Uniper Aktie

Dear ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Uniper Analyst and Investor Conference Call First Half Year Results. At our request, this conference call will be recorded. [Operator Instructions] I now hand you over to the Executive Vice President, 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 first half results for fiscal year 2026. Next to me on today's call are Michael Lewis, our Chief Executive Officer; and Christian Barr, our Chief Financial Officer. Michael will present an update on our key developments in the first half of 2026, and Christian will walk you through our first half financial performance and our financial year outlook for the remainder of this year. And as usual, we will wrap up with a Q&A session at the end.

And now let me hand over to Michael Lewis, please.

Thanks, Sebastian, and good morning, everyone, from my side, and thank you for joining our call. So let me start with the key highlights, and I'm very happy to confirm that Uniper delivered solid financial results for the first 6 months of 2026 and is fully on track to meet our financial guidance. We continue to navigate steadily through the increased volatile markets in reaction to the conflict in the Middle East. And whilst our operational business has not been directly impacted by the conflict, we had some operational challenges nonetheless in the first half of 2026.

The weak hydro conditions in Germany and the Nordic region, together with an unforeseen outage at Oskarshamn 3, weighed on earnings in Green Generation. This was partly offset by higher Nordic power prices, stronger U.K. capacity market earnings and improved hedge results for our flexible generation. The main positive driver in this first year comes from Greener Commodities, which rebounded from negative territory compared to last year when the segment was still burdened from past optimization spillover effects.

So putting all this into numbers, group adjusted EBITDA reached EUR 711 million, nearly doubling year-on-year. And group adjusted net income came in at around EUR 388 million. Against this background, we've narrowed our financial outlook for 2026, reflecting what we said in the beginning of 2026 that Uniper today is more focused and more balanced. And we now expect adjusted EBITDA to range between EUR 1.1 billion and EUR 1.3 billion, and adjusted net income is expected to come in between EUR 500 million and EUR 600 million.

And Christian will provide additional details on the financials and the outlook shortly. And let me add here, we continue to work on strengthening our portfolio, and we are making progress step by step. Just recently, we added another element to the rebuilding and diversification of our gas portfolio by concluding a gas supply contract with Ksi Lisims Canadian LNG project for up to 20 years. And our efforts to strengthen our portfolio contribute to security of supply, increase sourcing flexibility, and reduce exposure to individual regions and market disruptions, and it's also being recognized by our credit rating agencies.

Notably, we received for the first time an issuer rating by Fitch of BBB- with a stable outlook. Also, S&P and Scope reaffirmed their investment-grade rating and stable outlook for Uniper with BBB- and BBB, respectively. And with the resumption of shareholder distributions, we added another missing piece to bringing Uniper back to capital market readiness. The EUR 0.72 per share dividend paid in May reflects both our confidence in the sustainability of our business model and our commitment to shareholder returns.

Let me now turn to our home market in Germany. We're well positioned to participate in the upcoming StromVKG auctions with around 1.7 gigawatt of hydrogen-ready new gas-fired power plants. Our existing infrastructure and advanced permitting underpin our sound preparation, and we're confident to be able to execute and deliver our projects in the event of a successful award in the auctions.

In summary, we are ready. And looking beyond capacity mechanisms, we also see attractive growth opportunities in the expanding development of data centers, where our sites, our grid connections, and energy expertise provide a solid foundation for future value creation, and I'll discuss this in more detail in a couple of minutes. Now let me highlight how current market trends fit into our broader strategy.

So over the past 12 months, we further sharpened our portfolio and investment priorities to address the key trends shaping Europe's energy future. First, strengthening security of supply; second, enabling decarbonization; and third, supporting electrification and meeting growing power demand driven by digitization and AI.

And we've systematically strengthened the foundations of our business. Our gas procurement portfolio is more diversified today, both in terms of suppliers and geographic sourcing. And combined with rigorous risk management and a strong balance sheet, this has significantly enhanced the resilience of our company.

As a result, Uniper stands today on a stable and sustainable foundation. We operate from a fundamentally stronger position with a business model that is better equipped to navigate uncertainty while capturing the opportunities arising from Europe's increasing electricity demand. And taken together, our strong performance and the progress we've made in transforming and strengthening the company give us confidence in our ability to continue creating value for our customers, for society, and for shareholders alike.

And this brings me to the next slide concerning our sharpened CapEx plan. Looking ahead, we continue with our plan to invest around EUR 5 billion in growth and transformation by 2030, building on our core strength in flexible and low-carbon generation. In the near term, more than half of our planned growth and transformation CapEx are expected to be deployed in Flexible Generation.

The key enabler is the progress on Germany's power market framework. With the legislative approval of the so-called StromVKG, a key prerequisite has now been established to support investments in new dispatchable generation capacity and strengthen long-term security of supply. As I mentioned earlier, we stand ready. The first capacity auction is scheduled for September 8 with 4.5 gigawatts to be tendered, followed by a second round with another volume of 4.5 gigawatts envisaged for December this year.

And this brings us closer to executing on some of our major growth investments. With our planned hydrogen-ready gas-fired power plants at Scholven and Staudinger. Uniper is well positioned to contribute to Germany's future security of supply while creating sustainable long-term value for shareholders. In parallel, the German government continues to advance plans for a permanent capacity market from 2031 onwards, providing a long-term framework to support system stability and investment in reliable generation capacity.

We also see attractive growth opportunities arising from the increase of data center demand. It's expected that this trend will drive substantial growth in power consumption across Europe, creating additional demand for reliable and low-carbon power solutions. At the same time, Uniper is well positioned to benefit from this trend, and I'll come back to this in more detail shortly. For Green Generation, we continue to grow our renewables business, backed by a well-filled project pipeline.

Projects totaling 570 megawatts are currently in execution, and we signed several long-term power purchase agreements across offshore wind and solar in Germany and Poland. And our aim is to bring around 500 megawatts of renewable projects to Final Investment Decision annually going forward. And this supports our objective of creating sustainable long-term value while further strengthening future earnings resilience.

And finally, we have a clear road map for rebuilding our gas and LNG business and to capture emerging opportunities in renewable and low-carbon gases. Moving on to the next slide, I want to share with you how we're positioned to benefit from the growing demand for data centers. The rapid growth in AI is driving unprecedented demand for data center capacity. At the same time, access to power, sites, and grid connections is a critical bottleneck. For Uniper, this represents a compelling growth opportunity.

Our portfolio includes strategic brownfield sites and existing infrastructure in some of Europe's most attractive future data center locations. We can offer hyperscalers and data center developers an integrated infrastructure proposition, combining strategic brownfield sites and support for securing power capacity and grid connections. This enables us to participate in one of Europe's fastest-growing markets. Valuation -- value creation starts with site development through land sales or land leases and selected co-investment opportunities.

Beyond site development, we see future upside earnings potential through long-term power purchase agreements. And as of today, we've identified more than 10 locations with the potential to host data center developments. These sites across Germany and the U.K -- Three sites across Germany and the U.K. are already progressing through more advanced development stages.

Now, before I hand over to Christian, let me share our key priorities for the remainder of the year 2026. For the second half of the year, our priorities are clear. First, Uniper will support the reprivatization process, for which we are well positioned. Over the past years, we significantly strengthened our balance sheet, reduced risk, improved our operational performance, and established a clear and consistent equity story.

Second, with regulatory clarity now in place through the StromVKG, we are well prepared for the upcoming auctions. The outcome of these auctions will shape the majority of our planned growth and transformation investments through to 2030. And third, operational execution remains key and is the focus delivering our results for the second half of the year.

In this context, we will also complete our leadership team, and Christian Ohlms will join us as Chief Commercial Officer effective October 1. And finally, we're on track to complete our cost savings program by the end of 2026, unlocking around EUR 100 million in annual savings from 2027 onwards. With that, I'll now hand over to Christian, who will guide you through our numbers for the first half of the year. Christian?

Yes. Thanks, Mike, and a very warm welcome to all of you also from my side. And as Mike mentioned, Uniper delivered a solid first half performance despite several market and operational factors that weighed on earnings during the second quarter. Group adjusted EBITDA increased by EUR 332 million year-over-year to EUR 711 million.

And in addition, group adjusted net income improved by EUR 253 million to EUR 388 million. The improvement was primarily driven by a significantly stronger contribution from our Gas Midstream business, following the well-known substantial earning burden recorded in the prior-year period. This overcompensated for somewhat lower contributions from Green Generation and Flexible Generation.

Overall, the generation businesses were impacted by lower generation volumes for both Green and Flexible Generation segments, which were partially offset by higher Nordic prices, stronger U.K. capacity earnings, and improved hedge results in Flexible Generation. However, we are seeing supportive market developments across parts of the portfolio as we move into the second half of the year.

Importantly, we have already secured close to 60% of the midpoint of our full year earnings outlook, providing a solid foundation for the remainder of 2026. As a result, we remain confident in achieving full-year guidance, which we are now able to narrow both for adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income. With that, let us now take a closer look at the reconciliation of group adjusted EBITDA from the first half of 2025 to the first half of 2026 to understand the key factors shaping Uniper's operating performance.

As the waterfall chart shows, the most significant positive change came from Greener Commodities, which delivered an adjusted EBITDA of EUR 260 million compared with a negative contribution of nearly EUR 300 million in the first half of 2025. This development was largely driven by past optimization measures in the Gas Midstream business, where the earnings were affected -- where the earnings effected that weighed on the prior-year period were no longer present.

In addition, our LNG business continued to deliver earnings at an elevated level, albeit below the exceptionally strong contribution recorded in the first half of 2025. Green Generation delivered an adjusted EBITDA of EUR 302 million compared to -- compared with EUR 420 million in the prior-year period. German hydro earnings declined due to less favorable hedge positions following an exceptionally high price environment in the past embedded in the prior-year result.

Generation volumes weakened modestly, reflecting another year of similarly weak precipitation conditions as in 2025. The favorable pricing environment in Sweden that we discussed during our first quarter results call continued to support earnings in the first half, particularly through stronger realized prices in January and February. Despite lower hydro volumes, earnings from our Swedish hydro operations were higher in the first half of 2026 than in the comparable period last year.

However, the stronger hydro contribution was not sufficient to fully offset the impact of reduced nuclear generation, primarily due to the earlier start and longer duration of the outage at Oskarshamn 3 relative to the prior-year period. Following completion of the necessary remedial measures, Oskarshamn 3 has been ramped up again and returned to normal operations in July. Following the increase in Swedish power prices captured during the first quarter of 2026, forward hedge prices remained largely unchanged between the end of March and the end of June.

At the same time, we continue to build our hedge position by locking in additional volumes across the 2026 to 2028 delivery periods. Turning to Flexible Generation, the segment generated an adjusted EBITDA of EUR 286 million compared with EUR 333 million in the first half of 2025. Improved market conditions in Germany and the Netherlands translated into stronger hedge results, while higher U.K. capacity market earnings further supported earnings during the period. These positive effects largely offset lower generation volumes, mainly reflecting weaker U.K. power spreads, lower availabilities at Irsching, and a smaller asset base following the disposal of Datteln 4.

In addition, the positive contribution from legal dispute settlements recorded in the prior-year period did not recur in H1 2026. Finally, the year-over-year development in Admin and Others largely driven by foreign exchange effects. The next slide shows adjusted EBITDA reconciled to adjusted net income. The development in group adjusted net income largely followed the strong year-over-year improvement in adjusted EBITDA.

Adjusted net income increased to EUR 388 million in the first half of 2026 compared with EUR 135 million in the prior-year period. Depreciation and amortization of almost EUR 260 million remained broadly stable year-over-year with only marginal change compared with the first half of 2025. Below operating profit, we continue to report positive economic interest result of EUR 56 million, albeit at a lower level than in the prior-year period.

The year-over-year decline primarily reflects the valuation effects on the provisions and lower interest income on cash balances as market interest rates continued to decrease. These effects were partially offset by lower commitment fees following the termination of our KfW credit facilities at the end of 2025. Last, the tax rate on operating earnings is 25.3%. Let us now move to the next slide and look at the development of operating cash flow. Slide #12 shows the reconciliation from adjusted EBITDA to operating cash flow, which remained at a very strong level.

Please keep in mind that this elevated level is primarily driven by the seasonal working capital effects and therefore, does not reflect the normal cash conversion characteristics of our business. Provision utilization included cash payments to the German federal government related to previously realized attachment proceeds, which had a negative impact on the cash flow during the period. Working capital requirements were substantially lower, mainly reflecting seasonal gas withdrawals and only moderate gas storage refilling in the second quarter.

In addition, operating cash flow benefited from a stronger seasonal cash inflow from wholesale customers and power-related receivables, resulting in a positive working capital contribution overall. Other was positively influenced by a non-operating compensation settlement of EUR 165 million received from the Dutch government. This payment relates to restrictions on coal-fired power generation imposed by the Netherlands in 2022. As a result, operating cash flow amounted to almost EUR 2 billion in the first half of 2026.

As we already indicated earlier this year, we continue to expect operating cash flow to be front-loaded in 2026. The planned rebuild of gas inventories plus the seasonal increase in wholesale and power receivables, and associated with working capital effects in the second half will weigh on cash generation, meaning that full-year cash conversion is expected to be below 100%. With that, let us now move to the latest figures on Uniper's economic net debt. At the end of June 2026, economic net cash increased to EUR 4.5 billion compared with EUR 2.8 billion at year-end 2025.

The main driver of this development was the strong, seasonally driven operating cash flow generated in the first half of 2026. At the same time, capital expenditures remained comparatively low. Previously indicated, we expect investments to be more weighted towards the second half of the year, reflecting potential awards from the upcoming German capacity market auctions. During the period, we also resumed dividend payments and distributed EUR 0.72 per share or EUR 300 million, to shareholders in May following approval at the Annual General Meeting.

In addition, economic net cash benefited from lower -- from overall lower asset retirement and pension provision compared with year-end 2025. The latter reflects strong returns on planned assets during the first half of this year. Overall, our financial position remains very strong and provides a solid foundation to fund future growth investments while maintaining substantial financial flexibility. As cash generating -- generation normally over the course of the year, normalizes over the course of the year, we expect both our net cash position at year-end 2026 to be below the exceptionally strong levels reported today.

Nevertheless, we continue to operate with significant liquidity reserves consisting of cash, fixed income and committed credit facilities, providing ample flexibility to execute our strategy and respond to changing market conditions. With that, let me conclude my presentation by turning to our outlook for the financial year 2026 on the next slide. For the full year, we remain firmly on track. As we said earlier this year, Uniper is on a solid footing and continues to navigate more volatile markets steadily, including the effects of the ongoing Middle East crisis.

At the same time, our 2026 earnings profile remains front-loaded. With greater visibility for the second half 2026, we are narrowing our 2026 guidance while lifting the lower end of the range of EUR 100 million for group adjusted EBITDA and by EUR 150 million for the group adjusted net income. We now expect group adjusted EBITDA of EUR 1.1 billion to EUR 1.3 billion and group adjusted net income of EUR 500 million to EUR 600 million. As said before, 2026 marks our new baseline, reflecting a more focused portfolio also following completed asset disposals.

In a nutshell, H1 2026 performance was solid despite operational headwinds in our generation business. We are well positioned for the remainder of the year, supported by a more resilient portfolio. Strategy execution is progressing with H2 expected to provide clearer visibility on the development of our CapEx plans. This concludes today's presentation.

And with that, I would like to hand back to Sebastian to open the Q&A session. Sebastian, over to you, please. Thank you.

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

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Anna Webb from UBS.

First question on the CCGT tenders in Germany. Can you just give us some detail about how much you intend to tender, how many gigawatts you intend to bid into the process? And also where you are on the supply chain? Obviously, as we know the gas turbine market is very tight. So have you secured your production slot and pricing for that? Any detail you can give us there would be great.

And secondly, I appreciate it's a difficult topic for you to comment on, but anything you can factually say around where the government is in their sale process? I think there's been quite a lot of reports around the potential buyers and the kind of private sale route. I just wanted to know if the IPO is still on the table or if we have any detail, anything you can comment kind of factually on that process? Just to give us a bit more clarity would be really helpful.

Thanks, Anna. I will answer both of those questions. First of all, on the StromVKG tender process, which is, as you say, hydrogen-ready CCGTs. We will bid in 1.7 gigawatts. That's 2 projects, Scholven in North Rhine-Westphalia and Staudinger in Hessen, both of them very good sites where we've already done a lot of the prework. And I've said it before, we believe we have very good sites, and we believe we have a very competitive position.

In terms of our sourcing of plant from the OEMs, yes, we have a strategic relationship with Siemens Energy, which we've had for some time. And so we have secured the relevant plant and equipment for those projects. So we're very confident we're in a good position to enter those auction processes. As far as the reprivatization is concerned, I can only restate what the government has already said, namely that they -- which they announced in May in the Financial Times, they are pursuing 2 options, one of which is a private sale, one of which is a potential IPO. And any other questions about that, I'm afraid, must be directed to the German government.

Sorry, can I just ask one very quick follow-up on the first question. You said you secured the supply chain with Siemens. Is that a fixed price already? Or is that to be negotiated at a later date?

No, that's all -- we have already locked in prices.

Your next question comes from the line of Peter Crampton from Barclays.

Two, if I may. One relates to -- we're obviously seeing quite poor hydro conditions across Europe. Yesterday, you raised your '26 guidance. So, is the assessment kind of correct that given kind of your integrated conventional kind of generation operations, you're able to offset that kind of weakness?

And then the second question relates to Oskarshamn 3 in Sweden. We've obviously seen a general outage, some extra outages on top. Are you now kind of projecting the plant properly returning back to service? Or is there risk of further outages?

Thanks, Peter. I'll take the second question first, and then I'll hand over to Christian to talk about the remainder of the year and the impact of hydro conditions. So when it comes to Oskarshamn 3, you're absolutely right, there was an extended outage, which was longer than we had planned for. There were various technical reasons for that. What I can say is though we are now back in operation, and we don't expect any further challenges this year, and we are back on track. Maybe, Christian, if you want to pick up the first question?

Happy to pick up the first question. You're right. We saw really severe hydro conditions in the German, but also in the Swedish market in the first half, and we expect this continue to a certain extent also into the third quarter at least. And all of these conditions, the drought in both markets are considered in our current forecast and our current guidance. So, any of the market conditions, be it on the generation side or on the price side, are, of course, always considered in our latest forecast.

Your next question comes from the line of Louis Boujard from ODDO BHF.

Maybe 3 on my side, if I may. The first one regarding the guidance. You raised the bottom of the guidance to EUR 1.1 billion to EUR 1.3 billion and EUR 500 million to EUR 600 million, but you posted EUR 711 million of EBITDA in the first half. And then could you please elaborate on what could explain why you seem to be maybe a little bit cautious regarding the implied H2 that we could expect?

My second question would be regarding the cash flow generation. Operating cash flow, extremely strong in the 1H, I think close to EUR 2 billion, most likely some seasonal effect. Could you eventually provide us with elements regarding what could reverse in the second half and how much of the cash generation will remain by the end of the year? And maybe one last question at this point in time regarding the data center. You have identified more than 10 sites.

Could you give us more details on the 3 projects that are apparently well advanced regarding the location, potential capacities, expected timing? And more importantly, do you think that eventually there is room for final investment decision in this kind of project and potentially increase the CapEx envelope of EUR 5 billion in the relatively short term regarding this kind of development pipeline?

I will pick up on the last question, and then I'll hand over to Christian to deal with the question on guidance for the second half, and whether we are cautious, and on cash flow and what elements are repeatable and where we expect the position to be at year-end. But when I come on to the data centers, yes, we have 3 projects, 2 of which are in the U.K. and one is in Germany. At this stage, I don't want to give away too many details because we are in critical discussions with potential counterparties.

What I can say is we have various different business models for those sites, either providing infrastructure and grid connection or a land sale or a lease. And that depends on the specific site, specific challenges of that site, and on what the potential counterparty wants. But we do expect within the next 18 months to be able to announce some more concrete progress there and precisely what those deals entail and precisely what they mean for Uniper. But like I said, there's some fairly detailed commercial discussions ongoing at the moment. So I don't want to say any more at this stage. As soon as we are in a position to do so, we will, of course, give you more details.

Christian, do you want to pick up on question 1?

Question 1 and 2. The first question, if I got it correctly, was a question regarding our guidance, EUR 1.1 billion to EUR 1.3 billion and to which extent hydro risk from the current severe situation around the drought is incorporated, as I said in the question before, we are considering and forecasting that the drought might continue in both markets in Germany and in Sweden. It doesn't stop on the 30th of June.

And of course, we took some analysis to derive what this might mean, and we came to the conclusion that the impact -- the financial impact from lower generation on the German also on the Swedish side will continue to appear for a certain period of time, at least for Q3, and this has been incorporated into our internal forecast and, therefore, also into our guidance later the year, this might come back to -- the hydro conditions might come back to normality.

In terms of the cash flow, you're right. Cash flow at the moment, operational cash flow with EUR 2 billion stands really on a very, very high level, unusually high level, which is driven by 2 effects, as we explained in our speech and on our slides. First, we had lower gas storage levels is around EUR 500 million and another also reducing receivables over the course of the year by another EUR 400 million to EUR 500 million, which drives it up now to EUR 2 billion, which is unusually high.

It's seasonal to a certain extent, seasonal normally, but it's very high, and we expect this to unwind over the course of the year, as we said, and bring it back because -- on the first hand, we -- as usual, by end of the year, wholesale customers, our Stadtwerke customers continue to consume more. This means receivables move up again. We build up working capital. And secondly, we do assume, as we already do, that we have to refill the storages and will refill the storages.

At the moment, as we said in many, many speeches, the incentives from the market is not as high as it should be, but also this is a topic, which will unwind over the course of the year. Therefore, our operational forecast, which I said before, will be -- the cash conversion rate will be slightly below 1 in comparison to the EBITDA.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Erkan Aycicek from LBBW.

I have one question regarding your Green Generation. Could you please quantify the earnings impact of the unplanned outage of your Oskarshamn nuclear power plant?

Yes, I'm happy to do so. So the prolonged maintenance outages Oskarshamn 3, and additional standstill at minority-owned plants resulted in a burden in a middle double-digit million EBITDA number.

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call over to Sebastian Veit. Please continue.

Yes. Thank you. And dear analysts and investors, this will conclude our call for today. Thank you for listening in and asking questions. We're looking forward to our next Uniper analyst and investor call. Until then, wish you a good remainder of the week and stay safe. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Uniper Analyst and Investor Conference Call First Quarter Results 2026. 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 on the first quarter results 2026. Next to me on today's call are Michael Lewis, our Chief Executive Officer; and Christian Barr, our Chief Financial Officer. Michael will present company highlights followed by Christian covering financial results for Q1 2026. And as usual, we will wrap up with a Q&A session at the end. And now, let me hand over to Michael Lewis, please.

Thanks, Sebastian, and very good morning, everyone, from my side, and thanks very much for joining the call. And let me start by highlighting the results of the first quarter, and I'm pleased to say we had a very good start into the financial year of 2026. Our operational earnings in the first quarter matched our expectations as presented during our full year 2025 Investor and Analyst Call in March. Group adjusted EBITDA ended up with EUR 407 million whilst group adjusted net income reached EUR 231 million.

And this performance was achieved despite the heightened geopolitical tensions. We know the conflict in the Middle East and its impact on the key global supply routes caused significant volatility in commodity prices during March and uncertainty about the length of the conflict prevails, and this continues to influence market as a peaceful resolution unfortunately, is not yet in sight.

Nonetheless, Uniper's operational business has only been affected to a limited extent by the conflict in the Middle East as Uniper has no direct physical exposure to the region. Our gas portfolio is deliberately diversified and the derisking of our portfolio over the past few years bears fruit in the current environment. However, we will continue to monitor the development in the Middle East very closely. The good operating results in the first 3 months underscores what we said during our full year results call in March, namely Uniper is today more resilient than in the past, working with a diversified business model.

We continue to work diligently on derisking our portfolio, and we continue to be well positioned to seize opportunities in our core markets in Europe. And with a streamlined portfolio after asset disposals 2026 marks a new baseline for Uniper. And for the remainder of the year, we fully confirm our given full year earnings outlook. Looking ahead, we remain focused on continuously strengthening our competitiveness and our profitability. Our efficiency program is on track and delivering as planned. supported by the first wave of employee departures completed at the end of March.

We therefore expect the full cost saving effect to materialize from 2027 onwards. Our financial position remains strong. At the end of Q1 2026, economic net cash stood at EUR 4.4 billion, a plus of around EUR 1.6 billion compared to year-end 2025. In addition to the good operating performance, especially our strong operating cash flow, boosted by our economic net cash position, and I'll pick this up later. We also strengthened our financial position for the next years by extending our EUR 3 billion syndicated credit facility until 2029, providing continued flexibility and stability.

On the next slide, I would like to outline how recent market developments have impacted our business. Over the past 2 months, investors and analysts have been looking more closely at the impact of the sharp increase in commodity prices and the resulting volatility in the energy market on Uniper's business performance. I'd like to emphasize a main point straightaway, namely, the derisking of our portfolio has been successful so far. We do not source gas from the Middle East region, and we are not directly affected by the Strait of Hormuz closure, unlike in 2021 and 2022, rising commodity and electricity prices have not impacted our financial position, and we are now even seeing cash inflows from collateral for forward contracts.

At Uniper, we typically leverage our portfolio to maximize opportunities during periods of increasing spreads and price volatility. And we have been optimizing hedge positions for our gas -- in our gas midstream operations and power generation business. And new forward deals have been signed with better spreads available in certain periods of preferable price fluctuations. However, the persistent and hard to predict economic challenges in Europe coupled with a cautious approach from customers are the boundaries for the potential to create substantially increased returns and a comprehensive assessment of the Uniper Group's recent earnings trends requires consideration beyond the commodity price perspective alone.

During the first quarter of 2026, earnings were positively impacted by favorable developments in electricity prices in the Nordic market driven primarily by weather-related conditions, independent of the increase in gas prices. Overall, through effective forward hedging and strategic position optimization since the beginning of the year, we have achieved improved visibility and enhanced confidence in our capacity to meet the financial outlook for 2026 even if things get bumpier.

And whilst the short-term outlook for global commodity markets remains uncertain, the German government has finally offered greater clarity on measures to make the country's electricity market more resilient for the future, which is a significant milestone for the sector. This is good news for Uniper and moves us nearer to engaging in the auctions, thereby executing our main growth investments. The German Ministry of Economic Affairs is seeking final approval for a bill that includes the proposal for the establishment of a permanent capacity market commencing in autumn 2031.

Currently discussed draft bill also integrates the construction of new power plants into the support scheme aiming to significantly enhance system stability. The bill demonstrates how the government plans to tackle the risk caused by diminishing electricity baseload capacities following the exit from nuclear and coal in Germany. It addresses the issue of bridging extended dunkelflauten, times when power generation from wind and solar are low as well as increased supply challenges in Southern Germany and approximately 11 gigawatts of new capacity is sought mainly consisting of gas-fired power plants that are hydrogen ready and highly reliable, especially throughout the winter.

And Uniper is ready to play its part through delivering its already advanced project developments at its sites in Staudinger near Frankfurt and Scholven in the Ruhr area. Uniper plans to install 870 megawatts of hydrogen-ready CCGT units at each location. We started developing the project early and have also worked closely with the relevant authorities and local councils to advance sections of the complex approval process, successful participation in the planned auctions will allow us to achieve COD before first of November 2031.

This leads me to a broader strategic perspective. A successful execution in the planned auctions would materially fill the gap of our planned EUR 5 billion spend until 2030, which about half is allocated to the flexible generation segment for new power plant construction or the extension of operating lifetimes for existing gas-fired power plants.

Together with more clarity for the whole power generation portfolio, backed by a newly introduced permanent capacity market this will provide much more visibility for Uniper's earnings prospects into the 2030s. But now back from promising prospects in the present. Turning to the quarterly figures in more detail. I will hand over to Christian. Christian?

Yes. Thanks, Mike, and a very warm welcome to all of you also from my side. As Mike mentioned at the beginning, we started the year in a very good shape, flagging already during our full year 2025 investor and analysts call that we expect group adjusted EBITDA to exceed the EUR 400 million mark already by end of the first quarter 2026. The group's adjusted EBITDA increased by EUR 546 million year-over-year, reaching EUR 407 million. Additionally, the group's adjusted net income recorded an improvement of EUR 374 million and totaled EUR 231 million in the first quarter.

This significant improvement year-over-year is primarily due to the absence of nonrecurring items that had previously diluted earnings in the gas midstream business while the greener generation and flexible generation segments recorded good and stable numbers. With that, let's now take a closer look at the reconciliation of group adjusted EBITDA from Q1 2025 to Q1 2026. The waterfall chart illustrates that the greatest year over year increase in earnings was attributable to greener commodities, which reported an adjusted EBITDA of EUR 66 million after experiencing an operating loss of nearly EUR 500 million in Q1 2025.

This reflects the digestion of negative effects from earlier optimization measures and the withdrawal of high-priced inventory already absorbed in the comparable quarter in 2025 and the return of our gas midstream business to normalized levels. The Green Generation segment delivered EUR 250 million making up more than half of group's adjusted EBITDA results and matching its performance from prior year levels. As part of our prudent hedging strategy, we managed the current energy price volatility by selling a large portion of our upcoming hydro power volume in the Nordics and in Germany.

Uniper's hydro and nuclear electricity generation in the Nordics benefited from the strong prices following a phase of low precipitation. We benefited from relatively better hydrological conditions in the northern part of Sweden, where most of our hydropower plants are located. Our nuclear power plants delivered lower sales volume following an unplanned outage at our nuclear plant in Oskarshamn 3, higher electricity prices compensated for the lower volumes produced. Overall, average realized prices in the first quarter of 2026 ended up markedly above last year's outcome.

The increase in Nordic market prices can also be tracked in our updated overhedging. By end of March, locked-in prices were up by EUR 6 per megawatt hour for the supply period 2026 and by EUR 1 each for 2027 and 2028. The German hydro business achieved lower earnings due to lower prices and volumes after lower precipitation affected low flow rates and run of river power stations. Last year's merchant hedging at about EUR 130 per megawatt hour was not repeatable. The flexible generation segment achieved an adjusted EBITDA of EUR 156 million, which was almost on par to last year's results, even though it operated with a smaller portfolio and produced less energy overall. Higher capacity market payments in the U.K. were clearly supportive.

The next slide shows adjusted EBITDA reconciled to adjusted net income. Group adjusted net income follows the adjusted EBITDA development. In the first quarter, the adjusted net income improved by EUR 376 million to EUR 231 million from the weak prior year figure. Depreciation and amortization remained at the same level as the comparable quarter. We continue to record a positive economic interest results. The company benefited from lower interest expenses due to the termination of the KfW credit facility end of 2025 and still sizable interest income in the first quarter 2026.

Even though this was lower than in the comparable first quarter. The previous first quarter was impacted by positive effect in the economic interest result from the valuation of long-term provisions on the back of higher interest rates. In total, the economic interest result amounted to a positive figure of EUR 28 million.

Now over to the operating cash flow on the next slide. This slide shows the reconciliation of the adjusted EBITDA to the operating cash flow for the first quarter of 2026. On the back of a strong business performance, the operating cash flow increased to EUR 1.6 billion. In addition, the operating cash flow was supported by positive working capital effects with a strong cash flow -- cash inflow of around EUR 1.2 billion. The latter reflects the significant reduction of gas inventory from the seasonally high withdrawals and low injections into gas storages in Q1.

Together with higher seasonal cash inflows from wholesale receivables, this delivered a positive working capital contribution. And due to extraordinary strong operating cash flow during the first quarter, a front-loaded shape will occur in 2026.

With that, let's move to the latest figure on Uniper's economic net debt. At the end of the first quarter of 2026, economic net debt stood at EUR 4.4 billion, reflecting the strong operating cash flow. Cash investments amounted to EUR 141 million in the first quarter. Additionally, the dividend for the financial year 2025, which is proposed to be EUR 0.72 per share or roughly EUR 300 million in total is subject to approval by the Annual General Meeting, which will be decided on May 20.

The proposed payments subject to approval by the Annual General Meeting will be reflected in our second quarter financials. On the financing side, we extended the EUR 3 billion revolving credit facilities to 2029 in line to securing short-term liquidity. Uniper continues to operate with a substantial liquidity reserve consisting of cash fixed income investments and undrawn revolving credit facilities. This reserve gives us ample flexibility to drive our strategy forward and respond flexibly to market changes.

Last, I would like to conclude my presentation today with a confirmation of the given outlook for fiscal year 2026 on Slide 12. We are reaffirming the financial year outlook 2026. Group adjusted EBITDA is expected to be between EUR 1 billion and EUR 1.3 billion, and adjusted net income will range from EUR 350 million to EUR 600 million. Reiterating what we said during our results presentation for the full year 2025 back in March, namely the financial year 2026 serves as a new baseline on the back of a reduced portfolio after the completion of the executed asset disposal.

The results in the first quarter show that we can navigate sturdy through the impacts of the Middle East conflict and which we are and that's our derisking strategy is bearing fruit. On the back of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, where a peace agreement is unfortunately not in sight yet. Markets remain volatile. Only the effect in the first weeks of the development in the Middle East are digested in our quarterly results. We expect a strong second quarter of 2026 around the same ballpark levels as Q2 2025.

We anticipate to see some tailwinds from favorable market developments in our half year numbers. However, we expect this year's earnings shape to be rather front-loaded as we continue to further derisk our businesses, secure earnings and safeguard security of supply. Let me briefly summarize. We had a very good start into the year. Uniper is well positioned going forward, supported by a more robust and resilient portfolio. This strengthens the business model gives us confidence for the remainder of the year and beyond. This concludes our presentation for today. And with that let me hand back to Sebastian to kick off the Q&A sessions. Sebastian, over to you, please.

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

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Louis Boujard from ODDO BHF.

I would have 2 questions to start with, maybe on my side. You reaffirmed today the full year '26 guidance despite the elevated volatility in gas markets and the escalation in the Middle East conflict. What are the key assumptions behind this unchanged outlook and particularly regarding the gas prices and the storage refilling and also the cost and availability of LNG going forward?

And maybe the second question would be more regarding your capital allocation. Economic net cash increased to EUR 4.4 billion, how are you currently thinking about capital allocation in the priorities between growth CapEx, shareholder distribution or eventually any M&A? And also considering your liquidity position that remains very strong under what condition could Uniper consider to be with a more progressive dividend framework after reprivatization process?

Okay. Shall I pick up the first question, and then I hand over the second question to you, Christian. Thanks for the questions, Louis. So on the first question, what are our assumptions? Basically, all of our assumptions in terms of gas prices are built on the market curves. So that's all clear and transparent and all of our forecasts are based on those. As far as gas storage is concerned, clearly, we keep a close eye on what's happening there and the summer/winter spread is critical. But at the moment, all of our assumptions there are built into -- are based on exactly what you see in the forward curves in the market. Christian, do you want to pick up the second question?

Yes, happy to do so, Mike. In terms of the second question and with regard to our very strong net cash position of EUR 4.4 billion, which is clearly driven at the moment by the high cash inflow of EUR 1.6 billion in the first quarter, which is quite front-loaded. As we said, this will revert to a certain extent by end of the year. We will -- we do not expect to significantly further increase the cash flow as we also have to refill storages and also hope to see usage of our cash position for the CapEx.

I think as we said earlier in terms of the allocation of our CapEx program, until 2030, approximately 50% of the CapEx program, EUR 5 billion is earmarked for flexible generation, which are -- which is represented by the new build of our gas-fired power plants, which are hydrogen ready, Mike, which you mentioned a couple of times. This is the most important topic, and this CapEx is fully funded until 2030, given the strong financial position we have. I think this is mainly is it. Anything I missed?

I would only add, I mentioned in my speech that the German CapEx strategy is now coming to first auction, 1st of September. And clearly, we have 2 major projects, which we will bid in there. So visibility on our CapEx plans is becoming increasingly better as we move forward. And that's a very big chunk of our liquidity that is planned for investment in those plans.

Maybe just a quick follow-up, if I may, since I asked, but regarding the dividend policy, do you think that you have room to be maybe a bit more generous with the shareholders going forward?

Maybe I'll take that one. I mean, at the moment, as you know, the Bundesministerium der Finanzen, the Finance Ministry is assessing options, as I said 1.5 years ago for our reprivatization. And when it comes to reprivatization, we will have more to say about the dividend. But all I can do today is confirm that we will be recommending a dividend to the AGM of EUR 300 million.

Any decision on any future dividends, as you said, Mike, not been decided yet.

Your next question comes from Anna Webb from UBS.

A couple from me. Firstly, on the new CCGTs, can you give any more detail on what you expect the support to look like? Obviously, I'm sure it's difficult for you to give kind of like exact guidance on what kind of level of support you need, but anything you know about what that might look like, how it might be structured, et cetera? And then kind of related to that, assuming that this is some way above where we see kind of long-term power prices, how you think the government is thinking about affordability of power prices in Germany and in the context of the support scheme. That's kind of the first question.

Second question on the trading or kind of current market volatility. Obviously, you've shown in the past, you have a portfolio which is able to optimize the kind of volatility we've seen in the markets, and you talked about the ability to kind of optimize your positions. Just wondering kind of to what extent keeping the guidance the same, which was obviously issued before the current situation. Is that kind of your -- is that baking in uncertainty on the volatility for the rest of the year? Or is there not a -- is it not significant the amount of benefit you can capture from the volatility in market conditions? Basically, just trying to get a sense of how much you can benefit from volatility in the market that we're seeing currently.

Thanks, Anna. Let me come to your first question on the new CCGTs. Obviously, the draft law was recently published, and it's very long and very detailed, and we are still digesting it. What I can say is -- and so it's too early to give any details. What I can say is elements will be rewarded through a capacity payment and elements will be rewarded through market payments. And our bid into that market will reflect our view of the market going forward and what size of capacity payment we require to run the plant.

But at this stage, it's too early to say any more than that. On the second question, yes, other things being equal, you can look to optimize and trade in a volatile market. But I should just caution that this market is extremely volatile at the moment, and we are seeing very big price shifts in very short amounts of time based on announcements from the U.S. government and other players. So it's very unpredictable and very large amounts of volatility. So we are not assuming at the moment that we are building in any assumptions about how we might benefit from that volatility. We are managing it. We are, first and foremost, managing the risks that arise from it and ensuring that we deliver our forecasted numbers.

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from Ingo Becker from Kepler Cheuvreux.

Also a question on your guidance, please. Are you -- I mean, you say you are guiding alongside the curves in energy markets, which quite clearly have changed dramatically since you first issued the guidance and actually already into that week. Is this also a matter of being perhaps hedged? And if so, should we expect a greater effect in both your Flex Gen and your Greener Commodities segment perhaps later the year or into next year? So is it perhaps just delayed and you can't just really put this into your guidance or indicate that?

And my second question would be on the Greener Commodities EBITDA, which was EUR 66 million in Q1. I know trading usually doesn't work that way, but still just asking, should we take this as a quarterly run rate for the remainder of the year?

Thanks, Ingo. I'll pick up the first question. I think you're absolutely right. We are significantly hedged, which is one reason why we are still forecasting that we come within our full year range of EUR 1 billion to EUR 1.3 billion. The price forecast, we do update them regularly. And if there are any major movements, we will obviously incorporate them into our next guidance. But for the time being, based on what we've seen in the market so far, we are confident in our EUR 1 billion to EUR 1.3 billion guidance. Christian, do you want to pick up the second question?

Yeah, absolutely. Happy to do so. Michael, the question Ingo was regarding Greener Commodities. If I've got you correctly, the EUR 66 million is now the quarter of -- the signal for the rest of the year. Point here is, in the first quarter, we saw a very volatile market with the beginning of the Middle East conflict and, therefore, also a change in the curve, as Mike said. Here we see, as I said in my speech, a very front-loaded earnings profile, which we now can oversee in Q1, of course, and also Q2 for the remainder of the year, Q3, Q4.

We still have some usual uncertainties. We are broadly hedged, as you know, in terms of our Green Generation and also other topics. But the positions cannot be simply, let's say, multiplied by 4 and then get to the full year's numbers. This is nothing which I would do now, as we still see some uncertainties for the remainder of the year. I hope this answers a little bit of your question.

Your next question comes from Louis Boujard from ODDO BHF.

Maybe 2 follow-ups on my side. One, if you could eventually update us on your medium-term strategy regarding the hedging notably in view of the evolution of the Nordic prices and the power market prices. I understand it was a tailwind in Q1. Most likely it might remain so in the relatively short term. But if we look beyond 2026, maybe '27, '28, I have a little bit of the feeling that you may be a little bit under hedged compared to maybe a normal situation.

Is it actually the case? And do you forecast any increase into the Nordic prices going forward? Or should we consider that we are in a normalization environment for this topic? And maybe another one a bit more general, given the focus in the decarbonization flexibility, where do you see the best risk reward for you regarding the renewable, the battery, the hydrogen and the flexible thermal generation, where would be for you the best risk reward for your investment plan going forward? I understand, of course, a large part in flexible thermal generation, but maybe I would like to have a bit more granularity on what you think regarding renewables, batteries and hydrogen.

Thanks, Louis. I'll maybe pick up the second question first. As you know, as we've just said, the lion's share of our investment is in the flexible generation in the forthcoming auctions for German power plants. But we do have significant developments in renewable energy, which is solar, onshore wind, and we classify battery storage in there as well because we do those as colocation projects rather than stand-alone projects. And we have a number of projects in the area of hydrogen.

And those are both in hydrogen production and electrolyzer projects, plus we've done pilot projects in storage. And what we're trying to do there is build a portfolio of options. We said right at the very beginning when we launched our strategy 3 years ago, our aim was to rebuild our power generation portfolio and decarbonize simultaneously, and that's exactly what we're doing with hydrogen-ready flexible power generation, closure of coal and rebuilding renewables. And of course, all those are organic investments, so it takes time.

Nonetheless, that is happening, and we have a large number of renewable projects currently under construction. We also built the portfolio of greener molecules projects because we want to gradually decarbonize our gas portfolio, but that will take a much longer period given the fact that the incentive systems are less well developed and the fact that the cost of hydrogen is still expensive compared to natural gas in spite of the current inflated price of natural gas.

So we will build those options, and we will respond as market incentives come into play and as the market builds. But I should say the lion's share in the short to midterm is in the flexible generation space. Then come on to our hedging, your first question. We are around 80% hedged for 2026, 45% for 2027 and 25% for 2028. That's specifically in the Nordic area. That is in line with our normal hedging strategy. And we believe that's the right hedging strategy for that market given the liquidity in the market. And that does mean we will be able to take advantage of any price developments, positive price developments in the Nordic market beyond this year and especially in 2028.

There are no further questions. I'll turn the call back over to Sebastian.

Thank you. And this would conclude our call today. Thanks, analysts and investors for dialing in, for asking your questions also for Christian and Mike to take us through the call. We will hear each other back on the 11th of August, and then our first half year results. And until then, I wish you a very, very good remainder of the day and a good week. Thanks, all, and bye-bye.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

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.

We can pay a dividend again for the first time since the crisis.

We have a strong financial position, and this is fantastic as a starting point for all the upcoming strategy implementation topics.

So Christian, 2025 was another challenging year for the energy sector. Maybe you can tell us what the numbers were like for Uniper.

You're absolutely right. We also had a challenging year in which we fundamentally improved the situation and derisked the company. And we ended up with an EBITDA of EUR 1.1 billion and an adjusted net income of EUR 544 million. This is a number we have to compare against precrisis level -- and comparably, so if you adjust by the smaller portfolio we currently have, this is absolutely back on the level we saw before.

On top of this, we also had to pay some refunds to the Federal Republic of Germany, our own contribution. That's something we paid in March, and we have a strong financial position with an economic net debt number of EUR 2.8 billion. So we are free of debt at the moment. And this is fantastic as a starting point for all the upcoming strategy implementation topics.

Absolutely. I think, the way you've set it out, we're now in a very strong position, not only as our operating results strong, we also have a very strong balance sheet ready to implement our strategy. And of course, the government also changed EnSiG, which means we can pay a dividend again for the first time since the crisis. And our intention is to pay EUR 0.72 per share, which is around EUR 300 million in total, which is an excellent result when you think of where we've come from. And again, I think it emphasizes how important it was for the government to rescue Uniper and to now put us in a place where we're stable and back on course.

And you won't believe how happy I am of this fact that we are now in a position to pay a dividend, to pay something back to our shareholders and demonstrate to the capital market that we are finally back, and this was still the missing piece.

Absolutely.

Key question also is, Mike, in terms of our strategy implementation, what are the key challenges for 2026?

Well, let's just pick up '25 first, and then I'll come on to '26. So in 2025, again, we made great progress in strategy implementation. As you know, we approved a number of renewable projects, and we now have over 500 megawatts in construction.

When you look at the financial investment decisions we took over the last couple of years. And we can add Happurg, our pump storage investment, onto that as well. We also started to rebuild our gas portfolio, having won the arbitration case against Gazprom, and we canceled the contracts with Russia. And now we're rebuilding. We have new contracts with Woodside and Tourmaline.

Then when it comes on to this year, for 2026, again, we continue to make progress with the renewables, but we will hopefully have the first [Foreign Language] strategy auctions later this year. And as you know, we're really well positioned. We have 2 fantastic projects, one in Scholven, one in Staudinger, and we hope to win those and put ourselves in a position where we can start to implement those hydrogen-ready gas plants.

And of course, in the U.K., we also have Connah's Quay, where we're making great progress. That's the CCS plant. So the decarbonization of our portfolio continues, whilst we take care of security of supply.

And this brings me to the, let's say, forecast for 2026. As you said, another challenging year with a lot of strategy implementation ahead of us, [Foreign Language] and so on and so forth.

Key topic for us is, at the moment, and remains to keep our really good stand-alone rating, BBB with a government uplift of one notch. It's key to keep it, and in order to keep it, we have to, let's say, also make sure that we are continuously profitable. And what we see for this year coming is an EBITDA range between EUR 1.0 billion and EUR 1.3 billion. So pretty much in line with last year. And net income, which is equally important, between EUR 350 million and EUR 600 million. And this gives us the right to play, to discuss all the things you just mentioned, to properly implement the strategy and also do something for the rating agencies and also our shareholders.

And that's excellent news. And I think it's testimony to the stability we've now got at Uniper. But of course, we can't be complacent. We know there's a hugely challenging situation in the Middle East. We know things are going to be turbulent going forward. We've seen some price developments recently as a consequence of that Middle Eastern situation. So we need to be ever vigilant, but we stand on strong foundations. And I think we're going to deliver for 2026 just as we did for 2025.

Dear ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Uniper Analyst and Investor Conference Call for the first 9 months of fiscal year 2025. At our request, this conference will be recorded. [Operator Instructions].

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. Welcome to the Uniper Interim Results Call for the first 9 months of fiscal year 2025. Next to me on today's call are Michael Lewis, our Chief Executive Officer; and Christian Barr, our new Chief Financial Officer. I'm glad that both are with us today, and a special warm welcome to Christian joining us for his first results presentation as Uniper's new Chief Financial Officer.

Today, Michael will start with a summary of the company highlights, and Christian will guide you through the financial performance for the first 9 months 2025. And as usual, there will be a Q&A session after the presentation.

Now let me hand you over to Michael Lewis, please.

Thank you, Sebastian, and a very good morning to everyone, and thank you for tuning in to Uniper's 9 months results call for 2025. And we're very pleased to report a solid set of results in a challenging market environment, and we can confirm our outlook for the full year.

But before we get into the numbers, I'd like to give you an update on our leadership team. And with me today for the very first time is Christian Barr, who I cordially welcome here as our new Chief Financial Officer, and this is, in fact, his fourth working day. And Christian joined as CFO on November 1. I've known Christian for quite some time as we were former colleagues at E.ON and we successfully worked together at E.ON U.K., where Christian served as the CFO when I was the CEO, and we successfully managed the U.K. transformation on the acquisition of npower. And Christian has a distinguished track record in financial management within the energy sector. And this experience, coupled with his transformation expertise, make him an invaluable addition to our management team. So, again, I repeat, a very warm welcome, Christian.

And alongside Christian's appointment, we've also reorganized our management Board to focus more effectively on our strategic transformation, and effective from November 1, a new division has been established combining the roles of Chief People and Transformation Officer. This new area is led by a long-standing, highly experienced colleague, Fabienne Twelemann. Fabienne has held key roles over the past years in the CEO area of Uniper in leading our communications and government relations function during the energy crisis as well as heading successfully our Human Resources function over the past year. And she's widely recognized across Uniper for her leadership skills and her ability to drive change, and I'm delighted that she's now part of Uniper's Management Board.

In addition, Uniper has extended the contracts of Holger Kreetz, our Chief Operating Officer; and Carsten Poppinga, our Chief Commercial Officer, for a further 5 years through to February 2031, and both Carsten and Holger are playing pivotal roles in Uniper's strategic transformation. And Carsten is, among other things, focused on building a diverse and risk-balanced gas and LNG portfolio following our successful litigation against Gazprom and our cancellation of those contracts. And Holger is delivering the transformation of our power plant portfolio. And their continued presence on the Management Board will provide the continuity and stability needed to successfully execute our strategic transformation.

And in this context, I'd also like to express my sincere thanks to Jutta Donges as former Chief Financial Officer for her extraordinary commitment and outstanding contribution over the past years. Her performance was absolutely decisive for Uniper's stabilization and the successful repositioning of the group. And on behalf of the entire Management Board and all employees, I would like to wish Jutta every success in her new role and in her personal future.

And with this, let's now turn to our 9 months highlights on Slide 4. As you can see, our operating business performed solidly in the first 9 months of this year. The positive earnings momentum from the second quarter continued into the third quarter. Group adjusted EBITDA amounted to EUR 641 million, and group adjusted net income reached EUR 268 million. As anticipated, these figures are below the exceptionally strong results of the prior year period, but they are in line with expectations. Also, our financial position remains in very good shape even after the full payment of the EUR 2.6 billion of contractual recovery claims of the Federal Republic of Germany in March 2025, and the group's net cash position reached EUR 3.3 billion at the end of September.

Looking ahead, we're on track to deliver our full year earnings outlook. We expect adjusted EBITDA to range between EUR 1 billion and EUR 1.3 billion, and adjusted net income is expected to come in between EUR 350 million and EUR 550 million. And Christian will provide a more detailed explanation of the financial drivers in a moment.

So our transformation journey continues. On the financing side, we've extended our toolkit. Only recently, we published our Green Finance framework, which will form the basis for green bond issuance in the future. A decision for issuance is not planned at the moment, but this Green Finance framework and our debt issuance program together form a strong debt financing tool set, securing a range of options for future funding. In addition, we've also been able to further reduce the KfW credit line from EUR 5 billion to EUR 1 billion as of October 1.

Coming to our strategic transformation. So far, we've invested EUR 610 million this year, with the majority of this investment going into our Flexible Generation and Green Generation segments, and we continue to focus on the execution of our strategy. For instance, a number of financial decisions in the renewables business are still expected this year. Furthermore, we fulfilled almost all the necessary remedy measures and obligations agreed between the German government and the EU Commission as part of the state aid approval.

And we've announced the sale of the 1.1 gigawatt German coal-fired power plant, Datteln 4, and this transaction is still subject to the usual regulatory approvals. And also since the last call, we've announced the sale of the district heating business in Germany, which successfully closed a few days ago. So we've made great progress in that area.

But let's now take a closer look at the 9 months results. And Christian, over to you.

Yes. Thanks, Mike, for your kind introduction, and a warm welcome to all of you. It's a privilege to join Uniper as the Chief Financial Officer, and my special thanks go to my predecessor, Jutta Donges, whose exceptional dedication and excellent work has laid a strong foundation for Uniper's next step. In a professional and smooth handover process, Jutta was handing over to me a critical sphere of responsibility for Uniper's success, which is supported by a highly qualified and superbly coordinated team. I look forward to working with our talented teams to drive Uniper's transformation and create long-term value.

I bring with me sector expertise and experience from various senior financial leadership roles within the E.ON Group. And over the years, I gained extensive expertise in the commodity business and a deep understanding of all parts of the energy value chain from the supply energy down to its consumption. And as he said, I worked closely and successfully together with Mike Lewis as CFO of E.ON U.K. until 2023. While I followed Uniper's developments with interest over the past years, it was also great to meet again many colleagues I still know from our joint E.ON times. So the start during the first days was very positive in any respect.

With Uniper's strong asset base and a clear decarbonization strategy, I am convinced that we are well positioned to play an essential part in Europe's energy transition. And my key priorities are twofold: First, continue safeguarding Uniper's strong financial position; and second, support the strategy execution while maintaining rigorous investment discipline. I'm grateful for the trust placed in me by the Supervisory Board and Mike Lewis. I look forward to working closely with my fellow Board members and the wider Uniper team to deliver sustainable value.

And now I'm pleased to present the Uniper numbers of the first 9 months of 2025 in more detail. Headline. Results for the 9 months of the 2025 financial year have been published in an ad hoc release on 24th of October, as we did in previous quarters of this year. The outlook of the whole year 2025 has been confirmed. In the period under review, Uniper generated an adjusted EBITDA of EUR 640 million. The group's adjusted net income came in at EUR 268 million. We achieved these results against the backdrop of a decline in Uniper's gas sales and lower electricity generation volume. The latter was also driven by portfolio changes, decommissioning of plants and outages. Margins from forward hedging transactions have normalized in this market environment. Further figures are detailed on subsequent slides.

Coming from an elevated level, greener commodities recorded a sizable drop in adjusted EBITDA contribution to Uniper's group results. After 9 months of the 2025 financial year, the segmental adjusted EBITDA was still negative at minus EUR 196 million. However, since Q2, a turnaround is clearly visible with profit contribution of around EUR 300 million in the summer season. Overall, the reduction in earnings is primarily linked to the concession of favorable margins from prior years.

Key influences on earnings include challenges resulting from previous portfolio optimization measures and the end of gains associated with alternative Russian gas supply hedging. One bright spot was the significant increase in earnings contributions from the U.S. LNG business, which benefited from earlier favorable forward sales.

Flexible Generation. Earnings declined by more than 50% to EUR 459 million in the 9 months of the 2025 financial year, reflecting the current market environment and a reduced fossil fuel portfolio. But the result remains satisfactory. A decrease in margins after the end of elevated clean dark and spark spreads observed until mid-2024 was smoothened by some offsetting effects, including additional earnings resulting from the settlement of contractual disputes.

Green Generation achieved an adjusted EBITDA of EUR 540 million in the 9 months, which marks double-digit earnings decline compared to last year. Segment earnings were particularly affected by the extended downtime of the Oskarshamn 3 nuclear power plant. This power plant has been back online since November 2. The Nordic power market were well supplied due to high precipitation and above-average hydro reserve levels.

In our hedge slide in the appendix of today's investor and analyst presentation, one can track that hedge prices show a decline of EUR 5 per megawatt hour for 2025 versus 2024. Lower realized prices and lower nuclear output were partly mitigated by higher hydro power sales volumes. The German hydro business saw slightly lower earnings. Pump storage power plants delivered lower earnings contributions. However, this was largely offset by strong forward sales for merchant volumes from our run-of-river plants who locked prices more than doubled.

Looking to the forward years, including 2027, hedge prices for our Nordic and German business remained steady for the future years. Hedge prices for our Nordic and German fleet stayed steady from last quarter at about high EUR 80s to low EUR 90s per megawatt hour in Germany and about EUR 38 per megawatt hour in the Nordic.

The next slide shows adjusted EBITDA reconciled to adjusted net income. Uniper's adjusted net income has been supported this year by lower depreciation and amortization and a continued significant positive economic interest result. Depreciation and amortization declined by about 10%, reflecting asset disposals and plant shutdowns as well as impairment charges on property, plant and equipment recognized, which resulted in a lower asset base. Economic interest remained in a clear positive territory, supported by the group's high net cash position ending up at EUR 3.3 billion as of end of September 2025. The operating tax rate was 26.2%.

Turning to Slide 9, the focus is on the operating cash flow. Uniper recorded a negative operating cash flow of EUR 281 million in the first 9 months of the 2025 financial year. As you can see on this slide, Uniper's operating cash flow is strongly influenced by payment obligations to the Federal Republic of Germany settled in March 2025. Excluding this, Uniper's operating cash flow would have been a positive EUR 2.3 billion, supported by reduced inventory levels and strong cash in from receivables. Gas storage facilities were 80% -- 84% full at the end of September 2025 due to Uniper's own and customer bookings. This is around 10 terawatt hours below the previous year's level, which saw a record fill rate of 95%.

Now over to Slide 10 and Uniper's financial position. At the end of September 2025, economic net cash stood at EUR 3.3 billion, which was virtually unchanged from the middle year level and only slightly below the balances at the end of the 2024 financial year. This very strong cash position was achieved despite of Uniper's fulfillment of the payment obligation to the German government, which was settled in full in March 2025, and an increase of CapEx. Cash investments reached EUR 610 million, up 60% year-on-year, reflecting progress in initiating growth projects and higher maintenance spending. These numbers bring us closer to the total investment of about EUR 1 billion budgeted for the full year 2025.

Capital expenditure on maintenance focused on higher expenditure for flexible generation in the U.K. and Germany. Primary investments to accelerate our transition efforts were directed towards renewables, such as the development of a wind farm in Scotland and for restoring the 160-megawatt pump storage facility in Happurg in Bavaria. Divestment proceeds of EUR 345 million in total resulted mostly from the sale of the Hungarian CCGT power plant, Gönyu. Other items included changes in pensions and asset retirement obligations as well as consolidation effects.

In the current financial year 2025, Uniper further developed its financial base on the debt side for short-term financing requirements and for the medium- to long-term financing of future projects. This includes the extension of Uniper's EUR 3 billion revolving credit facility to 2028, which provides Uniper with additional liquidity for varying needs in a day-to-day business. At the same time, the existing KfW credit line, which runs until 2026 and has not been drawn down, was reduced ahead of schedule from EUR 5 billion to EUR 1 billion from October 2025. The existing debt issuance program with a volume of EUR 2 billion was extended on a revolving basis for another year.

Uniper just came up with its first Green Finance framework. This framework has been reviewed by Standard & Poor's Global confirming that we follow market standards. Uniper can issue green bonds for EU taxonomy aligned green projects on this basis in the future.

And this brings me to the final slide with Uniper's outlook for the full year 2025. In summary, the normalization in power markets amid less favorable commodity prices has continued. Uniper is on track with its outlook, which shows that our business model is solid and, for the most part, delivers predictable results. The outlook for the full year 2025 is confirmed both for the group's adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income. With a strong asset base and a clear decarbonization strategy, we are convinced that we are well positioned to play a decisive role in Europe's energy transition.

This concludes our presentation for today, and I will hand it over back to you, Sebastian, to kick off the Q&A session.

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

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Anna Webb.

Anna Webb from UBS. Firstly, can I ask a question on the renewables pipeline. if you could give any more detail on what is under construction, how much you have kind of ready to build and how the kind of pipeline is progressing there? And also more generally, any comments you can give on the kind of market conditions for renewables, where you see as most attractive geographies and also technologies, that would be great.

And then secondly, if you can give any commentary around the German government stake in Uniper. I mean, I know it's difficult for you to comment, but any kind of public statements from the German government on timing, on what might be the route to reduce their stake and the latest discussions there. Any detail would be really helpful.

Thanks, Anna, for the questions, I should say. Maybe I'll pick up the second question first. The position hasn't changed since the federal government announced the 2-track approach last year. That's to say potential re-IPO and potential M&A sale. That is still the position. There's been no update. What is also still the position is that the EU requirements to sell down to 25% plus 1 share by the end of 2028 are still valid. So there's no real update beyond that, that I can give you.

Let's come on to the renewable situation. At the moment, we have 280 megawatts of projects which have been approved for build, i.e., they've been through our final investment decision. That's 7 projects in the U.K., Germany and Hungary. Six of those are solar projects and one of those is a wind project. And we have another 400 megawatts which are preparing for financial investment decision across those markets.

Now I don't want to comment specifically on the commercial details of any of those projects. We are finding that our pipeline is developing in a satisfactory way. We are in a position to invest significant amounts, and we are building up the portfolio, as I've just announced, and we will continue to do so. I think the key challenge is always how potential incentive systems might change in the different countries. And of course, beyond the fixed price period, how wholesale prices are developing, and we keep a very close look on that at all times to ensure that all of our projects meet our hurdle rate.

[Operator Instructions] As there are no further questions, I will return the conference back to the management.

Thank you. Dear analysts and investors, thanks for listening in for today's call. We're looking very much forward to our next call for the full year results on 2025 in next March. Have a good remaining of the day, and see you soon and hear you soon. Thank you very much.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attendance. This call has been concluded.