speaker
Carmen
Conference Host

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to NL Chile nine-month and third quarter 2024 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 participate, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear a message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, simply press star 11 again. Please be advised 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 Chile's press release reporting its nine-month and third-quarter 2024 results. The presentation accompanying this conference call and NL Chile's annual report on Form 20F included on the risk factors. You may access our nine-month and third-quarter 2024 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. NLGLA 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 NLGLA. Please proceed.

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

Buenas tardes, good afternoon, and welcome to NL Chile 2024 third quarter and nine-month results presentation. Thanks to all joining us today. My name is Isabela Clemes. I'm the head of investor relations. Join me today, our CEO, Giuseppe Turchiarelli, and our new CFO, Simone Conticelli. Simone is a nuclear physicist and holds an MBA from Lewis University of Hong Kong. He joined the Enel Group in 2006, working in the administration, finance and control of Enel SBA. From 2018 to 2022, he was in Chile as the CFO of Enel Generacion Chile. Before becoming CFO of Enel Chile, he held the position of CFO at Slovenske Elektron, another company within Enel Group. Our presentation and related financial information are available on our website, www.nl.cl, in the Investors section, in our app Investors. In addition, a replay of the call will soon be 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 listening mode. In the following slides, Giuseppe will start the presentation with our key highlights of the period. He will then cover updates on our portfolio and regulatory context. Finally, Simone provides an overview of our business economic and financial performance. Thank you, you all, and now let me hand over the call to Giuseppe.

speaker
Giuseppe Turchiarelli
Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Isabella. Good afternoon, and thanks for joining us. Let's start the presentation with our main highlights of the period on slide 2. During the first 9 months, our hydro portfolio performance was very robust, with hydro generation increasing by 20% compared to last year. This improvement was due to higher reservoir levels at the beginning of the year, influenced by the El Niño phenomenon observed in the previous year. and a solid rainy season this year. This resulted in an efficient generation portfolio mix for the video. We are pleased to announce that the Los Condores project is nearing completion. After several years of construction, the project has reached the pre-commissioning stage. We expect Los Condores to be connected to the grid by the end of the year. As everyone knows, an extreme climate event severely impacts the central and southern part of the country, including our concession area in the metropolitan region. Further, in the presentation, I will give you more details to you regarding the unforeseeable and irresistible climatic events that affected our distribution segment. On the regulatory side, we have some important news to share. The factoring related to the PEC 3 receivable was successfully executed last week. We have carried out the factoring totaling $630 million. The PMP decree for the second semester was published on October 6th, which will result in a lower PEC accumulation for the year-end. and the draft bill for the electricity subsidies for vulnerable customers is still under discussion. Today, the Energy Commission is renewed to evaluate government proposals. I will give you more color to this topic during the presentation. Regarding profitability, I'm glad to announce that our EBITDA and net income results were better than last year's figures. fully confirming our guidance for the year. We achieved a positive SPL, even though during the first nine months of this year we recovered only a small portion of the receivables related to the PEG. As I mentioned before, much of the recovery of the PEG-3 receivables was made through the factoring executed last week. So we will see them in the presentation of the full year results. And finally, for the 2024 nine-month results, we present a strong and sound level of liquidity. I will provide more details on this later. Now, let's look at some updates on the hydrological situation on slide three. In addition to the positive hydrological conditions during 2023 that allow us to have greater water availability this year, Higher than expected rainfall recorded during 2024 has allowed us to increase our hydro production, exceeding 20% in the same period of 2023. Therefore, during the first nine months of 2024, we have accumulated 1.6 TWh of additional hydro generation compared to last year. The hydraulic field situation in our reservoir is also very positive year-to-date compared to the last year figures, particularly in the south. In fact, with the water accumulated in our reservoir today, we have sufficient availability to supply our energy demand until the end of this year, even with the possibility of laminar phenomena in November and December. It is worth mentioning that the snow melting season has already started. Unfortunately, there has been rainfall and a rapid increase in the temperature in the south, generating increases in the affluent flows of the river. In fact, we had to carry out discharges in Pehuenche power plants a few days ago, and on October 24 in the Ralco and the Pang power plants as well. Of course, these manuals were coordinated and previously informed to the competent authorities and the communities. Based on this fact, we have updated our hydro generation estimate to approximately 13 TWh for 2024 and 3.3 TWh for the fourth quarter. of which we have already produced 1.3 trillion. Let's move to the next slide to review how we continue improving our portfolio on generation assets. We continue consolidating our renewable capacity through a diverse portfolio of projects distributed across various country regions. This year, we increased our exposure to battery energy storage, the BES system. In recent months, we received authorization from the National Electricity Coordinator to begin conventional operation of 101 megawatts associated with the two projects, El Manzano BES, located in the metropolitan region of Santiago, and La Cabaña BES, located in the south of Chile. Considering this latest authorization from the coordinator in 2024, we initiated the commercial operation of a portfolio equivalent to 511 megawatts and 1,735 megawatts since 2023. In this nine-month period, we reached a total nesting soil capacity of 8.7 gigawatts of which 6.8 gigawatt are renewable, representing 77% of the total. As good news, the Los Condores hydropower plants had significant updates in this period. We have concluded the filling of the tunnels and started the pre-commissioning test. We expect to be connected by the end of the year. Now, on the next slide, we will review the performance of our generation KPIs. Net electricity generation totaled 18.6 TWh as of September 2024, exceeding by 6% the production during the first nine months of 2024, mainly due to higher hydro and renewable generation, resulting from the improved hydrology this year and the operation of new projects. During the third quarter of 2024, Net generation decreased 8% to 6.5 TWh, mainly due to better hydrology recorded during the same period of 2023 and lower thermal dispatch during the third quarter 2024, partially offset by greater wind generation. Our energy sales total 25.3 TWh as of September 2024. 9% higher than the level recorded in the first nine months last year, resulting from higher sales to both regulated customers and free customers. Our commitment with our clients were fulfilled with a higher portion of our renewable generation, which also led us to lower energy purchases in the spot market. During the third quarter of 2024, Physical energy sales grew by 8% to 8.4 TWh, mainly due to higher sales to regulated customers. In terms of our balance, during the first nine months of the year, we increased our purchases from third parties by 2 TWh as part of our continued effort to diversify and optimize our energy sources. Now, I would like to take a few minutes to talk about the extraordinary weather events of the last August. I would like to present this slide to discuss the extreme weather events that impacted the country and not just our concession area, which impact was higher than the earthquake occurred in 2010. On August 1st and 2nd, the metropolitan region of Santiago was severely hit by an extraordinary and unpredictable storm with winds of up to 124 kilometers per hour, significantly exceeding the forecast and warnings issued by authority and technical experts. This storm caused the fall of more than 2,000 trees over 1,000 utility poles and large branches, which destroyed part of our electricity distribution network, causing widespread power outages. The damage is comparable only to that caused by the earthquake already mentioned. Enel Distribución Chile deployed all available resources going much further than required by Chilean electrical legislation, and it adopted extraordinary and special measures to restore power to its customers as quickly as possible. Reaching this amount of Q was only possible as part of an energy group. We have requested support and received more than 100 technicians and experts in this type of event, coming from different parts of Latin America and Europe. Furthermore, it is worth noting that for this weather event, we spare no expense to recover and normalize the power supply as much as possible. This is reflected in the number of field crews 383 crew at the peak of the event versus 108 considered in the reference model company of the current TARIS. Re-establishing the system was extremely difficult and we have already submitted to the local regulator and the course the resistibility and unpredictability of this event. Therefore, We clearly face a fourth major climatic event, the severity of which exceeded all the possible measures to be adopted under the Chilean electric legislation. It will appear clear to all the different stakeholders in Chile once the pertinent data will be disseminated. As Enel, we have been working on proposing different kinds of regulatory models to make the regulatory and physical systems more resilient to future weather barriers. We clearly understand that it is urgent to modernize and digitalize the Chilean electrical distribution systems. Now, I would like to talk about some regulatory framework milestones in the next As you may recall, during last call, we indicated that in January this year, the Ministry of Energy presented a bill related to the energy stabilization mechanism, which the purpose of continuing the effect mechanism and mitigating the projected size increases for final customers. At the same time, They also aim to improve the client protection mechanism, known as the MPC mechanism, to allow gradual repayment and accumulated debt to the generator and establish a transitory subsidy for the most vulnerable clients. This new law was discussed and approved by the Chilean Congress in April and came into force at the end of April. Following this, the first half and the second half EMP decrees were published and the regulated tariff was updated. After the publication of the second half decree, all clients, including those with a consumption of less than 350 kilowatt hours, which are basically households, are paying the regulated EPA real price. The consequence of this is that no further debt will be accumulated during the tariff stabilization, an outcome that has not been achieved since 2019. This shift marks a critical step towards financial stability, reflecting a significant change in managing tariff-related obligations. The issuance of the sovereign guarantee decree, as well as a complementary set of rules and regulations to the new law, the factoring was executed. We were able to factor $630 million last October 2024. As of September 2024, we had an account receivable related to the fact, a rating net of factoring and including the readjustment and interest of around $1.1 billion approximately. So taking into the new factory realized in October, we are expecting to the end of the year with accruals in the range of 500 up to $550 million. Let me go to the right side of the slide where we will recall the main topic related to the proposed law the government is introducing to increase the subsidies, which currently cover 1.2 million families, to reach approximately 4.9 million families, representing the 40% of most vulnerable families in Chile. now congress is discussing with executive authorities potentially increasing this benefit to increase the number of the families supported by these subsidies currently the energy and money committee of the senate is deliberating on the matter which includes in general terms doubling the green tax emission from the current five dollar per ton of co2 emitted For reference, last year we paid around $15 million related to it. Allocating the additional VAT revenue that the station is collecting due to the increase in the tariffs, doubling the fines imposed by regulators and allocating them to support the subsidy funds, applying new charges to the small and medium distributed energy units known As PNGDs, as Enel, we support the government effort to find alternatives to assist the most vulnerable families in the country, especially in light of potential economic challenges. However, we have observed that over the years, government solutions have often disrupted the market. The same companies that have been impacted by various regulatory measures since 2019 are once again being called upon to support these subsidies mechanisms. To maintain Chile's reputation as a quality marketplace, it is crucial that such measures are reconsidered. Otherwise, we risk severely impacting long-term investments, competitive investments, and the health of energy sector. Among the proposed measures, we believe that allocating the additional EBIT revenue is the most viable and sustainable option. To conclude, regarding distribution EBIT 2024-2028, there have been no significant developments since our last call. Our perspective on the next step. in the processes detailed in the annex of our presentation. Now, I will hand over to our CFO, Simone Conticelli.

speaker
Simone Conticelli
Chief Financial Officer

Many thanks, Giuseppe, and good afternoon, everybody. First of all, I would like to tell you that it's a pleasure for me to join LHC. And now, let's move to economic and financial performance. During this 9-month period and the third quarter of 2024, our results continue to demonstrate a solid economic and financial performance. Let me begin with a quick summary of the main figures, which I will detail in the following slides. Both 9-month 2024 and third quarter 2024 EBITDA on net income recorded important improvements when compared to the last year indicator. This is mainly explained by a more efficient generation mix, thanks to better hydrological situation, coupled with an increase in our energy sales and better pricing. Regarding the FSO, the nine-month 2024 figures show a slight reduction versus last year, particularly in the third quarter. mainly explained by a temporary negative effect from tax factoring operations and higher tax payments in 2024, primarily related to Arcadia transactions in October 2020. This trend is expected to be reversed during the last quarter of this year. Now, on the next slide, let's review the progress on Cavex. Our total capex reached $460 million during the first nine months, 16% lower than last year, considering the conclusion of several renewable and storage projects over the year 2023 and beginning of 2024. 62% of the total capex amounting to $263 million was related mainly to renewable and storage CAPEX deployment, and 22% equivalent to $92 million was related to grids. Asset management CAPEX reached $133 million, which represents 33% of our total CAPEX. It increased by around 50% compared to the last year figures. The reason for this increase can be found both in the generation and distribution business. In the generation business, this increase of $29 million is mostly related to maintenance activity in the Atacama ETGT power plant and in solar and wind after. In the distribution business, the increase, approximately $16 million, is due to climate events, emergencies and maintenance related to fault in the low and medium voltage lines. Talking about development in CAPEX, they reached $227 million, a decrease of 32% compared to the last year figures, mainly due to the conclusion of renewable investment projects. And now let's move to the next slide, where we have a summary of the second quarter EBITDA breakdown. In third quarter 2024, EBITDA was $405 million, which is $63 million higher than the same period in 2023. Referring to generation business, we have an increase of $68 million, thanks to a significant contribution from PPA sales. This is mainly due to higher volume, especially in the regulated markets, as mentioned by Giuseppe, and pricing effects mainly related to contract index session. Going to gas trading, we had a $11 million margin increase coming from additional trading activities. in third quarter 2022, particularly the sale of LNG cargo to Europe. Referring to Greece, the margin is higher by 5 million dollars, mainly due to the increase of remuneration linked to the publication of the EIP 2020-2024 regulatory report. This margin was totally offset by the extreme weather events, including the force majeure events of August 1st and 2nd, that affected our distribution segment. This generated $16 million of additional OPEX and other expenses, mainly related to an increase in crew dispatch, call center facilities, and generator rent and operations. Let's move now on the next slide to review the main impact on EBITDA during the nine-month period. Our EBITDA reached $1 billion, an increase of $300 million, representing a 46% improvement compared to the last year. I will stop explaining the positive aspects. First, we have a great contribution of $250 million in PPA sales, mainly related to higher volumes, particularly in the regulators' market, and PPA pricing in the free market, mainly due to the index session, in line with the efforts explained previously in the course. Second, industrial sourcing and a positive impact of $123 million. This is mainly explained by lower variable production costs due to lower thermal generation because of the remarkable hydrology of the field. Third, a positive contribution of $70 million related to commercial success, mainly explained by lower prices associated with purchases in the stock market. This effect was partially affected by higher bookshedding from third parties and the impact of PTA renegotiation that benefited us in 2023. Then we have another positive effect of $23 million from grid margin. This is mainly due to the grid remuneration linked to the publication on VAT 2020-2024. As we have seen in the quarterly analysis, this positive effect was offset by the impact of extreme weather events. The aforementioned positive effects were partially offset by a negative impact of $150 million associated with the notable gas trading activities carried out during the first nine months of 2023, amounting to approximately 29 Tera BTUs. And a negative net effect of $15 billion, mainly due to higher OPEC associated with new renewable projects, recognition of Transantiago eBusiness in 2023 for NLX, negative impact of inflection across all the businesses. Let's move on to the next slide, where we will review the net income evolution. Our nine-month 2024 net income amounted to $446 million, 62% higher than the last year's figure, mainly explained by the EBITDA improvement. Let me drive you through the additional aspects for this nine-month period. Referring to the depreciation, amortization and VAT debt, we have a higher cost for $47 million, mainly resulting from higher depreciation in energy and power due to the new renewable capacity coming into operation and children's pressure devaluation in the period. Higher VAT debt accrual increased due to the rise in credit losses associated to the higher studies. Regarding financial results and equity investments, we recorded a $63 million negative variation versus last year, mainly explained by positive exchange rate differences in 2023, higher financial expenses mainly due to effects variation and lower financial income linked to lower average interest rates partially offset by higher interest related to the tax deductibles. Talking about income taxes, we record an increase of 42 million RON, mainly due to the better results in the period. This was partially offset by a lower cost related to the of archaic assets held for sale in 2020. Focusing on the quarter, our net income increased by 3%. This is mainly explained by rising EBITDA contributions, lower tax expenses of $15 million, mainly due to lower costs for reclassification of archaic assets held for sale in 2023, and lower cost due to monetary correction. Dispositive effects were partially offset by, first, an increase in DNA and bed depth of $12 million due to higher depreciation, mainly linked to the operation of new renewable capacities in EGP, and an increase in bed depth mainly due to arise in credit losses associated to the higher tax. Second, higher financial expenses of $60 million, mainly due to positive exchange rate differences in 2023 and lower interest recognition related to PEC 2.0 in third quarter 2024 versus third quarter 2023. And now let's move to the FFAO analysis on the next slide. Let's review the composition of our FFAO for the period and the main effects versus 2020. First, let me highlight that the 2023 FFAO figures have been adjusted by $310 million due to tax paid on capital gains for the sale of Enel Transmissions in 2022. RFSAO in this nine-month period of 2024 reached $366 million, nearly in line with the same period of 2023. Excluding the 2024 tax payment for the sale of Arcadia Assets last year, RFSAO did have shown an improvement in revenues last year EBITDA in this nine-month period amounted to more than $1 billion, showing a variation of $380 million compared to the last year's figure. This is mainly due to higher PPS sales and positive performance in commercial and industrial sourcing, as I previously explained. We have also already talked about the cumulative impact of the stabilization mechanism, which amounted to $313 million. This negative aspect was partially offset by the execution of the IEB factor related to PEGS 2 and PEGS 3, which amounted to $83 million in the ninth month period. When we compare the total net of factoring for the nine months of 2024 versus 2023, we see a decrease of $270 million this year. However, this is only a temporary aspect, as we have already received an additional $630 million Working capital in the nine-month period showed a negative balance of $74 million, mostly due to cap experiments related to 2023 renewables. Compared to the last year's figures, working capital impact on FFO was positive for $84 million, mainly due to the higher accumulation of VAT tax credit in 2023. Income taxes negatively impacted our FFO by $169 million this year, primarily due to tax payments in the Generation Business in 2024 and taxes paid on the sale of Arcadia. Comparing income taxes paid in the first nine months of 2024 to 2023, we see a negative aspect of $163 million. This difference is mainly due to the tax payments of Arcadia Operations in 2024, higher tax payments in Generation Business and lower recovery from previous years. To conclude, financial expenses had a negative impact of $166 million on the 9th month of 2024 , mainly due to debt-related expenses. Once compared last year, our financial expenses decreased by $12 million in the first 9 months of 2024 compared to 2023. This decrease is mainly due to the financial related to PEC 1 in 2020. Now let's take a look at our liquid and leverage position. Our gross debt increased by 8% to 4.8 billion by the end of September 2024, compared to December 2020. This higher debt was mainly due to tech accumulation effects and seasonality of generation business. This increase in gross debt should reverse during the last quarter of 2024, considering the factory under the tech tree mechanism which took place on the last October 24th, allowing us to pay an important amount in short-term schedule lines, taking advantage of our debt flexibility. The average term of out-depth maturity slightly decreased to 5.7 years by the end of September 2024 versus the 6.1 years seen in December 2023. And the portion at the fixed rate was 75% of total debt. The average cost of out-depth reached 5.0% as of September 2024, slightly above the 4.9% recorded in December 2023, mainly due to the annual generation of the active bond maturity in April 2024 for $400 million at 4.25%. All in all, we can see a significant improvement in our leverage ratios. In this September, our net debt EBITDA ratio was 2.9, demonstrating solid decrease versus last quarter figures. Regarding debility, we are in a comfortable position to support our capital needs for the upcoming months and cope with the next year's material. Thank you all for your attention, and now I pass the floor to Giuseppe for the closing remarks.

speaker
Giuseppe Turchiarelli
Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Simone. To conclude this presentation, I would like to give you the following closing remarks. Better hydrology and incorporating new technology, such as optimization in hydro facilities and the development of batteries in our portfolio, have helped us to improve our margins. Our trading capabilities were also important in adjusting our sales portfolio, contributing to important margin in the period. As a result, we have delivered a more than solid operating and financial performance during the year. We received around $713 million through various factoring activities related to the PEC, a larger part of which came from the last week operation, which reached $630 million. The proceeds will primarily repay short-term debt, strengthening our balance sheet. As I mentioned, taking this new factoring realized in October, we expect to end the year with accrual in the range of $500 up to $550 million. Finally, to conclude, we want to invite you to the event of November 21st where we will present the new strategic plan for 2025-2027 to the financial community. More information will be provided in the coming year. Let me now hand over to Isabel.

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

Thank you, Giuseppe. Next, I'll begin with our Q&A session. We will receive questions via phone and chat in the webcast. The Q&A session is open. Carmen, please, you may start.

speaker
Carmen
Conference Host

Thank you so much. And as a reminder, that is Star 1-1 if you do have a question via telephone. One moment for the first question. And it comes from the line of Javier Suarez with Mediobanca. Please proceed.

speaker
Javier Suarez
Analyst, Mediobanca

Hi, many thanks for the presentation and for taking my questions as well. I have three questions. The first one is on the guidance. If you can elaborate on the latest guidance that you provided to the market in terms of EBITDA net income and also net debt, we should consider this guidance confirmed and the implications of the fact that the company is increasing their hydro guidance to 13 terawatts hour this year when previous guidance were 12 terawatts hour. So any light on existing guidance could be appreciated. Second question is on the recovery of regulatory receivables and the stabilization mechanism. So the question is, can you update us on your latest expectation for the timing for the recovery of the pending amount? I think that on the previous conference call, you mentioned something like $200 million in 2025 and the remaining portion in 2026 and 2027. Is that guidance still a good one? And the final question is on your latest expectations on the publication of the new distribution tariff. I think that you mentioned during the conference call that there is no significant update. So if you can give us a later thought on when the final report should be unveiled. Thank you.

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

Okay. Thank you, Javier, for your questions. I'll hand over to Giuseppe.

speaker
Giuseppe Turchiarelli
Chief Executive Officer

Yes. Okay. Let me say that for what concerns the guidance, as you probably remember, last year we presented a range of EBDA between 1.3 and 1.5, and we confirmed it. Of course, we're going to be on the upper side of the range, but we are confirming our guidance. Same confirmation for what concerns the Net Depth Dividend Ratio. We're going to be below three times that is basically our target. We feel comfortable with this ratio. And for what concerns Hydro, as you see in the presentation, we are expecting to close the year with 13 Approximately 13 that have a tower of either production Let me say that already in October We had 1.2 1.3. So we are in line. Everything is in line with our focus that people sent in the the call so this should be the production of that we're going to have at the end of the year. For what concerns PEC receivable, Simone, well, okay, maybe just to find, to analyze my part, for what concerns the 2024-2028 distribution tariff process, we don't have any kind of update we expect to have some news at the beginning of the next year when the cns the regulatory body will will issue the the feedback for uh for the technical and consult records so we are waiting for this uh this report

speaker
Simone Conticelli
Chief Financial Officer

Okay, thanks for the question. Let's talk a little bit about spec. As you know, at the beginning of the year, the deficit was quite high, 750 million. And then this debt increased during the first three quarters, because each quarter we accumulated something like $100 million of new debt. And in the first three quarters, we received as a factor in process just more or less $80 million. And so at the end of September, the situation is that we have debt about $1 billion and $100 million. The important message that already Giuseppe gave you is that in any case, the increase in status change the situation. Starting from two weeks ago with the PDP of second half, we are not accumulating more or less any other PEC receivable. And so from now on, the PEC amount should decrease each month. Now, as we have already commented, we received a cash-in of $630 million the 24th of October. And given this cash-in, at the end of the year, our position should be in a range among $500 and $550 million. This amount should be cashed in mainly in the next two years. The larger amount, more or less, $200 million in the first year, 2025, and the most of the remaining in 2026. We expect just a small part to be cashed in in 2027, and in particular, we are talking about the FACT-1 mechanism. As you know, This mechanism considers that as part of the total debt will be cashed in through the tax. And so we have to wait for the end of the period that is 2029.

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

Thank you, Simone. Operator, do we have more questions online?

speaker
Carmen
Conference Host

We do not have any other questions. Back to you for webcast.

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

OK, thank you. So Giuseppe and Simone, are you start with some questions that we have received from the analysts and investors connected. So the first one is coming from Francisco Paz from Santander. Francisco is saying, thanks for the presentation. The question is the following. We have observed a positive water availability during this year and the previous one. which has helped the company to reduce cost pressures and increase hydro generation. Going forward and in the context of uncertainty for water availability in the long term, what do you assume is the reasonable estimate of hydro generation in the medium to long term for the company in the long term?

speaker
Giuseppe Turchiarelli
Chief Executive Officer

Well, let me say that we are clearly happy to have this tier with a very good hydrological condition. We do not consider this tier as a proxy for the following year. So we used to project in terms of hydro condition the last 10, 11 year average. So in general, we are tuned to have around 10, 11 terawatt hour per year. estimation, as soon as we're going to see a different kind of path in terms of hydrology, we are going to change our estimation. But as of today, we keep our estimation around 10, 11 terawatt-hours per year.

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

Okay. Thank you, Giuseppe. So we have some questions now from Andrew McCartney from Lorraine Vial. So the first question is also related to the hydro generation, but I think we have covered now the question. So the second one relating to the pack, the pack tree. So when do you expect to sell more pack tree receivables and how much do you expect to receive?

speaker
Simone Conticelli
Chief Financial Officer

So I think that we have answered also to this question, but I will focus on the specific question, thank you. We are keep on selling the PEC debt going with the new decrees that we need. And we are expecting to have cash for around 200 or something more million US dollar.

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

by the end of 2025 this is the first block of the effect that we are going to question okay thank you simone so we have another question from andrew uh that's also other investors analysts have sent to us so do you see more gas commercialization opportunities for the first quarter

speaker
Giuseppe Turchiarelli
Chief Executive Officer

Well, at this moment, we don't expect any additional sales of cargo for the rest of the year. Clearly, we are always looking at any opportunity to increase our profitability. But as of today, we don't have any sales of cargo in front of us.

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

Okay, thank you. So the last question from Andrew is, do we expect the distribution business to return to normalize its operating profit in the fourth quarter of this year? Or should there be more negative impacts from fines or compensation to clients for services interruption that occurred in 2024?

speaker
Giuseppe Turchiarelli
Chief Executive Officer

For what concerns the distribution business, of course, we are still evaluating all the activities that we need in order to put our grid to the original status. We are waiting also and discussing for what concerns the possible fines or compensation, and we're going to give you more detail during our investor day.

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

Okay, thank you. We have some questions from Inacio Sabele from Itaú. So the questions are also very similar to the ones that we have already answered, but just to focus on the PEC-2. So how much we expect the receivable accumulation regarding the PEC-3 going forward? Simone, just to rephrase, as we have several questions on this.

speaker
Simone Conticelli
Chief Financial Officer

Yes, as we have commented in this moment, segment of customers with the consumption below 350 and with consumption higher of 350 are started to pay basic, the fair price, the cost of the system, and then also a component that is needed to recover. So from now on, but not significant increase or accumulation of PEC.

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

Okay, thank you. So a question from now coming from Martin Arancet from Balance. Also on PEC, but he is asking more details about the usage of the funds from the PEC 3 that we received in early October.

speaker
Simone Conticelli
Chief Financial Officer

Okay. Thank you for the question. As you have commented, the 24th of October, we received a payment of more or less $630 million. This cash in was received by Enel, and Enel used the money to reduce the debt position in the short term. And part of the money was invested also in the short term at the market interest rate. Clear. We keep on looking ahead to have further opportunity to optimize also the long term debt. And on the other side, you know that financial stability is one of our core goals. for our strategy, because you can leverage on that to grab eventual opportunities that can pop up in the market. And so this increase of our financial stability is a very positive aspect that can enable us to do more things in the future.

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

Okay. Thank you, Simone. So we have one more from Martin. He's asking, if I'm not mistaken, the government is preparing a technical report to evaluate if a distribution has taken the proper steps to return service to clients after the extreme weather event conditions. Could you give any call on the timeline of this report, your expectations, and also your options if it has a negative outcome?

speaker
Giuseppe Turchiarelli
Chief Executive Officer

Okay, so let me first mention the fact that the process of revoking the concession has not yet started. The Minister of Energy tasked the SEC with preparing a technical report on energy distribution concession. According to the authority, this study should take between six and 18 months. And once it's going to be ready, it will be delivered to the President of the Republic for review, and only the President of the Republic of Chile, through a decree, can start the process. So we are waiting for the report that should be issued by the SEC, in order to understand whether this technical body see any possibility or any suggestion in order to revoke or to suggest the revoking of the concession. Just to be clear, the current law excludes any possible revocation of the concession in case of force majeure. This is the reason because we believe that any report from the SEC should give this kind of suggestion because is it clear from the situation that has been occurred in August that the force majeure is clearly part of the bank let me say and what we're gonna do in case of negative outcome well Clearly, we're going to start with all the legal action locally and internationally. So we're going to start really defending our interests in terms of concessions.

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

Okay, thank you, Giuseppe. We received all the questions also from Rodrigo Moura, but they're the same on distribution and also on gas commercialization. So, Tomas Gonzalez from Escoria Bank. Some questions we haven't answered, but I go to the dividends. Also, he's asking regarding the dividends, do you plan to play an interim dividend before the year-end? Any possibility to increase the payout in the future? is mentioned because of the funds of the PEC.

speaker
Simone Conticelli
Chief Financial Officer

Okay. Talking about energy action, the dividend policy of energy action is to increase through the year the dividend. In this moment, this cash in is in line with the possibility to stay in the policy. And in the very short term, so we will reach in the future until the 70% of the dividend. And so this money are very good news now because we need to stay with our policy. But in my opinion, and this is a matter for the board of directors, for the assembly of the owners of the company, in my opinion, there will be not big changes regarding the policy.

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

Okay, thank you. So let me check here. We have other questions. Okay, so we have one from Martin Pozo. So he's asking us, can you give more detail about the impact the company might have with the increase of the green taxes in case the new project law is approved? Can you give you more detail, Giuseppe Simone?

speaker
Giuseppe Turchiarelli
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, well, let me remind you that last year we paid $15 million in green taxes. And we have a very good mix in terms of plant fleet. Our CCGT supply with a very competitive gas contrast And the green tax, at the end of the day, represents a very low percentage of our thermal power plants. We have several options in order to compensate these taxes, but at the end of the day, as I said before, the law is under discussion, it's at the beginning of the discussion actually, and the amount of the taxes are almost very, very low.

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

Okay, thank you, Giuseppe. So one more from Rodrigo Mora from Patria Moneda. He's asking about Los Condores project, okay? So he's asking if we could give more color about the status of testing of Los Condores and the energy generated expected to this plant. Giuseppe, if you can give more on how we are in Los Congres and then Simone, the generation of Los Congres.

speaker
Giuseppe Turchiarelli
Chief Executive Officer

Okay. Well, Los Congres project is in a very good shape right now because we already started the pre-commissioning test. We are going ahead and we are pretty sure to have the first synchronization in the following month for sure before the end of the year and we we expect we could have a very good surprise in the following weeks but let me say just to be conservative by the end of the at the end of the year

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

Okay, thank you. Simone, on the generation, please.

speaker
Simone Conticelli
Chief Financial Officer

Talking about the generation of this new plant, we can give a range of production expected for the next year, and it should be 150 and 200 gigawatt hours for one year.

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

Okay, thank you. So we have one from Andres Barberis from MEBI. So the question is on Andresis. Thank you for the presentation. I have a question regarding the regulated sales. We observed an year-over-year increase of 550 gigawatts. Is this increase driven by higher demand in your current PPAs, or is it due to the start of a new regulated contract?

speaker
Giuseppe Turchiarelli
Chief Executive Officer

Well, basically, the increase in sales are connected to a new contract that started recently this year actually and it was a regulated standard that we won in 2017 so it's a matter of perimeter so we have a new ppa entering our portfolio okay

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

Thank you, Giuseppe. So, Carmen Operito, do we have any more questions online?

speaker
Carmen
Conference Host

Yes, we do. We have a follow-up. One moment, please.

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

Okay, thank you.

speaker
Carmen
Conference Host

From the line of Javier Suarez with Mediobanca, please proceed.

speaker
Javier Suarez
Analyst, Mediobanca

Thank you. I'm sorry for coming back again. It's on the guidance. You mentioned that the guidance for the EBITDA in 2024 is now seen at the upper end of the range, the previous range, $1.3 to $1.5 billion. If you can confirm that, if you can share with us also the guidance for the net income. Thank you.

speaker
Giuseppe Turchiarelli
Chief Executive Officer

Okay. I confirm you on that it's going to be at upper range, so around or closer to 1.3 rather than 1.3, so upper range. And for what concerns the net income, similar situation. I mean, we are going to confirm the guidance at the upper range that we presented last year.

speaker
Isabella Clemes
Head of Investor Relations

Okay, thank you. If there is no more questions, I would like to conclude our conference call. The investor relations team is available to answer any questions you may have. Many thanks for your attention. Have a great rest of the week and see you soon at our investor day. Thank you.

speaker
Carmen
Conference Host

Thank you. And with that, we conclude today's conference. You may now disconnect.

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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