Hello, and welcome to Iren's conference call for results of the first quarter, 2026. I will now hand the floor over to Carlo Dubini Daccò, Head of IR, to begin today's call. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, everybody, and thank you for joining this conference call presenting Iren Group's results as of March 31st, 2026. The results will be presented by our Executive Chairman, Luca Dal Fabbro, and our CFO, Giovanni Gazza. At the end of the presentation, there will be the customary Q&A session. I will now hand the floor over to Luca to present the results of the third period. Thank you.
Good afternoon, everybody, and thank you for being with us today. The Board of Directors, which met earlier today, approved the results as of March 31st, 2026, characterized by an EBITDA substantially in line with the previous year, while laying the foundations for the growth expected in the coming months, allowing us to confirm the 2026 guidance, as we will see later. The first quarter EBITDA performance also stands out for the sending of regulated semi-regulated activities, which increased from 69% to 73%, up 4 percentage points, and the full achievement of synergy targets in line with the expectations of the business plan. Net financial debt, down compared to year-end 2025, stood below EUR 4.2 billion, thanks to a solid cash flow generation which more than covered external investments during the period.
Investments amounted to EUR 190 million, up 2% compared to last year. Moving to the next slide, we analyze in detail the main financial and economic results. EBITDA reached EUR 480 million, in line with last year, driven by organic growth following investments made in regulated network businesses and renewable generation, contributing EUR 4 million. The positive contribution from the optimization plan for waste material recovery plants up EUR 5 million, partially offset by lengthy saturation. Higher profitability in district heating, which, however, did not fully offset lower hydroelectric production and the slowdown in energy efficiency activities. Positive results from the synergy plan, which contributed EUR 4 million during the quarter, and increased competition in supply activities and the related normalization of margins.
EBIT amounted to EUR 212 million, down 5% due to higher depreciation and amortization and increased provisions for debt reserves. Group net profit amounted to EUR 129 million, down 5%, reflecting EBIT performance and a tax rate below 30%. Technical investments during the period totaled EUR 100 million, up 3%, and were mainly allocated to water networks, waste collection, and IT projects. Net financial debt decreased by EUR 4.5 million, thanks to the operating cash flow, which more than covered investments during the period. I will now hand over to Giovanni for a more detailed analysis of single business dynamics.
Thank you, Luca, and good afternoon to all of you from me as well.
As usual, we begin with the results of the network business unit on page 4. In the first quarter of the year, EBITDA increased by over 5%, driven almost entirely by the integrated water service, mainly due to organic growth, up EUR 3 million linked to investments made and the resulting increase in RAB. The overall RAB business in RAB reached nearly EUR 2.5 billion, up 4% compared to the previous year. Investments during the period amounted to EUR 82 million and were in line with the business plan. They were aimed at improving service quality through network modernization and efficiency improvements. Investments in electricity distribution showed a temporary slowdown compared to last year, which will be recovered during the remainder of the year.
Regarding the environment business unit on page 5, results were substantially in line with last year because, 1st, growth in waste collection activity was offset by higher personnel costs related to increases provided for in the recent renewal of collective labor agreements. 2nd, WTE plants reported EBITDA substantially stable at approximately EUR 30 million, slightly impacted by the extraordinary shutdown of the Poggibonsi WTE plant, which limited operations during this period. 3rd, profitability recovery in waste treatment plants amounted to approximately EUR 5 million. This demonstrates the expected turnaround and the operational improvement of these assets. This also confirms the assumption of an incremental annual contribution of approximately EUR 10 million. The improvement in treatment plants was partially offset by the lower contribution from landfills due to the saturation during 2025.
This trend also reflected in the decrease in waste volumes managed. On the other hand, during the period, we obtained authorization to expand certain landfills, allowing for additional disposals of approximately 100,000 tons, and we expect to fully utilize these volumes by the end of the year. The energy business unit on page 6 closed the first quarter with EBITDA of EUR 112 million, down 4% compared to last year, mainly due to lower hydroelectric volumes and fewer energy efficiency projects. Nevertheless, we benefited from increased renewable capacity.
Looking at the various business lines in greater detail, renewables, hydroelectric and photovoltaic, recorded an EBITDA decrease of EUR 10 million due to lower hydroelectric volumes, down 94 gigawatt hours, caused by reservoirs being practically empty at the start of the year because unlike last year, scheduled extraordinary maintenance work was carried out. This resulted in empty basins at the end of 2025. We also note the negative effects associated with the expiry of a significant portion of green certificates, down 30 gigawatt hours in the quarter and down 100 gigawatt hours over the year.
These negative factors were partially offset by higher energy prices and increasing photovoltaic volumes, thanks to the Noto photovoltaic plant, which has become operational and which, with the available capacity of 20 MW, will also provide a greater contribution in the coming quarters. Production for CCGT and thermoelectric plants was overall in line with last year. The merchant thermoelectric plant in Turbigo increased electricity sold by 7%, up 50 GWh, benefiting both from improved capture clean spark spreads and a greater number of hours with positive spark spreads. In fact, we continue to observe clean spark spreads improving only during delivery periods, which does not allow us to implement a preventive hedging policy. CCGT production, on the other hand, was flat quarter-on-quarter as plant utilization during winter months is mainly linked to heat production.
The capacity market and balancing services market were in line with last year, contributing EUR 24 million and EUR 4 million respectively. District heating benefited from an increase in unit margins mainly related to positive hedging dynamics compared to the first quarter of 2025. Today, the group manages more than 150 million cubic meters of district heated volumes, and we point out that during the first quarter, thanks to an effective commercial campaign, we increased connected volumes by 282,000 cubic meters, and acquiring volumes amounted to approximately 600,000 cubic meters, which will be connected to network before the next heating season. As anticipated, energy efficiency recorded a lower level of activity due to the lack of a transfer of tax incentives for new energy efficiency projects.
We conclude analysis of business units with the market business unit on page 7, which reported EBITDA of EUR 96 million, down 4% compared to 2025. This change is mainly due to the previously mentioned normalization of unit gas margins and a 1% decline in the customer base, which also impacted the reduction in gas volumes. Increasing competition in the sector, which led to a net loss of approximately 20,000 customers in last quarter, was addressed by implementing a more selective and value-focused acquisition policy. In particular, the group slowed down mass acquisition campaigns and especially reduced investments in web channels characterized by higher acquisition costs and higher churn rates, while continuing the development of physical branches, both in historical and prospect areas.
The group currently manages approximately 1,450 direct and indirect points of sales and continues to focus on the high quality of customer service in support of customer retention to minimize churn rate. To analyze the elements leading from EBITDA to group net profit, we move to page 8, where we note an increase of approximately EUR 9 million in depreciation and amortization due to investments made last year. Higher bad debt provisions of approximately EUR 3 million, mainly related to the environment BU due to the transition for environmental hygiene service revenues from a tax collection by the municipality to a direct billing by the group, which had direct effect on our credit. A stable cost of debt at 2.35%.
A lower contribution from equity accounted companies down approximately EUR 10 million at a rate that, despite the increase of the IRAP rate, remains below 30%. Finally, a reduction of approximately EUR 2 million in minorities due to the lower results for certain companies. This leads us to a group net profit of EUR 129 million, down 5% compared to the same period last year. We conclude the financial analysis, as usual, with the evolution of the net financial position on page 9. This position stood at EUR 4,177 million, slightly down compared to year-end 2025.
The EUR 45 million decrease during the period is attributable mainly to solid cash generation, which more than covered investment cash outflows totaling EUR 192 million in the quarter. Second, to the disposal of our first portion of tax credits accrued under the Ecobonus scheme. We note that by year-end, we will monetize additional EcoSuperbonus tax credits for approximately EUR 7 million. Third, to a seasonal decrease in net working capital. We confirm expectations for year-end net working capital to increase by approximately EUR 100 million, mainly related to growth in medium and long-term tariff receivables in the water and waste collection sectors. I now hand the floor back to Luca for the conclusion of the presentation.
Thank you, Giovanni.
We conclude the presentation by looking ahead to the coming months. Unlike last year, which was characterized by a very strong growth in the first quarter, this year's trend will be different. The first quarter, which as we have seen, was substantially in line with last year, lays the foundations for the growth expected in the second part of the year. In particular, the coming months will be characterized by the continuing growth trend of regulated and semi-regulated businesses, the recovery in profitability of material recovery plants for approximately EUR 7 million, the positive contribution from the energy value chain, especially in the second half. The positive contribution from the continuation of the synergy plan already launched, the implementation of planned investments with the increased allocation to water and luxuries networks.
The continuation of the synergy plan already launched. We confirm the guidance announced at the end of March, and in 2026, we expect a growth of 4% compared to 2025. Technical investments of approximately EUR 150 million. The EBITDA ratio, which will be stable at approximately 3.1 times. As customary for quarterly results, we provide an indication of group net profit expected to grow by 2% at year-end compared to 2025, including impacts arising from the Energy Bill decree. We can now move on to the Q&A session. Thank you.
Thank you very much. I would like to remind you that if you would like to ask a question, you have to press pound five on your phone.
The first question comes from Roberto Letizia by Equita. You have the floor.
Good afternoon. Thank you for this presentation. I have two questions. On the credit side, you gave some data about the components of the growth. And the 4% results is compared, is considered useful, and is a very important result for the EBITDA and the revenues. Can you give us a bit more bridge also on the quantitative sides on the components that will constitute the growth of 4% on the year and on the net profits? Power price are a bit on it. Can you give an expectation of what impact this can have on the remaining covers not made this year?
Also the power prices for spreads. To conclude, we can see the improvement of treatment activities, which were not so good during the last report. Can you please say us what is the expected trend on the treatment side for the next years?
Thank you very much. Yes, I would like to start by the covers to confirm that in 2026 we covered 70% of renewable production. We expect a renewable production of 2,500 gigawatt per hour. With about 500 gigawatts per hour that today are not covered.
At the variance of the price of a gigawatt hour, we have an increase over EBITDA of about EUR 5 million. This is our position concerning renewables. Concerning thermoelectric production, the coverage at the moment is very low, as we already communicated in March, because the forward continue to foresee negative aspects. If we had to finance coverages, the margins would be negative. We won't do that, especially because in delivery, as you have seen also in our results, on the for the first quarter, on the thermoelectric side we have positive results. We will have to manage a situation of spending on margins, in delivery, without having to do some coverages.
Concerning 2027, we foresee growth also in renewables production from 2.50 to 2,200 gigawatt per hour. This will be linked also to the development of the photovoltaic plants. As you have seen, we have the Noto plant, and in 2026 also other plants will become operational. Today we have covered 40% of this production, and we did it at a value of about EUR 100. We have an exposure of about, you know, 1,200 gigawatt per hour on 2027. The conditions for thermoelectric coverages are not there, especially not in 2027, because the aspects are all negative.
We foresee that if we won't be in a condition to distribute these coverages, in 2026 we estimate about EUR 3-4 per megawatt hour, because we see that thermoelectric plants are in demand, especially at some times of the day. We also got some opportunities just to improve the positive hours. With reference to treatment plants, you have seen an improvement of EUR 5 million in the first quarter, and we foresee that this improvement will increase during the rest of the year up to around EUR 10 million. This will not be a linear growth, but EUR 5 million in the first quarter and EUR 10 million full year.
Coming back to the first question, where will the growth be focused in the second quarter? Also during the second quarter the dynamics will not be fully clear. This growth is due to the synergies. As you have seen, we have 4 million in the first quarter, we foresee EUR 20 million in the full year. We have an organic growth linked to networks, but also to photovoltaic. In this case, as we say, about 4 million EUR for the full year. We also have the recovered 10 million EUR we were talking about before.
This is due to the dynamics of more marginality on more margins on the, in the supply chain, but also in the capacity market, which in 2026 is forecasted to grow by about EUR 15 million. It would grow from EUR 85 million to EUR 100 million. The capacity market is a very important aspect of these margins where we have full visibility.
Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Emanuele Oggioni by Kepler Cheuvreux. You have the floor.
Thank you. Good evening, and thank you for the presentation. I also have some questions. The first one is about the consolidation and the potential consolidation in the energy business unit.
Recently there were some articles on La Stampa, also mentioned in Iren, as in the potentials on the market. We are talking about over 2 million customers. Without mentioning any names, my question was if you are interested at the moment in assessing some of these assets, and if you're interested in growing by external lines. With our next thing, portfolio customers. This was my first question. The second question is a clarification about the hedging in 2026. It wasn't clear the price.
I have seen 70% of volumes, but I wanted to ask if you confirm the one under EUR 5 per megawatt hour that you stated in the full year presentation for 2025. Also clarification on hydroelectric production. Despite that maintenance, the first part of the year, there is a weakening in the Alps in Northern Italy also during the second quarter. I wanted to ask an update on this point of view. You already said that you confirmed this gigawatt per hour, but what is the possibility that this visibility will be a bit lower with regard to the target that you confirmed?
A last question on the market business unit. On the organic side, not the acquisition side. Could you give us an update because I have seen there is a 1% decrease in customer base compared to the year-end 2025. Could you give us an update on the competitive side for year in the market? Thank you.
I will begin, and I will then give the floor to Giovanni Gazza. About the strengthening of the energy supply, there are many industries on the table both on the customer portfolio side and on generation. We are looking at all the industries because our approach is not to leave anything aside.
Today we have to grow a lot on the organic side. If we had to decide, first we would look at the organic side and then on the non-organic lines. We are looking at all the industries without leaving anything aside. I will go to the second question concerning a confirmation of the price for the coverage in 2026. That's right, it's EUR 105 per megawatt hour and on 70% of the hypothesized production.
Concerning hydroelectric production, we have an important snow amount in our reference area, so the plants in Piedmont.
We are seeing that the meltdown of the snow is a bit late, so the production could be postponed from the 2nd to the 3rd quarter. On the year side, looking at the full year, our estimates are about 1,200 gigawatt per hour, and they are confirmed, also taking into account the rains that will come in the autumn. The filling of basins, due to the snow, gives us peace of mind regarding this forecast. We had a meeting concerning customer base, and about 30,000 customer this quarter.
This reduction is focused mainly on the geographic side, in the central and the southern part of Italy. Because we decided to change our acquisition channels. The churn rate and we foresee our customer base at the end of the year slightly stable compared to the one presented at the 31st of March. Our churn rate is about 36-37%, so we noticed a slight decrease compared to the first quarter of 2025. Competition, however, is noticeable.
As we said, talking about the results of the 1st quarter, we decided to adopt a more selective commercial policy, considering also that the investments to acquire new customers on some channels are starting to be very high. Here churn rate is even higher than the one I communicated as overall average for the business unit.
Thank you.
Next question comes from Francesco Sala from Banca Akros.
Good afternoon. Thank you for the presentation. I also have a few question. The 1st one is on the renewal of electrical concessions. Could you give us an update about the current situation and the trends that you foresee for the next few months?
The second one is on the improvement of the EBITDA margins for the treatment plants. Can you give us an idea of the drivers for this improvement? Is it in terms of efficiency, capacity or final prices that make this business more competitive? Finally, I wanted to ask something on the plants that will become operational in the next quarter. What are the percentages and where in Italy will they be sold? Thank you.
Concerning the renewal of electrical concessions, after the European court expressed their opinion, the Piedmont region decided to open a bid for the first concession. We are assessing at the moment what we would like to do.
In the next few weeks, we will consolidate our decision about what we want to do. At the moment, there's just a tender concerning a plant in San Mauro, which is rather small, 8 MW. We are monitoring the situation. We are discussing with the region. We hope a solution on the fourth way that will allow operators to continue with the current management, but also helping the local area in terms of lower costs on bills. In Piedmont we have a 7% production. At the moment this is a pretty liquid situation. Giovanni?
Yes, concerning the treatment plants, we have 3 types of treatment plants with different dynamics, depending on the type of product. We have a pallet plant, starting from the recovery wood, and finalized pallets. This improves the productivity because we will begin to produce a new line of blocks, and this will allow us to have industrial efficiency. We don't have an increase in prices because the market is in line with 2025. We have some plants that will become operational, in particular, the Gavassa plant in Reggio Emilia and in Santhià. We will have an improvement of incoming flows.
On the other hand, a reduction of the organic flows that now we have to dispose of in external plants. Because these plants are also functional to the flows that we generate with the separate waste collection. We have the other kind that is pertaining to plastic. The market, even after the beginning of the war, gave no important signal of increase in prices. There is a high competition of countries outside the EU. We have an improvement of 10% of prices, also concerning plastics. Concerning the photovoltaic plants, we have a plant for 7 MW that will become operational. This is located in the province of Reggio Emilia.
We have another plant of 8.5 megawatt that has become operational in the first quarter, but that still has no generated production. This is located in the province of Bologna. Overall, about 60 megawatt will become operational over 2026. They are all merchant plants with no incentives. In 2026, we won a tender for the photovoltaic plant in Rovigo for 150 megawatts, and this will become operational by the mid 2027. First quarter, first half of the of 2027.
Thank you.
The last question comes from Javier Suárez, from Mediobanca.
Hello, good evening, everybody, thank you for this presentation. I still have a few questions.
I would like to ask, first of all, a thing about the business supply. I have the impression that the business in Italy is becoming more competitive. Maybe the policy of customer retention will have to become more competitive. What are the measures that you are undertaking to face this competitiveness in the market supply? This was the first question. The second question concerns synergies. You talked about EUR 4 million synergies in the first quarter of the year. The target for the whole year is EUR 30 million.
I wanted to ask if you could give us an indication of where do these EUR 4 million come from, and where would you like to push in the next quarters to reach this EUR 40 million of target? The last question, concerning the estimates. I was surprised by the tax rate, which is lower than what I expected. Could you explain us a bit better the tax rate, and what should the tax rate be for the whole year? Thank you very much.
Yes, concerning the supply, we also see a more competitiveness. Our action is to give presence to physical acquisition channels. This was a strategy that began 2 years ago.
This brought us to 1,400 points of sales, both direct and indirect. This is a channel where we have seen lower churn rates, lower acquisition costs. We managed to have an overall marginality, also considering the investment costs. We have seen some improvements. Besides higher competitiveness that impacts the customer base, we also had a reduction of margins, a normalization of about EUR 6, EUR 7 of margin, a reduction of EUR 6, EUR 7 in margins in 2026, compared to 2025. Concerning synergies, we activated a cost management plan and a task force to support synergies.
As you may remember, we have about EUR 5 million in the business plan, and the EUR 20 million foreseen in 2026 and the EUR 4 million already reached are in line with the strategy of improvement of our efficiency. They mainly concern projects, about 50% concern projects on the network side, so hydro, electrical, gas, and electric energy, but also about EUR 5 million-EUR 6 million for commercial activities. To answer the first question, we have a competitiveness, but we are also trying to maintain the costs in our market business units. The market business unit contributes to these EUR 20 million for about one quarter.
Concerning tax rate, I will try to be very clear and explain them, but if you have any further questions, let me know. The tax rate is at 29.6% in the first quarter, and this is foreseen also for the full year. It also includes the additional 2% foreseen by the Energy Bill decree. This new amount has an impact of 2.6% on the full year base. Our group also has some recoveries that are very important in the tax calculation that were already made in 2025. We had these recoveries, but we couldn't monetize these anticipated taxes at 6% because the decree had not already become law.
We had to follow the usual IRAP rate of 4% instead of 6% or 7%. In 2036 we will have a negative effect of EUR 7 million coming from this additional 2%. On the other hand, we'll have results on the content side of about EUR 5 billion. These were not foreseen in the 2025 budget but will show their effects in 2036. To complete this clarification, I would also talk about 2037.
In 2037, we will have EUR 7 million for IRAP, but we will also have a reverse effect, negative effect of EUR 5 million that are the positive side of 2036. To sum up, the results that the group will have in 2036 are about EUR 40 million, but they are distributed in a non-linear way. To EUR 3 in 2036 and EUR 4 million in 2037 because we will make recoveries at 6%, but in 2028, IRAP will come back to 4%.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Davide Candela from Intesa Sanpaolo. You have the floor.
Good afternoon, and thank you for the presentation.
I also have a couple of questions. The first one is related to hedging. You talked about the power generation, I wanted to ask if you could give us more information about the supply side. If I remember correctly, in 2026 we are almost entirely co-covered, I wanted forecast for 2027 due to the increase in energy prices on the other side of the value chain, do you foresee any downsides? Do you have a sensitivity on this side? Concerning the centers, we have seen that the connection requests continue to increase. In your areas you have a quota of the demand, I think, also some available plans, for example, Turbigo.
Could you give us some more detail about how you will handle this niche of business? What is your approach? A last question about the volumes of central heating in the first quarter. January was very cold, so was it only a higher conversion on the electrical side in the first quarter? Thank you very much.
Concerning supply to complete the hedging framework. I would like to say that we have a 70% of variable and 30% of fixed. This is not a very high percentage of sales. Our portfolio is 70, 30%.
In this, 30% of fixed, due to our policy, we have a coverage from 95%-100%, so we don't have significant downside risk. The coverage is concern all the contracts for 2027, 2026 and 2027. We minimize the risks of downside on the supply for at a fixed rate. Before giving the floor back to the president concerning data centers, I would like to talk about the volumes of central heating. It's true that January was very cold, but February was warmer. We believe that the dynamics are also due to the war.
The anticipating increase of costs that in the consumption dynamics may have brought to a flattening of the consumption. I would like to stress that the volumes that are the structural indicator that are not linked to the progression of cold and warmer climate and to the monetary times were stable. Thank you, Giovanni. Concerning data centers, we had many requests, for example, in the Turin area, for several tens of megawatts. We are discussing about the plans in the areas of Turin and Parma-Piacenza. Our business model at the moment is of giving electric energy to data centers to recover the value.
We are not one of the best operators on this side because we have 3 waste energy plants and one of the larger plants in Turbigo, Lombardy. We are discussing of this project with the developers and we would like to develop this project, especially in our area.
At the moment there are no further questions. I will give the floor back for the final comments.
First of all, thank you for all these questions and for your attention. We are available for further questions and we would like to say goodbye to you and wish you a good afternoon.