Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Conference Call on EVN's results for the first three quarters of the 2022-2023 financial year. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode. The floor will be open for questions following the presentation. Let me now turn the floor over to your host, Mr. Stefan Szyszkowitz.
Welcome, everybody, to EVN's conference call on the results for the first three quarters of this financial year. This reporting period was still characterized by very mild weather conditions, especially to Southeastern Europe, that affected the energy demand, and we also observed reduced energy consumption by our customers due to the energy-saving activities. The energy production from renewable energy sources nearly reached last year's level, and the share of renewable generation increased to 76%. Overall, our group net result developed positively due to the segments Generation and South East Europe. Besides this, significantly higher Verbund dividend for the last financial year, it contributed EUR 158 million to the group net result. Supply business is still under pressure. EVN KG shows a negative result of EUR 268.7 million. I will go now in more detail later in the presentation.
Two years ago, EVN developed its EVN Climate Initiative, and joining the Science Based Targets initiative is just one of our cornerstones. Thereby, we committed to CO2 emission reduction targets. These goals are significantly supported by our ambitious investment program for the expansion and connection of renewables. Over the coming years, annual investment will be increased to over EUR 600 million, with three-fourths going to Lower Austria, mainly in the fields of network infrastructure, renewable generation, and drinking water supplies. Wind capacities will be expanded by another 350 MW to 750 MW by 2030. Additionally, we will build up a photovoltaic portfolio of about 300 MW within this decade. In the reporting period, we commissioned the wind park Laaben as part of the repowering and the three large-scale photovoltaic plants. Three further wind parks and one additional photovoltaic project are under construction.
Two more wind parks are already in the pipeline for 2024. All in all, we will additionally connect roughly 116 MW wind and photovoltaic capacities; therefore, 94 MW still within this calendar year. In July, EVN concluded a contract with the European Investment Bank for a green loan at the amount of EUR 110 million to finance the construction of further wind parks. Let me now continue with the key financials of this reporting period. In the first three quarters, the group's revenue slightly decreased year-on-year to EUR 1.9 billion. This development is mainly due to lower revenues in Southeastern Europe due to the decreasing energy market prices and the international project business, where the Kuwait project has already reached its peak.
In contrast, revenue was positively affected by price effects and renewable electricity generation, valuation effects from hedging transactions, higher prices in EVN Wärme, and higher network sales. The cost of electricity purchases from third parties and primary energy expenses dropped year-on-year to EUR 1.3 billion. This mirrors the development of revenue against the background of increasing energy market prices. In contrast, higher costs for network losses and upstream network costs, as well as higher energy procurement costs for EVN Wärme were recorded. Other operating expenses increased mainly due to an energy crisis contribution for electricity, which has been payable in Austria since December last year. The share of results from equity accounted investees sharply dropped to -EUR 157.7 million.
As forecasted, the sales company, EVN KG, recognized a significant loss in the reporting period of EUR 268.7 million. In total, group EBITDA amounted to EUR 602.1 million. Scheduled depreciation and other amortization increased slightly according to the higher investment program. Please be aware that prior year's figures reflected EUR 51.2 million from impairment testing. Hence, group's EBIT rose to EUR 359.2 million, and financial results increased to EUR 132.5 million, which reflects the dividend payment from Verbund at the amount of EUR 158 million. In total, group net result amounted to EUR 419.1 million. Now, let's move on to the next slide, which provides information regarding group's balance sheet structure.
Balance sheet sum decreased due to a substantial decline in the carrying amount of equity-accounted investees, which resulted primarily from the operating loss of EVN KG, a negative valuation of hedges held by EVN KG and EnergieAllianz at the end of the reporting period. Furthermore, the price development of the Verbund share compared to the end of September 2022 caused a decline in other investments. As of the end of June, EVN net debt increased year-on-year to EUR 1.5 billion due to the higher investment level and temporary financing of working capital needs. Correspondingly, Gearing Ratio amounted to 23.1%. Nevertheless, our financial flexibility remains solid. EVN AG had committed undrawn credit facilities in the amount of EUR 701 million as at the end of June.
As already mentioned, EVN concluded a contract for a green loan at the amount of EUR 110 million to finance the construction of further wind parks. The first disbursement under the loan was made in July. Let me now present our segments in more detail. First, the energy segment. Mild temperatures characterized the first three quarters of the financial year, especially compared to prior year's level, hence, energy sales volumes to end customers declined. Energy savings by customers additionally decreased volumes. Additionally, with decreased market price levels, many, many supply companies came back to the market. We had to face an increased competition with the electricity and natural gas customer segment. Revenue in the energy segment is mainly influenced by energy trading, also through optimization of the EVN gas storage facilities, the marketing of electricity generated by EVN.
Besides, it contributes to revenue from our domestic heating business. In this reporting period, revenue increased to EUR 802.6 million. This development was primarily due to valuation effects of hedges as at the balance sheet date, as well as price effects in the marketing of our own electricity production in our own heating business. Operating expenses were higher year-on-year, and reflected a rise in procurement costs for biomass and natural gas. Furthermore, price-related higher expenses for electricity purchase from third parties, from the marketing of our own renewable electricity generation and the prevailing inflation negatively affected operating expenses. As already mentioned at our previous results presentation this year, earnings contribution from our equity accounted energy distribution company, EVN KG, remains under massive pressure. Its results sharply declined in the reporting period, amounting to -EUR 268.7 million.
Higher procurement costs can only be passed on to customers with a delay, which negatively affects operating results. Additionally, negative effects had to be recorded due to a lower valuation of hedges as at the balance sheet date, and increased provisions for impending losses from contractual obligations. Based on this development, segment EBITDA amounted to EUR -109.5 million, and EBIT decreased to EUR -126 million. On the next slide, I will present the developments of our generation segment. Electricity generation volumes declined year-on-year by 18.9%. The main trigger for the decline was a decrease in the use of the Theiss power plant by the Austrian network transmission operator for network stabilization. Production from renewable resources nearly reached last year's level, but significantly lower wind flows couldn't be offset by higher electricity production from hydropower.
The share of renewable generation increased year-on-year to 76%. Revenue peak increased to EUR 368.2 million, mainly due to higher electricity prices, which all could offset a decline in the electricity production. The prevailing high inflation, as well as the energy crisis contribution for electricity, led to higher operating expenses. The Austrian law on energy crisis contribution became effective as of first of December last year, and will apply for a limited period until the end of this year. The price cap for the tax is EUR 140 MWh , and can be increased up to EUR 176 per MWh, subject to investment into renewable generation assets and energy efficiency measures.
However, as at the beginning of June this year, the thresholds were reduced by a federal government resolution to EUR 120 per MWh, especially, respectively, EUR 156 per MWh. The effect in the first three quarters amounted to EUR 21 million, and is expected to increase to about EUR 32 million in the full financial year. This is, of course, based on the resolutions currently in force. All in all, EBITDA of the generation segment increased to EUR 221.8 million. The result was, in addition, positively affected by higher earnings contribution from our equity-accounted wind infrastructure. Segment EBIT amounted to EUR 189 million, but please still bear in mind, last year's revaluation of the Kavarna wind park in Bulgaria that amounted to EUR 6.4 million as of the thirty-first of March.
Let's continue with the network segment. Our network segment was impacted by the mild temperatures within the first three quarters of this financial year. Network distribution volumes of both the business as well as the household customers decreased year-on-year because of the mild weather. Customers' energy saving efforts also negatively affected volumes. The decline in gas distribution volumes was additionally caused by the reduced use of our Theiss power plant. This capacity is contractually reserved for grid stabilization by the transmission system operator, APG. Segment revenue slightly increased year-on-year to EUR 494.3 million, mainly driven by the positive price effects on network tariffs of our electricity. As of January 1 this year, system network tariffs for both electricity and natural gas were increased by the Austrian energy regulator. Additionally, a positive revenue contribution was also recognized by our subsidiary, Kabelplus.
Costs and network losses and upstream network costs increased due to higher market prices. Other operating expenses were influenced by prevailing high inflation. In total, EBITDA slightly decreased to EUR 203.2 million, and EBIT was down to EUR 76.8 million. Let's move South East Europe segment. in the reporting South East Europe were significantly below the previous year and also the long-term average. This led to a decline in network and energy sales volumes. In contrast, electricity generation volumes increased due to higher water flows as well as newly commissioned photovoltaic plants in North Macedonia. Segment revenue declined to one billion, one hundred eighty-five million euros because of lower network and energy sales volumes, as well as lower wholesale prices.
This development couldn't be offset by higher network tariffs in Bulgaria and an unscheduled increase in electricity prices for the regulated household customer segment in North Macedonia. Operating expenses decreased in the reporting period due to the following facts. First, cost for the third-party electricity purchases and energy carriers dropped in line with the development of volume. Secondly, cost of network loss coverage in North Macedonia were reduced due to the government's subsidized purchases. In total, segment EBITDA amounted to EUR 178.8 million, and EBIT was up to EUR 118.9 million. Finally, the environment segment. In our international project business, we currently work on 15 projects in the field of wastewater treatment, drinking water treatment, and thermal sludge treatment.
In the reporting period, we received the order for the construction of a wastewater treatment plant and sewage sludge utilization plant in Skopje as part of a general contractor assignment. The contract value is around EUR 184 million. Additionally, EVN recently awarded the contract for the construction of a sewage sludge incineration plant in Munich, with a contract value of roughly EUR 255 million. The plant is designed to process thermal neutralization of all sewage sludge produced in Munich and 22 connected surrounding municipalities. This plant will also take into account the issue of phosphorus recovery. The total order book, as at the end of June, amounted to EUR 697.3 million. With the order in Munich, this amount increased to around EUR 950 million.
At our project in Kuwait, we are also making great progress, as at the end of June, completion has reached roughly 90% of the wastewater treatment plant and nearly 65% for the wastewater infrastructure. Revenues decreased year-on-year to EUR 364.3 million, already reflecting the good progress made at the Kuwait project, where the peak has already been reached. Correspondingly, operating expenses declined. The Kuwait project via the project holding company also positively affected earnings contribution from equity accounted investees. In total, EBITDA increased to EUR 44.3 million, and EBIT amounted to EUR 20.3 million . It should be noted again, that the previous year was affected by an impairment loss at the amount of EUR 57.6 million.
Financial results in the reporting period declined due to the increased interest expenses; hence, result before income tax rose to EUR 4.6 million. The next slide now shows the development of our group cash flow in this reporting period. Gross cash flow in the reporting period was higher compared to the previous year at EUR 944.2 million. The main drivers for this development were higher earnings before income tax recorded in the reporting period and the correction of negative earnings at equity accounted EVN KG. Additionally, the dividend distribution of Verbund for their financial year 2022 positively influenced the result, and with that, the gross cash flow. In contrast, the cash flow was weakened by lower dividend distribution from other equity accounted investees. Cash flow from operating activities amounted to EUR 365.1 million.
Triggers for this development are the liquidity settlement for EVN KG , and the related capital commitment for working capital. A negative effect was also the year-on-year increase in income tax payments. The cash flow from investing activities significantly increased in the reporting period to -EUR 374.8 million. This position reflects the high investment, which were contrasted by a year-on-year reduction in investments in cash, cash funds. This position also contains a capital contribution to EVN KG . Cash flow from financing activities amounted to -EUR 103.9 million and includes EVN's dividend payment for the last financial year, as well as scheduled repayments of financial liabilities. Additionally, in the reporting period, EVN concluded three long-term bank loans totaling EUR 150 million.
The recently concluded contract with the European Investment Bank for a green loan at the amount of EUR 110 million to finance wind power project has not yet been taken into account, as the first disbursement under the loan took place after the end of the reporting period. The net change in cash and cash equivalents amounted to -EUR 113.6 million. Additionally, EVN has committed undrawn credit facilities of EUR 701 million as of the end of Q3. I would like to conclude to my presentation with the outlook for this financial year.
In this financial year, the contribution of EVN's operating activities to the group net result will amount to approximately EUR 250 million, and as already presented, as additional earnings contribution of EUR 158 million to group net results for the current financial year has come from Verbund AG. To the next ordinary annual general meeting in April 2024, we will propose a special dividend of EUR 0.62 per share, in addition to the ordinary dividend that is expected to amount to at least EUR 0.52 per share. The dividend proposal already considers our ambitious investment program, which is considered to exceed EUR 600 million. The focal points of investments are on network infrastructure, renewable generation, and drinking water supplies. Now, I've reached the end of this results presentation, and I'm looking forward to answer your question.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question now, please press nine, followed by the star key on your telephone keypad only once. If you wish to cancel that question, please press nine, followed by the star key a second time. Please press nine and star now to state a question. The first question comes from Thibault Dujardin, Société Générale. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thank you very much for taking my question. A quick question concerning EVN KG, just to understand the metrics behind it, the procurement. I understand if the procurement was mainly done in 2022, if you could maybe give us maybe exposure in terms of terawatt hours and when we should expect returns to be positive and what to look at in this regard. Thank you very much.
Yeah, thanks a lot. Yeah. As you mentioned, of course, the year 2022 has been a very challenging year regarding the procurement. We are doing the procurement on a monthly basis. We try to include different kind of customers and try to hedge also the procurement which we are doing. And then on this basis, we have, of course, a rucksack coming from the period of 2022. Now, with a more released energy market, of course, it takes a certain period when the new normal regarding energy pricing, yeah, is stable on both sides, on the procurement and on the sales side. So we expect till April 2024 that this period will last, yeah, but step by step, easing the pressure regarding the results.
Thank you very much. And you, you mentioned that you, you experienced delays in terms of, of pass-through of the procurement cost. Do you expect to be able to recover part of this, negative cost or, or maybe is it less possible?
As we have stated over the whole year, the result of EVN KG will be highly negative, yeah, for this financial year. Of course, with this reduced levels of energy costs on the international market, the pressure from next year will be more relieved on the midterm, and this we want to try to explain also on our capital markets day. We expect a return on revenues between 3% and 5%. This is over the long term a very stable position.
Thank you very much. So just to be sure to understand, maybe there is delays, but you won't be probably able to recover most part of this of the negative result from 2023, just to be sure not to-
No, no, no, we will realize, we will realize, of course, in this financial year, at the end of September, a big part, yeah, of this kind of spreads between procurement and customer sales price adoption. So there's no doubt that this is a tough year for the sales company in this financial year, 2022-2023. We have seen this in all three quarterly results, which we have published, and also the expectation to the end of September.
Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Richard Sherwood, BTIG. Please go ahead.
Hi, can you hear me?
Yes. Excellent.
Yeah, just really following up from those previous questions. Can I just understand a little bit more about how you manage those retail contracts in the context of the comments, obviously, that you talked about, of increased competition as well? So, are you saying it's gonna take you until April 2024 to fully reprice all of those contracts? And is that because some of them are two-year contracts that you fixed before the Ukrainian crisis? I'm trying to understand about the sort of movement in all of the valuation of the negative hedges versus the repricing. How quickly is that moving forward compared to what you expected or indeed what your competitors are doing? And on that point, you mentioned increased retail competition.
Can you give us some color as to what's been going on through this calendar year?
Mm-hmm.
So, are you seeing a big increase in churn because other competitors are using short-term gas and power curves to offer cheaper contracts? How is that evolving in Austria at the moment? That's the first question.
Well, let me take this question. You're completely right. We have two effects. Of course, we have this kind of delay by higher procurement costs and how you can adopt end customer prices in a historic situation, which we have faced. So we were increasing end customer prices on the normal, classical customer base two times in the year of 2022. And then 2023, we changed the general contract with the majority of our customers to have a new pricing basis on an individual basis. This is one thing, is how we try to adapt to the changed situation. The second is in the crisis of autumn early winter 2022, a lot of the competitors were closing their operation and therefore ending their supply contracts with customers.
We took in this situation around 443,000 electricity and gas customers on our book, and did also the procurement for them for the next year. And if I have an expectation till the end of September, I would not be surprised if around the same amount of customers would move on by trying to get the best optimum, yeah. So you have two sides on this crisis story, which we have seen. And, and therefore, with the strong coming down of energy prices, also all the hedging products, yeah, of course, show the change.
Also, that we in the side of security of supply, we are booking for our end customer gas in the gas storage facility, which also have now a different value. So we have not the electricity side alone, we have also the gas security supply side. All these effects are coming together. We hope that if we follow this mechanic of this monthly procurement to different customer groups, if we offer them a short-term sales contract, or one which is secured for both sides for one year, there's different possibilities how the market can develop. And on this kind of level, we should get the peak of this high energy crisis of 2022 pass through, or they can acknowledge the negative result with April 2022.
Of course, in the new budget for the coming year, we will also acknowledge the sales company with more or less the midterm perspective of this 3%-5% return on revenue as a target.
So just to clarify, are you saying that when you take on new customers, you are not fully locking into the gas and power that you're selling to them on that one-year contract at the point of taking them on?
Yeah, it is. We try to judge the consumption of this customer as a sum. But as we discussed before, the temperatures are always different from the normalized temperatures in the planning. So we cannot 100% hedge something which you don't know if you will 100% sell off it. So there is always a different differentiation, deviation between what you plan and try to secure and what appears really happening then. This is affecting, of course, not only the procurement side but the sales side, it's also the sales side of the produced energy. So always try to use all instruments to lock in, yeah, chances and risks. But of course, it's not a mathematically perfect 100% target, which you can achieve in real life.
This is then reflected with the fluctuation on balance sheet state of the different, of the different products.
And one last question. Have you seen churn rates move up materially in terms of-
I think I would say we—if we have a period of 18 months or 24 months, yeah, because the increase on wholesale prices started in summer 2021. Yeah. So I would not be surprised that we will come back to a level of customer base before this kind of disruptive environment started. But as I mentioned before, on a different legal basis, because more or less all our customers have now a bilateral civil contract regarding the prices. So not someone which is coming from the past. It's a bundle, yeah, of customers in certain groups.
Can I ask one last question? The Capital Markets Day, what, what's prompted you to decide to, to hold one now? I don't think you've held one for some considerable time. I was racking my brain-
Yeah.
As to when was the last time you've done it?
Actually, honestly, I think it's quite simple. Because as we discussed, now we're coming on a period of 24 months, which never has been in any expectations of this energy industry before. Also, of course, COVID and the war in Ukraine. And there we thought, okay, regarding energy future and performance and strategy, could be a good moment now to update this and also to explain things like we did before. Because we think it's very important for our investors that they have this kind of guidance, and also have a good feeling how the, the main drivers of our business and our profitability will develop, over the next years. So it's not so much related to this ongoing year, because we will be in the quiet period at the end of September.
But heading to 2030, it's still the only Austrian company who has science-based targets for CO2 reduction, might be a good point to do it.
Will it include guidance for the coming year and then longer data guidance?
Yes. This is the reason we are working with the Supervisory Board on our budget for next year, and of course, on the main assumptions, yeah, for the upcoming years. We want to share this with our investors, so they can put all this information together and make up their mind.
Okay, thank you very much.
Please join us, by the way.
Okay, so at the moment, there seem to be no further questions. If you would still like to ask a question now, please press nine, followed by the star key on your telephone keypad once. And there's one question coming from Teresa Schinwald, Raiffeisen Bank International. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thanks. To round up all the questions regarding the retail business, could you please split the results of KG in operating losses and the valuation effect, please? Just to give us a flavor,
Yeah.
About that.
I think this is. Yeah, this is a fair, fair question. So I think that operating effect amounts around to -EUR 46 million, yeah. And the other effects regarding provisions and valuation of gas inventory is around EUR 136, and regarding the hedges, around 80, yeah. So this roughly would make it up the different components, yeah, of this ongoing business in KG.
Mm-hmm. My next one South East Europe operations, which are now quite significantly above the usual guidance range. Do you consider these results levels to be safe for this year? And would you think that this is a general step up or just some exceptionally good year in South East Europe?
Well, of course, yeah, as we discussed in this situation of the last 24 months, extraordinary things on all levels have happened, yeah? What we did in Southeast, we did things to support the whole energy value chain by their means of the state, and also to try to stabilize the overall economy. So in this result, which we are showing now, it's a part, yeah, of something which we were missing in the year before in North Macedonia. And there's a part of something which we will not see in Bulgaria in the next year. So we have extraordinary timing effects on both sides. We always gave a certain guidance for the segment itself, is this EUR 40 million-60 million of EBIT.
We see a certain potential on the midterm for a higher kind of range, but we will also try to update this on the Capital Markets Day in October, when we have more exposure and knowledge regarding the remaining weeks.
Understood. And the last one is maybe more of a general question. Because the Austrian regulation is now also about to switch to two different kinds of remunerations for existing assets and new assets. Regarding granting a higher cost of capital or return for new network assets. And, for example, Germany is now also following this example, and at the same time, the network utilities are heavily criticizing this new system. Because they say, higher WACC for just five years is nothing to cover the required returns for the massive new investments into grids in this changing environment. Can you update us a bit on what's going on here in Austria?...
for, I know, the upcoming regulatory period, but also, yeah, in general, because I don't think that Austria is very much different here.
Mm-hmm. I think I can support the analysis that, of course, this energy grid systems and the regulation which were developed and a little bit different in different countries, but still from the core regulated asset, and it's reflecting on the certain components regarding how difficult how the assets have to be financed, that the change from stable state adoption to economic development and then heading to the energy future. The energy future is a different league, yeah, of investments in the transformation in Europe. Therefore, I would support also the thesis that the regulatory frameworks have also to be adopted step-by-step. A first step is feasible when we try to reflect on increasing higher interest rates by giving a higher WACC and new investment.
At the end, you will have to see the overall grid development, and for Netz Niederösterreich, like, I can confirm that the investment level are increasing pretty strong over the last years. And we also, as we gave some guidance regarding EUR 600 million, this will also not stop here in the near future. Therefore, the debate in the industry with the different stakeholders is taking place, how the shared common goal of energy transition can be then also included in guidance regarding the regulatory framework. This debate is ongoing. Of course, the European Regulatory Association is monitoring the discussion.
The Austrian one is doing the same, and I think step-by-step we will see a stronger adoption to the system than we have seen in the last 3-5 years, which was pretty much stable state.
Thank you very much.
Okay, thank you. There are no further questions at this point, so I'd like to hand it back to Mr. Szyszkowitz for some closing remarks.
Yeah, thank you for joining today's conference call. We will publish the results for the full financial year on Thursday, fourteenth of December. Additionally, I want to invite you once again to our Capital Markets Day, which we will host in London on the fifth of October. I'm looking forward to welcoming you, and please get in touch with our investor relations team in case you have South East Europe or for any further questions. Have a nice day, and see you in London at the beginning of October. Goodbye.