Eenergy Group (LSE:EAAS) — Interim Results Presentation

0:03 Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the EENERGY GROUP PLC interim results investor presentation. Throughout this presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and can be submitted at any time by the q and a tab situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Simply type in your question and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. However, the company will review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. These will be available via your investor meet company dashboard, and we're notified when they're ready for review. I'd also

0:35 like to remind you this presentation is being recorded. Before we begin, we'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you over to Harvey Sinclair, CEO, and Rick Williams, CFO of EENERGY GROUP PLC. Good morning. Good morning. So if I could start by moving to Slide five, which is delivering on our strategy. And then I'll hand over to Rick to talk through the financial highlights. So I think we set out very clearly our strategy when we came to the market in January 2020 regarding our intentions to build an energy services group that was climate action focused and that was enabling customers to get to net zero. As we sit here in March for our first set of interims in this financial year, I think I'm very pleased to say that we've seen extremely strong organic growth in what has been a challenging market.

1:32 The revenue growth has not only improved significantly, but we've also seen strong gross margin despite of the COVID challenges we've seen. We've got a very large and growing pipeline, and we're starting to see lots of large scale non education commercial industrial opportunities starting to be evident as a result of the synergies we're seeing with the Beyond customer base. Our acquisitions have been integrated effectively. We did an acquisition in the summer of last year with RSL, and I'm pleased to say that the business has performed above plan. The team have been fully integrated, and we're now working off a centralized e light operating platform. With Beyond, we're in our third month post acquisition.

2:20 And I'm pleased to say that the integration is on track and we're starting to see some great automation and great integrated efficiencies starting to come through the business. We're building an end to end integrated platform and we're able to now offer customers a smart procurement solution combined with energy management and capital free energy efficiency solutions.

2:46 We're seeing evidence that the customers at Beyond are starting to respond very positively and actively engage with assessment for energy as a service solutions through light as a service. So we're really pleased with the progress that we're seeing from our thesis around integrating an end to end net zero strategy for customers. And finally, we're seeing a really strong interest. We now have a strong accelerated pipeline of really strong robust acquisition opportunities that complement our strategy, both in the energy management space, but also in the energy efficiency space, all of whom are cash generative, technology enabled, and that we are going to see strong earnings enhancement as well. So I think really pleased with the progress the business has made.

3:38 And despite a challenging environment, I think we're above plan, and we are feeling very confident about the forthcoming year. So with that, I'd like to hand over to Rick, who will talk you through the financial highlights. Thanks, Harvey. I think as Harvey said, I'm very pleased to be presenting this set of results. I think we have been able to demonstrate, you know, the underlying strength of the business in in what has been a a challenging market and the 140 organic growth, the the increase in revenue, I think, is particularly pleasing, that, you know, we've delivered 245% year on year growth through integrating the RSL acquisition. And then, yeah, we have two weeks of trading from from the Beyond business.

4:26 I'm very pleased that we are able to post our maiden profits before exceptional items. Yeah. I think we had flagged that earlier on in the in the in the half, earlier on in the year that that's what we expected. But obviously, it is it is reassuring that we've been able to deliver those maiden profits as well. And I think, yeah, we've we've taken steps to, you know, to strengthen the core of the business. The partnership that we have with Venture Lighting gives us access to, you know, eLIGHT branded technology on exclusive terms. We we have strengthened the financing proposition in Ireland, which I think we've talked about previously. We've also strengthened the board and the management team through the course of the six months.

5:14 So if I just move on to the before moving on, just to reiterate that we are expecting to post breakeven results, a profit before exceptional items for the full year as well. So moving on to next slide, which is really, you know, is those highlights, putting some of the numbers on there. I think what particularly pleasing is that all of the business units have been growing, and we've generated an operating profit in all of the business units. So that box in the middle, our adjusted EBITDA, you know, at 400,000 compared to the equivalent 900,000 loss for the for the for the first half of the prior year, I'm particularly pleased that that is the progress that that we are making. Okay?

6:06 I think the other thing is we have you know, our balance sheet is is strengthening. We we ended December with 2,800,000 of cash in the bank. Actually, after the borrowings, that's net cash of nought 600,000. So if I just move on to talk a little bit in a little bit more detail about the numbers. I think I've I've I've I've flagged to you the numbers on this on this slide, which is the the p and l and the comparatives. Again, focusing on, you know, both the revenue growth, but also that improvement in underlying profitability as well. Let's look at the revenue in a little bit more detail.

6:47 We we we started or or in in the prior period, I think as as you will be aware, we we were balanced across The UK and Ireland. What we have seen is challenging conditions in Ireland, actually, that have been more challenging than The UK marketplace. But we've seen growth in both The Republic Of Ireland, but also our entry into the Northern Ireland market where we have delivered £400,000 of of projects. However, what really stands out here is the growth in The UK. We made a decision to focus and to move our focus into the education sector, and that's in a that has enabled us to drive almost a tripling in size of the organic UK business.

7:36 In addition, with the acquisition of RSL on the July 1, we're now in a position where The UK is is is, you know, two thirds of the light of the serve light as a service business. And as and as I said, we've got the we've got the contribution for be from Beyond for the last two weeks of December. Now if we look at how that translates into how that translates into profit,

8:07 I've got a whirring thing on the screen, so hopefully you can see it. I can I I will talk I will talk to my I'll talk to my note? We can we can. Just just for your purposes, Rick, we can see it. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Paul. So so if I look if I look at the year on year growth in the in the underlying adjusted EBITDA, what we've seen is that contribution from the incremental revenue that has driven the bulk of the improvement. But that is what you expect in a business like ours where we are coming through that breakeven point. I've we've also seen I've also seen an improvement of £300,000 of additional EBITDA from the improvement that we have made to our gross margin.

8:53 So that's in addition to the revenue volume. That is the improved pricing that we have got. And then we have taken that growth to invest in our sales and operational capability

9:04 when, yeah, when we are growing the business at this at the rate that we are, we have invested appropriately into lead generation, direct sales team, and the operational capability to deliver those projects so that our business is in a much more robust position. And then we also have additional costs, at a group level, which really stem from becoming a public company last January. So I am very pleased to report that, the 400,000 or 372,000 of adjusted EBITDA for the year that's just completed. If we move on to the next slide, this is really an analysis of the revenue on on an annualized basis because obviously with just the two weeks of beyond, it would be a little bit distorted. Otherwise, I think what this shows, we do have that focus in education.

9:57 It is it is 62% of our of our annualized activity, but we've got a good we've got a good spread across the group now from the commercial and industrial portfolio with no one sector being unduly prominent. But we also have a a particular focus for new business generation around the public sector distribution, food, and health care, which are I think I think it's probably fair to say are the more COVID resilient sectors. I've talked about the split between The UK and Ireland and Northern Ireland, and so the the balance has really swung. We are now predominantly a UK centric group. And then in terms of the the expected split between Beyond and the eLight, light as a service business, eLight is a little under three quarters of the group's activity.

10:52 But we expect to see that growth to continue across both of the business units. And that doesn't take account of the opportunity for cross sell. So with that, Harvey is going to pick up and talk about some of the operational highlights for the past six months. Thank you, Rick. So we've at eLight now firmly established ourselves as the market leader in life as a service. The concept of energy as a service is starting to get more widespread you know, across The UK and other markets, which is great for, I guess, awareness. Our momentum in The UK and Irish markets is helping progress our pipeline significantly.

11:39 And as you can see that in this financial year, we have delivered 111 projects versus 57 in the prior period. So the number of projects we're delivering is significantly up by nearly a 100% on the previous year. The the education sector is a fantastic a fantastic sector for us, partly because of the the emotive drivers as well as the sort of financial drivers. So we think that is gaining pace, and we are still seeing, you know, 80% addressable market. And whilst we are seeing the, the challenges of the school cycle and the disruption that COVID has caused, we're still seeing our pipeline engage with us very strongly, and we are looking at a a pipeline that's larger than we've ever seen before. So we're feeling very confident that I think probably the growth, is actually coming now from new markets that we're looking to penetrate with larger multisite customers.

12:42 So one of the strategic rationales for moving into energy management was to capture larger market share through existing customer contracts. So when we look at the 800 plus customers that Beyond have, we've engaged with their top 100. And we've been very surprised that, you know, around 20% of own only 20% have moved to energy efficiency lighting when we had perhaps expected that in the commercial sector, that level of adoption would be higher. So we've seen a a more addressable market in our commercial customers and public sector customers outside of education within Beyond. And we've seen strong interest in health care, which is now one of our big pivot points. We think that owning the public sector provides EENERGY and E LIGHT with a really strong differentiator in the market. And so we're very excited about the the movement into health care, you know, public sector, non for profit type, categories.

13:43 We think that is very complementary to the work we're doing in education sector. And I think, you know, when we look at how we're gonna grow outside of those key accounts, you know, we're very focused on the SME market, which is an underserved market generally by the capital markets. It is a market which traditionally doesn't lend itself very well to the direct sales model, which is why we believe we've got a really exciting opportunity to launch our, end to end ELITE app to third party, partners. And in practice, what that really means is working with our subcontractors, having acquired leads centrally and passing them on to our subcontractors to then facilitate both audit assessment and proposal.

14:30 And and and that and that kind of end to end process that we do, you know, if you like manually with our existing large customers is now automated through our app, which provides a really nice, if you like, business in a box for our subcontractors to be able to offer the smaller sub £50,000 projects, whether that's in the public sector or in the SME sector, a really interesting, revenue stream for them, but also a third party scalable, if you like, distribution channel for us. So we're hoping to test the the the the the eLite product with the app in the market in the fourth quarter of this year as a minimum viable product. And if we get some traction, then we will really look to scale that, you know, nationwide.

15:22 But the initial feedback is very, very strong. And then and the the next area really is starting to introduce, behind the meter, performance monitoring analytics. So as I stated in our last update, we we believe that, you know, measurement of energy consumption and therefore intelligence to customers about where exactly behind the meter they are spending their energy, which 95% of the market is oblivious to, because behind the meter analytics is a rapidly growing, but still very sort of small niche market. The the ability to be able to tell customers' organizations exactly where they are spending their money with energy and where they are wasting it is invaluable.

16:10 And so by introducing the ability to measure where lighting, for example, is saving energy, we're able to start doing share of savings models with both, light as a service contracts, which gives us a bigger promise to a customer. And it may it means that we're able to, I think, follow through the logic that that will increase our conversion rates of our sales cycle. It also enables us to move into other energy efficiency technologies, whether that's, heating, HVAC, or controls to those customers that we've already delivered lighting solutions to. So this is a really big area, and it's it's starting to move into the EENERGY strategy here. But, we're testing that thesis at the moment with customers whereby we're starting to look at performance components to energy savings, which we think is being received very well.

17:05 Just to recap on Beyond, extremely pleased with the acquisition. The team at Beyond have responded extremely well to, if you like, the EENERGY integration. Beyond was a top 20 and is a top 20 energy management business with a climate action focus. It's got some unique technology, which we're starting to really appreciate and leverage, which provides whole of market view. And we're really pushing this whole transparency, green procurement angle. We're launching, at the moment, a dedicated energy product for schools, because we think that offering schools both smart green procurement, measuring, of their energy consumption, and then a reduction strategy around capital free solutions is a really powerful integrated offer.

17:56 The Beyond customers, extremely loyal. We're seeing a 90% contract renewal rate. We're starting to see some pricing improvements around the way we are renewing customers by adding different services. And so we're very, very excited about the prospect of moving beyond into broader energy management services and how that dovetails with our, e energy e light strategy.

18:26 Just in terms of the, e energy, update around what what we've done to to strengthen our team and how we are moving forward with, achieving growth and efficiencies in the business. We, we we hired, a group COO, Rob Van Lewin, who joined as, chief operating officer. Previously, Rob ran the global energy business for Accenture. And Rob is focused very much around delivering, both technology and operating platform efficiencies from an integration perspective and also from a growth perspective, predominantly at the moment on the energy management side of the business, but also starting to lean in more to the energy efficiency side. So we're seeing, you know, a lot of efficiencies and automation coming through. Already starting to see some, cost savings. You know, circa 70 k annual cost savings have already been actioned that will benefit next year, you know, in the first ninety days. So huge, huge efficiency gains, a lot of automation strategies kicking in that will provide both scalability from existing resources, but also allows for, you know, more of a customer focus where a lot of the administration type aspects of what the business does becomes automated through technology.

19:45 We're strengthening the Beyond's, sales focus around both renewals of customers and how we can improve, if you like, you know, revenue share per meter. And we're looking at things like, you know, pricing and product baskets, and how that can improve, you know, revenue revenue, if you like, basket share for our customers. And we're starting to see pricing increases being, accepted by customers as we add on other services. So that's, you know, part of the bundled offer that customers are really responding well to. And as I said earlier, we're looking at a lot of cross sell opportunities at the moment with Beyond's customer base. And I hope that, you in the next few months, we'll start to see some of those large multisite customers, you know, go from a consideration, if you like, phase to adoption phase of the proposals that we're putting to them about how they can reduce their costs through the energy as a service solution.

20:49 Just moving on to strategy. We've been very clear that we see, EENERGY having a unique position in the market by offering this end to end, if you like, climate action, stroke, net zero, capabilities that that navigates customers to their net zero, if you like, goals with one simple part one simple strategy with one partner. And we see that really in four pieces. At the beginning of the journey is how do they procure their energy and how green is the energy procurement strategy. So allowing customers to move to green energy procurement through a transparent pricing, you know, green doesn't have to come at a premium strategy for customers is key, and that's being led by Beyond. We're then layering in this whole concept of how do we provide visibility to customers about where they're spending their energy through intelligent data driven energy management solutions.

21:50 And that what that means is we're either embedding metering, starting to look at embedding embedding metering behind the meter for our customers so that we can provide them with their intelligence around consumption, and then that gives us the intelligence around how we can present to customers the ability to reduce their consumption through as a service, which really means, you know, moving to no capital requirement, energy efficiency solutions as a as a service through that subscription model. We've been so successful at pioneering through eLIGHT. And then finally, once we've driven a customer's energy footprint, you know, as as far as we can through energy reduction, reducing their wastage, we're able to start looking at how do we start getting them off grid through either private wire, PPA, solar solutions, but then gives them some capacity to start looking at EV solutions for, for their portfolios.

22:48 And that, I think, is also a really exciting area. Most of our customers in the education space are now asking us, can we help them with either a strategy for their EV, future proofing requirements, or can we help them look at how they can move to some self generation? So there's starting to be a lot of proactive demand side, you know, conversations happening with our customer base in education market, and we think that's set to accelerate. So on the right hand side of the, this slide, you can see how that's visualized with the green energy procurement measuring and metering as a service, providing analytics as a service, and then energy reduction through as a service. So this whole theme of, driving customers to net zero through as a service, which is a capital free solution where customers can be, generating profitability for their business whilst they're driving down their carbon footprint. We think that's unique in the market.

23:53 And, again, the buy and build strategy will really, dovetail with that vision. So with Beyond, we've had the first step in that strategy. We are looking at developing other bolt on acquisitions for the smart energy procurement platform, And that's principally, you know, a really a really clear really clear path to earnings enhancement for this group. And we've got an accelerated pipeline of really very strategic complementary energy management businesses that are engaging with us, because they believe in our strategy, you know, on a mixture of cash and share type structures. So we hope to, be, you know, developing that as this as the year progresses. On the energy as a service side, we want to expand into other technologies.

24:43 And rather than build out organically, the capabilities, which we've obviously done successfully over the last few years with e with eLight, life as a service business, We think there's an opportunity to get momentum very quickly by strategically, essentially acquiring businesses that will strategically help us, get pace in the energy as a service share of savings model outside of lighting. And we hope that that will be, something we can deliver on this year. And then, on the smart metering, we're actually considering joint venture opportunities at the moment, that will allow us to have, you know, a really strong position in the, measurement and analytics piece. And that together brings together the two pieces between energy management and energy efficiency.

25:32 So, in summary, Rick and I are really pleased with the growth we've delivered. We're now a profitable business. We've got an extremely compelling and differentiated offer in the market. We're starting to carve out a really strong position where our brand is starting to get a real identity within the mid market and within the public sector. We've got an accelerated pipeline of buy and build opportunities that dovetails to a really clear strategy of how energy procurement drives behavior and how the energy management as a service solution conduct her with energy efficiency as a service. The acquisitions have been integrated well. We're stabilizing the business from an operating platform that puts us in a great place to consider those new acquisitions as we as we start to get towards the end of our financial year.

26:26 I'm happy to take questions, so thank you very much for your time. That's fantastic. Harvey, Rick, thank you very much for your presentation. And ladies and gentlemen, do please continue to submit your questions using the Q and A tab situated in the top right hand corner of your screen. We just want the company to take a few moments to review those investor questions submitted already. I'd like to remind you that recording this presentation, along with a copy of the slides and the published Q and A, can be accessed via your investor dashboard on the Investor Me company platform. I'd also like to remind you that your feedback is important to the company. And immediately after the presentation has ended, you'll be redirected to the opportunity company's financial And I that's to do so if I could just ask you to read out the question and just give your answers that would be fantastic. Thank you. Okay.

27:22 Great. Why don't I tackle a few and then I can hand over to Rick to tackle a few more. So one of the questions is what percentage of schools now are using LED solutions from eLight? So this is a huge market where we've only begun to scratch the surface. What we do know is that there remains an 80% addressable market in both public and independent schools. We've probably got a 500 school footprint across the Northern Ireland and UK market. So you know, there's 27,000 schools. So we'd need to get 10%. You know, we we would need, obviously, two and a half thousand schools adopted.

28:08 So we've probably got a 2% market share at the moment. I think our goal is to have a 10% market share over the next three to five years. So I hope that addressed the question. The question here, what caused the relative softness in Ireland?

28:23 I think two things. The logistical restrictions of movement in Ireland were much more aggressive than they were in The UK. So there was a three k or five k kilometer limit from where you could travel. And there was a much more limited capacity for the ELAC business to be on-site. And so I think the lockdown for education in Ireland was more restrictive than it was in The UK. I also think that there was less flexibility for staff to move around than there was in The UK. So I think ultimately that's the main reason. I also think that it's a smaller market that probably has struggled more with COVID than perhaps The UK has.

29:13 I'm not sure why, but we do seem to have seen more restrictions and more challenging general operating environments over there than we have in The UK. Can you discuss the nature of the uniqueness of Beyond's technology? In simple terms, there are very few reverse auction platforms that allow customers to have their energy contract tendered for in an open pricing market where effectively the suppliers are tendering bidding in a live environment for contracts. So from that perspective, it's providing transparency in a very short window in a classic bid offer marketplace environment. And that is unique.

30:00 It provides tension on pricing and provides transparency on pricing.

30:09 Another question here. In terms of delivering performance gains to clients, do your contracts include any element of benefit sharing? That's a great question. So historically, no. But we are now, as as we speak, even today, we're presenting to a large multi site customer where we're putting an element of the fixed fees at risk, which we will be measuring and then effectively allowing the customer to see a derisk a derisk saving solution. And we're seeing whether or not that performance element can help drive a greater conversion rate. So we think this is a really interesting area that provides just that extra bit of reassurance to a customer.

30:55 And I think it would be very interesting to get feedback in the markets we start seeing that emerge. One of our acquisition opportunities that we're looking at has very successfully developed a share of savings model with energy efficiency outside of lighting, And we're starting to work with them on some on some projects jointly as part of our due diligence to see whether or not we really really see whether we can leverage that into the lighting market.

31:26 Harvey, so one of the questions I was gonna say, shall I take there's a question around the visibility that we have of forward revenues. Shall talk to that while you read some of the other questions? Yes. Absolutely. Please. Yeah. Go ahead, Rick. Because I I think the, you know, the Beyond business is very much a forward contracted recurring revenue business. And as and as we as we have said, we're we're seeing 90% plus renewal rates in that business. The light as a service business, to a large degree, is a project based business. There is the ongoing support and service component to that. But with the way that we build the pipeline, we've got good visibility over the next three to six months, but not really beyond that until we start to see, as Harvey talked about, some of these large multi site rollout opportunities where we've got large groups who are procuring for all of their sites and that is a that is a phased rollout over time. So, you know, from my perspective, yeah, we've got very clear visibility around Beyond and and the the the renewing nature, the recurring nature of those contracts.

32:44 And we've got good visibility of the pipeline over the sort of the short to medium term within the e lite e lite business as well. We we do have a number of clients within the e lite business where there are repeat recurring projects. So for instance, we work with one particular multi academy trust, which is growing. And when they bring new schools into the trust, they get us to do their lights in the new sites as well. So so we do have those kind of repeat relationships too. So I I feel pretty confident about our forward visibility. Yeah. Thanks, Ray. A couple of, questions, that I've just seen are really interesting. So is the company looking to target other services of the lighting?

33:33 Yes. We're looking to do it right now, actually. We have a couple of very large engaged customers where we are embedding behind the meter technology at the audit stage for lighting with a view that we'll do the lighting as a service solution first. But with the data that's coming out of the sites that we've metered, we can identify energy wastage in non lighting areas, and we can start to collect, if you like, a solution of technology,

34:07 if you like, energy saving technology drivers that can be packaged up as a share of savings model. And that is something that we envisage doing in the coming months. So this year will be very much around testing the thesis with large customers and education customers looking to adopt a share of savings model outside of lighting. What's great about lighting is it's both it's an emotive benefit as well as a financial benefit. So lighting improves operating environments. And therefore, it's always the first measure that any business should look at. So I think that answered that question. In terms of main competitors, we don't see ourselves having a main direct competitor.

34:54 Clearly, are some larger full service energy solutions businesses like Angi in the market, who are very much focused around large multi site infrastructure grade projects. But in terms of SME, mid market, public sector, we don't believe there is any direct competitor out there at the moment who is able to offer that full end to end service that we're looking to build as part of our ENG strategy.

35:26 There's a question here around do we have the management team to integrate further acquisitions? I mean, the answer to that is definitely. So we have hired a C suite or rather we have a C suite that's now being complemented with the addition of Rolled in addition to essentially a divisional MD management structure that has been in existence at, for example, Beyond for the last ten years. So there an existing management structure that's very strong, very experienced. And we have on top of that over E Light and Beyond business, essentially a chief operating officer, a head of head of mergers and acquisitions who was able to manage the due diligence and financial and the financial and legal integrations of those businesses.

36:17 Myself and Rick are very much focused at group rather than the data operations. So we have a really strong four man team

36:26 that is experienced in M and A, in technology, is able to complement the strengths and experience of the existing core management teams of both businesses. Just seeing if there's any other questions we can tackle here. Are you seeing any supply chain issues? No. We very consciously a year ago did a pre Brexit planning exercise around how our supply chain can be tested in the event that there could be some post Brexit issues. I'm pleased to say that we have a largely UK centric supply chain. So Venture Lighting, for example, although secures its component parts from all parts of the global supply chain, it's a predominantly UK assembled product.

37:19 And therefore, we've seen absolutely no levels of disruption on the supply chain whatsoever either as a result of Brexit or as a result of COVID. Regional contractors are increasingly trained and the quality control of those has improved over the last months through our e training academy and the way in which our new operations director, Elight, has improved processes. So we're very happy with the supply chain of labor within our subcontracting base. So we haven't seen any levels of disruption in that area. Rick, can you spot any other questions, that would be suitable for you to address?

38:13 There's a question here on our EV model. So Yeah. I think it's fair to say that we are explore we're exploring at the moment what part of the what part of the value proposition, the value chain model would we like to be part of. I'm very excited about the software and the customer centric side of the solution that an EV model needs. So whether that's billing or booking, essentially on the ChargePoint operating model rather than the hardware side of things. What is clear is we've got a very large and growing customer base in education, for example, that is going to have a strong EV requirement. So we think strategically, there could be a really powerful network play here where we could bring together, you know, our schools' customers under, you know, education charge point operating network solution where as a result of having engaged, energy procurement or engaged energy reduction sort of solutions in play with those customers, we're able to add a solar module to also then allow us stepping stone to get into providing an ED model. We are absolutely at the early stages of this. I'm not sure that I have all the answers. We are doing lots of exploratory work. We're talking to lots of partners.

39:38 And we think it's a really interesting space. But I think probably, modulized solar first is probably the absolute focus for us because that's being demanded by our customers. It's something that we've seen, attractive economics on now, and something which we think we can deliver very easily. And that would that would be a great stepping stone into the EV space. There is a question around and I think this is a follow on question from my comments about the forward visibility, which is really around the business model for the eLight Light as a Service business.

40:23 So from a client perspective, it looks like a subscription stream and that the client is paying a monthly service fee. I think as as we as we've explained previously, we work with a number of select finance partners who take the risk on those future collections, and and and we are paid for the value by the finance partners effectively post installation. So the finance partner is making the future collections and taking the credit risk on those on those future collections. But we are recognizing our revenue and receiving our cash for each installation shortly, you know, shortly, yeah, upon the completion of the installation.

41:11 And then we have an element which is providing the ongoing support, which is a relatively small part of the con of the of the revenue from the contract over the over that term. So so our model is that we are seeing that revenue upfront and the cash, and importantly, the cash upfront. But from a client perspective, it is a month a fixed monthly service fee that they are paying. So I hope that answers that question about the the forward visibility for the for the eLite business. Yes. I think it's fair to say we recognize that there is a big opportunity as we look at Energy as a Service more broadly, that there is potentially a really interesting hybrid model where once we've got customers locked into the light as a service, which for us is upfront cash flow positive balance sheet light, we can start looking at Energy as a Service and the non Lighting share of savings models giving us recurring revenue streams. So we're exploring that because we think there'd be a fantastic story for investors where we've got the cash flow positive nature of Light as a Service blended with longer term revenue, recurring revenue streams coming out of non lighting solutions.

42:37 I also think there's a question here around looking at other acquisitions. What acquisitions are we targeting and what size of enterprise value they like to be? They range, but they are all within, I would say, 2,000,000 to 10,000,000 enterprise value at this stage, all cash generative, all strategically very relevant to either eLite or to Beyond. So I think our goal is we would like very much to be in a position to acquire at least £1,000,000 of earnings over the next twelve months that would be synergistic to the to Beyond business.

43:26 But we are being extremely selective in the types of business we're looking at. Harvey, Rick, thank you very much indeed. Think you've addressed pretty much every question that you've had through there. And, of course, you'll be able to review all questions submitted today, we'll publish those responses where appropriate to do so. Harvey, perhaps unless there's any further questions that have come through, I could ask you just for a few words to wrap up, please. Sure. Okay. EENERGY is, is starting to take shape. We have this vision of it being a end to end, energy services business. We see ourselves as a climate action business. Ultimately, we wholeheartedly believe that reducing energy waste is the key to the world achieving net zero. And so with our business model, delivering energy efficiencies can be both profitable and risk free to customers.

44:21 And we really believe that doing nothing should never be an option now, given that the energy efficiency as a service business model is so powerful. And so we're really excited with our strategy, we believe that, we're in a unique position in the market. So hopefully, that's a good wrap up of, the presentation. Fantastic. Harvey, Rick, thank you again for updating investors today. Can I please ask investors not to close the session as you'll be automatically redirected for the opportunity to provide your feedback? If you've accessed this meeting from our website, the feedback page will appear in front of you. If you've accessed it via the link sent to you by email, you'll simply be asked just to log back in to submit your feedback. Do just take a couple of minutes to do so. It's greatly appreciated by the company.

45:07 On behalf of EENERGY GROUP PLC, we'd like to thank you very much for attending today's presentation. That now concludes today's session. Thank you, good morning.