Aker Horizons ASA

OSE:AKH

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q3

[Kristian Rokke, executive]

A warm welcome to all joining this presentation of Aker Horizons third quarter results. My name is Kristian Rokke, CEO of Aker Horizons. With me is Nanna Tollefsen, CFO of Aker Horizons who will run us through the Q3 financials; Kristoffer Dahlberg, CFO of Aker Horizons' Asset Development unit, who will talk about Aker Horizons' project developments; and Mary Quaney, CEO of Mainstream, who will present the company's main achievements and developments in the quarter, as well as key priorities going forward.

We'll take your questions via the online system at the end of the presentation. Just as a reminder, you can post your questions in the system at any time. And at the end, we will try to work through as many of them as time allows.

Now before reviewing the quarter developments, I'd like to take a step back and describe the market context. We are living in times of unprecedented uncertainty and volatility in most markets.

Our industry has been blessed with a long period of falling levelized cost of energy, which has worked as a return inflator for renewable developers as costs normally have fallen from auctions to FIDs. The levelized cost of energy for an onshore wind project in Germany, as an example, more than halved from 2014 to 2019.

We now find ourselves in a situation where inflation and supply chain issues have resulted in an increased levelized cost of energy for solar and wind projects globally.

The levelized cost of energy for onshore wind in Germany is up by 20% since 2019. This has resulted in uncertainty on project returns, permitting delays further adds to the challenging environment.

Global renewable FIDs for solar and wind will likely only grow moderately in 2022, where China continues to be the main contributor. Investment decisions for renewables projects outside China are set to decline by around 20% compared to the 2021 level in terms of megawatts.

We have observed weak participation in recent auctions in some key renewable markets. The latest onshore wind round in Germany, for instance, was undersubscribed at only 70%.

To be on track for net-zero 2050, renewables investments will need to increase significantly from current levels. For that to happen, there is a need to rebalance the return profile of renewable projects through lower input costs and higher PPAs.

Steel, aluminum and freight prices have fallen to pre-COVID levels and PPA prices are materially up in most markets. This give confidence of being able to develop and invest in projects that will deliver an attractive return.

The prospect of growth in renewables and clean tech improved significantly with the passing of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act. This comprehensive and ambitious package of legislation is expected to generate record growth in investments in new clean energy supply infrastructure the next decade and bring the U.S. closer to its net-zero emission pledges and boost the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing industries.

The incentives for carbon capture have been significantly increased and will likely kick off the carbon capture industries. Analysis by Princeton University shows that the use of carbon capture may increase 13-fold by 2030 relative to current policy.

The strong incentives for renewable power generation are likely to drive a record high growth in wind and solar capacity across the country. This is augmented by the Biden Administration's newly announced target for floating offshore wind 15 gigawatts by 2035 and signals of the opening of new deep-sea acreage speeding up.

The requisite support to hydrogen production, combined with the incentives for green electricity, will together provide a jumpstart of the hydrogen economy in the U.S.

Energy self-sufficiency, combined with the ambitious legislation now in place, give the U.S. a competitive advantage, particularly in downstream sectors such as the production of hydrogen and green energy intensive raw materials.

In the EU, higher energy prices are adding to the pressure to develop support schemes that offer competing investment conditions, particularly in sectors dependent on energy as an input.

The EU's ambitious targets under Fit-for-55 and REPowerEU are still on the table. But the short-term policy focus is understandably on avoiding an energy supply crunch and unsustainable high prices.

However, the EU is clearly on a path where renewables and clean tech will form the backbone of increasing energy security. This will likely strengthen policy efforts in the years to come, and we expect the EU will introduce concrete measures implementing Fit-for-55 and REPowerEU.

We see that the stars are finally aligning for CCUS. For a decade, the global project pipeline had stalled or even diminished. But since the start of 2018, momentum behind CCUS has been growing. Project developers have announced ambitions for over 200 new capture facilities to be operating by 2030, capturing over 220 million tonnes CO2 per year.

However, only around 10 commercial capture projects under development have reached FID as of June this year. So the next phase is to bring financing to the substantial pipeline and start moving them towards commission.

Policy support in one way or another is crucial to accelerate the development of CCUS and help meet 2030 climate targets. The good news is that on either side of the Atlantic, there are now mechanisms in place that will make carbon capture and storage profitable.

In the U.S., the IRA provides production tax credits that will make projects viable in a big way. Princeton estimates that the effect will be a total deployment of CCUS facilities to catch, transport and store utilize 450 million tonnes per year by 2030 rather than about 20 without the IRA.

In Europe, meanwhile, the carbon price in the EU ETS has now settled on a level that is sufficient to carry the most attractive projects.

With the high European climate ambitions and the gradual tightening of the carbon market in Europe towards 2030, most analysts forecast increasing carbon prices. At the same time, costs are bound to come down, making the business case for CCUS in Europe very promising going forward.

Turning to the mission of Aker Horizons, accelerating the transition to net-zero through several levers. We know there is no singular solution for reaching net-zero by 2050. Electrification, wind, and solar form the backbone of a decarbonized energy system.

Even though costs have risen in recent months, clean technology such as wind and solar PV remain the cheapest option for new power generation in many countries, even before we account for the exceptionally high prices witnessed for coal and gas in 2022.

But transforming power generation through renewables and switching to EVs will not be enough. To reach net-zero emissions we will also need to significantly growth of a competitive clean hydrogen market for energy-intensive or hard-to-abate emission sectors, such as aviation, shipping and chemicals.

The momentum behind low emissions hydrogen has been reinforced by current geopolitical tensions, which has bolstered policy support for the energy carrier in Europe, but now even more so in the U.S.

Carbon capture will also play a key role of tackling emissions from existing assets, providing a way to reduce emissions from sectors like cement and gas to power and provide a cost-effective pathway to scale up low carbon hydrogen production rapidly.

Aker Horizons' core areas consist of green energy, carbon capture and hydrogen. These form the foundation of our ecosystem through our portfolio companies, our in-house asset development organization and synergies between them. Over time, we will extend Aker Horizons to other net-zero levers. Considerations will include market growth potential, synergies with the Aker Group and time to cash flows.

Turning to Aker Carbon Capture. The company held its quarterly presentation yesterday, so therefore only mention a few key points from the vantage of Aker Horizons as a principal shareholder.

Firstly, from an operational perspective, it's worth highlighting that there are only 2 large carbon capture projects under construction in Europe today, Aker Carbon Capture is delivering both. Brevik CCS, the world's first carbon capture plant on a cement facility where key equipment currently are being installed, and Twence CCU, a modular carbon capture plant on a waste-to-energy facility where the foundations for the columns are installed.

In the U.K., it was a significant milestone for the company when in June British energy company, SSC Thermal, selected a consortium at Aker Solutions, Siemens Energy and Doosan Babcock with ACC as the carbon capture provider for a FEED contract to develop the Keadby 3 carbon capture power station.

This facility could capture up to 2 million tonnes of CO2 annually. This comes in addition to the FEED for BP's Net Zero Teesside Power project, which would also have a capacity of approximately 2 million tonnes of CO2 per year.

In summary, the prioritized market segment of large-scale gas-to-power plants has shown a promising development over the past 6 months, and with this, U.K. has become a key market for ACC.

Secondly, in terms of the market, we see CCUS as a major component of net-zero. Our internal modeling of the EU ETS market shows that the carbon price alone is likely to incentivize CCUS projects of more than 50 million tonnes per year by 2030.

This comes in addition to projects financed directly through national governments or EU schemes as well as projects in waste energy or the transport sectors that are not covered by the EU ETS.

On Friday, the European Central Bank published the results from its first climate stress test. The results highlight the urgency of decarbonizing to avoid potentially large financial losses to Eurozone banks from increased natural disasters.

The ECB flagged EUR 70 billion of assets at risk in a scenario with delayed policy and a too low 2030 carbon price. A carbon price of EUR 295 per tonne in 2030 would be required to remain on a pathway to a Paris Agreement aligned target, according to the bank. While this isn't a prediction, it goes to show the importance of the carbon price going forward for the energy transition.

With that, let's hand it over to Mary for an update on Mainstream.

[Mary Quaney, executive]

Thank you, Kristian. I'm very pleased to present Mainstream's progress during quarter 3, which has been a period of continued growth and delivery across all of our platforms globally.

In August, we were appointed preferred bidder by Crown Estate Scotland for an area with the potential for a 1.8 gigawatt offshore wind farm off the Shetland Islands. We were awarded the site as part of the wider ScotWind process, along with Ocean Winds in a 50-50 partnership. Also in August, we announced the closing of the transaction to combine Aker Offshore Wind with Mainstream resulting in the creation of a new frontrunner in global offshore wind.

During the quarter, we signed an agreement alongside our partner, Actis, to sell our Pan-African platform, Lekela Power to Infinity Group and AFC, a deal, which is subject to regulatory approvals as well as to customary closing conditions. This planned divestment will generate net proceeds to Mainstream of approximately USD 90 million.

Also in the quarter, we have seen our global pipeline of projects grow from 17 to 19 gigawatts, and we now have 1.5 gigawatts of wind and solar assets in operation and in construction.

From a finance perspective, the business secured an additional EUR 100 million to our existing trade facility, bringing the total facility up to EUR 300 million. We're delighted that our existing lender group comprising DNB, ABN AMRO and the panel of international sureties, is continuing to support our global expansion plans.

The facility increase reaffirms Mainstream's strong financial footing in support of expanding our global renewable energy portfolio following Mitsui's investment of EUR 575 million in April of this year.

On the next slide, you will see our global pipeline of projects, which stands at a net 19 gigawatts. This comprises our assets in development, in construction and in operations. In addition to this, we have approximately 10 gigawatts of project opportunities in predevelopment, which when added to our 19 gigawatt pipeline, gives us a total global portfolio of 29 gigawatts.

At the development phase this quarter, we have 17.6 gigawatts of net capacity. This is an increase of 2 gigawatts from Q2, which is attributable to our ScotWind award as well as adding a number of early-stage development projects in South Africa.

In construction and operations combined, we now have 1.5 gigawatts of capacity, an increase of 0.2 gigawatts in operations, reflecting 2 projects from our Huemul portfolio in Chile, which successfully completed construction this quarter.

This next slide shows our global portfolio, which spans across Latin America, Africa, Asia Pacific and offshore. And you will see our capacity by technology, which is well balanced between wind and solar PV.

And on the next slide, before I take you through our global platform updates, I would like just you to give you some context on the wider market challenges currently impacting the energy sector as a whole, both locally in Chile as well as globally and how Mainstream is managing these challenges.

In Chile, the grid transmission system remains dislocated, and this coupled with the global energy crisis, has resulted in price volatility exposure. 2 companies have recently notified Chile's national electricity operator, the CEN, that due to this exposure to price volatility they can no longer fulfill their PPA contracts.

Mainstream has taken a diversified portfolio approach in Chile, both in terms of technology, where we are deploying a spread of wind and solar technologies as well as geography where our assets are spread out across the country from North to South.

This diversified approach would help mitigate the impact of this price volatility once the assets are fully operational, and we are continuing to monitor the situation closely.

Secondly, I have spoken in previous presentations about cost inflation, which is impacting the energy sector globally. It has continued to constrain supply chains with cost increases, protracted delivery schedules and shorter more challenging tender periods.

As an experienced global developer, we have a solid track record in identifying risks early and implementing effective mitigation strategies, and we continue to manage these current challenges through rigorous financial discipline and planning, which remains our priority, and I will continue to update you on these wider industry challenges as they evolve.

And now on to our platform updates. In offshore, as I mentioned, the transaction to combine Aker Offshore Wind and Mainstream was closed this quarter. Combining Aker Offshore Wind's early mover position and technical expertise in floating offshore winds with Mainstream's proven project development track record and global presence, unlocks new opportunities worldwide.

And the first significant demonstration of this strategically important combination has been our ScotWind win. Along with our 50-50 partner, Ocean Winds, we are awarded an area with the potential for a 1.8 gigawatt offshore wind farm off the Shetland Islands.

The site output is expected to power the equivalent of over 2 million homes and save 3 million tonnes of carbon emissions each year. The site is in water depths of on average 100 meters, so it is ideally suited for floating offshore wind. This plays to our strength with our expertise in floating technology as well as Mainstream's track record in Scotland, having developed the 450-megawatt energy offshore wind farm.

The offshore wind sector globally is showing strong growth prospects as countries around the world the offshore wind is an attractive solution for delivering new electricity generation at large scale. Upcoming rounds of seabed leasing for floating opportunities as well as for bottom-fixed include notable markets such as in the United States, in Norway and in Ireland, Aker and Mainstream's home markets.

And now on to Africa. In July, we signed an agreement for the planned divestment of our Pan-African platform, Lekela Power. We established the platform in 2015 to deliver renewable energy at scale across the Continent of Africa. It is 60% owned by Actis and 40% by a consortium led by Mainstream, which includes the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the IFC.

Today, it comprises more than 1 gigawatts of operational wind assets as well as development opportunities across South Africa, Senegal, Egypt and Ghana, and it is Africa's largest pure-play renewable energy IPP.

5 out of the 7 assets have been taken through the entire project life cycle by Mainstream from greenfield development, consenting, bidding, financial close through construction and are now being operated by Mainstream.

We have signed the sales agreement with the Infinity Group and the Africa Finance Corporation for an approximate enterprise value of USD 1.5 billion. The planned exit reflects the successful culmination of our partnership strategy for Lekela and upon completion the transaction will generate net proceeds after tax of circa USD 90 million.

And now on to other regional updates. In Chile, we continue to move forward with the extensive construction program for our 1.4-gigawatt Andes Renovables wind and solar power platform. 6 wind and solar assets totaling 0.8 gigawatts of generation capacity are now in operation with 2 of these projects achieving this milestone during this quarter.

2 further projects are on track to complete construction this year and then with the final 2 projects expected to complete construction in 2023 and '24.

In South Africa, we submitted our bids under Round 6 of the government's renewable energy procurement program, the results of which are expected in late Q4. We continue to progress the 1.27 gigawatts of projects awarded under Round 5.

And last month, we were one of only 4 companies to sign a lease agreement with South Africa's National Electricity Company, Eskom, for land on which to build wind and solar power plants.

The lease agreement, which will run for 25 to 30 years is part of a new initiative by Eskom to make land available around existing power stations with sufficient available grid capacity in order to fast track the connection of large quantities of renewable energy to the national grid.

We are also in active discussions with a range of parties for private power purchase agreements, a market that is now opening up due to the recent regulatory changes, which permits private off take of electricity, a very welcome change that will facilitate greater deployment of renewable energy.

And having just returned from being in South Africa last week, I'm reminded of the severe need for energy with the country this year experiencing Stage 6 load shedding, meaning 6 gigawatts of capacity taken offline off the grid, the worst year on record for power shortages.

South Africa has a coal-dominated energy system and an aging fleet of coal-fired power stations. Over the coming years, power plants generating approximately 20% of the country's electricity will reach the end of their working life, even worsening the supply problem.

South Africa has world-class wind and solar resource and its renewable energy industry needs to supply the majority of the estimated 60 gigawatts of new generation capacity required in the next decade.

And then finally, in the Asia Pacific region in the Philippines, we signed a joint venture agreement with Aboitiz Power, one of the Philippines' leading energy companies to initially deliver our 90 megawatt onshore wind project located in the Camarines Sur province. The JV, which is 40% Mainstream and 60% Aboitiz Power targets to reach financial close for this project next year.

The Philippines is another market with significant untapped potential for renewable energy, again, a coal-dominated market and an energy system largely dependent on imported fossil fuels. And some of the highest electricity prices in Southeast Asia. New coal projects are now banned and electricity demand is growing fast, resulting in ripe conditions for the deployment of renewable energy.

And then finally, in Vietnam, we continue to progress our development pipeline. We installed a LiDAR unit at our 500-megawatt Ben Tre offshore wind farm reaching a key development milestone for the project. The LiDAR unit is located on the fixed platform, 40 kilometers from the coast of the Ben Tre Province and will play a key role in the project development ramp-up with the operational target for the asset being 2026.

And with that, I hand you over to Kristoffer.

[Kristoffer Dahlberg, executive]

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. This quarter we reached an important milestone in Rjukan with the signing of a land lease and a power purchase agreement, securing attractively priced power and a good site for development for local hydrogen industry. This plant will supply large parts of Eastern Norway with clean hydrogen.

We're continuing to build our green iron business and are happy to announce that we have entered into a partnership with a global steel player, adding significant knowhow from similar projects, technology, feedstock sourcing and offtake markets to name a few. Together, we aim to co-develop green iron projects. We'll share more details on this in due course.

In Narvik, we have kicked off several feasibility studies together with leading EPC and technology providers to further mature our industrial concepts for both hydrogen, ammonia and green iron. We are also pleased to see that the civil works at Kvandal is progressing according to plan.

And further, we have established a joint venture company with our partner, Nordkraft to develop our sites for green industries.

At Aukra, we are developing a large-scale blue hydrogen facility together with Shell and CapeOmega. And the aim is to produce large amounts of clean hydrogen for exports to Europe.

We're happy to be invited by the Norwegian state enterprise for gas transport, Gassco, to do a joint feasibility study on various infrastructure alternatives, including a dedicated pipeline to enable efficient hydrogen transport from Norway to Germany.

The joint feasibility study will verify the viability of a set of main hydrogen infrastructure alternatives with different concepts considering both new and existing infrastructure. The study will be completed in May next year.

At the same time, we are expanding our pipeline of new potential projects. As reported last quarter, we have launched a collaboration in Brazil and India with Statkraft. And we already now see promising opportunities in these 2 countries. In addition, we are similarly expanding the collaboration with Statkraft to encompass also Northern Norway.

Building on our established partnership in Chile, we're also expanding our cooperation with our sister company Mainstream to South Africa. Together, we are evaluating numerous exciting power-to-X opportunities in this region, leveraging our joint strength to combine renewable power production with hydrogen and downstream applications. We look forward to share more information at a later stage on these new prospects.

On the regulatory side, we are encouraged by both the Inflation Reduction Act mentioned by Kristian and also by the recent EU announcement that EUR 3 billion will be allocated in the next call for proposals from the EU Innovation Fund to help realizing the high ambitions for hydrogen set out in the REPowerEU plan. The call is expected to be issued tomorrow, putting policy into action.

EU also recognizes that this will not be sufficient and that the European Hydrogen Bank will also be developed using a contract for difference scheme to cover the cost gap between gray and green hydrogen. Both of these are very welcome to help accelerate the hydrogen economy in Europe.

Turning to our status update on our key projects. Starting with our flagship asset in Narvik, a holistic industrial development, starting with cheap renewable power and ending with valuable green products for export. We're excited to having kicked off 4 feasibility studies on hydrogen, ammonia and DRI facilities to verify our industrial concepts.

In October, we opened our local office in Narvik, and the announced joint venture with the regional utility company in Nordkraft was also established in the quarter. Nordkraft is experienced in developing land for power-intensive industries in the region. And through the JV, we are co-developing several sites going forward. One of these sites is our 150 acres industrial plot at Kvandal where the civil work is progressing according to plan.

Even further north in Berlevag, we are developing a green ammonia project together with our partners to help decarbonize the Arctic. As also stated last quarter, Norwegian electrification efforts are creating a large demand for new grid capacity, prolonging permitting processes, and we are currently exploring opportunities to utilize available power in the region ahead of the planned 420 kilowatt grid expansion in the area.

Based on these studies, we will prepare a revised industrial development plan, optimizing the short and medium potential -- medium-term potential in the area.

Our large-scale blue hydrogen project at Aukra in the western part of Norway is progressing well with energy infrastructure between Norway and Germany high on the political agenda. Aiming for a production capacity of up to 1,200 tonnes of clean hydrogen per day, this project is well positioned to be an important contributor to reaching our common goals of decarbonization.

Earlier this year, German and Norwegian ministries announced ambitions to build a hydrogen pipeline connecting Norway and Germany. The 2 countries have agreed to perform a joint feasibility study for a hydrogen pipeline. Gassco has explored the interest among licensees on the Norwegian Continental Shelf and Norwegian hydrogen companies for a possible participation in the hydrogen offshore transport study. Aker Horizons has been invited, and we have decided to contribute.

We are pleased to see how the political work done earlier this year is now materializing in a concrete cross-border project where relevant stakeholders are invited to participate and help moving this exciting initiative forward. I will speak more about Rjukan on the next slide. But first, Chile, we are developing a large-scale renewable to ammonia project together with Mainstream.

World-class conditions for low-cost renewables in the country paves the way for highly competitive ammonia production. Currently we have several feasibility studies ongoing, including us studying with DNV on a solution for energy storage to secure stable operations of the ammonia facility using an intermittent power.

Rjukan is a 20-megawatt project in its first phase. And although not the largest in our portfolio, it will serve us our first blueprint project that will derisk our larger scale projects like Narvik through a tailored supply chain and standardized solutions. And let me underline that the blueprint aspects include more than the final physical elements.

For instance, it also provides us a head start on execution models, contract and compensation format and alliance bonds to name a few. We recently exercised our options and signed long-term agreements for both land and power, marking a major milestone for the project.

With power constituting up to 2/3 of the levelized cost of hydrogen, securing cheap renewable power is an important step towards producing competitive green hydrogen. The 234 gigawatt hours per year of renewable power secured through PPA is attractively priced well below both spot and forward prices.

We are developing an off take book within industry shipping and mobility to serve the market in the Eastern part of Norway. Offtake is the last piece of the puzzle, and I'm happy to say that we see great interest in the project and it's attractively priced hydrogen. We are aiming for a final investment decision next year and to start commercial operations in 2025.

In addition to maturing our projects, we're also expanding our pipeline. Currently, we see a large inflow opportunities, both from coal developers looking for industrial and financial partners and also a pull from the demand side with offtakers approaching us to deliver green products.

We have added 300 megawatts of opportunities this quarter, but more importantly, we're also high-grading opportunities in the funnel. Several of these projects will be realized, others will not. We believe that early screening and tough prioritization is key to allocate our resources to the opportunities with the highest chance of success. In sum, we have both high-graded and expanded the funnel in Q3.

Finally, I would like to share some perspectives on our value creation strategy. We will develop, own and operate green energy and green industry projects with the ambition to maximize shareholder return and our impact on decarbonization, meaning that we have to be conscious on making sure that we have the optimal ownership share in the different stages of the projects.

We aim to start the development process with a high initial equity stake, bringing industrial partners in such as potential feedstock providers and offtakers into the project will materially reduce the commercial risk, increase value and improved bankability.

As the project moves towards FID and our ambition will be to farm down to a capital provider with a lower cost of capital than ours. In doing this, we would be able to recycle capital towards other development projects, while at the same time, reducing our capital requirements.

This strategy will enable us to retain a meaningful equity stake in the project, which, over time, will build a revenue and cash flow base with an attractive return on equity.

An active farm-down strategy will allow us to punch above our weight, both when it comes to the number of projects we can develop and the size of these projects, ultimately delivering a bigger impact of both decarbonization and shareholder return.

And with that, I leave the word to Nanna.

[Nanna Tollefsen, executive]

Thank you. Starting on Slide 29. In the quarter, net asset values were down from NOK 17.4 billion in Q2 to NOK 16.5 billion at the end of Q3. This development was largely driven by a share price decrease in Aker Carbon Capture that saw its share price down 16% in the quarter.

The next slide shows Aker Horizons' parent and holding company's key financials for the third quarter. The EBITDA was negative $30 million in Q3, reflecting general overhead in Aker Horizons. The net profit was negative NOK 819 million, reflecting also the value decrease in our listed shareholding in Aker Carbon Capture and other financial items, mainly interest costs.

Cash flow from operating activities consists of running costs and interest paid and amounted to negative NOK 59 million in the quarter. Investing cash flows consist of the repayment of a temporary shareholder loan that was given to Aker Offshore Wind and investments in Aker Horizons' asset development.

Cash flow from financing activities represent transaction costs related to the mergers in Q2. The net cash flow for the quarter was therefore quite neutral at positive $14 million for Aker Horizons parent and holding companies. The cash balance was slightly up at EUR 4.4 billion. This brings us to available liquidity on Slide 32.

In addition to the cash of NOK 4.4 billion, the RCF of EUR 500 million was undrawn at quarter end, summing up to a total available liquidity of NOK 9.7 billion versus NOK 9.6 billion at Q2.

The net interest-bearing debt position was up from NOK 1.4 billion at Q2 to NOK 1.6 billion at Q3, which then also reflects pay-in-kind interests, increasing net debt but not affecting liquidity today, and where the shareholder loan to Aker Offshore Wind was included as an interest-bearing receivable in Q2.

The capital structure on Slide 33 reflects market values of listed assets, the most recent transaction value subject to material transaction with third parties for non-listed assets and book values for other assets.

The loan to value as defined by the RCF covenant stood at 11% negative at Q3, giving significant headroom to our covenant of 50%. Then taking a step back, Aker Horizons is well capitalized to continue industrial progress and to cease opportunities with a net asset value of NOK 16.5 billion and net debt of NOK 1.6 billion and available liquidity of NOK 9.7 billion.

And with that, I give the word back to Kristian.

[Kristian Rokke, executive]

Wrapping up. It's apparent that our market segment is facing headwinds. Inflation and interest rates have resulted in increased levelized cost of energy for solar and wind projects globally. Supply chain bottlenecks and permitting delays are further hampering investment decisions.

The fact that leading wind turbine OEMs have seen the order intake close to half this year compared to last year, sums up the current state of affairs. So we're prepared for the short term to be challenging.

That said, we are seeing signs that project returns are rebalancing to a level where we will see activity levels pick up again. And long term, we see unprecedented and growing opportunities and are working to position Aker Horizons for these.

The Inflation Reduction Act, which was just passed into law, maybe the biggest boost our industry has ever received. We also see that the need for accelerating growth in renewables is even stronger when dealing with the dual challenge of energy security and reducing emissions.

To meet the expected growth in market, we're progressing our projects, securing land, grid access and attractively priced PPA agreements where we can. As well as develop the demand side through off-take partnerships as we are currently working on with green steel.

We continue to drive down costs through standardization, modularization and digitalization. Aker Horizons has significant available liquidity of NOK 9.7 billion, and our portfolio companies are well capitalized and thus well positioned to continue to grow in these turbulent times while making a meaningful contribution to the climate action so urgently needed to reach net-zero.

With that, let's take some questions.

[Unknown Executive]

Thank you, Kristian. The first 2 questions are from Jorgen Land at Danske Bank. First is, the rather high CapEx from Mainstream during the quarter, is this related to the 2022 COD projects or related to the 2023 COD projects?

And the second question is, in recent presentations you've highlighted the Nazca portfolio development, this does not mention this quarter. Can you talk a more about this project and perhaps on expected time line.

[Paul Corrigan, executive]

Its Paul Corrigan here, the group CFO. I will take the first question, if that's okay. So project construction spend is typically spread out spread relatively evenly throughout the construction period. What is not spread evenly, however, is our own equity investment, which is back ended, so the bank leverage comes first and equity will come in around halfway or later for the respective projects.

And we're at that point now for all of the 10 projects within the portfolio. This means we're equity funding the remaining construction on the spend across -- in the quarter across -- is spread across the remaining spend on Condor, remaining on Huemul and indeed remaining on Copihue. So the answer is it relates to both 2022 COD projects and 2023.

[Mary Quaney, executive]

And then in relation to the Nazca portfolio, this is our next 1 gigawatts hybrid renewable energy platform in Chile. In the current challenging CapEx and contracting environment, we're continuing to prioritize optimizing our returns. But we are continuing to target the first phase of the Nazca platform to achieve financial close in 2023.

[Unknown Executive]

Thank you, Paul and Mary. Our next questions comes from [ Michael Gilkens of Treasure Capital. ] And the first one is can you give an indication of when Mainstream will become profit neutral? And the second question is mainstream has sold to operating assets, will future development projects remain in the portfolio to fulfill the desire to become a renewable energy major?

[Paul Corrigan, executive]

Well, as a company that doesn't mark-to-market, it's assets with a growing portfolio, it will take some time for us to see a positive profit contribution regardless of underlying project success. The one factor that will significantly influence profit contributions will be the timing of project disposals. These are planned in the coming years as we seek to dispose position -- minority positions once portfolios are fully operational and suitably derisked.

[Mary Quaney, executive]

And then with regards to the second question, the operating assets that have been exited referred to the Aela platform in Chile and the Lekela platform in Africa, both of which were in partnership with our partner, Actis and these were planned exits. So this is delivering the business plan for each of those portfolios. However, our intentions are that future operating assets will remain within the portfolio with the level of capital recycling to continue.

[Unknown Executive]

Thank you. The next questions are from Jorgen Bruaset at Nordea. You mentioned Mainstream being well hedged against increasing interest rates. Can you please quantify this? And the second question is COD on Ades Caman Phase 2 is pushed from 2023 to 2026. What is the key reason for this?

[Paul Corrigan, executive]

I'll take the first. So we are very well hedged against interest rate increases. Project finance requires that you typically hedge levels of around 75% of the underlying swap rate or above. For Condor and Huemul, we chose to go well above that. We're at ranges between 85% and 95%. So this means that on an overall debt balance of in excess of NOK 1 billion and underlying interest rate increase of 100 basis points would have less than $1 million per annum in our annual interest rate bill, meaning the impact is relatively minor to us of underlying movements.

[Mary Quaney, executive]

And then with regard to the Andes portfolio, the Andes portfolio is 1.4 gigawatts, of which 800 megawatts is now operational, and we have 2 further projects on target to complete construction by the end of this year, so that would bring the total operating assets up to 1.1 gigawatts of that total portfolio. Then that leads the final 2 projects to complete construction in 2023 and 2024.

Caman Phase 2 then is an extension. It's relatively minor in that context. It's 58 megawatts and then that will follow the completion of the overall Andes portfolio.

[Unknown Executive]

Okay. Thank you, Mary. Then there's question from Anders Rosenlund at SEB. Is Mainstream South Africa portfolio sufficiently attractive to take FID at current costs. And if so, is there a commitment to go ahead with projects won in South Africa.

[Mary Quaney, executive]

So in South Africa, we were awarded 1.27 gigawatts in Round 5. It's a very strong portfolio comprising 6 wind and 6 solar assets. So it benefits from very strong economies of scale as well as having high wind and solar resources, and we continue to progress this portfolio in anticipation of achieving financial close.

[Unknown Executive]

Okay. That concludes our questions. Thank you for listening, and we'll see you next time. Thank you.