Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Gaily, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Public Power Corporation conference call to present and discuss the full year 2025 financial results. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. George Stassis, Chairman and CEO, Mr. Konstantinos Alexandridis, CFO, and Mr. Ioannis Stefos, Chief Investor Relations Officer. Mr. Stefos, you may now proceed.
Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining today's conference call for PPC's full year 2025 results. We will begin with an overview of the group's results from our Chairman and CEO, Georgios Stassis, followed by a review of the financial performance for the period by our group CFO, Konstantinos Alexandridis. After the conclusion of the presentation, we will open the floor for your questions during the Q&A session. The IR team will be available after the call for any follow-up discussions. With that, I will now turn the call over to Georgios. Georgios, please go ahead.
Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us for today's earnings call. PPC had a strong performance for another year, in line with the strategic target set in the business plan, with adjusted EBITDA increasing to EUR 2 billion and net income at EUR 0.45 billion, demonstrating the extent of the transformation and the growth that has been achieved during the last years. The significant growth in profitability has allowed us to keep increasing dividend distribution in line with our plan, which provides for further improvement of shareholders' remuneration with a gradual increase of dividend to EUR 1.2 per share in 2028. Investments stood at EUR 2.8 billion, with a majority allocated to renewables, flexible generation and distribution projects, supporting a further step up in profitability going forward.
Despite high CapEx, our balance sheet position remains solid with a net debt to EBITDA ratio at 3.2 times at the end of 2025, providing the necessary room to implement our investment plan in the next years. Moving to slide seven. The last years have been directing capital toward renewable energy, flexible generation and distribution. As a result of these investments, we have been able to increase both the regulated asset base, as we will see later, but also the renewables and flexible generation capacity, which now represents 80% of our total capacity.
In this way, year- after- year, we are increasing our renewables footprint, combining it with flexible generation assets, while at the same time we have made significant progress in phasing out lignite, a process which is at the final stage with the last unit of 700 MW plant to cease its operation by the end of this year. Deep diving now to generation business on slide eight. As you can see, we have increased the total installed capacity to 12.4 GW, led by the continuous rollout of new renewable projects, which has outweighed the reduction of lignite capacity during the last year. Our total generation output has remained practically stable, however, with increased participation of renewables on the back of reduced production from lignite and oil.
More specifically, renewables output increased to 6.9 TWh, driven by wind and solar generation, reflecting the addition of new capacity, which outbalanced the weak performance of large hydro power plants from last year. As a result, renewables increased its share to 33% of our total output. On the flip side, lignite generation declined at 2.7 TWh and oil at 3.6 TWh, corresponding to 13% and 17% of total output respectively. 2024 is a milestone for PPC generation activity since it marks the end of lignite-fired generation after many decades, making PPC coal-free. Last, gas generation had no change versus 2024, being, however, a very important component of our energy mix today, corresponding to 37% of our total output.
As a result, CO₂ scope one emissions declined by half a million, 0.5 million tons compared to last year. Going forward, we expect further improvements since we will cease our lignite operations by the end of the year. Now moving to page nine. Let me briefly describe the progress in renewable projects that we have achieved in the fourth quarter of 2025. Executing our strategic plan with discipline, we completed the construction of an additional 800 MW of capacity across Greece and abroad. The majority of these additions were solar projects, which exceeded 700 MW in total, complemented by the first 59 MW of battery energy storage installed in Greece and Romania, as well as 36 MW from a wind farm in northern Greece.
In summary, 546 MW of renewable projects across various technologies were completed in Greece, along with 272 MW internationally in the fourth quarter. Leading to total additions for 2025 at 1.7 GW, as we will see in more detail in the following slides. Going to slide 10. Let's see in more detail the additions that we concluded in the fourth quarter of 2025. First, in Greece, major projects totaling 550 MW were completed since the November Capital Markets Day. Specifically, we completed the last 30 MW of a 550 MW solar project located in the former lignite area of Ptolemaida in Northern Greece. In the same region, in cooperation with RWE, we completed the final 623 MW of a 938 MW solar project.
In the Peloponnese region, again, in a former lignite area, we completed the first 125 MW of a 490 MW solar project. The second 125 MW cluster is currently under construction and the third cluster is scheduled to begin construction later this year. For wind, we successfully completed 36.4 MW in central Greece in the region of Achaea. Last, an important milestone was also the completion of our first battery project in Greece in the former lignite areas of Ptolemaida as well. Outside of Greece, in the fourth quarter, we added 272 MW of capacity from renewable projects, mainly solar across Southeast Europe, as depicted in detail in slide 11.
Starting with Romania, we completed solar projects of 215 MW in total in various locations, along with 9 MW of batteries, which will enable us to enhance dispatch optimization and capture value from balancing services and price arbitrage. At the same time, we completed 17.5 MW of photovoltaics in Italy and 30 MW in Bulgaria, increasing our footprint in these countries. Overall, as you can see, we keep a good pace of additions, delivering significant renewable capacity while continuing to expand our construction pipeline. All of the above are summarized in the next slide 12, which shows that we remain on track to achieve our 2028 renewables target of 12.7 GW, as presented in our last Capital Markets Day. We have added 1.7 GW in 2025, standing now at a total of 7.2 GW.
We have another 3.7 GW that are either in construction, ready to build or in the tender process, having secured, in essence, 86% of the capacity that we target for 2028. There has been further progress in our pipeline also in terms of maturity, having moved during the fourth quarter, last fourth quarter, approximately 600 MW into the under construction and ready-to-build stages from the permitting and engineering stage. This process of adding new capacity, maturing additional projects is something that we have been doing many quarters now, and we will continue to do so as we advance multiple projects across Greece and internationally. Let us now move to slide 13, which provides key highlights of our retail activity and the overall environment in Greece and Romania.
Electricity demand was slightly decreased in both countries by -1.3% in Greece, reflecting milder average temperatures compared to 2024, and by 0.6% in Romania. Our electricity sales decreased by 1.9% compared to 2024, primarily driven by lower demand in Greece and a slight market share reduction in both countries. Deep diving in the retail activity in slide 14. Despite this intensely competitive environment throughout 2025, we successfully defended our market share while expanding beyond the commodity segment, demonstrating our ability to diversify and deliver impactful results. Customers remain our top priority. This is reflected in our strong top-line performance across all customer satisfaction metrics and the continued improvement in the quality of our customer base.
Notably, budget exposure decreased by 14%, as shown in the bottom right graph, driven by improved penetration and more effective management of higher risk customer segments. On top of various targeted propositions that we launched during the year, SME, family and other, and as artificial intelligence continues to shape market developments, we launched in Greece a virtual assistant to support our customers. This is the first AI-powered digital assistant in the market, designed to elevate the customer experience by providing clear explanations of bill charges in simple language. For our activities in Romania, 2025 was a transitional year following the lifting of the price caps. As competition has been growing, we focus on protecting and strengthening customer relationships through targeted retention actions. Looking ahead, we expect 2026 to remain highly competitive.
We will continue to focus on delivering value, strengthening customer engagement, and maintaining resilience in an evolving market landscape. Just a few words for several synergy streams in the retail activity that we set up in 2025. We are in slide 15. Kotsovolos has been key for this, providing the opportunity to launch a broad range of initiatives. Our collaboration has evolved from establishing a strong in-store presence and developing dedicated PPC shop-in-shop corners featuring our products, to extending field services coverage that delivers essential energy solutions to customers and households, services that are fundamental to everyday living. Looking ahead to 2026, we plan to further strengthen our footprint within PPC shops while expanding our product and service portfolio to reach additional customer segments, addressing a broader spectrum of needs. Next, in slide 16, a few words on certain KPIs of our distribution business.
We continue to invest significantly in 2025, with CapEx increasing by 2% year-over-year, in line with our strategy to enhance and digitalize our electricity distribution networks. The total regulated asset base now stands at EUR 5.7 billion from EUR 4.9 billion last year, mainly driven by the increase in Greece following material investments. The strong investment activity is also reflected in the improvement of the reliability indices of our networks in both Greece and Romania. While smart meters penetration continues its upward trend, we further aim to grow, especially in Greece. Turning to slide 17. We can see how the implementation of our strategic initiatives, combined with active engagement, have resulted in actual progress in several ESG ratings and scores within 2025.
Specifically, our efforts have been recognized by S&P Global, EcoVadis, MSCI, Refinitiv ESG, and ISS, all of which upgraded PPC's ratings and scores. These improvements reflect tangible progress in several key areas such as environmental management, renewables portfolio expansion, corporate governance, ESG integration, and transparent reporting. These advancements underscore our commitment to sustainability, mitigating business risk, and fostering long-term value for all stakeholders. Let me now pass it on to Konstantinos for the financial performance analysis.
Thank you, George, and good afternoon to all. Moving next to slide 19 for an overview of the trends for the main energy-related commodities. To begin with TTF, gas prices in early 2025 were initially strong, supported by reduced Ukrainian transit and cold weather conditions, before easing as demand weakened and geopolitical concerns softened. Subsequently, prices declined under the milder weather conditions, strong LNG inflows, and lower storage targets from E.U., with a brief rebound driven by firmer demand and tighter Norwegian supply. Later in the year, gas prices remained broadly stable before falling to their lowest levels towards year-end. Overall, gas prices recorded a moderate year-on-year increase of 5%. Turning to carbon, EUA prices opened the year sharply, but reversed after mid-February, pressured by declining gas prices and uncertainty around U.S. tariffs.
Prices later recovered on the back of easing trade tensions and a U.S.-China agreement, although gains driven by geopolitical developments proved short-lived. The market remained relatively balanced for a period before a rally emerged towards September, driven by compliance buying, with prices peaking towards the end of the year. Overall, carbon prices also recorded a moderate year-on-year increase of 12%. Finally, looking at power prices, they spiked early in 2025, driven by higher TTF and EUAs, easing later in Q1 on the weaker demand and the higher solar performance. Prices rose in Q2, tracking TTF and EUAs, but stayed stable in June, though elevated, despite geopolitical tensions, thanks to record renewables output. In the second half of 2025, weather-driven demand and lower renewable output led to a steady rise in prices.
Moving now on slide 20, where we can see the key financial figures for the period, showcasing the strong financial performance recorded in 2025, with increased revenues mainly due to higher power prices and the contribution of Kotsovolos. Adjusted EBITDA reached EUR 2 billion, up by 13% year-on-year, an uplift driven by higher contribution of integrated activities in our two key countries, Greece and Romania. Adjusted net income post minorities stood at EUR 0.45 billion from EUR 0.36 billion in 2024, up by 23% year-on-year. The proposed dividend for 2025 is EUR 0.60 per share from EUR 0.40 per share in 2024, demonstrating our strong commitment towards the increase of distributable profits for our shareholders and in line with our commitment in the latest Capital Markets Day.
A more detailed overview of EBITDA net income evolution will follow later in the presentation. Investments at EUR 2.8 billion, focusing mainly on renewables, flexible generation, and distribution. Free cash flow continues to be driven by elevated investment levels in line with our business plan. Net debt at EUR 6.5 billion at the end of December 2025, with net debt to EBITDA ratio at 3.2 times as anticipated, given the progress in our investment plan. Proceeding to slide 21 for the revenues evolution of the group, which recorded an 8% increase. The largest part of this increase is driven by energy sales, which are up by approximately EUR 0.5 billion as a result of higher power prices we experienced both in Greece and Romania for the full year.
The rest is mainly driven by sales of merchandise coming from the operations of Kotsovolos, which have a full year effect in 2025. These two factors have been able to more than offset the impact of our revenues from volume decline related to market share reduction and a slightly reduced electricity demand in both countries, as George mentioned before. All this resulted to a total revenue of EUR 9.7 billion in 2025, up by EUR 0.7 billion versus 2024. Moving to slide 22 for the EBITDA performance by business activity. As you can see in the left side of the slide, EBITDA has recorded a 13% increase year-on-year, with the integrated business being the key driver for this growth. I will provide more color on this in the coming slides.
International contribution at 22%, mostly driven by Romanian operations, which stood at EUR 440 million. Next, on slide 23, a few words on the evolution of the integrated business. The improvement that has been recorded versus last year has been taking place on the back of improved performance in the retail business and green and energy mix throughout our footprint as we increase renewables capacity. In addition, this improvement has been also supported by the reduction of fixed costs associated with lignite activity as we progress with the phasing out of the relevant units. All these factors have been the basis of our commitments in our Capital Markets Day some months ago to improve our profitability in the integrated business by EUR 0.2 billion year- on- year. Now proceeding to slide 24 for a view of the distribution activity.
With regards to Greece, the demand decrease of 1.3% versus 2024 negatively affected the approved network usage revenues that will be compensated in 2027. In Romania, the distribution business marked a slight decrease versus full year 2024, but this was driven by seasonal effects. Adjusting for construction works that have already been included in the 2026 allowed revenues, the 2025 performance would be higher than last year. Proceeding to slide 25 for a deep dive on the EBITDA to net income bridge. The improved performance in terms of EBITDA that we discussed in the previous slide has also been reflected in the bottom line, with adjusted net income after minority standing at EUR 448 million, that is a 23% increase versus last year.
In terms of EPS, the year-on-year increase is slightly higher to the 24%, given the ongoing share buyback program. Adjustments, including the net income, includes special one-off items, with the largest being the provision for incentives for voluntary exit schemes that we implemented, the PPAs revaluation, as well as the incremental depreciation from the assets revaluation of December 2024. Moving on to slide 26 for the analysis of the investments. We continue to keep a high level of investments reaching EUR 2.8 billion in 2025, despite the reduction of 9% year-on-year. Importantly, 87% of our investments are directly toward distribution networks, renewables and flexible generation in line with our strategic priorities. Distribution has been the largest component reflecting our focus on network digitalization and resilience in both Greece and Romania.
At the same time, we're significantly expanding our renewables footprint along with increased investments in flexible generation to support the stability and monetizing the surplus of generation. Geographically, the majority of investments are concentrated in Greece, accounting for 72%, while Romania represents a growing share of 23%. Overall, our investment program is clearly aligned with the energy transition, strengthening our asset base and supporting long-term earnings visibility. Let's now move on to slide 27 for the free cash flow analysis of the group. The strong operational performance combined with the positive working capital resulted to a significantly positive FFO of EUR 1.9 billion. The change in working capital had a positive impact of EUR 161 million over the period, supported mainly by CO2 and our hedging activities.
With regards to CO2, we had a positive impact in 2025, which is mainly attributed to timing of payments and the overall working capital management. With regards to our hedging activities, initial margin requirements relate to new positions declined, mainly as an effect of lower and less volatile gas prices towards the year end, while at the same time, prior periods positions continued to wind down. Looking at the trade receivables and excluding state-related entities, we had a positive change in working capital by EUR 70 million, partially offsetting the increase of trade receivables from the state-related entities. We have been working with the state to reduce the overdue amount, and we expect in the first half of this year to have positive results.
Finally, within category other, we had a negative impact of EUR 92 million as a result of last year's over-performance in December 2024, where some payments were shifted to 2025. Overall, free cash flow is in line with our estimate, given the significant capital deployment that we are doing throughout Southeast Europe and across technologies. Turning to slide 28, let me walk you through our debt profile and liquidity position. Despite the acceleration of our investment program, liquidity remains robust, supported by a well-balanced mix of fixed and floating rate debt. We also maintain strong liquidity headroom with EUR 4.6 billion of undrawn committed credit lines as of year-end 2025. At the same time, ongoing refinancing initiatives and favorable interest rate trends have contributed to a reduction in our average cost of debt, which stood at 3.8% by the end of 2025.
Our debt maturity profile remains well spread, with no material concentration risks. Over the next three years, maturities amount EUR 2.6 billion, including EUR 500 million related to our sustainability bond maturing in July 2028. In October 2025, we successfully issued a EUR 775 million green bond due in 2030, priced at 4.25% coupon with strong investor demand and 3.4 times oversubscription. The proceeds were used to redeem in full the aggregate principal amount of sustainability senior note due in 2026 and support eligible green investments in line with our financing framework. The remaining maturities primarily relate to long-term loans and committed facilities, which we expect to refinance in the normal course of business.
Finally, our credit profile remains at BB- with both rating agencies, with S&P recently revising the outlook to positive while Fitch affirmed the stable outlook. Next, on to slide 29 for the net debt evolution and our leverage position. Net debt and consequently net leverage increased in 2025 as anticipated, reflecting the acceleration of our investment program in line with our business plan. Net leverage currently stands at 3.2x and is expected to evolve in line with our plan. We remain fully committed to our financial policy, including the 3.5x ceiling we have set. Let me now pass it on to George for his concluding remarks.
Thank you. Now moving on slide 31. Before I conclude my presentation, let me reaffirm our guidance on key figures for this year. Our expected adjusted EBITDA is at EUR 2.4 billion, and we anticipate more than EUR 700 million in terms of adjusted net income after minorities, leading to an EPS of EUR 2.1, demonstrating a 58% increase versus 2025. We are on very good track to achieve these targets for several reasons, as we saw at the right-hand side of the slide. First, we have been experiencing a mild weather conditions in the first quarter of 2026 so far, which have led to improved margin in our retail activity.
Second, wind conditions have been quite strong from the beginning of 2026, benefiting our assets both in Greece and Romania, which combined with better hydrological conditions in Greece, contribute to a good start of the year. Third, we are at a quite advanced maturity stage for the 1.8 GW of new renewables that we are targeting to conclude in 2026, being already at an approximately 50% readiness. Moreover, we feel very comfortable in delivering our targets for 2026 as well. Once again, we highlight our strong commitment for our dividend policy that is expected to reach EUR 0.80 per share from EUR 0.60 per share in 2025, an increase of 33%. In our concluding slide 32, let me now wrap up with a few final points. Overall, we are delivering on our strategy with strong execution across all key pillars.
Our 2025 performance reflects the benefits of our integrated business model. We continue to deploy capital in a disciplined manner with EUR 2.8 billion invested in renewables, flexible generation and distribution supporting our future growth. We have made significant progress in our renewables installed capacity, adding 1.7 GW in 2025. At the same time, we are building strong visibility on our targets going forward with 86% of the capacity that we target for 2028 being already secured. Our transition away from lignite is progressing as planned, with full phase out expected by end of this year, further improving our environmental footprint.
This shift is strengthening the resilience and flexibility of our portfolio, enhancing our position in a challenging and evolving energy landscape. We are very confident in delivering our 2026 targets, and we prepare ourselves to be able to meet our targets beyond this year, aiming at sustainable value creation for our shareholders, our customers, and the market in which we operate. Thank you all. Now looking forward to get your feedback and your questions.
The first question is from the line of Alessandro Di Vito with Mediobanca. Please go ahead.
Yes, good afternoon. Thanks for taking our question. I have three. First question is on the general energy outlook. I wanted to understand which could be the implications for PPC in case the current escalation in the Middle East extends for a longer period of time, and then automatically, if you could remind us, the sensitivity you have to power prices. The second question is around the political debates to lower power prices in Europe.
I wanted some color on your contribution to this debate, and if you see the risk of some political intervention, both at national and at European level. Third question is on your procurement strategy. I wanted to understand if the current disruption in LNG supplies could affect the procurement for your CCGT plants or for your gas supply clients. Maybe just the last one for clarification, during the explanation of the guidance, I heard 2026 and I think above EUR 700 million, so I wanted to understand whether this is confirmed or not. Thank you.
Okay, thank you very much for the questions. Now, let me start from the general outlook. Of course, we cannot estimate how this will end and when it will end, and nobody's able to do that right now. However, because we have some experience now, and our experience is from 2022, where we had a major energy crisis and impacting very much also our continent. I want to outline some points. First of all, we do not have any physical delivery issues because we are not procuring from that area, from the Strait of Hormuz. While in 2022, you remember when the pipe was interrupted, we had to handle physical delivery problems as well, which was really a big mess. We are not in this situation.
Therefore, as far as I understand, this is the situation of Asia in particular, or some other companies maybe in Europe, but not ourselves. Of course, you may understand that we need to handle the issue of prices. Today we think that, I mean, if we take the news today, every day is a new situation, of course. It is at around EUR 60-63, the gas TTF. Gas is of our interest. If you remember 2022, we handled prices of EUR 350. I hope we will not see these prices, of course, but still, we have the experience and the management to handle the situation. First point. Second point.
I mean, we are we have an overall portfolio that has a part of it is fixed. Our fixed customers is already fully hedged, so there's no impact in that situation. Of course, one could question if things go really high, how this will pass into the market. I believe that starting from, you know, as you know, from, 2023, there was a European directive which defined when Europe will be considered in crisis, and that has the limit reaching gas prices at EUR 180. We are far away from that level, thankfully. I don't think we will be needed right now to handle any situation like that.
In any way, however, this, because of our vertical integration, is not has been proven also in the past that we never had a problem in managing this situation. If even in the scenario of incremental caps, it simply means that we will not have, let's say, huge windfall profits, and those will be used by the governments of Europe to support the citizens of Europe. What I'm trying to say is that, point one, right now, we are not in this situation at all. I'm not sure if we will be. If we will go in a very extreme situation, the tools are available to be used also at the European level, have been used in the past, and we proved that we were not affected by that, and we don't believe we'll be affected as well.
Now, the other thing is that the timing of this crisis is coming in a period of time which is spring. This is very important because we just closed winter, and this is a period of time where renewables are boosting very much. We are mostly of low prices. I think that there is time in front of us before we move to the heart of the summer, where we will have another peak or when we will reach the point that the European storage facilities will start to be having the need to be, let's say, filling up. That would be possibly an issue which will impact 2027. We don't believe we will have a major impact in 2026, also in such a situation right now.
We wait and see how the situation will develop, but I think we are extremely protected as PPC right now. Having worked in our overall vertical integration and our own capability to manage our overall customer base. Now, going to the second part of your question about the discussion that has emerged in Europe about the energy prices. This is a valid point, I believe. It is a concern for everybody, and I believe it is also a valid point for the industry, which is an important parameter. I have the impression that I mean, we will know today, tomorrow, how things will develop in the council, but I have the impression that the mostly the discussion will focus around the NECP reform for the future.
As you may be aware, EPS is supposed to be formed in July, and there is today already taken decisions from the past to remove quantities from the ETS market, from the quota, that would tighten the market further and would result in a price increase in ETS. I see personally that there is room in the discussion of the European leaders to make this transition smoother and not so steep in the coming years. I think, and this is the most important thing, that this is exactly how we were forecasting the development to happen, even before this discussion becoming relevant.
If you look on our slides on the Capital Markets Day in November, you will see that the kind of path we have for EPS prices are reasonable because we were assuming from that time that we don't believe that the current situation will be activated in the sense that we don't believe we will see crazy prices on the EU ETS market. We have already budgeted with a very smooth pattern from 2026 to 2028, even beyond to 2030, and I think the conclusion of the discussions in Europe will more or less go in that direction. Having said that, there is another element as well, which is very important, which is our region.
Because we put all this into a perspective, but we need to think of our region as well, because every geography is different. In the Southeast Europe region, the corridor between Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Poland up to Ukraine, Moldova, all these kind of countries, Croatia, this is a corridor which is very tight from the capacity point of view. On top of that, it has very old fleet. Because you ask the sensitivity, even in our calculations with a lower ETS, from our projections, we don't see the plan changing significantly because the assets that will be activated are quite mature and old fleet, and into an area which having a very old fleet.
For all these reasons, I believe that we have been very prudent in managing our assumptions, and I think gradually we are going in that direction. We feel that not only for 2026 we are absolutely certain that we will deliver properly, but also for the coming years we will be in line with our projections. Last, procurement. I didn't quite understood the last part of your question, but I can tell you that we don't feel any procurement issue as a result of the crisis right now in the trade. If you can elaborate more of what you meant, I will be able to answer. Thank you.
Yes. No, I think you already answered. I was asking about your procurement strategy, whether it would be affected by the disruption in Middle East, but you already said that, the fixed portion of supplies is secured and you have no procurement from Middle East. The last question was on the net income for 2026, whether it is going to be around EUR 700 or above EUR 700. During the presentation I had above those, but I just wanted to make sure about this detail. Thank you very much.
Listen, we just closed the year at EUR 450 million net result. I can tell you certainly that we will be in the area of EUR 700 million. I could even tell you that we're having a good year today, so I would be most probably able to verify a number higher than this. But of course, we are in an environment of huge volatility, so the only thing I can confirm is the EUR 700 million level right now. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
The next question is from the line of Nestoras Katsios with Optima Bank. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hello. Thank you for the presentation, and congratulations for your great set of results. Two questions from my side. The first one has to do with the data centers. Is there any update on with your discussions on the data centers front? The second one is about Ptolemaida V. I understand that you will shut them down this year. Are there any final investment decision for the future of Ptolemaida? I mean, some gas plant. Thank you.
Okay. Let me start from the last, because I think it's the easiest. I mean, for Ptolemaida V, I think we have already announced that we will convert it to gas, and we are already working in that direction. I think we will see it already in operation in gas from 2028 because we are already working in that direction. We have already secured the equipment we need, and I think we have sufficient time to do this transformation by 2028. And so this is for Ptolemaida. Now for the data centers, for those of you who are following our company, you may remember that we have announced our intention to develop a data center last April. It's almost a year, not even a year yet.
I told you from that day that I would expect. I was expecting end of 2026 to have some sort of real development. This is our vision right now. However, we are in discussions with hyperscalers, and those discussions are going a little bit better from what I thought. I mean, we have progress. We have significant progress, but we are not there yet. This is the thing I can say right now. Thank you.
Okay, thank you.
The next question is from the line of [Karidis] John with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Thanks very much for taking my questions. I have four quick ones on just the telco business, please. The first question is what was the CapEx in FY 2025 in millions rather than billions? Secondly, how many customers did you have at the end of 2025, and how many do you have now? Thirdly, during the CMD, I asked you about the timing of the launch for voice services, and you said very soon. Could you please update me on that? Hopefully give me something like a date. Lastly, a year ago, I asked you whether you were interested in mobile, and you said you were not. Has your view changed there at all? Thank you.
Thank you very much for the questions. I can tell you that we have spent around EUR 200 million till now on this project. We have delivered more or less a network of 1.7 million, but only 1 million is commercially available. You know, first you create the backbone, and then you make the remaining pieces. Very recently, we launched at the end of last summer the service with a footprint of 500,000, let's say, households passed. Very recently we opened from 500,000 to 1 million. I can tell you that we are currently connecting around 200 customers per day. This is the current pace we have. You can calculate. I think we are quite happy with that because we.
In that level, I think this in the coming months, 'cause it's too young, not even six months that we are working on that. In the current pace, we will probably reach a level of 250 in the coming months. When we will open the remaining 500,000 and so on and so forth, I mean, we're growing gradually as per our plan to 3.5 million. This means that with this trend we will be reaching a level of around 700-800 customers, maybe more, per day. We are very happy. We are learning as well from that. As you might have noticed, we are not pushing a lot advertising because we want to have very good service on our customers. Very shortly we will start pushing more commercially.
I'm expecting these numbers to pick up. So far so good. I mean, we are doing very well. We are very happy. We will reach the number of target customers we have in our mind by the end of 2028, beginning of 2029. About voice, I think we are ready to launch it probably in June, July. I think we will launch the voice. About mobile, we are not interested in mobile because our project is a very specific project. That's why we are so relaxed. I mean, we are doing this. We found this opportunity to roll out this fiber project only in Greece. It's not a big project for us versus our total CapEx. We are in line exactly with the numbers we want to have day by day. We'll go gradually. We are not investing in the mobile. I can verify this 100%. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm sorry. Could you please tell me how many customers you had in total at the end of 2025?
We have more than 12,000 customers.
That's lovely. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Ella Walker-Hunt with Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for the presentation. First question relates to hedging. In terms of power price exposure, could you tell us what's your hedge position at the end of the year? How much in terms of terawatt-hours have you sold forward and what duration? And then my second question is about the full year results. If we look at it on a quarterly basis, the fourth quarter earnings were actually down almost 20% if you compare to the last year. I was just wondering what was driving that in its contraction in the fourth quarter.
Okay. The first part, what was the first part? The hedging. We are at a level of more than 40%-45% right now for the year for everything, all our position. Not accounting the fixed customers, of course, that we have 100%, as I told you, all our fleet. Now, for the fourth quarter, I mean, we navigated. I mean, you know, we have a sort of every year, sort of seasonality, and we're trying to govern the company also taking into account the market in general. We chose to support more our customers at the end of the year, and but still we brought our results. This has happened in many of our years, I mean, in the past years.
You know, there is a thin line where you need to keep the pace of growth in a reasonable level. From quarter to quarter, we have had differences like that in the past. This is normal. On the contrary, you will see that if you will compare this quarter, this current quarter, when we will announce it, because it's going well, with the quarter of last year, you will find exactly the opposite. It is part of the nature of our business. Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Mafalda Pombeiro with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon, and congratulations on the results. Thanks for taking the questions. I only have two last, if possible. The first one would be any indication or guidance on the net debt levels for 2026, if you can share at least the main moving pieces. The second one is just a clarification. Out of your retail sold volumes, could you please, I understand it's the part that is fixed contract, fixed customers. So what percentage is that of the overall sold volumes? Thank you.
Our fixed part is around 20%. Now Konstantinos will take the first one. One second, give us.
Yes. Hi. The way we have set up the business plan that we discussed back in November is asking for additional investment. We do expect that the more we are progressing, of course, leverage will remain in the area of 3.3 times-3.4 times. That would be in an area of, in terms of net debt, close to EUR 7.5 billion-EUR 7.7 billion.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Antonova Anna with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you for taking my questions. Just a few from our side. First, on the CapEx outlook for this year, for 2026, I hear that last year you spent just a little bit lower than you guided, below the EUR 3 billion. Is the CapEx for this year still expected around your target, which I think from end of last year was EUR 3.8 billion? That's the first question.
Yeah. We, of course, you know, from last year, the big deliveries of renewables started to arrive in our company. On the other hand, last year, we did our CapEx also with an acquisition, as we have noticed. You know, the last quarter we brought 800 MW, so it's ramping up. Right now we're going to deliver 1.8 GW, and it's going fantastic. We are able to confirm exactly our CapEx for this year.
Thank you so much. The second question is on the outlook for hydropower. This year, I remember you commented during the call that in Q1 the weather conditions were quite favorable. If you could maybe comment where you currently see the upside for hydro generation for this year compared to last year's maybe level, which was I think 3.4 TWh.
Yeah. Finally, we are having a good year on hydro after several years. We had the three bad years on the hydro levels, and this is coming back this year. I mean, I cannot predict exactly, but it's gonna be for sure more than last year. Thank you.
Thank you.
We have a follow-up question from Anna Antonova with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you. Just a quick follow-up question. With all the events happening this year and the higher power prices and kind of regulatory debates in Europe, can you comment if you see any downside to your targets for this year from the current conditions, both on financials and on especially the lignite phase-out? You mentioned earlier the events of 2022, and I remember that at that time, the lignite commissioning was a bit delayed due to everything that had been happening. Do you expect kind of any potential risks to the targets for this year? Thank you.
What was the lesson in 2022? We kept lignite. Because why? Not for economic reasons, because of lack of physical deliveries at that time in 2022. What was the lesson? It was still more expensive than anything else. We are not intending to keep it back, by no means, especially now that we don't have any physical delivery issues. Other than that, I mean, knock on wood, this is going very well this year. If it wasn't the Iran conflict, we would be able to be more optimistic, but we stay at this level right now.
Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Stassis for any closing comments. Thank you.
Maybe we have a question.
Yes, we have one more question from Mr. Richard Alderman with BTIG. Please go ahead.
Hi, can you hear me?
Yes, please go ahead.
Just one follow-up question on the hedging there. Just so we don't misunderstand what you're saying about the gas element of the hedging within your retail book, are you essentially hedged for what you see would be your average demand through the rest of the year from your retail book, at this point? Obviously, if there are variations within that, and that costs you more, you would pass that through to customers who are not on fixed contracts. I'm just trying to understand you.
Yeah. This is indeed the
from that book.
This is exactly correct, what you said.
Okay. Thank you. Because there's been some discussion in the market as to whether you had exposure to that, but that's reassuring to hear. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions now. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Stassis for any closing comments. Thank you.
I think 2025 has been an important year because this company proved that it reached a level of significant net result versus the past years. 2026 will be another year like that. Our growth is very important versus last year. We feel confident we are exactly on target, maybe a little bit more. We will see how the year will develop. So far, so good. We are excited with the development of the company. We are already working very much for 2027, 2028. I believe 2026 is secured. I think the coming year will be very interesting. Thank you.