Good morning, everybody, welcome to BayWa's on the results of the Q1 2020. Today, we are in a smaller group as the Q1 for us is not the most important one. Next to me is Mr. Helber, our CFO, also Mr. Kemneter, our Head of Corporate Accounting, and Mr. Warren from the Investor Relations team. As usual, we have sent out all information this morning. Otherwise, you can download it, as you know, from our website, investor relations website. I will hand over now to Mr. Helber.
Yes. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Also from my side here from Munich's BayWa Tower on this very bright day in May, presenting this Q1 to 2020 to you. We just met virtually a couple of weeks ago. So there's not a lot news to tell. But we are of course, running through the numbers in a minute. Before we do so, let me just I think the most important one for you also is with an opening statement on the COVID-19 situation within BayWa and what we all have seen, throughout the last couple of weeks, since we met in the end of March. So Corona is dominating everything and also BayWa's business.
To make a very clear statement right in the beginning, this situation that we are running through altogether shows how important BayWa's business is, and that we are in an essential position in the industries that we are talking about. Looking at other industries and the struggle they are in, BayWa's business is running very stable through the Corona situation, through the Corona crisis. That shows us if it comes to, sorry, basic needs, then strength of a business model as ones of companies as of BayWa comes in front. We also very changing demands in the last couple of days and weeks. Demands are changing. It's a bit funny what we saw in France. They're asking for red wine. The people in the Netherlands are asking for other things, and in Germany they were asking for toilet paper.
It shows it all comes to basic needs, and this is when it comes to BayWa. BayWa stands for eat, for heat, and for living. And all other industries might be more glamorous than BayWa, but when it comes to crisis, then the strength of our business model comes through. I think this is quite important as an opening statement also which is still valid, that the Q1 numbers, as Josko just pointed out, are less important of, or have not that big meaning, as you all know, for the ongoing quarters to come. But it gives you an indication, and more important for you is definitely the outlook on the business as the business are running through the upcoming quarters.
Nevertheless I would start with the presentation, which has been sent out to you and just give you an overview of the development on page four, which is a summary for the first three months in 2020. You see the overall sales down by 5%. That's mainly driven price induced by the energy sector mainly, and the international BAST trading activities, which has been reduced for some reasons that I come back to it later. If you look on the EBIT. The EBIT shows a EUR -27 compared to a EUR -14 the previous period. Please remind you on the starting quarter in 2018, where we started with a EUR -41.
The main effect that we saw in 2020 compared to 2019 is that in 2019, we had in the Q1, the sale of the biomethane portfolio in the RE, which came in with an one-time effect of roughly EUR 8 million overall. We have some effects that I will point it out later when it comes to the other activities in the cost sector, which will be mainly postponing or adverse effect in the upcoming quarters. So this is just a flashlight. We pointed out the other activity segment. Overall, if we reduce or take out and look and take out these two effects from the bio energy or the renewable energy portfolio as well as the other activities, then it shows that our traditional business are running pretty good.
They are already in a positive area with a two point eight overall contribution positive. That shows main top business within are running good through the Q1, also continue to do so the months April to May stage. Given the comparison over the Q1, it shows the volatility that we have seen within the starting quarter. Traditionally, and this is what I want to remind you, traditionally, the Q1 is always a minus quarter. It always starts with a minus. It depends on the most on the renewable energy section, if they have sold projects already in the Q1 or if not. Today's or this year's plan is as it was in 2018, that the most of the projects will be sold later in the year, Q3 again and Q4.
And just to highlight this right in the beginning, we stick to the commitment that all the projects that we are planning to sell in 2020 from today's perspective might also be realized, despite the Corona situation, might be realized in the financial year 2020. Having a look on the starting quarter, again, in comparison to the other quarters, they have better ones, but it's mostly in line, and as I pointed out, two main effects, the renewable energy, biomethane portfolio, and some cost issues on the other activities have driven this result in the Q1. Lets get into the details. We just, as I said a couple of weeks ago, met at the end of March, so I don't want to be redundant, but just start with a look in the individual sections. Let's start with the energy one on page seven.
The market development, the market conditions, for the renewable energy business, also due to the COVID-19 situation, are still strong. The demand for investments, long-term investments, renewable energy investments, are completely unchanged, one can say. We saw a stronger demand also for the solar trading, in the solar trading business for modules, as it came to partly shut down of the Chinese module production, which is back in place already again. There was a situation when prices moved up and demand was there, and we were able to supply, able to deliver. That gave a positive uplift for the solar trade business in the end of March and also throughout April. Be reminded that the COVID-19 situation really, for the Q1, had an impact of at least two weeks, so the main impact that we will see came through only in April.
It hasn't changed the overall situation on the renewable energy market. All our projects, buildings, the project developments are ongoing as planned. We do not have seen stronger delays. It might be a delay of a week or two due to some situations in Spain or permits that we need to get, and which has been delayed a little bit, but it's not overall a delay in the project. All the construction areas are working as scheduled. From that situation, we have a green light on the renewable energy division. What we saw on the conventional energy, that was a price decline, a very sharp price decline on the oil sector. You all realized that. That, of course, had an impact also on our business, mostly on the demand of our customers.
We might struggle about what was the COVID-19 impact, what was the price impact on the oil market, but that has driven stronger demand. We will see when it comes to the number, very strongly driven demand in the Q1. This is continuing, this is ongoing through the month of April. A very strong April will follow. Also for the Q2, what we see is high demand in our books until the end of June. This is quite unusual situation, as we have seen mostly in the year that we have a stronger demand through the winter months, which comes down after Easter, when normally we say at BayWa, Easter starts business in agri and the building material sector. But its lower than in the conventional energy sector will start again then after the holiday season, the vacation season, late in August.
And this is probably partly offset this year, maybe by the pricing situation or the COVID-19. We believe that in the beginning, we saw some, as you say in Germany, Hamsterkäufe in the beginning, also on the oil sector. We don't know if this is really true, but I think also the price situation gave stimulus to the demand and the customers' demand for conventional energy for heating oil. Lucky enough we were that we were not anymore that much engaged on the fuel station sector. I remind you that we sold the portfolio late in 2019.
The sole activities, I think this sector is stronger impacted by reduced mobility activities overall in the country. This is no longer in our portfolio, and this is also important to reflect when we are looking on the individual numbers, which we are going to do now, starting with the renewable energy thing on page eight. You see the main revenue, which is also mainly only related to the solar trading business. Only three smaller portfolios in the Netherlands, with a total volume of 27 MW, has been sold so far in the Q1, with only a very low EBIT contribution compared to last year, when additionally we had this biomass sale that I mentioned before. This is only a very reduced starting into the financial year 2020, brings it to an EBIT of EUR -nine compared to EUR +one point two last year.
This is really one of the main impacts of the reduced result overall in the group. Once again, as I said, and I'm going to give also the outlooks always that we're talking on the current business directly. This is what we will catch up throughout the year, sticking to our plans, sticking to our commitment that we gave to the market here on the renewable energy sector. When it comes to the conventional energy on page nine, sales down by some 19%, 18%, 19%, and this is reflecting the TESSOL sale on one hand and the pricing situation on the other hand. It's the price and volume-induced decline in revenues as it's here. The overall results are down by 14%, from five point seven to four point nine. Last year, there were roughly EUR 2 million EBIT contribution included from TESSOL, from the fuel station activities which are missing here.
If you review that in last year's numbers, you see that we have a very strong starting quarter here on the traditional, the conventional energy business in Q1. This is driven by the German business, but also by a very good development in Austria. Coming to agriculture and just starting with the market development, the market trends that we have seen, mostly unchanged to what we reported about in late March. What one can say on the starting season, we are two weeks overall behind from a seasonal situation due to the very wet February that we saw. Funny enough, everybody's talking about the dryness or was talking about the dryness throughout April and, that has, by the way, changed in between. Just to remind you that February, compared to last year's starting season, was very wet, so that kept the farmers from the fields.
They are now back on it. As we always see from time to time, there is a delay in the agriculture process all around of two weeks. The starting situation anyway was pretty good in our areas from the weather conditions that we saw. The April was a bit too dry, but the rain that we saw over the last couple of days, a week ago and throughout the starting of May, was very important for our farming sector, in particular for the second treatment of fertilizer, which is now being brought to the fields. I would say everything is in line there. We saw a very good situation also in Austria and in CEE, so that contributed pretty much into the Q1 result. Once again, please, this is just a flashlight.
At the end of March, we normally say that the season only starts in March, and we have traditionally two cornerstones, two milestones to get over. This is the end of May, when the spring season is finished on the Agri sector, and then by the end of October, when the harvest comes in or the harvest is in, then we can clearly say how the Agri season was. For the time being, everything looks pretty good, looks pretty in line. Looking on the result numbers, and we do it by division to division or subdivision to subdivision, starting with international trading, the BAST activity is on page 13. Here you see a sharp decline in sales by some EUR 400 million. This is mainly related to gathered reductions in activities that we made. We closed our Iran activities. We reported that in our annual analyst conference in March.
The international activities on the Iran business. Also in Hungary, we closed our activities and, of course, we saw a very reduced or a complete shutdown, you might say, on the Italian business. You know that we have within the BAST organization, three main hubs. The main hub, of course, in Rotterdam with the main part of the business, but also in Spain and Italy, two important hubs for the Southern European business. On top of the reduction with the international Iran activities and the Hungarian activities, there was a shutdown on the Italian business, which accounted for a loss in this result situation of about EUR 1.5 million, which is included in this EUR 3.7 that we saw. On these other businesses here, they're running pretty good.
The start was pretty encouraging, even if it comes along with reduced volumes due to structural reduction that we made on the business. Besides the traditional trading activities, we also have this specialty business. They are also running pretty good through the Q1. I think this is a very good encouraging, solid start for the rest of the year. Looking on the three more traditional parts within the agri sector, the BayWa Global Produce business, the input and the agriculture equipment, I think that one can say that within the BayWa Global Produce, this is one of the winner of the situation, of the current situation. They are benefiting from a higher demand, in particular table fruit and also from the international side. People are demanding for more fruit product, apples, for example.
We saw a very strong demand on apples from the Lake Constance area throughout the month of March, also ongoing in April. As I said, this is also one thing which is continuing now in the Q2. In New Zealand, the harvest is almost in now. We saw a better harvest than it was in the previous years. The fruit is price-wise and volume-wise pretty promising. The harvest is all in. And we also think that the logistic situation, delivering this fruit out from the New Zealand hub into Asia and into Europe, is under control. We are prepared, or we were prepared. It's not a problem to have enough containers to ship the products now out of New Zealand. We just had a call yesterday with the people in New Zealand. The situation down there is comparable, you might say, to the German situation.
Only a very few impacts on the overall situation. They are going from level three or they're preparing to going from level three back to level two. They almost have no new infections over the last couple of days. The colleagues down there expect that business is pretty much coming back over the upcoming week. All the international TFC activities have been running pretty good through the Q1. More important for them is the Easter business or was the Easter business in April, and that will almost impact and affecting the Q2 result. On the resources business, the market conditions on the resources business, it was a weaker demand on fertilizer overall that has to do with the regulation that we already reported on and for seasonal delay factors that I mentioned before.
The fertilizer prices were low against previous years. It's almost in line from what we have seen and the seed business have been pretty strong. The demand on that kind of slipped from the input resources. That's surprisingly enough, on the agriculture equipment, even the economic barometer was on level with December numbers. The farmers and the willingness of the farmers to invest is pretty high, was pretty high, and was also the order backlog, which we went into 2020, was very high. Maybe it has been impacted also by the AGRITECHNICA fair that we saw late last year. That was funny enough, if you think on the current situation, I always say that farmers might be something anti-cyclic when it comes to investment decisions.
But the investment the farmers made was a way stronger, and this is also still ongoing now in Q2. Looking on the numbers, page 15, starting with BayWa Global Produce. You see what I mentioned, the impact on the result line, very positive after a negative Q1 in 2019. Now already for Q1, a small profit and very positive outlook for the rest of the year. We stick to the commitment that we made for the overall result of the BayWa Global Produce division. The agriculture segment, the traditional business, the normal ones in line with last year's on page 16, an EBIT contribution of some EUR 3 million, already positive in Q1, which is pretty good. Slightly higher sales on the sector, it's mostly price induced.
I think, once again it only becomes valid after Easter and then by the end of May to see what the spring season or the initial season on the agri sector was worth. It's a pretty good start here in the first three months for the agri segment. On page 17, you see the contribution of the agriculture equipment year-over-year, and that's very encouraging also for the rest of the year. I think we will see another strong year on the agricultural equipment division. If it comes to building materials, also the start here, the situation is unchanged. I would say, the overall demand hasn't changed to what we reported end of March. We're not affected at all by the COVID-19 situation. All our stores, our wholesale stores have been open throughout the days.
To remind you that in Germany or in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, we do not run retail stores anymore. They are with HELLWEG. Of course, in Austria, there were a couple of stores of retail activities still with the Tyrolean area, Vorarlberg and Kärnten. They have been closed down, the impact of that was very limited in March. All our other stores here in Germany have been open through the whole COVID-19 period. The demand is unchanged, and I think that will also continue. We have not seen any other risks coming from the payment side, from our customers. This is all in line. It's all pretty good running as I can say as of today. The overall result situation, a pretty good start into the season.
You know that the building material business normally starts after Easter, as we always say. We have a slight improvement of some EUR 4 million overall, including some effects from the Austrian business here already in. The German business was pretty much stronger compared to the previous year. As I said, this is very encouraging also for the rest of the year and for the Q2. Q2 and Q3 are the main important quarters on the building materials sections. We are pretty confident that we can continue with the positive situation that we have seen in the first starting quarter. Just jump to page 23. It shows the innovation and digitalization. Nothing to report in there. It's running as planned.
On the other activities, I think it is worth to have a word on that to see the EBIT number here from nine to 18 minus. We have to be very clear on this. There are four main effects on this situation. Most of these effects will be adverse and will be turned again in the Q2 or the rest of the year. The first one that we saw in there that was an effect from a valuation of a hedge instrument on the Australian dollar, which it has been accounted for, minus EUR 3 million. There will be an adverse effect in the Q2. That's just a temporary thing that we have in here by the end of March. What is missing in here are another compared year-over-year.
There's a EUR 2 million contribution of our activities at-e quity AUSTRIA JUICE that has not been in yet in the Q1. We expect a contribution of some EUR 3 million overall on this AUSTRIA JUICE activities for the full year. Also this effect will turn again. Last year, we have seen stronger sales of real estate from our real estate portfolio contribution of EUR 2 million already in the Q1, which has not been in now, but which will also come later in the year. Also this is something that will turn again. Finally, there's last year's accounted for the IFRS 16 effect, which was accounted for under the other activities in the Q1 and later in the year, it was given to the own division. That was because of systematic reasons.
It has been accounted here that will also be turned back in comparison year-over-year in later quarters. The overall situation for the other activities, what I expect, is coming from the 53 that we had last year, saying there were one-time effects from the Emerald project and things in. I, again, stick to the estimation that it should be in a range of EUR 35 million-EUR 40 million overall, and that will also be backed from today's perspective by some cost-cutting effects that we will see in the admin sector, as we will have a cost reduction, as other companies will have due to a lot of COVID-19 related effects. Imagine that we do not have the Oktoberfest this year, so we do not have the Fedel F fair this year. We do not have a general assembly this year.
So these are all things that will come with cost reductions in the other activities. That should support the estimation that something in between EUR 35-EUR 40 will be the full year number, even if it's overstated or seems to be overstated for the first three months. Looking on the overall group financials on page 26, it summarizes what we reported up to EBIT. When it comes to the consolidated net income, you'll see that we are more or less online with last year's numbers. This is reflected by deferred tax asset that we made up for or were able to made up for the Q1, since the minor situation that we saw will turn in most of these activities and it's mainly related to the renewable energy business that will turn later in the year.
Therefore, we were able to make a deferred tax asset against it that brought it up to the consolidated net income in line with last year's number. The earnings per share now reported year-over-year, including the hybrid contribution in as cost in the lower line that we disclosed here. From the group financials on the balance sheet, not a lot to say, it's more seasonal picture on it. The thing is that we started in the season that goes along with upward on the total assets, mostly on the inventory. Mainly also driven from the renewable energy project sector, that comes not along with a higher debt position.
That means we are currently, and this is strongly ongoing through March, April, May and June, day by day, reducing the debt position strongly, by also reducing the commodity that we have in the agriculture sector and the technical equipment sector and slightly postponing effect on the renewable energy sector. This drives the overall picture for the balance sheet by the end of March. Now, I think, coming to the operational outlook, it's the same thing that we presented in March, and I think this is still very valid. I mentioned it when running through the individual segments. What is the overall expectation on the renewable energy sector? I mentioned it. From today's perspective, we do not have or do not expect higher impacts on the business. All the projects are running. From today's perspective, we also expect all the projects being realized in 2020.
There might, of course, be postponing effects from 2020 and 2021, but it's not that we are not realizing projects. It might at least only be postponing. But from today's perspective, we think it might be able to realize all projects as planned. What we indicated also from the result line is that the plan that we have is in range of last year's result. Last year for 2019, the overall result for the renewable energy sector was EUR 100 million EBIT contribution with a planned EBIT contribution of only EUR 78 in the beginning of the year. The plan for this year is to be in line with last year's overall contribution, meaning EUR 100 million again. It could be more or it could be a bit less, I don't know. Around this figure, I think, it's fair enough to look after.
On the conventional energy, as I said, a very strong ongoing business now through the Q2. I think that will also continue throughout the year. We had last year, a full year EBIT contribution of some EUR 20 million, which includes EUR 10 million EBIT contribution from the solar activities. These are not in any longer, as you might know. But it might give you a flavor of what we expect year on year if it comes to a normalized result for the conventional energy in total. The agriculture outlook, as I mentioned also before, strong in the agricultural equipment, strong on the Global Produce. Solid, I would say, on the classical, on the traditional agriculture business here in our areas, in the domestic markets.
What we expect, what we might see is a slightly lower business, but even above last year's contribution in our international trading activities on the BAST areas through the reduced demand in some parts of the world or the situation that we see in Southern Europe and Italy. I think it's pretty much too early really to say where the outcome will be on the international activities from our business review that we held on Monday. We learned that they are pretty much on track to exceed slightly last year's result, which was in a range of EUR 19 million. So this is also my expectation that we will be in that area or maybe slightly above. The main contribution or the main impact out of these areas should be in the traditional business where we only made a contribution last year of EUR 7 million for the whole financial year.
I think this has the highest uplift to come back to some more normalized areas in the range of EUR 20 million-EUR 25 million overall. Global Produce, we will see what the harvesting or the marketing of the harvest for the international activities from New Zealand will bring. There will be a very strong demand from Asia and also from Europe, since they can really good sell the fruit into these two markets. We will see how they can handle the logistic situation. But at least also they will have an uplift year-on-year on this business. Technical equipment overall will be stable. If they can reach at least last year's really good performance, I don't know. It's all good on getting into this situation. Building materials, finally. Yeah, we do not expect any sharp declines immediately or within the short-term distance. They will have a stable business.
This is indicated or forecasted for the rest of the year, and this indicates also by the performance within Q1, it continues to be strong. We have to carefully look on the customer risk in there. If they will reduce demand or if we have payment risk in there. We do not see it currently, but I think they will more or less be stable, as they have been in the latest years, on a contribution level of above EUR 30 something million overall. I think that should be it. Just remind you that we are running stable through this difficult situation. Q1 was okay, was good, despite the effect that we saw on the renewable energy side and on the other activity side. I think the other business are running pretty good, too.
Yeah, we are pretty confident that we can continue on this track for the rest of the year. Thank you.
Yes. Thank you very much, Mr. Helber, for presenting the results on the Q1. We are ready to take your questions, please.
We will now take our first question. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Yeah, good morning. This is Christoph Hincke from Erste Securities. Good morning, everyone. I got two question. Thanks to your very detailed overview. I think not many questions left, but still, I would like you to provide maybe an update on the intended restructuring in the agriculture segment, whether you already made some progress here. That would be my first question. The second question is on renewable. You mentioned that this is the swing factor for the Q1. If I strip out one-off effect, I come up with a delta of still two-point-something in EBIT, which is not a large number. Given that revenues were up, I just have problems to understand why EBIT is still down then by that even small number. Thanks.
On the restructuring of the agri segment, it's pretty much too early now to comment on this, to be honest, because we are in this process. We included costs of some EUR 2 million in the Q1 already for the closure of, I guess, seven or eight locations. I beg your pardon, I'm not able to talk about this in more detail now, but this is what we have in the Q1. On the renewable sector.
EUR 2 million.
The EUR 2 million. Do you have an explanation on this? The revenue is mainly driven by energy trading and solar trading. This is the business where we have the lower margins. That must be the cost effects overlapping the margin result on solar trade business and the energy trading business. This is all the explanation that I have in short now. Once again, the whole result on the renewable energy sector is only driven by the realization of the project, where costs might not be fully capitalized within the quarters. This is the only explanation that I have for the results gap in Q1. This is really a flashback.
Maybe I can pose a follow-up question on the agriculture segment. You said you already provisioned EUR 2 million for one-off costs, Q1. Maybe you can say what's your expectation for the entire year and for the entire exercise, how much one-off cost do you expect to incur for that? Thanks.
That will be a number of EUR 7 million for the full year, this year.
EUR 7 million. Okay.
Yeah.
Very good. Okay, thanks.
We will now take our next question. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hello, this is Anne Crowe, Metzler. Thank you for taking my question. I have a couple of questions. The first is thinking about the building segment. Do you have any exposure to commercial property construction, or is it primarily residential that you're involved in? And the second one was, would you be able to catch up from the shutdown in Italy?
On the building material sector, just remind you that we are not a construction company. We are not directly involved in any of these construction issues. We are a wholesaler. Our main customers are at least really related to the private home, the house building sector, the private house building sector. There might be the one or the other also commercially customer-related. The main focus of our building materials business is the private home builders, the sector of renovation, modernization.
By the way, what I need to point out also on the building material sector, also on the DIY sector in Austria, what we might expect there is positive effects from the homing factor, which is coming back stronger already this year through, because people are not able to travel, they are not able to go on holidays, so they will stay at home, and that will strongly also impact our business on the building materials and the DIY sector in Austria. To come back to your question, no, mostly of our customers are related to the private house building or the house building sector, not the commercial ones.
Thank you.
Catching up Italy. Yeah. Sorry.
Sorry. That's really helpful to know that a lot of it's involved in renovation as well because that tends to go on.
Yeah
whatever's happening.
I can only tell you all my neighbors through being at home and the home office situation, they all started to renovate their apartments. That's really a funny thing to see, and I encourage them to do so because they have to go to BayWa and buy all the stuff there. Catching up Italy, I think that will be a hard thing to do, to be honest. I think that what has been lost on the international trading, it should be overcompensated by other business in the international bus activities, also on the specialty business. That should not be a big impact. As we saw it with one point five, I mentioned the effect for the Q1. Do not expect that to be continued quarter on quarter, summing it up to some EUR 6 million or so.
This is not what I see, but catching it up, that would be probably hard to do. If it comes back to normal, the interesting thing is Italy was completely shut down. It was completely unable to get in or out of that country. This is slowly coming back again. We are already supplying commodities. We are also already supplying grains from Germany into Italy again. This has already continued to be back on track. To catching this up, I think that would be hard.
Thank you. That's very helpful.
Once again, as a reminder to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one. We will now take our next question. Please go ahead, caller, your line is open.
Thank you for taking my question. Oliver Schwarz, Baader Research. Two concerning the Energy segment, firstly, one is to the traditional Energy, which seems to go from strength to strength, this time due to the decline in the heating oil price, I guess, was a big driver there. I guess following a mild winter 2019, 2020, and people already starting up filling up their tanks, there's only so much space that can be filled from here on. I heard you say that you assume that this strength will continue. On what assumption is that based? I was wondering, especially if we see an ongoing decline in the heating oil price as it is lagging the development of the crude oil by give or take three months. That would be my first question. My second question is to the Renewable part of the business.
Have you seen any major delays regarding either additions to your pipeline or, B, delays in the selling process, not in the completion process of projects, but in the selling projects, due to travel restrictions and this, I guess, is mostly sold off via auctions, which might be hard to entertain, at least at the current time? That would be my two questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Schwarz. If I say the demand situation on the conventional energy will be continued, then I meant it for the next three months. This is what I pointed out. The order books are full, and this will continue up to the end of June, which is quite unusual, as I said before. Normally, it comes down by the end of April and then starts again in August. Yeah, this is what I can see. That has been driven by the pricing situation, but which is also sometimes a mild winter. Yes, we have a mild winter, but it was also the situation that people had to heat anyway. There's not a zero consumption, even if we have a milder winter than it was in previous years.
So I think it might come up that we will have in the second part of the year, a lower demand for some reasons or some areas, some volumes, but overall, it continues up to the end of June. This is on the energy segment, on the conventional one. On the renewable, any delays in additional to the pipeline, we have not seen additions to the pipeline so far, but it was not planned to have new portfolios in or something like that. On the selling process, no, actually, I can't say this. There might be, of course, restrictions due to the home office or the mobile office and the travel restrictions from some to the other project. We just yesterday sold two projects in Malaysia, signed two projects in Malaysia.
The process is ongoing on for the big ones that we expect to have in the U.S., mostly in Mexico. These are the two main focus areas for the rest of the year. This is continued and this is ongoing. We also locked in a finance transaction on one of the big projects in volume of EUR 100 million throughout the situation. I cannot really say or confirm that we have stronger delays in the selling process or also in the financing processes.
Very clear. Thank you for that. May I sneak in an additional question? Just a quick one.
Yeah
how the sale of PV modules is fairing at the moment.
It was a very strong demand in March and April. We were able to deliver, we were able to supply. That will also have an impact on the April and probably also on the May result. But as we learned on Monday, as China is back in the production and the prices are coming back, this is reduced now or the people or the colleagues expect a reduced demand for the rest of Q2 at least. So this is the picture that we saw.
Thank you so much.
It appears there are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the conference back to Josko Radeljic for any additional or closing remarks.
Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, for your participation and interest in this conference. Also to Mr. Helber for doing it almost alone today. One small remark, our AGM will take place on the 28th of July. It has been postponed due to Corona. However it will also take place virtually. You can participate if you wish. All information will be broadcasted on our website. And, yeah, the next analyst conference call takes place on the 6th of August. We will be happy to hear you and to see you all healthy until then. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.