Good Energy Group (GOOD) — Interim Results to 30 June 2024

0:01 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the GOOD ENERGY GROUP PLC interim results investor presentation. Situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Please just simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. However, the company can review all questions submitted today, and we'll publish those responses where it's appropriate to do so. Before we

0:31 begin, as usual, we would just like to submit the following poll. And if you could give that your kind attention, I'm sure the company would be most grateful. And I would now like to hand you over to the executive management team from GOOD ENERGY, Nigel Rupert. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Jake. Thank you very much. I should sort of introduce us as part of the executive management team of GOOD ENERGY. Our colleague, Fran Woodward, isn't with us today. But for those of you who are new to these meetings, I'm Nigel Poppington. I'm the company's chief executive, and I'm joined by Rupert Somersen, our CFO. Hello, everybody. Right. So this is a presentation just to summarize our results for the first six months of the calendar year and update shareholders as to the progress in the transformation of GOOD ENERGY that is under... Been underway for the last couple of years. I don't normally linger on the title page, but I think it's worth it on this occasion.

1:24 That is actually a GOOD ENERGY installation team at work in GOOD ENERGY branded equipment. So they're from GOOD ENERGY Solar, and they're installing solar panels on the roof of the Sea Life Center in Great Yarmouth. And I think a very good visual image really of the transformation and the nature of our business over the last couple of years and the type of customer who we are now attracting. So in terms of what to expect after a couple of summary thoughts from me, I'm gonna hand over to Rupert, and then I will take up the reins again and give you an update as to our strategic progress. The whole presentation has fewer than 20 slides in it, so that should therefore allow plenty of time at the end of the meeting for q and a. And as usual, you can leave questions on the tab on the side of the screen.

2:18 So a couple of overall or summary thoughts. First of which, frankly, is I want to stress the significant change in the nature of GOOD ENERGY's business over the last couple of years. So after the sale of our generation assets in early twenty twenty two, we have transformed and strengthened our balance sheet with additional cash to invest, has been supplemented by a vendor placing, And the business is in a very different shape to the one that it was in three or so years ago. Really, have four areas of the business now. Firstly, we remain a supplier of a 100% renewable electricity and a green gas proposition. We are one of the very few suppliers derogated from the price stack... Price cap in The UK because of our direct support for over two and a half thousand small generators who provide the power which we bring to the retail market. We are widely regarded by a lot of third party gradations as offering both a very green product, you know, three times Witch Magazine's eco supplier of the year in The UK, but also by Trustpilot is offering five star customer service. So we have a distinctive and niche supply proposition, which is popular with green motivated consumers and businesses.

3:41 Whilst I would freely accept that we are a niche operator in the supply market, we are a significant player in the world of microgeneration. We are... We reached more than a 180,000 customers in this area, either through our administration of feed in tariff scheme or through our success... Or through the successor schemes, which we support for people who didn't qualify for FIT. In general, whilst we have a very small market share in supply terms, we speak for about a fifth of The UK's micro generators.

4:12 We are fast growing an installation services capability, which at the moment covers the South Of England, and we are focusing on installing a premium quality solar storage, heat, and potentially even EV charging proposition really across the South with aspirations to keep growing that business. That business very much faces into both a significant trend in terms of consumer demand and increasingly in terms of government policy in The UK. And then lastly, through our investment in ZapMap and other products innovation, we are a significant supporter of the electrification of transport in The UK. So that is how to think about the business. How should we think about the first half of this year? I think there are three highlights I wanted to call out. The first is that Rupert will explain in a moment some of the year on year comparative issues with the first half of twenty twenty three. But 2024 remark...

5:12 Marks a return to some sort of normality and at least the seasonal profile of the business. I'd be the first to acknowledge that power prices are painfully stuck in a higher place than they were three or four years ago. But we have a less volatile and more normalized market in which we have made a strong and profitable start to the year, and the Board is very clear in reiterating the fact that the business is on track for our full year guidance. We've seen a significant expansion in our capabilities as an installer, mostly through the acquisition of JPS Renewables in Kent in the first three months of the year. And we are innovating both in terms of our work with the feed in tariff, but in subsequent products to cement the GOOD ENERGY's overall position as The UK's microgeneration champion.

6:02 So with that summary, I'll hand over to Rupert who can explain the first half financials. Thank you, Nigel. I wanted to start with just sort of a bit of context in terms of where the P and L result is for the first half of 'twenty four. And here, we've got the last twenty four months through the back end of 'twenty two through to the end of June of 'twenty four. Characterized certainly the eighteen months during 2022 and 2023, very volatile in terms of the geopolitical tensions and the energy crisis that The UK and a number of other countries endured.

6:48 And just in terms of sort of graphic here, there's two principal data points. The first is the blue bars represent a sort of average cost of input power and gas into our portfolio. And the yellow line is a representation of the sort of tariffs that we are charging to our customers. The picture here will be quite consistent with how other energy companies would have reported, particularly in the first half of twenty twenty three. But the lead up to that was that commodity prices were rising very sharply through the back end of twenty twenty two, and tariffs were taking some time to catch up with those very sharp rises in commodity costs.

7:33 The reverse then happened in the first half of twenty twenty three. And I think all energy companies in The UK would have reported quite similar results where the sort of margin expansion was quite significant as then commodity prices started to fall relatively sharply, but tariffs remained high. And then the third point is the conversation that I think I probably touched on in March when we did our full year results. The way in which we procure power and gas is generally over a sort of twelve month season. And the majority of those contracts are through sort of October to September. So particularly in Q3 of last year, we had the final tranche, so to speak, of those high priced power and gas contracts, but we had reduced our tariff significantly because we saw the competitive environment and we had the benefit of that first half. So the eighteen months preceding this period in question are quite unusual and a lot of extremes, a lot of volatility.

8:36 And as Nigel said, this first half of the year is much more normal. We have seen a greater stability between the commodity prices and the pricing environment out in the marketplace. So we'll move on. Thanks, Rupert. And again, just in terms of the context for this, so in Q1 of 'twenty four compared to the Q1 of 'twenty three, retail tariffs nearly half or at under half of where they were. So there's a very significant price movement. And we have had some reduction in the size of our commercial portfolio. Those two items combined have driven a near 40% reduction in turnover, but almost identically corresponding reduction in cost of sales.

9:23 And so it's in that more normal environment that we report gross profit and profitability for the first half of the year. And in reporting the profits for the first half of this year, they're a little over 75% of our full year profit in 2023. So as Nigel said, the majority of our profit being delivered in the first half of the year, we are expecting a second half of profitability, and therefore, we're maintaining our full year guidance today. This is a more simple representation, I think, than we've had in previous years. So the bridge of half one profits year on year. We touched on the volume reduction, particularly in the commercial segment, but the vast majority of the movement relates to that commodity and tariff normalization that we have seen in the first half of 'twenty four compared to the first half of 'twenty three.

10:22 On cash, we've had a very strong performance on cash. The business is cash generative, so about £6,000,000 worth of operating cash flow. And it is more comparable actually with full year 'twenty three than would appear from the page. A number of you again will remember in March, we talked about a buildup of credit balances, particularly within our domestic portfolio as those tariffs fell off quite sharply during the second half of 'twenty three. We increased the level of customer credit balances by nearly $7,000,000 in the second half of twenty twenty three. And then we have done what, again, we talked about in March, which was to actively return proactively return customers' credit balances where we felt that they were too high and they weren't going to be utilized by consumption in the future months. And so we've actually seen that customer credit balance fall back again by almost exactly as much as they went up in the second half of twenty twenty three.

11:23 Just in terms of the other things to call out, we have made the acquisition of JPS in the first half of the year, a purchase of £7,000,000 £5,000,000 funded by cash, a little over £2,000,000 funded by a vendor placing. And we've made a further investment into the ZapMat business, which Nigel will update performance on as we go through the presentation. And finally, just a consistent view of how we consider our capital allocation. So the business remains in very strong financial health with a small amount of debt. The company has got net cash at the end of June of GBP 34,000,000. We have again talked about seeking further opportunities, inorganic M and A opportunities to expand our Energy Services footprint and capabilities as well as invest in our own internal capabilities to support solar propositions.

12:28 And again, just in terms of the confidence in our full year outlook, we are making a 10% increase in our interim dividend, and we'll be making a payment of 1.1p per share. I'll hand back to Nigel. Thank you. Thank you, Rupert. So that's a summary of the first half financials in a more normal profile for an energy company, although a bit the comparison to 2023 still distorted by the gas price crisis of the last few years. Strategically, how are we doing? Well, if you have been following our story, you will know that our central strategy is that we are investing to build a significant green energy services capability to sit alongside our renewable supply proposition because we see that as being both an important way of delivering on GOOD ENERGY's founding mission around decentralizing growth and helping people become their own power stations and clean power users, but also because we think there is a substantial business opportunity behind markets which are likely to grow structurally through the rest of the decade in The UK.

13:35 So it does start with, you know, what gave us our brand in the first place, which is our supply business. And it has been, I think, a positive first half of the year for us as a supplier. Just as a reminder to investors, we regard the supply business as something we can grow in a sustainable sort of mid single digit margin profitable way. But... And we run it to make sure that it is run-in a particularly stable way so that we've been able to navigate the last few years. Highlights here. Well, the first one is that the price cap regime, which had started in 2019, actually formally came to an end in 2023. The regulation government chose to then roll it on, pending decisions around where we're eventually going as a country. But it meant that GOOD ENERGY's derogation from the cap had to be reviewed by the regulator on an annual basis.

14:25 The regulator reviews our pricing practices and making sure that we are being clear with customers that they are taking on what is a differentiated and different products to the market norm and our direct support to renewable generators and green gas producers from those tariffs. And happy to say that after a detailed exchange with the regulator, they acknowledged and publicly said that we stuck by our side of the derogation bargain during that period. So we have a good stamp from the regulator that what we are doing is different to the market norm. It's not just the regulator, several trusted third party bodies continue to credit us with strong environmental performance, switch and u switch, and also high levels of customer service. That's our own customers accrediting us with that. We are one of only two suppliers with a five star rating on Trustpilot.

15:22 We've had that rating for most of the last year. There's been some innovation in this side of the business as well, particularly on the b to b side. So with the larger business customers who consume power often settled on a half hourly basis in their billing, we're able now to offer a matching product. So on an hourly basis, we can inform our larger customers the proportion of their consumption that is being matched then and there by renewables. We very much think that is a gold standard for linking tariffs to actual renewable generation, and that our argument would be that is now past the existing REGO system as a way of branding power as genuinely green power. And then we are continuing to push for further efficiency in this business. We have been operating two billing platforms, one for domestic and one for larger customers. We are consolidating down onto the single one Kraken project is underway now and should finish by the end of the year.

16:19 I think what has changed is that the policy environment we are working in is a changed one with the change in government in The UK. Some of the details or many of the details, I should say, are still to come out, but I think I read the early months of this government as being one that looks likely to be a, more stable and sensitive in terms of its treatment of energy policy and the central argument that renewables are part of the solution and not the problem for The UK's energy security and energy prices, but also that the policy agenda is one that should provide us with a helpful tailwind. There are some headlines there, which we've noticed over the last few weeks. Obviously, a lot of attention on the lifting of the de facto ban on onshore wind generation. We are looking to find more about what the government is going to do in terms of heat pump incentives and support for smaller scale solar generation.

17:13 They were gathering headlines a few weeks ago. We're talking about the need for a rooftop revolution, particularly in the Southeast, which they regard as a strategically important area for this. But certainly, if the government is gonna get anywhere near its 20, 30 green energy grid targets, we're going to need a substantial increase in the proportion of roofs carrying solar power. And obviously, we are active in both installation and ongoing services for that marketplace.

17:40 So if I remind shareholders of the overall proposition we're trying to develop in our services business, as a schematic of a... An estate agency, a business on the left and a home on the right there. In the business market, we are able now, I think, to bring quite a strong proposition to the marketplace, which is that we can install solar and, if desired, storage and electric vehicle charging. Solar power for businesses has a higher barrier to entry than domestic solar does. They are larger jobs which are inherently... Need greater attention to health and safety points. They need more complex work. The buyer is that much more sophisticated if it's some sort of facilities manager... Manager. So we're seeing a real sweet spot above 50 kilowatt and potentially even to a 100 kilowatt plus systems for businesses.

18:30 The second advantage we can bring there is that we are very experienced in buying exported power with small generators. So some of our newest customers are both installing with us and then selling their exports to us as well. So we are seeing increased interest in commercial business energy services to complement the home proposition, which we have. We've talked about this on a couple of occasions now around our ability to provide both electric vehicle, solar storage and heat propositions along with ongoing maintenance, export and import services.

19:03 We are increasingly seeing customers becoming interested in our whole home capability. So coming to us for heat, but then also installing solar at the time or getting an EV, then installing solar at the same time, to something that is, I think, a very positive development for us. Here are a couple of examples, which I'll bring to life in a few moments with the video, but you can see here both on the business and the commercial on the domestic side, couple of real examples. So Big Head are a manufacturer of fasteners for the clothing industry largely.

19:36 They came to us through word-of-mouth to do a solar installation on their business park facility. We've done that. They're very happy with the bill savings they're getting. And, actually, they are now also a customer of ours for both energy supply and exporting any spare energy that they make. So they are big proponents of their payback they're getting from solar. Nicholas is a domestic consumer. He's actually a self build consumer and started the conversation with us on a heat pump, landed up doing a whole home job including solar and storage and has an ongoing relationship with us for us for supply and export.

20:15 So, obviously, they're they're kind of premium examples, but we're expecting to see a bit more of this, which will, I think, have an economic advantage for us over the next year or so. There's some data there on the slide in terms of what we've seen so far this year. So we're seeing that GOOD ENERGY's existing customer base, particularly in supply and fit, are a reasonable source of leads for further solar installations. About 18% of our solar installation sales have come from our existing customer base. We are seeing that solar installed customers are buying heat pumps as well now. It's about a one in 10 addition there. And the 20% of our solar installed customers have taken a service from us, so they are coming to us to buy their export power, for example, or coming on supply with us. So if I now hand it to you, Jake, there's a couple of videos which just bring these stories to life.

21:08 I think it's a no brainer once you install it. You don't hear it. You don't see it. It works. It's just going on in the background, reducing your energy bills, improving the planet. What's not to like? I'm Matt Stevens, managing director of Big Head, and we make special fasteners for composite materials. I mean, solar energy is one of the cleanest sources of electricity I can imagine, and it's so simple. The solar team at GOOD ENERGY have been very responsive. They understand the technology, and then they explain the technology really clearly to us because we're not the experts, they're the experts. The process was really easy. They came on-site, they did the survey, and they just made it simple. The GOOD ENERGY Solar team installed the solar array at the end of June twenty twenty three. And since that time, we've generated slightly over 20 megawatt hours of electricity.

22:02 We've saved over £4,000 in our electricity bills, which is fantastic. So we'd expect to save double that over twelve months. Yeah. I get a kick out of things that work well. Quality. So it's great when something... When a plan comes off, when a bit of engineering or design or technology solves a problem. I'm really worried about the climate crisis. It's real, and I think we need to stop exploiting nature and start looking after it. I think when you understand it emotionally, it's a very different level of understanding, and you really can't ignore it.

22:44 Installing solar is easy, it's good for business, and it's good for the planet. And I really can't think of a reason not to do it. So the first thing I did was I got solar panels and I thought right I need to get an air source heat pump. We definitely save money because of it as well. So I just say to people, you are doing it with your environment, but actually if things continue to be as volatile as they have been over the next few years, you're actually giving yourself a bit of protection. If you can afford to look at getting the panels, the battery, the heat pump in one go. Not only are you helping the environment, saving yourself money, are future proofing your household and who doesn't want to do that really?

23:45 Thank you, Jake. So a couple of videos to bring those examples to life there really of customers who we have worked with successfully in both the business and the domestic side of the business. So a lot of this sits on our ability to deploy new and exciting propositions that will particularly appeal to early adopter customers in these markets. And we've had, I think, a strong track record so far this year and an exciting pipeline still to come. So I would highlight our work for export customers, particularly fit customers. We remain the only supplier able to pay fit customers on the actual metered usage... Sorry, metered export that they provide for nearly all fit customers. That is a net gain in the payment they will receive from us. It's not necessarily that substantial for an individual, but for anyone who's got a portfolio of fit sites, it can become a meaningful amount of money, a very little additional work, just the work involved in switching fit sites to us.

24:46 We're also increasingly trying to work in the market for people who missed out on the fit scheme, and we are now confident we have the best export rate in the marketplace for people who actually install with us. So it is undoubtedly a loss leading rate, but we will pay up to 40p a kilowatt hour for exported electricity for somebody who has installed with us for the first year of their use of those panels. So some good innovation for exporters and solar customers. On the supply side, we continue to look for niche propositions that appeal to customers who are particularly environmentally aware or aware of adopting new technologies in the energy transition. We are signed and announced and about to go live with Riffle Energy, for example, which will allow people to pass own actual generating assets and then see some dividend effectively through reduced bills depending on the performance of those assets.

25:42 On the services side, we are one of the few players who actually monitors heat pumps after they go in, which means that we can offer individualized winter tips to consumers about how to use them at the most efficient way possible whilst maintaining heat in the home. And then in terms of flexibility, which is very much the future trend we're excited by in terms of with cleaning the energy grid and saving people money, we have launched a new electric vehicle tariff, which is settled on a half hourly basis as a time of use tariff that relies on smart metering and new systems there. And, you know, as we touched on already, we have an industry leading hourly matching products in the market for business customers. Where am I expecting this to go?

26:28 Looking at a number of areas to enhance these propositions, so let's stay on flexibility. I think this winter, we will step outside from the National Grid's early experiments in this area, which was they were exciting to see how consumers engage with them, weren't particularly high paying, and we'll be focusing on a flexibility offer for battery customers, which should offer meaningful savings through the winter, and a heat pump trial backed with some academic research, which again is focused on how can you most effectively use the heat pump whilst maintaining heat in the home. On the services side, we are exploring the sort of slightly more niche proposition of high temperature heat pumps for people who can't make changes to their existing home setup if necessary.

27:13 We may well end up looking at financing options for heat pumps and certainly enhancements to those monitoring services for heat pumps. On the supply side, the ability to settle on a half hourly basis opens the door to any number of tariffs aimed at people who are adopting

27:32 green energy technology. So we currently have the cheapest off peak electric electric vehicle tariff rate in the market. We're going following that up soon with rates for heat pump owners, for example. And then lastly, on the export side, after the innovation around payments, we're looking to improve our service level further to the fit market by enhancing the way in which we can use mobile phone images to deliver accredited meter readings.

28:04 I should touch also on ZapMap into which we put some additional funds this year. ZapMap continues to maintain a very high penetration of The UK's electric vehicle market. So it reaches about 75, we think, of The UK's EV park. Its download rate and its registered user number, particularly its active user numbers, have continued to keep pace with the growth of that vehicle park despite the fact that we don't spend very much money on marketing there. We're seeing good levels of penetration in terms of particularly fast charging... Charge points being both on the maps and available through ZapPay. And I think the business lines I'm most pleased by the progress on is in terms of the insights business, the selling data based on driver behavior.

28:50 That's now a proper digital product with mapping and other deep resources for people who need this. That is growing very nicely. We have two licensees who are licensing data from us. We're seeing a growing subscriber base using the more... Some of the more enhanced functionality and Zapper in several conversations with some large and significant partners to help increase their speed to market. So ZapMap continues to be an exciting digital play, an exciting way for us to reach electric vehicle drivers.

29:22 I should also touch on some very recent news, which is that GOOD ENERGY is now an accredited b corp. So as you can see from the slide and as I was confident in, our environmental founding roots, if you like, and the way in which we do business meant that we achieved a very high score through the b lab's accreditation process. Comfortable of the 80 points you need for a b lab score, and we're way above the median score in this marketplace. So the team have worked very hard on this, and I know are very proud of our becoming a certified b corp. We're one of the very few energy suppliers, this is the only domestic energy supplier with this accreditation. And we're both pleased by the stamp it gives in terms of our underlying purpose, but also the fact that it creates a commercial opportunity for us to be introduced to a number of b corps and b corps minded consumers in The UK.

30:16 I should note that to retain this for any period of time, we do need to adjust the articles association of the company to reflect the b corp triple bottom line locks of people, planet, and profit, which is really how we run the company anyway. That needs at least 75% of the shareholders who vote to support it. This resolution has failed at the last couple of AGMs in part because it was a slightly hypothetical resolution. We didn't have the accreditation to really talk to. We have it now, and we would intend to return to a subsequent AGM to look for full shareholder support again for that resolution. So, in summary, you've heard from both of us here that we have begun the year in a strong and profitable way and that we are maintaining our guidance for the full year and we're doing that while investing considerably behind our new propositions in energy services, which will increasingly provide a whole greener home and business to our customers.

31:15 We think the change of government is a net positive for GOOD ENERGY. We're seeing good progress in terms of integration. It's not an accident that we are showing a picture of one of our team there wearing GOOD ENERGY branded workwear. The business he works for is GOOD ENERGY Solar. The sales, the marketing, the finance operations are largely integrated already. And we are, I think, doing a lot to really cement our positioning within The UK energy market as the microgeneration champion and specialist. And with that, Jake, I shall hand back to you and you can begin to run the Q and A. Perfect. Nigel, Rupert, that's great. And thank you very much indeed for your presentation this afternoon. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions just by using the q and a tab that's situated on the top right hand corner of your screen.

32:01 But just while the company take a few moments to review those questions that were submitted already, I would just like to remind you that a recording of this presentation, along with a copy of the slides and the published q and a, can all be accessed via your investor dashboard. Rupert and Nigel, as you can see there,

32:15 we have received a number of questions throughout your presentation this afternoon, and thank you to all of those on the call for taking the time to submit their questions. But, guys, at this point, if I may just hand back to you just to read out those questions and give your responses where it's appropriate to do so, and then I'll pick up from you at the end. Thank you. Thank you, Jake. So I will take take a turn on the mouse at this point, and therefore, call out the questions and try and divide them up between Rupert and myself. Alex's question is around the cash and cash cash equivalents number there of just shy of £40,000,000 on the balance sheet at the half year. What are we going to do with the cash? Are there any specific investment areas, further acquisitions, R and D? And what are we prioritizing? Rupert, do want to sort of give that breakdown of how we look at that cash Yes, of course. Yes. So as you know, we've got a little under £40,000,000 worth of gross cash. We still have a small amount of the legacy GOOD ENERGY bonds debt also on the balance sheet. That's about £5,000,000 So we think about the business as having around 30,000,000 to £35,000,000 over the course of the second half of this year.

33:16 At least half of that, having seen how the energy markets can and potentially might operate in the future, our first port of call is to ensure that we have sufficient working capital and sufficient risk to capital to be able to operate in markets that can change at relatively short notice.

33:41 There is a considerable amount of that capital, though, that we would consider available for use in terms of future investment. It's probably a little under half of that total capital of the sort of 30,000,000 to $35,000,000 after the debt. And the things that we are continuing to actively consider, we touched on a little bit within the presentation. So we touched on a sort of real sweet spot around some of the wider services that we can support to sort of medium sized commercial customers. The Big Head example was a great example of that.

34:26 So potentially expanding our solar installation capability with a weighting towards commercial. Certainly considering the geographic reach of our existing installation businesses as well, we are very much focused on the South at the moment. So those are likely to be the sort of two routes for potential investment along with some of the internal developments that Nigel highlighted in terms of our sort of twelve month forward pipeline in terms of propositions. But we are active in ensuring that we are utilizing our capital both to run the business and to further grow the business.

35:14 Thank you, Rupert. So Paul asks if I can offer any insights as to the reasons behind the share price hump around December and January at the turn of this year. So a couple of thoughts here. For the last couple of years, the board has argued that GOOD ENERGY is something of an undervalued business. A lot of chief executives will say that's to their investors, obviously. But you just... We've just been talking about the amount of cash we've got on the balance sheet. Our market cap is not much north of that. We managed to attract quite lot of interest in that argument around that time, particularly from publications who sort of tip investors and shares to... In in the small cap world, and we saw a significant amount of interest in that area, and that caused a ramping in the share price. It actually sort of drove towards the where the target price from the two analysts who cover the stock actually is. So it a big it was a big lift.

36:11 It wasn't... It was actually more of a truing up of valuation terms to where somewhere approaching where we might expect to be. But there's a degree of volatility in small cap world, particularly, there's a degree of illiquidity in the shares. And so that's slightly waned away again after that initial rhythm of excitement. But I, you know, I do think the valuation argument still stands and I know the board is very strong on that point of view. So that was the share price. Colin then asks, can we share more details about how recent acquisitions are integrating with the GOOD ENERGY brand and their contribution to overall profitability?

36:48 So on on sort of detailed financial analysis, we're actually about to change our segmental reporting when we do our interims next time to have a much clearer breakout of the services business that we need to obviously at a full year basis. So the comparator is more straightforward. It's a pretty early stage for that at the moment. What I would say is that of the three businesses we've acquired, two of them are now fully branded as GOOD ENERGY. The management teams have either stepped away or are stepping away at the end of earn out periods. We jointly manage all of our sales and our marketing, some of our other back office functions with those teams. So their headcount is more heavily focused on sales surveys and installations. And we'll continue now to engage with the team at Kent to bring along the same way. So by this time next year, these businesses should be fully integrated, fully branded as GOOD ENERGY and operating in a more efficient way as we've consolidated them.

37:47 Paul offers congratulations on B Corp. Can we share anything on how you managed to circumvent the apparent opposition to this demonstrated by the significant obstructive shareholder, please? And I'll take this one and then we'll be on for a good way. So

38:02 don't particularly break out the results of any of our votes, but it would be... It's no secret to anyone who's been following our story for a while that we occasionally see difficult behavior from Equitrusty who are a competitor of ours as well as a shareholder. So what we've done is you can get the accreditation without the shareholder approval. You just need to go for shareholder approval to keep it within the course of the next twelve months. So we got the accreditation. As you can see, the score very clearly shows that we will now engage both with the shareholder and also with B Labs who are the accrediting body just to discuss that position. But I'm hopeful that it's a very positive badge of our both our sustainability efforts and our environmental impact and that we'll get a good level of shareholders when we come back from it, which I suppose is not hypothetical anymore, it's real.

38:52 So it's a genuine issue and one we'll be working on. Paul asked anyone b corp and the share price long and short term. Well, b corp certified businesses tend to grow faster and therefore offer better performance to shareholders than the peer set. We... What we are seeing is very early days is that we think it's particular commercial benefit to us will be in the retention of staff who are keen on that status, but also in customer acquisition, particularly in the business customer acquisition. B Corps tend to buy from B Corps. And we're the only domestic supplier with this certification. We're one of only two energy suppliers with this certification. We were headliners at a big event for B Corps in Oxford last week and got a lot of interest out of that. So I'm hoping it will help us pick up the right kind of motivated customers in the business space. And therefore, over the long run, that will be value enhancing for shareholders.

39:47 So question from Brady here, a shareholder of bondholder. I was customer on this SVT and £400 in credit. Say, one really around treatment of credit balances. Where are we overall? We've made Bridie. We should probably take your personal one offline and get the team to contact you. But, you know, what are we doing overall? Yeah. No. I would I would agree. We'll take your specific query offline. But... Yeah. I mean, just in terms of the sort of the the overall size of this, so the second half of last year, the total value of credit balances increased by about £7,000,000 So it went from about £7,000,000 to £14,000,000 almost less than the level of debit balances that our customers hold.

40:33 However, we recognize that we had had an unusual period within the energy markets. The prices were falling quite significantly and temperatures were warm and consumers have been very careful of the levels of power and gas that they were consuming. So we have undertaken a proactive approach in the first six months of this year, and we have paid back £7,000,000 to several thousand customers over that period of time. But in respect of your specific query, we're very happy to to take that offline and see what your individual circumstances are.

41:24 Yeah. So we paid back 7,000,000 of it. It's it's normalized level. Let's look into your Yeah. Circumstances of the team. So a question from Jeremy, lost share of loss of associate. And what is that in the account? So can you explain that, please? So so we hold 49.9% of ZapMap. And for a business where you typically hold less than 50%, it is classified as an associate. And for an associate, you effectively just record the single line item profit or loss before tax of that business. And so that is our share of the losses in ZapMap over the period,

42:08 and we will continue to report it on that basis while we and if we retain ownership at less than 50%. Thank you, Rupert. Question from Martin here on whether we're considering energy as a... An energy as a service offering, either self financing with a third party finance provider. So this, I think, really refers to consumer trend where almost it becomes a bit more like the ownership of a mobile phone handset. So you sign up to a certain monthly payment, then everything is kind of brought in potentially including installation and management and maintenance of green energy technologies. That may well be where the market is going to. It's gonna take a couple of years to get there. For now, we've always said, look, we are reaching relatively large homes often with a bit more disposable income and or businesses who can raise their own financing or pay through cash.

43:03 As I said in the presentation, we will begin now, I think, to look at simple financing options because the upfront cost of some of these technologies are pretty high, and we'll go from there. If there's a good take up, then we'd look into it. So it's not immediately on the road map, but we're aware of the proposition, and it clearly has some interest to us.

43:21 Question from Sam on B Corp. Do you have any reason to believe that would change their view on the resolution? Well, I think, eventually, a lot of these are questions for rather than us. We'll make the case we have, you know, professionally contacted them both in terms of... In in advance of those votes, and we'll do so again. Willing to discuss the points. We'll have to see when we get to the next vote. Question from Andre. In the interim, you referred to fit sales and restructure support maintaining growth. Can you detail the restructuring? Yes. It's really a restructuring of the fit sales team. We have quite a significant sales team. We've just seen quite a... We've seen a bit of change in that team, a reduction slightly in headcount and just a structure in terms of different numbers of accounts per person. So really, a lot of those relationships have maybe been a bit quiet for too long. So we've kind of been through the full list, if you like, and reallocate... Reallocated our sales coverage of them and also shaken out one or two meters that, you know, shouldn't have been in the counter in the first place.

44:25 It means we've got now a kind of, you know, a better handle on the entire portfolio. And as we look to bring in new fit customers and we're actively marketing for people to bring their fit portfolios to us now, we're better set up to sort of take those in fairly seamlessly.

44:44 Question for David. Would we... Which is a great work again on this half. Thank you. The energy market has certainly been a challenge for the GOOD ENERGY team over the last few years, and I would add my thanks to them as we go through these questions. Would the team consider buying back the equity owned by electricity in the fuller in part as part of the continuing... In the light of the lack of support just for B Corp and the AGM? So we haven't particularly considered a buyback. I mean, I think the trouble with anything like that targeted at one shareholder is the maximum we've always operated as a company, as a board, is that we're running the business, the interest of all shareholders. Therefore, things we were to offer would have to be for all shareholders, and we aren't particularly looking at buybacks at the moment because as you've heard from us, if you've seen us before on capital allocation policy, we are investing for growth, and therefore buybacks aren't particularly a use of capital we want to look at at the moment. So I understand the question and and the rationale behind it, but no. It's not something we're particularly looking at.

45:48 Question from Nick. Do you come across the weight issue of weight of solar when dealing with particularly business warehouses or older buildings? So a technical question. I haven't had too many conversations with the team on this. I understand what... I know where this is coming from, isn't it? Because innovation in actual solar panels is not particularly impressive. There is a sort of general curve of increasing productivity of the panels, but they still have weight. And therefore, there will be particularly, I suspect, business premises where adding panels to the roof is a difficult thing to do. There is quite a lot of innovation in terms of the mounting, the weight of the mountings, the ability to then maintain them. So we are fairly confident that we can put solar on quite a lot of the sort of standard business part quite flat routes. You saw that in the Big Head example in the presentation, for example. And so in terms of the reports we get on kind of reasons for lost sales, construction considerations around weight haven't particularly factored in the people we've spoken to so far.

46:45 Might we use some of the cash from Sam to increase our stake in Zap above 50% as a use of cash? Do you want any general remarks on that? I mean, I think the money that we are putting into ZapMap at the moment is is focused upon the UK business and the build out of the revenue streams

47:05 in order to take that business to a sort of breakeven point as we go through 2025. At the moment, that money is being put in in the form of a convertible loan. So you would argue that we are using some of our cash to support the ZapMap business, but under a slightly different investment structure than purely buying back a proportion of the equity that we don't yet have, that we don't currently have. Nigel, Rupert, if I may just jump back in there. Thank you very much indeed for being so generous of your time and addressing all of those questions that came in from investors this afternoon. And, of course, if there are any further questions that do come through, we'll make these available to you immediately after the presentation has ended just for you to review to then add any additional responses, of course, where it's appropriate to do so. And we'll publish all those responses out on the platform.

48:02 But, Nigel, perhaps before really just looking to redirect those on the call to provide you with their feedback, which I know is particularly important to yourself and the company, if I could please just ask you for a few closing comments to wrap up with, that'd be great. Well, first off, can I start by thanking everyone for their time this afternoon?

48:19 I'm sure everyone has busy lives and and significant investments with their interests to follow. So thank you for giving us an hour of it to explain the company's progress. I would sort of lean back to where we started really, which is that after an extraordinary volatile couple of years in the energy market, we are seeing some sort of normalization regrettably at higher prices. And within that, we are operating the business well and profitably, but also investing towards what we think is a significant opportunity and a vital shift for The UK if we are to get anywhere near the climate goals. I think what's changed is that we're gathering pace in terms of that move into energy services, gathering experience, and that we have, on balance, a more supportive government in office, which will help us with that.

49:08 So I thank you for your support and interest, and I think GOOD ENERGY has a very meaningful role really to play in terms of The UK's energy transition, and we are increasingly well set up to do that. Perfect. Nigel, that's great. And thank you once again for updating investors this afternoon. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as you'll now be automatically redirected for the opportunity to provide your feedback in order that the management team can really better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete, but I'm sure it'll be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of GOOD ENERGY GROUP PLC, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That now concludes today's session. So good afternoon to you all.