Eenergy Group (LSE:EAAS) — Investor Presentation

0:01 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the EENERGY PLC Investor Presentation. Throughout this presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and can be submitted at any time via the Q and A tab situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Just simply type in your question in the box below and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. However, the company review all questions submitted today and where appropriate, publish responses.

0:28 These will be available via your Investor Meet company dashboard, and we will send you an e mail to notify you when they're ready. I'd also like to remind you that this presentation is being recorded. We begin, I would like to submit the following poll. And if you could give your attention to that, we'd be most grateful. And I'd now like to hand over to Harvey Sinclair, CEO and Rick Williams, CFO of EENERGY. Good afternoon to you. Good afternoon. Thank you. So I'd like to start with a brief overview, I guess, the core business and a summary of the acquisition that we've recently made. And then I'll give you a more detailed update on how the business at EENERGY is doing and then the growth prospects for beyond 2021.

1:14 So as most of you know, I'm sure you're aware, we came to the market in January 2020 with a view to creating an integrated energy services business that we felt could address a huge demand in the market, a market which we saw as being very fragmented from an energy efficiency services perspective and with a growing demand for companies looking to have their handheld on their journey to net zero. Our core business, which is an energy efficiency as a service business, is an established and rapidly growing company. It it provides light as a service to our both education and corporate customers through eLight and RSL.

1:59 Essentially, what that means is we transition companies to LED lighting for a six monthly subscription fee. Therefore, no need to invest in capital upfront, but allows customers to benefit from all the energy savings and release surplus cash from their old lighting with lighting being the the core energy efficiency measure that we advise all businesses to do first. We see this as being a hugely interesting and large growth opportunity. The business has had a fantastic year. We're on track for delivering our first first half results as stated in the research notes. We've seen 400% revenue growth, 200% of that is organic, and we're on track for 250% organic growth trajectory in h one.

2:50 I'll talk to the drivers in a short while, but, you know, we are obviously now on our first step towards creating that buy and build strategy through the acquisition of Beyond. Obviously, talking about this in more detail, but just to give you a high level overview, this is a a top 15 energy consulting procurement business. There are over 4,000 energy consultancy energy procurement businesses in The UK. So this is a very established, very differentiated energy procurement business, differentiated really in 02/02 areas. The first is its positioning as a climate action business. And the second as, you know, a business that has a proprietary technology platform, which gives it a clear proposition to customers,

3:42 and it gives it a very clear credible position in the market in being able to create value to customers in their desire to procure energy. It's gonna deliver, obviously, very attractive high quality of earnings. This is a business that's that we expect to unlock 800,000 of earnings in 2021. It's got a very loyal customer base of 800 customers and a very complementary customer base for from which we can cross sell services from E Light. So we're expecting this to be materially earnings enhancing in the first full year of ownership. The business came with just under 750,000 of surplus cash. And it, you know, it was a business that we valued at circa 8,000,000, as a result of both 25% cash and 75%, issue of shares. So we think it's a fantastic, strategic acquisition that will form the platform from which EENERGY can establish its position as a, you know, integrated climate action orientated energy services business.

4:51 Just to go back slightly on the the core business, Yeah. This is a an established company now, seven years, trajectory, right in the thick of the tipping point, in 2020 of businesses and, education customers that are looking to establish a net zero strategy. So as a energy as a service business, we we're we're offering customers the ability to reduce their energy spend and consumption without deploying capital. We've had extreme momentum in 2020. You know, over the summer period, we completed 70 projects, and we're on track to deliver, you know, over 30 projects in in some, like, two weeks in December.

5:37 We've we've we've not seen any real material impact from COVID. So I think as a business, we've been insulated from, you know, the the the overall impact that many businesses have suffered. There have been some logistic challenges, but generally speaking, our customers have actually probably responded more more favorably in the last 0.5 on our proposition, partly as a result of government government initiatives and government subsidies into the, if you like, energy efficiency sector, which has enabled us to turbocharge our growth, but also because there's just been so much, additional pressure on businesses and education organizations to tackle a climate change strategy.

6:26 And the momentum we've achieved over the last two years in the pipeline investment that is really paying dividends now. So we're moving into q with the strongest ever pipeline we've ever had. We've delivered over a 100% growth in the last in this quarter of any quarter previously in terms of the number of investment grade proposals delivered to customers. So we have strong strong pipeline for q three. That gives us really good visibility on our expectations for the business. And I think we couldn't really be more pleased actually as we end this calendar year in what we've achieved from an organic perspective. I'll hand over to our CFO, Rick Williams, to talk you through the business model that the customer sees just to remind you, and then I'll go on to talk to growth strategy.

7:20 Thanks, Harvey. I'm gonna present two views so that you can understand way the core business operates. So the first is a case study with the client's view. So what does the client see when we come to present them with the opportunity to replace their their lighting with an LED solution, reduce their energy bills? So to what you can what you can see on the screen in front of you is we start by doing an investment grade audit to understand the energy consumption for the for the the the lighting system that the client has in place. And this is a real proposal that was issued to a school. So you you so it's a real example that I'm talking you through. You can see in this current column that the school is spending £69,000, just under £69,000 a year on electricity for its lighting and spending just under £10,000 a year on the maintenance of those of those existing lights, so bulb replacement and the like.

8:26 The once we have done the LED replacement, the electricity cost in the first year falls from just from that £69,000 to £26,000. Okay? Now our business model is that the client signs a fixed contract, in this case, over a seven year term, and they are paying us £30,000 a year for to effectively cover the installation, the ongoing service and maintenance of the like of the new lighting system. But that means in the first year, the client releases 22 over £22,000 of cash savings that can be utilized for other priorities within the school, you know, usually education, but actually, it is any any priorities that they have got.

9:18 The savings increase over the term of the of the seven year contract and and indeed beyond because we use a 5% energy inflator in the way that we present and illustrate the savings to be realized. That 5% energy cost inflation is at the very bottom end of the government's estimate for energy inflation over the next ten years. But we want to demonstrate that, you know, that the savings increase. And what you can see is in that seven year summary, the school will save £211,000 simply by switching to LED with us. Over the ten year term, once they once this £30,000 per annum payments have ceased, they will realize £437,000 of savings for investing elsewhere into the school.

10:15 So it's a very compelling proposition from the client's perspective. So what does what does that mean what does that mean for us in terms of our business model? What are those contract those contract economics? So what I've done is the the total contract value is is the amount the client pays over that seven year term, which which coincidentally is also £211,000 in this case. We work with a select number of project finance partners, and those those finance partners effectively buy or take assignment for the contract that we have entered into with the client. They are taking all of the credit risk on the future monthly service fees.

11:01 And for that, they will typically effectively charge us up front 15. Okay? So in this instance, we received within five days of installation a £175,000 or 85% of the total contract value. And that's because that the finance partner, as I say, is taking all of the future credit risk. From that and that £175,000, that is our revenue. Okay? And from that revenue, we are paying our equipment manufacturers. We work with a a small number of original equipment manufacturers. And and for education, we have a a partnership with with Venture Lighting who are based in The UK, and we will typically be paying

11:53 the equipment manufacturers on sixty day terms, which is is normally the month after the installation or quite often the month after that. We we will pay our installation contract partners. So we have a regional network of of trained installation partners who are liveried as eLite when they are on-site. They they attend the the eLIGHT Academy, and we we are training both training them and making sure they're delivering in the eLIGHT way. And we will pay the installer in the month after installation. And what that means is we we are left with about 30% of the total contract value or 35% of our revenue as our gross profit, which is our con the contribution to our direct costs, the contribution to our overheads, and our profit margin.

12:54 But importantly, given the profile for each of the projects, each of our projects is cash positive from installation onwards. So it's a good working capital model for us. Thanks, Eric. So just moving to our growth strategy for the core business. There are three areas which are underpinning, you know, our trajectory and momentum in the business. Two two of these areas, which is the launch of the app and the leveraging of our existing customers with other solutions, are not factored into our future projections. So our projections are based on organic growth from our existing life as a service business that is largely focused at the moment on education, where our noneducation clients are multisite rollout opportunities are not featured as part of our forecast.

13:52 So we've taken a very conservative view that the underpinning forecast that we have for this business is reliant on our core sales model in the education sector that's being driven by a model which is more predictable now than ever before, and which has really been driven by a number of agendas, particularly the government's agenda in the public sector, which has really turbocharged the the state school sector as a result of, grant and subsidy money. Now whilst that grant and subsidy money, is very attractive to schools, Eli has a very pivotal position in in supporting our clients in this area as a result of this subsidy not not generally supporting a 100% of the funding requirements.

14:38 So within the within the new government initiatives, Elight has a very, very core position in subsidizing through our operating lease and compliant contracts the necessary funding. The the projects are now looking more attractive for schools as a result of a lot of the subsidy money, but also we're able to navigate the schools through a journey, which provides, them a guaranteed solution that should they not get a subsidy, we're there to step into a 100% of the funding. And what that has done is it's allowed us to to really accelerate engagement with schools and open up our pipeline, almost doubling the level of inquiries on a weekly, monthly basis than we've seen under our proactive measures.

15:26 So we've moved from not just, you know, a a market which is growing, but we've taken a market which was somewhat passive to to being very active. And therefore, sales cycles are becoming shorter, and we're seeing an increasing trend in the state school sector where we can turn around projects within 30, from, you know, an opportunity inquiry right through to investment grade proposal. And then we are generally seeing decisions thirty to sixty days after that. So our sales cycle has reduced in the state school sector from six months to three months, which means that we're able to start getting, you know, increasing momentum. Eli has definitely established itself as the market leader, market leading player in this education market.

16:13 And the independent school sector is is also a very niche area of focus. And when you consider that there are 2,000 independent schools with the average project size being a £100,000, the independent school sector on its own is a £200,000,000 sector, and we are, without question, the market leader in that space. The second area, which is becoming, you know, a big work stream for our business is the mobilization of the eLite app. So you may you may have read in our past announcements around the desire to launch a an SME focused solution. The SME market by number of buildings is by far the largest sector in the, you know, the the opportunity in terms of the The UK building portfolios.

17:04 And, you know, the the projects themselves in the SME market are generally somewhere between 10 and £50,000 in value. That precludes that market from a direct sales model because of the cost it takes to mobilize a direct sales channel strategy to those customers and to initiate projects. So what we've been looking at is how do we how do we get distributed channels opening up through potentially a a launch of an app that would be licensed to approved contractors, which would attend site using our app, having been trained on our processes and having been trained on our, you know, on our application to be able to open up an audit and therefore deliver a live a live proposal on-site on the day of the audit to that primary school or potentially to an SME an SME client that has engaged with us.

18:01 Now we've we've done some initial modeling. And when we look at this market, there are five and a half thousand regional electrical contractors that fit within the profile and, if you like, level of professionalism that we would like to work with. And we think that if we can if we can, you know, adopt a franchise network of somewhere between 50 and a 100 contractors, So, you know, we're talking less than 5% of the market. Within the Lite framework, we could be opening up, you know, hundreds of projects a month as a result of, you know, business model which enables the SME market to be attacked by, our our framework agreed contractors. This app gets launched in q one of

18:45 next year to our internal teams that are working with our approved contractors that supply services to our existing projects. And the idea is that if we can beta test the process, that we'll be ready to launch to the market in q two. As I said, none of this has been factored into a forecast, so it's all upside. So we think it's a really interesting speculative bet on the market, and and some current feedback is very encouraging. The third area is around additional services that we can engage our current customers on. So, yeah, we've got several 100 customers that are live in contract that we've delivered over a thousand projects to now. Some of these are commercial industrial clients.

19:32 Some of these are in the education sector. We think there is a really clear opportunity to to launch a renewable heat solution via heat as a service. We've done quite a lot of, if you like, provisional provisional work with customers. We started doing some case study work, and we've done a couple of initial schemes, and the feedback has been very positive. So we're looking to leverage these customers with a joint venture solution through other technology providers, but using our client engagement strategy and our funding platform to be able to monetize these opportunities.

20:12 Moving on to our buy and build strategy. When we came to market, we had this this broad goal of being an an integrated energy services company. So what does that really mean? The the the the the foundation of this strategy, in our view, is around acquiring a a smart energy procurement business, which we've now delivered on. So what what we now have is a is a core platform from which we can build out this, if you like, framework of customers from which to sell other services to. So Beyond allows us to upscale bolt on smaller acquisitions in the energy management space at much, much lower multiples. So we are talking about acquiring one to 2,000,000 revenue businesses that can be bolted on very quickly, leveraging the the team's experience at Beyond and their platform to drive really, really, if you like, incremental incremental earnings at a much lower multiple. So we're talking, you three to five times multiple on earnings, which will allow us to bulk up our customer base from the current thousand customers that exist at Beyond to our aspiration to 5,000 customers over the next three years in a very, very seamless and easy to integrate process that we have been we've we've been working on. And there is a large pipeline of very interesting acquisitions that we've got

21:43 in in our horizon, some of which are focused around education, some of which are focused around other niche commercial sectors. The second area is scaling energy efficiency as a service. We've clearly got a very, very core proposition in lighting. And I think now what we're looking to do is a, you know, expansion around other technologies, heating and controls being the main drivers. But rather than cashing out those projects, what we would be looking to do as we expand energy as a service is to start building out longer term revenue streams where we wouldn't cash out our projects on day one, but we would start building out long long term ten year revenue streams that would give us a book of revenue that we were building in parallel to our, you know, cash flow positive projects that we cash out in lighting on day one.

22:35 To wrap around this overall strategy, we're looking at the smart metering and software analytics space. We believe that the the market generally has a very, very strong demand for intelligent data. This is a increasingly accelerating demand where businesses are very, very keen on understanding where specifically in their businesses are they are they consuming the most energy. You know, the majority, 90% plus of all businesses, and I'd go as far as saying 95% of all businesses, do not have behind the meter intelligence on where they are consuming their their electricity or their gas or water. They are absolutely measuring measuring their energy power consumption at the main meter.

23:27 So what we think is a really big opportunity is to acquire a technology that will enable enable us to embed with procurement contracts, I. The supplier of the energy as a matter of if I standardized standardized customer offer behind the meter, data, measuring, and monitoring products and services that allow us to not only drive the software as a service revenue model, which is, again, long term recurring sticky revenues, but strengthens our ability to do desktop proposals to those customers on how they can drive down their energy consumption. That removes a lot of the the physical auditing physical auditing processes that most energy efficiency businesses have to invest in because we will have the data at our fingertips, and we will have the behind the meter consumption at our fingertips from which we can then

24:25 provide live meaningful energy reduction strategies. And then now we can then feed that back into the energy as a service business from which we can monetize. So we see generally this journey of taking customers on a ten year, you know, net zero journey, starting with small procurement, going from brand to green energy, reducing consumption, further detailed measurement and monitoring services, and then and then continuing on the journey of reduction strategies around energy efficiency. The next slide really just visualizes that. So as you can see at the top of our business sits an energy management platform, which is smart green procurement, measuring and monitoring, analytics and reporting, all through as a service. So as a core strategy using energy as a service, which is a capsule free model where you are effectively paying through the benefits we are delivering as a service, which means we've got much lower barriers to entry. We've got a much, much more compelling ongoing revenue stream from those customers.

25:30 And then we are layering in energy efficiency as a service through lighting, heating, and other technologies. That gives us a a right to be constantly talking to our customers all the time because we're genuinely aligned to their best interests. And in terms of, you know, the the profile of business we're looking for, on the right hand side, you can see some some some key terms which will define what we're looking for, which is recurring revenues, high barriers to entry, industry leading capabilities, cash generative, technology, and data centric. So just moving on to a little bit more detail about Beyond. As I said, very, very business, twenty year old history.

26:16 We were in the market, for the last six months assessing a number of opportunities, and Beyond really stood out as a, you know, leading opportunity to accelerate. This was not a business that was on the market. It was a business that we were introduced to through one of our trusted partners and a business which really very quickly got aligned with our strategy to the extent that they did not see this as an exit. They saw this very much as the next stage in their development and their journey, and it was as a result of both, alignment on strategy, alignment on people that enabled us to conclude the the deal structure that we did conclude, which was, let's say, 75% of the vendors taking paper with a 25% cash component.

27:05 The headquarters is in West London, and their offices are going to be seen as the new HQ for EENERGY. And we're going to see this business as the innovation center, really, for the group. So 36 people working out of West London, very low churn rate, very loyal team, very experienced team across the industry, and we see we see their proprietary platform being used as the sort of, if you like, the key key differentiator in how we build out the the buy and build within the energy management space, which then sell other services. So their technology is is enabling them to run reverse energy auctions for clients, which gives them much closer view of the market pricing, gives transparency to the customers, and allows for a much more visible, transparent view of the sustainable green energy options that are available.

28:01 And, you know, in the sustainable energy procurement market, we're not talking about one type of green energy. There is a rainbow of green energy options available. And what this platform allows us to do is to differentiate the differences and the features and benefits of all those different contracts. And as a result of this, you know, functionality, it's not surprising that we see, you know, the the the loyalty we're getting from customers to the extent that 90 plus percent of all contracts renew and you've got, you know, your top 10 customers with an established relationship over seven years or more. So very loyal, very sticky, very committed customer base who are getting high value services, which really differentiates it outside of the, you know, the other energy consultancy market.

28:50 And their clients are, you know, very attracted to the the EENERGY model, lots of public sector businesses, lots of multi site customers. So I'll hand over to Rick to talk about some of the numbers and the growth trajectory. Yeah. Thanks, Abi. Just to reiterate some of the points, think what we've acquired in Beyond is an established platform, which is very much geared towards organic recurring growth. It's a very high quality of earnings business. Harvey's touched on the 90% contract retention rates. Yeah. Unlike large part of the third party intermediary market where it is very you know, that market is largely dependent on usage fees based on the energy that's actually consumed by the client.

29:45 35% of Beyond's revenue is derived from fixed fees either related to the number of meters or relating to the consultancy services that they provide. And that gives us a very high quality of earnings with that average contract length, that length of tenure with their top 10 clients in particular, we've got very good forward visibility of the future revenues for the business. And three quarters of next year is already contracted and if you layer in the normal renewal rates that they have seen consistently, then actually we've got visibility of over 90% of next year's revenues already. And Beyond has delivered consistent organic growth over the past ten years, 17% annual revenue growth over that ten year period.

30:38 And it is going to be materially earnings enhancing for us from our first year of ownership. So very briefly, to look at 2020, that proportion of fixed fees has kind of helped insulate the Beyond business from the 10% to 15% decline in energy consumption that we have seen across The UK. Their turnover will be slightly down, But actually, they've also underpinned that with very strong new business growth, the acquisition of new clients in what has been a pretty testing year. So they are absolutely geared, say, as we've got very good visibility of next year's revenue.

31:24 I think one of the other attractive features of the Beyond business for me with my CFO hat on is unlike many in the third in the third party intermediary market, they have a very low dependence on supply prepayments. There are suppliers out there who will pay, you know, eight 80% of expected commission on a two or three year term, but only 13% of their revenue is is on a prepaid basis. And that means there's a very low impact from the reduction or that, you know, any fall in underlying usage, but also there is much less risk for beyond of any clawback of those commissions. As I look to the near term, so for 2021 and 2022, we have that very clear sight on revenue growth of 20% to twenty five percent per annum for each of the next two years.

32:21 We have a very, very clear sight of the base case EBITDA for next year of £800,000. And what we also expect to be able to deliver is a doubling of the EBITDA margin from the 14% that they reported in 2019. I think over the next two years, we we will have a very clear path to show a doubling of that EBITDA margin. And part of that comes from scale, but part of that comes from a number of the initiatives that Harvey will touch on shortly. And by reference, the you know, Inspired Energy is is the I guess, is the quoted comparator for the third party intermediary market. Beyond has many features, which mean it is it is more strongly placed, particularly around technology than than Inspired, but Inspired are reporting 38% EBITDA margins.

33:15 Okay? So we have a very clear view on how we are going to deliver earnings improvement over the next two years and a very locked in view of the revenue for the next year and year or two. Thanks, Vic. So just to just to summarize on the the strategic rationale, know, we've we've bought a business with, track record in double digit revenues. Our goal is to get less in excess of 20% year on year. We've got a a mature sales, engine that's got high quality customers and a strong pipeline with a very differentiated, technology proposition and what is a, you know, generally seen as a broker's market and a very established platform that differentiates that, in in a high quality service offering.

34:06 So we've got a, a lot of upside from, you know, I guess, we're bringing a commercial focus to a business that's been very, technology driven. So it provides us with a really interesting opportunity to bring some entrepreneurship to, you know, a a a business that's got a strong track record in technology, but, you know, with some new sales and marketing initiatives. And we've a very complementary customer base. To give you an example, the top 100 customers, at Beyond have a value to eLite of over 70,000,000. So, you know, our view is this is a, number one priority from which to engage the Beyond customers. And likewise, there is a huge opportunity for Beyond to sell energy procurement, green procurement services to the e light customer base.

34:54 We we like the we like the loyal customer base, and we like the 90% renewal history, renewal track record, and the alignment towards, fixed fees for 35% of their revenues revenues as well. So our strategy to drive earnings growth really can be, I guess, distilled into four areas. We are in the process of appointing, you know, a group COO who has a twenty year track record in the energy management sector. Been working with us, for the last six months, and he was very integral in our, due diligence, building out our integration plan. So we've got, a strong addition to the senior management team that will be working collaboratively with the Beyond management team.

35:39 The chief executive of Beyond is moving into a group EENERGY role. So Derek Myers will be moving into a a chief innovations role, building out innovative new products and services and looking at how we can build out the the the the the the zero carbon marketplace, which Beyond have been incubating in the background called Zero Carbon Project, which is essentially a blockchain enabled, securitized marketplace that can reward customers for going green. And this could be a really, really strong additional upside to the business, which were effectively acquired, which we didn't actually value. So we we didn't we didn't place an inherent value on this business.

36:26 It's a an additional opportunity that we're gonna be looking to establish and grow going forward. We're positioning, eLNG as a stand you know, absolutely standalone net zero services business, with a single green message that can really capture the momentum that, we see in 2020. We're gonna be leveraging our, technology platform. We're gonna be consolidating client data, and we're gonna be investing further into the platform. So huge amounts of upsell, huge huge amounts of energy efficiencies, for the Beyond customers from which we can monetize. And then in terms of the the short term and medium term initiatives that will be driving additional value, there are a number of additional services that we've been able to identify that we can bundle as part of the, existing procurement services that Beyond offer.

37:21 We think there is, additional monetization of those customers by bundling these products and services that will not only improve retention, but also increase, you know, gross margins as well. There are some synergies around centralizing sales and operations. We haven't we haven't, I guess, put a thesis together around this being at the heart of what makes sense in terms of unlocking value, but it is additional upside by centralizing lead generation and looking at the way in which we can efficiently manage our customers. We're also looking to optimize sales culture by investing in the sales team and the sales and marketing strategy. And that concludes our presentation. That's brilliant. Thank you very much indeed to both Harvey and Rick for updating investors. Ladies and gentlemen, can I please ask you to continue to submit your questions using the Q and A tab situated on the right hand corner of the screen? I just wanted the company to take a few moments to review the questions that are already submitted.

38:23 I'd like to remind you that a recording of this presentation, along with a copy of the slides and the published Q and A, can be accessed via your Investor Me company dashboard. And of course, you'll receive an e mail notifying you when they're ready for you to review. 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 for the opportunity to provide feedback in order that the company can better understand your views and expectations and very much encourage you to do that. Harvey, Rick, I know I haven't given you a great deal of time to look at the Q and A, but perhaps I could ask you, if you'd be so kind, to click on the Q and A tab, start at the top. If I could ask you to read out the question and who it's from, and where appropriate, of course, a response, and then I'll pick up from you at the end. Thanks. Thanks very much, Mark. I I think there are Harvey, there are some there are some questions around the kind of the commercial market, but there's a there's a few more specific questions that I may be able to deal with first, and then I'll pass pass on to you. So there's there's some in terms of the transaction, I think a couple of the features that that we've been asked about. So is there a lock in period for the shares issued to the beyond shareholders?

39:31 And the answer is yes. The the the the selling shareholders are locked in for a twenty four month period or a two year period hard lock in, and then a two year orderly market period after that hard lock in. The consideration there there is no contingent consideration or or earn out mechanism on the deal. In part, that's because we see I think Harvey talked about the opportunity that we see to drive the increased commercialization and how we drive the cross sell. Actually, we think it we think we've hit the optimum structure in terms of the way that the deal is structured. So so those are the questions that I think we've had around the the Beyond acquisition itself.

40:22 There was a there are a series of questions around our project funding model and whether there are any capacity constraints. And and I think my response to that is, you know, actually, there are a number there are a number of finance partners who are either, you know, are either working in the energy efficiency sphere or or in essence, we're working with asset in the asset financing sphere, who have a a strong appetite for the kind of projects that we are delivering. And that is very much the case in The UK market, so there is no real capacity constraint there. And within the Irish market, I think we announced separately in August that we had signed a committed facility with Susie who are a Swiss based energy efficiency investor.

41:11 And that 15,000,000 initial €15,000,000 facility with Susie, you know, secures the business that we will write in Ireland for the for the next two years. So from a project financing aspect, we do not have any capacity constraints in the business. Harvey, I don't know if there's anything that you want to add around the project financing. Sure. Yeah. I mean, I think what we demonstrated with Susie was the efficiencies in working with a committed facility. We've had a number of approaches and we have a number of ongoing dialogue discussions with funders for The UK market who expressed interest in working with us to create a GBP 50,000,000 to GBP 100,000,000 energy efficiency fund that will enable us to secure out a very firm trajectory for our three year plan.

42:10 Now I think that will now become a focus now that we've done beyond. Rick and I will be working with our other board members who have got experience in the debt and, I guess, debt and asset funding market to accelerate those conversations with the view that we will seek a partner in 2021 to be able to, you know, align ourselves with a more consistent and easier and more efficient kind of funding solution. A number of other questions here I think I can answer. There's one around potential acquisition targets and what type. So I think I've alluded to the fact that we have, obviously, a desire to leverage the platform at Beyond. Clearly, have to balance bedding in our first major acquisition. We've been extremely successful in bedding in RSL.

43:03 That that acquisition that we made in the summer has been fully integrated. The team are not only performing above target, but we're seeing synergies that we haven't expected in in other areas. So for example, you know, the team has a strong experience on the technologies that is helping us develop, you know, future products and services. So that has been fully integrated and there is, you know, a great trajectory for that growth. With Beyond, we will be focused around making sure that we've embedded in, you know, the the key hundred day plan. But we do have an aspiration for other acquisitions. I think there will be at least one acquisition that we will look to accelerate around the engine management space, which has definitely got our attention. And we will also be looking at the the metering and monitoring space.

44:02 There's a question around estimated start date for other software services to start. It's a little bit, difficult to answer. I would like to think that we will be, assessing assessing our ability to roll in, other SaaS services in 2021, but it's probably not going to be until, the end of our financial year. I think the first the first six months of the calendar year, which is our second half, we're very focused around these growth initiatives that I've talked about in the presentation. We have a question here on using licensed contractors. So I think this refers to, you know, the business model around how would we roll out the SME, eLite app. It's a very, very important point.

44:52 So we spent the last two years working with a framework of contractors that provide us with, essentially, a consistent service offering to our customers for projects that we originate. So we have, you know, over 250 qualified electricians that have been trained within the framework agreement under 10 partnership, arrangements. They are liveried, in eLIGHT. They are trained through the EAASADEMY Center in various Edmonds, and that has proven to really, fine tune our service offering. And, clearly, as we expand into other areas, that will be one of the key areas of attention. So we are we are fortunate to have had, you know, thousands of on-site experiences from which to create a a series of best practices, But we will not be looking to, in any way, erode the high quality service offering that we have through through, you know, an obsessive growth strategy.

45:57 So we'll be keeping that in mind. There's a question around competitors for EENERGY PLC Beyond. Clearly, the energy management sector is a competitive market. There are over 4,000 energy brokers in The UK. So, I would say that the main competitors for Beyond are are probably those that have, similar technology, focused offerings. You you I think you could probably say Inspired Energy is, probably one of the main competitors given that they have, you know, recently completed the acquisition of Ignite, which offers additional services outside of procurement. But I think with our focus on net zero from a genuine position of energy efficiency, I think we stand out very differently.

46:48 So hopefully, answers that question. Thanks, Harvey. I think the there was another thread of questions which are really around are we going to continue to attend investor briefings and update the market? Yeah, clearly, we we are committed to engaging with existing investors and potential investors. So yes, we will be continuing to attend forums such as this to provide updates on our performance to investors. There was also a specific question relating to do we expect to be listing on any other exchanges?

47:42 I think our view our view at the moment is that the AIM market and the London market in general provides the access to the capital that we require. So we would not expect to to list on a a more diversified range of of exchanges at this point. Perfect. Harvey, Rick, I think, obviously, I'm just monitoring the questions as they've come in. And I think you've probably taken all, if not all of the questions that have come in. And to investors, if we have missed any or any come in between now and the close, obviously, we'll make those available for the company to review. Perhaps, Harvey, I could just ask you for a few words to wrap up. I know investor feedback is important, and we will be redirecting investors to provide feedback. But perhaps just a few closing remarks, that would be brilliant.

48:33 Sure. Look, I think it's worth reflecting on 2020 as a generally challenging market. I think the fact that we have achieved what we've achieved in 2020 as a result of our core business demonstrates the market opportunity that is unfolding as a result of increasing pressure by everybody, both in public sector and private organizations, to reduce their carbon footprint. The fact that we are established and have built a strong reputation, I think, puts us in a phenomenal position for us to grow going forward. And I think the recent acquisition that we concluded has the additional quality of earnings to stabilize and smooth out our incredibly fast growing revenue growth. So we think this is a really exciting market.

49:25 All the drivers that we could imagine are present. And I think we've got a very strong team from which to capitalize future growth on. That's brilliant. Thank you very much indeed to both Harvey and Rick for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as you'll now be automatically redirected for the opportunity to provide feedback? If you, connected to this session via our website, then the form will immediately appear. However, if you access this meeting from the link sent to you by email, then you'll simply be asked to log back in to provide your feedback. We'd very much welcome, you to provide your views to the company. On behalf of the management team of EENERGY GROUP PLC, we'd like to thank you very much for attending today's presentation. That now concludes today's session. Good afternoon to you all.