Terna Rete Elettrica Adr

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to TerraNet First Hub 2023 Consolidated Results presentation. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to our host speaker today, Mr. Amal Al-Bayati, Head of Investor Relations and Sustainability. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, good afternoon everyone and welcome to Terna first half 2023 result presentation. The call will be hosted by our CEO Giuseppina Di Foggia and our CFO Agostino Scornaienchi. Following the presentation, we will have the Q&A session. Be kindly asked to send questions to investorrelation at terna.it. Please, Giuse, the floor is yours.

Thank you Omar and good afternoon everybody. Last May the Annual General Meeting appointed the new Board of Directors with Igor De Biasio as Chairman and myself as CEO. I am delighted and proud to take up this new challenge. From what I have seen, Terna is in excellent shape. Our people have outstanding skills and know-how, which means we will continue to grow in a sustainable way. Energy transition is a mandatory path to a sustainable future. We intend to further enhance Turner's role in the energy transition, continuing along our strategic roadmap for the development of the electricity system of the future. Before starting to analyze the figures, I would like to share with you the main achievements of the first part of the year. Regarding regulated activities, let me remind you that last March we presented the new 10-year National Development Plan. More than 21 billion euros of investment aimed at continuing the integration of renewable sources and the progressive phase-out of coal-fired power plants. Ternas' foreseen CAPEX plan will be crucial to achieve national and European decarbonization targets. I am pleased to say we are well on track with the investment and usage in our plan. Whatever we achieved regarding sustainability in the period, four of the most prestigious international indices that select leading companies in terms of ESG best practices have recently confirmed the inclusion of Terna. Our ESG commitment is also reflected in Terna's refinancing. Last May, Perna signed an ESG-linked revolving credit facility for 1.8 billion euros. And last week, we successfully launched a fixed-rate green bond of 650 million euros. The market reacted positively with demand of stripping supply by almost four times the offered amount. These transactions demonstrate the group's strong commitment to introduce ESG criteria also as a strategic lever to create value for all its stakeholders. Finally, regarding shareholder remuneration, In June, we paid 20.83 euro cents per share as a 2022 final dividend. So, the total dividend for the year, including the interim payment of last November, is equal to 31.44 euro cents per share in line with our dividend policy. After this brief introduction, Let's now look at the latest trends of electricity demand in Italy, turning to the next slide. As you can see from this chart, in the first six months of 2023, national demand was about 151 TWh, with a decrease of 5.3% on last year, when national demand was 159 TWh. The reduction in electricity demand in the first half of the year is mainly due to the increase in average temperatures in the winter period and the reduction in industrial consumption. In the first six months of 2023, Renewable sources cover about 35% of national demand, 3 percentage points higher than the last year. National net total production stood at 126 TWh, about 10% lower than the same period in 2022. Despite that, Let me highlight the increase in hydro and photovoltaic production, which grew by 18% and 4% respectively compared to the first six months of last year. I should add that in the first half of 2023, renewable sources covered about 42% of the national net total production. Now, let's move to the main figures of the period. In the first six months of 2023, group revenues and EBITDA were up by 12% and 8% respectively on last year, which means 155 million and 72 million euros higher than the first half of 2022. For the first time in Terna's history, EBITDA crossed the record threshold of 1 billion euros in the first six months of the year. We also reported a group net income of 411 million euros The highest amount ever with an increase of 3% on 2022. Group capex was 831 million euros recording a double digit increase of 26% on the same period last year. Let me underline that this is a record-breaking level of CAPEX for the first half of the year. This is proof of our ability on execution and confirms once again Terna's central role in the energy transition process. To support this acceleration, at the end of June 2023, Net Depth stood at 9.5 billion euros versus about 8.6 billion at the 2022 year end. Thanks to this solid set of results and our focus on execution, we are well on track on delivering our 2023 targets. I can confirm that we will achieve all the guidance provided. Now, allow me to invite CFO Agostino Scornaghenchi to give you a more detailed analysis of the half-yearly figures of 2023.