Atome (LSE:ATOM) — Project Villeta Financing Update

0:00 Good morning and welcome to the ATOM PLC investor presentation. Throughout this quarter presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and they can be submitted at any time via the Q and A tab situated in the right hand corner of your screen. Simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives in the meeting itself. However, the company can review all the questions submitted today and publish responses where it is appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I'd like to submit the following poll. And I'd now like to hand you over to chairman, Peter Levine. Good morning to you, sir.

0:30 Good morning, and thank you very much. And thank you for everyone, existing shareholders, new shareholders, investment advisers, analysts who have joined this call. Thank you very much for showing interest in our company, ATOM PLC. Before I hand over to our excellent CEO, Olivier Moussat, I've been asked just to say one or two words. Now ATOM has come a long way from an idea over dinner in the latter part of COVID times. It's come a long way. We're impatient. We wanna get there fast just like everyone else does. But what we have achieved in that relatively short period from a standing zero start from a company not involved in our industry prior to that is, nothing more than extremely rewarding and commendable.

1:30 We set ourselves a challenge when we started, and that challenge was to concentrate on actions, not words, not to effectively build up things unnecessarily, to be humble where it's appropriate, and to be aggressive in terms of the business case where where it's necessary, but above all, focus on the fact that we are generating a business here, and that business must be a business which must be led on market demand and must be profitable and must be a market leader. And finally, must have an attitude towards costs and delivery of true shareholder value.

2:18 And I'm pleased to say that we are well on the path to this. We have risen to the challenge within a relatively short period of time. And within that time, we actually have become the industry leader and at the forefront of green fertilizer, which is an exciting business. It's got plenty of scope for growth, and we are here. We have developed strategic partnerships. We want to be judged by the companies we are with and the quality of those companies. And the quality of those companies can be assessed by Kasali, our EPC contractor, a world leading company in ammonia and fertilizer construction and technology, By Yara, critically important because with Yara, we have a, again, a world leading off taker, 43% owned by the Norwegian government, who will be taking all our off take on a long term basis, critically important for measuring finances and also for the finance.

3:28 And the reason for today is, of course, yet another strategic partner, High twenty four, a leader in its field, critically important as far as equity funding is concerned, and not only a partner now, but we hope a partner going forward. And we're absolutely delighted that High twenty four has joined with us and with our other strategic partners in building this. It is a significant step towards delivering final investment decision, FID, and the con and completion of full financial close during the course of the next few months. We are, with the team, very much focused on this, and I'm delighted to say that we've got a management team, and some really, really good and dedicated people, of course, led by our CEO, Olivier Musat, who you'll hear from in a moment.

4:31 So this is an occasion where we want to demonstrate to you and show you how far we've come, but the most important thing is where we're going to and not just delivering the project because that's the means to an end. We have a very profitable business in Vieja, which is the subject of this call, delivering green fertilizer effectively to South America and the world. But we've got a pipeline. So we've got much more than that. We haven't we've just started. And we have exciting prospects. We're going from strength to strength, and you'll hear more now. We view the future with confidence, step by step, in a serious way, as a world leader in our field, at the forefront of what we do, respected, and indeed copied by our peers, which is, of course, the utmost compliment.

5:32 I'll now hand over to Olivier Moussat, our excellent CEO, who will take you through the presentation. Thank you for your attention. Alright. Well, thank you, Peter, for the introduction. And and indeed, right, we it's it's about the people who are able to deliver a business and a company. So ATOM, for those of you who don't really know us well, I mean, the best way to resume it, it's you know, we are the first and still the only UK listed company focused on the development of green zero carbon molecules and especially fertilizer. So why fertilizer? Because there's a climate, issue with it, and I'll explain that later.

6:19 But also it's a question of food security, and it hasn't it wasn't lost on anyone that, you know, since, the the start of the Ukraine war, the realization that our fertilizer and food, channels are actually quite weak. And so the ability to do something about it, not only for the climate aspect, but also to make sure that we continue to be able to feed a growing population was quite important. And the final point is, really, we have to realize that fertilizer industry itself, it's a $200,000,000,000 industry, which had never really been disrupted, for a number of reasons. So whilst we will be talking about the project, the ETA, and the status of a project and why high 24 came in and why it is quite transformational for us, we really want to go and and explain the value proposition, of ATOM, not only today with one project, but then it is the project that unlocks everything else and the business proposition. So with that said, I will just go now into the presentation.

7:26 So, hopefully, now everybody can see the PowerPoint. Grateful if you can confirm. Yes. We have the slides up in front of us. Perfect. So, obviously, it's all about decarbonizing the global food value chain and making sure we have food secured food on the table. So our first project, which some of you have followed now, for a couple of years, it's really the 145 megawatt Vieta project. And today, it is the world's largest dedicated green fertilizer facility, and it is the most advanced. Why is it the most advanced? As, as you heard from our chairman, you know, in 2020, when we started thinking about our role into the green molecules revolution, what we saw is that there was a massive gap in that market, and nobody was really looking into it.

8:15 And whilst it is the largest green fertilizer, facility at from an industrial scale, it is actually not that big, because we really wanted to make sure we were not going to have technology risk or market risk attached to it. It is a demonstration in a way, but more importantly, it will become the blueprint for the next projects and to deliver more and more projects. So we have a 300 megawatt, Iguazu project also in Paraguay that is in early stages of development and as well as, one in Costa Rica with the intention, of course, is copy paste. And, you know, whilst we've taken the time to do Vieta right, then everything will become a lot faster, thanks to the lessons learned. So what is Vieta? Right? It's about 260,000 years 260,000 tons per year of green fertilizer.

9:07 And you make green fertilizer you using renewable power, and you have to and if you want to make it competitively, as Peter said earlier, it's all about making sure that it is a workable business without subsidies. You need competitively price of power in the middle of one of the largest fertilizer market in the world. And you may be in a very, very big market in Latin America. You still need to have the right partnership on the offtake side. So the one who will sell, your fertilizer at the highest possible price. And this is where Yara comes in because, obviously, they are able to go and crystallize these premiums, and they have been at the forefront of zero carbon fertilizer. And, obviously, you need to finance it, and we've talked about the way, you know, on the debt side.

9:55 The idea for us is that whilst ATOM itself is a developer, each project that we develop will have its own SPV, so special purpose vehicle, which will be financed at the asset level. And this is where, obviously, we we we have been, working very actively on the lending side with IDB, with Netexis, but also on the equity side in the process that we have run. And we're, following that process. We were very pleased to have high twenty four, the largest, fund dedicated to green molecules, coming on board at the project level and giving what is the equivalent of a pre money value of $60,000,000 net to ATOM for each share of its VETA. So it shows that we are actually, you know, showing value very early, before we have even started producing.

10:45 You heard about, you know, Kasale who will be doing the EPC, on a fixed price turnkey contract. And, obviously, the intention is to target final investment decision, which means the start of construction, by the end of h one this year. You know? What does that mean in terms of cash? Well, the reality is the first full year of production of the Vieita project alone on an EBITDA basis will be around $70,000,000 if we assumed a price of fertilizer of about $420 a ton. That's actually quite conservative. This is the price of high carbon, fertilizer. And looking at the markets that we are in today, actually, the cost of fertilizer is higher than this, but we just wanted to give you a sense of what it means, price wise.

11:35 So as I mentioned, you know, it's the company is great, but, you know, it's only as good as the people that you have behind it. So, obviously, you heard of Peter, our chairman and largest shareholder, who's come from a world of EPC, engineering, entrepreneurship, and energy infrastructure. Personally, I came from studying as an engineer in the power sector and then moved on to the financing side. And my last job was with the International Finance Corporation, which is part of the World Bank Group. Importantly, is to have the right people on the ground, which is where, you know, Jim, comes into play as the head and president of ATOM in Paraguay, who has experience both on the policy side and obviously on the, power side. And, Mary Rose, who joined the, ATOM, team early on, who comes from the background of hydrogen as well as, innovation and energy as she was the head of the International Energy Agency's partnership unit on hydrogen.

12:34 And, of course, Thelie Abakan, who is our head of fertilizer, who had over thirty years career within EuroChem, North Quito, and Yara, which are the largest European fertilizer company with global footprints. And at, in here, what you see is obviously our shareholders and partners, and we are, you know, very grateful to have a continued support of Schroders, of Baker Hughes, and and and Trafigura and so on. But what I want to point out is, is obviously you see Peter at 18%, myself at five and a half percent. Every single person in the management has invested their own money into the company. Alright? And that's it for us. It is very clear. And I think it is also one of the thing that makes that gives our ability to find the right partners is that they see that we are personally incentivized and totally aligned with all of them to make sure that we deliver the project in the right way and in order to generate profit.

13:30 So in here, in this particular slide, and I I should mention that, this presentation will be available this afternoon on our website, it gives you, you know, a rough idea of, what what is the value proposition of ATOM on existing projects and its existing pipeline of projects, which is where what we have, on all of, you know, obviously, the production of the ATO, the potential of our pipeline, and also the way we have financed our projects. What you see is that today, we have an average analyst target price of around 187 per share. Obviously, when we look at what the market share of ATOM today, this is quite a large multiple.

14:15 But what we also saw is that just the $60,000,000 value that high 24 is giving us is a multiple of our current share price. So all that to say that we are really ripe for growth, and what we are seeing is clearly that as we deliver, that value is going to crystallize. So a little bit of background of the market itself. Right? Why is it that, you know, we need fertilizer and especially green fertilizer? So what we are seeing is over the next twenty years, you know, our population is gonna grow by by more than a billion people. And that means that we need 60% more calories, more food on the table than what we today have, and it's going to put a lot of pressure on fertilizer.

15:00 This graph on the right is quite important because it shows you in green what are let's call them, you know, the organic, based fertilizers, which have been, you know, obviously growing slowly but surely, but only feed about three and a half billion of the of the population. Then then in the early nineteen hundreds when the Haber Bosch process was invented that creates ammonia and then that creates green nitrogen fertilizers, what we really saw is that it has helped the growth of the population and feed us. Right? And so today, 50% of all fertilizer are synthetic nitrogen based fertilizer, and all of these fertilizers are based on hydrocarbons. And this is the problem in itself where these 50% of fertilizers which are feeding the population is responsible for 5% of all, global global gas emissions, number one. Number two, what we also see, is that because this is derived from natural gas, is that most of these fertilizers comes from jurisdictions which are also, not immune from political risk. To give you an example, 30% of all of the fertilizers you see in red, all of the nitrogen based fertilizer come from Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, which obviously creates a massive risk and a massive risk on food security.

16:22 So the idea for us is that green fertilizer, zero carbon fertilizer, by making nitrogen fertilizer using renewable power, you are able to ensure that you will have supply of fertilizer no matter the political risk. And on top of that, it will be, carbon free. So it's all about producing more with less and to ensure, that we can continue to feed the world in the right way. The idea is also that when you look at the fertilizer market, obviously, it is first for farmers that we think about who are using the fertilizer. But, actually, what we have to realize is the carbon footprint, although it is very high for the farmer, it represents a tiny, tiny, tiny bit of the cost when it comes, to your end product. So to give you an example, in potatoes, 30% of emissions made from producing potatoes comes from nitrogen fertilizers.

17:21 But actually going green represents less than 1% of the total cost of your potatoes, which is why it is the absolute lowest hanging fruit, for companies like that on Starbucks or M and S to go and, and tackle right away and reduce the emissions right away in the right way. Right? Because, obviously, that is going to make sure that they meet their sustainable goals, but also, ensure that they have a security of supply over the long term. And we've seen really interesting movements where even in Latin America today, Yara is providing a low carbon fertilizer to the sugar industry, and because there is a demand not only for green, but in an end of security of supply.

18:10 So, that's what basically we call the pool model. So it is the market which is pulling fertilizer companies to produce at lower, carbon emissions. Then there's the push, issue, which is what we are seeing is the reason that these companies are going green is both for helping make the world a better place, but also because they have increasingly carbon taxes applied to them. So there is a profit element. There is a cost element. And what we are seeing now is that in Europe, in The UK, there are carbon border adjustment mechanism, basically taxes, which will be enforced on the import of fertilizers. And that is going to have an impact of possibly, increasing fertilizer cost by 20 to 30% if it is highly, if it has a very high carbon footprint.

19:01 So it is, you know, it is an opportunity for us to play a very significant role and to provide a solution today and not a solution tomorrow. So the process to make green fertilizer is actually relatively simple. Today, regular nitrogen based fertilizer is made using basically a hydrogen. But as I mentioned earlier, it's hydrogen coming from, natural gas as you separate c h four, carbon hydrogen. But what we can do at scale now, and this is relatively recent. It's only been for the past five years that you've been able to do large scale green hydrogen. It's by using water, h two o, and using a lot of electricity to split the h two o into h hydrogen o oxygen.

19:50 And that hydrogen goes into the regular Haber Bosch process, which means hydrogen is mixed with nitrogen that then through the Haber Bosch process becomes NH free, nitrogen and free hydrogen. And once you have your ammonia, you run it to make it, ammonium nitrate through basically mixing nitric acid, which is made from ammonia and concentrated ammonia, and adding regular ammonia. That becomes ammonium nitrate. And once you have your ammonium nitrate solution, it's a liquid, you add dolomite, or limestone to make, basically, basically, you choose calcium to calcium ammonium nitrate. And that calcium ammonium nitrate is essentially a bag of fertilizer that can be shipped anywhere in the world. But, clearly, we are in Latin America.

20:41 This is a market which imports huge quantities of power, so it is very easy to put it on the truck and then deliver it, to the market that needs the fertilizer. So this goes a little bit further into the project and what we have done to date. So as we've announced back in 2022, we signed a long term power purchase agreement with ANDE, the national utility. So as I mentioned, you need power, you know, a fair amount of it, and it needs to be green. Right? It needs to be zero carbon renewable power, and which is why we have, cemented our partnership with Ande, which manage, which takes power from the second largest hydroelectric dam in the world called Itaipu. We have bought the site. We have brought in all of the advisers and contractors needed.

21:26 We have gotten our environmental and operating license, which means that all of the permitting is done so that we can start construction now. And we've done all of the environmental social impact assessment using the World Bank performance standards. Because for us, yes, just because it's a green project doesn't mean that you shouldn't do things right on environmental and a social point of view because this is your long term social license to operate. The government has provided further support by, allocating us a free trade zone. And on the engineering side, we have finished the front end engineering and design, And this is the first time ever that was a a full engineering, design study was done for a large scale, green fertilizer plant.

22:12 So on the next steps, obviously, the financing side, and we've mentioned many times that Netexis has been our financial adviser and helping to deliver the putting together the debt package. And so we are looking at about $400,000,000 of senior debt. And so IDB Invest has already indicated support of up to $200,000,000. We've talked also that, you know, IFC has also, been engaged, and we're also talking with a number of DFIs and ECAs into finding the best possible structure for the project. And we expect that we'll make some announcements on that, in the next couple of months to tell you exactly who is going to be the lender. At the moment, we are very fortunate that because this is a project which is climate positive and food security, it has a lot of interest with the financing, institutions, which is why for $400,000,000, we had received nearly five times of other subscription.

23:06 But, of course, if you have a debt on one side, you still need the equity on the other side. And and which is where, you know, the high twenty four announcement is so important, because we have always always said that we were going to target 60% debt, 40% equity, which means that, we, in the process that we have run, with Netexis, we really went and in a very methodical way, we went, and and reached out to a number of private equity player. A number of them expressed interest and through that competitive process, you know, we were very, let's say, honored, but at the same time, happy that we, we have basically found an alignment with the per the the fund, which is the best fund in the hydrogen and green chemical world in high 24.

23:55 In the next steps, so we had signed the heads of terms on the EPC, with Casale, our technical partner for the construction of the plant, and we are now in the final stages of complete completing the EPC contract, which we will announce, in the coming month. And from Yara, as as obviously we had announced, the heads of terms, the commercial terms, and completely agreed on the commercial terms with Yara. And now it's all about moving this commercial terms from the heads of term into the final form of agreement, which comply with the requirements of project finance. And, again, expect some announcements coming through that. And so once we have all of these steps and we finish the book build on, the debt and the equity, we will reach final investment decision. So I mentioned about high 24.

24:42 Obviously, the it was quite important for us to present to the potential investors a deal which was what we would call fully baked at the end of the day. And I mean that the project is here. It's permitted. You have all of your, major contracts all all already there or en route. You already have a financial structure that is well understood and, you know, with, let's say, your p 90, risk on the price so that you can present the best case to your investors so they can give you the most value to the project. And so once you have all of these things set, which is what we have done, you approached, investors and say, well, this is the project. This is the types of returns you could expect to make. Can we discuss the structure and how you would align with us? And so for us, it means that what we have where we are now having had this agreement with high twenty four is we can move every single thing that we've done today into firming up and into delivering to the FID. And from a, let's say, reputational point of view, it's also very important to us that it really shows, as Peter had mentioned earlier, you know, you don't do these first in kind projects without having the right partners. You know? Credibility is extremely important, and, obviously, High twenty four brings more than just money. Right? They have some of the best investors, in the green chemical world, so they bring skills as well and the right contacts.

26:02 And, that's quite key to have them as part of a project because it demonstrate that actually this is a solid project which has gone, through, let's say, a number of gating events. And whilst ATOM obviously maintains the day to day management, through the life of a project so that we can show and develop more value on the project itself, but also they will accompany us into the next projects that we have on the on the pipeline. And that's quite key to have a very strong partner so that they can grow with you. To give a little bit of high 24, it was basically created with a five tier hydrogen management team in partnership with Ardion. And Ardion, it's one of the world's largest asset manager. It's about a $177,000,000,000 in of assets under management.

26:50 And jointly, they have created the high twenty four twenty four fund focused on clean hydrogen chemical infrastructure. And and here below, you see, the partners that they have who are basically limited partners, investors into the project. So we're talking about Air Liquide, Total, EDF, Itoshu, ABN AMRO, CDPQ, and so on. So it really shows that, you know, this is pretty much the gold standard of investor, which is coming in. And, honestly, coming in into the first time into a project in Latin America. And, first time for high twenty four looking at a fertilizer project and in Latin America. So it really shows the strength of a project, overrode, every single risk that could have been seen on that. So in the heads of term, as we talked about it, right, it's a binding exclusivity for us to continue building, together the equity group to get to $230,000,000.

27:47 They with them anchoring the investment. And, actually, you know, we have already talked to a number of investors who will come, in the project. And this project, sorry, this part of the process, is is ongoing. And the idea is they will invest between a 100 to a $115,000,000. So depending on the appetite and the type of partnership that comes in, although they're coming at a 115, but can create space to create the best equity club together. And, obviously, for us, from a value today and the pre money valuation, as we discussed, it's about $60,000,000, and it represents roughly what we call in the oil and gas world a carry type of, mechanism, which means that we are getting about 20% of the value of a project for what we have done to date.

28:34 Right? So it's an extremely compelling evaluation, and it is pretty much within the guidance that we had been given, to the market.

28:44 So as far as the next project, I mentioned earlier Iguacu, and I'm, think accelerating just a little bit because I really want to give time to q and a. So on the 300 megawatts where we have already earmarked the

29:01 sorry to say, reserve the power capacity from from Ande, and we will go into full development once we reach FID on VETA. For us, getting VETA across the line is the top priority because then it will help unlock and accelerate everything else. And as I mentioned on Costa Rica, so we have a framework agreement with ICE, the state power company. And, again, this project is maturing, but we need to focus on, getting the project to start up construction in the ATOME. So from a timelines point of view, this kind of goes about, you know, what what we have been, saying just earlier. And so the next steps is going to be, the definitive EPC contract, the definitive Yara offtake, and, of course, the definitive equity agreement as we finish book building, the equity group.

29:51 And then after that, we get into the debt financial clause. So, that is the summary at the end. So what you see is really we continue to be the world's most advanced developer of green fertilizer project and by a long shot, nearly more than two years ahead of anybody else. This will be the first dedicated green fertilizer facility bar none. This represents real value, not only on future EBITDA, but on the current value. And most importantly, and again, I can never stress that enough, is that now we have the best possible anchor, within the project, with high 24 to get these midterm, catalyst done and get to financial close. So with that said, I will move to questions if I can.

30:42 Perfect, Olivia. Thank you very much for your presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions, and you can do so just by using the q and a tab that's situated on the top right of your screen. Just while the company take a few moments through the questions that have been submitted today, I'd like to remind you that recording of this presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published q and a can be accessed by your investor dashboard. As you can see, we have received a number of questions throughout today's presentation. And, Olivia, if I could just hand back to you to read out the questions where appropriate to do so, I'll pick up from you at the end. Yep. Happy to do so, and sorry for the noise. 10:30 is the alarm call over here. So think I well, let's start with some of the presubmitted questions.

31:21 So can management provide insights on the current stage of sale and distribution of renewable fertilizer, particularly in the heads of terms? How does management assess the market environment for attracting further buyers. So to, you know, to explain it in very, very quick ways, more than 95% of all fertilizer available in Latin America and especially Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay is imported. And, this is more than 30,000,000 tons of nitrogen fertilizer. We represent less than 1% of that in that market. So we can sell multiple times over, you know, all of our production within a thousand kilometer radius. So the market is there. It's not the problem. The trick, and this is why having Yara is important, is how do we get the best premium for what we are producing?

32:13 Not only because it is logistically there. And as I mentioned earlier, if you are dependent on import, you have a risk in your agri operation. So there's a premium for having your production at home or close to you on a completely controllable basis or logistical premium. The second bit is obviously it has zero carbon. And, as as I explained earlier, in a couple of years' time, so by 2627, there will be carbon tax imposed in a number of jurisdiction for nitrogen fertilizer, so non green fertilizer. So suddenly, you will have something equivalent to about 20% of the cost of today's fertilizer, of tax added on top of it, which means how do we make sure that from our point of view, we get the green premium, the green benefit. So, clearly, we want and we are able to be competitive with our product, which is zero carbon with the imports, so that's important. How do we get to the next premium? Right? And it's basically going down to the market and talking to the Marks and Spencer's, the Nestle's, the of this world who, who are basically the one who are and who will get the most benefit of having low carbon fertilizer.

33:25 So, which is why we're not stopping, obviously, at one project because it's a big, big need that needs to be addressed, and and, and it's a big opportunity. So remember, when I started, it's a $200,000,000,000 market, which is prime for disruption for many things, but also it's prime for disruption because it has a problem. It has a carbon problem, and it has a supply problem. So I will go to the next questions. So what are the next steps to reach FID? So, obviously, now that we have high 24 giving us, you know, the clear line of sight on the equity, It's about moving our EPC contract to a final form contract. It is about moving the Yara contract, the Yara heads of terms into the final contract, which is happening, as we speak. It is finishing putting together the club on the equity side.

34:18 And, with all of that, which is obviously the the the progress that we are making, is closing, the the senior debt financing, so that we can reach f e d FID. So now this is actually just about process. Like, we've done all of the hot bit, all of the long bits to make sure we select all of the best partners at every single point in time. Now we really go about delivering. And, you know, coming from an infrastructure background, this is the type of things that I used to do all the time. So now this is basically mechanics. Like, all of the risks about, okay, who do we want to choose, why do we choose them, and so on, it's gone. Now process, process, process. The next question, what are ATOM's priorities for 2025? Well, first half, Viega, Viega, Viega.

35:04 Second half, growth. Paraguay, Costa Rica. Other countries, and I think this one of the advantage that we have about being publicly listed is we have credibility, we have transparency, and we have other developers who have approached us. And, of course, the high '24 announcement hasn't been lost on the sector, and we had a number of renewed interest from developers who are saying, well, can we find a way to partner? Because clearly, ATOM seems to have the strategy and the methodology right to get projects, to, to FID, to financing, to completion. Next question. The RNS mentioned ATOM joining the equity club. How would ATOM fund this? Past placings have favored a small number of investors to the detriment of existing small private investors.

35:54 It's a good question. So what we have is, number one, as mentioned, we are carried 20% within the VETA project as it is. And we have the option to participate Paris Passeau with high twenty four with the new investors. And, obviously, you know, whilst on the carry mechanism, we believe it is the best result that we could achieve for us as existing shareholders. But also that, this mechanism offers offers us the ability to put money at the same terms as high twenty four, and, obviously, these are strong terms. You know, high twenty four, these types of funds are not charities. Right? So what we see is it's it's an attractive proposition, and we will evaluate at the time. As I mentioned, it's a it's a it's a book build.

36:41 And so what we will do, obviously, from a funding point of view is if we decide to go ahead and fund, at the same terms as high 24, it's presented to the market, and explain what is the advantage, and why we should do this because we would believe it is the best thing for shareholders. I think on the comment at the detriment of existing and small private investors, I think what you would have found is in the previous raises that we have done, we have been pretty transparent and even saying the market, please reach out to our brokers, you know, to SPA, to Stifel, to see to to express your interest, to participate into these runs, and we will continue to do so. And as I mentioned, as management, we will also continue to invest our own money into the project and show that we are fully aligned with all of our shareholders and all of our partners.

37:33 The next question, why is disagreement so significant for ATOM? What value does High twenty four bring to the project? So, High twenty four, it's, you know, it's a €2,000,000,000, equity, private equity firm, And they have a number of things across them. Right? So they have these relationships with its, you know, whether it's with Air Liquide, with ATO True, and so on. And so they have in their shareholder roster, elements of deli of helping us deliver and accelerate, on our own projects. And they have also the firepower to go and grow with us into our future projects. So as I mentioned, this is not just about money. This is not just about credibility.

38:18 Of course, credibility is important. And, you know, it's one of these things that, Peter, our chairman, mentioned earlier on. Like, we started, with a very experienced team, but without that much credibility. But we knew that the idea was right, that the time was right, and that our process and experience was right. And and we we really went about doing, things in a very, very, let's call it, you know, measured and patient manner, not to get stuck into the hype and and really sometimes be pretty ruthless into, you know, choosing where we were going to go and our partners, and that has brought credibility to us. And that has allowed people who are specialist investors with an ex extensive track record in the green chemical space in, and in even in the fertilizer space that actually we were doing things right, and that we continue to do things right.

39:18 So I think, next question. I think there's one about milestones. I think I, again, to go back on milestones. EPC final form, offtake final form, equity club finalized, and then delivering the debt, and then we start construction. So could you explain the 60 mil valuation and how this was calculated? Well, it all comes down to negotiation at the end of the day. As I mentioned, there was a process. We knew what type of valuation we wanted to get, which is something which would look, at around, 20% carry. There are different ways to skin that cat, in in the structuring world. And we also took hard decisions between, okay, how much value for the shareholder, for the new shareholder, for the existing shareholder, and what is, and also what does that particular shareholder bring?

40:14 And is it worth doing pluses and minuses and figure out, okay. Maybe that investor is is giving us a higher value, but we believed that, okay, maybe it wasn't the right investor and vice versa. So there was a long, long competitive process. And and as I mentioned, we were very happy that we have the right partner, with evaluation, which is, exactly what within the range that we had given to our shareholders for the past year. So are you able to say what percent, or approximate percent, target of the ATOME will be left with after project level equity finance in place? Well done on progress and hard work so far. Thank you very much. I appreciate the comment.

41:01 And the team, I would say, is is is thankful for that recognition because, yes, everybody has been working extremely hard, on it. So as I mentioned, what we are looking, is that once everything everything is said and done, it's going to be, equivalent to roughly a 20%, share, once, once this is done. And what we are certainly going to go and continue to push is we are targeting a conservative sixty forty, 60% debt, 40% equity. And in the next few months, we will continue to try to optimize this and and get even more value to us as ATOM shareholders, but also to high 24. Right? We we are partners. We want them to make money because if they make more money, we make more money.

41:52 And another question, are you able to say how close you are to the PPA agreement for Iguazu? As I mentioned, it is the power is reserved. We continue to have a very, very active dialogue with Ande. And so until we reach FID, we are not going to move that to a PPA, but the line of sight is very clear, and the alignment on Ande is very clear. Right? You know, the moment that we prove that we get FID on project one, then we can move on to project two. Another question, from Miguel. Equity commitment from high twenty four is firm or subject to approval by, limited partners. So, obviously, you're not able to make any announcement whatsoever if you haven't been going through a very rigorous, process of due diligence and, and also, process, of approval within the existing I 24 system.

42:50 I mean, you know, with with with Ardio as we back, you don't become a 170,000,000,000, dollar plus equity firm by being, you know, let's call it loosey goosey. So how how strong it is? It is obviously extremely strong. It is also a question of trust but verify. We still have to deliver the full form of, offtake, the full form of EPC and so on, but we are working hand in hand, and, in order to put everything together. So, you know, is it very firm? Well, you know, I think you just just you just have to look at the message that, Pierre Etienne put out, on on our joint statement. Right? I think it's clearly, we we are we are fully aligned. They are, and they are working with us to make sure that we have the best terms along the way.

43:41 Another, message. This looks encouraging. Thank you. Will you announce progress on the critical milestones in the project so that investors can monitor the progress? Yes. We will. And, and and sometimes, you know, we we we have been worried about communicating too much because we are also educating our competition. But as I mentioned earlier, like, we've already given the blueprint of how we do things. We've been extremely transparent and sometimes overly transparent on how we do things. And now it's all about delivering these milestones. So, yes, there will be the announcements as as we go. There's another one from Rory. What opportunities are represented by the potential ratification of the EU, Mercosur trade deal?

44:27 I think it's an opportunity to be able, to sell more products from Mercosur into Europe. And, of course, if you can sell it and show that you have a lower carbon footprint than your competition, it's it's quite strong. Is it going to have a really direct impact on us? You know, honestly, not that much, because this is kind of once remote, and the market is already so deep, that that we we are not dependent whatsoever, on that trade deal. But, however, I think it will continue to show that, this is a strong region of interest for Europe and beyond the world. And and, obviously, now that, Paraguay has met investment grade over the past few months and is sure to be one of the strongest economy, I think a lot, a lot of the, let's call it, political risk, for lack of a better word, perception has has really gone, and it really shows that this is a preferred partner.

45:25 And, you know, obviously, without getting political at all, what we are seeing happening into The US at the moment, meaning that a lot of the supplies coming from The US will be either at risk, or at risk of being taxed when they get, into Europe. So if they are taxed, it means that it's only going to push the price of fertilizers up, which obviously is not great for the world. It's not great for our food security, but will enhance the attractiveness of our project and not only as it gets built, but also, as we start producing and because we will be, one of the first or if not the first large scale, green fertilizer project. From James, in the regions, do you see opportunity for scaling up production giving limitation of surplus? So the foundation of the analysis and, you know, part of that discussion around dinner that that Peter mentioned earlier is, like, it was really about high grading where are the best places in the world to have access to existing power, that we can tap on very, very quickly and then grow from that.

46:33 And, you know, and and it's for us is you start with baseload hydroelectric power. And from a growth point of view, then, you know, once you start there, then you start adding a little bit of wind, a little bit of solar, and so on and and you go from that. But, also, this is the first project, in in its kind, so you have to reduce every single risk along the way. And as you go through project four, five, six, seven, you take a little bit more risk as well. But what we are seeing, also is that there's been a dramatic reduction, and it continues to reduce cost on battery storage. So it is still nowhere close to us competitively priced as existing hydro. But from a few years point of view, you know, for us, where does where is the next growth story? You know, the we definitely see that we will be able to copy paste and then take maybe a little bit more risk on the power side from where we are today compared to the relationship we've had with Vendee, where we take a little bit more CapEx risk for project five, six. But it will be very, very clear, and everything else anyways will have been already derisked. So this is how we kind of continue to grow.

47:42 And a question from, Anil. Congratulations on your funding. When this was announced on Friday, the share price dropped around 6%. Could you shed some more light on this? I think I would love to be able to predict the markets. I can only, you know, refer you to you back to what analysts are saying when they're saying, well, actually, our share price should be about 187 p on average. And, yeah, I think markets are inter incredibly difficult to predict. The, what maybe could say is that there were some, we had seen an escalation of our share price, and the the days before on the expectation of the announcement. Like, again, I don't really have a crystal ball, but what I know for sure is that, you know, as an existing shareholder, we are obviously extremely, conscious about our share price.

48:35 And, and we continue to believe, and we will put, more effort, and money into the company, as we get to that FID and to that, production scale. Question for Mark. On what terms is the debt going to be placed at? How much interest varies in the remaining, equity remaining equity which needs to be raised? So from all of these processes, started all the way back in the summer last year. So when it comes to pricing, you know, we're looking at the long term price long term debt. We're So basically talking ten year plus, at attractive rates. So we can't really disclose them at the moment. But what we are showing is because between the ECAs, between the DFIs, and with the fact that, Paraguay is now investment grade, the pricing is, you know, definitely quite attractive, on on the debt side.

49:28 And on the interest, how much interest there is in the remaining, $1.50 mil of equity, again, that process started. Right? And we started from back in the summer. Now the difference is, obviously, with the anchor of high 24 with us, a number of investors which were in the room, have either expressed renewed interest or continue in the process because they said, okay. We will come in, but we need a specialist anchor to come in with us because we may know the region really well, but we don't really understand, the the chemical side of the business, which is again why high 24 is so important because it will help catalyze a lot of these discussions that we have. So it is it is basically is it a multiple of the remaining equity? Yes. It is.

50:15 And we certainly hope that we'll be able to make some announcements over the over the coming month. I think I've answered all of them. Yeah. Olivia, thanks very much for answering those questions from investors. And, of course, company can review all the questions that have been submitted today. We will publish those responses out on the investor meet company platform. But just before redirecting investors to provide you their feedback, which is particularly important to the company. Olivier, could I just ask you for a few closing comments? So I think the the closing comment is, like, we are, I mean, we couldn't be more excited. I cannot you know, I am a little bit French, so sometimes I'm little bit overly conservative. But the reality is, yes, I think everything that we've worked so hard on is basically panning out, as we wanted it to pan out.

51:04 And now this is all about delivering, delivering with the right people, with the right partners, which will generate growth, which will generate interest, and and obviously enabled enable us to get to the next stage, to the next stage of growth, to the next stage of partnership. So, I think for us, it's all about, continuing what we have been doing and mechanically going into delivering these contracts to, to FID. And we will update the market, as these as these events happen. And, and and as I mentioned, you know, this presentation will be able on will be available on the website this afternoon. So please go and download it because I haven't gone into every single detail of the presentation. Again, we try to give as much details and data as we can.

51:50 And, of course, you know, we we remaining we remain open to any questions that that you want to ask us. And and I guess the future is bright. Maybe we say the future is green if you look at the background of ATOM. But, yeah, q two will be a extremely exciting time as we get to FID on VETA. So thank you very much, and thank you, high twenty four, for joining, the VETA adventure. Olivia, thank you once again for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as you now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order the management team can better understand your views and expectations? This only take a few moments to complete, so I'm sure we're greatly valued by the company. On behalf of management team of ATOM PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good morning to you all.