Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to Enel Full Year 2022 Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen only mode. I would like to hand the conference over to Head of IR, Monica Girardi. Please go ahead.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, I apologize for the late start. Welcome to our Full Year 2022 Results presentation, which will be hosted by our CEO, Francesco Starace, and our CFO, Alberto De Paoli. In the presentation, Francesco and Alberto will wrap up on 2022 numbers. Following the presentation, we will have the usual Q&A session. We ask those connected to the webcast to send the questions only via email at investor.relations@enel.com. Before we start, let me remind you that media is listening to both the presentation and the Q&A session. Thank you. Now let me hand over to Francesco.
Thank you, Monica. Good evening, everybody. Let's start with the highlights of the period. In this context, our business model proved very resilient and testified once again the importance of being an integrated player. Our economic and financial performance was supported by a sound operating delivery that did not stop on the strategic aims in spite of the disruptive events that materialized in the past three years. All that, coupled with managerial actions that were promptly put in place, allowed us to hit the guidance set out at our Capital Markets Day in November. Our strategic repositioning program progressed better than planned in 2022. We are well in track on the execution of the 2023 deals, as I will comment later in the presentation.
In light of the results achieved, we will propose to the next assembly a fixed dividend per share of EUR 0.4 per share against the 2022 earnings, which underpins a high single digit growth versus 2021 and implying a 7.5% dividend yield at the current share price. We move now to slide three that shows the importance of managing the business in an integrated way. We posted an EBITDA of EUR 19.7 billion, marking a 3% growth year-on-year above the guided range. Worth to highlight the composition of this growth. The management of the integrated business contributed EUR 1.5 billion in a context of severe energy market disruptions. Our generation trading and portfolio optimization activities more than offset the negative performance of customers in Europe, resulting from dynamics that Alberto will detail later.
Network's net of stewardship benefited from the focus on efficiencies and geographical diversification as LatAm tariff indexation and past adjustments more than offset adverse regulatory changes in Europe. Growth year-over-year is normalized and organic, driven by our operations. In fact, the stewardship business model contributed for around EUR 900 million to the 2022 EBITDA, which is EUR 900 million less than the previous year, which recorded the contribution of the Open Fiber capital gain of EUR 1.8 billion. No recurring items, around EUR 100 million in 2022, weighted on growth negatively for EUR 500 million. Our operating delivery supported targets achievement over time, as you can see in the next slide.
During the last three years, the group delivered financial results that were very strong, with EBITDA and net income increasing 10% and 13% respectively, despite an exogenous environment that stress tested our business model in many ways. I am on slide number four. Leveraging on the strategic decisions taken in the past, we have been able to implement managerial actions that compensated the extreme volatility and allowed us to reach and exceed the targets that we set for 2022. The ability of the company to deliver financial results demonstrate that leveraging on an integrated position combined with the flexibility of the asset base and the geographical diversification of the group is crucial to absorb and adapt to abrupt changes. The 2022 performance is set to support future growth prospects and provide visibility on the target set for the future years of the plan.
Let's now move to the key drivers that allowed us to reach a level of debt within the guidance provided back in November last year. We are now on chart number five. Group's net debt stood at EUR 60 billion, EUR 10 billion lower than what was reported at the nine months results. This was expected and was the result of the actions implemented in the two prior quarters of the year in light of the evolution of the crisis. We have been able to meet the EUR 58 billion-EUR 62 billion guidance range despite the distressed environment and measures that were implemented by governments which still weigh in for about EUR 5.4 billion on our financials.
This result has been achieved thanks to EUR 9 billion of FFO contribution, which improved EUR 8 billion in the last three months given the EBITDA performance already commented, and a recovery of more than EUR 4 billion in working capital. The successful implementation of our strategic repositioning had a positive impact on our net debt evolution. In the next slide, number six, I dive into the business delivery of our group in these last three years of disruptions. The developing machines, they risked our generation capacity.
The share of renewables capacity increased progressively over time, reaching 66% of the total in 2022, which is a jump of 14 percentage points in just three years. Over the last three years, we added more than 4 million customers to the liberalized market, providing them a wider portfolio of infrastructure and flexibility services to cope with their needs. Our continued effort in the digitalization of the distribution network resulted in grids of higher quality, with the average interruption down by more than 20% compared to the pre-COVID year, and now 63% of our customers are digitalized. In the next slide, I show you how our renewable development machine worked and is set to work in the future. We added more than 10,000 MW in just the last 24 months, despite supply chain issues that have marginally impacted our construction activities. We will not stop.
We target to add around 21,000 MW of new capacity over the next three years, of which 5,500 MW in 2023, a target that is already fully addressed. Our future ambitions are backed by a pipeline of more than 450,000 MW, of which around 130,000 are located in Italy and Iberia, demonstrating that we are in the best position to accelerate in the energy independence in Europe. The increasing share of clean energy resulted and will result in a benefit for our customers enjoying affordable prices, particularly in Italy and Spain. Our customer base in the liberalized market in these two countries increased by 2.6 million customers in one year as our commercial policies protected people from an extremely distressed price environment. This is chart number eight.
65% of sales to customers were at prices on average around 40% lower than market prices and fixed throughout the period. This contract signed before energy tensions preserved our customers on the liberalized market throughout the entire turbulent period. We honored these conditions even if at an economic loss, as we prioritized consumers' protection against an unsustainable pricing pressure. The operating delivery of our networks will be key to accelerate the penetration of distributed generation, and you can see that on slide number nine. The investment deployed over time on networks have been instrumental to create the electricity grid of tomorrow with high level of security, resiliency, and reliability to accelerate a clean electrification. The yearly request of connections from distributed generation have increased 50% since 2019 and have reached 5,600 MW in 2022.
These requests are associated with renewable distributed capacity, including decentralized energy management system and virtual power plants. Our networks have been able to create hosting capacity capable to integrate these new generation sources seamlessly and unlock future value for the energy system. Furthermore, we have continued to focus on digitalization with almost 46 million smart meters installed at the end of 2022. Let's now have a look at the strategic reposition implemented so far on slide number 10. Group simplification has always been a cornerstone of our strategy. In 2014, we engaged in the transformation of group structures with the aim of simplifying governance while maximizing efficiency and efficacy of our actions, aligning priority at country level with the group's strategy, upgrading growth prospects, leveraging on synergies, and accelerating delivery capabilities.
Over time, we have executed this strategy, implementing all necessary steps to transform the group into a simpler and leaner organization, focusing on the execution and value creation. We are concluding on the right-hand side of this chart, you can see it, this big effort as Eastern Europe and LatAm repositioning. LatAm on the left, Eastern Europe on the right. This kicked off in 2014, as you can see from the chart, and it now enters the final phase. 2022 has marked a leap forward in the simplification effort, and by early 2023 the group will evolve further into the linear form we targeted since the beginning. You see this in page 11. Over the course of 2022, portfolio management delivered better than expected, executing EUR 5.9 billion of asset valorization. 2023 is also off to a great start.
We already announced the signing of the sale of the assets in Romania to PPC for a total consideration of EUR 1.3 billion and an impact on the debt of around EUR 1.7 billion. The closing of the sale is expected by the third quarter of 2023. The sale of generation assets in Argentina. All the pending disposal that you see in this chart are ongoing, and we are confident that execution will be completed as planned. Finally, let's move to shareholder remuneration on slide number 12. The resiliency of our business model, the high standards of operating and performance, and all the actions that management have put in place during this 2022 year allowed us to deliver a sound set of numbers.
We will propose to the AGM a dividend per share of EUR 0.4 per share, up by more than 5% versus previous year. It is worth to highlight that the business model we built since 2015 guaranteed a solid and visible improvement in the shareholder remuneration, and the share price appreciation result in a total shareholder return exceeding 110%. I hand over to Alberto, he will go through the details of the 2022 financial performance. Please, Alberto.
Thank you, Francesco. Good evening, everybody. I am now kicking off the analysis of financial results on page 14. EBITDA to EUR 19.7, Group net on the ordinary income came in at EUR 5.4, both above the guidance we communicated at the Capital Markets Day. Net debt, as anticipated, total EUR 60.1 billion, Reached the midpoint of the guided range, thanks to the delivery on operations and the managerial actions implemented. I will detail later all the moving parts underlining the 2022 economic and financial performance. Let's now take a look at the investments of the period on slide 15. We deployed investments for around EUR 15 billion to secure future EBITDA growth.
In particular, EUR 8.6 billion of the total has been allocated to support our integrated strategy, with renewables accounting for EUR 6.4, up by 11% versus 2021. The remaining portion focused on widening our portfolio of beyond commodity offering. Almost EUR 6 billion were allocated to our grids to improve their level of digitalization, quality, and efficiency. From a geographical perspective, also almost 90% of CapEx has been allocated in the six core countries, in line with our strategic repositioning, with the lion's share spent in Italy accounting for around 35%, followed by the United States. Francesco has already shown you the main drivers of the EBITDA evolution. I will kick off the analysis of the performance with a deep dive into the some KPIs on slide 16.
On the integrated business, our generation assets backed in full the increase in the fixed power sales, preventing margin contractions deriving from spot wholesale market exposures. Notwithstanding this, the exceptional hydro scarcity weighted on renewable sales coverage, particularly in Italy, as I will explain in a few slides. Our RAB per customers increased in the year by 7%, thanks to a higher CapEx intensity, particularly in markets where regulatory frameworks are supportive and the protection against macro volatility is the highest. I will now dive into the EBITDA evolution of the integrated business by geographies. We are now on page 17. The integrated business increased 16% year-over-year, thanks to Enel's geographical diversification and ability to manage a generation portfolio that allowed us to deliver strong results in a year affected by volatility and external disruptions.
As you can see from the chart, Italy suffered the most for the energy transiti-tensions, with EBITDA decreasing EUR 1.5 billion. In Iberia, the integrated margin management contributed positively for EUR 1.6 billion, of which around EUR 700 million as a net effect of the higher generation margin, partially offset by lower marginality on the retail business, impacted by increasing sourcing costs, and roughly EUR 900 million from the gas business and the optimization of the power wholesale sales portfolio. North and Latin America contributed positively for EUR 1.2 billion. In North America for EUR 300.
EUR 1.2 billion LatAm and EUR 300 million North America for a total of EUR 1.5 billion, mainly thanks to EUR 700 million linked to new capacity built, which EUR 500 million in the United States, EUR 200 million for FX impact, and the remaining for the gas valorization in Chile. On the stewardship result, Mooney transactions generated around EUR 400 million. Worth to highlight that the performance in LatAm and U.S. was backed by long-term PPAs that allowed to stabilize prices for customers and secure returns, while Iberia has benefited from the cap on gas prices implemented by the government that allowed the stabilization of power price evolution and a better marginality of the generation business. Now let me deep dive into Italy in the next slide. I start describing quickly the different business clusters that from now on will represent our integrated business.
The first is Power Free. This includes renewable, thermal generation, and the retail free markets, and analytics services. We have the Power Regulated. That includes must-run regulated power generation and retail regulated market. We have the gas market. That includes retail, gas, and wholesale. Last, trading and generation services. That includes portfolio optimization activities and balancing services. In Italy, the EBITDA associated with the integrated business stood at EUR 2.7 billion, down 34% versus 2021. As Power Free dropped to EUR 1.6 billion on peculiar business dynamics that I will detail in the next slide. Power Regulated declined by EUR 500 million due to a change in the status of the coal plant located in the south of the country that is no longer considered as must-run, and due to lower prices associated with green certificates recorded in the year.
Gas recorded a negative EUR 300 million associated with mainly with the price review of some contracts that entails future positive impacts. These negative dynamics were only partially offset by both power and gas portfolio optimization performed by our trading activities and generation services accounting for around EUR 900 million. Now last, let's deep dive on the Power Free dynamics which, as said, generated a drop in the EBITDA integrated of around EUR 1.6 billion in Italy. The negative performance was mainly driven by an unexpected and exogenous open position for around 13 TWh, generated by six TWh of higher sales and seven TWh lost in idle production due to a persisting drought.
This unexpected open position came together at the beginning of the year with around 10% unhedged position of around 6 TWh, a level that was in line with our historical risk policies. These overall 19 TWh open volumes were covered through a combination of thermal sources and market purchases that accounted for additional EUR 4.3 billion in sourcing cost, out of which only 60% translated into customer bills. In fact, as Francesco already mentioned, we decided to honor contracts signed in a completely different environment and to protect our clients from power market volatility. I will now dive into the EBITDA evolution for networks on slide 20. Ordinary EBITDA stood at EUR 8.3 billion.
Going in details by country, Italy proved almost flat, as the negative effect associated with last year regulatory review was offset by efficiencies. Iberia decreased by around EUR 70 million on previous year, reset amid an increase in fixed costs. Romania contributed negative for more than EUR 150 million due a delay into the recognition of the higher cost due to spike in power prices and needed to cover network losses. This delay has been already recovered in January this year. Latin America countries performed extremely well, contributing EUR 600 million, mainly thanks to tariff indexation for around EUR 350 million, currency devaluation for more than EUR 100 million, and efficiencies for another EUR 100 million.
EBITDA was also impacted by a negative delta non-recurring for around EUR 300 million due to the regularization of past years' remuneration in Spain and the positive effect of Resolution 50 recorded last year in Italy. Excluding this negative impact, EBITDA would have grown by 12%. Stewardship business model added around EUR 500 million, thanks to the valorization of expertise. I end up this part of business performance with some highlights on RAB evolution and tariff use. Investment in networks stood at EUR 5.7 billion. Around 66% have been deployed in Europe, mainly in Italy, to cope with the increasing request of connections from distributed generation. Investment in quality, resilience, and digitalization resulted in higher RAB across almost all the countries of presence, with a 7% increase at group level on a like for like basis.
Our networks in LatAm benefited from regulatory adjustment that resulted in a 70% tariff increase in Rio, 25% in Ceará, and 12% in São Paulo. Let's continue the analysis of result with the earnings evolution, I am on slide 22. Ordinary group net income came in at EUR 5.4 billion on the back of the dynamics commented at EBITDA level, higher D&A in minorities only partially offset by lower taxes and financial expenses. D&A are up year-on-year EUR 600 million as a consequence of EUR 500 million amortization on higher investment deployed and FX impact, and EUR 100 million of higher bad debt made in Italy up on higher turnover in the period.
Net financial charges decreased 11% with a positive impact at net income level of around EUR 240 million, thanks to the accelerated debt refinancing carried out during the last 12 months, which pushed down cost of debt by 20 basis point versus December 2021. Income taxes decreased around EUR 200 million, mainly for the adjustment recorded in previous year on deferred taxes, partially offset by higher taxes for higher taxable results. Finally, higher minorities interest due to higher contribution from our subsidiaries versus the result of the Italian entities, resulted in a lower net income for around EUR 550 million. Let's now move to cash flow on slide 23. FFO stood at EUR 9.1 billion, showing a strong recovery versus the nine months, thanks to the improvement in working capital dynamics in line with our expectations.
It was to highlight that FFO has been affected by EUR 4.2 billion impact in working capital in the year, associated with the government measures in the current energy context. Excluding these effects, FFO would have reached around EUR 13.5 billion. Deep diving into the working capital, the dynamics underneath can be summarized as follows. EUR 2.5 billion of government and regulatory measures still to be collected. In the next slide, I will show you how the government related debt has piled up over time. Worth to highlight that in Q4, a decrease of EUR 2.6 billion versus the nine months has been achieved, mainly thanks to the reabsorption of tariff equalization and a partial recovery of effects related to the cap on gas prices in Spain.
EUR 2.2 billion impact are from the energy market context, improving versus last September due to the decrease in power prices in the last quarter of the year. As planned, we fully recovered the EUR 1.1 billion related to the CapEx seasonality in line with past years. Excluding exogenous impact associated with government measures and energy market context, the evolution of working capital would have been completely in line with the historical trend. Finally, financial charges paid declined by EUR 400 million, mainly thanks to the liability management program executed last year, while taxes proved flat. Before we move to the net debt, let's take a closer look at pending government's measures that have still to be collected. Am I on page 24?
Over the course of the past month, working capital was affected by the pile up of measures to tackle the energy crisis in Europe, reaching the sheer amount of EUR 8 billion as of the nine months 2022, at the peak of the crisis. As of the full year, we still suffer from EUR 5.4 billion to be recovered. Reduction is led by Italy and Spain, whereby the recognition of the tariff equalization in Italy accounted for around EUR 1.4 billion, and the price of cap on gas in Spain for around EUR 1 billion. Net of managerial action that already partially compensated for this burden, we still have to cash in more than EUR 4 billion, that as you probably remember, we don't anticipate to be collected, nor in the short term, nor in full.
In fact, our targets for 2023 do not include any repayment, while we expect half of the EUR 4 billion to be reintegrated by the end of the plan period. let's now move on net debt on slide 25. Net debt has stood at EUR 60.1, lending a cent at the midpoint of the guidance communicated last November. Net debt strike amounts of EUR 59.6. That is EUR 500 million below the reported level. Net debt to EBITDA ratio stands at 3.1, at the low end of the range we announced at the Capital Markets Day. This level, coupled with the visibility over the underlying dynamics of the business plan, bodes well for the targeted landing point of EUR 51 billion-EUR 52 billion we have in our guidance for 2023. Financial solidity was instrumental through the extreme volatility of the past 12 months.
We are now on page 26, where you can see that along the year, the group had to financially manage three black swans at the same time. Margin call requirements triggered by severe commodity fluctuation. The already mentioned measures introduced by governments, as well as the impact from the broader energy market context. All these factors peaked in August when we recorded around EUR 21 billion impact. The financial discipline followed along the year allowed the group to remain unscathed by this unprecedented situation, which has instead severely affected other players, leveraging also on our ample available liquidity. In the last quarter of 2022, the impact was reduced by EUR 6 billion, thanks to the managerial action implemented at evolution of energy prices.
Our total liquidity as at the end of 2022, stood at more than EUR 30 billion, healthier than ever and worth to highlight that this does not include the EUR 12 billion credit line signed with SACE that can be used in case of a further increase in margin call requirements. The work we have been done so far on our financial position bear fruits in 2022, where liability management has always been a staple of our financial discipline. Effort have accelerated further in 2021 in order to safeguard the group from the rising rates environments through the execution of the EUR 8 billion equivalent program, bearing a cost of 0.6%. That allowed us to decrease further the cost of our gross debt, which is now at 3.3%, 80 basis points down compared to 2019.
The average maturity of our long-term debt remains stable over time at around seven years. Thank you. Now hand over to Francesco for the closing remarks.
Thank you, Alberto. As you see in the presentation, we have navigated through very turbulent waters, maintaining a solid operating economic and financial delivery, as well as a trajectory along the structure of our strategy. We reached our targets, thanks to an integrated business model which protected us against extreme volatility. It's been proving to be a very solid and useful tool. This protection, combined with the proactivity and fast response attitude of all our colleagues, work properly in good years, but also in bad years, proving that this strategy is appropriate to face very different cycles. The crisis we have faced is an opportunity to leverage the focus on tier one country and the growth that we can pursue in these areas of increased focus, reducing the risk profile of our investment and maintaining a sustainable growth of our results. We now move to Q&A with Monica leading.
Thank you, Francesco. We are moving to Q&A now. Just a reminder, if you have any questions, just shoot an email to investor.relations@enel.com. First one is for you, Francesco. You have highlighted the significant operational progress accomplished throughout global pandemic and the energy crisis in Europe. What do you think was pivotal for these results?
Well, as I said already during the presentation, it's the integrated business model. This model has been tested through these three years, since 2020, from every possible angle, even the unthinkable ones, like a global pandemic and a lockdown, and it proved to be very useful to increase our resiliency. We saw the acceleration of the energy transition. We positioned as early as possible, convinced that being integrated was really the best option to successfully thrive in this transition. This model is not only integrated across the value chain, but also diversified geographically. That also proved to be very valuable beyond expectation. I think that was basically the most important observation, and pivoting in that direction was crucial for this last three years.
Second question, I stay with you, Francesco. Additional RES capacity with 5.2 GW mark a new record, but is behind planned targets. The first question is, can you tell us what has created this lag, and when do you expect to recover it?
I think there was clearly a lag that started to surface during 2022. Sorry, during 2021 and continued during 2022. It has to do with basically supply chain stressful situation during 2021 that then morphed into a very specific problem of importing PV panels into the US market. This, the lack of additional capacity was basically due to this one effect. The US import slowdown of panels imported from China was the real reason behind this 5.2 not being six, basically.
Associated with the new installed capacity, what is the expected run rate, in terms of yearly development, that we can expect?
I think that we have to be cautious that this single issue is not fully resolved during 2023. It is being worked out, but there is still a backlog to be sorted out. We expect to deliver 5.5, something north of 5.5 during the 2023 year. I think that's really safe enough to commit to that during 2023. We will beat again the 2022 number, but we still have a conservative view of what can happen in the U.S. on PV imports from China during 2023.
Okay. Stay still with you, Francesco. Renewable capacity in Italy, can you quantify the level of pipeline you currently have, and by how much you could step up, your yearly deployment in the country?
The overall pipeline of renewable projects in Italy today accounts to around 40,000 MW, of which probably, you can say 17.5 GW are late stage. That means they're very close to being investment opportunities. They are in different degrees of permitting, and that is a little bit the bottleneck in Italy, as you all know. We foresee to deploy 1.8 GW in Italy in the next three years, accelerating gradually. We are absolutely ready to do more should this acceleration be faster. You can see that we have about 10 x the late-stage pipeline vis-à-vis what we think we will put on the ground based on a negative view of the acceleration of this permitting.
If that would change, there are signs of improvement, I should say, then definitely will you see us doing much more than 1.8.
Coal production has spiked in 2022 for obvious reasons. Do you see this as a threat to your coal phase out trajectory? Francesco, do you want to take it?
Not really. I think this was a very special contingency because of what happened in 2022. In fact, we have been requested and actually instructed to work with coal to reduce the dependence on gas during the 2022 year and through March this year. We see this now easing out. We don't think that the 2023 outlook is that to such to require, let's say, a forcing of coal production from a government standpoint. No, we don't think this will change our decarbonization strategy vis-a-vis coal, so we still maintain the 2025 date.
Okay. Alberto, the market is definitely picking up the new clusters on the integrated business. An analyst is asking clarification about activities that we account into the regulated power and the gas business.
Okay, it's useful to reiterate this new cluster and item. In the regulated power segment, as I said, we include all generation assets that are subject to a regulatory remuneration scheme. For example, I don't know, the must-run power plants or the non-peninsular generation in Iberia, and all the retail customers business under regulated tariff. We have this kind of business in Italy. It's called the SEN. We have in Spain, SCVPs, and also in all the LatAm for the not liberalized market. In the gas business item, we classify the margin from the management of the gas wholesale portfolio and the gas retail.
Alberto, stay with you on grids performance. Grid performance was driven by South American stewardship gains. What is holding back Italy and Iberia?
In Italy, main changes were associated with the WACC review. We have the WACC review down from 5.9% to 5.2%. On the other side, also a reduction in the OpEx remuneration mechanism through the X-factor. That is a factor that drew down a part of the efficiency you gain in the previous years. One point on the Italian WACC is that based on the WACC formula and mechanism of adjustment, now we see room for a trigger event that would bring back WACC above 6% in 2024. In Iberia, impacts were mainly generated by the famous ministerial orders, for the 2017-2019 period, issued last August, and this has already detailed in his presentation.
Alberto, still with you and still on grids. Can you break down by region the RAB of 2023?
Yes. We have, all in all, roughly EUR 38 billion of RAB associated with the six countries, in which, we will focus our effort in the next years. 31 in Europe and, roughly seven in South America. The remaining EUR 6 billion are related to grids or countries that are included in our disposal program.
I think you mentioned in the presentation, but just to make sure I repeat the question, what would have been a normalized level of FFO for the year, Alberto?
Yes. We have labeled exogenous impact on our FFO in 2022 because of the energy crisis of around EUR 4 billion related to the government actions on one side, and exogenous increase in the total turnover, triggered by the variable fixed offers that have suffered suddenly the price increase. Because we have the EUR 9.1 billion of FFO together with this exogenous factor, we would have done EUR 13.5 billion FFO marking a double-digit increase versus the previous year.
Still on net debt. Can you provide more color on the EUR 1.5 billion impact from FX?
Well, this 1.5 billion EUR is associated with the accounting effects of currency devaluation against EUR. In this 1.5, it includes also new leases for EUR 0.5 billion. Worth highlight that, as I said in the presentation, our debt strikes amounts to EUR 59.6 billion. It is EUR 500 million lower than the reported level. Within this EUR 59.6 billion, it includes EUR 2.7 billion of accounting effects related to operating leases.
Net debt on EBITDA landed at the end of the year at 3.1x. How confident are you to reach your guidance of 2.4x-2.5x in 2023?
Well, we land as expected, and at the low end of the guidance we gave at the Capital Markets Day. Based on the visibility we have today, we are more than confident the net debt will reach a target landing point in 2023.
Networking capital set of question. I think again, here you mentioned, but maybe it worth to repeat again. Which items within the government and regulatory measures have been recovered in the last quarter?
We recovered EUR 2.6 billion in the last quarter, and this is mainly related to the reabsorption of the tariff equalization in Italy. Also with the partial recovery of the impact related to the cap on gas prices in Spain. The equalization effect worth roughly EUR 1.3 billion, and the rest is on Spain cap gas.
Second question on working capital. What I think you mentioned again this factor in the presentation, but what has driven down the energy market context item?
This is mainly related to the fact that in the last quarter we saw the steep decrease in power prices, and this draw down the effect of the energy market context.
In a slide of the presentation, we sum up the impact of margin costs, government measures and energy context. Can you remind analysts how do you see them evolving over time?
Well, yes. What we see is the, that this exposure is gonna shrink significantly. Taking the current level of commodity prices, we expect another 30% of reduction within the first quarter of this year. We can therefore assume a reabsorption of 50% by year-end 2023, and the remaining part in 2024. Just to stress that prudentially in our net debt estimates for 2023, we are not anticipating any meaningful reabsorption associated with government measures. Therefore, if it happens, it will represent upside to numbers.
CEO, a few question, about the disposal plan.
Yeah.
The first one is, can you share with us, which deals you expect to happen by the first semester?
Which deals? If you see, there is a chart I think we showed before, I think it's chart 10 or 11, maybe it's 11. Let's see. If you look at chart number 11, you see that we have basically announced Argentina and Romania. We will probably have, within the next trimester, so within June, July, the end of the semester, some stewardship deals, and most likely the Peru negotiations, to the point that we will have to be able to make exclusivities and announcements in that sense. The other deals will come the following. I think Peru is the biggest deal we have outstanding. We're confident that we can wrap it up before the end of the semester.
Francesco, stay with you, for also the second question on disposal. Is there any change in the list of assets that we put on the block?
No. We don't see any change at this point. I mean, these are assets that have been put on the process way before. No, we don't see any change.
Alberto, disposals and value associated with disposals, can the EUR 12 billion we plug into our net debt level for 2023 be higher? Are you discussing any deal at any level that shows materially different values from CMD expectations?
Well, we can clearly not disclose the details on ongoing negotiations. Let me say that some differences may arise, but the overall portfolio is so taking and bringing the value, the overall value that we gave during the Capital Markets Day.
The other one is a kind of a consequence of the one that I just asked. An analyst is asking if 8x EBITDA is still valid or you feel there is potentially upside?
From the visibility we have today, we see the multiple as appropriate.
Francesco. G roup repositioning. You feel that anything could have been done differently or maybe sooner?
Honestly, I think that there are basically two large fronts. One is Europe, one is Latin America. We can maybe observe that the COVID years slowed down the European exit a little more. I think we could have probably wrapped up Romania earlier than now, but during the COVID, this was impossible. I think not in Latin America, where we followed quite strictly a sequence of steps that finally brought us where we are today. Remember, we had to go through a sequence. I think there is a chart showing the sequence coming before. I think Latin America did okay in the timing, but Europe we could have maybe exited a year earlier, something like that, if not for the COVID.
Okay. We have now a quite large section around 2023 expectations and plan delivery. Francesco, maybe you want to pick this up. How is 2023 shaping up versus the plan expectation based on what you have observed so far?
I would say so far things are. I should not say this because it's always dangerous, but so far things are unfolding according to our estimations, if not slightly better for what for what is the outlook on commodities and the way in which the markets are behaving. A little worse, but not that much on hydro. We were negative already, so it's unfortunately looking like that. I would say we don't see reasons to deviate from what we observed at the beginning of the year at this point. Not yet.
Do you see your. Sorry.
Yeah. I think you can say what we projected three months ago still is there, which means, you know, after a trimester, you can say it's already quite more solid than it was three years ago, three months ago.
Do you see your 2023 guidance confirmed?
Yeah, of course. Yes.
Okay. Francesco, a question, about policies. What's your view on the U.S. IRA, and what opportunities could it bring for Enel?
It's a great. First of all, we were not expecting the IRA to be finally approved as it is, as it has been. It's been better than expected, that's positive. We think it has intrinsically an incredible acceleration potential for all the major strategic direction that we intended to pursue in the U.S., both in the range of decarbonization, more clarity on all the fiscal treatment of power plants going forward, much more than before because it's a 10 years timeframe that we finally have in front of us, not just three years. Also much more emphasis on electrification and a push into electricity that the U.S. is finally shifting into.
Great also for all the Enel X and the electric mobility and all the customer added value services that we were launching that are picking up speed quite strongly in the U.S. It has also a potential of adding value in terms of potential production of solar panel and the supply chain of solar. As you know, we are committed in Italy to build a factory. We are building one, a 3,000 MW a year factory in Europe.
We can say that the U.S., IRA clearly opens up the window for a similar identical factory to be deployed also there to ease out the problems we have, as you all know, we have mentioned them before, that we think we will continuously face in that part of the world because of tensions on the panels being manufactured outside of the U.S., namely in China, becoming difficult to import increasingly so. All in all, extremely positive views and encouraging for the our development in the USA, definitely.
Francesco, I stay with you with another question on the regulation and policies. What's your view on new power market design? What's the ideal market design that you think should be implemented?
As you know, there is a proposal that just came out after quite a debate at different levels. This is quite a good proposal because it finally complements the short-term market design we used to have in Europe with a longer-term market tool that is being formed that combines CfDs and PPAs, that gives the European buyers, so the demand, the visibility on longer-term time horizons, which we always thought was the missing point in the energy policy of Europe. I think so that is a very, very positive evolution.
It does not fully re-recognize our, you know, ideas that this should also be coupled with some mandatory long-term buying quotas on retailers, because that will imply that they would be intrinsically better edged, and also they will have an interest to sell long-term to customers. That would trigger a faster development of this long-term market, which I think is eventually going to happen. I also like the fact that it is giving the member states some discipline in what kind of creativity they want to put in place in ruling on inframarginal technology retrospectively and an extension of price caps that I think at this point in time, if the volatility remains contained, make no more sense and therefore should be no more allowed under the European system. I think that's quite strongly mentioned.
It's a very good step, and clearly it's still not the end of the story, but it moves in the right direction for us.
Alberto, jump a second with you. An analyst is asking a clarification around the guided range net debt on EBITDA in 2023, if you can just confirm the range?
Yes. As I said, based on visibility we have today, we do confirm the 2.4x-2.5x net debt EBITDA in 2023.
Okay. Alberto, still, 2023 onwards, I would say, power prices have changed quite substantially since your CMD. How these affect your 2023 targets?
Well, in a impact may be relatively small because we have already hedged around 95% of both in Italy and Iberia for 2023. Clearly, this year coming from another with high volatility, there are still areas of uncertainties, and that is mainly the clawback in Italy and also the churn rate. That is something that we are carefully assessing around the year, and we are working to reach better than planned results, combining the effect coming from prices, clawback management and churn rate.
Okay, another set of a set of question on retail, a bit of positioning and strategy. Francesco, maybe I'll address them to you. Based on the experience in 2022 on retail activities, are you considering any change in your commercial strategy, or is still worth to go fixed price or index contract can secure better your marginality?
Well, there is not a really fundamental change in commercial strategy. We have been adapting and evolving the commercial proposition while we have widened the range of the offerings. The point is here that, you know, what we have in our hands is now a very flexible tool. How do we want to value our fixed price generation, fixed cost generation, be the sum of the renewable portfolio and also the hedged portion of thermal generation. I think it's still good to have that play on a fixed price level, hedging customers from further volatilities. We will have a, obviously, always a variable price formula for those customers that would like to go into this kind of logic.
Definitely we think, it's still best to play the integrated margin, although with less volatility risk, but it's much more safe and also, I would say, much more respectful of the deal that we have with all our customers.
Another one on retail. Is there any change in your hedging strategy to prevent the impact recorded on the open position in 2022?
I think, you know, if there is some change that we want to describe is that we will make this hedging loops more frequent and continuous rather than before they were kind of discrete every month. That was because the regulation, in particular in Italy, had a monthly timeframe attached to customer switch, so that we were adapting the demand of customers and therefore the hedging on a monthly basis. I think we will bypass this. Although the regulation might remain on a monthly basis, we will do much more frequently hedging loops so that we will be much more precise in adapting to eventual changes. That is probably the last, I mean, the improvement that we have learned to during this 2022 crisis.
Another one on retail coverage of sourcing costs. Alberto, maybe I'll move to you. How does hydro availability compare with your planned expectations? How are you hedging against poor hydro levels?
Well, we foresee for the first quarter a lower level of hydroelectricy production versus what we have budgeted before. This year is not impacting a lot our numbers because we are well prepared to manage this specific situation. Taking account that economically speaking, it would impact lower than the previous year. One, because we have done different hedging strategies, also taking into account the possibility to have a lower hydro on one side. Remember that until June, we work under the clawback scheme that will change. Will make a sort of natural hedge on the lower hydro production.
Alberto, stay with you. Can you provide some details on the expected sales so for 2023?
Well, at global level, if we exclude the asset under disposal, so for the six core countries, we expect a safe volumes of around 200 TWh, which nearly half sold at fixed price. For Italy and Iberia, the overall amount is around 165 TWh on the 200 I said.
Alberto, how much of the fixed price volumes will be covered by own production in our expectation, and how much by renewables?
Well, in Italy, we have. We plan to cover 100% of our fixed price sales by our own production. Also more than this, because as I said on the hedging strategy, we are putting in place to front any kind of hydro reduction, we have for 2023 an extra cover of a fixed sale. We go in excess of 100%. Renewables energy standalone will cover 50% at the budgeted level. In Iberia, we have roughly 70% of fixed price sales covered by our own production, with energies, renewable energies covering 20%, and the remaining 50% covered by nuclear production. Sourcing, as I said before, sourcing already hedged in Italy and Spain is around 93%.
Alberto, another one on retail, how does churn rate compare with your plan expectations?
Well, churn rate is in line with our expectations, all in all. We expect in Italy, it churn to go back in line with historical average. In the first quarter, we are seeing a little increase versus the previous year. We are working in a 7%-8% range. For Iberia, we have no relevant variation for 2023.
Francesco, question for you. Do you have any expectation of additional government intervention for 2023? Do you believe the current measures will be extended, or are there new ones in the making?
You know that there are some measures that have not yet finished to have their effects. You know, some measures in Italy and Spain continue through June. Given the situation that is quite normalizing, given the strong message that the commission gave to several governments that if there are not special circumstances, then special measures should not be any more warranted. Honestly, we think the likelihood of extensions of these measures might fade out if this situation remains as stable as it is today. Again, this is an if, because we have to see what happens in the next few months on the gas side. I'm not aware of additional measures being planned at this point, no.
Alberto, Stewardship, business model, just a question coming from an analyst that wants us to remind the market how much of Stewardship is expected for the plan and for 2023.
Well, to recall numbers on the Stewardship business model, we said at the Capital Markets Day that in the three years period, Stewardship will contribute for 1.5 billion EUR, out of which 900 million EUR of capital gain and 600 million EUR of service and fees sold to the joint ventures that we will establish. For this one 900 million EUR of capital gains, of the three years, we see around 600 million EUR in 2023. The business will going to zero on the capital gains at the time in which we will establish all the joint ventures that we think we need to work, and the result will be only related to the fees and service sold to joint ventures.
Alberto, minorities in 2022 were up on EBITDA mix. What's the level you can consider for 2023 following the completion of the repositioning?
Yes. In 2022, minorities stood at EUR 1.6 billion, as triggered by the EBITDA mix, as explained in the presentation. This is 23% on the total net income, compared with an historical level of 19%. If we see the future, also in light of the simplification plan and the normalization of the business, we can expect that this level will be around 15%.
Francesco, a question on the dividend policy. Is the dividend for 2023 confirmed at EUR 0.43 per share?
Yeah. That is the number we provided during the Capital Markets Day. We confirm it. Remember, this time is our dividend that could improve if the conditions allow that. There is a slight different flavor when compared to last year's commitment. That's confirmed.
Okay. A number of question around the, future of the board. Analysts are asking if you can remind them, what's the path, to board renewal?
Board renewal.
Board renewal. If you can share any latest thoughts, around the composition or what you expect?
The board renewal is something that happens every three years, so because the board is appointed for three years. The board is composed of nine members. They are all up to renewal. I think there are three board members appointed by Sogei, which typically, it's not absolutely certain, maintains the board members for a maximum period of three terms. For this term, only one of them reaches this level, so one of them will be changed, but the other two most likely will remain. The rest of the board members are all up to renewal, and that is a part of a list that is compiled by the treasury and then voted at the general assembly, where remember the treasury has a 23.06% of voting rights.
It will most likely be some board renewal, yes. This is something that has more or less happened in the past years, in the past three terms that I witnessed. That is a process that will be happening within the next three weeks, I guess. You know, this is 25 days before the general assembly date, that list will be published. I have no indication of who is going to be in the board. There are headhunters at work. There is a process in the treasury that is being carried out, the headhunters have been now selecting board members or confirming the existing ones, the work will, like I said, conclude in the next two, three weeks. We're almost at the end.
Alberto, an analyst is asking an update regarding the likely refinancing costs, given the level of the 10-year bond in Italy and the recent issuance. I guess it compares to the CMD guidance that we gave for 2023.
In this year, in 2023, we really don't have major refinancing needs. This because we have done them along our liability management last year because we refinanced in advance EUR 8 billion at 0.6% interest rate. Because all the needs we may have this year will be financed through the use of proceeds of the M&A disposal that we will progressively do in the year. On the other side, we have a very high level of fixed or swapped into fixed debt. That's why all the combination around these items will give us stability, even a reduction in our cost of debt.
Alberto, stay with you, with the SLBs. PPC just announced that with increased cogeneration this year it missed its KPI for its SLB, and consequently, the coupon has stepped up. What, where does Enel stand on the KPIs, and if there is an expectation that coupon might step up?
Well, it's too early to predict. As we know, as you know, we are working under an energy crisis, that we think is far to normalize in 2023. While we have to see what is gonna happen in the summer, to refill the stocks, and the impact on prices and everything, and if different way to produce to save gas will be needed or not along the year.
We are working, clearly to stay in the targets. We will look at the end what will be the final outcome. We will see in 2024 if target will be met or not. If we have to step up our cost of financing or not.
I think that was covering all the question we received, mostly. If anything was slipping out, just bear with us, we will answer via email or we will call you. Thank you so much. Thanks for attending the call, and I guess we'll see you at the first quarter. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
That conclude the conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect.