Uniper SE ($UN0)

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Uniper Analyst and Investor Conference Call for the Full Year 2025. At our request, this conference will be recorded. [Operator Instructions] May I now hand you over to the Executive Vice President, Group Finance and Investor Relations, Sebastian Veit, who will start the meeting today. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to welcome you to our results call for the financial year 2025. Next to me on today's call are Michael Lewis, our Chief Executive Officer; and Christian Barr, our Chief Financial Officer. Michael will guide you through our key developments in the past financial year 2025 and our plans going forward. And Christian will walk you through our financial performance for 2025 and the outlook for this year. As usual, we will wrap up with a Q&A session at the end. And now, let me handover to Michael Lewis, please.

Yes. Thank you, Sebastian, and good morning, everyone, and a very warm welcome from my side, and thanks for dialing in today. Before we start with the recap of the past financial year, I'd like to just begin with a few opening remarks. And importantly, the 1st of January 2026 marked Uniper's 10th anniversary. And we're very proud that despite breaking geopolitical upheavals, Uniper has ensured energy security for Germany and Europe throughout this period. And today, we're a focused, resilient and indeed future-orientated utility with a clear strategy, a sharpened portfolio and a very strong financial foundation. And looking at the current situation and the developments in the Middle East, do give us reason for concern. And first of all, I would like to express my deepest sympathy for those civilians affected by this conflict and their consequences. And of course, the surge in gas prices may remind some of the 2022 energy crisis in the wake of Russia's invasion of the Ukraine. And at that time, Uniper was very heavily exposed to the extreme gas market volatility. But today, the situation for Uniper is fundamentally different. We now operate from a much more favorable position, and Uniper currently has no direct restrictions on LNG procurement and has no deliveries from the region. And Uniper's earnings outlook and financial obligations show that we have a significantly reduced risk in our gas business. And at present, our earnings performance and projections remain stable, underpinned by the effectiveness of our derisking and hedging policies. Let me now turn to personnel changes. As you know, just 2 weeks ago, we announced that our Chief Commercial Officer, Carsten Poppinga, left Uniper at the end of February. And on behalf of the management team, I'd like to thank Carsten for his strong contribution in repositioning Uniper as a successful trading house following the stabilization by the German government. He materially improved the risk profile of our power and gas portfolio and indeed laid the foundations for a long-term gas sourcing and sales strategy and further strengthened our trading and commercial activities, and we wish him well for the future. Now, let me start with a look at our key highlights of the past financial year. For the financial year 2025, we fully met our expectations. Our business model is more resilient and our risk management is sharper and more focused. The credit rating agencies, S&P and Scope reaffirmed their stable outlook and upgraded Uniper's stand-alone credit profile, a clear recognition of our strength and fundamentals and our prudent financial steering. Additionally, we're approaching the finish line to fulfill the obligations stemming from the EU stabilization package. And among the last major assets on the disposal list, the Gonyu gas-fired power plant in Hungary as well as the Datteln 4 coal-fired plant and the district heating business in Germany were sold during the 2025 financial year. And this brings me to our business achievements and the progress that now enables our strategic next steps. With a view to Uniper's future, we made it our priority last year to push ahead with our growth projects. And in 2025, we executed consistently against our strategic priorities. So we've been preparing to successfully participate in Germany's upcoming 12 gigawatt Kraftwerksstrategie auctions. We've advanced low-carbon power projects across Europe, including a CCS-enabled major gas-fired power plant in the U.K. at Connah's Quay in North Wales. And we've also focused on executing our growth projects. The revitalization of the 160-megawatt pump storage plant at Happurg is on schedule and within budget, and execution has begun on 600 megawatts of PV and onshore wind projects in Germany, the U.K. and Poland. And the 30-megawatt hydrogen project Bad Lauchstadt is set to reach COD in 2026. And finally, we've set a fresh strategy to rebuild our gas midstream business by realigning gas procurement and sales portfolio with long-term diversified LNG and gas supply agreements. We've also realigned responsibilities within the Management Board to strengthen our leadership framework and position the organization for the forthcoming next stage of our transformation. And our future vision is well defined. At the same time, we're aligning our corporate functions with market developments to ensure that Uniper remains strong and competitive going forward. And by streamlining our headquarter functions and optimizing our staffing requirements, we've embarked upon several individual measures to improve our cost base significantly by 2027. And this brings us to the financial figures for the 2025 financial year on Slide 4. In the 2025 financial year, we reached a solid result, fully in line with the given outlook for 2025. The group's adjusted EBITDA ended up exactly in the middle of the range given a year ago. And group adjusted net income was even at the top end of the outlook range, supported by a very good financial result. And Christian will share more financial details in a minute. Our financial position remains remarkably strong. Uniper fulfilled all of its payment obligations with a cash out of around EUR 2.6 billion in March 2025 to the Federal Republic of Germany. Nevertheless, we ended '25 with a very strong economic net cash position of EUR 2.8 billion. And a major step forward is the resumption of dividend payments. With the recent amendment to the Energy Security Act, Uniper is now legally allowed to pay dividends to our shareholders again. And after all our restructuring work in response to the gas prices, all our work to derisk the company and with a strong financial base now in place, we can pay a dividend again. And the Executive Board and Supervisory Board will propose a dividend payment of EUR 0.72 per share to the 2026 Annual General Meeting. And this is further evidence of our ongoing economic recovery and demonstrates that we are very well prepared for any future reprivatization initiatives. Turning now to our CapEx plan on Slide 5. 2026 and early 2027 are intended to be the period in which a significant portion of our EUR 5 billion growth and transformation pipeline moves from preparation to firm investment decisions. And in the last half yearly report of 2025, we further specified our plans. Around half of the budget is to be allocated to large flex power plant projects by 2030. Here, we see important political progress, which underpins our confidence to deliver against our commitments, whilst details of the regulatory conditions, which influence timing and competition, are yet to be defined. The rest will go predominantly into clean power plant projects in the field of renewable energies and hydrogen and around EUR 1 billion of total budget has been taken to financial investment decision and is already in execution mode. The bias in concrete implementation is currently clearly towards Green Generation. And by the turn of year 2026-'27, we're optimistic to have taken decisive steps forward in Uniper's transformation by deciding on a number of large power plant projects to strengthen Uniper's position as one of the major Northwest European players for dispatchable power generation. In Germany, we're prepared to enter the first round of auctions, probably in late summer '26, with our well-developed projects at the Staudinger and Scholven sites. Both brownfield sites located near Frankfurt and in the rural area are ideally positioned with their existing infrastructure connections to gas networks and close to the planned German hydrogen core network as well as to the high-voltage electricity hubs. In the U.K., as part of the decarbonization of energy production, the government is promoting flagship projects using CCS technology to bring the existing large-scale domestic storage volume beneath the seabed into commercial use. And our goal is to prepare a new gas-fired power plant with CCS capability at our current Conus Quay location for investment readiness within the next 12 months. And this project is an important building block in ensuring long-duration flexibility in a decarbonizing power system and demonstrates our commitment to contributing to security of supply whilst lowering emissions. And 2026 will be the year in which Uniper will include further renewable energy projects, currently in implementation, in its balance sheet for the first time. By the end of 2026, we anticipate that approximately 150 megawatts of our projects will be commenced. We also want to increase the value of our existing power generation portfolio by extending the terms of our operating licenses. Additional investments in our U.K. gas-fired power plant fleet and the conversion of our fossil fuel assets to sustainable bioenergy in Sweden are high on the priority list, too. And all of these projects demonstrate our commitment to ensuring security of supply whilst reducing emissions from our power plant fleet. And as I shared earlier, we're gradually broadening and reinforcing our gas and LNG sourcing, and indeed, sales channels. And overall, it's our strategy to allocate a greater proportion of our investments to quasi-regulated assets, which offer steadier earnings. We thereby enhance the quality and predictability of our cash flow and underline our strategy towards a more resilient and lower-risk earnings profile for the years ahead. And this brings me to our key priorities for the 2026 financial year in a nutshell. First, we focus on project delivery whilst maintaining strict financial discipline, focusing on stable finances, disciplined asset management and capital allocation. And our strategy prioritizes supporting the reprivatization of Uniper and investing in transformation and growth initiatives. Operational excellence with respect to the large power plant projects will, of course, be key. And in light of the new challenges, particularly the implementation of AI and more efficient work processes, we will train our employees and embed them in leaner decision-making processes so that we, as a company, can better advance our transition agenda. And with that, I hand over to Christian, who will now share details of the 2025 financial results and conclude with the outlook for this year. Christian?

Yes. Thank you, Mike, and a very warm welcome to all of you joining us today. I'm pleased to present the financial results 2025 in more detail for the very first time. Let me start with the headline figures on Slide 8. As Mike already highlighted, we delivered a solid group adjusted EBITDA of around EUR 1.1 billion and a group adjusted net income of EUR 544 million. Both figures are fully in line with our guided financial range. After an unusually negative first quarter with gas midstream margin burdened by past optimization activities in the gas portfolio and withdrawals of high-priced inventory gas, performance rebounded decisively. The second quarter results already brought us firmly back into positive territory. Looking ahead, we anticipate a return to a more typical seasonal earnings pattern. As expected, headline results sit below last year's exceptional levels. This primarily reflects a burdened gas midstream business and the absence of the power hedging tailwinds that led -- that had supported our generation earnings in the previous years. The latter was also driven by portfolio adjustments following asset disposals required under our EU state aid obligations, decommissioning of plants and outages. As we navigate the way forward, top priority is to safeguard Uniper's financial stability despite disposals of assets due to EU obligations and a continuing challenging market environment. I will come back to the 2025 earnings drivers shortly. Let me turn to a particularly positive milestone on Slide 9. The resumption of Uniper's dividend, subject to the AGM approval, would be a crucial step back towards capital market readiness. Under the 2022 stabilization framework with the Federal Republic of Germany, distributions were suspended. That restriction has been lifted in 2 steps. First, in December '23, we restored our on-balance sheet ability to distribute and accumulate profit through a share capital reduction with the allocation of the reduction amount to the capital reserve. And second, with the December 2025 amendment of the German Energy Security Act, so-called EnSiG, we now have a legally unencumbered pathway to resume dividends subject to usual legal requirements. As Mike mentioned already, we will propose an initial dividend of EUR 300 million to the Annual General Meeting taking place in May. This is a powerful confirmation of Uniper's financial robustness and a catalyst for restoring capital market credibility. Our distribution policy is under development, yet a compelling dividend will play an instrumental role in further enhancing Uniper's capital market attractiveness. Let me remind you, however, that the decision on reprivatization, both path and timing, rests with the German federal government. Let me now turn to a broader strategic message on Slide 10. Uniper has undergone material derisking operationally and financially. 2025 marks the year in which we have reset Uniper's foundation. We have fully managed the volatility from the gas crisis and the frenzy market conditions carried out most of the EU remedy package and removed all legacy exposures. As a result, we now operate on a normalized and robust earnings baseline. And from here, our trajectory is forward-looking and growth-oriented. To give you a few significant examples from our past risk reduction agenda. Operationally, we delivered risk compression through a refined gas strategy with a deal-by-deal risk approach, a concrete plan to a streamlined business, including a leaner cost base and reinforced cyber resilience. Regulatory risk has been materially reduced with stabilization measures nearly fully executed, including the payment towards the Federal Republic of Germany done in March 2025. We have a clear commitment to improve our earnings profile and shift investments towards quasi-regulated and recurring earnings streams in line with our strategy. Also, we have strengthened our credit and liquidity profile, and our balance sheet recovery has been exceptional. With a material net cash position and with the crisis firmly behind us, we were able to terminate the KfW facilities ahead of time and have sufficient liquidity secured. We also have all the necessary tools to return to the debt markets when required and reestablish a standard corporate funding structure, supported by our existing debt issuance program and green bond framework. This is what we mean when we say we have done our homework. Coming to the reconciliation of group adjusted EBITDA from full year 2024 to full year 2025. Most underlying drivers were well flagged in previous calls and align with the guidance we reiterate throughout the year. Starting with Greener Commodities. Coming from an elevated level, the segment saw a sizable decline in adjusted EBITDA, finishing the year at EUR 16 million. Key influence on earnings include challenges resulting from past portfolio optimization measures and the lapse of the curtailment gains associated with alternative Russian gas supply sourcing. However, a clear bright spot came from our U.S. LNG business, which delivered a significant uplift driven by favorable forward sales, which is not expected to repeat going forward. It's also worth noting that last year's results were boosted by a substantial provision release linked to the resolution of legacy legal disputes in Q4 2024, a benefit that did not recur in 2025. Moving to Flexible Generation. Earnings declined by around 40% to EUR 596 million, consistent with the normalization of margins following the end of elevated clean dark and clean spark spreads observed until end 2024 and the reduction of our fossil fuel portfolio. Some of this compression was mitigated by one-off effects from contractual dispute settlements. Overall, Flexible Generation is delivering solid earnings contributions despite the reduced portfolio resulting from a better realized clean spark spread offset by lower ancillary services income. Last, but not least, to Green Generation. The segment delivered EUR 626 million of adjusted EBITDA, representing a more than 25% increase year-on-year. Earnings contribution from Nordics nuclear and hydro business as well as from German hydro was up, while ramp-up costs for renewables were on the rise. A major positive effect stems from the lapse of high provisions recognized in Q4 of our prior year for nuclear decommissioning in Sweden and dam-related obligations in German hydropower. Operationally, we extended outage -- the extended outage of the Oskarshamn 3 nuclear power plant of nearly 7 months weighted on performance. The plant came back online on 2nd of November 2025. Over most of the year, the Nordic power market remained well supplied, supported by high precipitation and the above-average hydro reserve levels. This market environment contributed to a lower average achieved prices, which was down up to EUR 5 per megawatt-hour year-on-year. While lower realized prices and reduced nuclear output weighted on the earnings, these were partly offset by stronger Swedish hydro volume. Despite a decline in German hydro output, German hydropower saw higher earnings. This was mainly boosted by strong forward sales in the run-of-river assets with price more than doubling, while pumped storage contributed less with declining volumes. Looking ahead on our hedge figures, which are included in the appendix. Hedge prices for our Nordic and German fleet in 2026 and 2027 remained stable compared to the previous quarter with Germany holding steady in the high EUR 80 per megawatt-hour and the Nordics around EUR 38 per megawatt-hour. Meanwhile, hedge ratios have increased. For 2028, the year which is included for the first time, we are 20% hedged at a price of EUR 37 per megawatt-hour in Sweden and 50% hedged at a price of EUR 78 per megawatt-hour in Germany. The next slide shows adjusted EBITDA reconciled to adjusted net income. Group adjusted net income of EUR 544 million for 2025 benefited strongly from 2 factors: lower depreciation and amortization and a continued robust economic interest result. Depreciation and amortization declined by more than 10%, reflecting the combined effects of asset disposals, plant shutdowns and prior year impairments. In addition, our economic interest results remain firmly positive, underpinned by Uniper's very strong net cash position of EUR 2.8 billion and at year-end 2025 and lower interest expenses, among others, due to the reduction and ultimately termination of the EUR 5 billion KfW credit facility. On the tax side, the operating tax rate came in at 26.3%. Overall, these financial effects jointly contributed to an adjusted net income at the upper end of the outlook range for the 2025 financial year. Turning to Slide 13. The focus is on operating cash flow. For the full year 2025, Uniper recorded a negative operating cash flow of EUR 814 million, a figure influenced by the settlement of the payment obligation to the Federal Republic of Germany in March 2025. Excluding this one-off effect, operating cash flow would have been very strong at about EUR 1.7 billion. A stronger working capital position also contributed to the high underlying operating cash flows, reflecting reduced gas inventory levels. At year-end, gas storage levels stood at 63%, down from 85% the year before. Now, over to Slide 14 and Uniper's financial position. At year-end 2025, economic net cash stood at very strong EUR 2.8 billion, underscoring the group's restored balance sheet resilience and will be invested in the execution of our strategy. This position was achieved despite the full settlement of our payment obligation to the German government in March 2025 and a meaningful step-up in capital expenditures. Cash investments amounted to EUR 932 million, up 30% year-on-year, driven by progress in our renewables projects and by increased maintenance spendings, particularly with Flexible Generation in the U.K. and Germany. We also recorded over EUR 500 million in divestment proceeds, mainly from the sale of the Hungarian power plant Gonyu, the sale of the German district heating business and power plant, Datteln 4, while other effects reflected movements in pension and asset retirement obligations and reconciliation items. On the financial side, we extended the EUR 3 billion revolving credit facilities to 2028, and we are in the process of extending it to 2029, securing short-term liquidity. We also terminated the undrawn KfW facility early and renewed our EUR 2 billion debt issuance program for another year. In addition, Uniper published its first green finance framework, validated by Standard & Poor's Global, enabling the issuance of green bonds backed by EU taxonomy aligned projects going forward. And this brings me to the final slide with Uniper's outlook for the full year 2026. 2025, just to remind you, marks the year our balance sheet has finally absorbed all impacts from the crisis. The financial year 2026 will serve as a new baseline, reflecting a reduced portfolio following the completion of the executed asset disposals. We have set the 2026 outlook at an adjusted EBITDA in the range of EUR 1 billion to EUR 1.3 billion. The projected adjusted net income is between EUR 350 million and EUR 600 million. Looking at the main segmental earnings drivers, we expect a significantly improved earnings contribution from our Green Generation segment after the unplanned long outage of our nuclear asset, Oskarshamn 3, in 2025. Additionally, our Green Commodities segment is projected to achieve substantially improved earnings as the negative impact from previous gas portfolio optimization activities that affected 2025 will no longer apply. And for Flexible Generation, we anticipate earnings in line with 2025, even with the reduced portfolio largely due to stronger U.K. capacity mechanism contributions and absence of one-off effects, which supported results in 2025. The 2026 financial year has begun strongly. We anticipate that the first quarter of the 2026 financial year will deliver around 40% of the financial year 2026 adjusted EBITDA outlook. In summary, we are confident in delivering on our 2026 outlook, which reflects the current market environment. And as highlighted by Mike, Uniper remains on a solid footing. Unlike during the former gas crisis, high market prices no longer pose comparable risks. The impact on our business is expected to be limited as of today. At present, we do not identify any significant risks that could negatively impact us. Going further into 2026, we remain committed to execute our strategy and put our CapEx plan into action while delivering our financial plan. We are committed to enhancing our business profile, which will help boost our credit rating and assist the German government with Uniper's reprivatization. This concludes our representation for -- our presentation for today, and I'm looking forward to our next touch points on the results for the first quarter of 2026 financial year on May 12. So having said that, Sebastian, back to you to kick off the Q&A session.

Thank you, Mike and Christian. We can start the Q&A session now. Operator, I'm handing it over to you, please.

[Operator Instructions] And your first question comes from the line of Anna Webb with UBS.

Two from me. The first one on the CCS gas-fired power plant in the U.K. Can you give any kind of indication around the cost of that project? And I imagine, it's relatively high, but it would be good to hear how that kind of compares to the other technologies the U.K. is kind of supporting. And also what the support is for that project because I know you're in the -- I think you're involved in the government process there. And then the second question on the reprivatization, I mean, I know it's difficult for you to comment given it's kind of in the German government's hands, but the deadline for the German government reducing their stake is now just 2.5 years away. And I just wondered if you had any indication of timelines in which they were going to make a decision or if there was a deadline by which they have to have decided what the route is at least to reprivatize. And what the latest you're hearing there? Anything you can share? I know it's tricky, but anything you can share is really helpful.

Anna, thanks for the questions. Let me come to the second question first on the reprivatization. As we've reiterated a number of times, this is a decision for the federal government, and they will decide on the timeline and on the mode of reprivatization. I can only reiterate that the deadline is that they have to sell down to 25% plus 1 share by the end of 2028. And therefore, we stand ready to support the government in whichever decision they make. I can only reiterate what Christian has said as well, we are on a very solid financial position. We are paying a dividend again. So we have done our homework, and we are ready, and now, it's a decision for the government. Coming to your first question on Connah's Quay. At the moment, we have not disclosed any details on the project. We are still in discussions with the U.K. government. So I can't disclose either information about the cost of the project or exactly where we stand in those discussions. What I can say is that as soon as we do have further information, as soon as we have concluded discussions with the U.K. government, we will naturally share all the information required for you to understand exactly how that project looks and how the returns on that project looks. And we do expect an investment decision within the next 12 months. But of course, we will communicate as soon as we have further information to say. But sorry, I can't reveal any more at this stage.

And your next question comes from the line of Ingo Becker with Kepler.

Christian, you said that the guidance for this year has been done in light of the current market environment, which obviously is changing by the hour. Could you help us understand what your positioning is or your risks and potential opportunities in the current situation, both in the FlexGen and the Greener Commodities segment, perhaps also in light of the hedges that you do have in place or not?

Ingo, I'll pick up firstly on this, and then, hand over to Christian. Of course, the market is changing. And what we've seen so far is a significant increase in the front-end gas curve, less movement or no movement in the back end. So that's the overall position. And I'm not going to speculate on how that might or might not develop. But what I would say is our forecast is basically taking into account those developments because we have a well-balanced, well-hedged position for 2026, as Christian said. And that's why based on the current movements we see, we don't expect any significant effect. But maybe, Christian, you could give a bit more detail on that.

Yes. Thanks, Mike, and thanks, Ingo, for this question. Of course, a quite relevant question, which also we were thinking about why we put it together this forecast. You're right, the prices are quite volatile at the moment, but the power side is very well hedged, as I said. And to give you a little bit of flavor regarding our assumption, we do not assume a long-lasting conflict, first point. And we do assume that we might and will not see spiking prices as we have seen back in 2022. If the price levels -- so if the crisis does not last too long and remains, the prices remain on the level at which we see at the moment. The impact on our financials, as I said, will be quite limited. Of course, if market environment changes, and of course, it's not completely predictable, as you know, we have to rework on this. But again, key message is we are by far more resilient than a couple of years ago, which is very helpful with the situation in which we are.

Can I just inquire your -- if we assume this crisis lasts longer and market reactions become a bit more pronounced given that you've emphasized you have no exposure to the region directly so, which takes out one of the big problems you had a few years ago, is that more of a chance? Or is it more of a risk if we would see a longer or more pronounced crisis reaction in the market?

Thanks, Ingo. I think it's important to reiterate that point that we don't have any specific exposure as we did in the last crisis. And again, I don't want to speculate about where prices might go. I will only reiterate we have a balanced portfolio. We are well hedged in the front end of the curve. And yes, of course, if prices are higher than they were before, then that is more of a chance than a risk. Christian?

Just to add something which we have to bear in mind and which really concerns me, Ingo, if we see and -- if we saw a longer-lasting crisis with higher price impact, at the end, this will hit the German and the European economy. And as you know, we are on a very fragile path of the German economy, on a very fragile path, which means they cannot easily absorb higher energy prices, and we will see impacts on to our customers, and this is something which also cannot make us happy. So, therefore, we hope the crisis does not last too long.

And your next question comes from the line of Louis Boujard with ODDO BHF.

Maybe 2 on my side. The first one would be to come back on the guidance 2026 and work a little bit on the bridge. I think that you finished '25 at EUR 1.1 billion EBITDA. Your indication per division is a growing contribution from Green Generation and also for Greener Commodity, which makes sense in the current environment. And still, your range is only EUR 1 billion to EUR 1.3 billion EBITDA for the year-end 2026, which looks pretty conservative. I was wondering, shall we consider eventually higher administrative costs that has been worked pretty hard in 2025? Or are you really conservative in your guidance for 2026 at this point in time? Or did we miss something? Maybe I don't know the hedging price, which is lower in Green Generation and that has a material impact and offset the Oskarshamn higher volumes contribution. So could you please give us a little bit light on this topic? And maybe the second question would be regarding the CapEx envelope plan and notably in Germany. If you could provide a bit more details regarding the timing that we should expect from the framework to be put in place and for the auction to take place as well. You seem really confident that it's going to be a green light and that you will be able to invest into the Flexible Generation in Germany, which we all hope. Could you just give us a bit more indication on your discussion and on what you see at the moment for the framework, the timing?

Thanks, Louis. I'll pick up the second question first on the CapEx. You're absolutely right, we do expect the first auction from the so-called German Kraftwerksstrategie this year. This has been in gestation for a long period, as you know, under the previous government, and now, in this government, where we have got to a position where it's been approved by the EU and by the German parliament or going through the German parliament. And therefore, we expect the first auctions to take place later this year, probably after the summer. And we are very well positioned. We have 2 projects, Scholven and Staudinger. And both of those are on existing brownfield sites, both of them with existing grid connections and both of them on the gas network. So we are confident that they are some of the best sites in Germany for new power plants. So our expectation is we will bid in, in late summer, and then, we will see how that develops. And I should say, we're very confident this will happen because it's critical for German energy security. As you know, we phased out nuclear. We're now phasing out coal. We need Flexible Generation to support the energy transition. And that's why these plants are necessary, and that's why the previous government and this government has been pushing forward with this strategy. Christian?

Yes. And I'm happy to take the first question. And I think the key question is you have the impression that this forecast for 2026 might be somehow conservative. I would like to remind us all that regarding 2025, we exactly landed in the middle of the previously given range a year ago. And this was also not conservative because, yes, and that is correct, of course, our business does be a risk and also opportunities, which is quite normal, and we are in a very, very early stage this year. Last year, we had the outage of the nuclear plant in Oskarshamn. We had relatively low water levels, especially also in Germany. We do not know if this comes back or not. And we have the uncertainties around the current geopolitical situation, which might go into the first or into the other direction. So from that point of view, I would call it, it's a fair view, which we share with you today, which, of course, does embed some risk and opportunities.

And, Louis, do you have a follow-up?

No, not necessarily on the guidance, but maybe just one quick one, if it's okay for you then, since you asked. Regarding the Oskarshamn situation, if you could just confirm that the difficult aspect and technical aspect of the plant is definitely behind us. And if now we have a relatively clear framework for the output of this plant, not only in '26, but maybe also a little bit beyond as soon as what you can see from now, of course.

Yes. Thanks for the follow-up. As Christian said, we did have a challenge in 2025 with a complex technical repair. That was a one-off. We don't expect that to recur, and we did execute a full and comprehensive repair of the plant. So our expectation is that going forward, we will not see a repeat of any technical issues like that, and we expect the output to be consistent with our guidance.

[Operator Instructions] And I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would like to hand it back to Sebastian Veit for closing remarks.

Thank you, operator. This concludes our call for today. Thanks, again, the analysts and investors for dialing in. We will see each other back in May for Q1 results. And until then, I wish you a very good remainder of the week and stay safe, everyone. Thank you very much.

Thank you, presenters. And ladies and gentlemen, this now concludes our presentation. Thank you all for attending. You may now disconnect.