Elia (AO) | Buy | Feedback from Virtual CEO/CFO tour

Research evidence excerpt

Elia (AO) | Buy | Feedback from Virtual CEO/CFO tour

026 seems to be on track. Ramp-up of employees is going forward. One critical permission on

Ventilus has been agreed upon for it. Funding is put in place to make that happen. Capex is backwards loaded within the years.

Connected to the capex delivery, financial and operational performance remains key, with almost 100% availability of the grid

achieved lately, financial performance reaching an all-time high and the EUR690-740m and well on track to reach this level for the

group as well.

Execution of the funding plan is going forward, equity support and recent EUR900m hybrid issuance for 2026 provide some

additional headroom for funding, backed by EUR3.6bn in debt. The group is increasing liquidity to gain flexibility and to de-risk

the plan over the medium term. From a pure liquidity perspective, the group does not need anything for the next two years. An

agreement to issue new equity has been made to provide flexibility in the future, but it is not needed now. New debt is expected

to be issued in the second part of the year.

On the liquidity side, the company has available cash and facilities (EUR12bn), and the rating agencies have confirmed the credit

rating. FFO/net debt is the key metric, which has been tightened to 7% at the group level, and the group has some headroom.

Having sufficient liquidity to finance the capex plan was a prerequisite for the confirmation of the credit rating. They expect to be

comfortably ahead of 7% by the end of the plan (2028). Discussions with the European Investment Bank over the Elizabeth Island

funding provide some additional headroom.

The EUR6bn government support mechanism currently applied to transmission tariffs in Germany is expected to continue going