Good morning and welcome to the Central Puerto conference call, following the results announcement for the second quarter ended on June 30, 2022. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded.

If you do not have a copy of the press release, please refer to the Investor Support section on the company’s corporate website at www.centralpuerto.com. A replay of today’s call may be accessed by accessing the webcast in the Investor Support section of the Central Puerto corporate website.

Before we proceed, please be aware that all financial figures were prepared in accordance with the IFRS and are stated in Argentinian pesos, unless otherwise noted. It is worth noting that the financial statements for the second quarter ended on June 30, 2022, include the effects of inflation adjustments.

Accordingly, the financial figures mentioned during the call, including the data from previous periods and the growth comparisons, have been stated in the terms of Argentine pesos at the end of the reporting period.

Also, please note that certain statements made by the company during this conference call are forward-looking statements, and we refer to the forward-looking statements section of our earnings release and recent filings with the SEC.

Central Puerto assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable securities laws. To follow the discussion better, please download the webcast presentation available on the company’s website. Please be aware that some of the numbers mentioned during the call may be rounded to simplify the discussion.

On the call today from Central Puerto is Fernando Bonnet, Chief Executive Officer; and Enrique Terraneo, Chief Financial Officer; and Federico Bozhori, Financial Controller. Today’s presentation will be carried out by Federico as Fernando has a cold and has lost his voice. I will now turn the call over to Federico Bozhori. Mr. Bozhori, you may begin.

One moment. We have a slight technical difficulty. Just give me 1 second..

first, the decrease in impairment charge of property plant and equipment that totaled ARS 6.4 billion during the second quarter of 2021; second, a 155% increase in foreign exchange defense on operating assets, mainly related to FONI trade receivables that generated ARS 4.6 billion gain during the second quarter of 2022 compared to ARS 1.8 billion gain during the second quarter of 2021 due to a higher depreciation of the Argentine peso during the quarter; third, an increase in financial income that amounted to ARS 2.2 billion in the second quarter of 2022 compared to minus ARS 0.3 billion in the second quarter of 2021, mainly due to higher financial assets results in the second quarter of 2022; and fourth, lower income tax expenses that amounted to ARS 1.1 billion in the second quarter of 2022 compared to ARS 5.5 billion in the second quarter of 2021.

Additionally, the share of profit of associates was ARS 0.3 billion gain during the second quarter of 2022 compared to a loss of ARS 0.7 billion in the second quarter of the previous year.

FONI collections related to the trade receivables for Vuelta de Obligado Plant totaled ARS 2.1 billion in the second quarter of 2022 as compared to ARS 3.9 billion in the second quarter of 2021. The amounts are being collected on time and according to the signed contract. Going to Page 11, you can see our cash flow for the second quarter of 2022.

Net cash provided by operating activities was ARS 16.9 billion. This includes ARS 2.1 billion in collection from Vuelta de Obligado's installment. Thank you. And now we invite you to ask any questions you may have..

[Operator Instructions] Your first question is coming from Frank McGann of Bank of America..

A couple of questions, if I could.

One is just, what are the current plans for any stoppages or maintenance in the second half of the year? And also, what are the -- any change in demand that you would expect in the second half versus what you've been seeing in the -- as overall trends in the first half? And then if I could ask one additional question.

The overall hydro situation for Piedra del Águila, I think you mentioned in the release that there was some improvement starting in June. I was just wondering how important that is, how much better you see the overall conditions as you're looking into the third quarter. And that plant, I believe, the contract you have expires next year.

I was just wondering if there's any talks going on with the government or plans for a possible renewal of the contract you have for the plant..

Okay. Frank, thank you for your questions. Going to your first question. We are not seeing important maintenance for the rest of the year. Of course, we have small maintenance, regular ones, but nothing significant for the rest of the year in terms of our equipment, thermal or hydro. We are not seeing big maintenance for the rest of the year.

On September, we have an intervention of -- next year -- September next year, we have an intervention of our combined cycle in Buenos Aires. This is the first big maintenance that we will face for our equipment. In terms of demand, we are seeing some recovery of the demand.

In fact, the industrial demand are on the levels -- more or less on the levels of the 2019, completely recovered after COVID. We are not seeing much more increase in terms of demand, especially if we think that we are seeing some acceleration in the industry growth.

And in terms of residential demand, we will need to know how these subsidies -- restrictions will apply the new scheme that the government announced, if they will be 400 gigawatt -- megawatts, sorry, per month over 2 months. That will depend on how the demand will be reduced in terms of not having the subsidy.

So for [predict], the demand of -- the residential demand for the future, we will need to have more information about the implementation of this new scheme, but we are not seeing a big rising on the demand for the next month anyway. In terms of Piedra del Águila, as you mentioned, we are seeing better inflows.

Especially during this winter, the snow is higher than we expected in [indiscernible]. So we are seeing more inflows. But we already -- we are not in the top of the ramp. So we already are recovering the level of the ramp.

And depending on how this -- no continuous under rain during summer, perhaps we will see -- we will have more information to see if we have -- we come back to the medium levels of production or not. I think today, it's too early to say that we are in the middle of the year or we are in the draw year.

But in fact, we are seeing an improvement, but we don't know yet if this improvement will keep -- will continue in the -- during the summer. And your last question is regarding the concession. We have some talks with the government, but the previous administration, in terms of energy, I mean.

Right now, with the new authorities, we think we need to start again. And the ministry of economy, we didn't talk with him about that. So I think we need to start again the discussions and see which is -- which are the expectations the new ministry have about the concessions.

And I think we need to start again with these meetings and these talkings in order to have more information to give to you and the market. Right now, it's too early to have an impression or to give some color about that. But of course, we -- it's something that we have on our agenda.

So we expect to start talking about that soon with this new ministry and the new people in charge of electricity and energy. So we will have more information perhaps in the next quarter..

Okay. If I could follow up just quickly. Could you remind us what percentage of EBITDA, if you can disclose it, Piedra del Águila represents? And what percentage of EBITDA is currently in U.S.

dollar PPAs, if you have the number?.

Yes. Yes. So right now, with all the -- I'm going to answer the second first. Right now, with all the equipment that we have under construction installed, more or less 70% -- between 70% to 75%, depending on how Piedra del Águila works and how Piedra del Águila generates is in dollars and the rest is in pesos at the spot.

So the percentage are dramatically changed after our -- finished the construction of the project that we start constructing during 2017 and 2018. And in terms of EBITDA, Piedra del Águila is around $30 million, let's say. That's roughly the number of the EBITDA of Piedra del Águila..

Your next question is coming from Ezequiel Fernández from Balanz..

I have actually 5 questions. Sorry for the extension, but they should be quick, I promise. I would like to go one by one, if you don't mind. The first one is related to the CAMMESA payment days.

How early right now and -- or how they closed the quarter? And what happened in this -- in July and the early August?.

Okay. Let's go for that. Thank you for your question. In terms of the quarter, the payment is targeting better. In fact, that was with the previous administration of the economy. So coming from 30 days of delay, we reached almost 15 days of delay until June.

Then with the change in the administration, we suffer more delay at the beginning because some signing problems, people that renewal -- of course, the renewal -- the staff in terms of economy and secretory of energy. And we see increased the delay to 45, 50 days of delay.

And with this new change of -- in economy, we are seeing a delay of 60 days more or less. Expecting that with -- when the people get in office and start working again, normally, we expect to reduce again this delay -- are now perhaps again with 30 -- between 15 and 30 days of delay..

Okay. Great. Then regarding Luján de Cuyo -- I know that you have been working during the past quarters on different structural fixes. I don't know if the situation is resolved by now..

Sorry.

You can repeat -- you mean some maintenance? What is your question about?.

Yes. About the level of overall availability at Luján de Cuyo, which had some issues last quarter..

Okay. Yes, yes, yes. Last quarter -- at the end of the quarter, specifically in June, we suffer a failure in our unit -- one of the units of the cogeneration, number 26, TG number 26. We have the same issue that we have -- we faced last year with 27 unit, the other one, which is the -- a failure in the GR box.

The GR box connects the turbine with the generator. And we need to change -- according to Siemens, which is the provider, we need to change some pieces of this GR box. And we are -- expect that the whole process we need to bring the pieces are -- very big pieces, we need to bring it in a special cargo.

So we have several delays in terms of the -- to find a plane to bring the pieces. So we are expecting to get the unit online again in the middle of August, I think 20 -- between 15 and 19 of this month. So we are not expecting to have any more problem with this year, both because we are changing the main components.

So we are not expecting to have more failures related to this GR box..

Okay. Great. Regarding the San Carlos projects in Salta, congratulations on that. It's 10 megawatts. I don't know if you can share with us any CapEx expectation for the project and if you could break that down in terms of how much is the panels and the -- under construction and how much is for the transmission payment that you have to make to CAMMESA..

Okay. Okay. In terms of these new projects, we -- as you mentioned, we get granted for the capacity for 10 megawatts. This is -- we are receiving the -- we have more or less non-budget prices.

We are receiving right now in this month the confirmed CapEx, but we expect with the number that we already have around $10 million from CapEx that we expect to deploy at the end -- perhaps the first 30% at the end of the year and then the rest in the next 2 quarters.

In terms of -- it's a small project connected in 33 kilowatts line, so there is no much more CapEx related to transmission line. The main components, as you mentioned, are the panels and truckers. That is the main components of the cost, as I mentioned to you. More or less 70% related to that.

And the rest is the civil works to install some connection, but not a big portion of connection. In terms of the capacity payment -- sorry..

Okay. No, no. I was exactly referring to that, the amount of money that you need to pay to CAMMESA for the transport..

In terms of the capacity payment, it's around $150,000 per quarter is the amount of capacity payment that we need to pay to CAMMESA. The duration of this project will be around between 15 and 18 months..

Okay. So it's $150,000 per --.

Quarter..

Per quarter until you finish construction?.

Yes..

Okay. That's great. And I don't know if you have any updates regarding the Brigadier López closing..

We're still working on that. We are analyzing very -- in detail the quantity of CapEx. And of course, we are analyzing in detail all the COVID complexity in order to have the project ready to launch whenever we finish that analysis. And additionally, the -- we are making a huge analysis about how the equipment is contained -- was maintained by NASA.

So that takes time for us, and we are working with Siemens on that, but we are in a preliminary stage of analysis and trying to be ready when the conditions -- economic conditions and the COVID conditions getting more clear for us to launch the project. But we are not launching yet..

Great. I have a final one related to dividends. I understand that you're still limited by some of the covenants on the loans that you took. If we could expect that to be changed at some point in time this year or the next one..

We are not expecting for this year, for sure. The next one, we will see. And the next one, we need to -- we have to pay some portion of the loan -- $35 million. And I think there, we can have some release. We need to analyze if we can reach all that number and pay all that number.

We can have some release on that restriction, but not for this year, for sure..

[Operator Instructions] I don’t know, gentlemen, if you’ve got any questions that have come through on the webcast that you’d like to look at. Okay. We appear to have no further questions in the queue on the phone lines. I will hand back over to the management for any closing remarks..

Okay. Thank you, everyone, for your interest in Central Puerto. We encourage you to call us for any information that you may need. Have a great day..

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference has now concluded. Thank you for today -- attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your phone lines, and have a wonderful day..