Rubis Adr

welcome to the ruby's first quarter 2026 trading update presentation for the first part of the conference call participants will be in listen only mode however during the questions and answer session participants are able to ask questions now I will hand the conference over to the speakers to begin today's conference please go ahead good evening ladies and gentlemen thanks for joining us today for ruby's q1 2026 trading updates

Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr This quarter was one of very strong operating performance again. The energy distribution business saw strong growth both on volumes and margins in all geographies. The volumes increased by 12% driven notably by aviation fuel and CNI in the Caribbean and bitumen in Africa and Europe. Overall unit margins were roughly stable at plus 1% versus previous year. And we observed three coherent months. March is in the continuity of January and February. However, we have seen over the last weeks of Q1 a few precautionary purchasing behaviors here and there, but nothing significant. Since January, we launched our vitamin business in Europe, which is performing well. In the renewable electricity production, our development continues in line with plants, with an increase of the sector portfolio of 6% versus December 2025, and 32% over a year, which is quite encouraging for the rest of the year. The CAI project, which is the second biggest PV plant in France, is expected to be fully commissioned by the end of Q2. One important fact also to underline is that none of our business is directly negatively impacted by the war in the Middle East. I remind you that we have no operation in the region. Our supply is managed at regional level and in the only region where we operate, which could be at risk, which is East Africa, supply is under directly by local governments. However, we are monitoring the situation in an agile and local way and are confident about our ability to navigate this volatile context. So all those elements make us confident about 2026 and we reaffirm our guidance. I'm now handing the floor to GCV to go into further details of the activity.

Thank you Marc, good morning to all of you. As I mentioned by Marc, and you can see that on the slide, is only increased by 12%, while the growth margin grew by 30%. So all business lines contributed positively with a particular mention for our bitumen activities. By the way, our bitumen activities following a strong 2025 continue to deliver excellent performance in both volume and margin. Now, what are the key drivers of this performance? First of all, MPG. MPG plus 5% review and plus 9% gross margin. Activity was quite strong in Europe across all segments, by segments we mean bulk, cylinders, notably, with Switzerland leading, driven by a very robust is getting better now, and Autogas remains a key growth driver, especially in France and Spain. In Africa, performance was quite solid, especially in South Africa, where the cylinder segment drove most of the growth during the quarter. As far as Shul is concerned, as you can see, plus 10% volume plus 8% growth margin. Despite strong volume growth, we need to acknowledge that growth margin increased at a slower pace, reflecting a slight decline in unique margin. This is obviously mainly driven by the month of March. where the Middle East crisis and rising international crisis led to continued price pressure across many oracle activities on the beach across RCMI commercial industrial activities. In the Caribbean, very dynamic activity although margins were impacted by an unfavorable translation. Return performance was extremely strong in both Africa, particularly Kenya, by the way, and the Caribbean, with like the Guyana showing a very, very robust demand. The commercial and industrial segment CNI has also performed extremely well, mainly driven by IT and cleaner. Last but not least, the aviation business was extremely strong in the Caribbean, especially in Barbados, Bahamas, mainly due to the peak tourism season over there. And in Kenya, as you recall, this is a very competitive, highly competitive market, and we are not fighting too much to keep the volumes because it would Adr Adr Adr Bitumen, we talked a lot about bitumen, it's again one of the main achievements for the first quarter of 2026. You can see impressive numbers, plus 44% volume, plus 49% growth margin. So overall bitumen volumes increased by 44% driven by both the rapid of our European operations. You do recall that we started operations in Antwerp, Belgium on the 1st of Jan and we are now quite on the right mode to deliver the targets that we set to ourselves. And obviously we have also a continued expansion in Africa where in Africa only volumes grew by 80%. So, again, the quarter marks the launch of our business activities in Europe, Antwerp, with a very encouraging start that reinforces our confidence in the future of the business in Europe. In Africa also, by the way, the performance remained strong, notably in Nigeria, but not only, most of the countries continued was also driven by our entry into India last year and the increase in our state in Angola. Remember we moved from 35 to 95% equity in Angola. Gross margin increased quite significantly as I said, 49% year on year with I would say contribution across all countries. and unit margins remaining quite at high level throughout the quarter. Small comment on Q4 on services. You can see a small decline by 7% of revenue. It's not at all an issue. It's even a positive number because Adr Adr Adr Adr Adr should be worried about. So now let's turn to this photos on. So again, the news, the secure portfolio, which 1.5 gigawatts up 6% versus the last year and the last year and 32% year on year. So revenue amounted to 12 million euros compared to 11 million euros last year. So it's a plus in the commissioning of new solar farms. So now if we move on to the 2026 outlook. As you can see, Q1 performance for 2026 was fully in line with the outlook we provided to you at the time of our full year results. And once again, it definitely highlights the strengths of our multi-country, multi-product strategy under PIN. by strong operational execution and confirming the agility of the Rubis business model. So despite the current context in the Middle East, which has had no significant impact on our business so far, we expect in 2026 the Caribbean to remain well-oriented, supported in particular by the ongoing recovery in Haiti, the continued storm momentum in Jamaica, Guyana, Barbados, as well as I said before, the strong global momentum in aviation in the Caribbean. In Africa, the retail business should remain the key driver of performance alongside bitumen and more and more lubricants. We can see lubricants more and more in Africa. and it's encouraging. LPG is also performing strongly and renewable electricity continues to develop.