Rubis Adr

Hello, everyone. It is a joy to see you all for our full year results for 2023. And here we are with Clarice and Bruno. And we'd all like to thank you for joining us. First and foremost, I would just like to quickly go over our main business lines. Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr On the far right, we have bulk liquid storage for industrial clients. The third business line, a bit more recently, as of 2022, is when it comes to renewable electricity production with solar power. When it comes to energy distribution, we have businesses in Africa, in the Caribbean region, in Europe, and we provide energy enrichment to B2C and B2B customers. The main product that we operate with is LPG. It is seen in Europe as a transition energy which still has quite a high level of CO2 emissions attached to it and it's mainly for peri-urban and rural customers. Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr We are a leader in Africa. And for that, we really depend in the long term on the infrastructure needs in Africa. So all of that business makes up for about 96% of our group fixed assets. So 80% of group fixed assets and 96% of group EBITDA. Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr as of end of December we had 435 megawatts installed capacity 4.3 gigawatts in the pipeline so you can see it's quite a big ratio there and that's very indicative of how this business really tends to grow and the growth opportunities that we're expecting to see from it as I said we have heavily vested in France we're probably one of the top five operators in France Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr A few main highlights for 2023. 2023 was quite a good year because as you can see our EBITDA is up 19% year on year. A strong cash flow up 583 million so that's up 35%. And this is really because top quality businesses, strong business based on cash flow. The cash flow that you have up on the screen is obviously after financial costs and after tax. Quickly about Photosol, one of the main highlights there is that we have a secured portfolio up at 77%. Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr So we have had some foreign exchange negatives but nevertheless it has not impacted overall growth. Now when we look at the targets that we set ourselves for 2023 in terms of EBITDA We laid down a guidance range of 690 to 730 million euros and we were almost at 800 million euros. So that's up 19% year on year. And there's roughly 50 million euros in positive effect, which won't necessarily be recurrent. So it's going to be more likely one-offs. In terms of net income, $354 million. Well, there are three ways of looking at this. If we look at it in terms of adjusted net income group share, so we adjusted both 2022 and 2023 for one-off items, and we still have plus 8%. Now, plus 8%, that indicates our ability to really tap into all of our growth drivers and using them as a way to offset negative impacts from the economic climate. Now, again, if we look at our Haitian assets and how we can amortize that, we have growth of plus 17%. 35% plus 35% for the overall net income group share increase. Now as I just mentioned we have dividend growth which is perfectly in line with our dividend distribution policy which we have been abiding by for some time now. And the final point is Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr we have the four main areas where we can allocate that money. 40 million can go into our traditional businesses, so energy distribution. Sorry, 80 million can go into energy distribution and storage. Now, we used to have a 50-50 split between equity and debt. So when you have that 50-50 split, you get that total of 80. If we look at renewables, if you have available cash of 60 million plus a leverage effect of 85%, that's quite high. Adr Adr Obviously, we said that we want 25% of EBITDA to be put back into these businesses by 2030. And you can see that there's 1.5 billion in investment that we can fund while still covering our original maintenance businesses and while still covering our legacy businesses. Now just quickly talking about our investment policies. We've always been very disciplined by maintaining our long-term plan by focusing on energy distribution, which is again our legacy business line. We really focus on bolt-on acquisitions in our existing geographies, ways of bolstering our current business. and we are really looking for opportunities out there. Obviously we're not going to look for any opportunities that don't make sense when trying to add extra value to our shareholders. So as I said, these sorts of opportunities are funded by debt for about 50%. Now when talking about renewables we want to hit project IRRs unlevered of about 7-9%. Now what that means is that once we tap into non-recourse debt financing we should hit about 80-90% we should be able to get equity IRRs that are quite high, almost double digits. Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr There's also a new segment that we are investing in. And when talking about solar plants, it's no longer large-scale ground-mounted solar plants, but here we're talking about small-scale PV plants. And these are key solutions which really tap into current simplification policy that is being brought in. Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Now whenever we get a construction permit we also ask for the necessary approvals for this and we are already starting to send in bids for specific tenders for these sorts of systems and we see it growing in plenty of countries and we are sure it's going to continue to grow in the future. Now what's interesting is that you have both electricity and distribution business lines and by developing then we are going to really leverage our major accounts that we already have with major corporate players by providing with carbon or low carbon solutions. Adr Adr Adr Adr

Thank you, Jacques. OK, so I will tell you about our performance and how our subsidiaries have grown. Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Moving on to our slide about energy distribution and the highlights. Our LPG fuels and bitumen distribution activities delivered a very solid performance this year with strong EBIT growth of 20%. In first place in terms of EBIT generation, the Caribbean region saw its profitability increase significantly in 2023. Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr moving on to Ruby Photosol Ruby Photosol has been growing well this year It's been a great year in terms of development. The secured portfolio has grown by 77% in 2023, bringing us closer to gigawatt. We've also doubled the size of teams, particularly on the development side, to give us the means to achieve our ambitions towards 2030 with Photosol accounting for 34% 35 gigawatts in operational terms. We've also eased access to the financing market. With regard to our development in France, revenues for the next few years from power plants in operation or under construction are already secured and stabilized, whether through CRE contracts or whether that's through corporate PPAs. Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Co-development JVs are underway between Ruby Photosol and some of Ruby Energy subsidiaries developing small solar plants particularly in French overseas territories and in the Caribbean capitalizing on Ruby Energy's customer portfolio. Internationally Adr Adr and our partnership feeds our pipeline to the tune of around 300 megawatts. Now moving on to the next slide. It's a slide that we've shown each time ever since we acquired Photosol. This is to show you what the project looks like in late 2023. It's an illustration of how dynamic this project, this activity has been over the past year. Assets in operation have increased from 383 to 435 megawatts in one year, an increase of 14%. Adr Adr Adr Adr Again, this business has done well with revenue growth 14% and a bit growth of 16%. In line with recent periods, the proportion of stored biofuels and chemicals is growing sharply. Great performance all around this year. These past few years by the way this subsidiary has worked extensively to reverse the product mix of its stored products by significantly increasing the proportion of stored chemicals and biofuels. Adr Adr Now, looking at the slide, you'll see how you get from the 2022 EBIT to the 2023 EBIT, from 509 to 621 million at both ends of the slide, showing you a growth of 22%, which we mentioned before for this indicator. If you go back in time a little bit, let me remind you that volumes for the whole of Ruby Energy have grown by 4% over the three continents where we have a presence. This graph also shows Adr Adr Adr Adr And going back to Ruby Energy, we have mentioned a growth of the distribution, you know, retail distribution side of 20% in terms of EBIT. Logistics, third-party shipping and chipping are also seeing a growth of 20%. And in terms of the geographies, the Caribbean region has performed particularly well with a record year in terms both of volume and margins and market penetration. With the aviation segment doing very well as well as LPG lubricants, So all of the traditional segments of products have shown lots of progress in a region that has also been or whose economy has been driven by tourism from the US and Canada, which is the main driver of these island economies. now as far as Europe is concerned this is a good level of performance because we're mostly present in LPG Adr Adr In terms of EBIT, Africa is up 8%. It is much more diversified between or across LPG, service station networks, and bitumen, which is present in the infrastructure segment, I would say. So that's very much linked to the long-term investments of these economies into their road infrastructure. And we are supporting... Adr Adr and I would say that about 10 years ago, we were mostly present in Nigeria and a few countries around Nigeria, whereas today, as we speak, we have a presence in about a dozen countries in Nigeria accounts for... Adr Adr So, yes, there you go. Ruby Energy's business in Eastern Africa with, as you know, the major acquisition that happened in 2019. Well, growth has been good in terms of Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr look at the structure of these assets we have a 430 megawatt that are already installed we have a large pipeline of projects and you need to bear in mind that it is assets installed assets existing assets that generate the profit and the all the rest just generates costs and Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr And just a few words about this chart. So the EBITDA is strongly growing. The EBIT, those growth rates are really cash-based because cash flow is up 35%, as we've seen. So these are great results. The quality of the results is really there. Adr Adr representing a non-recurring expenses income and expenses going from minus 58 million in 2022 to a positive figure of 7 million in fiscal year 2023 let me remind you that in 2022 Adr Adr a positive figure which is the sum of the fact that we have won an arbitration case in Kenya that pitted us against the seller and the arbitration court in this case has vindicated us and is faulting the seller to pay us a penalty of about 15 million and on the other hand Adr Adr

That's not because of an increase in debt, but that's due to an increase in rates. So that's not what we really saw in 2022, because interest rates rose very slightly. But 2023, there were interest rates of around 3% to 4%, and that really increased our net financial charges. We move on to the line for financial charges from foreign exchange. So this reflects what we said a little earlier. There was an increase from 84 to 105 million euros in foreign exchange losses. This is predominantly from Nigeria. Adr Adr Adr Adr that was offset onto the end clients by increased billing. And that is reflected in EBITDA. So we reassess the situation in June because of the highly volatile early half of the year. So we are in the country. We have business in the country. We have a 45% market share, so that places in leader position. We have a long-term vision. And I would say that the capacity that we have to be able to push on the foreign exchange risk on to end customers or end clients is means that all of our businesses in the country still provide a satisfactory return. So tough year but the underlying business is solid. We also have profit before tax 425 up 27% and if we drop down a few lines we have tax Adr Adr And a lot of that was in island states where there is 0% tax. So that's why our tax rate really dropped from 2022 to 2023. There was a drop in goodwill as well. which unfortunately is not tax deductible. So we had a pinch effect between those two effects. So aside from 35% growth of our net income group share, what we would like you to draw your attention to is the 8% of adjusted net income group share because what that reflects is it corrects for a number of one-off items. So these are events that really came through in 2023 and partly in 22. So because of that, we can actually compare both. So we went from 317 to 342 million for adjusted net income. So when we look at 2022 to 2021, the increase was 10% for adjusted net income. So 10% growth last year, 8% growth this year. So this is always hovering around the double digit percentage growth. Adr Adr we have a net debt to EBITDA ratio which in 2022 end of 2022 was at 2.0 times and which is now at 1.8 times end of 23 financial year and that's predominantly due to the cash generation over the year another ratio we like looking at is looking at non-recourse debt and this is especially what we saw with the renewable energy development so we had 1.5 to 1.4 which is quite manageable when looking at group level So that's it for the main changes for Ruby's balance sheet. So again, modest level of debt, mostly high level of liquidity in our overall balance sheet with some credit lines that are constantly being renegotiated. meaning that we always have some 400 million in available credit lines so that we can continue to acquire new businesses and further our company's growth I would like to just quickly come back for a few final items for the final outlook So as Jacques and Bruno have already just said, I would just like to congratulate everyone for the fantastic operating performance with adjusted net income up 8%. 35% increase for cash flow as well, which really attests to the quality of our overall financial results and also attests to our ability to pay a growing dividend. As for our extra financial statements, Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Now moving on to the 2024 outlook. The broad strokes outlook, the key drivers for the year is that, well, we don't expect any main surprises for LPG, be it in Europe or in Africa. As for bitumen, we expect business to stabilise in Nigeria. Other countries are going to continue with their strong positive outlook. Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr back in 2023, we announced that we were going to hold an investor day. And we are delighted to announce that we are going to have a photo soul day on September 17 2024. At the event, we will provide more ample information on the business. Adr Adr Thank you, Clarice. Hello, everyone. It's a pleasure to be with you here. Just a few quick words. I actually started my career in New York in investment banking. Then I joined CGG Corporate Finance in France and then worked for the United States for more than 10 years. I then joined Rupert's Terminal as CFO and we set up the joint venture with iSquared Capital in 2020. and I'm really excited to join Ruby today because it is a group going through fundamental transformation across the board and I'm really looking forward to working with management to push forward all the projects for the coming years and I really feel a great sense of peace of mind because Bruno will still be there in the company he's not too far away and I'm really looking forward to working with everyone in the coming months

Mark thank you very much I think it's now time for Q&A

Good evening, everyone. We have a first round of questions from Jean-Luc Romain, an analyst who's been following Ruby for some time. Four questions. What is residual value in the balance sheet? Final question. Are you going to account for the adjustment for HEADF energies? Third question. Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr So that's it for Haiti. Any other questions? Well, I'll quickly answer the question about HDF Energy. So HDF Energy was an 18% stake that we took out, so it doesn't appear in our profit and loss. It does appear in our balance sheet, and we actually have a strategic partnership with them for all of our geographical zones where we have business. So there's nothing really new there for HDF from a Ruby side. So it's hydrogen and electricity from French Guiana, 30% and HDF and Meridian also have a share and we're currently building that and that will be commissioned mid-2026. We also have one in Barbados, RSB. and it is in a fairly early stage of the project and we have already secured funding from the World Bank, 41 million. And we're also looking in at some EPCs. We've got 25 projects in the pipeline which should be, that came through in 2023, but they are going to be in Namibia, Indonesia and Mexico. Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr And again, the small solar plant installations require a lot of local presence, so you need local installers. And that acquisition is just so that we can really roll out that business a bit more effectively. There was just one final question, if we may, about 400 million in annual investments. Just quickly about the HDF and how value is booked. It was actually depreciated because of the stock price evolution since the acquisition. We're about 22, 25 million euros in terms of the value that we booked. Now, just quickly answer the question about 400 million in annual investments. I mean this is part of our 2030 plan so this year we're going to invest 75 million obviously that investment will increase year after year so that we can reach our 2030 levels but here we're talking about 400 million in annual investments well here we're talking about 400 megawatt in additional power And here we're talking about installed capacity. That it will be added into our secured portfolio. So we really we're going to be increasing. The annual additional megawatts by about 400. But over 26 and 27 now again here when we're talking about secured, it's both.

I'd like to add one thing when I quoted that example at the end of my introduction. I was giving you or showing you an example just to make it very clear what the investment capabilities are in this area without Adr Adr Adr Adr in fact this is linked to the growth of capacities on the French market which used to be around 2.5 gigawatts and a figure which should double to 5 gigawatts or even 7 gigawatts if we are to follow French and European regulations, which is something that should allow us to grow. Before the Photosol acquisition, Photosol reached about 300 to 350 gigawatts, Adr Adr Adr Adr obviously meant that the margin situation was rather favorable. That would be my first basic answer. Now, in terms of market, not market, I think we've mentioned aviation in Eastern Africa, which, I mean, you have to look at each market. It used to be Adr Adr in the Caribbean the margin situation was quite favorable and has been for a long time and with our logistics tools in terms of transport and shipping we have access to competitive resources which also allows us to boost our margins and lastly in Europe Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr to bring down that yield by boosting the market share. There's nothing hidden behind this 3% dividend increase. The next question comes from Patrick Bohr, who's asking a question about the group's equity, the gearing, the timeline for reimbursements, and predicted rates for 2024. Well, the equity, you will find it in the balance sheet, 2.8 billion for total, the total equity, including minority shareholders. And the question, well, part of the question is about the gearing rate, where we talked about 1 billion or 1.2 billion of net debt compared with 2.8 billion of equity. So, It's a fairly modest amount. It's much less than 100%. And in terms of the net debt to EBITDA ratio, it is also under 2%. So that allows us to say that this is a very robust financial situation. Adr Adr Adr Adr Now, our financial strategy, of course, is focused on protecting the liquidity of our balance sheet by always having available credit lines and renegotiating and finding new instruments that give us access to as long maturity debt as we can access. So those are the directions in which we are going as far as our debt structure. There's another question about reimbursement and timelines. 450 million euros must be reimbursed in 2024, which in light of the systems that we have put in place is not problematic. The next question comes from Philippe Vieira who's asking if there are any plans to do share buybacks in 2024. No, that's not the case. Nothing of the sort is in our plans. We're doing a bit of it each year. and we have plans for that at Ruby Energy and Photosol as well so in the current situation we are not planning to do any share buyback the next question comes from Emmanuel Bateau the analyst who follows Ruby at He's asking whether we expect to have a stable net result in 2024 and if we have incorporated any forex losses, particularly in Nigeria. And then he asks a second question about Kenya, where the government had put in place a subsidy system to cap fuel prices. As for the first question, I think we answered as part of our outlook document for 2024, saying that it was one of the points that we had integrated into our guidance and that we were very much alert to the situation, which is why we targeted a stable net result or one point of increase. Well, stable after the impact of the tax situation at $25 million. So that's the situation we're at. Perhaps we could specify that we're talking about second pillar taxes. Yes, and effective in 2024. So the impact, the estimated impact on the P&L as far as taxes would be in 2024. There's another question on Kenya, if I'm not mistaken, and the subsidies there. Yes, a subsidies system was put in place in 2022 back when the Kenyan government had proposed abandoned the premium system and had capped the pump level prices which had gone up sharply. In exchange for that a subsidy was put in place for Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr the other similar situation in Madagascar something similar happened but the government kept all of its promises and reimposed the earnings losses that arose from the abandonment of the price structure all of that money was paid back to us That's very interesting what Bruno has just said, because this is something that keeps happening in the energy and fuel distribution and service stations industry in a number of countries that are constrained in terms of their price formulas with regulated prices. In other words, when international prices go up too high and too quickly and reach the kinds of levels that Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Okay, I'll field your first question. In terms of our legacy activities, you can't really say that we haven't developed or grown, but what we've done these past few years was organic growth through bitumen, which is a kind of development and growth that is highly profitable for us, and also by developing countries like Guyana and We're really capitalizing on our geographical footprint so as to penetrate other markets. We've always said that we would consider M&A if the muscle pools were good, mainly in Africa on three activities, but there won't be any opportunities in between. It will be organic in between. But on LPG and retail, as well as in the Caribbean, whilst at the same time spending the next years investing in low carbon energy at Ruby of course but Ruby energy as well so that we can provide our customers with multi-service multi-product services mainly for our industrial and professional customers Another question was about forex. Yes, on forex and currency. We don't have a budget rate in terms of currencies. We never do it. We never do it simply because... Adr Adr that there's a price mechanism system in place that incorporates the depreciation or appreciation of the currency as part of that formula, which is what we don't budget in terms of currencies. We look at the currencies as they are, and then we pass on to the end consumer the real price of the product, which, you know, of course, takes into consideration the Adr Adr Adr led to a 30% rise of the value of Ruby, of the company that bought it. We haven't renewed any such large acquisitions, but we have grown a lot in Rotterdam, Antwerp, France. And at the end of the day, in this industry, investments, arbitration between construction from scratch and Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Still on Ruby Terminal, what is the residual value of the 55% of the Ruby Terminal JV, and has that value been reset since it was sold to I2? And I'm getting another question from Jean-Luc Romain about the leverage at Ruby Terminal. Well, the debt levels of Ruby Terminal was about 650 million at the end of last year, well above the maximum leverage as stipulated in the financing contract, which would be six times. We're at 4.5 times. We're not using the whole of the leverage. So that means we still have a major ability to re leverage if needed. by distributing dividend or by, you know, acquisition. The 2022 refinancing exercise was very virtuous in that it really allowed us to bring down the interest rates. And right now we have a cap to a year before plus one or two points or 4% when we used to be at 5.6% in the past on high yield. Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr We're very glad that we have been able to answer your questions. Thank you very much for spending time with us, and we really hope to see you soon at the next opportunity so that we can continue to present our group and convince you that we ourselves are convinced that it has great potential for value creation. Bye.