Redeia Corp U/Adr

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. We're now going to begin with our 2023 earnings presentation. So welcome to all of you who are joining us over the phone or online. With us, we have Beatriz Corredor, who's chairing the board of directors, Roberto Garcia Medina, our CEO, and Emilio Cerezo, our chief financial officer. So I'll hand over the floor to our chairwoman, Beatriz Corredor. Good morning, everyone. Welcome and thank you for coming to this presentation, in which, for yet another year, we'd like to share with you the most relevant milestones during the past year, 2023, Redea's performance and the results achieved by the group. We'll close the presentation by giving you our vision for 2024 and reviewing the progress we've made in achieving the objectives of the current strategic plan 2021-25. Moreover, at the end of the presentation, there'll be a Q&A session so we can answer any questions you might have. So, I'd like to begin our presentation. by identifying our performance in the 2023 financial year with our purpose as a company, which is to guarantee electricity supply and connectivity, promoting a fair ecological transition driven by sustainability criteria, placing value on our neutrality and contributing to social and territorial cohesion. Our commitment to sustainability goes beyond mere regulatory compliance and corporate social responsibility. It responds to our commitment to ethical capitalism and competitive social transformation. That means to generate shared value for all and by all. A sustainable future is the only possible horizon. The climate emergency is measurable and measured. There's evidence for it, and the World Meteorological Organization has confirmed that 2023 was the warmest year ever recorded. In mainland Spain, according to AMET, the average temperature was 1.3 degrees centigrade higher than the average for the period 1991 to 2020, making it one of the driest set of years in the historical data series. meanwhile the fires that Chile has suffered in recent weeks are perhaps the most dramatic image of the destructive capacity of sixth generation forest fires triggered by climate change and extreme events the growing international consensus not only among the scientific community but also governments, businesses and civil society on the need to make climate change mitigation a global priority led to an historic decision at the last climate summit the COP28 which marks the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era, tripling the target for renewable capacity by 2030 and doubling the target for energy efficiency. It's also been one of the main focuses of the Spanish presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of last year. In one of the most ambitious legislatures of the European Union in energy and climate matters, during the last six months the Spanish presidency managed to reach important agreements in record time on key legislative initiatives in these two areas. One of the main ones has been the agreement on the reform of the design of the electricity market with measures on three fundamental lines of action for transition energy independence with contracts for difference and long-term electricity purchase agreements integration of renewables with measures in the field of flexibility and empowerment of consumers with measures that protect vulnerable consumers Also noteworthy are the directive and regulation on hydrogen and decarbonized gases, which provide for integrated national planning of electricity networks separate from gas and hydrogen networks with common scenarios, and for the European network of hydrogen network operators to be an independent entity. The Energy Efficiency Directive has also been revised, establishing the principle of energy efficiency first in all EU policies, and with a binding target to reduce the Union's final energy consumption by 11.7% by 2030. And, as we heard yesterday, the Nature Restoration Regulation has been adopted, requiring at least 20% of the EU's land and marine areas to be restored before 2030, with the aim of restoring all ecosystems between now and 2050. The ambitious and unified position defended by the EU at the COP28, which was key to the signing of that Dubai Agreement, was also very relevant during the Presidency. Finally, within the framework of the Presidency, on 19 December, Spain, France, Portugal and the European Commission signed a new Memorandum of Understanding, establishing an action plan for interconnections between the Iberian Peninsula and the rest of the EU, highlighting Spain's role in contributing to the EU's energy independence and the integration of renewables. The government's regulatory drive has also been highlighted in 2023 at the national level, adopting legislative measures as relevant as the updating of the National Energy and Climate Plan, which includes more ambitious goals in developing clean energy, lower emissions, more renewables, more electric mobility and more energy sovereignty. Thus, among other things, it raises the 2030 target for the share of renewables in the electricity sector from 74% to 81%. In the shorter term, in order to adapt current planning to this new 2030 scenario, the Ministry has also initiated the hearing process for the modification of specific aspects of the electricity planning until 2026, including 64 new actions with an additional investment of €321 million to facilitate the materialisation of strategic projects. At the same time, The Government has initiated the processing of a new 2025-2030 plan which will be critical in meeting the objectives of the National Energy and Climate Plan and which will include new actions in the transmission grid for the coming years. Other relevant areas in which new regulatory developments have taken place include the regulated electricity tariff, with the PVPC calculation methodology being modified, and the deployment of offshore wind energy, with the approval of the Maritime Space Management Plans, which have been published under the Royal Decree. Finally, it's also important to highlight the Royal Decree Law 8, 2023, which at the end of December extended several of the temporary measures to deal with the energy crisis resulting from the war in Ukraine. One of these was aimed at promoting clean energy with the modification of the milestones for the administrative processing of new renewable projects. All these regulatory efforts are determining factors in Spain's current position as a leader in renewable energy. The world looks to us as a benchmark in the integration of renewables. The country in the world with the eighth highest installed renewable energy capacity and the second highest in Europe. By 2023, we achieved 50% of renewables in the national mix, thanks to the increase in installed wind and solar power capacity, which has added 5.7 new gigawatts, the extraordinary electricity transmission grid and the flexibility measures implemented, with which we are once again making ourselves a world pioneer. Thus, the mainland grid has integrated more than 98% of renewable production, or to put it in another way, the level of grid constraints has been less than 2%, which is well below the 5% established by European regulations, and the figures reported by neighbouring countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany and Ireland, as corroborated by the latest IEA reports. We also remain at levels similar to those of 2022, although renewable penetration has increased by 8 percentage points. It's important to highlight here the work of the system operator to simultaneously guarantee three fundamental maxims, security and continuity of supply and the integration of renewables. And we can't overlook the enormous complexity involved in achieving this at this time of transition. given the variability of renewable resources and the characteristics of our system, which isn't very interconnected. This means we need new mechanisms to provide greater flexibility in the operation of the system, so we're also introducing innovative measures to maximise the integration of clean energy. These include the second auction of the active demand response service and the automatic power reduction system, that allows us to minimize limitations on renewable production. In 2023, it's avoided more than 1.7 terawatt hours of energy discharge due to grid constraints. Here it's also important to mention the incorporation of new technologies, such as DLRs, to take advantage of the maximum capacity of the lines, depending on weather conditions, or our leadership in the participation of renewables in the balancing markets, which are managed by the system operators and serve to guarantee instantaneous equilibrium between generation and demand, taking into account storage capacities and international exchanges. We've also completed an extraordinary year of progress in Spain in its energy transition. Nonetheless, we must continue to redouble our efforts, especially in grids. In 2023 it became clearer than ever that without transmission there is no transition because grids are the real enabler of the energy transition and the decarbonisation process. In recent months this has also been recalled among others by the International Energy Agency in its report Electricity Grids and Secure Energy Transition and by the European Commission in its Networks Action Plan. specifically, Brussels envisages that by 2030 the international exchange capacity will have to be doubled and the transmission and distribution networks will also have to be improved. It estimates that we need an investment of 584 billion euros in networks over the decade, which undoubtedly represents a significant part of the global investment necessary for the energy transition. This plan contains 14 points to make Europe's electricity grids more interconnected, stronger, more digital and more cyber resilient. Among the measures included, the Commission recommends introducing regulatory incentives to encourage early investments, facilitating access to finance for grid projects, boosting strategic projects of common interest, improving planning to 2050, streamlining permitting and public participation and strengthening supply chains to ensure timely deployment of infrastructure. Networks, then, today are at the heart of the international and European debate. Also, at national level, Retelektrika is working hard to strengthen its role. As I was saying, we continue to reinforce and transform this grid following the roadmap set by the current plan, which is binding for Retelektrika and stems from the indicative scenario defined in the National Energy and Climate Plan. For the first time, The main motivation for this planning is to promote renewable production in areas with high resources and low environmental sensitivity and to maximise the use of the existing grid thanks to new technologies. We are rolling out the planned developments that are strategic to reach a renewable production penetration of 67% by 2026. We are also dedicating all of our resources to achieving this 2023 has been a key year in the development of the transmission grid, with TSO investments of 825 million euros. That's 55% higher than the investments made in 2022. the CEO, Roberto García Medina, will go into this in a few minutes, but I'd like to highlight the efforts and coordination of the different units of Red Electrica to maintain a permanent dialogue with the public administrations in order to speed up the processing of the projects included in the planning. achieving consensus-based solutions with the territory and executing the development of the grid in the shortest possible time, even in a year such as 2023, with various elections and subsequent changes in the configuration of the governments concerned. This has allowed us to speed up the granting of a significant number of construction authorizations. We can say that Retelektrika is executing in due time and form the projects for which it has the building permits. Thus, by the end of 2024, we will reach 50% of the rollout of the plan, with two key years left for the materialisation of the projects. The result of this effort is the progress achieved in 2023, as significant as the commissioning of the Astillero-Caticedo electricity line, which reinforces the supply to the Santander Bay Arc, the commissioning of the electricity link between Ibiza and Formentera, six months ahead of schedule, and we've also made progress in the Uene-Sichazo line in the Basque Country, which we've completed, or the Ibiza-Bossa line, or the Tenerife-La Gomera link in the Canary Islands. and we've brought into service the Cerda substation, essential for electrification of the Barcelona port. And although we can't go into the status of all our actions, I'd like to highlight that we're in the final stages of processing the Península Celta link, which obtained the environmental impact statement in June 23. The Morella-La Plana axis, we're currently laying the foundations for the support and in Almería Earthworks have already begun on the ANTA substation to close the entire line coming from Caparacena in Granada once the necessary authorisations have been obtained. And we shouldn't forget the strengthening of our international interconnections which are vital for the integration of renewables, the guarantee of supply and the EU's energy autonomy. We're making progress on the interconnection works with France through the Bay of Biscay where we've already started work at zero level and for which we have just received the permits for the construction of the Gatica converter and the underground submarine line to Cougnesailles in France. In Galicia we're also working on the actions envisaged in the new interconnection with Portugal to the north from the Bearis and Fonte Fría substations and from there to the border. In Extremadura, significant progress has been made in the construction of the substations necessary for the evacuation of renewable energy, as well as the installations necessary for the advancement of railway infrastructures. In Andalusia, a large number of substation extensions have been authorized, which will enable the evacuation of renewable energy. In Castilla-La Mancha, all projects and environmental impact studies for the Transmanchega axis have been submitted for public information. And we're developing essential tools to operate isolated systems in a context of high penetration of renewables. That's the case of the Avisa and Menorca batteries, which have already been submitted for public information. and which will serve as the future Peninsula Balearic Islands link to reinforce and guarantee the supply to the archipelago and boost energy transition there outside planning I'd like to dwell briefly on the Santo de Chira hydroelectricity power station we're building in Gran Canaria works on schedule in the tunnels where the plant will be installed the desalination plant the desalinated water pipeline and the high voltage line The European Commission has recently endorsed the system operators' ownership of the plant as an essential element in guaranteeing supply and integrating renewables. When you're talking about an island, that's really important. We can also see the great progress achieved by our diversification businesses in the last year. 2023 was a year of consolidation for our international subsidiary, Red Inter, which this year celebrates its 25th anniversary in Latin America, where our company has established itself as a benchmark in the management of essential infrastructures, with the commissioning of new facilities in Chile and Peru, and the incorporation in 2022 of new assets to the perimeter of the Brazilian Argo, which we share with our partners in Grupo Energía de Bogotá. 2023 was also the year of the closing of the digital divide in Spain, thanks to Redella's efforts, firstly through Reintel, by meshing the entire national territory and providing connectivity to new routes, such as the Ruta de la Plata, secondly thanks to Hispasat's fleet of satellites, to which it added the new Amazonas Nexus, which celebrated its first year in space this February. The Amazonas Nexus mission has allowed his facade to open up a new era in satellite communications with close to 80% of its commercial capacity committed to long-term contracts that demonstrate our versatility to meet the needs of different kinds of users. From connectivity on board aircraft in the United States and the Northern Atlantic Corridor to high quality internet access in places as remote as Greenland or the provision of services by the US Department of Defense. Hispasat has also launched the Oniko Rural Demand Programme, designed by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Enterprise and supported by funds from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan to bring broadband via satellite to sparsely populated rural areas. And we've recently doubled the speed offered to our final customers to 200 Mbps. The reception of this initiative by retail and rural operators has been very positive with 28 operators joining Connectate 35 and thousands of subscribers registered in the programme. And finally, Elowit, our technology platform has developed 12 innovative technical solutions including the sensorization of underwater cables and remote management of substations through AI, the Internet of Things and data analytics. Submarine cables or remote management of substations through AI and IoT means that we can consolidate our position in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. which means that we are a neutral manager of strategic infrastructures, a group with five companies, a vocation for public service and a purpose that commits us to a transversal objective to leave things better than how we found them. This is how we understand sustainability at Redella. And this has always been our way of working in the territories within our footprint. But now we're taking a step further with our comprehensive impact strategy. with which we've defined over the last three years how we're going to amplify the net positive impact of the entire geography and business areas in Spain and Latin America, aiming for our facilities to be true networks of the future that enhance the life of communities. His design is based on the experience accumulated through environmental and social initiatives that have contributed to sustainable development, but which we implemented independently from different units of the company. Now we're aligning the projects of the entire company under the same single strategy and with a common governance model. This represents an important cultural change in our group. The company is more permeable, more flexible, and the different general and corporate divisions are more collaborative. institutional relations should be mentioned here, along with communication and territory, transport, sustainability, as well as others. This is the essence of our new comprehensive impact strategy, which rests on our newly created collective space for reflection, which we've called Pensadere, to harness collective intelligence from inside and outside the company, and to better channel our efforts and capabilities. We then move on to action, building a network of social improvement projects and initiatives through the tool we've called the Weaver. The highest body of this governance is the Comprehensive Impact Committee, chaired by the CEO and myself. That is at the very highest level of the company, and with which we've already approved and launched initiatives focused on areas such as the conservation of the bearded vulture and the Golden Eagle, the improvement of connectivity or energy efficiency in rural areas, among others, with the comprehensive impact strategy We are going to be gaining in proactivity. We're going to have a much greater reach going beyond our infrastructure environment. We'll get a network of interconnected initiatives with a focus on social as well as environmental issues as a facilitator of the deployment of our infrastructures, in many cases anticipating their entry into service, whilst it also positions us as a key partner in moving towards sustainable development. as we also do through our 2023-25 sustainability plan, of which we've achieved 52% compliance to date. With this, we seek to deploy a positive net impact that we've already measured in the first report, which places us at the forefront of Spanish companies in making this voluntary exercise of transparency. Thus, we can affirm that REDES contributes 14.5 euros to society for every euro of net profit. Our main contribution is to enable the development of the environment by guaranteeing access to electricity and digital inclusion. It's impossible to mention here each and every one of the initiatives and projects But I'd like to mention our Marine Forest in the Balearica Islands, which got an award from the Renewables Grid Initiative, or our Hola Pueblo project, the FP Positive Energy Initiative to train teenagers in sectors with a high demand for professionals, or Red Esteem to encourage young girls aged 14 to 16 to study STEAM disciplines. All this has earned us, yet it Again, this year, further recognition as one of the most sustainable companies in the world. RDA has revalidated its inclusion in the most prestigious indices such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, the S&P World, Moody's Euronext, FTSE for Good, and the MSCI, among others. This leadership demonstrates Rea's constant efforts to ensure that the activities of the group and its subsidiaries contribute in a coordinated manner to building a more sustainable future, respectful of people and respectful of the planet. They are undoubtedly a recognition of good management of the company's excellent performance in the social, environmental and good governance fields. And they are the outcome of the efforts of all the group's professionals, whom I'd like to thank here and now for your contribution. Thank you for your attention, and I'll now hand over to our CEO, Roberto Garcia Merino.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Let us now discuss the most significant highlights of 2023 along with our earnings during the last financial year. Clearly, the first thing we need to talk about is investing in TSO. We've already seen how relevant networks are for a sustainable future and what an important catalyst it is to have the support of EU institutions, Redella holds the firm commitment of tackling the required investments to transform our power system into a decarbonized system, and we can guarantee that we're moving ahead with a firm foot in this endeavor. 2023 was a key year in the development of TSO activity with an investment above 800 million euros, 55% above investment in 2022, which already meant an important increase compared to the previous year, 2021. All of this while we continue to provide high quality levels in our service with an index of 98% in the transfer network, integrating renewables into our power system with numbers never seen before. and the regulatory field beyond the ones our chairwoman mentioned, there have also been significant progress when several instruments were approved in Spain and Europe directly affecting RTSO activity. In May, a resolution was published for the interconnection between France and Spain, and it was included in the remuneration regime with special technical features. This resolution includes It's the last step before the application of the tax regime for this project already in the pipeline. In October, an agenda was approved by the EU to channel European next generation funds during the period 23 to 26. This agenda includes an item to finance the development of power structures in the transportation network for €931 million. The use of these funds is still pending for regulation via a royal decree to be published during 2024. Besides, the EU supported the regulatory system of the Canarian system, including pump management by RevElectrica. And finally, one critical aspect for the new regulatory period. The CNMC approved a calendar of circulars in terms of energy, and their work will start in 2024 with circular 2 bar 2029 to adjust the calculation methodology for the financial remuneration rate. to enable efficient network investment. The proposals, hearings, proceedings are scheduled for late this year, 2024. As you can see, there have been several milestones for 2023, but 2024 will be loaded with relevant events for the TSO, although at the beginning of the year, several punctual aspects changed in the next few months. We expect, among other things, the final decision on the transmission resolution, the update of the National Energy Plan, and the draft for the new planning for the 2025-2030 plan. And now, by the end of this financial year, the hearing proceedings to amend the circular establishing financial remunerations for the remuneration period. The new rate will be published in 2025 and will apply to the third regulatory period expected to start in January 2026, as you all know. Besides, we have continued to strengthen our diversification business, thus achieving new international milestones such as the commissioning of T-SERV-4 in Peru or the launching of the second stage of the RENENOR project, which reinforces the power connection in northern Chile, or the development of a new electrical control center with ANGI as a partner in Chile. In terms of satellite activity, our highlights include the launching and commissioning of the Amazonas Nexus satellite in July, Hispasat was also awarded the Unico Rural Demand Program with a subsidy of 76 million euros that will guarantee broadband access in those rural areas where there is now limited access to the network. In addition... We remind you that Hispasat is one of the five companies that will lead the consortium that will develop the Iris Square Constellation, an initiative sponsored by the European Union, aiming to create a low-orbit satellite system to provide high-speed Internet access to provide a new, secure, and resilient connectivity infrastructure for governments, companies, and citizens in Europe. And we finish this overview with the fiber optics business, which remains solid for one more year with a stable business model and coverage through contracts in light of the present macroeconomic environment. Over now to the main numbers of 2023 that have maintained positive performance, even above our own estimates, as in the case of the net earnings during the year. I would love to highlight that on February 27th, the board of directors brought for the approval of the general shareholders meeting, a complimentary dividend payout charged to the earnings of 2023 of 0.72 or 0.73 cents of Euro per action to be paid on July 1st, thus meeting our commitments to the market. The year 2023 was a very positive one with positive performance in the main lines of our balance sheet and growth exceeding our own expectations driven by the significant contribution of financial results thanks to optimum financial management. Major contributors to EBITDA include the international transmission and fiber optics business. May I highlight that 83% of the group's EBITDA comes from regulated businesses, both in Spain and internationally. Analyzing our income statement in detail, our revenue grows by 3% with a positive contribution from all business lines. TSO gets higher regulated income of 26 million euros coming both from transmission activity and from systems operations after reviewing its remuneration parameters. On our international business side, we can highlight the favorable performance of the three foreign countries where we operate. On one side, Chile and Peru, partly coming from newly commissioned facilities, and Brazil as a result of the new perimeter of assets after recent acquisition during December 2022. About the satellite business, I should highlight the contribution of AmazonasNexus operational since July, as well as a full contribution from Axis, which joined the group in August 2022. Also, earnings or revenues from the fiber optics business also increased as a result of linking its main contracts to inflation. If we now focus on the evolution of operating costs, we see that these increase by 4.6% as compared to the previous year. However, for better understanding this trend, it is interesting to break down this increase into non-comparable and comparable costs. Non-comparable costs rise by $9 million as a result of a change in perimeter, mainly after the acquisition of Axis in August 2022. In the opposite sense, This year, lower costs were recorded in connection with construction projects, mainly internationally. And also in 2022, there was a non-recurrent cost because of the incentivated exit plan or departure plan affecting the comparison. As in previous years, comparable operating costs continue to show a marginal annual increase limited to 3.4% within the inflation environment that affected the whole financial year of 2023 and thanks or contained thanks to the permanent search for efficiency in our different activities. The performance of revenues and expenses leads to a growth in EBITDA of 1.1% compared to the previous year, taking support of the positive contribution of the group's regulated businesses and our fiber optics business with re-intel except for the satellite business, which was affected by the end of certain video contracts in Brazil, already factored into our 2023 estimates. To conclude with this P&L, net profit was 690 million euros, in other words, 3.7% higher than that in 2022, therefore exceeding our own estimates. This increase is attributable to several factors. obviously EBITDA growth, but also the amortization and others item, seeing a decline due mostly to HSPASAT after reaching the end of the Amazon 2 satellite, partly offset by the commissioning of Amazonas Nexus satellite. Not only that, our net financial expenses improved thanks to the financial management of existing liquidity and lower average gross debt, partially offset by higher costs. The effective corporate tax rate is 21% slightly lower than the previous year's 21.7, mostly due to the higher earnings of companies valued through the equity method already posted net of tax. And minority states also increased after the sale of 49% of reintel in June 2023, and they're already factored in annually. Going into investments, group investments reached 996 million during the financial year. Out of these, 825 million euros correspond to TSO investments, thus exceeding those from the previous year by 55%. This investment volume in TSO significantly exceeds the initial estimate we had for 2023, consolidating the positive evolution of recent years, thus showing the significant efforts the company is making to accelerate investment in the transmission network. Out of these network investments, we can draw the following highlights. The power interconnection between Spain and France through the Bay of Biscay that continues to advance as planned. the completion of the new interconnection between the islands of Ibiza and Formentera, which allows for 100% coverage of Formentera's demand. Also, progress in the construction of the Galicia-Portugal hub, enabling the continuation of works to meet our facility commissioning goals for 2025, the development of new power hubs, meant to enhance the meshing of the transmission grid to thus boost efficiency and support demand, and last but not least, progress in storage in the Canary Islands, including certain early construction milestones in hydraulic conduction of Gerasole. In international activity in 2023, we finalized ongoing investment projects in Peru and Chile. And last, in telecommunications, more specifically in our satellite activity, the most relevant milestone was the launching and commissioning of the Amazonas Nexus satellite. I would like to point out at this point, that over 83% of our investments are eligible according to the European taxonomy, reinforcing our commitment to sustainability. In terms of our balance sheet, our net financial debt at the end of the year stands at 4.975 billion, or 341 million above that of 2022. Operating cash flow during the year approached 500 million euros mainly due to two main factors. One, the generation of cash flow from operations totaling $1.15 billion, and the increase in working capital that amounts to $664 million, coming mostly from the return of a portion of excess trades collected in previous years. The outstanding balance at the end of 2023 is expected to reach $190 million to be repaid in the coming months. Considering the above, and in addition to investments made during the year and the payout of dividends, net financial debt climbs by only 7%, thus showing healthy financial ratios and maintaining a solid credit rating of A-, according to Standard & Poor's and Fitch. About our financial debt, it diversifies in terms of funding sources with 89% at a fixed rate until maturity and a clear dominion of euros above other currencies. Thanks to this structure, we have maintained a competitive average cost of debt in the present environment, and it stands now at 2.14%. In the next four years, we will face maturities of approximately 3.2 billion euros, much of which are actually covered by a strong liquidity position, which is further strengthened by the issuance of our green bond by half a billion euros issued in January this year. And last, I would like to highlight the company efforts in terms of sustainability and the funding of green projects that contribute to the energy transition and are 100% aligned with the European taxonomy. During this period, we have the two following milestones. The issuance of a half-billion green hybrid bond in January 2023 and our most recent issue of green funds, for an extra half billion euros for an expected 10-year yield of 3.07%. In both issues, we've had the support of the European Investment Bank that allowed us to strengthen our financial position in order to proceed with the corresponding and ambitious investment plan we're considering to make the energy transition a reality. At the same time, we're proud to share with you the fact that that 59% of our financing is linked to ESG criteria, thus bringing us ever closer to fulfilling our commitment of 100% ESG financing by 2030. Lastly, about our positioning in ESG, we conclude that 45% of our institutional shareholdings is classified as socially responsible investments. Having analyzed the end of 2023 financial year, we will now go into discussing the future and how we estimate the company may perform during this year. In 2023, we had already fulfilled 60% of our strategic plan, 21 to 25. Considering that this year served as a turning point for the TSO with the acceleration of our investments up to levels close to our all-time highs. The efforts made in the past few years to reach a certain investment pace were reflected in specific projects, and we have succeeded in securing an investment of 825 million euros, well above the 700 million we had set as a target at the beginning of the year. It is now time to face the year 2024 as a base year for future growth, where we expect to maintain positive investment and reach unprecedented levels in the company. Our purpose in 2024 is reaching an investment volume of approximately 1 billion euros, thus fulfilling our responsibility as the backbone of our energy transition. This investment commitment is not just a milestone for 2024, we mean to guarantee that it will continue at the same level in oncoming years. 2024 will mostly be earmarked by the end of a useful life of pre-'98 assets, which will no longer receive part of the remuneration, resulting in a net impact on our revenues of €260 million. Undoubtedly, this milestone, already known to all, will have a negative impact but it also implies that 2024 will be the foundational year for Red Electric's future growth, with expectations for positive performance of results starting this year. In the international arena, we are in the process of consolidating our activity after the completion of the last ongoing project in 2023. In the satellite business, the full-year contribution of Amazonas Nexus and the Unico Rural Broadband Project will bring Hispasat's EBITDA back to its 2022 levels. And finally, our fiber optic business will continue to show stable growth contractually protected from inflation. All of the above allows us to glimpse at an estimated EBITDA exceeding 1.3 billion euros for 2024 and a net profit of roughly half a billion. That will, of course, increase considering the significant evolution of investments to be financed, and it will stabilize around 6 billion euros around the end of 2024. And to conclude this presentation, we will now discuss our progress in the fulfillment of our strategic plan and how far we've come into achieving our 2025 objectives. Our efforts to boost TSO investments in recent years are evident, and this, coupled with global consensus that the network needs to be reinforced to meet energy transition targets, means that a new increased goal objective will come during 2021 to 2025, which is roughly 5 billion euros. This represents a 5% increase in TSO investment. That is more than 15% above the initial plan after amending certain aspects of the current plan with further investment requirements of 321 million euros. About the progress of investment in our plan, we can claim that in general terms, if investments are advancing as planned only at a faster pace and volume in the case of TSO with a pledge for execution of 2.1 billion euros in the next two years. And to conclude, we wrap up this presentation by restating our financial commitments for the period until 2025 by offering an attractive remuneration for our shareholders and maintaining a solid financial structure. Thank you very much for your attention. At the end of this presentation, we're available and willing to answer any questions you may have. Thank you.

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. We'll now open the Q&A session. And if you wish to ask a question, just press asterisk 1 on the keyboard of your phone. Thank you. Asterisk 1. So, first question comes from Javier Suarez from Mediabanca. Javier, go ahead. Yes, good morning everyone and thank you for this presentation. I've got several questions. The first one has to do with the regulatory debate here in Spain. Obviously, the National Antitrust Committee has published a schedule with a timeline saying that there has to be a public document in December this year. So, yes, it will be published in December this year. But take into account the urgent need for strengthening the transmission and distribution grid here in Spain. Do you think that they might speed up that timetable, which they initially established? Do you think that the regulator might... put out signs that they want shareholders to make sure that the investments made by the company are made in proper conditions which are good for the system and for the shareholders. That's my first question. And the second one is related to regulatory aspects too. Can you update us on any conversations with the regulator? not just updating the formula for looking at the returns but also with respect to OPEX and CAPEX and what's happening with the work in progress. My third question, obviously, has to do with what's going to happen in June with the adjustment in the investments that you'd already announced in 2023. When will the company consider itself to be in a condition to disclose to the market a full business plan going up to 2030? Can you give us an idea of how you're timing things in order to make that disclosure so that we'll know what you're going to be doing in financial terms as well up to 2030? My final question has to do with investments. And we've been talking about a one billion and your rating here. And in order to continue investing as you are at the moment, do you think that there'll be a decent payout? Are you getting the right payout? And are you rotating your assets in a suitable way to ensure a long-term return for investors? Thank you. Well, I think I'll hand over to you, Roberto, to answer a lot of what Javier's asked. But we will talk about the regulatory matters. So thank you very much for your question, Roberto. We are in constant contact with the regulators, as you can imagine, in order to deal with the different matters that come up. we have to pull as the with the TSO committee and we are maintaining contact with the administration in order to see what kind of philosophy can help us to best orientate this new regulatory period but it's early days yet we're in 2024 and there are two years yet to go The timeline is orientative and we've got the main milestones and we'll have to see whether or not it's possible to bring forward the disclosure of the documents. That's up to the regulator to decide, not us. We know that all the technical people in the CNMC are working very hard to make sure that they update all the regulations and standards. in line with new technologies and such like, obviously we'll continue to be in contact with them over the year, especially in the second half of the year, in order to make them aware of what our fundamental lines are in the new regulatory period, taking into account what we've said in the presentation. this enormous impact of European regulation on Spanish regulations on networks in order to introduce more renewables and get a more efficient system which is good for customers and for the country as a whole and that's our responsibility as a TSO and that entails working together in order to make sure that the circulars that come out are optimal for the needs of the country as a whole. And then you ask about the new philosophies. Well, I think we've often said, to answer your second question, that regulation in Spain on transmission grids regarding remuneration is rather different from elsewhere in Europe in three basic areas. about the remuneration period for the different effects we have and secondly what you said about the remuneration of the resource and then the assets as they come into service how they're booked and we've had some new regulations recently in the last few months regarding the pumping station in Salto de Tira and there They recognise the remuneration for this same period, which we think is a good indicator of how regulation might move in the future. And then visibility. You ask about visibility and disclosure. Well, our strategy plan stretches to 2025, and this year there's some regulatory and legislative uncertainty. We've discussed that. One is the modification of certain aspects of the planning that have to be corroborated in the next few weeks, which would lead to an increase in the investment rate. and therefore would mean new infrastructure in the territory the new planning which for the first time will be imposed upon what we've already got prevailing we've got the draft which we've heard about but we won't have clarity until September and there the financial remuneration rate will also be fully established and then we'll be able to disclose to the market more data which will be based on reality rather than hypotheses but the moment that these matters are dealt with we are ready to do that but I think the CEOs already give you an idea about 2024 and our future investments with that 1 billion which we think we will be rolling out which we think will make us able to deal with this time horizon?

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. Well, first of all, Javier, thank you for your questions. Certainly, the next two years will be marked by the timing and the progress made by the CNMC in reviewing the circulars. Certainly throughout this year we will gain a better visibility on the investment framework after we get the first planning drafts. But until we get greater certainty on the path the financial remuneration framework is taking, we will not take up any additional commitments. Certainly, as our chairwoman was saying in our conversations with the CNMC, and based on statements from the European regulators, it is clear that the FRR needs to be updated. And there are also other considerations to be taken into account in the model. We hope that by December or sooner, there will be a clearer position taken by the CNMC along that front. And perhaps about your last question, Javier, on the investment pace. Certainly, we're contemplating an investment horizon that extends far into the next years. And certainly, we have many commissioning plans that start during 2025, which will provide greater cash flow to deal with those oncoming investments. But at any rate, and as we have done in the past, with the sale of 49% of reintel and other deals, if our priority is giving our balance sheet a better position to make investments in Spain, we can consider further activities in the non-core businesses of the group. Our next question. comes from Javier Garrido from JP Morgan. Please, Javier, go ahead. Yes, hello and good day. Thank you very much for your presentation. I have three questions for you. The first one is about the CNMC report on the update of the infrastructure schedules. As I understand, the CNMC pointed out that there will be increased costs in certain projects in the interconnection with Utah and the Canary Islands. Do you envisage any possibility for the risk that these higher costs might entail problems when it comes to recording the final cost of these singular projects? Or are you fully confident that despite this cost increase you will succeed in bringing further added value to the system. Is there no risk that part of the investment will not be acknowledged? That's the first part of the question. The second one is about the maturity of pre-'98 assets. Can you tell us what remuneration you're factoring in at the end of these assets useful life at the end of 2024? And could you give us a hint on how you affect financial costs to behave? Because in 2023, there was an extraordinarily positive trend, but during 24 and 25, and after this increased CapEx, we can expect further financing needs Can you give us a hint on where you think financial costs will go in 2024 and 2025? Thank you.

Javier, if you wish I can answer the first part of your question, then the CEO will deal with the other matters you brought up. The increase of costs you ask about. I should say that what was established was a preliminary approach drawn up at the time of establishing the initiative Now, these preliminary moments always incorporate a cost-benefit analysis determining whether for the electricity system this infrastructure is beneficial and therefore good for the consumer. The answer is yes, which means that once we've got this initial approach with respect to the economy and the finance of the project, we look at how it fits in with all the different contracts and budgets that have to be drawn up in order to make sure that the suppliers can make these works possible. So the CNMC is talking about reports that were already presented in 2022 and 23 by Retelektrika explaining to the CNMC what the definitive budgets were based on and it was an exercise of total transparency. So those are the projects that will subsequently be put to a cost-benefit analysis to make sure that they are beneficial for the system. And we have no worries about them being recognized as part of the final budgeting for the electricity grid.

Also, Javier, to answer the other two parts of your question, the impact of pre-'98 assets had already been factored in. it will have a net impact of 260 million less and income 307, nearly 310 fewer million in financial impact and about 60 million acknowledged in terms of extra remuneration on the side of maintenance. About financial results, I guess Emilio can provide deeper detail. on financing. Certainly, our financing strategy, which is linked to fixed long-term rates, causes the impact of a rate increase to be limited. In terms of average financial cost, we closed 2023 at 2.14. For 2023, we estimate a slight increase, maybe reaching 2.3, which is reasonably curtailed impact. And also in 2024, we expect not to have as much positive impact from financial income, but can you give us more detail?

Yes, in 2023, as we said in the presentation, we've had some very good financial revenues. because of the position of our liquidity and very attractive interest rates for 2024 we're thinking probably our financial position will go about 40 US dollars down because of certain aspects first of all the increase in the rates we're expecting in 2024 about 20 basis points approximately And secondly, the increase of the average financial debt, mainly because of the speeding up of the investment volume. And thirdly, as has been said, although we'll continue to have a good liquidity position in 2024, it will be slightly below what we had last year. And consequently, financial revenues will also be lower. And all in all, that means 40 million euros, the visibility of 2025, Javier. Really, to get good visibility, we'd have to know exactly what's going to happen with the European funds, which we were talking about in the presentation. When will they actually reach us here in Spain? Because they'll have an impact on us. But we can say that in 2025, the financial revenues will be slightly higher, very much in line. with what we said for 2024, increasing about 40 million probably compared to the results in 2023. Next question from José Ruiz from Barclays. José, go ahead, please. Hello, good morning. Thank you for answering my questions. The first one is has to do with the definition of your position right now in Hispasat. At the last earnings call you said that you were looking for a financial partner. Are you still on the lookout? Secondly, can you give us the internal WAC that you use for Radeya and can you specify I mean, you look at the capex that hasn't been spent yet in telecommunications. Have you got any major project there which you could identify for us? Thank you.

Thank you, Jose, about the first part of your question about Hizbethat. The first thing we need to do is consider what a good year 2023 was for the company. Last year, there were three major milestones placing Hispasat in a positive position for the next few years. First of all, the launching of the Amazonas Nexus satellite. It was a technical and commercial success by the Hispasat team. There was also the launching of the rural broadband project, also a major milestone for the company expected to yield positive returns in the next few years, plus Hispasat's stake in the Iris Square Initiative that will lead to the future satellite constellation across Europe. I believe that puts Hispasat in a very good position. Certainly in 2023, certain contracts ended in Brazil, but our vision for 2024 is for Hispasat to go back to its 2022 levels. And honestly, Hispasat have perfectly met every milestone we had included in our strategic plan. As for interest in Hispasat, we always said that we were willing to bring in strategic allies into the company. And if there were any displays of interest, whatever the kind for Hispasat or any other company in the group, we would analyze the possibility in our board of directors while maintaining our strategic approach and considering the kind of value contribution it could bring to our shareholders, but I have little else to offer along that front. As for the WC or G, I would say that reference brings us back to the market. Our returns now are higher than we expected a couple of years ago. So the reference values are higher now as they're directly affected by the way interest rates have gone. But that will also serve as a foundation for the review of the regulatory period from 2026 on. There's always a balance between financial income and the discount rates applied to the company. There has to be a perfect correlation is our understanding between the macroeconomic environment and the return levels acknowledged by the regulator. And about your third question on telecoms. I would say that for the remainder of our strategic plan, there might be room for some non-organic deal, a minor one, for HESPESAT or Reintel. But if they came to happen, these wouldn't be significant investments. Thank you. There are no further questions in Spanish. Let's go over two questions in English. Thank you.

Thank you. Our first question comes from Arthur Sitbon of Morgan Stanley. Arthur, please go ahead.

Hello. Thank you for taking my question. The first one is on the regulatory review for Spanish transport. In terms of your negotiation with the regulator, which type of spread between the large return and wide cap are you targeting? And how does that compare to the spread that you are getting right now and to the spread that you've been getting in the previous years? The second question would be on the dividend floor, 0.8 euro per share for coming years. How are you thinking about the floor? What could potentially make you go higher than that floor? In the past, I think it was in the context of the... of the rental disposal? Would you need another disposal to pay more than 0.8? Basically, just trying to understand a bit the various scenarios here. And the last one is, if ever CapEx ends up above your expectations in the coming years, what would be your preferred way to finance that?

Thank you very much.

I seem to gather that your first question is about the financial return estimates coming after the CNMC review, right? This is obviously a process that will be subject to much discussion and debate with the CNMC and with the rest of the industry. I believe that we can all agree that the present threshold is insufficient. As a matter of fact, as the European regulator has said, they're considering reviewing those parameters in connection with the present macroeconomic situation. Basically, those spreads have been 1 to 200 basis points, which seem a reasonable framework, but I guess more detail will come from our conversations with the CNMC, so it's perhaps too soon to tell, too soon to have a clear framework. I think the second part of your question was about the dividend payout commitment and the payout of 0.8 euros per share. I guess it matches our expectations from the beginning of our strategic plan. However, in a growth scenario for the group, As of 2024 and based on that long-term positive approach, even as part of our debate to analyze a potential new strategic plan, one of our priorities will be the possibility of changing our dividend policy and even raising the foundational figures for 24 and 25. And last, one possibility on the horizon to possibly finance ourselves. Well, if our investment plans move faster than forecast, I believe our balance sheet is solid enough now and in years to come. It is solid enough to easily finance our investment plan. If for any reason that investment plan accelerates and exceeds our forecast, There are other alternatives like hybrid instruments as we resorted to last year, or we could even analyze putting non-priority, non-core assets in the market.

Our next question comes from Marcin Wuschtau of Bank of America. Marcin, please go ahead.

Yes. Good afternoon. Thank you so much for the presentation. I have a couple of questions. The first one is on your CAPEX in the Spanish transmission activity. You obviously guided for 1 billion euros of CAPEX in 2024, but what about 2025, 26, 27? Could we expect that 1 billion to increase over time? Could we see 1.1, 1.2 billion Do you see a good pipeline of projects over the next, let's say, five years? And number two, I wanted to come back, if you allow me, on the remuneration of work in progress. So based on your discussions with the regulator, how confident you are that it will be introduced for all the new projects that are yet to be undertaken, but also for any of the ongoing projects. Thank you.

Fine, so thank you, Nassim. Well, about the certainty of where investment and transmission are going, I believe all the signals we're getting actually consolidate that threshold of one billion for the next, I would say the next decade. Besides that, we're starting a new planning period that will cover from years 26 to 30, which is a good sign because we're already moving ahead in the execution of the previous plan approved in February 22. We're already beginning to work on the new plan, and there's a new positive sign the new planning that brings an extra $321 million in investments for the transmission network. And when we hear the messages coming from Europe and even from Spain, our conclusion is that networks are increasingly necessary and investment volumes can be expected to remain around $1 billion a year or above, as you said. I believe the scenario of positive performance is clear for the next few years. in some specific scenario, we could cross that one billion threshold. I believe that 2023 was a critical year and the big leap we took in 2023 from half a billion a year to .8 billion at the end of 2023 was critical for us to tackle this objective of one billion per year. But having gone through that, I believe we're perfectly capable of investing $1 billion a year or even finding the means to invest more if we have to. As for the possible performance of the financial remuneration rate from the CNMC, I think several clear signals have been sent out. First, the very message from the European regulator. They sent a clear message that FRRs must be adapted to the microeconomic situation. That was very clear. And there's also the fast tracking of CMT projects to reanalyze the present needs, which came as excellent news. The process of... consultation launched by the cnmc was brought ahead until the end of this year so the message out there in the whole industry is that this 558 we have right now seems insufficient and the light of the present situation so the new model can be expected to be better than the present one thank you we have no further questions on the line so i'll hand back to the team for

We do have other questions that have come in now. The figure we have for 2023 and then three questions about demand for electricity. The outlook for electricity demand for 2024 and the following years, first of all. And what were the main causes impacting residential and industrial demand in 2023? And could we quantify the impact of self-consumption in residential demand? Thank you Manuel. This year the magnitudes that we've got for the close of 23 will be about 1.3 billion including the performance of our work in progress that we've got in Cirurgia Soria which as you know has its own remuneration regime in 2024 we're expecting year-end figures to be about 1.5 billion 24-25 that is so it's true that 2025 there will be a high volume of things being commissioned and assets coming into service so looking at the investment and the volume that will be commissioning in 2025 Really, I'd say at the end of the strategy plan in 2025 will be about 1.5 billion euros for work in progress, including what we have for Chirurga Soria. And then demand. Maybe the point of reference should be, because, I mean, we look forward to the future and it's difficult to foresee what might happen, but the point of reference we could use would be the data from 2023. Demand went down about two and a bit percent. But it's true that over recent months we've been seeing an increase in the demand, which has been consolidated over the last two... three months and so that's the starting point for us and then you ask about self-consumption well it's true that as you know we have a lot of information which we provide over our system And when we try to get a more exact estimate of cell consumption, we really do need to have a change in the regulations. And we don't have specific standards yet, so we can make sure that all the data we report are really comparable and valid. And what about tariffs from previous years? I didn't hear all that question. Would you give us the question again? We've got the figures which can be passed on to you later, but over the next few months we think that the figures will continue to be more or less the same. And then the final question we've received. It comes from from Barclays asking about the current constraints in the supply chain that we're seeing. So what's our position regarding the rollout of investment up until 2025?

Well, honestly, I believe we anticipated the market situation, which is, as you say, pretty tight. and with constraints for certain supply chains. We started working on the present plan that was approved in 2022 in the first draft. So we already started a demand coverage strategy back in 2021 to deal with the requirements for new investment projects, factoring in the high demand we're witnessing now in terms of submarine cables or conversion stations. So when we talk about that plan today, we realize that we did guarantee the supply required to tackle the investment we may have to do in the next three to four years. Fortunately, singular supplies like underwater cables were already factored in years ago, and we've actually kept our schedule fixed. with those investments, so the investment volume we're committing faces no significant risk in terms of equipment supply. Well, this is the end of today's presentation. As usual, the Investors Relations team is available for any extra clarifications you may need. Thank you very much, and see you the next time.