thank you very much and good morning everybody thank you for joining us today on a new session of earnings presentation where we are going to discuss our financial results for the fourth quarter of 2024 and the fiscal year of 2024 as usually i will begin the presentation by addressing shortly the main figures of the quarter and the whole fiscal year followed by a quick update of regulatory framework and relevant units. Then I will show an overview of the Argentine electricity industry moving afterwards to our operational and financial results. Finally, at the end of the presentation, we will be happy to address any question you may have. Before going into a more exhaustive analysis of our financial and operational results, let me brief review central puerto's main figures for the fourth quarter of 2024 and the whole fiscal year the group's installed capacity remains at 6703 megawatts and energy generation amounted to 5.4 terawatt hour during the fourth quarter of 2024 increasing five percent year over year annual generation rose 4 percent to 21.6 terawatt hour regarding our financial results it should be noted that due to central puerto's accounting methodology all items in pesos must be inflation adjusted to the end of the quarter local currency while the company reports its results in dollars by converting them at the end of the period official exchange rate the so-called central bank a 3500 exchange rate this causes a non-cash impact that affects positively or negatively as appropriate our financial metrics also the sharp devaluation of December of 2023 created a distorted base for comparison revenues for the fourth quarter of 2024 amounted to 168 million dollars increasing 71 percent year over year compared to the fourth quarter of 2023 while annual figure reached to 671 million dollars in rising 25%. Adjusted EBDA rose 44% year-over-year for the fourth quarter of 2024 to 65 million dollars whereas an annual metric increased 4% to 288 million dollars. Net income for the fourth quarter of 2024 was negative in $28 million, and the result for the fiscal year of 2024 was positive in $52 million. Finally, net debt as of December 31st of 2024 amounted to $132 million, a reduction of $154 million vis-a-vis December of 2023. showcasing a net debt to adjusted the PTA ratio of about 0.5 times now let's move to the most recent regulatory updates and news spot prices have been adjusting once a month since June of 2024 for the fourth quarter of 2024 we had a three percent in october six percent in november and five percent in december for the upcoming first quarter of 2025 we will have a compound 10 percent increase with respect to december of 2024 figures as we anticipated in our last earning session by means of resolution 294 issue last year it was established a contingency plan for the electricity industry with the aim to mitigate possible critical situation during the period December of 2024 and March of 2026 with action plans for generation transmission and distribution as well as for mayor demand Central Puerto's eligible units to adhere to this resolution include steam turbines located in buenos aires and lujan de cujo gas turbines located in lujan de cujo as well as the brigadier lopez thermal power plant for central puerto the additional remuneration for power varies from 2000 to 2500 hundred dollars depending on month, hours and units considered. Continuing with news and regulatory updates, as you may know the Secretary of Energy aims to deregulate the industry and normalize the wholesale market. In this sense, the first step was the issuance of Resolution 21 last January that eliminated some restrictions and set paths for future administrative decisions. We should highlight that thermal power plants installed after January 1st of 2025 are able to accelerate PPAs with private agents. Since March 1st of 2025, thermal generators are allowed to manage the fuel. Finally, an ending is settled for the NSEA Plus framework. Current contracts will be in place and continue until their ending day, but new agreements and extensions will have a deadline, October 31st of 2025. Also in January, the Secretary of Energy, through CAMESA, issued a document with new regulatory framework for the industry, with the objective to put into operation by November of 2025. The basic idea is to rebuild the spot-term markets, reinstating a marginal cost system in the first one with some adjustments. Generators will declare again a valuable cost of production, including the cost of fuel. there will be three sources of remuneration power energy and fuel being the spot prices determined by the market the new scheme will put focus on energy remuneration aiming to reinstate market signal to boost investment and efficiency as well as properly reflect cost and scarcity The last concluding remark concerning the industry situation is the issuance of Resolution 67, which calls for storage capacity tender process. We are carefully analyzing the terms and conditions of this process since we are interested in this project. Moving now to Central Puerto's corporate news and updates, we recall the dividend payments of last November with a distribution of 39,47 per share. Moving to slide 7, we also announced in December our high voltage transmission line project with the goal of supplying efficient, reliable and competitive energy to mining companies located in the Puna region which is in northwestern of Argentina. In December we signed an agreement with the IFC to finance the feasibility studies and project analysis. And in January of 2025, we set an agreement with YPF Luz to jointly carry on the development of these remarkable projects. With regards to our mining activity, we have recently executed two investments. We have acquired a 27.5% stake in Tres Cruces, which is a lithium project, and we have increased our equity participation in Abra Silver to 9.9%. Finally, a concluding remark regarding our investment projects currently in execution, I mean the San Carlos Solar Farm and the Brigadier Lopez Combined Cycle. Brigadier López is on schedule, moving at a good space, while the contractor of San Carlos has presented some delays in its workflow. We are currently working together to solve out issues and keep the project on track. Now let's skip to the Argentine electricity market picture of this quarter that will be shown on slides 8 and 9. By the end of the fourth quarter of 2024, the country's installed capacity reached 43,350 MW, which means a decrease of 1%, or 423 MW, compared to the 43,773 MW recorded as of December 31st of 2023. The variation results from the installation of new power facilities, a reduction in cell capacity and adjustment and repowering to power plants already in operation. The contraction of 423 MW is decomposed as follows. The addition of 925 MW of renewable sources, of which 614 MW corresponds to wind farms, 307 MW to solar plants, and 4 MW to biogas power plants. then a reduction of 1195 MW in hydraulic sources and a decrease of 153 MW in thermal sources where a contraction was recorded in gas turbines, steam turbines and diesel engines being all partially offset by an addition of combined cycles. It is worth to highlight that the decline of 1,195 MW in hydro-install capacity is basically explained by a reassessment of Chacireta's power available between Argentina and Paraguay. Since August 2024, 50% of Chacireta's installed capacity is allocated to Argentina, whereas it used to be approximately 88% before then. generation decreased 2% during the quarter on a year-over-year basis this decrease was driven by nuclear and hydro generation 48% and 30% respectively nuclear generation decreased basically by the two-year maintenance shutdown of Atucha 1 which started in November, and a seasonal maintenance program of Atucha II, carried on between the end of September and the beginning of December. Hydrogeneration shrank due to a combination of two factors. The aforementioned change in the allocation of Chaciretas installed capacity and energy generation upon Sparawaii claim, and a reduction of river flows, mostly in the Uruguay and Paraná rivers. Finally, renewable and thermal generation rose 13% and 24%, respectively. The growth in thermal generation led to higher fuel consumption, 65% rise in gas oil, 9% in natural gas and 3% in pure oil. Focusing now on the demand, as you can see, electricity demand kept almost flat during the fourth quarter of 2024, vis-a-vis the fourth quarter of 2023. There was a slight contraction in residential consumption, almost offset by commercial and major demand. Higher temperatures recorded during October of 2024, in comparison to the same month of 2023, prompt higher retail consumption, which shrunk then in November and December as a result of milder temperatures, compared to equal month of 2023. For the whole 2024, residential demand barely grew 0.4% and mayor and commercial demands both ending 2024 with a 1% decrease in their consumption, though some positive interrunner growth rate were observed during the second half of the year, especially for food and beverage, oil and gas, and mining. Finally, the electricity trade balance resulted in a net import situation during the whole quarter, with a peak in November. In line with the demand trend showcased above, net imports were recorded in October and November, being substantially lower in December. We now go to slide 10 to our key operating indicators for the quarter. We can see that electricity generated by Central Puerto rose 5% to 5,416 gigawatt-hour compared to 5,168 gigawatt-hour during the fourth quarter of 2023. Hydro energy generation from Piedra del Aguila dropped 31%, reaching 1,164 GWh from 1,678 GWh during the fourth quarter of 2023. This decline was primarily due to a 7% reduction in water levels of the Kojongura River and 22% in the Limay River. which both resulted in lower availability of water for generation. Wind generation decreased 3%, reaching 396 GWh during the fourth quarter of 2024, compared to 410 GWh during the same period of 2023. This decline was mainly due to lower wind resources and also some maintenance works. On the other hand, solar energy generation reached 88 GWh during the period under analysis, compared to 73 GWh during the fourth quarter of 2023, basically as a result of higher resource availability. Thermal generation increased 25% during the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to the fourth quarter of 2023 reaching 3767 gigawatt-hour from 3007 gigawatt-hour. The growth was mainly due to higher dispatch of some steam turbines in Puerto Side and some steam and gas turbines in Lujan de Cuyo as well as higher generation of the Brigadier Lopez open cycle and the combined cycle of Santa Fe. Also a higher availability and dispatch were recorded for the Mitsubishi combined cycle located in Costanera Finally, it is worth to highlight that during the quarter some important maintenance programs were carried out in steam turbines and combined cycles, especially that executed in the combined cycle located in Nuevo Puerto. That maintenance lasted more than expected due to some findings recorded in the steam turbine and the generator while performing the overhaul. These findings were partially settled and are expected to be completed sobbed out during the next maintenance program to be carried out next September. Not withstanding this, the combined cycle is 100% operative. Now let's move to our revenues breakdown. As you can see on slide 11, this amounted to $168 million in the quarter, as compared to $98 million in the same period of 2023. The variation in revenues is a consequence mainly off. A 61% or $29 million increase in spot market revenues driven by a cash effect on the gap between currency devaluation and spot remuneration increases. Higher thermal generation mainly in steam turbines, the Brigadier Lopez Open Cycle plant and Costanera Mitsubishi combined cycle finally a non-cash effect on the gap between currency devaluation inflation primarily attributed to the one-time devaluation of december of 2023 then we have a 62 percent or 27 million dollar increase in sales under contract driven by higher solar generation of one is to be the solar farm, higher energy sales of cogeneration units, especially in the San Lorenzo plant, and also a non-cash effect on the gap between currency devaluation and inflation. Those were all partially upset by lower wind generation, mainly due to lower wind resource and extraordinary maintenance. Then, we have a 109% or $4 million increase in steam sales, driven by higher steam production in both Lujan de Cuyo and San Maravilloso facilities, but substantially in the later one, as a consequence of higher demand from clients. As we commented in our last Erving session, we expect that steam demand will continue to be higher in the future showing a new trend due to new economic activity levels in some industries, remarkably in oil and gas. On slide 12, we can see the dynamic of our adjusted EBITDA. During the fourth quarter of 2024, the group's adjusted EBITDA amounted to 65 million dollars rising 44% or 20 million dollars when compared to the fourth quarter of 2023. When analyzing the adjusted EBTA we can observe that the variation is mainly explained by the previously stated higher aggregate sales driven by spot sales and sales under contracts, spot remuneration increases higher than currency devaluation and a positive non-cash effect on the gap between currency devaluation and inflation. Then we have a 43 million dollars increase in cost of sales explained basically by a rise in maintenance expenses and a real appreciation of the Argentine peso. On the other hand, production costs were also negatively impacted by a non-cash effect on the gap between currency devaluation and inflation. SG&A rose $11 million, mainly by higher fees and compensation for services related to one-time projects and the real appreciation of the Argentine peso. Similar to production costs, SG&A were also negatively impacted by the so-called non-cash effect due to the gap between currency devaluation and inflation. Finally, other operating results net were positive and higher than the fourth quarter of 2023 figures by $4 million, basically as a consequence of insurance recovery, which was partially offset by lower interest from clients due to lower commissive delays, the effects of the resolution 58 and the negative non-cash effect on the gap between currency devaluation and inflation moving to the next slide the consolidated net income during the fourth quarter of 2024 central puerto's net income amounted to a loss of 28 million dollars this is This is basically the result of negative impacts driven by non-cash effects. We should highlight an impairment of almost 100 million dollars, higher DNA, and some one-time gains from M&A transactions registered in 2023. These effects were partially upset by better results driven by the change in purchasing power of the currency due to lower inflation and higher variation in biological assets. Then we had lower phony FX difference and interest due to lower FX variation, and some positive effects were recorded by the aforementioned adjusted EBTA dynamic and net financial results which were driven by lower FX differences on financial liabilities and lower bank commissions finally income tax was higher due to higher income before tax lastly on slide 14 we have the cash flow dynamic during the 12th month of 2024. Net cash provided by operating activities was $250 million during 2024. This cash flow arises mainly from net income for the period before income tax, collection of interest from clients, insurance recovery, being all partially upset by income tax and other taxes payments. Net cash used by investing activities was $160 million during 2024. This amount is mainly explained by acquisitions of property, plant and equipment and inventory and acquisitions of other financial assets, being all partially upset by dividends collected and the sale of property, plant, and equipment. Net cash used by financing activities was $106 million during 2024. This is basically the result of long-term debt repayments, interest and other long-term debt cost, pay, and dividends paid, being all partially upset by long-term loan receipt and net overdraft receipt. Consequently, our cash position as of December the 31st of 2024 amounted to $4 million. If financial assets are included, our total current liquidity amounts to $233 million. With this, I conclude the presentation. Now we invite you to ask any question to our team. Thank you very much for your attention.
