Cyanconnode Holdings (LSE:CYAN) — Q&A session

0:02 Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the CYANCONNODE HOLDINGS PLC 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 on the Investor Meet company platform. And before we begin, I would just like

0:32 to submit the following poll. And if you'd give that your kind attention, I'm sure the company would be most grateful. And I would now like to hand you over to Chairman, John Cronin. John, good morning, sir. Good morning, Jake, and good morning, everybody. And and thank you for registering and giving us the time to talk with you today. Just to frame this conversation that we've had a lot of excellent questions from shareholders, which is very good, that's been submitted on onto this platform, which actually we'll answer. And we're answering some of those questions throughout this presentation by way of some slides that we put together because we thought that was a good format as well. Unlike what we've done in the past to going through, you know, what we do in detail and this and that and the other, etcetera, we thought this is all about a q and a, giving you, our shareholders, owner of the company, a chance to ask us, the executive team, and the board board members exactly what's going on in the company and what we can share with you. And as Jake said, you know, the questions will be on the platform afterwards.

1:34 We have had numerous, questions, sent to the company as well via brokers and other shareholders, which if we can, we'll pick those up as well in addition to the platform questions. And regardless anyway, depending on time, we'll also get all of the questions that's on the platform and send direct to the company onto the platform and send out to everybody on this call and those that have registered. And, also, we'll put it onto our website as well because with these questions, we've got a lot of

2:09 excellent information for shareholders. And as I say, with the time, we may not get through all on this particular webinar today. So thanks again for all of that, and, we'll move forward, into some of the slides, as I say, that hopefully will give some of the answers to some of your questions that, have been put to us. Myself and Heather, you know, Heather's the CFO and company secretary of the of the company, will, actually be doing the presentation and leading the questions and answers, with me. As on this particular slide, as you know, just going back one, sorry, is, all about the, what we are allowed to say and can't say. So we can't give forward looking statements, and we are governed, by AIM rules.

2:58 Obviously, we have a nomad that keeps us on our toes to make sure that we do what we should do and what's appropriate. We also are under the QCA governance, which actually is a variant of the FTSE 100 governance rules that we adhere to. So the London Stock Exchange rules and QCA. So believe you and me, we'd like to tell everybody anything all of the time, but practically, we can't do that, and we're not allowed to. So we don't avoid any questions for other than for those reasons. So we are transparent in what we do. Just to summarize, what we are is all about offering vision is all about full communications, a seamless what we call a seamless network offering to all of our customers, on a with a global footprint.

3:52 And, yes, we've got certain countries that we operate in, which we'll talk about later in the presentation, But there'll be others as we move forward, as we develop into other territories and develop the full IoT communications platform that offers not just RF, but MBIoT, cellular, any other communications that come along in the future. That is what we're all about, always developing what our customers, what the markets are looking for, and we'll continue to do that. So over to you, Heather. Thank you, and good morning good morning, everybody. There were a number of questions, that that came to us relating to our latest trading. As you know, we put out a trading update, which is not our full results, and we put this out in in April. So this really this slide really summarizes where where we expect our trading to end up for the financial year that ended the March 31.

4:50 Where there were questions that asked us things that have not yet been made public, for example, there was a question asking for the split of the revenue by territory. We we we can't do that at the moment because we haven't put out the full full year results. So all of those all of those details will be given when we do the full year results, which is expected at the end of of July. So as you can see, significant revenue growth. Our market expectation was 16,300,000. We've said that we expect to materially ex exceed that. In simple terms, generally, is expect accepted is that to materially exceed market expectation, that's sort of anything 10% and above what your what the what the consensus expectation is.

5:37 We had 58% increase in cash received from customers, so 16,900,000 from the previous year of 10,700,000. 250% increase in the number of modules shipped, so you can see that that that's a big jump, and that's, you know, the majority of that being in India. 19% increase in the NB IoT hubs delivered to customers. So as you know, we've announced over the last two years these NB IoT hub sets that we're shipping to various territories in the Middle East and North Africa region. So we received a follow on order for that during the the most recent financial year, and you can see that the number of hubs has increased there as well.

6:17 We we received orders for a total of 2,700,000 OmniMesh modules in India during the year. A 106,000 OmniMesh cellular modules ordered for Thailand. Some of you who've been around for a while will remember that we've, you know, we've been working in Thailand for some time, and we've been deploying RF so far. And we we've started deploying some cellular there, which is seeing some some really good success. So this is our cellular, what we call our SCENECT module that that we're now delivering in Thailand as well. And as I mentioned earlier, fifty two point point three thousand NB IoT hubs ordered during the the most recent year as well. Our expected deliveries on our our backlog that we have, we believe will cover approximately 80% of the the FY twenty five revenue expectation.

7:11 The consensus revenue expectation in the market is 32,500,000 sterling. So as you can see, we've got good coverage from our existing orders and existing backlog. What I've tried to do here, we get a lot of questions over time about how what what the working capital cycle is typically, you know, for India because that's where the majority of of the orders are. You know, when we place orders, when we get paid from our customers, and various, you know, other elements of it. So they're not all identical, so that's just one caveat to this, but I've tried to put it in very simple terms on one slide to to show you approximately, you know, the the the time from the initial order from a customer to, you know, all the way out to when we receive the EMI payments, which is the equal monthly installments that that we receive.

8:06 Now just to to remind people, the contracts that we receive, they usually consist of a CapEx element and a cop and an OpEx element of the payment. The CapEx, we receive majority of this against the orders of the modules. And during the first two to two and a half year time frame, which is the deployment time time frame of the orders. Then after that, we have what are called equal monthly installments or OpEx payments. And those kick in the very first ones will actually kick in after the first SAT. So SAT is the site acceptance test. So the first SAT will be for 5% of the order, and that's anything from, you know, seven months after the the the contract is is initially won that that will happen. And so you can see that those EMIs will gradually increase over the term of the contract as the deployment goes because there'll be EMIs for each part that is being deployed and passes SATs as we go along.

9:06 The very first step that we would have when we receive an order, we place orders on our contract equipment manufacturer and our silicon providers. Often, the silicon will be, you know, a bulk purchase because there there are lead times. There there there have been significant improvements to the lead times. You'll know that over recent years during COVID in particular, lead times were pushed out to twelve months, but they have come into a more typical around about three month lead time. Sometimes you can get sooner than that, but that's sort of a typical time frame to work towards. And so we we've got to always be looking at and forecasting and planning the orders of the silicon in advance to cover a number of deliveries that we expect over the coming months. And then, you know, we'll we'll place the orders on the manufacturer.

9:52 They will start to manufacture. Obviously, we we receive I've assumed here after three months, we receive the silicon. Things go into manufacture, and, you know, that process is not very long, and we will then ship to customers. Then in terms of payments, we receive payments from from the customers, anything from thirty to sixty days depending on the contracts after we've shipped the the goods or after manufacturers actually ship the goods to the customers. So you can see there's a bit of a delay in in some of these from when we first procure items through to to to when we start to get paid from the customers, And there's a portion of what we get paid from customers that is spread over the remainder of the contract. And the full contract is generally, you know, a ten year contract. So the first two and a half years would be the deployment and seven and a half years of support and maintenance after that. And EMI is rolling out over that that that particular time.

10:51 And as I've said here, this is a simplification of a a typical contract, but there will be often variations. It's a lot more simple than things used to be a few years ago because of the standard bidding document, but there will always be variations in in terms. So and then the the next slide, this is a slide many of you will be familiar with. This is just showing all the territories around India that we've got deployments, and this is the latest position across all of these territories. So you can see that we are north, south, east, west, all sorts of terrain. We're in, you know, urban terrain. We're in terrain, you know, HP province province. That's the the the foothills of the Himalayas. So it's it's quite a vast range, and you can see that our technology is suited to to all of that because we're deploying successfully in all of these areas.

11:42 This is also the the latest phasing of the Indian rollout. At the moment, there's 222,000,000 meters that have been sanctioned, a 116,000,000 that have been awarded. And as I've explained previously, by awarded, that means that they've been awarded to the the prime bidders. And as we'll talk about later on in this, you would all have seen recently our announcement of empanelment as an AMI SP, which means that we can also be a prime bidder in the future. But where these 116 have been awarded, that's to the prime bidders who then will set up SPVs and start negotiating contracts with the subcontractors. Many of these all the all the historic contracts, we would be we would have been subcontractors, and we'd be working with many of the parties.

12:32 And not all of that 116,000,000, and in fact, only a very small portion of that 116,000,000 has actually been awarded all the way down to subcontractors. And there's been a total of 11,000,000 installed across India. Our position, our latest order book total is 6,600,000. 3,000,000 has been fulfilled, and there's 3,600,000 yet to fulfill, which is why we have the confidence of the, you know, the market expectation for this current financial year.

13:05 And I'll hand over to John to talk more in detail about the status of the RDSS and business in India. Yeah. Thanks, Heather. And just to recap for everybody, the RDSS scheme that's funded in India, we're focused just at the moment on India, we will talk about the rest of the world later on as we call it. That's everything outside of India. Just to recap for everybody, you know, the government is saying 250,000,000 smart prepaid meters as opposed to postpaid that we have in The UK. Interesting enough, only the other day, somebody said to me, well, John, you know, we believe that 250,000,000 has actually gone to 330,000,000. And why is that? I said, well, because they've built more houses, more apartments, etcetera, in India. So, obviously, there's more for more to go at, which which is great.

13:54 And at the end end of the day, what why they're doing it? Well, first of all, what the government wants is to move from an analog, platform to digital platform on on the grid. They want to move the, DISCOMs, the utilities to profitability by collecting their cash, cutting out, reduction in theft, which is high. You know, $32,000,000,000 a year they lose by, sending out the electricity. It's being used, but they don't collect that because of theft or nonpayment. And with the smart meter and all this helps and once they've got to profitability, the government owns about 90 odd percent of the DISCOMs utilities, then they'll probably sell some of those off as they privatize the industry going forward into the future. It's all about enhancing overall power supply and determining what power supply they need and bringing in renewable renewable energy, etcetera, as you look at the advanced technologies that the utilities are looking at. If you look on the the next bullet point down, the sort of growth and expectation of smart metering by, you know, $6,100,000,000 by 2031.

15:08 That's a great growth, over the next number of years, and it is all about putting the platform in place to do that and actually build out even further into the grid itself. Today, we deal mainly with distribution companies. We call them DISCOMs. And, you know, they're part of the utility. As you know, you got transmission as well as the the distribution part, but it's the distribution part that we deal with, and those are the ones that are rolling out and are owners of the meters. And if you think, you know, all these meters are there today, dumb meters, and we just go around to swap them out in the same locations that they are to real time data and, you know, delivering the service level agreements that these distribution companies are looking for.

15:55 Just to recap, you know, we've been twelve years in India. A lot of experience that is both CYAN and CYANSS, you know, as, KNODE before. And as you know, we're CYANCONNODE since 2016. We actually as Heather has shown, we the length and breadth of the country. And today, we are the holders of the RF deployed in the country of about 45%. And, really, we are the leaders in our RF communications in India. And as I said, you know, extensive on the ground expertise and delivery of SLAs and have a a great reputation as a reliable supplier for India. What I wanted to just touch on was just to and some people have asked for this that we have and continually looking at the growth and what changes are needed for growth as we go forward. And, you know, obviously, we don't wanna meet people that's gonna hit the the glass ceiling, so we're always evolving as to what's needed for the next level of growth.

17:06 So we have had some organization changes, and I'm just putting up what these are. Just have a glass of water. So what we have here is you got myself as the executive chairman. To the right then is we got Rahul Dazsou, the senior vice president for international sales. He has a small team that looks at after everything outside of India. And we got Heather, as I mentioned, group CFO and company secretary, looks after the finance, also for India as well as group. And then what we've done is we've, as Joy Rajani Joy's been with us, since 2020. He was the original, MD CEO, moved to executive vice chairman, so he's always been there. And we've made him the additional MD CEO because he's got a lot of history and background in India, lot of contacts in the industry, not only in India but elsewhere.

18:07 And he actually was an investor and part owner of CYANCONNODE when it was CYANCONNODE India. So he's really sort of got the experience with his Reliance background of running large companies, and that's what we felt is needed for today. So he's then, the leader of the team now, and what we have done is, really consolidated for growth, key roles. So what we had before was it was sort of split. So I had this, the executive vice president for engineering that covered lots of, areas report to me, and then the rest reported to a joy.

18:54 What I felt was, you know, we need to have one team, one focus, allowing for growth and split out the engineering role to more manageable chunks.

19:04 So now we've got a split out there. We've got software, Dushan Singh. Dushan, excellent pedigree, joined the company in the last few weeks, and that's what we're waiting for to announce this. And we only announced this organization to the company last last week. We Duchenne has, what, fifteen years in the company, within sorry, winning companies in The UK, work for EDF, work for other companies such as British Gas, National Grid, really understand smart metering, especially the software side of things. He's located in India. He's worked in India for a number of years, so great experience, great added value to the company.

19:54 So we split that out from engineering. It's software on its own. Split out hardware and firmware with Partha. Partha's been in the company for about nine months. He also was with Wipro, has international experience as well. Anna Rudder, who's been with us for about nine months as well. He's the senior vice president delivery and operations. And then we have, for India sales, Shiprakash Taghi, that comes in there. And sitting over that then, we have Matt Kern. Matt's been in the company for, what, nearly sixteen years now. Nineteen nineteen years. Now. Right. Thanks, Heather.

20:35 A long time. One of the original founders, if you like, senior EVP technology innovation, really understands what's needed on the software and hardware of our customers going forward. So a real good, find for us, and and move that forward. So we did have, the previous MDCO, Ratna. He he's moved on. You know, Ratna, we moved from the the COO first time into a CEO MD role, and he's been with us four years. He actually located in Hyderabad, and, he was every Monday flying to Delhi, in the office, flying home till on Friday back to Hyderabad, and then he's away from his family. So he wanted

21:26 a job back in Hyderabad with his home. So it coincided with the change in this organization, which suited all parties. The next sorry. I'll just move it, Heather. The the next one then, you know, just to emphasize why we're doing this organization change. Well, strengthen the leadership with key skills, key experience for the next growth level that we're going for as a company, looking at it also operational efficiencies, and looking at how best to, get productivity utilization from the company as we move forward. Focus on innovation. You know? And that's why I split out all these roles into hardware, firmware, services delivery, software, and innovation.

22:21 So very much focused teams to continue the product development that's needed for market expansion that we're looking at, with CYANCONNODE's technology. And, you know, we're all aligned now as one team, one focus for you, for delivering to our customers.

22:44 Now you've you've you've you know, we did an announcement, recently about, we're impaneled now, as an AMI SP. That's a service provider, a lead bidder. We've been doing this qualify qualification for some time, so our credentials now has given us this qualification. So I'll explain on another slide how DigiSmart Network fits into CYANCONNODE India and really look at how it all comes together. But in essence, we've actually the reason we're doing it is that we have the choice now to be a lead bidder, or we can still be a vendor to our existing customers. And we'll decide on a bid by bid bid by bid cases of which one we'll we'll go for.

23:32 If you look at today, DigiSmart networks can participate in about 70 odd million smart meters, which are yet to be tendered. And as I say, that could end up being a 100,000,000 the way that the growth is to 300 30,000,000. So we can participate as a system integrator for 100 10 million. So opens up the market for us, opens up really other opportunities and growth for us. And we can see as well that we can offer the full total solution, not just communications, but meter data management system as well as cellular as well as the meters. And it's all about the credentials that we got. It's about CYANCONNODE, you know, really now got the capabilities.

24:23 And, you know, when you go through stringent process and criteria to become an AM ISP, all of our background for the last twelve years has been taken into account.

24:39 So the next two slides, just to encapsulate a little bit more, what does this look like? So on the right hand side, you can see the utility or the DISCOM as we call them. That's the end customer. You see on the left hand side then, you've got all of the suppliers coming in with its hardware or hard on the on the bottom there with its software services project management.

25:05 And you can see, you know, we can talk to different meter manufacturers, get them to sell through us as a one stop solution, meter data management system. We've then got their cloud services. We have to put in in place asset insurance, system integrators, etcetera. And all of that then comes together

25:27 from CYANCONNODE into DigiSmart Networks as the AMISP, and we pull that together. And we make sure that we have a back to back arrangement, especially with the liabilities, penalties, SLAs, to all the vendors that come through us. Then we have a an SLA agreement with the utility for eight to twelve years, and then we can decide which meter manufacturer and which m d a MDM. And we have a solution that can actually be adapted to lots of different meters, lots of different meter manufacturers. I think we're integrated now to something like 12 different meter manufacturers in India, and that's a lot. And we continue to do that as we move forward.

26:17 Here's another slide just to give you a different sort of angle on how this works. So you've got, in the middle there, DigiSmart Networks. That's 100% owned by CYANCONNODE India. That's 100% owned by CYANCONNODE PLC. So what we do, we set up the DigiSmart well, we have got a DigiSmart Networks. That platform bids for the tenders to the DISCOM to the utilities. When we win a tender then, what we'll do, CYANCONNODE India will actually, on the left hand side, provide all those services through to that platform. And how we got how we you know, there's been a question. Well, how do we fund this? So it's it's fresh money. It's money from infrastructure funds that are there for the long term and numerous funders globally that do this, not only for smart meters, but for also for solar panels, you know, lots of power stations, etcetera, motorways, you know, airports, and the like. So we'll we'll then discuss with infrastructure funds potential investment into the platform, and we'll negotiate debt with that and also equity.

27:40 And what we look for then as CYANCONNODE is to share the equity with the funder depending on how much the funder puts into the platform, of course. And there may be several funders. It may not just be one. There may be two or three funders coming into the platform. And they're interested in their IRR, their investment return on that investment over a period of time. That's what they're interested in. We, you know, come up with the expertise in smart metering and all the the deployments experience and how to handle the utilities, the DISCOMs, and the customers and do the performance level criteria, the SLAs that's needed. That's our owners.

28:22 Once we win a tender, DigiSmart Network wins that. What we do then for each different, tender we do, we set up what we call an AMI SPV. That's a special purpose vehicle for each different utility. Why would we do that instead of putting it all through DigiSmart networks? That's because each say we win a million units, that is a finite start and end date. We then go and win another 2,000,000 units, that has again got a different start and end date. So you can't put them into one vehicle. You put them into separate vehicles for those projects. You know? Because after a while, the infrastructure funds, maybe once they got their return back in four to five years of a ten year contract,

29:12 they may decide to sell that to a pension fund for the annuity that's rolling out continuous for the number of years. And even though we say ten years, in our experience, it doesn't stop ten years. Our first contract with Tata Power, five years, that's, come to an end, but they're renewed for another five years. So we renegotiated the support of maintenance. And that's what I anticipate here. And during that ten years, you know, we'll probably have attrition as well of maybe 20% of the meters. So that will also go into the AMISP as we move forward. So, hopefully, this just gives you an idea. And I know it's a lot to take in, but it's, you know, really what what the advantages of an AMI SP, the DigiSmart networks, can improve our margins.

30:06 Because let's face it, we sell through someone else to put a margin on our margin to the end user. So this will keep us more competitive. And as I say, this is gonna take time. We have to get our credentials first. It's not like a light switch, so don't expect something to happen tomorrow. You know, it might be six, nine months away before we really get into one because we're now talking to investment funds. We've been talking to them, by the way, for a number of years, so it won't it's not all new to them. But now that we've got to decide which we want utilities wanna bid for and which ones we want to continue going through our existing partners, or doing both. So we're looking at that right now, and we decide on a case by case basis.

30:59 So, people have just sort of asked really about some of the advantages of RF in in the marketplace. Well, as you know, we call it, the OmniMesh RF, smart mesh network, and it's our that's our flagship product, the OmniMesh network. And it's deployed really for rapid, deployment and exceptional performance, really, that we look at. And, really, we have a competitive total cost of ownership. If you look at, really over the ten year period of, against cellular, for instance, then, you know, RF does work out cheaper. In the beginning, in the first, eighteen months, you'd look at, it's slightly cheaper on cellular, but then it crosses over over the, total cost of ownership that RF really comes in comes into its its own area.

31:58 Of course, what we do have is a suitability not only for urban but semi urban. And as Heather mentioned, we've been in the hills of the Malay Malay the Himalayas and delivered product there. And how have we done that? Well, we've got a product that's a long range radio that actually covers up to 10 kilometers, and we tested that at the foot of Himalayas. And that's great for hilly areas and agricultural areas even where cellular, as you probably all know, wouldn't work very successfully. I mean, it doesn't work efficiently all in The UK cellular, even in places in London and other areas in the country. And what is important is delivering the SLA.

32:46 Billing gives a success rate of ninety nine percent, which is really important that our customers look for, especially on prepaid because, as you know, people are paying money up front, so they expect to ensure the quality of service is there, and we deliver accordingly. We also have scalability and flexibility within the platform. That's important. As we move to not just half a million, 1,000,000, 3,000,000, 4,000,000, 10,000,000, 20,000,000, etcetera, you've got to always ensure flexibility within the platform. And not only as you move forward with the Internet of Things for electricity metering, but also for, you know, gas, water, street lights, EV chargers, so as we look at all this going forward. So versatility and readiness is important on the platform.

33:39 And, you know, we do have a a platform that is self forming, self healing. You know, unlike cellular, which is point to point, when that network signal goes down, you're cut off. Whereas on set on mesh, what you get is self form, self healing. It's like a spider's web. If one part of the web goes down, it finds another route to get the signal through and get the data through to actually the billing system, which is important.

34:08 We do have, you know, great upgrades and flexibility that we continue to do. We're probably on about the third, fourth generation of our product, you know, right from the ultimate measures we started off many years back, and we developed into international standards IPV six six LOPAN and continue to look at those standards as we look at areas like, you know, we hear about the Wison standards and other standards. And always, we're looking at what's there. And we sit on technical bodies within India, the government of India, the industries of India, advising what's coming, always listening and looking of what else is happening within communications and what people are looking for.

34:55 You know, we have got global recognition and deployments, around the world, which which is great. And we've been successful in multiple countries and demonstrated the effectiveness and reliability on a global scale of the OmniMesh product. And, really, this underscores our leading position in the market and the trust that we get from our customers. And we get, you know, repeat orders from customers, and and that's, that's proven, to us. So that's that's, really important. I mean, you know, if you look at what we are, Cambridge headquarters company pushing our products, from The UK to multiple countries around the world. And for India, we were the largest second largest exporter, last year, which, was released by, the UK government, which says something, which is which is good.

35:50 And, you know, believe you me, going from Britain out to these countries, setting it all up, getting people, finding people, finding customers, finding partners of the ecosystem, It's a full time job, believe you and me, and, all credit to the team and the individuals that's got a lot of knowledge and expertise around the world that we have in this company.

36:16 So people also then just ask really about the security, model that we have, and this is really important. We have got sign off by GCHQ, you know, MI six approval for our technology. GCHQ based in Cambridge, they ensure, obviously, that because it's national crystal of infrastructure we're dealing with, that we've gotta have, real good security models in place that actually stop the hackers getting into our, electricity, networks. And we call this well, it is, first of all, industry, standard multilayered end to end. You know? So, you know, we called it the Swiss, cheese model as well. So if you imagine the Swiss cheese, you know, piece of cheese with holes in, so you might get through one hole, but you hit another piece that doesn't have a hole through that one. We stop that threat even if it got through the next layer of cheese, so on. There's another block, another defense that we put up. So multiple layered security approach, multiple defenses against a a potential, attacks that might might happen.

37:29 We also this end to end encryption is important. We have what we call, the data transport layer security and also with a thing called public, key infrastructure that actually supports, key key management, we call it, authentication to ensure that the data that transmitted over the network is encrypted end to end so nobody can steal that along that journey going from the customer all the way through the RF, all the way through our head end system, the software, into the billing system. We also, not only on the network, also have divide device and network layer security. I all our devices, all of the hardware have security built in. Our wide area network, also, this is really where I'm talking about security with it. We have offered cellular encrypted cellular, unlike straightforward cellular, open cellular that people use on the public networks.

38:29 These are private networks, dedicated physical lines to ensure robust protection of the data that's transmitted across large distances. We also have infrastructure security. This is where we have protected firewalls, intrusion detection systems, prevention systems. All these measures help to monitor and prevent unauthorized access or attacks on the network. We have identify identity, sorry, and access management as well, again, to improve who's coming in, certification of devices, that's really important, role based access, controls.

39:10 And we also set up audit login to ensure it enhances your security. So we have external companies test our system on a regular basis. So we comply with international standards. You mentioned any standard, then we do, deal with that. Also, where we may offer cloud services that go into data centers, we ensure that those also have great security. And, we look at, versatility to support smart city initiatives where we look at, you know, streetlight TVs. All of that will be part of our security model, going forward. So, hopefully, that you got a good feel for this.

39:55 Good question. We probably haven't had that before, but, hopefully, you got a better understanding of the protections. So looking at then you know, when we talk about our product there, you know, is it future proof? Well, goodness me. I mean, continually looking at evolving, you know, what's coming, the enhancements we do, And that's why we get R and D tax credits every year because we're continually developing the product, enhancing it, enhancing the software, the hardware. We look at cost down. We look at putting in different components into the product. And and we look at, you know, the frequency upgrades and replacements, continue looking I mean, if you look and think, we we don't really have any sunset of our technology.

40:44 There is sunset that's happening within cellular. As you probably know, within The UK smart metering, they're moving from three g to four g. Unfortunately, they're gonna have to change all of the household's equipment inside the house to handle four g. Now if they've done RF, we could have done that from outside of the home in the gateway. But, in The UK, did you know, there's a lot of, cellular out there with some RF, which is our RF. But, unfortunately, how they've done it is maybe if they relooked at it again, they'd probably do it a different way. But we do believe it's gonna cost an additional £4,500,000,000 in The UK to upgrade from three g to four g, and that's only for 50% of the deployed network so far.

41:33 Imagine when they go to five g, six g, seven g, another 4,500,000,000, etcetera. And that I mean, that's on top of the 13,500,000,000 that they've done all because of the sunset of the technology end of life components that has happened with The UK as an example. We could have deployed the HOLDIN UK for 4,500,000,000. We'd have been really happy with that, but there we are. So we always look at future proofing. We look at the the advanced network that we have. We continue to look at reducing reliability on public cellular. That's why we've got long range radio. We look at the other parts of, know, for instance, more reliability, more security of maybe having in meter gateways.

42:20 So instead of having them on a lamppost, you put them inside a meter. In in actual fact, then that meter has cellular as well as RF in it because that's what a gateway is. A gateway that's on the lamppost has cellular and RF in it. Now we're looking for meter manufacturers to put them in the meter to have better security and have more cellular and RF in more much more locations as we roll out the networks. We always look at the ongoing operational costs, of course, you know, field, visits and, you know, deploying technology to help reduce those field visits and making sure we have the stats to ensure that we're overall very efficient and effective in what we do.

43:10 So just talk a bit. I've talked a little bit, as you could see previously, on on India. So here, look, you know, we're we are global. You know? We do operate in The UK, as you know, for where mobile doesn't work. And, you know, as part of the expansion, we're having, just coming to open up a new office, new location in Dubai, UAE. Why would you say we're doing that? Well, because of the expansion within The Middle East and the orders we get, it will just help with some of the country transfer cost pricing. We'll make sure that we cut out a layer of tax, you know, by UK and then go into, Dubai with it. So we're opening that office up there for expansion.

44:00 So watch this space. I mean, we only do this you know, we don't do it for any other good reason except there's we expect a lot more business coming out of The Middle East and other areas. And what we thought we'd do, you can see, and I've talked before about where we are today. Obviously, India, UK, Sweden, Finland, now Abu Dhabi, now Dubai, and, you know, we're in Thailand. Well, just look look below on this slide, and it surprised me the other day when I put this together that, actually, the addressable market for just these countries that's listed here is 243,000,000. We're already talking about India, 250 to 330,000,000 as an addressable market.

44:45 So you can see these countries, you know, we're not just reliant for our future growth on India, but see all these countries here, you know, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand. Well, we mentioned Thailand, but this is now a bigger opportunity there than MEA looking at PEA. Bangladesh, Abidjan, Nepal, Amman, Vietnam, even Germany who's coming up now with the next generation. And there are some various African, countries like Kenya, South Africa that's looking at all of this. So all these countries that I've mentioned, we are talking with them through partners today. And a a lot of partners have come to us for our product, for our expertise, for them to sell this on, as, as we become a vendor to a consortium selling into these countries.

45:39 And, obviously, within these countries, are multiple, utilities, DISCOMs that we speak with all of the time, and we continue, to do that as we go forward. So it's really this is good news for us as shareholders and investors. And I say that because, you know, you have to remember the board has put in and invested, what, somewhere in the region £5,500,000 to £6,000,000 sterling. That's the board, your board. I mean, I've got something like 1.2, £1,300,000 invested, and we've actually a lot of us invested where the share price was higher. Look. We'd all like the share price back to that and even more. That's our goal. That's our aim. And that's that's what we're hoping for by enhancing our our communication like this to ensure that everybody gets the best information that we can give all of the time. So we we are we're conscious of giving news out, and that's what we intend to do going forward as much as possible. And I talk about news because people say, well, you know, where's the next order? You know, we've gotta be careful what we say about next orders because we have to tell everybody at the same time. We can't tell individuals or or just a few people. It's gotta be open for everybody.

46:55 And, of course, when we put other news out, you know, we try to think, well, let's put this out, that out. And people say, oh, where's the order? You know? Why you put that out? And then we get a complaint, people say, well, actually, he didn't put out much news lately. And I go, well, yeah, because people are just listening just wait for orders to come. So there's a lot of information and data that we got from this q and a that we're, as I say, put together. A lot going on in the company, believe you and me, across all areas. We're not sat down switching our thumbs far from it. We're we're, you know, full on, and everybody's very focused for you, our shareholders, and our customers to deliver value to shareholders and actually the service level agreement to customers. Over to you, Heather. The last couple of slides are just ready to talk about the ESG and CSR initiatives that that we're undertaking.

47:44 Many of you know we we've talked about this a few times that we are accredited and and have been awarded the London Stock Exchange green economy mark. The reason for that is because there's more than 50% of our revenues. I mean, at the moment, it's pretty much a 100% of our revenues that are from green technologies. And this slide really depicts, you know, the savings that are made and the reason for that award and the the the the environmental benefit of our technology is the fact that we automate the entire system. So whereas in the past, you would have had meter readers driving around, and you can imagine 250,000,000 meters in India and, you know, driving around to do meter readings, people having to go out physically to pay their bills, you know. So so this just shows the the the savings based on our current order book, The the savings annual savings to utilities are 1 point nearly 1,200,000,000 rupees.

48:43 And you can see here the the fuel saved and various other savings that that are made as a result of our technology. Other initiatives, you know, we we are committed to doing good for the local communities as well. In India, in the past year, some some examples of initiatives, They've been focusing on empowering girls, advance advancing equity and sustaining the planet. The the recent partnership with a sort of a foundation to support the the, what was called, the digital equality program for 700 girls in Gurugram. That's another way of of another sort of, I think, more the Indian way of of calling Gurgaon, which is where our office is.

49:30 And that is the aim of that is to bridge the digital divide and provide these girls with necessary tools and resources to succeed in a digital world. We also extended support to two local government schools providing educational toys and course books. So, you know, that this has touched the the lives of 300 to 400 students. And it's just an example of some of the things that we do, and we'll continue to do these sort of things as as we go forward. So I think Yeah. Yeah. Do you want do you want to take this up, John? John, Heather, if if I may just jump back in there, or have you got any closing remarks before we move to questions? Well, I think I think with the time, we should move to questions, really. But I think that, you know, we we've tried to answer some of the questions already, you know, within the slide, but I know there's others as well which we we're happy to to go through and speak to. Yep. Perfect. John, Heather, thank you very much indeed for your presentation this morning. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions just by using the q and a tab that's situated on the right hand corner of your screen. But just while the company take a few moments just to review those questions that were submitted already, I would like to remind you that a recording of this presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published Q and A can be accessed via your investor dashboard.

50:53 Heather, John, as you have already mentioned, we did receive a number of pre submitted questions ahead of today's event. So perhaps if we look to take these first before then moving to the live questions, that would be great. And there are quite a variety of questions here. The first question that we have here reads as follows. The AIM market is news flow driven. What measures is the company taking to improve the very poor levels of communication and engagement with shareholders? Okay. On that, I think as as John mentioned earlier in the presentation, it it's difficult getting that right balance of what we can and can't always announce, but we recognize that, you know, especially over the recent months perhaps we have been quiet. So the the the one of the main things we're doing is obviously this q and a session to have a full interaction with investors to ensure that we can answer all the questions that people have.

51:43 So answering this question, it'll be via a combination of more investor presentations like this and events, direct investor meetings, one on one with with shareholders, social media, and, you know, where appropriate, we'll we'll use the required RNS releases. So another thing that we're doing is we've got a a really good experienced VP of PR and market communications in India. He actually his background, he worked for EESL and and Telesmart prior to coming to us. So he's been involved in the industry for a very long time. And, you know, he he does a lot of the social media for for India, for example, and we're gonna get him in more involved to ensure that, obviously, shareholders are getting a lot of this information about what is going on in the company and what is going on in the market in India in particular other than orders because orders will always be will have RNS releases. So so that's just some of the things that we're doing.

52:42 Perfect. Thank you, Heather. Just turning to the next question that we've got here, which asks, congratulations on materially exceeding market expectation results. When will the actual revenue for the year end 2023 be released? I think I mentioned this in my slide earlier, just, you know, the the the full year results are expected to be released at the end of July. Perfect. Thank you. The next question here is what is the reason for the full year twenty twenty four first half gross profits dropping to 31% from full year twenty twenty three's 35.9%? Is it product mix or competitive pressure? Well, I think it's a combination of both. You know, the product mix, we've talked about this previously, and I covered it in the working capital slide. The initial part of the the deployment, first couple of years, is all the hardware.

53:29 And, obviously, hardware is at lower margin than the software and the services. And also where we've got we've been selling on third party hardware in The Middle East that's at lower margins as well. So the product mix in the initial years, you'll have a lower margin. And then as as we start moving to the recurring revenues, then we would we would see that improving. Perfect. Thank you. Of the total revenues for full year 2024, what percentage was generated by India, Thailand, Middle East slash North Africa, the servicing and maintenance contracts? Well, this week because we haven't given the exact revenue, we we can't provide that that at the moment, but it will be in our full year results. Perfect. Thank you. The next question that we've got here asks, with the big increase in staff for India, plus 60 approximately, what are the monthly operating costs currently?

54:27 I think that's another one that's, you know, that's I I think the next question was about the current cash position. So these are things that are not currently in the market. So, you know, we we can't sort of we've got to give information to everybody at the same time, so I can't cover these these these questions. Absolutely. Will there need to be a further share placing to manage the anticipated business expansion? It's not in our current plans. I mean, we're always looking at alternative funding. In India, obviously, we we do things the the the more day to day things like the invoice discounting, and we're looking at working capital facilities in India, which is where a lot of the growth is. So at the moment, there's nothing in in our plans for for the share pricing. Perfect. Thank you. The next question here relates to the full year 2025 forecast. It says consensus for forecast for full year 2025 indicate a pretax profit of £3,900,000.

55:24 Is that still a realistic forecast? Well, I think as many of you know, if if we don't believe that the forecast is still realistic, then we are required to announce it. And to announce that we don't believe that we'll meet market expectation. We haven't done so, and we do fully expect to meet the market expectation for the current year. Perfect. Thank you. Genius appeared to have stopped placing orders with, CYAN. The last order I recall was in January 2020 worth £3,300,000. Are you expecting further orders, from them? Well, actually, from there, there was, actually, the the last order from them was, August 2022. So there there has been, follow on, from there. And we continue to work with GENUS.

56:10 We're deploying, in South Bihar with them right now and continue to do so. And yeah. I mean, we work with GENUS and continue to do so. And where appropriate, we're hoping to get more orders from them and from others. I mean, we are actively, you know, expanding across, more states in India by all of us participating in, new tenders and deploying smart meters in additional regions, whether that's through Genius, Intellismart, Monte Carlo, whomever, GMR, etcetera. So we continue to look at enhancing our strategic partnerships across India, across across the globe. Also, we also look at seamless, supply chain and improvements on there as well to with key, contracted equipment manufacturers to ensure that we have a reliable and seamless supply chain that help us maintain a steady flow of orders going through and optimizing, you know, production and delivery, which is really important as well. So, yeah, we continue to do so.

57:16 Thank you, John. That's great. The next question asks, is the CYAN win ratio, in volume terms still 25%? So in in terms of, numbers of bids, in in it's it's actually 29%. In terms of volume, that equates to about 16%, just to clarify those numbers. Perfect. Thank you. The next question that we have here relates to the announcement made on the May 22, which asks, read the May 22 announcements. Can we have more detail about how this changes the CYAN business model and its advantages? Also, we appear to be competing with some of our some of our own customers. What reaction do you anticipate from existing customers? Yeah. Well, hopefully, I answered some of that by putting some of the slides on. This is why we we did that. And, actually, the, the next question that I noticed is, about wanting to know about AMI SB accreditation and and about capital intense intense and how would it be funded. So hopefully, I've answered those two questions. Now in in in addition to that so if you think today, when we bid today with our traditional way through being a vendor through other AMISP partners, we are in you know, we we may bid three times with three in one tender with three different AMISPs today. You know?

58:38 We may bid through Genius, Intellismart, Monte Carlo, all at the same time. So we're doing that anyway, have done in the past, and we'll continue to do so. So as I mentioned, on a case by case basis, we will bid appropriately whether it's as an AMISP, which we can do, as well as vendor or or just as vendor. So we have that choice, and we're taking, you know, what our existing customers anticipate as well. Perfect. Thank you. Just turning to a couple of questions now on India. The first one being, given the senior team in India has been expanded dramatically, are there any plans to float the Indian subsidiary on the Indian stock market? I mean, we continue to look at all areas to, you know, where can we create shareholder value. I mean, you know, if you look at UK, a market at the moment, I mean, the last twelve months I mean, I speak to a lot of people in the market. It's been pretty dire. You know? There hasn't been many IPOs, etcetera.

59:41 There's been a lot of redemptions of funds. Cost of living has affected people investing. And a lot of companies have moved off from a m AIM company in The UK, gone off to The States. A number of companies have been bought and taken private, etcetera, off AIM. So, you know, we continue to look and say, well, you know, where's the value, etcetera? And, yeah, I mean, it is a consideration. I mean, the Indian stock market, if you look at it, is is is going like this. It's like a graph of growth of revenue over the last number of years. It certainly has accelerated, and there's a lot of companies in the last eight months that had some great values. And and as a wholly owned subsidiary and well known in India, yeah, this is something that the board takes into consideration and always constantly looking at, you know, what's best for the company.

1:00:34 Perfect. Thanks, John. And perhaps just sticking with India. Moving forward in India, what's our current working relationship, with the Genius Power company? Yeah. I think I've I've I've mentioned that on the previous question. This is, you know, all sort of linked. We're as I say, we're deploying with them, working with them, in South BR right now and continuing to do so. And I and I guess just sticking on that topic as well. And the next question that we have here asks, how many empaneled, AMISPs in India, are we presently supplying, out RF solution to? How many AMISPs are we supplying our RF slash cellular solution to, and do we still have a working relationship regarding the smart meter rollout with Genius? Yeah. Well, I think I've I've I've answered that last piece. But, I mean, look, we work with multiple AM ISPs across India. There's not one that we're we don't talk with that's out there that whether they wanna look at RF. I mean, it's RF for us in the main. We are developing I mean, just on that point, just to expand on that point, actually, RF and cellular.

1:01:39 So today, in Thailand, we we our solution offers RF and cellular, and we have what we call SEANIC. That's a cellular, NIC card, as we call it, and then our of a cellular. So that goes to our OmniMesh platform. That's RF and cellular, and we do that for our customers in Thailand, which is great. Now the cost of the NIC card, the cellular NIC card, which, actually, I mentioned, it it really ends up with enhanced security levels, encryption, etcetera, within that cellular that we offer. So value added cellular, if you think of it that way. Now in India, they go for public network on cellular, which doesn't have the same security that we offer on a a a cnic, our cellular NIC card. So at the price point, they want at the moment, for the Scenic, so we're looking we don't deliver the cellular just yet as we do in Thailand too. India is focused on RF.

1:02:35 We can do cellular, but we gotta get the price down on the the NIC card to make it acceptable for the market that put in cheap modems for cellular today. Not only the hardware we look at to how how else can we deliver RF and cellular, but also we look at the software side of things. So we're now looking at what we call a unified head end system that actually can take the software that can take RF and cellular, and that takes, obviously, time and money to deploy that. A bit like WiSAN, these are all the developments that we can are working on right now to actually offer and enhance our product set going forward. Perfect. Thank you. The next question asks, are you considering a dual listing? If not, why not? And under what circumstances would it be considered?

1:03:29 Yeah. It it's definitely something. As I mentioned, we we as I say, the board continually look at this. You know? It's not my decision. I have the decision. It's your your board on your behalf who will look at this, and we continue to look at, you know, where can we add value for our shareholders and what's the best thing to do. So, yes, that's that's under the review for doing it at appropriate time if required. Perfect. Thank you. And the next question, I believe you may have touched on in the presentation, but perhaps if there's anything further to add here. The question asks, what terms are you paid on, from your customers, And what terms do you pay your suppliers on? How would the new, Indian legislation on payments impact the need for working capital financing? I think, that is covered by the slide on on the working capital, cycle. So, yeah, I I think we can go on. And also on the the working capital financing, think that's been asked a few times and covered as well.

1:04:24 Perfect. Thank you. Given the higher level of hardware investments ahead of revenue, can you let the investors know how you are managing cash flow? Well, I think that that is is also covered from from the slide and and from previous questions on this list as well. Okay. Perfect. Just moving on to the next question. It's to the credit of all staff at CYANCONNODE that the company has developed and positioned itself to take advantage of many business opportunities in both India and the rest of the world. During the lengthy development process, the company's share price has been predominantly very low. Would management be disappointed if the share price had not significantly improved in a year's time? Oh, absolutely. And, again, this is something that, you know, un unknown to us. Sometimes we think the share price should be accelerating. It goes the other way. And as I said earlier, I've I've spoken to numerous brokers, high net worth individuals, other investors about the AIM market. And, you know, it's not just CYANCONNODE that suffered.

1:05:28 There's multiple companies on AIM that have suffered in the last twelve, eighteen months. And, yeah, we are disappointed individually as a as a board on behalf of all shareholders of where the share price is, and we expect and that's why we want to improve the communications to everyone with the the private investors, institutional investors, high net worth individuals of what's happening in the company. And as I say, by when we put all this information together, which I think should answer most people's questions and even more, I think, that we've got some great questions that we got, which will we'll put out there that yeah. Our aim is to improve the share price, and that's part of why I'm here. The board's here to do that. So really important. So, yeah, of course, I would I'd be definitely disappointed if the share price didn't improve in a year's time.

1:06:18 Thank you, John. Given the huge turnover of staff, is it not time, to scout for a new executive chairman to deliver this company's full potential? Well, I mean, look, that's a difficult one for me to answer, but let me just talk about the huge turnover step. There isn't a huge turnover and stuff. I don't know where people have got that from. There's been individual changes, but not a huge turnover. I mean, if you think that we've got something like well, I don't know. It's roundabouts combined globally about including contractors and subcontractors. There's about a 180 people that work for the company on a full time basis. Most of those are in India, but, you know, that it's a small amount that turned it, you know, smaller than a lot of other companies. So don't don't see that as an issue, and we continue to recruit. You know, we've got open vacancies in India for people which we're recruiting against.

1:07:15 We have number number of candidates to do that. And, you know, as far as my role, then the board evaluate, and we just on that, all the board gets evaluated every year as part of the QCA governance of you know, are they still adding value to the company? Are they up to the skills and experience needed to be on the board, etcetera? So we do that evaluation all the time. So, you know, that, of course, is down to the remediation committee and the board itself, which they do review, and they'll make the the appropriate decisions about everybody and anybody in the company as as I do with the executive team and other people in the company to make sure that if somebody sits in a glass ceiling, that we look for what can come next and who should be taking us on to the next level. Hence, the the reorganization that we've done to have one team splitting out the different functions, you know, as I've mentioned, software, hardware, and firmware, looking at the services and support and delivery. So very discreet areas for the growth that we got planned for the company in the years ahead.

1:08:27 Thank you, John. The next question that we have here again relates to the share price. And I know we have just touched on this, but perhaps if there's anything further that you'd like to add. Although recent RNSs relating to contract wins have been very positive, the news seems to have very little effect on the share price. Why do you think this is, and how do you feel some indication of the value of the contracts in the RNSs would have a much more positive effect on the share price? Yeah. Just coming to, you know, where we put the value and the volume in there. We've had this debate for many years. Of course, you gotta remember that our competitors actually look at our RNSs, and we we try to keep our pricing and our values away from competition because, you know, they get hold of that, then, you know, they're undercutters or whatever, etcetera. And there'll be a downward spiral, you know, on erosion of margins, etcetera. So that's why we do that, but we don't we don't think that. I think, for me, it's all about and I'm hoping that when we give the results out in July that people will see the material change we made in the numbers from even the target that people do I think it's realization of delivery, collecting the cash, seeing the revenue.

1:09:41 It's not just about the order, is it? I mean, the order is one thing, but it's about delivery of the order. It's a cash collection. It's the revenue that comes with that. It's the profitability of the contract. And I think with a set of numbers coming out in July, I'm then hoping that we'll get a positive effect on the share price. Perfect. Thank you. The next question asks, is the ongoing, Indian political elections, delaying the announcement of the smart meter tender awards? Well, you know, the elections you know, I can imagine 1,400,000,000 people, you know, having to do an election, which is just coming to an end now. So I think it's got about a week to go, and and that's it. So if you also think that, you know, there's, a 100,000,000 plus, that's been awarded to commercial companies, So those are already out there for them to award to subcontractors. So those aren't affected by the political, situation of elections because they're they're awarded.

1:10:38 You know, the the new ones that's come out, there might be one or two states. There's multiple states. You know, there's about 80 odd 90 nearly now, actually. Yeah. 88 utilities, DISCOMs. Most of them are out there beavering away of getting their plans ready for rolling out smart metering. And I don't I think maybe one or two has been delayed, but nothing significant. And as I say, it's all coming to an end in the next week or two. So, that's the end of it because it does take months to actually go through. You know? They don't do an election like we do in The UK of having one day and everybody votes. You know? It's just impossible to handle that. They do it sort of by state state by state, and and then then everything's released in the next week or two. So, yeah, we don't expect any delay in the caused caused by announcements of the smart meters.

1:11:32 Perfect. Thank you. What was the reasoning behind the recent appointments of Pamela Gordon as the company's joint broker? I think I mean, many companies have got at least, you know, two brokers, and it it's it's one way of ensuring that, you know, we get to meet with and and we're exposed to as many investors on the stock market as possible. And I think all of that obviously helps with investor relations and helps with the, you know, the the share price and and, obviously, visibility within the market. So that was one of the main reasons. Perfect. Thank you. And I I believe the next question, you've covered in the slides. So if we perhaps take the one after that, which asked the announcement, of the new CYANCONNODE India subsidiary, Digismart, as an AMISP, was a real advancement for the company and seems to have opened up a whole new different direction of opportunities for CYANCONNODE to progress and develop.

1:12:31 It has also brought about some changes to the board, especially the team in India, which now seems to be into a leadership group, leaving us with two groups instead of three, namely board and leadership. Can you please give us an insight into the Digismart's progression and also the creation of the new leadership grouping within CYANCONNODE? Yeah. Well, I think I've covered that on a slide actually by going through what DigiSmart Network is and how that works. And, also, we put up about the the new leadership group. So I think we've done that. The the one change, I'd just say, on the board that we did. So Chris Jones step stepped down at the beginning of the year. And be Bjorn, who was the CEO for Lindenblom, who was the CEO for CYANCONNODE, has joined the board, and he's got a lot of experience within smart metering, understands our product inside out.

1:13:27 He's he's an entrepreneur, very, very well thought of within the industry. So that that's what's that's the other change that's happened, but the rest then I've, you know, talked about on on on the slides that we put forward. Perfect. Thank you, John. And I know we are just a little bit over the hour now, but perhaps if we take a couple of final questions, and then, of course, if any further questions come through, we can make these available to you afterwards just for you to review and add any additional responses at that point. But the next question we have reads, solar parks have become more common in India over recent years with the possibility, I would think, of providing electricity via solar energy to more remote parts of India. Is there any information that you can share on the adaptability of the solution in regards to the solar power if it has to be adapted? And is there any difference to the OmniMesh solution used for smart meters for power generated by a water turbine?

1:14:25 Yeah. Thanks, Jake. So there's absolutely no difference in metering for solar panel as there is to smart meters. I mean, the bidirectional meters, which are already integrated with with our product, you know, so the what we call polyphase meters are bi bidirectional meters. And as you know, that's what smart metering is all about, bidirectional. So, yeah, the solar panels, you know, we we've got I mean, these meters are pre and post certified. So they come and, you know, they come to the standard of what we call I s one six triple four and I s one five nine five nine, etcetera, that meaning that they can use RF to connect. So, yeah, we're very much that, again, is another area that we can look at for growth is in solar power and those meters that need to communicate back to whatever point they needed at that data to go back to. So, yeah, it's a it's a it's a it's another area, another opportunity for us to to look at and and use our product and technology for.

1:15:32 Perfect. Thank you. The UK smart metering program has been going through various stages for many years now with CYANCONNODE's involvement within that rollout expected to be towards the end of the program. There was a report out recently that stated that The UK smart meter rollout was lagging behind our European counterparts. From a CYANCONNODE perspective, can you give any details on the progress with The UK smart metering rollout so far and when a CYANCONNODE likely to be directly involved in the rollout? Obviously, I think I would agree with that report that it's lagging behind European counterparts because you see many other countries around Europe where they've completed their first round of smart meters and they're probably even moving on to second rounds of smart metering. We and and then secondly, we have been involved and, you know, and we are involved right since the beginning.

1:16:25 So we we are sort of two steps removed in terms of the rollout. We we don't ourselves unlike India, where in India, we go and we handle the deployments ourselves, and and we will help with the installation of various parts and and all of that. With with the smart metering contract in The UK, our customers, Toshiba, who supplies the hardware, so we only supply the software that, you know, that that's licenses that will get connected. And then their customer who is the the the main party involved in the rollout is what was Telefonica now VMO two. And they handled the rollout via all the, you know, the the subcontractors and people who drive around to install the meters. And where they find an area that is in a hotspot, they will install what's called a a skew two meter that has capability of both mesh and cellular.

1:17:19 And if, you know, if if it's deemed that they they need to have the mesh technology, then it'll automatically line light light up. So we have been involved ever since the beginning, and we have had meters. You know, every month we get a report saying how many have been sort of accepted over the time. But what we've what we've really meant by this comment is that we expect the majority of them to be towards the end because they've been deploying mainly in urban areas where there is cellular coverage, so there's been less need. And, also, if you think about the way that a mesh forms, you know, if they go and install one, you know, mesh hub on its own, it needs another one near it. So as there are more, they'll fill the area and that to to enable, you know, mesh to form. So so that's why we expect that as the rollout goes on, that's when we would we would see more of the revenues coming in.

1:18:15 Perfect. Thank you, Heather. And perhaps just one final question here. In the trading update on the 04/16/2024, there was a section about establishing an entity in The UAE to promote business in the Middle East and North Africa region. Can you please expand on this development in any way? So I think we have covered this in the slides, and I I think it's been in in various questions as well. So, yeah, I I don't think there's much more to add on that. Perfect. Well, however, John, thank you very much indeed for being so generous of your time and addressing all of those questions that we had come in from investors. 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 then we'll publish those out on the platform and notify investors, once they're ready for their review.

1:19:05 But, John, 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 would be great. Yeah. Sure. Thanks, Jake. And and thanks, everybody, first of all, giving us the time for us to be able to talk with you and and give answers to your questions that you've put in. And, hopefully, you feel that you've actually got a lot of your questions answered. And as I say, we have got some additional ones which we will put onto the platform, will put onto the website, which is really good data information we got from this. So it's been a great experience from our point of view. And I want you to understand everybody in the company, every individual, we're all working very hard for you, our shareholders, owners of the company, to actually give the return on that share price and the investment they've done for now and in the future.

1:19:59 And, you know, there's a lot of stuff that's going on. If you're seeing what's happening in the rest of the world on the global opportunities that we are working on right now, you know, two hundred and forty two hundred and forty three million opportunities with the rest of the world. I'm not saying we're going to get all of that, but, you know, we aim to get something like if I aim just under the 30%, maybe 29% of that is sort of what I'm hoping to target over the next number of years, five years, that that would be also really enhancing what we're doing in India. So, you know, we are working hard. We will deliver what we say we're going to do, and, I can just see things going from better to better.

1:20:47 That's great. John, Heather, thank you once again for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as you'll now be automatically redirected for the opportunity to provide 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 CYANCONNODE HOLDINGS PLC, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That now concludes today's session. So good afternoon to you all. Thank you, Jake. Thank you, everybody. Thank you.