Boralex Inc.

Q2 2024 Earnings Conference Call

8/14/2024

spk05: Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the telephone conference on the financial results for the second quarter of 2024 for Bouralex. Please note that all lines are in listening mode only. At the end of the presentation, there will be a question and answer period during which financial analysts, shareholders, and investors will be invited to ask their questions by pressing star 1 and 1 on their phones or using the question and answer window on the web. Please note that this conference is recorded. For the participants in the webcast, you can also ask questions during the conference, but these will be answered by e-mail after the call. Finally, the representatives of the media who have questions are invited to contact Camille L'Aventure, Public Affairs Advisor and External Communications at the indicated conditions at the end of the quarterly communiqué. I would now like to give the floor to Stéphane Milot, Vice President Relations with Boralex Investors. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Boralex Lagoon Quartier 2024 Financial Results Conference Call. Note that all lines are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session in which financial analysts, shareholders, and investors will be invited to ask their questions by either pressing star 1 and 1 on the telephone keypad or by using the Q&A box on the website. Please also note that the conference call is being recorded. For webcast participants, you can also ask questions during the conference, but they will be answered by email after the call. Finally, media representatives are invited to contact Camilla Ventura, Advisor, Public Affairs and External Communications. Her contact information is provided at the end of the quarterly press release. I will now turn the conference over to Stéphane Millot, Vice President, Investor Relations for Boralex. Please go ahead.
spk10: Merci beaucoup. So, thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Boralex second quarter results conference call.
spk11: Joining me today on the call, Patrick Dacoste, our President and Chief Executive Officer, Bruno Guilmette, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and other members of our management and finance team. Mr. Dacoste will begin with comments about market conditions and the highlights of the quarter. Afterwards, Mr. Guilmette will carry on with financial highlights, and then we will be available to answer your questions. As you know, during this call, we will discuss historical as well as forward-looking information. When talking about the future, there are a variety of risk factors that have been listed in our different filings with securities regulators, which can materially change our estimated results. These documents are all available for consultation at cdogplus.ca. In our webcast presentation document, the disclosed results are presented both on a consolidated basis and on a combined basis. When talking about the results, we generally refer to combined numbers, and when referring to cash flow and balance sheet, we generally refer to consolidated numbers. Please note that the combined is a non-GAAP financial measure and does not have standardized meaning under IFRS. Accordingly, combined may not be comparable to similarly named measures used by other companies. For more details, see the non-IFRS and other financial measures section in the MD&A. So the press release, the MD&A, the consolidated financial statements, and a copy of today's presentations are all posted on the Boralex website at boralex.com under the investor section. If you wish to receive a copy of these documents, please contact me directly. Mr. Dacasse will now start with his comments, so please go ahead, Boralex.
spk06: Thank you, Stéphane, and good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure for me to present our results and achievements for the second quarter of and first half of 2024. I'm very proud of the work our team has done since the start of the year. During the first half, we increased our ABDA by 11%, our operating income by 21%, and our net earnings by 41%. We have 851 megawatts of project in secured, ready-to-build and construction phases that are progressing as planned. Turbines are being installed in our project in Quebec and in Scotland, which are getting closer to their expected commissioning date scheduled for the end of the year. I would also like to point out we started to record accounts receivable for the investment tax credit related to the APWID project based on the qualifying property as at the end of the quarter. Bruno will elaborate on this later. Regarding LimeKin, we also closed the financing of the project during the quarter as our first financing in the UK. In the next few weeks, we will start a construction of the Eggersville and Tilbury battery project in Ontario. These two projects are expected to be commissioned in 2025. Our Denege project, Sud project, is also progressing well with commissioning expected in 2026. In the near term, our teams have been working on the recent submissions of solar projects under the NYSERDA request for proposal in New York State, and of wind project under the AR6 allocation round six request for proposal in the UK. As you can see, a lot has been accomplished so far this year, and there is more to come. Going forward, going back to the quarterly results, Production was lower than expected due to unfavorable weather conditions and the increase in curtailments in France, mainly due to negative market electricity prices resulting from an unusually strong imbalance between supply and demand in May and June. Nevertheless, our business performed well, generating a combined ABDA of 152 million, up 9 million, and the AFFO of 17 million, up 13 compared to the second quarter of 2023. The impact of the lower production was offset by the positive impact of our strategy to optimize electricity selling prices and the contribution of commissioning in France. Regarding markets conditions, the demand for renewable energy in our markets remain high, creating a positive environment for the operation and the development of our activities. In Canada, the Clean Energy Investment Tax Credit received royal assent and was enacted last June. This will have very positive impact on our project in Quebec and in Ontario. Both markets, also represent strong growth potential with a goal by Hydro-Québec to increase production capacity in Québec by 10 gigawatts and the upcoming RFP plan for Ontario. We are very well positioned with a strong competitive edge in both of these markets. In the United States, the federal government is concerned about the increase in Chinese production of green product and is therefore imposing tariffs on important green technologies, including solar panels, to protect US industries. The market remains highly promising, and we continue to develop and bid our project. In Europe, the election of the Labour Party in the UK is very promising, considering the ambition of the new government for accelerating the development of renewable energy. Our goal is to accelerate our development in this market. Finally, in France, we're still waiting for a new government following the dissolution of the assembly in June. In the meantime, we continue to develop our project for upcoming requests for proposal and in light of strong demand from corporations for corporate PPA. I will now rapidly cover the main variances in our portfolio of projects and growth paths. The change in the pipeline was mainly due to the addition of solar and wind projects in Europe in early stage. Changes to the expected capacity of wind and solar projects in Europe and North America. Transition of solar and wind projects through the pipeline to the mid and advanced stages in Europe. In total, our pipeline of early, mid, and advanced stages project now consists of project totaling nearly 6 gigawatts of wind, solar, and storage project. In the second quarter, the growth path represents a capacity of 851 megawatts, down 34 megawatts compared to previous quarter following the commissioning of 21 megawatt wind project and a 13-megawatt solar project in France. I won't go in detail through the progress made in our growth and diversification strategic direction, as I have already talked about the major highlights. On the customer strategic direction, we signed a three-year PPA with Statcraft in the UK for the Lime Can Project, to secure pricing on a portion of the wind farm production before the start of its 15-year CFD. We also continue to have advanced discussion with different corporations in France as the demand for renewable energy contracted at attractive price remain high. This completes my part. I will now let Bruno cover the financial portion in more detail. And we'll be back later for the question period. Renaud?
spk08: Thank you, Patrick. Good morning, everyone. I will start with a review of the progress made in light of our 2025 corporate objectives. Our balance sheet is solid with $621 million in available cash resources and authorized financing, up $46 million from the previous quarter. In addition, $21 million are accounted for in trade and other receivables, representing nearly one-third of the investment tax credit to be received for the Epriat construction project in Quebec. We are also in negotiation with financial institutions to pre-finance these credits. From a cash flow perspective, we should therefore receive cash from financing when this is finalized and reimbursed as financing when we receive the payment of credits from the government, normally about 12 to 18 months after commissioning. Please note that from a P&L point of view on a combined basis, these credits will be amortized over the term of the contract starting from the date of commissioning and presented as other revenues in combined. Total debt remains stable in the second quarter of 2024, with project debt now representing 89% of the total. The reinvestment ratio is in line with our target. Lastly, on our corporate objectives, we continue to make good progress on our CSR strategy as presented in our webcast presentation. We improved our position among the best Canadian corporate citizens in the Corporate Knights ranking, climbing from the 21st to the 15th position. We also raised our ESG corporate rating from the Institutional Shareholder Services Group of Companies, ISS ESG, from a B- to a B+, with prime status. For more detailed information, including data on CO2 emissions and work done in relation to climate change and the TCFD initiatives, I invite you to read our latest CSR report, which was published in February 2024. I will now cover the financial results for the second quarter starting with production. In North America, Total production on a combined basis for the quarter was 2% higher than last year but 7% lower than anticipated. Production for the hydro sector was 4% lower than last year and 9% lower than anticipated due to unfavorable weather conditions in Canada. Production from solar assets was 8% lower than the same quarter last year and 25% lower than anticipated. to curtailment requests in California. In Europe, total production was 2% lower than last year and 12% lower than anticipated attributable to unfavorable weather conditions and the increase in curtailments in France. Overall total production for the quarter was 1% higher than last year but 8% lower than anticipated. The quarter combined revenues were down 12% compared to last year, mostly due to lower prices in France. As mentioned by Patrick, we continue to make good progress on the EBITDA and AFFO numbers. Our financial position remains very solid with a net debt to total market capital ratio of 42%. In conclusion, It's a good second quarter for 2024 as we continue the discipline execution of our strategic plan delivering on results and numbers. We increased our EPIDA and AFFO compared to 2023. We further increased our financial flexibility resulting in a solid financial position. And we continue to deliver on our strategic orientations. Thank you for your attention. We are now ready to take your questions.
spk05: Thank you. As a reminder to ask your questions on the phone line, please press star 1 and 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 and 1 again. Once again, please press star 1 and 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 and 1 again. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please type them in the question box and click submit. Thank you. We are now going to proceed with our first question. The questions come from the line of Nicola Bojcik from Cormac Securities. Please ask your question.
spk12: Thanks. Good morning, guys. You mentioned that you're going to be looking to accelerate development of projects in the UK. Can you just expand a little bit on what your expectations are for this market over the coming years?
spk06: Yeah. Good morning, Nick. Essentially with the new government in the first few days of them taking office, they lift the ban on wind project in England, which was there since almost 10 years, I think. So this is open lots of potential project in England. First point. The second point, the increase significantly, the allocation of the budget for the pot of budget dedicated to onshore wind. So this increase the likelihood of a better price, clearing price for the ARC. So this is two signals. And last week, Rachel Reeve, the Chancellor, was in Toronto and I was there and she just confirmed they will accelerate planning consent for generation onshore and offshore and also for grid connection and do whatever they can to accelerate the investment in the grid. So I think this is all different possibility of acceleration, and I think it's great news, and we are very excited. And since we have, as I just mentioned, finalized the first financing, finalized the first contract with Statcraft, plus the CFD we obtained one year ago in AR5, I think we are very well positioned to do more of the same in the UK in the next years.
spk12: Okay. Can you comment on Energy and their resources? What more would you have to add to that team in order to really take advantage of this opportunity? And if you can comment on the size of the pipeline.
spk06: Someone of my exec team is now dedicated to the UK, and she's and and working with the team there we have people also coming from the French team and putting more resource there so that's that's that's that's we have also hire different people in the UK from from the outside and and we're also chasing potential M&E and of fully consented project or a project in development because I think it's the right time to be in the UK. And I think with the team we have there and the rest of the corporation bringing support to them, that's a great opportunity. Excellent. Thanks, Patrick.
spk12: Thank you.
spk05: Thank you. We are now going to proceed with our next question. The questions come from the line of Mark Jovey from CIBC. Please ask your question.
spk03: Good morning, everyone. Just following up on the conversation on the UK, are you able to share how many projects you submitted and what types of projects you're submitting in the UK right now?
spk06: Hi, Mark. We have submitted two projects which are already in our pipeline for aggregated power of 115 megawatt. We have a very disciplined approach of the bid because we will have other possibility next year and the year after to bid this project in the following round and this will not delay them since there is some grid time of construction. We know when these projects will be connected, but we have no issue of delaying if we win them next year. And as I mentioned, the budget, it's a little bit different than last year. Last year, there was only one pot of budget for project, and offshore was not in. So this year, there is different pot for onshore and offshore, but the onshore pot has been should be higher than what we could have expected in June. So that's also a good news.
spk03: Just following up on the expectations of higher clearing price, how would you say the potential for returns are squaring up in the UK versus the other markets you're focused on? Are they comparable, better?
spk06: They are better than what we can get in France presently. and projects are larger, two projects for 115 megawatts. It's a significant project, as you understand, compared to France, I mean. And what I see also is that with the mechanism of being able to choose the window to start, typically on Limecane, we will start the CFD beginning of 28, but we have this merchant nose, which is contracted at a very interesting price. Pay as produced contract with StatGraph. We can benefit from a little bit like the 18 months in France, but in this case, it would be 36 months contracted, pay as produced with a high price today. So this is a good optimization. And we have been, the team of Bruno has been able to negotiate a very attractive financing for that, taking into account these 18 years of generation. Okay.
spk03: And then coming back to investment tax credit in Canada, you mentioned APUET. What about the other projects, the Ontario battery projects, the other wind projects in Quebec to come? Do you have a sense of what percentage of the capex you'll be able to receive? Is there anything that you have to give back to the counterparty? And are you able to quantify roughly what you think the total net proceeds from tax credits would be to Borlex?
spk08: uh generally speaking uh mark will have uh i'm gonna give an exact number right now but certainly a few hundred millions uh of overall the in the in the projects that we're building that you're aware of so that includes that brit uh agersville tilbury uh dnaish and uh and uh my missing one uh no i think that's that's uh that's it and uh and the future dnaish uh The key element is for the Aprieta-Aggersville especially and Deneige, when we started negotiations and discussions with the off-taker, we did not, and when we bid on Aggersville, we did not take into account the ITC in our return, so that subsides on the base case of these projects. In the future, we expect that each counterparty in the discussion and the suppliers and so on will all take into account the ITC. So we get upside from these early projects where the final project law was not enacted and therefore there was risk in the fact that we did not take into account the ITC, so we did not take the risk of the ITC not being implemented, so it represents an upside given that it's now been enacted in June.
spk03: I was going to say something like Tilbury and Oxford, which you probably had some clarity that the ITC would be coming through. Is there a partial recovery of the ITC with some of it being handed back to the counterparty? I appreciate Haggersville was more advanced and you probably keep all of that. I'm just wondering about that, the subsequent projects in Ontario and even the wind projects where you secured one in the RFP most recently.
spk08: We get the credit for the eligible expenses. The question is whether in the different contracts, and that will continue to evolve, but whether we have to give back a portion to the utility, for example, or whether the suppliers will adjust their pricing accordingly, which we've seen in the U.S., for example. So that's really what I was saying about the future projects where we do get the credit, but eventually it might be more shared amongst the different players in the chain.
spk03: When do you think you'd have clarity on those projects in terms of the sharing split?
spk08: Well, when we finally signed the different contracts, so it will keep evolving. So on Tilbury, we took into account when we priced, so obviously we gave a little bit of it in the pricing, but we do get the credit.
spk03: Okay. All right. I'll leave it there for today. Thank you.
spk08: I'm not sure if I'm clear.
spk06: Mark, is that clear? Just to be very clear, on this project, we are not sharing the credit – after the contract are signed and the contract are signed already so so so so that was and it was not an assumption when we did uh except on tilbury because we have decided at that time to be a little bit more aggressive in terms of risk we have been right but but and and but these these two projects also have say very good news in terms of capex themselves battery and bop compared to to the to the business plan, so they are really a good return, expected return today.
spk03: Understood. Yep, no, that makes sense. Thank you. Thank you.
spk05: We are now going to proceed with our next question. The questions come from the line of Sean Stewart from TD Cowen. Please ask your question.
spk02: Thank you. Good morning. A couple of questions. With respect to the progress in optimizing the selling prices in France, can you give us a sense of any expected incremental progress on this front over the next few quarters? Or has most of those gains been crystallized already?
spk06: Yeah, essentially we have a strategy to fix the price with the off-taker. You know, when we typically, we have two streams of projects under this. We have the early terminated contract that we early terminate in the fall of 2022, and we sign a contract for all these projects with Zaxpo, and we have fixed as much as possible the price at that time for the years, also 25 and 26. when it was possible for the 18 months merchant knows we have done that in q1 last year for the remaining period of the 18 months and the 18 months will be finished by the end of this year the first group of projects are subject to the price gap as you know the second group of projects are exempt of the price gap. So going forward, what we're doing, we're doing exactly the same. We're continuing to fix and define in advance, when we think it's opportunistically interesting, the price of the electricity that will be sold to Axpo. And we have a clear policy of doing that not to sign too much and not, you know, we have a path. Example, three years in advance, we want to have 25% fixed. Two years in advance, we want to have 50% fixed. And one year in advance, we want to have at least 75% fixed. And we are exactly following this track to be sure we are not overexposed and we are not doing something which is erratic
spk11: Sean, this is Stéphane. Sean? Yep. Just an additional comment on that to show you some kind of trend. Like in Q1 of this year, we had positive variants of 15 million at the ABDA level coming from this strategy. Q2 is 11 million, and Q3 and going forward should be going with the lower variances, because just as the fact that we fixed price gradually over time and this price was coming down. So the effect will be still good in coming quarters, but not as strong as what we've seen in Q1 and Q2 of this year. I don't know if it helps you in terms of...
spk02: That's great. Thanks, Stephane.
spk06: And also, as I mentioned, again, we try to avoid to be exposed to the spot market, because if you look to the last quarter, the wholesale market price average in France was €31 a megawatt hour, so it was very low. But if you want to contract end of this year or next year, the forward product are still around 90 euro a megawatt hour. So if you have a smart strategy not to be exposed day ahead or week ahead when you know the generation, the wind, and the status of everything, you have better opportunity to reach a good price. And this is also what we do.
spk02: That's great. Thanks for that. The second question for Bruno, you referenced the bills of exchange as helping bolster your liquidity position this quarter. I'm just wondering if you can explain the terms for that source versus extra borrowing capacity against your revolvers, maybe a bit more context on that liquidity lever for the company.
spk08: Yeah, I guess the example I would use is sort of trade financing. So it's recorded as short-term, but it's a facility that's a separate facility with a French bank, which helps us clearly finance this type of equipment. So it's in addition to our other sources of financing. It's not a restriction on other financing. It's just an addition.
spk02: OK, thanks for that Bruno. That's all I have, thanks. Thank you.
spk01: We are now going to proceed with our next question. The questions come from the line of Rupat Mehra from NBS.
spk05: Please ask a question.
spk09: Hi, good morning everyone. Just to follow up on the RFP activity, I believe you had some bids into New York as well. Can you give us some color on the scale of that opportunity with this round of RFPs and any updates you can give on your strategy going into this round?
spk06: Morning, Rupert. Actually, we bid three projects to NYSERDA. for an aggregate power of 590 megawatt. So it's a larger project than what we bid in the previous RFPs. And this is clearly where we are going because we think it's the best way to have a better levelized cost of energy and be able to bid with a good return at the better price for NYSERDA. So that's where we are. As you know, there is no news from the previous RFP of the winners. And in between, there was all this question of Chinese product and tariff on Chinese imported panel. So we have taken everything of that into account. And there was also a good news on one side, which is the IRA implementation and the incentive for domestic content. So we have worked a lot and the team has worked a lot on specifically the panel and also the BOP evaluation to be at a good cost. So that's where we are. And we will see what NYSERDA will decide to select with the project with it.
spk09: So your previous rounds in New York, I believe you had some large projects. How much overlap is there between this 590 and the previous portfolios that you'd bid, and how much of it would be new?
spk06: There is just one project, which is the smallest of this round that we bid, which was the largest of the previous round that we I don't want to give you more information than that, but just to show you that the overlap is just on one of the three projects. And it was just really a strategy to be able to be the best price. Right.
spk09: Very good. And then secondly, we can talk a little about curtailments you saw in the last quarter. I think you saw some in France and Portugal. some on your solar, I imagine, California. How are you thinking about the curtailments? Are there opportunities to install batteries or look at storage alongside any of your systems? Or do you think that others will take care of that for you in the future? How do you see that evolving?
spk06: Essentially, the cause of the curtailment are quite different. In France, it's essentially due to the fact that there is a very, very good hydro generation. If you look to French hydro generation, I think it's the highest since probably the last six or seven years. It's really high. And the nuclear is there, is back too. And the demand was low. So we experienced twice, just in the quarter, we experienced twice the number of negative price of 23 essentially in Q2. So it's a little bit going down in July, but it's still there. But I think it's not... I'm not sure it will last in France because it really depends on hydrology of this year. And the demand will go up and uh and so so so that's one thing so i'm not convinced that an investment is is is uh is the right uh solution for us uh the the right solution is to sign the right contract like we are doing pay as produced and get a compensation and on many of the contract mechanisms that we have uh cr17 the the the The contract one in previous RFP with the CRE in France and the utility PPE that we have was exposed. There is a compensation. On the California situation, it's different. It's just one contract, and we have a different interpretation of the contract between us and the off-taker. and we will enforce the contract to receive the proper payment, and the team is working on this with the off-taker presently. So it's a little bit different situation.
spk08: All right, very good. So we've recorded the revenues for the French contracts that Patrick mentioned, which are offering compensation, but we have not recorded revenues for the California situation.
spk09: Perfect. So the curtailment in France is in revenue, but not in production. Is that right?
spk00: You are... It's not in production, but the compensation is there.
spk10: It's not of the compensation. Yes.
spk09: Very good. Well, thank you very much. I'll leave it there.
spk00: Thank you. Thank you.
spk01: We are now going to proceed with our next question. The questions come from the line of Benjamin Sam from BMO.
spk05: Please ask your question.
spk04: Hi, thanks. Good morning. Can you expand on your comments around looking at acquisitions? Is there maybe some color on ideal size, technology, strategic priorities, and just what do you think fits the best for Barlux today?
spk08: Certainly, we continue to look carefully at the acquisition opportunities. Our teams are active both in looking at good opportunities in both North America and potentially in Europe. Strategically, we keep focusing on the same markets, especially, I'd say, a bit even more on the UK and US markets, but uh we want to find something that's strategic uh sizable uh and where we can add value so it's not dry assets just to but it's uh it's good good operating assets where we can add value as the parallax team uh and also potentially with uh with a team with development assets that we would not pay uh too much for so Ideally, it's sort of a package. Strategically, as I said, a couple of markets where we have more needs because we're growing a bit faster in the US and the UK.
spk04: I know you mentioned also acquisitions of potential development projects. Could you comment on, is there an increased willingness to to pay more for development now than you have in the past?
spk08: Well, there's been probably a peak a few years ago already and probably a throth more recently, a down. So likely we're getting back a little bit in terms of value, which is also good for us. but not, I think, not the extent of the excitement we've seen and not paying too much in the past. So I'd say we're still in a comfortable zone in terms of valuation where we would look at acquisitions. We feel there's still good value to be found and in part, to your question, in part in development pipeline valuation.
spk04: Okay. Maybe just a cleanup question. The the reference to the Canadian ITC projects that were grandfathered. Aren't you effectively, since you finance these projects 80-20, aren't you effectively getting your equity back and more just the way that you structure? Or am I thinking about it differently?
spk08: It certainly reduces our equity by a good chunk. There's timing issues, as we mentioned, which we try to bridge with the financing I talked about. So all in, the lenders are, as you say, reluctant to finance all of that could be labeled as equity, but it certainly helps quite a bit on the RR of these projects, and the need for equity is reduced. significantly. Okay.
spk04: Thank you.
spk00: Thank you, Ben.
spk05: We are now going to proceed with our next question. The questions come from the line of Jessica Hoyle from Scotiabank. Please ask your question.
spk07: Great. Thanks so much for taking my question. Maybe just to start, more broadly, can you comment on what you're seeing in the RFP environment Have you seen some early signs of acceleration just given electric demand is increasing across several of your geographies?
spk06: Yeah, first of all, there is clearly, there is not yet RFPs, but there is clearly a big program in Quebec or 10 gigawatt plus that will come. We know that this will... HITO-Québec would make RFP to select a private partner per project to develop. We don't know exactly how this RFP will be defined. There is a discussion between the industry and Hydrogefec on this. Essentially, it will be on the track record, the skills of the operator in terms of development, operation, maintenance, capability to deploy, and experience with them. and we're well positioned since we are their partner on the Dinesh project. If you look to Ontario, there is an RFP coming next year, the LT2, and again, it would be a significant RFP for generation and generation and storage. So that's an important point. We are also looking something coming in BC, but we will see where it goes. It's due for mid-September. So that's for Canada, and we are also very well positioned with our relation with First Nations in terms of development in Quebec, Ontario, and potentially in BC too. And you have seen that we just also had a newborn member who is an accountant with a lot of experience and also from Canada. INU origin, so bringing lots of expertise and another view to the board. In Europe, I just mentioned at the beginning, the increase of the budget from the UK government is a big signal to show that they want to accelerate, and there will be an AR7 next year, and it just also confirms a big investment in the super grid to bring power from the northern UK to the demand area. And there is a bunch of RFP of 0.9 gigawatts coming in France in the fall. So there is a lot of things moving.
spk07: I appreciate that. And then just thinking more about the growth path, could you really look to accelerate development of some early stage projects just to be ready for some future RFPs?
spk06: Yeah, that's exactly what we're doing in Ontario and Quebec. It takes a little bit more time in France and the UK because in France and the UK, the condition to bid, you need to be fully permitted. So you do the development work before and not after obtaining the contract. in Quebec and Ontario it's a little bit different but yes the team are working a lot and we have had resources since the last years because we were seeing that coming and I think that's a good news because it's now.
spk07: Thanks very much.
spk06: Thank you.
spk05: Thank you. We have no further questions on the phone line. I'll hand back to you for any web questions that you may have. Thank you.
spk10: All right, thanks a lot, everyone, for your attention. If you have any additional questions, please call me.
spk11: As you know, same number, 514-213-1045. I'll make sure I quickly answer your questions before getting on vacation. So our next call to announce third quarter results will be on Thursday, November 14th at 11 a.m. So a nice day, everyone, and good vacation for those who are waiting for the quarterly season to go on vacation.
spk10: Bye, everyone. Thank you. Thank you.
spk05: This concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you and have a great day.
Disclaimer

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