Good afternoon. This is the conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Italgas first half 2024 results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star and zero on their telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Anna Maria Scaglia, Head of Investor Relations of Italgas. Please go ahead. Hi. Good afternoon, everyone, thank you for joining us. Today, we walk you through Italgas' first half 2024 results. I'm here with Mr. Paolo Gallo, our CEO, and Mr. Gianfranco Amoroso, our CFO. I now leave the floor to our CEO, Mr. Paolo Gallo. Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to this conference. We are going through the result that we achieved in the first semester of 2024. So I will start from page number 2, where you have the summary of the results. As you can see, we managed to deliver double-digit growth in adjusted EBITDA, EBIT and net, and net profit in the first half of 2024. While the revenues were down by 6.4%, and that was fully expected due to the reduction of revenues and activity in our energy efficiency company because of the end of the Superbonus. On the other hand, we see a significant increase of the overall adjusted gas distribution revenues by 12% year-over-year. Gas distribution, as you know, was supported by a review, an update of the Italian regulation, that has incorporated higher inflation and rates in the allowed return, you know, with the delay, with the normal delay with regulation. But even more important, we have seen a significantly rapid growth that is driving our revenues. In our revenues, there is also the positive contribution of Acqua Campania, the company that we acquired from Vianini and Veolia, consolidated for the first 5 months of the year. If you couple these resulting revenues with our ability to reduce and control the cost, that's the reason why we are having EBITDA, EBIT and then income grow at double digits. In particular, net income grew by 13.3% in respect of last year. If we move to the following page, page number 3, another significant result is in the operating cash flow. That has not only materially improved versus the first semester of 2023, but the number is really significantly grown, 66% more. That is mainly driven by the fact that there is no more the Superbonus cash absorption that we have registered last year. Gianfranco, when Gianfranco will talk about the working capital, he will explain in more details all the detail generation of cash flow. The cash flow today is even, is in line, I would say probably even better than in line, of the historical trends that we register for the cash flow generation. CapEx is slightly below last year. I will explain in detail, why, that is not driven by our normal operation, but is driven by, the investment that we do in what we call centralized RAB and investment in digitalization. What is extremely significant is that, thanks to the cash flow, generation, the cash flow, the operating cash flow was able to cover the CapEx, to cover an M&A, and to cover portion of the dividends that we paid in May. So at the end of the day, the debt at the end of the period increased by 175...176 million, if we exclude IFRS 16. Let's go and take a look at the CapEx. That is on page 4. We invested EUR 354 million. That is down 11% in respect of last year. Let's see, what are the driver? The drivers of these are mainly two: lower spending in digitization, as we are completely in the digital transformation of the network. Still, EUR 100 million is still a significant number in the first six months. The other element that was significantly reduced was what we call lower centralized CapEx. This number has no impact at all on RAB, because what we call centralized RAB is adapted annually only to account for the deflator impact, and is normally remunerated on the basis of the number of redelivery points. So even if we invested less, that is only positive because we are saving money. Development and repurposing of the network are in line with what was invested last year, considering Greece and Italy. What is extremely important is that in this period, we were able to lay down more than 300 kilometers of new pipes, out of which 200 in Greece. After that, I will move. I will skip to the ESG result of the first semester of 2024. We are at page 5. The page shows the net energy consumption that is down 12.5% in respect of last year. For the time being, we have excluded, for a method of comparison, the consumption of Acqua Campania. That is, that was not present last year. So on a like-for-like basis, the reduction is a significant. We saved 22.7 terajoules in respect of last year. The main contribution came from gas consumption. Gas consumption, thanks to all the activities and action we put in place in order to reduce the consumption of gas in our operating system. And in fact, we were able to achieve a significant reduction in our specific consumption ratio, and now is close to 1. Last year was 115. As well, we recorded a better performance on our buildings, leading to lower civil consumption. Also, electricity consumption was down due to the higher use of auto produced electricity and also to the optimization activity that we run on the water facility in Caserta. Finally, the other component is a lower consumption of gasoline and diesel and natural gas, and the result is mainly driven by less kilometer that we travel, and thanks to the use of digital stuff as D&A and WorkO nS ite. It looks like a different perspective is the Scope 2 and Scope 1 and 2 emissions that are increasing over the first semester of 2023. Let me explain why. First of all, there has been a revision of the ratio, the global warming potential that has been introduced, and that it is, that is accounting for 8.2 kilotons. So that is, let me say, driven by an external and different method of calculation. But there is also an increase due to the fact that we have discovered more leaks, and the more leaks are driven by the significant increase of kilometer that we recorded in the first half of 2024. So we nearly covered all our all our network, 73,000 km, with an increase of 36% in respect of last year. So we expect that in the second half of 2024, we are going to Let me say, to inspect the areas that, according to us, are, let me say, the most critical ones, and we expect to find less leaks than in the first run. I have already underlined the effect of the global warming potential. Regarding the other elements, of course, less kilometer traveled by vehicles has produced less CO2 emission, less gas consumption has produced as well, less CO2 emission. Let's go back to the economic results. Let's take a look at the revenues in page 7. Adjusted revenues decreased by 6.4%, and that is the result, as I explained before, mainly driven by the drop, fully expected, of Geoside, our energy efficiency company, revenues. In the same time, this drop was partially compensated by the increase of the revenues coming from our gas distribution, Italy and Greece together, and by the consolidation of Acqua Campania, that is bringing, as you can see, nearly EUR 32 million in addition in terms of revenues. I think that is the comments that I have relevant to the revenues. Let's move to the next page, that is regarding operating expenses. Operating expenses, again, we are showing that the control of our cost is significant. On a like-for-like basis, we were able to reduce by 1% our operating cost, including Greece, in respect of 2023. The major drop in the operating cost is driven by the energy efficiency. We have seen that we have less EUR 175 million in terms of revenue. We have also, hundred and forty, nearly EUR 140 million in terms of operating cost. Similarly, Acqua Campania, who brought a positive contribution in revenues, contribute also an increase of cost by, EUR 17 million. Overall, our cost in the first half were at EUR 201 million. As a result of the combination of revenues and cost, our EBITDA increased by more than 10% in respect to the first half of 2023. As you can see, the two contributions are positively the distribution activity, Italy increased by nearly EUR 88 million, and a decrease relevant to Geoside, that is EUR 24 million in term of difference, in term of EBITDA. Of course, the core business, the gas distribution in Italy, contributed for a significant amount, nearly 600 million out of the EUR 671 million of EBITDA. You see also a contribution of Greece and a limited contribution by Geoside and the water. I leave now the floor to Gianfranco for the remaining part of the presentation. I will go back at the end of the presentation to collect any questions you may have on those numbers. Thank you, Paolo. We are now on slide 10, where we have adjusted EBIT and marked an increase of 12%, reaching more than EUR 400 million. This growth is supported by an increased EBITDA of almost EUR 50 million, resulting from the variance of revenues and OpEx that we have already explained. For the first time, EBIT contribution of Acqua Campania of around EUR 3 million. On the other side, higher DANA for around EUR 10 million, mainly related to the carryover impact of the CapEx executed last year. Moving now to slide 11. Net profit adjusted after minorities reached EUR 241 million, with an increase of around 13%. Net financial charges marked a level of EUR 55 million, or 10 or 11 million higher than last year's same period, mainly due to the impact of new bonds that we issued in June last year and last February. Income from associates increased by EUR 6 million, mainly due to the contribution of water affiliates, the Sicilia cque and Acqualatina, both equity consolidated. Finally, we accounted for EUR 97 million of adjusted income taxes, marking an increase of approximately EUR 11 million, and due to a higher taxable income. Tax rate was 27.5%, slightly above last year at 27.1%. Moving now on slide 12, we have just a recap of the PNL elements that we have discussed in the previous slides. So I will skip it, and I will drive you directly to the following one, slide 13, when we show the impact of adjustment and reconciliation with the reported PNL figures. As you can see, we reported approximately EUR 10 million of adjustment at revenues, EBITDA, EBIT and EBT lines, with a tax effect of EUR 2.8 million related to this. This item is mainly related to the impact of Resolution 207 of this year, the resolution of ARERA, concerning the negative adjustment related to revenues already allowed by ARERA for the period two thousand and eleven and two thousand and sixteen. This positive components was due to cover cost of telemetering. Let me add that Italgas disagrees with such a solution and took action against this. Now, on page 14, there is a focus on the water business in line with what we have presented for the first quarter, with the aim to provide you with a better visibility on the performances of the water business. As you know, we are not consolidating line by line Sicilia cque, despite the 75% ownership, since we have no clear visibility on timing of such accounting change. So in the second column, we made a representation of both Sicilia and Acqualatina on a pro quota basis, leading to a, an aggregated EBITDA overall of EUR 27 million. Now, looking at the evolution of the cash flow on slide 15. First, you can see that cash flow from operation was around EUR 530 million, expressing a significant increase, around EUR 200 million, if compared to the first six months of 2023. To explain this, you will remember that last year... Sorry, you will remember that last year was deeply impacted by some specific phenomena on net working capital, like the booming Superbonus tax receivables and the impact of Bonus Gas. ... At the opposite, this semester, we came back to a positive networking contribution for around EUR 33 million. As a result, free cash flow covered the net CapEx of around EUR 390 million, financial investments completed in the period, and almost one-third of dividend payment of EUR 285 million in the second quarter, resulting in a net debt increase of only approximately under EUR 95 million. Finally, the following page, we make the usual update of the financial structure at the end of June. Let me recap the debt transaction that we have already flagged in the first quarter presentation. The new bond of EUR 650 million fixed rate issued in February, and the repayment of the bond of EUR 380 million expired in March, in addition to the new EUR 600 million sustainability-linked revolving credit facility. All this, coupled with the cash flow evolution described in the previous slide, resulted in a level of liquidity slightly above EUR 300 million at the end of June. Notwithstanding the refinancings that occurred in the period, the average cost of debt is almost in line with last year's 1.5%. Current composition of our debt remains substantially unchanged, with 92% fixed and the remaining floating. Before going to the Q&A, let me just make some comments about the numbers that we have shown to you. The performance are extremely strong and are confirming what we have done in the last seven years, so there's nothing new. The fact that we are continuing, yeah, that our growth is continuing is significantly important. This year we can see that the gas distribution in Italy fundamentals is very strong, not only thanks to the increase of the, of the WACC, the low return and the inflation, but also because even though in such scenario, we are able to keep under control our cost and to reduce, even if it's only by 1%, to continue to reduce this cost in respect of last year. We were able, in that way, to compensate, to more than compensate what we were expecting in term of energy efficiency results. We start to show some positive contribution from the water sector, where we have been working very hard in these first six months to contribute to significantly increase, not only in term of economic result, but also in term of operational result. Greece is on track, so we are happy about that. I think the best result that we can show in the first half is a very extremely solid operating cash flow generation. Back in line, I would say probably better than what was the historical strength. Now, moving to and anticipating some of your questions about the 2i Rete Gas, I would like to say that I cannot tell you anything because we are in the due diligence process. The journey that we started more than two months ago is proceeding as expected, so we are at a good step in our due diligence, but we cannot provide to you additional information. You should be patient. You should be sure that as soon as we have significant development, we will announce it immediately to the market, as soon as we will be in a position to do so. So please, do not ask questions about the 2i Rete Gas, because that is the best information that I can provide to you. I will leave now the floor to questions you may have. Operator, please, let's start the Q&A. Excuse me, this is the Chorus Call conference operator. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touch tone telephone. To remove your question, please press star and two. Please pick up the receiver when asking questions. The first question is from John Campbell from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. I've got three relatively quick ones, if I can. So looking at the working capital, you know, performance was improved year-over-year. How should we think about it for the rest of 2024, particularly relating to these receivables you have for the Superbonus? So that's question one. The second is sort of how do you see progress so far in integrating the recently consolidated water assets? Do you reckon you can apply sort of your know-how in natural gas distribution to achieve some quick wins there, I would argue? And the third one, I appreciate any comments you can give. There is a press article in IFR on the twentieth of June, and the article hypothesizes, I stress the word hypothesizes, that a bridge loan refinancing could require EUR 1 billion of equity issuance or hybrids. What is your response to this article? Do you agree with that hypothesized figure, and can you give any details? Thank you. ... Yeah, I will take the first question about the working capital evolution and impact on over the year of the Superbonus receivable. As you know, we have a bulk of around EUR 130 million for this year to be compensated. Part of it has been already compensated in the first semester without no impact on cash, because the tax payment was due for the first of July. Anyway, the remaining will be compensated in the month of November for the remaining portion to be paid in term of taxes. Broadly speaking, about the working capital end of the year, we can have a position that will be neutral to positive at the end of the year. Let me take the question of the water asset. What we are doing... Let me say, as you know, we have different situation in the three companies. Acqua Campania, we owns 96%, and we fully consolidated it. Acqualatina, we owns 49%. We are the industrial partners. Majority is in the comune ownership. Sicilia cque, we have 75%, but for the reason explained before by Gianfranco, we cannot consolidate it. Our partner is the Regione Sicilia. So we have, we have different situation in which, the role common to all of the, all the three is, of course, let me say, the role of the industrial partner. On some of them, like Acqua Campania, the consolidation and integration is more strong than the others. Let me say that what we are doing, we are focusing mainly on helping Acqualatina and Sicilia cque to deliver by mid of 2026 what they have committed in term of investment relevant to the national resilience and recovery PNRR. The commitment is important because they have to invest nearly EUR 150 million that is devoted to the improvement of the network, as well as the digitization of the network. I particularly refer to Acqualatina. So we have built around these two company a team that is helping them through procurement, engineering, project management, to help them to focus on how to deliver on time this investment. That is extremely important because you know that if we don't deliver them by mid 2026, we may have a big problem. So, the situation on the water is proceeding fine. We are really acting as an industrial partner. There has been already some quick win, if you want. That is the collaboration that we have established between our gas distribution and the water distribution in Acqualatina, where many activities on site to repair and replace pipelines have been carried out together. So at the same time, we are intervening to repair or replace gas pipeline as well as water pipeline. And that is a significant quick win also for local community, where you have only one operator that is intervening, or better, two operator together at the same time, that it are intervening at the same time and reduce the, let me say, the bad part of such intervention to the local community. Regarding the last question, honestly, I have not seen that press, but I can tell you, as we have already told you, that the financing acquisition of 2i Rete Gas is already fully underwritten by J.P. Morgan. And then after that, we will refinance through a combination of equity or equity-like instrument and debt. And the objective is to maintain the current rating profile that Italgas has. More than that, so I don't comment on an article that I haven't seen. Thank you for those answers. Next question, please. The next question is from Jose Ruiz from Barclays. Please go ahead. Yeah, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. I only have two. One is, well, you made EUR 1.8 million EBITDA from energy efficiency, and I was wondering if you can help me to normalize the full year, either 2024 or 2025, for ESCO activities. And secondly, if you can give us a guidance of net debt by the end of the year without M&A. Thank you. Okay. Regarding EBITDA of the ESCO, let me say that, as anticipated, 2024 was a change into our business, in a sense that the Superbonus has ended. And therefore, what you have seen is in terms of records and numbers is what we expected, so nothing new. And we didn't expect the Superbonus or similar, let me say, or not Superbonus, but similar bonus about residential to pick up during 2024. Because you don't expect that people that until last year were not paying a single euro for the upgrade and refurbishment of their real estate asset now is willing to pay immediately 30% or even more than that. We expect this residential activity to restart a little bit in 2025. 2024, we are working in building, new, let me say, businesses that are mainly toward business, let me say, toward business activity, similar industry, let me say. Some residential in terms of energy management and the public administration. Those are the three areas that we are working, and we will see significant result in 2025, not in 2024. We cannot disclose now what is going to be 2025 numbers in terms of energy efficiency. As you know, we expect to present our new plan, by, let me say, September, October. By that time, we will be able to disclose more about the future of energy, energy efficiency. What I can tell you is that we are working hard to build different kind of business, activities, as I told you, toward these three sectors. Regarding the financial position at the end of the year, I think, Gianfranco can give you more information. Sure. The net debt without IFRS 16 for year-end is EUR 6.6. So the number, the figures that we gave in the guidance we communicated last month, without any M&A, except the one that we have already done this semester, that I commented before, the EUR 50 million. Thank you very much. Next question, please. The next question is from Javier Suarez from Mediobanca. Please, go ahead. Hi, good afternoon, and thank you for the presentation. One question on the regulatory update on the gas tenders. I have read on the local press that the Minister of Environment and Energy Security may be working on a proposal to simplify gas distribution tenders in Italy, and press has been reporting different initiatives. So the question for you, if you would be... You can update us on any conversation with the current administration and on any measure or proposal that could make this acceleration in the tendering process for new gas distribution areas a reality. Any update on that would be very helpful. And the second question is on the operational efficiencies. I have seen on slide number eight that the like-for-like efficiencies has been again reduced. The question is, it is fair to say that these operational efficiencies has been extracted mainly in Greece or in your Greece activities, and we should see that number increasing while Italgas' best practices are introduced into the your group subsidiary? If that is a fair statement, that would be helpful as well, a clarification on that. And then finally, if you can repeat again that you intend to present a new business plan update by the end of September, beginning of October. Is that correct? Thank you. I not understand the last question. Could you repeat, Javier? Sorry for that. No, no, no. It's a clarification on previous answer. If you, you have said that you intend to present a new business plan update by the end of September- Okay. Beginning of October. Thank you. Okay. The proposal that you are referring to, that you have read on your newspaper about the reduction of number of items, we read it also. My comments is very simple. Let's take what happened in the last 12 years since the revision of the concession. 177 items, only nine have been completed in 12 years. So any modification of the existing legislation would be welcome in a sense that if it reduce the number of items, it will probably increase the likelihood that those tenders will happen. So from that point of view, we are positive reading what you have read on the newspaper because that will help probably the consolidation from one side, but even more important, will help the tenders to happen. But let's see what is going to happen. That is my only comment. So I read it like you read it. My comment is positive. Let's see if it's going forward. Regarding the operational efficiency that you are referring to, let me say that the main driver is still Italy, is not yet Greece. Greece, we are working hard to bring, if you remember last year presentation plan, to bring the level of efficiency of the Greek operations similar to Italy, but you cannot expect that, they will be immediately at our level. So the operating expenses in Greece are more or less in line of last year, and, because there has been some additional costs driven by some extraordinary, let me call it, additional cost, that we have encountered in order to start to review those costs. So we expect that Greece will contribute in the second half of this year or better in 2025, as the operational costs will probably decrease. But the like for like that you see is Italian operation, is not Greek operation. Greek operation is in line with last year. So that is... And that is good news, because we still are able to reduce our costs in Italy, and we are working hard in order to get the same result in Greece, the same that we are getting in Italy. Regarding the new plan, we told you when we announced that the strategic plan was delayed, is because we want to present this plan as soon as we will have, let me say, a clear situation about the 2i Rete Gas. So if we are successful, and if our binding offer will be accepted by the counterpart, then we will present the new strategic plan. So it should happen between September or October. Thank you. Next question, please. The next question is from Stefano Gamberini, from Equita. Please go ahead. Good afternoon, everybody, and thanks for taking my question. First of all, could you kindly repeat why the CapEx decline in the in Italy in the first half and what we could expect in the coming quarters? Second, as regard this reduction of OpEx, why now you are still improving the Italian situation, if you share with us, if you were able to even improve now your initial target thanks to the digitalization, or are there some higher capitalization year-over-year? The third topic for me is what could we expect from the regulator on two main topics again? And the first is regarding the new WACC. Could the regulator also change the beta or the leverage in the update of the allowed WACC for 25-27 periods, when do you expect the first consultation document, and what is your, we can say, best estimate right now? And the second, as regard the RAB deflator, do you have some talks with the regulator, considering that the gap between CPI and deflator of gross fixed investments in 2023 was 600 basis points, and do you have the feeling that the regulator could introduce some changes in the calculation of the RAB deflator? Many thanks. On the CapEx side, as I told you, there are, let me say, the same level of investment in the distribution activity. We reduce significantly in term of percentage, not in term of absolute number, the amount that is called centralized RAB, that it's a, let me say, a proxy, but it will not impact the RAB, as I said before. You know that, the return on what is called centralized RAB, that is calculated over. It's the number of re-delivery point, so it's not affected by the by our reduction in CapEx. And the third element is that we, the amount of what we invested in digitization has been decreased because we are completing the transformation, the digital transformation of the network. What we expect by year end, we expect that in the next half, we'll probably have a an increase in the digital stuff as we are completing, so we are rushing in order to get to the famous 90% of the network, fully digitized and fully managed by data, and therefore, you will probably see some increase in the second half. The amount relevant to the network will remain stable. Some of the just Centralized RAB may change due to the fact that this number, this number is affected by, also by, IFRS 16. That may change, depending if we sign some long-term contract on, car leasing and other stuff like that. On the second one, on the OpEx side, you should not be surprised that we are still continue to reduce our OpEx in Italy. So, as I told you, there is no specific element, but there are multiple elements that are driving our cost down. 1% is not big, but still a significant number. The digital stuff is the main contribution. The data application that is months after months covering the overall network is the major contribution because it reduced the number of intervention by our technical staff on the field. The number of intervention is reducing because we are able to do it remotely. And what else? There are many all the activities that are moving to digital stuff are affected by cost reduction. So we don't have one single item. We have multiple items that are contributed. It's not a huge amount, but we have reduced the cost significantly in the past years. So to me, the trend is what is important. We are still keeping the control of the cost and reducing a little bit. On the future of the regulation, as you know, the WACC, we need to wait until the end of September to have a full picture. We still have a couple of months, August, and more than two months until the end, so we will probably update at the next conference call. Regarding the deflator, we have already seen the correction for 2023 because the Istat index, some of the parameters and the regulator recognize such change, and therefore they introduce the correction. We expect that it's going to happen again. When the new consultation document about the next year, next regulatory period, I think it will happen next year. Let's see. We don't have the dates. It's too far from now. Okay. Thank you. Next question, please. The next question is from Alberto D'Antoni of BNP Paribas Exane. Please go ahead. Hi, thank you so much for taking my questions. I have to take two. The first one will be coming back to the WACC. I don't know if you could give us any kind of sense of what do you expect for the next WACC, if we update the formula current with the current variables mark to market. And then in that sense, if you have any kind of sensitivity on what might be the impact on your PNL? And my second question regarding the transaction. Many investors are wondering what might be the potential antitrust issues. I don't know if you have any visibility on that, and how that could be treated by the regulator on the antitrust body. Thank you so much. Let me start from the second question. Second question, honestly, I don't know. I can imagine that you are referring to the antitrust relevant to our acquisition of 2i Rete Gas. We expect that antitrust will take some decision about that, but we cannot anticipate nothing about. On the WACC, still two months to go. So, if you have, you can have different view. There is already nearly 10 months of accrued numbers, but it's early to say what is going to happen about the WACC. You should remember that 10 basis points of WACC is equivalent to EUR 8 million in terms of less revenues. We have EUR 8 billion of RAB. So 10 basis points means EUR 8 million in terms of less revenue. Just to make round number. By the time you- Okay, I think I respond. Next question, please. The next question is from Bartek Kubicki of Bernstein. Please go ahead. Hey, good evening. This is Bartek Kubicki from Bernstein. Two follow-ups kind of things on the questions already asked. Firstly, on CapEx, and if you can look at Greece, because... If you can maybe tell us, how are you actually employing CapEx in Greece right now on a sort of year-on-year basis? What was the CapEx in the first half? What do you expect in the, for the full year? And also, consequently, if you can compare the CapEx execution exercise in Greece and in Italy, I mean, is it much easier or much more difficult in Greece? And also, if we can look at sort of a cost of, let's say, putting one kilometer of pipeline in Greece, how does the cost compare to, to Italy? Just to have some rough numbers here. And secondly, also on, if you can come back in the history on the acquisition, when 2i Rete Gas bought the gas assets from Gas Natural, in Italy, they had to sell some, of the concessions. Do you remember, or could you remind us, what were actually the, the rationale for them to selling those concessions? I mean, what was the rationale of antitrust authority to tell them to sell the concessions, and whether they actually managed to sell all the concessions, or they, they managed to keep-... some of them. Thank you very much. No, the amount of investment we made in Greece in the first six months were more or less in line of the amount of CapEx that we made, we invested last year. So there is no big difference. We expect that there will be some increase in Greece in the second half of 2024, in respect of last year. Regarding the cost of kilometer, it's a particular answer because we have the same... It's a particular question. We have the same question here in Italy to understand, which is the cost per kilometer of pipe lay down. Let me say that, you compare apple with some other fruits. You don't compare apple with apple, because even in Italy, it's difficult to compare cost per kilometer because it will mainly depend on the geographical situation, what kind of ground you find. If you are inside the city, outside the city, you can imagine that when we do this thing in Rome, is going to cost much more than being in the countryside. Having said so, so if you want to make just a comparison as an average, I can tell you that in Greece, the cost per kilometer is significantly lower in term of investment than in Italy. I can imagine because what we are doing right now is mainly outside of the cities, because the majority of investment are carried out in order to bring new pipes to area that are not served today by the gas distribution. So you compare it with what we would invest in Italy if we were in a situation of a countryside situation. But generally speaking, it's lower. So that is a comparison that we have carried out internally to understand the main difference. But that is the outcome. Regarding the second question, you remember that this acquisition has been carried out, I think, 2017, 2018, that was more or less the time frame. The concept, 2018, they tell me. The concept of the antitrust is to restore a competition. So what we have seen at the time, because we were not the winner, but we have looked after the outcome of that. What we have seen is that there were a number of, a limited number of asset to be sold. Let me say, the alternative was, in case of the sale was not going on, was to provide support to potential future competitors. So the idea, at least what we have read at the time in the antitrust, was the antitrust wanted to restore a competition through two main way. One, sell the asset. In case the selling was not, the sale was not successful, to provide a number of situation, a number of support for future competition, for future competitors. That is what was written at the time in the antitrust documents that was issued to support the completion of the transaction between 2i Rete Gas, Italgas, and Gas Natural Fenosa. Okay, thank you. If I may just push a little bit on this competition to understand, so how did they think about that in some concessions they had to sell, and in some concessions they didn't have to sell, the assets? Uh, the- How would you restore competition in a, in a sort of regulated business like this? The basis of the competition was the item, the single item. It was not Italy, but was the single item. How they decided to sell or not to sell, that is a question that you have to refer to the antitrust, not to me, because I don't know. We just read the result of their thinking about. Okay. Thank you very much. Next question, please. The next question is from Davide Candela, from Intesa Sanpaolo. Please go ahead. Hi, thank you for taking my question and the presentation. I have a question. Water, I was wondering if you are interested in participating in some tenders in the next few months, and if there are actually some tenders that could be called in the short to medium term. And relating to that, considering that now you are focusing your effort in the potential acquisition of 2i Rete Gas, I was wondering if there will be any opportunity for M&A or tenders in water, if the acquisition would drain too much resources, and you will maybe lose the opportunity to increase your perimeter in water, or if this is not the case. Thank you. If you will know tenders on the water to happen, please give us a call because we don't have anything on our radar screen, unfortunately. One of the ideas to acquire the Veolia asset was also to be in a position to have all the prerequisites to be able to participate in a tender in the water. But we don't have... I mean, I don't have any particular information about the water tenders to happen in the next days, weeks, months. But if you have those information, please provide it to us because we don't have it. As well as we don't have any information about possible acquisition. I would like to remind you that before we put the water in our strategic plan four years ago, and it took us three years to find assets on sale, the Veolia ones. So it has been a very long journey, and before getting into the Veolia, we look everywhere in Italy about potential acquisition in the water asset, and we didn't find any. So I don't think that we will be limited by the 2i Rete Gas tenders, if any M&A in the water will happen. I have very little hope that there will be some M&A activities, opportunities in Italy in the next couple of years, honestly. We have seen the... How was difficult to find the Veolia asset, and they were the only one available on the market. Thank you. And if I may, a further question, not related to water, in relation to a potential issue of a hybrid bond. In view of the fact that the spread between the pure debt and the hybrids have been shrinking in the past months, I was wondering if you were thinking about issuing a hybrid bond. I remind that this is not tied up to the potential acquisition of 2i Rete Gas. Thank you. As of today, we don't have any need of refinancing. So the last one we issued was a few months ago, was bond. The hybrid bond, like you mentioned, is based on what we said, a combination of equity or equity-like instruments to support the refinancing of the acquisition of financing of 2i Rete Gas. So today, we are not thinking about any. We don't have the need, let me say, so in term of finance. So we are not thinking about any hybrid bond standalone. That's it. Many thanks. Next question, please. The next question is from Emanuele Oggioni from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead. Good evening, and thank you for the presentation. Sorry, I connect late to the presentation, due to issue on the connection by my side. So sorry for repeating or maybe you already said, but I can see in the slides the confirmation at 2024 guidance. I suppose you... These are confirmed, so one point eight billion of revenues, eight hundred million of EBIT, etc. So probably, yes, but if you please officially confirm the 2024 guidance. And second, another clarification on the RAB deflator, because previously someone asked about it, but in my understanding, there is no risk on the RAB deflator for 2024. It's only after the new possible, the new regulatory framework will apply, or the new formula will apply from 2025. But for 2024, the 5.3% deflator is already in the pocket. Is this true? Thank you. The guidance was not part of our presentation because the guidance was already given. So of course, you didn't find the guidance in our presentation because it was already presented. We confirmed the guidance, like, Gianfranco said before. Regarding the deflator, 5.3%, it's already in our numbers, because 5.3% is relevant to the deflator applied to RAB 2023. So it's created the RAB used for calculating the revenues in 2024. So it's already there. Okay, thank you. Next question, please. The next question is from John Campbell of Bank of America. Please go ahead. Hi, yeah, thanks for taking my follow-up. It's also on the RAB deflator. So I think your comment is very clear, right? You've got 5.3 locked in for this year. My understanding was you said that they might do it again, sort of this time around as well, another change. Can you give any indication of what that sort of figure would be, even rough numbers, 3%-4%? Anything like that would be helpful. What I mentioned is that the initial deflator that was issued was 3.8%, because it was based on number issued by Istat that were different by the previous one. So, the regulator understand that and corrected the deflator from 3.8 to 5.3. That was to be applied on RAB 2023, to calculate the revenues in 2024, and that was done a few months ago. If you are asking me what is going to happen on the deflator to be applied on RAB 2024, you should wait a little bit more, because it's going to happen next, beginning of next year. What I said before is that because Istat has changed the parameter, we expect the correction made by the regulator on the deflator to be applied to RAB 2023 will be repeated also on the deflator to be applied to RAB 2024. That is what I said. What is going to be the deflator to be applied on 2024 RAB? I don't know yet. We will know it, probably- Yes. You need to wait a little bit more. That's very clear. Okay? Thank you. Next question, please. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone. Management, there are no more questions registered at this time. Okay, so thank you to everyone, and as IR team, we are available in case there will be any follow on. Good evening to everyone. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over. 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