Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. The Electrica teleconference is starting now. Thank you.
Hello, everyone. I'm Raluca Kasap, head of Investor Relations, and together with the entire Electrica management team, I would like to thank you for joining the Electrica conference call and live webcast to present and discuss the Q1 2023 financial results. Those of you who are connected only by phone, please download the presentation in PDF format available on our website on the results and presentation section. The participants connected online or through phone can address written questions on the live webcast or can intervene live on the Q&A session. You can as well send a question through email at ir@electrica.ro. Kindly note that since the entire conference is being recorded, all participants will be in a listen-only mode, so the attendees' voices will be disabled. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on your telephone.
The recorded presentation will be available on our website starting late as tomorrow, and the transcript as well as soon as possible. We kindly ask you to see the disclaimer on page three of the presentation. Now, we'll begin the presentations of the financial results, followed by the questions -and- answers session. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Alexandru Chiriță, Electrica CEO, to begin the presentation.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to our conference. It's been a year now since I embarked on this exciting journey as Electrica's CEO in very uncertain and challenging times to drive change, foster innovation, and take advantage of the new opportunities in the energy sector. In this context, I'm proud to say that the Electrica team has embraced challenges as catalysts for growth and transformation, and together, we have proven resilient and adaptable and made great progress. I want to express my gratitude to our entire team, to partners, clients, investors, and stakeholders. Thank you for your continued support and trust in us. Please be assured that we are motivated to do better and better.
After the best yearly results since the listing to date in 2022 at the level of total revenue as well at the level of EBITDA and net profit, the financial performance of Electrica Group in the first quarter of this year reflects our commitment to operational optimization and strategic adaptation in a still very complex and unpredictable energy market. This upward trajectory underlines our commitment at the level to the sustainable evolution of the group. As for future projects, following the current strategy, we are working on developing the production segment, taking into consideration all the restrictions coming from the challenges in the supply chain area at international level. We currently have an operational photovoltaic park, two ready-to-build photovoltaic projects, and interest in three other projects which are in different stages of being put in operation.
We announced in late April, we are planning to invest over RON 160 million in the generation segment this year. We confirmed in March, our strategy still aims to develop a portfolio of electricity generation capacities from renewable sources, both wind and photovoltaic, with a total capacity of 400 megawatts by 2024. I know everybody's looking to hear about our new generation prospects. In the spirit of innovation and forward momentum, I stand before you today to share my renewed commitment and excitement for what's on the horizon for our organization. Our team is currently working tirelessly, exploring new ideas, and carefully refining our strategies to ensure that these forthcoming projects truly reflect our values and aspirations. I assure you that these initiatives will underline our commitment to serving our clients better and taking strides in pushing the boundaries of our capabilities.
It is our promise to share more concrete details with you as soon as we can. We believe that this new chapter in our story will be a monumental one, filled with opportunities, triumphs, and learning experiences. We are already working on the new mid to long-term strategy at group level, focused on adapting our business model to very complicated ecosystem we operate in. The regulatory environment is becoming more predictable, but there are multiple other challenges coming, for example, from the ever-growing ESG requirements of the capital market. As we shape our plans and strategies, we need to be agile to optimize and adapt our operations to fluctuating market condition and to the legislative framework. We aim to strengthen the financial stability and increase operational efficiency in all businesses divisions while promoting sustainable growth, consolidating our portfolio, and ensuring stable prospects for Electrica.
Overall, we consider that the company's performance is good, taking into consideration the ongoing challenging conditions in the energy market. Results that encourage us to continue our strategic efforts to maintain a top position in the energy sector. Most of all, we have been focused to be prepared to quickly respond and adapt to challenges that kept arising. Electrica's results in the last two quarters reflected also in Electrica's share price performance on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. In these four months, the share performance surpassed the performance of that total return index, as you will see in our presentation. As we've announced, it is our aim to be included at the beginning of next year in the FTSE Russell Indices.
Therefore, we are proud to let you know that in the first four months, we fulfilled all the necessary capitalization and liquidity criteria with the support, of course, of our two market maker partners. Now, allow me to present the first quarter 2023 financial results in a nutshell. The first quarter of this year registered an increase of almost 8% in total revenues and other operating income compared to first quarter of last year, and a positive EBITDA of RON 170 million, compared to the negative EBITDA of RON 51 million in the first quarter of 2022. The results was mainly generated by operational performance of the distribution segment due to a few factors, among which: A closer to normal operational landscape after the centralized purchase system, MACEE, was implemented.
Therefore, there was a significant decrease in the cost incurred with the purchase of electricity for covering network losses. The increase in revenue due mainly to the increase of the distribution tariff starting first of April 2022 until 30 of March 2023, although there was a 9% decrease in distributed volumes in trend with the national consumption. Please note that almost 20% average increase in tariff starting first of April 2023 is not reflected in this quarter results, and we will discuss that in August when we present the next results. In the supply segment, we register overall a negative impact due to a few factors, among which: On the retail market, 3% increase in retail price and 9.4% decrease in supplied volumes.
Increased cost with purchase of electricity for supply, mainly by increase of the prices on the electricity market at the time of purchase and limitation of the transfer to the final consumer of these price increases. Once again, I would like to extend my gratitude for your unwavering support and trust. It is this faith that motivate us to aspire higher and dream bigger. Let's look forward to these future projects with anticipation and eagerness as we continue to grow together. Now, I give the floor to Stefan to get you through the detailed financial results.
Hello, everybody. Good afternoon. Welcome to our conference regarding the results for quarter one 2023. My colleague, the CEO of Electrica Group, also touched a little bit the numbers, but I will explain this in more detail for you, and then we'll welcome your questions in the usual Q&A session. First of all, I will ask my colleagues to go to slide number three and mention that the results that we are posting are reported according to the localized IFRS, established and prepared in accordance with the Order of Ministry of Finance 2844/2016 , which regards the capitalization of the expenses with the difference of price for net or losses as a capitalized intangible asset.
As you know, from the results, for the year results that we published, we consider that the results are similar also under IFRS-EU, because based on the amendments to the concession agreements, we constitute those numbers, we constitute that difference as the financial asset under the IFRS-EU. For quarters, we report under method 2844, but we'll give you all the details regarding the capitalization so that you can calculate the proxies and make all the analysis. In fact, in the way in which this year unfolds, we consider that it'll be not significant capitalization to be constituted.
Basically for this year, we will not have the impact of the difference of price for energy for net or losses in a significant amount like was the case for 2022. I'll move to slide number 4 and wait a little bit on the overall results of the Group. The overall results of the Group are showing an increase of revenues, as was mentioned also by Mr. Chiriță, which is related to the increase of prices of energy.
In terms of net result, we are posting a negative result of RON 67 million, which is related to the distribution segment, and I will explain the reason for this for this result, which we are confident that will be recuperated in the next quarters. In respect of EBITDA, we have a positive result, RON 170 million EBITDA, which is a result which is putting us into confidence in terms of having a good year for this year and having a recuperation during the following quarters.
Basically, the loss related to the distribution segment is related to the fact that there is a time gap interval between the moment in which the capitalization of the expenses with the difference of price of net or losses for last year enters into expenses, starts to be amortized, and the moment in which we are starting to recuperate according to the legislation to Ordinance 153, sorry, 2022. We are starting to recuperate those amounts in tariff. Basically, the first capitalization was constituted at three quarters last year, quarter three last year, and it started to be amortized already during quarter four. The second capitalization was constituted at the end of quarter four last year, and it started to be amortized or put on expenses in quarter one this year.
So, we have like, roughly RON 50 million, the impact of the, of the, of these expenses. Yeah, capitalization, which starts to be amortized. While the increase in tariffs, on average with the 80% as mentioned, is applied only from 1st of April. The results for the following quarter will show this recuperation also in terms of the distribution part. One more to be mentioned also in terms of the, of the, of the position of net debt. we do have a slight increase there, which is related also to financing the CapEx plan in the distribution part, but also it's related to the fluctuations regarding the working capital in respect of invoicing for the supply segment and applying for the request for repayment under the support scheme.
As you know, there was a change of the legislation by Ordinance one ninety-two per twenty twenty-two regarding the change of the support scheme since December. This meant for us and for the other suppliers, period needed to make changes in our IT system to implement a new algorithm for the support scheme. Basically, we have started to invoice the quantities supplied after 16th of December 2022 only in February. Then there is this effect related also to the repayment requests, which have to be submitted, as you know, cannot be submitted sooner than two months from the month of consumption. Of course, you need to have the invoice first issued.
There is this effect which impacted a little bit the cash flow for the first part of the year. Now, moving in the slide number 5 to the consolidated EBITDA and net result evolution. The EBITDA for Q1 2023 is RON 220 million higher than the EBITDA for Q1 2022 with a positive result, which is mainly due to the positive variation of the energy margin, RON 234 million, which is mainly coming from the distribution segment, where we have, as mentioned also by Mr. Chiriță.
The impact in the decrease of energy purchase to cover net losses, because starting with the 1st of January, we have the centralized acquisition mechanism for the energy, the so-called MACEE, Mechanism for the Centralized Purchase of Energy, according to which we are basically covering 70%, 75% of the need for the net losses in the distribution subsidiary, at the price of RON 450 per megawatt, which correlated with the price that was approved by ANRE for the tariffs and the equivalent average ex-ante price for this year, makes us confident in what I was explaining at the beginning. That is the fact that for this year, it should not be a significant difference between the ineffective average price of purchasing of energy for net losses and the ex-ante price.
The differences which to be reflected in capitalization will not be significant. We have a negative effect of RON 150 million from the supply segment, which is mainly caused by the decrease in the revenue for the electricity and natural gas supply. We see that there is a fall of the volumes of electricity supplied, and in general, we see that there is a fall of the volume of energy distributed. It seems that the market has adjusted in a way from the energy prices from last year. There is also a situation in which people are more focused on efficiency, investing for efficiencies like prosumers, but also, you know, paying more attention to the economies, etc.
In some cases, also probably some economic activities which are discontinued temporarily. Then, we have the other revenue effect of RON 30 million, mainly with the fact that in the supply segment, we had last year some contractual compensations which are having now come corresponding in 2023. The capitalization of RON 21 million, as I was mentioning at the beginning, it's quite a small as amount. Yeah, this amount calculated as the difference between the net cost with the purchase of electricity and the cost of the marketable consumption, which is included in the tariffs. And this is, as I mentioned, the capitalized asset according to OMFP 3900/2022 .
There is also a small impact related to OpEx, where we have an increase in the distribution segment related to the need to align the provisions for the three zones after the merger of the companies. Increase in expenses for repair and maintenance and materials, aligned with the increase of cost generally in the inflationary context. If we look at the net result, the net result is better with RON 91 million, mainly for the positive evolution of EBITDA, which is slightly alleviated by the evolution of the financial result with -RON 47 million. Because we do need to finance, you know, all these amounts related to the support team and to the net or losses for the distribution.
In the context of the increasing interest rates and increased amount of spent debt, there is this impact. Also we have the increase in the amortization and depreciation of assets of RON 52 million, which is out of which RON 50 million is the depreciation for the network losses, which I've mentioned from the first line. Also, we also have the negative impact in profit tax because we have a reduction of the benefit with profit tax as a result of the decrease of the previous financial loss. In the next slide number six, we have the position related to our position as a leader player in distribution and of supply. Generally, you know, this, we are always publishing these numbers. The source is represented by the last latest regulatory report.
I should mention that in terms of universal service and supplier of last instance, we are the market leader. In other in other markets, we do have a strong position. As well, on the graph for the Enel, the gray part comprises the both, the two companies, Enel Energie Muntenia and Enel Energia. Moving to the slide number seven, we have analysis and a split of the evolution of the results for the distribution. The highlights besides the impact in the net losses and in the energy margin. You have the details here, related to the energy margin, but also the one related to the capitalization of RON 21 million.
The net results increased by RON 214 million, mainly from the positive evolution at EBITDA, with a negative variation of the financial result of RON 21 million. As mentioned, we need to finance the difference of price of net losses. And you can see the details about change of the net losses cost from RON 680 million net, with income in first quarter 2022 to RON 368 million net with income, in first quarter of the current year. The net debt increased with RON 173 million compared with the year-end, because of the net construction financing.
As we are focused on achieving our CapEx plans and also on recuperating the CapEx plan related to the previous year, which was not achieved during the previous year because we needed to also finance the net or losses difference. We have the usual graphs, where we explain following the request from the various analysts, the evolution from the RAB. Yeah, the rentability calculated based on the regulated asset base and with the regulated rate of return. First o f all, from this part, this is slide number nine, from regulated asset-based rentability to the regulated profit with the various components. This is based on the budget.
We have the part from the regulated profit until the net result, which is around the advised approved budget. We have this analysis for the first quarter of 2022. We have only from the total net revenues to the net results. It's not a detail where we put through the full graph like in the slides before because we don't have the split from ANRE from for certain categories on quarters, and we would not make some assumptions related to the cyclicity. This is a detail and on which we are always waiting from you for details and clarifications if needed.
We have the details about the three regions in slide 12, 13, and 14 in terms of customers, the net or losses cost, distributed volumes, and so on. You see that there is, we are seeing a decrease of the distributed volumes, energy of distributed volumes. Quarter one 2023 showed an amount of electricity distributed down 9% compared to quarter one 2022. With this, evolution, negative evolution at all voltage levels.
Also in slide 15, we have a detail about the investments, the current investment plan for 2022, which is RON 464 million, out of which RON 628 million for this year and RON 135 million recovery is related to the previous year and also the parts related of which were commissioned in the first quarter, RON 50 million in terms of investment. Slide 16 brings a summary of results for the Electrica Serv segment. Energy services segment overview. Here we have a slight profit at first quarter 2022. Increased with RON 5 million from last year. In fact, EBITDA increased with RON 4 million compared with the same period of 2022, mainly as a result of increasing revenues with RON 3 million.
Due to the fact that the situation in the energy market, triggered an increase of the demand for photovoltaic system, which generated new contracts for Electrica Serv in terms of, you know, projects for, you know, building solar photovoltaic projects. Mainly this change in EBITDA is providing the result also for the net result. In case of Electrica Serv, we have a net result which is higher than the EBITDA, because there is a significant financial result, which is positive. Electrica Serv has significant liquidities which are contributed in the cash pool system, and they are basically financing the gap of liquidity at the level of the group, and they are cashing in interest. Their net, their financial activity is not generating income.
Moving to the supply segment, we have the main numbers in page 17. For the supply segment, we have an EBITDA of RON 70 million for first quarter 2023 and net profit of RON 24 million. It is a slight decrease compared with the first quarter of last year, mainly due to the evolution of the following elements. We have decreased the revenues from the supply of energy and natural gas, which is mainly due to the decrease in volumes of energy supplied by 9.4%, which is only partially compensated by the result of the increase of selling prices in the retail market by 3%. We have the result in the subsidies.
Other operating revenues increased by RON 339 million, reaching RON 987 million, representing mainly subsidies based on the ordinances related to the support scheme. We have an increase of the purchased energy cost increased by RON 390 million, which is mainly generated by the increase of the energy purchase price that could not be transferred towards the final consumers.
Here we should mention that, we try to have a balanced position, you know, in which even if the prices have decreased, in the market in terms of energy, and we see some moments with significant lower prices in the day-ahead market, we are trying to have a balance in which we are at least buying some quantities also on the forward contracts, you know, also for the financiers and also for ourselves, we will not see ourselves in any situation in which we are depending, we are overly depending on the day-ahead market.
We have then unfavorable effect of RON 24 million from the variation of the green certificates, and also, under IFRS 9, looking at the analysis of recoverability of receivables, we have a favorable effect in terms of using some impairment. In terms of net debt, we have an increase of RON 433 million compared with first quarter 2022, which is mainly related to increase of overdrafts, which are used to prefinance the support scheme, and also the delaying factor in re-issuing the invoices to the customers related to the fact that we needed to make additional changes in our system in order to implement the changes in the algorithm for the support scheme.
We have in the next slides the details related to the supply segment, in terms of market share, which I also mentioned at the beginning of our presentation. You can see in the slide 19 the evolution of the energy supplied and the fact that there is a decrease in terms of volume of electricity supplied also on the retail market. Page 20 traditionally brings an analysis in terms of the legislative measures and also the main factors which impacted the result of the first quarter on the supply segment. We also showed the evolution of the energy prices on the balancing market and on the day-ahead market.
We also have the details related to the centralized mechanism for centralized purchase of energy, for which also the supply subsidiary is benefiting. According to the mechanism, the priority is given to TSO and DSO, which benefit and gets the energy at RON 450, and then there is the marginal part which goes to the supply subsidiaries. There is a yearly allocation and then also a monthly allocation, and this is basically covering ourselves for the following month. It's providing us significant quantities. Also important in terms of managing the supply. Moving further, we have the details on slide 21 related to the evolution of the receivables.
If you look at the outstanding receivables adjusted with the turnover, there is a decrease in first part of 2023 related to, compared with the end of the year. The balance of receivables increased by 10% in nominal terms, in the context that we needed to adapt the IT system to the changes brought by Law 357 of 2022, and then Ordinance 192 / 2022. This implementation of changes was successfully completed, and the decrease in the value of receivables is estimated for the second quarter. In terms of outstanding receivables, we are focused on a plan to accelerate the collections.
In the portfolio level, we really see that there is improvement in the recovery date for the first overdue interval from one day to 60 day overdue. Basically, we have in terms of bad debt allowances, we have some amounts which are like most of them older than five years, related to litigation, insolvency or bankruptcy, and this will be de-recognized after the finalization of the respective bankruptcy processes. It's not a situation in which we have like new bad debt generated in the last period. We have some written off amounts which are related to. Moving further, we have for the first time in our presentation, first slide related to production segment.
In terms of highlights for the production segment represented by Electric Romgaz Energie, but also the other subsidiaries, SPVs, which are in various stages in terms of the project developed there, and also ownership by Electrica of the respective projects. We do have positive EBITDA for the segment, which is mainly generated by the existing park, which is pro-producing energy under Electrica Energie Verde. This EBITDA has a slight decrease compared to first quarter 2022, which is impacted mainly by decrease of income from the sale of energy as a result of decreasing prices in first quarter 2023 compared with the previous year. We do have for two of the companies, Sunwind Energy and Green Energy Consulting & Investments.
We are focused on initiating, starting the construction phase. We are planning to operationalize this as possible. Moving further, we have the slide on the group liquidity, slide 23. You can see the evolution of the liquidity. There is a decrease, let's say, in terms of available liquidity compared with 2022, which is related to the fact that as I mentioned, we needed to also finance the delay in invoicing the supply some quantities, so under supply subsidiary and also the delay related to filing in for the reimbursement request under the support scheme, following the amendments of the support scheme through Ordinance 192 / 2022. We have also a slide in the dividend distribution.
I will not state much on that. I would just say that we considered that in the current context, which is still quite volatile and quite challenging, and also, in terms of evolution of the liquidity in the market, the decision which we proposed was related to a lesser dividend than what we were posting previously. Also in the idea that we need to develop the generation, the production part, and for this we need to commit resources. That would be the summary of the presentation for now. We are looking forward for your questions. Together with my colleagues here, we'll try to answer them to you as accurate and promptly as possible. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, please note that for those participating via the webcast, kindly follow the instructions indicated and either type your question via the box or dial into the audio conference. At this time, we will begin the audio question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star followed by one on their telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star followed by two. For those participating in the questions-and-answer session, please use your handset when asking your question for better quality. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone. Once again, to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone.
Ladies and gentlemen, please note that we will take a brief five-minute break for any written questions, and we'll resume our conference. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for holding. We are to resume our conference. I will now hand over to Mr. Frangulea Stefan . Please go ahead, sir.
Okay. We're just saying that there were not significant questions. In terms of the question related to the dividend distribution for Electrica subsidiaries from 2022, I would just mention that considering the face of the group and the situation in which for the supply subsidiary, we needed to cover the losses from last year. For the distribution subsidiaries, we do have a profit, but this is not a cash profit because it comes from the capitalization of the expenses with the net losses. We have not collected dividends from the supply subsidiary and the distribution subsidiary. Basically, we are distributing this dividend from the level of Electrica alone.
Now, any other questions you would consider, you know that you could ask and send to our colleagues in the Investor Relations team, and they will liaise with us in the financial division, but also with the colleagues on the operational side and with the colleague in our subsidiaries, and we'll always welcome your questions and try to answer them as promptly as possible. We could also have separate calls, also from my point of view and from the point of view of my team in the financial division. We have always the pleasure and we are trying to make the time to discuss with you. The colleagues from the regulatory side and from the distribution side are always welcoming your questions. I would just like to thank you for the attention.
Just to make a joke, I'm happy that they were after one year and a month as a CFO, now I'm so concise that you don't have any question to ask or not significant questions. We were so clear and so transparent. Again, your questions are always welcome. I would like just to make a thank you to my colleagues in the entire group, my colleagues, especially in the executive team here. Mr. Chiriță, also Sujdea and Modran, which are with me, also my colleagues in the financial area, my colleagues in the subsidiaries. This is the effect of work as a team. I think that the team in Electrica Group needs and welcomes and deserves a round of applause and for all the effort.
Just, this is my thank you to them. All the best, and have a great afternoon. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded, and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for calling, and have a good afternoon.