Snam Spa

Welcome to the H12026 results presentation conference call. My name is Gaur and I will be your operator for today's event. Please note this conference has been recorded and for the duration of the call your lines will be on listen only mode. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the presentation. This can be done by pressing pound key then five on your telephone keypad. I will now hand you over to Francesca Pezzoli, Executive Director, Investor Relations and Sustainability, to begin the conference. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the presentation of SNAM's consolidated results for the first half of 2026, which were approved by the Board earlier today. I am here with Agostino Scornajenchi, SNAM's CEO and General Manager, and Luca Passa, Chief Financial Sustainability and International Asset Management Officer. The presentation will be divided into three parts. First, Agostino will offer an overview of recent market developments and the main industrial and financial milestones achieved during the period. Luca will then provide a detailed overview of our financial performance. After that, Agostino will provide the closing remarks followed by the usual live Q&A session. With that, I'm pleased to hand over to Agostino.

Thank you very much, Francesca. Good afternoon, everybody. Before commenting our first half results, I would like to start with a broader perspective on the energy system on slide number three. When discussing energy, it is important to keep a clear view of the facts and the underlying numbers. In Italy, as in many other major European countries, figures state that natural gas is the backbone of the energy system. In particular, in Italy, it accounts for around 37% of the country's primary energy consumption, making it the largest single energy source. Its importance becomes even clearer when looking at power generation. While electricity accounts for only around one quarter of Italy's final energy consumption, a share that has remained broadly stable over the past decade, natural gas generates roughly half of the country's domestic electricity production, excluding imports, which account for around 15% of supply. This underscores the critical role of natural gas in ensuring flexibility and system balancing. Its contribution is not only ascension today, but it's likely to become even more important in the years ahead. As renewable penetration continues to increase, the need for flexible generation capacity will grow. At the same time, ongoing electrification of final users and new sources of demand, including data centers, could trigger electricity consumption growth after years of stagnation. further reinforcing the need for reliable and resilient gas-fired generation fleet, which is the only flexible generation technology available. This is why we believe the future is not about replacing one technology with another. It's about building an increasingly integrated, diversified, and resilient energy system where electricity, molecules, storage, and infrastructure will work together. This is why we consider this as the energy integration era.