Eenergy Group (LSE:EAAS) — Post AGM Presentation

0:01 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the EENERGY PLC Post AGM Investor Presentation. Throughout this presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged. They can be submitted at any time using the Q and A tab situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Just simply please type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question received during today's meeting. However, the company will review 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'll notify you by email when they

0:32 are ready for your review. I would also like to remind you that this presentation and meeting is being recorded. Before we begin, we'd like to submit the following poll. And if you would give that your kind attention, I'm sure the company would be most grateful. And I'd now like to hand over to Rick Williams, CFO and Harvey Sinclair, CEO from EENERGY GROUP. Good afternoon to you both. Good afternoon. So we are really thrilled with the progress the business has made over the last twelve months. And as you'll have seen from our results, we delivered what we said we would set out to deliver when we came to the market January 2020. Summary, we've seen strong organic growth coming out of the business of over 75% year on year.

1:19 And in total, taking into account the acquisition growth, we've seen a 200% revenue growth from last year. So we are seeing strong tailwinds in our sector where our services are being adopted by our customers at the pace which we expected. We're seeing really interesting cross sell opportunities coming through from our recently secured acquisitions. And I think we're seeing for the first time, you know, the the net zero agenda finally getting traction within the market at a pace where it's starting to really accelerate our growth. We're seeing 41% growth in the as a service market, which is evidence that the as a service business model is starting to really disrupt the energy market across The UK and Europe.

2:11 And as you can see from the research that we're we're following, there's huge evidence to back this up. So four acquisitions since we floated in the market. Those acquisitions are being integrated. Some have been fully integrated. So RSL Lighting Solutions has been fully integrated since our acquisition in the summer of twenty twenty, and that has helped us expand our position in the public schools market in the multi category trust. We've seen huge traction there with multisite opportunities being now in our pipeline having secured initial projects last year. Our pipeline

2:55 for future growth has been accelerating over the last three months. And in fact, we've we've acquired more opportunities since the beginning of this financial financial year in the education sector than we have done in the last twelve months. This is evidence of the the client base and the events market coming to life again and and the the huge, I guess, traction we've made in the education sector where we're starting to pick up multichannel acquisition results as a result of everything we've done over the last two years. Just on a pro form a basis, approximately 55% of our annualized revenue comes from our energy efficiency business and 45% from our energy management business. And as you'll have seen, our largest, most recent acquisition, utility team, which was secured in September, is starting to begin the integration process that we're starting with Beyond.

3:55 And we expect that the two companies will be fully integrated over the next six months.

4:03 I think it's worth just recapping for our audience the structure of the organization now. We, as a result of the acquisition of utility team, have Lane, who is our MD of the energy management division. Delvin has over twenty five years experience in the energy services sector, previously chief operating officer of EENESCO, and previous to that, MD of Centrica's energy management, the energy services business. So a really strong commercial leader who's taken over both the Beyond and the e d utility team energy management division. Simon Smith, who recently joined, was the ex group sales and marketing director on the XCO of EENERGY and comes again from a huge huge number of relevant roles in in in previous sectors such as energy management, procurement as a service. So a broad set of experiences that enable him to be well positioned to run the energy efficiency business.

5:10 Underneath those two direct reports sit our sort of, if you like, divisional directors, the MyZero platform, which is operating across both both businesses. And then we have our c suite that is supporting on growth strategy, integration, m and a, and and corporate development activity.

5:35 Just moving on to our summary of the brands that we have. So the I guess the brand strategy is to move our customer facing proposition to an eenergy.com customer facing brand. At the moment, we have a very strong brand in MyZero, which is starting to really, really gain traction as a product brand. But what we have established is the need to talk to our customers in a simple simple single message that allows them to see a single proposition, a one stop shop, if you like, of services that can deliver a net zero solution using capital free solutions.

6:23 And so the goal is that we will be, I guess, launching the eenergy.com brand officially in in in q three, which is calendar q one between February and March that that allows us to bring together the synergies of both Beyond and Utility team under a single brand that allows us to be seen as a leader in the market, top five energy management player, where we're we're delivering services within that proposition. E Lite will continue to be light as a service proposition, but but but, I guess, positioned as part of energy efficiency as a service under the EENERGY brand. So streamlining our cost customer acquisition strategy will save huge amount of resource in in amalgamating our four current lead gen teams in one location in London, and then our regional teams working out of the EENERGY brand across multiple sectors and multiple customer bases.

7:29 Clearly, a transformational year. Having acquired four businesses, we've had lots of integration, I guess, works work streams to deliver on. I'm pleased to say that that integration has gone really well. I think we've demonstrated that we've been maintaining the organic growth that we had expected in a in a tough climate where half the year was caught up in a pandemic. I think we've been able to demonstrate significant appetite for cross selling, you know, with our core key accounts that we've acquired through the energy management division who have all shown strong appetite for downstream energy efficiency solutions. And the launch of myZero as a new brand has been well received, and we've already signed our first stand alone contract for myZero having only officially launched it thirty days ago.

8:21 So I'm really pleased with that, if you like, progress that we've made since IPO at an operating level. I'll hand over to Rick so we can talk more about the split of revenues and the financials. Thanks, Harvey. I'm very conscious that we presented the results for the full year FY 'twenty one only six weeks ago on Investor Meets Company. So I'll cover this at a fairly high level. If you've heard it before, please accept my apologies. I think in terms of the group as we stand today, reflecting the acquisition of Utility team, I think what I think Harvey's touched on it already. We are 55% of our revenue is coming from energy efficiency. 45% is coming from energy management, which is is clearly a big shift from where we were in the prior year and reflects kind of the the the targets that we set ourselves in terms of the in terms of our strategy.

9:19 Geographically, we are split. We were in the prior year fifty-fifty, UK and Ireland. The growth in The UK has been significantly stronger. The acquisitions that we have made have been in The UK. And so today, on that pro form a basis, roughly oneseven of the business is in Ireland and sixseven or is

9:43 in The UK. And then in terms of the sector split, we've talked previously about the focus that we had on education and the very deliberate step that we made to focus our light as a service proposition on the education market. Actually, on a pro form a basis, we are much more balanced. Education is still our most significant sector, but we've got a good footprint in the public sector and in health care and more balanced portfolio of commercial and industrial opportunities, which I think as we look at the sort of if indeed we are in post COVID, but, you know, as post COVID recovery, I think puts us in a in a good place. So that's kind of how the the group shapes up today.

10:29 Harvey, do wanna talk about the strategy? Sure. Some of you may have seen this, if you like, infographic before. But, essentially, as you can see, we've got two divisions, and those two divisions are working very very closely closely together essentially through a shared data analytics platform that is being rolled out to our energy management customers on the premise that any customer that is currently buying Brown Energy, in our view, should be actively or or or in process of considering a green sustainable energy source. So EENERGY's number one, if you like, priority is to ensure that our customers can see see and understand the value of switching from brand to green energy through utilization of our zero carbon marketplace, our e auction platform, delivering best price within that environment and the transparent selection of products of of the sustainable energy sources that are available to them alongside the risk profile that matches their needs.

11:41 We run a lot of very, very complex customers who have very complex energy requirements and very high volumes. So our our number one goal is to transition all our customers to to green sustainable energy sources. The second objective is to ensure that their contracts are are being managed efficiently and that they are able to optimize their supply of energy in a way which is efficient and and generally the most cost cost cost efficient way for their for their operating platforms. At the heart of energy management is the provision of in building data. This is a disruptive service we are now able to offer through the MyZero platform, which we've started to engage with our customers having launched the the platform this month, which allows our customers who are accessing our procurement services

12:39 to access their in building consumption data through the utilization of our platform using a subscription model. So what does that really mean? On average, most buildings waste between 3040% of their energy through through the way in which their buildings are run or through inefficient technologies or through what we call the energy leaky bucket. And by getting access to where their consumption is being consumed and therefore where their energy waste exists, they're able to do zero cost actions that enable at least a 10% reduction in their overall consumption. Having also accessed their in building data, our customers are then able to access energy efficiency, if you like, solutions through our demand side reduction division, which is reducing spend through as a service, and using the metering to align performance, which means that we can be wed to performance contracts as well, which means that the customers are more likely to adopt energy efficiency measures if there can be a level of accountability to the savings.

13:51 And then finally, the energy management division provides consultancy and data insights intelligence is available from the raw data that we're providing our customers. So that suite of services is a combination of the best of both services that Beyond and Utility team offer and and the addition of our MyZero IoT data data analytics platform. And we'll talk a little bit more about the the analytics platform in a while, but it really is one of the, if you like, I guess, unique differentiators of the energy proposition in that part of the market. On the energy efficiency as a service side, we always lead with lighting. So we have a market leading light as a service

14:39 solutions provider in Elight, which is part of the EENERGY energy efficiency proposition. Lighting is always the first measure that a building operator or owner should deploy because of all the soft benefits that lighting in addition to the energy savings and carbon footprint reduction. And then we are very focused now on providing our customers with energy optimization. And what we mean by that is managing managing the assets, the energy consuming assets in a property more efficiently over ripping stuff out and retrofitting new technology. So most of our customers have a fear of operational disruption. And what we're finding is that there is a 20% energy reduction prize, if you like, to win with customers by optimizing their building portfolios.

15:33 That's typically with IoT and controls and integrated building management solutions. And through the tracking and measurement and accountability that our smart metering platform can deliver, enables us to engage with our customers on a share of savings model. And typically, our customers will retain 30% of the savings that we enable in a project on the basis that they're not deploying their own capital. And then finally, one of the most exciting parts of the growth opportunity, I think, going forward will be EENERGY's move into renewables. And and and renewables also capture the the opportunity with EV charging. So we're currently in the process of, you know, advancing a joint venture partnership with two very established service providers in both the solar space and the EV space that will allow us the opportunity to enter this market leveraging our customers without deploying, you know, balance sheet capital on building up a new business. It allows us to enter the market quickly, leverage our existing customers, and take a attractive share of economics for deploying solar solutions to our customers across both the education and the commercial industrial sector and start deploying EV solutions as part of a ChargePoint operating network, if you like, business plan that we are developing.

17:01 And whilst that's in incubation, the the the feedback from our existing customers has been extremely positive about the demand of those services that they're looking for us to provide them.

17:15 So I think look. Just just moving on to the 2.4 slide, which is really talking about the smart meeting. There is a huge, huge opportunity for our our group to leverage our existing customer base in probably the most disruptive product and service that we've got in our in our sort of armory of of solutions. Having spoken to our top customers and attended events over the last three months, the overriding demand in the market right now is for effectively accessing energy energy data and energy wastage opportunities. And we think our new MyZero platform is gonna capture that opportunity and and really provide us with potentially future monthly recurring revenue streams as we start to scale, you know, that platform across all of our customers.

18:18 The the next slide brings to life how our services are translated to a customer. So on slide 2.5, you'll see that we've got a what we call, carbon waterfall. This is a a current customer of ours that we engaged with a new customer that we engaged with in April. It has a £3,000,000 a year annual energy spend. They were previously procuring Brown Energy,

18:47 and we've we've outlined a carbon waterfall for this customer that they embraced from day one. And on the right, you'll see the the downstream revenue opportunity for the EENERGY business. The corresponding value proposition to the customer is significantly more, but I'm talking really about the the the, if you like, the share of energy savings that we're able to capture and demonstrate that our multiple revenue streams that we're now able to capture are now possible having having, if you like, pulled together this service proposition that we now have since IPO. So we've we've locked this customer into a, effectively, a consultancy agreement, which is a retainer to drive that business from Brown to Green Energy using our platform.

19:38 We've then engaged with this customer using our platform for smart metering, and then we've delivered reduction solutions through light as a service. So you you can see that the first phase of, if you like, solutions that we provided, which we delivered over a three month period, has captured just over a million pounds worth of net revenue to EENERGY. We've then had the opportunity to go back to this customer having recalibrated their, if you like, revised energy consumption using the metering platform. And we've now gone to a proposal where we will optimize all of their buildings using IoT and controls to get a further 20% reduction on their spend. And in fact, that contract size is now estimated to be 750,000, far more than we had originally established.

20:32 And then finally, the customers asked us to evaluate the on-site generation opportunity, which we think is in excess of 500,000. So it's like in the old world of what would a customer be worth to, to, let's say, a Beyond or utility team, 500,000 over a ten year period. In the new world where we're all able to capture their journey to net zero, satisfying all the customers' requirements, and at the same time releasing somewhere in excess of £6,000,000 over ten years of energy savings equated to a minimum of 20% of their 3,000,000 spend at the low end and an aspirational 30% of their spend reduction means that their opportunity for energy savings are between 6 and 9,000,000 over the ten year period, and we are capturing in excess of £2,500,000 worth of net revenue on that journey.

21:26 So I think it just brings to life, this slide, the downstream revenue opportunities that we have with our customers as a result of deploying energy as a service through the EENERGY strategy.

21:44 There are lots of drivers in our business. Some are market and macro drivers, and some are internal, what I would call, integration synergies and efficiency drivers. There's a tailwind for customers in the market, public sector or commercial industrial, to move to a green supply of energy. That is a that is an open door that we are walking through at the moment, and we're capturing huge market share by being positioned as a sustainable green procurement platform provider. There is a huge demand for energy data. Customers now realize that if they haven't got the data and intelligence on where they're consuming and how they're wasting their energy, it's very, very difficult, almost impossible for them to deploy a net zero strategy on reducing their demand.

22:32 We We are looking at disrupting our our procurement business through the energy management as a service business model, and we're using data insights and the MyZero platform to drive effectively long term revenue streams for our business. We're looking at digitizing our overall energy proposition, and we want EENERGY to be seen as the digital energy services brand. It's very much part of our core focus, how we can be positioned as a brand, which is innovative, creative, forward thinking, and at the sort of forefront of innovation when it comes to using finance to unlock energy efficiency savings and to deliver clean renewable solutions.

23:18 One of the big drivers is obviously leveraging our existing customer base. One of the key rationale drivers of this buy and build story was to acquire as many customers as we could leverage those customers for those multiple downstream revenue opportunities. Clearly, we're working hard on efficiencies. And whilst this isn't a cost cutting buy and build investment thesis, there are some interesting efficiencies and scale to achieve through optimizing our processing platforms, our data gathering platforms, and our reporting platforms. And then finally,

23:53 there is, without doubt, a, you know, once in a lifetime opportunity from a from an economic perspective to capture huge market share of of the renewable, green revolution that exists with solar and now EV solutions that are starting to be adopted through the transition of, you know, both high electricity costs and people's desire for electric vehicles.

24:21 Back to you, Rick. Yeah. As I as I said previously, I'm conscious that we have presented the FY '21 results before, so I'll I'll I'll keep this at a relatively high level. Yes. I think as Harvey's described, FY 'twenty one, the year to June 'twenty one was a transformational year for us. We've seen substantial growth in our organic activity. It's 75% revenue increase. It is 69% increase in the number of projects that have completed and installed. So very pleased with the progress that we've made. We've strengthened that leadership position that we have in the market, and particularly in the education market with the acquisition of RSL and the integration of RSL into the business.

25:13 And I think in essence, it has been a very positive year for us, rounded off with the acquisition of utility team in September. So if I just focus on some of the highlights, our reported revenue is three times what it was in FY twenty at 13,600,000. And as I say, that's organic revenue of 75% growth. And that's come from both that increased number

25:44 of projects, but I think potentially more significantly, the increased average value in the projects that we are installing, which is what's driven that revenue growth and enabled us to report our profits, maiden profits in the year. As well as the increase in the top line, we've also been able to improve our gross margin in the core Light as a Service project delivery. And that's up three sixty basis points, which comes from a number of factors, but particularly the relationship that we have with our OEM provider in The UK, enabling us to have better pricing, better cost and translate that into the marketplace.

26:35 So that improved top line, the improved gross margin is what ultimately has driven our adjusted EBITDA of 800,000, which is, you know, is our is our maiden is our maiden profit and is the switch from 1,500,000 loss in the prior year and indeed the bottom line profit for exceptional items as well. I think a lot those key financial stats are focused on the organic business, the light as a service business. But actually, within the energy management business, we acquired Beyond in December. We've got just over six months of results within FY 'twenty one, but we've also seen substantial organic growth within the energy management business, too, a 9% increase in the number of meters that we have under management.

27:27 And then really thinking about, if you like, how that translates into our balance sheet position. I'm very pleased to report that we've ended the year, that we ended June with $800,000 of cash, net cash, after accounting for leases as debt, which is which is an, yeah, is an increase from the the net debt position that we had in the prior year. Now, where has that growth come from in terms of the revenue growth? Well, I think as I touched on earlier, as we talked about the pro form a, as I talked about the pro form a revenue, including utility team, we've seen growth in all of our markets. But in particular, we've seen that growth in The UK market, both in terms of RSL, but actually in terms of the existing eLite business and the significant growth that we've seen. Yeah. A 124% in eLite UK year on year.

28:28 So, yeah, that that that that's the driver for the growth. And how that's translated into the profit? Yeah, a lot of the additional the the move, the increase in our adjusted EBITDA is driven by that increased gross margin coming off the increased volume of and the increased revenue that we've seen. Yes. I said part of that is as a result of the relationship that we've got with Venture Lighting, who are our OEM manufacturer. We've also seen a benefit in Ireland by moving to a different funding structure with the facility, the committed facility that we have from Suzy Partners, which increases our share of has increased our share of the contract value. So we've we've chosen to reinvest some of that incremental profit back into the business in sales and marketing and operating operational cap capacity so that we can deliver the volumes of activity that we are seeing across the enlarged group.

29:33 So I think that that that's really all I was gonna say on on the FY twenty one results. Avi, should we just talk talk about the outlook? Sure. So I think there are a lot of drivers that we are focused on right now. I think, operationally, moving to a single brand, clarity of focus on our messaging, giving us a differentiated proposition, allows us to cut through the noise in what is increasingly a fragmented and crowded noisy net zero media at the moment and almost owning owning that net zero space for the mid market and public sector so so that we can become a trusted partner for our customers with an end to end solution that requires zero capital that gets them to achieve their goals.

30:26 I think probably the three exciting areas of growth are going to be the development of our smart metering platform as we build out our our kind of meters under management, whether that's the submeters under management, not main meters, and how we get a foothold within the emerging, very rapidly growing solar and EV space, and particularly the EV space with the opportunity to do that through a quick entry using a preferred partner on an exclusive basis with preferred pricing to be able to leverage platforms that already exist that allows us to leverage our end customers. So I see the macro trends continuing at a pace.

31:12 I think that we've established a broad and strong brand in EENERGY that can now be leveraged to a wider customer audience. I'm extremely excited about what twenty twenty twenty two is going to hold for the business. That's perfect. Thank you very much indeed to both Rick and Harvey for updating investors this afternoon. Mr. Shibam, please do continue to submit your questions using the Q and A tab situated on the right hand corner of your screen. But just while Rick and Harvey take a few moments to review those investor questions submitted already, 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 via your Investor Meet company dashboard. I'd also like to remind you that your feedback is important to the company. And immediately after this presentation has ended, we'll redirect you for the opportunity to provide feedback in order the company can better understand your views and expectations.

32:06 Rick Harvey, I haven't given you any time at all to look at the questions really that have come in from investors. But perhaps, if I may, if I could hand back to you and ask you to read through those questions and give a response where it's appropriate to do so. Sure. Okay. I'll tackle, I think, some of the the the really main ones here. Because the question, how do we capture value in a share of savings model, and do we get more as energy prices increase? So we have an historic business model with light as a service where payments are fixed to the customer. And in that scenario, our customers would benefit fully from the rise in energy prices. We always took the the view that it was important to do as much as we could for the customer whilst maintaining a healthy margin.

32:59 That said, in the energy efficiency as a service contracts, which are based on metered savings whereby we track on a share of savings basis, you know, their starting point of consumption to their end point of consumption. There is an opportunity where we do take more of an advantage on energy price increases because we are sharing in the upside, and we're obviously using the metering platform to validate that. So I I think it is important that we don't over overemphasize how we're benefiting from energy price increases because I think that feels like a misalignment to the customer. But everything we do is is transparent.

33:46 So our customers are very aware of how our business model works, and I think it's a win win for customer and service provider, and that's one of the benefits of energy as a service. The customer's derisking both finance, technical risk, and operating and maintenance risk through, you know, giving up, you know, the lion's share of the saving, but without any of the risk. Overview of our competitors. I'll I'll try and capture the the bands of competitors that exist because there are no real absolute direct competitors in the markets we serve with the service proposition that we are evolving. At a high level, we've got some very big infrastructure grade competitors in the likes of Ongee, NG Services.

34:37 SMS, for example, is is a competitor, but we very rarely find ourselves in fact, I I can't think of an example where we've coming into competition with SMS on a project because they are largely focused on much larger projects. And, also, their main meter, you know, domestic metering platform is obviously obviously in the b to c in the c to c space rather than the the b to b space. So I wouldn't consider there to be a direct them to be a direct competitor, but they are a company we follow and and think of them as a as a peer group comparable because their business business model, albeit focused on a different part of the market, is is not dissimilar to where we're headed.

35:24 We have competitors in the energy management space, clearly, like some inspired energy, who who are, you know, a consolidator of the energy brokerage market, who obviously have aspirations to move into the net zero space. We believe that we are different in that we are tackling the the the the net zeros the net zero kind of opportunity from a position of first principles, which is energy efficiency and using using procurement as a as a route to customer acquisition and ongoing ongoing dialogue with our customers. There are some interesting businesses that in America, for example, it's worth it's worth our investors looking at a company called Redaptive.

36:10 Redaptive are in the process of a of an IPO at the moment. They were of a similar size to where we are now only three or four years ago, and they they've they've now got an expected market cap of over 600,000,000. And they are an energy efficiency as a service business originated originating originally from lighting as a service moving into a broader EAAS proposition. And I think they're a very, very interesting comparable, and we're we're we're very excited to see them come to the market because it gives us much more transparency from a global position as we seek to sort of expand, you know, what we do and the horizons for how we're gonna do it. There's a question here on share price.

36:57 Yeah. I think we all share current frustration with the share price having come off in the last few weeks. I haven't got any evidence as to why that is. I don't think it's based on any any fundamentals. It's all, I think, driven by, you know, seller activity. I I don't think that focused in the short term about where the share price is. I'm thinking about, you know, the mid to long term, creating shareholder value, doing the right things. I don't want to react to, you know, where the share price is at the moment. I think it's an opportunity for investors to come in from what I would perceive to be a value proposition and and be here for the long term as we build long term value.

37:46 There's probably a question here for Rick on on the finances. Yeah. I think that there's a there's a specific question that's been asked as to what is the what is the market consensus for our revenues and for our profits. Yeah. We we are working to build a a broader research coverage of the business, which I think is as we have grown is becoming easier. But at the moment, the consensus for FY '22 is that we will that we'll have revenues of just just over over 26,000,000. So not almost doubling year on year. And that the EBITDA will be 4,500,000, the equivalent to 800,000 in FY 'twenty one.

38:35 So those are the numbers that that the board and I consider to be the consensus consensus at the moment. I think there is a is a question that's been asked about whether the school calendar has a bearing on when installations can be completed. In particular, do we have installations? Do we do them during term time? And I think the answer is there is a degree of seasonality. But I think one of the things that we've seen is partially as a result of lockdown is a recognition that lighting projects in particular are not particularly disruptive and they can be installed evenings and weekends.

39:20 And so that the schools don't need to wait for the holidays in the in the way they have may have may have historically done so for sort of capital projects. So I think there there is definitely a degree of seasonality, but it isn't, yeah, it isn't really constraining what we do. And our delivery model is actually geared up to, you know, is geared up so that we can accommodate those peaks where they occur because we use a network of eLIGHT liveried partner installers across The UK and Ireland. So it isn't a particular constraint for us, but it is a degree of seasonality that we do see. I think the Harvey, there's a there's a question around the the solar strategy. I think that you may want to that you might want to just comment on that whether, yeah, whether it's an acquisition path that we're following or a partnership path and how the two might come together.

40:23 Yeah. That's a good question. I I think, clearly, we've done quite a lot of m and a activity in the last twelve months. I think our stock is undervalued. I think our business is undervalued based on our potential. I don't want to put the business through undue, if you like, m and a distractions right now whilst we've got, you know, quite a lot of growth opportunities to deliver internally. That said, the opportunity with solar is enormous. I think the the ideal scenario for us would be to continue on our partnership journey where we are building a relationship with a company which we we we we can believe in to support our values.

41:11 And and then, I guess, deliver proof of concept that we can leverage our customers in a in a in meaningful, scalable way to then validate the opportunity for us to do some form of m and a activity through either that or another, you know, solar acquisition opportunity. I think the the growth in this market is is is very significant, and I think that we should be expecting to capture a big chunk of that. So I think our phase one approach is through partnership, which is low risk, gets us in the market quickly, and doesn't distract us. And I think as we prove that opportunity, then I think the the m and a opportunity becomes more relevant and more meaningful. So I wouldn't discount it for next year, but on the basis that we can demonstrate traction in our existing thing, and I just think kind of if you have forecasts, then that would be a supportive and accretive acquisition I think shareholders would support us doing.

42:16 I think also the same applies for EV EV charging. You know, acquiring a business in this space would come at a massive premium that I wouldn't wouldn't be able to, think, justify. And I think there is there is a very wide open opportunity for many players to grab in their various niches stakeholding with a good brand. And so, you know, we have every intention to launch eCharge in early next year, and we think that based on current customer feedback, we'll we'll be able to get some quite quick traction. And I think once you've got that traction, I think there then is the opportunity to make an investment case on investing in that business, either through people or through, effectively, channel marketing to better drive scale.

43:10 There is a question here about, obviously, is it disappointing that Matt Savile sold shares following his sort of look out of the RSL earn out period. Look. Matt Matt is a 100% committed to our business. He was the MD of RSL. He did sell a big chunk of his shares. Matt hadn't had a liquidity event in his life before, so it was an important personal event that satisfied a lot of his own kind of financial objectives. He's on part of an LTIP. He has every he's delivering a phenomenal job for the business. He has achieved more than more than was expected of him, and he continues to add huge amounts of value in the group. And he really is at the center of our education strategy, and he's very much part of the big senior team. So I don't think it is disappointing. I think it's part of what we as a buy and build story should expect. You know, we are offering our vendors or rather the principles of our of our vendor acquisition targets, you know, that flexibility.

44:20 And I think that is what that's what the market should be able to support in a measured way. It was it was an orderly transaction. So So I think, yeah, he's very happy. He's even more committed than he was before. There's a question here about how many, like, as a service customers have we switched to a subscription model? So we've done somewhere between eleven hundred and twelve hundred projects, which is far more light as a service projects than any other operator I'm aware of across UK and Ireland. You know, we we, at the moment, have a 100 proposals under consideration for the next well, for this quarter as we go through the the the transition from assessment through to specification and proposal.

45:12 So it gives you an example of the pace at which we are moving now. And to put that into context, over the last three months, we've acquired nearly 500 school opportunities from our various multichannel activities, and that's more that's more school engagement that we've had in a year. So I would I would think that really strongly supports the the strong tailwind that we're seeing in the market. I think, Harvey, there's a follow on question, which isn't on this the sheet that you've got there, but it was about, you know, we recognize the revenue for our light as a service contracts up front. And the model that we've historically adopted is that we we then assign or sell those contracts to our funding partners. So the revenue and the cash is recorded up front effectively on installation.

46:02 The question is to what extent are we taking in a subscription based service into those customers? And I think as I look at it at the it is likely that we will keep lighting on that basis. It's a fairly simple product. But as we move to an increasingly towards the share of savings model, that's where we see us sharing in those recurring revenues over time. And of course, the energy management business, both in terms of the current proposition and how that evolves with the deployment of myZero into the energy management client base is a recurring revenue subscription based model. So the balance will change through the course of this year.

46:49 The ability to have the ability to realize the value from those project installations has been a key part of our working capital management to date, and it will feature as a part of the business going forward, but the emphasis will reduce over time. Yeah. And, look, my my vision is that we will build long term monthly recurring revenues from providing data from our meeting platforms and that we will have a new revenue line. We are not forecasting at the moment because we want to improve traction and improve adoption. But my vision is that we are moving towards a digitized energy data subscription model where our customers are paying for access of their data, which they can do either zero act zero cost action measures, or they can deploy energy conservation measures with us or with someone else, hopefully with us, that enables us to build a much, much more valuable, highly highly valuable long term recurring revenue stream.

47:53 As as Rick said, as we move to share of savings, that share of savings will provide us with long term annuity revenues over a ten year window. And we think that that balanced with our cash flow positive light as a service model where we see ourselves sell our contracts and release that gross margin on day one balances really nicely with a long term current revenue stream. The EV model would also be on a recurring utilization revenue model as well. So we will start being able to attribute a valuation to our business based on how many EV points we have in our network, how many meters we have in our network, and and I think that we'll see a transformational valuation profile in the long term for our business. And that's that's what's driving driving our focus. There's also a question here about the need to improve our digital profile.

48:49 I couldn't agree with you more. We we we we have never, to date, had the resources, time, or or really the focus on building out a digital brand. We've you know, we were originally an organically growing, privately owned business focused on winning customers on a direct to customer model. We've spent a lot of time assembling the component parts of our group, which we now have. Now is the time to focus, and it has got everyone on the c suite's focus, how we become a digital brand, how we leverage various multichannel platforms that exist, and how we set ourselves apart from what we see as being quite a traditional peer group of service providers and really start to, you know, create our own our own brand presence and tone of voice and and voice full stop in the net zero market.

49:46 Harvey, I think the last question that was asked is around what are we doing as EENERGY to reduce energy consumption, our carbon footprint, and then what are we doing to report to report on that? Obviously, So the the reporting kind of follows, but Yeah. Okay. It's a good question. So, look, we are doing a number of things. We are we are going through so beyond are going through a b corp application at the moment. We are we we're quite advanced through trying to finish off b corp certification, which we think would be a really key thing that we could then emulate across the group. We've we we we established in April of this year essentially a migration of all customer facing staff to an EV an EV solution. So I think we've transitioned over 50% of our internal combustion engines that were being used meet customers in and out electric vehicles on a subscription basis. So we are, you know, I guess, you know, walking the walk in terms of, you know, you know, engaging with other service providers on an as a service model.

51:00 We are looking at an initiative where we could see ourselves for example, planting a tree for every light installed is is is something I'm looking to make a business case for. We haven't been able to frame that in its entirety yet, but we're looking at a number of providers that could make that an attractive proposition. We're just working the numbers, but we are doing lots of things internally to to move move to removing our carbon emissions. Utility team have made a pledge that will they'll they'll have raised all of their carbon footprint by 2020 by 2030. Sorry. We have, you know, a obviously, multiple brands at the moment coming together under one roof, and each of them are at different stages of their own carbon footprint journey.

51:51 We're trying to consolidate that, and we're trying to have an aligned position so that we can we can talk more clearly about it probably by q one of next year. That's great. Harvey, thank you very much, and Rick, for all your responses. And thank you to all those investors that have taken the time this afternoon to submit the questions. Rick, Harvey, I know investor feedback is important to you guys, and we'll shortly redirect investors to give you their thoughts and expectations. But perhaps before doing so, if I may, Harvey, just ask you for a few closing comments just to wrap up with, and then I'll redirect investors. Sure. And we've talked a lot about net zero. It's becoming a crowded it's a crowded space and a crowded world, and think there is an opportunity to own it in the sectors we are focused on.

52:39 COP twenty six demonstrated how much attention the world has got on companies meeting their obligations. We've never been in a better place to address the opportunity that exists in the market right now, And I think we're setting ourselves apart as a different, very innovative digital disruptor in the energy services space. And I think that the opportunity for growth is enormous. Harvey, that's absolutely fantastic. And thank you once again to Rick as well for both of you up for updating investors this afternoon. Can I please ask investors not to close this session as we'll now automatically redirect you for the opportunity to provide your feedback in order the management team can better understand your views and expectations? This will only take a few moments to complete, but I'm sure it will be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of EENERGY GROUP, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That now concludes today's session. Good afternoon to you all.