Forgent (LSE:FORG) — 2022 AGM

0:00 Good afternoon, and welcome to EQUTEC PLC twenty twenty two AGM. Throughout this recorded presentation, online meeting attendees will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged can be submitted anytime via the Q and A tab situated in the right hand corner of your screen. Simply type your question and press send. Company may not be in a position to answer every question submitted today. Have all questions be reviewed with responses published on the Investor Me company platform where appropriate to do so. I'd now like to hand you over to Ian Pearson, Non Executive Chairman. Good afternoon.

0:27 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to welcome you to this Annual General Meeting of EcoTech PLC. As has been mentioned, I'm the Non Executive Chairman, and I will be your Chair for this meeting. It's now just after 02:00, and I declare the meeting open. And as we have a quorum, I I would like to move straight away and introduce you to the board. We have, from my left, Nauman Babar, who's the CFO of Ecadet. Immediately next to me, David Palumbo, the CEO. And to my right, Jeffrey van der Linden, who's our chief operating officer. We also have on the call Joel Elliman, CTO. I'm delighted to welcome who's at one of our plants in Italy.

1:15 And we also, I believe, have Tom Quigley joining us remotely as well, who's one of our nonexecutive directors. As with previous years, we're going to go through the formal business first, then we'll close the official meeting. And I'll then ask David Palumbo to say a few words about the future prospects for the business and to answer any questions from the meeting and from those that have been submitted remotely as well. Voting today will be done by way of a poll on each of the resolutions put to the meeting. And given this is a hybrid meeting, we will need to put together the proxy votes cast with those from those voting at the meeting.

2:05 A summary of each resolution will be shown on the screen behind me, and then following that, a summary of the proxy votes for each resolution. For those of you here today who've registered your attendance, you have been given a a poll card to complete, and these will be collected after we've gone through all the resolutions. And at the end of the meeting, these will all be tallied and announced through our regulatory information service and published on our website as soon as reasonably practicable. As you know, you have an opportunity to vote for, against, or to to withhold your vote on any resolution.

2:54 And so let me move to the the first resolution, which is the resolution to approve the annual report and accounts. I propose that the annual report and accounts for the year ended 12/31/2021 be received. As I explained, if you would like in the room to tick the appropriate box on your polling card to vote for or against or withhold your vote on the resolution. Thank you. You'll now see on the screen the votes of the proxy votes. Yeah. That's, I'm delighted to see, is working. We can move on to resolution two, which concerns the reelection of the following directors who retire by rotation and who are eligible for reelection in accordance with article 87 a of the the company's article of association.

3:49 Those are Thomas Quigley and myself, Ian Pearson. The board recommends that each of the directors be reelected as a director. For those of you in the room, could you please vote now? And you should now see on the screen the proxy votes that have already been cast. The next resolution is the resolution to reappoint auditors. The Board is recommending that Grant Thornton be reappointed as auditors of the company. I pose, therefore, that Grant Thornton be reappointed reappointed as shown on the screen under Resolution three. And, again, if those of you in the room would please like to to vote on that resolution, that will be appreciated.

4:37 And the votes are now on the screen for the proxy votes that were being cast for this resolution. Next resolution is the resolution to authorize allotment of shares. And the resolution for, as shown on the screen, which relates to the authority of the directors to allot shares. Before the directors can issue shares, they must first be authorized by shareholders to do so. It's proposed that the directors be and are hereby generally and unconditionally be authorized to exercise all powers of the company to allot relevant securities within the meaning of Section ten twenty one of the Companies Act 2014 up to an aggregate nominal amount equal to EUR 4,500,000.

5:28 It's proposed that this authority shall expire at the conclusion of the next Annual General Meeting of the company unless previously renewed, varied or revoked by the company in a general meeting. Again, this is a provision that we've had for a number of years. Propose that the directors be authorized to allot shares in accordance with this resolution. So if those of you in the room could please vote now, that would be appreciated. And again, the results should be appearing on the screen of the proxy votes cast. Lastly, I propose resolution five as a special resolution. Resolution five is different to the other resolutions.

6:14 Resolutions one to four are ordinary resolutions and require a simple majority. Resolution five is a special resolution which requires a majority of 75% to vote in favor of the resolution. Resolution five, as a special resolution, empowers the directors of the company to allot equity securities for cash pursuant to the authority confirmed by Resolution four above as if Section ten twenty two, brackets one, brackets, the Companies Act 2014 did not apply to any such allotment up to a nominal amount again of EUR 500,000.

7:00 It's proposed that this power shall expire as per Resolution four at the next general meeting of the company unless and to the extent that such authorities renewed, revoked or extended prior to such date. Again, it's a resolution that we've proposed in previous years and is a continuation. So for those of you in the room, if you could please indicate your vote. And you should now see on the screen the number of proxy votes cast for that resolution. I think that that will actually concludes the voting. So I think Nauman, as appointed scrutineer, is going to collect your votes.

7:51 If you could return those to him. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks very much for that. Based on the votes cast, as you've seen from the proxy votes, and we'll add these votes to them. But it seems clear that resolutions one to four are deemed to have been passed by way of ordinary resolution. And it also seems clear that resolution five is deemed to have been passed by way of special resolution. When we've added the votes of the meeting to the the proxy votes votes cast,

8:28 we will obviously announce those to the markets through the regulatory information service as soon as practical. This concludes the ordinary business of the meeting. And I'd like to thank you for your attendance for this part of the meeting and hand you over to David, who's going to talk a little bit about the prospects for the company going forward. David, over Thank to you very much, Iain. Thank you very much, everyone, present online and also particularly the gentleman present physically. I mean, some of you guys have been shareholder of the company even before it was Equitex, so it's always very moving for us to to have you here physically present.

9:14 We recently, on the April 25, published the annual results. So on the April 26, we did the investor meet company webcast, which is available on the on the investor meet company portal, and we explained the the the annual result and the year in the context of our strategy. What we we also talked about the outlook there so that video is available for everyone to see. What we wanted to do is use most of the time that we have today to, you know, to file questions. In terms of the prospect of the business and what we can expect for 2022 to the year end, I think that the three value creating events that cannot be, you know, understated.

10:00 By the end of the year, we'll have two market development centers, which are plants where we fully operate and have access to showcase and also train and bring existing and new technology partners, funders to see the plants in operation and to in a in a in a real commercial setting. Those those two plans are expected. Those are plan that we are managing directly in construction. Those are plan that we expect to have commissioned in the second half of the year. In fact, Joel or CTO is in Italy now, and and and it was last month in Croatia as well. So I think those will be very, you know, important step change in the company as well to have access to those plans. Another thing that I think is very important as well is particularly in the current, you know, geopolitical situation that have made very critical to start looking for alternative fuels and, you know, low value feedstock to create replacement for natural gas and for other fuels.

10:58 We will have also in the second half of the year the ability to test in our r and d center to real life feedstock into steam oxygen gasification to bring as well our partners to see the the capacity for us to use our synthesis gas for hydrogen production and also for methane production. I mean, in the last six months, most of the inquiries that we have had through the network and through the website are mainly for advanced biofuels and a very few centers in the world where you can do a real life test of synthesis gas that can be used for hydrogen and natural gas or synthetic natural gas production. I think that would be incredible opportunity to really showcase this to, again, strategic investors and funders in this context.

11:51 And the other thing as well that we are tracking well, I mean, last year, we agreed to reconfigure the the offtake for the large UK projects. That's tracking really well. It's important to do that again because as we expand our market reach in applications like biofuels, all three projects have real life offtake commercial neighbors that are need to have chemical applications for the singers like hydrogen in the case of Bellingham. We're surrounded in in a in a industrial park that has very large offtakers of either hydrogen or methane.

12:36 Same same as in project in Sappor and also in this side where, you know, Toyota is a significant off taker for the majority of the not only power and heat, but also biogas and now possibly hydrogen. So the reconfiguration of those projects is very important for us. It's tracking really well. The conversation with the technology partner and the strategic partners, all and new is has been really catalyzed by these projects. We, you know, as well, we announced last year that Wood PLC is a technology partner that is working with us alongside other technology partners in the on these sites to evaluating the the technical and the economical proposal for this project. So I think that's gonna be also very important to secure more, you know, large corporate strategic partners, and we expect to announce some of those also, you know, between in the second half of the year. You know? So those those are towards the the the biggest

13:35 step change that we'll see in 2022. And I think now what we would like to do is to use most of the time to, you know, to file any questions that you know, first starting with the people in the room. Probably make the effort to come here, and then also questions that have been post online and questions that have been, you know, have been post now during the the

13:56 What capacity will the two development centers have?

14:16 Of feedstock initially. This we're evaluating possibility to increase that and to do more things on that side, but that's in the case of Italy, using a variety of forestry waste biomass and potential agricultural waste and all the, you know, locally available feedstocks. May I just comment on that? I think one of the things that Yoel and the team discovered in Italy is potential for having dual feedstock input systems so that we can use different feedstocks as the prices of those go up and down. So, really, we're we created a more resilient facility than than perhaps the one we we originally envisaged. And as as David said, that's also going to allow us to look at the total capacity output over time. So, again, you know, looking at how, you know, Joel and the team are using the engineering to create something that's more resilient as a business proposition. Yeah. So and and we should not forget also that we are going to be generating biochar.

15:13 Yeah. So so I think That would be also an an output. Yeah. Yeah. So it's very important for us, the market development center are critical to also show the versatility and all the other commercial models that we can apply there. So that's why the business has been made more resilient by the low density and high density feedstock. But also, as Joel is saying, there's a huge demand of biochar in The US that now is coming to Europe as well and also in terms of the carbon credits associated with the biochar. In Croatia, is the other question, is 1.5 megawatt electrical. Croatia also be supplying heat to local industrial client. Croatia is very interesting for us because we are proving there are different commercial model because we are also going to be using some

16:02 waste feedstock from a local industrial partner, and we will be providing them to with electricity and heat. And this industrial off taker needs probably two to three times the amount that we're producing, so we're also exploring a possibility to have an expansion behind the site in in in Belize, in in Croatia. Now those both sites will be operated by us, and that gives the ability to or the drop of a hat, take anyone and spend as long as we want with partners to be trained or to be, you know, showcasing the the the technology.

16:39 Is the technology working as it is for what we're going to do?

16:45 If the technology sort of work Is the is technology that we have for for you getting the waste in and getting the gas out, is that technology actually working? The technology has been working for more than ten years. We have we we have Well, we before you came into the company, and I I don't know any of you have been there. We're listening to this year on year on year on year since we started the company. And we we still have no like, we we produce no megawatt of electricity yet. Yeah. Because originally, the company, as I was a developer project. The the the company became what it is now as EquityTech in in in in 2019 where the technology was acquired. And now, you know, we are not a developer of projects. It's very important, though. We are not about producing megawatts in this interim phase, producing megawatt, having plant operating, we showcase the technology, But we are building us to be a global licensor of technology.

17:36 So all the companies will want the infrastructure and will be the enabler to facilitate, you know, that financial So when do we have a stream of income coming in? You have two plants with the coming operation at the end of this year? Correct. So how many megawatts would that be? How many megawatts will we have working next year by the end of twenty three, '24?

17:55 But remember, we are not we will not be measured by megawatts that we are in that that we are be producing because the operating revenues of those plants I mean, at this stage, we have some equity on some of those plants, but the model is intended to sell that equity and recycle the capital to develop licensing revenues, you know, instead of operating Yeah. What what what we're trying to to do is shift from being a we look like a development company now because we're very focused on a very specific set of projects. But as David said, the purpose of those projects is not to generate development revenue. We do generate development revenue of necessity because we're investing. But the purpose of those is to demonstrate the technology working in a new business model. So we've already demonstrated biomass to to CHP to combine heat and power. We did that ten years ago, and we're now growing that market.

18:47 Our focus in The UK now is on RDF, and every project we have there is a potential platform for demonstrating RDF. Frankly, we don't care which one goes first.

18:58 All we care about is that we demonstrate RDF. Now Yoel and the team will already say they know the RDF technology works. They've trialed it at Lorraine, which is an end to end complete system for what we do. Joel has done it externally in a commercial plan even before he joined EQTEC. So the track record is there, but for for an investment perspective, from a market perspective, we still have to demonstrate that in a commercial environment up and running. Once that happens, we then grow the RDF business. The third, we're looking at contaminated plastics, and

19:30 you'll know that we announced earlier this year we have a we have a relationship now based on very successful tests last year. We now have a relationship in France for contaminated plastics. That market will then take off. Same thing, we'll bring it over to The UK, we'll expand it, you know, beyond. In Ireland, we're looking now with our partners, Carbon Soul, at synthetic natural gas outputs. We're looking in The UK at both hydrogen and synthetic natural gas and so on. So we're finding these new business models to set to show how EQTEC technology can operate in all those environments, potentially with partners such as Wood, whom we've announced for our synthetic natural gas and hydrogen partnerships. But the point, as David said, is to demonstrate the technology capability.

20:16 Back to your question about megawatt hours. We wanna move to being an order book company where order you know, looking at the number of megawatts we're generating over time becomes less interesting because it's taking off like that. We want to be the microchip, you know, the the the technology that gets put into the world's synthetic natural gas plants. You know, we want the big eons and centricas and other, you know, big owner operators to come to us to say, we want you to build a portfolio of 10 or 12 or 15 plants over the next decade for us in these locations. And we won't be the ones building the plants, but we'll be the ones putting the technology in those plants. So it's as David said, we've shifted, you know, many, many years ago when this company started out, it was a project development company.

21:07 We now have realized the real gem, the magic in the company is the technology itself. And the best thing we can do is to get other people to buy that technology and deploy it into their plants, and we will grow much more quickly. Yeah.

21:23 So have you an expert team to be able to come to me if I wanted to build a plan? Have you team better come and advise me if I want to build a plan?

21:34 So if we can come and advise if you want to build a plan. You have an ex expert team to do that. Yes. This is exactly what what we're doing now. We're very much involved now in the whole life cycle of the plan because we need to create that commercial footprint and that number of plan to be able to move to a licensing model. So at the moment, we get involved with we'll we'll advise typically, portfolio clients that have a portfolio of plans, we get involved very early in the whole concept design, you know, financial modeling, you know, the business model for the plant, and we can, you know Yeah. Start, they

22:06 can do it. We provide advice, and we provide insight all the way through the process. Right? And, increasingly, we will be paid for that as advice and service and so on. What we also have to do over time, though, is get other people certified, trained, and certify our partners to be able to have that initial discussion if you want to build a plan. So let me give a few examples. In California, our partner is Phoenix Energy.

22:33 Before we ever get pulled into any projects out there, we've got three now. The North Fork plant, we've got now Blue Mountain, and we have a third one that we're bidding for. And there's a whole pipeline there. But those local councils who want to build those plants go first to Phoenix Energy. They have that company has our partner has a very good relationship with the state of California and also with a number of other stakeholders and partners who can build plants there. And so our role becomes supplier of the technology, the magic technology, the core technology that will make those plants effective. But the first go to is our partner. In France, it's a different model for us. Or in Italy, we are setting up our own entity there to be the first point of contact for those plants.

23:20 But over time, we will want them to take that business away from us. And the reason is EQTech will grow faster, make more revenues, make and and eventually become highly profitable by purely being a technology business. And that's what we're aiming to do. Yep. Sorry. Yeah. Maybe, you know, I speak about that Norfolk plant in particular. I know that it has dragged on for quite a long time, and there was a suggestion that you might even take over that project in total. We read about these meetings, community meetings, sort of difficult lack of progress. Yeah. There's an online question about that as well. Do you wanna cover those? Yeah. Call I call the online question is probably what's going on to know for probably the the

24:08 2022 update on your website is basically the same as June 2021 status. Has there been no progress on this on since last year? First of all, there's a there's a correction to be made in the website. There have been progress as as we know last last year. I mean, the Norfolk project, one distinction is important to make is in the project like the market development centers, which we keep saying are critical for us. We are fully involved in the project as working directly with the EPC, responsible for procurement, the construction, and everything. That's why we are have been able to address the challenges of supply chain, the challenge that happened in the last year. So Norfolk, much earlier than that, we have two files on-site pretty much right next to that. We have the supply chain issues with COVID. And in the project like Norfolk and the Greece project as well, we have another EPC where we are only the technology provider.

25:06 In the case of Norfolk, because we have an equity stake and we increased that equity

25:10 stake, we we were able to support them a bit more as a shareholder. Obviously, providing line of credit, and it's important. It's a first project in the in The US that, you know, it will scale. I mean, the pipeline the Phoenix pipeline alone in The US is 10 projects that are exactly like Norfolk, two to three megawatt with the same application. But if you move that up and down the whole five states, you know, Oregon and anyone else that have a similar characteristic. These are these are just building the team over there that can deliver this project. At the same time, we are restricted what we can do because Norfolk has an EPC contracted with the company with with the project company that have dealing in their own way with the challenges of subcontractors and supply chain disruption that have been, you know, incredible in the last, you know, eighteen months.

25:56 So we continue to work with them. You know, we we are supporting these small EPCs. These are not very large EPCs, so we're supporting the EPCs and keeping a dialogue to be able to help them to address those challenges in the best possible way and to accelerate the process. And similar situation in in Greece. We have our partner, which is a a small local EPC. We have some part of the scope that's been taken by the developer themselves. It's a small developer project, and they are at the mercy of a lot of the supply chain challenges. In the case of MDC and Croatia, we have faced them themselves, but we have been able to be aggressively in terms of forward ordering material in in being reconfiguring the the technology to be able to address that and address the cost increase and still have a strong financial, you know, business case on the project. We expect, you know, with with you know, we know what we can do with the market development center. We expect with, you know, a bit of luck, we can have also Norfolk and aggregate, so at least one of them built by before the end of the year as well. So that will make in total, you know, three to four plan. Would you mean function, operation? Operational operation. We we mean build and producing. You know? I I asked around the question. Sorry. By the way, to finish on that, all those both Greece and Norfolk, all our equipment is on-site.

27:08 All our procurement has been done. All the technology cell funds that equity was going to get has been already taken from Norfolk. And for us, it's more of a you know, it's a big, shiny, expensive brochure in California. You know? And and and that's why we're supporting that. And the same thing in Greece. All our equipment, all our procurement, everything needed from Equitech is on-site. You know, fully resource those projects with a proper full crew without the supply chain issue that we have for the balance, this is project that can be built in three months. Everything is there. We're not a renewable energy company anymore. We're renewable energy IT company now. And That that's the end state. Yeah. Something like And and it's not they shouldn't have asked you how many megawatts we'll be producing at the end of this year or next year. What stream of income will we have this year or next year? The the stream partial projections. The the streaming, if you've seen that result, I mean, went from a 2,200,000 revenues to a 9,200,000 revenues in the last year, and we are targeting to probably triple that this year as well. So if you look at the trajectory

28:09 7,000,000 this year, but for next year? Yeah. So if you look if you look at the trajectory, and that that's the the the trajectory is very strong before even we move into a licensing model. The the important thing here is at the moment that you have enough critical mass to start licensing some of this, a, the megawatt produced using our technology could be interesting because our licensing fee may be linked to that. But the the important thing is for us to we have a 100,000,000 pipeline plus that we are the limiting factor

28:41 there is more rapid funding of that pipeline and capacity building internally. So we are pick and choosing which project we bring forward to be able to build that commercial infrastructure to then deliver that licensing model. And I think if I just add from a revenue perspective, obviously, what we right now are doing, we are installing technology into different projects. Going forward, we are going to go to a more sticky revenue model, which is the licensing revenues because that is a recurring revenue. If there is a plant which is operating for twenty years, there's twenty years worth of licensing revenue going to come from that plant. So I think that's what we want to target towards. That's where we want to evolve towards. And the way that every single incremental plant we add is bringing us an additional decade or two decades of recurring revenue year on year.

29:28 So right now, going back to those You're you're running the technology in the in the pants? We're not running it. We're getting paid for the right to use it and the right for it to deliver value. But good question. We're also building value added services on top of that because

29:42 the data, the operational data, and the monitoring data of how that plan is performing, is it running at top efficiency? Could it be tuned? We will be able to monitor and measure, and therefore, we can provide remote monitoring and management services. We might be able to respond to some of that remotely or send people on-site to fix, you know, predictive maintenance, that sort of thing, do the fixes to to get a higher level of efficiency. That kind of oversight service has a value to it, and some, you know, owner operators will pay us to deliver that value. So we're looking for every opportunity to get to recurring revenue. Cast ourselves back to where we are right now, we're simply that to get

30:22 to those recurring revenues, the single biggest thing we have to do is get plants built. There are people in this world or companies far better than we are building those plants. And so the ones we're partnering with now are the best at it because the more we partner with them, the more they see this as an opportunity for them to build not a dozen, but many dozen plants in the coming years. And, therefore, as they do that, they will take it away from us, and we can simply supply the technology to them. And the way we you you create really shareholder value with licensing model is

30:53 in three ways. First of all, as you outsource that building of the plan and owner operator of the plan to larger infrastructure owners operator, you know, you can scale much quicker. So the the the speed at which we you can scale because the resource drain required by you is minimal. The other way is the margins of licensing revenue are based in your libraries and incremental improvement of what you already been selling. So this is these are 50%, 75% or plus margin services instead of a 20% margin service right now. So the trajectory is higher margin, revenue

31:28 recurring revenue. And the other reason is if you look at evaluation of a company, what you call the the the profit earning ratio, the PE ratio of a company of a owner operator infrastructure is very different than a technology innovation company that have a licensing model. So if you look the proxies, it's it's a a very different valuation as well. We're one bit we're one bit the Amazon and CHP. Say again? We're going to be the Amazon of CHP. I think we'd rather be Microsoft than IBM.

32:00 Exactly. We'd rather build the engines than than have to build the whole automobile. Yeah. You want to be the Intel inside?

32:06 Yes. So ask you if this is, again, a question the reason I came is way back in 2008, I invested in a company Okay. And x amount of money that I never saw again. Today, I'm here with the company that over over to over that business. And is it possible for me to find out what my original investment that I made has worked to begin. Yeah. Sure. We can help you after the meeting. We're gonna we're gonna exactly show that. No problem. I have no idea how many shares I have in the old company, so I have never been told. It's what I I can We we we So someone invested on the 2,008, what they were today. We should Well, we said we need to find out what is the number of shares that you hold, and we can tell you that very, very easily. We can do that with the regs.

33:00 In this meeting. Excuse me. The reason why I'm asking that is that, you know, I I have now what I did in 2008 as a loss. But another things I'm doing and dealing with the revenue, and they are saying to me that if I had sold my shares in 2090 when I read it over, that would be the end of it. And capital gains and, you know, being able to crystallize losses against gains. You understand what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah. I understand. I understand. So so so we can help. We can find out in the share register and help you. Yeah. I I I'd like to know. We'll we'll we'll do that. Another another question that we have submitted, so we covered the Norfolk question. We have on The UK project was delayed to this year. I think all investors are surprised that it would be delayed to second half of the year. Is there any danger that it won't be in this year forecast? You want to answer that? Yeah. These are all UK projects. Yeah. UK project. Yeah.

33:55 Mean, the first thing that that we need to say is that all we have three UK projects now.

34:01 We deferred two of them at the end of last year, billing them in d side. We did that because at that time, we were recognizing new opportunities for them. I'll come back and talk about that. The third one, of course, is in Southport, and that is moving quite quickly. It's a smaller scale project, which in a way makes it more attractive, possibly because we can move it along more quickly, but also because it has this, you know, a lower risk profile as perceived by investors who are, of course, critical to us closing these deals.

34:31 So all three of those projects are in our forecast for this year. We intend to get revenue from all three of them, and we are focused very heavily on that. In fact, we held a workshop last week with about 15 people in our company dedicated to the success of those UK projects. Now to get that to get that revenue, the single biggest thing we have to focus on is getting investment into those projects and getting funders who are going to come in and or lenders who are going to get involved in them. And as you know, it's a it you know, it's a tough market to be doing that. However, for the reasons that David was articulating earlier,

35:08 the market for small scale localized technology delivery, you know, for the kind of energy that renewable energy that that these plants will produce is very, very strong right now. Also, the UK government's interest in energy security and independence is also stronger than ever, and that plays very, very well to what we're going to deliver. Not only because we can use UK sourced feedstock,

35:34 we can use locally sourced feedstock to deliver local energy solutions. So let's talk about each of the projects. The billing and project is the largest and the most complex, but it's in the middle of tea side. And therefore, we've got a very, very healthy set of of potential industrial customers who can buy the offtake from us there. We also have a very large site, and that gives us a lot of flexibility in terms of how we use it. The planning permission for a 200,000 ton per year RDF to combined heat and power facility. The planning permission is done. The permits are done. The grid connection is secured. That is all that is ready to go. What we wanted to look at last year, though, is do we want to really be in the middle of Tside offering combined heat and power? Is that the most interesting off take for those industrial facilities there? We're next

36:24 door to CF fertilizers. We have BP now who are strong buyers of hydrogen in the area. We're surrounded by Mitsubishi. We've got Sequins Pharmaceutical right next door and so on. There are dozens. So we're in touch with the Tea side local authority now who are helping us identify dozens of potential offtake customers, not simply for combined heat and power, but for things like hydrogen, synthetic natural gas, or even biofuels, other types of biofuel. So what we did was we went went back, we reran the financial models. We had somewhere, you know, around 22 different scenarios that we ran for this. And what we're now looking at is how we can have a multiuse facility. The combined heat and power plant would only take one third of the land that we have there in Billion, surrounded by all those customers. And so now what we've done is we're looking at how to make that a multiuse facility, and we're we're following that up, and we're discussing that. I am hopeful that in the next month or two, we'll be announcing a a feed partner who will go and work with us on the front end engineering design.

37:27 That would then take us of work getting the detailed design ready. And although I'm doubtful that we will close it within the year, I think it's a stretch right now to say that, we nonetheless would intend to get revenue by getting investors involved in that, you know, and recovering some of the development fees that we are we are owed on that site.

37:49 With D Side David, do you wanna comment on D Side? I mean, again, D Side is

37:57 a very high profile site. We've got a lot of support from the local government where the moratorium of planning for incineration, we got planning through because it's you know, the the local and the central government start understanding the technology is very different and much more versatile and, you know, environmentally sound. So, you know, this side has you know, Toyota as a neighbor taking more than 60% of the offtake. And and, again, you know, we cannot underestimate

38:23 the importance of using all projects to attract more strategic partners, both from the funding point of view, from the technical point of view. So we don't just delay the project just because of the delay. We the technology is proven. The box is thick for us. We are thinking how can we prove commercially the right business model to be able to attract a a broader range of funders and off takers. So we're using those project like you know, Toyota, for instance, is interested to obviously for the biogas and the offtake of the power and heat, but now they're saying, you know, we'll buy hydrogen as well if you produce it there. You know? So then we open this discussion as well, and we attracted new partners because this project has such a high profile in terms of stakeholders that other engineering companies, other funders that want to have their own PR activities, but also a real project that is going to be built in the next year or so and not in the next five years. You know, they want to be involved in something that is tangible, is real, with a real off take, not something that will say we're gonna make hydrogen in 2025 and someone is gonna buy it in the future.

39:28 No. It's it's someone that the off taker is there now, and the technology can be deployed now. So that's the reason. And in in this side, we are looking as well with discussion to sell the SPV equity, recover all development services fees, and, you know, reconfigure this you know, announce soon a technology partner for the syngas to chemical offtake. And in Southport as well, Southport have an incredible support from the local government. You know, the Damian Moore, the MP, has been very supportive on the project. We were mentioning the, you know, house of commons, the the technology, and the potential of our technology and the importance for, you know, energy security in The UK as well. And we have discussion already to use the hydrogen produced there for blending potential in in the gas grid. There is a input there. So we are using the projects from a strategic value as much, if not more, for just saying, let's get the project through. Let's partner with the first large technology partner just because it's a big company, and let's get on with it. You know? This is the these are the only way that we will leverage and we'll build the platform for growth to really be able to be a global license source that will be able to create, you know, multibillion revenues in the How many projects do you expect we have run on by the end of twenty twenty three?

40:47 What do we have on the development this this year? We have 17 project under development. So, you know, in I think we're forecasting. Yeah. I think and we'll add to that. We'll probably add, you know, two or three other significant ones to that. Yeah. I think we'll have I think we'll have we have five we have four under construction right now going on five. We'll have probably, you know, seven under construction by the end of next year. Yeah. We got 12 under development. And we'll continue to pull through more development. We have two we have two operation by the end of this year. Correct? How many more will we have operational at the end of next year? Operational. Yeah. Up and running. Bringing the stream Well, listen. There's more. Yeah. The the the the one in North Fork. Keeping in mind that the build cycle for these from financial close is typically eighteen months to twenty four months or so. Right? So Yeah. But then twenty twenty four, then you should you know, your eighteen months is darker. Yeah.

41:41 But think think think think about something. As as we move forward in time, the size of the projects, you know, it will to a certain extent, the size and complexity will increase, but also the quality of the stakeholders, the partners will will increase. And That's the point. The delivery partner is not gonna be us. So at the moment, we're building a market development center, fully involve ourselves in the procurement, the construction. And where we are not, you know, because they are small projects, small stakeholders with small balance sheet, you know, they they've been struggling with supply chain. As we move to the the South or the building and then you have the companies like Black and Veatch, we were working now with them. We work with Wood PLC. You got the Petrofacs, the next game of this world, which are companies coming from midstream oil and gas. You know, these are companies that can deliver multibillion projects in in a space. So you start accelerating and outsourcing that, and the size of project and stakeholders will dramatically change.

42:36 Just on on that point, I suppose there's a lot of other players in the market, and there's a demand right now, and there's always the danger that others would overtake it. There's there's not a lot of other players like us. Yeah. Maybe you wouldn't say something about David about that, David, and and also maybe pick off Yeah. So well one of these. So what I say is there there are not there are many people trying to do what we're doing, but there are not many people that have a fully integrated solution that we have. And and, you know, because a lot we we know listen. The truth is the company the real competitors, at least in the space, like us, in the are mainly in the private markets. And those companies are raising hundreds of million. I mean, we have companies like, you know, Enercare just on evaluation, you know, close to 1,000,000,000, raising 250,000,000.

43:25 You have company like Landsatetech that is announcing IPO in in Nasdaq this year on evaluation of 2,200,000,000. And these are companies that are not very different in terms of footprint and technology advancement like we have. Probably, we'll say that we are much more advanced than those companies, and we'll have and the proof of that would be how many operating plans we'll have quicker. So the reason why some of our plants are small now and the reason why we'll change billing them and and reprioritize our software is because we are much more interested. It will be much more value creating for us to have RDF or waste to hydrogen plan before 2025 that have a plan that's much more bigger, it may generate more revenues, but we will not be the first one with an RDF to hydrogen plan. So all of those strategic decision is what we need to make when we when we select which plan. The other proof of it is that we get phone calls from some of those companies, owner operators, some of the big big ones, and also from even the technology companies to come in and troubleshoot their gasification facilities or to supply gasification equipment to them even though they claim to be in the gasification business themselves.

44:38 So, again, it goes back to the point that there is still a lot of r and d. Again, I'll I'll use The UK as an example. The the UK government this year has said gasification is their preferred technology for advanced biofuels and hydrogen production. Yet they've also said they do not believe the gasification will work for the next decade. And what they're looking at is a lot of the other failed technologies out there. We it feels like we are moving slowly, but we are moving less slowly and more deliberately to ensure that we don't have second tier, you know, EPCs installing our equipment. We don't have slow, you know, problematic projects. We want our technology to be associated not just with being a great technology, which it already is.

45:26 We want it to be associated with projects that deliver on time to budget and then run successful plans for their entire lifetimes without a lot of the problems that we've seen in this sector. So we believe we will be the first. We're seeing recent announcements even about other facilities going up that are rife. They've they've rushed for a very complicated solution with lots of integration risk and lots of other problems rather than being slow and deliberate in the way that we're trying to be. So it's taking us fourteen years to get from the by the world and to terminate today. So in the next four years, can we see our shares multiplied by Is it the time we have more on top of it and more ready to expand? Well, the the the the dislocation we can tell you is look at the valuation of these companies in the private markets and look at the valuation that we have. You know, these are companies. We we're talking about company with similar technology readiness level or lesser technology readiness level. You know, 500,400,600, 1,000,000,000, 2,000,000,000 valuations in the in the private market.

46:29 Now there is in the last three to four years, there's an anomaly that years back, public market will overquote the company value because of the sentiment where private market were more frugal or more disciplined in terms of valuation. That have shifted completely. So so much money in the in the private markets that you get much higher valuations in the private market. I mean, we get every other week someone saying, will you go private? I said, no. This valuation. So so the point is the value is there. The the differentiator is gonna be common see the plans working. You know? We are in discussion. Many people talk about licensing model. And and you talk about licensing model when you have not even built the first r and d plan. And you said, we're gonna build 10,000 plans, and we're we're gonna get 500,000 per plan. That that's they don't know what they don't know. We know the technology work. The last two years, we've been spending time to understand what is the best model. We discussed it with solicitors in The US, really how commercially and legally we look a licensing model. You know? The same thing in relationship with very good partners like Wood and others. We don't want to just, at this stage, yet attach ourselves to a big broader company and give all our IP. What we're looking is how can we maximize the value of the IP by creating different lines of business, different application that we can then commoditize and sell and continue to innovate on that.

47:50 We have an incredible technical team led by Joel Aleman. We have another you have we have four PhDs in classification, and we have a end to end know how and a digital ability to both simulate the whole process and then to program the control system that is unique in the market. It's very disruptive. So Yeah. David, if I may, if I could just sort of build on the point and answer answer your question about share price. It's you know, I I I believe fundamentally in in markets and in the price discovery process, but I'm very frustrated that the markets don't really seem to appreciate the technology that Ecadec has as a business and its potential as a major provider of baseload energy, hydrogen, and biofuels.

48:42 And I think sooner or later, that will shift. And I think it's up to us as a company to do more to educate markets, to educate governments that are starting to get the picture, but haven't quite fully got it yet about this potential because I just fundamentally believe it's important for our energy security for our future that we don't waste the opportunity of waste because it's huge. You have a you as chairman have a great advantage now. You know the knowledge that the company have. Would you be prepared to go to the bank to borrow a million a £100,000 tomorrow morning and invest in equity? Yeah. I really love it. Yeah. I really love it. I've got to stake a bit more than that in equity. We're at the moment now. I I've invested in the company, and we'll we'll we'll invest in the company in the future.

49:34 And I'm very strongly of the view that we are underpriced as a as a business at the moment. But the share price is what the market say the share price should be. So, you know, it's up to us to perform as a business and to to talk to the markets to make sure that we're appreciated, the value that we are contributing now as a business and will in the future. Once you start generating electricity with the technology you have, the market will understand you better. Absolutely. But think about this, the point. I mean, you you guys have been you guys have been shareholders, let's say, for fourteen years in the days of of of React or Ketco. You know, this company, Equitech is Equitech since 2019. You know? Before before that, I mean, we spent the the the transaction, the original Equitec happened in early two thousand nineteen. I came as a CEO in September 2019, and we reconfigured first the capital table of the of the of the of the company.

50:30 And we are now delivering the the the technology and the strategy, and we have a strategy that we developed. We have the this executive group that we had before. So if you think about you know, it took fourteen fourteen years to Amazon to be profitable and and seventeen years to Tesla. But look at the valuations now. You know, we we are really you know, we have the commitment, but also the nows as a as a people coming as as an executive that come from much bigger companies, all of us, Joel, Jeff, myself, what it takes to really scale the company. You know? This is not just, like, you know, a a group of people that want to just sell and flop the technology. We're we're looking to build, you know, a real platform that can create value because also it's what is required out there. It's a technology that should be deployed more now.

51:18 I mean, we'll we're nowhere near reaching next zero next zero goals if we don't really start disrupting and attracting capital to take the risk required to really change the paradigm. Yeah. And and and just to to go back to the question, which I know we we get a lot. Yes. Your shares will be worth more. Absolutely. Because we will not do this badly. We will do it right. We will do it with the right partners. We will choose the right projects, and I feel that we've absolutely been good at that. As David said, this executive is not only, you know, strong, but very debating. We we deliberate and debate very heavily internally when we make decisions about where to invest the money, where to go next, you know, which projects to pursue and which to leave alone, which partners to work with and which ones to drop, you know, which people to hire and which people to fire. You know, we are very deliberate about the choices that we make. And, therefore, we we do need to build the momentum.

52:23 But once that momentum is built, our reputation will not be one of they got there fast. It will be they did it right, and they can now repeat doing it right with this set of partners in different parts of the world again and again and again, then we could start to move much much faster. Is that the main projects you're involved with at the moment? Will all of them come to fruition in the next three to four years? In terms of the They will all come to fruition, or we will we will discover something about them that makes them unattractive from a business case perspective. But as long as they're in our pipeline, it means that they have an attractive business case that is worth pursuing. And and the reason I say that is because the market changes. The regulations change, you know, price points change, and so on.

53:08 And sometimes that changes the the the economics of of a given project. But as long as they're in our pipeline, you know, we're not chasing fantasies or we're not chasing, you know, good ideas. We are we are going after projects where where we had done the modeling ourselves, where we have tested that with our partners. 17 at the moment will be our operation in the in the next next four four years. That's the intent. Yeah. That's the intent. But the the other thing, we we have I mean, we don't even talk about the the size of the pipeline anymore because we are now building go to market entities that will manage their own pipeline. We have more than a 100 opportunities in the pipeline of which the majority of them come through some of the go to market or the partnership that we already have. So we have the luxury to choose. I mean, yeah, sometime we hear some of our investor retail investors are saying, oh, you know, you you should advertise more. We don't need more projects. We just need to deliver the right strategic projects that are gonna build the scale. We have project are coming in. We are sending demand away in Middle East, in Asia that is accelerating, particularly the last in the last year. The the demand is there. You know? What we need is to be able to build that platform to deliver on that demand and then outsource that to the local partners. You know? And and I think one thing which I'll mention is that in terms of the alignment from your perspective as a shareholder, obviously, asking this question, We are definitely aligned to the fact that the more plants we have on the ground, the the more proof points we have of the commercial model of everything else, and hence, the multiplier effect will come. So we we are definitely aligned. You know, as Jeff mentioned,

54:39 whatever we bring into our pipeline through to the development phase, we are definitely behind those projects to make sure that we have the necessary funding and the capacity to deliver those projects and take it further from there. I wanna take Are you going through to get source more funding? Are you going to through the issue of shares? Are you going to through through loans? We're we're recently, we we took a a loan facility to to be able to have the alternative on on on debt funding. All the projects we have none of our project, because we are not equity holder or intend to be equity on the project, are looking to raise dilutive equity for the project. So we have discussions at project level. We have a number of other funds or investor. We had accelerated the the the discussion this year. So, you know, we will always find the the optimal capital strategy to to to to to raise the funds required for, you know, growth and for the project as well. I mean, the the the you know, being being a growth company, you you have a limited amount of the source of capital you have. Obviously, you are in the market. So if the right investor, the right strategic investor, if the right partner come, you know, we will find the optimal way to secure the capital for that source. You see you said consolidated shares.

55:58 Consolidating. Yeah. You know? It was 8.6 figure. Listen. I'm I'm a I'm a fan of consolidation. I mean, there's there's two school of thought about consolidation. Some people don't like it, I mean, particularly, you know, in the retail market. But I think consolidation, you know, is a option in the future because, you know, as you as you start attracting larger stakeholder partners, real institutional strategic funders, probably, you know, consolidation could be in the cards. Yeah. That's it. Can you tell me so you're the the third part, you know, from the original You're the third people in that. What became of what was it was being spoken about in hotels here on the airport, projects that were built in New Orient. What became of asset?

56:47 I'll I'll I'll answer the question because it is linked to something that they're asking. The the the issue with the project that they that React Energy was building at the time, there were biomass project using combined heat and power using biomass for power. Those project used to work only with the at the time, was the rock scheme, which was an incentive scheme that you that you get paid on top of the electrical tariff. What happened in The UK, once the rock scheme was removed and the biomass price, you know, the inflation on the biomass price was such that those projects were not viable. And this is partly why we are so involved in, you know, the two plan that we recommended, the MDCs, the the the they were not finished or they they have issues the commercial model. So we look when we look at this plan.

57:32 The plan must not work because there's an incentive in place. You know? Because if that incentive gets pulled, like happened also in solar and wind on in the hay days, then you have a plan that's not working because it's not financially to run. And the problem is as we're building this is our strategic decision on the project. As you want to build a footprint of operating plans to catapult yourself from there, you don't want a plan that in three years, the subsidies pull out, and then the plan doesn't make sense, and you decommission the plan. People this plan should be operating for twenty, twenty five, thirty years. So if you have a plan that doesn't work after three years, people are gonna say, I would not have equity technology. You know? And then it's not anymore about the business model. That links to the question that we have here that someone is talking about the does the EU decision of curtail the use of biomass for renewable energy worry the company and the attractive equity solution?

58:23 The actually, on the contrary, that's great news because what happened, The UAE decision of curtail the use of biomass is because this is used mainly for incineration in very large plants, you know, plants like the old coal stations that they've been now replaced to use pelletized fuel. And these are plants that need 500,000 ton a year, a million ton a year. These are huge plants that, number one, are fostering incineration, and number two, they require supply chains for all over the world. We are using mainly waste streams. We're using modular, scalable application that localize the demand of power, heat, biofuels, and what feedstock is available there. So I think that's gonna play in our favor. Anyway Yeah. I mean, just just just to add to that answer, you know, I I just don't think it's a sustainable solution to take pelletized wood pellets from Estonia Yeah. And Or Canada. Or Canada and shift them all the way and put them in a big power station called Drax in England.

59:23 That's not to meet what the green I do understand the solution is. Whereas what we do is most infatuated. Will they ensure have you got the technology to to use human feces to generate power? It can be done. We You will our technology do that. Well, we have we have tested our technology biosludge as well. And and and, you know, it can be done. It's a process that we can do it from from you know, if this if the demand is there. I mean, there there are other feedstock that the gate fee is much higher. It could be more interesting than the contaminated plastic. But, again, it's There there are others in the market in that case in in that instance. I'm I'm on on the board of Thames Water, and we produce a number of gigawatts from from from sewage per annum, and it's, you know, it's quite a mature business. I think there are better opportunities for architect This this is the point. I think, you know, we we are not attempting to be a, you know, one one technology fits all potential, you know, applications.

1:00:27 You know, what we're doing there's there's a huge versatility in both the thing the feedstock we can put in the front end of this process and then the off take applications we can take off the other side that add value in a number of different ways. We are experimenting with as many of those in commercial environments as we can, but we will over time, no doubt, find our sweet spot, which will be a certain select set of those where the economics play best, where our process is unambiguously the world leader in it, and therefore, we will pursue that. But, again, that's part of our evolution. We have to get to the stage where we where, first of the market around us matures a bit more, but also where we can start to find where that sweet spot might be. And I think, you know, biosludge is probably relatively lower on the list right now in part because of all the treatments you have to do in advance of that and so on, and because we can do other things that like plastics, contaminated plastics, and so on, RDF that others are struggling to do.

1:01:26 You know? So that's where we're going. What happens to the byproduct of the proper generator electricity? Is there a market for that? Are they going to a dump? You mean the waste products come out of this process? Yeah. Well, really by far. The primary waste waste product that we talk about biochar, which is actually a value added product. But, you know, the primary thing that we produce is a is a nonhazardous bottom ash. Well, that could be used by the cement industry or the steel industry and so on. Yeah. It's not enormously valuable to them. But the point is it has reuses, and so there isn't a lot that we're producing that, you know, is is going to be a negative byproduct. And in fact, biochar is a very interesting one where because we're effectively producing something similar to an activated carbon, you know, through through that process, that does have a value.

1:02:16 As we've we've said before, in California, it's used not only for agriculture, where it retains c o two and other types of nutrients in the soil for the agriculture. But in addition to that, it's being put alongside the highway system in California to drain to help, you know, filter the water that runs off the roads there before it goes into the groundwater and becomes part of the groundwater system. So, you know, biochar is a very interesting market that we see. Yeah. It's a byproduct that could be a problem, but actually becomes something very valuable. Okay. Take a moment. K. Yeah. Any more questions on online? Yeah. Sorry. Just for my face on a positive note, we we would all be long term shareholders and long term sufferers of the of the problem. But I can see a sea change there, and that was complementary, David, in particular, in terms of your presentations over the last while to the media. They've always been refreshing.

1:03:17 Well done. Thank you very much. We we appreciate that. And and, again, we we we just want to you know, we we are passionate what we're doing, and and and and it takes time it takes time to change the world. And we've been doing this really as this team for two and a half years. You know? And as you imagine, we originally came on, we inherited a lot of legacy things that needed to be addressed, but we also inherited a wonderful technology with a committed team that has years and millions invested in getting it where it is now. So, you know, we'll we'll appreciate, and we, you know, welcome and don't take for granted, you know, your trust. I mean, particularly, you guys are are investor. I mean, p people at the moment are obviously as I say, it's it's challenging, and it requires certain type of stomach to hold any equities in this market. I mean, some companies, like, well established value business have dropped 25% in the last year. You know?

1:04:12 But it's it's it's 50%, mate. Well, I mean, was I was talking just to the just today. I mean, you know, micro you know, Amazon. But but the the the point is, you know, we have a clear target. We have a good strategy that is, you know, robust but flexible enough to adapt to the market. And we've been very careful, as as Jeff was saying, about the deliberate decision that we make to adjust to be able to generate value in that market. I mean, we we what keep us up at night is, you know, we think that we're five to ten years ahead of anyone else. It's true. I mean, there was a question around about how much capital is coming into the private markets. You know? We we need to do in a way in comparison with this or size and with, you know, $60.10 to 50,000,000 capital raise. We're bootstrapping this, but that also bring a certain level of discipline that is required in this market as well as there's a moment of there's a risk off in the market. People are going to wanted to see something more that is not oh, in 2025, I wanna build this, and then in 2030, we're gonna be making some profit. You know?

1:05:17 We are every quarter adjusting our strategy to to to achieve that. One of the most important fundamental things is communication communication. Keep their shareholder informed, and then we won't have speculation with shareholders that this has happened or this has happened, and that really fluctuates the shares that you know yourself. So, you know, that's fine. If I may, I think this is a I agree completely with what you're saying, and I think that is an area that we need to improve. You know, I think we are still small. We are very project orientated for all the reasons we said, and therefore, we've been very much focused on, you know, nose down, get these things delivered, get out there, be in the market. But we have to communicate more and more often. And for you know, we don't want to withhold visibility or any transparency of what's happening.

1:06:06 It's it's more a question of finding a, you know, simpler, more regular way, I think, of communicating to the market. Right? So very good. And and also and also it's a it's it's a complex story. You know? We we we live and breathe it, and we deal with the complexity every day. But when you are when you are a business that your end state is literally technology licensor to build this global, you know, multibillion company that is a license of technology. But to get there, you need to build that initial infrastructure. So so the message to the government, to the the brokerage community, to the market needs to every time be simplified and and and refined. And we we we are working we're working on that, and we take the feedback from everyone from, you know, all the spectrum of all of investors. And and we love engaged investors because that's, you know, that's that to us I mean, one thing that is really lacking in the world with these days, and you guys are, you know, old school, so you get it, is is a lack of ownership. But we want more ownership. We don't want people just thinking, oh, you know, the the the share price, we understand. We're not in equities. We're in equities because you want to see the share price. But just just, you know, like like Warren Buffett will say, own a company that you will own a 100% if you could. You know? And then if that's the case, just think of the value creation in the market and all that. Otherwise, if it's just speculation, speculation is fine, but then the the you are not the audience to which we will explain what we're doing.

1:07:32 It's just simple as that. So sorry. There's two things. I mean, the if there's any question that we have not answered, I think we answered most of them. Some of them have been deleted or something. We'll do what's usually. We'll answer the questions. We consolidate the question. We answer them, and then we publish it on the on the investor meet company as well if anything that we have missed today. Yeah. Just a final word for me before I hand back to investor meet's company to close off the proceedings online. And just to thank you very much for for your attendance, those of you who made it today. I really hope that you've got a sense from this meeting just about the sort of caliber of the people that that are running this company. That's the big thing that impresses me as a nonexecutive chairman.

1:08:18 We've put together a management team now that I think can really drive this company. And the way that David and Jeff articulated and supported by no one no one and and and y'all means that they you you know, we've got a strategy and a technology that can win in the marketplaces that we're operating in. We've got that sort of vision. And sooner or later, the share price will come around to to answer your questions because these people will drive it forward. So can I just hand back to Investor Meats company to do the formal closing? Fantastic. Thank you, indeed. Thank you all for updating the attendees today, thank you for those as well who made the effort to turn up at the live event also. Please ask attendees not to close the session. Should be now automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order the board can better understand your views and expectations.

1:09:16 This will only take a few moments to complete and be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the board of EcoTech PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's Annual General Meeting proceedings, and good afternoon to you all.