Good afternoon. Welcome to the Ecora Royalties investor presentation. Today, we're joined by CEO Marc Bishop Lafleche and CFO Kevin Flynn for the presentation and the live Q&A. Questions are encouraged throughout the webinar and can be submitted via the Q&A box situated on the panel on the right-hand side of your screen. I'd now like to hand over to Marc to begin the presentation. Marc, over to you.
Well, good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for a call in relation to our 2025 results. On a number of fronts, 2025 marked a year of delivery. First and foremost, we saw 2025 representing an inflection point. For the first time in this business's history, critical minerals exposures generated more than half of our overall portfolio contribution, and this was primarily driven by our base metals exposures, which grew 150% year-on-year. All in all, we're obviously very delighted to see our critical minerals royalties demonstrate what is a portion ultimately of the true underlying potential of the wider portfolio in the past year. Second, during the past year, we acquired a producing copper stream, the Mimbula copper stream, which has certainly augmented our exposure to copper and pro forma for that commodity, cemented copper at the core of our commodity exposure.
Last, I think one of the key highlights of the prior year relates to the rapid deleveraging, which we demonstrated following the acquisition of the Mimbula copper stream. Following the transaction's close, our net debt was just under $130 million, and we ended the year with net debt that was roughly similar to where we actually started the year 2025. In other words, roughly flat, inclusive of a $50 million acquisition, which is a strong outcome, an indication of the portfolio's cash generation, but also second, the active steps we took during the year to unlock value from non-core assets. Pausing to speak about the prior year, overall it's quite clear to us anyways that 2025 is indeed a landmark year for this business. First, in relation to the commodity complexion, where critical minerals representing for the first time ever, more than 50% of total.
Second, in terms of a reduction, as we look to the future of an expected reduction in the volatility of the critical minerals royalties cash flows relative to those that we've seen historically with Kestrel, which is a royalty that has been in and out of our royalty area and on a quarter-to-quarter basis has created an element of volatility that we should see far less of into the future. Third, I think this is perhaps to us the most important point on this slide. We're now looking at a source of cash flows that have mine lives that are measured in decades, and that compares to Kestrel, which is always measured in much shorter increments, more recently in years.
This is a very exciting step forward when we think about the producing aspect of this portfolio and the business's quality of earnings, further supplemented by the organic growth that exists within the existing Ecora portfolio. Looking back five years, the critical minerals portfolio really has delivered. From 2020-2025, we see approximately six-seven times increase in contribution from specialty metals, uranium, and base metals. Looking to the future, we still do appear to remain very much at the foothills of the organic cash generation potential that exists in Ecora. The next 12 months-18 months are very key towards de-risking that 2030 profile, particularly those assets that are not yet in production, that are at the development stage. This is summarized on the left of this slide, where what you see is a very layered dimension to our growth profile.
For those who have been tracking Ecora for as long as Kevin and I have been with the business, I think what you'll see for the first time probably ever in Ecora's history, we now have a growth profile that's layered across volume growth from assets that are in production. Volume growth potential from assets that are in production being expanded via brownfield expansions or being restarted from assets that once were in production that have stopped and are intended to revert. Near-term development, so assets that are far along the development curve, not yet in production, but greenfield growth. Last, early stage are assets where we see not necessarily a path to income in the next five years or 10 years, but a path to sizable capital appreciation potential in royalties like Patterson Corridor East , for example.
With that, I'll hand it over to Kevin to talk us through the financials for the prior year.
Thanks, Marc, and thanks again everybody for joining us today. Yes. Okay. Turning to our financial performance slide. As Marc mentioned, this was really an inflection point in the year. Looking at our portfolio contribution, whilst there was a small decrease in the period of about 10%, that in no means tells the full story, and we'll touch on this in a little more detail on the next page in terms of the changing complexion of the business and also the significant growth that Marc touched on that drives the next wave of our evolution. Our adjusted earnings were a bit lower in the period. This really reflects the increased finance costs we assumed with the Mimbula acquisition.
Although the deleveraging kicked in in the second half of the year, our finance costs were on average higher, reflecting higher average borrowings. In addition, our overheads, whilst a reduction in terms of our underlying cost base, the U.S. dollar to sterling exchange rate movement led to an increased reported overhead in the period. That impacted on adjusted earnings. We should see some improvements and increases in adjusted earnings going forward as these catalysts kick in. In terms of free cash flow, another point that's quite important to reflect on, with Kestrel representing less than 50% of our income, is that our free cash flow conversion significantly increases. Kestrel has a high associated effective tax rate with it, and as its proportion of our overall contribution reduces, the free cash flow conversion within the portfolio increases.
This slide shows our portfolio contribution in the year, and I'll use this as an opportunity just to run through briefly some of our key assets. The first one, Voisey's Bay, had a very strong year, with contribution almost tripling in the period. This reflects 113% increase in volumes, which is reflective of the ramp-up of the operation as it continues its underground transition. We'd expect to see in 2026, full steady state production being achieved here, which should result in increased production levels in 2026, before that then becoming a stable platform thereafter. Voisey's Bay also benefited from a significant increase in cobalt prices in the period. It's hard to believe that it's about a year ago sitting here that cobalt prices were about $13 a pound. Today, that number is closer to $30.
This reflects actions taken by the DRC in the period to really stabilize the cobalt market following a period of significant oversupply, which resulted in the DRC announcing first an export ban and then a quotas-based system, which has really stabilized the pricing environment for cobalt. Good tailwinds to come in 2026 for our cobalt asset. Mantos Blancos was certainly a highlight in the period, generating $9.5 million based on record levels of production. Actually, this amount approximates to a running cash yield of about 20%, which we're very pleased with. We acquired this royalty for about $50 million in 2019. We would expect here to see volumes in 2026 a little bit lower as they go through a period of planned lower ore grades within the body. That should recover then in 2027.
Mimbula represented our copper stream acquisition around this time last year, which Marc touched on. It's worth pointing out here that the $4 million reported really only represents two full quarters of production, because due to a nuance in the accounting, we only recognize the revenue when the units are sold. The quarter four production is sold in January of 2026 and will be reported in Q1 2026. In 2026, we should see that transitional period of reporting for Mimbula-Despair . I'll just pick out a couple of other highlights. Four Mile is our uranium royalty in Australia. Similar to Mimbula, this doesn't really tell the full story. Normalized sales patterns returned to this royalty in the first quarter of last year, but similar to Mimbula, this is reported based on cash sales.
The GBP 2.2 million really only represents three full quarters of production here in the period. We should see some revenue growth to come in 2026 based on more normalized levels of sales. Looking further down, it's worth remembering we do have some gold exposure in the portfolio through our EVBC gold royalty, which generated GBP 3.2 million in the period based on very strong gold price environment, which again shows the virtues of a diversified royalty portfolio, certainly diversification across commodities. The operator here has signaled that there's reserve potential for a further five years. Good to have some gold price exposure in the portfolio in a strong gold price environment. Finally, Kestrel, which is now nearing the end of its economic life for Ecora. Kestrel met guidance in the period, although reported income was down.
This is due to average coking coal prices being down around 35% in the period. The midpoint guidance for tonnage next year is about 1.1 million tons. Thereafter, Kestrel really starts its transition outside of the group's private royalty area. The key takeaway from this slide, certainly as Marc alluded to, is the quality of the earnings now within the portfolio. If we look at our base metals portfolio, which was up 150% in the year, many of these assets have reserve lives that go into decades. If we compare that to Kestrel at the bottom, which now has only about two or three years left, that really does show the potential and the cash flow potential to be generated from our core assets going forward.
To show you how the portfolio contribution, along with some portfolio initiatives, has resulted in our meaningful deleverage in the second half of the year, this slide really shows it. The portfolio contribution, which is cash flow number of GBP 55 million, really accelerated our deleveraging in the second half of the year. Looking at our capital allocation priorities, growth still remains our firm focus, and we are very pleased on that basis to acquire the Mimbula stream about a year ago for $50 million. At the time of doing that, we increased our borrowing facility to $180 million. A lot of the conviction that we had to take on that additional debt was the visibility that we had in the near-term cash flow potential from our portfolio, along with some of the initiatives that we undertook subsequent to the acquisition to bring down our deleveraging.
Amongst those, we accelerated the remaining contingent payments associated with our Narrabri Thermal Coal royalty disposal a number of years ago. We also took the opportunity to dispose of our non-core Dugbe gold royalty in the middle of last year. Both of those actions realized $28 million, which effectively refinanced over 50% of the Mimbula transaction and brought our net debt down to the end of the year to similar levels to the beginning. To remind everyone about our dividends, we paid close to $7 million in dividends in 2025, which represents about $0.0281 per share on a cash basis. With our year-end results, we've proposed a final dividend of $0.014 for the final dividend, which combined with the interim dividend, would bring a total dividend for 2025 to $0.02 per share.
I think it's very important in the context of our net debt to look at the table on the bottom right of the screen. This is a table we like to include to show, based on guidance that's in the public domain, the guidance that we provide. When applied to consensus price forecasts, it shows a path to deleveraging to the end of 2026 to GBP 53 million from GBP 85 million at the beginning, and bringing this down further to GBP 27 million by the end of 2027. At those levels, our debt position is very comfortable. We're very comfortably within our debt covenant limits. With a $180 million debt facility, it provides us significant financing flexibility to continue adding to our royalty portfolio. With that, I'll hand back to Marc.
Thank you, Kevin. Well, all in all, I think looking across the suite of our commodities during 2025, and to some degree through carrying forward to the start of 2026, we've seen a really strong performance across the board. Copper, cobalt, uranium, rare earths, nickel, all performed quite well. I think met coal was slightly softer over the course of last year, although we've seen that rebound to levels in early 2026 that are historically in line with averages. One of the strongest performers, which is delightful to see following our acquisition of the Phalaborwa rare earths royalty, are rare earths prices, which performed exceptionally strongly in 2025, in part as becoming part of a geopolitical negotiating tool between China and United States as in relation to tariff and trade policy. From a volume perspective, looking ahead at 2026, overall from our base metals exposures, we anticipate volume growth.
Mimbula is expected to continue to ramp up through an expanded nameplate production capacity rate. Voisey's Bay, likewise, is expected to continue to ramp up towards nameplate throughput levels. As Kevin mentioned, Mantos Blancos production is expected to be slightly softer this year, as mining goes through a lower ore head grade portion of the ore body. It's expected to normalize in the future. Otherwise, overall, we anticipate, other than Kestrel, where you expect roughly half the volumes, overall continued volume growth in our critical minerals. I think we've touched on the key points here at Voisey's. Just taking a moment to touch on a few additional points. Year-over-year, we'd expect 12%-25% volume growth at Voisey's. Touching on something that we've always highlighted as being very likely at Voisey's is the life of mine expansion that we've seen here, with volume extended to 2044.
More recently, we've seen, as part of Vale's Base Metals Day in late March, additional disclosures in relation to the Voisey's Bay ore body and to the likely and possible life of mine expansion potential that exists, which is significant and really underscores what we've been indicating for many years is a possibility of multi-decade life of mine expansion potential at Voisey's Bay in excess of the existing life of mine that already runs towards the end of the next decade. We've touched on most of the key points at Mantos Blancos, so just zooming in on one on the far right, and that's the phase II expansion study. I think we're delighted to have seen record performance in the last year.
In addition to what were very high levels last year, Capstone has alluded to the potential to increase production to potentially 100,000 tons compared to production last year and just above 60,000 tons of copper. That a feasibility study in relation to phase II is expected later this year, and we're very excited for that to be released. We think that's the key next step to demonstrate the value upside of this royalty. As of yet, with the benefit of that further detail, hopefully that will provide sufficient financial figures and forecasts for our equity research analysts to include this potential value in our revenue forecast, but also our Net Asset Value estimates as well. I think we've touched on the key wins on this slide, so I won't touch in too much detail on any other than to just pick out one, which is the Cañariaco royalty.
That's specifically the key point to flag is the Fortescue, the multi-billion-dollar iron ore and future-facing commodity mineral royalty company out of Australia, has acquired control of this project, which is an incredible step forward in terms of the project's operating partner quality and capability to develop this project in the future. Bringing it all together for our base metals exposures, I think what this slide clearly demonstrates is that, following the Mimbula acquisition last year, we have roughly doubled our achievable annual copper production solely with the Mimbula acquisition, which is a great step forward. Beyond that, with the existing assets in our portfolio, Ecora offers a copper pipeline to more than quadruple our attributable copper in this decade and the next.
All in all, while we really do feel that this slide highlights how we've cemented copper at the core of our portfolio, that's fully paid for, and that is amongst, if not the leading organic copper growth profile of any royalty company. Turning to key assets in the specialty metals and uranium side, at Phalaborwa and over the course of the past 12 months-18 months, we've seen a number of key de-risking milestones that continue to position this project for the publication of a feasibility study and subsequently, a financing process. We've seen strong increases in underlying rare earth prices over the last 12 months-18 months. Turning to the uranium side, I think it's difficult to categorize the exploration program at Patterson Corridor East as anything other than geologically exceptional.
NexGen is targeting a program in 2026 to further build upon last year's program, and we're very excited to update you soon and hopefully with some very continued positive news on further progress. Kevin mentioned that this was expected to be our final year of material contribution from Kestrel, and you can see why on the map on the right-hand of this slide. Over the course of this year, we expect roughly half of the volumes from the prior year. Beyond that, sort of a tail between a few hundred thousand to 500,000 tons between 2027 to the end of the decade.
Last at EVBC, as a result of strong gold prices, we've seen our operator partner, Orvana, communicate the possibility to continue with EVBC in production towards the end of this decade, should that be the case, carrying this asset well past its originally expected mine life and potentially benefiting Ecora from further upside and participation in what has been a very strong gold price backdrop. Bringing it all together, in terms of key points, I think number one, we anticipate further volume growth from our key base metals royalties in 2026. We anticipate a number of key potential de-risking or project development milestones in relation to some near-production development royalties that we're very looking forward to and hopefully will be able to update you in relation to on our next call.
Commodity prices have demonstrated a level of volatility year-to-date 2026, nevertheless, remain at historically elevated levels. Should they remain at these levels, combined with our operator partner volume guidance, we anticipate further rapid de-leveraging, which positions the business very well for further growth and diversification. Last, and certainly not least, I think the royalty model as it stands, is very defensively positioned to the continued inflationary pressures that we see in the market today, more recently as a consequence of a conflict in Iran, but have persisted for a variety of factors for the past five or six years at a minimum, if not more.
Looking ahead, we do genuinely feel that Ecora is probably at the best it's ever been, with a platform of key royalties from the producing side, generating income that's expected to run decades, with a number demonstrating only a small portion of the portfolio's true longer-term underlying cash generation potential. Over the course of the next 12 months-18 months, we hope to see further de-risking events that will further underpin that next wave of growth in this business and its portfolio. With that, well, thank you for joining us, and we're happy to take any questions you may have.
Thank you so much to Marc and Kevin for the presentation. We've had a number of questions that have been pre-submitted and also submitted live. Just a reminder for people, if you'd like to submit a question, please do so via the Q&A box situated on the panel on the right-hand side of your screen. Now, the first question that we have is, "You're talking quite positively about the year, but when I look at the numbers, it feels mixed. What am I missing?
Well, I think when you look at the numbers, you are correct to see certain parts of our portfolio performing and in diverging ways, for example, further volume growth from our base metals assets. We anticipate some degree of volume growth from our specialty metals, for example, Four Mile. Gold, on the expected volume from our legacy exposure to EVBC, expect some sort of form of price tailwinds. Where you'd expect to see some form of downside relative to last year is specifically the Kestrel met coal royalty. Overall, you're expecting stronger contribution from the critical minerals and offsetting a weaker contribution from the legacy met coal exposure.
I think, sorry, Marc, just to add to that, I think, if you're looking at 2025 in isolation, you are missing the nuance of the Four Mile and the Mimbula assets which don't represent a full run rate in the period. Also, you've got a blended average price at Voisey's Bay, which is much lower than what we currently have and what's expected to be for 2026.
Wonderful. Thank you. The next question, you kindly provide a little bit further clarification on the following. The expected timeline for revenue growth from newly acquired assets, e.g., copper streams and base metals, and maybe you could include the Mimbula deal. It sounds good, but when will we see cash flow through that? Now, I know that has been sort of covered in the presentation, but maybe anything you want to add on that.
I think the first thing I'd point anyone to, I think in terms of timelines and additional details on the portfolio, I'd encourage you to review this slide, which gives you an indication of what key events are expected when. In terms of Mimbula is in production. Mimbula contributed to our earnings profile last year, and the Mimbula asset is expected to continue to demonstrate volume growth over the course of 2026, in addition to production to which we receive as part of our stream following the acquisition last year.
Thank you. Now, you described this as the first year where critical minerals represent a majority of your portfolio contribution. Is there a target split you're managing towards? What does the ideal portfolio look like in three to five years?
If you look to the future, in five years, why don't we start there and work backwards? Based on the NAV, the portfolio's NAV and the development milestones as communicated by our operator partners, the number one exposure as percentage of NAV, but also revenue in five years is expected to be copper. Secondly, it would be base metals. More widely, you'd have in the suite of critical minerals, uranium and vanadium, rare earths, as a smaller portion of the total. When we look to the future as sort of an optimal portfolio structuring, our intent is very much to keep the core of the portfolio in base metals, and we've been very deliberate in targeting copper as our core commodity exposure. We certainly will consider the wider suite of critical minerals.
Even then, in that context, our strategy and our desire is to retain copper as the core commodity exposure.
Thanks, Marc. Your position in Largo Resources still stands today. What is your outlook and interest in Cañariaco copper project in Peru?
We touched on this briefly in the presentation. Cañariaco, if I understand the question correctly, was recently acquired by Fortescue, which is, as I mentioned, a fantastic counterparty, very well capitalized, very experienced in the mining sector, has the capability to develop this type of project in time, both the wherewithal, financial experience, execution capability. I think this is an asset that historically has not garnered a huge amount of attention in the Ecora portfolio. I think hopefully following the acquisition by Fortescue, it will. It's an asset that has the potential to generate substantial income for us in time for many decades, with enormous prospectivity beyond what's already been drilled out and evaluated in the resource.
It's something that we're excited about, and hopefully we'll see more from Fortescue as they further explore and develop this asset and move it up the development curve in the next 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, and 36 months.
Now, the next question. The top five ranked critical minerals, according to the latest watchlist from the Critical Minerals Institute, are copper, gallium, tungsten, uranium, and rare earth elements. As it stands, your portfolio has significant exposure to copper, which looks like will increase further, which is great. However, I understand your exposure to the rest top five is currently rather insignificant. Uranium and rare earth elements is no more than 10% of the portfolio, and apparently, you have no exposure to gallium and tungsten. Other interesting metals you seemingly have no exposure to are lithium, palladium, and aluminum. Could you expand on your plans for exposure to future-facing critical minerals other than copper?
Yeah. Look, I think the first thing to note here is that when we think about our commodity selection and when you think about constructing a portfolio, we've taken careful steps to keep the core of our NAV in commodities that have very deep markets and very much to the degree possible, that are less impacted by small changes in supply and demand. I think certain critical minerals, which certainly as a smaller percentage of NAV, could be interesting to Ecora as it could have a disproportionate impact should they be too large a percentage of NAV, but just by virtue of small changes in supply and demand in very small private markets can have very outsized impact on price swings.
What we've sought to do is build a portfolio that, in aggregate, offsets the volatility and it diversifies commodity price movements from one commodity to another. By no means do we feel that the commodity exposure we have today is complete. We certainly consider and evaluate many other commodities in addition to those we have exposure to, some of which we've evaluated that have already been named. Really, that being said, our core strategy still remains within the context of having a diversified portfolio of critical minerals to retain copper at the core.
Thank you. A similar type of question that's coming out here, but maybe if you want to expand a little bit more. Ecora has repositioned towards future-facing commodities. How do you decide the optimal balance between bulk commodities, like coal and iron ore, and transition metals like copper and nickel?
I think the question in some ways is a function of the expected longer-term supply-demand balance for those commodities and the outlook for those commodities over multiple decades. I think you can certainly make the case that the outlook over two to three to four decades for copper is much stronger than iron ore. Or, excuse me, is certainly much stronger than steel-making coal, and in part, why we've allocated the portfolio away from its legacy in coal towards commodities that are expected to perform much more strongly over multiple decades. And secondly, typically trade at much higher valuation multiples. So in that sense, allocating cash flows from coal, which trades at low valuation multiples, to buy royalties and commodities that trade in much higher valuation multiples is actually a very accretive way to grow the portfolio.
Since we've seen, even in the last five years, when you look at Ecora's trading multiples as the balance of the portfolio cash flow has diverged towards critical minerals, you have seen multiple expansion. That's something that we think in time will be very accretive for our shareholders and has already demonstrated that it's the case, in part. In terms of the entry point beyond that, I think one of the advantages of having a broader suite of commodities is you do have some flexibility to move between underlying commodities, depending on where those are in their commodity price cycles. In other words, if commodity price A is very expensive, you could pivot and look laterally at commodity B, which may offer a more attractive entry points.
Underneath it all, when we choose commodities, it's fundamentally driven by a long-term analysis of supply-demand balances and what are underlying long-term trends to try to position this portfolio to strong trends that ultimately we hope will benefit in pricing exceeding our investment cases at the time of making the investment.
Thank you. Next question. Are you seeing plenty of opportunities out there, or are good deals getting harder to find?
Yeah. This is a pretty frequent question, and I think over time we've, to date anyways, consistently found opportunities. I think we look to the future with confidence. I think there's a clear need for capital, and I think there's a very clear need for the development and incremental supply in light of the demand growth trends that are expected and that we're seeing to date. When we look at our investable universe, we do sense that we're investing into a market that has a growing demand and a growing need for capital, which I think is quite positive. Look, I think as a group, we've always advocated patience is key. Maintaining our discipline and sticking to our investment criteria is key. I think as we've always done, be very patient and wait for the right opportunity to come along.
That being said, we look to the future with confidence and feel as though we have every confidence that in time we'll be able to continue to grow the business.
Next question. What is the impact the Middle East conflict is having on Ecora now and potentially in the future?
Yeah. Something, obviously, we've been monitoring very carefully. I think to date, very difficult to see any direct implication, and that's something that we've looked at in our portfolio, but also in terms of engagement with our operator partners. Depending on the length of the conflict, the ultimate form of the conflict, the disruption to global markets, the conflict may or may not eventuate. It's very difficult to assess exactly how it could impact Ecora other than to say this is something that we're clearly monitoring. Obviously, there's the impact from energy and the availability of diesel on the mining sector. Also, there's the impact on the availability of sulfur as a precursor to sulfuric acid, which is an important reagent or chemical used in, for example, nickel, copper to some degree in the SXEW operations, uranium, cobalt to a degree.
Yeah, I think globally, it's far beyond just the impact of energy. In some instances, it could create issues for some producers. The exact impact to Ecora, if any, we'll have to continue to monitor and evaluate as things progress.
Next question. Net debt peaked at $124.6 million in Q2 2025 and stood at $85.5 million at the year-end. What's your target leverage level? At what point do you feel comfortable returning to a more active acquisition strategy?
Yeah, I'll take that one. I think we don't necessarily have a target level of net debt in the business. I think one of the real virtues of the royalty model is that it does provide a de-risked way of gaining exposure to the mining industry. I think to provide that through an over-leveraged structure dilutes some of that virtue. Over the past number of years, we have leveraged our cash flows in order to continue our acquisition journey. We've deployed well over half a billion dollars in that period, but we've always done so with a view to the level of confidence that we've had and the cash being generated from the business to take those levels down to very manageable levels.
Most recently was the Mimbula acquisition, where we did increase our leverage, as the question rightly points out, but we had some initiatives to bring that down reasonably quickly. I think if you look at our projections for 2026, based on consensus price forecasts, that would bring our operational leverage ratio down to about one times by the end of the year. Those are very comfortable levels, but we don't necessarily have a targeted level of debt that we are comfortable with our operational leverage. Our debt facility is $180 million. We've got a further $40 million through an accordion feature to put on top of that for the right acquisitions. If we're seeing a path through to about $50 million of net debt by the end of the year, that leaves us a lot of headroom under that facility in order to continue the growth ambitions.
Thank you. Have the management looked at increasing the 25%-35% dividend payout ratio, as the latest dividends have been very disappointing, with shareholders receiving only about 23% of what they received three years ago?
Shall I take that? I'll take that. I think the capital allocation adjustments that were made a number of years ago was very much in the context of the pivot that we are now experiencing. If we look at where we were, we had an asset in Kestrel running off, and that asset itself had a lot of volatility. So I think where we are now with the growth profile we have in the business, I think it's very important for us that dividend growth is a function of free cash flow growth. And I think we have enough visibility on that going forward to see a path to dividend growth coming in that way. At present, we're comfortable with the 25%- 35% payout range as our assets continue to show their potential.
Thank you. Are there specific geographies or operators you're prioritizing or avoiding?
I think generally our investment criteria is to target well-established mining jurisdictions, and high-quality ore bodies and established operators. That has been our focus historically, and that continues to be our focus for the future.
Thank you. Where do you think Ecora has a structural advantage that isn't yet reflected in the valuation?
I think the share price at Ecora has obviously performed very strongly in the last, call it 12 months. However, even then, the company trades relatively to other royalty companies at quite a big discount. I think the opportunity for investors that we're very excited about as shareholders of Ecora, Kevin and I, is the opportunity for our revenue complexion to shift from number one, short-dated cash flows at Kestrel, to number two, to multi-decade royalties, and number two, to commodities in critical minerals that trade at much higher valuation multiples. When you combine those two together, there's enormous potential in the Ecora portfolio that is not reflected in the share price today. We're very excited for this next phase of growth in Ecora organically, but also, as we look to acquire more royalties and diversify our sources of income.
Thank you. Just a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please do so by entering it into the Q&A box. What opportunities are there for direct or indirect investment participation available to international investors?
I would say, well, Ecora has a number of listings. We're listed on the London Stock Exchange on the ticker ECOR. Ecora is listed on the TSX. The ticker is ECOR, and you can also trade via the OTCQX platform if you're based in the U.S. and would like to settle in U.S. business hours. The ticker there is ECRAF.
Thank you. What do you think the market is missing in your valuation today? What needs to happen for the gap to close?
Well, it's amazing what 12 months will do. Because I think 12 months, the answer would have been this portfolio needs to, we would've anticipated in 2025 the portfolio demonstrating a portion of its cash generation potential from the critical minerals royalties. That has happened, and we've seen a very strong share price reaction, almost 200%, just under 200% from 12 months ago, roughly, to today. In that sense, I think there's a lot more to come in that regard over the next five years, where this portfolio is yet to demonstrate its true underlying cash generation potential. As Kevin has said, the portfolio in the future is expected to generate this cash flow at a much lower effective tax rate, increasing cash conversion. Beyond that, I think that's the organic growth profile in commodities that are underpinned by really robust, fundamental, long-term demand trends.
Beyond that, we're looking to diversify our sources of royalties and our sources of income and sources of growth. We're really quite excited, Kevin and I, for what's next.
Superb. Well, that is all the questions we've got time for today. Maybe, Marc, I could hand back to you just for some closing remarks.
I think the short version to say is we feel that 2025 is a very important year and an important step forward for Ecora. That being said, there's still an incredible amount of work to go. I think we're very excited by this big step forward and the foundation that we've laid, but we're highly motivated and energized to continue to strive to build on these foundations that we now have to, in time, take this company to far beyond where it is today. Thank you for your interest, and thank you for joining our call.
Well, I'd like to thank both Marc and Kevin today for the presentation. That concludes the Ecora Royalties investor presentation. Please take a moment to complete the short survey following the event. The recording of this presentation will be made available on Engage Investor. I hope you've enjoyed today's webinar, and thank you for your time.