Good afternoon. This is the Chorus Call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Italgas First Half 2022 Results Conference Call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on their telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Ms. Anna Maria Scaglia, Head of IR of Italgas. Please go ahead, Madam.
Hi, good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Today, we will walk you through our first half results. I'm Anna Maria Scaglia, head of IR at Italgas, joined by our CEO, Paolo Gallo, and our CFO, Gianfranco Amoroso. We will address any questions you might have at the end of the presentation. I leave now the floor to our CEO, Mr. Paolo Gallo.
Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to this presentation. I will ask the operator to move into slide number two, where there is a summary of our first 6 months results. The performance reported in the chart is in line with the guidance that we just provided recently during our presentation of the strategic plan 2022-2028. Let me start from the revenues. Revenues are going up thanks to a very strong ongoing growth, thanks to the investment that we carried out in 2021, and the second strong contribution is coming from our ESCO activities. Thanks to these two points, we've been able to compensate even more the negative impacts of the regulatory, driven by the lower WACC and X-factor.
The two elements, the lower WACC and mix factor, correspond to an amount of EUR 31.4 million in six months. Regarding the cost, our focus remains extremely strong. While OpEx on a yearly basis went up, that is mainly driven by the ESCO activity, because I can show, and I will show you later, that on a like for like basis, we have seen a reduction in our cost. Overall, considering our cost of debt, we were able to achieve an adjusted net income growth of 6.9% in respect to the first half of 2021. If we move to the page, if we go to page 3 of our presentation, there is a presentation of the other element. Regarding the investment we spent in the first six months around EUR 375 million.
It was down around 11% in respect of 2021, fully in line with our guidance. Differently from last year, similar to what we have already discussed in the first quarter of 2022, we had a lower working capital contribution that explained the drop in operating cash flow. Gianfranco will tell you in detail later, when he will discuss the cash flow operation. As a result of the cash flow evolution and the payment of the dividends that we did in May, our net debt increased to just about EUR 5 billion, excluding the impact of IFRS 16. If we go to slide number 4, I will give you a more flavor about our investment. As I said, we have invested EUR 375 million.
As you can see, there has been a decrease in some of the items, except one, the digital transformation of our asset. On the opposite, increase in absolute number in respect of last year. With an increase of 6.5%, and is even more important because the growth was achieved despite the fact that we had a drop in the spending for the meter replacement, because there are only a few that are still to be replaced, and so the contribution is very limited. Development and repurposing of the network still attract the majority of our investment. Sardinia, you see a decrease, and that is absolutely expected. The reason is because we have nearly completed the metallization plan that we started in 2018.
What is new in this second quarter of 2022 is that we have installed 11 additional small-scale energy storage, and the overall regasification plants in the region have reached 64 as a number. 230 kilometers of new pipeline have been installed in the period. 175,000 smart meters have been also installed, including the replacement of the faulty ones. After giving you a flavor on the investment, let me talk about the result in particular the CO2 emissions. If we move to chart number 5, that is what we usually reports on the emission and the net energy consumption. Regarding the emissions of scope one and scope two, in the first six months, we have reported a decrease of more than 21% in terms of overall emissions.
The decrease is mostly the result of the strategy that we have implemented in the first six months. First of all, from a gas leakage point of view, we have decided in 2022 to prioritize in our search the area that were characterized in the past year by greater expected leakages. In doing so, we have also set the new times needed to find the leakages, but even more important to solve the leakages, so to interrupt the leakages. That has resulted in a decreased time needed to fix. If we look at the numbers of kilometer that we have inspected in the first six months, there is an incredible increase in term of kilometers. We inspected 26% more kilometers in respect of last year. We have already reached 47,700 kilometers.
Another important result that we have also achieved, thanks to the strategy that we put in place, is that the amount of natural gas lost per kilometer surveyed is nearly decreased by 50%, in reality, by 43.7%. If we look at the end of the day, the amount of volume leaked in respect to the volume injected, the number is extremely low, 0.047%. That is -22% in respect of last year.
That is the major contribution of our reducing CO2 emission, and the other two contribution that are not so big in terms of number, but are extremely relevant in terms of effort, are reduction of the natural gas consumed for heating, thanks to all initiatives replacing the heating system or making the heating system more efficient and the reduced of number of kilometers traveled by our vehicle, thanks to all the digital application that we put in place. All those action has contributed to the reduction of the CO2 emission in the first semester of 2022. If we move on the energy that is on page six, you can see again another big effort, minus 14% in respect of last year.
That, in terms of electricity, is mainly driven by the consumption of electricity in our water distribution system. If we look at the civil, industrial gas consumption, that is in terms of value, the major contribution. That is again, thanks to our effort to reduce the consumption of natural gas, the consumption of electricity, even as an industrial user, but also as end use. That is the result of the monthly review and report that we do in order to keep under control CO2 emitted and energy consumed, and all the action that, thanks to this review, are taken by the management, by the company to further reduce energy consumed and CO2 emitted. Now, let me get into the numbers of our profit and loss account. Let's move to page seven.
First of all, in 2022, we don't have any adjustment. While you remember that in 2021 first semester, we adjusted our number to exclude the cost of the bond buyback transaction that we carried out in February 2021. When we compare the same number of 2022 first semester with the same period of last year, I underline again what I've already said, despite the negative impact from regulation, lower WACC and X-factor. We recorded higher revenues, thanks to the RAB, to the increase of RAB, and thanks to the higher contribution from ESCO, from our ESCO activity. The higher contribution value around EUR 40 million in respect of last year. Overall expenses increased by EUR 80 million, driven by our, again, energy efficiency activity.
Regarding depreciation and amortization was up almost EUR 8 million, Gianfranco will explain you later, as well as the tax rate that reached the level of 27.5%. All this resulted in a very robust increase of 6.9% in adjusted net profit in term of adjusted number. Excluding the adjustment, the growth was up 10%. If we try to have a little bit more details about revenues and costs, let's start with revenues. We are on page 8. You can see that we have divided the contributor of the increase of the revenue among the different categories. The growth in the RAB and other tariff components contribute for EUR 25 million in respect of last year.
We have already pointed out the contribution, the negative contribution of the regulator regarding the WACC and the X-factor, EUR 31.4 million. EUR 45 million is other revenue, out of which, as I said, EUR 40 million is coming from the ESCO businesses. When I say ESCO businesses, I'm referring to Seaside, but also to the new company that we recently acquired named Fratelli Ceresa. The incremental contribution of the ESCO business is absolutely in line with the trend that we have seen already at the end of last year and in the first quarter of 2022. It is in line with the guidance we provided.
Let me also remind it that Gaxa, we stopped consolidating Gaxa since the beginning of May, following the sale of the majority of the shares to Edison. Another consideration that is quite relevant is that inside the other regulated revenues, we have accounted additional EUR 6 million for incentive for emission reduction in respect of last year. It is another clear demonstration that the strategy that we have adopted not only brought less CO2 emitted, less gas consumption, but also increased our incentive, thanks to our ability to find leakages and to fix the leakages in a short period, in a shorter period of time. The final comment is that the contribution coming from the smart meter replacement dropped by EUR 5 million in respect of last year.
That is because we don't have. We have only few still to be replaced. We have completed the replacement of all traditional meter with the smart one. If you look at page 9, you have only a different view of the revenues divided by distribution, meter replacement, other distribution revenue, and other revenues. You can find again the comments that I make it just now on the different lines. Let's talk about now the cost, and we are on page 10. As I said to you before, if we compare on a like-for-like basis, the cost of the first semester of 2022 with the cost that we incurred in the first semester of 2021, the reduction is significant, -EUR 13.2 million or 7.5%.
It was more than offset by higher ESCO cost for EUR 32 million. That includes of course, both personal and external cost. This number is consistent with the revenue increase, I mentioned, a revenue increase of EUR 40 million. This is not surprising. We have already announced that in the first quarter of this year, 2022, and we have seen that this growth is continuing, of course, mainly driven by the, what we call Superbonus or Ecobonus, scheme. If we look at the level of marginality that our energy efficiency company was able to achieve, our margin is in the range of 18%, so we still keep the same level of marginality as it was in the previous year.
Finally, we had lower cost for the white certificate for about EUR 1.2 million. The following page, in page 11, you have the same, a different picture of the same numbers divided between what is relevant to the distribution cost, so to our, let me say, core activity, and then you have all the other activity, mainly energy efficiency, and you have the details of the labor cost and the external cost, and then other cost of concession. As you can see, concession fees are decreasing, and that is driven by the reduction of the WACC that drives down the overall revenue based on which is calculated our, the concession fee are calculated. I will now leave the floor to Gianfranco Amoroso for the main part of the presentation. Gianfranco, please.
Thank you, Paolo. Let's move to slide 12. Our EBIT amounted to EUR 296 million in the period, marking an increase of 5.9%. This is the result of an increase in the EBITDA of about EUR 24 million as a result of the variance of revenues and OpEx already explained by Paolo before. Almost EUR 8 million were higher D&A, mainly related to the network and driven by the CapEx executed in the last 12 months. Moving to slide 13, adjusted net profit after minorities reached EUR 188 million, up almost 7%. Net adjusted financial expenses were EUR 26 million, only EUR 1 million higher than last year, despite higher average gross debt in the period, balanced by a lower average cost of debt, as we will see later more in details.
On the positive side, the contribution from associates increased by EUR 2 million, driven by Gaxa capital gain. We accounted for EUR 75 million of income taxes, marking an increase of EUR 5 million due to a higher taxable income with a tax rate of 27.5%, broadly in line with last year. Cash flow from operations was close to EUR 460 million and was able to fully cover the CapEx executed in the first six months. In addition to the net profit depreciation and other non-cash items for EUR 186 million, net working capital brought a positive contribution of EUR 75 million, which is driven by the positive generation of billing seasonality of EUR 188 million, higher tax payable for EUR 14 million, reduced by lower payables, higher inventories, and for the first time, higher Superbonus and Ecobonus receivables for EUR 26 million.
As far as the net working capital evolution, you might have noticed a reduction compared to the number reported last year in the same period. This was driven by the billing seasonality that this year has a lower positive impact compared to the first half of 2021. The difference of about EUR 80 million is explained by several temporary effects linked to pass-through elements in the tariffs that were already reported in the first quarter, and that will be almost reabsorbed by year-end. Net CapEx reduced in line with our guidance, brought a cash outflow of EUR 348 million, resulting in a free cash flow at the end of the quarter of EUR 111 million.
Financial investments include the net impact of the cash outflow to acquire the stake in Picarro and the positive contribution of the deconsolidation of Gaxa debt in line with the first quarter. Taking into account the dividends that we paid in May, all this resulted in a net debt increase of only EUR 114 million in the quarter. Let me now make an update of our debt structure at the end of this second quarter. We are on slide 15. In this six months, we have reimbursed our bond expired last January for EUR 112 million, and we have executed a new term loan of EUR 250 million, tenor 3 years. This explains the current split of our debt in fixed 89% and floating 11%.
The liquidity position at the end of June exceeds EUR 1.3 billion available on bank accounts with leading financial institutions. As you can see, our debt maturity profile will allow us to cover the financial need for 2022 and 2023. Next bond repayment is due in March 2024. Despite the current volatile financial market, we continue to rely on one of the lowest average cost of debt of the sector that now is less than 0.9%. A very limited exposure to interest rates volatility, and a very limited refinancing risk. Moving on the balance sheet on slide 17. Net invested capital reached almost EUR 7.2 billion, with an increase of almost EUR 93 million compared to end 2021. Fixed capital dropped by EUR 100 million, mainly as a result of the reclassification among assets held for sale of Naples.
On the liability side, consolidated net debt was EUR 5.094 billion, including the IFRS 16 impact of EUR 61 million, with an increase of EUR 114 million compared to year-end 2021. I leave now the floor back to Paolo.
Thank you, Gianfranco Amoroso. I wanted just to, before opening the floor for question, I would like just to remark some elements that are, according to me, extremely important. The first one is that the numbers in the first semester are fully in line with our guidance. The numbers that we gave during the strategic planning in June for the year-end are of course confirmed. I would like to underline that we were able to report a very strong top line growth led by RAB increase and by the energy efficiency activity, despite the heavy regulatory impacts, heavy negative regulatory impacts on our profit and loss account. Cost efficiency every quarter are surprising even ourselves. They are mainly driven by our digital transformation.
Cost reduction are coming from many, many elements. Some of them, we could not even think about when we started this long journey. Finally, we should have. Now, I can imagine that it's going to happen probably early September, the closing of DEPA Infrastructure should come very soon. We are at the last miles, let me say, where we are still discussing some points with the seller, but we should resolve everything by early September. Now, I will give the floor back to Anna Maria, so she can open the questions. Anna Maria.
Yes, thank you. Operator, we are ready for the Q&A session.
This is the Chorus Call operator. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch tone telephone. To remove yourself from the question queue, please press star and two. Please pick up the receiver when asking questions. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. The first question is from Javier Suarez of Mediobanca. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon, and thank you for the presentation. Three questions. One is on the big picture, and two are on the company numbers. On the big picture, I know that this is beyond the company management control, but I'm still very interested in getting your view on the likelihood for the Competition Decree to be approved before the year end, and the likelihood that this Competition Decree is going to include measures to accelerate the gas distribution auctions. I know that it's a very complicated political environment, but any light you can share with us would be appreciated.
The second question is on the cost cutting, that is, the company is doing a phenomenal performance reducing costs. Can you share and help us to understand which are the next managerial action to continue delivering that cost cutting? I was asking for examples on what the company management is exerting effort to try to reduce even further the cost structure of the company, because the performance is really impressive. The third question is on the contribution from the ESCOs and the evolution in the marginality for this activity that you are experiencing.
I'm mentioning this because obviously there is a high inflation environment, and I was questioning this may impact in this activity. Many thanks.
Okay. Thank you to Javier for your question. On the competition. Well, I'm guessing, you know. I'm not trying to. I don't have so detailed information about it, but I'm guessing that the schedules on the competition will be brought forward. Maybe I have heard taking out some of the most debated, let me say, topics, like the one relevant to some, like the taxis or things like that. If the competition law will be then approved, that is important for the recovery fund release of the funds themselves.
To me, again, it's important because inside there is the famous VIR instead of RAB for the municipality, and that should help the tenders to move forward. As a matter of fact, we did not mention, but I'm sure you have read about the tenders that we won the one in La Spezia with a significant amount of margin in respect to the second and to the third competitor that are very important competitor. On the cost cutting, as I told you, Javier, and I mentioned also last time, it's difficult to find, let me say, example because I need to find many of them because you don't have one single contribution to explain this cost reduction. I will make just a couple of titles.
You have seen in the sustainability report that we were able to reduce CO2 emission, but also the energy consumption. Thanks to the digital transformation we brought into our gas heating. That has not been completed yet. Some of them has been already upgraded, and therefore we are getting many result out of them. From the digital transformation of these gas heating, preheating, we were able to reduce the energy consumption. That means less cost, not only reduces CO2 emission. I don't know if you have noticed that the number of kilometers traveled by our fleet was reduced by 10%. That represent last year, in the first six months, we traveled 22 million kilometers. This year we reduced to less than 20 million, so more than 2 million kilometers saved. That is thanks to many innovation that we have introduced.
Thanks to the digital stuff we provided to our technician, they don't have to go to the office anymore. They have to leave from their own residence and to go to the point where they are needed. The application that provide remote estimation of the cost, for example, to install our new smart meters now is completely done online, so there's no need anymore by our technician to go, except it is a situation complicated to go at the customer site to evaluate the intervention. I mean, that is some of the example that we can bring in order to explain the difference cost. Another one that is much more recent, you know that we have launched our automated system, remote system called DANA, that we oversee the operations remotely.
That is going to reduce the number of inspection, annual inspection that we do on our station for to reduce the pressure. We have just started, so it's not implemented yet, this kind of reduction in terms of number inspection, but it's going to come. The more that we introduce the digital stuff in our day-by-day life, the more we are getting saving, for which we are also surprised every quarter to see the numbers. Related to the last question about energy efficiency activity. If I well understood, you were discussing about inflation that could impact the result and the margin of our activities.
Let me say that because all the activities should see an end by May, let's say in the next 12-18 months, I will probably say that 95% of the contracts have been already signed. Those contracts have already included, if any, and I'm sure some of them have included the impact of the inflation. What we are describing today as a margin is the reality. We do not expect that the inflation will impact our margin because the inflation we are already dealing with in our day-by-day contracts. I don't see a change in the months to come about the marginality that I mentioned to you of our energy efficiency activity around 18%.
Okay, interesting. Many thanks.
Next question, please. Next question is from Manuel Palomo of BNP. Please go ahead.
Hello, good afternoon, and thanks for taking my questions. First question is about the tenders, about the tender process and how the political crisis in Italy these elections could impact this process if at any point. Also wanted to ask you about whether the increase in interest rates could also have any impact on this process or maybe could even accelerate them. Second question is about the intention of the EU that has suggested a 15% reduction in the gas consumption to the different EU members.
I would really appreciate your thoughts about this, whether it's feasible or not, whether you would agree with this measure or not, if at any point this could have an impact on Italgas earnings, were the 15% reduction to be implemented, whether you envisage any type of change in the regulations or result. Many thanks.
On the first question, I didn't get the second part. Oh, okay. Interest. Higher interest rate. Okay. You know, how can I say? We did not see, in the past, any influence, unfortunately, by the government on accelerating or decelerating the tenders, and that is going to happen the same during this situation. The only difference is the Competition Law that was asked before by Javier Suarez. If the Competition Law will be approved, then we should expect some activity from those municipalities who still own a portion of the network and are willing to sell those networks. Regarding higher interest rate, I don't see the impact. In other terms, I
The only impact that I can foresee is, again, going back to those municipality who are willing to sell, and that competition law is approved with the VIR recognition also to them, then it's going to be a catalyst for some of the tenders. I don't see the interest, higher interest rate that can help or can block the tenders. Regarding the 50% reduction proposed by EU, I think the answer is more political. If I'm just looking at from a technical point of view, from a numbers point of view, as we have already said in the past, and has already been confirmed by all the activities performed by the government and by Eni and by Snam, we don't see the need for Italy.
I mean, next winter should be, hopefully, not so critical as somebody may see. That kind of measure should be discussed on political level. From a technical point of view, there is no need in Italy to seek a reduction. The impact, therefore, on Italgas, we don't see any impact on Italgas.
Thank you.
Next question, please. The next question is from James Brand of Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Hello. Thank you for the presentation. I had two questions. The first was just on the funding for DEPA. If you could just remind us whether you've locked in the funding cost for that or not, just given that obviously borrowing costs have risen quite a bit in recent months. Secondly, on the digitization CapEx in H1, I think you spent EUR 112 million. Could you give us a rough split just to help us understand a bit better what that's actually being spent on? Thank you very much.
On the first, I think, on the funding for DEPA, please, Gianfranco, can you take the-
Yeah.
The questions?
Yeah, we can confirm that for the funding of the acquisition of the stake of the shares, we have already funded it through a pre-funding exercise that we performed last year. As I was commenting before, we have liquidity in excess of EUR 1.3 billion, of which almost EUR 1 billion will be for the acquisition. We have already discussed with a pool of local banks in Greece the funding for the CapEx plan and the working capital needs of the company itself, so we have preferred to maintain at local level with already fixed terms and conditions to be confirmed, of course, at the time of the closing.
The second question, the EUR 112 million, you have around EUR 20 million are still the metering side. Around EUR 80 million are all the other assets, meaning the station to reduce the pressure, valves, pre-heating system. I mean, all the other equipment that needs to be upgraded to digital. In the past, the majority was the metering, now is the minority. We have another EUR 10 million that is relevant to processes. It's a soft spending, if you want. That is what we are spending in developing new application in the Digital Factory, the data systems or the system that we put in place to manage the network remotely. That is, if you want 20 meters, 80 the other assets, 10 the processes.
Okay, thank you. Sorry, could I just have a very quick just clarification on the answer to the first question? On the DEPA.
Yeah.
funding to make the acquisition, you said you pre-funded that last year. You pre-funded it and locked in the rate as well, or you just pre-funded bridging kind of facility and you need to lock in the rate after completion?
Yeah. Just to be clear, we have pre-funded all because we have the liquidity already in our accounts. We did, you remember, a liability management exercise, and we issued the new bonds. With the proceeds, we have kept these proceeds free for financing the possibility to have it used for the acquisition. We have already everything, not only the rates, but also the cash.
Brilliant. Thank you very much.
Welcome.
Next question, please. The next question is from Stefano Gamberini of Equita. Please go ahead.
Thanks a lot. Good afternoon, everybody. Three questions from my side. The first regarding DEPA, you said that probably the beginning of September you will sign the acquisition. That's a novelty because during the presentation of the business plan your guidance was still without DEPA in 2022. Do you expect also the discussion with the Greek regulator for new CapEx could start immediately after, so that by the end we could know about the CapEx plan in the forthcoming years in Greece. The second question regarding the shippers. What is the situation?
Could you elaborate a little bit, if you see some risks, on this point, for Italgas, that some shippers are in trouble, they do not find gas on the market, and so also some risk that they could not pay the fee, yes, the connection fees to you. The last question regarding your full year guidance. It is not clear to me why you still have this range of EUR 1 billion-EUR 1.03 billion, excluding DEPA, while in the first half, you improved by EUR 24 million EBITDA, and you are underlying that both on a regulated side, you are still experiencing improving in OpEx. On the unregulated business, the improvement is already there and will go ahead.
It seems to me that you have to record a negative EBITDA, you know, a decline of more than EUR 30 million in the second part of the year to match the lower end of this range. Could we expect that the guidance should be more in the upper range of your guidance? Many thanks.
I'm starting with the last one because it's easier. We try to surprise you always. I think I can see.
Okay.
We can go back on that, with the help of Gianfranco I'm responding regarding the first question on DEPA. Well, you know, the situation has become more clear in DEPA in respect of when we presented the strategic plan, is because the certification from the regulator that was somehow an issue has been overcome by a law that was passed at the parliament in Greece, where similar to all the other European countries, the DSO are not certified anymore. That created a simplification in the process. That's the reason why there has been, let me say, some acceleration from your perspective.
When we presented the strategic plan and we gave the guidance of 2022, we intentionally took out the Greek contribution because we didn't know at that time if it was September, October, November, or whatever month. We didn't want to put a number inside that was linked to a process that was completely outside of our control, like the certification of the DSO by the regulator. Let me say, we have been happy, and we have been lucky that the Greek government decided to align their regulation to the other European member states, so with no certification required to the DSO. Yes, sir, the answer to your second question is the same as the first question.
Yes, as soon as we will close, we will immediately start discussing the CapEx plan that has been already presented to the regulator, eventually to review it with him in order to align the CapEx plan of the three DSO to our view, our strategic view about the development of the gas distribution in Greece.
Gianfranco
On the second question, Gianfranco can elaborate in terms of guarantee that we see from the shipper, but also who are the shippers that are the majority of our customers.
Yeah. In our portfolio, of course, the majority of the turnover is made, as you probably know, by big players like Eni, followed by Enel and Edison. For them, the question is not on the table. For the remaining, as you do not have a direct exposure towards the shippers, but we can rely on a system provided by the Network Code that requests a guarantee, first demand guarantee, in case of non-payment or delay in the payment. We do not see a material increase in the level of risk to answer your question. On the other side, also some protection for the shipper has been set in the past six months by the regulator with the possibility to apply for the Bonus Gas.
That was one of the temporary elements that was in our net working capital in this period and probably will be reabsorbed by the end of the year. On the guideline, if I may, Stefano.
Okay, go on.
We get our first data in terms of P&L is out of the guideline because we have placed the acquisition at the last day, at the very end of this year, without any impact on the P&L. Secondly, there is a solid, robust performance made by the ESCO business that will probably be carried over for the second half of the year. Also the cost cutting and the operational efficiency that we achieved in the first period will be possible also for the second period. Having said that, we are falling within the range that we gave of EUR 1 billion-EUR 1.03 billion, probably in the high range, in the high end of the range. That's it, as you already said.
Let me add for the benefit of Stefano another comment that he did not make, is that there are in the first six months some elements that are not recurring, that you will not find on the second semester, like capital gain. We, for example, recorded for the sale of our real estate and for the sale of Gaxa. We have, as always, some tariff adjustment coming from the previous year that you normally record it in the first six months, so you don't have it in the second one. There are some elements that are contributing to the result that are inside the revenues that have appeared during the first six months and may not appear in the second part of the year.
Still, we want to surprise you always.
May I just, could you give us a figure what is more or less the amount of this, we can say one-off considering also the release of provision and so on that impacted in the first half and probably will be not repeated in the second, more or less?
Gianfranco, would you like to?
Around EUR 6 million.
Thanks a lot. Thanks again.
I mean, the capital gain, the release of fund and well, EUR 6 million-EUR 8 million.
Next question, please. The next question is from Emanuele Oggioni of Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the presentation. Good afternoon, everybody. I have two questions left.
The first is on the general situation for the gas supply next winter. In your press release, you said that a prolonged interruption of the natural gas supply in the distribution network could significantly impact in a negative way the operating continuity of the group. Considering that your business is fully regulated, I kindly ask if you can elaborate on this in terms of potential economic or financial impact. This is the first question. The second one is related to your ESCO business or energy efficiency businesses. It is true that in the next few months, by year-end, we probably have a new government.
The previous one basically was against and dropped the Ecobonus, the incentives on this intervention on buildings, on energy efficiency for buildings. What is your current outlook for 2023 for this business? Thank you.
Okay. Let me go back to the first question. The situation that we let me say that we understand based on numbers that are public, so there's nothing. I mean, you can run those scenarios with no particular difficulty because those are numbers that are common public. We don't see that risk during the next winter. That is the first comment. The second comment is that the market that we serve that are mainly residential and small businesses, restaurants, they should be the last to be affected by any cut in the gas supply.
You know that that exists in Italy, what is called contratti interrompibili, that are contracts based on which, based on the situation, the supply can be reduced or stopped for a certain period of time. Your vision is. I don't share your vision, let me say, as a general overview. Therefore, for the other reason that I explained to you, the market that we serve, we don't see any impact on us. Just to tell you, if we look at the first six months of 2021, even though we didn't have a very cold winter, the amount of gas that was distributed by our network was just reduced by 2% with respect to last year.
Without considering the difference in temperature, we didn't want that calculation. You normally, you know, that you need to adapt the gas consumption based on the average degrees that you registered during the six months. If we did it, probably the consumption would have been probably the same or eventually higher. On the second question, if we look at after 2023, and then I will go back to your question. If we look after 2023, if we want to reach all the energy efficiency targets set by the, either the European Union or our Italian government, we need to proceed in the, especially on the real estate activities, to increase the efficiency of our real estate portfolio.
After 2023, we will probably not have any more 110% Superbonus. We will have some other sort, from maybe, I don't know, 70%, something reduced in respect to 110%, and I have no doubt about it. We will continue because that will guarantee us to reach the targets in terms of energy efficiency that we have set to ourselves. Regarding this year and next year, well, we know, all of you know, that by the end of 2023, the Superbonus will end. In fact, all our contracts in this sector have an end by, let me say, the end of the third quarter of 2023, just to be on the safe side.
By the last couple of months of 2023, we should end all this activity, conclude this activity, in order to be sure to not to go outside the period given by the government.
Next question, please.
Thank you.
For any further questions, please press star and one on your telephone. Ms. Scaglia, there are no more questions registered at this time.
With this, I think we can declare this call closed. We really thank everyone that has been listening and participating into the call. As always, we are available for any follow-up you might have. Thank you very much.
Thank you to everybody. Have a nice afternoon.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over. You may disconnect your telephones. Thank you.