Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to EVN's conference call for the results 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 Stefan Szyszkowitz. Please go ahead. Welcome, everybody, to EVN's conference call on the results for the financial year of 2022-2023. The financial year 2022-2023 was remarked by very mild weather conditions in all our three core markets. We also observed a change in customer behavior towards a reduction in energy consumption through energy saving measures, or even by generating their own energy from photovoltaics. These developments once again underpin the transition of the energy system. Let's come now to EVN's full- year's result of 2022-2023. In the reporting period, we achieved a strong financial performance. This comes as no surprise, as we already communicated the new outlook at the beginning of November. Group net result amounted to EUR 529.7 million, mainly due to earnings improvement at the Southeast European segment. Besides that, the significantly higher Verbund dividend for their last financial year contributed EUR 158 million to the Group net result. And in the previous year, negative effects from impairment tests were included in the results. Unfortunately, our supply business was under pressure and showed a negative result of EUR 240.3 million. However, we expect a recovery for the 2023-2024 financial year. We are proud that roughly 88% of all our investments in this reporting period are officially classified as green under the EU Taxonomy, and we are also in line with the target reduction path of CO₂ emissions set in accordance with the Science Based Targets Initiative. Based on these strong results, we will propose the payment of a dividend of EUR 0.52 per share, plus a special dividend of EUR 0.62 per share to the next annual general meeting in February 2024. It is our declared aim to give our shareholders an appropriate share in profit growth. In this reporting year, we also have reached a new record levels of investments. Total investment in the reporting period increased by 23.1% to EUR 694.1 million. Over the coming years, annual investment will remain with this very high level of EUR 700 million-EUR 900 million. Around 75% of the investment will go to Lower Austria, and almost half is budgeted for the network infrastructure. In 2022-2023, we have already made considerable progress in expanding our renewable energy capacities. As at the end of September, we had an installed wind power capacity of 447 MW, and we will commission two further projects and add a total output of roughly 30 MW to the grid by the end of calendar, of the calendar year. We also made great efforts to expand our photovoltaic capacities. Here we had a roughly 42 MW peak at the end of this past September, and this volume will double by the end of 2023, with the commissioning of large-scale plants in Tenevo and North Macedonia. Let me now continue with the key financials of this year. Group's revenue in the reporting period decreased to EUR 3.8 billion. This development is mainly due to lower revenues in Southeastern Europe due to decreased 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 and volume effects in renewable electricity generation, valuation effects from hedges, higher revenue from natural gas trading, increased sale prices at EVN Wärme, and higher network tariffs. The cost of electricity purchases from third parties and primary energy expenses grew up compared to the prior year. This mainly reflects declining wholesale prices in Southeast Europe, which relate to the regulatory compensations for additional costs for covering network losses. Please be aware that such surplus in the compensation will be offset in the following years. This decline was compensated by higher costs for network losses and upstream network costs in Lower Austria, as well as higher electricity procurement costs from Verbund Innkraftwerke and higher energy procurement costs for EVN Wärme. The share of results from equity-accounted investees decreased to EUR -67.6 million. As already said, the sales company, EVN AG, recognized a significant total loss in the reporting period of EUR 240.3 million. In contrast, higher earnings contributions were received from RAG, Verbund Innkraftwerke, and Burgenland Energie. For the Ashta Power Plant in Albania, we had to consider a reevaluation of EUR 11.1 million based on impairment testing. All in all, Group EBITDA amounted to EUR 869 million. The high level of investments led to an increase in scheduled depreciation and amortization. Please consider the significant reduction of impairment losses, which amounted to EUR 114.8 million in 2021, 2022. In total, group's EBIT rose to EUR 528.5 million, and financial results increased to EUR 127.6 million, mainly reflecting the dividend payment from Verbund at the amount of EUR 158 million. All these developments resulted in an increase in group net result to EUR 529.7 million. Now, let's move on to the next slide, which provides information regarding group's balance sheet structure. The balance sheet somewhat decreased due to the substantial decline in the current amount of equity-accounted investees, which resulted primarily from the operating loss of EVN AG and negative valuation of hedges held by EVN AG and Energy Alliance. Furthermore, the price development of a Verbund share year-on-year led to a decline in other investments. As of the end of September, EVN's net debt increased year-on-year only by EUR 120 million to EUR 1.4 billion, despite our high investment level and due to our strong operating cash flow. Correspondingly, gearing ratio increased to 21.1%. Nevertheless, our financial flexibility remains solid. EVN AG had committed undrawn credit facilities in the amount of EUR 686 million as at the end of September. Moreover, our declared goal is to maintain solid A category ratings in the future. To achieve such ratings, we are strictly monitoring the adjusted target ratios of both of our rating agencies. These are in line with the net debt FFO range, which was communicated in October. Let me now present our segments in more detail. First, the energy segment. The past financial year was characterized by extremely mild temperatures in all of our core markets, not only compared to the comparative period, but also compared to the long-term average. Hence, energy sales volumes to end customers dropped. Additionally, energy savings by customers and an increase in customers' own energy generation from photovoltaics decreased volumes. On top, we had to face an increased competition within the electricity and natural gas customer segment. Revenue in the energy segment is mainly influenced by the energy trading, all-through commodity optimization of the EVN gas storage facilities, the marketing of electricity generated by EVN. Besides, it includes the revenue from our domestic heating business. In this period, revenue increased to EUR 1 billion. This positive development was primarily due to valuation effects of hedges as of the balance sheet date, higher revenue from natural gas trading, price effects in the marketing of our own renewable energy, electricity production, and higher sales prices at our heating business. Operating expenses were higher year-on-year and reflected increased costs of energy purchases from third parties. Furthermore, a rise in procurement costs for biomass and the prevailing inflation negatively affected operating expenses. This development was contrasted by valuation effects from hedges. As already mentioned in the past financial year, earnings contribution from our equity- accounted energy distribution company, EVN AG, was under massive pressure. Its results sharply declined in the reporting period, amounting to EUR -240.3 million. Based on these developments, segment EBITDA amounted to EUR -63.6 million, and the EBIT decreased to EUR -90.1 million. The outlook of our energy segment for this financial year is mainly determined by the marketing of our own electricity production, by the heat sales from our subsidiary, EVN Wärme, and by the equity-accounted energy supply business of EVN AG. We expect segment EBIT for 2023-2024 to be at the lower end of the range of EUR 45 million-EUR 70 million, as we could have seen as a gradual decline in spot and forward prices during recent months. Hence, the energy supply company, EVN AG, is expected to again generate positive earnings. I will present the developments of our generation segment. Electricity generation volumes declined year-on-year by 14.4%. The main trigger for the decline was a drop in the use of the Theiss power plant by the Austrian Network Transmission operator for network stabilization. Production from renewable sources were slightly above last year's level because of higher volumes from hydropower. Positive volume effects were also related to the Verbund Innkraftwerke because of the recommissioning of a plant. At the same time, wind flows were unfortunately clearly below average. The share of renewable generation increased year-on-year to around 77%. Revenue increased to EUR 481.9 million, mainly due to higher electricity prices, which could offset the decline in the electricity, electricity production. Operating expenses also increased because of higher cost for electricity purchases that also relate to the volume increase of Verbund Innkraftwerke. It is important to note that this development also has a corresponding impact on revenue. Besides inflationary effects, the Austrian law on energy crisis contribution, that had already become effective for a year now, also negatively impacted operating results and amounted to EUR 25.1 million in the reporting period. All in all, EBITDA of the generation segment increased to EUR 300.4 million. The result was, in addition, positively affected by a higher earnings contribution from that equity-accounted Verbund Innkraftwerke. Our investment in this segment reached a new historical high. Hence, depreciation and amortization increased in the reporting period. But please still bear in mind the absence of last year's revaluation of the Kavarna Wind Park in Bulgaria that amounted to EUR 9.6 million. Segment EBIT amounted to EUR 255 million. Segment outlook for generation segment is based on wind and water flows, reflecting the long-term average. Therefore, we expect segment EBIT to be slightly below the prior year level in 2023-2024, due to the decline in electricity prices. Let's continue with the network segment. Our network segment also impacted by the mild temperatures within this financial year. As a result, network distribution volumes fell compared to last year. Additionally, consumers' energy savings efforts also negatively affected volumes. The decline in gas distribution volumes was caused by the reduced use of our Theiss power plant for network stabilization. Segment revenue increased compared to last year to EUR 637.9 million. This development is mainly driven by higher network tariffs and the positive revenue contribution by our subsidiary, Kabelplus. This was partly offset by the substantial reduction in natural gas network sales volumes. Operating expenses of the network segment also raised year-on-year, due to the still high inflation and increased costs for network losses and upstream network costs due to higher energy market prices. In total, EBITDA slightly decreased to EUR 235.4 million. The high investment level in this segment led to an increase in scheduled depreciation amortization. Investments in this segment will remain high. Electricity network capacity is expected to double from the current level of approximately 3,000 MW to 6,000 MW by 2030. Last year, an extraordinary effect in the form of an impairment loss of EUR 32.9 million was recognized at Netz Niederösterreich. Segment EBIT amounted to EUR 78.6 million. Regarding the segment outlook, for electricity networks, a new regulatory period begins on the first of January 2024, during which we expect a lower WACC, combined with end customer ongoing efforts to reduce energy consumption, which we are currently observing in the negative macroeconomic effect. Segment EBIT, in this financial year, is expected to be lower than in the previous year. Let's move on to the Southeast Europe segment. As already mentioned before, temperatures were also in Southeast Europe significantly below the previous year and also the long-term average. This led to a decline in network distribution and energy sales volumes. Additionally, we had to face an increased competition in liberalized markets. 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 EUR 1.5 billion 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 higher regulated household electricity prices in North Macedonia. Operating expenses in this segment dropped in the reporting period, mainly due to declining wholesale prices in Southeast Europe. This related to the regulatory compensation for additional costs for covering the network losses. However, please note that this surplus in compensation will be offset in the following years. In total, segment EBITDA amounted to EUR 239.4 million. Please consider the absence of last year's impairment loss, at tax profit of EUR 16.7 million. EBIT amounted to EUR 159.5 million. For this financial year, segment outlook is expected to decrease compared to the 2022-2023 financial year. Segment EBIT will reflect a normalized range of EUR 70 million-EUR 90 million. The forecast decline will reflect the compensation of the positive pull-forward effect in the following year, in line with the regulatory mechanism. This relates to the compensation of additional costs for covering network losses, which contributed to the unusually high segment results in 2022-2023. Finally, the environment segment. In our international project business, we currently work on 12 projects in the field of wastewater treatment, drinking water treatment, and thermal sludge treatment. We are also making great progress with our project in Kuwait. At the end of September, the wastewater treatment plant was almost complete, and two-thirds of the wastewater infrastructure have already been finished. In total, order book, as on the end of September, amounted to EUR 873 million. In September, we announced in an ad hoc release the intention to de-invest WTE. A structured bidder process was started to WTE, which is responsible for our international project business. Our revenue decreased compared to last year, to EUR 532.3 million. This development reflects the progress made in the Kuwait project, where the peak has already been reached. Correspondingly, operating expenses declined. The Kuwait project, via the project holding company, also had a positive effect on the earnings contribution of equity- accounted investors. In total, EBITDA increased to EUR 62.2 million, taking into account impairment losses in the international project business last year, at the amount of EUR 58.4 million. Segment EBIT in 2022-2023 amounted to EUR 29.5 million. Financial results increased year-on-year due to the negative foreign exchange effects in the comparative reporting period. Hence, results before income tax increased to EUR 8.6 million. The development of earnings in the environment segment is significantly influenced by the progress of the international projects. Segment outlook for this financial year is expected to reflect the prior year's level. The next slide shows the development of our group's cash flows. Gross cash flow in the reporting period was higher compared to the prior year, at EUR 1.1 billion. This is due to the higher results before taxes. Cash flow from operating activities amounted to EUR 942.4 million. Triggers for this development by the liquidity segment of EVN AG, and the related capital commitment for working capital... Negative effects were higher, receivables from taxes and from hedges. The cash flow from investing activities significantly increased from EUR 223 million to EUR -929 million. This position reflects the higher investment level and the capital contributions to EVN AG. In part, this was contrasted by the increase in network subsidies that accompanied the higher volumes of network investment. Cash flow from financing activities amounted to EUR 1.6 million, and it includes the dividend payments to our shareholders for the 2021-2022 financial year. This position also contains scheduled repayment of financial liabilities and the arrangement of our four long-term bank loans. The net cash, net change in cash and cash equivalents amounted to EUR 14.9 million. Additionally, EVN has committed undrawn credit facilities of EUR 686 million as of the end of September. Let's come to the outlook for the next financial year. As already communicated and mentioned before, we will propose to the next ordinary general meeting in February 2024, an ordinary dividend of EUR 0.52 per share, and in addition, a special dividend of EUR 0.62 per share for the financial year 2022-2023. Under the assumption of a stable regulatory and energy policy environment, we expect a group net result for the financial year 2023-2024 to be within a range of EUR 420 million-EUR 460 million. You may also find an overview of the outlook of all segments in the appendix of this presentation. In view of our investment and growth perspectives up to 2030 and beyond, we specified our dividend policy. Future dividends will equal at least EUR 0.82 per share, and we are committed to let our shareholders appropriately participate in an additional earnings growth. In the midterm, we are aiming for a payout ratio of 40% of group's net result. The dividend proposal, as well as our future dividend policy, consider our ambitious investment program. As already mentioned at the beginning of today's presentation, total annual investment will be in the range of EUR 700 million-EUR 900 million. The core areas are investments in network infrastructure, besides that, renewable generation and drinking water supplies. We are committed to invest up to EUR 450 million per year for the further development of Lower Austrian network infrastructure. Approximately EUR 100 million will go into a new renewable energy capacity each year. These investments by EVN are crucial for a successful transition of the energy system. EVN understands itself as an enabler for an emission-free energy future. The following are the core cornerstones we have based our Strategy 2030 on. Our high level of annual investments, especially for the expansion of wind and photovoltaic capacities, will make a measurable contribution to containing climate change. We will increase output from renewable generation from currently 1 TWh to 2.5 TWh by 2030. However, energy transition can only be successful if the network infrastructure is expanded accordingly. The necessary integration of volatile renewable generation from many decentralized sources, above all, photovoltaics, and in combination with completely new consumption patterns, like e-mobility, for instance, make network expansion crucial. EUR 3 billion CapEx will be invested in the electricity network infrastructure in Lower Austria in the next years. This will increase our regulated asset base in Lower Austria by 75% by 2030. In the field of e-mobility, we have been active since 2010. We have already gradually built up a comprehensive network throughout Lower Austria in recent years. Today, we are the largest charging station operator in Austria, with over 2,500 charging points, and our customers can use more than 7,500 charging points throughout Austria with their EVN charging card. In course of last year's financial year, we received contracts on construction and operating of charging infrastructure for two large supermarket chains by 2026, and we see further growth potential in this business area. We are also working on innovative solutions for flexible management of energy requirements, especially for higher demands during winter months. The cross-sector use of energy is a key factor here. We are therefore working on several projects, which concepts to integrate electricity and heat generation to warm water storage or heat pumps. We are also a partner in a joint venture project with our subsidiary, AG, in the operation of electrolysis plants for the conversion of solar energy into green hydrogen, which can be changed back into electricity as needed. We, we call them green molecules. On the top of these points, and as part of our strategy 2030, we are committed to science-based reduction goals for our greenhouse gas emissions. Starting from a well below 2 degrees goal, we are now in the process of evaluating a more ambitious 1.5-degree reduction target. Greenhouse gas emission reduction is a key aspect in our climate initiative and emphasizes the importance of climate protection in all our activities. This is what we stand for. I've now reached the end of this presentation, and I'm looking forward to answering your questions. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press nine and the star key on your telephone keypad. In case you wish to cancel your question, press nine and the star key again... Please press nine and the star key now to state your question. And the first question comes from Richard Alderman. Please go ahead. Hi, can you hear me? Yes. Excellent. Good morning. I just wanted to ask you about the wording of your guidance on the dividend policy as the first question. Just to understand your thinking around the base of at least EUR 0.82, and then the comments around appropriate shareholder participation in additional earnings growth. Does that suggest that you would reconsider further special dividends on top of that base in the next two years? I ask, because obviously, your EUR 0.82 comes in below current consensus of around EUR 0.93, and would imply quite low growth from 2024 into 2025 on current consensus. So just interested in your thinking on that. Obviously, from the commentary you had around the capital markets day, we're aware that the board doesn't expect the extraordinary levels of the buoyant dividends to continue. But given the low-risk nature of your CapEx, there could be scope, obviously, for higher dividends. Thanks, Richard. Yes, I can confirm that the new dividend policy is really the base dividend of this EUR 0.82. This includes all the results from all our activities and our holdings. And as I mentioned before, this enormous CapEx program, yeah, which also leads then to a higher net debt, yeah. We have to balance this in a way, and this is the guidance, therefore, this EUR 0.82. And then let's see how the real results year-on-year basis will show us, yeah. The midterm perspective is this 40% of group's net result, adjusted for extraordinary effects. Thank you. The next question comes from Thibault Dujardin. Please go ahead. Hello, can you hear me? Yes, excellent. Yes. May I ask you, regarding Southeast Europe, concerning the offset of the exceptional results this year. May I ask how long it would last, over how many years? And the impact on, more especially by subdivision, if possible. Yes, as I tried to mention, we had extraordinary effects from the last year and from the next year, all coming together in this year for the results of the Southeast dimension. Therefore, yeah, in the outlook, yeah, on a general level, as we have done in the past, we raised the outlook for the Southeast segment to EUR 70 million-EUR 90 million. This is the new expectation which we published, yeah, for this segment. Okay. Thank you very much. Yeah. It's on the EBIT level, yeah, just to be clear- Okay. about that, yeah. But sorry, the offset will last only for next year, or what should we expect in the- Yeah. Midterm? Sorry. Yeah. This, this expectation I was now confirming is around EUR 70 million-EUR 90 million, yeah, for the next coming years. Okay. The offsetting by the regulatory framework will be done till July 2024. So this is included in this outlook already. Thank you very much. Maybe a follow-up question regarding the divestiture of WTE, if you have any update, any time, calendar time? Yeah, as we mentioned this on our capital markets day, we hope that we can close the deal in the year 2024. Thank you. Okay. In the meantime, we didn't receive any further questions. So if you would like to state another question, please press nine and the star key on your telephone keypad. And the next question comes from Teresa Schinwald. Please go ahead. Hi, good morning. I've got two questions, where I would like you to talk a bit more about the topic. First, about this customer behavior and the expected decline in demand. How much of that is temperature-related, from what you can see already in the first winter quarter? How much is real savings? Maybe also split by what's the difference between residential behavior and commercial and industrial customers? So this would be my first question. Thanks, Theresa. Well, it's very hard, yeah, because it's a few projections. If you have mild winter and you have customer savings behavior, how to split this, yeah? We try to do this by normalizing the consumption, and on this basis, yeah. On a household level, the gas reduction coming obviously from customer savings behavior has been around 16%, and regarding on the electricity side, five to six percentage points were coming from the behavior of savings, yeah? The overall reduction has been, of course, quite higher, because also industry is obviously needing less energy, either by further pursuing energy savings measures or by less production. And there's a certain indication, if I could compare November 2023, 2022- 2023, it's around 8% less energy consumption, yeah. So on this level, we have a further enhanced trend to less energy consumption by industrial production, which I think is in line also from data which we are seeing in Germany. Great, thank you. The second one is about RAG, which also posted quite a nice at equity contribution. Maybe you can give us a bit more clarity about the outlook, the expectations also for this year, with storage levels again being very high. What you're expecting here? Yes, as you know, RAG is mainly active on the basis as a storage facility operator. Therefore, of course, temperature effects and also industrial consumption is pretty much influencing if they have to use the pumps, yeah, to get the natural gas out of the storage facilities. And of course, this is a kind of OpEx, yeah, which is fluctuating, depending how much of the gas is used. The segment itself is, and RAG is having around EUR 40 million-EUR 50 million EBIT, on a more normal basis. Therefore, what you have seen this year was pretty much influenced, that the storage gas facilities have not been used as much as originally they have been calculated on. So they had a one-time effect, maybe also, yeah. Pretty much depending now on how the winter will develop further, how long it will go, the winter, because in the last years we have seen that the winter started later, but then it went to March, April. Yeah, therefore, it's too early to call. Okay, great. Thank you. We didn't receive any further questions in the meantime. I will leave the line open for a couple more seconds. If you have a question, please press nine star on your telephone keypad. Therefore, thank you for joining today's conference call. We will publish the results for the first quarter, 2023, 2024 on Thursday, 29th of February. I wish you a nice day, joyful upcoming holiday season with your families, and very best for the coming years. Goodbye from the team of EVN.