Rwe Ag Ord S/Adr

Welcome to the RWE conference call. Markus Kreber, CEO of RWE AG, and Michael Muller, CFO of RWE AG, will inform you about the developments in the first three quarters of fiscal 2024. I will now hand over to Thomas Denny. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining the nine-month 2024 RWE Investor and Analyst Conference Call today. Our CEO, Markus Krebber, will kick it off with the key nine-month highlights and an update on capital allocation, including a share buyback program. Afterwards, our CFO, Michael Müller, presents the details and will guide you through the financial performance of the first nine months, as well as the outlook for the current year. And with that, let me hand over to Markus.

Thank you, Thomas, and also a warm welcome to everyone from my side. This year is all about execution of our strategy, delivering the financial performance and constantly reassessing capital allocation. We have made strong progress in executing our growing green strategy and continue the transformation of our company with profitable growth through our investments. So far in 2024, we have invested 6.9 billion euros net with 95% of our investments being taxonomy aligned. We have 11.2 gigawatt of capacity under construction across all technologies. With 8.2%, the average IRR of our investment decisions exceeds our target of 8%. Despite headwinds from declining commodity prices, we delivered a good financial performance. Adjusted EBITDA stood at 4 billion euros. And we have already reached more than 75% of the lower end of our EBITDA guidance for the full year 24. Adjusted net income stood at 1.6 billion euros and more than 85% of the lower end of the full year guidance. Based on our good performance in the first nine months of 24, we are increasing our guidance. We now expect adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBIT, and adjusted net income in the middle of the guidance ranges. We constantly reassess our capital allocation in the light of changes of the risk-reward environment for our investments. Currently, we see higher uncertainties for certain technologies. In particular, we see higher risks and delays in the development of US offshore wind and in the ramp-up of the hydrogen economy in our core European markets. We therefore reduce our CAPEX program for the next two years. In the current environment, investing in RWE shares is highly attractive. Consequently, we decided on a significant share buyback program. Over a period of up to 18 months, we will return an additional 1.5 billion euros to our shareholders. Our dividend target of 1.1 euros per share for fiscal year 24 and the objective to increase the dividend year on year are confirmed. Let me now hand over to Michael with more details on the share buyback program and our nine-month financial performance.