Enel Spa Unsp/Adr

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to NL First Health 2021 results. At this time, all participants are in list and only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question and answer session. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Monica Girardi, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Monica.

Thank you. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. A warm welcome to our first half 2021 results presentation, which will be hosted by our CEO, Francesco Staracci, and our CFO, Alberto De Paoli. In the presentation, Francesco will provide some highlights of the period and will sum up the milestones achieved, while Alberto will walk you through the operational and financial performance for the group. Following the presentation, we will have the usual Q&A session. We ask those connected to the webcast to send questions only via email at investor.relations.nl.com. Before we start, let me remind you that media is listening to both the presentation and the Q&A session. Thank you, and now let me hand over to Francesco.

Thank you, Monica. Good evening, everybody. Let's start with the highlights of the period. We are at chart number one of the presentation pack. The operating dynamics of the quarter of the year showed a trend of significant recovery, and the industrial pickup is now visible in the financials of the period. As we detail later, the second quarter represented a turnaround across all industrial KPIs that are now accelerating and getting back to the levels of pre-COVID-19. progressive were made also in simplifying the group with the completion of the merger of egp assets into americans and the corporate organization in colombia in light of the predictable evolution of the business we can therefore confirm our targets of the year including the guaranteed dividend per share of 0.38 euro per share for the 2021 year on slide number two we dive into some industrial kpis of the second quarter in renewables We tripled the capacity built with 1,100 megawatts installed only in the second quarter of the year, making a strong acceleration that supports our target of the year around 5,800 megawatts. Our network's volumes of electricity distributed are now back to pre-COVID-19 levels, increasing 11% versus the second quarter of 2020, highly impacted by lockdown measures, especially in Latin America. In customers, the electricity sold to our customers in the free market is up remarkable, almost 20% year on year. So industrial performance is back on track. The next slide shows the upward trend on investments that we are deploying. We invested $4.9 billion in the period, an increase of 20% versus the same period of the previous year. In the ownership business model, almost half of the investments were devoted to networks, with the remaining half allocated to the generation business, out of which around 2 billion to renewables. From a geographical perspective, 2.5 billion gross capex was deployed in Europe, 1.4 in Latin America, and the remaining portion mainly in North America with around 700 million euros. We have invested around 300 millions through the stewardship business model focused primarily on NLX and renewables capacity managed through our joint ventures. Investment catalyzed and deployed by the third parties associated with the stewardship model amounted to around 1 billion euros. Moving on to our global generation business on slide number four, we can see that the total installed capacity is approaching the 90,000 mark fueled by the growth in renewable fleet, which now stands at 50,000 megawatts and accounting for 56% of the total capacity we manage. The green repositioning of our generation portfolio is evident. and it is progressing at full speed with 3,600 renewable megawatts additions and 1,000 megawatts of conventional generation capacity closed in the last 12 months. Generation output increased overall by 8% year-on-year. It reached more than 110 terawatt-hour, recovering from the contraction that was observed in 2020 as the consequence of COVID-19. The total electricity produced is almost back to 2019 levels, but with significant changes in the output mix. In fact, if we consider pre-pandemic levels, the reduction of thermal production is notable, as well as the significant increase in renewable contribution up to 15% by 2019. It's worth to highlight that coal production was down a further 5% year-on-year after the steep decrease of around 16 terawatt-hours last year, and that the increase in thermal production is mainly driven by gas and by the low levels of hydro resources in Latin America, namely in Chile. Thanks to the continued effort on decarbonization emissions, emission-free production is up 9 percentage points for 2019, reaching 65%. That positions us well on track to reach our decarbonization targets. If we focus on the progress made on renewable growth, we go to slide number five on Ener Green Power, where we see that total renewable capacity stands now at around 550,000 megawatts, approaching 60% of our total installed base, roughly. Renewable capacity built over the last 12 months is equal to 3,600 megawatts, despite challenging conditions imposed by COVID-19. Year to date, We built 1,300 megawatts, almost doubling the amount of megawatts deployed in the same period of previous year. We will scale up the magnitude of new renewable capacity additions. We expect to commission over the next two quarters about 4.5 thousand megawatts. As of today, 100% of these projects are in different degrees of execution phases, offering high visibility on their deployment by year end. Our global footprint and development capabilities allowed us to secure 100% of our supply of goods and materials until 2022, offering protection against the inflationary environment that was observed during these months and the spike in commodity prices. Such a remarkable acceleration are made possible thanks to our pipeline, which is also backing, growing and backing up future growth projects. We see that in the following chart. As of today, this is chart number six, pipeline has surpassed 300,000 megawatts, broadening project optionality, securing flexibility of capital allocation, and more than everything, protection on returns. mature pipeline is now worth 73 000 megawatts out of which 23 000 megawatts are earmarked for the period 21 23 and 46 000 are already covering projects for the 24 25 period over the last 12 months our mature pipeline grew by almost 30 000 megawatts and almost 6 000 megawatts entered the execution phase The mature and early stage pipeline dynamic positions us optimally for both the planned period as well as for the years to come, offering an advantage into the new decade of 2030 and supporting our growth ambition. With respect to the 19,500 megawatts targeted additions for year 21-23, today we stand at around 70% of this target addressed with around 1,300 megawatts already built as of now, and around 12,000 currently in execution. The residual target is covered, therefore, 3.6 times by the related portion of mature pipeline, which translates in negligible delivery risk, high confidence of achieving even more than this by end of the period. We can leverage on this extensive and well-diversified pipeline also to further push the implementation of the stewardship model in renewables thanks to our origination capabilities crystallizing over time the value that sits in this large portfolio. Let's move now to the operating achievement on global infrastructure and networks, and we are on chart number seven. In the first six months of 2021, volumes in electricity distributed stood at 246 terawatt-hours, up 6% year-on-year, showing a progressive recovery from the dynamics that were observed in 2020 affected by lockdown measures. Looking more closely at the evolution across the two quarters of the year, The first quarter recorded a mere 2% increase. The second quarter is up by 11%, which is the same period of last year, which is a clear evidence of the acceleration of the recovery. This acceleration has been observed across all geographies, which now stand at level of distributed energy almost in line with the pre-COVID-19 level in Europe. volumes increased 11 terawatt-hours versus last year. In Latin America, the uplift is driven by Brazil, where we distributed 2.4 terawatt-hours more than the same period of 2020. And thanks to our continued commitment in fostering the quality and resilience of our networks, SAIDI improved by 6% and stands now at 250 minutes. The rollout of the second generation smart meter progressed further with another number of smart meter installed that reached 21 millions, up more than 40% versus the previous year. Let's look now at customers on slide number eight. Our position on free customers strengthened in the last 12 months, both via our retail operation, as well as our services and platforms offered by NLX. More than 1 million new customers have been added to the free market, mainly Romania, due to the end of the regulated tariff, and Italy added 300,000 customers. Energy sold in the free market is up 10%, with volumes increasing in both B2B and B2C segments, driven by economic recovery. Looking at NLX, This business line performed extremely well with double digit increase recorded on all product lines. More than 100,000 charging points have been added to our electricity network for electricity vehicles, reaching more than 200,000 figure, up 2.2 times versus last year. Lighting points increased 2.9 million, up 21%. Battery storage increased by 27 megawatts. More than 7,000 megawatts of demand response capacity was offered globally. In fiber, we reached 12.1 million households passed, up 39% year on year. The industrial development goes together with the progress on group simplification. We are now at chart number nine. And we see here that after the completion of the merger and the public tender offer, we now own 82.3% of Enel America's This has aligned our corporate structure with the other subsidiaries of the group. The integration of renewables will unlock synergies, will reduce operational and financial risks for REN America, resulting into an earning accretion of the group, which we estimate to the tune of 13%. Our aim of reaching a streamlined and more efficient structure continues as testified by the agreement reached in Colombia with the creation of a single corporate vehicle that will support growth in the country. Let's now open up the section on financial results. I hand over to Alberto for that part. Alberto, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Francesco. Good evening to everybody. I'm knocking you off on an analysis of financial results and I'm starting at page 11. EBITDA stood at 8.4 billion, in line with the expectation for the semester, with a second quarter that shows clear signs of recovery compared to the last year. Group net ordinary income came in at 2.3 billion, decreasing by 4% versus previous year. I will detail later some non-recurring items into the net income that are weighing on the performance. For now, let me just highlight that excluding the negative impact of reliability management and operating and fiscal non-recurring items, net income would have been up by 10%. FFO reached 2.7 billion euros, up 31% versus the first half of 2020, and broadly in line with the seasonality of cash flow dynamics that we always experience. Now moving to an analysis of the period, I will kick off with the evolution of EBITDA on page 12. You can see from the chart and as already commented during the Q1 presentation, In the first three months of the year, the economic results have been negatively impacted by the lack of some one-off items booked in 2020 and forecastable business dynamics. The second quarter of 2021 was driven by the recovery of the operating performance across all the business lines and marked a clear turning point supporting our targets for the year. Since April, devaluation of currencies and not recurring items have smoothened the negative impact, while the industrial growth has become visible, contributing around 400 million in the period. We observed the recovery of the operating performance across all the business segments. with lion shares associated with global power generation, where, amongst other effects that I will detail later, the development of new capacity contributed remarkably. This evolution was supported by better volumes dynamics in the retail business in Italy and Spain, and by the stabilization of the level of electricity distributed in LATAM, particularly in Brazil, as Francesco mentioned. previously. We expect these dynamics to last in the coming months. And now moving into a divisional, deeper analysis, we are on slide 13 on global power generation. The ordinary EBITDA stood at around 3.2 billion euros, down around 200 million euros year on year, or 6%. Results have been supported by the positive contribution of renewable new installed capacity for around 250 million euros that has been offset by some negative items detailed as follows. We had lower hedging prices mainly in Italy and Iberia for around 150 million euros We got around 60 million euros of negative impact due to the weak hydrology in Chile, 90 million euros negative impact associated with the normalization of the ancillary services market, and around 150 million euros of negative impacts from currencies devaluation. Trading activities contributed negatively for around €20 million, so it's almost flat and also almost zero. And this is a consequence of the normalization of gas portfolio management and the short position in Spain counterbalanced by a temporary positive effect on portfolio optimization in Italy. Worth to highlight that first, the negative price effect would be completely reverted next year. As of today, we have already hedged more than 90% of the 2022 production at prices that are on average five euros more, but mainly in Italy and Spain. So we are talking about an increase of in the range of seven, 10%. second negative impact from the weak hydro production in chile can be considered a black swan so an exceptional situation in in 2021 and lastly we don't see further devaluation of currencies affecting numbers on future year-on-year comparisons as we see the erosion effect being closed to an end Considering all this and the push from the last 12 months and future quarters development, we see the growth trajectory of in particular the renewable part of the global power generation to come back supporting, strongly supporting future trends and targets. Let's now take a look at the infrastructure network on page 14 here. EBITDA stood at 3.5 billion euros, down 9% versus last year. The dynamics of the quarter can be summarized as follows. 90 million increase associated with the higher electricity distributed across all the Latin American countries, with Brazil contributing for more than half of this amount. Then we got 70 million euros positive related to tariff indexation, mainly coming from Brazil, and 75 billion euros coming from efficiencies. These positive items were offset by 120 million euros negative impact associated with half regulatory adjustment and half on the effect of CPI on OPEX. Then it has been offset by the tariff indexation. 340 million euros is the negative impact of non-recording items that we accounted in 2020. So net of this distribution would have growth also in the period and then negative impact from currency devaluation in LATAM from 110 so all in all if we get the 340 million euros and 110 million euros of FX impact we sum up 450 million euros and so without this we would have a growth in the distribution network because of the positive items I have commented before. From a geographical standpoint, in LATAM, excluding the impact of FX, EBITDA increased by 6% versus the same period of last year, benefiting a set of tariff indexation and increasing volumes. net of non-recurring items the performance in europe is almost flat year on year now we move on on retail page 15. as you can see from the chart ibida came in at 1.6 billion euros with a recovery from the extreme conditions experienced in 2020 associated with the kobe 19 pandemic Group expanded its free market customers by adding 1 million of new clients over the last 12 months on the back of the end of the regulatory tariff in Romania and the increase in the customer base in Italy. Looking closely at EBITDA, free market EBITDA is up by 12% year on year, thanks to a better performance in Italy, mainly attributable to a 10% increase in volumes, which are now back to pre-COVID levels. In Italy, EBITDA increased 19%, or around 170 million euros, and here it has been driven by a pickup of volumes in both B2C and B2B segments and also a better marginality, unitary margins up 7% on average. In Iberia, net of non-recurring items, EBITDA declined by 12%. This is driven by an increase in B2B segments due to higher unitary consumption associated with the economic recovery post-pandemic and a reduction in unitary margins for the B2B segments partially compensated by higher marginality for business customers. In Romania, retail EBITDA increased by around 50 million euros or 50% by the end of the regulated tariff. A regulated market EBITDA is down around 90 million euros on the back of the elimination of the regulated tariff in Romania and the decrease of the regulated customer base. OPEX per customer proved flat year-on-year. Worth to highlight that the NLX EBITDA increased four times versus 2020 reaching more than 100 million euros driven by energy efficiency programs and customer needs of energy flexibility services. Now in the next slide we will show in detail the earnings evolution during the period. I am on page 16. Here you can see that ordinary group net income came in at 2.3 billion euros, down 4% year on year. This performance is affected by some non-recurring items, none of which the growth in the first half would have stood at 10% as set. We commented already the moving parts, the level therefore that we now move on the other lines of the profit and loss DNA are lower than last year as a consequence of currencies devaluation, lower debt accruals for more than 200 million euros and lower depreciations thanks to the impairment made in 2020 on coal assets in Chile, which more than offset the impact of the investments deployed. The evolution of financial charges was significantly impacted by the liability management transaction on the Euro denominated securities performed in June, which is worth to remind is part of the liability management program we expect to complete by end. So we have already completed in July, but so it's not accounting in the June results. I want to highlight that the debt refinancing strategy carried out during the last 12 months reduced by 20 basis points the cost of debt leveraging on cheaper sustainable instruments and hybrids. then equity investments contributed for around 70 million euros taxes increased by 95 million euros driven by the adjustment of the deferred taxes in argentina following the recent increase in the nominal tax rate and minorities decreased by 21%, reflecting the increase in Enel America's and Enel Chile's stakes and the higher contribution of Italian companies. Moving now to the cash flow on slide number 17. FFO stood at 2.7 billion euros, up by more than 600 million versus last year, supported by an improvement in working capital which recovered from the COVID-19 impacts recorded last year, and the negative working capital is expected to be fully reabsorbed by the end of the year. Dynamics underlying the FFO evolution can be summarized as follows. High EBITDA after provisions, mainly associated with lower bear debt accruals. Networking capital at minus 2.7 billion, improving versus last year, mainly thanks to the reabsorption of the residual COVID-19 effect. recorded in 2020, has worked to highlight that working capital dynamics are in line with historical seasonality and include temporary items to be reabsorbed in the second part of the year, higher taxes paid mainly due to the advanced settlement tax payment at the end of the last year, higher financial charges paid related to the liability management program executed in June. By year-end we expect our cash generation to fully cover investments. Now let's take a look on net debt on slide number 18 in which you can see that net debt is equal to 50.4 billion euros at the end of the semester The main changes versus the end of the past year are driven by the negative already commented 2.2 free cash flow, dividend paid for 2.4 billion euros, 1.4 billion euros associated with active portfolio management activities mainly related to the Enel Americas PTO, hybrid bonds accounted as equity and negative impact from effects of around 1 billion euros gross debt stands at 62.1 billion increasing five percent versus december 2020 in light of the already mentioned dynamics on the net debt and before the closing remarks let's take a look on our sustainable finance strategy as already mentioned i am now on page 19 As already mentioned, during the second quarter of 2021, we implemented some liability management actions with the aim to further accelerate our sustainable finance path while optimizing the financial structure of the group and further reducing the cost of gross debt. As a consequence, the share of sustainable finance sources on total gross debt are expected to reach 46% at the end of 2021. 13 percentage points higher than full year 2020 and we are now two years in advance to reach our target of 48% in 2023. Thanks to these two transactions we refinanced in advance conventional expensive bonds with cheaper sustainable instruments that will allow us to reduce the cost of debt with a saving of financial expenses of around 100 million per year from 2022 crystallizing the value of the current low rate environment. And finally, we remind you that this refinancing program has affected the financial expenses for around 200 million euros in the first half, while the impact for here and following the completion of the whole program is expected to be in the range of 500 million euros. And now I hand over to Francesco for some closing remarks. Francesco, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Alberto. As you have appreciated, the second quarter is showing a solid and visible recovery in the operating performance, with most of the dynamics expected to continue with a similar trajectory also in the second part of the year. This will support the delivery of our targets for the full year 2021. The simplification in Latin America has reached a fundamental milestone. The increased stake in Enel Americas and the reorganization in Colombia are contributing to earnings accretion, and the next steps in the region will unlock further value. The growth trajectory of our renewable fleet is confirmed, and it is progressing at full speed. Indeed, the remaining capacity to get to year-end target addition of around 5.8 GW is fully secured, Future years are abundantly covered by the growing pipeline, which is helping also in stabilizing the returns. Finally, it's worth to remind that in 2021, we already set a fixed remuneration for our shareholders with a dividend per share of 38 euro cents per share. So the compounded growth of dividend per share and earning per share will result in a total return to shareholders of more than 10%.

thank you for your attention and let's now open the q a session and monica will manage this thank you francesco thank you alberto before entering in the q a let me thank all of the analysts that send questions over we received them from javier garrido manuel ojoni stefano bezzato chris leibot james brand luther schumacher roberto letizia rico bartoli manuel paloma alberto gandolfi javier suarez and antonella bianchessi We have unfortunately a hard stop at a quarter past seven. So whatever is not answered, we will answer by email after the call. I do apologize for that. So let me just crack on with the question. The first one is for the CFO. If he can provide guidance on 2021, looking at EBITDA, net income and net debt, and how this compares with the plan.

Okay, so first of all, let me confirm that the targets we gave to the market. So the targets are all fully confirmed. I have already the chance to comment some important moving parts. And I remember you that when we gave the target in the capital market day, we assumed the range in the EBITDA between 18.7 and 19.3. And in this target, we were including around 1.4 billion euros contribution from the disposal of open fiber. And we assumed 1 billion euros associated with the managerial action to optimize commodity portfolio of the group, mainly referring to the gas portfolio. Now, today, so we see no room to go ahead with the latter. And open fiber gain and the increase of the potential of a fiber gain to 1.7 will be used to compensate 1 billion euros of currencies devaluation that is the mark to market of the new effects versus our assumption in November. Net of all these moving parts, the operating deployment of the group remain unchanged and uh so this is uh so the the the the guiding style of our development so the operating results are unchanged versus what the the assumption we had on the net income well bottom line ranging 5.4 5.6 we we're assuming a significant liability management in the range of 600 million euros and so that is more or less what we are so now account you know we we are just closing the the program in more or less at the level we assumed. And the increase of 300 million euros in the increase of open fiber now is gonna offset the impact in net income of the FX impact. On that, so we project to stand at 2.7 times the data beta guidance in line with the plan.

Okay, we stay on the guidance, Alberto, still with you. What do you expect to happen in the second part of the year that will bridge you to the full year guidance?

Well, after this second quarter, I think that we have a clear visibility of what is going to happen in the second half. Yes, so we don't know if another pandemic wave is coming or not, but looking at the normalization of the situation like we we saw in the second quarter, we think that now we will be driven by this trend. So summarizing this, we see in the second quarter no impact coming from the scenarios, so a softening of the impact of effects. So we are not assuming now a better shape of effects, we are only assuming a neutral impact in the second quarter. and all the operating activities will perform very well so we see so a further increase in the demand of energy we see a delivery a strong delivery of renewables in the second quarter, in the second half. And on the other side, we see some improvement on the high level of prices. It's true that we are almost fully hedged, but we have some part of the production still unhedged because we keep some part not hedged, so we may have some improvement on the side and also analytics. So we think that the operational results that we saw in the second quarter will last and will drive the company towards the target that we have already reaffirmed.

Okay, still with you, Alberto, really popular question. Can you please provide an indication of guidance 2021 separating earnings from ownership model versus earnings from stewardship model and one-off that should partially offset gains from disposals?

Well, I think I have already answered the question saying that the operating results that we had and we have in our target are unchanged. The moving parts are related to other parts of the results related to capital gain and liability program and others. I want to stress the fact that while this question is still so compatible with the fact that we are starting the stewardship model with a big capital gain that will come from open fiber disposal, After this, the business will be composed in the target of the next three years that now is set at 3.3 billion euros would be composed by several parts, not only capital gain, and that the capital gain are fully within the operating model and business model that we are so pointing at. So these are So the way in which we want to look at the business, so separating from one to other, in the future will be more and more difficult. Having said that, I say that looking at the net income, we point to a net income that is in the range of pre-open fibre at roughly 5 billion euros. then so the open fiber capital gain that will come on top of this 5 billion euros will be partially offset by, on one side, the effect of FX, that is roughly 300 million euros at the net income level, and second, the liability management impact that is in the range of 500 million euros. Calling all these three parts together, will drive final results that will stay in the range of 5.8 billion euros.

Okay, next, another popular question. Is the mark-to-market on currencies still pointing to a billion shortfall versus the EBITDA that you had in the plan?

Well, so we have choose to to run, to chase after changes in scenarios one month to another in a so volatile context. So it's possible that today would be a little bit different, so it would be a little bit less negative. But we do prefer to stay stick on an impact of 1 billion euros to drive on the results of 2021 and to stay at the end of the year looking if some better news on FX side will come and will soften, will power our final results.

Okay, still linked somehow with the facts. Alberto, where do you see EBITDA 2021 for your LATAM activities?

well um so net of effects effect said a lot of them are substantially in line with with the plan this is so coming from netting of different results and different performance in different countries chile has been impacted negatively this year for so several reasons uh that can be grouped in the black swan asset, but it is going to be offset by better results in other countries.

Okay, I think there was a question around Chile, but I think here and there you answered that question already, so I would move to guidance on 2022. IBIDAN and T-Income Net Depth, how this compares with the plan?

Well, you know, so we have already said it, so we don't change our view, particularly after these good operating results. You know, so the mark-to-market of our plan on the new FX will be impacting the 2022 results of about 1 billion euros. But looking at several parts that we are working on in terms of better price shape and also better hedging strategy, we have already completed on one side. On the other side, an increase in investment, potential increase in investments that we may do pushing on our pipeline on one side and also in increasing investment in distribution. On the other side, by the big push that will come from the next generation EU funds that are due to be deployed in the next month, we can confirm the target we gave notwithstanding the 1 billion impact of FX. So we are ready to fully recover this gap and to confirm the target.

Okay, a few analysts were asking about the liability management program and the cost associated, but I think that again here and there you answered that question too. We move to the CEO for a set of questions around M&A and simplification of the structure. The first one, Francesco, is around recent press speculation. Financial Times suggests Iberdrola is considering spinning off its renewable business, following a similar move by Acciona. Do you still think the benefit of vertical integration outweigh the negatives?

Yeah, we think that the vertical integrated utility model is still a safe option. Actually, it's even more the case now that we're getting into the more turbulent phase of the energy transition. In fact, I think the announcements that we see here go in the direction of confirming this. I don't think that we're going to see these companies break up as others have done in the past because the model has proven to be The integrated model so far has proven to be a winning model in the energy transition. I believe that spinning off renewable business or even portion of it, like the offshore renewable business, might make sense in those companies where there is perhaps the need to shore up the balance sheet or increase the exposure to this sector because it seems not probably been understood by the market. This is not the case of Acciona and Iberdrola, for example. So, I can't comment on the logic that they apply here. Believe me, I think that the overall integrated market player will withstand the shocks and will benefit from the integrated business model much more in the energy transition than other players. And we think that the market is going to appreciate this as it is starting to do already during the last two years. If you look at the relative valuations of integrated and non-integrated players, you see the change in the dynamics.

Okay, staying in our home looking at Enel Americas, what are your plans on Enel Americas now that you own more than 8%?

We have some plans and of course the first to be exposed to these plans will be our co-shareholders in Enel America. and now that we have the possibility we will streamline to the extent possible the corporate structure and we will restart a growth trajectory now that we have a very well balanced and integrated portfolio of options to grow both in renewables and grids we will identify together with them the geographies where we think growth is more likely to happen with valuable contributions and those portion of Latin America where growth perhaps is not as promising and value is maybe a little bit behind in the curve. So, this is something that we intend to do with our co-shareholders in the next months.

Okay. Still on America, Francesco, analysts are asking what are our plans in Brazil if we are considering any IPO?

I think I've always maintained that if we are a significant player in this space, in the utility space, in any country that has a liquid and working of Endesa in Spain. This is the case of Chile in Chile. And I think now that we have reached a certain dimension in Brazil, and this dimension keeps growing with additional renewable capacity, maybe it would be a good idea to do that also in Brazil. But clearly, this must be discussed with our co-shareholders in Latin America. And I think it's something that we need to discuss with them.

Okay, we look at one of the slides that we presented about the Colombian restructuring. So analysts are asking what this reorganization means strategically.

Let's say that the agreement that we have reached with our partner co-shareholders in Colombia has created a single corporate vehicle 60 degrees so no limitations it offers a benefit of a more efficient and streamlined organization it focuses all the companies regardless of what is the business line they have on on pursuing growth with with value creation so it is exactly what we would like to keep doing in all uh in all countries in latin america in general so it is i think a very very effective step and we see benefits coming also from let's say a more constructive climate between investors which are setting aside all the past claims and are focused now on value creation and growth in this big country so it's a big step okay if a set of three questions around m a many times you mentioned francesco potential acquisition in the us can you uh update about the process of scouting The U.S. is a large space and the scouting is ongoing. We know that there is value creation in this window. I agree with some of the comments that were given to us in the past and perhaps some that we just might have received in the recent days. Clearly, we need to find the right assets and we need to find an agreement with the owners of these right assets. And this is something that will probably come up, but it hasn't come up to our attention yet. To be honest, we were also focused on the extraction in Latin America, and that got a lot of attention at work, and now it's done, so we can now devote ourselves to this work.

Okay. Another M&A question around press reports about ERG disposals in Italy. Can you share any information around the acquisition of ERG asset in Italy?

Not really. We cannot comment on the sale of the asset with ERG. As you know, we don't comment on processes that are ongoing, in particular this kind of news. What we can say is we are always associated to any transaction that happens in Italy, whether we are pursuing it or not. But this is something that I think will be clear in the next weeks. So, bear with us a little bit more. We cannot put up comments at this point.

Okay, another recurring question about the elephant in the room, as Alberto called it. When do you expect closing for the Open Fibre deal? Any change to the capital gain in case of delay?

I don't think there is a delay. The delay is not envisageable at this point. We are working to get the signing in the next few days. I think this is something that might happen for sure within the end of the year. So we don't see this likely that the transaction be dragged on further.

Okay, we move to a more business-related question. I'm staying with you, Francesco. Are you concerned about the impact of the fast rise in power prices on the competitiveness of the European industrial sector?

I think there is a little bit a tendency to overreact to market dynamics when they are in the rise and not when they are on the down, which is normal by the consumers. in particular by the industry. I think that these spikes might be slightly overblown in their overall impact. We are not concerned. I think there are, however, several tools available to safeguard competitiveness, and one of them, which the industry in Europe has largely overlooked over the past, I would say, almost 20 years, is contracting energy in the long term. This is a very peculiar system, the one that we have in Europe and compared to the rest of the world. And the industry is not used to capture the benefit of having a long-term stable supply of energy at a discount rather than ride the roller coaster of pricing going up and down year by year. Maybe this is the time that we all agree that we should restart a long-term pricing system habit and custom in Europe, too. And I think that would provide great edge and would put the European industry at par with industries around the world.

The Spanish government is proposing a clawback of the benefits of CO2 prices for legacy fixed cost capacity. Where are we in the approval process and what is the likely impact? Would that be compensated by the elimination of the generation tax?

First of all, we think that this This measure, like all measures that tamper with market prices, is going to backfire, is not going to be the solution. If there is a solution that needs to be found, it's not this way. There is no windfall profits for hydro and nuclear plants that are already taxed, and further tax could jeopardize the targets that are stated in a national climate plan. So I really believe this is not the right approach. There is, however, an ongoing process, which is at country level, but there is also a European... side of it, because clearly, you know, playing with the ETS mechanism has an impact on the credibility of this mechanism across Europe. So, we think that the final version of the draft bill proposal will incorporate substantial improvements. The government is pursuing a fast track implementation, so we believe that Somehow this will end up in a resolution before the end of the year. We think this is likely possible. But we believe that Europe will have a say and that there will be a lot of modifications before we see the end of the story.

Alberto, I'm just adding one small bit. Analysts are asking if we can assess the financial impact.

There are two moving parts to have a clear view on what the final impacts might be. Only to stress the fact that with a couple of changes before the beginning, the first proposal, we have already halved the potential impact. versus the previous one. And we think we are not really at the floor of this discussion that may result in some low that will be at the end would have a very not meaningful impact if only some of our suggestions, our and the other, utilities in Spain are suggesting to create a shift for further increase in prices not impacting at a certain level the situation and the economical impact. On the other side, I would say we now are not accounting big impact for 2022. I may say that with the situation of hedging already done, and hedging is also a part that we have to discuss to understand if hedge prices will fall in the low or not. But I can say that we For now, we see limited impact coming from this low for 2022.

Okay, next I go back to Francesco. Do you think there is a risk that a similar initiative can be implemented in Italy? I think you're on mute.

We hope not. We don't think so. We've seen the Italian government choosing a different pattern, at least on the short term, using the ETS generated extra money to compensate for the additional cost of some of the additional cost of the customers. We think it would be the wrong answer. have not seen signs from the government in that direction, it would probably also be incompatible with the legal framework and the regulated tariff system that we have here in Italy. Even more now that the release of the 455 targets indicates clearly that ETS is going to be the way to go, not only for generation, but for power, but also for other segments that today are not part of it. So we don't expect this contagion to spread to Italy. And by the way, I think it

in theory if it would go across europe it would finally kill the the idea in itself because europe would then have to basically reject it overall so i i think it's not going to happen okay renewable delivery uh ceo following a lower than expected q1 delivery of new renewable capacity q2 started to show some growth can you meet the 5.8 gigawatt target for 2021

I think yes, we will meet the target with a very strong third and fourth quarter. I recall everyone that we are recovering 800 megawatts that were delayed from the 2020 years already. So it's a very heavy year, this one, in terms of... We are also building a mitigation plan of additional megawatts that we could draw back from 23 in case we would see problems in some of the projects. But overall, I think we are going to reach more or less this target. And we might be up or down a few, maybe 100 or 200 megawatts, but that's the ballpark and it's a big step.

Okay. Other side of GPG, you have a target to shut down 2.9 gigawatts of coal this year. Is this confirmed? Any upside potential?

Yes, it's confirmed. The large part is coming from Spain because we have received the green light from Red Eletrica and the CNMC. to close down the two big plants, Littoral and Aspontes. This alone covers 2,600 of these 2,900 megawatts. The 1,300 that are missing should be coming out of Italy, out of the Fusina power plant, which we expect to be given green light by the end of the year. So the answer is yes. Let me underline that the fact that we shut down, that means we get formal green light from the network operator and the regulator to do that, does not change much the production profile. I mean, these units were already not producing because of economic displacement, given the price of CO2 that we were serving. there is no impact on the production of terawatt hours and therefore on the CO2 emissions. It's just a question of removing the megawatts from our megawatt theoretical base. But these megawatts are, by all practical reasons, already a muted theme in terms of production.

Okay, question for the CFO. Prices had a negative impact on results. Can you provide more details on the underlying dynamics? Can you elaborate on your hedging strategy?

Well, yes, on the lower hedging prices, they impacted results in 2021 of around 140 million euros, mainly in Italy and Spain. This negative effect is already fully reverted because in 2022, today we have the Latin America, hedge already 100 for 2022 at an average price that is in line with the 2021 so no no changes and no reduction in this price while when it comes to italy and spain so we are so ranging around say 75, 80, 90% of aging ratio with prices that are in the range of 5% higher in Spain and more than 15% higher in Italy. So this is the outlook for 2022.

Okay, Francesco, for you, we stay in Italy. And an analyst is asking, Enel recently signed a new PPA in Italy. Other operators have been signing PPA contracts in the past months. This is the actual start of a developed PPA market in the country?

I think it is the beginning of it, yes. And again, it's a welcome moment because, as I said before, it's time that the European industry uses this tool. It's a very... have clarity on energy prices and stabilize the cost structure of an industry on the long term, benefiting from the stability of a lower price that the PPA offers. So I think it's the beginning. As I said, the European industry is a very dense and extremely large platform of operators, so it will take time for everyone to be comfortable with PPAs. but I think it's beginning to show that this logical tool starts to make its way into the Italian system, and therefore, it will mitigate the short-term spikes of gas and commodity prices on the short term.

Okay. Alberto, for you, analysts are asking if you can provide an update on the availability of hydro resources.

Well, this year and also the last years, all in all, we see a neutral impact of different situations of hydraulicity in our countries. This year we got some severe impacts in Chile and also in Spain, but on the other side we had better hydrological resources in Italy, in Colombia, in Panama and Peru. So at the end we had we had a neutral impact on hydro. That is more or less what we are seeking for, the net effect that spreading our global print in all the technologies may offer to us, to have at the end a neutral impact between offsetting different situations in different countries.

Francesco, we go back to you. Analysts are asking if you can share preliminary thoughts around the first consultation document released by the Italian Authority a couple of weeks ago. If you can anticipate the range of allowed return and what do you think the impact might be?

First of all, this is the beginning of a negotiation. It's a very technical, quite complex document. It is the first step of a process. you may have noticed that there are no figures thrown at people. So that is positive because it leaves a lot of flexibility to the negotiation. I think there are different ranges of potential outcome, given that there are many moving parts at play. We are going to submit our responses to the regulator with whom we have an ongoing dialogue, as all the other players. The second consultation document is due in October. I think it is likely to be a reduction of the allowed return, but the extent of the cut will only be possible to be as certain as some of the key variables would be known. Let me tell you that my hunch, my feeling is that this time the regulator is conscious that mathematically, if you want from a pure mathematical WAC standpoint, the ground for some reduction to the allowed return. On the other side, there is the need to convince the industry to add and not subtract investment given the opportunity that the PNRR is giving. So they have to manage these two, let's say, different forces and try to find the right balance. So far we have seen that it is extremely balanced and the discussion is quite encouraging. So I'm positive that this will end better than the worst ideas that we've seen on some of the hot reactions are coming out.

Okay, Francesco, we'll stay with you for a more general question around the Fit for 55 package. What's your view on that?

I think it's a great document. I think the European Commission has put down the last missing piece of the puzzle that is, first of all, the strategy of the Green Deal, then the amount of money thrown at the Green Deal, and now the Fit for 55. What governance and what changes to the governance of the energy sector and the industrial sectors in Europe need to be implemented in order for this, really these two parts to play and come into effectiveness. We are in favor of higher targets such as the 40% of 2030. We are in favor of specific target for energy efficiency. We are in favor of extending the ETS to other sectors provided they stand in a proper way. We think it makes a lot of sense. For us, it's also helping to prepare for the necessary acceleration towards a further electrification of energy uses, for example, road transportation, heating, which is already today very competitive and much better than fossil fuels. So we think this is a bold move, and I think it is very ambitious. extremely forward-looking document that will be hotly discussed. I mean, it's going to be a very large lobby battleground, but I believe the European Union has set a very good starting point for that purpose.

Before moving, sorry, we move now on the recovery funds that you just mentioned. When do you expect the funds to be distributed and how?

I think this is probably a question that relates to Italy, but more or less, we are in four countries in Europe, but more or less they follow a little bit the same logic. In Italy, we got the approval in July. That means that a small portion of the total funds allocated could be paid in advance as early as the first quarter of 21. should the Italian government and the EU define it through a specific agreement. This is an agreement that the two governments, and this is perhaps also valid for Spain and other governments, so there should be a bilateral agreement between the country and the EU, but we're talking about a small portion that, you know, it's a lot of, it's about 13 or 14 percent of their total allocated amount, so quite a large function. We expect the first tenders to award projects, so we're talking about the rest of the money, to be you know to be uh out in 20 in october 21 so after the vacations and after the project we are initiated and investment financed by the recovery funds uh italy will be in position to ask for the disbursement of the fund this will happen twice a year so there will be two moments in each year in which this disbursement will happen and the request will have to be supported by the achievement of the targets that are defined under the PNRR. So, first disbursement, probably end of the year, for an amount that will be around 13-14%, subject to the definition of an agreement between the government and the EU.

Okay, before moving into another general question associated with the recovery fund, there is a super retweeted question, Alberto, that I have to ask you as the time is running by quickly. And it's about the returns associated with the 5.8 gigawatts that we expect to lay down this year. If you can confirm, what's the EBITDA on CAPEX or IRR over WAC that you expect to have from this?

Well, I do confirm on both the measure in which we want to look at investments, because in mid-down CapEx is more front-loaded results of a project and ERR and walk and spread SARS along the full life of the plant. But for both, we do confirm that we are on the level that we have targeted in the business plan for such a development. So we are talking about 11-12% BindacapEx and 150-200 basis points over WACC.

Okay, we have one minute. I think that one of the most burning questions that we received was about the simplification decree in Italy, so I would end with that one. Francesca, with your comment around this decree and what you might want to make it better eventually.

let's say that there is a it's a good decree so it's a step in the right direction uh we all all commented that this is an encouraging move by the government it is not enough to unlock a real you know ambitious green acceleration so there are still steps to be made we think for example two major improvements have to do with the fact that they should fix a fixed timing for the authorization process that would be binding in order for the player, the developers and investors to know what kind of timeframe they're going to be stuck with when they get into the authorization process. So fix a time and make it binding. And second, align the regional authorization processes to one model in order to remove the diversification that is a result of different regulations and different systems being implemented by different regions, which adds to the complexity and therefore the pain in having projects authorized in the proper amount of time. I think these two things are not yet fully implemented. They would definitely improve the text.

Okay, and our stop is our stop. We have a list of questions that have been answered, but we will answer directly to analysts. So thank you so much for your time. Thanks to the analysts and investors connected. And we wish good vacation to everybody and see you in September.

Thank you. Bye-bye.

Thank you. Bye-bye. That concludes the conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may hold this connect.