Pampa Energia S.A.

Q3 2021 Earnings Conference Call

11/11/2021

spk02: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for waiting. I'm Margarita Chung from IAR. We would like to welcome everyone to Pampa Energía's third quarter 2021 results video conference. We inform you that this event is being recorded. All participants will be in listen-only mode during the presentation. After the company's remarks, after the Yeah, a lot of echo maybe. Please give us a few minutes. We are fixing some technical problems. We apologize for the problem. I'll start again the video conference. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for waiting. I'm Margarita Chung from IR, and we would like to welcome everyone to Pampa Energías' third quarter 2021 results video conference. We inform you that this event is being recorded. All participants will be in listen-only mode during the presentation. After the company's remarks, there will be a Q&A session. Questions can only be submitted in writing through Zoom. Should any participant need assistance, please send us a chat message or email. Before proceeding, please read the disclaimer that is located on the second page of our presentation. Let me mention that forward-looking statements are based on Pampa Energía's management beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to the company. They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions because they are related to future events that may or may not occur. Investors should understand that general economic conditions and industry conditions and other operating factors could also affect the future results of Pampa Energía and could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Now I'll turn the video conference over to Gustavo Mariani, our CFO. Gustavo Mariani
spk06: Hello, everybody, and thank you for joining our conference call. In case you miss the news, I'm sorry. In case you missed the news, Gabby Cohen, after sharing 18 years with us, decided to step down from his CFO position. Fortunately, he will remain as a member of our board of directors, so we will continue taking advantage of his wisdom and expertise. Gabby's well-earned trust and respect from the investor community has allowed Pampa to become the company that it is today. So our appreciation is tough to say in a few words. Gabby, thank you very much for all you have done for the company. Yesterday, the Board of Directors accepted Gavi's resignation and appointed Nico Las Mindlin, who is sitting at my right, as our new CFO. Nico is an industrial engineer. He has been leading the M&A division of Pampa for eight years already. He has played a key role in the acquisition of Petrobras Argentina, significant milestone for our company, and since then has been focusing, among other things, in reorganizing the portfolio of assets to focus in the core business that we have today. Nico, together with Gabby's team, has all that is necessary to succeed in his role. So we wish him good luck in his new endeavor.
spk05: Thank you, Gustavo, for your support.
spk04: Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining. I'm very excited to begin this new chapter of my professional career in Pampa. I have been working in Pampa along Gustavo, Gabi and all of Pampa's team and partners for the last eight years. Gabi has done an excellent job on the financial front. He has put together an excellent team. So the idea is to continue on the same path. So now that travels and conferences are slowly resuming, I can't wait to meet all of Pampa's investors in person soon. So now I will pass to Lida, who will briefly comment on the quarter highlights, and then later we will open to the Q&A.
spk01: Thank you, Nico. Hello, everyone. In the interest of time, I will summarize the latest events and financial figures for more details. You can check our earnings release or feel free to contact us. On quarters highlights, our EMP business achieved all-time high production of almost 330 million cubic feet per day in September, as you can see in the graph. Also, we recorded the highest single-day output at 350 million cubic feet per day, precisely on September 15. The recovery of demand, exports, and planned gas have been the main contributors for this growth. Moreover, This month, we participated in the third round of Plan GAS, a take-or-pay auction to fill the remaining idle capacity at New Guinea Basin. We tendered and got awarded 71 million QE fee per day, two-thirds of the total tender volume, committing to deliver from May 2022 until December 2024 at $3.35 per new BTU, Therefore, the following winter, we should be producing a new all-time high of 400 million cubic feet per day, building an annual average price of $3.6 per million BTU. We highlight that Pampa is the only producer delivering the most significant gas increase compared to the winter of 2020. In power generation, we are moving on with the PP3 wind farm expansion project by doubling its capacity to reach a total of 106 megawatts. We estimate roughly $80 million of investment that will allow us to keep increasing our clean energy portfolio and strengthening our position in the business to business market. In Q3, we achieve a substantial leverage reduction. Our net debt decreased by $125 million in a single quarter. Year to date, we have accumulated $230 million of net leverage reduction. Finally, we just wanted to let you know that we released our 2020 sustainability report, audited for the first time. We show material improvements in water, consumption, energy consumption, carbon footprint, intensities, in line with the previous year's efforts to invest in efficient power technology and focus on gas. We seek transparency to share our ESG performance with our stakeholders, and your opinion is always welcome. Now, Let's move on to the quarter's financial KPIs. Revenues increased 49% year-on-year to $577 million in the quarter, mainly driven by planned gas boosted by the winter season. Demand recovery and commodities price hikes. All of them were partially offset by certain power plant outages and tariff freeze in our utility businesses. In Q3, over 85% of our sales and EVDA were dollar-linked. The adjusted EVDA amounted to $262 million, 27% year-on-year due to the same reasons detailed before, upset by higher EMP activity. Quarter on quarter, ABDA increased by 9%, mainly due to decisionality and higher Petken volume sub, offset by increased raw material costs in Petken and outages at Energia Plus power units. Thanks to the strong investments and production growth, oil and gas is balancing back its ABDA share for the first time in three years. CAPEX almost doubled year on year, in Q3, but remain similar quarter to quarter, mainly because of the planned gas and barrage expansion, upset by the commissioning of Genelva's second CCGT back in July 2020. Moving on to power generation, as seen in slide 7. we posted an adjusted VBA of $126 million in Q3, slightly lower year-on-year, mainly due to the outages that we said before, and the end of Quirinda's 10-year PPA, upset by higher B2B sales and higher thermal dispatch, especially at Loma. In the legacy units, the 29% PESOT they received last February was diluted by the inflation, the evaluation, sorry. Quarter on quarter, EVDA increased marginally due to the better B2B sales and seasonality, upset by the retracted spot price update. Spot energy is 59% of our capacity, but only represented 24% of our power generation EVDA, which will keep shrinking unless recognition of prior adjustments keep up with the evaluation. As these essential units to the grid continue being underpaid, it will be challenging to maintain them properly. However, recently, the government approved a price improvement for thermal legacy units, especially those with low low-factor. Said improvement is temporary, payable between September and May, and linked with the electricity exports made by Camisa. Moving to PAMPAS operating figures, power generation in Q3 was 13% up year-on-year, surpassing nationwide demand. We recorded higher CCGT dispatch at Loma and Generva No. 1 CCGT due to the better gas supply, plus increased demand thermal dispatch with alternative fuels, offset by the plus units outages and low water input at Pichipicum, Lufo. Quarter on quarter, the output rose 18%, driven by seasonality, but offset by the aforementioned outages. The power generation business model relies on capacity payments, so the most important is to keep the availability as high as possible, especially for PPAs. The availability rate in Q3 reached 95%, slightly lower year-on-year, mainly due to new wheelers and Energia Plus units' partial outages. Regarding our expansions, the closing to CCGT at Ensenada Barragán is more than 60% advanced. We continue working on the steam turbine, cooling tower, boilers, and diverters. Also, we are finishing the civil works and commissioning the high-voltage field. Around 1,700 people work in two shifts with all the COVID protocols in place to achieve the COD by second quarter of 2022. Moving to the EMP, we posted an adjusted VDA of $104 million in Q3, a remarkable growth year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter, driven by planned gas, winter season, and demand recovery, offset by more royalties and resumption of activity. Our total lifting costs increased 36% year-on-year and 26% quarter-on-quarter, explained by higher production output However, lifting costs per unit stood at $6 per BOE, 11% more than last year, but similar to Q2. This is mainly thanks to El Mangrucho's high productivity. Our global production increased 23% year-on-year and 20% quarter-on-quarter. Again, mainly driven by planned gas winter and the local all-demand recovery to pre-pandemic levels. As a result, we average more than 57,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, of which 92% is gas. On the other side, which represented 23% of the segment's revenue in the quarter, volume sold increased by 40% year-on-year and 31% quarter-on-quarter to 5.9 thousand barrels per day, mainly explained by the local demand upset by lower exports. An oil price driven by the rent was 50% increase compared to the last year, but remains similar quarter to quarter. Regarding gas, as shown in slide 10, our volume sold average 326 million cubic feet per day in the quarter, roughly 25% up year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter for the reasons as pointed before. Going back to our production performance, as I said before, we reached an all-time high record in September. Again, El Mangrucho led the quarter's growth, contributing close to 70% of our overall gas. This block is wholly owned and operated by us with outstanding productivity boosted by the increased treatment capacity. Our average price of the quarter was $4.4 per mu BTU, 76% up year-on-year, and 14% increase quarter-on-quarter. Again, explained by the plant gas interpeak. The B2B and spot prices out of this GSA also reflected the seasonality similar to plant gas pricing levels. As you can see right below, the year-to-date sales are more diversified, similar to the country's breakdown. Gas retailers are also part of the planned gas, and they have priorities during the winter, increasing their share to 39%. Also, we are growing, as you can see, our B2B share. Regarding our EMP operations update, we strengthened our investment by recording $62 million during the quarter, while it was marginal last year. This quarter, we drilled eight tight gas wells. Also, we completed 16 wells, of which 15 are tight, and one is shelled from Sierra Chata. a block that reached the maximum production rate of 28 million cubic feet per day, becoming one of the most productive gas wells in Vaca Muerta. Also, as I said in the previous call, we are expanding the gas treatment plant at El Mangrucho, reaching about 310 million cubic feet per day by the first half of next year. In oil, we drilled 13 wells and completed 10 at El Gobernador, Ashala, and El Tordillo. Moving to the petrochemical business, we posted an adjusted VDA of $7 million in the Q3. Similar year-on-year, the higher raw material costs and plant gas impact compensated for the significant rise in commodity prices and industrial demand recovery. Quarter-on-quarter, the ABDA have driven by higher raw material costs offset by increased sales of reforming products. The year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter total sales volume increase was significant, especially in reforming products. In addition, roughly 50% of the quarter sales were exported. About cash and debt, though we are raising our capex to accommodate fund gas commitments, we must highlight another quarter with solid cash flow generation, driven by the outstanding operating performance from our core businesses and improved margins in the upstream. During Q3, the free cash flow resulted in roughly $108 million. In comparison, last year's quarter represented a $68 million outflow due to the higher working capital. Notice that this quarter, working capital and others were positive, mostly explained by improved collections from Kamesa, as shown in slide 13. Delays halved to 23 days compared to the maximum 46 days achieved in Q1 of this year. In addition, we repaid a net of $60 million of principal debt and bought back shares for $3 million. So in total, we generated $44 million of net cash, achieving $507 million of cash position by the end of the quarter. Moving on to the slide 14, this slide shows consolidated figures, including our affiliates and ownership, but let's focus only on the restricted group that reflects the BOM parameters. As we began the call, our balance sheet keeps strengthening despite the context. We continue to reduce the gross debt, having canceled most of the passive maturities during the quarter for $65 million, posting $1.5 billion as of September 2021. Almost 100% of the debt is denominated in dollars, up from the 96% in June. The dollar debt bears an average interest rate of 7.8%. The average life remains similar at 4.7 years. As said before, cash increased 10% quarter-on-quarter to $507 million. Therefore, net debt decreased by $125 million to $917 million, a remarkable reduction just in a single quarter. Given the lower debt and higher VDA, the net leverage ratio improved from 1.7 to 1.4 times quarter-on-quarter. In the next 12 months, the company faces less than $20 million of maturities. Therefore, we expect to keep strengthening our balance sheet. As a result, S&P upgraded our standalone rating to B-. So this concludes our presentation. And before we would like to open the Q&A session, Mike,
spk02: Yes, thank you for waiting. The floor is now open for questions. If you have a question, please send us through the Zoom chat. We will read and answer them in the order received. Also, please make sure your name and company are adequately displayed to introduce you to the audience. Please lower your hand once your question is answered. Should any participant need assistance, send us a chat message or raise your hand. Please hold while we poll for questions. Our first question is from Frank McGann from Bank of America. How much additional upside do you see in gas over the next few years? To what extent could this be held or limited by transportation capacity?
spk06: Hi, Frank, and thank you for joining us in the call. We believe that the transportation capacity going out from the Neuquina Basin will be almost or completely full next winter. So, as we have been saying, we talked about this in the previous conference call, it is crucial for the country to increase its infrastructure, its transportation capacity from the Neuquina Basin to to Buenos Aires, to the center of the country. And the government is fortunately working on that project. We hope it will be launched soon, but we have no clarity on when will that happen. But definitely the country, in order to continue increasing the gas production at the Neuquina Basin, there is a need to build new infrastructure. And this makes a lot of sense for the country because with this new pipeline, The country will be replacing expensive imports that we do, gas from Bolivia that cost around double from what the local producers are receiving. We will import less LNG, which costs less. at least four or five times more expensive. And we are also importing during the winter diesel oil and fuel oil. Needing for all these imports dollars that are scarce in the country. Regarding the additional lab site for a company like us, until this new pipeline is constructed, it could come from exports to Chile. And now that the transportation capacity out of the Neuquina basin is completely full, it makes sense to allow firm exports to Chile not only on the summer month, but throughout the year. I think that that will be the next step of growth for the industry. So I'm going to numbers because of what we have committed on the third round, our growth, On winter of 2022, this winter will be roughly about 30%. So next winter, we will be delivering 11 million cubic meters of natural gas per day, starting in May. vis-a-vis an average of 8.5 million cubic meters of gas per day that we delivered this winter. This winter we have been ramping up, started at 7 and ended in September at 9.5. Unfortunately, Originally, we were thinking that our production was going to slow down during the summer months. But thanks to the exports of electricity that the country is doing to Brazil, we are able to maintain the production. So we currently are selling the same level that we gas that we sold during the winter and we are keeping a plateau of 9.3, 9.5 billion cubic meters of gas per day. And we think this situation will stay throughout the summer and probably until next May when our production will jump again to 11 million.
spk02: Thank you, Bruce. Our next question comes from Ezequiel Fernandez from Balance. His first question is about results were great on the oil and gas side, but lifting costs have been increasing as of late. At $6 per barrel, this is almost $1 per barrel versus one year ago. Is this related to the production run path? perhaps cost surges related to global supply chain. How should we think about this going forward? There is a second question, but let's answer the first one.
spk01: Hi, Ezequiel. How are you? So basically, yes, it's an important increase in our production. That's why there's more fixed costs. And also we This is the first year of the planned gas, and last year we did nothing. There was totally no activity compared to this year. And then there's a lot of increases in salaries and wages. So in real terms, in dollars, it's an increase.
spk02: And the second question is very related to the first one. Also, are you perceiving cost increases on rigs and drilling equipment that you should be using next year? or are you already contracted for that?
spk06: We are already contracted and we've seen a slight increase in cost, but nothing out of normal.
spk02: Thank you. Thank you, Gus. Our next question comes from Alejandra Aranda from Itaú. It's very related to the first question of Frank. Could you give us an update of what you're seeing in the gas market and bottlenecks to further develop the segment and timing of next planned gas start round or further alternatives that you could explore to continue increasing volumes? Or should we view the 11 million cubic meters per day on winter as steady state for the near future? Could you share development costs and what IRR cut are you using for new projects?
spk01: Well, it says we should be viewing. It depends. If we get the new pipeline, the new main pipeline that the government is pushing a lot to make it happen, we could see by 2023, I would say 2024, given the timing of building a better and higher winter production. by 2024. You saw in the presentation, we expect to get 11 million by 2022, but in order to increase from that, we are still linked, depends on the expansion in the main pipeline. What do you think about that, Gustavo, about the bottlenecks?
spk06: The reason why we were so aggressive in this third round is because we understand two things. One is that we understand that until the new pipeline is working, the gas market from the Neuquina Basin will be very much constrained. That's why we wanted to be aggressive here. The second reason why we were very aggressive is because of the quality of our portfolio. And the reason why we are so competitive and we have... I'm not comfortable giving IRRs, but I can tell you that it's a comfortable... IRR expectation that we have. But our portfolio, we are still able to continue developing shale tight gas reserve instead of shale gas. Most of our colleagues in the industry, in order to maintain production or to slightly grow its production, has been going after or developing shale gas while we have the fortune of having within our portfolio still good reserves of tight gas which are favorable in economic terms vis-a-vis shale. That's why we've been so aggressive. So going forward, after the growth that we will have in 2022, and until new infrastructure is built, the only chance to continue growing, as I said, is through exports to Chile. So increasing our market share of export to Chile. That is the situation.
spk02: Thank you, August. Our next question comes from Constantino Papalias from Puente. Good morning and congratulations on the results. Thank you. Could you share your expectations on the EBITDA impact by the maturity of the 180 megawatt PPA of Loma de la Lata steam turbine?
spk01: Hi, Constantinos. How are you? So there's two PPAs that matured this year, one very small, Quirienda. in July of this year. And then the big one, Loma La Lata, combined performance basis, it's $60 million per year of decrease. So they will be building around $15 million per year of VTA, as we speak. Going forward, I mean, spot energy.
spk02: Thank you, Liz. Our next question comes from Guillermo Levy from Morgan Stanley. I wanted to understand the current appetite to advance in new M&A in EMP. If the company could take advantage of the current macro environment to expand its shale acreage at a more attractive valuation, even if shale gas exploration is not a priority at this point.
spk05: Can you repeat the question?
spk02: Sorry, I wanted to understand the current appetite to advance in new M&A opportunity in EMP. If the company could take advantage of the current macro environment to expand its shale acreage at a more attractive valuation, even if shale gas exploration is not a priority at this point.
spk06: I would say that we are very comfortable with the gas reserve and the portfolio on natural gas that we have, and we don't need to increase those reserves. It could be different on the oil side. As always been in our history and continues to be, we are always searching for opportunities. Nothing concrete has... has materialized, but we're still looking for opportunities on the oil side, oil reserves in Argentina.
spk02: Thank you, Gus. There is one question about M&A from Michael Shen. It's very related to the last one. what opportunities to invest or acquire gas-related assets given the improving outlook? Is the probability of the new pipeline increasing based on support from an interest of the IMF?
spk06: No, I think the part of the money I already answered. We are not looking... doesn't make sense for us to increase our portfolio of natural gas. Not even if the pipeline is built and we can significantly increase our production. We have a We have reserves of excellent quality, probably the most competitive of the Neuquina Basin. So we don't see a need to increase our portfolio there. Regarding the IMF, I have no clue what the IMF is. things about this, but I would say that it's so obvious that it will help the macro of Argentina. The cost of building this pipeline will be repaid almost immediately, probably in a year, year and a half, two years. Obviously, it will depend on at what price the winter gas is sold in Argentina and what is the import parity that we will be replacing. But I'm sure within current pricing gets repaid very, very quickly. So Although I cannot tell you for sure, I would say that to anyone that analyzes the situation, it's very obvious that Argentina needs to do this pipeline.
spk02: Thank you, Gus. Our next question comes, there was another question from Ezequiel Fernandez from Balance. The second question is related to the cash position. With the 2022 cash flow also expected to be pretty good, what are you thinking about cash uses regarding buybacks, the 2023 bonds, or possible investment during the next year?
spk06: Regarding our cash position, we have First, we'll be increasing our investments within our core businesses. So in order to increase our gas production by 30% next year, that is a significant capex that we will be doing. We will also... We hope to lead a... said we are eager to expand our wind farm, PP3, by deciding between 60 to 80 megawatts of capacity and started construction as soon as possible. And regarding repurchase of our own assets, you know that we do that on an opportunistic situation. So if there is an opportunity to repurchase our own debt or assets, our own shares, we would probably go back to that. We have not been doing so recently because of the price. Because both our debt and our shares have been recently going up, so we've stopped repurchase of shares and we haven't been repurchasing our own debt for a while. but we might resume at any time if there is an opportunity.
spk02: Thank you, Guus. Our next question comes from Anne Mille from Bank of America. She has two questions. The first one, you commented there was a temporary price increases for some thermal capacity between September and May and linked with exports by CAMESA. Can you tell us more about this, please? And this is not only for thermal, it's also for hydros.
spk06: Yeah, it was just published a few days ago. And it's two things. For the legacy capacity in power generation, Machines that had a low dispatch were not collecting the full price of capacity. They were collecting, if I'm not wrong, 70% of the full price of capacity because of their low dispatch, 60% of the price of the capacity. what they have eliminated this reduction factor. So, and they did it on a retroactive since September. So from September to May, this reduction in the price of capacity has disappeared. That, in our case, helps our Central Térmica Güemes in the north and Central Piedra Buena in the south of the province of Buenos Aires, which are steam turbines that have low dispatch. That roughly, to give you an idea, has $1.2 million per month of additional revenues. And the other news was this new fund related to export of electricity to Brazil. And as long as CAMESA continues, And we think that it will continue throughout all the summer and into until next May, exporting electricity to Brazil. Part of that profit is shared with the legacy capacity. So I think it's $10 per megawatt hour that goes to this fund. And the fund is shared among the units that have dispatched energy during that month. And for example, for us in the month of September, that was an additional $1.2 million of revenues. So in total, both these two new regulatory changes added in September $2.5 million of revenues.
spk02: Thank you, Guus. Our second question from Anne Milne is a 2022 outlook. Let me mention that we don't give any guidance we can give you what we have in the budget. The question is, what are your current CAPEX forecasts for next year? How do you expect the power and oil and gas market to evolve next year? To the extent it is possible to provide any commentaries.
spk01: Hi, Anne. How are you? So this year has been a very interesting year. Next year, we expect to maintain a little bit lower the EMP capex. EMP this year is forecasted to end at around $200 million. Next year, it will be close to that, but a little bit lower because a lot has been done this year. That's the first year of Plan GAS. Power generation will remain very similar, a little bit higher. This year was $40 million. Next year, we are expecting to do only 60. This is just maintenance. There's no expansions in this, and this is not including Barragan. And that's it. This year total, it's $250 million. more or less, of CapEx, and next year we are expecting something a little bit lower than that, but pretty similar.
spk02: Thank you, Liz. Our next question comes from Florencia Majorga from MetLife. After impressive deliberation, what's next for Pampa? Do you expect to keep leverage below 1.5 times on consistent basis?
spk04: Okay, so the answer would be no. In general terms, we feel comfortable below 2.5x. But if there are some opportunities for investment in the upcoming years, that ratio could increase a little bit.
spk02: Thank you, Nico. Our next question comes from Carolina Carneiro from Credit Suisse. This is related to the legacy remuneration in addition to the transitionary remuneration we got this month. Do we have any update for price adjustment scheme for legacy capacity generation? Any views on generation dispatch you can share for next quarters given hydro situation in Latin America and possible impacts from La Niña?
spk06: No, we are not envisioning. I think what we have just received regarding remuneration of our legacy capacity will be all until next February. That is when the next February we should be getting the price adjustment. As remember this year, we've got a 29% increase. It was slightly below 2020 inflation. We think that this February, we will be collecting something similar to 2021 inflation. That's what I think is most probable scenario, but... It's personal expectation. There's no guidance from the regulator.
spk02: Thank you, Gus. Our next question is an additional question from Alejandra Aranda from Bank Itaú. Follow up, how much do you believe we could export to Chile and what kind of prices are you getting?
spk06: We are currently exporting 1.5 million cubic meters of natural gas per day to Colbún. That's on a firm basis. And then... How do you say? Yes, spot gas. we are selling around an additional, in average, it changes every day, but around half a million cubic meter of gas, additional gas. So between 1.8 to 2 million cubic meters of natural gas per day is what we are currently selling to Chile. expectation going forward but it's not going to happen until probably next spring in Argentina could be to double those exports but it's not something that would happen in the short term we are at full production capacity these days And until May of next year, we are almost at full capacity of production.
spk02: Thank you, Gus. Please hold while we poll for more questions. Our next question comes from Liliana Young from HSBC. Could you please disclose CAPEX plans per business segment? Keep in mind that this is not a guidance. This is the latest budget that we have.
spk01: Hi, Lily. How are you? So because some people are saying that they couldn't hear this part. Basically, this year, we are ending $250 million of capex. This is at the restricted group, 200 from EMP. Next year, we are estimating something a little bit lower than that. It's around 180, 90, not very high. different from this year, but a little bit lower. Our generation is a little bit higher. This year was $40 million of maintenance capex. Remember that we ended all our expansions in the restricted group. Next year, there's some special maintenance capex that we have to do, so we will ramp up from 40 to 60. And then the rest is very small, just a pit camp. So overall, this year, 250. Next year, around 240, around those levels. Very similar, but lower.
spk02: Thank you, Lydia. Please hold while we poll for more questions. Our next question and final one is from Alonso Mesa from Larraín. How do you feel about your current netback level? Should we expect further deterioration of the lifting costs?
spk06: No, we are not expecting a further deterioration of the listing costs, and we are comfortable, as shown by the aggressiveness in the last round of the plant gas bidding. We are very comfortable with the net back levels that we have in the natural gas business.
spk02: Thank you, Gus. This concludes the Q&A session. We will turn to Lida for final remarks.
spk01: Well, thank you so much for joining us in this exciting quarter. Gus, Gaby, Nico, would you like to make some remarks? Gaby, some words? Please.
spk00: Just a goodbye. Well, hi, everybody. Just to say goodbye, as Gustavo mentioned, this has been a very great 18 years in this position. And I am stepping down only on my executive function, but I will stay in the board. So it's also a great honor for me. And, well, essentially, I... I don't know what I'm going to do. So let's assume it's like a kind of sabbatical. And I'm quite confident that the pampa is in very good shape. So that's why I felt comfortable to make this move at this point in time. So I know that Nico and all the team will make a great job. And I'm also here. So new generation and... for new transactions as I hope that will come hopefully soon. So thank you very much for everybody.
spk01: All right, see you next quarter in March. Thank you so much. Any questions, just let us know, write us, contact us, we are available for you.
spk02: This concludes today's presentation. Thank you for joining. You may disconnect at this time. Goodbye.
Disclaimer

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