Rwe Ag Ord S/Adr

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining the RWE Investor and Analyst conference call today. Our CFO, Michael Müller, will guide you through our key highlights and financial performance of the first nine months of the year. But before I hand over to Michael, let me remind you of our Capital Markets Day in London in two weeks from today. We'll present an update of our growing green strategy and new mid- and long-term financial targets. For those who join us in person, we also offer breakout sessions with operational management. If you have not yet registered, please reach out to the RWE Investor Relations team. And with this, over to you, Michael.

Yeah, thanks Thomas, and also good afternoon from my side. We've continued with our strong performance in 2023. Our earnings in the first nine months more than doubled. Just as David Da developed well across all segments, especially driven by capacity additions, and strong earnings from flexible generation and supply and trading. We confirm our earnings guidance for the full year. The development of green capacity underlines the progress on our growth strategy. We have added 5.7 gigawatts of capacity to our portfolio, including the acquisition of Con Edison clean energy businesses with 3.1 gigawatts, mainly solar, and Magnum, with 1.4 gigawatt gas capacity. And on top, we currently have additional 7.8 gigawatt of capacity under construction. And we continue to grow our project pipeline. In October, our joint venture Community Offshore Wind was successful in the New York offshore auction. We have been awarded a provisional offtake of 1.3 gigawatt. The average awarded contract price of the tender was 145 US dollar per megawatt hour for a total period of 25 years. The awarded price will be inflated until the approval of the construction and operations plan. We've also been awarded contract for differences for nine of our new projects in the latest UK round five auction. The inflation index price in 2012 prices for our onshore wind project was 52.29 GBP per megawatt hour and 47 GBP per megawatt hour for our solar projects. These prices allow us to deliver attractive IRRs with low risk projects. Additionally, we have secured lease areas in Germany's North Sea for our project North Sea Cluster B was 0.9 gigawatt of capacity, and in the Gulf of Mexico, with a capacity of up to two gigawatt. Both leases come with attractive characteristics, given that we did not pay any lease payment for the North Sea area, and a minor amount for the Gulf of Mexico lease. Before we go on with the financials, let me remind you of our Capital Markets Day on November 28th. You can expect the full update of our growing green strategy. We are very much looking forward to meeting you in person in London. In the 5-9 months of 2023, we have performed extremely well, driven by the strong operational performance of our core businesses, especially in flexible generation and supply and trading. In offshore wind, adjusted EBITDA increased to 989 million euros, mainly due to capacity additions in Germany and the UK. Additionally, earnings increased due to better wind conditions and higher hedged prices. Onshore wind and solar recorded an EBITDA of 870 million euros. The increase is driven by capacity additions mainly as a result of the acquisition of Con Edison clean energy businesses. However, lower realized power prices and lower wind conditions had a negative impact on the result. Adjusted EBITDA of the hydro-biomass gas business was 2.4 billion euros. The exceptional result was driven by short-term asset optimization and hedges conducted at attractive price levels. On the back of a strong performance, the supply and trading segment reported an adjusted EBITDA of 1.3 billion euros. Last year's result was negatively affected by a one-off due to sanctions on Russian coal deliveries. In Q3, we divested the gas storage business in the Czech Republic. The book gain of 128 million euros has been reflected in the non-operating result. Overall, the groups adjusted EBITDA stood at 6.2 billion euros, including the coal and nuclear division. Year on year, coal and nuclear is driven by lower realized margins on unhedged positions, as well as higher overhauls and maintenance costs. On the back of the strong operational performance, adjusted net income amounted to 3.4 billion euros. Depreciation increased in line with our growth investments. The year-on-year adjusted financial result was stable due to offsetting interest rate effect. For adjusted tax, we applied the general tax rate of 20% for the RWE Group. Finally, Adjusted minority interest reflects lower earnings contributions from minority shares. The adjusted operating cash flow was 6.2 billion euros at the end of Q3 and reflects the impact from operating activities on net debt. Changes in operating working capital were mainly marked by the decrease of inventories of gas and storage and a decrease in trade receivables. Net debt increased substantially due to a significant investment in our growth. In Q1, we closed the acquisition of Con Edison Clean Energy businesses. We invested a further €4.0 billion net in our green growth program, including the Magnum and JBM Solar acquisitions. Net cash investments Net cash investment is also impacted by the divestment of the gas storage business in the Czech Republic. Other changes in net financial debt increased by 2.8 billion euros. This includes timing effects from hedging and trading activities. Our net position from variation margins for power generation stood at 2.1 billion euros, and this includes net variation margins from the sale of electricity, as well as the purchase of the respective fuels and CO2. In the first nine months, we have added 5.7 GW of green capacity. Capacity additions were driven by our strategic acquisition and our organic green growth. As we speak, we have 7.8 GW under construction across different technologies. Most notably, With an offshore, we have taken FID for a tour with a capacity of 1.1 gigawatt off the Danish coast. In the US, we have more than 3.6 gigawatt of capacity under construction, including 1 gigawatt of batteries and 2 gigawatts of solar. For the full year, we confirm our guidance. Adjusted EBITDA for RDB's core business is expected to be between to be between 6.3 and 6.9 billion euros. The range for the group is 7.1 to 7.7 billion euros. Adjusted depreciation is expected to be 2.1 billion euros. Adjusted EBIT is assumed to stand between 5 and 5.6 billion euros, with adjusted net income ranging from 3.3 to 3.8 billion euros. The dividend target remains one euro per share for this year. And now, let me hand back to Thomas.

Thank you, Michael. We will now start the Q&A session. Operator, please begin.