Hello, everyone. Welcome to TAQA's Q2 2025 Earnings Call. My name is Asjad Yahya, and I head Industry Relations at TAQA. I'm joined by our CFO, Steve Ridlington. Please note that this session is being recorded, and by participating in this meeting, you consent to the recording. This presentation will follow our usual format. Steve and I will walk you through the operating highlights and financial performance for this period. We will then open the floor for a Q&A session. I will now hand over to Steve, who will take you through the key highlights for the quarter.
Thank you, Astrid, and welcome everybody to today's call. Starting on slide five, results overview. The second quarter of this year proved to be another strong stepping stone in our journey to reinforce our position as a leading utility player in furthering our local and global ambitions. Group revenues increased by 5% year on year to EUR 14.2 billion, primarily driven by strong contribution from our transmission and distribution sales. EBITDA for the quarter was EUR 5 billion, representing a 15% decline year on year , while net income stood at EUR 1.6 billion, down 33% year on year . Let's take a moment here to unpack these headline figures, which mask the continued underlying strength of our business. The key items impacted profitability in Q2 2025. The largest impact was due to the timing of dividends from our ADNOC Gas. The dividend income was recorded in Q1 this year versus Q2 last year.
This was followed by the oil and gas business, where we are implementing a well-articulated decommissioning process in our North Sea assets. This naturally has led to an expected decline in production, as well as a greater shift in mixed water gas compared to oil. Combined with a fall in realized oil price, the business saw a decline in EBITDA and net income. Lastly, we have taken a payment of our investment in Xlinks, following the withdrawal of support by the U.K. government. Our core utility businesses, meanwhile, continue to perform in line with expectations. Excluding non-recurring items, such as the Xlinks impairment, the underlying financial performance of the utility businesses remained healthy. We will expand on this further in the presentation. Capital expenditure rose significantly by 28% year on year to EUR 3 billion, as we continued to invest in expanding and upgrading our transmission, distribution, and generation assets.
Despite the higher CapEx, free cash flow remained healthy at EUR 2.2 billion. The lower year on year comparison is mainly attributable to working changes. TAQA has also proposed an interim dividend of EUR 0.75 per share for Q2 2025, in line with our stated dividend policy. The second quarter of the year also saw notable developments across our local and international portfolios. TAQA Morocco signed MOUs for a very sizable plan to diversify into low-carbon power for water generation and transmission, with the total investment associated with these projects estimated at around EUR 52 billion. A new power purchase agreement was signed to extend Sweihan power and water facility, one of our local power and water facilities, for 15 years to provide flexible reserve power supply.
We extended the reach of our transmission and distribution business outside the UAE through the strategic acquisition of Transmission Investment, a leading operator of offshore transmission assets in the U.K.. We also completed the acquisition of an 875-MW power plant in Uzbekistan, along with our partner Mubadala, where each company holds a 40% stake in the plant. We'll discuss these developments in more detail as we move through the presentation. Turning to slide six, group revenue and EBITDA. Taking a look at the financial performance for the quarter, group revenues benefited from a continued top-line growth in the utilities business, with transmission and distribution leading the way. This was partially offset by a reduction in oil and gas revenues. Transmission and distribution revenues increased by 14% year on year , largely reflecting higher bulk supply tariff and pass-through costs. Generation revenues were brought broadly in line with the same period last year.
Tata Water Solutions posted a 6% year on year increase, underpinned by the regulated nature of the business. Lastly, as I explained earlier, the expected decline in production on the back of decommissioning activity, combined with lower realized oil prices, led to a decline in oil and gas revenues by 41% year on year 2025, primarily due to lower contributions from the timing of the annual gas dividend, oil and gas business, and non-recurring items across the business. Transmission and distribution EBITDA declined by 5% year on year , mainly due to the impairment of our investment in the Xlinks project. Generation EBITDA was 3% lower year on year , reflecting reduced contributions from associates and joint ventures, as well as a decrease in other income. Tata Water Solutions' EBITDA increased by 3% year on year .
Oil and gas' EBITDA fell by 34% year on year , driven by the expected decline in production from lower oil prices. Lastly, income from the annual gas dividend fell in the first quarter of 2025, as I've already said. Taking a step back, group EBITDA declined EUR 0.9 billion year on year in Q2 2025. Timing of the annual gas dividend accounted for EUR 0.3 billion of this. Oil and gas contributed a further EUR 0.3 billion, and the inclusion of the impairment of Xlinks largely accounts for the remaining year on year decline in EBITDA. Accordingly, the underlying performance of our utility business remains strong. Turning to non-operating P&L items on slide seven, depreciation, depletion, and amortization was broadly unchanged from the same period last year. Net finance costs rose by 11% year on year on the back of a 9% increase in net debt compared to the second quarter of 2024.
Nevertheless, we utilized our cash balance for bond repayments earlier this year, as well as for ongoing CapEx. This translates into a 17% year on year decline in interest income. Tax expense decreased by 54% year on year , primarily due to lower profits and the phasing of tax loss utilization in the oil and gas business. Turning to liquidity and the debt profile, we continue to benefit from ample liquidity, controlled leverage, and an attractive cost of debt, providing a solid foundation for future growth. Total debt decreased by 4%, from EUR 64.1 billion at the end of 2024 to EUR 61.7 billion at the end of June 2025. This mainly reflects the repayment of bonds worth $750 million during the quarter. The average debt maturity was 10.4 years, up slightly from 10.3 years in December 2024, primarily reflecting the repayment of bonds, as mentioned above.
The liquidity levels were also impacted by the bond repayments and higher capital expenditure, standing at EUR 20 billion at the end of the quarter. Average interest rates remain unchanged at 4.8% across the portfolio, with fixed-rate debt accounting for most of our debt. Debt leverage increased slightly to 2.7 times, reflecting the decline in EBITDA this year. This continues to provide significant headroom for additional funding to support the growth, whilst maintaining a standalone investment grade rating. Turning to dividend policy, in line with our declared policy, the board has proposed a fixed dividend of EUR 0.75 per share for Q2 of 2025. Variable payout for the oil and gas business will be determined as a discretionary percentage of net income to be decided at the 2026 annual general assembly.
Moreover, following the completion of our current three-year dividend policy this year, the board will consider a new dividend policy for 2026- 2029 for discussion at next year's annual general assembly. I'll now pass over to Astrid Yahya, who will lead us through the overall segmentation performance.
Thank you, Steve.
As Steve Ridlington mentioned earlier, our core utility business remains strong, and the underlying performance of the transmission and distribution business is a reflection of this. Network availability improved marginally to 98.9% in Q2 2025, up from 98.6% in the same period last year. Capital expenditure increased significantly, driven by the timing and phasing of project execution, sector upgrades, and the continued rollout of key special projects. The Reher asset-based group is EUR 77.9 billion, supported by healthy CapEx summit. Notably, the strategic acquisition of Transmission Investment marks our first expansion of the transmission and distribution business outside the UAE. Transmission Investment is one of the largest players in the UK's offshore electricity transmission market, where it develops and operates, but does not own, 11 transmission lines bringing electricity from the UK's significant and growing offshore wind assets to the mainland.
Transmission Investment is also a prominent player in the country's interconnector sector. As mentioned earlier, the 14% revenue growth was primarily driven by higher BSD pass-through costs. Moreover, EBITDA was affected by the impairment of our investment in Xlinks project. Adjusting for this non-recurring item, EBITDA recorded marginal growth in Q2 2025. Moving to generation, the portfolio saw a notable expansion both locally and internationally. From an operational standpoint, commercial availability increased to 98.6%, supported by higher fleet availability. The 49% surge in CapEx was mainly driven by the development of the Al Dhafra OCGT project. Steve Ridlington had highlighted earlier the significant growth plans TAQA Morocco has announced. The MOU signed by the company entails 2.7 gigawatts of gas and renewable capacity, including a 400-MW CCGT plant acquisition. Additional transmission infrastructure and over 540 MIGD on desalination capacity are planned.
The 15-year extension of Sweihan power and water facility will enable TAQA to maintain security of supply and system stability, while continuing the transition to net zero in part through the introduction of more solar plants. With regards to Uzbekistan, the acquisition of the 875-MW gas-fired CCGT plant by TAQA along with Mubadala supports investments into the privatization of Uzbekistan's power sector. This follows a strategic partnership between the governments of Uzbekistan and UAE. On the financial side, revenues increased by 2% year on year for generation, remaining broadly in line with comparative fees. EBITDA, on the other hand, was impacted by two factors. Firstly, lower contribution from associates and joint ventures, and secondly, a decline in other income. Moving to Tata Water Solutions, our immediate work-to-work infrastructure, following the exceptional weather events last year, has progressed well.
This has translated into improved commercial availability, which stood at 94.8% in Q2 2024 and 93.7% in Q1 2025. CapEx decreased compared to the prior year, reflecting higher investments required last year in response to the weather event. On the financial front, Tata Water Solutions saw revenues increase by 6% year on year , reflecting the regulated nature of the business. EBITDA, on the other hand, increased by 3%. The slower growth in EBITDA compared to top line is attributable to elevated expenses related to the remedial efforts. Moving to oil and gas, this business continues to be driven by the impact of ongoing asset decommissioning activity and commodity price volatility. Production declined by 11% year on year in Q2 2025, mainly due to the cessation of production at four U.K. assets in late 2024, as the U.K. business transitions to sale and efficient decommissioning.
CapEx remained broadly unchanged, with spending focused on drilling and completion activity in North America. Revenue fell by 41% year on year , reflecting both lower realized oil prices and reduced production volumes. The average realized oil price from continuing operations decreased 8% year-over-year, from $71.04 per barrel in Q2 2024 to $65.57 per barrel in Q2 2025. On the other hand, average realized gas price increased by 8%- $2.56 per MMBtu. EBITDA was down 34% year on year , impacted by the combined effects of the decline in production and, to a lesser extent, lower oil prices. Looking at the first half of 2025 as a whole, overall profitability was affected by the oil and gas business and non-recurring items. Revenue for the first half of 2025 grew by 5% year on year, driven by continued strength in the utilities business, particularly T&D.
EBITDA declined by 11% year on year , reflecting lower contributions from the oil and gas segment and the impact of non-recurring items across the business. Net income attributable to TAQA was also affected by higher, in addition to the above-mentioned factors, the net income was affected by higher net finance costs. Free cash flow for H1 2025 was 62% higher compared to the prior year, reflecting favorable working capital movements. I'll now hand back to Steve for his concluding remarks, after which we will open the floor for Q&A.
Thank you, Astrid. TAQA's year-to-date performance demonstrates the resilience of our business model and our ability to deliver on our strategic objectives. Q2 saw us make significant strides in strategic growth. Be it within the UAE or externally, investment strengthened our portfolio, extending our global reach and reaffirmed TAQA's positioning at the heart of the energy transition. TAQA Morocco's ambitious growth plans are a testament to the latter. Capital expenditure in our utilities business is ramping up, driven by the expansion and upgrading of transmission and distribution and generation assets. On the financial side, we repaid $750 million in loans entirely from our operating cash, demonstrating the strength of our balance sheet. Overall, we are steadily building a broader utilities footprint, both in our home market and abroad, positioning TAQA for sustainable long-term growth. Thank you.
Thank you, Steve. Please feel free to raise your hand on Zoom, and we'll open up the call for you for your questions. JP, could you please introduce yourself and ask your question?
Yes, hi, good afternoon. Can you hear me?
Yes, yes, we can.
Okay. Jean-Pierre Ane from Kepler Chevreux. Just a couple of quick questions to clarify your production in the oil and gas business. In the Netherlands, you recently accomplished a farm-out and its associated assets. Could you clarify whether you still own any producing oil and gas assets in that country following that transaction? If possible, the production of the remaining assets. In the same vein, in the U.K. , what's the average production after you've stopped production from your four assets?
Okay, thank you, JP. First of all, on the Netherlands, yes, we do still have production there, mainly gas. It's around 3,000 barrels a day, about 3,000 barrels a day equivalent. The Porthos project, which you mentioned, is a project to inject gas into a gas field that discontinued its operations some time ago. Yes, we still have ongoing production. In the U.K. , production sits at about, I think it's about 15,000 barrels a day. Astrid can confirm that figure afterwards, it's around that figure. It's on the decline, as you could well see.
Okay, thanks very much.
Again, if you have any questions, please feel free to raise your hands and we'll open up the mic to you. Luke, if you could please introduce yourself and ask your question.
Hi, yeah, thanks for the presentation. This is Luke from Barclays. I just wanted to quickly touch on M&A, whether there's any inorganic opportunities that you're currently evaluating. I also recall seeing a piece a few months back stating that TAQA was actively looking at opportunities in the U.S. I was wondering if looking at that market, what sort of assets you would potentially consider acquiring. Thank you.
Yeah, thanks for the question, Luke. We don't comment on M&A opportunities until they are firm and need to be disclosed because we don't want to induce unnecessary speculation. There's not really very much I can say about that. Certainly, the U.S. is a country of interest, though, to your second question. The areas that we are typically looking to grow our business, our published targets for gigawatt capacity increases, are in conventional gas-fired generation and through Masdar renewables. You saw Masdar make a number of acquisitions last year. Those are the kind of business segments that we're looking at. Certainly, the U.S. is a country of interest.
Great, thanks a lot.
Thank you. Again, if you have any questions, please feel free to raise your hand. JP, again, please go ahead.
Yeah, just two other quick questions. You announced an impairment on one of your investments, namely Xlinks. I wonder whether you had other potential investments within your portfolio where there could be similar impairments. The second one is about your share of results of joint ventures and associates in the generation business. That includes Masdar. It's been relatively soft in the last two quarters. I wonder whether you could elaborate on the reason of this relatively soft contribution and whether there is a chance it could pick up in the future incoming quarters. Thank you.
Sure. First of all, and again, thanks for those additional questions, JP. On impairments, Xlinks is a very specific type of investment. It was an early stage, relatively small investment in a project that hadn't got approval to proceed. We thought it was of interest, and so we invested in that. As it didn't go ahead, it's clearly sensible to impair it. We haven't really done any other investments of that relatively early stage speculative type, if you like. I'm not anticipating any further impairments along those lines. Of course, we always do at the end of the year, and we'll do at the end of this year, our usual impairment test with the auditors. I'm not expecting anything to come out of that. That's something we always do at the year-end anyway, as any other company does.
In terms of associates and joint ventures in generation, the main two companies in this element are our aluminum plant in Oman, and of course, our investment in Masdar. What I would say there is that the Sweihan power and water facility is a mature producing asset. Obviously, its performance moves up and down with commodity prices very much like the oil and gas price business. Whether that will be stronger or less strong in future quarters will depend on pricing in that business. Masdar is a company that is making significant investments, as you will see, and has a big growth potential, which will over time lead to growing net income and stronger performance. It's still at a relatively early stage, and therefore, quarterly performance is a little difficult to predict.
I would think over the long term, we would expect our business to improve its performance and make a bigger contribution to TAQA's overall metric.
Thanks very much.
Thank you, JP. If you have any questions, please feel free to raise your hand, and we'll open up the mic to you. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to raise your hand. All right, looks like we're done with the Q&A as well. Thank you, everyone, for joining us on the call. Looking forward to speaking to you before the next call and having you join us again in the next call. Thank you very much.
Thank you.