I'll work through this step-by-step for VERBUND AG.

## Step 1: Identify the Relevant Industry

VERBUND AG is an Austrian electricity company. It's primarily a hydropower generator (Austria's largest electricity company) with both regulated (grid/network) and unregulated (generation, trading) activities. It's a hybrid utility with significant unregulated power generation. The relevant methodologies are **Unregulated Power and Gas** and **Regulated Utilities** (for the grid segment). Given the mix, I'll apply utility-sector adjustments.

## Step 2: Estimate Adjusted Debt

**Reported Debt (Financial Liabilities):**
- Noncurrent Financial Liabilities (2023-01-01 = end of FY2022): €2,844,559,000
- Current Financial Liabilities: €1,109,297,000
- Total reported financial liabilities: €3,953,856,000

**Lease Adjustments:**
- Right-of-use assets at end of FY2022: €146,613,000
- S&P typically adds lease liabilities. The ROU asset is a proxy. Lease liabilities are already likely included in the financial liabilities reported. Looking at the lease payments in financing activities: €11,447,000 for FY2022. If lease liabilities are already captured in financial liabilities, I won't double count. However, S&P typically ensures operating leases are capitalized. Given IFRS 16 is applied, lease liabilities should already be in the financial liabilities. I'll assume they're included.

**Pension Deficit:**
- Noncurrent Provisions (end FY2022): €619,486,000
- These include pension obligations and other provisions. S&P adds the net pension deficit. The remeasurement of defined benefit plans in OCI (€172,041,000 gain in 2022) and the reserve balance of -€205,455,000 suggest a significant pension obligation. 
- I'll estimate pension-related provisions as a portion of noncurrent provisions. Given the remeasurement reserve of -€205,455,000, I'll estimate the pension deficit at approximately €400,000,000 (a reasonable portion of the €619,486,000 noncurrent provisions). However, S&P typically uses the funded status. Given limited data, I'll use approximately 50% of noncurrent provisions as pension-related: ~€310,000,000.

**Cash adjustment:**
- Cash and cash equivalents: €409,252,000
- S&P typically nets surplus cash. For utilities, they may deduct a portion. I'll assume S&P deducts excess cash above an operating minimum. I'll use a conservative approach and net out ~€200,000,000 (keeping ~€200M as operational).

**Adjusted Debt Calculation:**
- Total reported debt: €3,953,856,000
- + Pension deficit estimate: ~€310,000,000
- - Surplus cash: ~€200,000,000
- Adjusted Debt ≈ €4,063,856,000

Simplifying with round numbers: ~€4,064,000,000

## Step 3: Estimate Adjusted EBITDA

**Reported EBITDA (FY2022):** €3,160,679,000

**Adjustments:**
- **Lease depreciation add-back (for operating lease):** S&P adds lease-related depreciation back and adds lease interest. Under IFRS 16, the EBITDA already excludes lease depreciation. S&P typically adds the full lease payment to EBITDA. Lease payment: €11,447,000. The EBITDA already captures this (since depreciation of ROU is below EBITDA line). The S&P adjustment is essentially to add lease interest (which is in finance costs) - approximately small amount, ~€3-5M. This is minimal.

- **Equity method income adjustment:** Share of profit from associates: €4,293,000 is typically removed from S&P EBITDA (it's non-cash at EBITDA level), but it may already be excluded from reported EBITDA depending on where it's classified. Looking at the P&L structure, it appears below operating profit, so likely not in EBITDA. No adjustment needed.

- **Non-recurring items:** The impairment loss of €197,761,000 and reversal of €125,973,000 are below EBITDA, so no adjustment needed there.

- **Pension service cost adjustment:** S&P may adjust for pension service costs vs. cash contributions, but without specific data, I'll leave this minimal.

**Adjusted EBITDA ≈ €3,160,679,000 + ~€5,000,000 (lease interest) ≈ €3,166,000,000**

## Step 4: Calculate Adjusted Debt / Adjusted EBITDA

Adjusted Debt / Adjusted EBITDA = €4,064,000,000 / €3,166,000,000 ≈ 1.28

Given the approximations and that S&P might use slightly different pension estimates, the ratio is approximately 1.28.

<answer>1.28</answer>