Infrastrutture Wireless Italiane S.p.A. (INW) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning. This is the Chorus Call conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the INWIT's Full Year 2024 Results and Strategic Update Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Fabio Ruffini, Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Development. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. And as usual, with me today is Diego Galli, INWIT's General Manager; and Emilia Trudu, CFO. And before we begin, please allow me to draw your attention to the safe harbor statement on Page 2. Following a brief presentation of the results and the 2025-2030 business plan, we will open the floor to questions. Now over to you, Diego.

Thank you, Fabio and good morning, everyone. In today's session, we shared a solid set of fiscal year '24 results, with revenues up by 8%. An updated view of the product context and reference markets, new financial targets to 2030 and an optimized balance sheet. INWIT is about to turn 10 years old and industrial logic at its core is confirmed. The telco industry is in a challenging moment, and neutral host players can help leveraging on sharing economics to deliver investments in digitalization in the most efficient way, creating value for all. INWIT is unique in this regard, unlike most of our companies, we build towers from the ground up with a true industrial approach, and we have 2 Anchor tenants. As a result, the business model is more efficient and allows for disciplined capital deployment at accretive rates of return. This is evident in the targets we shared today. 6% EBITDA growth per annum to 2030 for a 78% margin and ratio of 2.6 times, EUR 1.5 billion CapEx at 2-digit on EBITDAaL, EUR 400 million in share buybacks with focus on 2025. 5.2x leverage by year-end via EUR 200 million special dividend and more than EUR 1.5 billion of receivable headroom to add layers of value creation. From an industrial perspective, we see the most compelling opportunities in the new towers, both for coverage and densification and the push on co-location, expansion towards smart infrastructure like DAS Indoor, IoT and large connectivity projects. And real estate efficiency where we will do 2 main things. Double the current rate of land ownership and use land at the base of the tower for solar energy production. Actionable industrial areas of value creation, which build on specific track records. Beyond that, keeping a disciplined approach to capital allocation we see today buying back with INWIT share as a very accretive use of capital. Let us now move to the quarter and full year results. I would highlight another strong sector of industrial KPIs with more than 900 new sites in the year and 270 in the quarter. Tenancy ratio improving further to an industry-leading level of 2.3, 9% growth in EBITDA with margin going up by 1 percentage point and leverage stayed flat. Despite the execution of the share buyback and EUR 100 million extra dividend. 2024 was a very busy from a commercial perspective. We developed further the indoor coverage connectivity market through DAS technology in a number of verticals. We added major projects like Roma 5G, Fiera Milano and the Milan underground. This resulted in a nearly 50% growth in smart infrastructure revenues and the addition of several iconic locations to our portfolio. We also made progress on the ESG front, further progress, continuing to integrate sustainability in our business. And we were pleased to see that the efforts are recognized by independent experts. In summary, in the context of transition for the industry, INWIT continues to display a resilient growth trajectory and grow the asset base affirming our leadership. We continue to support clients in their efforts to improve the mobile network and stand ready to capture additional growth opportunities. Let us now skip a few pages to Slide 11. In this page, we show the industrial and financial progress of INWIT over the past few years. We added almost EUR 300 million in revenues, growing high single digits. Smart infrastructure revenues up more than 3x. Cash flow was up in the double digits. Nearly 3,000 new towers, tenancy ratio moving from 1.9% to 2.3%, land ownership more than doubled. All of these translated in a growing return on capital employed at nearly 8%, confirming the soundness of the INWIT business model with visible impact on our investments -- of our investments already in terms of cash flow generation and return on capital. In the next page, another perspectives on our evolution. From a governance perspective, we transitioned from MNO control to a fully independent company with no tariff between shareholders and major clients. Operationally, our ability to roll out new sites went up from a few hundred to nearly 1,000 per year. From a commercial perspective, we were awarded important large projects, especially in Milan and Roma and built a sales force for smart infrastructure asset. On the point of view of the share price, in a challenging context for long-duration assets, INWIT delivered the best relative total shareholder return since 2021 among listed tower companies in Europe and U.S. Going forward, the plan offers investors a dividend yield of more than 5% today. And a 6% CAGR of EBITDA after lease until 2030. Let us now move to the context of the 2025-2030 business plan on Page 14. The technological context for digital infrastructure assets continues to evolve. Connectivity is more integrated across large areas, various transport corridors in industrial parks. With the blend of technologies, 5G public and private network, fiber, IoT, WiFi. Other relevant emerging trends include more frequent network sharing among operators, growth in data center from large hyperscaler to regional edge, both for telco application, including on the RAN and advanced digital services such as Industry 4.0 and AI. Towers are and will remain central in this evolution, part of the digital ecosystem that goes from passive infrastructure to active small cell, DAS, WiFi, IoT and edge computing. We do look with the interest of this development, potentially evaluating opportunities where we can have specific angle and deliver synergies. A few words on the market context on Page 15. Here, 2 main messages. Data traffic in Italy is growing at double-digit rates until 2030 or more than 2.5x from today's level. And in the digital infrastructure, Italy today is lagging behind peers. For making the dots, there is need for more investments in the network to close the gap. Mobile network investments cannot be postponed indefinitely. More investments will be in invention in the trend over the past few years where operators have been limited by budget constraints. The unsustainable structure of the Italian telco market has facilitated the relevant transaction over the past year or so, as we can see in the next page. In 2024, nearly every one of our largest client went through a transformational event both in mobile and fixed service access. While in the short term, this has an impact on the pace of mobile investments, we are going in the direction of lengthier market with stronger operators, lower leverage and better ability to grow and invest. The key topic for investors in this context is whether there will be 4 to 3 consolidation in Italy. Our view is that this would be neutral to positive for tower companies as it would trigger additional investments. INWIT has both a strong market position and a very protective MSA, which are valuable in case of consolidation. Italy is a concentrated market from a tower company perspective, and we are exposed to the incumbent and first challenger. Our locations are the best and difficult to replicate, especially in the context of low EMF limits, and limited permit to [indiscernible]. The MSA has a clear all or nothing clause with limited churn allowed and no clause for price or volume renegotiation. We believe the nothing option is not realistic as it does not create value for our clients and the contract is effectively never ending. There is also an active share in protection, so more frequency translate into higher revenues. MSAs are complex contracts that involve a significant purchase price in exchange for rights and limitation that goes both ways. They are based on a structure of long-term tenure and specific pricing and all the features of the MSAs are interconnected. Our priority is continue working with our Anchor clients in the long term to find the best answer to their needs, leveraging on shared economics to drive efficiency and value for all the parties involved. In the context we discussed INWIT has the strength of the best tower assets in Italy and one of the leading portfolios of digital infrastructure. Macro science with more than 50% market share in city centers, 70% of which are connected with fiber. More than 650 indoor locations covered as well as 1,000 kilometers of highways and roadways, equipped with more than 10,000 DAS remote units and repeaters. Land-owned at 14% of total or more than 20% of [indiscernible]. With the neutral host model, we serve every MNO and fixed wireless access players in the market as well as utility companies with hosting of smart grid gateways, government agencies and police forces and dozens of location owners in verticals such as hospitality, enterprise, health care, retail and banking. Based on the best assets in the market, we plan on growing the business further with 3 main growth pillars on Page 18. Starting from towers where INWIT aims to affirm its leadership in new bids, both for commitments and future densification needs and grow in colocation for MNOs, fixed wireless access and IoT. In smart infrastructure, the business plan continues the expansion in DAS indoor, growing key verticals for MNOs and location owner client. Leverages on a pervasive IoT gateway network offering lower and connectivity and services. Also in the context of larger projects similar to Roma 5G or Fiera Milano Exhibition Center. In real estate, we will invest into more than double today's rate of land ownership and also start with new project to produce solar energy used by active equipments on tower taking advantage of specific investment incentives. Towers have become a denominator of all growth projects with opportunities to tap into adjacent markets from active RAN to edge data center based on the way the market will develop in the near future. Let us now spend a few words on each of the 3 areas of growth starting from towers. Emilia, off to you.

Thank you, Diego. For towers or macro sites, we estimate a market potential between 7,000 and 12,000 new towers in Italy by 2030. It is a function of data growth requiring additional towers, mostly in urban areas, the shift to 5G in suburban areas implying an average 1 new tower every 6 upgrades from 4G and 9,000 kilometers of roads and railways lacking quality connectivity today. The figure includes the current rollout commitment of the mobile operators. We plan on maintaining a leading market share in towers as detailed in the next page. We expect to build about 3,500 new towers between 2025 and 2030. A 2% CAGR for an end-of-period figure of more than 28,000. New towers will be mainly destined to Anchors and to the new next-generation new programs. Open Fiber post its rollout plan in 2024. However, we have visibility on new colocation PoPs with Open Fiber starting in 2025. Moving to PoPs over the 2025, 2030 period, we expect to add about 14,000 PoPs, of which more than 5,000 by 2026, for a tenancy ratio at 2.5 by 2026 and 2.6 by 2030. This is based on a market view where densification happens only to a limited extent. There is very limited growth in the FWA market and higher dehosting will add about 50% of the OLOs PoPs in the next 2 years. In other words, this figures do not imply a market improvement in the short term, which should be a source of upside. As compared with the previous plan, by 2026, this figures are a reduction of about 1,500 OLOs PoPs mostly FWA. The view on Anchors is confirmed. Moving to Page 21. The technology shift from 4 to 5G represents a challenge for indoor connectivity of higher frequency bands and indoors is where most of mobile data consumption happens. For this reason and for the better performance, security and user experience features of distributed antenna systems, we expect continued demand for dedicated indoor connectivity. Also, there is growing interest and availability of public funds for large projects particularly smart cities and smart transportation, employing a variety of technologies from DAS to small cells, fiber, WiFi and IoT. We estimate a market potential of 2,000 new locations by 2030 or more than 65% higher than today. Our ambition for this business is on Page 22. Building on the recent results, we expect smart infra revenues to grow from about EUR 70 million today to more than EUR 175 million by 2030 with a weight on total revenue, nearly doubling to more than 12%. This is based on the expectation to cover about 1,000 locations by 2026 and more than 1,300 by 2030, about twice as much as today at 610. In terms of size of projects consistently with market trends, we do assume a slight growth over time. The projections imply we will continue to be one of the leading players in Italy in dedicated connectivity projects. This is because INWIT can deliver ability to manage complex projects from a technical, operational and risk perspective, unmatched ability to partner with top operators with clients and structurally high tenancy ratio which improves the overall attractiveness of the projects via sharing economics. Moving to real estate infrastructure on Page 23. The business plan in terms of CapEx deployment efforts represents a relevant push on real estate onto front, working both on lowering costs and adding a new source of revenue. INWIT's approach to real estate is based on a specialized internal team and a pervasive market coverage. This is needed because of the market structure that is derived by a high volume of small sized transactions. The plan assumes EUR 500 million CapEx to buy land at accretive rates, bringing land ownership to above 30% in 2030 for a run rate savings of about EUR 50 million EBITDA after lease. This is above and beyond the previous business plan, which targeted 20% by 2026. On energy, we are launching a new project. We are using towers and land we own to store solar panels, providing part of the energy used by the active equipment. Installed capacity will be about 60 megawatts or 10% of our needs. This will be done in a seamless way as part of the MSA in place, with revenue coming both from customers in the MSA framework and subsidies. Just as a reminder, energy is a pass-through in the P&L, but the project will allow us to reduce purchasing volume for our net margin. We will deploy about EUR 100 million in 2025, 2027, for an impact starting from 2028 of about EUR 20 million revenues and more than EUR 10 million EBITDAaL. This is a completely new source of revenue. Both real estate initiatives, build on our expertise, taking advantage of a visible market opportunities with low execution risk. Let's tie up the CapEx plan on Page '24. We expect to deploy just below EUR 600 million CapEx in the next 2 years for a total of EUR 1.5 billion by 2030. In terms of investment base, the outer years of the plan will see an annual CapEx run rate of around EUR 230 million with about EUR 80 million allocated to real estate drivers that will further boost free cash flow to equity. For greater transparency, we have provided more granular CapEx details, as you can see in the top right side of the chart. Of note here is that 25% will be devoted to towers and upgrade. Real estate is the largest portion at about 30%. Smart grid infrastructure will require just over 15% of the total envelope. The new solar energy and consumption project is also factored into the plan and maintenance CapEx will remain broadly stable over the plan at the current amount of around EUR 20 million per year. Overall, the plan has about EUR 300 million in EBITDA after lease implying 2 digit returns on investments. Based on our model, the more we add additional tenants and infrastructure with higher returns can go well into the teens. Under the subject of capital allocation on Page 25. INWIT's EBITDA growth trajectory allows for a progressive reduction in leverage, starting from a year-end 2024 position already below peers and below our structural and short-term target range. Growth CapEx alone would leave the balance sheet at suboptimal levels with 4.5x leverage in 2026 and 4.4 in 2030. For this reason and given the compelling returns today in buying back our shares, we will deploy EUR 400 million in share buybacks over a 12-month period starting from the upcoming AGM and EUR 200 million in the form of a special dividend on top of the ordinary dividend, which is growing at 7.5% until 2026 and at least 5% from 2027 to 2030. The combined effect of these 2 tools will allow a very effective use of capital for share buybacks and a rapid return to our target leverage reaching 5.2x by year-end 2025. This capital returning strategy is after funding EUR 600 million CapEx over the next 2 years and leaving EUR 1 billion for additional investments and our shareholder returns. We remain convinced that deploying capital at accretive rates is the best way to create long-term value. In the coming quarters, we will continue to monitor the market and update you on potential additional capital allocation decisions. We are also glad to highlight Standard & Poor's recent decision to relax the leverage trigger for INWIT, which confirms the company's business strength and financial soundness. We move now to the business plan targets on Slide 27 with Fabio. Thank you.

Thanks, Emilia, and good morning, everyone. So the context of the business plan targets is one with limited inflation feeding into '25 P&L progressively going up to 1.7% and then 2%. You'll find detailed assumptions in the annex to the presentation. Real growth in '25 is in line with '24 levels, about 3%, given the current limited mobile CapEx spending in the market, particularly in OLOs. This continued growth in smart infrastructure, increasing its weight on revenues to more than 12% in 2030, implying a double-digit CAGR, more lease cost efficiency via land buy out, for a target EBITDA margin of 78%, which is best-in-class. This equates to revenue growing to a CAGR of 4.5% to 2030, operating leverage with EBITDA after lease growing at 6% per annum over the period and a similar trend, more than 5% CAGR for recurring -- underlying recurrent free cash flow. We estimate that over the '25 to 2030 period, about 60% of total revenue growth, which in total is EUR 300 million is committed today. So 600 -- 60% of the $300 million. Additionally, as mentioned, dividend policy is extended, DPS growth is confirmed at 7.5% until 2026, net income with payment in '27. And it will be at least 5% from that moment on to 2030 aligned with the growth trend in the business leading up to EUR 0.72 a share, at least EUR 0.72. When including the capital deployment initiatives announced today, we expect leverage to be at 5.2x in 2025 in our target range for the short term, trending down to 4.8x in 5 years. Lastly, in the next page, we show the overall trend of cash returns to shareholders, based on payment years. INWIT delivers a compelling combination of growth in yield with further optionality. The ordinary dividend per share will grow to about EUR 0.72 in 2030, also benefiting from the structure of EUR 100 million increase we delivered in '23 and continued DPS growth, 7.5% for the next 3 years and then at least 5% afterwards. In terms of share buybacks, after the completion of the first plan in '24, this year, we'll see a much larger program, EUR 400 million in 12 months concentrated in the current year. Today, we're also introducing another 2 in the form of a special dividend, EUR 200 million payment in November '25, taking us in the target leverage range. Cash returns will be particularly strong in 2025, nearly EUR 1 billion or more than 10% of market cap today. Now back to Diego for concluding remarks.

Thank you, Fabio and Emilia. Just a few words to sum up INWIT equity story in this macro and industry context. We have a leading position in a market with barriers to entry and circular growth trends, a location advantage and exposure to the leading clients. We run an industrial model of capital deployment, building sites on the ground up, investing in real estate at double-digit unlevered returns for industry-leading return on capital. The business model is resilient with strong long-term visibility and protection in case of macro and industry evolutions, including in case of consolidation. Even in a challenging industry scenario, we continue to grow EBITDAaL margin at 6% per annum, while delivering a yield today above 5%. Beyond that, we are ready to take advantage of opportunities above and beyond the business plan targets, both in terms of market development and additional capital deployment. With this, I thank you for your attention. We are happy to go to the Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Rohit Modi of Citi.

Congratulations on great set of results. Just a couple of questions from my side. Firstly, given the imminent environment right now in Italy. If you can give us more context around your current discussion with your Anchor tenants as well as OLOs in terms of -- also in contact with the recent comment from Fastweb regarding renegotiation of the contracts. If you can give us more color around that if you've already started discussing with them on existing contract? Secondly, what percentage of your guidance, current guidance is coming from the commitments that you already have in place and what is based on the expectations that you think in terms of connectivity requirement that you see -- that's coming from your assumptions basically, I'm just trying to understand the upside and downside on that. And thirdly, on your leverage and flexibility. On leverage, what are the factors where you will be okay to move beyond 5.1x, 5.2x in terms of leverage given you have already reached within your target range now?

So the first question is about the relationship with our customers. We're actually -- this is a constant dialogue and work together. We have an intense rollout plan to deliver and plans to improve the connectivity outdoor and indoor. So there are multiple projects from the MSA to the other, to the next-generation EU funds to the plans to improve the indoor connectivity. And based on the strong contracts that we have, the strong plans that we have in place, that's our ongoing stable relationship with our customers, Anchors and OLOs. With regards to the second question, the revenue profile and the commitment, the committed profile. The -- as we have shown, we will grow revenues by 2030 by more than EUR 300 million. Overall CAGR is at about 4% to 5% and the majority is committed, is -- slightly more than 60% is committed. The third question is about leverage. And as we shared for us, structurally, we can get to a leverage of up to 6x on a structural basis. The short term will remain a little bit more prudent between 5x and 5.5x. We are happy to get to the middle of the corridor by year-end. This is the result as we shared of the investment plans. The -- we think attractive shareholder remuneration. There is still a financial headroom, which is available for keep on capturing market opportunities. The context is evolving. I think it's good to have this level of flexibility. As we shared, we see the towers of the center of the digital ecosystem but we also see how the ecosystem is evolving, and we are ready to assess opportunities in the adjacent areas. As always, with the disciplined approach, looking at accretion and synergies, if these opportunities will emerge, we will be happy to assess them. Otherwise, we will continue with the usual approach of balancing organic growth and shareholder remuneration.

Sorry, just one clarification. So your guidance is based on the commitment you had that with Vodafone, the previous Vodafone Italia and not with Fastweb as of now. That's a...

Of course, we assumed continuation of all the MSA. I mentioned some features of MSA, one particularly relevant is the all or nothing clause which is the cornerstone of the overall deal and for us is absolutely normal, and there is no reason why we shouldn't continue to consider and work on -- clearly on the continuation of the MSA. And clearly, our investments are long-term investments.

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from Andrew Lee of Goldman Sachs.

Okay, question was basically trying to understand how stretch stroke conservative you've been in your 2030 guidance. Maybe I can put it into 2 parts. Part 1 is on your assume densification by operators for 5G within the 2030 guidance, what are you assuming in terms of the level of densification that you're expecting and when? Obviously, that's a relatively hard thing to call in terms of timing. And then what's clear in terms of your near-term guidance as you've been working all out to drive efficiencies to offset the shortfall in tenancies at the moment. Is this the maximum run rate you can achieve in terms of cost savings that you're delivering right now and you're factoring that into your longer-term guidance, too?

Thanks, Andrew. Yes, as mentioned by 2030, we will grow revenue by EUR 300 million. Ballpark, we can share, split the overall pile in 3 parts and 1/3 overall is inflation, 1/3 is towers and colocation, and 1/3 is smart infrastructure. This is based on inflation, which will go to 1.7% and then 2%. And let me say, a cautious view on densification. Data growth will continue and particularly on the subset of sites, which are the sites where most of the data traffic is used. And this will require additional densification for traffic, for managing the traffic. There will be densification also in terms of coverage in suburban areas. There is need for densification on the transport corridor. Overall -- we took, I would say, an overall cautious view on densification overall. In terms of efficiency and land, we think it's a balanced approach. It's -- we have strong capabilities. We have been delivering well so far, and we will continue doing so. At this stage, honestly, we don't see room to go higher and faster, but let's see how the market will develop.

The next question is from Roshan Ranjit of Deutsche Bank.

Diego, you mentioned the mix of the drivers going ahead and you've adjusted your assumptions for the OLOs. Clearly, this has been a discussion point over the last 12 months. So is it possible to get a sense of the commitments that you have from the OLOs? I mean, previously, you have given a number for the quarters ahead. So we do get a sense that whilst perhaps lower than what you had previously thought, it is a pickup from the current levels. Anything you can say there will be super helpful, particularly given the mix shift towards IoT, which I guess is slightly lower pricing point?

Yes. Thanks, Roshan. Yes, we discussed in the last several quarters for the -- about the softness of OLOs, we capture it now in the guidance is 1,500 lower point of presence. We have clearly a good visibility and we see customers also getting out from, let me say, strategic review and planning definitions. So we have honestly a better visibility than 1 year ago. We embedded the plan soft 2025. And let me also say that clearly, this is an important contribution for us. But gradually, we have also assumed that 50% of the OLOs is basically other kind of tenants, so mostly IoT, so basically at a relatively low price. So I would say that overall, the plan, yes, have embedded the recent trends with, again, a cautious approach looking forward.

To follow up on the point you made around the lower pricing. I mean, how feasible is it to increased pricing here? I mean are you pricing it at a relatively competitive level where you can see upside in the coming years given the demand for IoT?

Yes, yes, this, let me say, it's not a price by category, it's a question of mix of the different categories. And so there is no dilution overall in any specific category. But again, it's the mix where in this plan, the IoT weight is higher than in the past, and this has an impact on the overall average price for OLOs.

The next question is Luigi Minerva of HSBC.

If I may, I want to go back to Slide 16 and the MSA and all the terms that you summarized there, and it's all very helpful. Now if I read your bullet points, I think the contract looks really robust and which is consistent with your messages over the years. I guess where we are struggling is reconciling that slide with the message from Swisscom that sees a renegotiating window in 2026. So I'm just trying to get to the bottom of this. Does 2026 offer Vodafone Fastweb room to renegotiate the terms? And particularly then, if I look at your change of control protection with the extension 8 plus 8, does it mean that the 8 plus 8 are kind of reset and start from '25 or '26 or we continue with the phasing of the previous contract disregarding of the change in control?

Thanks, Luigi. Yes, I think we have been -- we are -- we will be consistent in our commentaries on the MSA is rock-solid for all the systems of clauses and substantial industrial logic of the overall deal. The change of control clause is an additional protection embedded in the contract. I would rather not comment on our clients, but let me also say that I noted also some evolution in the narrative there. And I think that is key what I mentioned before, how INWIT business model and the MSAs have been and will be -- will keep on creating value for all the parties involved in the framework of the complex MSA where all is interconnected and all parties have been able to gain in the past as well as in the future. So our dramatic focus is on working on the future, on being an efficient company, able -- capable from an industrial point of view and able to address the needs of customers who have the need to keep on maintaining the top network and developing a top network as a sort of competitive advantage. We have the way to do that in efficient manner and that's where we are focused on.

The next question is from Maurice Patrick of Barclays.

Sorry to kind of come back to the Swisscom Fastweb public comments. I was a bit surprised to see Swisscom negotiating in public. I'm sure from your perspective, you'd rather do it in private, but any comments there will be welcome. But in terms of -- you have given guidance for 2030, which -- can we assume in terms of the 2030 guidance, that assumes minimal change to the MSA structure despite the fact that it was a point of renegotiation? Any points you can give to that? So sort of no comments from Marco Patuano of Cellnex regarding the Spanish consolidation where he effectively said with MasOrange post the deal, he sort of broadly protection of the perimeters of the MSA maybe with some more investments. So curious if there's any sort of thoughts in terms of what assurances you can give us that there won't be changes to the MSA given your guidance that you have given beyond that breakpoint?

Yes. Thanks, Maurice. Let me go to the 2030. First, the -- again, the MSA is a complex structure with long-term investments, long tenure, the plan and our work is based on MSA's terms, in terms of pricing, volume, overall terms. So there is absolute continuation because there is no reason for thinking differently. Then, as I said before, there is the need and the opportunity to keep on investing on the industry, on the quality of the network, on densification and quality, and that's where there is additional opportunity to work together with our customers to leverage on the sharing infrastructure model, the sharing economics and keep on creating value. And that's, again, in the logic of the MSA, where there is a committed part and there is the extra commitment, over commitment which I think will be a way to support the densification needs.

Maurice, does this answer also the first bit of your question, which we didn't catch 100%.

No, that's right. I mean, I guess, given that you've given site build to 2030, are those all agreed with the Anchors? Or is that your expectation of what they'll want?

Yes. The -- clearly there is the full MSA until 2030 is -- until 2026 is fully committed. From 2027 onwards, there is some on top of the committed profile.

The next question is from Milo Silvestre of Equita.

Two questions from my side. The first one, if you could elaborate on the commitment part for the growth on new services? The second one concerning Swisscom, if you can elaborate on what kind of flexibility can you give to MNOs or if you see a risk pressure on the noncommitted parts in order to give some kind of relief to MNO clients, given the still challenging environment?

Thanks, Milo. In terms of the first part of the question, overall, committed growth is 60%, with regards to new services. Most of it is not committed, so it's part of development plans with the MNOs and location owner but not specifically committed. Clearly, what can I say, is contracted in the sense that we do invest when there is a contract. So the investments in new services have double-digit returns and are certain, are sure. Again, on the flexibility. Flexibility is win-win. If there are win-win on new areas of investments, that's our commitment and our focus to find solution based on our business model, industrial capabilities and ability to finance long-term initiatives, that's where we work on win-win framework agreements.

The next question is from Fabio Pavan of Mediobanca.

Thank you for this strategy update. Provided the plan has been derisked and you told us that there would be an increased densification need. My question for you, Diego, is what is your degree of confidence that this potential revamping demand for new sites, new coverage may come already in the second part of this year or early next year? Or rather you think that first market needs to become more rational and then we may have a speed up in demand for new sites?

Thanks, Fabio. Yes, I would say that the plan does not assume an improvement in the overall context and level of investments. Densification starts in the plan by 2027. But I think also looking at the numbers in terms of new sites, if you look at the run rate per annum, basically until 2026 is about 800 per annum after is about 500 new sites per annum. In the last couple of years, we did almost 1,000. So actually, the numbers embed even a slowdown of the run rate in terms of new sites buildup. Having said that, the data growth and the quality of the network in Italy does call for additional investments and the changes in the structure of the market are a catalyst for a more sustainable industry where investments have a proper return from the operators. So I would say that the upward, the upside scenario is where this would happen in terms of acceleration of investments. But what is embedded in the plan is basically continuation, if not a little bit of slowdown compared to the current items.

The next question is from Giorgio Tavolini of Intermonte.

Three questions, please. The first one is on Slide 18. It highlights 2 missing opportunities in your business plan, I mean the RAN as a service and the edge data center. So have you engaged in discussions with Anchor tenants regarding the opportunity to manage active equipment? And what level of commitment do you perceive from your Anchors? And regarding the edge data centers, why you have not announced any steps in this direction as some of your peers have done so far? The second question is on ground lease optimization. You announced a push to double the land ownership to over 30% by 2030 with lease cost per site to drop below EUR 6,500 per site per year by the same time frame. So what is the ballpark figure for the run rate discussed in euro million after the completion of this land buyout initiative? Because if I cross check the implied target for EBITDA and EBITDA after lease between 2026 and 2030, at the midpoint, the lease impact appears to move from EUR 190 million to something like EUR 175 million. So this seems a very modest reduction. And the third one is on the telco asset of railways. I was wondering if you confirm this interest. And in particular, if you see any dissynergies in terms of higher lease cost considering that these sites would be rented by INWIT given that the equipment will be remaining stalled on the railways towers?

Thanks, Giorgio. Let me tell you one by one. On the RAN sharing and edge -- per edge, there are 2 areas of potential development, the natural extension of our role as a neutral loss and leveraging on sharing economics. We are open, particularly in the RAN sharing and stand available on supporting and assessing and working together with our customers if the opportunities will be of their interest. On the edge, it's an interesting area for edge. Again, it's an interesting area. We are assessing it and considering the time frame of the plan and the scenarios we have assessed, we think, is an area of opportunity, which eventually could go as ground sharing on top of the plan, considering that we have a material financial flexibility to deploy for additional investments, always with the 2 criteria we shared, either being accretion and synergies. The ground lease cost is clearly the combination of continuous optimization initiatives and land buyout. But at the same time, we will continue to have inflation, and we grew the base by 3,500 new sites, which will create additional -- of course, additional cost and also there is some lease costs related to indoor coverage solution. So the math has to consider both the natural cost increase as well as the saving initiatives. All these will bring INWIT 78% EBITDA margin by 2030, which shows the quality of the investments on both the top line and the efficiency we are making and the results. In general, on the third question, when -- we are always open to assess and interest to assess opportunities in our space to extend our perimeter and our assets in the mobile space. And that's -- so clearly, in Italy, it's a perfect place where we were extending our base. So if any opportunity will emerge, we will be very happy to consider.

The next question is from Fernando Cordero of Banco Santander.

My question is a follow-up on the land acquisition plan, not just from the financial side but also from the strategic side. I mean, I would like to understand at which extend are you incorporating in your decisions to buy land, which of your sites are, let's say, are more strategic or generating more traffic in order to prioritize the land acquisition in those sites? And also to understand at which extent also this land acquisition plan is also to protect from the potential land aggregator risk?

Yes. Thank you, Fernando. Yes, when we decided to acquire land, it's a combination of financial and strategic considerations. Clearly, we are focused on towers, which have strategic relevance. And let me say that also this approach now will have also the angle of the energy program, we will run the self-production of energy to midsize solar panels at the bottom of the towers. So using the land that we do have or marginally extending it. So we will do additional synergies there, combining our land acquisition program with the solar energy self production program. And clearly, our capacity to buy land and our organization, our approach of having a strong and competent internal team to manage our network of real estate agencies has proven to be very effective so far, not only in delivering efficiency, but also managing the land aggregators that here and there have emerged in the market in Italy. But so far, no major impact. And we do expect this will continue.

The next question is from Ondrej Cabejšek of UBS.

Two questions for me, please, both are more or less follow-up to the first, one on just the growth opportunity. So in your presentation, you talk about the need for densification. I mean kind of put the number at between 7,000 and 12,000 sites that Italy needs? And then in your guidance, basically take the assumption of half, which is your market share of the lower end of that, so 3,500 or 7,000. So I guess the question is, what needs to happen in the market from your perspective for your shares to actually be kind of 6,000 over the midterm? So what has to happen for densification efforts to accelerate in Italy, would be 1 question. And then second question, please. Coming back to the Swisscom or Vodafone situation, but from a different angle, not talking about kind of recontracting around prices, perhaps. So what can you do to maybe change the contract somehow in a way that would, I guess, hope Swisscom contain the impact of lease liabilities on their balance sheet, if that is even possible for example, changing the duration of some of the parts of the contract or anything like that, that would be possible, if there is any color on that?

Thanks, Ondrej. Yes, you're right. We expect the need in the market between 7,000 to 12,000 new towers by 2030 to address the traffic increase and the coverage needs. And we have positioned our plan at the bottom of this range, assuming then broadly 50% end market share. Then as we said before, is probably a continuation, if not a slowdown of current trends. What would need to happen to do more is, yes, an acceleration in the investments from the operators. So a market where the investments are more sustainable for our customers and network quality becomes again, a source of competitive advantage to serve customers and the additional services, which the tech operators or the telco operators will provide to the customer. And this is related to your second question because this is where we can continue to create value for all parties involved. We are specialized in infrastructure. We are the best company in building new sites, in managing the permit process, and we realize efficiency through the sharing economics which are reflected in the pricing to our customers. So all this, the model is a key source of efficiency for customers which want to improve their quality of network and services, both outdoor and indoor via towers, via DAS or gradually other infrastructure. So that's our mission there where we can continue helping our customers.

Can I follow on the second part, just to be clear because this is more a technical question. Again, I'm not even sure that, that is possible, but is there a way to like change the contract that you have with Vodafone in a way that somehow reduces the impact of lease liabilities from the renegotiation on their contract, which is maybe something that Swisscom is quite concerned about? Is there a way for changes to the contract that would address that specific point?

Ondrej, I don't think there is merit from our side to comment on this point. Unless to reiterate what I said before, our model is very clear, strong from an industrial and contractual point of view, and we are focused on keep on making it work at best.

The next question is a follow-up from Luigi Minerva of HSBC.

It's about the recurrent level free cash flow for 2030. And I was wondering if you could provide the breakup in terms of cash taxes, cash interest payment and working capital? And also, I noticed in Slide 34 that the cash taxes for '25 and '26 are now guided to be flat at around EUR 50 million, whereas previous guidance, if I remember well, was for EUR 55 million in 2025 and EUR 70 million in 2026. So I was wondering what is driving this change? And yes -- and perhaps as I have the microphone, just on the solar panel initiatives and the energy initiative, to what extent it is reliant on subsidies? And perhaps the legislation on that front is often volatile. I mean, so what is the current status in Italy? Do you think it's reliable and stable enough to justify a multiyear CapEx plan from you?

Yes. Let me start from the second one. That’s actually a new legislation which extended the benefits of self production also to industrial purposes and is a legislation, which clearly we assess carefully. And it will be in force with the benefits with the subsidy for the next 3 years, generating then clearly the benefits for overall for the following 20 years. And again, it's quite solid. The subsidy is a contribution, but let me say the business case overall has a good return, above cost of capital, also slightly above cost of capital also without subsidy. With regards to the first question, I may start saying that the tax, yes, as you say, are basically flat in '25, '26. It's the cash tax, and then gradually will improve, this step up by 2027 onward. And actually, there, there will be a significant increase where basically by '27 onward the tax rate will be at the normal tax rate. In terms of interest, Emilia, correct me if I'm wrong, but we assume the cost of that between 3% and 4%. Is it right?

Correct.

Gentlemen, there are no more questions registered at this time. I'll turn the call back to you for any closing remarks.

Thank you, everyone, for attending the call. Have a good rest of the day.

Thank you.