4/24/2026

speaker
Conference Operator
Conference Operator

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and welcome to ENIS 2026 First Quarter Results Conference Call hosted by Mr. Francesco Gattei, Chief Transition and Financial Officer. For the call you will be in listen-only mode. However, at the end of the call you will have the opportunity to ask questions by pressing star N1 on your telephone. I'm now handing you over to your host to begin today's conference. Thank you.

speaker
Francesco Gattei
Chief Transition and Financial Officer

Good afternoon. Amid the volatility and disruption to the energy system over the past two months, ATENI will continue to focus on the delivery of financial performance and key strategic milestones. As we set out At our capital market update just over a month ago, we are working to deliver reliable, affordable, and lower carbon energy for all our customers. Our industrial strategy, anchored to technology skills and long-term investment into top-tier assets across a diversified portfolio, has, if anything, been further validated in the context of the event of this year. Our investment framework, underpinned by strong cash flow and a robust balance sheet, supports us in delivering sector-leading growth. As a result, we can also reward our investors through a combination of attractive distribution and the continued rise of the capital value of the business, something that has been reflected by the share price improvement. It's also worth keeping in mind that while energy markets have been highly volatile since March, Q1 averages, although higher than the planning assumptions set out at our capital market update, were well within an historical normal range for our volatile industry. Actually, in Europe term, it was a bit softer than last year. 2026 has seen very positive advancement in strategic terms, and Q1 supports this progress with strong financials. I will analyze the financial in more detail shortly, but we reported 3.5 billion euro of pro forma EBIT, cash flow from operation of 2.9 billion euro and pro forma gearing at 15%, while within our expected 10-15 range, our pro forma gearing, assuming the full effect of planning to deconsolidation, is even lower, at 12%. Major strategic events of the year to date include probably the ever-best start to a year for exploration, with an exceptional level of new resources discovered in seven different counties. The FID of Gengor and Genghem in Indonesia, the dual exploration strategy of a stake in our Belain discovery, strong production growth helped by start-up production at NGC in Angola, and first LNG export from the second Congo LNG. and in the transition sector, the agreement to reorganize and decontrol the plenitude and advancing two new biorefineries at San Lazzaro and Priolo. But before we get into the details of the financial, I will spend a bit more time on what was the most remarkable start of the year for exploration. As you know, we have established a track record as the leading exploration company in the sector. discovering an average 900 million barrels per year over the past 10 years. And while our impact activity is somewhat front-loaded, in the first four months of 2026, we had already added around 1 billion of new resources. Critically, these new resources also all have a credible and visible pathway to development and production, consistent with our focus on efficient time to market, where we are also an industry leader. Our production growth to 2030 is visible and sector-leading, and we are building material optionality for the 30s. In Angola, our Azul affiliate, as operator, announced the significant oil discovery of Algaita on block 1506. Preliminary estimates put oil in place at around 500 million barrels. and the presence of an FPSO, merely 18 km away, promises a speedy and efficient development. In Côte d'Ivoire, the Murenne South 1 well significantly extended the proven area of Calao gas condensate discovery, confirming a world-class discovery of up to 5 TCF and 450 million barrels in place. In Libya, in March, we announced two offshore gas discoveries, estimated to total more than one TCF in place, enclosed by the existing barra salam facilities, enabling rapid tie-back. In early April, we announced the Denise discovery in the Temsa concession offshore Egypt. Our preliminary estimate for Denise is two TCF of gas and 130 million barrels of condensate in place, and situated less than 10 kilometers from existing production infrastructures. Last, but certainly not least, this week we announced the giant Geliga gas condensate discovery in the Kutai Basin, offshore Indonesia. Our preliminary source estimate is in place gas of 5 TCF and 300 million barrels of condensate, effectively a second gang. Because Geliga is close to the undeveloped 2 TCF Gula discovery, that includes also an additional 70 million barrels of condensate, and thus development synergy plus the same infrastructure and time to market advancement of GANG, there is a clear case for a fast track development of a third major production hub and the significant production and value uplift this implies. Q1 results were consistent with the scenario condition we face and the positive momentum we are generating in growing the company. But not all the upside of the scenario was captured in this quarter, as our downstream and biorefineries were under the traditional maintenance that we executed before the start of the driving season. EMP delivered 9% year-on-year production growth and consistent capture of venture prices. Year-over-year growth contributions from Norway and Congo were especially notable, and the outcome is after disruption to Middle East volumes in March. GGP pro forma EBIT of €0.3 billion is reflecting the more volatile scenario and it is consistent with our updated guidance of €1.3 billion in pro forma EBIT. In our transition businesses, pro forma EBITDA of €0.52 billion is consistent with our full year guidance of €2.4 billion. Plenitude that will continue to grow both on clients and new capacity is will increase its gross EBITDA by 20% to €1.3 billion, while AnyLive will continue to see a supportive biorefining margin and will reach an EBITDA of €1.1 billion, 16% over last year. Our refinery utilization was low, reflecting a major turnaround program which should position us well for the remainder of the year. Meanwhile, our results in Versailles highlight some evident progress in the reported results of curtailing its losses in line with our plan. Contribution from associate reflected the macro scenario condition with VAR reporting a strong production growth. A higher scenario along the year will enhance the results of our satellites and could improve their distribution and our cash flow too. The tax rate of 42% was in line with our full year guidance. Cash flow from operations generated was in line with our expectations with good contributions from associated dividends and a cash tax rate of around 25%. Working capital had a large negative impact on cash flow, consistent with a sharp rise in prices in March, but is not out of the ordinary in that context. We do expect to reverse this in the coming quarters. Capes was €1.9 billion, in line with a full-year amount of €7 billion for the year. Capes was broadly equal to Gross, with limited portfolio activity in this quarter, beyond announcing but not completing the sale of a 10% stake in Balene in Ivory Coast to Socar. After the quarter ended, we completed on the previously announced acquisition by Plenitude of Acea Energy for around €500 million. We paid the third quarterly dividend referring to 2025 in March and repurchased €280 million in shares. Shares in issues have reduced by 17% since the end of 2021. Perform a gearing of 15% in corporate semi-nay transactions announced but not yet concluded and represent a broadly balanced quarter for cash-in and cash-out. We expect the consolidation of Plenidu to close in the third quarter with a benefit to consolidate net debt over the following quarter as plenitude funding is restricted. If we incorporate also this effect, our pro forma gearing is actually at 12%. Updating our guidance for 2026, we confirmed the outlook for EMP production with a growth rate of 3 or 4%, incorporating our current assumption for the impact of Middle East disruptions. We have also updated our market scenario projection for the year in the context of the current situation, raising full year Brent to $83 per barrel from $70, the TTF to €50 per MWh from $36, as we believe that higher price will be necessary for the refilling of empty storage, and refining margin in Europe, our CERN, to $8 per barrel from $6. From a financial perspective, reflecting the change scenario and the line-out performance, we now estimate cash flow from operation pre-working capital of 13.8 billion euro, up 20% from 11.5 billion set in March. Applying our proposed updated distribution policy, this implies a share buyback raised by around 90% to 2.8 billion euro. As previously communicated, this is the floor for 2026 that will be maintained even in the case of future scenario deterioration. Actually, taking into account the current market price are well above that level, we should expect even further increase in our distribution policy in the coming quarters. Our new policy will be put to shareholder for approval at the AGM on 6th of May. And this concludes my remarks and along with my colleagues's From any top management on the call, I am ready to take your questions.

speaker
Conference Operator
Conference Operator

This is the conference operator. Please press star 1 for questions and star 2 to remove yourself from the question queue. I now leave the floor to Mr. John Rigby for the Q&A session.

Disclaimer

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