Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the VERBUND AG Full Year 2024 Conference Call. I would like to Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the VERBUND AG Full Year 2024 Conference Call. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in this only mode, and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. You can register for questions at any time, pressing star and one on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press star and zero. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Peter Kollmann. Please go ahead. Thank you very much. I'm here with Andreas Wollein, Head of Investor Relations and Finance. We will do this presentation together. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the presentation of our 2024 results. Let me thank you for joining today's conference call. Before we move into the analysis of our business development, let me make a few general comments. In 2024, the VERBUND results were down compared to 2023, but still high in a historic context due to normalizing conditions in the energy industry following the gas price shock after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. As you know, the past financial years proved to be challenging for the entire energy industry, with very little predictability and high volatility, in particular geopolitical events, but also the weakening economy in Europe. In addition, the landmark elections in the EU, in many EU member states, and of course in the U.S., gave rise to intensive discussions about the future shape of the regulatory and political framework conditions within the energy sector. These developments made it very clear that tensions between security of supply, climate protection, and competitiveness will remain intense over the next years. Now, let's move on to the details of our 2024 results. Average achieved contract prices decreased compared to 2023. The hydro coefficient determining the generation from our run-of-river hydropower plants was significantly better compared to last year. The generation from the annual storage power plants rose due to higher inflow and reduced reservoir levels, outweighing the lower generation from turbining. Generation from wind and PV was also up. The increase in new renewables was mainly a result of the commissioning of new renewable power plants in Spain, but also in Austria and Germany. However, the overall result contribution declined due to lower achieved prices, higher other operating expenses, and valuation effects of energy derivatives. Generation from thermal power also rose due to the increased use of our CCGT in Mellach. The result contribution from the sales segment improved and was slightly positive. However, the contribution from retail was still negative. Lower contributions from Gasconnect Austria and Austrian Power Grid were recorded in the regulated grid segments. Finally, contributions from flexibility products decreased mainly due to lower contributions from concession management. Now, let me go into more details, and let me start with the hedging volumes. Higher relevance, highly relevant for VERBUND results. As you know, one euro per Megawatt- hour plus or minus has a sensitivity of approximately EUR 25 million in our EBITDA line. As of the 21st of December 2024, we reached an average achieved contract price for hydro generation of EUR 118, dramatically below 2023. As of the 31st of December 2024, we had sold 66% of our own generation volumes for 2025 at a price of EUR 117.5. For 2026, we had sold 38% of the generation volumes at a price of EUR 79.3. On a mark-to-market basis, with prices as of the 17th of March 2025, the average achieved contract price for 2025 is at EUR 108.9, and for 2026 at EUR 81.8 per Megawatt- hour. On the next page, we talk about the hydro segment. At 109, the hydro coefficient, an index quantifying the hydropower generation of the run-of-river power plants, was nine percentage points above the long-term average and 11 percentage points above the level of 2023. The production from annual storage power plants increased by 4.2%. On production from hydropower, therefore, overall increased by 2,940 GW hours, or 9.6% to 33,448 GW hours compared to 2023. The increased volume, however, could not compensate for the lower achieved contract prices. Therefore, the EBITDA in the hydro segment decreased by 23% to EUR 3 billion. Regarding CAPEX, 2024 marked the completion of very important projects, the 45-Megawatt RISEC II pumped storage power plant, as well as the 11-Megawatt GARPCON run-of-river power plant project. Activities on the 480-Megawatt Limburg III pumped storage power plant project, as well as the 14-Megawatt Stegenwald run-of-river power plant project, are progressing very well, and we are expecting them to open in 2025. Now, on the new renewables segment, the new renewables coefficient, which, similar to hydro, is an index quantifying the generation from wind power and PV, amounted to 0.91 in 2024 compared to 1.06 in 2023. Lower coefficient here as well. The generation from wind power increased by 30.2%, or 422 GW hours, and amounted to 1,800 GW hours in 2024. More favorable wind conditions in Austria, in addition to new installations in Austria, Germany, and Spain, were the reasons for this development. Generation from PV amounted to 446 GW hours, or plus 23% in the reporting period stemming from PV installations in Austria, that is 7 GW hours, and Spain, 439 GW hours. In both countries, new solar farms went online. Now, taking a look at the EBITDA development in the new renewable segment, we see that the EBITDA decreased by 25% to an EBITDA amounting to EUR 170 million. Lower achieved prices were offset by increased generation volumes, as I mentioned before. However, higher other operating expenses and a lower effect from the valuation of energy derivatives in connection with future energy deliveries had an additional negative effect. The chart also provides an update on our activities in the renewable sector. The main focus is on the development of our large renewable portfolio in Spain, for which we got the approval to start construction of approximately 1.6 GW. On the next slide, you see an update on our renewable activities. The chart outlines our new renewable assets in operation and in construction in our markets. It is split by technology, as well as our targets for 2030. In addition, we are providing the EBITDA contribution in 2024 and all the relevant CAPEX figures. Now, on the next page, talking about the sales segments, taking a look at the EBITDA development here, we see that it strongly increased to a slightly positive value of EUR 7 million. The EBITDA in the retail business improved from minus EUR 382 million in 2023 to a level of minus EUR 77 million. That is a big increase. The EBITDA in the trading business amounted to plus EUR 84 million. However, this figure includes negative valuation effects of EUR 94 million. The improvement in EBITDA was mainly due to lower procurement costs for both electricity and gas in the end customer business, which was offset primarily by lower results from the valuation of energy derivatives in connection with future energy deliveries. In the grid segment, as you know, the grid segment consists of our regulated business, Austrian Power Grid, and our regulated business, Gasconnect Austria. The EBITDA for 2024 from the electricity grid business, according to IFRS, was approximately EUR 284 million, which is a decrease of EUR 89 million. The main effect for this decrease was the reduced contribution from earnings of our auctions. The EBITDA guidance for the electricity grid for 2025 is at approximately EUR 210 million and can be characterized by two different effects. Number one, the regulatory compensation is rising because of higher WEC numbers compared to last year and because of the increase of the regulatory asset base reflecting the National Grid Development Plan. The company's strong growth, however, is leading to cost increases, which will be reimbursed by the regulator two years later. This time lag generally has a negative effect, as you can imagine. In addition, the movements in the regulatory account will have a significant negative impact on earnings of EUR 76 million. The planned amount of the regulatory account at the end of 2025 will be approximately EUR 480 million. I would also like to give you an update on the WEC development. Austrian Power Grid receives a WEC of 4.2% for old assets with a commissioning date up to 2022, and a WEC of 6.3% for new assets with a commissioning date in 2024. Most relevant, a WEC of 6.24% for new assets with a commissioning date in 2025. When you take it together, the total WEC for 2025 is approximately 4.8%. As you might know, there will be a yearly update of the WEC for new assets for each tariff-setting process until the end of the regulatory period, which is in 2028. Now, with regard to the results contribution of Gasconnect Austria, we report an EBITDA of approximately EUR 86 million for 2024. The strong decrease compared to the very high results in 2023 is mainly due to the elimination of the so-called commodity tariff and lower auction revenues in the gas network. The EBITDA guidance for 2025 is much lower. It is approximately EUR 30 million under IFRS. What is the explanation? Well, it is the cessation of Russian natural gas transport through the Ukraine. As a consequence, we have a shortfall of approximately EUR 40 million, which will directly reduce the 2025 results. As we are in a new regulatory system, we will be compensated with T plus 2 starting from 2027. I will now hand over to Andreas Wollein, who is going to take us through the next few pages. Please, Andreas. Yeah, thank you, Peter. Let me continue with the old other segments. Generation from thermal power plants was up by 622 GW hours. We had lower revenues. The reason was mainly due to lower average prices achieved, which could not be offset by the higher production volumes. In addition, negative effects from the valuation of future energy deliveries were the main reasons for the decline in EBITDA. The contribution from flexibility products also decreased by around EUR 15 million. The contribution from KELAG, the provincial utility of Carinthia, increased from EUR 78 million to about EUR 100 million. This year-on-year increase in earnings is mainly due to the improved hydro availability, the higher trading result, and the efficient use and optimization of storage capacities. Now, let me come on page 10 to the non-recurring effects. We recognized impairments in 2024 amounting to minus EUR 291 million, and we had reversal of impairments of positive EUR 114.3 million. The main reasons for the impairment losses concerning Mellach are lower clean spark spreads achievable in the medium term. The reason for impairment losses concerning Gasconnect Austria are adjustments of the long-term business plan with respect to the new cost notice for the upcoming transmission regulatory period from 2025 onwards. The main reasons for impairment losses concerning the Spanish renewable assets are lower electricity prices for non-tariff projects and updated operating expenditures. The reversal of impairment losses are, among others, due to lower capital costs. The total effect of impairments in the EBIT line is minus EUR 177 million. The non-recurring effects in the financial result amounted to minus EUR 26 million in total and are mainly related to reversal of impairments related to TAC, the measurement of an obligation to return an interest in Donaukraftwerk Jochenstein, and the PPR in TAC. The effect on taxes amounted to EUR 47 million. The effect on minorities, EUR 55 million. The overall impact of the non-recurring effects on the group result level amounted to approximately EUR 100 million. Now, moving on to page 11, we show the development of the most important key figures of VERBUND. First, I think we mentioned that because of the aforementioned developments, EBITDA decreased by 22.5% to EUR 3.48 billion. Depreciation increased by about 8% to EUR 578 million due to the increased investment volume, especially in Austrian Power Grid, and the depreciation of the plants acquired in Spain in previous years. The financial result slightly deteriorated from EUR 55 million to EUR 52 million. On the one hand, an increase from KELAG, but also an increase in interest income from money market transaction. In addition, interest expenses declined. This decline resulted in particular from the repayment of EUR 500 million Schutzschein-Darlehen in November 2023 and from lower interest expenses from money market transactions. On the other hand, the issuance of a green bond in May 2024 had an offsetting effect. The other financial result also had a negative effect. This resulted mainly from the measurement of an obligation to return an interest in Donner Kraftwerk in Jochenstein power plant. Taxes on income amounted to EUR 639 million. The group result therefore decreased by 17% to EUR 1.87 billion. The group result after adjustment for non-recurring effects was down by 24.5% and amounted to EUR 1.96 billion. Finally, I would like to mention the decrease in additions to tangible assets in total from EUR 1.45 billion to EUR 1.16 billion. Major investments mainly related to the hydropower plants, Limburg III, various electricity grid investments, as well as the investments into new renewables in Spain, Austria, Germany, and Italy. On page 12, you see a further development of key figures. First of all, the operating cash flow decreased in line with the decrease in EBITDA to EUR 3.25 billion. The change was mainly due to the significantly lower prices for electricity, lower inflows from margin payments for hedging transactions, and higher income tax payment. The free cash flow after dividends showed a negative development from EUR 2.1 billion in 2023 to a level of EUR 145 million in 2024. The lower operating cash flow, as well as higher dividend payments, were the most important influencing factors. Net EBITDA, an important key figure, was at EUR 0.6 billion as of December 31st. This slight increase primarily is due to the lower EBITDA. Based on the results presented, we will propose an ordinary dividend of EUR 2.8 per share for 2024 at the annual general meeting on April 29th, 2025. The payout ratio in relation to reported group result is 51.9% and 49.2% in relation to the group result adjusted for non-recurring effects. Let me hand on, pass on to Peter again for elaborating on the CapEx plan and the outlook. Thank you, Andreas. Yeah, very important CapEx plan for the next three years. You can see that we have increased our previous three-year plan, which has been EUR 5.5 billion to EUR 5.9 billion. Let me go into a little bit more detail here. We are going to invest around EUR 4 billion into growth investments and around EUR 1.9 billion for maintenance investments. The majority of our investments will go into the expansion and maintenance of the regulated Austrian electricity grid. That is around EUR 2 billion. Furthermore, we will invest in renewable generation projects primarily in Spain, around EUR 1.7 billion, and in hydropower plant projects in Austria, around EUR 1.25 billion. The investments overall relate to VERBUND's home markets, primarily to VERBUND's home markets of Austria and Germany, around EUR 4.5 billion, and the Spanish market with around EUR 900 million. VERBUND plans to invest a total of around EUR 1.9 billion in the financial year 2025, of which around EUR 1.34 billion will be invested in growth and around EUR 600 million in maintenance. Now, on the last page of our results presentation, as always, our outlook. Before I go into our guidance, I would like to highlight our sensitivities, which we have in our generation. A deviation of plus or minus 1% in the generation from our hydropower plants has an impact of plus or minus EUR 16 million in the group results for 2025. A deviation of plus or minus 1% in the generation of wind and PV has an impact of EUR 2 million, and a deviation of plus or minus EUR 1 in the wholesale price has an impact of approximately EUR 6 million in the group result for 2025. Our guidance for 2025 is as follows. We expect the reported and adjusted EBITDA of approximately between EUR 2.7 billion and EUR 3.3 billion and a group result of between EUR 1.35 billion and EUR 1.75 billion, as always, under the assumption of average hydro, average wind, and average PV generation, as well as the actual chances and risk situation of the group. The earnings forecast is contingent on the group not being impacted by any further legal or regulatory changes. For the financial year 2025, we plan to pay out between 45% and 55% of the group result after the adjustment for non-recurring effects. With that, we have come to the end of our full presentation, and we open for Q&A. We now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use only handsets while asking a question. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. The first question is from Wanda Serwinowska with UBS. Please go ahead. Hi, good morning, Wanda Serwinowska, UBS. Two and a half questions for me. The first question is on the new tax in Austria. Your guidance is anything between EUR 50 million-EUR 100 million in this fiscal year, but should we assume anything in Q1 next year, or do you expect anything beyond December 2025? Because if I look at your achieved power price on the mark-to-market, you would be below the threshold. Do you see a further risk that the government may come and basically lower the threshold from EUR 90 to EUR 70? It does not seem very likely that you will pay anything next year. The second question is on your guidance. If you could help us to bridge your 2025 guidance, because if I just look on the 2024 versus 2025, hydro has been weak, so maybe you are losing a bit of, maybe half of a terawatt-hour. Power price is down by EUR 9 per Megawatt-hour. All in, this is like 550 maybe headwind at the EBITDA level. Networks are going down by 130. There is a tax, let's say, 75. If I sum it up, I am ending at EUR 2.7 billion of EBITDA, and your guidance is EUR 2.7 billion-EUR 3.3 billion. What I am missing, are there any other moving parts that I am missing? The usual ask, Peter, if you could disclose the latest hydro and the hedging price, not mark-to-market, but the volumes and the achieved power price so far. That would be appreciated. Thank you. Sure, Wanda. Thank you. I will start with the third one, and it also explains part of your question on the guidance. We have hedged for 2025, per today, around 74% at a price of EUR 117. The remainder, which is not hedged, we currently mark-to-market it at EUR 109. The unhedged prices, which we're currently using, is EUR 90. Obviously, that could go up. It could go down. There is some uncertainty here on the unhedged level for 2025. For 2026, we have hedged per today 42%. There, the mark-to-market is EUR 82. When you compare what we have already hedged, it is around EUR 80, and the unhedged level is also slightly above EUR 80. The mark-to-market is EUR 82. For 2027, we have literally just started with the hedging. There, we see a 2027 forward price of around EUR 76. That already leads me into your important question on the tax and on the price cap. You have rightly said that when you look at the 2026 levels, where currently, as I've just said, we are around EUR 82, we are below the threshold. You're right. As a result of that, as we have a program until 2030, there is the possibility that next year the cap will be changed. Why? The government has said that until 2030, they would like to get payments of around EUR 200 million per today. That can change as well from the energy sector, from the Austrian energy sector, as we are by far the largest player in the Austrian energy sector. Obviously, we make a high contribution to that level. When, as a result of lower power prices, that EUR 200 million or whatever the number is going to be next year is not met, the cap could be reduced. Those are all things we do not know, but that is something when you look at the law, there is currently a lot of leeway and a lot of flexibility for the government to be very flexible in terms of how they are going to design the tax within the next few years. In terms of the guidance, the guidance at the beginning of the year, Wanda, is not a perfect science. We have a lot of uncertainty. We have uncertainty in terms of what kind of hydro coefficient, which we are going to have, and I am going to answer on the hydro coefficient in a second. We have uncertainty on the power prices. As always, with the IFRS results, we have uncertainty on the Austrian Power Grid. Gasconnect Austria, we are pretty sure that we are going to come up with around the 40. As you remember from the last few years, it is very difficult to predict the flexibility products. Sometimes we are surprised how much concession management is required by the market because of volatility across borders. Sometimes those numbers are much lower than we predicted. That is very much an external factor where we do our best to give a guidance, but it is very hard to really predict. Now, coming to the last point, the hydro coefficient, we had a very dry beginning to the year. We have, year- to- date, 0.86, which is 14% below the long-term average. That means that we really have to look at, and I know that would have been one of the next questions, so I am anticipating it, the snow caps in the mountains. At this point in time, we do not have a lot of snow. Weather is unpredictable, and we could still have snowfall in the next few weeks. We've seen it before. As it stands today, there is not a lot of snow in the mountains. As a result of that, the usual effect which we get from the melting of snow, which is obviously, when you look at the topology of Austria, is very significant, is not huge at the moment. The hydro coefficient currently, I mean, when you just look at yesterday, is 0.6%. At this point in time, the dryness continues. I always have to say at this point that very often we have been surprised. We had a very dry beginning of the year, and then come summer and come fall, we see a lot of rainfall, and the numbers can even change dramatically, even sort of like 12 weeks before year-end, as we have seen two years ago. That would be the summary of my responses to your three questions, Wanda. Can I just have two clarifications? One is on the guidance. What are your assumptions on the sales? Because on hydro and on power grid, we can work it out, but on sales, do you assume any reversal or something, or is there anything unusual that is baked into the guidance? On the tax, because it is a 12-month period, right, for the windfall profit tax, but you included EUR 50-100 million for nine months effectively, so there will be something in Q1 next year. Yeah, it does not run in a calendar year. It basically runs until the end of March of 2026. That would be the impact, the 50-100. I have to make a comment on that in a second. It is the impact for 2025. I have to give a big caveat on that number. We have been discussing internally if we should give a number or not give a number, as you can imagine. We have decided that we are going to give you the best estimate which we currently have. This is a number, a range where we see the highest probability of the impact on our 2025 results. That is something that is included in our guidance. That number means that we did not have to change our guidance. It can be absorbed. However, we do not exactly know what the Ministry of Finance is going to decide vis-à-vis the possibility of using investments, Austrian investments, against this windfall tax. Can we use more than we expect? Is it going to be less? That makes a huge difference, as you can imagine. We think that we can use offsetting investments, and this is how we come up with the number. Could it be higher? Yes, it could be higher. If the offsetting mechanism of investments is worse than we are currently predicting, and it is a wide range because there are many ways to design those investment offsets, it remains to be seen. However, as soon as we have more clarity on how the legislation is going to be implemented, and the implementation is the key, the specific design is the key, as soon as we have it, we will let you know. The sales EBITDA guidance, sorry, for the sales. Oh, sorry. Yeah, on the sales, we're predicting that we are going to end up, when you look at the entire sales segment, with a number that is significantly higher than what we had in 2024 as a result of a complete change in procurement. It is mainly the retail business which is doing much better. Thank you very much, Peter. The next question is from Harrison Williams with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Hi, morning. Thanks for taking my questions. A couple for me. Firstly, I appreciate the color you have managed to provide on the windfall tax. Can I just ask, when would you expect to get full clarity on those CapEx offsets? Maybe an extension of that question, taking a wider view of the new government in Austria. Do you see any other changes that have implications for your business? I mean, we've seen, let's say, more pragmatism being adopted or at least talked about in other countries in Europe about addressing the energy transition. We can get your view on that. The second question was on your renewable investments. I noticed in your slides versus Q3, you have kind of a 25% increase in solar capacity targets in Spain by 2030. That still seems somewhat of a challenging market given the cannibalization risk. We are just hoping to get an updated view on what your return expectations are here. You have previously talked about pairing that with pump storage. Is that still an ambition? Further color would, again, be appreciated. Thanks. Yeah, sure. I'm going to start with the discussion around the tax, the windfall tax, and Andreas will take up your renewable question. I would like to take a step back because I think more of an explanation is required in terms of where Austria is coming from, where the Austrian government is coming from. The key issue here in Austria is the very large deficit. As a result of that, because we had two years of negative growth, and we will probably in Austria go into yet another year of negative growth, that is a first. That is something we haven't seen for 100 years plus. Therefore, it is of great concern in terms of deindustrialization, in terms of the weakness of the industry and industrial production overall. That has been the catalyst for the government to look at a number of measures to repair the deficit situation. The EU has also started very detailed discussions with Austria on what Austria is going to do about the deficit situation. As a result of that, they have basically come up with a plan that the energy sector needs to make a contribution as well. That is the background. That will not go away because the government has been pretty transparent in basically saying, "This is something, this is a plan for the next five years because we're not going to repair the budget deficit in one year. It is a medium-term project to basically do it at the same time. More money, as in Germany, needs to go into infrastructure." There is, on the one hand, money required. On the other hand, there is not enough. The reason why I'm saying that is, you asked, could there be other measures? At this point in time, I cannot exclude other measures. Personally, at this point in time, I do not think there will be other measures, but I cannot exclude it. Do I think that, as I mentioned to Wanda before, do I think that there will be an adjustment in 2026? Yes, I think there will be an adjustment because when the finance minister goes through his calculations and realizes that he will not get anything, he will probably make an adjustment. That is where we stand. You asked me, when do we expect any news? I would say within the next four to six weeks. However, the government is still in the formation process. The government has only just decided on the new coalition. It has taken a very long time after the elections. Various coalition structures were discussed. We now ended up with a tri-party government consisting of the Conservative Party, the Socialist Party, and the party called the NEOS. You could call them a liberal party. They have negotiated. They all come from different perspectives. They have different priorities. They all had to compromise on something. As a result of that, it might take a few weeks before we have more clarity on the design of the energy tax, particularly the offsetting mechanism for investments, which are very relevant to us. Andreas, could you give us some comments on the renewable question? Yeah, Harrison, to start, the answer a little bit more generally. I mean, we have a pretty balanced CapEx program going forward. We're around a third of our capital expenditures will be allocated to the regulated grid business. About 30% goes into hydro, about 25% into new renewables, and the rest goes into batteries. With regard to, what I want to say first is we have a very balanced CapEx program. With regard to new renewables, we have a target to reach about 25% of our total generation in new renewables by 2030. It corresponds with a capacity of around 5.5 GW. We have currently about 1.2, 1.3 GW in operation, more than half of that in Spain. What we currently have in operation in Spain is majority wind and to a lower extent PV. Most of the production is secured through a PPA or a tariff. I think we only have a 15% or so merchant exposure. We have acquired a project portfolio, say, two years ago from Q Energy, the so-called Labrador portfolio. It consists of around, yeah, currently about 1.6, 1.7 GW of renewable capacity. Majority of the projects is PV, to some extent wind. We are now coming into, let's say, the time period where we do the FIDs. We recently have given FID to start construction of the first three portfolios in Spain, which is about a little bit more than 600 Megawatts. I think the plan is to do some additional FIDs in Q2, Q3 this year in order to step by step realize within the next two, three years this 1.7 GW of projects. I think you know the current situation in Spain. I mean, I think everybody's trying to optimize profitability of the projects through different measures. We also have now, let's say, done the approval for or given the approval to do colocation or hybridization for existing assets. In order to increase the profitability, we combine PV with batteries. We also, let's say, try to do some colocation in order to increase the efficiency of the grid access. These are the main targets. I mean, currently, I think when we talk about returns, I think we can achieve WEC plus something. It's maybe currently not the hurdle rate which we targeted, but things are also moving and developing in Spain. Let's say, on a medium-term basis, we would expect prices in Spain to go up. This is the current situation for Spain. Does that answer your question? Yes, that's very useful, Kollo. Thank you. Okay. The next question is from Olly Jeffery with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead. Coming back to the windfall tax, a couple of questions on that. First, the EUR 50 million low end and EUR 100 million low end, what was the assumption you've made on the CapEx offset that you'd be allowed? Also, maybe just taking a step back, if EUR 200 million is being targeted from industry overall, what do you think is a reasonable amount to be assumed given the bund size is contributed by the bund? Lastly, could you please say what the guide is for the new renewables division in 2025? Thank you. Yeah, sure. I can't really give you the exact assumptions because we have looked at five different scenarios, and we have given probabilities to those five different scenarios. We have not run a Monte Carlo simulation, but we could have done. We have tried to make a sound judgment on everything we know so far, and this is why we have come up with that range. We could have said 50-120 would have been just as correct because we do not know at this point in time. At the same time, we think it would not have been fair towards you if we had basically not said anything in terms of what our estimate is. In terms of, could you help me with your second question? What did you say again? The other question was that if you look at the windfall tax from another way, the Austrian authorities are looking to generate EUR 200 million a year. Given the size of VERBUND, the size of its hydro business overall in the context of Austria, is something around EUR 100 million probably kind of the ongoing basis type of figure that you think they might be looking to target from VERBUND given its size relative to others? Is that reasonable? Yeah, it's an important question. It's extremely difficult to answer. It seems to us to be a movable feast. There are so many factors that go into it. There is the remainder of the energy sector. I mean, it's not just VERBUND, thank God. There are many other companies as well. There are renewable players that have a tariff. I think that the finance minister will probably look at sort of like an estimate of the contribution from the entire sector. Then he's going to look into where is it coming from and why is it changing. Of course, he will make adjustments. How he's going to make those adjustments, I don't know. The only very clear statement which we have received from the government, which is public, has been this is a long-term project. Maybe not long-term. This is a medium-term project which the government has, and it is EUR 200 million per annum. We are also in a position of uncertainty, uncertainty short-term because we do not know what exactly it is going to be for 2025 with the explanation on the offset I have given before. Of course, we have some uncertainty for the years 2026 onwards because we do not know if the price cap, which is currently at 90, is going to be altered, obviously, to a lower figure. The EBITDA contribution, which we expect for 2025, would be between EUR 120 million-EUR 140 million EBITDA. Thank you. May I ask one follow-up? If you are allowed to use the CapEx offset for hydro from 2025 alone, what order of magnitude would that offset be just for one year? I know what you are getting at. You are trying to get to our assumptions through the back door. That is totally fair. I would do exactly the same. However, I can't really give it to you. I think we've gone out of our way to really give you our best judgment. That's a good answer. Thank you very much. The next question is from Piotr Dzieciolowski with Citi. Please go ahead. Hi, good morning, everybody. I have two remaining questions, really. First one, I wanted to ask about your Limburg plant that you will have a COD in 2025. What is the annual contribution, and can you a little bit say how much the plant will kind of load power and offload the power? Any operational metrics if you can on the traffic provider. Second question on the GCA ACG new guidance for 2025, you provided the new numbers today. How much of a negative one-offs you included in them in terms of this reimbursement of overpayment from the past years, just to get a feel for the sustainable run rate of these businesses at current grab levels? Okay. Now, the Limburg III question, which you asked both from a technical point of view, but also from an economic point of view, is an interesting one. However, extremely hard to predict. I am going to explain why it is hard to predict. The pumping is obviously done when power prices are cheap. The turbining is done when power prices are high. As we have been doing this for decades, we are pretty good in making estimates, sort of like what hours should we be pumping and when should we be turbining. It is not just a question of the spread, and that spread is dependent on the overall pricing levels. The pumping spread obviously has been extremely high in 2023 when power prices were very high because the entire base went up. As a result of that, the difference between the low price and the high price increased as well. The pumping spread increased. Now with lower power prices or normalization of the power prices, the pumping spread goes down as well. That is only part of it. The second part is the volume. The volume basically depends on when the spread is high enough to justify the pumping and the turbining. Yeah? That is an estimate as well. As a result of that, it is very, very difficult to give you an exact estimate on sort of like the revenues which we produce on pumping and turbining. That is almost impossible because it depends on too many variables, too many external variables. It is not as straightforward as the run-of-river power plants because with the run-of-river power plants, it is baseload. The hydro coefficient obviously changes. That is something we report to you on a regular basis. Of course, it is the power price which we achieve. The pumping, turbining, the pump spreads, the volume of the pump spreads is much more complex. That is an explanation on Limburg. What was the second one again? Run rates for GCA results and EPG. Do you want to do that, Andreas? Yeah. Piotr, with regard to Gasconnect Austria, you know that this year we have a little special situation because the Russian ship, I think, yeah, ended the gas deliveries from the beginning of the year. We have here a temporary negative effect on Gasconnect Austria results. That is why we got it about EUR 30 million. The negative effect is about, net effect is about EUR 40 million. Based on that, I will say the normalized EBITDA in Gasconnect Austria business would have been around between EUR 70 million and EUR 80 million for this year. As I said, it is a temporary effect because starting from the beginning of the year, we have negotiated with the regulator to move into a risk-free system. Risk-free system means that we get compensated for the volume risk, which is here the case. This compensation will happen or will take place with T plus two. Starting from 2027. In 2026, we are not going to have this effect, this negative effect because the regulator, according to the tariff system, has to amend the volumes, the transport volumes. As a consequence, the tariffs will increase for 2026. As a consequence, we are not going to have a negative effect in 2026. On a normalized basis, in this regulatory period in GCA, we see between EUR 70 million and EUR 80 million of EBITDA contribution. In APG, it is a little bit different. In In Austrian Power Grid, we have for this year, I would say, a normalized EBITDA of around, I think a good indicator is always the local GAAP EBITDA, which is around EUR 280 million. There are some amendments, so I would say around EUR 300 million eliminating all the, let's say, the various effects on the regulatory account coming from balancing energy and from congestion management services and from the auctions. Yeah? For this year, we predicted a little bit lower result. The reason in APG, the reason for that is because we assume a reduction of the regulatory account of around EUR 75 million, I think, which makes sense that the regulatory account currently stands at a level of around EUR 500 million. Yeah? Yeah? On a normalized basis, for this year, I would say something around EUR 300 million EBITDA for APG would be a good assumption. Okay. Thank you very much. Can I please follow up on this Limburg because you explained the logic behind this asset, but you haven't provided any figures. Can you say, based on the I understand these are all estimates that can vary, but can you roughly say, based on the previous years, let's not take the energy crisis, but when you were building the plant, your assumption was, I don't know, three hours of daily pumping and offloading, and then on the spread of EUR 50-EUR 60 a day or on every single hour, or just a large bracket would be enough anyway. What is the assumed contribution, for example, for 2025 if the commission date is this year? Okay. I give you a little bit more detail, but that's it. Thank you. Right? When we go through our investment decisions, despite the fact that Limburg III is a project right up our alley, this is something we do best. This is something where we have world-class expertise. This is something we do in combination with where we already have assets in the Austrian Alps, so we can combine it with our other assets. This is something where a third party would say, "Well, that's a must-do for somebody like VERBUND." We still go through very detailed calculations. We look at the IRR of the project. I can tell you that on this project, Limburg III, we have an IRR that is more than 200 basis points above our WACC. This is on the project-specific profitability. I give you even more of a feeling. You know that our flexibility products, which consist of control energy, congestion management, pumping and turbining, and intra-day in 2024, were EUR 275 million. Yeah? We have never really given the detail in terms of how much is coming from control energy and how much from congestion management because it always changes. We do not want to give you the false feeling of stability in a business that is very much dependent on external factors. Overall, we had EUR 275 million. The year before, we had EUR 350 million coming from flexibility products in 2023. For 2025, following the logic which I explained before, that the pump spreads basically go down with the overall level of power prices, we think that what we are going to make from pumping and turbining is to lower the level of 2024. As a result of that, we think that in 2025, what we are going to get from flexibility products is somewhere between EUR 190 million and EUR 210 million per today. You might remember over the last few years, things change. Yeah? Because there are, as I said before, a lot of variables. But this is, with everything we know today, this is our estimate for 2025, between EUR 190 million and EUR 210 million. When we look into sort of our medium-term planning, we think that flexibility products over the next few years will provide us with a level of around, yeah, I would say between EUR 190 million and EUR 240 million, somewhere within that range. That is about as much information I can give you, and that is actually more than I wanted to give. Thank you very much. Thank you. Very helpful. The next question is from Thibault Dujardin with Bernstein Société Générale. Please go ahead. Good morning. Thank you very much. My first question is regarding the development in Spain. When you develop the new project, do you already have PPAs? What are your assumptions in terms of prices, or do you go merchant? My second point is regarding the load factor of hydro. Do you see any risk of having to buy back power this year due to the low levels? Yeah. On the sort of the buyback, that is something we have experienced before. At the time, on the conference call, we had an interesting discussion around that. Again, when you have a very dry year, it can happen that you have to buy back. Now, purely mathematically, we are in a good place. Why? Because we basically say that we only had 80% of the production. It really has to go below 80%. The probability of a dry year below 80 is not very high. It can happen, and it has happened before within the last 100 years, but it is a low-probability event. We are relatively safe on that one. Yeah, on the renewables. Yeah, in Spain, obviously, we try to do PPAs. The PPA level has come down. At the moment, there is discussion around nuclear energy going out in Spain. Some people argue that could be a boost for energy prices in Spain. I'm not sure. I don't know. This is difficult to say. We also see that there is a move from PASE produced to baseload PPAs. There is demand from data centers, of course, but data centers are looking for baseload as well. That's what they need. They need very stable energy flows. As a result of that, yes, whenever we do a project, we try to do PPAs, but like the rest of the market, we also go merchant. For the projects we have currently, let's say, under development or where we have given the FID, we don't have PPAs yet. Yeah? We have started discussions and negotiations with various counterparts in Spain. Basically, you have three different types of off-takers, of PPA off-takers. First one is the classical utilities, traders. Second is the industry. Third, you have now this big demand from data centers. Yeah? This is, let's say, a reasonable cluster where PPAs are already contracted. Yeah? The market is there. As Peter said, I think we are targeting to our target is to enter into longer-term PPAs. Currently, I think five to seven years are doable in Spain. It's always, of course, a benchmark. It's always a comparison with our internal price curves and forecasts. But yeah, our target is to enter into longer-term PPAs in order to mitigate risk. If it's doable, we will do that. There will always be a certain amount of merchant exposure for us as well in order to optimize our own generation, let's say, in the markets. Thank you very much. If I may ask you a follow-up question. Considering that you also have thermal assets in Austria, do you believe that a lower load factor of hydro could, well, you could compensate with higher load factor of gas plants? Sorry. Acoustically, I couldn't hear the last question. Could the low load factor of hydro be compensated by higher load factor of gas plants? Okay. Yeah. That's an important question, not just for Austria, but for Germany as well and for some other markets. The entire discussion around the energy transformation is much too late, in my view, focusing on baseload. Last year, and that should not have come as a surprise, that could have been planned already 10 years ago. The more renewables you have and the more baseload you take out of the market in Germany, for example, nuclear and coal, the more demand you have for predictable energy. The only predictable energy, of course, or plannable energy is fossil fuels. Gas is the fossil fuel of choice. As a result of that, Germany has already decided last year, in order to stabilize the system and not be totally dependent on nuclear energy from France, they need to build gas-fired power plants. In Austria, we also have a discussion. We have a grid reserve, but the grid reserve, which basically consists of gas-fired power plants, serves mainly to stabilize the system. It is not necessarily a capacity market when you do not produce enough energy through your existing generation. We had a situation in January where we, because it was very dry and there was not a lot of wind, obviously, not a lot of sun. We talked about the dryness of the beginning of the year, not a lot of hydro production. The gas-fired power plants had to run at full capacity, but we had to import as well, which basically shows that the entire discussion around the energy transformation, and this is also important for all of you, the baseload gap, as I like to call it, needs to be resolved because the stability of the energy system is an absolute prerequisite. As a result of that, in terms of the energy design, one needs to think very carefully what the backup system will be, how potential capacity markets will be designed, and at what price the capacity markets will enter the merit order. That will basically have an impact on power price and will have an impact on the effectiveness, but also the efficiency of the energy transformation. I hope that was not too. No, thank you very much. Could you invest in new gas plants in this environment? We have our CCGT in Mellach, which is very efficient, which is a modern CCGT. We will not make any further investments into gas as we see ourselves as a renewable generator. Thank you. The next question is from Alberto de Antonio with Exane BNP Paribas. Please go ahead. Hi. Good morning. Thank you so much for taking my questions. The first one will be related to gas networks. The new regulation with this hedge from the risk of volumes. I will be interested to know if there is any potential upside if we see new flows coming from Russia. Also, regarding your guidance on the normalized level of EBITDA contribution that you mentioned, it was around EUR 70-80 million. Given that in this year, there is a negative effect of EUR 40 million, can we assume that this is going to be reverted in 2027 and therefore the contribution should be in the region of EUR 110-120 million? This will be my first question. The second one will be regarding the guidance of other sectors and KELAG. If you can give us what is your expectations for 2025. Finally, if you could repeat the hedging price without the mark-to-market that you have answered to one and the first question, I would really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Yeah. Sure, Alberto. I will start with Gasconnect Austria. We anticipated that we could see geopolitical issues and problems which would have a direct impact on our regulated business, Gasconnect Austria. In the previous regulation, we had a volume risk, but that volume risk, obviously, never ever could have foreseen the kind of volume changes as a result of a war. Therefore, we entered negotiations with the Austrian Control Authority, Energy Control Austria, and we basically talked about a new regulatory system which, similar to Austrian Power Grid, is a cost-plus system. As a result of that, if Russia came back and if Russia—let's just assume there is a peace agreement, which is something that is being discussed every day today. If there is a peace agreement and there will be flows coming through the Brotherhood pipeline, which is a very large pipeline going into Austria, that would not change anything because our system, our regulatory system, is basically agnostic towards the volumes coming through the pipes. It is a cost-plus system. When Andreas talked about sort of a normalized level, which is an estimate, we do not exactly know what the normalized level is going to be, but that is an estimate, sort of the EUR 40 million, which we are making less now in T plus two being compensated, is already part of the EUR 70 million-EUR 80 million normalized levels. That would not necessarily come on top of the 80 million which we mentioned. That is something that remains to be seen as we are also in negotiations with the regulator on a number of other things. In terms of the hedging, I can give you—I can give you the numbers again. You were asking for the numbers which we have already hedged and not the mark-to-market, if I understood you correctly, Alberto. Right? Both of them. The numbers that you have hedged and the price with the market. Oh, okay. Both. Okay. Okay. Good. For 2025, we have hedged approximately 74% at EUR 117. The unhedged level we currently—and the change is almost every day—but we currently see at EUR 90. The mark-to-market for 2025 would be EUR 109. For 2026, we have hedged 42% at around EUR 80. The unhedged levels we see at around 83. The mark-to-market would be 82. For 2027, we have not really hedged anything. I mean, a very, very small amount, but they are just taking into consideration the forward prices. We see them at around 76. That would be on the hedging. Andreas, do you have the guidance for—you said the other? Yes. The other sector and KELAG, what is the expectation contributions in order to have more or less the full bridge on the guidance you have provided? For 2020. Andreas is going to look it up, and we take another question in the meantime. Okay. Maybe if I ask another one on policies for monopolizing the conversation. Coming back to the question regarding the fees and the discussions with the off-takers, what will be the level, especially in the Spanish market, that I guess is going to be the most relevant for you going into the future, at which you will kind of feel comfortable of seeing PPAs and the duration of them? Thank you so much. Yeah. I mean, obviously, the more constructive the PPA market, the better. It is always a bit of a negotiation, right? It depends on what off-takers are willing to pay and for how long. We, like all the other producers of energy, we would like to see PPAs for as long as possible if the prices make sense. I know that is not the answer you want to hear. You would like to get a more specific level. That is impossible because PPA prices change a lot. There we can only talk about trends. The trend currently is towards shorter PPAs. Whenever somebody wants to enter shorter agreements, the catalyst for that is usually because people expect that they might pay less if and when they enter a PPA two years down the road. That is why they are tending to get shorter. I think for Spain, for the energy market in Spain, it is also important not to completely rely on the PPAs. Mr. Draghi, again, sort of like he was yesterday or before yesterday, made a comment on the energy transformation, on competitiveness, and the need for Europe to be more competitive in terms of energy prices. He suggested CFDs. The CFDs, by definition, would be longer term. They are sort of like it is around 20 years. The CFDs would be given out in auctions. In those auctions, the most competitive generators are obviously winning. If the auctions provide a high volume, then, of course, it would be the average price. As a result of that, for everybody in the renewable market, not only in Spain, but in those markets as well, the challenge is to have LCOEs that are as competitive as possible. Andreas is going to give you the other response. The contribution from KELAG this year is expected to be at around EUR 60 million. I think all others for this year are expected to be at about EUR 10 million plus. Perfect. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Okay. We have a lot of questions today. Yes. We have a follow-up question from Olly Jeffery with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead. Just on the regulatory account, I'm just trying to get a sense for the guide for the grid for 2025, how conservative they are. On the regulatory account, has that been approved from the regulator, or is it your working assumption that it will be? The other follow-up question I had was, just from where you see the current level of snowfall in the Alps versus what that would typically be for this time of year, are you able to say how much lower volume relative to the P50 you would expect that to generate in your hydro assets, or is that not possible? Thank you. Okay. I will start with the regulatory account. I go back to 2023 because I remember that we had this discussion on the regulatory account in sort of when we discussed the 2023 numbers. At that time, the regulatory account was EUR 500 million. Already in 2023, we talked to the regulator because we wanted to decrease the regulatory account step by step. The regulator did not agree. I don't know why, but it did not agree. Actually, in 2024, the regulatory account went up to EUR 550 million. Now we will be able to decrease it by around EUR 70 million to what we think would be EUR 480 million in 2025. In 2026, hopefully, we can take sort of like we can step it down again, hopefully in a regular way and not too jumpy. In terms of the snowfall, that is close to impossible. What I can tell you is that in comparison to previous years, we had less snowfall in the Alps, and the weather was warmer. As a result of that, you did not have the classic formation of bound snow up in the mountains. That snow cap is usually a good source for springtime hydro through the little rivers in the Alps going into the larger rivers and finally going into the Danube and increasing the hydro coefficient. However, I need to be careful here because that is only looking at one side of the picture. It could well be that what we would usually see as snow melting and therefore hydro flowing from the mountains into the rivers, we could see more normal rainfall. Yeah. If we see normal rainfall, that could compensate for the melting of the snow. Predictions are very difficult. That is certainly something we are going to observe over the next few months and something we are going to discuss in our next conference call in three months. Thank you. To confirm, the regulator did agree to the EUR 70 million decrease in 2025 and what you hope in 2026 for the Austrian Power Grid. Is that right, or is that still to be determined? Has agreed to the trends and has agreed on the specific number for 2025, has not yet agreed on the 2026 number. Great. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Kollmann for any closing remarks. Yeah. As always at this point, I would like to thank you for your participation and for your many questions, which shows your interest. I look forward to hearing or seeing you again on our next conference call, possibly in the meantime at the various conferences and roadshows. I wish you a wonderful day. Thanks again. Bye-bye.