Hello, everyone. It is a joy to see you all for our full year results for 2023, and we, here we are with Clarisse and Bruno, and we'd all like to thank you for joining us. First and foremost, I would just like to quickly go over our main business lines, give you a few highlights for the 2023 financial year. I'd just like to say that we reached all of our targets, and then we will get a very quick overview of our investment policy and cash flow allocation policy. Clarisse will then go over some of the major financial highlights for 2023, and Bruno will look much more closer at the financials. Clarisse will wrap up for expectations for 2024, and then we'll field any of your questions. So no real surprises for most of you.
We have two main business lines, our legacy business lines: energy distribution, and then on the far right, we have bulk liquid storage, so that for an industrial clients. The third business line, a bit more recently, as of 2022, is when it comes to renewable electricity production with solar power. When it comes to energy distribution, we have businesses in Africa, in the Caribbean region, in Europe. We provide energy and bitumen to B2C and B2B customers. The main product that we operate with is LPG. It is seen in Europe as a transition energy, which still has quite a high level of CO2 emissions attached to it, and it's mainly for peri-urban and rural customers. But it is highly advantageous in African, Caribbean area where it is quite present.
Well, really in Africa, because it is a way of transferring away from energy sources which are highly carbon intensive, such as kerosene and coal, and that's for individual use. We also have a large network of service stations that we provide fuel to and lubricants. Now, that business line in Africa is really buoyed up by the growing population, and also because there is a growing middle class with an increasing purchasing power. In the Caribbean, we see that that business is being driven mainly by the North American economies, mainly America, the United States of America, because they provide a lot of economic inflows through tourism and the like. And we are generally either number one or number two in the respective countries because we provide a niche service with long-term goals.
As for our bitumen business, we are a leader in Africa, and for that, we really depend in the long term on the infrastructure needs in Africa. So all of that business makes up for about 96% of our group fixed assets. So 80% of group fixed assets and 96% of group EBITDA. The other legacy business line is bulk liquid storage. So we produce industrial liquids, and what's interesting is that for a long time, we used to store oil-based products. About 70% of that was oil-based, and we've actually been able to drop that by about half. And now that business is predominantly for biofuels and other chemicals. And another part of that business is focused on French state strategic reserves. So using the equity method, that's how we account for that. We also generate, as I mentioned a little earlier, solar power.
We have Rubis Photosol in Europe, mainly in France, with a few inroads into a few other European countries, but we're also present in the Caribbean area, thanks to a partnership that we have with Hydrogène de France. As of end of December, we had 435 MW installed capacity, 4.3 GW in the pipeline. So you can see it's quite a big ratio there, and that's very indicative of how this business really tends to grow and the growth opportunities that we're expecting to see from it. As I said, we have heavily invested in France. We're probably one of the top five operators in France.
We have made inroads into Italy with 10 projects for about 100 MW and also 30 MW in Spain, again, with 300 MW in the pipeline. The EBITDA share of renewables, as I'm sure you could understand, is, and given the extreme growth of the group, is quite limited, yet it still has very high growth, double-digit growth. So solar electricity makes up for about 20% of our group fixed assets. What's important to bear in mind when looking at our three main business lines, is that we have two of them, which are legacy, and they provide strong cash flow because they are mature markets and growing markets, and that cash flow can be allocated predominantly into developing our renewable energies. A few main highlights for 2023.
2023 was quite a good year because, as you can see, our EBITDA is up 19% year-on-year. A strong cash flow, up EUR 583 million, so that's up 35%. And this is really because top quality businesses, strong business based on cash flow. The cash flow that you have up on the screen is obviously after financial costs and after tax. Quickly, about Photosol, one of the main highlights there is that we have a secured portfolio up at 77%. Now, in terms of the secured portfolio, we have everything in operation, everything being built, and everything that is ready to be built. So that's those operations where we already have permits in place and a contract. With all of that in mind, we can now offer shareholders a dividend of EUR 1.98.
Now, probably you remember that the past 25 years, our dividend has been constantly rising. Now, that said, we must bear in mind that the economic backdrop is not as stable as we would like. We have prices rising. After a peak in 2022, they still remain high, which impacts our end customers, and actually in a number of our countries, predominantly in Africa, like Nigeria and some other Eastern African countries, Kenya, for example. These are countries that have been facing considerable macroeconomic hardship, and this has had a huge impact in terms of foreign exchange. So we have had some foreign exchange negatives, but nevertheless, it has not impacted overall growth.
Now, when we look at the targets that we set ourselves for 2023, in terms of EBITDA, we laid down a guidance range of EUR 690 million-EUR 730 million, and we were almost at EUR 800 million. So that's up 19% year-on-year, and there's roughly EUR 50 million in positive effect, which won't necessarily be recurrent or... so it's going to be more likely one-offs. In terms of net income, EUR 354 million. Well, there are three ways of looking at this. If we look at it in terms of adjusted net income group share, so we adjusted both 2022 and 2023 for one-off items, and we still have +8%.
Now, +8%, that indicates our ability to really tap into all of our growth drivers, just, and using them as a way to offset negative impacts from the economic climate. Now, again, if we look at our Haitian assets and how we can amortize that, we have growth of +17% and 35%, +35% for the overall net income group share increase. Now, as I just mentioned, we have dividend growth, which is perfectly in line with our dividend distribution policy, which we have been abiding by for some time now. And the final point, acceleration of renewable electricity development with Rubis Photosol. You have that there as well. So that gives us quite a satisfactory overall portfolio. Moving on to the next slide. This is just a way to illustrate what I said as my introduction.
We have an ability to generate cash flow and allocate that cash flow to developing other businesses. If we work from the left to the right, you have a good example of cash flow from existing activities, around EUR 450 million. That's post financial costs. Now, obviously, it's not exactly the same as what we had in 2023, but let's just take this as an example. With this level of cash flow, we can pay out a dividend, around EUR 200 million in dividends. If you work down a little lower, EUR 150 million can go into investment and maintenance CapEx, and the leftover, roughly EUR 100 billion, is cash that is left over to develop our growth drivers. Moving over a bit further to the right, we have the four main areas where we can allocate that money.
40 million can go into our traditional businesses, so energy distribution. Sorry, EUR 80 million can go into energy distribution and storage. Now, we used to have a 50/50 split between equity and debt. So when you have that 50/50 split, you get that total of 80. If we look at renewables, if you have cash, available cash of EUR 60 million, plus a leverage effect of 85%, that's quite high, and that's just on average. Obviously, we're a little higher than that in France, which means we can add in an additional EUR 340 million of external debt for Photosol, and that's in France and around Europe. So that's a total of EUR 400 million over the full year.
Obviously, we said that we want 25% of EBITDA to be put back into these businesses by 2030, and you can see that there's EUR 1.5 billion in investment that we can fund while still covering our original maintenance businesses and while still covering our legacy businesses. Now, just quickly talking about our investment policies. We've always been very disciplined by maintaining our long-term plan, by focusing on energy distribution, which is, again, our legacy business line. We really focus on bolt-on acquisitions in our existing geographies, ways of bolstering our, our current business. We are really looking for opportunities out there. Obviously, we're not going to look for any opportunities that don't make sense when trying to add extra value to our shareholders. So as I said, these sorts of opportunities are funded by debt for about 50%.
Now, when talking about renewables, we want to hit project IRRs unlevered of about 7%-9%. Now, what that means is that once we tap into non-recourse debt financing, we should hit about 80%-90%. We should be able to get equity IRRs that are quite high, almost double digits. Now, again, because we already have a solid footing in France, we can still develop in other countries, Italy and Spain, first up, and then we can look further afield. And this type of investment secures revenue over long periods, and that actually explains how it is so easy to refinance it. Now, we can go 10-20 years. 20 years when talking about France with CRE-type contracts, or it can be about 10-15 years when looking at corporate PPAs.
So these are contracts with companies who want to use more green energy, now, either be it out of principle or because of requirements. There's also a new segment that we are investing in. When talking about solar plants, it's no longer ground-mounted, large-scale ground-mounted solar plants, but here we're talking about small-scale PV plants. These are key solutions which really tap into current simplification policy that is being brought in. So we have Rubis Photosol that really focuses on this key market, and these are high growth markets. It's the sort of solution that you can roll out on car parks. Also talking about new segments, another area that we are looking at is battery energy storage systems.
Now, whenever we get a construction permit, we also ask for the necessary approvals for this, and we are already starting to send in bids for specific tenders for these sorts of systems. We see it growing in other plenty of countries, and we are sure it's going to continue to grow in the future. Now, what's interesting is that you have both electricity and distribution business lines, and by developing, then we are going to really leverage our major accounts that we already have with major corporate players by providing them with carbon or low-carbon solutions. We're going to be able to really leverage our geographical footprint in Europe, in the Caribbean region, and in Africa, because a lot of customers are calling for more hybrid solutions. A combination of oil-based products tied in with green electricity solutions.
Now, that's pretty much it for the overall view I wanted to give everyone. I'll quickly hand over to Clarisse.
(FL) Thank you, Jacques. Okay, I will tell you about our performance and how our subsidiaries have grown. I will start with a presentation of our financial performance in 2023. The highlights, as Jacques has already said in his introduction, is the fact that our performance has been very solid, with EBITDA up 19% over the period. However, there are a few exceptional items that Jacques has already told you about, that Bruno will also tell you about a little later, including reimbursements of lost earnings, particularly in Madagascar, and the inflation of the margin in Nigeria for EUR 32 million passed on to customers, which somewhat distorts the interpretation of this performance. Excluding these items, EBITDA growth has been around 15%. As Jacques has said, we've also suffered significant foreign exchange losses, mainly in Africa, particularly in Nigeria and Kenya.
So, our net Forex loss amounts to about EUR 74 million, versus EUR 60 million at H1, as we announced in September. As we already explained, H2 was a better controlled, much better controlled in term of Forex losses. So despite these losses, our net income came in at EUR 354 million, up 8% versus last year, excluding one-off items. Our balance sheet remains healthy as a result, with leverage down, slightly down to 1.4 times, excluding Photosol's non-recourse debt. The CapEx level is under control, as you see on the slide. The 10% increase between 2022 and 2023 is accounted for by our energy distribution business, and what happened in the Caribbean.
As for cash flow generation, it remains at a fairly high level, with the cash flow up 34%, in line with the increase in our net income. I still wanted to tell you that we're very proud of this performance, which illustrates our ability to deliver, even in an environment that has been turbulent in some of our geographies last year. Moving on to our slide about energy distribution and the highlights. Our LPG fuels and bitumen distribution activities delivered a very solid performance this year, with strong EBIT growth of 20%. In first place, in terms of EBIT generation, the Caribbean region saw its profitability increase significantly in 2023 after an already very profitable 2022 financial year.
This strong performance highlights the efficiency of our operations in the region, as well as the growth of some regions like Guyana and Suriname, as well as the relevance of holding our vessels in full ownership, a strategy which we put in place a few years ago, and which positions us particularly well in the context of rising shipping rates on a global scale, and helps us be extremely agile and effective. As far as our investment plan in East Africa, it continues to bear fruit. The improvement of our network and the rationalization of our customer portfolio have enabled us to significantly improve our margins, particularly in the aviation segment. On the bitumen side, activity was slightly below our expectations, in particular, due to the political context in Nigeria, as well as foreign exchange issues that I've just mentioned.
The other countries, South Africa, Togo, Senegal, Cameroon, and others, have performed well. LPG in Europe continues to grow at a very satisfactory rate, around 4%. We maintain our operational efficiency and excellence with a view to further gaining market share and maintaining high margins. In addition to these business-related aspects, 2023 was marked by the publication of the first Sea Cargo Charter report. Rubis Energy, in this context, has identified all of its emissions related to charter activities with a view to drafting a dedicated decarbonization plan between 2023 and 2030, so as to reach the -30% target on Scopes one and two. We're also delighted to announce that Rubis Energy's Scope one and two carbon intensity ratio is down 34% compared to our reference year, 2019. Moving on to Rubis Photosol.
Rubis Photosol has been growing well this year. It's been a great year in terms of development. The secured portfolio has grown by 77% in 2023, bringing us closer to gigawatt. We've also doubled the size of teams, particularly on the development side, to give us the means to achieve our ambitions towards 2030, with Photosol accounting for 34-35 gigawatts in operational terms. We've also eased access to the financing market. With regard to our development in France, our revenues for the next two years from power plants in operation or under construction are already secured and stabilized, whether through CRE contracts or whether that's through corporate PPAs.
This gives us all the more peace of mind, as we have just won the latest round of CRE call for tenders with 257 MW. This lot includes the flagship project of Creil, of about 200 MW, which, once built, will be the second-largest solar power plant in France, and the first plant will be commissioned in 2025. Photosol, and that's something new that happened this year, has started positioning itself in the small solar power plant market for B2B customers, with the acquisition of Mobexi in late 2022, as well as a small actor, small player, Ener5, in early 2024, bolstering our presence in France.
At the same time, co-development JVs are underway between Rubis, Photosol, Mobexi, and some of Rubis Énergie subsidiaries, developing small solar plants, particularly in French overseas territories and in the Caribbean, capitalizing on Rubis Énergie's customer portfolio. Internationally, our Italian portfolio continues to grow. At the end of 2023, we acquired 44 MW that has reached RTB status and should be commissioned between the end of 2025 and 2026. In Spain, we already have 30-MW RTB, and our partnership feeds our pipeline to the tune of around 300 MW. Now, moving on to the next slide. It's a slide that we've shown each time as, ever since we acquired Photosol.
This is to show you what the project looks like in late 2023, and it's an illustration of how dynamic this project, this activity, has been over the past year. Assets in operation have increased from 383 to 435 MW in one year, an increase of 14%. Our secure portfolio reaches 893 MW, including the 44 MW acquired in Italy. Our project pipeline is at 4.3 GW at the end of December, which represents about five times our secure portfolio and gives us peace of mind about the development of the next two years. As far as our Rubis Terminal JV is concerned, again, this business has done well, with revenue growth of 14% and EBITDA growth of 16%.
In line with recent periods, the proportion of stored biofuels and chemicals is growing sharply. Great performance all around this year. These past few years, by the way, this subsidiary has worked extensively to reverse the product mix of its stored products by significantly increasing the proportion of stored chemicals and biofuels. This great performance is also the result of decisions in terms of new storage capacities in the area. And I'll now give over to Bruno, who will present the group's financial performance. Thank you, Clarisse. I won't be long, because everything has been said and very well explained.
Now, looking at the slide, you'll see how you get from the 2022 EBIT to the 2023 EBIT, from EUR 509 million to EUR 621 million at both ends of the slide, showing you a growth of 22%, which we mentioned before, for this indicator. If you go back in time a little bit, let me remind you that volumes for the whole of Rubis Energy have grown by 4% over the three continents where we have a presence. This graph also shows that all geographies are in positive territory as far as growth is concerned. Africa with 8%, Caribbean, forty-five percent plus forty-five percent, Europe, you know, logically 4%. But support and services plus 20% renewable. Energy is on the rise.
It's still a slow rise at this stage, but that's to be expected. And going back to Rubis Énergie, we have mentioned a growth of the distribution, you know, retail distribution, side of 20% in terms of EBIT. Logistics, third-party shipping and chartering, are also seeing a growth of 20%. And in terms of the geographies, the Caribbean region has performed particularly well with a record year, in terms both of volume and margins and market penetration. With the aviation segment doing very well as well as LPG lubricants. So all of the traditional segments of oil products have shown lots of progress in a region that has also been...
or whose economy has been driven by tourism from the U.S. and Canada, which is the main driver of these island economies. Now, as far as Europe is concerned, this is a good level of performance because we're mostly present in LPG. A mature market, yes, but which generates good cash flow and very secure cash flow that is labeled in euros and has seen its contribution or its share go up, as you can see from the figures on the slide. In terms of EBIT, Africa is up 8%. It is much more diversified between or across LPG, service station networks, and bitumen, which is present in the infrastructure segment, I would say.
So that's very much linked to the, you know, long-term investments of these economies into their road infrastructure, and we're supporting what these countries are doing with a focus on Western Africa with new territories and new markets that we have been able to start developing, such as Angola, South Africa, Gabon, Cameroon. I would say that about 10 years ago, we were mostly present in Nigeria and a few countries around Nigeria. Whereas today, as we speak, we're we have a presence in about a dozen countries, and Nigeria accounts for under 50% of our business in Africa. Of course, Nigeria counts because it is the most populated country in Africa with over 200 million inhabitants and colossal infrastructure needs. So yes, there you go.
Rubis Énergie's business in Eastern Africa with, as you know, the major acquisition that happened in 2019, well, growth there has been good in terms of contribution as well as in terms of our BP with EUR 58 million-EUR 60 million in EBIT for this branch, which was our objective towards 2023. And we're also confident in terms of how this contribution is, or this share, is going to continue growing because we're talking about a region of 250 million inhabitants and strong economic growth in those countries, which means that people will need more and more oil-based products. In fact, at a rate even higher than the economic growth rate.
So that's, you know, what I had to say about the economic contribution of Africa. In terms of Rubis Renewables, 4 million is still a modest figure, but I would say that's just the take-off phase, because look at the structure of these assets. We have a 430 MW that are already installed. We have a large pipeline of projects. And you need to bear in mind that assets installed, existing assets that generate the profit. And all the rest just generates costs at this stage. And as you've seen before, the ratio of pipeline to assets in operation is very high.
So the configuration you're looking at is young companies, growing companies, with extensive or high costs in terms of their development, which is absorbing a lot of the EBIT of operating companies. But the operating structure is such that as soon as these installations are commissioned, a megawatt, which was being, you know, which was in construction and becomes an operational megawatt, sees all of its costs covered in just six months. All the costs that it served to build it are actually covered and absorbed in just six months of business of doing business. So obviously, what we're doing is working on the growth dynamic from, you know, growing from the pipeline and pushing the pipeline towards, you know, more operational or operating businesses.
As we accelerate that dynamic, the EBITDA of the renewable sector is going to rise. So those were a few general remarks about Rubis. And just a few words about this chart. So the EBITDA is strongly growing, the EBIT. Those growth rates are really cash-based because, you know, cash flow is up 35%, as we've seen, so those are great results. The quality of the results is really there. As far as the EUR 15 billion that you see under associates, the share of net income from associates is mainly, that's mainly Rubis Terminal, whose contribution has risen a lot over that fiscal year.
We have one item representing a non-recurring expenses, income and expenses, going from -EUR 58 million in 2022 to a positive figure of EUR 7 million in fiscal year 2023. Let me remind you that in 2022, we had two exceptional non-recurring items: an impairment test with goodwill depreciation of EUR 40 million in Haiti on the one hand, as well as acquisition costs in the context of our acquiring Photosol up to about EUR 20 million. This year, we are seeing a positive figure, which is the sum of the fact that we have one, an arbitration case in Kenya that pitted us against the seller. And the arbitration court in this case has vindicated us and is forcing the seller to pay us a penalty of about EUR 15 million.
On the other hand, there is the rest of the Photosol acquisition cost, which means that we get EUR 7-EUR 15 million after taxes. That's the explanation for the EUR 7 million in the non-recurring income and expenses item.
As for financial charges, so the net financial charges, they have doubled, going from EUR 41 million-EUR 84 million. Now, that's not because of an increase in debt, but that's due to an increase in rates. So that's not what we really saw in 2022 too, because interest rates rose very slightly. But 2023, there were interest rates of around 3-4%, and that really increased our net financial charges. If we move on to the line for financial charges from foreign exchange, so this reflects what we said a little earlier. There was an increase from EUR 84 million-EUR 105 million in foreign exchange losses. This is predominantly from Nigeria for the first half of the year. Kenya as well, especially in the first half of the year.
Actually, in the second half of the year, the situation actually improved, thanks to what we put in place. So, for example, we sought to reduce the dollar debt level that we had locally, and we sought to actually shift everything from shilling inflows into dollar inflows, so that we maintained our debt exposure in dollars. And that is actually because we were suffering a strong foreign exchange loss. So NGN 67 million in Nigeria, that was offset onto the end clients by increased billing, and that is reflected in EBITDA. So we reassessed the situation in June, because of the highly volatile early half of the year. So we are in the country, we have business in the country. We have a 45% market share, so that places in leader position, we have a long-term vision.
I would say that the capacity that we have to be able to push on the foreign exchange risk onto end customers or end clients means that all of our businesses in the country still provide a satisfactory return. So, tough year, but the underlying business is solid. We also have profit before tax, EUR 425, up 27%, and if we drop down a few lines, we have tax rate that went from 19% to 14% this year. So that drop in tax rates can be explained by the geographic contribution mix. So you have the Caribbean area, which was very, very much present in supplies, trading, and shipping. And a lot of that was in island states where there is 0% tax. So that's why our tax rate really dropped from 2022 to 2023.
There was a drop in goodwill as well, which unfortunately is not tax deductible. So we had a pinch effect between those two effects. So aside from 35% growth of our net income group share, what we would like you to draw your attention to is the 8% of adjusted net income group share, because what that reflects is it corrects for a number of one-off items. So these are events that really came through in 2023 and partly in 2022. So because of that, we can actually compare both. So we went from EUR 317 million-EUR 342 million for adjusted net income. So when we look at 2022 to 2021, the increase was 10% for adjusted net income. So 10% growth last year, 8% growth this year.
So this is always hovering around the double-digit % growth. That's it for our financial results and the income statement. I'd now like to quickly talk about our balance sheet. What we see here with our balance sheet is that we have a healthy balance sheet when looking at our consolidated finances. We have a net debt to EBITDA ratio, which in 2022, end of 2022, was at 2.0 times, and which is now at 1.8 times end of 2023 financial year. And that's predominantly due to the cash generation over the year. Another ratio we like looking at is looking at non-recourse debt. And this is especially what we saw with the renewable energy development. So we had 1.5-1.4, which is quite, quite manageable when looking at group level.
So that's it for the main changes for Rubis's balance sheet. So again, modest level of debt, mostly liquid... high level of liquidity in our overall balance sheet, with some credit lines that are constantly being renegotiated, meaning that we always have some EUR 400 million in available credit lines, so that we can continue to acquire new businesses and further our company's growth. I would like to just quickly come back for a few final items for the final outlook... So as Jacques and Bruno have already just said, I would just like to congratulate everyone for the fantastic operating performance, with adjusted net income up 8%. 35% increase for cash flow as well, which really attests to the quality of our overall financial results, and it also attests to our ability to pay a growing dividend.
As for our extra financial indicators, we've really been working on ESG-type topics, and that's been recognized by non-financial rating agencies. CDP reiterated its B rating for the third year running, same as MSCI, which continues to give us a double A rating. As for Photosol, now, I didn't mention this a little early when I spoke about it. We have really started in-depth work on avoided emissions, and this year, we helped avoid 230,000 tons of CO2, well, for 2023. That's a total of 475 GWh of produced solar power. So our CSR roadmap will be updated with 2024 indicators. We'll put that up online on our website. Rubis Photosol will be incorporated in the 2024 roadmap for the first time. Now, moving on to the 2024 outlook.
The broad strokes outlook, the key drivers for the year is that, well, we don't expect any main surprises for LPG, be it in Europe or in Africa. As for bitumen, we expect business to stabilize in Nigeria. Other countries are going to continue with their strong positive momentum. In terms of fuels, expecting to grow at a steady pace in Africa, predominantly thanks to our network of service stations and also by growing our non-NFRs, so non-fuel revenues, which are set to increase. Moving into the Caribbean region. So because COVID years, we saw two years of high business, we expect this year for that business to return to a more stable level of business. Talking about renewable energies and renewable electricity, we expect it to grow in line with our plan. This is probably mainly due to large and small ground-mounted power plants in France.
We also have other small power plants for professional clients, again, working with Rubis Énergie to roll them out. We're going to continue to grow business internationally. When I say internationally, I mean mainly in Europe. In terms of risk areas for the coming year, these are the ones that we've identified, which may actually challenge some of our estimates. Well, we have sharp exchange rate fluctuations in Nigeria. They've really penalized us in the past, and they're hard to predict. We have been able to account for Haiti, hopefully, that will be offset with the rest of the group's business. We estimate that aside from any major deterioration in market conditions, EBITDA for 2024 should sit at somewhere between EUR 725 million and EUR 775 million.
Other key features for 2024, we expect that the global minimum tax rolled out by the OECD will be applied. So that will have an impact somewhere between EUR 20 million and EUR 25 million for the group. Now, I know many of you are wary of this, but every year, we intend to have our dividend grow yet again. Finally, back in 2023, we announced that we were going to hold an investor day, and we are delighted to announce that we are going to have a Photosol day on September 17th, 2024. At the event, we will provide more ample information on the business. I would also like to take this opportunity as I wrap up this session, to introduce you all to Marc Jacquot, who is joining our teams as Group Chief Financial Officer, and it's a joy to have Marc here.
So Marc has actually been with us since January, and to ensure the transition with Bruno, because Bruno will be becoming Chief Strategy and M&A. Thank you, Clarisse. Thank you. Hello, everyone. It's a pleasure to be with you here. Just a few quick words. I actually started my career in New York, in investment banking, then I joined CGG Corporate Finance in France, and then worked for the United States for more than 10 years. I then joined Rubis Terminal as CFO, and we set up the joint venture with I Squared Capital in 2020. And I'm really excited to join Rubis today because it is a group going through fundamental transformation across the board. And I'm really looking forward to working with management to push forward all the projects for the coming years.
I really feel a great sense of peace of mind because Bruno will still be there in the company. He's not too far away, and I'm really looking forward to working with everyone in the coming months. Marc, thank you very much. I think it's now time for Q&A. Good evening, everyone. We have a first round of questions from Jean-Luc Romain, an analyst who's been following Rubis for some time. Four questions: What is residual value in the balance sheet? Final question, are you going to account for the adjustment for HDF Energy? Third question, about Photosol. With EUR 400 million in annual investments, what is going to be the growth of installed capacity year after year? And final question, about Ener5. Can you just provide us a few more details about the Ener5 acquisition, and what price did you pay? First question, about Haiti.
What is residual value of Haiti? EUR 120 million in assets, EUR 60 million of which is an acquisition gap. Again, there's a 2023 contribution of just under 4-5 million in net profit. Again, that was for Rubis. In relation to the EUR 6 billion in assets, it's not a huge drop in the ocean, and compared to the EUR 350 million in net profit, I think we really need to just bear that 4 million in mind. It's not that big. So that's it for Haiti. Any other questions? Well, I'll quickly answer the question about HDF Energy. So HDF Energy was an 18% stake that we took out, so it doesn't appear in our profit and loss. It does appear in our balance sheet, and we actually have a strategic partnership with them for all of our geographical zones where we have business.
So there's nothing really new there for HDF from a Rubis side. So it's hydrogen and electricity from French Guiana, CEOG, 30%, and HDF and Meridiam also have a share, and we're currently building that, and that will be commissioned mid-2026. We also have one in Barbados, RSB, and it is in a fairly early stage of the project, and we have already secured funding from the World Bank, 41 billion. And we're also looking in at some EPCs. We've got 25 projects in the pipeline, which should be... That came through in 2023, but they are going to be in Namibia, Indonesia and Mexico. And these are projects for which we didn't want to take out a stake. They've also got an industrial project for factories for fuel cells, and that's currently being built, and it should be commissioned mid-2025.
So they'll be making their first fuel cells as of then. That's it for HDF. As for Ener5 question, it's a really small company, and they install small solar plants for B2B clients. It's very much like Mobexi, so an acquisition price, which is very low, 2 million- 3 million. And really, that acquisition is just to shore up the Photosol acquisition in France. And again, the small solar plant installations require a lot of local presence, so you need local installers, and that acquisition is just so that we can really roll out that business a bit more effectively. There was just one final question, if we may, about 400 million in annual investments. Just quickly about the HDF and how value is booked, it was actually depreciated because of the stock price evolution since the acquisition.
We're about EUR 20 million-EUR 25 million in terms of how the value that we booked. Now, just to quickly answer the question about EUR 400 million in annual investments. I mean, this is part of our 2030 plan. So this year, we're going to invest 75 million. Obviously, that investment will increase year after year so that we can reach our 2030 levels. But here, we're talking about 400 million in annual investments. Well, here we're talking about 400 MW in additional power. And here we're talking about installed capacity that it will be added into our secured portfolio. So we really we're going to be increasing the annual additional megawatts by about 400, but over 2026 and 2027. Now, again, here, when we're talking about secured, it's both...
It covers a lot of ground, so it will take time to get that through.
I'd like to add one thing. When I quoted that example at the end of my introduction, I was giving you or showing you an example just to make it very clear what the investment capabilities are in this area without asking for anyone's help, and certainly not the shareholders. Because sometimes the markets tend to be apprehensive in the, you know, industry of, you know, building solar plants, and sometimes the market is apprehensive about the need for finding more equity over the years, which is not at all our case, because we can finance those EUR 400 million. And I'm not saying we can do it overnight, as Bruno and Clarisse has pointed out. Between 2022 and 2026, we had said cumulative EUR 700 million.
In fact, this is linked to the growth of our capacities on the French market, which used to be at around 2.5 GW, a figure which should double to five GW or even seven GW, if we are to follow French and European regulations, which is something that should, you know, allow us to grow. Before the Photosol acquisition, Photosol reached about 300-350 extra MW a year secured, just to give you an idea.
Next question, it comes from Alexandre Ilet, who's the analyst who follows Rubis at Gilbert Dupont, and he's asking: "What has driven the growth margins for retail marketing in Europe, the Caribbean, and Africa?" Well, the drivers were, first of all, the behavior of the oil prices, which went down slightly compared to the summits that had been reached in the previous years. And that has obviously meant that the margin situation was rather favorable. That would be my first basic answer. Now, in terms of, you know, market, not market, I think we've mentioned aviation in Eastern Africa, which... I mean, you have to look at you know, each market. It used to be a very sluggish market, the past few years, with many players that, in fact, disappeared.
Now, we replaced them, but with much lower risks, and the margins that we get from this industry, from this segment, has gone up quite a bit. Now, similarly, if you take the Caribbean zone, in the Caribbean, the margin situation was quite favorable, and has been for a long time. And with our logistics tools in terms of transport and shipping, we have access to competitive resources, which also allows us to boost our margins. And lastly, in Europe, in Europe, we're mostly positioned on LPG and free markets in terms of pricing. And here, again, in an environment where prices have gone down compared to previous years, this makes it easier to get good margins. Any other questions? The next question comes from St`ephanie Maug`e.
St`ephanie Maug`e is asking, "Why we're only, or why you're only, increasing your dividend by 3% with such good results?" Well, there was question at some point of not increasing the dividend at all, and now we're saying we're increasing it by 3%. Now, the adjusted results has gone up 8%, indeed, but you have to keep in mind the fact that the share has a yield of about 8%, so that's pretty high. And we would love it for the market to bring down that yield by boosting the market share. There's nothing hidden in, you know, behind this 3% dividend increase. The next question comes from Patrick Boh, who's asking question about the group's equity, the gearing, the timeline for reimbursements, and the predicted rates for 2024.
Well, the equity, you will find it, you know, in the balance sheet, 2.8 billion for the total equity, including the minority shareholders. And the question... Well, the part of the question is about the gearing rate, where we talked about EUR 1 billion or EUR 1.2 billion of net debt, compared with the EUR 2.8 billion of equity. So that's, it's a fairly modest amount. It's much less than, you know, 100%. And in terms of the net debt to EBITDA ratio, it is also under 2.
So that, you know, allows us to say that this is a very robust financial situation with a debt situation which is such today that the average duration of our credit lines is about 3-5 years. As far as Photosol, the maturity of the existing debt is much longer, about 20 years originally, but, you know, some of it can be amortized year after year, and this is all backed by contracts of the same duration. Now, our financial strategy, of course, is focused on protecting the liquidity of our balance sheet by always having available credit lines and renegotiating and finding new instruments that give us access to as long maturity debt as we, as we can access.
So those are the directions in which we are going as far as our debt structure. There's another question about reimbursement and timelines. 450 million euros must be reimbursed in 2024, which in light of the systems that we have put in place, is not problematic. The next question comes from Philippe Vieira, who's asking if there are any plans to do share buybacks in 2024. No, that's not the case. Nothing of the sort is in our plans. We're doing a bit of it each year, and we have plans for that at Rubis Énergie and Photosol as well. So in the, you know, current situation, we are not planning to do any share buyback.
The next question comes from an Emmanuel Matot, the analyst who follows Rubis at Oddo BHF. He's asking whether we expect to have a stable net result in 2024, and if we have incorporated any Forex losses, particularly in Nigeria. And then he asks a second question about Kenya, where the government had put in place a subsidy system to cap fuel prices. As for the first question, I think we answered as part of our outlook document for 2024, saying that it was one of the points that we had integrated into our guidance, and that we were very much alert to the situation, which is why we targeted a stable net result or one point of increase.
Well, stable after the impact of the tax situation, at EUR 20-25 million. So that's the situation we're at. Perhaps we could just specify that we're talking about second pillar taxes. Yes, and effective in 2024. So the impact, the estimated impact, on the P&L as far as taxes would be in 2024. There's another question on Kenya, if I'm not mistaken, and the subsidies there. Yes, a subsidies system was put in place in 2022, back when the Kenyan government had abandoned the premium system and had capped the pump level prices, which had gone up sharply. In exchange for that, a subsidy was put in place for oil distributors.
A part of it was paid through treasury bonds, short-term treasury bonds, and so as part of our balance sheet, we have EUR 30 million of treasury bonds with a maturity of three years, and the reimbursement will happen gradually over time and will help us purge the... or rather, reimburse what we owe to the government. As far as the other similar situation, in Madagascar, something similar happened, but the government kept all of its promises and reimbursed the earnings losses that arose from the abandonment of the price structure. All of that money was paid back to us.
That's very interesting, what Bruno has just said, because this is something that keeps happening in the energy and fuel distribution and service stations industry, in a number of countries that are constrained in terms of their price formulas, with regulated prices, in other words. When international prices go up too high and too quickly and reach the kind of levels that we saw in 2022, clearly, the system can get to a point where it is blocked, and the government will decide to cap the prices, which is problematic to players like us. But over time, over the years, experience has shown us that once this situation goes back to normal, governments will actually indemnify you for the lost earnings, and it was still the case in 2022.
2023 was no different. But it's interesting to note that because it's one of the strengths of this industry, in that you can really pass on to the market the variations of international prices, and where there is a blockage, that's systematically taken into consideration by countries, and they will make amends for that. The governments will make amends for that as soon as they can, usually the next year. Question from Portzamparc: Are there still any other acquisition opportunities in Rubis' legacy businesses? Will you, in the years to come, focus on investments and M&As in renewables? Second question is about your assumptions in terms of Forex in 2024 as part of your EBITDA and net results. And his third question is about Rubis Terminal.
Wasn't the JV expected to be more aggressive in acquisitions, and how about debt refinancing? Okay, I'll field your first question. In terms of our legacy activities, you can't really say that we haven't developed or grown, but what we've done these past few years was organic growth through bitumen, which is a kind of development and growth that is highly profitable for us, and also by developing countries like Guyana and Suriname. We're really capitalizing on our geographical footprint so as to penetrate other markets. We've always said that we would consider M&A if the multiples were good, mainly in Africa, on all three activities, but there won't be any opportunities in bitumen. It will be organic in bitumen.
But on LGP, LPG and retail, as well as in the Caribbean, while at the same time, spending the next years investing in low-carbon energy at, Rubis, of course, but Rubis Energy as well, so that, we can, provide our customers with multi-service, multi-product, services, mainly for our industrial and professional customers. Another question was about Forex. Yes, on, on Forex and currency. We don't have a, you know, a, a budget, rate in terms of the, you know, currencies. We never do it. We never do it simply because, our industry allows us to pass on the product's price to the, end consumer, as, you know, labeled in the local currency.
Whether because, you know, the price is free for the distributor, or because there's a price mechanism or system in place that incorporates the depreciation or appreciation of the currency as part of that formula, which is why we don't budget in terms of currencies. We look at the currencies as they are, and then we pass on to the end consumer the real price of the product, which, you know, of course, takes into consideration the depreciation or appreciation of the local currency. Other questions about the Rubis Terminal? Yes, Rubis Terminal. I think the question was about being more or less aggressive in acquisitions.
Yes, it is a fact that, since we built the Spanish company, TEPSA, beautiful companies that led to a 30% rise of the value of, of Rubis, of the company that bought it. We haven't renewed any such large acquisitions, but we have grown a lot in Rotterdam, Antwerp, of France. And at the end of the day, in this industry, investments, you know, there's, you know, arbitration between construction from scratch and acquisition. And, you know, the growth of Rubis Terminal is fairly remarkable because it's been, you know, uninterrupted, even, you know, throughout the COVID years, and it was still very strong in 2023.
I keep saying it's a great industry because, you know, when the economy is going well, the volumes are, you know, higher, the volumes rise, and when the economy is not doing so well, our clients need to make stocks. They need to store energy. In Rubis Terminal, we are looking at this potential EUR 100 million acquisition in the south of Spain, in the area of green ammonia, which will be made with solar plants that would build the kind of energy that is needed to produce ammonia and then ship it to the north of Europe. So it would be a large project, one of the largest in Europe, in fact.
Still on Rubis Terminal, what is the residual value of the 55% of the Rubis Terminal JV, and has that value been reassessed since it was sold to I Squared? And I'm getting another question from Jean-Luc Romain about the leverage at Rubis Terminal. Well, the debt levels of Rubis Terminal was about EUR 650 million at the end of last year, well above the maximum leverage as stipulated in the financing contract, which would be, you know, 6x. We're at 4.5x. We're not using the whole of the leverage. So that means we still have a major ability to re-leverage if needed by distributing dividend or by, you know, acquisition.
The 2022 refinancing exercise was very virtuous in that it really allowed us to bring down the interest rates, and right now we have a capped Euribor plus, well, one or two points, so 4%, when we used to be at 5.6% in the past, so high yield, in other words. So yes, this instrument gives us all the flexibility we need to manage the Rubis Terminal balance sheet, whose value is booked in Rubis. You know, from accounting point of view, we don't reassess. If we can readjust down, but we don't readjust up. That's, you know, very basic principle of accounting. But the amount that, you know, that is asked for is, you know, booked or at EUR 80 million.
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Any other questions? No, I'm not getting any other questions. We're very glad that we have been able to answer your questions. Thank you very much for spending time with us, and we really hope to see you soon at the next opportunity, so that we can continue to present our group and convince you that we ourselves are convinced it has great potential for value creation.