Good afternoon, ladies, and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us today, and welcome to the RE Royalties 2023 Year-End Results Conference Call. Joining me today is our CFO, Luqman Khan, and VP of Investments, Bryce Anderson. Our Chief Operating Officer, Peter Leighton, is currently traveling and will not be able to join us on the call today. 2023 was a very transformative and also a milestone year for the company. Despite what we're seeing in a slowing economy, high inflation, and high interest rates, we reached new thresholds in our growth in revenues and income. Our portfolio continues to generate positive cash flows, and despite recording a provision for expected credit loss, the underlying collateral relating to those particular assets remained very strong and continued to produce cash flow.
Bryce, who is here with me, will highlight some of the key investments made during the year and provide an update on our investments and backlog. Luqman, our CFO, will then provide a summary of our financial results, and I will wrap up with some additional commentary and also questions from the audience. Thank you, Bryce.
Thanks, Bernard, and thanks to everyone for joining us today. So during 2023, we announced four new investments, two with new clients and two with existing clients, for a total capital commitment of CAD 11.6 million. In February 2023, we provided a $1.8 million letter of credit on behalf of one of our existing clients, Teichos Energy, in order to meet their interconnection requirements for the second phase of the Jackson Center Solar Project located in Pennsylvania, while also acquiring an additional gross revenue royalty. In May 2023, Teichos sold both phases of the project, repaying both of the outstanding loans to the company and repurchasing the royalty interest for $1.15 million.
In May 2023, we also acquired a royalty on 100 MW of output from a wind project located in Alberta for CAD 940,000. This wind project is owned by a major independent power producer and has a power purchase agreement with a large corporate offtaker. This project is now operational, and we will receive average annual royalty payments of approximately CAD 132,000 per year for a period of 12 years. In August 2023, the company entered into a loan and royalty agreement with CleanLight, a Chilean technology company and manufacturer of mobile solar battery systems, including solar lighting towers and solar hybrid battery generators. We provided a $3 million loan to finance CleanLight's expansion into other countries in Latin America.
The loan has a two-year term, bears interest at 12% per year, and we also acquired a gross revenue royalty of 5% for a period of 10 years for an additional $200,000. The royalty rate will reduce to 3% after certain revenue milestones are met. In October 2023, the company announced it had entered into a CAD 4 million loan and royalty agreement with a wholly owned subsidiary of one of our existing clients, Revolve Renewable Power, in order to support their acquisition of a portfolio of two operational run-of-river hydro projects in British Columbia and one operational wind project in Alberta, with a combined gross capacity of 23 MW. The projects receive revenue from power purchase agreements with BC Hydro and the City of Medicine Hat, with remaining terms ranging from 11-35 years.
The loan has a term of 36 months and bears interest at a rate of 12% per year, and the company will receive a gross revenue royalty of 0.5% on the projects during the term of the loan, increasing to 1% of gross revenues once the loan is repaid. This transaction was subsequently closed in February of this year. As at the end of December 2023, we have 113 royalties under contract, covering projects that generate solar and wind energy, projects that convert waste to energy, storage projects, and energy efficiency projects. Cumulatively, these represent approximately 400 MW of clean energy capacity and generate approximately 1 million MWh of clean energy every year.
This is enough clean energy to power approximately 133,000 homes and offset 420,000 tons of CO2 emissions every year. We continue to see a substantial amount of new, high-quality investment opportunities from both existing and new clients to add to our project pipeline and backlog. Our team is currently undertaking detailed due diligence on several of these opportunities in order to determine the best allocation of our current cash on hand. Some of the more advanced opportunities include One, a construction financing for a portfolio of solar projects in South Asia. Two, an equipment financing for a network of electric vehicle chargers in the U.S. and Canada. Three, a royalty acquisition on a solar project currently under construction in East Asia. And finally, Four, various interconnection deposit opportunities across the U.S .
These opportunities under evaluation are still subject to completion of due diligence, definitive documents, conditions precedent for each transaction, and approval by the company's board of directors. There is no assurance that any of these opportunities under evaluation will result in a completed transaction. I will now pass it over to Luqman to discuss the financial results.
Thank you, Bryce. Good afternoon, everyone. For the fiscal year 2023, we continued growing the company's revenue and income. The company recorded total revenue and income of CAD 9.8 million in 2023. That represents an increase of CAD 5.1 million or 107% over the prior year. This increase was due to an increase in the number and amount of investment completed during the year, as well as due to a full year impact of the company's on the company's revenue and income from the investment completed during the course of the prior year. Gross profit also increased. This line item includes changes in fair value of financial assets and certain other items.
The total gross profit for the year was CAD 9.5 million, representing an increase of CAD 5.1 million, or 116% over the prior year. EBITDA for 2023 was CAD 2.2 million, which represents an increase of CAD 224,000 or 11% increase over the prior year. This increase was due to an increase in revenue and finance income mentioned earlier, offset by a provision for expected credit losses recorded in the current year. Net loss for 2023 was CAD 1.8 million, compared to a net loss of CAD 434,000 in the prior year. The increase in net loss was primarily due to higher finance expenses from the company's Series Three Green Bonds issuance, a provision for expected credit losses, and share-based payments recognized during the current year.
The company had a cash and cash-equivalent balance of CAD 14.4 million at December 31, 2023. With that, I will now pass it back to Bernard to provide some further commentary on the loans receivable from FuseForward and Switch Power. Thanks.
Thanks, Luqman. So during the year, we recorded an expected credit loss of roughly CAD 4.3 million, relating to our investments in Switch Power and FuseForward. Under IFRS rules, when a loan is past due and in default, we have to set up a provision for expected credit loss. This provision is primarily for accounting purposes only, and is not necessarily management's view of the underlying collateral. To provide some context on the collateral of these two investments, the assets underpinning and underlying those two investments currently generate CAD 4.3 million per year in revenues, and I, I repeat that, that's CAD 4.3 million per year in revenues and CAD 1.9 million in free cash flow. So almost CAD 2 million in free cash flows. Furthermore, these revenue streams are contracted, and in some cases are contracted for more than a decade.
We continue to work collaboratively with both clients, both of whom are very strong operators in their respective fields, and we remain confident that a satisfactory solution to the outstanding loans will be reached. So with that, I would like to thank everyone for their time today that they took to join us on the call. This concludes the formal part of the conference call, and we will now turn it over to Melanee for previously submitted questions.
Thanks, Bernard. The first question is, some royalty agreements in other industries have a buyout clause attached to them. Given that RE's royalties are based on life, asset life, or PPAs, do any of the royalties in the portfolio have attached buyout options, or are these royalties guaranteed to RE Royalties for the project's life or PPA? If they do, how many have these options?
Thanks, Melanee. That's a great first question. We generally do not provide buyout options for our royalties. However, occasionally, our clients do approach us for a buyout for whatever particular reason. They may be selling their projects, such as the case with our client, Teichos, earlier this year, which was required by the buyer buying the project, or if they need to secure long-term financing. For whatever reason, a long-term financier may not prefer having a royalty. So generally, we don't provide, but are flexible in working with our clients in that. In those cases, it becomes typically a negotiated settlement based on our view of the future cash flows. Generally, that's how we reach a settlement.
The reason we allow for this case-to-case basis comes down really to building long-term relationships with our clients as they move through their pipeline of projects. As they move through these pipeline of projects, it opens up new opportunities for us, and in terms of royalty life, it does vary, and typically span a PPA or project life, and we disclose each of them in our, Management Discussion and Analysis.
Great. Thanks, Bernard. The second question is, the WindRiver acquisition by Revolve Renewable Power is just for operational projects. I'm assuming there is now an attached royalty for the hydro projects under construction?
... Thanks, Melanee. On, on the WindRiver, acquisition by Revolve, we actually only have royalties on the operational projects. That's the two hydro and the, the wind project. WindRiver- the WindRiver, WindRiver, or I guess Revolve now, do have development hydro projects. However, our view is that with development, and eventually construction, these are many years away, and there are many multiple development milestones that still need to be achieved. Even with the recent call by BC Hydro, recent power call by BC Hydro, our view is not necessarily as optimistic, that these projects would come any, online anytime soon.
And as such, when we negotiated Revolve, we decided not to take this optionality, because it was difficult from a pricing perspective, and also certainty as to, whether these projects would come online. Now, should Revolve be able to move these projects forward, you know, I'm sure Revolve would be... You know, we're, we're at the top of the list, in, in terms of hopefully who they call to, to try to monetize some value out of it.
Great. Thanks, Bernard. The last question is: With power demand rising all over North America and strains on grids rising, has management looked or thought about funding small modular reactors in the future? Would SMRs even be under the umbrella of Green Bonds?
SMRs or small modular reactors are definitely, I would say, interesting, and we do somewhat monitor industry development, similar to other emerging technologies like hydrogen. Where SMRs typically fall out of scope for us is the timing to cash flow. Our sort of business models, our business model really looks at near-term cash flow, and we really like near-term cash flow. And because of the longer development timelines, associated with these types of investments, like SMRs or hydrogen, generally, it doesn't check the box for us in terms of that near-term cash flow visibility. Our near-term cash flow criteria also vets out a lot of development state projects or new clean tech solutions. So generally, while it is interesting, the cash flow of each project is typically the largest driver in our decision-making.
Great. I'm just gonna pass it back to Bernard as.
I think there's a question online. Just one second.
Yeah, I see Sean has his hand up. Sean, if you're able to, unmute.
He's on mute.
Yep. Can you, can you guys hear me?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Thanks, Bernard. I was wondering, you know, you talked about quite a variety of different kinds of projects, right, in the pipeline, and I'm trying to understand, is there a particular area that you're seeing some real, real flow in your pipeline? I mean, something that's increased, and I was particularly intrigued by the charging, the charging opportunity, and was also wondering, do those include power gen and the chargers, or how would that particular project come about?
Yeah, no, great. I can take that, Sean. Great question. I think EV charging in general right now, we're seeing quite a tidal wave, especially in the U.S. and Canada. Definitely trying to get up the learning curve and make sure, you know, it's quite a different revenue model than our traditional kind of projects we invest in. So, I think, you know, it is something we're looking pretty closely at 'cause we see a lot of opportunity, you know, in our backyard and in the States, and some of the incentives and grants out there can make the returns for the projects quite attractive as well.
And I'd say beyond that, we're seeing, you know, it's still equity markets in general are quite difficult, so we are continuing to see, you know, a lot of our, what do I call, bread and butter operational solar, especially rooftop, both in North America and into Asia, as I alluded to in some of the overview that I gave as well. So some of the, I'd say, struggles for the private equity markets is actually continues to create more opportunities for us and increase our pipeline.
Would this be, like, a typical developer that comes to you and says, "Hey, I wanna put. I got a project to put you know, chargers in this municipality or at this shopping mall?" Is that how that comes about?
Yeah, and I mean, to answer your other question, too, I mean, a lot of them are looking at adding battery storage, which we've-
That was the next question.
got a lot of experience with in the last, last couple of years 'cause, you know, typically there's demand charges and all that, so they're looking at ways to offset-
Yeah
the cost, and it can be, can fundamentally change the economics for the positive, I would say. Often it is developers, some who have done solar previously, for example, or existing clients who are looking to get into the market because there is incentives at the, you know, state and federal or provincial and federal levels as well.
Yeah. And I would say, Sean, that the revenue models for EV charging or electrification tends to differ across the jurisdictions. So, you know, it's kind of the old saying, not every single solar panel produces the same type of revenue, and it's not geographically diverse. A lot of it is based on localized incentives, jurisdictional incentives, but also things like we've seen revenue streams like carbon credits being generated from EV charging in certain locations which do not exist elsewhere. You know, obviously, the IRA in the U.S. is a big driver, but really it comes down to structuring. EV charging companies in general haven't done well. As Bryce said, capital markets have not been friendly to them, which really creates a huge opportunity for us.
You know, so we remain sort of constantly evaluating opportunities. A lot of these opportunities also come from existing and also prior clients, which is really great because we already have those relationships, and I think it sort of points to the importance of relationship in this business, that you know, when a client sorta has a project, we're one of the first folks they call.
Yeah, it's really a very intriguing area, and as you said, you know, the charging companies have not been doing well themselves, and capital markets have not been friendly. So there's a huge gap there, right? For funding on this, and it's really interesting opportunity from the charging and obviously the storage standpoint. I would assume that even in some cases, there might be opportunity for some power gen in these as well. I mean, and, is that a scope that you'd be looking at in a project, or today, does it have been more just install the chargers, put some battery storage on it, and work off the grid?
Yeah, we've seen both. Honestly, we've seen solar battery and fast chargers. We've seen just chargers. We've seen batteries and chargers. So it's kind of been a mixture. It's so, like, jurisdiction dependent, right? Dependent if you're in BC is a lot different than even Alberta or into the States, obviously. So it really depends on power pricing and how the different components of that. Again, how if there's demand charges in certain hours of the day and when they think peak charging is gonna be and all that. So there's-
Yeah.
... there's a lot of factors.
Yeah. And then to add on what Bryce mentioned, you know, I would say the two critical pieces when we look at transactions, it's really location and incentives. Typically, that is really what supports the underlying economics. Having a charger in the middle of nowhere with very low traffic flow-
Yeah
... and great economics, you know, it's basically you're building sort of an orphan asset. Whereas, you know, having. And the rates also differ. What we've learned is that in certain areas, the charging rates are surprisingly actually comparative with ICE vehicles, as to how much it takes, I guess, to be charged. We've also seen emergence of portable charging, so, you know, think of someone driving a Rivian with a big battery in the back of the truck. So it is a continuing evolving landscape, but I think given sort of how we look at transactions, cash flow visibility, near term, you know, sort of the – that's generally, you know, coming back to sort of our first principles of underwriting transactions.
Great. That was very helpful. Thanks, guys.
Thanks, Sean.
Yeah. Thank you.
We'll pass it back to Bernard for any closing remarks.
Yeah. I'm just trying to make sure, see if there's no other hands up. Yeah, so again, I just want to reiterate, I wanna thank everyone for attending today's call. I know for the folks, if you're on sort of, not on the West Coast and it's a little bit late in the afternoon, so really appreciate the time. And again, I just wanted to say that, you know, 2023 was a milestone year for us, but our goal is to top that in 2024. So with that, I thank everyone for their time, and hope you have a great weekend.
All right. Thanks, everyone.
Thank you.
Thank you.