Thank you, Vicky, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us for EnBW's investor and analyst conference call on the first quarter of fiscal year 2026.

As usual, our Deputy CEO and CFO, Thomas Kusterer, will guide you through the presentation. Afterwards, we will open the floor for questions.

For those of you joining via webcast, please feel free to submit your questions at any time using the chat function. With that, let me hand over to Thomas.

Thank you, Lenka, and good morning, everyone, from my side as well. Overall, EnBW had a solid start to fiscal year 2026.

Earnings were resilient and operating execution remains strong. Adjusted EBITDA amounted to €1.2 billion, fully in line with our expectations, and we therefore confirm our earnings guidance for the full year 2026.

A key strength of our performance continues to be the high quality and stability of EnBW's earnings base. Around 81% of earnings were generated from stable, low-risk activities, with grids once again forming the backbone of our results.

This underpins the resilience of our integrated business model, particularly in the current volatile market environment. We also made good progress on the financing side.

In February, we successfully issued €1 billion in green hybrid bonds. The transaction attracted high investor appetite, further secured a significant share of our funding needs for 2026, and increased our permanent hybrid capital to €3.5 billion.

Operationally, our flagship offshore wind project He Dreiht is progressing well and remains on track for completion. To date, 45 of 64 turbines have been installed.

The majority of capacity is secured through long-term PPAs, providing strong earnings visibility ahead of commercial operation this summer. In parallel, we reached another important milestone at our power generation site in Marbach.

Construction has started on our first large-scale battery storage project at a site that already hosts our grid stabilization gas power plant. With a capacity of 100 megawatt-hours, the project will further support system stability and the integration of renewable energy in southern Germany.

Commercial operation is planned for the end of 2026. Building on our existing battery storage footprint, this marks the next step in expanding our activities.

Today, EnBW already operates around 20 storage assets with more than 100 megawatt-hours of installed capacity. In addition, around 2 gigawatt-hours of battery storage projects are already in our development pipeline.

The next milestone is our 800 megawatt-hour project in Philippsburg, which leverages EnBW's existing infrastructure at the former generation site. Following FID taken last December, we are targeting commissioning by the end of 2027.

Finally, we also made good progress in e-mobility. During the first quarter, we expanded our infrastructure by an additional 500 fast-charging points in Germany, taking the network to more than 8,500 fast-charging points in total.

Once again underlines the strong momentum in e-mobility and supports continued growth in smart infrastructure for customers. Now back to the financials of the first quarter of 2026.

As just mentioned, adjusted EBITDA was at €1.2 billion after first three months, which is in line with our expectations. The firm performance was once again anchored in our low-risk business, which accounted for 81% of adjusted EBITDA, well above our long-term target of 70%.

Overall, earnings developed as expected across all segments. System Critical Infrastructure continued to provide a stable earnings backbone.

Renewable Energies were impacted by hydro conditions, while wind and organic growth provided support. Thermal Generation and Trading contributed less, in line with our expectations.

Smart Infrastructure for Customers delivered a solid performance, mainly from e-mobility. Let me now take you through the performance of our three business segments in more detail, starting on slide four.

Starting with System Critical Infrastructure, our largest segment in terms of earnings. In the first quarter of fiscal year 2026, adjusted EBITDA amounted to €667 million and remained broadly unchanged compared to the prior year.

Building on the strong momentum of recent years, regulated grid revenues continued to grow, in particular in electricity and gas distribution. This reflects the continued expansion of our regulated asset base, supported by substantial investments across all grid assets.

This positive development was partly offset by higher personnel and maintenance costs in line with our expanded operational activities of the business. In addition, we saw a temporary effect in electricity transmission, which we expect to reverse over the course of the year.

Moving on to Sustainable Generation Infrastructure on slide five. In Sustainable Generation Infrastructure, earnings were lower than last year and amounted to €429 million after first three months of 2026.

This development was mainly driven by weaker performance in Thermal Generation and Trading, as expected, while Renewables were broadly close to prior-year levels. Let's start with Renewables.

Here, adjusted EBITDA came in at €275 million. Earnings were impacted by lower hydro levels across Germany.

This was driven by below-average water flows and declining spreads, particularly in run-of-river generation. These effects were partly offset by favorable wind conditions and additional earnings contribution from newly commissioned assets.

Among them was the continued ramp-up of our offshore wind farm He Dreiht, which contributed positively to the first quarter earnings. Turned to Thermal Generation and Trading, adjusted EBITDA was lower year-on-year at €154 million and in line with our expectations.

This reflects, first, lower hedge generation margins. In addition, available generation capacity was lower following our lignite exit at the end of 2025.

Second, earnings were impacted by weaker trading performance in a volatile global market environment. At the same time, it's helpful to put the current market volatility into perspective.

Alongside our integrated setup, EnBW continues to benefit from the disciplined risk management processes established before and during the market dislocations of 2022. These frameworks are operating as intended.

As a result, our hedging strategy once again delivered stability and visibility. Overall, margin movements were fully manageable, highlighting EnBW's effective and risk-mitigating policy.

Liquidity remains a clear strength. With nearly €10 billion in cash and cash equivalents and almost €10 billion of undrawn facilities, EnBW is well positioned to absorb market volatility without any material impact.

For the current fiscal year, our generation positions are almost fully hedged, providing a high level of comfort for our earnings guidance. Looking ahead, hedge ratios stand at 70 to 90% for 2027 and between 20 and 50% for 2028, and we have already started hedging for 2029.

In Smart Infrastructure for Customers on slide six, adjusted EBITDA increased by 19% year-over-year to €143 million. This positive development was primarily driven by continued strong momentum in e-mobility.

Higher charging volumes once again supported earnings, benefiting from our market-leading network of more than 8,500 fast-charging points, its ongoing expansion, and continued EV adoption. In addition, retail activities benefited from higher gas sales volumes, reflecting the colder weather conditions in the first quarter in Continental Europe.

Let me now turn to adjusted net profit and the reconciliation on slide seven. Adjusted net profit attributable to EnBW's shareholders was at €227 million after first three months.

In absolute terms, the year-over-year movement in adjusted net profit was in line with the development of adjusted EBITDA. Also resulted in corresponding lower tax outflows.

The adjusted financial result remained broadly stable year-on-year as offsetting interest rate effects balanced each other out. Finally, the result attributable to non-controlling interests reflects improved earnings performance of minority-owned entities.

Moving on to slide eight with a brief look at our investments on the first quarter. For the first quarter 2026, our gross investments amounted to €1.2 billion, around 21% below the prior-year level.

This development was fully in line with our expectation and reflects the composition and maturity of our project portfolio rather than any slowdown in execution. Investments were once again clearly focused on grid expansion, while outflows for renewables were lower.

This mainly reflects the well-advanced status of key projects as well as the selective exit from two UK offshore wind projects this January as they no longer met our strict risk-return criteria. Overall, 87% of these gross investments were taxonomy-aligned and 83% attributable to growth projects.

Looking at the allocation by segment, System Critical Infrastructure accounted for 60% of gross investments in the first quarter. Here, we continue to invest at full speed in grid expansion reinforcement in both transmission and distribution.

Our lighthouse projects in electricity transmission are progressing according to plan. Construction of SuedLink, our major north-south DC transmission project, is well underway.

At the same time, ULTRANET is almost completed on our side and remains on track for commercial operations by the end of this fiscal year. Around 30% of investments went into Sustainable Generation Infrastructure, spending mainly related to the construction of our offshore wind farm He Dreiht and two hydrogen-ready gas power plants.

The remaining investments were allocated to Smart Infrastructure for Customers, primarily for the continued expansion of our e-mobility charging network. Finally, and in line with agreed payment schedules, we recorded higher inflows from co-financing contributions by our partners.

These inflows mainly related to He Dreiht and our transmission grid operator TransnetBW and form an important element of our diversified funding strategy. With that, let's take a brief look at our retained cash flow on slide nine.

After the first three months, retained cash flow amounted to €607 million and came in as anticipated for the first quarter. Compared to the prior year, retained cash flow was lower.

This was mainly driven by the year-on-year decline in adjusted EBITDA, which mechanically translated into a lower cash contribution. In addition, the first quarter included higher non-cash items primarily related to our gas storage businesses.

These effects were driven by higher market prices and weighed on retained cash flow. Finally, declared dividends were slightly higher than in the prior year.

With that, let's move on to the development of net debt. As illustrated on slide 10, net debt was at €12.7 billion at the end of the first quarter.

This is around 4% lower than at the end of financial year 2025 and therefore broadly unchanged. Net debt remained stable as net cash investments were largely financed from retained cash flow.

Additional net debt-reducing factors included our two green hybrid bonds issued at the beginning of the year with 50% classified as equity. Further support came from seasonal working capital effects and a slight reduction in pension-related net debt, driven by higher interest rates.

That brings me to the last slide and our guidance for 2026. Ladies and gentlemen, as already mentioned in the beginning of the presentation, we are confirming our full-year guidance for fiscal year 2026.

The start into the year provides a solid foundation for the remainder of the year. It gives us confidence in our outlook, both at segment level and for the group as a whole.

The breadth of our well-balanced portfolio anchors EnBW in volatile times and supports reliable performance in a strategically demanding environment. This leaves us well positioned for the year ahead, and now let me hand back to Lenka.

Thank you, Thomas. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now start with the Q&A session.

Operator, please begin.

Thank you, Vicky. Then we will start with the chat because we have received already several questions.

I will start with the first one from Andrew. Hi Andrew, thank you have you on the chat.

Please can you give a general update on trading conditions in Europe and on gas trading with regards to VNG? Do you expect a stronger result for trading in 2026 compared with 2025?

Good morning, Andrew. Thanks for the question.

Actually, the trading conditions, it's a quite volatile market environment as you are probably aware. Gas trading was stronger in Q1 than expected.

Electricity trading was below expectations. In all fairness, it's quite difficult in this environment to make the right trading decisions.

You can only hardly rely on fundamentals, it's more depending on political decisions. Directionally, I would hope that we will see a good result in trading by the end of this year, but it's actually hard to tell, in all fairness.

We are go continue with the next one from Andrew on the guidance. In 2025, the last three quarters of the year achieved about €3.7 billion of EBITDA.

With €1.16, €1.16 billion of adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter, you need to achieve about €3.7 billion of EBITDA over the remaining nine months of 2026, in line with what you achieved in 2025. However, you talk about lower generation margins, reduced installed capacity, and lower trading results in first quarter '26.

Can you give more details on why you are confident in achieving your full-year guidance?

Absolutely, Andrew. When we are looking at normalized trading results and also normalized weather conditions, on top of it, we do see a good performance in our e-mobility business also well above prior year.

We're getting more installed capacity in renewables into our portfolio, especially with the ramp-up of He Dreiht. Overall, we are quite positive that we will be able actually to meet our guidance for full year '26.

Thank you. We go on with Michael, Michael Jansen from Santander.

He has two questions. Do you expect any material effects potentially coming from political movements to reimpose windfall taxes and to alter the ETS reflected in electricity prices?

Good morning, Michael. Actually, I do not see any kind of risk regarding windfall profits.

When you look at the current market situation and the market price development over the last couple of months, it's not comparable to the situation we have seen back in 2022. As a quick reminder, in 2022, we had gas prices at peak around €340 per megawatt-hour, and currently we are looking more like €40 to €50 per megawatt-hour.

As a reminder, before the war in Ukraine started, the level was around, let's say, early 30s. It's not comparable at all, we do not expect any kind of political movements towards windfall profits.

Thanks. The second one goes to a similar direction.

Can you confirm please that all your natural gas requirements are fully covered for '26, and is EnBW fully able to pass through costs to customers?

We are fully covered. Actually, we do not have any kind of exposure to the Middle East when it comes to LNG sourcing.

Most of our LNG is actually procured from the US and other countries. No direct exposure when it comes to price developments.

As I just said, fully hedged for 2026, and we do also not expect for this year actually any impact from this development on our customer base, be it retail nor industrial customers.

Thank you. Next one, again from Andrew, on the gas tenders in Germany.

Can you update on the auction process for new hydrogen-ready gas plants in Germany? When do you now expect the auctions to take place?

Andrew, we finally might be getting there. We do expect the first auction beginning of September and the second beginning of December.

It looks like this is going to happen. However, I'm cautious.

As you are aware, we're waiting for these auctions now for, yeah, three to four years already. As it looks like, it's September and December.

Thanks. Now with Joshua from Insight.

He send us also several questions. First one: Given currently elevated one-year baseload power prices, are you locking in, you are remaining unhedged 2027 generation?

We are monitoring market development as you would expect closely and continuously. If we feel that we do have the right level, we also hedge forward for '27, but also actually '28, and we have already started our hedging for 2029.

Yes, we are looking at the current market prices and see if it's a level we feel comfortable for the next years to come.

The next one is also on the guidance. I can see that full-year guidance has been maintained.

Is there any color that can be shared on how Q2 is progressing and it benefits from higher power prices?

I think I kind of answered the question already. Andrew had a similar question.

For the second quarter, it's progressing in line with what we would expect. We have already hedged our electricity capacity for the year 2026.

However, of course, we do benefit to a certain extent from higher power prices and we are trying to lock them in. Also, as mentioned before, given the volatile market environment and the dependency of power price developments, commodity price developments related to political decisions and short-term decisions, it's hard to tell what it really means for our full-year trading results.

Would hope actually that it's going into the right direction.

Perfect, thank you. The next one is on the grid regulation in Germany.

Given the upcoming regulatory updates from the Federal Grid Agency, can you clarify the expected timing of key decisions? Any informal guidance or signals you are already receiving from the regulator?

Joshua, no. Bundesnetzagentur, the regulator, actually published the final draft of the next regulatory framework the back end of December last year.

No big surprise in there. However, just still a few unknowns, especially when it comes to cost of equity and cost of debt, and we do not expect actually to get any clarity before 2027 on these quite decisive points.

Thanks. Next one on the offshore.

Can you update us on your participation strategy for upcoming offshore wind tenders, including where you see the most attractive opportunities and how you are positioning your bid pipeline?

As we already built three CCGTs as we speak, and we will potentially also participate in the next tenders. We do have one CCGT in the commissioning process already, that's here in Karlsruhe, a larger CCGT of 850 megawatt, and we do have more sites that would be eligible and also potentially well-placed for further tender processes.

Did I read your

This was about the offshore wind.

It was about offshore wind. Oh sorry, I was actually referring to the gas tenders.

I will answer your question in addition to what I just said regarding the gas tenders. Yes, actually, we will potentially also participate in the offshore tenders.

However, very much depending obviously on the framework, and we need to have more clarity on that. As of today, we do expect that we're looking at two-sided CfDs, but that needs to be clarified first before we can really commit ourselves to participate in these tender processes.

Sorry about that.

The next one is from Alessandra from BlackRock. Will the higher opex in grids be covered through tariffs in the next years?

That's clear, yes. Yeah.

The next one was: are the low hydro levels across Germany expected and included in your guidance? What do you embed in your guidance over the next few quarters?

Actually, it was not expected. It's lower than the normalized level we have seen for the last couple of years, and that's what we normally assume when we put our guidance.

The level was below what we had expected for the first quarter, and as I mentioned before, assuming that we're going to see normalized levels in hydro and also wind and solar for the rest of the year, we'll see an increase again in earnings from hydro generation, especially run-of-river.

I don't see any other questions in our chat, just turning to Vicky to the operator to hear some questions?

Okay. Then with that, we come to a close.

Once again, thank you very much, Thomas, and everyone online. Thank you for the questions.

As always, if you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to our IR team for more details or in-depth discussions. All the best and have a great rest of the day.

Bye-bye.

Bye, and thanks to everyone.