Good afternoon, thank you very much for attending the Acea Group results presentation of Q1 2023. The call will be held by Mr. Palermo, the CEO of the company, and then a Q&A session will follow. Please, Dr. Palermo, floor to you. Good afternoon, everyone, thank you very much for attending this conference call. We are going to report on the results at the 31st of March 2023. Q1 2023 confirms the positive trend that was reported already in the last months of 2022 in a market environment that remains challenging. The group has increased its EBITDA by 6%, a net profit that is in line, and Net Debt/EBITDA ratio at 3.3, so 3.3x. As for the EBITDA, we can see the results or the first results of the action put in place at the end of 2022 to optimize cost and boost operational efficiency, which has led to an improvement in margins, despite the difficult market conditions. Net profit, compared with the previous year, has been affected by the increase in financial charges driven by progressive rise in interest rates starting the second half of 2022 already. In comparing net profit with the 2022 net profit, consider last year we had a positive impact, one of the positive impact, that was accounted for by the capital gain on the sale majority stake in Acea's photovoltaic assets. Without this, our net profit is in line with last year, despite the rising interest rates. As I said, the Net Debt/EBITDA ratio at 3.3 confirms the sound capital structure. We have put in place a number of actions to achieve a greater and more rigorous financial management in terms of investment and procurement procedures that are now generating the first results. The main highlights on the following slide show once again that the Acea Group is a major industrial player. Please consider that the regulated business is substantial compared with our peers. As a consequence, we feel confident to confirm growing trends. Revenues have reached EUR 1.2 billion, up 4%. EBITDA is up 6% to EUR 336 million. Net profit is EUR 73 million, in line with expectations. Talking about CapEx. CapEx has increased but is well under control. Net debt dropped to EUR 4.339 billion, which is mirrored in the leverage, namely Net Debt/EBITDA ratio. In the first months of 2023, the group has witnessed a number of extremely relevant events, especially as far as the number of deals are concerned, like the DECO stake acquisition or the business combination with ASM Terni that was closed early this year. As for DECO, the acquisition was completed in January 2023 with, as far as ASM Terni and SIMAM are concerned, these two transactions were completed in 2023, April 2023. We have bidded for the new WTE plant in Rome. Currently, we are the only bidder, and we'll be updating you going forward. A set of events have also materialized that are particularly relevant to the company's sustainability that are summarized on the right of this slide. For instance, Acea obtained Top Employers Italy 23 certification. We were confirmed of being included in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index with a very high score. We have started a number of activities with the labor unions. We have introduced the so-called Charter of the Person and Participation, which, in our book, is a first step towards improving the relations with the trade unions. Now, I would like to hand you over to our CFO, who will be commenting on the other highlights. Thank you very much. We can move on to the economic and financial highlights, part of which have already been mentioned by our CEO, and I'm going to dwell on some of them. As we said, EBITDA is up 6%. The regulated businesses, particularly water and energy sector, contributed substantially to our EBITDA growth. As for Ambiente and generation businesses, they report a negative figure. This is mainly due to the reduction of energy generation, which, in turn, has led to a recovery, and therefore, a positive impact of the commercial and trading business. As we said, EBITDA reached EUR 336 million in Q1 2023, up by EUR 20 million. Regulated business accounts for 86%, and here you see the breakdown of the EBITDA by businesses. Since the end of 2022, regulated business include also the Acea Ambiente business, considering the strategic importance of this business and the regulatory evolution that we have been witnessing in this area. The deals already mentioned by the CEO and the ones carried out last year are summarized in the bottom left of the slide. I'm referring to ASM Terni, Tecnoservizi, and S.E.R. Plast, and the consolidation of the photovoltaic that actually started already in 2022. Let's move on to page 6 now. Here, we see EBIT and net profit evolution. EBIT is stable, so flat. As we already pointed out, net profit compared with the previous year is dropping, but exclusively for the one-off impact of the disposal of the photovoltaic business that generated capital gain of roughly EUR 21 million in Q1, 2022. The increase of EBITDA, the increase of depreciation due to higher investment, that is, again, a trend that the group has been following, especially in the regulated businesses. Then we have brought forward the increase of financial charges, roughly EUR 8 million, and then the capital gain that I already mentioned. Provisions ratio of loss provisions has remained unchanged compared to Q1 2022. You may remember that in the second half of 2022, the group had reconsidered its strategy as far as credit losses are concerned, and such losses have increased towards the end of 2022. The current provisions, loss provisions, are perfectly in line with our expectations, and we have been witnessing an improvement of cash-in performance. Page 7. Some more color about CapEx. CapEx reached EUR 247 million in Q1 2023. You can see EUR 11.4 million of finance investment. As we are going to see going forward, we will see the grant funded investment having a substantial impact. You see that CapEx was driven mainly by the water business. As for energy infrastructure, we see a slight reduction. It's just a matter of timing, whereas all the other businesses are more or less stable. As already pointed out, 90% of our CapEx is accounted for by regulated businesses. Moving on to page 8. Let's have a look at the evolution of cash flow that has led to the improvement of net debt, as already pointed out. All the actions that the CEO already mentioned, that were put in place have had clearly an impact, reduced commodity costs. In general, turnover that has improved have contributed to the evolution of the cash flow. The reintroduction of general system cost also had a positive impact. You may remember that this item, as the regulator, suspended such cost, this had a negative impact. Whereas now with the reintroduction of the general system cost, we have clearly a positive impact. We have already mentioned that the increase of financial cost that had an impact, of course. Then, cash flow has been partially absorbed by the changes in the scope of consolidation, mainly referring to the M&A and the closing of the DECO deal. Moving on to page 9, let's have a look at the capital structure. We already mentioned that net debt has reached EUR 4.338 billion at the 31st of March 2023, down EUR 100 million, roughly, versus the 31st of December 2022. The debt ratio, 3.3x, is lower than that of December 2022, when it was at 3.4. I'm referring, of course, to the Net Debt/EBITDA ratio. The structure of debt is reported on the slide. The average cost of debt is 1.98%, average term, 4.8 years. The increase of the average cost of debt is mainly related to the two issuances that took place at the beginning of the year. I'm particularly referring to the Green Bond that was accompanied by a successful placement of EUR 500 million Green Bonds at very competitive rates. The Fitch and Moody's ratings are confirmed with a negative outlook for both, whereas the sustainability ratings are stable, and they are all reported on page 9, bottom left. Sorry, bottom right. Now, let's move on to the performance by businesses. Water business was very successful, driving the group's results. EBITDA grew by 6%, mainly thanks to the organic growth of Acea Ato 2 and the changes in the scope of consolidation, to include ASM Terni. Towards the end of 2022, the first stage of this deal took place, and now we have the second phase completing the transaction, leading to an increase of Acea's stake in ASM Terni to 45%. EUR 150 million investment in Q1 in the water business. Thanks, let's say most of the grants and investment refer specifically to this business. Page 11, we see the performance of energy infrastructure here. This business recovered the margin. EBITDA grew by 7% in the quarter. This refers both to electric power distribution, whereas public lighting was almost flat. Here we have managed to increase the efficiency leading to organic growth amounting to roughly EUR 4.7 million. The replacement of meters with second-generation electricity meters is still ongoing. The number of 2G electricity meters at the 31st of March has reached 725,000. Number of PODs is flat. Total electricity distributed is slightly dropping. Page 12. Here we find the financial and operational highlights of the Acea Ambiente business. Here we witness a drop of EBITDA of 5%. This is exclusively due to lower prices of the energy generated by the waste-to-energy plant. This applies, I mean, both to electricity produced and to treatment and disposal. Abu already mentioned the acquisition of 35% of DECO, which is now owned 100% by the group, and the acquisition of 70% of Tecnoservizi. Tecnoservizi, in the province of Rome, operates in the mechanical treatment and recovery of urban waste and non-hazardous special waste, and the deal was completed in October 2022. Moving on to page 13. Here we see the performance of the generation business. Again, here the drop in the EBITDA is driven by lower energy prices, and by the impact of the so-called the Sostegni Decree. The impact was felt on the Sant'Angelo hydroelectric plant. This business, compared to Q1 2022, was impacted upon by the deconsolidation of photovoltaic assets that generated the capital gain that we already mentioned in Q1 2022. At the 31st of March 2023, the total pipeline of photovoltaic plants has reached 877 megawatts, of which 210 are already authorized and under construction or ready to build. Whereas the remaining part, 667 megawatts, are awaiting authorization, and the installed capacity has reached almost 100 megawatts. Moving on to page 14. Here we see the performance of the commercial and trading business, that, as already mentioned, has managed to offset the negativity and items of the previous year. EBITDA has grown by 87%, mainly driven by increased margins on free electricity market, an increased margin from gas, and a good and effective energy management. The whole has led to an increase of EBITDA of roughly 14.7%. Acea Innovation also contributed to the increase in EBITDA, thanks to the completion of the energy efficiency projects that the company manages. Total energy sold is dropping, and this is part of a policy to contain the related risk. We observed, at the same time, a slight increase of the customer base, which confirms the decision that was made to change the business mix and expand the customer base. You see, as far as gas is concerned, the number of customers is slightly growing, and total gas sold has remained flat. The floor to you now. The presentation is over, and we are ready for Q&A. This is the conference call operator, and we are now start to the Q&A session. Participants wishing to ask questions can press star followed by one. To leave the queue, press star followed by two. Please ask your questions using your headsets. If you wish to ask a question, you can press star followed by one now. The first question by Javier Suarez, Mediobanca. Good evening. Thank you very much for the presentation. I've got a couple of questions, if I may. The first refers to the working capital and the evolution of the working capital in Q1. I'm referring to slide 8. We see a positive contribution of the working capital. During the latest conference call, when you reported the full year results for 2022, you provided us with a guidance about the working capital, both the commercial and the regulatory working capital. I would like you to update us about the evolution of the working capital in Q1 2023, and how this compares with your expectations for the whole of 2023. I mean, the guidance that you provided us. Have you deviated from the guidance? This is my first question. Second question. I would like you to update us about your dialogue with the regulator about offsetting more quickly the impact of the price of energy. Can you update us about the dialogue you have with the regulator to, again, try and recover more quickly the higher energy costs? The third question to the CEO is a more general question. Can you provide us with more color about your strategic priorities in terms of Acea positioning? How do you plan of giving your imprinting to the company? It would be very useful to know a bit more about this. Thank you very much, Javier. Thank you, Javier. I'll try and answer the question about the working capital. You may remember towards the end of 2022, when we announced that the impact that we expected on 2023, we mentioned that the energy scenario that we use for our forecasts, and you may remember that the scenario that we considered there was a EUR 200 per kilowatt hour. We have seen in Q1 of 2023, an average price of energy of roughly 150 EUR per kilowatt hour. Which has reduced the absorption of working capital. Both for energy supply and for water, the water business. Considering the assumptions that we had used for our scenario to calculate the probable working capital absorption, we had also included the risk of having the impact of higher energy prices also on the water bill, which is something that has not materialized so far. These are the results compared with the assumptions that we made and, say the triggers that we considered to make our forecast. We have the operational performance of the quarter generated by the actions put in place that the CEO mentioned. We have had an improvement of our turnover, especially in the energy market. Consider that Q1 has seen the bills cashed in, and these were the bills that had been impacted by the highest price increase of 2022. Let's say that the cash ins have been more than satisfactory, and the Group has therefore benefited from this. I don't know whether I've answered your question, and then Fabrizio may answer the remaining two questions. Well, first of all, as for the dialogue with the regulator, we are still dialoguing with the regulator. I mean, the dialogue is ongoing, and it's too early to say where the dialogue will lead. Clearly, we are discussing with the regulator the overall topic, that includes also, of course, tariffs. To date, we cannot say where this discussion will lead. However, this is something that involves other players as well. Again, the dialogue with the regulator is still ongoing. Coming to the strategic priorities, as you may know, a new board of directors was recently appointed at Acea, and today, the first meeting, the real meeting, of the new board has taken place, and the committees have been set up, which will enable us to reconsider our strategy going forward, which then lead to the new business plan of the group. Again, it's too early to say what the strategic priorities will be or the strategic choices will be. In the six months that I've been appointed, CEO of the group, of course, I've had time enough to have an idea of what we would like to do, of course, everything must go through the board of directors first. We have definitely realized that the operational management is something that we are focusing on, which is clearly related to strategic priorities. This means, first of all, managing revenues. The group's revenues are accounted by regulated business at 90%, so we are focusing on tariffs for all our business, water, environment, and so on. Cost efficiency, and we have already started a cost-cutting plan that implies keeping costs under control on the one hand, and then identify the costs that are, of course, considered by the regulator when discussing tariffs. I think that we have already started this activity last year, at the end of last year, and I believe the first results will be seen in this part of the year. CapEx, of course, we are focusing on the type of investment that is required, which investments are priority investments, which inevitably relates to the management of the cash, which means optimizing cash management in general and optimizing financial management in general. Of course, we will be focusing on the cost of debt to limit the increase of the cost of debt. To summarize my answer, we have to discuss and decide upon the strategic priorities with the board of directors, even though the management has already clear ideas about this. From an operational point of view, regardless of the business plan, we are already acting on the three areas I mentioned, contain costs, optimize revenues and manage CapEx and cash efficiently. Thank you very much. Next question by Stefano Gamberini, Equita SIM. Good evening and welcome to Mr. Palermo. I've got three questions. The first about the end of year guidance. Well, I must say I haven't understood whether the guidance is concerned or whether it has, it is improved. Previous guidance suggested EBITDA between 2%-4%, the CapEx flat, and debt EBITDA ratio below 3.8x. Can you provide us with more color about this to understand whether the situation has changed after the Q1 2023 as a consequence of the actions that you are putting in place? Second question, again about working capital. The working capital is in fact deteriorating, and I would like to understand whether there is an impact of the factoring compared with last year, full year, and the end of the first quarter 2023. Third question refers to commercial and trading business. I probably misunderstood you during the latest conference call, because I understood that, the fact that you were buying energy on the market, which would not support your profitability, whereas I've seen that the impact is completely different in Q1. Probably I misunderstood or I misinterpreted this. Can you help me and better understand whether I misunderstood you or whether the situation has changed now? Again, we see EUR 7.5 million improvement of EBITDA of gas business with only 90 million cubic meters sold. Can you help me understand what it is all about and what is the impact of our gas on the performance of this business? I've got another question about the waste to energy plan. I know that this is a substantial investment and the tender has not been awarded as yet, how will such a relevant investment be managed considering that you have to keep the leverage under control? Thank you very much, and I do apologize for asking so many questions. Thank you, Stefano. I'll try and answer your questions about the working capital on the price dynamics that you mentioned. The working capital, the performance in Q1 is positive, and substantially so. Probably with our explanation, we haven't been clear, and we have led to this misunderstood misunderstanding. Compared with the traditional trend of the group, there's a continuity, let's say. The use of these instruments, well, we haven't increased the use of these instruments. Factoring or reverse factoring activity that you mentioned, there's nothing of this kind that we have done in Q1. The performance is driven by the factors that I previously mentioned, namely reduction of the energy price. Reduction of the energy price that the group buys, which has limited the exposure. Comparing this with last year, these had been particularly penalizing as an item. I also would like to refer to the energy price. You may remember that starting 2022, we have gone through a strategic change as far as the energy supply is concerned. We have shifted progressively from the so-called fixed supply to the variable price supply. Q1 2022, the fixed price supply was of course accounted for the largest share because we were just beginning the transition. In those days, there was this mismatching. Even though the coverage that was in place was not completely efficient. Small quantities of energy purchased on the spot market at a very high price had led to this substantial absorption. Today, in Q1 2023, we can consider, and I'm not mentioning the exact figure, but we can consider the following big mix. Sixty percent of our energy supply is now on, based on variable price supply. This has, of course, enabled us to achieve a more balanced situation. The element that we mentioned, namely the purchase of energy at a variable price, which implied shorter payment terms, well, this is something that is still there, of course. If we compare the result with our expectations, well, the difference is mainly due to the substantial drop in the energy price reported in Q1. I hope I've answered your question about the working capital and the energy supply price. I ask the CEO to answer the question about the guidance. As for the guidance, we confirm the guidance given. We are definitely working on this, which I believe is mirrored by the results that we are commenting today. Let's say that to date, the guidance is confirmed. As for your question about the WTE plant, we, as you might know, we made our bid. Of course, if we are awarded a tender, we will have to commit ourselves. Currently, we are still talking about a call for bids. We are still waiting for the commissioner and the engineers that were being appointed to comment on our offer. Once we have received the comments by the technical team and by the commissioner, the final project will be drafted, of course, we'll be submitting, I mean, we'll be bidding for it together with other players. At that point, of course, we will be knowing what the final project implies, both in terms of timeline and costs involved. As I said, we are going to bid, but this will have no impact on the financial structure of the company. The first preliminary bid that we made was agreed upon with our financial partners. Of course, we cannot mention figures, but we consider this call for bid as a good opportunity for the group from all viewpoints. We'll be keeping you posted about the evolution of this tender, of course. Thank you very much. Thank you. Just a follow-up question. Fabio, can you help me understand the EUR 7.5 million that come generated by the gas business? Is this a one-off item, or is this a recurrent item? Well, it is an item that is generated by the margin recovery, which is a result of a greater energy efficiency. If you compare this with Q1 2022, it was Q1 2022 that was particularly penalized in terms of prices. Probably I can say that here there is a, if you will, a one-off item that is simply the stabilization of gas prices, which I believe will continue also in the next quarters. All right. Thank you very much. Next question. By Emanuele Oggioni, Kepler Cheuvreux. Thank you very much and good evening, and welcome to the new CEO. My questions have already been answered. I would like to ask you a very quick question about ASM Terni, considering that you have closed the deal recently. Can you update us about this deal, how this will contribute to the group's results? When do you think the new business plan with the updated guidance will be ready? I'm talking about the guidance, but I'm particularly focusing on the debt and the debt-EBITDA ratio. Will the new business plan be ready by before the summer or by September next? I would like to remind all the participants that if you wish to ask a question, you can press star followed by one. I don't know whether you can hear me, because I was answering the question about ASM Terni. Just to provide you with more color about this deal. We hadn't considered a financial contribution deriving from this deal. This is just an exchange of shares. The idea is that of consolidating the business in the Umbria region. ASM Terni manages integrated water services, public lighting, gas distribution. With the recent deal, we are now a 45% stake, and we control the governance of the group. The purpose is that of making the business evolve by fostering the growth of the services provided, and of course, by achieving synergies. The contribution in 2023 has been estimated at roughly EUR 9 million. I don't know whether Fabrizio would like to answer about or reply to your comments about the guidance. What Mr. Ogioni said is absolutely correct. The guidance remains unchanged, as already pointed out. Clearly, all the actions that are being put in place clearly show that the group is trying and improving all the ratios. Indeed, starting in last year, end of last year, I believe that the full year results last year have already shown that some improvement has already been achieved, and this has enabled us to reach targets that have been set for 2022, which otherwise would have been negatively impacted by all the events that took place last year. For the time being, we confirm our guidance, the idea is that of focusing on operations to, of course, control all the operating items. Considering the current market conditions, a very rigorous financial control and operational control are essential. Mrs. Angrisani, ladies and gentlemen, for the time being, there are no other questions. Thank you very much. Thank you for connecting. The Investor Relations department is clearly available to answer all your additional questions if needed. Thank you very much, and have a nice evening. Goodbye.