Okay, so good morning, and welcome to Grenergy's first half results presentation. I am Rubén Gómez, Head of Investor Relations. First conference call with Grenergy, as I joined very recently, and honestly, I'm very happy to be here. The presentation is going to be led by our Executive Chairman, David Ruiz de Andrés, and Daniel Lozano, our Chief Strategy and Capital Markets Officer. They are going to take you through our business and financial review, and at the end of the presentation, there will be a Q&A session for sell-side analysts. I hand over to you, David, please go ahead.
Okay. Thank you very much, Rubén, and good morning, everyone. Well, I'm glad to, we're very glad to have Rubén on board, so welcome, Rubén, and I really hope this is the first one of many. Going to the results presentation, I think it's been a pretty good pair of, we've had a very good pair of results during the first half of 2024. It jump to slide number three. We, I think the results have been mainly driven by the asset rotation in Peru in the Q1, 2024. We are expecting more asset rotations at the end of the year, but in this first half, in these deals in Peru were very relevant, right, in the Q1. Our revenues amounted to EUR 192 million.
This is 55% lower than last year, but in reality, if you consider, we consider inventories, you know, we're talking about inventories of pre-agreed sale of solar plants, which are coming under construction. The total figure will be very close to EUR 300 million, so this is what we are roughly delivering in construction plans now for the year, around EUR 300 million per semester. EBITDA grew 43%, thanks to asset rotation, right? Our IPP EBITDA remains growing, but still in the ramp-up phase. I think Daniel will give you more details. In Peru, we got $150 million of U.S. dollar proceeds with EV/EBITDA ratio of 1.3. Right now, rotations I mentioned in Q2, but are expected before the end of the year.
Net income was EUR 0.5 million in the first half, versus EUR 4 million in first half 2023. Lower figure, right? I don't think it's meaningful, but anyway, mainly explained by FX differences between the periods, and Daniel will give you more information on the net finance review. Our CapEx, EUR 186 million , in line with last year, and good news, the fact that we are experiencing a very steep CapEx deflation in modules and batteries. Net debt reached EUR 736 million , implying a ratio of 6.6x and 2.9x in corporate leverage. This will improve, especially in Q4, with ongoing negotiations regarding asset rotation, right? Some highlights on M&A.
I think one of the main topics of this result is the acquisition from Repsol and Iberdrola, one gigawatt solar with the aim of hybridization in the north of Chile for a total number of $128 million. I will elaborate more on the rationale of this important deal for us. Basically, with this acquisition, together with the redesign from five to six hours in most of the phases of Oasis de Atacama, we are updating the figures from what we announced in our Capital Market Day in November, from one gigawatt solar and 4.1 GWh , to we are doubling the size of PV to two GW, and we are nearly increasing three times the potential of batteries to 11 GWh , right?
We will look at this more in detail. Regarding M&A for the rest of the year, we can confirm there's a strong appetite from investors about many of our assets currently in operation and under construction. Going to business highlights, well, I will review our solar platform, which is now reaching nearly 16 GW. This is an increase of 0.3 GW quarter- on- quarter, and very strong increase in the hybrid batteries platform, mainly, but not only, coming from the acquisition we made in Oasis of Atacama. The update of Oasis is, I think everything's well on track. We'll give you more information.
Phase 1, the factory acceptance test for the first phase have been concluded, and the batteries have been shipped, and we're expecting them to reach the site in early October, a few weeks from now. We will elaborate more on a slide on this, right. Concerning finance, very important milestones, we closed the project finance for phases one and two of Oasis de Atacama, for a total figure of $345 million. This is a record for us. We have also pre-hedged the Phase 3, we are expecting to close this definitely before the end of October with the same syndicate of banks.
Also, regarding other fronts, we also closed an important financing for Valkyria, EUR 175 million, for the plants that we will rotate in mid-2025 to Allianz. So for a total figure of EUR 175 million. And we have also renewed EUR 150 million of green commercial paper. Going to next slide, to our pipeline. Let's look at the pipeline. Again, total platform of 15.6 GW-15.9 GW of solar. Close to 22 GWh of BESS. That's a massive upgrade on storage hybridization, mostly in Chile and but also in Europe, right? BESS is really happening now everywhere.
We are very lucky to be in Chile, where things are happening first, but we are planning to replicate this, everywhere, everywhere else. Having said that, a very well-balanced portfolio in solar with, you know, three main geographies. Well, again, if we look at the next slide, we will see that, well, we have a very balanced picture on the left-hand side of the slide between the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. We nearly have very similar figures. But if we look at how projects keep advancing, look at the figure of advanced development projects, we are very close to reach three GW. That's a very important change from the figure in the last update.
If you look at the early stage, we have five GW and additional strategies, another five GW. The pipeline is maturing. Chile is very important for us and Latin America in general. Look at what is coming up, especially markets from the, like the U.S. and other new markets in Europe, and this will give us visibility on our revenues in 2026 and 2027. In hybridization, we have a very high percentage now of hybrid plants with BESS in Chile, but also we are advancing in some other markets, and we will see some sharp increases in the next few quarters coming from the U.S. and Europe, where I'm talking about hybridization, right?
The following slide, we are going to show you the update in detail of the business case of Oasis of Atacama. We start first with a look at how Oasis of Atacama was until now, until the announcement we made today. We can see that there's been a redesign due to the sharp reduction in CapEx. We have increased from five hours to six hours, as BESS CapEx is significantly below the guidance. We believe this will increase project's profitability, as we are moving more solar hours from day to night. So you can see that Phase 1, 2, and 3, we have increased the megawatt hours associated to those phases to those projects. We will remain with five hours in Phase 4.
This project has different PPA, and we believe it's better not to change. Phase 5 is closer to ready to build, and we believe we will also switch to six hours. So all in all, the first phases, the Oasis, will now amount to close to five GWh of BESS, right? Moving to the next slide, well, obviously, the headline is the acquisition from Iberdrola of one GW solar portfolio, but it's very important to explain to you what we are really buying and why, and what is the rationale behind. We've known this project for a very long time. It's we believe the largest PV development in the north of Chile.
It's fully developed for the first phase. It has an interconnection line, high voltage line of one GW, and that's something. This is really something. It took the previous developer many years to develop this, and the line is fully energized. It's in the best. It has the best radiation in Atacama. It's next door to our project of Quillagua. So we know that very well. It's very close to 3,000 hours of radiation, so that's something very unique. It's connected to the most strategic line in the country, Kimal, which is where the new high voltage, the HVDC line, will depart, will start less than five years from now.
So we are connecting this project straight to the substation where the main line connecting Atacama to central Chile starts, right? There are no concerns with communities or environment in this area, and it's a perfect flat land, so it is an area we know very well, and this was the first, the best development in the area. The project has 77 MW peak of solar PV in operation, right? And 923 MW peak in different phases of development. But apart from the size of what we're really buying is also time, and we are reducing the uncertainties. This is a massive acceleration plan.
Again, high voltage line of one gigawatt already energized in the best possible location in Chile, with the potential to allocate, to incorporate six hours of BESS, so we are talking about 60 GWh. This is potentially more than two TWh of energy a night, and close to three TWh, all in all, including the solar hours, and with the first new phase fully commissioned before two years from now. This project, together with the continued downward trend in BESS CapEx, giving us the opportunity to connect six GWh additional. So I think Daniel will also explain how we are considering to finance this, and how we are not planning to change our CapEx plans for the next three years.
Moving to next slide, we'll show how the new Oasis de Atacama looks like with the new phases. We again are moving to the initial one gigawatt of solar and 4.1 Gwh , which we explained outlined in the capital markets day. We are now moving to two GW of solar and very close to 11 GWh of BESS. At the bottom of the slide, we show well how you know the two new phases, Quillagua and Antofagasta, and you will see that Phase 6, right? We are able to connect and even before Phase 5 of the existing previous Oasis de Atacama. So I think this is good news.
Again, it's a massive increase, but it's also we are buying time to market with this build. Well, we are updating this slide. I think it's very interesting every quarter to explain to you in detail how we are executing with Oasis de Atacama, since we outlined this deal in the capital markets day back in November last year. Since then, during 2024, we have announced in January a strategic agreement with BYD for the supply of phases one and two. We have enlarged this agreement, and we just recently announced a new agreement with BYD to support the supply of batteries for Phase 3. In January, we announced the hybrid PPA for Phase 4 with an investment-grade utility.
We are now in the process in advanced negotiations for Phase 5. And as you know, the deal we announced today, we have been several months negotiating this deal with the sellers, but at the same time, we have launched negotiations to close the PPA for Phase 6, at least. And we're also working on several options for Phase 7, and well, we will give you some information. We have visibility. If you look at this summer, very important milestone, we closed the PPA. Sorry, we closed the project finance for phases one and two, with syndicate of five banks. We are replicating now with the same banks for Phase 3 and Phase 4.
We will, I think before the end of October, we will announce the project finance for Phase 3, and before the end of the year for Phase 4. Everything on track there. Regarding the shipment of batteries, already is on the sea, the first batteries we need for Phase 1, which will be on site before the, I think in early October. I'm glad to give you more details in the Q&A. Okay, and a final slide, just from my side, where we show all the numbers of Oasis de Atacama, which I think are very impressive. I went through most of them already. It's worth highlighting the diversified sources of revenues.
We have generation output, both solar and BESS, mostly contracted, but I think we also have some upside of the energy, which is not contracted, but it's merchant. And well, a very interesting price spread between day and night. We have capacity payments, so and we are very glad to elaborate more during Q&A. So thank you very much, and I give the floor to Daniel.
Thank you, David. So, moving on to the financial review, which starts on slide number 11. Total capacity increased to 950 MW , with gross additions during the year of 463 MW . That include Matarani solar PV asset, built by us and sold in Peru, Gran Teno, Tamango in Chile, and Elena, thanks to the M&A transaction. Regarding production, we experienced a 4% decrease in total output. This decline was primarily due to the disposal of our Peruvian wind asset, Duna Huambos. However, at constant perimeter, we grew by 1%. Load factor also was affected by the disposal of Peruvian assets. Contracted volumes increased by 10% and represented 73% of our total electricity production. Realized prices saw a 2% increase, thanks to the positive trend of PPAs, mainly pushed up by contracted assets in Chile.
On the other hand, merchant prices declined mainly to the pool price situation with H1 in Spain, and the no contribution from Duna Huambos. Additionally, on the right side, you'll find a summary of the main financial KPIs that we'll look into later. So moving to Slide 12, you'll notice that in the first half of 2024, total revenue reached EUR 192 million. Revenues declined by 15% year-on-year, but if we would have, s orry, but it would have increased by 30% if we had considered inventories as income from capitalized works, okay? So when we are registering the capitalization of assets that we are building for third parties, we are not including as a revenue, but as inventories. So that's the reason of the differentiation.
EBITDA rose to EUR 31 million, 43% increase, mainly by development and construction division. The asset rotation of Duna Huambos and Matarani Solar PV project generated nearly EUR 17 million in revenue. And in energy division, despite the disposal of the mentioned asset, the revenue of the energy division remained relatively stable, -3%, as higher realized price helped to offset the impact of lower output. However, the impact from this disposal on EBITDA was higher, -10% in the first semester 2024, compared with previous year. Finally, retail supply business in Chile achieved positive EBITDA, EUR 0.5 million in H1 2024, compared with -EUR 1.7 million in first semester 2023, and we anticipate that this trend will continue.
Turning our attention to Slide 13, we observe that total CapEx reached EUR 186 million. Similar figures to the previous year, EUR 187 million. It is important also to mention that this figure includes EUR 102 million of inventories, as explained before, of those related to the pre-agreed sale of solar plant that are under construction, such as Matarani, Tabernas, and José Cabrera in Spain. A significant portion of the CapEx was allocated to solar PV assets. 60% of this investment occur in Spain, and remaining 40% in Latin. An additional EUR 24.7 million was dedicated to development initiatives. On the right-hand side, we show a reduction in CapEx per megawatt in solar PV and per megawatt hour in BESS, attributed to the expansion of global industrial capacity, both in solar and storage.
Increased production level of necessary materials like polysilicon for solar and lithium, and other materials for storage. In case of BESS, lower demand coming from electric vehicle that is being allocated to our industry. Panels are now priced at just $0.09 per watt, and the current CapEx, excluding the interconnection line, stand at $0.039 million per megawatt. BESS CapEx per megawatt hour is estimated in $0.12 million, versus the amount of $0.2 million that we forecasted in Capital Markets Day, or our previous estimation for this year of $0.18 million for 2024. Moving on to Slide 14, which provides insight into the cash flow for the period.
Cash position in H1 2024 amounted to very similar figures from full year 2023 of EUR 125 million . CapEx has primarily been self-funded through asset rotation and project financing. Net proceeds from asset rotation in Peru positively impacted our treasury balance contributing with EUR 116 million . And, you know, we executed a share buyback program totaling EUR 36 million , equivalent to 4.3% of the company shares. It has been, it has been executed several weeks ago, and from those EUR 36 million , EUR 20 million was in the first half 2024. Now, on Slide 14, our net debt increased to EUR 736 million , primarily due to CapEx investment.
Our total leverage ratio increased to 6.6x in June 2024, compared with 5.6x in December. Regarding our covenant leverage, it stood at 2.8x in June 2024, very similar level to December, thanks to the disposal of Peruvian asset, as both projects were free from non-recourse debt, and the closing of the financing for Tabernas and José Cabrera, which implied achieving corporate debt into non-recourse debt for the CapEx already incurred. As announced during our Capital Markets Day, held in November, our investment plan for 2023- 2026 will be self-funded. We are achieving this through asset rotation strategy, which is already 55% completed. If we move to next slide.
It's important to mention that the current acquisition is not affecting the total investment plan. We are keeping it at EUR 2.6 billion. As David explained before, we are adding one GW of solar PV and six GWh of BESS with the acquisition. As well, we are increasing organically the number of hours allocated to the first-hour phases, shifting more energy from cheap solar hours to more expensive hours at night. The main moving parts that explain the same CapEx for 2023 - 2026 are the following, EUR 0.4 billion of CapEx reduction due to lower BESS and solar CapEx. Previously, remember, we were considering $600,000 for solar, including the line to the substation and $200,000 per megawatt hour for storage, that we have just updated to much lower figures.
We are pushing forward some standalone solar PV plants, mainly in Latin America, and some in Europe and U.S., as we are allocating those resources to by far more profitable hybrid solar plus BESS projects. There has been an increase of EUR 0.1 billion related to the redesign of Oasis de Atacama, extending the hours from five to six hours. Finally, there is a new EUR 1.2 billion related to the new phases of Oasis de Atacama. As we expect Antofagasta, the final phase COD in 2027 , there is EUR 0.35 billion that we have deployed in 2027.
With all this, we are maintaining the same CapEx, but we are increasing significantly the capacity, IRRs, the EBITDA, and in general, the value of the project of Oasis de Atacama. Finally, on the next slide, 17 . We are showing the same self-funded investment business plan, mainly thanks to the project financing that we are showing. Banks are now closing hybrid projects financing. We have proved it with Phase 1 and 2, and there will be more phases coming soon, and asset rotation, that already 55% of it completed, and we are still, in 2024 , two years still to complete it, but hopefully achieving that before. The figure that changed versus the announced one in the Capital Markets Day are PV CapEx, reducing a little bit from EUR 1.5 billion to EUR 1.45 billion.
CapEx in storage, we are increasing it to EUR 0.95 billion from EUR 0.8 billion, and we are increasing a little bit dividends received, as the project we are connecting will produce more dividends. To sum up, and to finish my presentation, we could say that we are allocating resources to more profitable projects. We are investing the same, but we are getting much more back. Thank you, and now let's move on to the Q&A session.
Okay, thank you, Daniel. If you have any question, please send a message only to the administrator using the chat available in the tool, and just let us know you want to ask a question. You don't have to write it down. Okay? Let's wait one minute until we receive all the questions. Okay, I think we can start. We have five questions, so okay, first one, please, from Flora Trindade from CaixaBank. Please go ahead, Flora.
Yes, hi. Can you hear me now? [audio distortion]
Yes.
Yes.
Hi, Flora. [crosstalk]
Hi, sorry. Sorry. Hi. First, your coverage there, I was just wondering if you can share with us the returns that you expect with this expansion? Then also, take the advantage of this arbitrage between night and day. But I was wondering that if in the near term, if competition starts to expand capacity as well, if you could see some pressure on price. If you can elaborate on that, it would be useful. Thank you very much.
Hi, thank you, thank you, Flora, for very interesting questions. Okay, we'll start with the last one, right? On our expectations for prices in the long term. Well, I agree with you on we will see that in markets like Chile and California and Australia, with a very high penetration of BESS in two, three years from now, where prices at night will have a tendency to stabilize. We're also looking at an increase in the estimation of prices during the day, so right, they will not get, they will not get, like, a flat base load. But we definitely, the load factor, as we know it today, will be very different.
We are really looking at that in places like California. Anyway, just keep in mind that with our PPA, we are living an initial period, full merchant, which could be like a year on average, then the PPA will hedge most of our energy sales. We're talking about 75% on average during the first 15 years. So let's say we have visibility on the first 17 years, and we're estimating the IRR for 20 years, 25 years. So we have a lot of visibility and stability, and I think it's the right way to do it. We also have the capacity payment at six for the first years, that might potentially change on the 11th. But I think it's giving a lot of visibility on the project. I agree, we will see a cannibalization.
I think the longer we hedge, in our opinion, the better, why we are basically following the same policy we followed with Peru. Going to the returns, we in phases one to four have an outlined project IRR between 11% and 14%. I think we are very close to 14% or even slightly higher in some cases. But the new project, we are expecting similar returns, right? We are in very advanced negotiations for PPA. The prices will tend to deflate since the capacity is gone down, but we are not seeing that basic deflation, so we believe we can maintain, if not increase, the IRR, and this is why we believe this is a fantastic opportunity for the company, because we can deliver energy as early as 2026.
Perfect. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Okay, next question from Bank of America, Alexandre Roncier. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and thanks for the question. Just actually, one follow-up on your comments, David, just now. When you say on Oasis five to seven, that you should see, you know, are equal to or better, is that equal to or better to the 11%-14% IRR initially targeted for, or is it the Atacama or the 14-ish%+ that you're seeing today with lower CapEx? That's the first one. Still on Atacama, I've noticed on the slide a little graphic update where the Phase 1 COD was actually at the very end of December, compared to mid-December, I think, in some previous slides. So is there some kind of a risk, perhaps, where you would see the Phase 1, you know, COD perhaps slipping into 2025?
Or is that, you know, not, not an issue, you know, at all? And then, you know, maybe perhaps you, you mentioned, you know, the pipeline, you know, going up in, in the U.S., you know, moving some TD, into forward to, to focus on, on the hybrids. About the U.S. themselves, any COD in mind for the 300 MW of solar you've got in advanced development, from the Q1, I think you've got also 200 MW of, of storage. I mean, I assume this is the build and own strategy for the U.S., and a very exciting market as well. So, so any kind of, of update on, on progress, there, would be super helpful. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. Thank you very much, Alexandre, and replying your question as well about the IRR, I think we, w ell, we are considering the returns for the new phases, at least in the high range of the first five phases there, w ell, first four phases, sorry. There are obviously some, you know, inputs we still cannot control. So when we for the first phases, the CapEx is somehow hedged. The PPA, the energy price is also hedged. Even we have interest rates as well. So, you know, we can give more accurate return information, right? The next few phases, at least there is a very high demand of energy at night.
We have the right plan, at the right time, in the right place, so we believe, the PPAs will not be very different from what we have achieved. It means that the delivery of energy will start a year or a year and a half later. For the first phase, you know, this is, the first phase was an operational plan. I mean, I think we have just plugged it right now, because we are now installing at full speed, the BESS associated to these first 100 MW. Most of the civil works are concluded now. I think we published on LinkedIn some pictures the other day, and we are now waiting for the batteries.
The batteries have been shipped already, have been tested, and they will arrive in early October. It's really up to us in this plan. What I mean is, whenever we feel that we are fully concluded, we can plug this, because there is no interconnection associated, everything is done. We just unplug, we do the work, and we plug it in again. So we expect that this will be operational. We will be able to sell energy from the end of December. Maybe the COD, I mean, the official COD will be slightly a few weeks later, right? And at the same time, we will try to accelerate the COD for Phase 2. I think the Q3 estimate we are giving there is slightly conservative.
We will try to move that forward to Phase 4, to Q2. For us, it's very important, right? Because in a big project of this size, every month really makes a difference, right? I mean, it could be, we could be talking about $5 million-$6 million in revenues in summertime, even more. So it's really something. So we will try to accelerate the more we can, the interconnection of all phases, right? Because there's a lot at stake. And talking about the U.S., I think, okay, we're talking a lot about the Oasis of Atacama now. I think next year, this time, we will be talking a lot about the U.S., is the next big thing for us.
I would say the next big things for the company are, apart from Chile and the rest of Atacama, on one side, this huge boom of BESS everywhere, and we will start talking about and giving visibility on standalone projects as well, but also the U.S., right? And if you look at the advanced projects in the U.S., I think this is in Slide 20, I'm showing. We have three projects, Beaver Creek, Shubuta, and Creed, where I think we will be announcing PPAs very, very soon, and we will give visibility. If you look at the COD, in some cases, we're talking about late 2028, mid-2029. Creed is definitely faster, right? And I think we'll give visibility on these few PPAs, but it's a very exciting market at the moment, right?
Obviously, we are also waiting for the results on the elections, on whether there is any minor change to the IRA. We are not expecting major changes, even if Trump wins. This is the idea, but anyway, we're gonna be very busy with Oasis de Atacama, and also with the M&A activity. But definitely from Q1 next year, we will have a very strong focus in the U.S., and it's a very exciting market, mainly due to the driver of data centers and the acceleration and this unprecedented source of demand.
Okay, please, next question from- [crosstalk]
Sorry. Sorry. If I may, just to mention, I know you've seen that, regarding returns, well, as David said, it has improved since November last year. If you, I think you have main KPIs to build that model. You can always contact our IR team, we can help you to calculate how has been that improvement.
Okay, next question from RBC. Please, Fernando, go ahead.
Thank you very much for the presentation and for taking my questions, no? So a little bit related to the returns, no? So maybe if you can update us, you know, what is the evolution of spreads, daily spreads that you are seeing in Chile between day and night hours? And related to that, I mean, you were putting a guidance of an EBITDA of running rate, if I don't remember wrong, of around EUR 300 million for EBITDA in 2026. Taking into account that you are doing now much more for the, for the same, I don't know if you will like to update that guidance.
And then the second question is on asset sales, no? I think that there are I guess two main options that will be Ayora from Valkyria or maybe one of the phases of Atacama, no? What can we expect in the next months of 2024 and 2025 in terms of asset sales to finance all this plan, no? Thank you.
Okay. Hi, Fernando, thank you, thank you very much for all your questions, and I hope you are fine. Okay, I was looking at the last report we get, the daily report we get of prices, right? That's the internal report we get every week, in every market where we are. If we look at the case of Chile, during this year, so far in Atacama, on average, the solar prices have been $11.76, so nearly $12. So that's very, very low prices, and that's not including, considering the capacity payment we face. And the net prices are $98, okay? And in central Chile, we're talking about $19.33, nearly $20, during the day on average, and $93.72 at night.
So that gives you an idea of the current spread that we have in Chile. We will explain why is this happening in Chile now. Well, because these very high prices, they are here at night, until we don't see a lot of BESS getting into the system. You know, thermal plants are setting the price, and they need to be turned on, and that's systemic now. And that's if you put together with the high radiation, so it's perfect conditions for cycling the batteries, plus this spread, plus capacity payment. It's the perfect market now. And again, I say maybe together with California or Australia for the massive deployment of BESS, and this is getting accelerated with the reduction of CapEx, right? This is really the situation.
This is what helps us to offer hybrid premium PPAs and secure the off-takers, hedge price for prices at night, right? That, as I mentioned before to Flora, eventually will change, but it will take a while. And we are in a very good position to secure PPAs for 15 years, which is basically what we are doing. Regarding the EBITDA guidance, obviously I cannot give a new guidance right now. I think we will update that, maybe in November, right? Where we will give the strategic visibility on 2027, and we will update our guidance for 2026, and we'll give the guidance for 2027.
Well, as Daniel mentioned, we are basically the whole idea about buying these spreads in Chile is that we can remain with the same CapEx. Some of the targets for 2026 coming from the U.S. and European markets will be moved to maybe first semester or 2027. Instead, we will have these new project with way higher returns. So obviously, we, I think we are doing this for the good, and we will also have possibilities to accelerate the EBITDA coming from build and sell. So I think it's good news as a whole for the company, and this will have a reflection on our targets for 2026 and 2027. I think that's it, Fernando. I didn't write more questions or maybe, I, I'm not sure.
I think there was a last question, but I maybe didn't write it down. Yeah, the... Yeah, okay. Daniel?
We have some more analysts to ask, just seven minutes. So,
Okay, but anyway, we, you know, Fernando, where we are, so very glad to elaborate more.
Okay, thank you. Next question from Barclays, please. Nuno, go ahead.
Hey, good morning, everyone. Congratulations for the great results. Perhaps three questions from me, if that's okay? So the first one is, with this new PV portfolio in Chile, especially for Phase 6 , Phase 7 of Oasis Atacama, can you give us an update on your EBITDA run rate in the medium term? I guess you would have a higher EBITDA run rate, right? Can you give us an update on that? And number two is on very near-term asset sales. Are you guys expecting any sales to be announced for the rest of the year? Any guidance will be good. And then number three, on net debt target, and just wonder, with all the updates yesterday, and do you have any view, what sort of level of leverage do you want to achieve? Thank you.
Hi, Nuno, and thank you for your very interesting questions, right. Well, as I mentioned before to Fernando, I cannot give you a new guidance on EBITDA, and not update that. But if you remember, and you have most of the information from Oasis de Atacama, we had a run rate EBITDA aspect of, I think, around EUR 200 million, and this plan, this we are buying, is 1,000 compared to 800, so it has more volume. Maybe the prices of PPAs will be slightly lower, but all in all, I think can give you an idea of the size of the new animal. And more importantly, we have the opportunity to rotate assets. In our strategic plan, we were considering a rotation in 2026.
With this new project in hand, we have the opportunity to rotate faster some of the initial projects in Chile. We, as I mentioned, are aware that we have a big concentration in Chile right now, and we will work very hard in the next two years to diversify our footprint in other markets, mainly the U.S., but also there are fantastic opportunities for BESS in Europe, right? This will be the main driver, and I think this new project is an opportunity for an acceleration of also of M&A, coming mainly from Chile. We have also received some approaches for our portfolio in Colombia, and, well, we're working on it. I think definitely something will happen before the end of this year. Yeah, I think for the net debt, I leave you... Yeah, the third question, Daniel, maybe you will reply- [crosstalk]
Yes.
Better than me.
Okay, perfect. Nash, we have, we are not providing guidance for net debt. We have a target for corporate covenant of 3.5x . Right now we are in 2.9x . You, b ear in mind that every time we are doing an M&A transaction, leverage moves down rapidly. Okay? So remember that in the time being, we have already achieved a minimum of one point three times EV invested capital for our assets. Depending on the one that you are considering and when exactly that is happening, that will move leverage down quickly. As it is not recurrent, unfortunately, we cannot tell it exactly when we are gonna close the deal.
But as more M&A is coming in two thousand twenty-four and two thousand twenty-five, as well onwards, you will see that moving down, as long as we can keep this M&A and EBITDA as well coming from our portfolio.
Okay. Okay, so please, if you don't mind, limit your... to one question per analyst, okay? Because we are running out of time. Maybe we are going to extend 10 or 15 minutes more. So next question comes from Jorge Guimarães, from JB Capital. Please go ahead.
Please, one question. I think we are gonna extend ten more minutes the presentation, but, one question, please.
Hi, good morning. So my question is related with the Chilean regulatory risk. Can you elaborate on what is at risk with the current regulation or revision of regulation? Is it PMGDs, capacity payments, or all of them, or neither of them? And what could be the timetables for the new regulation to be out? Thank you very much.
Okay, thank you. Thank you for the question. The announcement made at the end of July by the Chilean government by the new project of law affects only the PMGDs. It is trying to create a new tax on PMGDs, just on PMGDs. That's absolutely nothing to do with capacity payment. Chile is based on capacity payment. It has been there forever, and it's nothing to do with this. If they announce this project, we believe it's a negative project, even if it affects only the PMGDs. Things you know have never happened before in Chile. We believe that like many other reforms that this government has tried to do in the last few years, they have one year more in office.
I don't think it will get through, since they don't have a majority, both in the Senate and in the Congress, right? And so far, this is the information we are getting, so we don't think it will eventually happen. If it happens, for any reason, the impact in energy will be fairly limited, right? We currently have 140 MW of PV only, right? No batteries. This only affects 140 PMGDs that we now have. These have been financed by Natixis, fully financed. And the impact in our EBITDA of this transition tax that they are willing to implement will be between EUR 2 million and EUR 6 million in revenues per year, right? But again, we don't believe this will finally happen.
And if it happens, we'll have a very limited impact, and it will be reduced quite a lot.
Okay, next question from Berenberg, Henry Tarr, please go ahead.
Hi there, and thanks for taking my question. It's mainly on the CapEx side. So we're seeing lower costs obviously coming through for storage and for solar. What are you able to? You know, does that apply across the whole of Atacama, or have you already committed, I would guess, for the first phases of it to a particular CapEx? I guess that's the first question. And then on the battery storage CapEx numbers, I guess this is just purely lower costs coming through from BYD. Is that right? And then I know I'm supposed to limit myself to one question, but just, if you, if there is time, if you could comment on the appetite for asset sales, that you see today, that would be great. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you, Henry. I tried to be very concise in the reply of the question. Okay, about the hedge, you know, how we hedge our new CapEx, that's something. The golden rule for us is that we don't hedge, or we don't buy materials, until we have secured a project or secured a PPA, right? Otherwise, I think we will be speculating, right? There's now a big temptation to say, "Okay, let's hedge the cost of the materials for the next phases of Oasis de Atacama." But eventually, we rather prefer to do that when the PPA is fully secure, and we have no doubts that this project will get under construction, right? Right now, we have hedged, fully hedged phases one to three of Oasis de Atacama.
We are very close to hedging Phase 4, and I think we will reveal the name of the. We are working as you know with BYD for first three phases. We might be working with BYD, or we are working with. We're also having conversations with other majors, like CATL, C-A-T-L, which is a very good candidate, and other big names in the storage manufacturing, right? The industry is really active right now, as Daniel mentioned. You know, since the electric vehicle is lagging behind and is not growing as quick as expected, a lot of activity and production capacity is moving to stationary, right? To the type of projects we or BESS we buy.
Also this is a fantastic news, because it's consolidating the industry, and it's creating new players, right? We have the two big names like BYD and CATL, but there are other emerging names in the industry as well, right? About the appetite for our sales remains intact. I think it remains very, very strong, and we are receiving even unsolicited approaches for the projects we have. I would say mainly in Colombia. In Spain, we have Ayora, as you know. It's a good candidate for a build and sell deal. It was initially designed to be rotated in 2020, at the end of 2024. Maybe we will go for a deal at the end of 2025. COD deal, similar to the one we closed with Allianz.
Remember, it's the same PPA with Amazon. We are now building the project with a lower CapEx, so if the price remains similar, we might get a higher return, right? Also another thing that we are seeing, and is that in general, the lower the interest rate, the lower the expectation of returns from buyers in our rotations, right? So I think lower interest rates, definitely good news for our industry.
Okay, thank you. Next question from Oddo BHF, Anis, please go ahead.
Yes, thank you, Rubén. So thank you for taking my question. I have only one, so it's regarding storage. Congrats for the expansion in Chile. My question is about Europe. You mentioned that it should be some opportunity in Europe. Could you please specify in which country, on a particular? Thank you.
Thank you, thanks for your question. BESS is booming everywhere, I mean, everywhere. It's really, we are looking at opportunities in all the 11 countries in three regions where we are. I think it's very important that we focus and we concentrate the efforts in the areas or the market where we really believe the returns will be higher, will be easier to replicate, and we will, you know, but believe me, we are looking at where the next Oasis of Atacama are going to be, right?
It could be standalone massive projects in Germany, or it could be some large similar hybrid premium PPAs in Texas, that, you know, we're talking a lot with the hyperscalers, that we believe they will be the largest buyers of energy coming from BESS, whether it's standalone through mainly collar agreement or whether with hybrid plants through similar PPAs, and ones we are closing in Chile. So it's very exciting moment, right? And data centers and AI is really heating things up, right? But replying to your question, we are working very hard in every market that we are in, in Europe, right? I think it will eventually, you know, it's happening now in the U.K., it's the most mature market for BESS in Europe, right?
But it's moving from ancillary services and frequency regulation, and we expect more to energy trading, tolling agreements for energy trading, that's happening. Another things that we are witnessing in every market, is that before, in many markets, we're talking about one-hour, two-hour markets, because we were approaching those markets, and now approaching energy trading, we are now talking about four, five, six, even eight hours, right? So longer duration storage, right? We are very active in Germany, Poland, even in Spain, even if some inputs are missing, we believe it's gonna happen, right? And you are now looking at some M&A activity. Italy, you know, things are getting tough for PV, but remains, I think, very, very bright for storage.
So this, you know, the main markets where we are are the main markets that we know well, and we will try to give more visibility on every market in every quarter.
Okay, thank you. Please, next question from Kempen, Paul Chaveron.
Yeah, thank you. A bit of a conceptual question, but back in 2020 , 2021 , many, many of the partners were presenting big targets, which turned out to be unachievable, and then which caused lower confidence in space. What would you say to someone saying that right now you are getting maybe a little bit too bullish on on storage, with large, you know, doubling the- [audio distortion]
Sorry, if you get me, I cannot really hear very well. Paul, sorry about that. Rubén, you're-
No, no, me neither. Me neither.
Okay.
I think I can, Paul, can you repeat the weird-[audio distortion]
Apologies for that.
No. Okay, now it's good. If you- sorry, Paul, if you could- [crosstalk]
Big capacity target, which turned out to be unachievable, and which caused lower confidence in space. So what would you say to someone saying that basically, you are maybe here making the same mistakes to some extent, and you are maybe a little bit too bullish with this large capacity target increase, which considering that for most of the projects, you still have no financing PPA or CapEx secured. Thank you.
Sorry, Paul. Sorry about that. We missed the first minute of your... I catch up when you were saying something about unachievable targets or something, but I'm not sure which market you're talking about.
I think, David, he's asking if we're gonna be able to reach the timeline we are explaining regarding Oasis de Atacama.
Well, I'm not sure yet. We're obviously confident we can meet the. And I think we are proving, we have been very transparent, we're giving a lot of visibility. I think first, obviously we need to go step by step. Now, we have Quillagua, the first two phases, right? Which the first phase will be again operational at the end of the year. I think there's a slide here, right? The first Phase 3, we have already started construction, right? We have secured all the materials. In a matter of months, you know, we'll be ongoing, and Phase 4 as well. Phase 5 is like one year behind.
About the new project, obviously, the key things is, are closing the PPA, you know, and I, I think, I don't know if it was the, I mean, the sooner we secure the PPAs in the long term, I think the better, so we can secure this pipeline as it is, right? Again, we believe it's, we know it's a high concentration in one particular place, but we have already done that in Spain before, and we have been able to rotate some of the projects, and I think we will follow the same strategy in Chile eventually.
Okay, thank you very much. And last question from Mediobanca, Alessandro Pozzi. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning, all. Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to know if you can provide the split of EUR 128 million that you paid for the assets in Chile, for the portion under operation, the portion ready to build, and the portion under development, so the split between the three areas? Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you, Daniel. I think there is no, t he question is simple, there is no split. We have to consider everything as a whole, right? It's, again, what we are buying is an operational plant of 77 MW, but I don't think this is the lion's share of the deal. The lion's share of the deal, and the most important thing, is that we have an operational project of one with an interconnection line of one GW , right? And this is already built, energized, and operational. So it's something similar, more similar to what we had in Quillagua, right? It's an existing plant that we can easily expand, and the first 500 are ready to build, and we can connect with very little uncertainties, right?
But nothing to do with a new project, where you need to build new interconnection line, new substations, and I think it is a key thing about this project. It's in the perfect location, the best location in Chile, but it's very easily adjustable to the new model we want to create of PV there, right? Daniel, maybe you wanted to add something.
No, no, I was going to just mention that.
Okay, so we have finished. So thank you very much for attending this conference call. If you have further questions, please contact to the investor relations team, okay? So thank you very much.
Thank you.
Okay, thank you. Thank you very much. Have a good day.