We are landing at EUR611 million of EBIT. This is due for this wholesale strategy and also given the optimal performance on bio business. Given these figures, we see an EBITDA guideline increase to around 1 billion at the end of the year.
Henri Patricot: Helpful. Thank you.
Operator: The next question is from Henry Tarr of Berenberg.
Henry Tarr: Hi, guys, and thanks for taking my questions. Two, if I can. One, I think you mentioned an arbitration in GGP potentially coming in Q4. Could you give any color on the potential materiality or what that relates to? That would be helpful. And then just secondly on Versalis. Clearly the Novamont acquisition sort of gives an indication as to the aim for that unit. Is there anything else that can be done sort of on a medium term view to improve profitability there and how do you see sort of margins moving as we look into Q4 and 2024? Thank you.
Francesco Gattei: So two questions, the first for Cristian, the second for Adriano Alfani that is the head of Versalis.
Cristian Signoretto: So look, the arbitration that I was referring to is litigation around long-term contract that has been ended already. So it’s actually past legacy. And the possible outcomes are well within the range of the guidance that we gave you. So the guidance, as I said, is resilient to that outcome.
Henry Tarr: Okay, thanks.
Adriano Alfani: About Versalis and the Novamont acquisition. Clearly, Novamont acquisition was a major step into bio or green chemistry that in the whole portfolio Versalis was pretty small. Clearly, now the main effort is to integrate this portfolio and to generate a complementary approach in terms of channel to market and so to complement portfolio product, but also portfolio in term of market participation. And so to enhance and get the most of the synergy we can get. So we expect it to significantly grow the Novamont portfolio, but at the same time, the portfolio of Versalis. As we said last time, we expect that in the next few years, we should shift around 15% of our portfolio to specialize in green chemistry, including, of course, within green chemistry circularity.
The situation in term of chemistry industry is pretty challenging. We don’t expect significant improvement in Q4 also because Q4 is a low season for some market like construction, especially for the winter, although the winter is pretty mild, but we don’t expect any significant improvement in Q4 from a profitability point, so pretty much in line with Q3.
Henry Tarr: Okay, thanks.
Operator: The next question comes from Massimo Bonisoli of Equita.
Massimo Bonisoli: Good afternoon. Two questions. The first on Plenitude. How many clients do you expect to gain from the forthcoming liberalization process in the Italian regulated market and what would be the margin gap for the new clients compared to your current average client? Second question on LNG. Following the long-term supply agreements with Qatar and Indonesia. Now do you plan to secure some of the volumes with the end customers for the gas uptake or would you like to keep those volumes for the spot market? Thank you.
Francesco Gattei: Stefano Goberti for the Plenitude question and again Cristian Signoretto for the LNG.
Stefano Goberti: Massimo, thank you for your question. First of all, we are following closely the process of the liberalization because we still had a lot of rumor around, but no clear picture yet set. We will participate in the bidding. It’s still early time to see whether our bidding will be very much successful or not. Of course, we will play our game there. And in terms of margin squeeze, let’s see what’s the rule of the game will be set at the end with the regulation in place. And then we will decide how to participate in what to do exactly.
Cristian Signoretto: So on the LNG portfolio, as you can imagine, we have a strategy of allocating our supply portfolio to different line of business. So clearly spot and keep the portfolio exposed to the spot market is part of the strategy. But also, I would say, part of the strategy, especially for the portfolio, which is more East of Suez. So clearly, Indonesia would be part of that is also to secure an outlet for the long-term. And this is, I think, a good moment also to be in the market given the appetite for long-term LNG contracting in the east part of the world. And so we are currently actively marketing our portfolio in that part of the world.
Operator: The final question is from Alejandro Vigil of Santander.
Alejandro Vigil: Thank you for taking my questions. I have two questions about Plenitude. One is about the performance of the retail business in the third quarter has been very strong, it can be extrapolated for the next quarters, this performance? And the second question is if you can give us any color about the process of looking for new partners in this — for this business? Thank you.
Francesco Gattei: About the process, the process of sales, then I will leave it to Stefano for the question on the performance of the third quarter. The process of sale is continuing. The discussion are continuing a lot of details, a lot of let’s say negotiation and paper work to be completed, but I confirm that we are proceeding. We don’t see so far any major hurdles towards the conclusion. Then I leave to Stefano.
Stefano Goberti: Thank you, Alejandro, for the question. Of course the quarter was a very good quarter, EUR284 million the EBITDA that we recorded this quarter, mainly coming from our retail activity. We have been working on the overall international European platform on managing the exposure. We have been working a lot on also defending our activity in Italy with working on the client base and also offering the, what we call it, added value services. So of course, these results are not one-off are repeatable. That’s why we also increased our guidance to year-end to EUR900 million of EBITDA.
Alejandro Vigil: Thank you very much.
Operator: That was the final question. Thank you for participating in the Eni conference.
Francesco Gattei: Thank you to all the attendees. And please if you have any additional questions, our Investor Relations team is available for providing the details. Thank you and good afternoon.
