Good afternoon. This is the Chorus Call operator. Welcome to the presentation of the annual results of Hera Group to December 31, 2022. All participants are in listen only mode, and before the initial presentation, there will be a Q&A session. For assistance from an operator during the conference call, press star followed by zero. Now I'd like to give the floor to Mr. Tomaso Tommasi di Vignano, Hera Group's Executive Chairman.
Thank you and good afternoon, everybody. We have gone back to our physical meetings with our board members after the pandemic. We had to deal with a year which was complicated, and that's an understatement. Despite that, as you'll be hearing, we were able to stand our ground in a significant way, despite the external scenario which was becoming increasingly complex over the months.
The pandemic was dwindling, but a number of other events, including war, happened. We had to deal with it all, basically. As you can imagine, given the events we had to face, we will be depicting our achievements not so much in an enthusiastic way because, of course, we always have to keep our feet firmly planted on the ground. We're proud to say that we were able to deal with the situation. As we communicated to our stakeholders, we were also able to be consistent with achieving all of our targets, both the ones included in the previous business plan and in the new business plan that we have activated only a few months ago. That's something that we did not want to compromise on. We had a clear idea as to the road ahead.
I'm sure you'll be seeing the outcome of our work in all of our descriptions today. Joining me today is our CEO, Mr. Iacono, and with Mr. Vai, who was recently appointed CFO. Joining us is also Mr. Jens Hansen, who has been with us for a very long time. In a nutshell, in the graph we're sharing with you'll see that our turnover was up 90% compared to 2021. We stand at over EUR 20 billion. Of course, this was also supported by the increase in the energy prices, which was one of the external variables that we had to deal with for quite some time. Luckily, even this morning's news comforted us from this point of view.
EBITDA stands at EUR 1.295 billion with a 6% growth. Furthermore, this +6% has to be compared with a similar figure in 2021, in which we stood at EUR 1.219 billion. Moving on to EBIT, we now stand at EUR 628 million with a 3% growth following a correction to the 2021 figures, which included an item equal to EUR 13 million or EUR 14 million, which resulted in from 2021, which were in non-recurring revenues which couldn't be reused. Therefore, we have EUR 628 million in 2022 with a 3% growth this year.
Even our net profit, post minorities, stands at EUR 322 million with a +1% if we compare that to the previous year in a homogeneous way, despite there being an increase in financial burdens which were influenced by the market dynamics and by the financial effects related to the increase in turnover. We have grown all the way down to the bottom line, as Mr. Hansen would say. That wasn't our target because, of course, we wanted all of this to happen, but with results in terms of profits, which we would have wanted to be more similar to our track record.
Although, of course, we can't complain given the general scenario and given the things which happened over the past year. Therefore, even as far as the net profit is concerned, we posted a growth plus EUR 4.5 million, which I think is nothing we should be ashamed of. Plus, given the very difficult external situation over the past year, we simply doubted that we would be able to have achieve these positive numbers. I think that really sums up what we went through over the past year. On this page, we decided to summarize all of the economic and social shocks and impacts which tested Europe and the entire world. These are all topics that you are more than familiar with. Therefore, I won't be going into any details.
As I've already said, and this is something I feel very strongly about, we never doubted the effectiveness of our model. None of the policies we illustrated to you... Given the fact that the company is so risk-averse, we were able to continue on our path, that we were able to generate resilient results. Despite the fact that the figures are lower compared to what we could have forecasted two years ago, more than one year ago, which are once again marked by growth. This is a guarantee that I think is worthy of being mentioned. It's something that we've underlined when we illustrated our business plan, which I will reiterate today. It has always been a part of our corporate policy, of our corporate culture.
Therefore, let me assure you that thanks to our approach, thanks to our policies, we were able to illustrate the results we posted today. If we look at our investments, our CapEx, given how consistent we are with the things we mentioned to the market, our CapEx was up by 21%, which year-on-year means EUR +689 million, which is our record for the 21-year history of our company. Therefore, we made every effort we could to support our company. Of course, we also had to deal with some items that could have significantly influenced our decisions as far as CapEx are concerned, because of course, we did have some difficulties in procurement.
We had to deal with the issue of inflation, which we dealt with and solved with all of our suppliers. Of course, we also had to focus on all of our development projects, including the revamping of two large waste energy plants, one based in Trieste, one in Ravenna, both of which had to be revamped given the fact that they had been operating for a few years now. We also continued to invest as per our plan with EUR 131 million, or over EUR 131 million, on M&A.
As you can see on page three in the presentation, besides investing externally, through M&A, as I mentioned, we were also able to kickstart a program of ours which envisaged roughly EUR 100 million, which were allocated to M&A, as you may remember from the business plan. Within that sum, only a small amount of that was accounted for for 2022, because in fact, most of that amount, which the market is aware of, refers to a transaction which was concluded after year-end 2022. In fact, we had two significant transactions. One refers to the waste sector, thanks to the deal we signed with the Reggiani brothers, so that we could become the majority stakeholders in their company.
The ACR company, which covers, the land remediation sector. A few days ago, and that of course, means that it was also after year-end 2022, we finalized a second transaction in the telecommunications sector. This is a minority stake we have in a company, with the idea to integrate our company with Ascopiave and our respective TLC companies. These two factors plus two other smaller transactions in the energy sector prove that, even this year, we will be continuing on, enhancing our company through M&A, which has been a constant trait for us. This happened even in 2022. The only thing we have to keep in mind is that, these transactions I mentioned weren't concluded, they weren't finalized, before a year into 2022.
They were finalized in Q1 2023. We're quite satisfied with M&A because that is an important part of our business plan. Therefore, being able to show that we were able to complete a number of M&A transactions, which are already included in our business plan is comforting to us. Moving on to the more complex topic we had to deal with to guarantee our gas supply to our customers. In order to do that, we had to spend EUR 878 million in 2022 as a way of buying gas for our storage units. This wasn't easy, of course.
This wasn't due to anything the company was responsible for, but of course, we couldn't abandon our customers. The Italian government back then had strongly suggested that we would invest in our gas storage. Therefore, we had to use this slightly different approach to gas procurement. Therefore, EUR 878 million is the figure you can see on page three. Covering the period to March 31, 2022, and that refers to gas storage. In fact, as we speak, the burden of referring to the money to be invested in gas storage has been on the decline. First of all, because due to the weather, we had a lower need for gas.
Therefore, we didn't have to deal with more than normal consumption levels. Along with that, given the fact that we had obtained some good conditions for our gas storage, we were also able to defend our market position and our customers, both in the final part of 2021, especially as far as 2022 is concerned. That all of the debts we had acquired, given the difference we had in our gas procurement strategy, due to all of this, we had to reach a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio, a leverage, which was well above of the standards we had always given ourselves.
For some other companies, this may have been a very good standard, but to us, this was the very first time we went above the 3 x threshold we'd given ourselves. It was a bit of a shock for us, but over time, once the effects of our gas storage started to unfold, and as we started to take advantage of the stored gas, we were able to decrease the net debt-to-EBITDA ratio, which stood at 3.62x at Q3 2022, and which went down to 3.28x at year-end 2022.
Which again, goes to show that despite the horrible year behind us, and as we described, when presenting our business plan, we'll be able to reduce progressively back down to a more normalized situation, down to below 3 x net debt to EBITDA. Now, what else can we add regarding the EBITDA drivers? We had a EUR +76 million growth with a 6.2% increase, which is also something that allows us to offset the WACC review, which had been decided by ARERA at year-end 2021 with effects in 2022, with a sizable impact equal to some EUR 22 million for the period we're discussing. Now, the very first contribution you can see on page four allowed us to achieve a further EUR 44 million stemming from our circular economy activities.
More specifically, that refers to EUR 19 million in further EBITDA in energy efficiency and Facade Bonuses for condominiums. We had EUR 8 million referring to an increase in our commercial offerings. Which was something that we decided to offer with value-added services in the energy sector, which adds to the energy efficiency services we already offered. This refers to the hardest months of the crisis last year. We have a plus further EUR 17 million from our Aliplast company. Again, a EUR 17 million growth due to a further increase in the price of recycled plastic. That, of course, refers to the waste sector that our Aliplast company operates in.
We were also able to drive growth with two other elements which are worthy of being mentioned. EUR 45 million, which came about with a further 68,000 customers in energy, and with a further 220,000 tons in industrial waste, equal to +9.4% compared to the previous year, which were also able to benefit from the increase in prices, which luckily did not decrease in the waste sector. To that, of course, we also have to keep in mind an increase in cost efficiency and the contribution to growth stemming from the investments I mentioned earlier.
Keep in mind that most of this investment was made after March 31st, and therefore, they aren't included in our accounts, if not figuratively. As far as our organic growth is concerned, we only had EUR 8 million from mergers and acquisitions. These EUR 8 million refer to a significant transaction in the waste sector and two smaller acquisitions we made for customers in the energy sector. The latter two happened in Q1, whereas the other ones, the transaction and then site remediation, and the TLC transactions took place after March 31st. December 31st, excuse me. Moving on to the waste sector. Now, over the past two to three years, the waste sector has been extremely positive for our company.
We've had an increase in EBITDA, plus 25%, with a EUR 55 million growth, as you can see on page five. This result was achieved despite the fact that we were revamping the Ravenna and Trieste waste energy plants. In one of these plants, the revamping activities have been concluded, whereas the other one is about to be completed. This is a potential which wasn't expressed in the period we're considering, but which will be taken advantage of in the upcoming months. The Aliplast company, with the figures I mentioned earlier, was very important for the growth we achieved. Given the results it posted over the past year, the Aliplast company potential is quite significant, and we can see that on page five.
Already in 2021, we stood at EUR 36.5 million EBITDA compared to the EBITDA the company had when we bought it. Whereas in 2022, the Aliplast company EBITDA stood at 3 x what we paid for it initially. I think these figures speak for themselves, which go to show how excellent the Aliplast acquisition was. Of course, even as far as tariffs are concerned, we had a very good progression as far as prices are concerned, at least for the past three-year period. I'll leave it at that for the time being. I wouldn't want to bore you. Therefore, at this point, let me give the floor to our CEO, Mr. Iacono, who will be going on to the other businesses.
Iacono has been with us for a few months now, therefore he is more than ready to deal with all of your comments and questions, of course. Speaking of questions, I'll be joining you again for the Q&A sector. Let me just reiterate the fact that the difficulties we faced last year had nothing to do with any specific company-related issues. The difficulties were due to external factors. We were able to reassure our customer base, also shown by our unpaid ratio and by our churn rate. I'm sure that Mr. Iacono will be able to underscore the quality of our customer portfolio. Over to you, Mr. Iacono.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon. Let me begin with the analysis of the energy sector. As the chairman was mentioning, over the past 12 months, we had to face an extremely volatile scenario. That's what we did, in fact. On page six, you'll see the figures pertaining to the energy sector with an EBITDA equal to EUR 449 million, which is up EUR 31 million compared to 2021, equal to +7% compared to 2021. Of course, that has to take into account the normalization of the dispatching services supplied to Terna, which, as we had seen in previous quarter reports, and the results pertaining to our supply activities, posted a significant growth, which was something we had already mentioned on February 8th when we presented the business plan.
Even then, we showed that we were seeing a growth, even in the energy sector, despite the very volatile scenario. As far as energy efficiency is concerned, we have a growth equal to EUR 18 million. As far as supply and trading is concerned, even here we have a EUR 20 million growth compared to 2021, which is supported by two things specifically. First of all, our good performance on unit margins. Secondly, the expansion, our commercial expansion with a further 70,000 new customers. Therefore, the further volumes sold, thanks to these new customers allowed us to offset the effects of the mild winter, which led to a lower consumption. The modulation costs were, the shaping costs were managed very well by our trading activity.
Thanks to the temporary investment we made, as the chairman was saying, referring to our gas storages, which allowed us to manage price fluctuation in a more flexible way. Please take into account that we've already sold all of that gas. Value-added services also supported us with a further EUR 8 million growth, which was supported by a strong demand from the customer side. With the energy crisis, customers have become increasingly aware in terms of reducing their bills. We are supporting our customers through the energy transition with all of these value-added services, which includes boilers, photovoltaic panels, and so on.
Plus, we also have to take into account the accounting delta for our storage, which was reduced by EUR 94 million compared to EUR 152 million in Q3. Given the delivery we made for the thermal season, for the current thermal season, at December 31st, we stood at 40% of the stored gas. We continued in our gas supply in January and February, which means that this EUR 94 million continues to decrease. We are already working to prepare for the upcoming thermal season, and we certainly hope that this year will be better compared to what we thought it would be six months ago. Moving on to networks, and page seven.
With an EBITDA which is in line with our 2021 figures, we stand at EUR 470 million. This is an especially positive results also because we had to offset the WACC cut, as the chairman was saying, which had an impact equal to EUR 22 million. At the network sector, we were able to overcome the difficulties on the supply chain. We also had to deal with higher inflation, and we achieved a record year, as far as investments are concerned, with over EUR 360 million invested on networks alone, + 13% compared to the previous year.
We all know that investments are an important lever when it comes to supporting the organic growth of the networks, which also allows us to support the efficiency and effectiveness of our activities, so we can actually tap into the quality premiums which allowed us to offset the WACC haircut. RAB stands at EUR 3.4 billion, up by 4% and EUR 133 million. As the Chairman was saying earlier, in 2022, we had an increase in interest rates which did not allow us to activate the trigger foreseen for distribution networks.
Although, these interest rates will continue to increase, and therefore the trigger should be activated by end of September 2023, which will allow us to increase WACC by over 50 basis points. We actually hope for something more than that in 2024. Please keep in mind that we haven't embedded this in our business plan, which is very good. Moving on to the following page eight, which, as we mentioned earlier, focuses on our business portfolio. A portfolio which sees an increased balance between our various business areas. We have our networks, which are regulated. We have waste treatment, which, as the chairman was saying, is increasing its leadership. We have the energy sector, in which we are always amongst the very best.
We are now above the 3.5 million customers. We rank number three right after Enel and Eni, the two national players, which goes to show how loyal our customer base is compared to the national average. This, of course, is due to the company's very strong presence on the territory. Now, this rebalancing of the portfolio was led by the major growth we posted in the waste sector last year, which was supported by both European and Italian legislation. As the chairman was saying, also because of the growth in our circular economy services, which gives us major visibility. Regarding the growth targets we have in the business plan as far as the waste business is concerned.
In the energy sector, we had to deal with a very complex scenario in which we had to deal with a number of problems and difficulties. Despite that, we were able to grow by EUR 31 million, which brings us closer to the growth target we have for the business plan. We have the networks, which we're able to overcome the WACC cut very well. We were able to confirm the figures we had for 2021. Of course, we are looking to the future with a very positive attitude, given the fact that we have a very strong upside potential vis-à-vis the business plan, which is the WACC review, which we had it factored into the business plan. Allow me to add a few comments regarding page nine.
Our board approved the figures pertaining to sustainability, which confirm the quality of the results we recently commented. The shared value EBITDA was achieved thanks to all of our activities, which generate EBITDA, but which also answer to the targets set by the UN 2030 Agenda with a major growth, which leads us to EUR 670 million compared to the figures last year, which equaled EUR 571 million, which go to show that we are becoming increasingly sustainable. As you can see on the graph, we have this +17% delta compared to the CSV EBITDA last year.
We are continuing to develop our sustainability targets, our results show all of the results we have achieved, which are in line with our business plan targets. We've even been able to overperform our targets of 2026, such as water savings, for instance, which is an extremely relevant topic. We saw the difficulties we faced last summer, we expect more of the same for next summer, as far as the availability of water is concerned. Of course, as far as European taxonomy is concerned, both for EBITDA and for investments, we are eligible for 90% of what we do, which is a very important result.
As we were mentioning earlier, it was a record year for us, in terms of investments to be carbon neutral, to support, the circular economy, to be resilient, and to innovate. Some of our initiatives are focused on reaching these targets. As far as renewables are concerned, in 2022, we increased our biomethane production capacity by 50% with the creation of a second plant.
The news is that as of this year, our Hera Group gas networks are in line with European taxonomy, and we are able to integrate hydrogen and other low carbon emission gases into our gas networks, which is compliant with the ministerial decree of 3 June 2022, which refers to including a hydrogen blend, and its compliance with taxonomy was also confirmed in experimental way with the test we made in our Castelfranco Emilia gas network last November. This was certified by RINA, which is an institutional certification body. We're proud to say that this was the very first test in Italy in terms of this new approach to gas distribution, which was promoted by the Hera Group.
We coordinated the activities conducted by all of the major companies and the research institutes in the gas sector so that we could certify this result. This is something that we were able to become leaders in, which is in line, of course, in the tradition. We are leading the way in terms of the use of green gases, and therefore, our networks, which are worth over EUR 1 billion in RAB, is becoming ready to start inserting the green gases of the future in our existing networks. Let me give over to Massimo Vai at this point. Thank you.
Good afternoon, everybody. Let me just share a couple of charts with you as a way of summarizing the things we saw below the EBIT line, and to give you a recap of cash flow and net financial profit. Beginning on the left-hand side, you can see the evolution of the cost of debt. Compared to 2021, the cost of debt has further reduced, which will benefit the bond buyback, which is what we did last year, which allowed us to reap benefits on the average cost beginning in 2022.
Through the emission of a green bond this year, before the interest rates started to increase, with a value equal to 2.6%, which is in line with the average cost, and with the optimal management of the short-term cash needs with a very low bank interest rate. This was a very positive effect, which can offset the effects brought about by the cash needs needed to deal with our gas storage issues. Moving on to tax rate. Even here, we haven't seen any significant change compared to figures in 2020, 2021, although we can see a certain optimization trend. Differently from other players, we didn't have any impact stemming from windfall taxes.
We're going to further optimize things as far as taxes are concerned, to the benefit of our bottom line. We have the two graphs on the right-hand side, which also have to be interpreted, taking into account a different context compared to last year. We have to deal with inflation, which in terms of OpEx, have already been inserted in the figures for 2022, and which, despite all that, have allowed us to reach an earnings per share, which continues to stand at 22.1, and return on equity, which stands at 10% in double-digit figures, which are proof of the fact that we were able to achieve positive results all the way down to our net profit. Moving on to page 11 and cash flow.
Now, you are accustomed to interpreting this chart because you see it every year. The main difference here is what you can see in the outlined area that we've already discussed at length. Let's begin with the left-hand side, with the operating cash flow, which stands at EUR 975 million for 2022, with EUR 100 million growth compared to the same figure in 2021, which allowed us to support our growth in investments, which is what the Chairman and the CEO already underlined. Our CapEx was equal to EUR 689 million, which is further EUR 100 million compared to what we had for the previous year.
We then had part of our cash, which was focused on M&A, EUR 131 million, which is slightly above what we had for 2021. Then we have the major difference, which refers to net working capital and gas stock. Last year, that was equal to +EUR 170 million, whereas now we have a negative compared to EUR 882 million. That accounts for the difference in net financial profits, which, as you can see on the graph. If we move to the right-hand side graph, you'll see that our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio at year-end 2022 stood at 3.62 x.
Excuse me, 3.28 x, which is well below the peak we achieved at the end of Q3 last year, which was, 3.62 x. We had said back then that that was the absolute peak that we would have started descending from. This links to two effects that we are already seeing. The first is the use of the gas we had in our storage units, which is something that we saw every year, although this year the economic impact of that activity was much higher than ever. The second item was linked to the price in energy commodities which reduced over the months, and in recent days, we've seen some very good prices compared to what we were seeing a few months ago.
Therefore, even here, if we subtract this extraordinary amount from our traditional ratio, you'll see that adjusted, we never went above 3 x. Therefore, besides this extraordinary use of our cash, Hera stands very well financially. Very well, having said that, I'll give the floor back to our chairman for some final comments. Comments which aren't difficult to make. Everything is very transparent and very straightforward. We also have to remember that at our next shareholders meeting, we will be suggesting a dividend per share equal to EUR 0.125, up by 4%, which is fully aligned with the promises and the targets included in the business plan.
Take into account that this way of being transparent and this way of offering visibility is something the market has always appreciated. We always offer a five-year visibility regarding our dividend policy, and that's something that we commit to. It isn't something that is a dream as far as we're concerned. It's an absolutely fundamental pillar of ours, which we set as an achievable target. Therefore, even this year, with a 4% growth in our dividend per share, I think we are in line with our commitments and our work. Which is something that, of course, you can appreciate from the graph on page 12 regarding our track record in our dividend policy.
There could be no doubt whatsoever as to how committed we are. As we mentioned earlier, in 2022, we had our second-largest EBITDA growth ever, which wasn't something we were taking for granted in such a difficult year, despite the negatives we mentioned earlier, including the WACC cut. Which means that the year-end results for 2022 are more than satisfactory, if you take into account the general context these numbers came about in. There were some good things and bad things we had to deal with in achieving these numbers. We always have to take into account that in my final year as chairman of Hera and over the past 20 years, 2022 was the most difficult year we had to deal with.
I was very happy to be able to experience this difficult year with all of you and with all of my colleagues. Thank you very much. Of course, I am available for any questions you may have together with my colleagues.
This is the Chorus Call operator. We are about to begin our Q&A session. For any questions you may have, press star followed by one on your telephone. To leave the questions list, press star followed by two. Please ask your questions on your telephone. For any questions you may have, press star followed by one now. Our first question is from the Italian conference call, Javier Suarez, Mediobanca.
Good afternoon. Let me begin by congratulating Mr. Tomasi, the chairman, and wish him all the best for the future. I have two or three questions. The first is on the generation business on page six. I noticed the supply and trading performance with a +20%. Can you give us some further details regarding the company's commercial policy for 2022 and for 2023? Despite the difficult circumstances, were you able to keep your supply levels, and what did the company change for 2022? What could the implications be for 2023? I'd like to understand how you expect the supply business to be in 2023 and even 2024. The second question is on the networks business. The WACC cut was offset by organic growth. Can you give us some details as to what organic growth includes quality premiums and what else it includes?
The third question refers to slide 11, where you show the net working capital and the gas stock equal to EUR 504 million, which should be fully reabsorbed by the end of Q1 2023. What is your strategy for net working capital of EUR 378 million by the end of 2023? My final question refers to the company's refinancing needs. If you can give us some details as to what you will need to refinance in 2023 and 2024. Thank you.
Can you repeat your final question, please?
The last question refers to the company's refinancing needs for 2023 and 2024, your refinancing needs as far as debt is concerned.
Let me begin. This is Mr. Iacono speaking. Your first question regarding supply. In Q4, you're right, Javier, we were able to recover. As far as electricity is concerned, which is where we suffered most, we implemented a number of actions to bring the losses down to zero and to recover with commercial and operational actions, adjustments we made, which allowed us to reduce the shaping costs. We had a difference in the customer base equal to 51,000 units. We are currently updating some information. You may remember that last year we were stopped by the government and by the antitrust body. We never stopped. We never made any unilateral changes to contracts.
We simply amended the expiration date for the commercial offers, which allowed us to, and will continue to allow us to be more resilient. For the last quarter, 2022, and for 2023 and 2024, we'll be able to deal with price fluctuation and shaping costs. As far as gas is concerned, we are extremely satisfied because, of course, we did sell a lower amount of volumes, both in retail and in business, especially in the final part of 2022 due to the weather and due to the climate conditions and due to customer behavior. We were able to maintain our margin levels by offsetting through commercial activities. Our team worked very well. As we mentioned earlier, we are very present on the territory.
We also increased our volume sold due to a further 20,000 customers and also due to the energy efficiency and our trading activities. Even here, we renewed some of our contracts, and we were also able to benefit from the premiums linked to our storage, which is worth some 30 million EUR. Plus, we were able to benefit from the last instance market, the last resort market in gas. We were awarded the competition two years ago. We have become a system operator. We are well familiar with how that market has to be managed, and therefore we can obtain benefits, especially given the price scenario we've been seeing over the more recent period. Moving on to your second question on the WACC cut.
On the networks, we had a very, very good performance, a brilliant performance, because we were able to fully offset the WACC cut. As a group, as a company, we are, we have some of the very best performances in the sector. That is due to our company's history. The fact that we invested in our network so much means that we are able to achieve excellent performances, and we're able to be efficient and effective, and we can obtain premiums. Even for the next few years is concerned, we will be obtaining some EUR 7 million per year as far as our technical premiums are concerned, if I remember correctly.
Hera's investments in the water sector, for instance, is equal to EUR 58 per capita, whereas the sector average is EUR 46 per capita, which says it all. Regarding our track record, our history, which has allowed us to achieve results, even when it comes to water leakages, which is an extremely important topic as far as Hera is concerned, our leakages are equal to 9.5 cubic meters per kilometer per day, whereas the national average is equal to 17 cubic meters per kilometer per day, which again says it all as far as our network's performance is concerned. I'll leave the floor to Massimo for the third question before moving back to your fourth question.
As far as our gas storage is concerned, we are continuing as planned in supplying the gas, which means that at the end of the thermal season, we should stand at a very marginal amount compared to what we had stored at the start of the thermal season last year. As far as our forecast for 2023, that's a fairly complicated question to answer. Obviously, as far as we're concerned, the storage activity is a strategic one. So much so in fact that we had very relevant investments we made last year, given the prices.
Of course, if prices will stay at these levels, if we will have further options to start the storage campaign ahead of schedule, we will be able to deal with the storage with very different numbers compared to what we had to deal with last year. My focus is that at the end of the year, the investments we'll have to make for gas storage will be lower, significantly lower compared to what we had to do last year. As far as our refinancing needs are concerned, before I give the floor back to the CEO, currently we don't have any short-term needs. We have a good liquidity, a good cash liquidity. Given the progressive freeing up of the gas storage and the reduction in prices.
As far as 2024 is concerned, we have a bond which will have to be refinanced for some EUR 500 million. Even if we take into account the specific financial market needs this year compared to last year, we are looking around so that we can deal with our needs which are more linked to 2024 as far as refinancing needs are concerned.
Thank you. I just wanted to make a more general remark regarding our future outlook. Going back to Javier's question, I'd like to go back to what brought about the prices. First of all, we had lower consumptions by our customers, given the milder weather.
In 2022, the country consumed 10% less in gas compared to the previous year, which means that we need to add less gas to the national system as a whole, and which means that if we have more gas stored in Edison Stoccaggio or IGS storage units, which means that as a country, by the end of March, we will still have a certain degree of availability of the gas storage units equal to some 4 billion cubic meters, compared to the 0.5 billion cubic meters we had in the same period last year. Which means that as a country, given these conditions, the scenario is much better compared to what we were expecting 6 months ago.
Thank you very much.
The next question is by Emanuele Oggioni, Kepler Cheuvreux.
Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Good afternoon, everyone. I also have a few questions for you. The first question refers to your outlook for 2023, which seems to be positive for a number of your divisions, especially as far as waste is concerned. You also mentioned that a part of your M&A transactions haven't been fully consolidated since some of those transactions were finalized after the year-end 2022. Therefore, could you please remind us of the year-on-year impact, the delta, between 2023 and 2022, linked to these transactions and to these acquisitions. Then, also as far as the waste sector is concerned, we should be expecting a decrease in the profitability of waste energy plants.
Your price cap at 180 EUR per MWh. Therefore, can you quantify? Can you give us an estimate of this lower EBITDA in 2023 compared to 2022 as far as your waste energy plants are concerned. Moving on to energy efficiency services, the ones linked to the Superbonus, which contributed for some EUR 20 million EBITDA in 2022. What is your outlook for 2023 and 2024? Also considering that this bonus has now been stopped, and there is a certain degree of bureaucracy which has to be taken into account. Therefore, all in all, I'd like to know if you are confident regarding your 2023 EBITDA.
I know you don't offer any guidance, but the consensus stands at EUR 130 million EBITDA in 2023. Are you confident with this consensus that equals to some EUR 290 million in terms of net profit? My second question is on the stored gas on the network and capital and how you can reabsorb this adjustment in EBITDA and in the effects on network and capital and net financial profit. You were saying that currently Italy has a higher stored gas year-over-year, but the gas stored belongs to you, not to those operators who haven't sold because of lower consumption or because of the mild weather.
You were saying that everything will be reabsorbed in Q1 2023, how does that go? How could that be reconciled with the fact that the Italian figures compared to storage and consumption show that there were a number of reasons linked to lower consumption, higher bills, the warmer weather, the climate, et cetera. It would make it difficult to imagine that you would be able to completely reabsorb this phenomenon by the end of the thermal year, which is only 10 days from now. That's it as far as I'm concerned for my questions. Let me take this opportunity to thank the Chairman, Mr. Tomasi, for his professionalism and for his kindness.
Well, I want to thank you. I want to thank all of you, for having joined us on our conference calls, every year. Thank you for helping us grow over the years. I think that is the right way ahead, and I think that is the way forward, which has to stay transparent. It has to reassure the market, which sometimes makes mistakes, including the mistake made yesterday, which is entirely unjustified. It wasn't anything against our company, but it's truly surprising to see these peaks on the market which disappear after half an hour. Thank you.
Thank you very much. This is Mr. Iacono speaking. As far as your first question is concerned, and our outlook for 2023, we have a better outlook compared to what it was six months ago, given the lower prices of commodities, which has an impact on our needs as far as cash is concerned, which also have an impact on the devaluation of credits and on the financial burden. Of course, that has an impact on the need to refinance cash in the network and capital, which allows us to be pretty confident as far as the future is concerned. And I'll leave the answer on the waste sector to Jens later.
As far as energy efficiency is concerned, we have no impacts for 2023, whereas when it comes to 2024, we have a few solutions in mind that we'll be sharing with you in the near future. As far as EBITDA is concerned, you know that it is a price-sensitive issue, and we can't give you any answer on the topic. What I said earlier is true. Along with some of the actions we have in mind. Lead us to think that the future will be better compared to what it thought it would be six months ago.
Finally, as far as gas, the gas storage is concerned, as we've already said, but let me be even clearer, our stored gas is already entirely sold. We are continuing to supply that gas, of course. Another advantage we have is that we are also present on the last resort markets, which absorb plenty of the stored gas. As we mentioned earlier, this was an investment we made which allowed us to guarantee the supply of gas to our customers. This goes back to what our chairman said earlier. Our customers are very loyal, and they are also excellent payers. In 2022, our unpaid ratio was equal to 0.95. In fact, it was better compared to what we saw in 2021, which I think says it all as far as Hera's conditions are concerned.
With our stored gas, we are able to deal with the flexibility linked to the fluctuation in prices. We're continuing to supply gas, and we are already making our assessments, and we're already optimizing in view of the upcoming thermal season. Let me give the floor to Jens now for the waste question.
Thank you, Emanuele. Let me just remind you of the fact that in the waste business, we have to take into account a number of components for further opportunities for organic growth. The chairman was mentioning the fact that we have two waste energy plants which didn't contribute to the results for 2022, which are now back on track.
They were both revamped, which means that they have been enhanced with further capacity, which means that we will be looking at a further EUR 7 million-EUR 8 million compared to the figures for 2022. As far as the price cap you were referring to, for the energy sold, which is produced in waste energy plants, of course, that will have a slightly negative impact. Keep in mind that, as the Chairman was saying earlier, the waste treatment sector, for a number of years now, has been going through an increase in the price for waste treatment, which is of course, linked to the shortcomings in the availability of waste treatment plants. Therefore, this will continue supporting the results for the sector. Plus, the performance of Aliplast was stellar.
That's due to the fact that they are offering highly or circular economy services which are highly in demand. They've been working on full capacity this year. There will also be good prices for these commodity prices, because given the laws of supply and demand, we'll be seeing a support in the waste segment. Of course, we have ACR, the most recent acquisition we made, which will certainly contribute, and it will lead to synergies we expected when we finalized this transaction. We have synergies in terms of revenues, of course, because the ACR company has a major customer base, a top-level customer base.
Since Hera isn't only focused on site remediation, and matter of fact, we offer plenty of other types of waste treatment, we'll be able to focus on cross-selling, leading to excellent results. Of course, the ACR company will be able to count on all of our asset base with over 100 different types of waste treatment plants. And that will allow us to treat the waste in-house, which is something ACR wasn't able to do earlier. Therefore, I think the growth outlook for 2023 is visible. As you were mentioning, it will also have some excellent results. Our growth target for the business plan years was for EUR 150 million. We've achieved EUR 50 million in the first year alone, which means we still have to reach EUR 100 million.
In the waste treatment sector, we've been working very hard. Of course, it'll take more than the price of electricity to stop us. Over to you for any other comments. Thank you.
Thank you very much indeed.
The next question is by Davide Candela, Intesa Sanpaolo.
Yes. Good afternoon. Thank you for the presentation. I also wish to congratulate the chairman, and I also wish to thank him for his professionalism, which I was able to personally appreciate when we've met. I have three questions for you. The first refers to gas storage once again, and it's more linked to the outlook for 2023. Now, last year, the impact pre-thermal season was equal to some EUR 900 million with an average TTF scenario, which was EUR 150.
Taking into account that we stayed at one-third of that price, what do you think the effects of this will be? Will this new and lower price have an impact on debt for 2023? Now with reference to gas, you said that consumption was lower. What will be the gas demands for 2023, therefore? A second question regarding the electricity supply sector. In 2022, if the trend was quite negative year-on-year, probably because of the mismatch between procurement and the sales price. Since you don't have any in-house sources, what are you doing in terms of your hedging policies so that you can sell that electricity? Then I have a final question on M&A.
Can you give us an update on any opportunities you're interested in, any sectors you're interested in specifically? Any opportunities in the waste sector? As far as energy supply is concerned, last year, we said that a few companies were stressed given the prices. Is that still so, and are there other opportunities in that sector? Given the fact that prices have dropped, is that crisis now over?
As far as M&A is concerned, we are always on the look for opportunities. The only thing we consider is anything which is truly attractive in terms of multiples. Of course, we also take a look at the business these opportunities operate in because, of course, we have the renewable sector, which everybody looks into.
We made some choices in the more recent period, which focused on liberalized sectors. Because as we explained a number of times already, and which we did today as well, it's difficult to find opportunities in the regulated sector. We were hoping for the governments to be somewhat more convincing and more effective in convincing in-house companies to look into these opportunities. This would have been attractive for the entire sector, not just for our company. Unfortunately, even the final attempt made by the Draghi government, can't remember what that decree was called, but the concorrenza decree, the competition decree, that too, that didn't have any major effect in terms of leading to consolidation.
There were endless discussions in the parliament, and the ultimate outcome was the fact that nothing was truly done. Therefore, in the medium term, we'll be continuing to focus on the waste sector because, of course, entire regions of the country have huge shortcomings as far as waste treatment is concerned. Of course, we'll be looking at the supply business. Although, as far as the energy sector is concerned, we'll have to look at things on a case-by-case basis because there may be some companies which have suffered more than what it would appear to be. These are the two more traditional M&A sectors. Of course, we have the more the newer sectors, and we're always ready.
We're still continuing to work on the project linked to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, and we got some very positive responses compared to the projects we have submitted. If the government stops focusing on other things such as the bridge in Sicily or any other needs which lead to the National Recovery and Resilience bill being overlooked. I think we need to decide what our priorities are, which projects and which sectors have to be our priorities. Those have to be tackled in a tangible way, without having endless discussions as to what our priorities have to be. Some sectors have to be supported, which were affected most by the events last year, and which have to be supported and invested in.
On the topic of those in-house companies, was a trick which led to a major amount of entropy in the sector, and that has led to a reduction in the growth opportunities. I think this rigidity in in-house companies should be overcome. Thank you. Let me go back to your first two questions. As far as the question on gas storage is concerned, yes, you're right. With the same volumes, of course, our commitment would be less than 50% compared to what we did in the summer and the fall in 2022. That's something we'll be seeing in the next few weeks. Whereas in 2022, the large wholesale players like Eni and Edison and others did not offer bilateral contracts.
What we hope is that this year there will be a few more bilateral contracts, given the scenarios we're all seeing. Therefore, as far as storage is concerned, we will be making our assessments, and we will be optimizing for the upcoming season. As far as the question on the electricity supply is concerned, as I was mentioning earlier, over the last quarter, we were able to offset and even recover compared to the previous losses because we activated two types of actions. The first was something that we always implemented, and over the past three years, we increased our customer base. We did that this year as well. Only in electricity, we increased our customer base by a further 50,000.
Secondly, another fundamental thing we did was the renewal of contracts, some of which are being updated. Some have already been signed. This is something we have planned despite the stop-and-go brought about by the antitrust body, because again, we never introduced any unilateral amendments to contracts. That will allow us to be more resilient, even when it comes to modulation and shaping costs when we buy the commodity, vis-a-vis any possible future price fluctuations. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
For any further questions, you can press star followed by one on your telephone.
If I may, as a senior member, let me thank you very much for all of your congratulations and best wishes, which allows me to conclude my experience here because my contract will expire at the end of next month, which means I have a few more weeks to work with you. Thank you very much.
Excuse me. We have a follow-up by Javier Suárez, Mediobanca.
Yes, apologies. I have a question on the depreciation and amortization. Can you give us a breakdown on which figures you expect for provisions in 2023? Javier, which slide were you referring to? I was referring to EBIT and depreciation, and amortization and depreciation and provisions. Can you give us a detail regarding the provisions included in that figure? Can you give us your outlook for 2023?
I don't have the breakdown with me, but Jens will send it over soon. As far as the macro phenomena is concerned, we have had an increase in 2022 compared to 2021, linked to the increase in the last resort markets. The provisions fund, that is linked to two phenomena. Quantity on the one hand, price on the other. It continues to be fairly stable in terms of quantity, although the price effect is reducing significantly given the decrease in commodity prices. Of course, these last instance markets, as you know, will be auctioned off in September this year, which means that the final part of 2023 will depend from the outcome of those tenders.
Currently, the volumes, compared to the peaks we saw in early October, are reducing progressively, although they are much higher compared to the volumes we were seeing when we were awarded the tender in 2021. In this case, the price makes a huge difference. This is a scenario we expect. In the next few months, we'll see a reduction in the provisions linked to these markets with the same conditions. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Tomaso Di Vignano, gentlemen, for the time being, there are no further questions.
Thank you very much, and I hope to see you again soon. Goodbye.