Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Enel Chile Full Year 2025 Results and Strategic Plan 2026-2028 conference call. My name is Carmen, I'll be your operator for today. During this conference call, we may make statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements may include Enel Chile S.A. current expectations, intentions, plans, beliefs or projections. Forward-looking statements are based on management's current assumptions and expectations, do not guarantee future performance and involve risk and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. These factors are described in Enel Chile's press release on its full year 2025 results and strategic plan 2026-2028.
In the presentation accompanying this conference call and Enel Chile's annual report on Form 20-F on the risk factors. You may access our full year 2025 results and strategic plan 2026-2028 press release and presentation on our website, https://www.enel.cl, and our 20-F on the SEC's website, www.sec.gov. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on those forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates. Enel Chile undertake no obligation to update these forward-looking statements or to disclose any development or to result of which these forward-looking statements become inaccurate, except as required by law. I would now like to turn the presentation over to Ms. Isabela Klemes, Head of Investor Relations of Enel Chile. Please proceed.
¡Buenos días! Good morning, welcome to Enel Chile's full year 2025 results and strategic plan 2026 up to 2028 conference call. We greatly appreciate you taking the time to joining us today. My name is Isabela Klemes, and I'm the Head of Investor Relations. Joining me this morning is our CEO, Gianluca Palumbo, and our CFO, Simone Conticelli. Our presentation and related financial information are available on our website www.enel.cl in the investor section, as well as through our investors app. In addition, a replay of the call will soon be available. Let us now look at the agenda on slide 2. First, we will begin with an overview of the market contest in Chile, followed by an review of our 2025 performance.
We will present our 2026, 2028 strategic plan, outline our key priorities, targets, and value creation drivers for the period. At the end of the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions via the webcast chat using ask a question link. Media participants are connected in listening-only mode. Before we begin, we would like to share a short video that highlights how Enel Chile is building a more resilient and balanced energy platform, strengthening the present while shaping the future.
When we at Enel put our energy into Chile, we move a country toward the future with innovation and electromobility, transforming roads and investing in sustainable development. We know that the best energy comes from passion and fuels our drive to keep dreaming. All our energy is here, working for a better future.
Now it's my pleasure to hand over the call to our CEO, Gianluca Palumbo. Gianluca, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Isabela, a warm welcome to everyone joining us. Let me start with this slide, which sets the broader context for our strategy. It shows how rapidly Chile's energy landscape is evolving and why the power sector plays such a central role in this transformation. Chile is entering decisive phase of its energy transition. Electrification is accelerating, system complexity is increasing, and resilience has become essential. In this environment, the energy sector becomes a key enabler of the country net zero ambition. Importantly, Chile starts from a position of a real strength. The country combines world-class renewables resources, a diversified and mature energy metrics, and a solid policies framework. Moving from carbon neutrality targets to accelerate renewable penetration and electromobility goals. Few markets offer this combination. Building on these foundations, a new wave of opportunities is emerging.
The electrification of strategic sectors, the development of high-value industry such as data centers, and rising demand linked to critical minerals. At the same time, this transition requires an energy system and an integrated energy platform able to evolve quickly with more flexible and digitalized grids, capable of operating reliably through this change. Climate volatility is also becoming a structural feature of the system, increasing pressure on network and reinforcing the need for robust and resilient infrastructure. The message is clear, Chile offers strong fundamentals for the transition, and Enel Chile brings the execution capabilities and platform to deliver it, ensuring reliability today and building system of tomorrow. With that context in mind, let me move to the next slide, which shows how Chile has already translated this ambition into tangible progress in decarbonization and electrification.
Chile is widely recognized as one of the early pioneers in power sector decarbonization, and this leadership is clearly reflected in evolution of a generation mix. Over the past decade, renewables have rapidly become the majority of installed capacity. A key element of this progress has been diversification within renewables. Solar and wind have gained significant scale, while storage technologies are beginning to establish their role, strengthening power system resilience and supporting the long-term stability of the transition. In addition, Chile's growing digital infrastructure is creating new sources of electricity demand. As of 2025, there are 325 megawatts of connected capacity associated with data centers, and public sources estimate that this could rise to around 1,200 megawatts by 2030, reinforcing the structural shift in demand. The KPIs presented here confirm this direction.
Higher electricity consumption, a significant expansion of installed capacity, and accelerated transport electrification. Together, these indicators reflect a structural transformation in both demand and system capabilities across the country. For Enel Chile, this confirms two fundamental points. First, Chile is moving decisively toward a cleaner, more electrified economy and diversified energy system. Second, our strategic focus on renewables, electrification, network resilience, and innovative customer solution is fully aligned with this trajectory. This alignment is what positions us to support growth while delivering reliability, sustainability, and long-term value for the system and for our stakeholders. Building on this progress, the next slide shows how Chile's policy framework has played a fundamental role in enabling this transition by creating the condition for the system transformation we see today.
Despite the significant progress achieved, a regulatory-driven transition framework remains essential to provide the visibility and predictability needed to sustain long-term investment in Chile's electricity sector. Chile energy agenda is both ambitious and increasingly complex. It combines long-term climate commitments with near-term adjustments required to maintain system stability while electrification accelerates. Distribution is a clear example. There is broad consensus that the current regulatory model, designed more than 40 years ago, no longer reflects evolving customer expectation, the scale of electrification, or the level of investment required to build a more resilient and digitalized network. In parallel, system operation and coordination rules must continue to evolve to manage a more decentralized and variable generation mix. Updated technical standards for security and services quality must strike the right balance between higher operational requirements and efficient planning and execution.
We are currently assessing the implications of these new requirements across our operating fleet with a focus on BESS system. In addition, a well-defined self-consumption framework is particularly important for large-scale data centers. Clear guidelines for flexible solution behind the meter will enable new investments, reduce congestion in transmission networks, and allow the capture of all renewable potential that is currently unused due to curtailment, all this while ensuring full coordination with the system operations. Overall, these regulatory developments share a common objective, enabling Chile to advance to the next stage of its energy transition with clarity, resilience, and confidence. Achieving this will require close and constructive collaboration between authorities and industry to ensure successful implementation.
Let me now turn to our 2025 results, which clearly demonstrate our resilience and operational flexibility, even in what was effectively a stress test year. We successfully achieved our 2025 guidance despite the challenging scenario and operating conditions. This reflects the robustness of our business fundamentals and the discipline of our execution. During the year, we deployed CapEx with a clear focus on enhancing flexibility and resilience across our portfolio, ensuring that our assets remain reliable and fully aligned with evolving system needs. From a financial perspective, we maintain a comfortable liquidity position, which allow us to consistently meet our debt obligations while navigating a period of elevated uncertainty. I would also like to highlight that our dividend policies for 2025 has been confirmed, reaffirming our commitment to financial stability and to sustainable value creation for our shareholders.
Overall, these results confirm that even in a highly demanding context, our strategy continues to deliver stability, resilience and long-term value. This performance gave us the confidence to continue our journey well-positioned to face future challenges, while continuing to deliver on our commitments to customers, shareholders and the electricity system. Let me now walk you through our CapEx deployment in 2025 on the next slide. A significant portion of our CapEx was allocated to continue strengthening the flexibility and resilience of our portfolio, ensuring that our assets can respond effectively to evolving system needs. We also invest to optimize the availability of our gas-fired power plants, which continue to play a critical role in system reliability, acting as an essential backup to renewable generation. In addition, we dedicate resources to grid flexibility and resilience, reinforcing infrastructure that is fundamental for managing demand and maintaining services continuity.
Part of this investment also supported the successful execution of our winter plan, ensuring reliable services for customers during the most challenging months of the year. I will hand over the presentation to Simone to give you more details about 2025 figures.
Thank you, Gianluca, good morning, everyone. Let's review now our generation portfolio and energy balance, as well as our grids KPIs for 2025. Now we are on slide 11. During year 2025, net production decreased by 12% compared to 2024. This decline was driven by lower hydro dispatch due to 2025 extreme drought, reduction in renewable energy production, mostly due to extraordinary maintenance activities of 2 solar plants, higher curtailment levels also caused by transmission line limitation. These effects were partially offset by higher contribution from our efficient CCGT power plants. In 2025, energy sales amounted to 30 terawatt-hour compared to 33.3 terawatt-hour of 2024, mainly due to the lower regulated sales following the expiration of 2008 and 2013 regulated auctions, while free market sales remained stable at 19.4 terawatt-hour.
Moving to grids business, as already anticipated by Gianluca, we utilize the selective usage of our CapEx to add more flexibility to our grids. Particularly, we increased the installed remote control equipment to support network automation and the digital meters to improve service quality through network digitalization. In summary, our diversified portfolio and ongoing digitalization effort enabled us to achieve our targets and meet our customer needs across both generation and grids businesses. Now let's turn to the next slide, which provides a more detailed look at our EBITDA performance. In 2025, our EBITDA totaled $1,473 million, with an increase of $52 million compared to 2024 EBITDA. That was adjusted, not including the impact of the 2024 functional currency change. This growth was mainly driven by the following factors.
Starting with the generation business, we recorded a decrease of $286 million in PPA sales, mostly due to the termination of some high-priced regulated contract, which affected both volume and average price of the regulated portfolio. This was partially offset by the negative impact of exchange rate hedges recorded in 2024 and the positive price effect due to the indexation of the free market contracts. Regarding sourcing, we recorded a positive effects of $172 million, despite the $34 million negative impact related to the transmission line restriction, which occurred mainly in the first half of the year. The result was obtained thanks to lower spot and third parties energy purchase costs, insurance provision, mainly to cover the aforementioned extraordinary maintenance activities of 2 solar power plants, and finally, lower transmission costs.
Gas trading contribution to the margin increase was $87 million, driven by higher gas trading activities compared to 2024. Turning to grids, we recorded a positive impact, mainly due to the provision reflecting the higher tariff expected for the 2024-2028 regulatory period. Higher OPEX recorded in 2024, mainly due to the extreme weather events and some settlement from previous years. Partially offset by the increase of O&M expenses, mainly associated with the implementation of the comprehensive winter plan. We recorded an increase in maintenance activity and generation costs, mainly due to the newly developed capacity. In 2025, we recorded the one-off cost of the incentivized early retirement plan to support the company reorganization aimed at improving internal skill and performance. Let's move on to the next slide, where we will review the net income evolution.
Our 2025 net income amounted to $538 million, 14% lower than last year adjusted figure, mainly explained by the $52 million increase in EBITDA that we have already commented. Higher depreciation, amortization, impairment, and bad debt expenses for $93 million, mainly due to the $59 million impact of the commissioning of new renewable capacity and the $80 million increase of grids bad debt provision, mainly due to higher billing resulting from tariff increases and longer overdue customer debt. Regarding financial results, we recorded a negative variation of $61 million, mostly explained by lower capitalized expenses on renewable project for $83 million. Higher financial expenses for $42 million related to methodological adjustment of the first half 2026 PMP technical report issued by the National Energy Commission.
Partially offset by lower financial expenses for $37 million, resulting from lower average outstanding debt and lower average interest rate. Finally, we recorded a $4 million reduction in corporate income tax expenses, mostly explained by lower results. Now let's move on to FFO analysis and leverage position. Our 2025 FFO reached $1,067 million as a result of the following factors. First, EBITDA totaled $1.5 billion as already commented. Second, the recovery of PEC receivable in 2025 contributed for $299 million, mainly thanks to factoring executed in April 2025 related to PEC 2 and 3, and the recovery through the tariff of $38 million of PEC 1 receivable.
Third, the increase in net working capital for $248 million, mainly due to CapEx payment related to 2024 renewable development and lower collection in our grids business and other seasonal effects. Fourth, the payment of income taxes for $275 million, mainly in the generation business. Finally, the financial expenses totaled $183 million, mostly for debt related costs. The 2025 FFO is lower by $142 million compared to the previous year due to stronger impact of PEC recovery mechanism in 2024 for $88 million. Higher increase of net working capital for $95 million, mainly due the positive edge effect in 2024, and higher amount of income taxes paid for $70 million, reflecting both stronger results and higher monthly payment tax rates.
These effects were partially offset by the already commented EBITDA increase and lower financial expenses for $58 million, mainly driven by a lower average debt level during 2025. Passing to debt, on the right side of the slide, we can see that our gross debt amounted to $3.8 billion as of December 2025, a 2% decrease compared to December 2024. The average term of our debt maturity decreased from 6.2 years as of December 2024 to five point years as of December 2025. The portion at fixed rate was 87% of the total debt. The average cost of our debt decreased from 5% as of December 2024 to 4.9% as of December 2025, in line with our effort to optimize the financial costs.
Regarding liquidity, we are in the comfortable position to support our capital needs for the upcoming months and cope with the next year maturities. As of December 25, we have available committed credit lines for $690 million and cash equivalents for $462 million. Now I will hand over to Gianluca to illustrate our 2026, 2028 strategic plan.
Thank you, Simone. To recap, the execution delivered in 2025 clearly confirms the strength of our strategic priorities and the direction we have set for the company. We demonstrated resilience, flexibility, and disciplined execution in a more demanding environment while continuing to create value. Building on this solid foundation, let's look at how our strategy comes to life in the 2026, 2028 plan. Please turn to slide 17. The slide illustrates both of our strategy and our vision for the next phase of our integrated margin approach. It shows how our investment and management action act as catalysts for long-term value creation, while progressively improving profitability and reducing the overall risk profile of the business. First, we are further optimizing our commercial strategy.
These allow us to anticipate market changes, respond with agility, and capture opportunities while reducing exposure to net solar spot price volatility and prioritizing stability through an integrated approach. Second, we are strengthening our integrated offering by combining innovation, technology, and customer-centric solutions to enhance the resilience, flexibility, and competitiveness of our portfolio. These allow us to continue partnering with climate-aware customers seeking renewable energy and efficiency solutions to support their sustainable growth. Third, we are reinforcing our active portfolio management supported by a diversified nationwide sourcing platform. This strengthens our ability to balance positions, enhance resilience, and maintain a competitive energy offering across market cycles. Finally, we continue with a disciplined and selective approach to renewable investments, allocating capital where it can generate the greatest impact in terms of profitability, electrification, and the energy transition. We focus on projects that combine solid returns with a clear strategic value.
Together, these actions improve our risk-return profile and reinforce our commitment to disciplined execution, value creation, and long-term sustainability. Let's move to our commercial business model and how we will continue capturing market opportunities. Building on what I have just outlined, our commercial strategy is anchored in a solid nationwide platform with presence and capabilities across the entire country. These allow us to capture value and creative opportunities in both the regulated and free markets, at the same time to manage risk in a balanced and disciplined way. We are not just an energy supplier. We offer an integrated proposition of energy and services supported by a diversified asset base that provides flexibility, resilience, and a strong competitive position. A key differentiator of our model is our energy partners approach, through which we provide expert personalized support and tailor-made solutions that reflect the needs of each customer.
This enables an agile, flexible commercial offering and strengthens long-term relationships built on efficiency and sustainability. In parallel, we have modernized and expanded our customer platform, integrating more digital and proactive channels that enhance retention, increase value per customer, and improve our ability to anticipate market needs. Overall, our nationwide scale, integrated offering, and strategic proximity to customers keep us aligned with market dynamics, ensuring agility in execution, reducing risk, and consistently creating sustainable value. Let me now turn to the elements that support this strategy and how they translate into resilience, stability, and value creation over time. We have built a solid, diversified, and long-term contract portfolio across both regulated and free market customers. This structure provides stability and a robust competitive position, consolidating our leadership in a key segment, including regulated clients, mining, and both small and large free market consumers.
Between year-end 2025 and 2028, we expect contracted volumes to grow together with greater diversification across off-takers. In the regulated segment, legacy contract expires will be offset by new regulated bidding contracts starting supply between 2026 and 2027 that will ensure continuity and strength in our portfolio. Portfolio duration is a structural advantage. Our PPAs have an average life of around 13 years, giving us predictable and recurring EBITDA generation. This stability is reinforced by disciplined pricing with an average PPA price close to $65 per MWH, reflecting a solid and a well-edged commercial position. At the same time, our growth is not limited to energy supply.
We are advancing decisively in high-value solutions, and by 2028, we expect significant expansion in customer-installed PV, electrical vehicle charging infrastructure, and home solutions focused on efficiency and energy management. These businesses position us as a strategic partners in electrification and energy transition. Overall, our strategy integrates contractual stability and the expansion of high-value products and services, strengthening our financial resilience and generating sustainable long-term value. With this foundation in place, let me now turn to our CapEx strategy for the coming years. In the context of a rapid renewable growth in Chile, our 2026-28 plan focuses on strengthening our portfolio along three dimensions: flexibility, technology, and geographic diversification. These three pillars guide our investment decisions and shape how we position the company for the coming years. All of this is supported by disciplined and strategic investment effort that strengthens our profitability and operational reliability.
To navigate Chile's evolving energy landscape, our initiatives are BESS deployment, hydro enhancement maximizing generation potential and asset resilience, and improvements in thermal performance, adding additional flexibility that the system needs. Aligned with this roadmap, our total integrated margin CapEx for 2026-2028 amounts to about $1.6 billion. Out of this, roughly $1.0 billion is dedicated to development with a clear prioritization of BESS and new wind projects. This technology mix is essential to ensure the system flexibility that Chile increasingly requires. As a result, renewables will reach around 80% of our generation mix by 2028, enhancing flexibility, profitability, and competitiveness while supporting our commercial strategy. Overall, this allocation reflects a balanced and de-risked investment approach. It is aligned with market condition and mitigates exposure to price volatility, cost inflation, and regulatory evolution, always under strict capital discipline.
Let me now show how these investments translate into new capacity, a stronger nationwide sourcing platform, and ultimately, a more robust and competitive energy mix for Enel Chile. Over the 2026-2028 period, we plan to add around 1 gigawatt of renewable capacity, reaching a total installed capacity close to 10 gigawatts by 2028. This includes the deployment of battery systems and maintains a well-diversified platform across the country. We currently have three projects under execution, Valle del Sol, Azabache, and Las Salinas, totaling around 0.5 gigawatts in the north of Chile, all expected to enter operation during 2027. In our plan, we are also including an additional 0.5 gigawatts split between new battery systems and wind capacity.
During this year, I will provide further details on the evolution of our expansion and other initiatives in term of portfolio management designed to continue balancing and de-risking our portfolio. All these initiatives are fully aligned with current market signals and are designed to mitigate exposure to energy price volatility, investment cost trends, and regulatory evolution while maintaining strict capital discipline. Having defined the strategic direction for the next phase, let's now focus on the distribution businesses and how our decisions are generating value even under regulatory challenges. Our approach to distribution is increasingly centered to disciplined and value-driven decisions. We are operating in a more challenging environment where climate-related pressures influence costs and tariffs. Electrification is reshaping consumptions and customer expectations are rising. Our investment priorities are fully aligned with this reality.
We remain constructively engaged in the regulatory dialogue to ensure that resilience, quality of service, and network modernization needs are properly reflected in the regulatory framework. We will continue focusing capital on action that enhance distribution value, strengthening network flexibility, improving service continuity, and supporting long-term asset performance. Digitalization is a key enabler of this strategy. It enhances network visibility, accelerates response times, and improves reliability and efficiency of our customers. In this context, our investment plan continues advancing the digital transformation of the network. In parallel, we are strengthening our customer-led service model. This means ensuring timely service delivery, improving the execution of new connection, enhancing how we manage services interruption through our quality and resilience programs, and elevating the experience across both our physical and digital channels.
All of this contributes directly to higher satisfaction and trust, improving the risk-return profile of the distribution business, and reinforce its role within our portfolio. Let me now turn to how our business and capital management approach allow us to navigate the regulatory cycle while supporting the evolving needs of the distribution business. The regulatory framework remains a critical element for planning and for protecting long-term value in distribution business. For this plan, we are not assuming changes to the existing regulatory framework. Our assumption are based on our best current assessment of the 2024-2028 regulatory cycle. Before moving to our management actions, let me briefly comment on the 2024-2028 PAD cycle. The regulator released the second version of the technical report in January 2026, and the final report is expected in the second half of this year.
As the process advances, we will have visibility on the regulatory framework at each stage. Under the current regulatory model, we have refined our CapEx plan, prioritizing digitalization while maintaining strong focus on new connections. This balanced approach is essential as demand continues to grow and customer expectation is increased. The investments we are deploying together with updated operating procedures are designed to deliver a more agile and reliable operation. This will directly improve the service experience for our customers and strengthen the flexibility and resilience of our networks. Let me highlight a few examples of how we are digitalizing and automating the network in ways that have a direct impact on quality and efficiency.
We are increasing the number of remote control equipment across the grid, upgrading our main control systems, deploying more advanced digital tools to support field operations, replacing more than 100,000 meters with that advanced metering technology. These actions strengthen network performance, improve service continuity, and enhance long-term value in distribution business. Simone Conticelli will give us more details on the main financial and economic targets.
Thank you, Gianluca. Let me start by presenting our new investment plan for the coming years. We are allocating an investment of $2 billion for the period 2026-2028, around $1.6 billion for generation business and around $0.5 billion for grids. The pillars of our plan strategy are the growth of our renewable energy portfolio, the enhancement of resilience and performance of our production plans, and the flexibility and optimization of our grids operations. Enel will invest in the planned period about $1 billion in the construction of new power plants, adding to the already launched base projects a second wave for an additional 0.5 gigawatt of capacity and confirming the increase of 0.1 gigawatt of wind capacity.
The improvement of our production fleet is obtained mainly through repowering of some of our facilities, strengthening and preventing maintenance, particularly in our thermal fleet, and executing critical work such as intake structure erosion control. Additionally, we are dedicating investment to address new environmental requirements. The improvement of our grids is achieved thanks to $0.5 billion of investment, mainly focused on digitalization, including the installation of new telecontrol units and digital meters, which accelerate full detection and significantly reduce response times. To conclude, the planned investment will not only drive greater value for the company, but will also play a key role in reinforcing the country's overall system. Now, let's look at the value of this investment and our strategy for enhancing our integrated margin. We expect to reach about $1.8 billion of integrated margin by 2028.
The growth will be mainly driven by the increase of the revenues despite the expiration of some regulated contracts, particularly the 2006 auction expired at the end of 2025, the 2010 auction, which will expire in 2027. The result is achieved mainly thanks to the awarding of new regulated auction, which contribute to increased sales volumes and help to maintain the average price of our overall portfolio. Furthermore, based on the strategy outlined by Gianluca, we plan to realize around $0.1 billion from commercial sourcing, leveraging on, first, efficiency and thermal variable cost, also thanks to the availability of Argentinian gas and the reduction of thermal volumes versus 2025 impacted by the extreme drought. Second, reduction of spot purchases during the night hour, thanks to the optimization of selling volumes and the higher production of renewable plants.
Third, reduction of spot prices due to the increase of volumes of competitive natural gas and of the number of BESS in the system. Finally, the margin will increase of a further $0.1 billion, thanks to the contribution of our new BEVs. Now let's review the performance of our grids on the next slide. Our capital allocation for the 2026-2028 period is structured to ensure grids operational flexibility as well as system resilience. We forecast around $0.5 billion of cumulative grids CapEx. The investment are distributed as follows: 47% to connection, supporting load growth, 30% to quality, resilience, and digitalization, aimed at strengthening network reliability, and the remaining 23% to grids management, supporting essential asset life cycle and OEM activities. Cumulative EBITDA and FFO are expected between $0.5 billion and $0.6 billion.
The choice of investing 90% of the FFO show Enel commitment to improve our grids. Despite the current regulation, we are not in line with market requirements. Now let's look at the net income evolution for the next three-year period. The net income is expected to reach a range between $0.5 billion and $0.7 billion in 2028. The main contributor to the increase is the EBITDA growth, with an incremental impact estimated between $0.1 billion and $0.3 billion. The EBITDA grow leverage on the already commented increase of integrated power margin, thanks to the improvement of sales portfolio and sourcing performance, as well as the development of the new BESS, and the slight improvement of grids results, also thanks to the growth of distributed volumes.
Below EBITDA variation are due to higher depreciation following the new renewable project, mainly BESS, that will start operating in the planned period. Taxes increase for around $50 million, following the higher results. Financial charges remain essentially flat, with no major changes in funding costs. Now on the next slide, let's review our financial plan. Let's go through our financial strategy designed to ensure long-term growth and value creation. In the 2026-2028 period, we expect funds equivalent to $3.4 billion from the operations. This amount includes around $0.1 billion coming from the full recovery of PEC receivables. These resources will finance our investments with growth CapEx totaling $2 billion, in line with our strategy of developing selective growth opportunities while maintaining financial strength.
We have allocated $1 billion for dividends, considering a minimal payout of 50%. After the use of funds, we expect a positive change in net debt of $0.3 billion. The stable and reliable sources of funds support shareholder value creation in the long term. We plan to maintain a solid financial position over the next three-year period, leaving room for potential new opportunities arising in the market and being prepared for eventual headwinds in line with our de-risking approach. Let's move to the next slide to review our liquidity and debt position for the next three years. As previously mentioned, in the next three-year period, we will continue focusing on the optimization of our debt structure in line with our financial policy. We maintain a balanced debt structure combining long-term solidity with short-term flexibility.
The resulting average maturity of about six years give us room to benefit from attractive market conditions. Our share of U.S. dollar-denominated debt, moving from 90% to 91%, remains high and consistent with the current profile of our cash flows. We also continue increasing the percentage of fixed rate debt, rising from 87% to 91%. The average cost of debt remain close to 5%, reflecting our disciplined liability management. In conclusion, our financial policy reflect the election to maintain a robust, resilient, and future-proof capital structure to support the development and performance of our business. Now let's take a look at the following slide with a summary of our targets for the following years. Summarizing our strategy for the plan period is focused on improving our business performance while maintaining financial stability in a volatile market context.
The strategic plan project a cumulative EBITDA for the 2026- 2028 period ranging from $4.5 billion-$4.7 billion. Looking at the 2028 figures, EBITDA target will range between $1.5 billion and $1.7 billion, translating into a net income ranging from $0.5 billion-$0.7 billion. Regarding the shareholder remuneration, we are confirming the dividend payout ratio from the previous plan, leaving room for an eventual increase depending on future opportunities and market conditions. Of course, this proposal shall be further discussed with our shareholders during the annual shareholders meeting to take place by the end of April 2026. This dividend policy will allow us to create long-term value for our shareholder while ensuring a solid financial position in line with our long-term sustainable growth strategy. Thanks everybody for your attention.
Now let me hand it over to Gianluca for the closing remarks.
Thank you, Simone. To conclude, let me briefly recap the key messages we wanted to share with you today. First, we are executing an integrated commercial strategy, leveraging a diversified nationwide platform to capture value and creative opportunities across markets. Second, we are applying disciplined capital and operating management to strengthen portfolio flexibility and resilience while maintaining a strong focus on execution. Third, our strategic plan is anchored in financial solidity and a balanced risk return profile. Taken together, these positions Enel Chile as a unique, sustainable and value driven utility, focused on optimizing risk return while maximizing long term value creation. This concludes my remarks. Thank you very much for your attention. I will now hand the call back to Isabela, who will guide us through the Q&A session.
Thank you, Gianluca. Thank you, Simone. Thank you, all connected. We will now move to the Q&A section. Question via the webcast chat. The Q&A session is open. Gianluca, we are receiving several questions regarding gas. Now so as, from several analysts, so I go to the first one.
Yes.
The first one is about gas supply volumes and indexation. No? The analyst say that he has a question regarding your gas contracts. In light of the current geopolitical tensions, how much gas do you have secured for this year? How much of it comes from Argentina versus LNG? He's also trying to understand the timing of the indexations. Do you still need to lock in prices or are these years' volumes already fully contracted?
For this year, the large majority of our thermal gas needs are already secured through firm Argentina gas contracts and LNG contracts. On the other side, GMA is contracted at fixed and LNG contracts are indexed to Henry Hub and Brent. Most of the exposure has been already secured with PPA indexed to commodities and financial products.
Okay. Thank you, Gianluca. I will now go to the second question. The second question is related to cost risk and still Argentina gas contracts. Do you see any cost risk under the current situation? The analyst is saying that his understanding is that you have a firm gas contract with Argentina, but now are those prices indexed? Are they volatile and linked to global benchmarks, or are they mostly pre-defined?
Yes. Thank you. It's a very clear question. At this stage, we don't see a material cost risk. Our firm gas supply agreements with Argentina have a 6-month term and are structured at fixed price.
Okay, thank you. The third one is related now to the spot prices. Beyond the specific impact on your company, could this scenario of the conflict, you know, deteriorate the Chilean spot market in the sense that higher thermal dispatch could drive spot prices up, potentially affecting players who are short in the energy market?
From a system perspective, geopolitical uncertainty can indeed influence expectations for higher spot prices, especially in scenarios where thermal dispatch increases. In our case, let me say that the impact is limited due to our contracted gas supply and our commercial balance. Let me say also that at the market level, it is reasonable to expect calm upward pressure if thermal generation becomes more prominent. However, at the moment, we are not seeing high pressure over a Henry Hub and coal index to expect an important impact on Chilean energy spot prices.
Okay. Thank you, Gianluca. Still on gas, the question comes from Tomás Gonzalez. The question is, he's saying good morning. He has one question still on the current Middle East conflict. Give your reliance on natural gas for thermal generation, how could the current geopolitical tensions in the Middle East affect your contracted energy supply? Especially, do you foresee potential shortages or price increase? If so, would you be able to increase access to Argentine gas, particularly in the event of dry season? Additional, should these conditions materialize, would gas sales be expected to decrease as a result?
Okay, Tomás, thank you for your question. At this stage, we are not seeing any material impact on our operations.
Our cost structure stemming from the geopolitical tension between Iran and USA. Our thermal generation relies primarily on Argentina gas. Our supply is supported by long-term contract arrangements and also aging strategy that obviously help mitigate short-term volatility in the international markets. What I can say and add that our exposure to global gas price movements is relatively limited considering the characteristic of our supply mix. While we continue to closely, obviously, to monitor the global energy environment, including also potential inflationary aspects that can become from this situation. Current market conditions do not indicate any significant impact for us at this point.
Okay. Thank you, Gianluca. Now moving on the questions now from Rubén Alvarado from BCI. Good morning. He has three questions. I will do the three and then Simone and Gianluca.
Yes.
The first one: We noticed lower energy purchase cost per megawatt hour this quarter. Should we expect this trend to continue into the next quarters? The second one is: In the distribution segment, we saw a strong top-line increase year-over-year, mainly driven by prior year price resets. Understanding this is one on, one off. Could you provide more color on that? The last question is: Do you have any updates regarding the concession revocation process in the distribution segment? Simone.
Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Rubén, for your question. Let me start from the decreasing cost of energy purchase. Let me comment that 2025 was a very peculiar year. It was impacted not just by the extreme drought, but also by other effects, such as some limitation in the distribution lines, also following the month of February, and sometimes some plants were out of production in the system. Also this impacted in the marginal cost of energy. Yes, we are improving the cost, and the same, we are expecting that in a more standard year, we keep on growing in this part of price reduction. And this is also something structural if we look to the next 3 years.
Passing to the second question on distribution, the fact that there are different results comparing 2025 with 2024, this is caused by not just one of the effect, but yes, the one of effects were the prime source of the difference. Starting from 2024, you know, we have a very strong impact following the August 2024 climate event. Talking about 2025, in general, we have a better remuneration, regulatory remuneration, because the new regulatory cycle increased the remuneration for the companies. On the other side, there were specific one-off effect that was basically adjustment from the past, some mechanism to adjust the prices all over the country that have a positive impact on Enel.
Considering an impact of event of 2024 of around $60 million in 2024, and considering the impact of one off effect for more than $30 million in 2025, we can explain the differences in the performance in the two year. I think that Gianluca will answer to the concession question.
Thank you, Simone. To finalize the question about the status of the concession. To this date, we have not been notified of any administrative or legal proceeding to address or discuss the potential forfeiture of the concession granted to Enel Distribución Chile. What we have learned from the press is that the Ministry of Energy tasked the SEC with preparing a technical report on the Enel Distribución Chile concession. According to the authorities, this study could take 6 to 18 months. Once it is ready, it will be delivered to the President of the Republic for review.
The company has consistently made itself available to the authorities and has provided all the information requested. This matter is being closely monitored, and we will exercise every legal right to defend our position.
Okay. Thank you, Gianluca. Let's move on. We are receiving more questions here. Thank you for who is joining us. The following question is from Ignacio Sabelle from Itaú Chile. Hi, everyone. Congrats on the results, and thanks for taking my question. The first question, Simone, it looks like the CapEx per megawatt is lower in comparison to the last plan in terms of dollars per megawatt, probably because of high mix of BESS. Could you provide us color on the trend of BESS unitary CapEx? Could you also increase the hours duration in the current projects compared to the last plan if there is lower CapEx? This is the first one, Simone, and then I move on with the others.
Let me give some color about which are our future investment in the plan. We have two wave of BESS. The first wave was already we launched our pre-BESS for more or less 450 MW. We have a second wave for more or less the same amount that has to be launched. The first wave have occurred around 2027, and the second wave in 2028. We have also some new wind capacity to be built. The 1 million at which you are referring is the mix of the new technology. You are right, clear that the large amount of BESS take this number a little bit lower compared to the previous plan. The BESS price is going lower, no?
The price curve is a decreasing curve. More or less, our new BESS will cost something between $0.8 and $0.9 for with more or less $1 that was in the previous plan. Which kind of BESS you are gonna to build? In the first wave, we are talking about 4-hour BESS, and in the second wave, we have BESS starting from 4, 0.5 to 6 hour. We are also evolving in the technology. Talking about the wind, the new wind power plants, the cost is higher, clearly. It's around $1.2, $1.3 for megawatt.
Okay. Thank you, Simone. Let me check here. The second question, also from Ignacio, is: I know that CapEx has been increased by roughly 25% in comparison to the last plan figures, how should we think of dividend payout? Could we see the 70%, for example, would be an opportunity to increase the payout that's currently 50% minimal?
Okay. Enel try to give value to our shareholders, increasing the value of the company, investing in the company and giving value through the dividends, and also trying to maintain a very solid financial position, which is our policy in terms of dividends that we are confirming from the past, is to distribute at least is the word, 50% of our net income. We have confirmed this policy. In the plan, the calculation is made considering 50%. Clear, if in future we will not found, I don't know, opportunity to increase the value of the company, through direct investment, we can also think to improve the dividend in line with the policy.
In this moment, the plan is set with 50%.
Okay. Thank you, Simone. Thank you, Simone. I will move on to the following question. The following question is from Andrew McCarthy from LarrainVial. The question is... He has two questions. The first one is: Could you provide more details about how you reach 11.9 terawatt-hour of hydro production by 2028?
Okay. Which is the mechanism that we use to project the production of our hydropower plant. We have statistical models that are based on the historical trend, looking at the last 10, 15 years, and then collect other variable on the forecast, the weather forecast, and project a number. Really, they project a curve, and we choose to put the plan in the very middle of the curve. With a probability of 50% to have this level of hydroelectricity. This is the output of our model.
Let me comment that we have also the increase of productivity of such plants, because we keep on investing in improving the performance of our hydro fleet.
Okay, thank you. Let me check. We have other questions. From Andrew McCarthy, we have the second one, Simone. The second one is, in the generation business, are there PPA auctions opportunities that could eventually allow the company to grow sales beyond 32 terawatt-hours by 2028?
Talking about our sales strategy, we do not sell energy as a target. We try to maximize the margin and the EBITDA, but also keeping under control the risk. Going to your question, yes, there are opportunity in the market and yes is it possible to increase the sales beyond 32 terawatt. We are studying this opportunity. We are working actively on the market. We have to match the buy side and the production with the sales. We will grab this opportunity if these are accretive opportunities and on the same time, if you can manage the risk without exposing too much the company to the market risk.
Okay. Thank you, Simone. We have another one that is coming from Fernán González from BTG. He has two questions. I go for the first one. Could you please share more details of the new capacity, like the location, expected COD, and if it will be added to existing access assets or not?
Okay, thank you for your question. Majority of our CapEx new capacity is focused on retrofit of existing plants in north of Chile. During 2025, we focused on engineering, permitting and project preparation. With the regulatory framework now in place, we are starting on-site construction activities in 2026, and with COD expected in 2025, 2027, sorry. Our updated strategy plan also includes additional BESS investments scheduled for 2027 and 2028, as we showed in my presentation. We are capable to enforce storage as a structural pillar of our portfolio going forward and with COD for 2028.
Okay. Thank you, Gianluca. The second question from Fernan is about now on distribution. Now he's saying that on distribution, investment in smart meters and remote control CapEx does not seem to be part of the model company, and therefore it may not be remunerated. Is this correct, or do you have pre-agreements with authorities on that regard?
Okay. First of all, smart meters are key for the energy transition in energy system in general. Currently, we don't have a mandatory process in order to advance in deployment. In Chile, investments in smart meters and remote control equipment are not automatically included in regulated model company. Effectively, they are not automatically remunerated. Cost recovery depends on whether the Commission National of Energy, the CNE, recognize those assets in tariff setting, the BID, and or through specific regulatory approvals. There are no standing pre-agreements guaranteeing remuneration. Inclusion must be justified as essential and aligned with the quality of service improvement in this period of the plan.
Okay. Thank you, Gianluca. We are going to a new question. Let me check here. From us, Perotin from Ballast Capital. He's asking that regarding the expiration of the PPAs, could you please elaborate on the strategy the company is implementing as these contracts roll off in light of your recent participating in the regulated auctions, securing 3.360 gigawatt-hour per year for 2027, 2030 period, and the almost 1.5 terawatt-hour for 2026. How should we think about your contracting strategy going forward? Could you provide more color on the average PPA price levels embedded in these awards and what price range we should assume for future recontracting, Simone?
Thank you for the question. As we have talked, our sales strategy is something that we adjust to the market. We look to the free customer and also to regulated customer. As you know, our portfolio has lost in the last years many regulated customer, and so we look at the new auctions like a possible opportunity. Really, this was an opportunity, and why Enel Chile is competitive in this kind of contract, because we have a portfolio, a production portfolio that is not just diversified in terms of technology, but also in terms of geographical distribution. We can enter in this kind of contract without taking high risks. This is the reason why we participate to the auction.
We bid, and finally the bid was at a good price considering our risks. This is something about how we are elaborating our strategy. We are looking at free and regulated market where the better opportunity will arise.
Okay. Thank you, Simone. Now he has a second question. The second is... The question is, in the presentation, it seems that you view wind as the main technology that could lead growth in the following years. In which region of the country do you think is more likely to see higher wind penetration? Do you see changing costs that could encourage more investments in wind farms?
Really the main investment in our plan are in base technology. Why? Because this is the leading technology in this very moment, is a technology that can help the Chilean systems with this activity of energy shifting. Be successful in moving energy from the day in which we have an excess of production to the night in which we have an excess of demand. Talking about wind also, wind technology is very interesting one with the production that is more likely like a base load production. We are thinking to invest in the north, where we find some good opportunities. In any case, the new wind power plants will arrive in the last part of the plan.
Thank you, Simone. Let me check. We have more here. The next one is from Juan Felipe Becerra. He's asking on PPA, on gas, Gianluca, what is your expectation on PPA prices indexes to commodities, Brent, Henry Hub, given the actual geopolitical tension? Do you have an estimate of an impact on average realized PPA prices?
Okay. Thank you for your question. Given the current geopolitical tensions, PPA price should increase. Yes, k eep in mind that our main source of PPAs is index, okay, to commodities, are the distribution companies contract, which looks at a six months windows for updating the price. Therefore, at the moment it is too soon, maybe, to give an estimation on eventual upside related to the current geopolitical tension, and too soon to give an estimation. This is the question. We are seeing the situation, we are monitoring, but what I can confirm that obviously is very soon to give an estimation for eventual upside in this moment. The current geopolitical is very dynamic in this moment, but this is our opinion this moment. Okay.
Okay. Thank you, Gianluca. Now, we have a question coming from Jay Samani from Scotiabank. He's asking, given the parent company, a stated focus on tier one market, how do you see this affecting your capital allocation and assets and portfolio strategy at Enel Chile over the next 12 to 24 months?
Okay. Talking about the support that we will receive from the group. I think that the Enel Group was quite clear that Chile is a quite strong asset in the group. We are projecting a strong plan in terms of investment, and we are sure to keep on having, like in the past, the support to the group. As you know, the strategy of Enel in Chile is to keep on working with a fully integrated group in all the element of the chain of value.
Okay. Thank you, Simone. Also Jay, he has another question. Now talking about data centers. Given the strong outlook for data center driving load growth. How is the company thinking about accelerating the CapEx plan to capture this opportunity? Are there constraints or strategic considerations that limit a faster investment today? Gianluca?
Yes, thank you for your question. It's an important topic that we are working on. Okay. We have played a significant role in developing the necessary infrastructure, particularly in terms of capacity to enable the installation of data center in countries. This includes providing power capacity, strengthening and adding redundancy to network, obviously to ensure operational continuity and supply energy for their operations. In response to the sector's evolving needs, we are proactively identifying future consumption requirements and working closely with the data center industry to timely develop power, infrastructure and energy projects that support their goals. To fully unlock this potential, a few elements are key. Let me say first, fast and scalable access to electrical capacity for large projects. Second, permitting processes that are clear and predictable. Third, firm and competitive renewable energy supported by storage and transmission development.
In addition, having a data center hubs close to efficient generation, strong fiber redundancy and clear rules for direct renewable supply will help attract new investment. To finalize, with this interesting, very interesting question, Chile is a strong starting point and will progress in these areas. It can become a leading location for data center in the region.
Thank you, Gianluca. The other one is for you, Simone, coming from Tomás González regarding refinance. He's asking, do you foresee any opportunity to refinance expensive debts at better rates in the short term, and by that means reduce financial costs over the years?
In the next year, we will have some needs of refinancing. You know that the most important operation that we have to do is the refinancing of the $1 billion Yankee bond. We have a portfolio with a very competitive interest rate around 5%. If you look in this moment at the market, there are not opportunity in the very, very short term to enhance the performance of our portfolio that is well below the market average. We are keep on looking at this opportunity. We are always looking at possibility to anticipate the deadline of our debt. As soon as we find the right moment, for sure we will analyze the possibility to anticipate the future impact.
Okay. Thank you, Simone. We have the last question of the day, coming from Andrew McCarthy, LarrainVial, also on gas. Could recently higher TTF gas price offer an opportunity for attractive gas trading opportunities for Enel Chile? Gianluca?
Yes. Okay. Thank you for your question. We are evaluating the current market opportunities to maximize our results, always taking to account the generation needs to proper supply our energy clients. Indeed, the TTF price are increasing, but yet are far away from the previous crisis of 2022, in which TTF reached up to $80 US dollar per million mega BTU. It's a scenario that concern but not in comparison with the 2022.
Okay. as there are more questions, I would like to conclude our conference call today. Thank you all for your presence. Please note that the investor relations team remains available to address any follow-up questions you may have. Have a great week. Thank you.
Thank you.
With that, ladies and gentlemen, we conclude our conference. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.