Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Rubis Q1 2023 trading update call. At this time, all participants are in listen only mode. After speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star one and one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, you can please press star one and one again. Please note that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand over the conference to your speaker, Mr. Bruno Krief, CFO. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, Razia. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I am Bruno Krief from Rubis, and I am talking to you with Clémence Mignot-Dupeyrot, already introduced, our Head of Investor Relations at Rubis. We will together present to you this quarter and then the Q&A session. You received a few minutes ago, I believe, a very detailed PR providing you with a full set of data and very in-depth information on the quarter. I won't go over it, but I will just give you a short summary and try to provide you with some color on the past three months.
First we note, or you have noticed stable volumes in the Retail & Marketing and while almost 60% increase in volumes for the Support and Services operations. It is fair to say that the Retail & Marketing has been challenged by a strong 2022 basis. We note also an increase in gross margin during this quarter by and large. You will note, and this is developed in the PR, an adjusted increase of 10% in gross margin in gross amount in million euros, and 2% increase when including some potential Forex exposure in Africa during this quarter. This clearly in the Retail & Marketing operations. While in Support and Services, gross margin has recorded an advance of 64%.
For sure, this achievement has been facilitated by lower fuel prices index both year on year, 3%-5% decrease, accelerating in Q1 versus Q4, with statistics showing an 18% reduction in price quotation. I would underline that the Caribbean region has managed to improve further its gross margin by 18%, thanks to optimization of its logistics and managed to access to competitive supply. When taking the additional margin which has been generated both at Retail & Marketing and Support and Services, on the cumulative level, we found Rubis with an additional gross margin production of a bit more than EUR 30 million, EUR 31 million precisely, which compare to Q1 2022, gives or show a 15% increase.
This performance is helping us to more than cover inflation costs that we are facing, as you know, here and there. These are fundamentally the reason why we can state that the company model is particularly solid. It is also interesting to note how the model has behaved over the past three years. I would qualify of years of risks, uncertainties, and big challenges in the emerging countries in Africa or the Caribbean in terms of GDP developments or threats in purchasing power caused by inflation. Taking together the core part of the business, supposed to be, I would say, the most resilient, i.e. the sum of LPG plus petrol station volumes, which together do represent some 60% of total volumes of Retail & Marketing.
We have, we have shown again and again a formidable resiliency. If we compare these volumes together, again, LPG plus petrol station, in 2023 versus 2020, we are +4%. If we compare 2023 versus 2022, 2%, you are well aware, relative to the risks and volatility all those economies have experienced over this period. In one word, Rubis' matrix of niche markets diversified by geographies and its mix of B2C and B2B customers makes it extremely solid. This was a general comment on Rubis Énergie. Regarding our JV, Rubis Terminal, nothing to say, but a buoyant activity during this quarter, the simple increase in rental revenues of 16.6% speaks for itself.
Very good positioning, and you will see the comments on the PR. On the new energies and more specifically, the photovoltaic business, we are in line with expectations with an 8% increase in the secured portfolio, while the development of the pipeline was up 6%. I must underline that the development team has been boosted since last year. Very busy, and it also includes a dedicated team to work on development abroad.
I would simply deliver to you again that we are given with numbers and in term of volumes and profitability, we are in the position today to reiterate our trust in generating an increased net profit for the full year, of course, adjusted for goodwill impairments, which was recorded last year. These are the main developments I would like to talk to you about. I suggest we start the Q&A session, given that you have had some times before to review it. I know it's quite long and in-depth in term of information that Clemence and myself are pleased to review it or to bring any clarification. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. As a reminder, to ask a question, you need to press star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, you can please press star one and one again. Once again, please press star one and one if you have any questions or comments. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. This will take a few moments. Thank you. Once again, please press star one and one if you have any questions or comments. Thank you. We are now going to proceed with our first question. The questions come from the line of Emmanuel Matot from Oddo BHF. Please ask your question. Emmanuel, your line is open.
Good evening.
Good evening, Emmanuel.
Can you hear me well?
Yes, I'm there.
Yes. Do you hear me?
Perfectly.
Yes. You can hear me?
Yes.
Okay, good. three questions for me. Maybe can we have an update on the situation in Haiti first? Have you seen some improvement or not at all? Are there some further risk of goodwill impairments in that country for Rubis? Second, you are mentioning first development of Photosol outside of France in Q2. Does that mean that you have been successful in finding partners to promote that business, or are you going to do everything, I mean, organically without any partners? Third, maybe about M&A, how is the pipe for acquisitions regarding Rubis Énergie? Do you have some opportunities or not at all? Thank you.
Okay. These are good questions which are encompassing the activity of the group. Haiti, I will be short. It's stability in the chaos, and no specific news from compared to what the recent comments last March when we disclosed the full set of results. This is where we are, and it's true to say that volumes were down during the first quarter by some 40%. The good news is that the unit margin was increasing, so that's out of lower volumes. This is where we are today. We don't have more visibility on this May 4th compared to when we talked to you last March 16th. This is where we are. Regarding Photosol.
This is true that we have started looking at developments abroad. As I presented to you, we have a dedicated team to look at that. We are looking at Spain and Italy currently. In Spain, we have put in place an agreement with a developing team. We have set up a sort of partnership with local players to work on the Spanish operation. The routes that we have chosen is not to purchase a new ticket to purchase a company with the associated goodwill and costs, but it's more partnering with local specialists, entrepreneur involved with good experience in the developments of pipeline.
We have an agreement to remunerate them with various milestones. This is when we have effective results, which are the milestones that we can deliver, showing that they have delivered and that we can pay for the work they have achieved. This is the routes we have chosen. We are also looking at developments on the Italian peninsula. For that, we have been invited to a data room to look at portfolio of operations in an early stage.
We are in the course of valuing these operations and see how we can operate and go along with the construction of this pipeline. This is where we are. No purchase of company, but partnering with existing player on the development side. Last question was M&A in general. I must say, oh, you are witnessing that like us, the market is for M&A. Put aside the photovoltaic business, but I think you were referring to the historical business, the fuel distribution. It's dry. It's quite dry currently.
There must be a sort of cyclicity, but we are in the low activity cycle, probably in terms of M&A in this sector. Nevertheless, you know, but we have reached a certain critical size in all the countries we are present in. So it doesn't jeopardize whatever ideas of existing position. Of course, if there are some opportunities to complement or to enter new geographies in our neighborhoods, we will size those opportunities. These days it's very dry. This is Emmanuel, how I can answer your question.
Thank you very much, Bruno.
Once again, ladies and gentlemen, if you do have any questions or comment, please press star 1 and 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Thank you. We are now going to proceed with our next question. The questions come from the line of Alexandre from Gilbert Dupont. Please ask your question.
Yes. Hello. Can you hear me?
Yes, perfectly.
Okay. Hi. Hi, everyone.
Hello.
I have two questions. The first one would be about Photosol. I was wondering if you could give us the sales growth on a year-over-year basis. Just to compare the price evolution. The second question would be on the outlook, just to understand the hypothesis on which it is based. Basically I was wondering if you were expecting the same growth in adjusted growth margin. I mean, a kind of 10% growth in adjusted gross margin in the coming quarters, or you expect a slowdown in this pace.
You mean the Photosol again, huh?
Yeah. No, no. For the global company.
Oh, for the company in general. Okay. Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
If Clémence you want to answer on the Q1.
I'm not sure I understood perfectly your question about Photosol. Year on year?
Q1 last year.
Year-on-year, Q1 last year.
Yeah.
So Q one twenty twenty-two, um-
Since it was not consolidated.
It was not consolidated, but the revenue I have here in my figures are about EUR 6 million revenue.
EUR 6 million?
Yeah.
Okay.
Does that answer your question?
Yes, yes. With how many megawatts installed?
Let me check and come back to you.
Okay.
I'm not sure I catch perfectly the second question. Can you repeat that?
Basically, my second question was, do you expect the adjusted gross margin to keep growing at 10% in the coming quarters like it did in the first quarter of 2023? Do you expect a slowdown?
The 10% as it's an adjusted number. The number which gives more color is the 2%. The 2% is, you know, taking the adjusted number of 10% and incorporating the potential Forex losses in and notably in Kenya. As you know, Kenya is in a sort of currency crisis currently. We have some potential losses in which are in the P&L, but of course below the margin and EBITDA and the financial results. You as a specialist, you have had the opportunity to look at the 2022 accounts. There is a sort of discrepancy today between the margin or the numbers at the EBITDA level and the Forex elements.
That's why I prefer to giving you the full picture and incorporating to some extent the potential Forex impact within the gross margin. You have here, you know, 2%, you know, which takes into consideration the Forex risk fully. It shows again this kind of resiliency of the gross margin. We can come back to the fundamental of Rubis. It's a way to show you again the stability of the gross margin. That's why don't expect the 10% to be there again to be renewed. We have never experienced such volatility in gross margin.
Okay.
I have found, the assets in operation at the end of March 2022 for Photosol, there were 313 megawatts-peak. 313.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Once again, ladies and gentlemen, if you do have any questions or comment, please press star 1 and 1 on your telephone. We are now going to proceed with our next question. The question comes from the line of Ryan Dean from Elyton Co. Please ask your question.
Hi. Good evening. I just wanted to ask about the economic situation in Kenya and the effects that's possibly having on your business. Are you having any issue with payments from the government? Any receipt of money just in the current quarter, and how you see that progressing?
In Kenya, we are in the situation where, as stated, volumes are growing steadily as a result of the program of renovation and restructuring of the network. Fundamentally, the business is there, the customers are there. you know, you had last year long periods of price capped price by government. In front of that, the government has put in place a mechanism of subsidy to compensate for the loss for the petrol distributor. This subsidy has been paid gradually and still being paid. At the same time, and along with the retreat in oil prices, the capping price now has been canceled.
we are quite close to the market price in term of regulated prices. we are not facing further the problem we had last year. As you know, we have been facing some currency losses last year, given the application or the non-application of the regulated formula. The industry and the petrol distributor as a whole are on the verge of finding an agreement with the Kenyan government to retrieve this loss which is specifically linked to the Forex, to the depreciation of the shilling versus the US dollar. we are confident, we are really confident that we will get to an agreement with the authority quite soon.
re confident last year to find an agreement in Madagascar with the government, and we signed a protocol, as you know. This is where we are. We know also that the Kenyan government very recently has put in place a new regulation, making that the petrol distributor will pay for their supply in shilling rather than US dollar. This will put less pressure on the US dollar demand and should ease a bit the situation, at least for the next six months. For the future, you know, fundamentally, the Forex risk has to be paid by the customer to some extent and never by the petrol distributor. The government is conscious of that.
That's why, of course, we are close to find an agreement on the past losses, which we should find an agreement by the end of the this quarter. We are confident that the government is working seriously and on the interest of both the customer and the petrol distributor.
Thank you. We are now going to proceed with our next question. The question's come from the line of Jean-Luc Romain from CIC Market Solutions. Please ask your question. Hello, Mr. Romain, your line is open.
Good afternoon. My question relates to Guyana, where you have started to develop organically. Do you hear me?
Oui, very well.
Do you hear me?
Yes.
Hello.
We hear you. We are there.
Hello. Okay. My question relates to Guyana.
Yes.
I was wondering if what the growth is, and if, as you started to develop organically there, you are seeing some opportunity for complementary acquisitions there. That's my first question. My second question is on bitumen. Is there a seasonality limit in the 11% decline?
Okay. You know, in relative to Guyana, Rubis has been present in this country for years, I mean, since we acquire this business in 2011. It's a place where we have at stake a solid business. We are present in LPG distribution, so we do supply the market. We are present in supply in petrol station. It's the country as a whole is a significant contributor to the profitability of our operation in the Caribbean. That's what I can say. The question are we... Yes, over the past five to 10 years, we have been active in this country. We see also how the country has been changing.
You know, the, the oil exploration and production and the new production of oil has made that the country is very active in now in in petrol production, and it has helped also the payment balance of the country. We are in a situation where there is money, there is products, because this new production of oil will translate into, of course, some refined product production. We may also see how to develop further in Guyana. Want to talk of bitumen, maybe?
Bitumen is, yes, of course, impacted by the seasonality and the rainy season. What happened, especially this quarter, was not necessarily related to rain, but more related to elections in Nigeria. The elections took place, if I remember correctly, in February, and the, the take-up of the activity after the elections was quite slow as the new elected government has taken some time to take decisions. Now it's, it looks like it's starting to come back.
Thank you very much.
We are now going to proceed with our next question. The next question comes from Mehdi Ennebati from SG CIB. Please ask your question.
Yes. Hello, can you hear me?
We can hear you.
Good evening.
Yes. Good evening, Bruno and Clémence. I have two questions. The first one. Sorry, but I got disconnected during the call, so perhaps these questions have been already asked. The first one is on unit margins. First off, can we expect you to keep on communicating unit margins on a quarterly basis? A second question on unit margins as well. How should we think of unit margins going through the year, looking at the, let's say, deflationary environment for oil prices? How are governments in regulated markets acting with regards to re-adjusting their prices? Should we think of a positive comparison basis for unit margins over the course of the year? That's my second question. My third question will be on Photosol.
Could we have the, let's say, broad financial terms and conditions for the new syndicated loan that you have issued a couple of weeks ago, and what is today Photosol leverage? Basically, how should we think of Photosol leverage today? Thank you.
Okay. Maybe you want to say a word, Clémence, on the unit margin because you provide-
I'm not sure I perfectly understood your question. You're asking whether we will communicate on unit margin?
Yeah. The first question is that, yes, I mean, you started communicating on gross margins, this quarter. Is this something that we should expect going forward or not?
Yes. We will try to keep the same type of communication going forward.
Okay. The second question is how should we think of margins, unit margins over the course of the year, particularly considering the deflationary environment in oil prices? Basically, have governments in regulated markets and have you as well in non-regulated markets kept the same prices as 2022? Is there a lag between the, let's say, changes in costs and the changes in prices for the fuels that you distribute or not? Should we think of a positive comparison over the year?
you know, inflation is not automatically taken into consideration in the, in the unit in the price regulation, but it is more a question of petrol distributor to negotiate with the various minister of energy in each country to explain and argue the necessity to incorporate the increase in prices and inflation costs. This is one thing. Secondly, I would say that even when there is, in a country, a price regulation, the price regulation focus, as you know, mainly on the petrol station or the or the, the cylinder, the gas cylinder, the LPG cylinder. All the rest of the segments are free, like aviation, C&I, lubricants, of course, bitumen, whatever.
We, as, we comment, comments previously, we told you that we were in a position to supply at a more competitive costs in the, in fuel, in the Caribbean region. This has helped, you know, to cover some inefficient costs we may have had over the same period. This additional margin we made, has covered most of the inefficient costs through the paths of the products which are on a free setting system, mechanism. The rest has to be periodically discussed. You know, there are permanent discussions with the authority, to explain that we are exposed to some additional costs.
It could be inflation or it could be, for instance, the cost of funding the working capital because of the situation where the price, oil prices are increasing. We make them understand that they have to incorporate an additional element in the formula. I would say it works. It works over the past, all the time we have been in this activity for the past 30 years. It does work.
Okay. Thanks for that, Bruno. It's just because I was perhaps not very clear. Historically, you have been communicating that when oil prices go slightly down on a year-over-year basis, you do benefit from this environment because your prices have a certain lag.
Correct.
I was wondering, thus, I was wondering that as you communicated at the beginning of the press release that oil prices and hence your input costs are going down, if this should have a positive effect going down the year, 2023.
You are right. You are right. We are taking advantage of this situation which is in favor of the distributor. Clearly, you have noticed in the Caribbean region some increase in the unit profits. This is an example of, you know, how we can take advantage of that. It is true also in continental Europe, where we took benefits of the lower LPG prices. This is what we can describe as the parachute effect. It lasts for some time, of course, there is a sort of return to normal. This is how the markets does work.
Fundamentally, yeah, lower oil prices, if we have to choose, is the best configuration for us.
Okay, thank you. My question is on Photosol , please. Basically the news was quite unexpected.
No, it's the market rating. You have LIBOR at that time was sort of 2.4 or 2.6. You had, you add to that the margin, which... If at the level of Rubis Énergie, we tend to pay a sort of 100, 120 basis points. In the, in the photovoltaic or new energy companies, it's a bit more than that, close to between 200 and 260 basis points. At the end of the day, you have a total all-in cost of 4%, sort of 4.5%.
Okay. It is comparable with the rest of the leverage from total cell?
It is.
Or one associated with it.
This is a new funding that we have put in place at market price. Regarding the existing debts, which is in the SPV, so all the 360 million of debts which are funding the assets on a very long-term basis. The interest rates cost was swapped already. We kept the level of between 1.5% or 1.9% all in for the existing debts. It doesn't increase, the interest rate doesn't affect the existing interest charge on the existing SPVs. You understand? Because it's hedged.
That is very clear. Very clear. Thank you for that.
We have no further questions at this time. I'll hand back the conference to you for closing remarks.
Okay.
Well, thanks, everyone. We remain available if you have questions. Do not hesitate to reach out to us, and we'll be happy to see you soon. Bye-bye.
Merci.
Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.