Welcome to the Eolus Q1 2024 earnings call. For the first part of the conference call, the participants will be in listen-only mode. During the questions -and -answer session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key five on their telephone keypad. Now, I will hand the conference over to the speakers, CEO, Per Witalisson and CFO, Catharina Persson. Please go ahead. Welcome all to the presentation of Eolus Q1 report for 2024. Eolus is a developer of renewable energy projects. We're active in seven countries. We've been in the business since 1990, so for more than three decades. We're growing rapidly. We're investing heavily in both project portfolio and organization and people. We have more or less doubled both headcount and the project portfolio over the last 18 months. We develop and sell renewable projects that we then construct on behalf of our customers. We also do technical and commercial asset management on behalf of our customers and have been entrusted by almost 1 GW of operating assets to handle on their behalf. This is how the project portfolio has grown over the last 4 quarters and how it is split between technology and markets. You can see on the pie chart to the left that the offshore wind now amounts to 11 GW and is the largest technology in terms of megawatts, followed by onshore wind and solar PV projects. But we'll also have a 10% share that is energy storage projects, mainly battery storage projects. Going forward, we expect a lot of hybrid projects with combinations of these different technologies. We're active in Sweden, Finland, the Baltics, Poland, U.S., and a small project in Spain. Sweden, U.S., and Finland are the dominant markets where we're active. Turning to the Q1. The first quarter of the year was focused on the sales process and intensive work with deployment, testing, and commissioning of the remaining turbines in the 260 MW wind project, Stor-Skälsjön, in Sweden. We did not complete any new sales transaction during the quarter, and that is the main reason why we have a negative result for the quarter. Eolus earnings will vary between quarters and over the financial years, mainly due to when we complete sales processes and how revenue recognition for ongoing construction projects are being recognized over time. We also have lower construction activities normally during the winter months. That's also a reason why we have a lower degree of completion during this quarter than what we had during the summer half of the year. We had net sales of SEK 44 million for the quarter, with a net profit of SEK -32 million. That means an earnings per share of SEK - 1.30. The Board has proposed a dividend of SEK 2.25 per share, which is a 50% increase compared to last year. The Annual General Meeting will be held tomorrow, and the Board has also proposed a share buyback program due to that. The business is well consolidated with a strong balance sheet. We have an equity to asset ratio of 54%. The project pipeline grow by almost 1.3 GW during the quarter. That is mainly due to that we added a Swedish offshore project, Aurum, that qualified into the project portfolio. Meaning that we now have 28 GW of projects in the portfolio in total. The main activity during the quarter was the investment decision and construction start of the three Swedish wind projects, Fågelås, Boarp, and Dållebo, totaling 88 MW in the attractive Price A rea 3 in southern Sweden. We started construction in the quarter. We have entered into turbine supply agreement with Vestas and expect commercial operation to start for all three projects during the autumn of 2025. The turbines in the Fågelås project are the tallest turbines we have constructed so far with a total tip height of almost 250 meters. So it's a project with very good wind conditions located close to the lake of Vättern that will harvest very good wind resources in that location. And we expect to complete the sales process during Q3. Besides the Stor-Skälsjön project, we also have the American battery energy storage project, Pome, under construction. It's a 100 MW standalone battery project in the San Diego area. It's the third standalone battery project that Eolus has developed and sold or constructed in the U.S. So we have gained a lot of experience from being in the market for quite some years now, and we have a pipeline that is maturing very well, I would say. For the Pome project, battery systems will be delivered by the end of June, and we expect significant contributions to the result for Eolus for the coming quarters. COD means commercial operation and is planned for around year-end 2024 and 2025. For this project, we have entered into what's called a tolling agreement. It's a long-term 10-year agreement with an operator who pays more or less a fixed amount per fixed amount per month and per kilowatt. So, more or less fixed income for the investor, which makes it really attractive as a cash yield investment for many partners. We expect to complete the project sales during the summer. Turning to Stor-Skälsjön, which is a 260 MW, 42-turbine project in Sweden, in the area of Sundsvall. There, all turbines are erected since before year-end. All turbines have started producing electricity, and 32 out of 42 turbines have passed the test run. But the project is not yet completed due to technical problems that the supplier of the turbines are facing. We expect those problems to be sorted out, and that we can complete the project after the summer in Q3. And our assessment is that the delay will not have any significant impact on Eolus' margin from the project, since we are covered by late delivery liquidated damages from the supplier and also from receiving the operating nets from the electricity generation from the project. During the quarter, we've also handed in the permit application for the Blekinge Offshore project, 1,000 MW offshore project in the southeast of Sweden, close to shore in shallow waters with a low cost of energy per Megawatt-hour produced. So it's in an attractive price area where we see the highest electricity prices in Sweden, and with a huge need for a lot more power for the coming decades. This is the project is a redesigned project based on the former project that was rejected in 2016. Since then, the project has been updated. The project area is significantly reduced. Concern from the armed forces that were expressed in the previous project process have been addressed as much as possible. The technical development of the turbines has led to that we can with this layout we can reduce the number of turbines with almost 90% compared to the initial layout that we did 10-12 years ago. There's a lot of local support from local industry and from local politicians for this project. And that is also demonstrated, for instance, in the way that the surrounding municipalities have agreed to offer to the Navy an enlargement of the naval practice area, which is more than three times the size of the project area. We have also agreed with our former partner, Simply Blue Group, that Eolus takes over the full ownership of the joint venture, SeaSapphire, that held a number of offshore wind projects with the floating technology. So their ownership stake has been transferred to Eolus in exchange for a future profit-sharing mechanism. Our view on these projects with floating technology is that they are long-term projects. They have higher cost of energy than our nearshore offshore projects. So we will develop this project at a pace that is in line with the technical development for floating offshore technology. And this is an overview of the offshore portfolio that we have, where we have added the Aurum project in the north of Sweden, outside the municipality of Övertorneå. So total portfolio now amounts to 11 GW, including projects in Sweden, Finland, and Latvia. For four of the projects, we have submitted the permit applications, and three of them are waiting for decision from the Swedish government, and one is handled by the environmental court in Sweden. I would like to take the opportunity to highlight some of the upcoming mature projects, starting with our Pienava project in Latvia. It's a 158 MW onshore wind project. When it will be constructed, it will be the largest wind project in Latvia. We have received all the major permits. We have secured the grid connection, and we expect construction to start in early 2025, and expect commercial operation planned for 2027. We will initiate the sales process during the autumn. It's a project in farmland landscape. It will be built with tall hub heights and with large rotors with a really high capacity factor. It's a really interesting project and a sizable project for a small country like Latvia. The Fageråsen project is an example of one of our partnerships. In total, it's a 238 MW onshore wind project in Sweden in the municipality of Malung-Sälen. It's developed jointly with our regional partner Dala Vind. Eolus holds 49% of the project and Dala Vind 51%. Here we expect construction to start during 2025, also with a commercial operation plan for 2027. Local partners intend to own part of the project, which is very good to increase local acceptance and local engagement for the project. We expect to do the sales transaction during 2025. I would also like to mention our next battery energy storage project in the U.S, which would be our third standalone battery project in the U.S. It's called Roccasecca. It's a 126 MW / 504 MWh battery storage project, so designed for four hours duration. It's located in Nevada, but just on the border to California. So with a potential to be utilized in the to support the Californian power markets. We've secured the grid interconnection at attractive terms and conditions, and we have been granted rights of way from the Bureau of Land Management that is administering all federal land in the U.S. So we are performing final design, and they're working with to obtain construction permits now. And we expect to have this project in operation during 2026. During the quarter, we launched a long-term sustainability strategy targeting 2040 for Eolus. The strategy includes three ambitious targets. When it comes to climate, the target is to have net zero greenhouse gas emissions from Eolus operations and our value chain by 2040. When it comes to biodiversity, our target is to have a net positive impact by 2030. And when it comes to community engagement, we want to be the preferred renewable energy actor in local communities during 2030. You can read more about the strategy in our Annual and Sustainability Report and, of course, also on our website. With that, I want to hand over to Catharina to take over regarding the financial figures. Thanks, and hello, everyone. Then we turn to the financial slides for the first quarter 2024. I can start commenting again on the delays in Stor-Skälsjön and the handover to Hydro Rein and MEAG did not take place despite the hard work. Therefore, we just have a minor contribution of 3% degree of completion in the quarter. The investment decision for Fågelås, Boarp and Dållebo, and start of constructions is on our own books, and impacting both balance sheet and cash flow until the sales process is completed. The same goes for the U.S. battery storage project, Pome, that is also under construction, and the sales process is ongoing. We start with the net sales for the quarter was SEK 44 million, and that's about SEK 230 million lower in comparison with the same period last year. The net sales are low for the quarter, most of the net sales is referring to revenues for the projects handed over to customer before year-end, Skallberget/ Utterberget, Tjärnäs, and Rosenskog. We received the final payment for the construction during the first quarter this year, and the payment was higher than estimated at year-end, which contributed to net sales also in first quarter this year. We have also, in parallel, reduced reservations for expected cost. Overall, the project, projects were on time and within budget after very well-performed construction. There are two main reasons to fluctuations in both net sales and profit between quarters. One of the reasons is that we normally see lower activities in constructions during winter months. In the Nordics, since weather conditions limit the possible timing of construction activities. The other reason relates to the sales transaction. We don't do transactions every quarter, since transactions are a large, complex, and therefore it's not always possible to predict and steer the timing of them. First quarter this year, the technical problems with the turbine manufacturer in Stor-Skälsjön is the cause to the delays in completion, and handover. Revenue recognition from Stor-Skälsjön, based on the degree of completion for the quarter, is included in the net sales with 3%. In Stor-Skälsjön has a completion in total of 82%. We are focused to getting the project completed and expect the handover to take place after summer. Our assumptions are still that we have enough reservations in our budget for Stor-Skälsjön to secure that Eolus' margin will not be materially affected negatively by the delay. If we look at the expenses for Eolus Group, it's SEK 15 million higher compared to the same period last year. But in comparison with last quarter, 2023, the expenses are in the same range. And the higher expenses are following the business plan for expansion during 2022-2024. We had a negative operating profit for the quarter of SEK 29 million compared to negative SEK 12 million, the comparable quarter last year. And for the first quarter this year, the operating profit has been affected negatively by SEK 12 million, referring to market valuation of currency hedges. The market valuation as of first quarter last year contributed with a positive amount of SEK 21 million. Excluding the market valuation, the operating profit was SEK -17 million for first quarter this year, compared to SEK -33 million, first quarter last year. Net from financial items for the quarter was close to zero, as the amount also was last year. The net is mainly referring to interest for cash positions, and interest costs for loans, and the items have also been impacted by revaluation of positions in other currencies than Swedish krona. Net profit for the period was SEK -32 million, and has decreased by SEK 17 million compared to same quarter 2023. Once again, the market valuation of currency futures has impacted the result, with SEK -12 million. We have the balance sheet. Total fixed assets amounts to SEK 316 million. The amount has increased compared to end quarter last year, and that's due to the land agreement in the U.S. battery storage project, Pome, and future payments according to conditions in the agreement. When we go to work in progress and projects under development, that was SEK 1.373 billion, and advanced payments to suppliers amounts to SEK 306 million. During the quarter, investments in the ongoing construction of Pome have been made. Also, newly started constructions of Fågelås, Boarp, Dållebo in Sweden have impacted the balance sheet item. Also, other investments in the project portfolio during the quarter has also contributed to increased work in progress compared to first quarter last year. We had cash of SEK 725 million end of March, compared to SEK 476 million end of March 2023. If we go to the other side of the balance sheet, we have total equity of SEK 1.601 billion, where our equity of SEK 70 million is related to minority stakeholders. Interest-bearing liabilities, SEK 836 million, compared to SEK 421 million same period last year. The previous mentioned land lease agreement for Pome is included in the long-term liabilities with SEK 234 million. And when the project is sold, the liabilities referring to the lease agreement will be removed. Total equity and liabilities amounts to SEK 2.958 billion. Next slide, we have the key figures for the quarter. Net sales for first quarter is divided into Project D evelopment and A sset Management. To start with P roject D evelopment, we had net sales of SEK 36 million, with an operating profit of SEK -31 million. Net sales for the A sset M anagement Services is SEK 8 million, and operating profit of SEK 2 million. Earnings per share for the quarter is SEK -1.30, but on 12-month rolling earnings per share, that is SEK 22.31. Cash flow from operating activities during the quarter was SEK +20 million, compared to SEK -236 million, same quarter last year. The main reason for the positive cash flow for the operating activities in comparison to first quarter last year is the received final payment for the wind farms handed over year end 2023. Equity per share, about SEK 61, compared to SEK 39 in March last year, and equity per share has been increasing significantly the last three quarters, 2023, due to high profit. Due to capital tied up in projects, we had net debt of SEK 112 million. For the financial year 2023, the proposed dividend is SEK 2.25 per share, and that's a total of SEK 56 million, and the decision regarding the dividend will be made at the Annual General Meeting tomorrow in Hässleholm. I can also mention that the proposed dividend is 50% higher than last year. We have full-time employees at quarter end, 146, compared to 100 the year before. We will see a lower activity during 2024 compared to 2023 when it comes to recruitments. We have an order backlog of about SEK 660 million. It is lower compared to end last year, end March last year, and we expect to increase the order backlog when the ongoing selling process are completed. And we have asset management assignments of SEK 939 million, and signed agreements for coming 268 MW. And Stor-Skälsjön is 260 MW out of that amount. Equity to asset ratio of 54%, and we have a solid platform that gives us flexibility and possibility to capture business opportunities that come our way. Return on equity after tax is 44% for 12-month rolling, and that's includes the period of first of April 2023 until end of March 2024. And also worth mentioning that Eolus' net profit on rolling 12-month is SEK 556 million. The next slide shows projects under construction, and we have 456 MW under construction end March. Project Stor-Skälsjön had a degree of completion of 3% during the first quarter, and in total 82%, and the remaining degree of completion will be accounted for during 2024. Fågelås, Boarp, Dållebo have been included since start of constructions have taken place. And as you can see, Pome, Fågelås, Boarp, Dållebo are not fulfilling the requirements for a percentage of completion method, as the project has not been sold yet. Revenue recognition will start when agreements with customers are signed, and when predefined construction milestones are achieved. Then I hand over to Per for the summary. Thanks, Catharina. To summarize, we have started construction of the Fågelås, Boarp, and Dållebo onshore wind projects in Sweden, and we expect sales to be completed in Q3. The sales process for the Pome U.S. battery project is ongoing, and estimated to be completed during the summer. Completion of Stor-Skälsjön project is delayed due to the technical project problems by the turbine supplier, and we expect final completion after the summer. We don't expect any significant effect on Eolus's margin from this delay. Our offshore projects are developing well, and in Q1, we handed in the permit application for Blekinge Offshore. So we have four projects where we have handed in applications in Sweden, whereof three of them are now on the Swedish government's table for decision. We are planning for the next batch of projects to reach ready-to-build and transactions, and among them, as presented, we have onshore wind projects in Sweden and the Baltics, as well as another standalone battery project in the U.S. And for the full overview of the late-stage projects, you can find that at our webpage. So our conclusion is that there is a strong interest for investment in renewable energy in both Europe and the U.S. The mega trends of sustainability, electrification, and geopolitical concerns creates a large demand for projects in all our markets to come. So thank you all for listening in, and we open up for questions. If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Olof Cederholm, from ABG Sundal Collier. Please go ahead. Excuse me. Hello, Per and Catharina. A couple of questions from my side. Firstly, we've seen, obviously, the bid for OX2, where EQT wants to change the business model and for OX2 to become more an asset owner. What are your thoughts about that and your business model? Is that something that, you know, you think might evolve over time? And if not, what are the key reasons for not changing the business model when such a big competitor is doing it? And, yeah, that's basically... And of course, if you have any discussions on consolidation, what are your thoughts there? I'll start with that. Thanks, Olof. Of course, the EQT bid on OX2 is an interesting data point. It definitely shows that there are investors looking at the sectors and valuing projects and pipelines in a different way than the stock market currently does. In our current business plan, we are a pure play developer. All energy projects are extremely capital intense, and in theory, the large volumes of energy assets should therefore be owned by the ones having the lowest cost of capital. And a pure play developer strategy also makes it possible for us to focus on project development and to run the most projects in parallel. But we should always do what creates most value for Eolus and for its shareholders. So we could, in theory, of course, hold on to assets as well, but it's not in our current strategy. All right. Thank you for that. I have a question on the buyback program. Obviously, it's not decided yet, but what is the intention with it? You know, you can buy back around up to 10% of the company once this decision is made. Is that your intention to have a fairly high level of buybacks, or what are your thoughts on that? The proposal from the Board is based on the good financial strength that Eolus is having. We have a target to have an equity-to-asset ratio exceeding 30%. We are steadily beyond 50%. So, the increased dividend and the share buyback program is a possibility to transfer value to the shareholders. And the share buyback program should also be seen as a possibility for us to control that at times which is suitable for our investments in project or sales transactions, et cetera. Of course, the shares bought back from the stock market could be either canceled by future Annual General Meeting, reducing the number of shares outstanding, or they could be used for payments in future acquisitions. All right, excellent. And my last question is on the general environment out there. Some of your sales processes have been ongoing for a while. Are you seeing that sale, you know, the sort of delays in decision or the time it takes for customers to come to decisions, is that improving or worsening compared to how it was six months ago? And what are your thoughts on project pricing out there? We definitely see longer transaction processes. We see a higher share of utilities. They definitely have significantly longer timelines for the transactions. I would say it's more or less the same as six months ago. But we can definitely see that timelines have been longer than expected. All right. And pricing, any changes there in the over the last months? Pricing, there are some updates from the power price forecasting companies, where the long-term trends have come out negatively. There are ups and downs with the new reports coming each quarter. The difference in different markets, very bullish in the U.S., in the markets we are active in, a bit more negative in some of the Nordic markets. On pricing, we see that, of course, the last year's CapEx increases and cost inflation have affected the situation. We see now that both interest rates are stabilizing and hopefully also starting to decrease again to more normal levels. And we see our impression at least is that also CapEx prices is flattening out. When it comes to solar solar panels prices have dropped significantly during the last year. Okay, excellent. That's all for me. Thank you. Thanks, Olof. The next question comes from Örjan Rödén from Carnegie. Please go ahead. Yes, good morning, everyone. I'm jumping onto Olof's question there. If you would try to kind of guide us, which determining factor would you view as the most important ones in order to trigger a more fast transaction willingness into the markets, in your view? Is it low rates, stabilization power prices, or what, what would you determine as the biggest external factor driving up the transaction willingness from your customers? It's a mix. Of course, interest rates have a great, great impact on such a capital intense investments. But also the risk premium for investments in this asset class is important to decrease as much as possible. That can be done by, for instance, entering into long-term offtake agreements like PPAs. And also reduction of permitting issues that can seem to be minor, but that are in the late phase of the projects. So for instance, implementation of the EU renewable directive in Sweden, for instance, would mean a lot with a one-stop shop for regarding permitting authorities and focusing on shorter lead times for processing permits and grid decisions would definitely be beneficial for us, for the power market and for, well, the attractiveness of the entire energy-intense industry. Okay, thank you very much. You, you're raising the stakes a little bit, indicating that you will be able to sell the Pome project during the summer. Which factors would you say the most important ones when it comes to this transaction, so we can understand the risk of kind of delays or not? Yes. Not being as successful as we will, we all hope for. Yes. Yes. It's a very short lead time now until the project will be in operation. Battery systems will be delivered to the site end of June or beginning of July. So, compared to a wind project, it's a very, very short construction time. And of course, that reduces the risk for the incoming investors a lot, and too, since the project is so advanced, and also with this 10-year offtake agreement in place. Oh, okay. Thank you very much. And the final question on Stor-Skälsjön, is the supplier agreeing on your view that there is, regarding delays, or is there a potential dispute there over whose, whose fault it is? Of course, parties don't agree to everything in a delayed project, but in our view, the contract is solid, and therefore, we would say, like we do, that we don't expect any significant impact on our margin from the project, but that we are well protected. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Örjan. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. There are no more phone questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any written questions and closing comments. Okay. We've received a couple of questions in the chat. We'll try to answer the most, the one that we can do quite quickly. I will try to come back with answers to the more detailed questions. We have a question regarding who is the supplier of the BESS, Battery Energy Storage S ystems, for our projects. It has not been disclosed for the Pome project. For our previous project, it was a Canadian Solar. But in the U.S., Tesla, Canadian Solar, and BYD are the big suppliers of systems. Next question is about the ongoing offshore strategic review that we announced last summer. And that is based on the fact that our projects are maturing quite well, and as we said, we have four projects in the where we have submitted permitting applications, three on the Swedish government's table and one in the environmental court. It's important for Eolus to balance our exposure to different markets and different technologies, and we want to ensure that all projects have the best potential to get not only permitted, but also realized. So we are in discussions with a number of interested partners about them partnering up with us to contribute to the success of the projects. I hope that we can come to conclusion during the second half of 2024. There is a question if Eolus is considering to enter new markets? Yes, we are screening, we are evaluating potential new markets. What we mainly are looking for is sizable markets with a high dependency of fossil-based power production and low degree of self-supply because that would indicate a real long-term demand for renewables. But also focus is important. We have only, for instance, scratched the surface, I would say, in the U.S., and there, moving into new states in the U.S. is almost like entering a new country in Europe, I would say, because power markets and regulations are so different. So we will definitely see a continued expansion in the U.S. in the coming years. Among the current markets, I would also like to highlight the Polish market, which, of course, fulfills all the criteria we mentioned, and is a market where we can do a lot more in the coming years. We also have a question about the Centennial Flats project. That is the large solar and battery project in Arizona that we have developed and sold, and where we will get paid by milestones. We have so far received roughly 40% of the expected revenues. The next milestone will be when the investor takes a financial investment decision, and will give us a significant part of the remaining revenues, and we expect that to happen during first half of 2025. So I think I'll stop there. There are a few more questions in the chat, but we will try to get back to you with the answers to them as well. Thank you all for listening in. Thank you, and bye!