S.N. Nuclearelectrica S.A. (SNN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

We are going to start. Before starting this teleconference call, I would like to let you know that we are going to record the teleconference in order to be able to publish it on our website for the fair access of all shareholders and potential investors. So if you bear with me just a second. Hello, everyone. My name is Valentina Dinu. I'm IRO with Nuclearelectrica and today conference call addresses the first half financial results of Nuclearelectrica. CFO of the company, my colleague, Vasile Dascalu is going to deliver the presentation and then you can go straight to questions and answers. This being said, Vasile the floor is yours. Thank you.

Thank you, Valentina. Hello, everybody. The today's presentation will include the financial position of end of June 2024. The income statement for 6 months 2024 versus 6 months 2023, net result evolution, the income statement actual versus budgeted, information regarding OpEx, sales of electricity, sales structure analysis, information regarding CapEx, technical performance indicators. Regarding the company's financial position at the end of second quarter, we noticed that total noncurrent assets position remained stable compared with the previous year. Current assets are down by 11% due to increase of trade receivable position, mainly as a result of the electricity sales reduction during this period. Current liability decreased by 34%, mainly because of the windfall tax reduction. Regarding the income statement, net profit for 6 months 2024 recorded at 35% decrease compared with the same period of 2023, and this is mainly due to decrease in revenue from energy sales, RON 1,684 million, out of which the windfall tax represents RON 1.4 billion, net impact on profit decreasing being RON 229 million. We also noticed increase in other operating expense by RON 57.8 million, mainly due to increase of technological water price during this period. We noticed also increasing trade electricity costs resulted from negative price on the balancing market, RON 107.6 million impact. We noticed also increasing personnel costs by RON 46 million as a result of the salary increase for this year -- for this period also. Financial results decreased by 23.3% or RON 49 million mainly to lower interest rates and of course, revenue recording during this period. Net profit at the end of Q1 is RON 843 million. The next slide is a graphic representation of the main contributing elements to the net result evolution. As it was mentioned, the main impact is coming from decreasing of electricity sales price compensated by decreasing of the windfall tax. As you probably know, the windfall tax for 2023 was 100% on the revenue exceeding RON 450 per megawatt. And in 2024, the threshold was changed to RON 400 per megawatts starting 1st of April. Into the next slide, we talk about actual versus budget. And we noticed here that revenue is higher by 5% than the budgeted level. Operation costs are 8.5% lower than the budget. And consequently, EBITDA is higher by 90% and the net profit is higher by 30% than budgeted levels. In terms of operational expense, besides the information already presented in the previous slide, we may notice reduction of other operating expense by 11%, personnel costs by 10%, cost of uranium fuel by 27%. Anyway, as I already mentioned, cost of traded electricity is higher by 32%. From sales structure point of view, we noticed changes in the last year, and this slide is presenting the information related to the quantity sold by market and the average price used on the market. And we can notice that electricity sold through centralized mechanism increased in total sales from 43% to 59%, but decreased on the competitive market from 57% to 40%. Anyway, the percentage of sales on the competitive market is increasing in Q2 compared with Q1 this year from 32% to 40%. So the trend -- it's increasing. It's showing an increasing in the percentage of the sales on the competitive market. Next slide show the sales price evolution during this period. The average selling price decreased by 43% from RON 745 per megawatt to RON 420 per megawatt. On the mechanism -- on the centralized electricity selling mechanism, which is representing 59% of the total electricity sold in H1, selling price remained stable, [indiscernible] per megawatt. On the competitive market, the total electricity sold in H1 is representing 40% and the selling price dropped from RON 970 per megawatt to RON 364 per megawatt. In terms of quantity sold during this period, we noticed a small reduction, 1.3%. With the next slide, we start the CapEx presentation. And here, we can notice that the investment value planned for this year, it's RON 1.8 billion. And the degree of completion is 19%, which is in line with the schedule for this year. The main investments and long-term strategic projects are presented within the next slide. We should talk about Unit 1 refurbishment, Unit 3 and 4 SMR and Tritium Removal Facility Project. Regarding Unit 1, the refurbish project, it's in the second phase of implementation, which includes provision of financial resources, obtaining approval and endorsement for project implementation. We like to underline, the company completed a framework agreement related to preparation and implementation of the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1 refurbishment project with an estimated value of approximately EUR 240 million. This was concluded with Canadian Nuclear Partners and [indiscernible] Training Services. Regarding Unit 3 and 4. Yes, next slide, thank you. Besides the support agreement between Romania State and SNN for Nuclearelectrica that allows securing the project financing by granting -- the state guarantees for the project financing parties, implementation of the contract for difference and the in-kind contribution to financing of the project. Nuclearelectrica shareholders approved the financing of the project through a credit agreement granted by Nuclearelectrica in value of RON 841 million, which is dedicated for financing the preliminary works budget. We may notice during this period that the European Commission issued a positive opinion on the project. Based on the Article 41 of the Europe Atomic Treaty, the opinion reflecting the assessment made by the European Commission regarding the technical and nuclear safety aspects of the project. Regarding the small modular reactors, we like to underline that 24th of July this year, Nuclearelectrica and the company of the nominated for this project is RoPower Nuclear, signed the contract for front-end engineering and design phase to -- with Fluor Corporation. On the other hand, Nuclearelectrica's shareholders approved increasing of the loan facility granted by SNN up to the amount of $243 million. Access to this loan will be made only to the extent that there is no other source to secure financing of the project. Regarding the Tritium Removal Facility Project, we need to underline that on 10th of June this year, SNN and Korea Hydro Nuclear Power announced and start the works at the Tritium Removal Facility in Romania, which is the first removal plant facility for tritium in Europe. From a KPI point of view, we noticed that the radioactive emissions cumulated for H1 were kept into the limits, 4.3 microsievert. The same good results was obtained also for the fuel burnup factor and for the capacity factor. The presentation has ended here, if you have questions, we are at your disposal.

Do have any questions, please. Well, thank you very much for joining in the conference. You will find later on today, the audio file and the presentation on our website, Investor Relations page. And any questions you may have, you can also email us. We are going to have a brief national holiday, but we will be back on Monday. Thank you very much for joining in. Have a good day.