Engie Spns/Adr

Thank you for holding, and welcome to the NG's nine-month conference call. For your information, this call is being recorded. It will take place in a listen-only mode, and you'll have the opportunity to ask questions after the presentation. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone at any time. To remove your question, please press star and two. I will now hand you over to Ms. Delphine Deshayes, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, madam.

Thank you and good morning everyone. It's my pleasure to welcome you to NG's nine-month conference call. Shortly, Catherine and Pierre-Francois will present our nine-month performance, following which we will open the lines to Q&A. With my polite request of limiting your questions to one or two only, please. And with that, over to Catherine.

All right, thank you, Delphine, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our nine-month 2026 results call. I am very happy, very pleased to report that ENGIE has maintained its dynamic performance in Q3, and we now expect us to achieve the upper end of our full year guidance. All of the regular hallmarks that you've come to expect were on display in Q3. Strong focus on the execution of our growth strategy with expansion on a global basis in renewables, in batteries, in networks, plus significant progress on performance, notably through operational excellence and initiatives that are focused on culture and competitiveness efficiency. The key takeaway for me is that we have built a fantastic engine That is thriving in what is a new paradigm, a world with constant political, geopolitical, macro changes. We have optionality, both in the technologies that we deploy and in the geographies where we invest, in the business models, and importantly, we have the agility to allocate capital where we see the most value. A few words on Belgian nuclear. Given the current circumstances, the complexity of the negotiations and the determination to leave no stone unturned in our efforts, we and the Belgian government have agreed to a further extension of negotiations up until the 12th of December. While we have made progress on some aspects of the negotiations, There are significant divergences related to the valuation of the transaction, notably of the liabilities, that we want to try to resolve. Before I move on to my review of Q3, a few words on why macro risks, including the French ones, should not be confused with envy risk. First, our financial structure. 78% of our net debt is at fixed rates, 79% of our Euro debt and 90% of our selling debt. That gives us strong protection against rising rates on our existing debts. And the market recognizes it. A spread over the boon has stayed content and in line with the sector, as you can see against the IBOX Euro electricity index. Second, our earnings. Remember that our asset base provides a substantial natural hedge against the effects of inflation and higher rates. With UK power networks now on board, we are well on track for a 2028 guidance of two-thirds of EBIT from regulated or contracted activity with almost 50 billion euros of RAB or RAB equivalent with indexed and or inflation protected revenues. And when I look at France on its own, the majority of our EBIT comes from gas networks and pass through contracted local infrastructure. So one message as a summary, remember we are long inflation at Engie. And third, our growth story. Because if you look at our growth markets, the overwhelming majority are outside France. and they are underpinned by strong fundamentals. Whether you look at actual power demands, with year-on-year rises of 2% in Europe after years of declines of stagnation, 3% in the US in the first nine months of this year. Whether you look at supportive policies with the EU, for example, targeting a doubling in electricity share and energy consumption to 46% by 2040. These translate into growth. With clear evidence, network investment is accelerating, renewable generation is growing, and the need for flexibility is increasing, and we see these trends holding across all of our key markets. Of course, when it comes to new investment decisions, for example in renewables and in batteries, we do take into account the new interest rates and inflation environment. But we are in a very good position to navigate this backdrop. Thanks to our supply chain and our execution capabilities, thanks to the size of our portfolio, that geographical optionality that we have built, as well as our energy management and commercial franchise. Turning to the next slide, some headline numbers at the nine-month stage. EBIT excluding nuclear reached €7 billion, up 9.7% year-on-year, underpinned, of course, by the inclusion from May of UK power networks, and growing by 3.3% organically. In fact, when you just zoom on the third quarter, EBIT excluding nuke increased by 10.9% organically. Economic net debt amounted to €62.5 billion. and we achieved another substantial contribution from performance improvements at 406 million euros at 9 months, over 100 million in the third quarter alone. This was half from operational excellence with initiatives such as asset efficiency, contract portfolio cleaning, cost optimization, quarter from culture and competitiveness action such as improving span and layers of control, and the remaining quarters from loss-making entities with disposals and turnaround measures. Let's now turn to our first growth pillar, renewables and flex power, where we achieved a significant milestone in this quarter as we passed 6060 GW of operating capacity in best solar and wind. We commissioned 3 GW of new capacity over the first nine months with 6.6 GW under construction at the end of September. As usual, we have been active worldwide on markets that we know well, and in the second half of 2026 so far, we have announced our largest best 500 MW in Saudi, and we brought on stream 450 MW of solar in India and 250 MW in Australia. Commercially, we maintain a high level of PPA signings with 3.2 GW at the 9-month stage of 2026, similar level to 2025. Most recently, we signed a renewable energy supply agreement to provide up to 568 MW of wind power for Orecco's expanding AI and cloud data centers in Texas. And there is plenty more in the pipeline for further substantial data center extension. Our B2B supply business is building up strong momentum in bespoke 24-7 supply contracts to customers such as Legrand in France, and Aker Biomarines in the US. And we are far ahead of schedule to meet our 2030 objectives on volume supply to the tech and data center sector. In the third quarter, we achieved a milestone in storage capacity, reaching more than 10 gigawatts in operation or under construction. Out of this, 7 gigawatts is in BESS, an activity that didn't even exist 25 years ago. Quite an achievement and demonstrating indeed the huge need for flexibility in power production. We made big strides in Europe over the third quarter, entering the Polish market through the acquisition of a 758 MW portfolio, acquiring projects in Romania and Spain, starting constructions of facilities in Belgium and Portugal, and commencing operations at Maxima in the Netherlands and our first two batteries in the UK. On our second growth pillar, networks, where the acquisition of UKPN has added a major new dimension, we are delighted at the smooth and rapid process of integration. We have been particularly impressed by UK Power Network's strong data-driven culture, its operational focus, and the close connection between management and field operations. Over the first three years of the ED2 price control period, in other words, between April 23 and March 26, UK Power Networks achieved a return on regulatory equity of 11.2%, maintaining its outstanding operational track record. UK Power Networks is now finalizing its ED3 business plan for OJEM. And while the political and regulatory debate has become more focused on affordability, We do not see any credible pathway to deliver UK electrification, economic growth and security of supply objectives without materially higher distribution network investment. We are confident that a significant step up in ED3 investment will be needed. Very relevant for our gas network is the development of biomethane in Europe and particularly in France. We signed a framework agreement with CMR-CGM to develop a biomethane production unit in the industrial port area of Le Havre that will supply 100 GWh of biomethane annually for their fleet from 2029 onwards, subject to FID. With that, I will pass over to Pierre-Francois.