Good evening, everybody. Welcome to today's presentation of the results for the first half of 2023 of the Rubis Group. By way of an introduction, I will make some broad remarks on our positioning on the different markets, as well as a more specific insight into how we allocate cash flow within the group. Then I will hand over to Clarisse, who will go into more detail on our businesses and on the results of the group for the first half. We have Robin Bataille with us, who is the CEO of Photosol, and one of the two co-founders with David Gaudry, who will go into more detail on the business of the subsidiary that he runs.
Next, Bruno will go into greater detail on the group financial statements, and we will then move on to questions and answers after conclusion, some concluding remarks from Clarisse. So, first of all, a reminder about the group's current structure after some sweeping changes made last year. We have three businesses which are all part of the distribution and storage of energy business. We have a traditional activity, which has been the backbone of Rubis for some time. This is the energy distribution business. We have a retail and marketing business, and then we have the upstream business, which is support and services and infrastructure services and third-party services. The group has a presence in over 40 countries across three continents: Africa, Americas, specifically the Caribbean region, and of course, and Europe.
In these continents, we have many products. We promote LPG, which is a low carbon intensive solution. We also distribute fuel, various types of fuel, across a network of petrol stations, and we have a major subsidiary in Africa, which specializes in the distribution of bitumen. The middle section shows energy, renewable electricity. We have Photosol, which is a major platform, a French and soon to be a European production platform for photovoltaic energy, and a stake in HDF Energy, which gives access to s- photovoltaic solutions, as well as the storage of hydrogen in the Caribbean region. At present, we have approximately 400 megawatts of installed capacity, a pipeline of 3.8 giga.
As I was saying earlier, we have a strong activity in France, which is the core market of Photosol, but with inroads that are in the process of being made this year, into Italy, Spain, and Poland, and we will be going back on that, of course. Now, most of the assets and the EBITDA, as you can see at the bottom of the slide, are due to the long-standing businesses of the group. The renewable section is an activity which is expanding strongly and ... It's reflected in the EBITDA and the assets. Thirdly, and this is accounted for under the equity method, we have a 55% stake in Rubis Terminal, which specializes in the storage of liquid products, namely chemical products, biofuels, agri-fuel products, and petrol oil products. Here's a view of our markets.
We wanted to look at the various markets in which we're having activity, especially the fundamentals, the growth to be expected in terms of volume on these various markets. The benefit for the group is the portfolio effect, which enables us to have a business across 40 countries on three continents, many markets with different structures, segments that are also very diverse and a very diverse client base, which enables us to be very resilient in terms of growth for the group. In Africa, we're very good, very strong on LPG. This is a transition energy, and of course, it is in Europe as well, but there's an additional benefit in Africa, which is that it's a substitute for paraffin or coal, and this is a significant improvement for users in their day-to-day uses. We also-...
have a network of petrol stations with a presence in all categories of fuels and lubricants. This is supported through, accompanied by the development of mobility and with the emergence of a middle class. And as I was saying earlier, we have a presence in bitumen, and the needs in infrastructure and requirements in Africa are very significant. So this, in that, provides growth of 3.5% growth for fuel, and possibly 10%, 5%-10% for bitumen. In the Caribbean, we have a presence in the LPG market, with a growth of approximately 3%, and in fuel, with growth between 2%-3% per year. We have some very active regions and areas in this part of the world, namely Guyana.
Suriname is another country where we are investing, and this region enjoys the proximity and the wealth of the United States, Canada, and increasingly countries such as Brazil, through tourism and various services, in particular financial services. Now, finally, Europe. The LPG market is a market which is posting moderate a moderate decline in growth, but it's very strong in terms of cash flow generation and profitability. Of course, depending on the m- with the view to the investments we made last year in renewable electricity, we have invested more heavily in green energy in Europe than in fossil fuel energies, and through renewable energies, we have access to growth markets with growth to the tune of 15%-20% per year.
The fundamentals that underpin all this, and which account for the very strong resilience of the group to all the external shocks, is that we are targeting the basic requirements of different categories of the population. In many regions, these population categories are seeing higher spending power and with this emergence of the middle class. We also wanted to give you some new information. This is the annual cash flow allocation for the group. You read this from left to right. What you have, you have $450 million cash flow overall, which is generated with two... Moving to the second column from the left, the first main use of the cash flow that we fully intend to maintain is that of dividend payments.
The group has, over the past 25 years, indeed, even beyond that, has always paid out a dividend and has always increased the dividend payout, so we have no intention of breaking with that tradition, and this is something that's quite rare. So the first use of the cash flow is for dividend payments. Next, we have investment and maintenance CapEx, which is for Rubis Énergie. That's EUR 150 million. That leaves us with EUR 100 million of cash available for growth CapEx. So this brings us to the column in the middle, third from the left. This is adjusted yearly, but let's just take and break the EUR 100 million down into EUR 40 million and EUR 60 million.
EUR 40 million is the cash flow which is available for the growth CapEx for Rubis Énergie. The leverage for the business is approximately 50%, and on a full year basis, this gives us access to investments of approximately EUR 80 million. The remaining EUR 60 million of cash flow are allocated to green power investment with 85% average leverage, more so in France. And in the far right column on the screen, this, as you can see, gives us access to the funding of approximately EUR 400 million investments in this area.
So if we look ahead to the end of the decade, 2030, simply multiplying this, this gives you approximately EUR 600 million for growing Rubis Énergie, with external growth, and approximately EUR 3 billion that enables us to support the strong growth in green power markets. So we have revised upwards, we've revised upwards our targets in this area. We had published targets of 1 gigawatt of operating capacity. We're halfway there. So that's one gigawatt by 2025 of installed operating capacity. There won't be any significant change in the target.
There will be a small addition to that, a complement from the external markets, but by 2030, our view is that we will reach 3.5 giga in operating capacity, bearing in mind that 2.5 giga will be outside of France, and the rest will be in France, and the rest will come from European market. Bottom left, you have the cumulative CapEx, which brings us to the EUR 2.7 billion in overall investment with a leverage of 85%, approximately. So the share of EBITDA from Photosol, in other words, solar generated power, will be at least 25%.
Of course, while maintaining a disciplined investment approach with a IRR minimum projected target of 6%-8%, with a minimum use of non-recourse debt of 75%-80%. Now, all of these figures, bear in mind that what I was saying to you earlier on the previous slide, all this will happen without any raising of new equity, while and maintaining a net debt EBITDA ratio of less than two. So we're staying with a very strong capital base. I'll hand over to Clarisse.
Thank you, Jacques. Good evening, everyone. We'll talk about the highlights of the first half of 2023, our group's financial performance. Bruno will give us specifics on that after Robin speaks. So takeaway point from the first half of this year. H1 of the year saw strong growth in spite of significant currency losses of the group. We've got an EBITDA, which is up 30% for the period, restated for several non-recurring items, inter alia, repayments of losses for instance from the Madagascar government, as well as currency fluctuations from Nigeria. Our EBITDA growth is 15% restatement, which is remarkable. As we said previously, we have saw some major negative currency effects, mainly in Nigeria and Kenya. The net amount is approximately EUR 55 million.
In spite of these major currency effects, our net income is up 8% compared to last year. If we exclude the sale of Rubis Terminal operations in Turkey in the first part of 2022, our balance sheet continues to be very good. Debt level is slightly down to 1.6x , excluding Photosol's non-recourse debt. Capital expenditure level is slightly up, particularly due to the acquisition of three new ships by Rubis Énergie Support and Services, and integration of Photosol for a full half year. I'd also like to mention that the increase in our capital expenditure shows our intention to grow all of our businesses in both distribution as well as renewable power production.
Lastly, to wrap up on this slide, cash flow generation continues to be at a very high level, cash flow up 3%. We're very pleased with this performance, which yet again is an illustration of our ability to deliver the goods, even when the environment is seeing some difficulties in certain geographies. Now, let's take a look at our performance, more specifically, in terms of operations in a business line. First of all, I'll talk to you about energy distribution, Rubis Énergie. Volumes are up 1.4% compared to the first half of 2022, which already saw a buoyant business activity for this group. Jacques mentioned this previously, but I'd like to repeat it. In our product mix, LPG and bitumen represent around 30% of volumes.
LPG is a transition energy in most countries where we operate, substituting for charcoal and paraffin. Now, bitumen, it's not consumed, of course. Once it's been laid, it doesn't emit any CO2. Gross margin at Rubis Énergie up 4%. Unit margin, again, up by 2.4% for this half-yearly period. Among the highlights of the half year, I mentioned in the previous slide, investments in three ships; we did acquire full ownership of two LPG haulers that we're using, and a bitumen hauler, which was designed especially for our operations in Nigeria. Having to do with the generation of renewable electricity, assets and operation and electricity generation up, respectively, 19% and 16%. The portfolio of secured projects is up 26% versus the end of 2022.
Furthermore, we did a first major investment at Rubis Photosol in Italy, using a portfolio of 10 projects. These are agrivoltaic projects. The total is around 100 megawatts, as well as... and the acquisition of each project hinges on the ready-to-build permit. We already acquired two of the projects. Several further projects will be acquired before the end of the year. The development agreements that were also entered into with Spanish and Portuguese developers, Polish, sorry, developers, to boost Rubis Photosol's development in various European countries. Robin will talk more specifically about the details of Rubis Photosol in a few moments. Now, let's take a look at our energy distribution business, representing the bulk of our earnings. Currently, our distribution, LPG, bitumen, and fuel distribution saw strong performance in the first half of 2023. EBIT is up strongly.
Top ranking, always, in terms of generating EBIT, excluding non-recurring items, interrelated repayment of a loss. Africa, since profitability, go up slightly in the first half after fiscal 2022, which is where it was especially high. This beautiful performance underscores the effectiveness of our investment plan in Eastern Africa, which was begun three years ago. We're continuing to further improve our network as a rebranding program, reaching 90% of our achievement rate. We're also right-sizing our customer portfolio in the geography. To talk about bitumen now. This business was slightly below our expectations, particularly due to the elections in Nigeria, which led to some delayed decision-making to start infrastructure projects. We very much hope this will be made up for in the second half of the year, after the rainy season is over with.
To talk to you about the Caribbean area now, in spite of stable volumes, we can say volumes in Haiti went down. So in spite of stable volumes, we generated EBIT, which is strongly up 37%. All market segments in the geography did well. The retail segment is growing strongly in Jamaica and Eastern Caribbean, Barbados, and surrounding islands, thanks to, among others, optimization of service station networks, as well as increased non-fuel revenue. Europe now, demand for LPG, fairly stable in the first half. We would observe nonetheless very good performance in the bulk segment in Portugal and Morocco. On that point, we always make sure that we maintain our operational efficiency to continue to win market shares, as we've done for many years now. Let's talk now about support and services activity.
This is continuing to grow under the impetus of shipping activities, mainly. The first half of 2023, driven by very strong performance in bitumen trading, which made up for bitumen distribution, slightly down in West Africa due to the elections in Nigeria. This is a wonderful example of our agility, our ability to use shipping, both in distribution and trading, when we have less in operations. We can compensate using more trading. Aside from all these financial aspects I've mentioned, let's talk a little bit about CSR. The Sea Cargo Charter issued its first report. Rubis Énergie, in that report, is seen as a contributor, identified all of its shipping emissions. Its first exercise made it possible to identify various items very specifically, so they could put together a dedicated shipping action plan. Tracking annual indicators was updated in our roadmap.
This is in compliance with our targets set by the group. We observe a drop in our CO2 emissions under scopes one and two, in line with our trajectory for internal decarbonization. Now, in terms of society, recently, we disclosed our up-to-date ethics code, distributed to all of our employees. It's also available on our website, if you're interested in taking a look at it. I'll complete this portion of my talk by talking to you about our storage activities, Rubis Terminal. This is an activity which is done well in the period. Revenue growth, up 16%. EBITDA, up 19%, driven in all three geographies of ours.
16% growth in France, to some degree, due to the closure of some of the refineries during the strike, +7% in Spain, where storage fuel storage demand and chemical storage demand has been very strong. + 30% in the ARA region, particularly with the bringing online of new storage capacities and new biofuel contracts. In line with Rubis Terminal's strategy and joint venture under CSR, the proportion of storage of biofuels and chemical products will continue to grow to reach the decarbonization targets. There you have it. I'd like to give the floor now to Robin, who will talk to us about the first half year of Photosol within Rubis Group. Thank you, Clarisse. Good evening, everyone. Yes, I'll be spending a few moments talking to you about the first year spent in Rubis Group.
The first highly active year, and where we saw very strong growth in the French market and inroads made in new markets as well. First of all, to begin with talking about France, we've seen strong growth in our installed capacity of around 23% between June 2022 and June 2023, going from 313 MW in June 2022 to 394 in operating, in operation, in June 2024. We should reach around 450 MW by the end of 2023. At the same time, if we look at our pipeline, which is projects we haven't yet reached ready-to-build. Pipeline's grown significantly, going from 3.3 GW to 3.8 GW between June 2022 and June 2023, and should reach approximately four GW by the end of the year.
This very strong growth in our assets, of course, went hand in hand with an increase in our headcount, employees. Over an 18-month period, number of employees doubled broadly. We should reach on 180 employees by the end of 2023. The breakdown, since this covers all of France, henceforth, we opened five new agencies in the regions after coming into the group, enabling us to develop projects throughout France. Now, at the same time as these traditional activities, Rubis Photosol has also wanted to further diversify its offering in France. I'd mention two salient examples. The first one is our entrance in the corporate PPAs market. We signed our first corporate PPA at the beginning of 2023 with Leroy Merlin, 38 MW. It's a contract that lasts 20 years, covering assets in Charente.
In our portfolio, we've got around 100 megawatts currently being negotiated with various, corporations. We'll continue developing this segment of corporate PPAs. A second example, which I'll spend more time on later, which is salient, is our developing of rooftops. In November 2023, we acquired the company called, Mobexi, which enables to tackle a new, area for Photosol, which is small roof areas. I'll talk to you about this later. In addition to speeding up, our presence in France, Rubis Photosol also quickly developed outside of France, targeting 3 geographies. Firstly, Italy, Spain, and Poland. In Italy, as Clarisse said, we acquired a first portfolio of 100 megawatts. 25 megawatts are already at the ready-to-build stage. Within the next 18 months, we hope the 75 remaining will also reach RTB.
We're, of course, at the center of developing a platform with employees to develop greenfield projects alongside the 101 megawatts. Our target for 2030 in this geography, thanks to the teams that are developing a project, will be to multiply by three, to triple the portfolio that we acquired. A second very promising geography is Spain. We signed several partnerships with local developers. We also secured several key interconnections for development. Key to development in Spain is very much interconnection, very important. Our pipeline in Spain, currently, after six months' development, is reaching around 17 megawatts. Third geography, Poland. In the first quarter, we put together a joint venture with local partners here.
In the three geographies, and we may well move into other geographies as well, but in these three geographies, our strategy, our intention, is to mix both project acquisitions that are at an advanced stage to speed up growth and also to develop greenfield projects, always working with platform development, development platforms.
The growth in France and overseas could not have happened without proper funding, and in 2023, we signed a funding of EUR 115 million with leading French banks to support us on the development in France and overseas. A few words now on Mobexi, which is a company that we acquired in November 2022. For Photosol, this is a significant increase in our offering because today, Photosol, put simply, was focusing on major land projects, 5-15 MW per project. And with Mobexi, we can now target a new market segment, which is smaller rooftops, which is 100 kW-3 MW. There are three subsegments here.
Number one is for the traditional agricultural far-farming market, and Mobexi was developing for third parties, and Photosol will move on to ownership of the assets. Next sub-subsegment is CNI and local authorities with an offering of auto consumption. And the third subsegment, which is car automobile canopies, which is a market we already knew. We've already built several projects for car canopies, for example, the Petit Prince project in Strasbourg, the Dunlop project in Montluçon. But with Mobexi, we're going to be able to target small, smaller car canopies. Now, there is a commitment by the government to develop this market segment, and market regulation now requires that all car parks with more than 80 spaces have a canopy.
This latest regulatory measure has brought about other measures that will enable us to step up the growth of this small canopy market. Mobexi also responded to a need for the group to respond to client requirements for photovoltaic roofs for small car parks. And since the beginning of the year, Rubis Photovoltaic has created several joint ventures with group subsidiaries in order to meet client requirements. For example, Uncertain, SRPP, Rubis Antilles Guyane, Rubis Antilles Guyane, and the idea here is to have portfolios which represent us several dozen megawatts. And overall, with Mobexi, this new market should account for 5%-10% of the installed capacity for Photosol. Now, we'll focus on the portfolio in June 2023.
As I said earlier, the operating assets rose by 23%. So we stood at 394 megawatts, and we'll have over 450. The secured portfolio, with projects that are ready to build, has increased from 477 MW in June 2022, to 640 MW in June 2023, including the 25 MW recently acquired in Italy, that we spoke about earlier. The current pipeline has increased from 3.4 GW to 3.8 GW. This pipeline is approximately 6x bigger than our secured portfolio, and this is where we're going to build the future growth, and we're quite confident, given the outlook for 3.8 GW by the end of the year.
Focusing now on the last six months, and the switch of assets into various categories. Now, over the past six months, in terms of operational projects, only 11 MW have switched into this category. In other words, have been commissioned. This is due to administrative delay, connection delays in particular. This should step up again by the end of the year and in 2024. Regarding the projects that are in the process of being built, we had 96 MW in June 2023. Six projects have been kicked off in the first half, representing 43 MW. The ready-to-build projects stand at 151 MW in France. 151 MW in total, of which 25 MW in Italy. Six new projects are underway, representing 112 MW.
We expect in the next few weeks, some good news, which will put a different perspective on the figures we're presenting. I hope we'll have some good news for you, both in France and in Europe, that we will be announcing soon. Another important point on the chart here is the average size of the project, because you can see that the projects under construction, the six projects, account for 43 megawatts. This shows a significant shift in the type of projects which is being developed by Rubis Photovoltaic. The size has more than doubled over the past few years. The average size, which was eight to 10 megawatts, has now gone to 20 megawatts in the ready-to-build category.
I would conclude this presentation with a few words on a specific project, which is a project at Saône-et-Loire. We've had planning permission in April 2023. This illustrates our growth strategy, the type of development for Photosol. It's a project, the development of which began in 2020, with planning permission in April 2023, and the construction should start in 2024, early 2025. The interesting point here is that it fully illustrates the know-how and the strategy of Photosol in the agrivoltaics. It will be used for sheep farming. This is nothing new for Photosol because Photosol in its portfolio of 390 MW has 17 MW in agrivoltaic projects. So we have a lot of experience, and we intend to step up with the agrivoltaics segment. We have 67 people working full-time on this.
We've established partnerships with cooperatives, farming unions, and we have great confidence in this market segment. In 2024, we'll be working on three areas. Number one, financing. It's a 50 megawatt project, which is approximately EUR 30 million-EUR 35 million in CapEx investment and EUR 30 million in debt. So the leverage is approximately EUR 90 million, a non-recourse debt with maturity, approximately 20 years. We're working on financing, and we're working on the selling strategy for electricity with PPAs and the CRE contracts. I'll hand over now to Bruno for the rest of the presentation. Thank you very much. We'll move on now with a comment on the financial results. We've already said quite a bit about this, so I'll be brief, but just to give you the key highlights here.
So for the second six-month period in a row, we see a shift with a very strong increase in operational activities with the operating income, which offsets a bit lower down by foreign exchange losses, which are quite significant. So we're seeing a continuation of what we saw in the second half of last year, in actual fact. To sum up, the operating income, in other words, the increase in volume, the resilience of our margins, have enabled us to generate a cash reserve in terms of results to be able to absorb the currency impact.
This still leaves us with net income, which is up 20% on the published basis, + 20% and 80%, when adjusted for the non-recurring items, namely last year's capital gains. 8% is the figure to keep in mind when we measure the growth for the first half of 2023. Now, going back to the significant growth that you can see on the operating parameters, 30%-32%, looking at EBIT and EBITDA. We've established a mechanism which vis-à-vis customers in Nigeria to whom we sell bitumen. It means that we inflate the invoices charged to these customers to take into account the expected currency losses that we expect.
And this situation was due to the fact—this is no longer the case, but it—this was due to the fact that for a long time in Nigeria, we had different exchange rates. There was an official exchange rate set by the central bank, interbank exchange rates, and then there was a secondary market for exchange rates, and all this was... These were all virtually official rates with significant discrepancies. And the new legislation, which was adopted in June of this year, adopted a reunification of all these exchange rates.
So broadly speaking, this means that we have a devaluation, and it also means that if you have a devaluation, then this means a more accurate exchange rate, and this means that we should expect that foreign investors who've stopped investing due to currency risk in Nigeria, will now be more comfortable with investments in Nigeria because they will be paying the actual price, the real price, for their investments. So ultimately, what we've had since June has been a good thing. Admittedly, it's cost us EUR 15 million in the financial statements, in terms of the currency impact of it, down in the income statement, and the first EUR 25 million in exchange rate losses inflated the ROC and EBITDA have been offset. Well, basically, they've been neutralized.
And the second point which has inflated the top section of the income statement is the reimbursement by countries such as Madagascar of shortfalls due to the non-application of the price structure since the end of 2021 throughout 2022 due to the very strong increase in oil prices and the policy of these governments, which was to smooth out, to want to put a cap on prices in order to help the population's spending power. And this had a negative impact on the income statement. And the commitment had been made by the government that this would be a temporary decision, and these governments have kept to their word, and they have compensated 12months -18 months later, the impact that we had undergone.
So what's important to remember is that we have a commitment here that was implemented.
Lower down on the income statement, you can see a strong increase in the contribution from associates, equity affiliates, EUR 6 million versus EUR 12 million. Last year, EUR 12 million. Much of this was a capital gain on the sale of an asset in Turkey. So here we're now this year, coming back to more usual levels. This is a contribution that's doubled from Rubis Terminal. If we cancel out the effect of the non-recurring items. Also financial expenses, this will surprise no one. Financial charges went up significantly, very much due to transition from a zero rate and the rebound rates and the dollar rates. So financial expenses going from EUR 16 million to EUR 36 million. Nevertheless, interest rate paid on average on our debt is below 3%. Under Forex financial charges, you can see EUR 80 million.
We talked about this, a little bit higher up. Forex losses versus, around EUR 20 million at the same time last year. This is also the same level and amount we'd booked in the second half of 2022. Here, again, if we separate out this figure, you have to correct it for the, for the EUR 25 million, which inflated, the income statement a little higher up at the, EBIT level. Real loss, so to speak, if we can call it that, is only EUR 55 million. The tax rate is 16% due to the strong performance in the regions where interest rates are low, such as in support services. Sorry, where tax rates are low, and in the Caribbean as well. This brings us to EUR 171 million in net income group share, which is a 1% change, corrected for the non-recurring items.
It would be up eight. Here we can see a breakdown of growth in operating income between 2022 and 2023. Here we can see strong contribution from Africa for the same reasons. There are currency effects, neutralizing losses inflated by the contribution from Africa. Also, Madagascar, very good contribution, which is recurring in this instance, from the Caribbean region, both in terms of volumes and margins, also gains in market share. So we're seeing very significant growth in this geography. Europe, we talked about. Europe is mainly LPG, a more mature market, also impacted by the climate effects. Mild winter yet again. Also some stock effects, which had a slight impact on contribution here in this half year. Support and services, supplying third parties, trading activities and shipping activities. This area, up strongly. We talked about this a moment ago.
Contribution is almost EUR 20 million. The contribution from Rubis Renewables is in the beginning stages, so we have to look at it as is currently. What's very important in this business area is to look toward the future, look at the major investments we're making now and the outlook for significant growth and development in conjunction with the presentation that Robin made. That brings us to EUR 323 million in operating income in this half-yearly period. Let me talk to you briefly now about our financial results. Rest assured, for the umpteenth time, I'd say it, the balance sheet is strong structurally. It's a company that has the wherewithal to finance both its investments and its growth, and also pay out its dividend.
We're finishing the period with an overall debt level, group-wide, standing at EUR 1.5 billion, which is the ratio of debt over EBITDA, 2x . If we correct this for the debt accommodated in the solar power areas, where this is non-recourse debt, the self-same ratio at the consolidated level is 1.6x , 1.6x , the relative related EBITDA. And that's an important point to observe. Cash flow, their operational cash flow effect, this is up 3%. Change in WCR last year, this was a drop of EUR 110 million. We don't have that big of an effect this year, it's only EUR 48 million. A strong improvement in that respect. This made it possible to finance investments, growth, and pay out the company's dividend. There you have it. Thank you very much, Bruno.
This is Clarisse. Now we're going to move on to the main conclusions for the half year. What would we say? That, first of all, the half year was very strong, which illustrates the appropriateness of our policy diversification in terms of products and geography. In spite of currency effects, which are relatively significant, we do observe net income, excluding the sale of Turkey, up 18%. Strong cash flow generation, making it possible for us to confirm yet again our objectives of increasing the dividend. We've increased our objectives for Rubis Photovoltaic in 2025 and 2030. We've got a European development plan, opening new prospects for the development of Rubis Photovoltaic. Of course, we're updating our CSR roadmap, all of this in line with the group's targets in this area.
We published the first sea cargo charter report for the Rubis Énergie shipping portion. First carbon footprint assessment being done by Rubis Photovoltaic, with the first CSR roadmap to be included within the group before 2025. Now, let's look at the outlook for the rest of 2023, broken down by product. First of all, bitumen. Nigerian elections have taken place. We believe the bitumen business will resume, come back to a buoyant level, gain momentum once the rainy season is over. LPG, there will be no significant surprises to be expected, neither in Europe nor in Africa. Regarding fuels, the business should continue to grow at a good pace in the Caribbean and in Africa. There should also be further development of income in non-fuel areas. Among the various areas of uncertainty, we would identify and could question our estimates.
First of all, we mentioned a possible deterioration in the situation in Haiti, which, of course, would be bad news, even though the impact on the group would be limited concerning the current level. If there are further currency fluctuations, if they further impact the results in the second half of 2023. Also, for the first time... Furthermore, we can for the first time say, unless there's any major assuming a further deterioration in market conditions, our 2023 EBITDA should be between EUR 690 million and EUR 730 million at the current currency situation, which is midway through the current consensus. I'd underline it, Bruno said it earlier. H1 includes EUR 50 million in non-recurring items, which won't therefore take place again in H2. Growth in our dividend is confirmed as well.
Lastly, we'll come back to you sometime during 2024 to present to you our group's ambitions and our financial trajectory for the medium term. We'll hold a CMD for that. Thank you very much. We'd be only too happy now to fill any questions you might have. Merci. Thank you, everyone. We're going to begin the Q&A session. You may ask questions through the video link as well. I have a few questions in writing now, which you've received. First, from Eric, if I'm not mistaken, representing Kepler, who's interested in the following item. He says: We've revised outlook on Photovoltaic. I now say, percentage of EBITDA from Photovoltaic remained at 25%. People might wonder about that, indeed, but what I was intended to say, and what was written here, was that the 25% is a minimum percentage.
EBITDA's photovoltaic is proportionate within the group. By 2030, it'll be at least 25%. At this juncture, we can't give more specifics on that. 3.5 GW installed capacity by 2030, that's our target. It's not cast in stone in terms of target. Next question from the person having to do with the situation in Haiti. First of all, as everyone knows, the situation is still very difficult from a political and social point of view, and there are safety problems in Haiti. Nevertheless, we continue operating there in a downgraded mode, but we continue operating in Haiti. For instance, we continue supplying important supplies to telco stations, for instance. Regarding volume sales.
Well, the volumes have gone down very significantly over the period to the tune of 30%, but due to improvements in margins and currency effects, I said earlier, there's a better contribution in the first half from Haiti than we saw in the first half of last year. We have a further question. This one's on bitumen business in Gabon. Gabon is a country we entered very recently, around 3% of bitumen volumes. There's also a question asking why we don't buy back our own shares since you feel your current company is not valued highly. I thought I said that, but we don't buy back our own shares because we intend to build for future years. We're building a Rubis Group, which is a high-performance group, growing strongly, yielding cash flow and paying a dividend. We have to build our group now.
It's now, particularly in the area of photovoltaic business. It's now that things are happening, and the investments must be made. We'll also continue, as I said, investing in Rubis Énergie. There's a great amount of work to be done there as well, and demand is increasing for carbon-based products, and we hope more and more for biofuel products as well. EBITDA questions in Gabon. We mentioned the EBITDA from that country is very small. A question for Bruno. If you adjust the EBIT, how can it go up by 21%, whereas gross margin after adjustment only goes up by 4%? The total adjusted amount isn't the same between those two indicators. Well, yes, that's what we were saying earlier. Gross margin is up by 2%. But in the operating income, you've got specific items.
We inflated selling prices in Nigeria, for instance, by EUR 25 million. That increased operating income. Growth in margin, which was disclosed, has been adjusted for the products invoiced of inflated invoices in Nigeria. If you take into account gross margin, it's up 18%, not 2%. This is consistent, therefore. Now, we have another question. This one's on electricity production. With negative EBIT for the first part of the year, what are our expectations for that amount in the next period? This was expected. Contribution to EBIT has to be looked at carefully. You're talking about generating EBITDA. You have to expense this if you take into account significant amortizations that have a negative accounting impact, not a cash flow impact, but an accounting impact on EBIT.
This is a standard way of viewing renewables, especially for a company that is seeing significant growth. Yes, a takeaway point on this business area, an important metric, is an average project in terms of IRR, project, industrial business IRR between 6%, maybe 7%, 8%. In addition, as you know, when you considerably leverage these facilities up to 95% leverage, then you go from 6%, 7%, or 8% project IRR to an equity IRR, an invested equity IRR, which is well above that, at least double, and sometimes more than that, compared to the project IRR, 15%-20%.
This is what you have to keep in mind when you analyze the performance of the renewable business, which is clearly different from more traditional businesses. A question from CIC regarding cooperation with HDF Energy. HDF Energy, well, we have two projects under development, one in French Guyana, which is called CEOG, which is spearheading HDF.
... whose main shareholders are Meridiam, 75%, and HDF is the historic project here, the construction of which has restarted after the rainy season, and the commissioning should be within the next 18 months. We also have another project in Barbados, which is with Rubis Caribbean taking 51% stake, which is going ahead smoothly, and we have not completed yet the development phase. CEOG is under construction, and Barbados is under development with some conditions that still have to be set before we finally launch into the construction phase of the project. Mr. Matot has a question on Forex issues and problems, and he's asking us about the reasons for which we cannot pass on Forex problems to our clients in Kenya, would, contrary to what we do in Nigeria.
Now, you're right, the countries are in two very different situations, and the forex costs are due to two completely different mechanisms. In Nigeria, we have a free market, so we are dealing directly with our clients, and this is so it means we're, it's a discussion, it's a negotiation, and we are able to pass on the cost that we bear in this respect. The business model in Kenya is different because the markets are regulated, and the currency cost is due to a different mechanism, which Bruno explained. And it's due to the fact that we cannot acquire in the country the dollars that we need to pay for international purchases or purchase on the international market the required products.
So there is a mismatch, which means that we borrow dollars, either from the suppliers or from, from the banking system, mainly through the banking system, which creates a dollar exposure, which we seek to reduce as much as possible, but it generates a cost. The situation has improved in Kenya because since April, the Kenyan government has negotiated all product imports directly with countries in the Middle East. These oil products are sold to the operators. That's the next phase, with payment in local currency. So for the past few months, and for the next few months, if the agreement is renewed, we've been able to alleviate the Forex problem. And I should also say to our listeners that we have an $80 million FX loss.
It's quite a lot on our income statement, but as Jacques was saying, the second half would be much more positive in this regard because we have virtually settled the or removed the uncertainty in Kenya. Since the beginning of the year, we have significantly converted our amounts, our shilling-denominated cash, converted into dollars in order to reimburse our commitments in dollars. So we've significantly reduced our foreign exchange risk in Kenya. So this is the case at present, and this will remain so till the end of the year. And secondly, in Nigeria, the worst is behind us. The reunification of the different exchange rates has happened with an immediate spot impact, but henceforth, we're going to have a trend with a unified exchange rate.
The fact that there's only a single exchange rate will enable us to pass on any currency impact directly to clients, which is what we do in all our other geographies. So we will not, in the second half, have to deal with the situation that we were facing in H2 2022 and H1 2023. Question from Eric Lemarié on the impact, this is for Robin, on the potential impact of interest rates on power generation products. Could you perhaps give an answer, Robin? Well, you have to draw a distinction between two categories of projects, those which are already operational, which have bank funding. The funding, these financing structures are hedged to the tune of 80%. If there's any increase in interest rates, it has a very marginal impact on the unhedged 20%.
On new projects, keep in mind that when we respond to a call for tender, I'm talking about the CRE, we set the price depending on the existing economic situation, which includes interest rate increases, inflation, and the tariffs that we submit depend on these new economic parameters, and the impact of interest rates is reflected in the new prices. What we've seen since over the past two years is an increase in prices which have gone from €0.058/kWh to about €0.07 or €0.08/kWh for the CRE to reflect higher inflation and interest rates. So no immediate impact on the project, apart from a few projects which may be caught up in a scissors effect, which is that we have secured the purchase price, but the debt has not yet been secured.
We have a few projects like this last year with some regulatory measures made by the government in order to offset the loss arising from higher interest rates or inflation. So this concerns a few projects. It's a temporary thing with some offsetting features. A question from Mr. Royot.
So I'll let you answer that, Bruno, regarding the impact of the oil price, the increase in the oil price. These are the conditions under which we operate since oil has been used. So when the oil price goes up regarding our business, which is the distributor of oil products, the situation is less positive because we have to pass on the increases to our clients. Bearing in mind that for most of our volume, we're operating under contracts with regulated margins. Therefore, the passing on of the price increase to clients is done automatically, and conversely, when oil prices decline, it's easier for us since we can manage our margins while passing on the decline to our customers.
It's very difficult to give you an assessment. In very few months or a few weeks' time, usually, we are able to pass on changes in oil, international oil prices, if they don't skyrocket, which isn't the case now.
Would you like to comment on something, Bruno?
Yes. To repeat what we see in the income statement, this EUR 25 million, canceling out the currency effects by extra margin, that's, it's smoothed out by several currency rates. By unifying the currency rates, we no longer have this mechanism, this effect. Almost no extra margin, gradually, and at the same time, less currency losses, specifically, as we saw in July and in August, which is to say, we're perfectly on track since the devaluation in mid-June. That's why we're highly confident in what's going to happen both in Nigeria and then for other reasons, as I explained, Kenya. What was problematic in Kenya? Every country has its own specifics and difficulties. The issue there was a scarcity of dollar availability. A great deal of work was done at Rubis Énergie to find sources to convert the shilling into dollars.
They were successful.
Which made it possible to significantly reduce our shilling balances, converting them into dollars, and then to repay the bank overdrafts in dollars. So we can say now we're no longer exposed to this risk in Kenya. Both in Nigeria and in Kenya, we're very much headed in the right direction.
Thank you, Bruno. I believe, we've gone through all of the questions. I'd like to thank all of you very much for your attention, for the interest you've shown in our group. We'll meet again later when we look at the annual financial statements. Thank you very much. Have a good evening.