giuseppe to ask some more on that. As I mentioned in my speech, the amount of receivables, net of what we already factored is $759 million. This is the figures that we have in our account for this item. Of course, once the draft bill will be hopefully approved, there will be a path to recover all these accounts receivable that we already and of course also the evolution of what is going to accumulate in the next month. So it's quite a big conflict between what we are going to anyway add as an independence and what is going to accumulate more. And so I will leave Giuseppe to add some more follow-up. Yeah, thank you Fabrizio.

speaker
Giuseppe Trucchiarelli
Chief Financial Officer

We believe that if the law is going to be put in end of March, beginning of April, we are soon to recover $150 million approximately. It's the amount that we expect to be collected and factorized in 2024, and this is what we put in our projection for the year.

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

Okay, thank you, Giuseppe. Thank you, Fabricio. I think we have reached all the questions from Javier. So now do we have any other questions coming from the line operator?

speaker
Carmen
Conference Host

No, we don't have any more. I can hand it back to you to mention any questions we have on the chat.

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

Definitely. We have received some questions here from the audience coming from the chat. So I will start with the first question here that I received from Felipe Torres from AFP Habitat. Felipe Torres is asking us about, can you give us more detail regarding the extraordinary shareholders meeting to be held after the extraordinary shareholders meeting in April 29th. So, Felipe, I will answer this one here. So, soon, all the topics of our shareholders' meeting will be available in our website, okay? And then, once it's available, we will be here, the investor relations team, available for your questions and other requirements you may have, okay? So coming from the second question, now from Martin Aronstad from Balance Capital. Martin is asking about the PAC, Fabricio and Giuseppe. Will the IDB offer to monetize the PAC-3 receivables as they did with PAC-2? Do you expect any financial costs from generators? Giuseppe?

speaker
Giuseppe Trucchiarelli
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. Well, consider that the new system forcing a full pass-through cost for most concerned generations every time they are going to do the factory, except for the legal costs associated to the deal. And IDB is going to already got the mandate from the government in order to arrange the new factories. So we believe that the situation is going to be smoother than the previous one. So we can expect significant costs associated with the factories.

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

Thank you, Giuseppe. Now let's go to another question coming from Francisco Paz from Santander. The first question of Francisco is, what level of gas commercialization do you expect for this year? I think we have a right answer, not this one. And the second one, what level of hydrogen generation are you forecasting for this year in the context of El Nino-La Nina phenomenon? If you see any kind of... of a change in the forecast because of these events that we might have this year. Thank you.

speaker
Fabricio Bardelli
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, let me give a very general answer to that. We already experienced in the past that having a linear phenomenon or a linear phenomenon doesn't imply as a direct consequence a drastic change in hydrology efficiency. Sometimes it happens, sometimes not. So, hydrological conditions in Chile are not, as in other countries, a natural consequence of this phenomenon. So, of course, we're going to this phenomenon, and we will adjust when we have some strong evidence of this phenomenon affecting our hydrological conditions. But so far, we don't see any particular impact on what we could expect on 2024. So we have elaborated our budget and we are still projecting a number of hydrology, a number of hydroelectric production for the year in line with the last five years average, so meaning 9.6 terawatt-hours. This is the reason why we have not changed, at least so far, our assumptions about the IT production for this year.

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

Okay. Thank you, Fabricio. We have one more question coming from Florencia, Mallorca. Next slide. So the question is from Florencia. First, she's giving us the congrats from the results, and then, how much of Pac-2 receivables are you expecting to more necessary in 2024? What's your plans for the 2024 notes due in April? Florencia is asking about the Young Bond. Okay. Thank you, Giuseppe.

speaker
Giuseppe Trucchiarelli
Chief Financial Officer

In 2024, basically, I've already answered, so we are talking about around $450 million in the second half of this year. Concerning the maturing of the minty bond that is going to be repaid in the second half As I said in my speech, we are basically exploring all the antennas that we have in our hands, so we are going to use cache that is available, but also the committed lines that we have outstanding and not reused. issue a new loan. Now, we are, as I said already, in an advanced stage of negotiation with some banks and institutions. We are deciding in this month, we are going to decide during March, basically, which kind of alternatives to apply benefits for our company. Again, in the first quarter, we are going to give you the

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

Okay, thank you, Giuseppe. Now a question is coming from Rodrigo Moura from Moneda. Rodrigo asks about Los Condores. So the first question Rodrigo is coming about if we have some news on the project Los Condores. and also how much resources we will need to end the construction during this year of 2024. This is the first question. And then the second question that Rodrigo is asking is about the agreement with the Argentinian gas producers. So he's asking more details about what we have already signed with the Argentinian gas producers for 2024. Thank you, Rodrigo, for the question.

speaker
Fabricio Bardelli
Chief Executive Officer

Fabrizio? Okay. Well, look, regarding Los Conderes, we are finally at the end, at the final stage of this very particular project, very challenging project, and let me comment first of all that all The main civil works that were related to all excavations in the mountains, so the problems that we experienced with this project, are concluded. So, this is something that of course is really important for us to announce that the main works that were, let me say, a little bit more risk from the durational point of view are finalized. They will finalize at the end of December. So, about the time we would expect Los Condores online, it would be in the second semester. This is some months a little bit more of what we projected previously, and this is related big rainfalls that we had last year that of course on the one hand were really positive to our performance since 2023 but unfortunately on the other hand make us impossible in some months to And so we have some months delay due to this unexpected stop that is related to the heavy rainfalls that we experienced last year. In relation with how much investment we need to finalize the project, well, I would say relatively small amount because we are talking about $60 million. This is our projection for 2024 to conclude the Los Ponderes project. we are expecting this important project to be online this year and we are also pretty optimistic since the main critical goals were already finalized. I can repeat the numbers I gave you during the speech but let me First, make a general call. We are, we have been meeting to sign a federal agreement with the additional suppliers because we want to be, let me say, sure about gas availability. Because, you know, the risk profile is really asymmetric in case hydrological conditions could change versus the ones that we projected in our budget. So, of course, we wanted to be sure and to secure enough gas availability in order to be ready to face adverse hydrological conditions in case more gas production will be needed from our plants and also from competitors' power plants. So the figure I was referring to is 4.1 cubic meters per day in the current period, so starting from October 23 to April 24. Then in the winter period, We secured 2.6 cubic meters per day, of course, and 2.6 million cubic meters per day, and then October 24, December 24, 3.5 million cubic meters per day.

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

Okay. Now we have a last question coming from Davi Pana from Italy. Davi is asking about the transmission cost that we had during 2023. So he's asking, I would like to ask about the transmission cost. In fourth quarter, we can see a lower cost in comparison to the other quarter of this year. What explains this difference? Can we expect the same level going forward?

speaker
Giuseppe Trucchiarelli
Chief Financial Officer

In the fourth quote, the cost of transmission has been offset by the recovery of the decoupling cost to the transmission tools. So, basically, it's the next cost on the POGs in the fourth quote. It's difficult to predict whether we are going to have, again, this kind of recovery. It is the kind of stuff that requires more analysis once we have got the closing of the book. So right now, I cannot say that we are going to repeat this retrofit.

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

Okay, thank you, Giuseppe. Then we have a last question coming from Fernan Gonzalez from BTG. So Fernan Gonzalez is asking about the reservoirs. So the question is, given the current levels at reservoirs and assuming dry conditions, do you see that it could support hydro generation beyond the first quarter and into the second quarter as well? So the question is about reservoirs throughout the next month.

speaker
Fabricio Bardelli
Chief Executive Officer

Well, of course, this is a very challenging question because it will depend, of course, also on the level that we are going to experience in the next weeks about inflows generated by the last part of the smelting season. Of course, the angles are decreasing, as expected, of course, as always during the smelting season, but It is true that this year we are experiencing a smoother melting season when compared to the last year. So that is the reason why we have been accumulating more water in our reservoirs and we are generating more hydro production compared to our budget expectations. Now, commenting if it's possible to predict if it would be also of some comfort in April or during the second quarter is difficult to say. It would depend also on the level of inflows that would materialize in the next week. Anyway, as I said, of course, it's a very good piece of news for Q1. It's difficult to comment about Q2.

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

Thank you, Fabricio. If there are no more questions, I will hand over to you, Fabricio, for your final words. Thank you.

speaker
Fabricio Bardelli
Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Isabella. Well, as you may know, today is my last day as CEO of Enerchile. Tomorrow I will assume another position within the Enerchile group back to Italy. And I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the colleagues in Enel Chile and the managing team who worked together with me for all the support during this year, during which we worked together to unlock the value of this asset and to reshape the financial sustainability of Enel Chile, being able to deliver all the commitments agreed to with our shareholders. Also, I would like to sincerely thank All of you, for all the engaging interactions we had during our calls and meetings, you have provided me with considerable professional growth. So, thank you very much again, and all the best.

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

Thank you, Fabricio. Thank you all. So with this, we conclude our conference call. The investor relations team is available for any doubt you may have. Many thanks for your attention and see you soon in our annual shareholders meeting in the end of April. Thank you. Bye-bye. Thank you.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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