We would like to begin this conference call. Beforehand, I kindly ask you to mute your microphones so we can hear each other and there is no background noise. With your permission, in order to publish the audio file on SNN website page, Investor Relations section, I'm going to record this teleconference. So I would like you to know I'm going to start right now. Okay, ready? Thank you very much for joining us for this conference call. The purpose of this conference call is the presentation of the preliminary financial and unaudited financial statements for 2024. The presentation is going to be delivered by my colleague, CFO of the company, Daniel Adam, and you can go ahead and ask any questions you deem necessary after the presentation is completed. This being said, Daniel, the floor is yours. Thank you.
Hello, everybody. This is Daniel Adam, so we'll go with the 2024 preliminary financial results, unaudited, of course. As you can see.
Okay.
As you can see, we had a very robust result for the previous year, RON 1.7 billion, lower with 32% versus 2023, but with RON 400 million or 30.5% above the revised budget. As we discussed also in quarter three call, the main reason for the deviation versus 2023 is the sale of electricity, namely the lower average selling price, also for a slightly lower total sold quantity of 2.6%. This lower revenue was counterbalanced by lower windfall tax compared with the price cap of 450 until April 2024 and RON 400 per MW going forward afterwards to the year end. In terms of financial results, we have almost RON 100 million lower result than last year, 2023. This is mainly coming from the reduction of the interest income on the heels of the reduction of interest rates in 2024 versus 2023.
In terms of OpEx, we have an increase of 14.4% due to the reason of the inflation that affected all sectors of economy, including ours, and we do have in this result an income tax which includes RON 14 million provision for the 15% minimum income tax. Due to the lack of norms at the closing of this preliminary results, we chose to include this provision, and we hope to clarify this until the final audited results, pending some clarification and norms from the Ministry of Finance. We have on this preliminary financial highlights slide the details we mostly covered in the previous slide, the main deviations and the happenings. What I would stress on this one is that compared with the budget, we run a series of savings on the costs, including personnel and other, and we have a slightly higher revenue for 2024 compared with the budget.
I will not go again into the 2024 versus 2023 because we mainly discussed the topic in the previous slide. In this waterfall, it's very clear where the deviation came. Sales of electricity, in large part compensated by the reduction in windfall tax. We do have a higher cost of both electricity or traded electricity, mainly coming from the higher prices in 2024 for this type of purchases that we made. I think we can go on. In terms of financial position, we have an increase of 8.4% of non-current assets for RON 636 million. These are largely coming from the increases in the loan granted to RoPower, around RON 356 million, as well as to EnergoNuclear, our subsidiary, another RON 361 million, including interest. This was further reduced by the value of the depreciation recognized through the year.
And of course, we have some rights of use qualified under IFRS 16. In terms of current assets, we do have a quite significant increase of 6%, almost RON 332 million. This is mainly driven from large acquisition and receipt of uranium quantity in December 2024, valued at RON 690 million. And we have, on the heels of the price decreases in the market, we have also a decrease in trade receivables of RON 277 million, and a decrease in cash and cash equivalents, including deposit of RON 150 million. But we do have an increase of other financial assets, namely treasury certificates. In terms of current liabilities, we have an increase of 33%. This is coming mainly due to the increase of the accounts payable in this category, which are following the general inflationary trend for the year.
We are happy to report that this financial position at the end of 2024 does not include any borrowing, as the Euratom loan was fully repaid in November 2024. So we are debt-free at the year end. And we have an increase of 7.3% in equity due to the profits of the period. In terms of, we have also a waterfall on the sale of electricity. As you can see, we do have an increase in spot markets in 2024 and a decrease in competitive market. This is coming, and I think we discussed also in the previous call for quarter three. This is coming from the fact that at the end of quarter one, MACEE became voluntary, not mandatory. So all that quantity, which was not required for this program, had to be placed kind of in short notice on the spot market.
This was mainly impacting quarter two from quarter three, quarter four, and continuing to 2025. We are going more and more on the forward, on the forward market, not on the spot. In terms of the sales structure compared with 2023, MACEE was 50%, kind of a similar level on last year. And as we discussed, the competitive market took a dive from 41.6% to 25.5%, with a company, the increase in the spot market, which went up from 11% to 24%, again coming from this quarter two effect when MACEE became voluntary and when the market is at its lowest in terms of liquidity. In terms of OpEx, we do see some, compared with the budget, as you can see, we have savings along all the lines. Compared with 2023, we do have some increases in terms of personnel, a slight increase of 0.4% in personnel cost.
We do have quite a large increase on the traded electricity that I explained prior, coming mainly to higher price, but also higher quantity. We do have a cost increase for the uranium fuel. This is coming also on the heels of the actual commodity price increase, which was about 20%, but also other components which are going into the fuel bundles, like Zircaloy and so on. Slightly higher increases versus 2023 on repair and maintenance, 17%, also due to higher outages. This is coming also together with the cost with the spare parts. The windfall tax, much more smaller than 2023. But we do have here an increase versus the budget 2024, mainly due to the fact that towards the end of the year, the prices really increased versus the windfall tax level of RON 400.
So in November and December, we incurred much more windfall tax income. In terms of CapEx, during 2024, we have a completion degree of 98.7% in terms of CapEx program, which is significantly higher than the one in 2023 of almost 89%. So here, we don't have any other thing to report. We are happy with this progress. And I will go also, like last time, through the main CapEx projects: the Unit 1 refurbishment, the new Units 3 and 4, the SMRs, the CTRF, and the medical isotope project. In terms of refurbishment, we are going into the second phase of implementation. As you know, in June last year, Nuclearelectrica and Canadian Nuclear Partners announced the signing of the PMO contract.
In December 2024, Nuclearelectrica and the consortium, Candu Energy, Ansaldo Nucleare, and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power ceremonially signed the engineering procurement and construction EPC contract for the advancement of Cernavodă Unit 1 refurbishment. The contract value, as you may already know, is EUR 1.9 billion, and it was approved by the SNN General Meeting of Shareholders. On Units 3 and 4, I am focusing on the last three points because the other ones were already presented in the past. In November 2024, the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders approved the conclusion of the EPCM contract between EnergoNuclear and the joint venture formed by Fluor Corporation, Candu Energy, Ansaldo Nucleare, and Sargent & Lundy, which signed the engineering procurement and construction management EPCM contract for the limited notice to proceed phase of the advancement of Units 3 and 4 of Cernavodă.
This was signed in Baku with the occasion of COP29. The value of the contract for both LNTP and FNTP, the final notice to proceed phase of the EPCM contract, is estimated at EUR 3.2 billion. This EPCM contract, with an estimation of duration of 108 months, is structured into phases: the LNTP one, 24-30 months, and subsequently subject to the establishment of the approval of the commercial terms and taking the final investment decision in accordance with the support agreement between the Romanian state and Nuclearelectrica. We'll have the FNTP phase, which should carry on for 80-84 months. So we are expecting that the LNTP phase to be finished even at the end of next year in 2026. In terms of SMR projects, we don't have anything special to report versus the quarter three project. We are carrying on the phase two .
In the meantime, RoPower Nuclear, together with SNN, are working on some SMR facilities with the Export-Import Bank of the United States. So these are continuing at this stage. The tritium removal facility project, or CTRF, as we call it, is already in progress. As you know, in June 2024, SNN and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, KHNP, announced the start of the works of the first tritium removal plant in Europe, and I think the second in the world. This initiative, as you know, marks an important step forward in nuclear technology and environmental protection in accordance with the sustainability objectives of Romania and the European Union. In October, and the last one mentioned here is the medical isotope project.
As you may know, in October 2024, Nuclearelectrica and Framatome made public the positive conclusion of the feasibility study carried out to assess the likelihood of production of the medical isotope Lutetium-177 in Cernavodă. Lutetium is used for a wide range of critical cancer treatments and is considered one of the more friendly isotopes for the patient. The two companies started the project implementation, which includes detailed design, purchase, installation, and commissioning of the irradiation system to Unit 2 of the Cernavodă power plant. We expect launching a commercial irradiation service somewhere in 2028. Now, we are going quickly through some technical performances in terms of radioactive emissions. We don't have any special thing to report. We are well under the regulatory and internal framework. The nuclear burn factor, the same. We are in a very good position.
MWs per kg, we are at 177 in Unit 2 and 168 in Unit 1 , the older one. The capacity factor cumulated for 12 months for both Units was at 88.34%. And of course, we had the planned outage in May to June 2024, and the legal disclaimer that you all know. Thank you. We are awaiting your questions.
Do you have any questions, please?
Hi, this is Edward from BT Capital Partners. I was just wondering if you're planning to revise the company's hedging policy given the recent increase in foreign exchange losses. Thank you.
Yes. On the hedging, it's a more complicated story. We are planning to look into that. We have to look into that also together with some government institutions like the Court of Accounts or Court of Audit.
There are some sort of restrictions on this topic imposed by this institution, but we are not worried actually about the current results on exchange losses. We want to revisit with them this subject due to upcoming construction loans that we'll have to take for the refurbishment project, where the need of the hedging strategy for both interests but also FX would be much more important.
We have a question on the chat from Cristian Petre from NN regarding Unit 1 refurbishment. What is the updated figure? As in the recent GMS, the figure proposed was much higher.
Regarding the refurbishment?
Yes.
We didn't change the figure. What you might have is that in the presentation that we have now, we discussed about the EPC contract at EUR 1.9 billion.
But mind you that the overnight cost for the project includes also some other contracts like the PMO, the PPC1, PPC2, the procurement for the turbine. So the total overnight cost for all the contracts in all the projects is around EUR 3 billion. I guess this is the.
Thank you. So just Cristian Petre coming here. So what I remember from the last GMS was around EUR 3.7 billion for the Unit 1 refurbishment total cost.
Yeah. So I said that it's EUR 3 billion the overnight cost. Of course, due to the fact that the project goes to 2030, the 3.7 includes also inflation for this period, as well as financial costs like interest. And the overnight is free.
Okay. So overnight, you mean without this financial cost and inflation cost?
Yes. Without the inflation. Interest cost, the financing cost.
Okay.
Regarding Unit 3 and 4, are there any news regarding the price guarantee mechanism like CFD or PPAs? Thank you.
Can you repeat? I didn't hear the question.
Regarding the, can you hear me now?
Yeah.
Regarding the Unit 3 and 4 project, are there any news regarding the CFD mechanism or PPAs, some kind of guarantee for the price levels? Thank you.
No. This for sure, it will have. In Units 3 and 4, being such a large and important project, we'll have a whole basket of measures. This will include also CFD or other offtake mechanism, including PPA. And you can have also both because if you have the CFD, the PPA will get excluded from the CFD calculation. So.
Okay. Thank you.
At this stage, since we are in this LNTP phase, it's too early to have these details.
But some sort of offtake mechanism for 3 and 4 will have to be in place. I don't understand what.
So, Andrew, focusing a little bit on your question, what exactly do you mean by trending over the next few years? Andrew, can you hear me?
Basically, this contract will let me try to ask it as we partly understand it, I think. This EUR 1.9 billion unit one refurbishment contract, because this is only the EPC part with the consortium, does not include, for example, the refurbishment of the steam turbine and the PMO contract and some others. This is the cost for which includes long-lived items, design, mobilization, and so on, and construction. So this will be split from 2025, actually, to 2030 when the project will finish. And it has some calendarization fee.
Thank you, Daniel.
We have one more question on the chat regarding SNN's plans to release the budget for 2025 and as well the dividend proposal for 2024. Any insights on the expected timeline would be greatly appreciated. Yes, the GMS for the approval of the 2025 budget is already convened. It was convened. It is for April 9th. And you can already find the we are to publish the materials on, yes, on March 6th. So the materials are going to be published on March 6th. The GMS will take place on April 9th. As it regards the dividend proposal for 2024, Daniel?
It is according to the law. We don't have anything other to add up.
And the law says 50%.
Yeah.
Any more questions, please? Okay. Thank you very much.
Hello. Sorry.
Please go ahead.
This is Alina from Swiss Capital.
I would also like to ask if there are any updates regarding the windfall tax which was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court of Romania?
No. As far as we know, the Constitutional Court of Romania didn't publish the motivation, I think it's called in English. So we know about it. As you know, it was extended in some form also for quarter to 2025. This will be reflected in the budget. But there is no sign from the Supreme Court on this topic besides what we know from November or December, I think. As you may know, they are also busy with some other topics.
Yes. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you. When we have something on this, we'll come back. But so far, there is no progress on that.
Okay. I presume there are no more questions. Thank you very much for joining us.
We are going to publish the presentation, the audio file, and the transcript of this teleconference in a little while. Also, for those of you who have confirmed by email, I'm going to send the presentation and the audio file directly to you. For everybody else, you can find it on the website in about one hour, one hour and a half. Thank you very much. Have a great evening and a great weekend. Bye.
Thank you.