All on the first half. I have on my side, Mr. Gianni Armani, our CEO, and Ms. Anna Tanganelli, our CFO. First, they will give you the presentation, the Q&A section will then follow. Gianni, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Giulio. Good afternoon, everybody. Starting at page two, I would like to outline the main highlights that characterize the first half of the year. EBITDA increased by 9% year-on-year, and gross investments were more than doubled. A sound organic growth, supported by networks, waste and energy efficiency along with the contribution of renewables, supported this growth. The resilience is confirmed. Energy value chain was overall positive, thanks also to the capacity market outcome, despite several headwinds like extraordinary drought that impacted several businesses and government measures against soaring commodity prices.
Gross investment carried out in the period and the payment of dividends left to a net debt increase that remained at, however, under control, thanks to cash generation and the optimal management of working capital. Thanks to all these factors, we are on track to confirm the guidance, despite we are facing a scenario largely more challenging than expected. Moving to ESG, the results of the period are also very promising. As you can see from the slide, we continue to be on track and on some instances even ahead of the plan on all major ESG KPIs.
The improvement on our carbon intensity, now particularly district heating, and sorted waste collection activities continue to perform in line with our expectation, while EPC value of the building projects more than tripled, compared to last year. Finally, it's worth mentioning the 2% reduction of water withdrawal, which is a proxy for water losses. It was possible thanks to the increased districtualization activities that allow for greater monitoring and timely intervention in case of damages. Sustainable investments account for more than 70% of total investments during the period. Moving to slide four, which shows the key financial figures of the semester.
The EBITDA, as said at the beginning, was up 9% in the first half of the year, reaching EUR 563 million, thanks to the following factors. The capacity market contribution by EUR 35 million, stabilizing generation business margin. The organic growth amounted to EUR 20 million, the majority of which were EUR 12 million related to rebuilding activities managed by Iren Smart Solutions. The remaining amount is due to the phasing of four treatment plants and increase the margin on the network, despite the reduction of EUR 7 million in the WACC review of the regulation. Additionally, we had EUR 16 million registered mainly from energy and commodity scenario.
On the negative, as said before, we have to report about EUR 50 million of impact as a consequence of the drought. Anna will highlight better this element. The contributo di solidarietà, windfall tax, is fully booked in this semester, and the amount is EUR 31 million. The slight increase compared to Q1 estimate is due to the new guidelines issued by the fiscal authority in June 2022. Excluding all extraordinary elements affecting both 2021 and 2022, the net profit grew 8% year-over-year. The effect of Sostegni-ter decree, on the other hand, has been EUR 11 million in the first half of the year. The full estimated impact is confirmed at EUR 20 million-EUR 25 million.
In H1 2022, gross investments reached EUR 739 million, 2.2 times the previous year figures, of which roughly 70% is dedicated to development CapEx. Net financial position at the end of the year, at the end of June, I'm sorry, was slightly below EUR 3.4 billion, increasing by short of EUR 500 million versus at the end of previous year. Representing less than 50% of the total cash out from investments, dividend, and taxes. I now hand over to Anna to go through each business and the financial figures.
Thank you, Gianni, and good afternoon to all of you. Moving to the single business unit results, starting with the business unit network on slide five. As you can see from the chart, the rapid increase of water and electricity more than offsets the regulatory revision of the related WACC, resulting in an overall positive EBITDA performance year-over-year. As for gas, as previously communicated, our long-term strategy is to maintain a stable RAB over time, which resulted in a slight margin contraction versus prior year, linked to the corresponding WACC reduction. Overall, the impact of the regulatory revision accounted for EUR 7 million in H1. In the semester, we also reported EUR 11 million of one-offs, mainly related to tariff adjustments from previous years.
Overall investments increased by 14% in the period and were mainly concentrated in water and electricity, primarily to revamp wastewater treatment plants and to increase the resilience of our electricity networks. Finally, as already mentioned by Gianni, districtualization activities functional to water loss reduction continued also throughout the second quarter of this year, reaching more than 62% of the grid by the end of June. Turning to slide six, the waste business unit posted a +29% EBITDA increase year-over-year, reaching EUR 126 million, mainly driven by treatment and disposal activities. Such growth was the result of, one, a +19% rise in heat volume sold compared to last year, as shown in the chart on the bottom right, combined with favorable prices in the semester for both heat and electricity.
Two, higher prices in the intermediation of third-party waste, despite lower volume. Three, the margin contribution of the new plants phased in during the period, i.e., we have two biomethane plants, which in H1 produced combined 2.9 million cu m of biomethane. We have a paper and plastic treatment plant in Parma, and the new I.Blu's plastic treatment plant to produce BLUAIR in Fiore. As for collection, the slight margin reduction here versus prior year is mainly due to higher operational costs, primarily fuel and inflation, which will be recovered through tariffs over the coming years.
Finally, the BU posted overall investments sharply upward in this semester, 41% compared to H1 2021, and equal to EUR 67 million, mainly linked to the new organic fraction treatment plant with biomethane production in Reggio Emilia, the wood treatment plant for pallet production in Vercelli, and the plastic and paper treatment plant in Borgaro Torinese. Moving to the next slide seven. The energy business unit increased by 54% versus prior year to EUR 207 million, despite the severe drought which affected the hydro production in the semester. Thanks to an overall effective energy management, supported by a positive scenario, and the contribution of the newly acquired renewables capacity.
Heat continued to show a sound margin performance also in Q2, as you can see in the slide, as a result of a normalization of the related profitability following the contraction experienced over the last couple of years, which accounted for approximately EUR 25 million. This positive effect was partially offset by the impact of the district heating bonus, which will be recognized by the group to families in financial distress until end of August of this year. CCGT and Termo continued to benefit from the contribution of the capacity market, which accounted for EUR 34 million in H1. At the same time, the business reported a -EUR 7 million decrease in MSD compared to prior year, and a slight reduction volumes contraction linked to temporary cooling difficulties and maintenance activities.
The solar assets we acquired in Puglia beginning of 2022 contributed for EUR 70 million of EBITDA in H1, thanks to over 100 GWh produced. The good side of the energy efficiency business, i.e., Iren Smart Solutions, continued also in Q2, continuing to benefit from public incentives and from an increase in the overall construction activity. Last but not least, Hydro, which was severely affected in the quarter and overall in the semester by exceptionally lower volume, down 50% versus last year, reducing also revenues from green certificates. In total, drought affected our overall energy value chain by -EUR 50 million, including both the above-mentioned impact on the BUs, so the energy business units, as well the effects on our natural hedging strategy as we will see in the next slide.
Finally, the government measure, Decreto Aiuti- bis, accounted for -EUR 11 million in H1 2022. Moving to slide 8, the market business unit EBITDA performance in the first half of this year, and in particular of its electricity margin, was a result of two main factors. One, exceptionally high prices impacting unhedged volume, combined with a mismatch between actual and forecasted consumption profile. Two, the reduced hydro productions triggering cross-transactions, mainly in Q2. As for volumes, the strong increase in electricity sold to retail and small medium enterprises, +42% versus prior year, was mainly linked to client base acquired in Salvaguardia public auctions awarded last year. While the growth in wholesale volumes was related to opportunistic transactions carried out in Q2, 2022.
As for gas margins, the decrease was linked to a spike in unhedged volume associated with colder temperatures, in particular during March and April of this year, bringing us to purchase some volumes on the spot market at exceptionally high prices. During the second half of the year, we selected all contracts reaching expiration. We will carry out a repricing campaign to bring those contracts in line with current market conditions. Finally, strong increase in retail client acquisitions, with our overall customer base now at 2.17 million, i.e., +170,000 versus end of last year, of which electricity clients were +10% and gas clients +7%, also thanks to the acquisition of the retail company, Alegas, completed in April 2022. Let's now move to slide nine. We will briefly comment some of the key elements below EBITDA.
Bad debt provisions were stable year-over-year, as you can see, to take into account the doubling in revenues that occurred during the period, notwithstanding a relaxation of the pandemic crisis, which has impacted bad debts in 2021 and also 2020. We also released legal provisions in the semester for around EUR 12 million, following the positive settlement of few claims with suppliers and other institutions. I would now like to draw your attention to financial charges. Here, our performance was very strong. We remained stable over the period, despite extremely challenging market conditions characterized by increasing interest rates, as you very well know. Iren, on the other hand, was able to crystallize a reduction in its average cost of debt, which now stands at 1.6%, so down 10 basis points versus 1.7% of H1 2021.
Remarkable result. As for taxes, as already mentioned by Gianni, in H1, we booked the full impact of the contributo di solidarietà, i.e., the windfall tax, for EUR 31 million. Without this impact, H1 net profit would have been EUR 164 million. Stripping out also all extraordinary elements reported last year, it would have been up 8% versus 2021. Finally, on page 10, you can see our net financial position evolution in the semester, from December 31 to June 30, 2022. As shown on the slide, our continuously disciplined and optimized net working capital management was able to contain once again in 2022 the headwinds linked to the overall market and energy scenario volatility, a significant increase in our turnover year-over-year, and the impact of seasonality.
Net debt in the semester was further affected by the payment of EUR 165 million of dividends, as you can see on the chart, and EUR 130 million of taxes, with operating cash flow absorbing the strong investments made. For your information, the impact of the bills installment payment measure introduced by the government beginning of this year was approximately EUR 80 million, while the higher prices affected gas storages for another EUR 80 million. This last effect is expected to further increase in Q3 due to higher volumes of gas stored, but will then be fully reabsorbed between Q4 2022 and Q1 2023. One final important remark from my side before I hand the call back to Gianni.
Funding for the year has already been fully secured, with this year's needs entirely covered through quite competitive financial instruments priced well before the last spike in interest rates and spreads. I will now turn the floor call back to Gianni for a status update on our gas procurement strategy.
Now, before talking about the future and guidance, let's turn to page 11 to look at our gas procurement strategy and situation. As everybody knows, we are currently in the first pre-alert level out of three of the system contingency plan set to tackle the strong reduction of Russian gas import. In such a difficult scenario, where gas wholesale market is stagnating in general, the group has been adjusting the procurement activities in order to meet our obligations, supporting all our final clients. We have already secured almost 60% of total annual needs, of which 100% of the volumes of final clients, gas and heat.
The remaining share of gas supply will be secured in the coming weeks, by taking into account the needs of thermoelectric plants, which are intrinsically more flexible and which consumption profile spreads over the year. Moving to closing remarks, at page 12, it is helpful to summarize the main topic of the first half. Once again, the positive results confirm the low risk profile in our well-diversified portfolio of activities. Renewable execution plan is on track with 220 MW in operation or under construction, in line with the new full year targets of 250 MW. Financial discipline, sustained by a sound cash flow generation and the efficient working capital management allowed us to support the CapEx plan.
We therefore confirm full year 2022 guidance with EBITDA expected to grow 6% versus full year 2021. Gross investment to be EUR 1.5 billion in total, and a net financial position over EBITDA at 3.4x, as previously said. Thanks for your attention, and let's move on to Q&A session. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, we now begin the question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, please press star and one and one on your telephone. We got one question, so please stand by. The first question from Javier Suárez from Mediobanca. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon, and thank you for the presentations. Several questions. The first one is on the evolution of the supply activity during the first half of the year. The question is, what managerial actions do you intend to implement to maybe change the hedging strategy in the supply business? Or what other kind of actions you may take to stabilize the supply activity, the contribution for the supply activity? Maybe also through, I think that you mentioned that more the start of a new repricing campaign. You can give us details on what on when that should impact the EBITDA of the supply business. That is the first question.
The second question is on the net working capital absorption. In the slide number 10, you are showing EUR 150 million of working capital absorption, and I think that you are mentioning that part of that is related to the gas storage activity. Taking into consideration that you are going to continue buying gas during the third quarter of the year, and the reabsorption is not going to happen before or in full by the year end, why the company is maintaining the net debt to EBITDA target? What other levers are you consider to maintain that level of 3.4x-4 x? The final question is on the contribution from the capacity market and the MSD ancillary service market.
Still there is a positive contribution from capacity market minus ancillary service market. What do you expect for the rest of the year or by the next year? Do you think that these lines should converge, and therefore the capacity market, the MSD market, the total contribution should be equal or even lower? Or do you think that is still this difference between capacity market and ancillary service market should continue to give a positive difference? Many thanks.
Thank you very much, Javier . On the supply activities, of course, we have, as mentioned also in the call, we are foreseeing the need for a repricing campaign in the Q3 and Q4. These, of course, activities have been already initiated, given the fact that there is a three-month hiatus on the results, and we are expecting results mainly in Q4, but even in Q3. This is, of course, driven by the fact that we have been granting our clients much more convenient prices, on average 30% lower than the regulated supplies. These contracts are expiring, so we need to reprice those contracts.
Of course, the repricing, we don't expect a particular return since our repricing strategy is going to be in line with the market competition. We are also studying PPAs to support and to source even outside our production facilities. On working capital, we have had of course a seasonal impact of the storage accumulation that is of course amplified. It has always been there, but it's been amplified by the increase in cost of gas. This, of course, is totally being offset by the regulation, given the fact that we have a two-way contract that allows to cover the risk of differential prices between seasons.
On the other end, there is a transitory increase in the working capital that we included actually in the forecast, given the fact that in our guidance we included EUR 200 million of increased working capital, right, for this reason. Currently, we are experiencing EUR 150 million, EUR 80 million are from storage. Actually EUR 80 million are from clients that pay in installments. This is in line with what the regulation has implemented, and between EUR 70 million and EUR 80 million is the storage.
We are expecting an additional EUR 70 million in the last part of the storage season that will be reabsorbed in Q4. What else? Ancillary services. We currently have in our guidance we estimated the contribution from capacity market, basically to stabilize MSD revenues. We're not giving an additional contribution overall, but securitizing the MSD, we are currently experiencing a positive contribution from MSD, even though we have the capacity market in place. This, of course, needs to be monitored over time. We also know that Terna is taking active action to reduce the cost of service market.
Therefore, the market is becoming more competitive in this area.
As a follow-up, in case of a full disruption of Russian gas supply, something that is not impossible, how would you quantify the risk for Iren, taking into consideration that probably most of the EBITDA on the gas supply activities is done with retail customers. How do you quantify the possible negative impact from industrial rationing when it comes to gas supply?
I'm not able to envisage a situation in which the market is suspended, because in that case, probably the obligation of everybody will be rediscussed and redistributed. We have to look at any situation in which we are not in stage three in the crisis situation, but we are in stage two, so a significant reduction in Russian supply, but with the market not at full risk. In that case, we have been very cautious in sourcing our gas in order to meet the obligations that we have with our clients, reaching 100% of coverage of this without any exposure, direct exposure on Russian gas.
This, of course, is not a guarantee for everything because there is always an intermediary that might be exposed with other clients on Russian gas. In terms of, we, of course, selected our suppliers based on the credibility and the stability, financial stability, so they are all top players in the gas market. We are expecting that if the market is not suspended, that they will continue to support our contracts given the fact that they are not exposed significantly to that market. In addition to this, just to explain better, we are considering totally flexible, apart from the MSD needs that are marginal, the thermoelectric production.
Therefore, we'll be sourcing thermoelectric gas based on the availability of gas.
Interesting. Many thanks.
Thank you for your question. We got another question. Please stand by. The next question from Roberto Letizia from Equita.
Thanks a lot for taking my question. Good evening. I would like to go back for a while to the repricing campaign to final customers. You're all doing that, so I was wondering if you can give us some color on how much are you able to reprice in the sense that, I guess elasticity here on the ability to move the whole increase to customer goes down. Regardless of the fact that you're all repricing to the final customer, so not mentioning the churn rate, but overall the whole market will probably have difficulty in passing through the whole cost increase.
I was wondering how much do you think you can recover in terms of margins in the retail and how much you think you're gonna give up for at least one year or until full normalization in the current repricing? What's the sense of the feeling on passing on to customers the increase? Can you please give some more detail on the gas procurement? I was looking for some qualitative comment on the market. When you talk to the shippers today, what are they saying? What are they changing in the contracts? Are they avoiding to sign one-year contracts? Are they only shipping in the very short term? Are they asking higher and larger flexibility clauses? How is difficult today procuring gas in the market?
Have you been denied by some player, or are you able to find gas with no issues currently at the current prices? Can you give us the feeling on how, if it's becoming more difficult, the procurement on the gas side? What do you expect in terms of additional regulatory risk here? I'm mentioning, if you can, take a brief look on 2023, in the sense that, provided government doesn't make any severe intervention, how this environment is reflecting on 2023? How much is better for you, the current environment for next year? Of course, as I said, provided regulatory risk is not that heavy, and what kind of risk do you see from that perspective?
Final question is on a read-through that one of your competitors did yesterday on adjusting results for some of the losses on the stocks due to the gas procurement. We don't see anything similar here. Was wondering if there is any loss that you registered in your number from the procurement at current gas levels versus the average valorization of the stocks on the gas. Thanks a lot.
Thank you very much. On the repricing campaign, of course, we are expecting an important impact around EUR 50 million between Q3 and Q4. That is due to the fact that we have on average a guarantee of to our clients a 30% discount on the energy prices. This on average on two years contract. What we are not intervening on 100% of our customer base, we are intervening only on the contracts that are on the edge or are expiring. Therefore, there is a higher differential between current market prices and the prices that were experienced before the crisis.
The individual adjustment is going to be, of course, significant, but eventually in line with what is the current market price. This of course will be done and requires a significant effort on our customer care activities, but we have been preparing this activity for quite some time, and we are positive on the results that we will obtain. Currently, even market prices are still, some of our offers in the market are still the most competitive. In terms of supply, as a matter of fact, as I mentioned in the call, gas market is really stagnating. Even players that are leaders in this market avoid to actively seek for contracts.
Looking at the difference in coverage that we have reached, more or less 60% of our total needs versus last year, where we were well above 80% is an indicator of how tough it is to close contracts. We have experienced changes in clauses. This is, of course, something that we have to take into consideration, especially the exceptional circumstances under which suppliers may be not liable for not meeting the supply are enlarged. We don't expect this to happen in a situation, in a normal situation, of course.
There has been more concern about supply from suppliers to provide contracts to subjects that have direct clients linked to the contracts, so that higher regulatory obligations may arise from, let's say, not the unavailability of gas to their responsibility. This is the current situation. For that, we adapted our strategy, as I said before, in differentiating the obligations for our clients and for the company. We already had an approach, an opportunistic approach in terms of production on the thermoelectric production that was based on the gas spread margin. Therefore, we are extending this opportunistic approach also to the availability of gas, of course.
This is not a big deal, but it changes a lot in terms of needs, current needs in terms of gas procurement. We are still actively looking for other opportunities. In general, there has been added an extra margin for importers for this, I mean, all the different clauses and difficulties, and the loss of liquidity in the market. Moving to regulatory risk, no?
I thought you forgot.
I know it's going to be an exercise, but just give us your thoughts.
I think, I mean, you all can see that companies and people are under stress on commodity costs. This is definitely a concern, and it will be a concern for regulators and for the politicians. We have to take into consideration that this is not a situation that is there to pass away, and is not a spike in prices that has to be absorbed. This is a situation that will be continued in the next years.
Therefore, I'm expecting that the intervention from the regulator and from the politicians, if we're going to have a normal government, are going to be focused in trying to solve the situation long term, more than in providing a quick win, a tax discount or whatever it is on extra profits that are not there, that discourage investments. Because the real solution for this crisis is additional investments in changing the mix, energy mix and changing the energy sources. Therefore, additional, let's say, taxes on energy providers is going to discourage investments in the area, which is exactly what you shouldn't do.
In terms of losses on stock of gas procurement, we don't have to register nothing because we have registered gas prices at the correct sourcing costs. We have a two-way contract that is covering, using the regulation, we're not inventing anything, that is covering us from the risk of having sourced summer gas at higher prices than winter gases. Thank you.
Thanks a lot.
Thank you for your question. We are going now to take our next question. Please stand by. The next question from Emanuele Oggioni from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Hey, good afternoon, and thank you for the presentation. I have, first of all, a clarification on the gas procurement. I think I suppose your guidance refers to the thermal year, so including also Q1 2023, and not only Q4 2022. Secondly, still on gas in this case, retail energy supply business, I wonder how much is on the total customer base, on the total contracts portfolio, what is the part based on a fixed fee, so basically not sensitive to volumes, so the volumes are a pure pass-through.
In this case, you could avoid, at least for this part of contracts, to have a loss in the case of curtailment of gas supply. Secondly, another question on generation business, I wonder what is included in your guidance as regards the drought in Italy. We saw - 50% year-on-year in H1. What we should expect, I think the drought in Italy is worsening, so we should expect also - 60% or more than - 50%.
What is embedded in your guidance? Still on generation, could you provide an update on pricing for 2023? If you remember, how much the hydro capacity could be affected also in 2023 by an extension of the price cap on hydro generation business. Finally, I have a question on your projects on LNG fully authorized, you have a 50% stake. Could you update on this in terms of there is some news on this. Thank you.
Thank you. Let's see. The first question on gas procurement. The guidance is for full thermal year, of course. The 60% coverage we are talking about is out of 2.6 billion cu m that are our full year consumption including thermoelectric, of course. Therefore, we have a coverage of 60% of that demand. 100% coverage of the part that is mentioned, intended to cover the needs, direct needs of clients and the indirect needs through heat distribution in district heating. We don't have the coverage of the electricity production of our cogeneration plants and our thermal plants of Turbigo. This is still to be defined. We are working on it.
The energy business supply- What is variable? We have 75% of variable prices in gas on our clients, 25% are fixed. Of course, the repricing campaign is acting primarily mainly on the actually fully on the fixed one. The drought. What we have included, we have included a projection of taking into account the level of our basins, not to have I mean to have an average autumn and winter in terms of waterfalls. Overall, we are expecting to have 720 GWh versus 1.2 TWh last year.
In terms of price cap on hydro, this is definitely something that the government might take into consideration, even though actually the provision that they put in place last year was not that effective in terms of contribution. It's impacting on us on 50% of our capacity. There might be a positive impact from hedging that derives from the fact that the hedging volumes have remained unvaried, whereas the hydro production has been reduced, and therefore this should be included, but the authority is still working on this.
There might be an intervention next year, we don't know, but I mean, it's not the size of the intervention is not one that should impact particularly on our numbers. In terms of Gioia Tauro, as we mentioned, the project is fully authorized. It is already being granted un fattore di garanzia, which is basically a tariff for 64%. We are not currently available to build a plant with only that factor of guarantee, and that is the element that should be considered. I think that no rational investor could bet on the fact that Europe doesn't return to peace with Russia.
That is definitely an essential infrastructure that should be decided based on the general policy, I would say, not only of Italy, but of EU sourcing. Because of course every country and probably Italy is the one that could eventually reach independence from Russian import more easily. But if you account for the overall import in the continent, definitely you need to have LNG capacity across all the coasts, even to diversify risk in the network to supply central Europe. Therefore a strong infrastructure, stable infrastructure in Italy should be part of the Italian plans. Probably next government. This was too transitory, the government, so not able to develop a strategy long term.
Next government will need to tackle this issue. In the meantime, we are working together with the Sorgenia to develop and update the project in order to be able to award the construction contract as soon as the regulatory regime is clarified. Thank you.
Thank you. Very clear.
Thank you for your question. We are now taking our next question. Please stand by. The next question from Roberto Letizia from Equita.
Yes, very briefly, can you give us a net income guidance for the full year if possible? Thanks.
I cannot give you the guidance of course, because I don't have the ability to see in the future on what the government will implement. What I can give you.
Oh, just provided flat attitude from the government. What kind of net income would translate from your EBITDA guidance at constant, of course?
I can invent a guidance on the spot. We have not.
We never gave a net income guidance. We always stuck on.
My CFO is against, so I will not do something against my CFO. No, but.
I'll take the blame. Okay.
I'm not kidding, but we are confirming the dividend guidance of 10% CAGR growth rate versus last year.
Thank you for your question.
Hello?
There are no further questions at the moment, but if you wish to ask a question, please press star and one and one on your telephone. There are no further questions. I will hand back the conference to Mr. Domma for closing remarks.
Well, thank you very much for following our call. We will try to keep on track in the next future calls. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.
That concludes the conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect.