ENCE Energía y Celulosa, S.A.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Ignacio Colmenares, Executive Chairman, and Alfredo Abello, CFO. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining NCES Second Quarter 2024 Results Conference call. Our CFO, Alfredo Abello, and our head of IR, Alberto Valdez, are also connected to this call. After the presentation, we will be pleased to answer any questions you may have. I'd like to start with the main highlights of the quarter on slide six. The pulp price recovery continued during the second quarter, boosted by strong pulp demand growth, low pulp inventories, and pulp supply constraints. Our average net pulp price improved by 127 euros per tonne compared to the previous quarter, and by €150 per tonne compared to the same quarter of last year, up to an average net price of €728 per tonne, boosted by strong part demand and supply constraints. At the same time, we were able to reduce our cash costs by €13 per tonne compared to the previous quarter, and by 60 euros per ton, compared to the same quarter of last year, down to 474 euros per ton, largely due to lower raw material and logistics costs. Both levers contributed to lift our path operating margin by 140 euros per ton, compared to the previous quarter, and by 210 euros per ton, compared to the same quarter of last year, up to 254 euros per ton in the second quarter. We expect to keep a strong operating margin in the third quarter, as I will show you later. Continuing with slide seven, as we anticipated, the new methodology for quarterly updating the cash remuneration of biomass plants was published in June. According to this new methodology, we should sell and cash our energy output at an average regulated price of €115 per MWh. As a result, the former regulatory collar has been eliminated. Our business cash flow generation is now aligned with EBITDA and our cash generation profile has improved. This year, the use of this new methodology will improve our initial cash flow forecast by over 60 million. Let's move on to slide nine, which summarizes our outlook for the past business in the coming quarter. The European PIX price is flattening out at high levels. we only expect a small fall of the PIX price on the third quarter. Take note that our PIX sales represent over 60% of the total. The price of these contracts are based on the PIX price of one or two months ago. That is why we see a high price for a large amount of our sales during the quarter, despite some falls in the sports market. We see a strong average price for the third quarter. At the same time, our cash cost is also expected to stabilize during the third quarter, despite the Pontevedra value bid maintenance shutdown scheduled for September. Both levers will contribute to maintaining a strong operating margin and cash flow generation in the PAL business during the third quarter. On the other hand, our operating costs in the value-added business should continue the downward trend in the coming quarters, contributing to an improved BDA and cash flow generation. As you can see on the following slide, number 10, our shareholder remuneration policy is based on cash generation and on our prudent leverage limit for business. We have approved a first interim dividend against 2024 results amounting to 26 million euros, equivalent to 0.107 euro per share, payable at the 7th of August. The first interim dividend Payment implies 3.4% yield over yesterday's closing price. According to our shareholder remuneration policy, a second interim dividend will be decided by the end of October. I now invite Alfredo to elaborate further on our financial results.

Thank you, Ignacio. Let's continue with the financial performance of our pulse business in slide number 12. The pulse business EBDA was over seven times that of the second quarter last year, reaching up to 61 million euros. When comparing to the same period last year, a 150 euros per ton improvement in average sale prices, together with a 60 euros per ton reduction in cash cost, increased our operating margin up to 254 euros per ton in the quarter. Regarding the 60 euros per ton cash cost reduction, almost 50% is explained by operating improvements in our Ponte Vedra Biomill and the rest by lowering wood, chemicals, and logistic costs. Looking at our first quarter, 24, and as advanced in our previous call, the cash cost also improved by 13 euros per ton In this case, mainly due to lower chemicals, logistics, and fixed costs, among others. As our chairman has already pointed out, the expected stabilization of real sale prices during the third quarter, together with our cash cost level, should result in another quarter of solid operating margins and cash flow generation. Turning now to slide 13, the renewable business EVDA reached almost $5 million in the second quarter, which is 10% above the same period last year. The 24% year-on-year improvement in the energy output, together with a 20% year-on-year reduction in the biomass operating costs, more than offset the lower revenues per milliard hour derived from the elimination of the regulatory core under the new renewable regulations. Last year, renewable regulatory changes increased the average sale price of our biomass plants up to approximately 115 euros per milliwatt hour. This price will be clashing through two components, a regulatory pull price composed by a combination of forward, yearly, quarterly, and monthly pull prices, and an RO for the difference up to the said 115 euros per milliwatt hour prices. The calculation of the remuneration is updated quarterly and liquidated on a monthly basis, thus aligning our cash flow generation with our EBITDA and improving our cash flow generation. This new regulation is applicable as from 1st of January 24. The regulatory score generated after the 31st December 23 will continue to be cashed in in the long term within the RI as with the previous regulation. As our chairman has previously stated, we see an improvement in the renewable business EVDA and cash flow generation in the coming quarters, also due to the reduction of our biomass operating costs. Let's continue in slide 14 with the solid performance of our consolidated results, based on a higher pulp and energy sales and boosted by the improvement in pulp prices and the reduction of our operating costs. Consolidated EBITDA grew by 54 million euros compared to the same quarter last year, reaching up to 66 million, and the net income rose by 40 million euros year-on-year after the 23 million euros. Turning now to slide 15, at the group level, free cash flow was positive by 24 million euros in the second quarter, after including a 12 million euros working capital outflow, driven by higher pulp prices and 10 million euros growth and sustainability capex. The said 12 million working capital increase is sustained by a 27 million working capital outflow in the pulp business, mainly due to the increase in pulp prices, partially offset by a working capital inflow amounting up to 15 million in the renewable business. This last figure includes the no-recourse factoring of part of the RO for biomass plants accrued from January to June 24 under the new methodology for an amount of 35, which will be completely paid by the regulator in the third quarter. Continuing in slide 16, on a consolidated level, net debt was reduced by 44 million euros in the second quarter, down to 279, with a solid cash balance of 281 million euros. On top of the free cash flow generated in the quarter, net debt reduction in the quarter also includes the bridge loan provided to Magnum Green Energy by its shareholders during the second quarter, which is expected to be redeemed during the coming quarter, starting this month of July. Please note that the way we manage Magnum is maximizing cash distribution where possible while at the same time temporarily supporting the company if needed under non-ordinary circumstances. Actually, 2021 and 2022 were years of very strong cash flow in the running of our business due to the high full prices. So we distributed up to 66 million euros to the shareholders, including the last one last year. One of these non-ordinary circumstances occurred during the first semester of 24 when two important events were co-living. The interim period between the end of the previous regulation and the new one, which deferred the collection of 40 million euros coming from the RO, accrued during the first semester, which is not going to be collected until the end of the third quarter. And the recognizing process of Magnum's 111 million euro remaining corporate loan, which could not be launched until the new regulation was published back in June. Until both events happened, the shareholders decided that the appropriate way to temporarily finance the company during this period was through shareholder loans at full market conditions to be repaid in the following quarters. Well, I'm very glad to announce that yesterday, July the 30th, we closed and disbursed 170 million seven and a half year term loan facilities. was a 20 million RCF among 14 banks and institutional investors extending its financial maturity until January 2032. The new facility qualifies as green financing and it has no recourse to the prime company or the renewable business. The use of these proceeds are the refinancing of the previous facility as well as the repayment of shareholder loans among other CAPEX and corporate purposes. Actually, 25 million are being distributed today to man-owned shareholders as part of the above-mentioned shareholders' bridge loan amortization and interest payments. This, again, evidences the confidence and support of the financial community in the operation and development of our biomass energy business. The solid cash flow generation expected during the second half of the year should allow us to end the year with a lower net debt figure, even after the planned growth capex and dividend payments. Let's turn now to slide 17. I would like to conclude my section emphasizing once again ENFES' continued and exceptional sustainability performance. We are a leader in sustainable forestry, circular economy, social commitment, gender equality, and corporate governance. Our best practices have been recognized by independent ESG agencies and indexes. In its latest study, Sustainalytic has confirmed MENCE for the fourth consecutive year as the most sustainable player in the global oil market. We have also been awarded the EcoBuddies Platinum Medal, the highest rating awarded by this platform. And we remain members of the prestigious FTSE for Good Index, since 2021, and the IBEX ESG and IBEX Gender Equality Indexes. Let me now give the floor back to our Chairman and CEO to update you on our growth and diversification projects.

Thank you Alfredo. Moving now to slide 19, let me update you on our growth and diversification initiatives in the PAL business. Firstly, We continue to diversify our production towards higher value-added pulp products. ENCE advanced pulp sales continue to gain market share. They accounted for 28% of total pulp sales in the second quarter. Remember, we aim to reach 50% by 2028. Our ENCE advanced pulp products deliver higher margins. as they are better adapted to replace softwood pulp, which is more expensive. These products deliver an extra margin of 35 euros per ton in the second quarter and imply a 10 euros per ton improvement in an average sales price. Secondly, our project to diversify up to 125,000 tons of our production into flat pulp is on track. This is an innovative project that has generated a lot of interest among our clients in Europe, who are currently importing flag pulp from North America based on softwoods. Our flag pulp will be based on eucalyptus. It will be very competitive and will deliver much higher margins than our standard pulp. The project has all the permits required. We have already ordered the equipment and started the civil works. The commissioning is scheduled for the end of 2025. We estimate a total capex of 30 million between 2024 and 2025. And we expect to achieve a return on capital employed above 15%. Thirdly, and continuing in slide 20, We have developed a portfolio of renewable packaging solutions capable of replacing plastic food trays. This project has a huge growth potential and very attractive returns. We are currently in the technical homologation process with a number of clients in space. We are finalizing the engineering and permitting to build a plant with an initial production capacity of 40 million units with the possibility of scaling it up in the future. We expect to take a final investment decision before year end. The initial investment will amount to 12 million euros and the expected return on capital employed is well over 15%. Fourthly, We are analyzing the engineering of our Pontevedra Avanza project, which will place Pontevedra's efficiency and flexibility at the forefront of the industry in Europe. This project should allow us to reduce Pontevedra's cash cost by 50 euro per ton, to improve its flexibility by using different species of eucalyptus, and to continue diversifying ENCE advanced PAL products. We expect to take a final investment decision at the beginning of 2025. The estimated capex in this project will amount to 120 million euros during the next five years, with a required return on capital employed of over 12%. This is a diversification and efficiency project, not a project increasing capacity. And finally, we continue to make progress with the engineering and permitting of the Aspontes project for the production of bleached recycled pulp for paper, textiles, and bioprotects. It will be a fully circular plant based on the recovery of paper, board, and textile fibers. It will be 100% decarbonized with no waste generation and minimal water consumption. It also avoids a new mill invading a natural space, since the project will be located on industrial land occupied previously by a thermal coal plant. For all these reasons, the project has already completed the public information process without any meaningful social opposition. This project is very well positioned to receive grants from the European Decarbonization Funds. We expect to take a final investment decision next year. Note that none of the investments I have described will require more wood, which we believe is an increasingly limited resource. The Iberian pulp industry is already importing over 2 million tons of wood annually from Latin America. The execution of these investments will be adapted and aligned to our cash flow generation throughout the PALP cycle and to our leverage and dividend policies. Remember that our aim is to mandate a prudent leverage and offer an attractive remuneration for shareholders while investing for profitable growth in the future. Turning now to slide number 21, Let me update you on our growth and diversification projects in renewables, where we want to double the APDA over the next five years. Firstly, through our subsidiary Encebiogas, we aim to produce one terawatt hour of biomethane by 2030. Our unique business model is based on the recycling of local agricultural and livestock biobasins as well as producing high-quality organic fertilizer and biogenic CO2. Encebiogas is already working on a portfolio of 42 biomethane projects for development. 28 of these projects already have the land secured and the feasibility studies completed, of which 13 are in their engineering and permitting phase. we expect six of them to be ready to build next year. We plan to build these plants with EPC contracts using non-recourse project financing backed by long-term PPAs. The initially estimated capex is 400,000 euros per gigawatt hour. The targeted return on the capital employed is over 12%. Additionally, Some of these products will be sold at ready-to-build status to help finance the growth of this business. Nobody in Spain has a deep understanding in biomass sourcing that we have. Our know-how and expertise in this field constitutes a unique competitive advantage. Continuing with slide number 22, biomass thermal energy is not only carbon neutral, but may also be more price stable and more competitive than fossil thermal energy. Through our subsidiary, Magnum Servicios Energéticos, we signed our first service contract last year with a major industrial company in the food and beverage sector in Spain. We are already supplying renewable thermal energy to this company. We are now working on 14 other projects with important industrial companies in the food and beverage and chemical industries in Spain to provide them with renewable thermal energy. Our customers appreciate our strong position in the biomass market and our experience in providing integral solutions from biomass sourcing to plant design and operations. We are in advanced negotiations in eight of these projects, and in three of them, we are negotiating in exclusivity. These three projects are already in their engineering and permitting phase. We expect to be ready to start building by next year. As in the biomethane business, we plan to build these biomass thermal plants with EPC contracts and using non-recourse project financing but by long-term PPAs. The estimated capex is around 100,000 euros per gigawatt hour, with an estimated production of between 60 and 200 gigawatt hour per plant. The targeted return on capital employed is over 11%. We have already presented five projects for European next-generation funds. One of them has already been awarded a 4 million grant and we expect the remaining four projects to be successful too. ENCE Redovables growth is based on our unique experience of biomass sourcing. We are transforming today this biomass into electricity and thermal energy, soon also into biomethane, and beyond 2019 into renewable energy. renewable fuels. Slide 23. Let me now finish with some closing remarks before we move to the Q&A session. We expect to maintain a strong operating margin on cash flow generation in the pulp business during the third quarter. The new regulation for biomass plants improves our cash flow generation profile. The reduction of biomass operating costs will boost our renewable business EBITDA and our cash flow generation. A first interim dividend of 26 million will be paid on the 7th of August and the second interim dividend will be decided by the end of October. I believe we are well positioned to grow and diversify our business while maintaining a prudent leverage and an attractive shareholder remuneration. The accomplishment of our goals will allow us to significantly boost our recurrent EBITDA in the palm business and more than double the recurrent EBITDA in the renewable business over the next five years. Thank you for your attention. We would be pleased now to hear any questions you may have.

Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press the star followed by the one on your touch-tone phone. You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Questions will be taken in the order received. Should you wish to cancel your request, please press the star followed by the two. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. Please note, that you may ask as many questions as you like, but kindly ask one question at a time. Your first question is from Enrique Perondo from JBCapital. Please ask your question.

Yes. Hi, good afternoon. Thank you for the presentation and for taking my questions. I have a couple of them, but I will stay three and jump back to the queue. First one would be related to sales volumes and cash costs for the pulp business. Maybe if you could share your expectations for these two for the remainder of the year. Thank you.

Sorry, could you repeat it? Because I haven't listened. Because the program will have to hear.

Yes. So the first one is related to the sales volumes and cash costs for the pulp business. If you could share your expectations for these two for the remainder of the year, please. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Enrique. We expect to produce over 1 million tons in 2024. We expect cash cost to stabilize around 475, maybe between 475 to 480 maximum during the second half of the year, despite Pontevedra's annual maintenance during third quarter 2024. a higher energy contribution should mitigate the slight increase in wood costs.

Great, thank you. So second one on energy output. Can we expect some sequential increase versus second quarter levels due to the new regulation? I'm basically assuming that the pickup in volumes, sales volumes in the energy business is mainly related to the month of June and wanted to understand if there's any upside to third quarter and fourth quarter output volumes versus what we have seen in this second quarter. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Enrique. Our production run rate in 2020 should be over 300 gigawatt hour per quarter, which means more or less 1.2 gigawatt hour annually. We expect volumes to be slightly the same on the third and fourth quarters than they were on the second quarter, not on the first quarter. We see, as you can see on the former market, high prices of energy, but, well, we are a regulated company. Then we are selling at 115 euros per megawatt hour. We had during this year, we have been now two plants shut down because difficulties in sourcing at a good price all the biomass we need for all the fleet. Now one of these plants has already restart and the most probably at the end of the year, the second one will restart as well. Then we see as a conclusion. Same volumes of slightly higher volumes than in the second quarter. for both third and fourth quarter, and starting to better volumes at the end of fourth quarter and beginning of next year. The rains of Spain are going to allow a very good collection and harvest of olive oil, and therefore, this raw material we are using called orugillo, who has been very scarce on the last two years because of the drought, is going to be very abundant, and it will allow us to work 100%. under the short future.

Perfect. And the final one, also related to the energy business, if you could maybe give us an update on where do you currently stand on the 233 megawatt capacity to be rotated to Naturgi. If you could share some timeline for this, it would be helpful. Thank you.

Yes, yes. We are now negotiating the sale to different players of 100 megawatts in the south of Spain. We think this deal will be probably closed before the end of the year. And there is another one near Granada, slightly smaller. And well, today we see some difficulties in selling these PV plants due to two factors. low prices of the energy at solar hours are decreasing the price of those assets. That's the first reason. And the second reason is that we are facing some problems on the development of these PV plants near Canada. And then today we are sure that we will be able to have these PV solar plants ready to be in by the end of the year.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Once again, please press star one should you wish to ask a question. Your next question is from Cole Hathorne from Jefferies. Please ask your question.

Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the question. I'd like to focus on pulp and how you see the business developing over the next, let's say, two to five years. Where I'm going with this is I want to understand if you're, on average, your margin per ton is going to be better through the cycle. And I'd like to focus on two items. Firstly, on the NCA advanced pulp. You talk about getting from 28 to kind of 50% more specialized pulp volumes. What will help get to that 50% number? Will you benefit if... the premium of softwood pulp is a lot higher versus hardwood?

Yeah, it is absolutely what you said. Those products we have developed are substituting in our European customers softwood. What we are agreeing with our customers is to share the price difference between the hardwood and the softwood. And it has two very important effects. As I mentioned before, on this second quarter, where we sell 28% of our volume were advanced, NC Advanced products, we made with these products 35 euros per ton of higher margin than the other products. But what is even more important, when the market is depressed, these products are sold at 50 to 60 euros per ton higher price than the volumes you are forced to sell on the spot market, which is always a very low-priced market. Then if you take as a basis what we have done on the second quarter, those products, they have improved the average price of our sales by 10 euros per ton. If you analyze that, that's 10 million euros per ton. If today we are at 28% and we aim to go to 50%, well, we have a value of 20 million per ton. At the gap, we are able today to be passed, and we think this gap will be larger because today, on this 28% of volume sold in ENFE advanced products, one-third is still at normal prices because we are on the process of homologation. As a conclusion, we have a potential value of around 25 million euros per year. And on top of that, we have the FLAP project. We are going to be on the market early 2026. And while you know the gap between FLAP and normal BHKP PALP, And that's where we are going. Our philosophy for the next five to seven years is to invest and to work in increasing the percentage of advanced products, work in homologating those products and having a good marketing of them, to invest those 30 million euros in the FLAF projects And I'm pretty sure that after 2029, we will continue investing in FLAF because it's a product with high margins, today marketed worldwide from Southwood, with the exception of Susano. And we are pretty sure that being able to sell this product with Eucalyptus Park is going to be a fantastic business. Then we don't want to grow in terms of volume. We, as I say, always, wood is going to be scarce, but we want to diversify into higher margin products. That's our strategy.

And then maybe shifting from, you know, if you're able to keep kind of higher sales price per ton in the next downturn, that's great, improves your sales mix. But on the cost side, I mean, when I look at your CapEx projects, you know, Ponta Vedra stands out if you're able to get 50 euro a ton cash cost production. How do you think about that? I know the investment decision is only Q1 25, but, you know, if I look at page 20 of your report, in my mind, that project is probably the most appealing to me as it reduces your cash costs. You know, how do you think about that? Can you accelerate that investment at all? How can we think about that cash cost reduction development over the next five years as you do annual maintenance and invest behind it?

Well, you know that we are a quite prudent company. And for us, 125 million euros is a lot of money. Then we have to follow the path we have decided. The path starts with having Fel 1, Fel 2, and Fel 3 engineering completed by the end of this year. We are absolutely sure, 100%, that the capex is going to be 125. It is going to be 180. And the reduction of OPEX and then for the reduction of cash costs is going to be 50 euros per tonne. We are going to have that finalized by the end of the year, and then on the first quarter of next year, we are going to approve these investments, and we are going to start. Due to the concession we have in Pontevedra, we cannot build new buildings, which means that we have to do all these plans following certain rules and laws. And therefore, we cannot do that with the company producing pulp. We have to do that every year, connect what we have done on the annual shutdown, restart, connect on the next shutdown, restart, and connect on the next shutdown. And that's what we are going to do. And because, as I said at the beginning, we are a prudent company, we have the balance sheet we have, and this market is a market where you have low prices, it's a difficult market, and then to have engaged a large investment of 125 million euros if the market goes down, it can be risky. Then we prefer to split these investments in four to five years and do that step by step. Regarding Pontevedra Concession, I have to tell you that while Enrique Parroldo was asking his first question, that is why I asked him to repeat the question, we have been informed by our lawyers that in one of the two appeals in the city of Pontevedra, yeah, one of the appeals on the constitutional tribunal, well, it has been rejected by the Constitutional Tribunal, which is very good for us because we win on the Supreme Court and now it seems that we are winning again on the Constitutional Tribunal.

Thank you very much. And then maybe just the last one is what's your outlook for PELP from here? Whatever you can give would be helpful. For now, yeah.

Well, you have to differentiate between three markets. You have the Asian market, mainly a Chinese market. You have the market of Middle East and North Africa. And you have the European market. And the trends of each market are totally different. The Chinese market, a market where we are not, but as it is 40% of the global demand, the prices in China are affecting more or less what is happening in the rest of the world. It's a market I would say very speculative. When the Chinese customers start to buy, they overbuy, and when they decide they don't buy, they don't buy at all. Then on the last five weeks, they have not been buying, and they have been forcing a price reduction in China. We are not in China, I repeat. Then you have the market in North Africa and Middle East who have a trend between what is happening in Europe and what is happening in Asia. And in this market, we have the same problem in Turkey, which is the largest market, where they have not been buying, and they have forced a reduction of the price of a certain amount of money. which has not affected us in July and who may affect us a bit in August because we are not very active in this market. Our main market is Europe. We are selling in Europe close to 90% of our sales. And in Europe, we have two kinds of contracts. We have contracts who are linked, as I was saying before, to the fixed price where you agree annually volume with the customer and you agree that the price of you are going to invoice every month is going to be the fixed price. And you have different possibilities. Some customers were invoicing at the price of the fixed of this month, others the previous month and even a lot two months ago. would mean that when the prices are going up, you are not capturing all the price increase on every month. It takes time. But when the market change and the market goes down, you have a net because you have a big volume of contracts at fixed price and the fixed doesn't change as quick as a spot market. And you have a lot of tons at the fixed price of the previous month and even a lot of tons at the peak price of two months before. And then in Europe, you have volumes who are negotiated month by month at what is called market price. And today we know that the most probably the market price for August is going to be negotiated between 50 and 70 dollars below 440. if you put all that on a calculator what you have is that the most probably the average price of the third quarter despite reductions on the spot market is going to be for us very similar to the average price of the second quarter and that is why i was saying we are going to have very good third quarters in terms of results and cash flow. And cash flow, because as the price stabilizes, you stop to invest in working capital. Regarding the fourth quarter, it's too early to have a vision. Well, today it seems that the market is going to be worse on the fourth quarter than today. But you know what happens in this market. Suddenly you have too big or too large means to have a problem. and the market change and you are able to increase prices. Then today it's quite difficult to have a vision about what is happening on the fourth quarter.

Thank you. Thank you. Once again, please press star one should you wish to ask a question. Your next question is from Enrique Paronto from JP Capital. Please ask your question.

Yes, once again, just an additional question from my side. So regarding DTAs in a previous conference call earlier in the year, you highlighted that the Constitutional Court ruling should lead to a tax collection of close to 20 billion euros in your case. And we've heard from some companies that they have already cashed this in. So wondering if there's any update on your case that you could share. Thank you.

Alfredo will answer you this question, and I will read what you have now just received from the constitutional tribunal while Alfredo is answering.

I mean, there's no question that we will cash in the approximately 20 million years in the coming quarters. If we are optimistic, it could be at the end of the year, but we think that it will be more within the first semester year 2025.

Perfect. Thank you.

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. Please proceed for the closing remarks.

Yeah. I would like just to tell you that now I am reading what we have received from the Constitutional Tribunal. What it says is that one of the appeals presented has been rejected, which means that the Supreme Court decision has been offered. We will probably publish that on the CNBV now this afternoon. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, gentlemen, and we are in contact at the end of the holidays. Thank you. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference has now ended.