Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the first quarter 2025 results presentation, which will be hosted by our CFO, Luca Colman. In the presentation, we will provide some highlights of the period, and then we will walk you through the operational and financial performance for the group. Following the presentation, we will have the usual Q&A session. Before we start, let me remind you that media can be connected to both the presentation and the Q&A session. Thank you again, and now I hand over to Luca.
Thank you, Fabrizio. I will start with the key highlights of the first quarter of 2025. The year started with a strong traffic trend, with service units for en route higher than the planned expectations by 1.2 percentage points. Financial results came in as expected. Operational delivery was solid. Revenues for both the regulated and not regulated business recorded growth versus the previous year. We had a positive operational trend, as been also offset by the dynamics of the balances, which are typically of the first year of a new regulatory period and are already taken into account in our planned forecasts. Free cash flow increased by 25% versus the previous year. Considering the amount of balance to be cashed in during 2025 and the cash generation of the business, we expect free cash flow for 2025 to be around EUR 240 million.
The visibility we have so far on the operational and financial delivery ensures that our targets for 2025 are comfortably at reach with upside potential. Now we'll deep dive on operating and the financial performance of the quarter. As I have already mentioned, traffic performance was solid in the first quarter. Service units for en route were at 2.2 million, up by 7.4% versus the previous year, and most importantly, higher by 1.2 percentage points versus the projected growth embedded in our business plan and tariff. Terminal is up as well, marking a 5.6% growth versus 2024, with international flights accounting for almost 70% of total and the positive performance of both charging zones. Let me remind you that with the start of LP4 in 2025, now we have only two terminal charging zones, both subject to performance mechanism.
As a consequence of the regulatory change, en route and terminal are now fully aligned under the performance scheme and also have the exact same exposure to the seasonality of the business, with revenues peaking during the summer months while operating costs remain relatively stable throughout the quarters. The next two quarters will be fundamental to assess the overall trajectory for the year, as they are historically contributing for around 60% of the total service units. Let's move to the economic results, starting with the revenues. Revenues reached EUR 181 million in the quarter, down year by EUR 13 million, as the solid operating performance is offset by dynamics on balances. Core business was strong, driven mainly by en route, which recorded a double-digit increase in revenues.
Net of the negative balance and minus two reversal, which I remind you is neutral at the revenues level, the regulated business recorded an increase in revenues of EUR 5.4 million. The not regulated business continued on its growth trajectory with EUR 7.1 million in the quarter and an increase of 4.2% versus the previous year. All of these was more than offset by the negative contribution of balances, worth a total of around -EUR 36 million, which was driven by the balance reversal, mainly coming from the cash in of 2020 and 2021 COVID traffic recovery for -EUR 17.6 million, and the balance for the period, accounting for the remaining -EUR 18.2 million, is driven by the sense of balance that were accrued in 2024, namely inflation and cost recovery scheme for terminal zone three.
The inflation balance represents the impact of the business of the regulatory reset on the business, sorry, of the regulatory reset, as values like inflation are realigned with entering a new regulatory period. Instead, the effect associated with the terminal zone three balance is temporary and related to the switch from cost recovery under national law to the European performance scheme. This negative will be reabsorbed over the coming quarters, as the seasonality of the business is set to generate positive returns in line with the terminal zone one. Moving to costs on slide five, total operating costs reported an increase of 2.8% compared to Q1 2024, reaching EUR 182 million due to a 2.4% growth in personnel costs and 4.3% increase in other operating costs. Personnel costs grew by EUR 3.5 million, primarily driven by contractual salary inflation adjustments effective from July 2024.
Variable salary component declined by EUR 1.7 million, mainly as a consequence of the net effect of slightly higher overtime linked to the increased traffic and the positive calendar phasing of public holidays. Other operating costs grew mainly due to the increase in energy costs driven by higher prices. Moving on slide six, EBITDA came in at EUR 0.8 million for the quarter, meeting expectations and in line with the projected progression embedded in the EUR 20.5 million EBITDA target for 2025. As said, delivery of the operating activities was solid, resulting in a growth of net regulated revenue of EUR 5.4 million. Let me highlight that the balance and minus two reversal is not a cash, is non-cash item at EBITDA level.
Business delivery mitigated impact stemming from the change in terminal zones, whereby the last year of zone three was still under cost recovery scheme and generated a positive balance worth EUR 8.7 million. As said before, this negative effect will rebalance over the coming quarters, as the seasonality of the business will highlight the positive regulatory impact associated with having all charging zones under performance scheme. The absence of balance generation in Q1 2025 widely expected, as we are in the first year in the new regulatory period LP4. These dynamics were clearly expected and bode well for the achievement of the fiscal year guidance, which is comfortably at reach. Moving now to slide seven on the profit and loss statement, dynamics below the line reported a negative EBITDA of EUR 26 million impacted by EUR 25 million of depreciation and EUR 0.3 million negative effect from provisions.
Net financial expenses were EUR 2.2 million, mainly due to the foreign exchange losses, partially offset by lower interest costs, with an average annual interest rate of 3.71%, down from 4.1% in 2024. Taxes amounted to EUR 0.9 million, down by EUR 0.5 million, and as a result, the group reported a consolidated net loss of EUR 29.3 million in line with the typical seasonality of the business. Let's move to cash flow and net debt on slide eight. Net debt for the period is equal to EUR 223 million, down by 13% or EUR 35 million versus December 31, 2024. The reduction is mainly associated with operating cash flow of EUR 53.1 million, up by EUR 3.3 million, and a cash capex of EUR 25.1 million, and a positive change for around EUR 7 million in non-current commercial debt, mainly related to the gross negative balance to be returned to airlines.
Free cash flow was equal to EUR 28 million, up by 25.5%, proving the cash generation capabilities of the company. Now some closing remarks. Results for the quarters are perfectly aligned with our expectations and business plan projections. The only deviations are positive, like traffic that has shown a strong trend. The supportive operating environment and the regulatory stability offer us great visibility, and as a consequence, our targets for the year are comfortably at reach. Such enhanced visibility gives us confidence on the potential upside compared to the planned targets, starting already from 2025. As you have seen in the presentation, cash generation has been strong and is expected to remain solid also in the coming years, which underpins our commitment to shareholder remuneration for the full planned period. Now let's open the Q&A section.
Thank you. Thank you, Luca. We can now start with the Q&A session for those which are connected. Operator, if you could please open up the line to the analysts that want to ask questions. Thank you.
Thank you. This is the CorusCo conference operator. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. To remove yourself from the question queue, please press star and two. Please pick up the receiver when asking questions. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. The first question is from Carlos Caburazzi, Kepler. Please go ahead.
Hi, Luca. Hi, Fabrizio. Thank you for the presentation. I just have a quick question on traffic. Q1 should have been somewhat hotter in terms of comps given the leap year impact in February and the seasonality in Easter holidays in March. Nevertheless, traffic has grown 7.4% year on year and stands 1.2% ahead of Eurocontrol's estimates. Considering that the aviation sector is pointing towards another solid summer season, could you please share your views on traffic for the rest of 2025 and if you see further up performance versus the plan? Thank you.
Yes, Carlos, this is a really good question because we just had also April just a couple of hours ago from Eurocontrol. The actual April is a set, only the April demand is a 7.1%, so still continue the strong increase of traffic also in the second quarter, I would say. We also had some meetings in the last days with our colleague, German, French, Spain, and all we expect a huge increase of traffic, a huge amount of traffic to manage during the summer season. Eurocontrol is already asking us help to manage this important flow as some of our colleague and neighbors have some capacity problem. We will expect that also during the summer, the traffic that we will manage will be quite important. Yeah.
I think to have a final view for the year, we need to wait for the summer, I mean, the end of the summer, I mean, at least to start the summer. This increase that we are having now, this 1.2% different from the end of the one increase of traffic, we believe this could be easily considered also by the end of the year at the moment.
Okay. Grazie, Luca.
The next question is from Amal Patel, UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi, Luca. Hi, Fabrizio. Thank you very much for taking my questions and thanks for the presentation. Three questions from my side. Number one, on the wage negotiations, do we have any update you can provide here? Secondly, just looking at your OPEX performance for the quarter, I believe OPEX grew around 3% year over year. I guess in the context of the 9% year over year you showed at the FY2024 results and strategic update, how should we think about the evolution for the rest of the year? Finally, maybe any comment on the bonus malus and whether you believe you are on track for that? Thank you.
Yeah. For what concerns the negotiation with the new staff contract, it hasn't still begun. I mean, it's not yet started. We probably open the platform, the discussion in June, July. Sorry, yes, June, July this year. We will start the discussion. Now the feeling is good, is positive, but we don't have any other particular information to give to you as the talking is not already started. Official talking is not already started. For what concerns the cost OpEx, related to OpEx, you should consider, I mean, we are quite in line with what we expected in terms of cost increase. More or less, this could be the increase that we may also have by the end of the year at this moment. The trajectory could be more or less this one.
We should look at, we should wait and see what's happened in the summer with this very important increase of traffic that we are going to manage and try to understand how to better manage it. We are also in the discussion with the staff. Coming back to the first question, we are trying to remodulate some part of the contract. I bothered the one related to the, sorry, I'm looking for the English name for the MBO, the variable part of incentive, right, and the incentive to our controllers where we try to push on the flexibility and on having more time from them too. This is something that we are working on. The feeling is good. The talking are quite good at the moment. We will give you more update in the next month.
For what concerns the bonus malus, at the moment, with this traffic that we have managed, the target that is given to ENAV for what concerns the bonus is 100% taken. We are now, the delay that we have is around zero. Actually, as the target by the end of the year, it is zero point four, we are quite at the moment confident. Also, I think it is important to underline the increase in traffic is important, but as we said also in our presentation, the seasonality in the first quarter is quite important. Most of the traffic and most of the impact of the traffic on the punctuality will come in the second and third quarter, and this will be the most important quarter to look at to see how good we are to get the punctuality bonus.
At the moment, the management foreseen to get the bonus at the most.
Thank you.
The next question is from Marco Limite Barclays. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. I've actually got just one question. We have seen over the last weeks headline about Mr. Trump in the U.S. talking about need for new software for their own ATC system. I am just wondering to what extent you have been involved in discussion in selling some of your softwares to the U.S. Thank you.
Okay. If we look at what's happening from one side, obviously, it's an opportunity also for ENAV as they have to update their technology. You know that we sell part of our technology also. We may sell part of our technology also to them. In terms of not a regular business, for us, it would be an opportunity. In terms of traffic, I would say that it will not really impact our forecast as it's something really internal, U.S. internal problem, internal how to manage all this volume of traffic during the summer. Not to Europe, I would say. Did I answer you, Marco?
Yeah, yeah, of course. I was referring to the non-regulated business. Yeah, just wondering if there's a proper process in place yet or we're still at a very, very early stage.
I would say that something's moving, but yeah, that's what I can hear at the moment.
Okay. Thank you.
As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. The next question is from Luca Bacocoli at Intesa Sanpaolo. Please go ahead.
Hello. Good morning, everyone. Can you hear me?
Yep.
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Good. A few questions from my side. The first one regards the free cash flow generation that you guide for this year at EUR 240 million. I was wondering if you can split out this guidance between the, let's say, normalized cash flow and what is coming from the reversal of the balance. The second question regards the M&A during the strategic update plan. You mentioned that there are advanced stage negotiations on a few deals. If there's any update on this, it would be helpful. Also, a clarification on the traffic growth in April. You said 7.1%, if I got it right, which is basically in line with the first quarter trend, but in April, the comparison was much easier. I was wondering why it's not well above the growth seen in the first quarter.
Finally, the other question is on the guidance for this year. You were repeating during the presentation that the results, the guidance are comfortably at reach. Should we expect that if traffic growth remains at this level, you may increase the target for 2025 at the EBITDA level? Thank you.
Okay, Luca. I guess it's more than three questions. See if I remember all. Otherwise, I will ask you back. I start with the last one maybe. When we said that we are comfortable at reach, we think not only thinking about the traffic, but also taking into consideration the cost efficiency that we can put in place, also some as the bonus, punctuality bonus. There are several leverages that we are looking at when we said that we are comfortable that the planned EUR 225 million CBD could, I would say, could be beaten. That's it. That's the three leverages in our mind when we said we are comfortable at the moment. For what concerns free cash flow, EUR 240 million is our forecast by the end of this year.
You should consider that the balance reversal, so the 2020, 2021 COVID, and also the inflation, the balance that we have in the tariff, the 2025 tariff, will cover around EUR 200 million of cash flow, actually. The rest will be based on EUR 225 million EBITDA. Just consider this EUR 40 million is related to the target that we have given in terms of EBITDA. If the EBITDA will increase, probably also this part would increase. M&A, we do not have any other update other than say that we are working on the opportunity that we in some way anticipate in our capital market days. Things are going quite well, and we may wait some more months to have some other information. It is exactly in line with what we said months ago.
Traffic, I guess it was 7.1% in April, confirming that we are actually, I mean, the result that we had in the first quarter. This 1.2 percentage point higher than the planned and the tariff traffic in terms of service unit make us think that this could be the target that we can still have by the end of the year. We should wait for the summer because summer really moves a lot. In this moment, having this 1.2%, this means that in the summer, you still have this increase with volume that is much higher. At the moment, we believe this will happen, but just to be sure, we need to wait for just to be more confident. We need to at least start with the summer season. Actually, the summer season is just starting now.
Having a couple of months going and see if this is confirmed. By April, this is confirmed. Did I answer your question, Luca?
Yes, but just on traffic, I was wondering why it's only 7% up year over year despite the easy comps.
Sorry, Luca. We couldn't understand the last part of your question. Is April being 7% higher year on year despite—sorry, the line broke down?
Yes, the easy comps because Easter this year fall in April, while last year was in March. I was expecting a higher growth of the service unit in April vis-à-vis the average you reported in the first three months of the year.
Okay. I do not remember where we were last year, but actually, 7 percentage points are still very, 7.1 are still quite good results. Also because the volume is higher. April volume is much higher than January and February. In general terms, I do not have any particular answer to this question because we had just the number, the value a couple of hours ago from Eurocontrol. Now we will go deep on this and check what are the internal dynamics. For what we see, overflight is going very well. International is going well. I think we are seeing a lot of tourism going around. In general terms, we do not have any complaint on this. Actually, the complaint of our operative structure is really how to manage all this traffic that they expect to have. I mean, the forecast, we saw that we call the operative forecast.
Every three weeks, the operative makes the new Eurocontrol have a very operative forecast of the traffic for the next three weeks. Every three weeks, we have this really deep. Just to give the ACC in Europe the right volume and the right weight of what they should expect in the next three weeks. From what we saw, the last one is really, really important volume of traffic management all over Europe, actually. It will hold in Italy because as we do not give delay, as you know, as we actually are quite efficient, the tariff is good. We are attracting traffic. When there is a congestion around, I mean, there is some country, I cannot tell you the name, very close to us that has an answer for the summer. Few minutes of delay per average flight. Two minutes.
Two minutes is really, we are talking about zero point something. They are talking about a planned delay of two minutes already now. You can imagine how, I mean, what we should expect in the next month in terms of traffic that will continue to come over Italy. Probably this forecast could be even too small, too conservative, right? Too conservative.
Okay. Thank you.
The next question is from Francesco Sala, Banca Akros. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Sorry. If I go back to the operating cost, just a clarification. I wonder whether your present assumption for the rest of the year is that costs will keep on going up at the same growth as the one we saw in Q1. Thank you.
Oh, at the moment, this is just the first quarter. But at the moment in the first quarter, this is our best forecast. We believe that the increase that we had in the first quarter could be forecasted also by the end of the year. A lot will depend, not for what concerns the other operating costs, but for the staff costs, how much traffic we will have to manage because within the 7%, 7.2%, 7.5%, the increase of traffic versus the previous year, the company is putting on the table all the leverage and all the things that can, I mean, all the action that can contain the costs, manage the traffic in the right way, having the bonus. But if the traffic will increase by 10%, for example, we have to put some other action on place.
In general terms, I would say at the moment, with this increase of traffic, look at this increase of costs and forecast by the end of the year. If the traffic will increase more, probably we'll have to look at some percentage point difference, at least for what concerns the personnel, only for what concerns the personnel costs.
Thank you.
As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. For any further questions, please press star and one on your telephone. Gentlemen, Mr. Ragnacci, there are no more questions registered at this time. I turn the conference back to you for any closing remarks.
Thank you. Thank you, Operator. Thank you, Luca. Thanks to everybody that has joined the earnings call. Of course, for whatever follow-up or additional questions you might have, the IR team is available. Thank you, Luca, and thank you, everybody. Have a great day.
Thank you. Bye.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over, and you may disconnect your telephones.