Athens International Airport Aktie

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Gailey, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Athens International Airport Conference Call and Live Webcast to present and discuss the full year 2025 financial results. [Operator Instructions]. The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions]. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. George Eleftheriou, Manager, Investor Relations. Mr. Eleftheriou, you may now proceed.

Thank you. Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and good morning to those of you listening to us across the globe. Welcome to our conference call of Athens International Airport financial results for the fiscal year of 2025. Please note that the digital playback of the conference will be available from about 1 hour after the conference call has ended until April of 6.

Today, in the call, I'm joined by our new CEO, Mr. George Kallimasias; our CFO, Mr. Panagiotis Michalarogiannis; our Director of Financial Services, Mrs. Nadia Xirogianni. Also, let me mention that the presentation today is available on our website on the section of quarterly results under the Financial Information page.

With that, I would like to pass over to our new CEO.

Thank you, George. Hello, everybody. Thank you for attending this earnings call for the year 2025. Starting with the summary Slide #4 with the key messages for 2025. I would say these are strong traffic growth, on target financial performance with solid profitability and commencement of the airport expansion construction.

Last year, traffic grew by 6.7%, reaching 34 million passengers, which is a record number with main growth driver our international traffic. Our key traffic characteristics have remained unchanged. We are mainly a leisure airports, leisure traffic airport with a high share of O&D and a relatively small transfer segment feeding the key tourism destinations and with a growing portion of international traffic. Our revenue last year grew by 1.5%, which was in line with our expectations. Air Activities revenue growth was below traffic levels, and this was aligned with our targets, reflecting the airport charges adjustments further to the carryforward depletion. We will talk more about this later in the presentation.

Our Non-Air Activities revenues grew more or less in line with the traffic growth. Adjusted EBITDA at EUR 394.5 million, reflecting the aforementioned planned adjustment of the Air revenue segment, and we spent EUR 161 million in CapEx, mainly driven by the airport expansion project and the Routes 2025 investments. And following solid profitability in line with our dividend commitment, we will propose distribution of a gross dividend at approximately EUR 0.66 per share.

Moving on to the next Slide #5. As mentioned, traffic grew by 6.7%. International segment grew faster with 8.6%, and we saw a modest growth in the Domestic segment by 2.2%. We have a remarkable growth from the post-pandemic period of 33%, and we will discuss this also further in the context of European airports performance. Our network grew to 164 routes in 2025, up from 157 routes in the context of prior years, and this reflects enhanced connectivity and market demand and of course, a successful airline marketing and route development strategy of the company.

In terms of seasonality, if you look at the chart on the right-hand side, we remain a relatively seasonal airport. However, as you can observe, the growth rates were stronger in the off-season months, aligned with our airports for a smoother seasonality profile.

Moving on to the next slide, Slide 6. In 2025, we made progress -- we made progress in our aeronautical and commercial activities. We had a significant increase of destinations and routes. We also had progress in commercial activities, industry recognition and operational planning. Our home-based carriers expanded further, adding 10 new destinations on existing routes, while the airports added 6 new destinations overall. We also welcomed several new airlines contributing 17 new network developments, including 10 new destinations. I think important developments were related to our long-haul footprint with new services such as Charlotte with American Airlines in the U.S. and Chengdu in China by Sichuan Airlines.

In the commercial development, we continue to upgrade the passenger experience with new concepts, store enhancements and a stronger Best of Greece proposition while also benefiting from improved traffic mix coming especially from the high-spending markets. These achievements overall have been recognized last year with major distinctions from Routes World and ACI Europe, and I think it's important also to note on operational development, which relates to our change of status from non-coordinated to schedule facilitated, which allows for a smoother traffic growth during nonpeak hours, addressing also our ATC constraints. We have also applied for becoming coordinated airport for the winter season of '26, '27 due to the scheduled-heavy maintenance works on our runways.

Let us move now to Slide 7, which shows the performance of our airports in the broader European context, where our '25 results show the strength of our recovery, our competitiveness and the growing relevance of Athens within the European airport landscape. In 2025, as we mentioned earlier, we had a 6.7% growth and Athens outperformed most of its direct peer group and the wider European airport market. But I think it's more important when we compare our traffic development with pre-pandemic 2019 levels, where Athens demonstrated a growth of 33%, significantly ahead of all benchmark groups, which remained in the mid- to low single-digit range, and this makes Athens the airport with the strongest rebound momentum in Europe within our peer segment.

Very important to look at the bottom chart as well. Among the European mega airports, Athens moved in terms of connectivity from 21st place in 2019 to the 2nd place in 2025, and these connectivity gains confirm that the progress that we have demonstrated over the last year is structural and not temporary. We are becoming an increasingly important aviation hub with one of the strongest connectivity profiles in Europe within our segment group.

Moving on to Slide 8 with a few important developments of the company last year. First of all, our 2025 Scrip Dividend Program, which we launched last year after the relevant approval from the general meeting. This program in the last year showed a very strong shareholder participation at 89.2% and generated almost EUR 85 million for Air Activities Capital. As I said, this was the first year of implementation of this 4-year Scrip Dividend Program, which was announced last year, and this program supports our accelerated long-term investment program and is in line with our regulatory framework.

Second development with regards to the depletion of the carryforward amounts, again, in line with our regulation and further the consultations with the airlines, we introduced a temporary 30% reduction in the passenger terminal facility charge to incentivize growth during the offpeak period. And we also introduced a Sustainability Support Scheme that rewards higher load factors and more fuel-efficient aircraft with a rebate on a per departing passenger again on the PTF. These initiatives intend to support competitiveness, off-peak growth, as I mentioned, and of course, environmental objectives.

Third, on leadership, Yiannis Paraschis stepped down at the end of January '26 after 19 years of a highly successful term as AIA CEO. And finally, following the London Court of International Arbitration ruling on the Greek state rentals, the company recognized a EUR 16.3 million one-off impact in 2025, which was effectively neutralized through the allocation of this cost to the air activities till.

Moving on to the next Slide 9 with our expansion program, which is advancing in line with our long-term strategy. This is a EUR 1.3 billion investment program in terms of 2024 prices, bringing together our MAP33 and MAP 40 plants into a unified development road map with full completion targeted for 2032. We have already started making tangible progress across the different components of this program.

First of all, let me start with the projects that have been awarded and are already under construction. The VIP Terminal and Apron with completion expected in 2027, also the new apron area, which has also been awarded and construction has commenced. This project will add 32 code C remote stands in the northwest part of our airport and is also expected to be completed in 2027. Third, the multi-story car park with construction also underway. This will provide approximately 3,500 parking positions and is also scheduled for completion in 2027. The largest element of the expansion is the expansion of the Main and Satellite Terminal buildings. Once completed, this project will add approximately 150,000 square meters to our facilities and will more than double our commercial space. The outline design has been completed in 2025 as planned, and we are currently at a tender process through an early contractor investment approach with the design and build award expected in the second half of 2026. This time shift to the second half is mainly driven by the request of the bidders to ensure that their proposals are aligned with our requirements for construction-phasing and gradual capacity delivery.

Very importantly, for our total project, totalized project, capital deployment is phased with about 50% of the CapEx expected by 2028 and the remainder by 2032. And in terms of funding, we have secured EUR 800 million financing through a bank loan, and we have additional support of EUR 240 million scrip through our Scrip Dividend Program.

Moving on to Slide #10 with our proposed dividend distribution and the 2026 Scrip Dividend Program. This, as I said, is the second year of our approved 4-year Scrip Dividend Program to collect up to EUR 240 million. The Board is proposing -- the Board of Directors is proposing the distribution of 100% of available for distribution net profits equivalent to approximately EUR 0.66 per share. And as in the previous year, the proposed structure combines a cash dividend with a voluntary scrip alternative using the same pricing calculation methodology that we applied successfully last year. For 2025, the total proposed dividend amounts to EUR 204.86 million, comprising a cash component of EUR 104.86 million and a voluntary scrip component of EUR 100 million. This structure gives shareholders the flexibility to elect either shares or cash, supporting the company's capital planning and regulatory returns.

I think it's important to note here that we have received favorable intentions of participation from our two major shareholders, AviAlliance and the Growthfund. And in terms of process, the Ordinary General Meeting is scheduled to take place on the 15th of April, and subject to approval, of course, the dividend distribution process will run from late April until mid-May, with payment and new shares trading commencement planned and expected for 15th of May 2026.

On the next Slide #11 on sustainability. This was an important year because we completed our Route 2025 plan. And as a result, we achieved Net Zero carbon emissions from the beginning of 2026. This was a milestone that was supported by major investments in clean energy infrastructure, which included the completion and operation in '25 of a solar park of 35.5-megawatts together with an 82-megawatt hour battery energy storage facility as well as heat pumps, which substitutes the natural gas consumption with clean energy and electrification of vehicles. The Route 2025 initiative was not just a bold achievement in sustainability, but has also a positive financial impact for the company. So by the end of 2025, we have reduced our CO2 emissions by 60% compared to baseline year of 2005. And I think it's important to note that we are the first European airport to cover 100% of our electricity needs through on-site clean energy production. Overall, this Route 2025 milestone strengthens not just our environmental leadership, but also protects us and provide us resilience against energy costs and energy cost volatility.

And with that, I would like to hand over to Nadia for the financial performance overview.

Thank you. So turning to the company financial performance over the last year. We recorded total operating revenues, excluding the accounting treatment of the -- for the airport expansion according to IFRS. Total revenues of EUR 675.6 million, this is a year-on-year growth of 1.5%, demonstrating the airport charges pricing policy and the very good performance of the Nonregulated segment. In more detail, the Regulated segment represented 75% in terms of revenue, broadly stable compared to the previous year as we had proceeded as the CEO, explained at the beginning with temporary reductions, temporary incentives in the airport charges -- and we -- you will also see in the following slide, we almost depleted the carryforward amount, the unrealized profit of the previous year. And this brought the Air Activity segment very close to the regulated cap.

The Non-Air Activities, the Nonregulated segment, the remaining 25% of our revenues increased year-on-year in line with traffic, 6.5%. So overall, we achieved the guidance, our target of EUR 5 per passenger on the Non-Air Activities. The successful performance mainly -- is mainly driven by the terminal retail performance, with main drivers, the well-balanced commercial offering portfolio we have, the increase we experienced in the International segment and especially in handing in high spending markets and of course, inflation. At the same time, the terminal retail performance managed to more or less offset some headwinds we experienced due to the fact that we closed the short-term P1 car parking area because we started construction for the multi-story car parking, so the overall growth of this segment experienced a slowdown.

If we move now to the operating cost of the company. Overall, in 2025, we recorded operating expenses, again, excluding the IFRS impact of the airport expansion at EUR 265.6. This includes the variable portion of the Grant of Rights Fee, EUR 48.6 million. This is calculated on a formula and is increased compared to the previous year because this is based on increased profitability. Additionally, we recorded on the operating cost, the one-off item, the net effect of the unfavorable outcome of the LCIA arbitration in relation to the Greek State rental, EUR 16.3 million.

But I need to repeat here that the impact -- this impact is effectively neutralized at profitability level. Excluding Grant of Right Fee and the Greek State rentals impact, the remaining operating costs were at EUR 200.7 million which is an increase of 7.9% year-on-year. The overall operating cost per passenger is at EUR 5.90 per passenger, and the increase is mainly driven by the fact that we need to deploy additional resources to address high traffic and protect our service levels. We adjusted several outsourcing contracts to reflect the increase in minimum wages increased over the last year. And we increased also the provision for major restoration, major reservicing in the runway that we'll perform and the full replacement of the airfield lighting.

Now in relation to our profitability, we recorded profitability on target in terms of adjusted EBITDA, this is at EUR 394.9 million with adjusted EBITDA margins 58.5% in line with our short-term target. And in terms of net profit overall at EUR 207.3 million, we see now a structural shift in the share of Air Activities and Non-Air Activities in net profitability. Air Activities now account for 54% of total net revenues and there is growing share of Non-Air Activities profitability. So Non-Air increased from EUR 90.9 million net profit in 2024 to EUR 95.5 million, while in Air Activities because of the distribution of the carryforward amount, we, as expected, recorded a decrease overall. The dividend per share as proposed is EUR 0.66 per share.

Some more details on the regulated fee in the following page, Page 16. The Air Activities Capital following the successful implementation during the first year of the increase of the equity through the Scrip Dividend Program at the end of 2024 was at EUR 641 million. This, as you remember, is inflated every year with the new inflation and now increased through the Scrip Dividend Program. We managed in 2025 to deplete the carryforward amount that was at EUR 22.4 million at the end of 2024. So we leave a marginal amount of EUR 2.6 million at the end of 2025. So the implied return on Air Activities Capital in 2025 was EUR 18.3 million, and just to note here that 1st of January 2026, following the inflation we apply in Air Activities Capital, we have EUR 655.5 million Air Activities Capital, which hopefully will be further increased with the second year implementation of the Scrip Dividend Program.

Now in the next page, you may also find some more information on the cash flow and financial position of the company. Apart from the very healthy profitability, we also have strong operating cash flow generation. In terms of free cash flow, the metric we have, which is the adjusted EBITDA minus the CapEx in 2025 was at the level of EUR 233.9 million. It represents a decrease compared to the previous year as expected because we are now entering in a CapEx-intensive era. However, we need to stress again that at this point of time, we have secured financing through the debt agreement arrangement we have and the Scrip Dividend Program until 2028 and 2029. So financial stability is fully safeguarded. And also another metric in relation to net debt at the end of 2025, net debt is at EUR 614 million with leverage, the net debt to adjusted EBITDA metric still low, very stable with previous year, 1.6x, leaving more headroom -- leaving headroom for additional leverage.

And with that, we go now to the final remarks for the outlook, which the CEO will present.

Thank you. Thank you, Nadia. Thank you very much. Looking into the outlook for 2026, but also for the medium term. I think this reflects a balanced view of what we see as growth opportunities and disciplined execution of our business plan, but within a more uncertain external environment, which is protected to a significant extent by our regulation.

Now for our passenger traffic, we expect low single-digit growth for 2026, which is in line with our medium- to long-term projections. Our demand fundamentals remain supportive. However, we continue to monitor the geopolitical development very closely. The tensions in the region have added an element of uncertainty. And as a point of reference, we mentioned that traffic from the affected traffic -- affected countries in the Middle East accounted in 2025 for about 7.5%. However, we need to stress here again that our regulatory framework offers considerable downside protection.

Now from a revenue perspective, in Air Activities, we expect broadly a flat yield per passenger within our stable regulatory framework. Our regulated profits are expected to be aligned with our 15% return on equity target, supported also by the multiyear Scrip Dividend Program. In the Non-Air Activities, we see more limited upside in the medium term, particularly in the Terminal Commercial revenues, reflecting space, the current space constraints that we are facing and the impact of the early-stage construction activity. The Car Parking revenues will also be modestly affected during the multi-story parking construction period, although this is partly offset by the additional parking capacity that we have offered.

At the EBITDA level, we expect some temporary pressure as construction activity under the Airport Expansion Program will intensify. So as a result, the adjusted EBITDA margin is expected to be around 100 basis points below our long-term target of 60%. For the net income, we project currently a level of approximately EUR 200 million for 2026. And we maintain, of course, our commitment to dividend policy at 100% of available profits for distribution. The execution of the Airport Expansion Program remains a central strategic priority for the company. For the Main Terminal and Satellite Terminal with the expansions, as mentioned earlier, we expect to complete the ACI tender and award the design and build contract in the second half of 2026. Our capital deployment remains phased and disciplined with up to 50% of totalized CapEx expected by the end of 2028 and the remaining balance through the end of 2032. And I think it's important also to stress here the fact that we have secured already financing for the AEP through to '28 to '29.

Overall, we remain confident in the resilience of the business and our ability to deliver sustainable long-term growth. So thank you very much for your attention, and now we are happy to answer to any questions you may have.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Draziotis Stamatios Eurobank Equities.

A couple from my side, please. Firstly, on inflation, I understand that the Aviation segment is structurally protected through the indexation of the regulatory equity base. But could you elaborate more specifically on the Non-Air segment where the dynamics are less straightforward. I mean, how should we think about the balance between cost inflation and your ability to pass this through to concessionaires either via minimum guarantees or revenue sharing mechanisms? And I guess, ultimately, do you see inflation as net margin accretive, neutral or dilutive for the Non-Air business? So that's the first question.

And secondly, I'm just wondering about the current terminal capacity constraints and the passenger flow dynamics. So I'm just wondering, could a softer traffic environment due to the Middle East situation actually support higher per passenger monetization as passenger experience improves basically? That's my question.

May I answer the second question, and Nadia can take the first one. Well, no, I think, of course, as you correctly mentioned, there are limitations in our terminal space, and we have explained that in the past also. And for this purpose, we have launched and we are implementing our expansion programs. We do not think that this -- any shortfall in traffic from these segments is going to be essentially, how to say, supporting the considerably the ability of the other passengers to -- for commercial spending. I think this is -- the Middle East traffic is not materially important in terms of traffic numbers. As we said, it's 7.5%. It's not insignificant, but it's not a dramatic amount of passengers. But I would say that there also good spenders in retail. So I would not see a significant positive sign from that. And Nadia, maybe you want to answer...

Yes. As regards the inflation, as you, of course, correctly said, this is taken into account in the Air Activities segment in the inflation of the Air Activities Capital. So the return is on the inflated equity. And then on the Non-Air Activities, the terminal retail sales are adjusted, of course, you can imagine, according to inflation. Prices are adjusted. Our minimum annual guarantees are also taking into account inflation, rentals. And generally, the margins of the Non-Air segment are significant. So one can expect that we recover the impact of inflation also in the Non-Air Activities.

Okay. So just to follow up and conclude. So as a total for your business, the inflation should be a net positive clearly, right?

Yes.

The next question is from the line of Lobbenberg Andrew with Barclays.

Can I ask one simple question on the numbers, I guess, for Nadia. Can you -- I know you've told us half the CapEx by '28. Can you give us an indication of what the total CapEx will be for '26, for '27, for '28? Can you phase it over that period, please?

Second question, how confident are you that you will have kerosene available at Athens into the future? Given the challenges in the Gulf. How long have you got confidence that you'll continue to have kerosene? How do you see the kerosene availability playing out?

And then a third question, and it's pretty obvious, I guess. How are you -- what assumptions are you making about the loss of Mid East traffic in giving us this low single-digit guide? Because obviously, that looks incredibly low compared to what we saw in Jan and Feb before the war. So yes, how much loss of that 7.5% have you baked into that low single-digit estimate?

As regards to the first one, just as a reminder, at this point of time, we have the total estimate of EUR 1.3 billion at 2024 prices for the entire expansion. What we have spent in 2025 was less than EUR 100 million. We say, we keep the guidance of 50% until 2028, and we will have more visibility following the award of the terminal expansion in the second half of the year. So unfortunately, at this point of time, I cannot give more clarity on the year-on-year projection.

And on the second and third, Andrew, thank you for your questions. On kerosene, well, I don't think we're any better or worse than other European countries. I can say the following. We have production of kerosene in Greek distilleries. There are strategic reserves both in the airport of aviation fuel, but also in the distilleries, there are strategic reserves of fuel. I would say that we don't see currently any alarming signs.

But as I said before, I don't think notwithstanding the fact, as I said, that we do produce kerosene in Greece from the distilleries. I don't see that we are -- if there is a global or European crisis in the availability of kerosene, I think that we will more or less be in the same situation with the rest of the Europe and European countries. In terms of the traffic with low-single-digits. This is in accordance with the projection, in accordance with information available. In March, we expect a growth of mid- to low single digits, which is less, however, than the average, as you mentioned, that we experienced in the first 2 months. So this is the impact of the crisis in March. Obviously, this can change subject to the events developing.

Okay. So does that imply that your traffic forecast allows for the continued loss of Mid East traffic going forward?

I would say it allows for a similar scale of effect that we are experiencing now. We see also that there is a partial reinstatement of operations from some of the countries, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE. We don't have any operations in with Bahrain and Iraq. And -- but of course, the load factors are lower and Aegean and Sky Express have suspended operations to the Middle East. So this is overall the impact. Of course, we have some positive impact from repatriations. But overall, at the current level of impact, we are confident that our low single-digit growth that we project is achievable.

The next question is from the line of Shankarhari (sic) [ Harishankar ] with Deutsche Bank.

A few from my side. Firstly, on the capital Scrip Dividend Program, you're into EUR 200 million -- close to EUR 200 million out of the EUR 240 million now. Any scope for further expansion there?

And then secondly, on to your operating expenses. I believe that some times back, you probably guided to around EUR 6.3 in OpEx per [indiscernible] for 2025. And on an underlying basis, you probably land at EUR 5.9. So any indication on what that could be for 2026?

And maybe continuing on the theme of operating expenses. In terms of the allocation between Air segment and Non-Air, do you see similar trends continuing into the next year as we have seen in '25?

So as regards to the first one, the scrip dividend, the program now is, as we said also last year, for a total EUR 240 million, there is no plan at this point of time for any additional equity increase or further Scrip Dividend Program.

As regards to the operating costs, which you -- yes, it's correct. We managed to be more cost efficient compared to what we had expected. We contained cost and therefore, we have achieved this EUR 5.90 per passenger, excluding the one-off impact. We will continue to monitor the cost very closely. And we will target, of course, to the best margins, both in Air and Non-Air Activities.

As regards to the allocation, there is no expected change in the drivers, in the main drivers of the allocation between Air and Non-Air Activities in 2026. There are expected shifts following the completion of terminal expansion. So for the time-being, we expect allocation to be similar to the ones we have now.

The next question is from the line of Mora Nicolas with Morgan Stanley.

Just a couple on my side. First on the tariff guidance for '26. So you're pointing to flat tariff in aviation. Does it mean that you want to signal the first tariff hike for airlines from summer schedule '26? Is that -- and looking even beyond '26, is that for you the start of an uptick in tariff going forward? That's the first question.

The second, just coming back on the impact of Middle East and on -- especially on retail. So Middle East makes up 7.5% of traffic, but I suspect they make up a larger amount of the retail spend. Could you -- I mean, is it 2x the traffic share, so around 15%? Just trying to gauge also the -- not just the impact on traffic and aviation, but also on your Non-Air Activities?

So as regards to tariff, we also continue the Sustainability Support Scheme in 2026. The temporary reduction in the passenger charge, the 30% continues until the end of April. And other than that, charges will not change in the remaining of the year. So we will reinstate the previous level of passenger charge and all the remaining charges.

Overall, the -- what we expect as revenues per passenger from the Air Activities segment in 2026 is similar to the one we had achieved in 2025. And we expect that we will reach this way, the maximum allowable profit.

Now in relation to -- I don't know if this answers your question in relation to the tariffs. And going to the Middle East, the impact of the Middle East traffic, of course, it's an impact on traffic and the aeronautical revenues. And this also has a proportionately higher impact on the Non-Air since we experienced higher spending per passenger from this segment. So yes, the impact will be proportionally higher than the aeronautical -- than in the aeronautical segment.

On that front, is that -- I mean, we've heard from other airports talking about potentially up to 2x, 2.5x higher share of retail. Is this something you would confirm? Or this is potentially higher or lower versus your typical average spender?

No, we cannot provide exact numbers of the segments. We don't have exact data of each segment on our overall retail. So no, we cannot confirm exactly these amounts.

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Memisoglu Osman with Ambrosia Capital.

Just on the Airport Expansion Program timing and the related impact on Non-Air. So you mentioned awards in H2. Are you able to give a bit more color on when in H2, early, late? Any color there would be helpful. And then related to that, when do you expect -- you guide for some limitation on Non-Air revenue growth because of this. When do you expect the construction work to start? And when do you expect to see the biggest impact on Non-Air from the expansion program?

Thank you, Osman. Well, no, we cannot say exactly when in H2, we will have the awards as this is also a tender ongoing, it's rather also sensitive information to disclose. Now on the construction, so if we have a commencement -- or sorry, award of the project in H2, it's reasonable to expect because it's a design-build project to expect construction to start in '27. The main impact on retail will be around, I think Nadia its '28 to '30...

'28, '26. So we do not expect impact from construction definitely in 2026.

No. That's why we said in our guidance, we are talking about the midterm impact on our retail activities.

Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Kallimasias for any closing comments. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for your interest in our company. Our team remains available with George Eleftheriou also for any further clarifications in the future. Thank you once again for your consistent interest and support to the company. Thank you very much.

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference has now concluded, and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for calling, and have a pleasant evening.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Geli, your Chorus Call operator.

Welcome, and thank you for joining the Athens International Airport conference call and live webcast to present and discuss the first half 2025 financial results. [Operator Instructions] The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions]

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. George Eleftheriou, Manager, Investor Relations. Mr. Eleftheriou, you may now proceed.

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and good morning to those of you listening to us across the globe.

Welcome to our conference call of Athens International Airport Financial Reports for the first half of 2025. Please note that the digital playback of the conference will be available from about 1 hour after the conference call has ended until September '19.

Today, in this conference, I'm joined by our CEO, Mr. Ioannis Paraschis; our CFO, Mr. Panagiotis Michalarogiannis; our CSO, Mr. George Kallimasias, and our Director of Financial Services, Mrs. Nadia Xirogianni. Also, let me mention that our presentation is available on our website, on the section of quarterly results, under the Financial Information page.

And with that, I would like to hand over to our CEO.

Thank you, George. Thank you, everyone, for attending today's call for the half year results. Three key messages at the beginning, robust traffic growth, on target operational performance and commencement of our airport expansion program.

On Slide #4, we see the traffic evolution, 15.1 million passengers, 7.6% growth versus the first half year of '24, primarily driven by international traffic growth of 9.8%, and remark that Athens Airport has been awarded the Best European Airport award by ACI Europe in June of this year.

You see the revenue of EUR 308 million, growth of 5%. And the EBITDA at EUR 182.3 million, slightly below last year's levels in line with our targets, and our charges development that we will talk about in a minute. Now you see that those 7.6% of growth in the first half year were slightly different in the first half -- the first quarter where we had a growth of almost around 11%, and slightly lower growth in the second half year in the second quarter. And that momentum of around 4% to 7% continues also in July and August, which are our published results.

On the next Slide #6, you see that our performance, 7.6% is well above the European average, both for the bigger airports of our category, 25 million to 40 million passengers also the overall average performance. And that difference is even much bigger when we look at the growth of '25 versus 2019, where we are about 34% above the corresponding levels of the pre-COVID year, whereas the European total is at 5%.

Now when we look at also the more structural impact of the connectivity, which represents the investment of both the hub carriers in Athens, but also the visiting carriers, you see that as the ACI Europe airport connectivity study where Athens ranked #21 in '19. Meanwhile, it ranks #2 in 2025 behind Zurich, having experienced a very significant growth in productivity of about 32%.

On the next slide, you see some of the recent developments, both on our homebuild carriers, 8 new destinations, and 3 new routes for the airport, but also significant developments, in particular, with the long-haul high-yielding markets of American Airlines flying to Charlotte, and North to Los Angeles, and also Chengdu to Sichuan -- to Chengdu by Sichuan Airlines. This is part of our strategy also for the future to focus on those long-haul and high-yielding markets.

Also on the commercial side, it's important to see that we have improved and expanded our Best of Greece concept with positive results. Very important to mention that this year, we have changed our status from a non coordinated to a scheduled facilitated airports, which differs from a full coordination, but still allows for subordination of flights in order also to smoothen the peaks and the ATC constraints during peak hours.

Important to note on Slide #8, we have had a strong communication about that. Our Scrip Dividend Program, the fact that we've accelerated our expansion program to reach 40 million annual passengers, increased our overall investment, at the same time, choosing to -- in line with the regulation to finance part of that through the Air Activities Capital increase. The Scrip Dividend Program was very successful with the participation of 89.22%. And the Air Activities Capital of EUR 84.75 million became effective from the 16th of May onwards. As you know, this is the first year of a 4-year program of up to EUR 440 million.

Now in line with the regulation and the traffic growth, we had announced, and it's clear from our regulation and dual-till approach, that with the depletion of the carryforward amounts, we would have to introduce certain discounts in our airport charges that has been implemented in the spring of this year based on also the consultations with our airline users. In -- with 2 schemes, the one is a reduction of the Passenger Terminal Fee of 30% for the winter season from October 1 to April 30, '25 to '26. As well as a support to our airline partners through a sustainability support scheme, as we call it, where we encourage the use of more fuel-efficient and fuller aircraft, higher load factors between EUR 0.8 and EUR 1.5 per passenger, supporting the airlines in this first year of the well-known 2% EU SAF mandate that increases its -- there are fewer costs.

On the next slide, we talk about our airport expansion program, which is well on track. Three main pillars. On the one hand, the new apron areas that -- and the Multi-Storey Car Park where we have awarded the contract and where construction has commenced and is ongoing. And the main general building and satellite building expansion, where we have -- where we are in the completion of the design stage and the commencement of the construction through an early contractor involvement program.

Important to note that we have secured EUR 800 million financing through bank debt plus the EUR 240 million script growth in the years -- in the coming years, which is going to be used for funding of the expansion.

On the next slide, you see some [obvious strengthening] of what we consider to be an impressive program of airport of our terminal expansions, comprising the north expansion within North Oculus and Pier and the South Oculus [indiscernible] the North Wing expansion, as we call it, and also the satellite expansion. That will deliver an increase of more than 150,000 square meters in terminal space, more than 100% increase in commercial space towards the 40 million passengers in 2032.

On the next slide, important for us for this year, the completion of our Route 2025 program by December, where we'll hold also the respective inauguration ceremony towards net zero carbon emissions, a program that we had announced in 2019 and is now being completed. That relates to the use of photovoltaics of batteries for energy storage and the replacement of our fleet to electrical vehicles and also the heat pumps for heating and cooling. That is a very significant program, not only for our environmental and ESG footprint, but also it is an investment that will marginalize our exposure and volatility -- or to the volatility of energy costs.

And with that, please to hand over to Nadia for the financial performance.

Okay. Thank you, Ioannis. I will go through the highlights of the financial performance on the first half of the year.

First of all, in relation to the operating revenues, we recorded EUR 308.2 million, which is a growth of 5% year-on-year compared to previous year. 75% of this relates to the regulated part, the activity, which increased year-over-year by 3.2%, and in line with traffic development, but also in line with the airport charges adjustment as the CEO explained that we implemented from the beginning of the year. And aiming to gradually deplete the carry forward amount, but also taking into account the increase of Air Activities Capital through the successful implementation of the Scrip Dividend program.

The non-air segment is 25% of our revenues. And this actually performed even better than traffic, outpeformed traffic levels, presenting a growth of 10.6% year-on-year, helped by the very good -- the excellent performance of our terminal retail revenues, as a result of the successful new concepts that were introduced this year, but also in the first month -- during the first month of previous year.

We were also benefited by the increased passenger volumes of high-yielding destinations. But we should also note that when we compare to the previous year, we had some favorable effects because of the fact that we undergo major refurbishment during the first month of the prior year, which resulted in some disruptions. So the comparison is favorable with this year.

Next, if we go to the operating cost side. Overall, we reported for the first half of the year, EUR 118 million, a significant part of this EUR 24 million is the variable portion of the grant of right fee, the concession fee that is recorded in operating costs. This increased year-on-year because it is based on higher profitability level.

Except for the variable portion of the grant of rights fee, the remaining operating costs EUR 94 million. The majority is in-housing and outsourced costs and presented a growth as expected year-on-year by 13.5%. This is actually due to the fact that we continue to be focused on maintaining the level of service. And therefore, we went with additional resources year-on-year to address the higher traffic and additional requirements.

We had also an impact from the increase of minimum wages in Greece also this year and the full year effect of increases in April last year. We had a negative impact from high electricity prices. And finally, in view of major restoration that we will do in the airside pavements and the airfield lighting, we increased the provision this year, and this also affected the comparison year-on-year of the operating cost.

And -- as regards to the profitability, the adjusted EBITDA, we recorded EUR 182.3 million, with adjusted EBITDA margin 59.2%, which is aligned with our short-term target, a bit less than the 60% EBITDA margin, which is our long-term target. And in relation to the net income, net profit, we recorded EUR 92.2 million, which is actually a decrease compared to the previous year. This is in line with what we expected and what we targeted. And interestingly, the breakdown of the net income between the regulated and the nonregulated fee is now air activities represent 54% of the total net income, while the non-air 46%. The non-air segment has increased profitability year-on-year and higher margins. And the drop in the air activities is in line with the regulation and in line with the airport charges adjustments we implemented.

Some highlights of the regulation. The inflated equity, which represents the air activities capital upon which we have the entitlement of 15% return in the Air Activity segment was -- is for 2025, EUR 556 million, which is the originally paid in capital. And as of 16th of May, we added the EUR 84.8 million, the outcome of the Scrip Dividend Program. So overall, we have an activities capital of EUR 641 million. So we are allowed in practice to have 15% return on equity full year for the EUR 556 million. And for the month started from the mid of May, for the 15% for the additional increase in Air Activities Capital.

During the first half of the year, we reduced the carry-forward amount that was EUR 23 million in the beginning of this year. We have used it to EUR 16.5 million at the end of June.

Now going to Page 17. It's important to note that apart from the very healthy performance in terms of profitability. We also demonstrate a healthy cash performance with closing cap at the end of June at EUR 175 million. Net debt, EUR 767 million, with net debt to EBITDA ratio staying low, 1.8x, in line with our targets. And as regards to free cash flow, as expected, we have started -- we have launched the -- expanding the airports and with the design costs, we have additional capital expenditures during the first half of the year. This is in line with our expectation.

This reduces the free cash flow and the cash flow conversion to EUR 92 million for the first half of the year at 50.6% lower than the previous years, but it is in line with our expectations. And it is also important to note here that the company's financial stability is fully safeguarded since we have in place -- we have secured this financing for the expansion. And also, we have the Scrip Dividend Program, the 4 year, the remaining 3 years of the program. So we have secured our liquidity for the following years.

And with that, we can continue with the outlook and the CEO will present.

Thank you, Nadia. So looking at Slide # 19. In terms of traffic forecast, we expect a mid-single-digit growth for passenger traffic during full year '25. We are currently at about 6.5%. And so we also continue with our mid- to long-term traffic outlook in the low single digits.

In terms of revenues, the air activities and aeronautical charges are going to be adjusted through the gradual depletion of the carry forward amount. And our Air Activities profitability will align with a 15% return on equity, supported obviously by the growing level of equity through our Scrip Dividend Program.

At the same time, non-air activities, we retain our guidance for flat per pax yield for 2025 as we expect a certain deterioration of parking revenues through the construction of the Multi-Storey Parking, which has already started in the summer.

Now in terms of impact for retail revenues. Going forward, we expect certain pressure with the commencement of the terminal expansion.

We are -- as we move currently and as we project for 2025 and 2026, our adjusted EBITDA margins will be slightly below 60%. We're saying about 100 basis points.

There's net income, we maintained our guidance for EUR 200 million for the year '25 and '26, maintaining, obviously, our commitment to dividend.

And in terms of airport expansion, we have spoken about the commercial construction for the multi-storey and the apron areas, now the Main Terminal Building and Satellite Terminal Building outline design is in finalization stage, and we have started and the construction tender is ongoing through an ECI approach, and early contractual involvement approach that will allow us to involve experienced contractor in the finalization of the outline design before they produce their final offers.

And in terms of guidance for the CapEx spending, we expect 50% of that to be -- to happen through 2028 and the remaining until the end of '32.

That is the end of our presentation, and we are here for your questions. Thank you very much.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Draziotis Stamatios with EuroBank Equities.

Just a couple on my side, please. Firstly, if you could maybe give us some color on the phasing of the remaining EUR 16 million carryforward balance in the second half. So should we expect it to be front-loaded in Q3, or more evenly spread across the second half, the phasing out?

And the second question relates to the non-air segment. I mean you talked about how resilient units revenues were in the first half of the year. There was this easy comp effective you like as well. But I'm just wondering because you mentioned you reiterate that non-air activity should see per passenger yields shaping flattish year-on-year given the anticipated impact on parking revenues. But do you actually see upside risk to the full year numbers stemming from the greater resilience maybe than previously anticipated on the non-air side, please?

So first of all, as regards to the depletion of the carry forward amount, let me first say that our plan is to fully exhaust -- to fully deplete this carry forward during the remaining of the year by the end of 2025. And as according to our projection, it is -- and to the traffic, let's say, monthly phasing. It is expected that the majority will be depleted during the third quarter of the year compared to the last quarter of the year.

Now as regards to the non-air activities, what we try to stress is that during the first half of the year, we haven't yet any impact from the construction of the multi-storey parking in the parking revenues. And at the same time, we had a very good performance on the per passenger basis in the terminal retail.

During June, it was a month that especially during the days of the political turbulence, we have experienced some drop in per passenger spending. But overall, we didn't see any negative impact in the terminal retail. So these are the main reasons that we expect that the full year, let's say, terminal retail, we don't have -- we do not have any adverse impact and any benefit we had for the -- due to the favorable combination of the first half of the year will be covered by -- we'll cover, let's say, any loss we will experience because of the disruptions in the car parking during the second half of the year.

The next question is from the line of Lobbenberg Andrew with Barclays.

Could you talk a little bit about how the average...

Mr. Lobbenberg. I'm sorry to interrupt you. Can you please speak a little closer to your microphone? Because I'm not sure that management can hear you.

Yes, of course. Is that better?

A little bit better.

Can you offer some guidance on what we should expect for the aviation revenue per passenger in that fourth quarter, when you put in place that 30% reduction to passenger terminal charge? Because I appreciate the landing fees are not going to be impacted. And then once we've got that quite material drop to aviation revenues in the winter of '25 to '26, should our working expectation be that rebounds next winter? Or would we imagine that, that stays flattish?

And then just one other topic would be the Scrip Dividend. Obviously, you got nearly EUR 90 million done. And with the dividend for '24 what should we think about the timing of the remaining EUR 150 million of dividends. How fast will it come? How much next year and how much over the next 3 years?

Okay. So as regards the aviation revenue per passenger you have seen that although last year, the Air Activity revenue per passenger was EUR 15.9 per passenger. During the first half of 2025, we ended up with EUR 15.3. This drop actually represents the sustainability support scheme, the temporary scheme that we have introduced.

According to the price list and we see the target of the 30% decrease from -- for the last quarter of the year, we expect that the full year revenue per passenger of the air activities with the -- will have a further impact, so it will be an average close to EUR 14.7, EUR 14.8 per passenger. Based on the fact that the decrease that we introduced is on the passenger terminal fee, which is let's say, more or less close to 50% of our Air Activity revenues.

And what we have up to now is the plan for the price list and the incentives for this year and for the decrease of the 30%, this goes up to the end of April. We will proceed with further consultation and review for next year. So we don't have -- we don't provide any guidance in regards to the level of charges for next year. Although our guidance remains that our target will be to recover the allowable return of 15% return on equity. So this was the first question.

And the second, in relation to the Scrip Dividend. Generally, our targets, depending also on our financial results will be the implementation of the Scrip Dividend to be as frontloaded as we can assume without jeopardizing, of course, the level of cash dividend that the shareholders would like to receive.

I don't know if this answers your questions.

The next question is from the line of Maglione Dario with BNP Paribas.

I have 3 questions, actually 4, if you allow me. So one is on the winter schedule. What kind of capacity have airlines planned in terms of year-on-year growth? And also, if you could discuss about what is driving the growth, which airlines, which market segment?

The second question is around the OpEx, which, as you mentioned, when we exclude construction costs and variable concession fee was EUR 94 million in H1. So it's up 14%, while traffic is up 8%. So no operating leverage there. What should we expect for H2 and next year?

And then in terms of the guidance for the full year '25. At the net income level, you mentioned around EUR 200 million. Could you give us a sense of the split between air and non-air activities, just to double check our numbers?

And on the fourth last question. So after the equity raise is completed, what is the terminal value, the cash that the shareholders will receive in 2046? Assume the concession is not renewed. Should it be around EUR 500 million of capital -- paid in capital, plus EUR 100 million of legal results?

Well, as regard the traffic for the winter, I think what I can say at this point is obviously that airline capacity is plan by the airlines. And as we said, this has been announced basically in the Slot Conference of June for the upcoming winter. We try to support airlines to maintain being an airport where we are peaking during the summer to maintain as much as possible capacity in the winter. And that -- based on that knowledge and bottom up, let's say, calculation and projection of our traffic for the winter that leads us to our statement of a mid-single-digit number for the full year of 2025.

Now as regard to the operating costs, you're absolutely right in the sense of we saw an increase year-on-year during the first half of the year. We tried to explain. One important point to keep here is the fact that we won't -- given the level of our traffic and our capacity non-air capacity levels, we want to continue investing on operating costs in order to maintain the levels of service we target to have. So this means that we have additional resources. And this is why the -- this is one of the main reasons for this increase.

We expect that this cost per passenger excluding the variable portion of the ground of rights fee that we recorded in the first half of the year, EUR 6.24 per passenger will be maintained throughout the year. I think it's important here to remind you that a significant part of the operating cost close to 85% relates to the regulated fee. So it's recovered and this is a target to be fully recovered by the Air Activity revenues.

Now in relation to the net income. Our overall guidance for the EUR 200 million takes into account in relation to the air activities that we will produce the 15% return on equity, the increased equity, and the full utilization of the carryforward amount. So you can expect that it will be close to 50%, 50% the contribution of the air and non-air activities on the net income.

And finally, in relation to the end of the concession, and it's in line with what we had said even before the Scrip Dividend, if there is no continuation. And in case of the end, let's say, of the companies, we will -- there will be return of the equity. And now it is increased equity plus the legal reserve. And of course, any, let's say, cash after paid all the obligations.

[Operator Instructions] We have a follow-up question from the line of Maglione Dario with BNP Paribas.

Some follow-up questions. You mentioned about the change to noncoordinated airport this summer. Where there any operational issues, or have we went smoothly?

And then on the commercial activity, you mentioned that the terminal -- works on the terminal have not started yet. When will they start?

Well, as regards the switch from the non-coordinated to a scheduled facilitated airport has to do with the fact that there is -- there are ATC-related constraints on the number of flights and there is a significant demand during the peak hours. And there's a growing hubbing activity, let's say, by the hub carriers. And therefore, there is -- we need to make sure that we can maintain the service levels to the maximum possible extent, both on the air side, but also in terms of terminal operations.

The issue of the construction we expect the tender for the construction to be completed by early in '26 and works to commence thereafter for the main terminal.

Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Paraschis for any closing comments. Thank you.

Well, thank you very much again for your interest in Athens Airport, and we wish you all a happy autumn.

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded, and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for calling, and have a pleasant evening.