Hi, good afternoon and good morning to everyone, depending where you are located. We are very proud here to be today to present our strategic plan to 2031. I'm joined today by our Chairman, Mr. Paolo Ciocca, Mr. Paolo Gallo, our CEO, Piero Lorenzo Dell'Orco, CEO of Italgas Reti, and Gianfranco Amoroso that you all know, our CFO. I leave now the floor to the Chairman.
Good morning and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for attending today's presentation of Italgas 2025-2031 strategic plan. There are moments in a company's history when progress isn't just represented by financial or industrial results, but rather by recognition of its deepest identity. By the way, Italgas' history is not at all a short one. This is said by, as you well know, a young newcomer to the company. Italgas' identity is the cornerstone around which the group has developed in recent years, the cornerstone of an exciting journey that has seen the group establish itself as a global benchmark for innovation, model transformation, and anticipation of the future. Today, one year after the previous strategic plan, we can say that our future mapping worked out well and ahead of schedule.
The group is further strengthened by its international leadership and has established itself also in terms of size, as the leader in gas distribution in Europe. It is not just a question of numbers. It is a question of vision and responsibility and the ability to drive energy transformation as enablers of decarbonization. Our commitment is clear. We want industrial innovation with energy transition. We create networks that don't just distribute energy, but also enable molecules to change their nature, from fossil fuel to renewables, from natural gas to biomethane, hydrogen, and synthetic methane. We believe in technological neutrality as a guiding principle. This means evaluating all available solutions, building a resilient, competitive energy system that is ready to meet the needs of families, businesses, and institutions. In these recent years, we have demonstrated that the energy transition can be a substantive project.
We have done so by extending and digitizing our networks, developing a market around the various areas, let's say, uses of hydrogen in the network, and focusing on research and development. Our aim is to make things happen. The plan we are about to present to you today is at the heart of this new phase and outlines how we intend to remain true to our nature, continuously evolving, faithful to our vision of the future of energy and our values. Because Italgas is changing, growing, and expanding, at the same time, it keeps its 188 years old distinction in Italy, a force that builds real progress and generates value at the service of communities and territories. Now let's go to the head of the panel and let me welcome Paolo and his leadership team. Thank you.
How many shapes does a net zero future take?
It takes the shape of smart grids, connecting places, people, opportunities. The shape of technologies and systems that anticipate tomorrow. The shape of molecules that transform, turning green, sustainable. The shape of water flowing pure through efficient grids. The shape of energy that regenerates and is not consumed. The shape of innovation, where every idea is an accelerator of the future. It also takes the shape of people, of those who build, design, listen, imagine, of those who give energy to change every day. It's the shape of a network that gathers skills and territories, growing together stronger, more aware. A network that is physical, digital, and human. How are we shaping a new energy? We shape it with vision and research, through collaboration and collective intelligence. As a group that turns ideas into reality. We shape it as it be ours.
A network to lead the future.
A network to inspire the world.
Good afternoon everyone, and good morning for the persons that are connected from abroad. It is for me a great pleasure to be here to present this strategic plan that represents the first strategic plan after the acquisition of 2i Rete Gas. In this plan, we are setting a commitment that is never taken in the old history of natural gas, a clear sign of confidence that we have for the future and the vision that we have for the future about our infrastructure. We feel that today we are going to share the vision with you, the investment, the technology, and the people that will make this plan happen, shaping the energy of the future. Let me start with where we stand today.
One year ago, we announced the acquisition of 2i Rete Gas, the second largest gas DSO in Italy, and we have created with such acquisition the largest European DSO. As you can see, those are the numbers. We serve nearly 13 million customers in gas distribution. We serve directly and indirectly 6.3 million customers in Italy and Greece. We manage nearly 160,000 km of network. Moreover, we do all this activity thanks to an incredible 6,400 employees that is the result of the combining of the two companies. Seven months ago, we closed the deal and now we wanted to show you the progress that we have made in such a short period of time. At the same time, we want to show you and share with you our vision for the next seven years. Let's take a short view about our strategic vision.
We want to maintain our leadership in innovation, in technology, in digital transformation, maximizing the value for all our stakeholders. The vision is built around, as I said, innovation, AI transformation, energy transition, and with a focus, a never-ending focus on operational efficiency. Three business areas. You know very well that they are gas distribution in Italy and Greece, which remain our core business, water services, a sector where our digital capability that we can apply from our experience in gas distribution can make a difference, and energy efficiency that we feel has been a little bit forgotten, but it's a key element for the energy transition and we strongly believe in that.
On top of that, we think we can take a great advantage from unlocking all the possibilities and opportunities coming from the massive application of AI to our processes, our assets, and our way in which we manage the company. Before going on, let me take for a few moments a look at the past. I think the past nine years at Italgas have been extremely exciting, successful, and I think it is worth spending few words about what we have achieved, where we stand today, and which is our ambition. We have invested up to the end of 2024 nearly EUR 7.5 billion, growing the RAB up to EUR 10 billion. Before the acquisition of 2i Rete Gas, we delivered an impressive OpEx reduction, -40%. Since 2018, we distributed more than EUR 2 billion dividends to our shareholder.
At the same time, we were able to maintain a solid financial structure and we have done all of that, reducing our carbon footprint, reducing our energy consumption. 2025 will make the difference. We acquired the second largest DSO in Italy and we become the first DSO in Europe. We were already the first DSO in terms of innovation technology, not in terms of size. Now we cover also the size part and we achieve in Italy a market share of 55%. Now we are planning, that is the ambition, to invest in the next seven years EUR 16.5 billion, including the acquisition. That includes, of course, the acquisition of 2i Rete Gas. We expect that our EBITDA and our EPS will grow at double digit numbers starting from 2024 based.
The financial structure, as Gianfranco will show you later, is very strong, very robust, and we start deleveraging already in 2028. Let me move more on what we see as the scenario of the gas for the future. I remember that in the industry I was probably one of the first persons to talk about the energy trilemma. I remember that I was talking about that in London a few years ago during an interview that I had with Bloomberg. At the time, nobody was talking about the energy trilemma. Since then, as you can see from the trilemma today, something has changed, has shifted. After the Ukraine invasion, the focus was to guarantee the energy supply, security supply was at the top. Since then, since 2022, I think the situation in Europe has significantly changed.
Most of the countries have been able to get rid of the Russian gas and be able to build a different supplier, different supply flow. Today the focus has shifted to the cost of energy. The cost of energy has become the major attention of all the European countries, not only for industry, because industry means competition, being able to compete at the world level, but also for the end customers, for the residential. I think one of the solutions is the use of the gas infrastructure. DSO is part, is the heart of the solution. There is a growing recognition that the trilemma cannot be solved just using ideological positions. A more pragmatic, more neutral approach from a technological point of view will bring the solution. It's not going to be easy, it's not going to be linear.
That's the only way in which we can solve a complex problem like the energy. I think and we feel that the gas network, bringing in the future, today and in the future, renewable gases, will help to solve the trilemma from a cost point of view and security point of view. Let me show you some numbers, very interesting ones, the evolution of the energy price and the gas price in Italy before the Ukraine invasion and today. As you can see, the cost of energy, the gas in terms of euro per megawatt hour, has gone back more or less, not yet, but is not very far from the price that we had before the Ukrainian invasion. We cannot say the same for the electricity. Electricity price is three times the gas price. That makes it even more difficult to think about electrification in certain sectors.
If you couple that with the fact that we are going to see in the coming months and years an increased demand of electricity, think about AI data-driven consumption, then it will pose even more problems. The gap may even become bigger. If you think about what happened in Spain just before summer, more renewable you put in the system, you need to recover the rigidity that the renewable put in the energy system. Renewable production is not capacity. Gas will continue to be, in different forms, crucial to maintain an energy system stable, efficient, secure, with a cost that is affordable by everybody. I brought you an example of the day-by-day life of ourselves when we need to face certain decisions to change, for example, a very traditional gas boiler for the heating system. We made this comparison based on the numbers that you saw with no subsidies.
That means that we are comparing apple with apple. Three options. One that I consider probably the best effective one, very simple, high efficiency boiler gas. The second one is heat pumps with limited modification of the heating system. The third one is probably the one that the ideological people will say is the best solution: heat pumps, change all your heating system. Put what is the underfloor coils. You will be happy for 25 years. You will be happy because it will take 25 years to pay back the investments. What does it mean that by 25 years you will probably change every fee. You will never get there. That is when you compare Apple with Apple with no subsidies. There is the solution. The solution, part of the solution is, let's go back to what the European Commission made years ago after Ukraine's invasion.
That probably has been forgotten for a long time. That is the REPower EU. They clearly identify three paths in order to reduce the dependence on Russia and at the same time to reduce also the cost. That is the development of biomethane, the development of hydrogen production and importation, and the last one, increase the energy efficiency in our real estate activities, in everything in our industry, everywhere. Why has it been forgotten? Because it's too difficult. Again, that's the problem. That is the solution. Biomethane is something that is today available, is competitive. Hydrogen, we will talk in a moment. Energy efficiency is the other area where there is a lack of interest. Again, it's one of the most effective tools that we have in order to reduce energy consumption and reduce our cost.
If I take a look at the same situation in Italy, what we can say is that biomethane is a very high potential area. Many studies and our evidence about connection requests show that we will have an increase of biomethane production as an average by 50% every single year through 2030. That will let us reach the goal of 5 billion cubic meters of production. That represents about 7%- 8% of the total demand of gas in Italy. There are positive signals. One is the latest auction that was made about awarding the grants from our resilience recovery plans to upgrade the existing biogas into biomethane. Hydrogen is, let me say, a longer term opportunity because of the cost. I think we should continue to invest in research and development, to research in the use of hydrogen.
Our plant in Sardinia, Piero Lorenzo will talk to you about that. It's a clear demonstration that we can build an ecosystem that is based on hydrogen. Is it competitive? Not yet, but still there are very nice signals about that competition. Think about that. The energy conversion into hydrogen is 55% in a small plant. If you scale up the plant, you can even reach higher efficiency. Finally, D Methane, that is for us and for Europe, is probably the new frontier. For Japan, it is not. Japan is testing significantly D Methane. D Methane has the solution for gas supply in Japan. It's the combination of CO2 capture with hydrogen. What I'm telling you with this example is that with a pragmatic approach, you find many solutions that can bring you security, supply, energy transition, and cost of the energy all together as a solution.
The fact that the gas will continue to be there, today fossil, tomorrow renewable, is also shown by this graph. After the shock in 2022, we have already seen some recovery in 2024. If I look at the first semester of 2025 in respect of 2024, we saw an increase of 6%. We have just closed the numbers at the end of September, and we look at what we injected in our network in respect of the previous year, and the growth is still close to 6% also at the end of September 25th. As I said before, more electrification expands, more renewable in the picture, and the more we need the molecule to compensate and to compensate the rigidity of the electrification. Let me now move and give a quick outlook about the progress that we made on the 2i Rete Gas integration.
You remember, I don't want to go through all the story about the different steps, but I wanted just to stay on the fact that 1st of July we merged Italgas with 2i Rete Gas. I think that has been an incredible achievement. Ninety days to complete that process and then to complete the whole 2i Rete Gas acquisition. We need to satisfy also the mandatory request by the antitrust. As you know, that has been recently closed. Let me say the agreement with the four buyers. The 600,000 redelivery points that were requested to be put on sale, we received 12 acceptable from a price floor point of view offers for a total of less than 250 redelivery points, which were considered also acceptable from the antitrust point of view.
In terms of requirement that the buyers should have, the process will involve the disposal of the delivery points together with the personnel, the systems, and all the assets that are needed to operate this redelivery point, this network. The RAB value associated is EUR 218 million. The overall price that is paid, will be paid, is set at EUR 253 million. Significant premium paid over the RAB. We expect the closing to happen before the end of the first quarter of 2026. Of course, it will depend also on the buyer regarding what has not been sold. The remaining 350,000 redelivery points, we don't have to do any second round of disposal on these redelivery points. In this network, the so-called soft remedies will be applied when the tender process of the award of these assets will take place. Let me say I wanted to share with you another point.
We always said, and I have already said at the beginning, that we are the best in our industry. I wanted to bring you data facts to show you that our statement is true. We made a comparison with our international peer and we have looked at the different topics that for us make the difference. Smart meters, we are close to 100%. If you look around Europe worldwide, there is no one that is passing 50% of the installation and the majority are below that number significantly. Network digitization, this is where the gap is huge. There is no one, no one that has made such an upgrade of the network. When I say network digitized, it means that I can control remotely everything, that I can manage the network remotely, everything. Piero Lorenzo will tell you more in detail what does it mean.
On top of that, we are going to implement the AI transformation in which we see some other example. To me, to be extremely effective and to be able to adopt on a massive, at the massive level, AI, you need to have a network fully digitized and you need to have a collection of billions of data in order to be able to really leverage the application of AI on the biomethane that varies from countries to countries. We know that there are other countries that are better positioned than us, but I think Italy will recover this gap very soon. On the network ready for hydrogen, if I look at our plant in Sardinia, we can say that our network is 100% ready to accept 2% or 20% of hydrogen.
In fact, we have a protocol with the Ministry of Industry and Energy to scale up the 2% that is the minimum up to 20%. If I look at the average of the network in Italy, then we can say that 80% is ready for 20% blending. I also can say that by the end of the plan, we will have 100% of our network ready for a blending of hydrogen up to 20%. Let me go through some most significant progress we have made in these months since the acquisition of 2i Rete Gas very quickly, but I think extremely representative of our ability to make things happen. On the operational point of view, we have fully reorganized our territorial footprint, redesigning our territorial model, reducing the area overlapping. At the same time, we have closed 19 offices.
We have reduced our fleet car by 13% thanks to the synergy that we are starting to extract. The core of the activity has been the IT. We moved one petabyte of data. One petabyte of data. I don't know how many zeros they have it, so forgive me for that one, in 90 days with no problem at all. I think that shows our, let me say, the strength of our IT infrastructure in dealing with such a large number. We have started insourcing activity and I started mentioning Picarro. We have the largest fleet in the world of Picarro machines. We know how to manage, we know how to drive them, we know how to use them. We immediately stopped the third party contract that we had at 2i Rete Gas.
We immediately started sourcing them as well as we started to insource activity like the integrated supervision center and other ones with a termination of a number of contracts with third party. Finally, we started to implement digitization plan that we have for 2i Rete Gas. Let me start now to look at the numbers because I think you are here also not only to listen my vision but also to see the numbers. I'm starting from the ones that you like most, synergies in cost and revenues. I'm starting from the synergies from revenues from April when we closed the acquisition.
We had several working groups working together between Italgas and 2i Rete Gas, ex-2i Rete Gas people, in order to find out the area of synergies and to find out area where we have to invest in order to upgrade the network to the level that we have in natural gas. We find out that there are more investments than we expected that we presented to you last year, EUR 800 million. We find out that there are more, up to EUR 900 million. At the same time, the revenue contribution from these additional investments moved from EUR 80 million to EUR 100 million at the end of the plan. Just to mention some of the initiatives that are included in these EUR 900 million investment replacement, we find out that there are still some traditional meters in the 2i Rete Gas method that are not replaced. That is the first thing that we started.
We will finish by early 2026. We find out all the area where we need to upgrade. Not only upgrade the single equipment, but also changing, for example, the authorization system to our standard, and based on that, we have a clear and detailed digitization plan that has already started and will deliver the EUR 900 million additional investment and the EUR 100 million additional revenue. Probably the most interesting one for you are the cost synergies that you have already seen in our plan. I want to remind you that last year, some of you, I don't know if many of you or few of you, were very skeptical about our ability to reach the EUR 200 million. We raised the bar. Now we are at EUR 250 million. I think our history and our track record make this number credible.
How we find out these EUR 250 million over time, because as I said, the working groups have been working for months identifying which are the areas that we can improve, where we can extract value, when we can have synergies, and with a detailed plan for each of the activities. We know also in terms of time frame when this synergy will happen. You can see in this graph the previous plan in terms of time, in terms of value, and the new plan in terms of times, in terms of value. The upgrade was driven by a shift from an outside-in to an inside-in perspective, and it clearly reflects and optimizes. There are a lot of activities that will be insourced with our ambition to avoid any redundancy. There would be no redundancy in our plan. There is no redundancy in our plan.
We will maximize insourcing, bringing inside the company what we feel are the core activities of the company and with the ambition to retain our top talent. If you remember last year, we were talking about three pillars of synergies: traditional, digital, and AI. During the activity of the working group, we realized that the first two pillars sometimes are crossing one to each other. Now you will see only two pillars: traditional and digital and AI. I promise to you that I will show you the time frame of the two categories, and I will show you and give you examples of what we are doing and what we will do. The first one represents traditional and digital. If you remember, the sum of the two last year were in the range of EUR 120 million- EUR 140 million. We gave you the range, now we are EUR 180 million.
The delta in the EUR 50 million that we are talking about are concentrated in this area. The cost saving benefit related to such initiative will be fully visible already in 2025. Some of them, few of them still they will be visible. You have already noticed the nine month result that there are some cost saving that are coming from the synergies from the acquisition of 2i Rete Gas in 2026 and 2029. We will continue insourcing core activity that is the main driver, including some example authorization, measurement, metrology, inspection, emergency response service. Those are core activities that we cannot leave to a third party. We will use digitization and AI to work on an approach that is applying the predictive maintenance. Supplier will be part of this effort. Supplier base will be rationalized.
We want our supplier to grow because we are a different company in terms of size in respect to the past and we want to improve from a quality and economic point of view, the procurement condition. This initiative combined together will lead us achieving the majority of the EUR 180 million by 2028. In the last three years we will see a massive rollout of our Nimbus smart meter and we will complete the digitization of the 2i Rete Gas network. Regarding the AI, AI is, you know, it's a little bit more difficult in a sense that is from one side, the most exciting journey. From the other side is the less predictable because we don't have any example, especially in our industry.
The numbers today is set at EUR 70 million and does not include any additional initiative that may arise in the future, but have not been yet identified. We have tried to list for you some of the initiatives, some of the use case that we have already been working. We have been identified use case that we have identified for which we have started working on that these initiatives are expected to deliver most of the anticipated benefit over the next few years. Some example, you can read it. AI driven automatic scheduling algorithm which allows to improve planning, optimization, increase intervention succession rate, taking into account external factor. We have already developed, I have already mentioned to you a couple of times a predictive algorithm for faulty smart meters.
It is capable to anticipate it by a few days the occurrence of a meter faults, optimizing our intervention and reducing the penalty risk. We also identify AI opportunities also in the same IT. For example, we are implementing the first level end user support agentic automation for the IT system and application. Very difficult to explain. Don't ask me what is the exact meaning, but what I can tell you is that these initiatives' application has been recently awarded by Databricks, which is a leading platform for data engineering. We will use agent AI also in the commercial activities in order to manage requests and claims, reducing external cost and increasing our productivity. To do all that, we have set up AI rooms. You know that we have a digital factory. Now the digital factory is split in two. 50% is always devoted to develop digital applications.
The remaining 50% is devoted to develop AI applications, AI algorithms. We are going to have not only digital rooms, but also AI rooms. That is what we have already planned and that is covering the portion of the synergy that is evidenced and underlying this chart. For the remaining, we are talking on a medium to long term. There are a number of use cases that we have already identified that will be approached later in the plan that regard virtual cost for productivity enhancement, basic drafting. We will touch the engineering activities, autonomous network management, smart meter activation, remote smart meter activation, and finally to use autonomous driving for leak detection. In that case, we need to have a policy approval.
I can tell you that we have already started working with the Politecnico, with the University Politecnico di Milano and in Torino in order to have the first prototype of autonomous driving for gas leakage research next year. It is important to highlight that this transformation will also be an opportunity for our personnel to change their skills, to reskill and upskill, and move from a low added value activity to, let me call it, AI governance. That is much more interesting than doing the lower value added activity. Now I will move to the numbers I have already anticipated. The total investment for the planned period, including the acquisition already done of 2i Rete Gas, is EUR 16.5 billion plus 5.7%. If we exclude the acquisition of 2i Rete Gas and tenders, the increase is 10%, more than 10%.
In order to facilitate the comparison, we have reclassified last year's plan. You remember that to avoid sharing publicly what was our expectation about antitrust disposal, we merged the two numbers together, tenders and disposal. Now we took out the disposal. Now the tenders that you see are the gross tenders. In order to facilitate the comparison, you can see that the two numbers of due are different, are higher in this plan. Not because we pay more. In fact, the reality is that we pay less than expected, but we retain more assets than not the one requested by the antitrust. So the EUR 4.8 to EUR 4.9, that is the explanation regarding the other area, the driver and Piero Lorenzo will tell you in a moment. Is the gas distribution in Italy an increase of EUR 1 billion.
Greece remains stable in terms of EUR 1 billion investment as well as the other two activities, water and energy efficiency. Finally, the tenders. One year has passed and one year has been, let me say, another year of delay. That's normal. I mean that is. That is common to the last 10 plans that we presented to you, so nothing new. That is the reason why we reduced the number from EUR 1.7 billion to EUR 1.5 billion. That number accounts for less than 10% of the overall investment. If we look at different perspective, this is also interesting. I would like to ask your attention on the right part of the. On the right part of the slide. It's interesting to look about the different areas.
Largest amount of investment is allocated roughly for 40% of the total on network development and upgrade of the network in Italy and Greece, nearly 20%, 90% of digitization and AI. I would like to ask you if you know any other gas DSO that is investing such significant amount of money in digital and AI. Finally, water and energy efficiency services accounts for 5% while tenders account for 9%. Trying again to give you a full picture of our investment plan. Our effort is focused on three main pillars. As we said before, network development and grading maintenance. We are leveraging our scale, we are leveraging our skill in order to move to a predictive maintenance that is driving and will drive our our CapEx plan to improve reliability and performance of the network. The second pillar is asset digitization.
We need to bring duality gas at the same level of our network as well as AI transformation. That is where we have the bigger difference from our competitors. There is where we have the big expertise in terms of network automation, in terms of digital transformation and in the coming years in terms of application. The third pillar refer to the other initiative, water and energy efficiency services. Here we think that extending all the innovation that we have brought to the gas distribution, distribution into water, into energy efficiency, will make the difference. We make the difference because in the water sector we will see significant reduction of leaks as well as gas, but gas is already very low. We will enhance infrastructure resilience in gas and water. We will improve operational efficiency. You have already seen some results reducing energy consumption and dispatching green gases.
These are the things that are taking together all these activities. Now I will go into more details and I will leave the floor to Piero Lorenzo who will talk to you about gas distribution in Italy and Greece. Please.
Thank you, Paolo. I'm really excited to be today on this stage to present the investment plan on gas distribution in Italy and Greece of Italgas, which is the largest in our long history. Let's start with the biggest chunk of the plan, which is dedicated to our core network investments in Italy and in Greece. It accounts for EUR 7.7 billion. We will develop the plan along three lines starting from repurposing of the grids, basically by replacement of older assets, driven by predictive maintenance and active leak search through our cutting edge technology Picarro, which you already know. On top of that, we will invest on grid development and extension, basically to execute the commitments that we have undertaken as a result of the already awarded tenders and in Greece for the extension of the existing grid driven by the requests for new connections.
Furthermore, we plan to invest more on top of that as a result of the awarding of new tenders. Last but not least, we will invest on the infrastructure enhancement with several initiatives ranging from the installation of small scale LNG plants in Sardinia and again in Greece, where development of reverse flow plans, innovative reverse flow plans which will help us debottlenecking the existing grid to promote biomassin connections and power to gas pilot project plant which has been already put in operation just a few weeks ago. Let's deep dive into the investments that we are planning in Italy. The organic investments dedicated to network. These investments account for EUR 5.4 billion and they include network development and centralized investment. They do not include new tenders.
Amongst others, we will invest to execute the commitments that we have undertaken as a result of the eight items that we have already been awarded all across Italy, plus two additional tenders that we expect to be awarded in a very short period of time. This piece of plan accounts for about EUR 1 billion and it underpins about 2,000 km of networks in terms of both extensions, new networks and repurposing of existing networks. Along with that, we will continue to invest in Sardinia where we have completed 100% of the network, more than 1,000 km. We will invest basically to convert the large cities of the region, namely Oristano, Sassari, Cagliari and Nuoro by 2026. We will do that by deploying again small scale LNG plants where the cities cannot be connected directly to MFN pipeline. Moving to the tenders as of today in Italy.
All in all, we can record 11 officially awarded tenders. There is still a long road to do to the end of this process. We have still 166 tenders to go. This year, as always, we have reviewed the schedule of the tender based on the actual progress status of the process. We believe strongly that the tenders represent a great opportunity for Italgas to further consolidate the market. We can leverage on our current features to be best positioned to win the tenders. We have a strong track record. We have recorded eight wins out of 11 tenders. I should say out of nine tenders, because we took part in nine tenders out of these 11. The track record is really very successful.
With this plan, we are devoting EUR 1.5 billion to the new tenders, which will result in an increase in delivery points that we project to step up to 2 million by the end of the plan horizon. Moving to Greece, as Paolo anticipated, we're basically confirming EUR 1 billion of investments in this area. The investment will be dedicated primarily to the extension of the network, driven by the request for new connections. This will result in the realization of 2,500 kilometers of new networks, with an increase in terms of RAB up to EUR 1.3 billion by the end of the plan horizon. In parallel, a sharp increase in terms of number of users, stepping up from more than 600,000 to nearly 1 million redelivery points by the end of the plan, with a CAGR of +6.5%. Let's talk about green gases.
We confirm our full commitment in promoting green gases, and particularly biomethane and hydrogen. Concerning biomethane, we can record as of today, 11 connections of biomethane plants to our networks. We had only one just three years ago, so this is a sharp increase. What's more, we have more than 38 new projects of connections under development. What's more, we have installed three reverse flow plants. This is a very innovative type of plant which is vital to debottleneck the local distribution grids, in order to promote the full injection of biomethane into the grids. All in all, we are projecting by the end of 2030 to increase the production capacity of biomethane injected into Italgas grids up to 1.2 billion cubic meters per year. Talking about hydrogen, we have inaugurated just a few weeks ago the Hydrogen High Round project.
This is a very innovative project, basically a power to gas hydrogen plant. It is in Sardinia, near Cagliari, and it stands out as of today due to its very high efficiency, 55%. What's more, it is really a showcase of the entire supply chain of hydrogen, starting from the production of real green hydrogen from a photovoltaic plant nearby, which produces the electricity needed to generate the hydrogen. We have storage, and we have the demonstration of various end uses of the hydrogen. We have the refueling station for vehicles over there, we have a pipeline for direct connection to a nearby industrial site. The most distinctive feature is we are blending the hydrogen together with natural gas to feed the local gas distribution network of the city of Sesto.
We plan in the next 12 months to increase the percentage of blending starting from the current 2% of hydrogen up to 20% of hydrogen. This will make the High Round project a unique site all over Europe. Let's move to digitization. We have dedicated in this plan EUR 3.1 billion of investment in Italy and in Greece. We will develop the investment addressing basically three clusters of initiatives. First of all, we are going to digitize all the assets that we have acquired from 2i Rete Gas so that these assets will be completely controlled and monitored remotely by data from our control rooms in Turin and Florence. The second cluster, we are going to deploy our brand new smart meter Nimbus in Italy. We have validated the project, we have patented the meter. It is patented in Italy, in Eurasia, and we have a patent pending in Europe.
The meters have confirmed to have superior performances compared to all smart meters presently available on the market. We have decided to massively roll out the meters in Italy and in Greece. The third cluster will concern AI transformation and IT infrastructure upgrade in order to develop AI-driven new algorithms. Talking about digitization in Italy, this has become basically a trademark for Italgas. We are dedicating this plan EUR 2.9 billion in order to complete the digitization of all the assets that we have acquired from 2i Rete Gas. It's quite a large portfolio of assets. I recall that 2i Rete Gas has brought to us more than 1,200 city gates, 12,000 district governors, more than 70,000 km of networks, and we have to digitize all this bunch of pieces of equipment in a very short period of time. We have envisaged a step-by-step approach.
The first step will come to completion by the end of 2027. We will fully digitize the 1,200 city gates so that the entire network will be remotely controlled by data from our control rooms in Turin and Florence and Italy. In parallel, we will digitize the 12,000 district governors, which are basically smaller plants, so that by the end of the plan horizon 2027, we will have completely digitized by Italgas the entire asset portfolio of former 2i Rete Gas. Let me first recall what we have done so far. We started in 2017 with a visionary approach to digitize our operation, our assets. We set up a digital factory at our headquarters in Milano. I think that we have been very successful over the period of time 2017 to 2024. We have deployed more than 50 innovative digital solutions. We have reviewed more than 300 processes.
What's more, we have involved a huge amount of our employees. This makes the digital factory and the digital approach a change management project. More than 750 people involved in the last 18 months only. Now we have to face the second stage, the second phase, starting from this year to the end of this plan, which will be focused on AI transformation. Paolo has mentioned some of the first projects that we are already executing. For sure we will address data quality, we will develop algorithms in order to achieve operational excellence, and we will improve in general our operational skills. We will evolve the digital factory from digital rooms to AI rooms in order to design all the AI stuff that is needed for this transformation.
DANA will evolve, will change, will transform from a basic software for remote control and command of the network to a real platform for AI-enabled automation. As I've mentioned before, we have already 100% of our network legacy Italgas Reti, fully controlled by DANA. By the end of 2027, we will extend this control capability to the new grids, the new assets acquired from the former 2i Rete Gas. In the meantime, we will deploy DANA by the end of 2026 also in Greece, so that DANA will cover the entire portfolio of assets of the group. The other important cluster of investment concerns metering. As I said in this plan, we are planning a massive deployment of our Nimbus meter in Italy, primarily in order to address the replacement of the first generation of smart meters which are based on GPRS technology or 2.5G.
This technology will soon come to obsolescence, so we have decided to massively replace these meters with the Nimbus. In parallel, we will do the same thing in Greece, where the installation is driven by the need of replacing traditional meters, not even smart meters. On top of that, the new connection, the new user, which will be driven by the extension of the grids that I already mentioned. Let me conclude my presentation by confirming here our full commitment to reach the challenging targets in terms of reduction in net energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. We have reviewed these targets on the basis of the successful performances that we have recorded so far. We are ahead of our original schedule, together with the extension of parameter resulting from the recent acquisition of 2i Rete Gas .
In this plan we're setting these new targets in terms of reduction of net energy consumption. We aim at reaching a target of - 35% by the end of 2030 compared to the baseline of 2020 and - 11% compared to the baseline of 2024. We will do that progressing with the project initiatives that we have already undertaken on our legacy networks and will extend to the former 2i Rete Gas networks. Energy efficiency projects for industrial consumption and for civil consumptions, optimized fleet car fleet management, and also a reduction of the uses of cars driven by AI. Concerning emissions, we are setting new targets on Scope 1 and 2. The new targets are a reduction of - 55% by the end of 2030 compared to the baseline of 2020 and - 26% compared to the baseline of 2024.
We will do that with our innovative technology of Picarro for gas leak detection, with smart maintenance, and also with the energy efficiency initiatives that reduces energy consumption but as a byproduct reduces also emissions to the atmosphere. These targets are in full alignment with the 1.5 degrees Celsius scenario of the Paris Agreement and we will target net zero by 2050 Scope 3 emission. Again, we are confirming our commitment towards achieving the target in terms of reduction of - 24% by 2030 compared to the baseline of 2024. This of course we will achieve by a tight collaboration with our partners, vendors, and suppliers. Thank you very much and I give the floor back to Paolo for water and ESCo.
Before getting into the numbers, before giving the floor to Gianfranco, I would like just to spend a few words regarding the other two activities that we have in the group that are water services and energy efficiency services. As I said before, our approach is whatever we have developed in the gas distribution we are going to apply especially in the water side. We are also using, in a mutual support, the energy efficiency services. As the energy efficiency company is testing the solution to us, we are providing them ideas about innovation and then the tested solution will be put on the market. That is what is behind the link between gas distribution, water services, and energy efficiency services. On top of that, on the water, Piero Lorenzo described DANA. We will have very soon a DANA for water exactly the same.
As long as we will have digitized the network, we will be able to manage the network, the water distribution network, remotely. This is similar to what we are doing on the gas distribution on the water. We will carry out large-scale replacement of all pipelines in order to reduce, together with the digitization, also the water leakages. In the energy efficiency services, there has been a change in respect to the previous plan. We have less M&A. We find that was not the best way to grow the business. We are moving to, let me say, traditional, between brackets because it's not really traditional, EPC business development. It's going to be organic development. We have seen the numbers: less revenues, higher profitability. We are going to apply, in that case, I'm saying it's traditional, but it's not really traditional.
We are going to apply advanced technical solutions, innovative solutions in order to manage and to keep the customer loyal to us. Always remember that energy efficiency services are also helping us in order to reduce and to achieve the targets that Lorenzo has described before. I'll give you a few examples about the water. What we are doing since the acquisition, we have managed the company independently of the consolidation perimeter. We manage the company, being the industrial partner, and we are committed to, over the planned period, invest EUR 450 million base. The EUR 450 million is what we consolidate in our numbers. If you look at the overall numbers, independently of the consolidation, the number looks bigger. It's EUR 800 million. That includes network replacement, extension, completing the development of infrastructure to increase water availability.
We show you in the picture the desalinization plant that we have already built in Sicily to improve the availability of water. On the other side, Ventotene water treatment plant. That has been also done. You probably know the Ventotene island was a way to increase the quality, quality of the water. Of course, we use a lot of funds, local and the National Resilience Recovery Fund, in order to accelerate what we feel it is essential to transform the water distribution in a better service for the customers. The plan is very. The plan is written in this presentation. You see that our goal is to digitize the water distribution. There are differences between the first company and the second one, because the first two are distributing up to the final customer. The other two are just transportation. Apart from that, the approach is exactly the same.
We want to fully control the network remotely, and we want in that way to reduce significantly the water losses. The numbers of the sector: investing for under EUR 50 million will bring the RAB at the end of the plan over EUR 300 million. Revenue will be EUR 220 million higher than the previous plan, as well as the EBITDA that will pass the EUR 100 million. That is the numbers. To me, even more important are the other objective. That is the leak reduction. We want to bring down significantly the leakages of water to a number that is well below the average, the Italian average, either in distribution and transportation. We can do that only if we digitize the network, only if we replace the older pipelines. These objectives can be reached only if we are going to invest the numbers that I mentioned before. In the meantime, energy efficiency.
Our company ESCo will work to support this company to reduce the energy consumption. 33% is our goal by 2030, even though we have experienced in 2024 a significant increase in the energy consumption due to the drought that we had not only in Sicily, but also in other parts of Italy as well. We want to reduce by 33% Scope 1 and 2. We've always the same target to get to 2015 with a net zero carbon footprint. Finally, on energy efficiency, as I told you at the beginning, was one of the three pillars designed by the European Commission in the RePowerEU to reduce the energy consumption, to get rid of the Russian supply energy, to diversify the energy supply. That was a pillar. It has been forgotten very soon. Why? As I told you, it's difficult, but it's fundamental to reach the energy transition goal.
Our strategy is to offer to the three segments that you see: residential, industrial, and public administration. Innovative solution, digital solution. That's the only way in which we can reach the targets set by the REPower EU or in any case set by the energy transition. We are going to invest nearly EUR 400 million, EUR 340 million throughout the planned period, mainly on the EPC contract development with limited amount of M&A contribution to growth. That means slower revenue growth, but higher profitability. As I said, our focus is on residential and industrial segment as well as public administration. With that effort we will reach a total revenue by the end of the plan at EUR 260 million with a margin that will be 20% of EBITDA, with EBITDA margin of 20%.
If you have looked at the numbers in the first nine months, we are already there, I mean very close, 19%, and we will continue to be there. We don't want to have, we don't want to offer low value solution. Our solution will be high value, innovative from a technology point of view and digitized. Now I leave the floor to Gianfranco for the conclusion of the presentation with the numbers.
Hi, good afternoon everybody. Thank you, Paolo. I will give you a quick overview over the nine month results of this year. Immediately after, we will have another deep dive into the financial performance of this strategic plan. Let's start with this picture. I like it very much because it's very clear. It's a clear demonstration of growth. Basically, all the KPI of the profit and loss accounts are in the same direction. The direction is a clear growth. Italian gas distribution is the main contributor to these results, made of different elements. There is the recovery of previous gap, of course, as you know very well, since the first half.
The recovery of the deflator, the recovery of the OpEx recognizing the tariff by the new provision issued by the regulator, and all this, of course, together with the contribution of 2i Rete Gas consolidated starting from the 1st of April, more than offset the negative impact of the WACC, the 60 basis points this year compared to last year. In the meanwhile, in Italgas Water, Greece, and ESCo are continuing their trajectory, positively contributing to the performance and, most importantly, as we will comment a few later after, there is a gaining momentum on the efficiencies, so benefiting from the first contribution of the initial synergies that we are implementing in this first six months. Basically, the EBIT marks a growth of more than 50%, 3.8%, notwithstanding the negative impact of the PPA.
We made the preliminary allocation of the PPA starting from 1st of April, and this accounts for around EUR 10 million in this six month period. Cash flow generation is massive. We exceeded EUR 1 billion, the record high for this period of time in the year, and it is able to cover all the technical CapEx and part of the dividend. In CapEx, we will comment briefly after, accounted for EUR 773 million, growing 40%, 40.7% compared to last year, and net debt, of course, increased, reaching EUR 10.9 billion, impacted by the acquisition, so the price paid, the debt assumed through the consolidation of the company, net of the proceeds of the capital increase successfully executed in June. All these elements will support an improving of the guidance for 2025 that we comment later on talking about the strategic plan. I will go directly to the performance, so revenues and operating cost.
The most important thing that I want to remark here is the new element that you see on the right side of the slide, that is the - 3.5% on a like-for-like basis in the efficiencies. This is the result of the first activities, the starting of the activities that we started last April, and these are made of all the actions that Paolo and Piero Lorenzo explained before. The number attached to these potentials is EUR 14.6 million. That is already an indicator of the progression of the total number that we had commented before. Going back for a while to the total revenues, as you can see, the main contributor is 2i Rete Gas.
Of course, due to the consolidation, there is also the positive contribution in terms of RAB growth made by both the Italian gas distribution and the Greek distribution, and also the impact of the resolution of ARERA that I commented before. The negative is, of course, the negative impact of the WACC accounting for about EUR 38.7 million, while over the EUR 42.7 million, water and energy efficiency services contributed approximately EUR 26 million. If you go to the following slide, we can see the performance in terms of adjusted EBITDA, robust profitability benefiting from the updated perimeter, so the consolidation and also the action for the reduction of the cost. The EBITDA growth compared to last year is about 35.6%. Distribution was, as usual, the main contributor to this performance with a positive of EUR 347 million, while water and energy efficiency services contributed also with EUR 12.6 million in terms of EBITDA.
Very short comment. Apart from the contribution of the EBITDA, there is, of course, the change in the D&A that is negative. This, of course, is the impact of the consolidation of 2i Rete Gas here, the CapEx executed in the last quarter, and say, furthermore, more than offset the positive contribution due to the termination of the Rome concession last year. In terms of net profit in the following page, of course, the growth, as we have seen, is double-digit in terms of net profit adjusted up to 36.8% versus last year.
Of course, there is the impact of 2i Rete Gas acquisition in terms of positive contribution of EUR 274 million, while on the negative, expected impact of the financial charges due to the increase in the debt linked to the acquisition, the bridge financing, the bond attribution in February, the interest on the debt consolidated through the acquisition of 2i Rete Gas, and the total impact of all of that is around EUR 77 million. As you can see on the taxable income and tax rate, you see that there is a negative of EUR 58 million. This is due to the increase in the EBITDA total that has driven the tax rate to 28.1%, slightly increased from the 27.6% of last year. If we move to the technical investments briefly as I commented, the total amount of CapEx in the period has been EUR 773 million, up 40.7% compared to last year.
I would underline a couple of things. The first is more than 600 km of new network pipes deployed during the period, of which 360 increase and the starting of the activity. The preparation works for the upgrade and the digitization plan of the perimeter of 2i Rete Gas. Now on the cash flow, as I said, the remarkable number is the EUR 1 billion of operational cash flow. These results, very positive, have more than offset the slightly negative impact of the net working capital, about EUR 22 million. That is typical for this period of the year due to the billing seasonality. Of course, this more than EUR 1 billion of operating cash flow has fully covered the CapEx executed in the period of EUR 827 million and has also covered part of the dividend paid in May of EUR 330 million.
All of that results in a variation of net debt that is impacted by the acquisition, the debt, and the price paid for the acquisition of 2i Rete Gas. I think now we can move forward to the plan. Back to the plan, in order to comment on the financial or the strategic plan. First, let me comment on that. On the broad picture, our plan has the target to deliver a 10% EPS growth that has been made possible by a disciplined capital allocation between the different components of our CapEx plan, an improvement in the level of efficiencies, and all this, of course, makes the shareholders benefit through the dividend policy that we will comment later on.
The three pillar investment plan, of course, upgraded and increased by more than 5%, 5.7% compared to previous year, out of which the technical component reached EUR 10 billion compared to the EUR 9.1 billion of the previous plan. Second, very important, already commented and discussed, the operational efficiency and extra revenues coming from the investments that have been improved by more or less 25% compared to last year. Finally, but most very important, the strength of our balance sheet. This is supported by an increase in the level of operational cash flow aggregated for the whole life of the plan of more than 7%. Of course, this has made possible the full coverage of the technical investment done during the period, the payment of all the dividend, and of course, as usual, there is headroom for tenders and potential M&A activities.
This is not to be commented because we discussed at length, but help me to explain this one. The development of the RAB. The development of the RAB as usual is, let's say, clarified with tender and without tender. If you look at the figure overall, including the tender, we are moving from EUR 10.2 billion reported 2024 to a level of EUR 20.3 billion, of which 90% is gas. Gas distribution in Italy. If we exclude from the tenders from these numbers, the overall RAB is expected to reach EUR 18.9 billion with an average CAGR of 9.2%. Tenders will contribute to EUR 1.4 billion additional RAB to the figures that I just commented of EUR 18.9 billion. The increase of RAB compared to last year plan is upgraded.
If you look at the RAB, if you remember the level of the RAB in 2030 or last year plan, there is a difference with the landing number of 2031 of around EUR 1 billion. This is due to the increased level of CapEx of this plan and also there is the impact of the deflator that we have already explained talking on the right side of the redelivery point. In this situation, we can consider the number including the tenders and we have a CAGR along the plan of 10.1%. If you exclude the tender, the number is 7.8%. Talking about profitability, we are seeing increased level of investment, capital allocation, increase of RAB revenues drive to an increase of EBITDA.
The CAGR of the EBITDA is more than 12%, higher than the RAB CAGR, meaning that we have also the possibility to have an extra growth due to the extra activities investment that they are planning into the plan and also the efficiencies. We have done, let's say, a segmentation in order to give you the starting point of EUR 1.35 billion, the intermediate point that will be the guidance for 2025 of EUR 1.87 billion, and then the landing point at the end of EUR 3 billion of the EBITDA. Most of this, the most large part of this increase, is linked to the inclusion of 2i Rete Gas as expected. Another important portion is linked to synergies, efficiencies, and AI. We have the contribution of the tender.
Out of the EUR 3 billion at the end of the plan, the gas distribution of Italian gas distribution will have 80% of contribution to that number. 6% will be the contribution of Greece, while energy efficiency services, water, and other will account for 6%. Same number, 8%. The tenders on the right side, you have the evolution and the trajectory of the OpEx cost basis. As a starting point, we have here the 2024 on the 2023 that we have commented before. You see the increase due to the consolidation of 2i Rete Gas, the cost linked to the tenders, and the synergy efficiencies that contributed to the reduction, arriving to the level of 2031 that allow us to make a projection of the EPS jointly with the financial charges that we will comment soon. The EBITDA expansion, financial discipline driving a double-digit growth of 10% throughout the plan.
We start from a level of EPS adjusted for IAS 33 of EUR 0.59 in 2024 and approaching the end of the plan, there is also a very important year, the 2029 year in which the net income will exceed EUR 1 billion. This is considered a very important achievement.
Of course.
All that is possible also due to the financial strength of the balance sheet, the third pillar, and this is the clear evidence of debt. If you look on the left side, you have the maturity profile of our debt very well spread all over the years of the business plan. Our financial strategy is focused on, of course, maintaining a solid liquidity buffer. Have a mix of fixed and floating rate around 70% and 30% and increase the duration through the issuance of the new bonds in the plan. The strong, let's say, the improved cash generation profile allowed us to achieve in the plan the level set and agreed with rating agencies one year earlier than projected last year in the plan. We are now able to meet the 65% threshold not in 2028 but in 2027.
This is a clear situation of deleverage that allows us to have financial flexibility in our plan. You see on the right the evolution of the credit ratios. Net debt over RAB will end at the end of 2031, more or less at 60%, clear deleverage starting from now. Also, the funds from operation over net debt has a very positive and incremental trajectory. The result of this strategy is a cost of debt that, of course, will evolve during the year due to the refinancing or the maturities of older bonds. We remain well below 3% throughout the plan. Finally, let me recap and give you the guidance for the current year 2025 supported by the result of the third quarter.
We are improving our guidance with adjusted revenues of EUR 2.5 billion versus previous EUR 2.45 billion, adjusted EBITDA of EUR 1.87 billion versus a range that we gave of EUR 1.85 billion, adjusted EBIT of EUR 1.19 billion versus previous range of EUR 1.12 billion-1.16 billion. We are confirming our expectation in terms of technical CapEx around EUR 1.2 billion and net debt excluding IFRS 16 around EUR 10.8 billion. Jumping to the final year of the plan, 2031, including tenders, we are projecting revenues of approximately EUR 3.8 billion above the previous plan of EUR 3.6 billion. The year before, 2030, EBITDA of EUR 3 billion above the previous 2030 level of EUR 2.8 billion, EBIT of EUR 2 billion above the last year plan of EUR 1.8 billion in 2030. The intermediate year 2029 will have revenues of EUR 3.4 billion, EBITDA of EUR 2.7 billion, and EBIT of EUR 1.8 billion.
RAB will surpass EUR 20 billion, EUR 20.3 billion versus EUR 19.2 billion of the previous plan ending in 2030. The leverage, as discussed, is improving and will end, as I said, at 60% at the end of 2031. Now I give back the floor to Paolo for the dividend policy.
Thank you. I'm going to the end. Last but not least, the dividend policy. I'm closing that. I will leave just final remarks on slide and then I will open the floor for questions. Let me say that has been approved yesterday by our Board of Directors and we decided based on the result of the nine months, based on the plan that we have approved, to extend the dividend policy up to 2028, maintaining the same payout ratio, 65% on adjusted EPS. We have just changed the floor. Instead of starting from 2023, we started from, we used 2024 DPS as a reference point. With an increase of 5% per annum, it's not insignificant. Anna Maria will tell me that the number is not 5%, but I disagree with her.
I will mention also on the Maria point of view, I think it is not insignificant because not only we extend the dividend policy by two years, but we significantly increase the reference point. I also would like to remind you that in the past year we have never, never used the floor. Our result has been always above the floor and the increase provided by the floor according to Anna Maria and probably yes, 33, for which don't ask me what it is adjustment increase is not 5%. The increase expected, the minimum increase expected in 2025 is not 5% but is 11.7%. You know that, you know better than me the IAS 33, but still I'm very basic person. I'm simply saying I want to guarantee an increase of 5% over the last dividend that we paid this year over 2024 result. That's the end of the presentation.
Thank you for your passion. It has been quite long, but we are here to answer to any question you may have. Maybe not all of them, but some of them. Yes. Thank you.
Thank you to everyone. We will take the questions first from the room, and for those connected to the webcast, you can register for the Q & A by pressing star one. As usual, we just ask everyone to limit the question to a maximum of three in the interest of allowing everyone to have space. Please also state your name. I saw James with the hand raised for a long time. We start from the back there. James Brand. James, if you can stand up.
Hi, thank you for the presentation. It's James Brand from Deutsche Bank. I wanted just obviously a very impressive plan and a lot of synergies and cost efficiencies that you're delivering.
I just wanted to ask what you're.
Assuming in terms of any potential regulatory clawback at some point because as I.
Understand it, there's a cost review.
Will be coming in 2027 for 2028. There's also this whole debate about do we switch to a Totex model? Nobody seems to know exactly what that is.
At the moment, I was just wondering, I guess.
What you've assumed in your plan.
Perhaps it's impossible to know, but maybe.
You could just talk us through.
Little bit how you think about the.
Risk of getting some of the cost.
Efficiencies pulled back from you, and how?
You think about Totex.
That was kind of going to.
be one question, but I think it's probably about three already. I'll leave it at that. I'm very grateful for your answer.
Thank you.
Okay, let me say that we are more than happy to give our efficiency for a time horizon back to the system. It's the way to repay institution, to repay our customers, to repay the market. Just to give you a number and then I will go back to your answer. Just to give a number, in between 2018 and 2024 we gave back EUR 300 million to the system. I think that is the game. I think we have demonstrated in the last nine years that no matter we give the money back to the system, we are able to achieve better performance and we have never changed that approach. Let me say three, focus on cost efficiency is one and then the regulatory is another one.
The whole management is focused on cost efficiency, forgetting that the regulatory period will somehow later ask something back to your point. What we have assumed in the plan, we have assumed an X-factor consistent with what we have experienced up to now. We have already embedded in the plan less revenues as a way to give this money back, this efficiency back to the system. Regarding 2028, 2028 is difficult to shape because as you know, there will be a new system, the Totex model we call ROS but is the same. I think that will change the rules of the game for us. We see an opportunity because we can become even more.
We can even more implement an industrial approach because you mix all together OpEx and CapEx and you decide based on which is the best solution for you as an industry to allocate, let me say, money on the OpEx or on the CapEx, but because we don't have, because there is no consultation yet on the market, we don't know how the regulatory body will shape the ROS. We know the general terms of the ROS. What we have thought about is it's another opportunity for us to be even more efficient. In the plan is embedded an X-factor similar to what we have experienced up to now.
We have Julius there.
Thank you. Julius Nickelsen from Bank of America. Two questions on the synergies and then just one clarification. The first one, I mean I understand.
That the last time you put out.
The EUR 200 million, this was before you actually run the assets, and now you upgraded it. Is that number now here to stay, or are there any surprises left where.
You think some areas in the business.
That could still bring some more synergies, obviously don't want to be greedy. In terms of what have.
You already achieved in 2025, and what?
Is left in 2026 as he saw the EUR 14.6 million of cost synergies in.
This quarter, could you maybe give.
A little bit of a precise split?
Lastly, just to have asked.
I assume these numbers assume that.
Allowed return will stay at 5.9% for the plan.
Thank you.
Okay, starting from the last question, we have assumed that 5.9% will remain, so we assume flat. Regarding the first question, we have already presented, we just presented a new plan. Now you're asking me there is something more. You need to wait one year and maybe you will find something more. Not now I think, but part of the joke. I think that what we have done, thanks mainly to Piero Lorenzo because he has run all the, and the other team has run all the detailed analysis, we were able to build on a bottom up basis really all the activities that are needed to be put in place in order to achieve the synergies. While one year ago we were.
You know.
We made more an approach top down, saying, okay, what we can achieve, what with a similarity of the result that we have achieved in the past in natural gas. Today we are here and we say EUR 250 million, that again it's a round number, but it's EUR 252 million. If you want, you can get another EUR 2 million on top of that. It's a true number based on all the details, activities, and risk result that we expect to achieve. What has been already achieved in 2025 is the number that you have seen, it's a combination of synergies and ongoing focus on cost cutting. From now on we will not be able to separate what it was if we were alone and what it is now, because now 2i Rete Gas is not an entity anymore since July 1st. You should look at the numbers as the total.
Our ability to continue to reduce the cost, our ability to produce synergies, I would say mainly in the traditional and digital part. AI will come later. It will not come. We'll probably see some numbers in 2026, but as you have seen in the curve of the graph, it will come later. I cannot tell you if you are asking me in 2026 what are the synergies, what you have. It's impossible because now the company is one company, the organization is one organization. I will be focused on what will we be able to achieve as a cost cutting and synergies in comparison to what was the baseline in 2023.
We have Francesco.
Francesco Sala Banca, congrats and congratulations for your results and the presentation. The first one is on your inflation assumption, especially for the RAB until 2031.
The second is what makes you think.
There's going to be a pickup in tender activity in the next few years. If there is any evidence, you have to back this assumption, or if something has changed in the last few months. Thirdly, you wish that there were more opportunities in the water segment, but there have been very few in the last few years. I wonder whether you think something is.
Going to change in this regard in the next future. Thank you.
The first one, I mean, we have assumed on the long run an inflation rate of 2%. Very simple. We were not so creative. We just flat the inflation to 2%. On the tender side, we have seen a 2025 that probably has been the best year ever since the launch of the tender. In terms of number of the tenders that has been awarded and tendered, 26 look similar. My point is, and probably you have read on the newspaper, my point is that as the Ministry Piquetto said, tenders process need to be reviewed. I think the point is, need to be reviewed in terms of size of the tender. Increase the size of each single atom, reducing the number of atoms. On the other side, having.
Let.
me say, an institutional authority, that authority is not the right term. A body that is running the tender, that is more effective, can be local, can be regional, can be central, but should run the tender. The problem is, as of today, there are so many that have not taken this as a clear commitment to run the tender and to complete the tender. What you said on the water services is true. You said the few, I would say zero opportunity. I will make a few to zero. Not only that, but each opportunity we need to look very carefully because we don't want to have an opportunity that is not an opportunity, but is a problem. We will look only if there are serious opportunities in the market. As of today, there is none.
On the other side, the plan will continue to deliver better quality of the service, fewer leaks, operational efficiency in the perimeter that we have acquired from the audio. We will answer to all your questions, so don't worry.
We lost the microphone. Okay, so Aleksandra there and then we go in the line.
Hi, good afternoon. Aleksandra Arsova from Equita. Three questions on my end. The first one, not to be too greedy, but maybe on dividend, since you provided an improved growth profile, faster deleverage. I'm thinking, is there any room maybe next year to further improve either the payout or the growth in DPS? This is the first one. The second one is maybe more curiosity. You're mentioning the potential changes to the concession regulatory framework. The timing of these changes is quite uncertain. I was thinking, on the other hand, is there any possibility or is it viable from an antitrust point of view to do further M&A in Italy, maybe many bolt-on M&As. The third one is a follow-up, a clarification on the unitary OpEx tariff.
You said previously, if I understood it correctly, that you assume it is similar to the one you have at the moment. If I remember correctly, the consultation paper under review currently assumes a lower X-factor, at least for 2026, 2027. You are more conservative at the moment vis-à-vis the proposal by ARERA. Thank you.
On the first question, you know the answer, so I don't answer to you. You know exactly I said the debt, I don't know how many times, I think. You know, on that point you can be flexible, but the point is that with that dividend policy that we applied over nine years, we were able to acquire gas. The answer is there. On the second one, there are many discussions about tender and concession. I don't think it is viable to extend the validity of the concession because the concession has been expired in 2012. It's strange too, because somebody is proposing to extend the concession. You know, the problem is different. The problem is tenders have been set 13 years ago. The process didn't work. I think we need to face this situation and try to solve it further.
While the tenders are going on, you will be scrutiny again by the antitrust and as of today there is nothing again on the market for the OpEx. We have used for 2026 and 2027, we have used the numbers in the consultation but then from 2028 we use a flat number higher than the ones for 2026 and 2027.
Thank you, Fernando.
Thank you for the presentation again, first.
Question is regarding slide in page 19. This is related data in line of cost savings. I mean I was doing a visual calculation there. Looks like you are getting around 50% of the cost savings already in 2020. My question here is this is something that you expect in 2026 or maybe more end of the year. I'm saying this because this could have significant implications of next year earnings. That is my first question. Second question I think that you say that you assume a flat WACC for the period until 2031. There I would like to know what is your expectation in terms of the activation of the trigger mechanism for next year. I assume that you don't expect it but wanted to clarify and a follow up question on that is France lost the AA rating in October.
I would like to know your opinion what has to be done in this.
Scenario and what could be the implications for the sector.
Thank you.
Always remember you refer to page 19 that this number is as a reference of 2023 cost. Part of that has been already achieved in 2024, part of that will be achieved in 2025. The 2026 is already a cumulative number that takes into consideration what was already achieved. It will be, as you see, mainly traditional in 2026, some digital, and they represent about, let's say, 40% of the total. The second one we have.
On the.
WACC we have assumed, as you said, flat period. The trigger will not apply according to us, also because France should be out of the reference country because they lost the AA rating.
They are now in A+.
According to the regulatory framework that set the characteristic of the countries to be compared with, they said they should be AA countries. France is not anymore AA countries. I think that is my, I mean, reading the paper of the regulatory and applying just in a very simple way, last year France was probably still considered because if you remember, last year France was AA -. They still have the AA. Somehow today, 1A is lost completely. They have A+.
Only.
Next
we have Sarah. Yeah, Alberto, we will write to you.
Thank you very much. Sarah Lester from Morgan Stanley, and I really do apologize. One more on synergies, and then I think we'll stop on the synergies. 2027, 2028. Tying a bow on, I think it's slide 15, 19, and 20. It feels like you're in the ballpark of 180 in 2027, 2028. Just doing a sense check if they're kind of sensible numbers. I also have a high level question on future mapping. You're obviously incredibly strong at extracting value from acquisitions. Would you consider expanding outside of Europe? Thank you.
If you go back to page.
Page.
I'm coming to page 20. You will see that by 2028 the majority of the senior J's, that are 180, are reached. Not all, but a significant portion of that. You're right. The second question is relevant to potential acquisition. I'm not saying anything about that because we don't have anything in our end. I always say which are the principles that drive us. First of all, Europe is our area of interest, of course, but the second point for which we look at outside Italy are, first of all, macroeconomic scenario of the country and then, even more important, the regulatory framework. That is what we did in Greece. At the time, macroeconomic scenario was not looking very good, but we saw at the time significant signal of improvement.
We strongly believed at the time that Greece, and we were right, would come out of the situation that they were. Now they are in a very good macroeconomic condition. Second element, even more important, regulatory framework was very stable, was clear, was similar to ours. Those are the two elements that we normally look at before considering anything outside Italy. Europe, of course, is the best area where we would like eventually to invest if the two conditions that I mentioned to you are met and there is somebody that is willing to sell. Of course, there is no one, there is no interest.
Hi, Chris from UBS here. Just one question on the financing strategy. I noticed that this time you're aiming for a fixed to floating ratio of 70 to 30 and an increased duration. Can I assume that that's reflective of your view on where interest rates are going, cost of U.S. financing for Italy and for Italgas going forward?
Yes, I think if I well understood your point, the strategy is based on the expected structure of the rates in the future. Of course, in this plan we are assuming a level of the fixed rate more or less stabilized on the current levels. We are expecting a decrease, a sharp decrease in the short term rates. For this reason, the ratio changed a bit from the previous 20 to 80 to 30 to 7, meaning that we will go more for, say, short term or variable rates. That could be also a long term fixed rate swap into a variable in order to take a benefit of this situation of the rates, and the combination of the two situations coupled with also the increased duration will result in the level of cost of debt that I have commented in the slide.
Next.
Hi, Alberto Antonio from BNP Paribas.
My first question will be on Greece.
You have given the targets for 2031 in terms of revenues, EBITDA, and RAB. Could you disclose what your assumption is behind in terms of WACC, inflation, X-factor, or any additional potential revenues? My second question will be regarding the BMFN opportunity.
Let me understand if you are investing.
Directly in any plans or how this.
Business works and how this is going.
To impact in your company in terms of maybe CapEx, potential additional revenues, or just the decarbonization of the molecules. Thank you.
Okay, regarding Greece assumption, if I well understood, we have assumed similar to the overall plan, flat rate, flat interest rate, flat allowed return similar to what we have today. There may be some correction over time, but we don't think this is going to be significant. That was the assumption that we used, and inflation as well. We use the same numbers that we are using for Italy, we use also for Greece. As I said before, the two countries are very similar today as well as the other. Regarding biomethane, what we have assumed in the biomethane, maybe Piero Lorenzo can elaborate a little bit more, is not that we are investing in biomethane production plant, but we are making the connection easier for them to accelerate the development of biomethane new plant and the connection.
Maybe Piero Lorenzo can say a little bit more about our approach in how we can help biomethane production plant to be connected.
Yes, as Paolo anticipated, we see biomethane not really as an opportunity to invest in directly, but as a gigantic opportunity for our country to address the decarbonization of the end user and consumptions together with the security and supply. Because biomethane, we have to remember here in the U.K. you have a lot of production as well, is made locally. Looking at Europe as a whole continent which is strongly dependent on importation of gas, biomethane production can mitigate this issue concerning security of supply. All in all, our program here is to promote the development of the industry in Italy, facilitating and making it easier to connect these plants to the local grids.
We do that, we have done in the past and we will do more and more by streamlining the design of the connections so that they cost less and less, and by investing in reverse flow projects. The main issue that can arise in a project of connection of biomethane to a local grid is the fact that the local grid at the exact site where the developer of the plant wants to install the biomethane plant is not fully capable of receiving the entire amount of production of gases in every hour of the year, especially when the demand is very low. Thanks to reverse flow plants, we can debottleneck the local network so that virtually we can, or really not virtually, we can connect any kind of biomethane plants wherever the developer wants to develop the plant.
Connecting a biomethane plant to a local distribution network is definitely less expensive than connecting the same biomethane plant to a transportation network which is operated at definitely higher pressures. They need compression and blah blah, blah. We have to promote, and we want to do that, the connection of biomethane plants to local low pressure distribution network. That is our aim. Of course, we reflect all these in our CapEx investment plan in terms of CapEx, strictly related to the connection of the plants. Pipes and pieces of equipment that we need to connect.
Ella, thank you for your presentation. Ella from Citi. I have three questions if that's okay. First question is to do with a WACC trigger. The WACC trigger, if it is triggered, can you just give us a sensitivity or let us know how the earnings would be impacted if there was a downside trigger? My second question relates to AI synergies. I remember in the last plan when you were discussing your EUR 200 million synergies, you said that EUR 80 million were going to come from AI synergies. In this plan it's more like EUR 70 million. Can you just talk about the difference there in terms of the EUR 80 million and EUR 70 million? My last question refers to the tenders. In terms of the 247,000 connection points that you're selling, you sold them at a great price, a 16% premium to RAB.
If we do a quick back of the envelope calculation in terms of your plan, then you have EUR 1.5 billion CapEx for the tenders to bring on EUR 1.4 billion RAB. It's like 7% premium to RAB. I was just wondering about the difference there. Why do you think the acquisition price is a much lower premium versus what you sold at?
The last question. We need to interact because it was not very clear to me. Let's start from the first one. The impact of a potential trigger for which we don't believe is going to happen is EUR 45 million, EUR 15 billion of RAB multiplied by 30 bps. That's the impact in terms of less revenues. AI synergy, which what is the difference? Let me say what we said is of corporate tax revenue. EUR 45 million is pre-tax. In terms of AI synergies, let me say that last year we have estimated between, I remember I said EUR 70 million- EUR 80 million, but it's true. We mentioned EUR 80 million because we thought the number came out from the fact that the impact that was generated, the digital transformation in the seven year previous plan that generated a certain number, would have been similar or better.
The AI synergy impact would have been similar to what was generated by the digital transformation previous plan and that the number came out from. It was not a bottom up, it was a clear top down numbers. Now we were much more detailed in building AI cases and say what is going to happen with the application of the AI. There will be more productivity, less personnel involved, less use of cars and other stuff like that. We were able to detail and the number came up to be EUR 70 million. I strongly believe the EUR 70 million is.
More reliable than EUR 80 million of last year.
EUR 80 million was and I always said was taken as a similarity. I have also to say that between now and the next couple of years other AI users will come up. I would take these as a floor. The EUR 70 million, I will not take it as a final number based on the knowledge that we have today. That is the best reliable number we can give to you with the time frame that we have envisaged, but it is going to be changed. Yes, because AI is something that is evolving. I don't think anyone in our industry, but in general anyone in industry like ours, has been able to predict with such detailed way the AI impact on the cost of the company. The last one I have. Let me just recap.
We bought what we bought at a limited premium and then we sold RAB EUR 280 million with a certain premium higher than what we bought. That's the end of the deal. Tender is another matter. You know, the tender we buy at RAB by definition because there is no competition on the value of their assets. That is the fact that has been reduced. The amount of the tender is only due by the delay. Remember that the number is made of acquisition of existing network plus CapEx that is requested to upgrade this new network acquired through a tender. The delay in the tender means that there may be some item that are not in the planned period anymore. If you delay the tender, also the CapEx technical caps connected to the tender may be delayed too. There is nothing to do with premium.
I don't know if I'm clear.
Okay.
If there are no more questions from the room, we can take the question from the conference call. The first question is from Javier Suarez of Mediobanca. Please go ahead.
Hi, many thanks for taking my questions. I'm really sorry to jump with questions after a long presentation. The first question is on the EBITDA margin that is embedded into your plan. That means an expansion versus 79%?
Okay, can you start again? Because now the voice is back.
Okay, can you hear me now?
Yes, very well.
Fantastic, fantastic.
The first question is related to the expansion on the EBITDA margin to 79%, which is the number that is embedded into your guidance for 2029 and 2031. The question for you is if you can help us to understand that expansion in the EBITDA margin that is going to be by the end of the plan, significantly different between the old Reti gas, 2i Rete Gas asset, DEPA, and the water business. Further detail on EBITDA marginality between your different activities would be very helpful. The second question is on the tendering process and what may be done to incentivize and to stimulate the process.
If you can share with us any proposal to the new administration in Italy to make the system more virtuous and probably quick, and if you think that what is happening or is the discussion for the electricity distribution concession is something that could be replicated to the gas distribution concessions as well. The very final question is on slide 60 when you are showing the credit metrics. There is a vertical, significant decrease on net debt to RAB and significant increase in the FFO versus net debt. The question is philosophically, what do you think that a company like Italgas.
Should be seated if it is a.
Correct interpretation to say that beyond, say, 2028, the company is maintaining some financial flexibility to capture additional opportunities related to.
M&A or the tendering process.
That is a correct interpretation. Thank you.
Okay, let me start. Maybe start, Frank, on the first EBITDA.
On the EBITDA trajectory in the plan here you are right, meaning that it is true that there is a clear direction in terms of improving of the EBITDA margin, both for Italian gas distribution, we are approaching at the end of the plan a level of 88%, basically. Starting from a level now that is around 80%, the same trajectory is also followed in parallel by Enaon, by reec, but on the lower scale, of course. You remember that in the past we considered Enaon as, let's say, like Toscana Energy in Italy, so a smaller perimeter with headroom for improving the efficiency. Also Enaon will improve the EBITDA margin at the end of the plan, approaching 76%, 78% more or less. The driver behind that, of course, are the operational efficiency synergies, revenue synergies that we commented.
Mainly we say,
yeah, I'm just adding two points. EBITDA is growing because the costs are going down. There is a clear difference between. You remember that we put the ambition of Greece and the ambition of Greece. We are on the trajectory of that ambition. We always said that because of the size of Greece, they will never be able to achieve the same EBITDA margin that we are able to achieve thanks to the size that we are having in Italy. Also, in Greece we are using, we have applied digital transformation. We will fully digitize the network. We are doing that. We are very close. By the end of this year we will complete that. AI application will be moved to Greece too, but the scale will determine, of course, a different, slightly different EBITDA with a margin that is probably lower than the one in Italy.
On the tender side, my only comment, probably Javier didn't hear what I said before. The proposal on the electricity distribution is to extend the concession, but concessions are in full force today. The comparison between gas distribution and electricity distribution is not comparing apple with apple, because gas distribution concessions have expired by law back in 2012. We have talked for many, many years about what we can do in order to accelerate the tenders. Our opinion, our position that is shared among the association, is that we need to reduce the number of ATEMs or we need to reduce the number of tenders.
We need to have a clear commitment by whoever takes the responsibility to run this tender, to run this tender, because otherwise you can even reduce the number of tenders, increasing the size of the ATEM, but if no one is taking the responsibility to run the process in a timely manner, then we will be sticking to the same situation. Two elements should be addressed: number of ATEMs reduced and a clear and committed responsibility to run the tenders. I think regarding the last question, what we have presented always is deleveraging over time. As in the past, we have always found a way to use and to invest properly. Eventually any additional fund we may have in order to increase the profitability of the company. We need to stay below 65%. That's no doubt about that.
That is our target because we want to maintain the same rating that we have with the rating agency. Apart from that, everything else, if there is room, we will try to use in the best way like we did in the past available funds.
Next question from the call, please. The next question is from Davide Candela of Intesa Sanpaolo. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my question. I have just, so the first one is with regards to these Nimbus meters rollout. It looks like to me that by 2030 and the year after there could be a little bit of deceleration in the rollout in Italy. I wonder if you can share why is that? If it is because you are reaching a certain point that no more should be installed or you're waiting for something and maybe some assumption behind the cost. You are assuming the plan for the rollout of those transmitters.
Excuse me, you are talking about rollout, but rollout of what
? Of DSMR meter.
Okay,
I'm sorry for that. Second question, really high level, with regards to the data centers and we've recently, we have recently seen a potential role of hydrogen with the fuel cell technology in the data centers.
I was wondering if you can just share your view.
Very high level, and maybe if there.
Is a role in future for gas stat booster in there. Thank you.
Regarding the first one, just to make it clear. The smart meters that we are going to replace are the first generation. I think Piero Lorenzo said very clearly. The GPRS, not narrowband IoT, not the latest that we are going to install. That's the reason why we still have 6 million. The combination of duality gas and 2i Rete Gas ready of GPRS. You know, the GPRS is a technology that the telco will probably soon discontinue. We are planning to replace them. The structure should be very similar. Let me say the impact on our profit and loss and depreciation is exactly the same that we had when we replaced the traditional one with the smart one.
We expect that the regulator, in order to face a situation where at a certain moment in time these smart meters will not transmit anymore because GPRS will disappear, will issue regulation to encourage the operator to replace the GPRS with the new ones. That's the reason why there is 6 million on that. Regarding use of hydrogen for data center, if that is the request, honestly.
I.
I don't have an answer. I don't know how to use hydrogen in the data center if that is the question that I understood.
Thanks.
Next question please. The next question is from Bartłomiej Kubicki of Bernstein. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much.
Good evening.
Congratulations. Thank you for taking my question, and I hope you can hear me well. A few things from my side.
First of all, on the regulation as such, as we remember, there's quite some volatility with regards to gas distribution regulatory.
Framework in the last couple of years. Unexpected WACC at OpEx cut back in 2019.
My question is, in your opinion, what are the key?
Upsides and downsides from the regulatory point of view?
Your business plan not included in the.
Business plan, and I'm not talking about the trigger mechanism, something which is out of the common discussion, including here the potential remuneration of the smart meters.
Of the existing smart meters and the.
Faster depreciation of those existing smart meters.
Second thing, I would like just a clarification on your leverage. Of course, you will delever very quickly.
I suppose more than 70% net.
Debt to up to 60% net debt to our interaction 2031. Just a quick question.
What do you assume with regards to the famous Rome concession? I remember there was always some kind of EUR 0.5 billion potential payment to keep the Rome concession for longer.
What do you assume here?
I mean, is it still assumed in the business panel or not anymore?
The last point on your synergies and efficiencies, will it cost anything? Meaning?
I know what you said, there will.
Be no redundancies, but will you be incurring any additional restructuring costs to get those synergies? Thank you very much.
First question is, honestly what I can say is that for mid 2026 and 2027, it is very clear the regulation. We don't expect no upside, no downside. From 2028, there will be the ROS taking place in the ROS. We may see maybe some remuneration of the fully amortized asset, for example, similar to what currently SNAM is enjoying if they keep in proper operation fully amortized, fully depreciated assets. That's one element, but it's not, so it comes to my mind.
Generally speaking, the ROS application or the Totex application started from 2028 for me, from the vision that we have, it could be an upside from an industrial point of view for Italgas in a sense that to be constrained, OpEx and CapEx will be one single box in which you really leverage your capability in managing network and deciding which is better to spend in OpEx or to spend in CapEx, depending on which is the best result from an industrial point of view. If I look at the framework, I welcome the ROS, the Totex framework coming because it will give us more opportunity to use our industrial competence in order to increase our results. I'm just closing on the third point and then I will leave the floor to Gianfranco for the ROM concession. I said no redundancy. We didn't have any redundancy in the past.
There's no cost associated. We don't have any redundancy. Our goal is today, and we have already started, is to start reskilling our personnel in order to handle different kind of process and different kind of activity. We don't have to wait for AI to be massively used. We need to do it now and we will do it now in order to be ready when the AI will be used in a more extensive way to be able for our person, for our colleague to take other jobs consistent with the new organization from one side, the new process from the other side. There is no cost associated, there will be no redundancy at all.
Rome on the wrong concession. The assumption in the plan is very straightforward because you know we have a receivable for around EUR 300 million in our balance sheet. Simply, the business plan assumes that this receivable is paid during the plan. Consider that the other important assumption is that we are assuming in 2028 the taking of control after the tender of Rome of the concession. This payment can happen before this date, or at the latest this date. You will have the cash in the cash position during the plan.
The impact of the leverage $300 million over $11 billion of debt is extreme, not meaningful. Exactly. The assumption is that by 2028 the concession, there will be a tender completed. Our assumption is that the Comune di Roma will continue to keep the ownership of the existing infrastructure by them. That is what is inside the plan.
Thank you. May I just ask one more clarification.
On point number one?
Please.
Please,
yes. Regarding the smart meters and the remuneration of the quicker depreciation of the currently existing smart meters, how confident are you that the regulator will be happy to allow you for another smart meters rollout while you have basically just few years?
Ago completed the smart meters rollout, which.
Costed you probably EUR 1 billion plus.
There are additional kind of investments going.
Into the network, additional.
Impact on the customer's bill. How are you, how confident you.
Are that the regulator would be happy to approve a similar scheme to what.
We had back in 2019, 2022.
It's not a matter to be AP or not AP. It's a matter that if GPRS will be discontinued, we will have 6 million smart meter not working anymore. It's not a matter to be happy or not happy. It's a matter to understand the reality and say, okay, the previous Mars meter that was developed and installed back 12 years ago now has to be replaced with new ones because technology has changed. The happiness should be there is a new technology that is much better than the old one. Of course, they have to consider the loss of depreciation. Consider, as I said, that the first smart meter was installed back in 2013-2014. There will be not a significant amount of depreciation to be paid.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Bart.
There are no more questions from the conference call. I reckon everyone here has been asking the question. IR team is available. Thank you everyone.
Thank you. Thank you for coming.