Hi. Good afternoon, everyone.

It's Anna Maria here. I'm here with our CEO, Paolo Gallo, and our CFO, Pierre Tour, and they will run through the presentation today.

As usual, there will be the Q&A at the end of the presentation. I leave now the floor to our CEO, Paolo Gallo.

Good afternoon, and it's great to be back here just one month after we launched and we delivered the new strategic plan 2026-2032, and I am pleased to say that we are fully on track on what we are going to deliver in the coming years. Let me start with the major achievement we reached in our first semester 2026.

First, we continue to deliver solid double-digit growth that is driven by organic growth, perimeter change, 2i Rete Gas enlargement, and the benefit arising from the cost synergies linked to the integration of 2i Rete Gas. As you can see synergies, as you can see in in the numbers, synergies and efficiency continues to progress steadily and rapidly.

We have already achieved 42% of the 2032 target. The the 2032 target is the the latest we announced in our strategic plan, is €280 million.

Honestly, it has been achieved just one year and a quarter since the integration of 2i Rete Gas into Italgas, since the acquisition of 2i Rete Gas and one year since the integration of 2i Rete Gas into Italgas Reti. Regarding the tender, for the first time we are going to give you a detailed number, I'm not going to disclose anything, it will be in a couple of pages.

Honestly, what we have announced in our strategic plan one month ago is becoming more solid than even one month ago. I will get into detail in a moment.

Finally, we have received an outlook upgrade by Moody's that, based on the strategic plan, opening for a potential—not outlet—outlook upgrade, but a potential upgrade in our rating. All of that is extremely positive, and I wanted to to guide you into our numbers in details.

Let me move to the to the summary of the results. As we have as as we anticipated, we have delivered double-digit growth in all the KPIs, but even more important, with a strong operating cash flow.

We nearly reached €1 billion of cash flow operation. Before starting, I think it's worth reminding that the 2i Rete Gas acquisition was completed on April 1st, and therefore, the comparison between the first half of '26 with the first half of '25 is not homogenous because in '26 we have the full six months, while in the first half of '25 we had only the second quarter.

Let me start from the top. Adjusted revenues were up 15—17.5% versus the previous year, and this was drive driven by organic growth in the Italian gas distribution and the first-time consolidation of 2i Rete Gas in the first quarter.

Profitability grew even bigger by 25%. We passed a €1 billion, is 1,072, with an EBITDA margin that reached 80—81%, that is a clear evidence of the synergy and the efficiency that were delivered during the six months.

As we move down, adjusted net profit grew more than 27% as a result of the fine our financial management, despite the impact of the temporary IRAP tax increase. The other record that we achieve is relevant to the technical investment.

We really reached €800 million, 55% year-on-year basis, and that is driven mainly by the upgrade and digitization of 2i Rete Gas legacy network that is consistent with the allocation priority we outline in our strategic plan. As I already anticipated, the operating cash flow is another record, €930 million, that cover all of our capex and part of the dividend, while the disposal by—that you you remember very well—were compulsory by the antitrust contributed to further reducing our leverage.

In fact, the fine net financial debt is slightly lower than what we recorded at the end of 2025. If we move on and we'll take a look at the synergies, I think that it's a an incredible progress that we have made.

We are talking about only 12 months after the integration of 2i Rete Gas and only 15 months since the closing. We have already achieved 42% of the overall target, of the €280 million that we just announced in June.

That's an incredible pace, and it really give us the real confidence about what what is in front of us. Let me just go through very quickly about what we have already done and what we are doing right now and what we are going to do in the coming months and years.

As of today, we have done a lot of working in insourcing of core activity, IT system consolidation, review and streamlining our territorial and headquarter organization, and rationalization of our car fleet, offices, and contract. On the new initiative ongoing, I think it's worth spending a few words on the incredible speed at which we are developing at scale our AI, in particular, agentic AI models and application, implementing into our daily operation, both on the field, but as well as the back office.

We're talking about fieldworks scheduling, IT service, claims and contact center, network optimization. That's just the beginning.

It's the beginning of an incredible journey, and I'm sure you will be surprised by the incredible amount of value we will be able to create and deliver through AI combined with our unique digitized infrastructure. The new chart that we are going to show, we are on page 5, and is the first time that we are going such a we are going to show such a detailed chart is about the tender, and the positive tender momentum continues.

We discussed it during the strategic plan presentation and also through the one-by-one or the group meeting we had in the roadshow we made in Europe and U.S., and while during these meetings, as well as in strategic plan, there was some skepticism about the tenders to become real, let me show now numbers that shows that we were right, that the signal that we got from the field were consistent. As of today, you can see that in the period 2020-first half of 2026, 11 ATEMs have been awarded to Italgas, two have been awarded to a third party, and additional two have been awarded, but after court appeal.

We're talking about 15 in since 2020, limited number in a long period of time. If we are looking about the next 12 months, the second half of 2026 and the first half of 2027, we have 19—10 and 19 tenders coming to the market.

Two of them are waiting for a final awards, three are tenders, bids submitted, for which we will see probably before the end of the year the the final award. Then we are going to see that the pipeline is growing.

We have another eight ATEMs for which the offers should be submitted by end of 2026 and additional six for which we expect that the offers to be submitted in the first half of 2027. As you can see, is a significant number.

We are not talking about hope or about, let me say, good faith. We are talking about facts.

In fact, if you look about the top part of the chart, when we are talking about two the two ATEMs to be awarded, the three and the eight, for which we are talking about 13 ATEMs, we are talking about €400 million of additional RAB opportunity. Additional RAB means on top of the amount of asset that we already own in those ATEMs.

Now, let let's move to the some more numbers, some more details about financial performance. As we anticipated, revenues grow nearly 18%, 15.5% in respect of the first year.

You can see which is the contribution of 2i Rete Gas. You can also see the contribution coming from the gas, the organic growth of the regulated gas distribution, the fact that we invested last year and now we are see the results.

The negative part of the of the revenue is the one linked to the network, the redelivery point that we were obliged to dispose, and the the negative contribution is €2.6 million. Finally, what we have already anticipated in the first quarter, is the reduction in revenues in, especially in the energy efficiency, that you will see is also will be reflected also in reduction of cost.

If we talk about cost, that is probably the most amazing chart of this presentation, if we compare the cost of 2025, you can see that the the effect of 2i Rete Gas, the fact that there is a difference of quarter between '25 and '26 is 91—€91 million. At the same time, in the first six months, we were able to save nearly the same amount, €82.2 million.

We were able to make equal to zero the 2i Rete Gas effect, and then there is another reduction of cost driven by the reduction of revenues that I have already talked about, that is the energy efficiency. Let me just go back to the 82.

the €82 million that represent 22.8% cost reduction that is coming from the synergies for which I'm going to talk about in a moment. I think that is really an outstanding result that we reach in the first six months of 2026.

If I translate this number into the margin, the 2026 EBITDA that passed the the €1 billion, increased by 25% in respect of the last year, with gas gas distribution, Italy and Greece, contributed to the vast majority of these results. Gas distribution, the Italian gas distribution, is the main growth engine, supported by the the fact that we have consolidated in in full the six months 2i Rete Gas.

Of course, the synergies are the other big booster in increasing the EBITDA. Let me underline the fact that the EBITDA margin reached 81% of the revenue.

That is a number that we have never achieved in the history of Italgas. Now, Pierre Tour will give us more details about the other part of the financial results.

Please, Pierre.

Thank you, Paolo. On page 8, we show the adjusted EBIT bridge.

As you can see, adjusted EBIT exceeded €700 million, up almost 27%. This increase was largely driven by the EBITDA increase, which was partially offset by higher D&A of €67 million.

Now, the increase of D&A mainly stemmed from the consolidation of 2i Rete Gas and the carryover effect of the investments that were carried out in the previous 12 months. If we move on to page 11, here we have the adjusted net profit bridge.

Adjusted net profit after minorities reached €398.6 million, with an increase of 27.3% versus last year. This was mainly driven by 2i Rete Gas acquisition contribution, as well as by the solid operating performance.

Now, the higher EBIT contribution for €147.5 million was partially offset by: firstly, an increase of adjusted net financial expenses that now include the cost of 2i Rete Gas consolidated debt for six months and the interest charges related to the full quarterly impact of the dual-tranche bond issue that was carried out in March 2025, as well as the bond that was issued back in April '26. Now, this drives a higher cost of debt, we currently have a cost of debt that stands at just below 2.1%, and this compares to the 1.95% that we had in the first half of 2025.

Moving on, a €2 million higher contribution from equity investments, and finally, a higher adjusted taxes of €38 million. Now, this increase is due to a higher taxable income and a higher tax rate of 28.6%, which compares to 28% in the first half of '25.

Now, the increase in tax rate is mainly linked to the temporary IRAP tax increase, as well as lower incentives compared to 2025, which were partially offset by the recovery of prior years' foreign tax losses.

I'm taking back the call because I would like to comment the other performance we made these months about the technical investment. Nearly €800 million invested in six months only, with an increase of 55% compared to the previous year, driven by, of course, the increased perimeter at 2i Rete Gas, but even more important, the ramp-up of the digitization upgrade of the network that we inherited from 2i Rete Gas.

In fact, you can see that all the area of investment are growing. We reach in development and repurposing activity, €442 million, but even more important, the digitization jumped from a little bit more than 100 last year to 271, up 51—61% because that is what we spend to support the transformation and the modernization of the 2i Rete Gas network.

Then we have also another jump in the ICT and real estate that explained the difference. During the period—I'm going back to the other in a moment, but during the period, we laid 650 kilometers of new network, a 50% increase compared to last year, and nearly 50% of that, 40% of that has been done in Greece, that continue to contribute to our result financially and technical.

Let me spend a little bit more on the Italgas Property, that it is the first time that we mention. We have recently established a new company fully owned by Italgas, the objective of this company is to manage and to unlock the full value of the group real estate portfolio.

Probably you have never noticed, but is a portfolio that includes more than half a million of square meters, and with an asset value that to make it even more important than square meter, that is passed €300 million, for which we are working to make it more efficient, as well as creating value for the company. Historically, real estate is a kind of value that normally sits quiet on the balance sheet.

What we are doing with the creation of Italgas Property is bringing the value into the focus and trying to create value and to have a clear accountability in order that, first of all, we manage our real estate asset more efficient, and whatever we don't use, we are going to sell it and create value for the company. Before we go back to the financial performance, let me talk a little bit about ESG performance.

As we always see our ESG performance deeply correlated with the investment and with the action that we take every single day. Given the change in the perimeter that we have already commented for the financial results, we think that focusing on gas distribution like-for-like basis is more representative.

As soon as we will able to make a comparison between the old 2i Rete Gas network with the new result that we are bringing, we will do it. The problem is that there is no comparison between the first quarter of last year with the first quarter of this year.

If we stay on a same perimeter, net energy consumption decreased by nearly 15% year-over-year. This reduction reflect our effort to be more efficient and to introduce new processes, as well as new equipment to reduce the use of natural gas for the preheating system, as well the consumption of electricity.

Similarly, Scope 1 and 2 emission were also reduced by 6.6%. As you can see, the major number is coming from reduction in fugitive emission, which testify the effectiveness of use of Picarro in our search.

We are doing the same on the 2i Rete Gas network, and by year-end, we will show the result that we are able to achieve also on a fully new network that was not tested before, if not partially, with Picarro.

Moving on to page 14, we reported a record high cash flow from operations of €930 million. This was driven by solid operating and financial performance, as well as a favorable net working capital trend.

The cash conversion of EBITDA in the first half was over 85%. Our net working capital contribution is positive at €175 million and reflects the billing seasonality that we already observed in Q1.

Operating cash flow allowed us to cover the net cash investments in the first six months, amounting to €734 million, and part of the dividend payout. Finally, the cash-in from mandatory Italian antitrust authority disposals completed during the first half contributed to more than €250 million positive cash inflow, leading us to reduce our net financial position slightly by €32 million as of 30th of June.

To conclude on this page, our CEO pointed out slide 8 on operating costs as the most amazing slide in the presentation. Now, I believe that this is the second most amazing slide.

Why? Because we have been able, in a nutshell, to generate cash, and this despite capex worth over €700 million, as well as the payment of dividends worth over €400 million.

Moving on to page 15, here we show our debt structure. As a result of the cash flow trend that we just commented, we closed our first half with a net debt of €10.7 billion, excluding IFRS 16 and IFRIC 12, or €10.8 billion including them.

Our financial structure remains, as you can see, very solid. 81% of debt is at a fixed rate, and the average cost of our gross debt is just under 2.1%, with a strong liquidity buffer of more than €1.2 billion, and this is thanks to the pre-financing initiatives executed during the first semester, which will allow us to cover all the upcoming maturities while keeping the needed financial flexibility.

Among the key highlights of the first half of 2026, I think it's worth highlighting the decision by Moody's to upgrade our credit outlook to positive from neutral. Now, according to the rating agency, and I quote, "The positive outlook reflects our expectation that Italgas will maintain sound operational performance and will continue to strengthen its financial profile over the coming years, potentially supporting a higher rating," unquote.

Now, this is an important external validation of the strengthening of our financial profile, and crucially, it reflects the credibility of the new strategic plan 2026-2032 that we presented only a month ago.

Let me finish, before opening the questions, let me finish about a few comments about the consultation document that was published during the weekend by ARERA on ROSS. Let me just bring you the first elements.

I always remind you that this is a consultation document for which the regulatory body will collect comments by end of September of this year. Let me say that it is confirmed that there will be a potential ROSS introduction by 2028, like we knew already, for larger operator only, in a sense that they set in the consultation document, they indicate a potential threshold of 300,000 redelivery point above the operator, let me say, for which the regulation will become ROSS-regulated.

There are a number of exclusions: not only the operator that are below the threshold, but also all the ATEMs that have been already tendered or going to be tender by end of 2027 will be excluded from ROSS. The regulatory period will start 2028 and will be for four years until 2031.

ARERA show in the consultation document three possible option: from the option that is the one that we have already, option zero, let me say; an intermediate option that is probably the most favorable by the ARERA itself; and the most extreme one that is a full ROSS application. Then there are a number of other elements for which we are studying, and of course, we will reply with our comments to ARERA by the time set by ARERA himself, end of—well, is not end of September—25th of September.

I will open the floor for questions, please.

Hi, everyone, and thank you for the presentation. I have three.

The first one is on the government decree on the gas tenders. You mentioned during the presentation that acceleration is happening.

The question for you is, what do you think the decree from the government should introduce in order to further accelerate all this process? The latest news that we are hearing is that maybe a discrepancy between what is happening in really and the difficulty by the government to create that framework.

I guess that it would be interesting to see your point of view on the contribution from the government decree to that acceleration. That would be the first question.

The second question, I would be interesting on some more granularity on the performance of the Greek water and ESCo activities during the second quarter. The third is on the creation of Italgas Property.

Can you confirm that this was not part of your recently presented business plan? If so, which could give us additional in terms of EBITDA enhancement?

What do you see the capacity from Italgas Property maybe on further accelerate the efficiency journey of your company? Thank you.

Thank you for your question, Javier. On the first question, if you remember what you are referring, I think, is the Decreto Criteri, if I'm correct, the one that has been postponed after the meeting between Stato e Regioni.

I think that is the one that you are referring. These decree was not aimed to accelerate the tender in itself.

It was just aimed to redefine some of the points that were given to the tender, let me say, process, in order to reflect the fact that the points already assigned were developed in 2012 when the situation was significantly different. There were no digital activities at that time.

There was no AI, no energy transition, no biomethane, no hydrogen. The idea of the government was to redesign, let me say, the points, redesign the way that you evaluate a tender considering that there are new things coming on.

Nothing to do with acceleration of the tender, for which we see what is happening right now independently of this Decreto Criteri. The second question is regarding the result of Enaon, Enaon.

Let me say, as we told you several times, we are making, I don't know if we have presented during the plan, but we are making significant results regarding year-over-year. We are going tomorrow to present in Athens, we are going to present the plan for the Greek company.

Tomorrow we are going also to show which are the objective specific to the Greek territory. If you are willing to join, is going to be 3:30 in the afternoon Athens time.

If you're willing to join the presentation, you are more than welcome. You will get more detail.

To be more synthetic, I will say that at EBITDA level, as well as the profit level, we are improving in respect of last year, even though during 2026 we have accounted in as a deduction of revenue, the saving that we have performed in two specific opex, that are the cost for the smart metering, as well as the cost of the managing CNG and LNG, that according to the Greek regulation were given as a standard at the beginning of the regulatory period, but were supposed to be finally based on actual. We were able to significantly reduce the cost of the smart metering, as well as the LNG management thanks to our experience in Italy.

We are going to give back some of these synergies to the Greek system. Notwithstanding this situation, we were able to significantly increase the result thanks to the cost saving we were able to achieve.

The contribution of the Greek company to the overall EBITDA is €71 million. You can also see the contribution of the water that we consolidate, only two company out of four, and the energy efficiency is €70 million at the EBITDA.

The last one about Italgas Property, now this is the first time that we talk about Italgas Property. I don't know if it was mentioned during the strategic plan, but that was part of the strategic plan.

Let me say the two objective of Italgas Property is we want to be even more efficient in managing our buildings. Between brackets, we recently acquired the building that we are in Milano, via Carlo Bo, which just acquired at the end of June.

The reason is that we were covering nearly 70% of the overall space. It didn't make any sense just to pay a renting fee, we decide it was more economic viable.

That was the first step made by Italgas Property. What we're going to do is to be more efficiently in managing our property, and where our property or some of our assets we don't need them anymore, we would like to create value.

One example is Venice, where we have a couple of property that we are not using anymore, for which we are in the process to complete the cleaning of the soil, and once that is cleaning, we will try to create value around this property. That Venice is probably the more clear example, but there are other small properties for which we will probably sell it, or we will try to create value around it.

That is the objective of Italgas Property. The fact that the overall real estate value is above €300 million give you the idea that we are not talking about only peanuts.

Interesting. Thank you.

Next question, please.

Hi. Thank you for taking my questions.

I have three questions as well, actually. The first one is on the real estate.

I think you mentioned that potentially a €300 million value. If you were able to crystallize that real estate value, would you have to give any of that back to customers?

Is there a regulatory clawback for any value extracted from real estate, or would you just get to keep it all? That's the first question.

The second is on the tenders. I think you said that there was €400 million of potential tender capex that you could spend, but I wasn't entirely sure over what period.

Maybe you could just clarify: was I right in that being €400 million, and if so, was that the tenders that you were highlighting that were coming up over the remainder of this year and the first half of next year, or was it a different period? Then, thirdly and finally, on the ROSS consultation that came out a few days ago, there seems to be a preference in there for the base ROSS coming in in 2028, and then maybe full ROSS coming in later.

Could you explain to us how base ROSS would affect you if it came in? I appreciate there's probably a lot of things that still need to be determined yet, but maybe in simple terms how it might work?

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Regarding the first one, remember that all our real estate activities, the property is not linked to the RAB at all.

It is called centralized RAB, but is not considered into the RAB because we can rent or we can buy. Any value that we are able to extract from our real estate property will remain with us because it's not linked to the network, it's not linked to the opex, it's linked to the way that we manage the real estate.

I think that is very clear. There's no doubt about that, even in the ROSS situation.

It's not going to happen never. Any value will be with us.

Regarding the tenders, Anna Maria, if we can put up this slide about the tender, it's going to be easier. Ecco.

Okay. If you see the page, the €400 million that I was referring is referring to the 13 ATEMs for which two are waiting for a final award, three will be awarded by year-end, eight will be submitted by year-end and probably awarded in, let me say, all in the first half of 2027.

These 13 ATEMs that have a clear name, have been very well defined, they represent for us, in the case we are going to win all of them, so that is the extreme situation, there will be €400 million additional RAB opportunity. Additional RAB means €400 million RAB that is owned by a third operator.

In case we are going to win all of them, we are going to pay to a different operator €400 million to acquire their assets. I hope that is clear.

Regarding the ROSS consultation, you're right. The regulator refers to the intermediate option as the one they would prefer.

Let me say more generally, like you said, we need to first of all we should study very well the documents, and even more important, we should weigh the comments coming from everybody and the reaction of the regulator. Let me say one element.

If you have read some other parts, because the base ROSS is mainly relevant to the opex, while only probably in the following regulatory cycle it will also consider the capex. Inside, let me say, the basic ROSS, there are a couple of option.

There are here again three option. One is, let me say, an option that is for the one that has limited ambition, let me use that way.

The third option is probably the one that they don't like it very much, but we can eventually move in that direction. The other two options are relevant to the operator that have more ambition about being more efficient.

If you do some maths just to understand how this mechanism works, it is evident that if you are able to keep continuing reducing the cost, you will be keep a significant portion of the incentive for yourself. That option tends to be a very good incentive for the operator that are willing to challenge themselves to reduce the cost, and that is exactly it is fitted for us.

That is the philosophy that is there. That philosophy, say, we're going, let me say, to award the operator that are willing and that they will achieve year after year, not only one year, but year after year, a cost reduction.

That is what we have done in the last 10 years, we will continue to do also in '28, '29, 2030, 2031.

Next question, please.

Yes. Good afternoon, and congratulations for your results.

Three questions. The first one is on the synergy target.

Given the pace of the synergies you have achieved in the first two quarters, I wonder whether you can exceed your current 2026 target. The second one is on the mark-to-market for the WACC, if you can share with us an update on where we are now and whether there is any update from ARERA about the inclusion of France in the panel for the risk-free countries.

The third one is about the second half, both in terms of operating costs and D&A, whether we should assume something in line with what we saw in the first half or there's going to be some change in one direction or the other. Thank you.

Regarding the synergies, if we are able to bring more better results, you say, which is the next step? We can always improve, but there is always a limit.

I think that the €130 million to be achieved by 2026 is real, and I think we're going to be there, maybe a few million above, a few million below, but we're going to be in that range. The acceleration is nice because you enjoy since the beginning, but then there are a clear list of activities to be performed, and that 130 is our target by year-end.

We may eventually be slightly better, but a couple of millions. I don't expect more than that.

Regarding WACC, the discussion about France, to me, I found it a little bit strange in a sense that in the definition of the countries to be considered, there is a clear definition about AA country. France is, since last year, I think October or November, I don't remember, when it was downgraded, is not anymore among the countries AA.

I think there is no discussion about the fact that France will not be considered. If you want, the discussion is which other country, AA country, will be included among the panel.

That's the true discussion, not that France is included or not. It's not included by definition.

Rules is the rule. If you say that the panel of the country that we have to make reference should be a AA countries, France is not a AA countries, is A-.

That is where we stay. On the WACC, the mark-to-market, considering the volatility of the market itself in these days, is difficult to predict what is going to happen between now and end of September.

Let's wait end of September as a consultation period. Regarding the second half, let me say that we have given the guidance, 2026 guidance, one month ago, maybe less, I don't remember, one two months ago.

Oh, right, because it was before the strategic plan, you're right. The two months ago, then we confirmed the guidance as at the strategic plan itself, and we confirm today the guidance.

We'll probably be on the higher part of the guidance, sure, as always, there is nothing new. Thank you.

Thank you.

Next question, please.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, everyone. If you need anything, the IR team will be available.

Thank you.