Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the conference call on EVN's results for the first half of 2020/2021 financial year. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode. The floor will open for questions following the presentation. Let me now turn the floor over to your host, Mr. Stefan Szyszkowitz. Good morning and welcome to the conference call on EVN results for the first half of the 2021 financial year. We are reporting today a sound performance for the first half of our financial year. EBITDA, EBIT, and group net results are above the previous year. The main drivers for these improvements were the earnings contribution from at equity accounted entities, in particular our supply company, EVN KG, and developments in our environment segment, in particular the start of the Kuwait project. The Corona crisis only had selective negative impacts on our operating results. Our integrated business model and a widely diversified customer base continue to be stabilizing factors. Our investment level was high. We were able to increase investment by 21.3% to EUR 155.8 million. This is in line with our commitment to further increase of CapEx. Our plan is to invest on average up to EUR 450 million per year in the near future. Thereof, up to three-fourths will be directed towards regulated and stable activities in Lower Austria. The key investment focus now and in future is on network infrastructure. This investment fulfills three strategic objectives. They secure supply security, enable a carbon-free energy future, and provide for further growth of our regulated business. Further investment areas are renewable generation, biomass, and drinking water. I would like to explain our recent progress in these areas. End of December, we started operations on a new wind farm with an installed capacity of 8.4 MW. This increased our installed wind capacity to 376 MW. We are confident that before this summer, we will have around 400 MW under management. In Krems, which is the fifth-largest town in Lower Austria, we will construct a new biomass cogeneration plant. Investment volume is about EUR 40 million. Upon commissioning, which is planned for early 2023, this plant will supply renewable electricity to approximately 15,000 households and natural heat to 30,000 households. In the international project business, we were awarded a new contract in Romania. As a general contractor, we will be responsible for the modernization of a plant for drinking water supply. The contract value is approximately EUR 12 million. I'm also pleased to inform you that EVN is back in the Vienna Stock Exchange index, ATX, since mid-March. Let me now continue with the key financials of the reporting period. The group's revenue was up by 7.6% year-on-year. The main reason for this development is the start of construction of the wastewater project in Kuwait. In addition, temperatures were colder than last year, which led to slightly higher network sales in all three core markets. Contrary factors were lower effects from the evaluation of hedges for the electricity generation and a decline in revenue from natural gas trading. In the second quarter, the deterioration of the Clean Dark Spreads led to the creation of an additional provision for onerous contracts in the amount of EUR 35.5 million linked to the electricity production in the Walsum 10 power plant. The main reason for the rise in EBITDA were higher earnings contributions from at-equity accounted industries. Higher investments led to a rise of scheduled depreciation and amortization. In connection with the takeover of an additional electricity procurement right, an impairment loss of around EUR 113 million was recognized for the Walsum 10 power plant already in the first quarter. For a year-on-year comparison of effects from impairment testing please bear in mind that higher country risk premiums for Southeastern European countries due to the COVID-19 had triggered impairment losses of EUR 15.5 million in the previous year. Based on these developments, the group EBIT was up by 10.3% and amounted to EUR 254.5 million. Financial results were up by 27.8%. In total, we generated a group net result of EUR 176 million, which represents an increase by 15.3% over the previous year. Now I would like to move to the next slide, which provides some information regarding the group's balance sheet structure. EVN's net debt has remained constant by approximately EUR 1 billion. Gear ratio was down and amounted to 17.9%. Our financial flexibility is solid. We benefit from lower net debt and sufficient committed undrawn credit facilities, which amounted to EUR 551 million as of the end of March 2021. Our strong balance sheet structure forms the basis of pursuing organic growth opportunities in our regulated and stable Austrian activities. The rating agencies recently published their annual updates and confirmed our current credit ratings. We have an A1 rating from Moody's and an A rating from S&P. Both ratings are well in line with our goal of having ratings in the solid A range. Before I will go through each of the segments in detail, I would like to give you a general overview on the EBITDA development of our business segments. The EBITDA development per segment illustrates the key drivers of our performance during the reporting period. With the exception of the Southeastern Europe segment, all other segments showed improvement in comparison with the previous year. Let's move on now to the next slide, which covers the Generation segment in more detail. Electricity generation volumes in this segment were down by 4.1% year- on- year. Whereas renewable generation suffered from poor wind flows, thermal generation declined due to the lower use of our gas-fired power plants for network stabilization. EBITDA was up at EUR 102.7 million. This increase was mainly due to a positive one-off effect related to the Walsum transaction in the first quarter. In addition, there was a revaluation of our equity-consolidated investment in the Ashta hydropower plant in the amount of EUR 9.6 million. In the previous half a year, we had to record an impairment loss of EUR 4.9 million due to the higher country risk premiums at that period. Both effects were driven by country risk premiums in this country. In the previous year, it increased, and in the year before it went down. Schedule depreciation amortization increased as a result of higher investments. In total, the Generation segment generated a higher EBIT of EUR 60.5 million. On the next slide, I will continue with the Energy segment. The development of revenue in the Energy segment depends primarily on the marketing of electricity generated at EVN power plants. Due to, among others, lower thermal generation and a year-on-year decline in valuation effect of hedges, revenue was down by 26.3%. The Walsum transaction in the first quarter also had a positive one-off effect on the EBITDA in the Energy segment. This effect was counteracted by the additional provision for an onerous contract in the second quarter, which I mentioned before. Energy sales volume showed positive development. Electricity, natural gas, and heat sales volumes were above the prior year level. The increase in demand for natural gas and heat resulted from colder temperatures. The growth in electricity sales was supported by an expansion of the customer base and stronger demand from household customers. The COVID-19 pandemic did not have a material negative effect on energy demand. The share of results from equity accounted investees with operating nature improved by EUR 44.3 million. This increase was supported by a sound operating performance of EVN KG and positive effects from the valuation of hedges. Based on these developments, the Energy segment reported EBITDA of EUR 67.4 million and EBIT of EUR 56.7 million. On the next slide, I will present the development in our Network segment. Network sales volumes increased, supported by stronger demand for electricity and natural gas in the household customer segment due to lower temperatures in our core region in Lower Austria. This was counteracted by a slight decline in electricity consumption by commercial customers. There were no material negative effects on network sales volumes from the COVID-19 pandemic. At the beginning of the new calendar year, the Austrian regulator determined new network tariffs. Tariffs for electricity were increased by 6.3% on average, and those for natural gas were increased by 6.4% on average. Based on this volume and price development, segment revenues increased by 5%. EBITDA in the Network segment was up by 11% and EBIT by 15.5%. On the next slide, I will continue with the Southeast Europe segment. Temperatures in Southeast Europe were lower than the unusual mild previous year, but still higher than the long-term average. In Bulgaria, we are facing stronger competition following the market liberalization for commercial customers as of October 2020. Based on these developments, we are reporting today an increase in network sales volumes counteracted by a decline in energy sales volumes. Segment EBITDA was below the previous year level. The reasons for the decline were higher energy procurement costs, as well as lower sales margins in the regulated supply business in North Macedonia. In contrast, segment EBIT was up. As already mentioned, higher country risk premiums for Southeastern European countries due to the COVID-19 had triggered impairment losses of EUR 15.5 million in the previous year. I would like to conclude my presentation of this segment with the Environment segment. In our international project business, we were awarded a new contract in Romania regarding the modernization of a plant for drinking water supply. The project has a contract volume of about EUR 12 million. In total, WTE Wassertechnik is currently working on nine projects in Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Bahrain, and Kuwait. The order book was about EUR 1.4 billion at the end of March. In addition, our joint venture company, Sludge2Energy, is currently working on three sewage sludge treatment projects in Germany. The financial performance of the segment is in line with the development in the international project business. There was a corresponding rise of both revenue and operating expenses in the segment. All in all, the segment benefited from the start of construction of the Kuwait wastewater project, which is accounted for according to the percentage-of-completion method. In addition, there was a positive one-off effect at our Lower Austrian water supply company. In total, these developments led to an increase in EBITDA to EUR 39.5 million and in EBIT to EUR 99 million. With this, I conclude the presentation of the segments. On the next slide, I will continue with the development of our group cash flows. Gross cash flow was substantially up EUR 591 million. This was mainly due to the compensation payment for the takeover of an electricity procurement contract. A further factor was the higher balance of dividend from equity- accounted investees. An increase in cash flow from operating activities was even higher in comparison due to the developments in the working capital. Cash flow from investing activities was influenced chiefly by year-on-year increase in investments in property, plant, equipment, and high investments in cash funds. The cash flow from financing activities reflected the scheduled prepayment of loans and dividends for our previous financial year. A contrary factor was the issuance of a green private placement. The net change in cash and cash equivalents amounted to EUR 1.8 million. I would like to conclude my presentation with the confirmation of the outlook for the group. Assuming average conditions in the energy business environment, we expect that the group net result 2021 will be in range of approximately EUR 200 million-EUR 230 million. However, the further course of the COVID-19 crisis and the resulting macroeconomic effects would have a negative influence on individual businesses areas at EVN and in turn on the development of earnings for the entire group. I confirm our dividend policy. It is directed to holding the absolute amount of the dividend at least constant at EUR 0.49 per share. I'm now looking forward to answering your questions. The first question comes from Mr. Peter Crampton. Good morning. Peter Crampton here from Barclays. Just one question on Austria's plans regarding renewables. You've got this big ambition by 2030 to reach total energy transition and for lots and lots of investments to happen in the renewable energy sector. Are you expecting some opportunities here for EVN, particularly since you do have that big net headroom in the balance sheet and an ability to invest more? Do you feel the framework is now good enough to do so? Thank you. Thank you, Peter, for this question. I want to confirm that we're all expecting that the parliament is voting on this new energy act before the summer break. As we all know, a lot of additional regulative decisions have to be made after that. The clear legal framework for the future development of renewable energy will be in place, I think, in autumn. EVN, as I mentioned before, is hoping to have around 400 MW of wind under management before the summer break. We have an additional 100 MW on projects on different stages of confirmation, but already the contract from the old system of the regulation. Of course, we expect that society and regulative framework has to give incentives for the further development of installed renewable capacity for wind and photovoltaic for the future. In the photovoltaic case, it depends pretty much also on the land regulation, where you are allowed to get the permits for photovoltaic. This is still debated also in the provinces. It's not quite clear if these ambitious targets of 2030 are already reflected in a framework which is allowing companies like ours to develop this project as we would like to do. An additional opportunity we are also pursuing now, that we will look on additional renewable energy in North Macedonia and Bulgaria, because there we are already a grid operator, have access to the grid, and have an organization in place. Thanks for that answer. The next question comes from Lüder Schumacher. Your line is open. Hi, good morning. Lüder Schumacher here. Three questions from my side. The first one is on EVN KG. Clearly very strong results there. Could you maybe elaborate a bit on the drivers behind the strong performance and whether that is likely to be sustainable or should we look at this as more of a one-off? The second question is on something you mentioned earlier in the presentation. You said that the clear focus for CapEx is on network infrastructure. Why do you see network infrastructure as that much more of an attractive investment opportunity than renewables? Is it less competition? Is it just the regulated returns that you see as attractive? It will be quite interesting to hear your general thoughts there. Lastly, on Walsum. Another provision, another impairment, negative Clean Dark Spreads. What is the investment case for Walsum with carbon prices above EUR 50 a tonne? Wouldn't it be easier to just bid the plant into the coal closure tender? That's all from my side. Okay, thanks, Lüder. First of all, regarding EVN KG, that's our sales company. Of course, we have volume effects there. We have also price effects. If you look on the results over the last couple of years, you see quite a strong fluctuation. It's pretty much always depending how the procurement costs in the period are developing and how you can pass through additional costs regarding procurement. If the timing of increase of procurement energy costs and pricing is in line, then there should be no big fluctuations. This has happened in the recent past, and now you see in this year that the price increases of two years ago are now having the full effect connected also with the temperatures which we have seen here. What over the midterm, we were always looking on around a 5% kind of retail margin on the volume. Of course, we are above this in this year. It is not sustainable as a business model. It is just a question of adopting at the right period and the right timing. Regarding the investment strategy, which I want to confirm again, around EUR 450 million. It is the [Non-English content] investment. This is without the grid connection. This is on the level of the next couple of years. Three quarters of them go to Lower Austria, and there, luckily, we have a broad opportunity to invest. Of course, in the infrastructure of the grid, because the grid infrastructure on the electricity side has to be adopted for the further renewable production and connection. We started originally to develop the grid on the basis of the existing customer grid. Now, step by step, we have to invest in 110 kV in substation to get the additional produced renewable energy into a grid and to further develop the grid in this case. This is a regulated business with, I think, very transparent regulatory framework. This is giving this kind of backup of EVN's results for the upcoming years. Renewables are still also in the sense of a regulated, subsidy business. Of course, with the new law, we will go into a market premium, there's not a feed-in tariff system anymore. For us, it's also for the time being, this is a regulated business. We have also stable businesses which are not regulated, but by definition, grid work similar, like the water business. I think we are quite good as an asset manager of grid infrastructures, trying to have as many products as different grid infrastructures and one overhead OpEx structure. This is the case where we believe in, I think that we are also good in. These are also in comparison, our tariffs to the tariffs from other grid operators show that we there have a quite a management performance. I think this is what EVN is good at, independently if it's heating, if it's water, if it's telecom, or if it's gas and electricity. Regarding the third point, which you have taken very well, of course, the Walsum case is not the case anymore when we made the investment decision. In old Prime Minister Schröder's time, we wanted to get the confidence of investors in thermal production. Times have changed. Government has changed. The next government of Germany is on the way after the election in September. We are following quite closely the debate in Germany. We try also to understand what can trigger changes there. They have made the decision regarding the law, how to exit thermal electricity production. We have seen over the last couple of weeks even further demands. For us as a minority stakeholder of the Walsum power plant, it is not a decision up to us. It's a decision together in the joint venture with the majority stakeholder. What we also try to understand is how the fading out of the nuclear production in 2022- 2023 is influencing the German energy market, not only on the production side, but also on the stability security side. I would expect that we have a clear view what we are able to do under what conditions and what we can also get the approval by our boards and put to our shareholders, and we know more closer which are the conditions regarding the further future of the energy system in Germany, because this will influence on the legal base, on the prices base, and also on the CO2 base. We have seen in the last couple of months, there was also a speculation on the CO2 limitations volumes. There is more than just the energy industry in the rise of this CO2 emission. There's also a financial speculation taking place. Therefore, it's very hard to judge in the moment. Very clear. Thank you. There are no more questions. Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press nine star on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Ms. Teresa Schinwald. Your line is open. Okay, we have no more question. Okay. In this case, thank you for joining today's conference call. We will publish the results for the first quarters of 2021 financial year on Thursday, 26th of August. Please join us then again, stay healthy, and have a wonderful summer.