Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Geli, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Motor Oil conference call live webcast to present and discuss the first half 2025 financial results. All participants will be in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on your telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Petros Tzannetakis, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, and Ms. Mehtap Silaki, Investor Relations Officer. Mr. Tzannetakis, you may now proceed.
Hello to all of you, wherever you are. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening, I guess. Here we are again. Q2 2025, 2025 results, half one 2025 results. With improved EBITDA and net income compared to its respective Q1 2025 results, and after considering the favorable refinery margin environment together with the expected increased production and sales volumes, the company is optimistic for its second half results. The operation of the crude distillation unit, CDU in short, affected by the September 2024 incident, is back in full operation. For the greater part of the repairs period, the refinery, due to its high complexity and flexibility, managed to achieve production levels exceeding 80% of its normal capacity. The above, together with the comprehensive insurance coverage, contributed to achieving solid financial results for this period. Let us move to the slides.
What we see on slide five for the first half is that revenues dropped by 16% to €5.3 billion because of restricted capacity in the refinery business and lower prices of oil-refined products. As always, a reminder that it is not revenue that is important for us, but volumes. Adjusted EBITDA, excluding the impact of inventory valuation, amounted to €452 million, down 27% year- on- year, primarily due to the lower capacity utilization and continued normalization of refining margins. Adjusted net income declined to €213 million. Net debt increased to €1.96 billion from €1.73 billion at the end of last year, mainly due to the solidarity tax payment, which I will remind you happened at the end of February and was €255 million, but effectively referred to the year of 2023 and paid in February, as I said.
On slide six, the performance by segment, refining adjusted EBITDA amounted to €337 million in the first half compared to €494 million a year ago. Marketing EBITDA stood at €61 million, power and gas at €42 million, and the other segment, which for the first time included Elector, which was acquired earlier this year, at €16 million. On slide eight, we see different indicators. For example, Brent averaged €68 per barrel in the second quarter, down from €76 in the first quarter and €85 a year ago. There was high volatility throughout the quarter with a range of €60- €80 for the price of crude, mainly driven by supply concerns, even though the Middle East conflict was quite intense. The dollar depreciated to an average of $1.13 in the second quarter from $1.05 a year ago and $1.05 in Q1 and 1.08 a year ago.
Movements in both the Brent price and the exchange rate clearly weigh on our results. Product tracks on the right-hand side, top right-hand side, they remained strong in the second quarter. Gasoline jumped to $14 per barrel from $10.2 in the first quarter. Jet rose to $15.9, and diesel remained barely unchanged at a satisfactory $17 per barrel. The high sulfur fuel oil track continued to strengthen, average - 4.3%, but you know, just a reminder, the minus here with being so low is quite, you know, quite good compared to - 6.3% in Q1 and - 11.7% a year ago. This is driven by ample conversion capacity and still relatively light and sweet global crude slate, despite increasing supply from the OPEC+ countries. However, the crude spreads remained the weakest link during the quarter.
Basra medium discount to Brent narrowed to 2.2% from 3.6% in the first quarter to 4.8% a year ago. On slide nine, fuel marketing, domestic consumption increased. Consumption was fundamentally sound. It accelerated in the second quarter. Year-on-year growth stood at 5.6% compared to 4.3% in the first quarter, with gasoline growing by 2.4%, diesel by 3.4%, jet by 3.8%, and bunker fuel and diesel by 4.7%. The demand in the domestic market, I would say, is quite satisfactory for the time being, and we believe in the summer this has continued. On slide 10, power and gas. After several quarters of rising prices, gas prices declined in the second quarter, with ETF averaging $36 per MWh , down from $47 in the first quarter, but still above the $32 a year ago. Volatility was high during this quarter because of the Israeli-Iran conflict.
EUA prices also declined in the quarter, averaging €70 per metric ton, down from €75 in the first quarter, but remained flat year on year. In line with a downward trend in gas and EUA prices, the Greek wholesale electricity price averaged €85 per MWh in the second quarter, down 35% Q on Q, yet still 7% higher than the same period last year. Electricity production declined by 12.6% Q on the second quarter and by 4% year on year. Renewables accounted for 55% of total generation, up from 51% a year earlier. On slide 13, we see the performance of the refining segment. Adjusted EBITDA stood at €185 in the second quarter and €337 in the first half, reflecting the continued normalization of industry refining margins and our reduced production capacity following the September 2024 incident.
Our first half numbers include insurance compensation of €145 million for business interruption. Just a reminder, for the full year of 2024, it included €40 million and €10 million for property damage, while for 2024 it was €4 million. Clearly, the bulk of the property damage is yet to come. CapEx reached €104 million, up from €84 million a year ago, impacted, of course, by the additional spending on the reconstructed distillation unit cost that will be reimbursed. Slide 14 is quite an important slide on which we paid a lot of attention over the last quarters because it shows you the processed volume, of course, the crude mix. The processed volume fell by 15% in the first half to 5.5 million metric tons. If one compares it to a year ago, it was almost 85%.
However, the breakdown between crude and other feedstock clearly changed significantly, with the crude being 38% of the mix in the first half compared to 81% of the first half of last year, while the other feedstock being 62% this year compared to 19% a year ago. Seeing this, it's actually the third quarter in a row. This is half a year, but it's the third quarter in a row, Q4, Q1, Q2, where what we had sort of alluded to and promised that we will be between 65% and 80%, we clearly managed, and this makes us quite happy and shows that the company worked very well in achieving this goal. The mix of crude, Iraqi 86%, Libyan 14%, and there was no scarcity of the crude, and the opportunities were there. Slide 15, production declined by 15%, clearly as a result of what we said before.
Product yields for gasoline and diesel were similar to last year. Again, an important point because last year we had full capacity with the exception of the first fourth quarter, but we had strong three quarters. If we managed to produce the same volumes of gasoline and diesel as the last year, it is very important. Jet fuel yield was lower, while yields for fuel oil and asphalt increased, and both trends driven by operating conditions at the refinery, as well as feedstock availability and market sales opportunities. Going to slide 16, we see that the sales volumes clearly declined by 11% in both Q2 and half one, totaling 6 million metric tons. As a result of the situation, domestic market sales grew strongly, up 26% in Q2 and 19% in half one, with exports and shipping aviation sales falling year on year. Priority was given to the domestic market.
It's a high premium market, and we prefer to keep our domestic customers happy and cover the demand in the country rather than exporting since our total production was reduced. This shift is also reflected in the pie chart that you can see on the top right, with Greece accounting for 34%+ 10% shipping and aviation of the revenues compared to an average of 30% in the previous years. Slide 17, the result of what has happened up to now is the margins. The benchmark rose by 13% Q on Q, supported by strong product cracks, but was 19% lower year- on- year as the refining margin continued to normalize.
Despite the challenges from the reduced production capacity, our refining margin outperformed the benchmark again for one more quarter, reaching a good number of $72 per metric ton in the second quarter and $69 in the first half of the year. Going to slide 18, fuels marketing. Sales volume were broadly stable in the first half compared to last year, but declined Q on Q, mainly ahead of market adjustments for the implementation of the new fuel oil regulation in the Mediterranean, which mandates sulfur content of 0.1% as of May 1st. Fuel demand in the domestic market remains solid during this quarter, with our marketing subsidiaries Coral and Avin maintaining their market shares. Adjusted EBITDA reached $29 million in Q2 and $61 million in half one as a 17% year-on-year increase, supported by an improved product mix. Slide 19, power and gas.
EBITDA reached €14 million in Q2 and €42 million in half one, of which MORE generated €48 million and NRG a loss of €5.5 million. The weak performance of NRG was attributed to market share loss, 4.3% compared to 5.6% a year ago, due to high competition between the different producers and significant margin compression. Furthermore, EBITDA of Q2 2025 included a €5 million provision on 2024 numbers for network losses of 2022. This is the problem of the domestic electricity market, which we hope one day will somehow normalize. Most performance, our renewables business performance, fell short of both our planned and last year's results, mainly due to lower wind resources across the portfolio and moderate curtailments, as well as some underperformance of the aggregation business. Our operating capacity stood at 839 MW at the end of June, unchanged year on year.
The load factor stood at 19.5% in the first half, lower than the 25% of a year earlier, with production declining by 22%. A reminder that has affected the financials is that in mid-March, a 35% stake in Corinthos Power was sold to Energy for €56 million. This was the fair market value that was concluded by the firm that did the valuation. This led to a non-cash loss of €29 million for MOR as the book value, as MOR had in its books, was €87 million. Of course, this remains at a group level, doesn't affect the group, but it affects MOR . On slide 21, we see the group P&L. Group EBITDA stood at €186 million in Q2 and €387 million in half one, lower versus last year due to low refining capacity and shrinking refining margins.
Half one numbers include €145 million insurance compensation for business interruption and €10 million for property damage, on top of what was included in Q4 2024, which we referred to earlier. Thus, the total amount approved by insurance companies and included in the last three quarters number is €199 million or €220 million. A very significant amount and a very satisfactory, I would say, result that we managed to cash and to receive this amount of money so soon after the incident. Going to slide 22, a group balance sheet and cash flow. The second quarter free cash flow was positive at €122 million, helped by improved working capital. For the half year, free cash flow was negative at -€164 million, significantly affected by the payment in February of €255 million extraordinary tax on the profits of 2023.
Of course, this will help us in the third and fourth quarter because this tax paid will be set off. Part of it will be set off in the tax obligation for the current year, which therefore will somehow improve the cash flow in the second half. Working capital was positive at €83 million in the first half, with total investments barely unchanged year on year at €216 million. Net debt, as we said earlier, increased from €1.73 billion to €1.96 billion, mainly again due to the payment of the extraordinary tax. CapEx on slide 25 reached €101 million and €203 million respectively, of which 50% involved refining, 12% fuels marketing, 33% power and gas, 5% the other activities. We keep our guidance unchanged at €190 million for the company and €500 million for the group.
Keep in mind that group CapEx of €500 million is split 40% for refining, 11% for fuel marketing, 44% for power and gas, and 5% for remaining activities. Slide 26, debt maturity profile. Group bank debts increased from €2.6 billion to €2.8 billion at the end of the first half, mostly due to drawn debt from existing facilities to cover the payment of the extraordinary tax. A weighted average cost of debt for the group remain at very competitive levels at 3.25% from 3.63% at the end of 2024. The outlook for the refining business, what we can say is that we delivered on what we had promised. The repair works in the south CDU unit were completed safely and according to schedule. The unit is operational since early August, having already reached almost full capacity. What we had promised in Q3 of the year is now a reality.
Margins have improved Q on Q in Q3 and stand significantly above last year's third quarter. Demand remains healthy, and we expect a good third quarter, also supported by full capacity utilization for at least a part of the quarter. Market demand remains healthy. Tourism continues to perform well for another year in the country, providing solid support to our results. Also to remind you that the margin cap, which we accepted to be lifted on July 1st, actually was lifted. Renewables, wind activity showed some improvement in July and August compared to the weak previous months, and therefore we anticipate stronger financial performance for the remaining of the year. As for our upcoming projects, we are making steady progress on the development of our Unagi project, along with several smaller initiatives currently under construction.
Notably, our 22.5 MW wind farm in central Greece in OTIA is on track for completion by the end of 2025. Also, our battery storage projects, to which we had referred in previous conference calls, totaling 72 MW across three locations in Greece, Viotia, Fokida, and Florina, are also expected to be finalized by the end of 2025. A small reminder of the YEK deal, which we announced in July for a JV of 50-50 between YEK and ourselves for the combination of our businesses in power generation from natural gas, thermal plants, and supply of electricity and natural gas. Thermoilektriki Komotinis is in operation. It was completed. The plant was completed at the end of June, and you know we are happy with how it operates. Last but not least, the propylene splitter. The startup activities are ongoing.
The level of utilization will depend on the propylene-gasoline spread economics and market demand for each of the two products. I would like to close and give you time for questions with something I was reading the other day, and it brought to mind the almost year, I mean, it is 11 months of difficulty and tough decisions that we as a company experienced from the 17th of September up until recently. I will refer to some ancient Greek philosophers. They are called the Stoics, οι Στωικοί, because they used to believe that there is an opportunity in every obstacle. In a way, what we lived was a huge obstacle, and it was how we are going to react according to this obstacle. As a company, therefore, we had the unique challenge and opportunity to practice virtue, as the Stoics were quoting.
In the ancient world, virtue consisted of four key components: courage, temperance, a very difficult word. It means discipline, composure, and bravery, justice, honesty, ethics, fairness, wisdom, knowledge, and self-reflection. I think we were taught a lot and are happy to have this behind us in a very positive and successful way for the whole company. I'll rest here and give you time for questions. Thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the question- and- answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press Star followed by one on their telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, then you may press Star and two. Please use your handset when asking your question for better quality. Anyone who has a question may press Star and one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. The first question is from the line of Villari Giuseppe. Please go ahead.
Hi, thank you for your presentation and for the insightful thoughts on the Stoics. We have two questions, if we may. The first one is on the repair works for the CDU. What utilization rates do you expect going forward, and do you think production volumes could be higher than the pre-fire levels going forward? What impact could it have on refining margins? The second question, you have material amounts of bonds maturing in 2026. Do you think you're going to refinance them relatively soon, and what level of interest costs would you expect? Thanks.
Hello Ricardo, good to hear you.
Thank you.
Oh, Giuseppe, sorry, sorry. Giuseppe and Ricardo together, you know. Yes, so production levels. What numbers we can share with you at this point of time is that the average of the previous week has been around 197,000 bbls per day, crude alone. The two units together had a run rate of this. We have reached in one particular day a maximum of 217,000 bbls, you know, testing it. Both are good numbers, but it's difficult for us to commit to a number looking going forward before we had some more sort of run rates and some more weeks under our belt. The 200,000 bbls, if this is the target, we are very near it, and we believe that we can keep it. On the bonds, yes, you're right. It's coming up for maturity in July next year.
We are in discussion with a big number of banks that keep visiting and with whom we had a dialogue for a number of quarters and years. This dialogue is becoming more intensive because we are approaching. Ideally, we would like to refinance the bonds closer to its expiration date because the interest rate of the current bond is considerably lower due to the Euribor compared to what we believe the new bond will be. I would not like to give you an indication because it's a moving target. We have positive indications from the banks about the spread level that Motor Oil can command in its next issue. What Motor Oil has done over the past 15 years is issued three different Eurobonds and one Greek bond and really has a very good credit story to talk and show to the markets.
We are quite optimistic about it, but I would not like to give you a number at this point of time. Thank you, Giuseppe.
Perfect. That's great, Petros. Thanks.
The next question comes from the line of Kishmariya with UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi, good day. Congratulations on restarting the unit. I have several questions. Probably the first one will be around, do you still have any insurance compensation for business interruption lapped for third quarter that you plan to be booked in third quarter? That would be the first question. Second question around the marketing segment. You mentioned that this new regulation around sulfur content affected the results. Can you please elaborate a bit more here and whether you expect any impact on third quarter and future quarters from it? Finally, on GEK andTERNA, can you please elaborate around how does it fit the strategy? What do you expect? Is there any updates? You plan the closure in early 2026. Maybe there are any updates on how it will help energy business, maybe in better market share? Maybe your thoughts around what are the reasoning for this deal? Thank you.
Thanks. Good to hear you. Yes, with insurance compensation, we have another meeting at the beginning of September with the brokers. As you probably remember from our last discussions, it is every quarter that they visit and they look at the elapsed period, and we give them the report and the calculations of the business interruption loss that we had. The answer is they will be here early September, and hopefully by the end of September, we will have another tranche approved, which will be the almost final tranche covering the months up until, I would say, June, July. As far as business interruption, as far as property damage, it has to do with invoices and the final invoices arriving. There is always a little bit of a delay with these invoices.
Definitely, we will have some by the end of September, but we should expect some more later in the year. I believe, and we would definitely try to have concluded the whole discussion by the end of 2025. Yes, something at the end of the quarter and some final remainder at the end of the year. The fuel oil regulation has come into effect, and the market is crystallizing, and we see how the demand and how each player is selling. Depending on how the market is going to evolve, we expect to be more involved as well and increase our sales then. I don't have particular clarity at this point of time because it's very early days. On the GEK TERNA deal, we target to have completed it by the end of the year or very early the next year.
It is not in our hands because it has to do with the Anti-Competition Authority. The only thing we can do is give information that is requested quickly so that they can respond quickly as well. Hopefully, as we initially guided, hinted end of the year or beginning of the next year, the approval should be there. The whole transformation with the utility company taking under its ownership the different subsidiaries that would be included in the deal will happen in 2026. We can't really give you any guidance besides what we said at the beginning for the joint operation. The benefits that we both believe we are going to have is when you concentrate retail power, it is definitely more effective, and there is economics there of size and of not competing against each other. This is on the retail business.
On the production as well, already Komotini is 50-50 owned. We will simply streamline our businesses on production even better than we did before. Last but not least, buying gas for feeding the power plants is different when you buy bigger volumes than if you buy smaller volumes because you can get better pricing terms and better prices. Efficiencies because of size and concentration clearly are going to have their benefits, we believe. That's it for now.
Thank you very much. Maybe just a quick follow-up regarding the insurance. You mentioned it will be paid until the months of June and July. Is it just two of those left or maybe?
Each time it's three months.
Three months. Okay.
Yeah, be okay.
The next question is from the line of Katsios Nestoras with Optima Bank. Please go ahead.
Yes, hello, there. Congratulations on your presentation. Two questions from my side. The first one has to do with Thermoilektriki Komotinis. Just to be clear, is the plant already operating commercially? My second question has to do with your marketing segment. We can see that the domestic market is strong. Sales refining, sales towards Greece were also strong. My question has to do with your marketing segment. I can see in the second quarter some underperformance compared to last year. What are the dynamics behind this underperformance? Thank you.
Let's start on the second one. It mainly had to do with the volumes because of this fuel oil. The profitability, I think, is the same. It hasn't really underperformed.
That's correct. Correct.
Yeah. With Komotini, it has started operating, not commercially yet because there is this period until the end of the year for the commercial operation. It does enter the daily production. It produces daily and sales daily, but it's not under the term commercial.
Which means that I think it contributes to your cash flow operation, but not in the P&L, if I am correct?
No, no, no, it operates in both. It operates in the P&L as well.
Okay, okay.
It has to do with the way it is allowed to enter the system and things like that.
Okay, that's clear. Thank you.
As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone. The next question is a follow-up question from Villari Giuseppe with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Yeah, just a quick follow-up, if we may, on the performance for the third quarter. We know it's early on still, but you commented on the refining margins being quite strong and on the expectations for the rest of the group as well. We're wondering if you could give us a little bit more color on profitability and like the general trends you're seeing during the quarter would be great.
You ask me questions I don't like to answer, huh? Yes. I like to under-promise and over-deliver. That's the story of our life. Margins are higher and volumes are strong. You know, and the refinery started operating. You know, we believe we are going to have a good Q3. Q4, nobody knows with this volatility in these markets we are living in. You know, we are positive and optimistic. What else can I say?
I'm not making you happy, I know, but I can't tell you much more.
Mr. Villari, you're finished with your questions?
Yeah, thank you.
I'll be in London in December. Hopefully by December, with a conference, we will have more months under our belt.
Once again, to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. As a final reminder, to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Tzannetakis for any closing comments. Thank you.
Thank you. It was nice hearing your questions. It was nice imagining you were all there. See you soon. Thank you. Bye from all of us here in Athens.
Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded, and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for calling, and have a pleasant evening.