CELSIA S.A. E.S.P. (CELSIA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I am Gonzalo Velasquez, Communications Director in CELSIA. I would like to welcome you to the results teleconference of the fourth quarter 2021. We will be joined today by Ricardo Sierra and Esteban Piedrahita. [Operator Instructions]. This conference also has interpretation service, English to Spanish and Spanish and English by clicking in the bottom right corner of your screen if you're using a telephone. Just visualize -- tap to visualize the menu and click the plus sign that appears and then interpretation -- language interpretations. Anyway, in any case, you can mute your original audio in order to hear only the interpreter. And now we will give the floor to Ricardo.

Thank you very much, Gonzalo. Good morning to those joining us this morning and welcome to the 2021 Fourth Quarter Financial Report Conference call. We're sorry that today, we're not going to have our videos or cameras on. Yesterday, we reported very good financial resource that showed the consolidation of our sustainable company that creates value for society. It's committed to energy transformation and with a very clear goal of having an increasingly cleaner generation metrics. All these with the superior purpose of providing our customers with a reliable and high-quality service. And we will also like to inform you that we're still in the high range of the industry, close to 41 points and that allows us to continue ratificating the aim of the company of having not only clients, but fans, it's really important. Last year, the company invested COP 1.6 trillion. This including, our platforms, we will show you detail a really good news about these new kinds of assets and platforms that we've designed. We put into operation more than 20 megawatts in solar energy capacity. We made investments close to COP 365 billion in networks and in technological update to give a greater reliability of the service to our customers in Bagre Tolima. We are also making progress in the construction of El Tesorito gas power plant and the Sahagun substation. We also concluded the process of orderly closing the BLM operation in Panama, the coal mine to -- and we reached a settlement with all the financial creditors, and we transferred the remaining assets to a fiduciary for sale. The process is ordered and reconciled and it generates no major impacts on the collaborators and the financials. Also the Panamanian electric market was able to continue -- it's reliable. CELSIA acquired some assets that will be used in our Panama operations such as the BLM substation, the diesel generation turbines and the power sales contracts that BLM had. In financial matters, we highlight the third issue of green bond progress for COP 140 billion in a 12-year term. Likewise, the contracting of the first loan linked to the compliance of ESG indicators for an amount of COP 500 billion and a term of 8 years. This loan is really interesting, and it's a trend -- a really good trend in the financial sector because it allows us, if we reach certain goals, we can reduce interest rates. And it would be -- the interest rate would be up to 100 basis point by meeting goals in 3 fronts; reducing the intensity of CO2 emissions, restoring ecosystem with the ReverdeC program by planting native trees and finally, by promoting gender equality in the work environment, something that we've been really doing in an adequate manner. These are some of the headlines of 2021 that was full of energy. And in today's teleconference, we wanted to review the main figures of the quarter but also to do a tour of our most recent strategies, especially platform topic and also show you the great value that we see because we've seen that a lot of the analyst reports are not able to visualize that. We haven't communicated in the best way. But today, we want to give you figures, data and make it really clear the impact of -- the value of the impact that they have and what it represents to CELSIA and its partners. So without further ado, Esteban, Good morning. So please, if you can take it away and talk about the financial results and other things.

Yes. Thank you, Ricardo. Good morning, everyone. It's really nice to be here to share this result. As you know, we will give you all the financial -- you can consult -- you can check all the reports in the investor side. And as Ricardo was mentioning regarding platforms, we have -- we invite you to start looking more into the financial situation of those and also, so you can understand better understand the investment. So in the fourth quarter, the consolidated revenue registered a very positive performance and totaled USD 1.2 trillion with a growth of 35%, thanks to a higher generation, a higher stock market price, especially during the month of December and to the effect of the PPI on regular income. The consolidated revenues during the year reached COP 4.11 trillion and with a growth of 16.3%, which reflects not only the macroeconomic factors, but also the economic recovery and a higher energy demand. The contribution margin mature as the difference between the revenue and the variable cost was COP 647 billion in the quarter, which is 23% over the previous year. In 2021, the contribution margin reached COP 2.2 trillion and registered a growth of 11.7%, driven by the generation business, COP 95 billion networks, COP 69 billion in new businesses added COP 42 billion to the contribution margin and our Central American operation added COP 28 billion. The increment is due to the increase of asset deployment and a comprehensive portfolio product -- of products and services for our customers. The consolidated EBITDA in the quarter closed at COP 402 billion with a growth of 20% over the previous year. In the -- during the year, the EBITDA totaled COP 1.36 billion with an increase of 10%, mainly led by generation and recent new businesses in and Central America, which is showing really promising results. The net nonrecurring income was approximately COP 131 billion, mainly explained by the reversal of the Bajo and the Cauca provision and the closing of the BLM operation. The consolidated financial expense totaled COP 90 billion during the fourth quarter with a growth of 22.8%. Excluding the nonrecurring financial expense of the previous years of COP 29 billion that we had due to the sale of debt to this -- related to the tariff path and that allow to free up cash at the time COP 400 billion. The behavior in financial expenditure is the result of accelerate increase in index during the second half of 2021, both of the CPI and the IBR, which explains this variation, and we hope that it's a variation that will join us -- that will continue through 2022, but the company has a good coverage in the -- in its structure. So consolidated income taxes in the quarter totaled COP 39 billion, which is a decrease of 33.5% in 2021. The income tax totaled COP 190 billion, with a decrease of 7%, thanks to the use of tax benefits that the organization has. We want -- here, we would like to highlight that the effective rate of income measured as the current income or the flow of what we call the regular tax was of around 26% in 2021 compared to a nominal rate of 31%. So we have 500 basis points of difference behind all the tax strategy. And also, something very interest was construction with taxes. So we're not just costing this or financing this just with taxes, but how much we're waiting for the -- we're projecting for the next year. If everything works well, and we're really positive, it's going to be COP 600 billion -- COP 60 billion, sorry. So here, you can see here that the success of this program for us, and we've been able to do the operations and constructions that we wanted in the communities that we have. I think we're the second company after Ecopetrol that has made the most advantage of that community at tariff program. Okay. So to close the financial -- the results -- the financial results, adding to everything that we didn't mention previously, the goal was to reach COP 235 billion in the quarter, which is 2.7x that recorded in the same quarter of the previous year. And the result can be attributed to the owners of the control, it was COP 117 billion with an increase of 111%. So the net consolidated profit was COP 545 billion with a growth of 60.7% and a profit attributable to owner of control by COP 334 billion with an increase of 34.2%. Now let's talk about debt figures. We closed the year with a consolidated debt of COP 4.4 trillion and a leverage indicator of 3.1x the net debate with the EBITDA. Now with -- now the effect of the devaluation of the Colombian peso and the consolidation of the Central America that was COP 156 billion. So the company closed the quarter with a consolidated cash close to COP 254 billion and COP 58 billion came from Colombia and COP 196 million came from Central America. So we would like to highlight that the operational results were very positive and are a very solid basis to continue the growth project, continue to leverage both operationally and financially the investment platforms and continue to pace the value of creation for shareholders, investors and different stakeholders. That's wonderful. Thank you. So it's important to highlight the 10.7% growth in the EBITDA, which is double digits, it's really good. And we can see the strength of the portfolio, the assets and the portfolio. And we'll see in a bit -- we have a consolidated goal of 60.7% and the controlling company of 34.7%. And when you separate it when you look at it in a historic manner, we're multiply it by 10x what we had 5 years ago. So it's something that made us really happy, and it shows really good results. So in the midst of this good results, there's a challenge, which is that the market is not reflecting in the share price. And this strategy that we've been executing since 2016 is not really being reflected in that. Only in 2021, we registered a devaluation of 11.7% in the stock price. The call cap did grow by 3.3%. So 2020 had been really good, but 2021 wasn't really good in terms of that comparison. And when you look into the dividend the yield of the company is around 7.6%. So this price of 4,200 for the stock was similar to the one that we had at the beginning of 2019. Long before the divestment of the free trade zone and the start of the platform strategy and the resulting value multiple is not only below the market with other companies in the sector, but below our own historical multiple and not to mention the fundamental value. So having all of this, what we want to do is start to think on value so that we can really clearly see and identify what's not inside the -- within the results. And it's an invite to all the analysts, to all the investors to have a conversation with our investments team so that you can delve deeper into this and you can incorporate into your analysis, hopefully. Today, we are a company that has 2 clear group of assets. The first one are the electric power business, hydroelectric, electric generation, transmission and everything that has to do with the distribution business. The second is the investment in the associated financial platform and their instruments. So it's a company with a simple structure designed to -- with 2 operating vehicles, one in Colombia and one in Panama and added to that a robust portfolio of growth projects on what we've called platforms. Now the financial results of the operating vehicles are extraordinary. When you compare it to 2016, and we're going to go back 5 years, so we can see the growth. The consolidated EBITDA has grown 33%, reaching COP 1.3 trillion. The debt stands at COP 4.4 trillion, increasing by only 8% even when our assets have growth in a significant manner. The net income is COP 544 billion with an increase of 318%, and the utility of the controller totals COP 334 billion, which is 10x more than that registered in the base year of comparison, which is 2016. So 10x we've grown in net utilities. In the electric power business, we have -- we also have a differential in favor, which is equivalent to 300 basis points when comparing to the return on invested capital, our ROCE with the weighted average cost of capital before taxes, which is the WACC or WACC. So the difference between ROCE and WACC is around 300 basis points. So if you would look into EVA, you would have figures of around COP 300 billion. So this is a story that you know. This is the story that has been really well represented in all the research, in all the analyst reports. And now we are going to go deeper into platforms because nowadays, we have 3 platforms that allows to leverage and develop growth capacity that we didn't really have before. So we had 3; nonconventional renewables in solar power, transmission and thermal electric transformers. This allows us to grow without asking for more money to our investors. In any case, this allows us in 2021 revenues of around COP 147 billion. So now let's look at solar. It's the platform that we call C2 and is the renewables in this platform. We have 60 megawatts in operation. By the end of this year, we will have 276 megawatts. This is 25x more installed capacity than we had in 2017, 25x. And I would like to mention this because look at this next figure. The total project capacity for this platform, the ones that we consider for the development adds up to 1.3 gigawatts. This means 21x the current power and with really good efficiency. We've been able to reduce the cost of each new part in 27%. This is a business that has an EBITDA margin of 79%, and it's -- it has an equivalent debt of COP 158 billion. So to develop the capacity of growth with these type of assets, which has taken around 4 years, we are seeing growth as a snowball effect. This is normal for these type of companies. And so, this is an invitation to consider this. Several transactions in the region on companies dedicated to solar power, even some from our partner Cubi showed that the average valuation given the importance of the -- is measured in dollars per megawatt installed being the average of USD 1,478 per megawatt installed. If you compare this to 2021 data, the equity value of the C2 platform would be COP 105 billion, not including the pipeline, which reached to 3 gigawatts in 2021 -- sorry, by 2025, we will reach this, just to show you the capacity and the value that this platform has. The other one is the transmission platform which we have with Cubico. And it closed 2021 with an EBITDA of COP 155 billion and assets worth of COP 1.4 trillion. This means 49% of the income corresponds to calls and contest and the average life of this are 21 years. This means that we have stable income from the transmission platform that you know this cover a lot of different grounds, show that this is a really good, stable conditions and really nice for planning. The pipeline of projects for 2025 totals COP 1 trillion more. This is the assets of 3 and 4 level voltage in Bagre and Tolima and the 3 contests that we have under construction of Toluviejo Sahagun and Pacifico, which will allow us to double the EBITDA with a very important figure, which is that the cost of funding for Caoba is fixed at and for 2021, it corresponds to 7.2%. So this means that this is fixed. It is not linked to the variation indicators. So it's a very interesting platform. And now it's compared to the -- no, in the Latin market, we find several companies that are in this segmental list, and many have had other recent purchase operations, reaching multiples of around 12.9x, even some transactions have been above 18x with the EBITDA multiple. So with this, the Caoba today can be a company with an equity value that is in the order of COP 861 billion. These assessments are being fought over, so equity investments, the region Chinese companies have also been paying a lot for these types of assets, just so that you have this present. So when you measure in terms of assets, we're above Aselca, which is a company that's a reference. Now let's talk about the thermal platform, which is Tesorito. It is our backup of our renewable portfolio. We're really well with the construction. We have the 11 engines on site. We installed the first engine of the operations side. We will be sending you the videos of all the logistics challenges, the importance of this because it's an incredible work, the transportation. The long-term financing is really advanced, and we expect to enter into the final credit agreement in the coming months. And when you look into the -- all this business, you see leverage entirely on the revenue from the reliability charge. And it's going to generate USD 20 billion -- USD 20 million. We already had the equity that was corresponded to us. And now you can see the potential of the value of this platform of 200 megawatts once it's running, but it doesn't have 1 single kilowatt produce day-to-day. So in the management of these 3 platforms, CELSIA received income other than the dividends worth 122 billion in 2021. Since all these platforms depend on CELSIA Colombia, the proportional value of this investment for CELSIA amounts to COP 346 billion. So this is not included in the pipeline. This is just a photograph. Finally, in the development of all the strategy and transformation that we've been detailing, there are several financial assets related to operation which total now COP 753 billion we will describe them to you. The account payable from CELSIA Colombia to CELSIA which came from the restructuring is up to -- or adds to COP 453 billion. The fiduciary rights in the settlement trust of the remaining assets of BLM and we are expected of around $28 billion. This is regarding the closing of sales in Panama, USD 28 billion. When we sold the free trade zone, the PPR with prime thermal not including these profit, the worth today would be USD 29 billion. Our investment in retention of breakage risk on what we call operation that allows us to have an insurance scheme complementary to the other ones is worth up to USD 23 billion. And finally, we have COP 107 billion in the participation in the debt schemes that the solar platform has with Cubico. So all these assets add up to COP 700 billion. If you add them to the -- all these assessments and values that we've been incorporating, we have nowadays a worth of COP 1.3 trillion that are considered in the valuation scenario, everything that we've described during this conference. This value represent -- once you compare it to certain -- to the multiples at the end of the year and to the discount between 25% and 30% below the market average. If you were to calculate the value that we already have settled, what we're going to construct and to have Tesorito by the end of 2025, we will have COP 1.9 trillion. So from COP 1.3 billion to COP 1.9 trillion is the value that we're going -- that we feel we're still reaching or it's something that you must consider once you're doing all the analysis. So with this, we would like to finish that big chapter. I don't know, Gonzalo, if you have any additional comment or should we take questions?

Yes. So Richard, I would just like to mention when you were mentioning CELSIA and CELSIA Colombia, it's a AAA asset. So we're on the same level of the equity and the dividends. So it's a AAA and a AAA company. So the payment scheme is linked to the moment in which we have to pay the bonds of CELSIA. So we have a really good correlation and it's being backed by a AAA. So just wanted to mention that Okay. So now we have certain PSA announcements, if you will. So today, -- we're going to have our stakeholders meeting the March 23, 10 a.m. in Plaza Mayor, Medellín, we're really happy to be able to meet again with our shareholders. And it's important to consider all the biosecurity measurements and condition for these types of events. So during the meeting and based on the good results of the company, we will propose to shareholders an ordinary dividend per share USD 253 million and an extra dividend for USD 56 million. This dividend represents COP 330 billion. This means that we would be distributing almost 100% of the profits generating the previous year. And we -- this reflects the commitment to transfer to the shareholders the value that the company has been creating and have a dividend that represents a yield that is above 7%, and that would place us above the average of coal cap shares. And this is a really interesting dividend investment. We need this in order to fulfill the growth plans and all the financial structure supports this. And this allows us to make this -- to have our shareholders profit. So with this, we finish our fourth quarter report. And for now, if you have any questions, we would like to expand the conversation and deepen into the information that's of interest to you.

Thank you, Ricardo and Steven. At this moment, we're going to be taking questions from the participants. If you want to ask, you can raise your -- you can use the raise hand button that you'll find at the bottom of the screen. If you want to stop it. So we're going to have a pause. We're going to take a short break to gather all these questions. I see that some people have already raised their hand. So we can -- so let's start with Diego Buitrago. Diego from Bancolombia.

I have a few questions regarding the conjunction of the sector, especially in terms of price of energy in the market. What happened in the second -- in the first half of December? And what has happened in this year in terms of price of energy? We've seen really high prices in the stock market. And the second question is regarding the guide for 2022 in terms of investment. And if you can give us the EBITDA or the net utility of what the company is expecting in 2022? And also according to the investment plan, the EBITDA debt indicator, how much do you think is going to go up considering the result?

Yes, Diego, thank you very much and we can talk later about what you think regarding the platforms because we hope that it's been really useful for all the analysis that you're doing. So for the first question, I'll start with the first question, and then we'll go into the other 2. So the first thing is the price in stock market. We have to look into the previous 2 years, and we can separate that into the normal prices, that was COP 180, COP 200, which is a price where you see most of long-term contracts with unregulated market, with regulated market, this means it's a very -- it's a normal price in terms of generation. So we're talking about generation. And after that, we were around 1.5 years at around COP 100. And what does that mean for the generating companies? And this means that we don't have any profits from that because we have to give back into nonregulated market that oscillate in those prices. So the generation companies, we were 18 months with everything that we were giving back at a 0 margin. But you were coming from a Nina phenomenon, and you start seeing that different analysis with an El Nino analysis might level things -- is going to level things. So also considering how the new generation, the delays in the new project, you know that some of the colleague companies have delayed generation products. And additionally, what's happened with the dry spell that we had during the December and January. This causes or this makes a lot of the dams of the water levels to go down and this also has an impact on the prices. So that's the analysis that we're basically doing. And that start to shoot the energy prices. But with a consideration, which is really important and which is the price of natural gas -- of imported natural gas with -- if you look at the previous reference, we're talking now about USD 12, USD 14. And if you look at the pressure globally for decarbonization, so everything was canceled, everything that -- and I'm talking about gigawatts because this natural gas is a global market. And now there's a big demand for thermal plants in countries, for instance, such as -- in Asian markets or like Vietnam, they've grown at 70 gigawatts, and this is generating a really big pressure for that fuel -- for that transition fuel. So prices are really high and what does this mean? When you look at the prices where you could -- the thermal park could come in to generate those prices have -- the ceiling has been raised. That's why we're seeing this variation in prices in markets in Colombia. And we -- El Nino is coming in the next 2 years. So we need to start considering that.

And now I would like to complement with some figures. So from what we learned from the historic, we don't have these types of plants in operation until we recuperate the stable conditions. And from what Ricardo was mentioning, we had really competitive prices in acquiring the gas at an exchange rate of COP 4,000. And considering the other variable costs that is around COP 90, any thermal plants to just go live. It's above COP 300. So in the measure of the condition of the dry spell, it's the -- we will see that reflecting in stock market. But we hadn't used these resources in a long time because of the climate situation, because of the pandemic and now we're going back to that thermal part to come into the generation and it's a price that it's around $7. Diego on a short question, but it required an elaborate answer. So I would expect a lot of volubility in the prices in the coming years. Diego, that's what we have. And now look at the strategy of the company. We're nowadays hired in the 75%, 80%, right and some months that we are a little bit above that. A lot of our industrial and entrepreneurial on our business clients, they don't see these. And in the regulated market, which is 1.3 million customers, our contracting policies has been really conservative. And we are 5 years from being 100% contracted. This means that -- no one is going to see volatility in their energy prices regarding the volatility in the stock prices. So sometimes we were being punished by this, but our clients are not going to see this risk. So I just wanted to make this comment, which is something that is very important. So that you can invite the business clients that play in the stock market so that they can see these. And once they have -- they brought into these things, they can analyze it and they can really understand it. I don't know Diego, if we need to clarify something or we can jump into the second question.

No, Esteban Ricardo, that was perfect. We can continue with the next.

So we're going to talk about our expectation tons for 2022 and we're going to extend a little bit on that. So in terms of investment, it's a year -- it's a very important year for growth. We hope to increase the solar business in 2021, but all the issues surrounding created delays. But for this year, we're hoping to execute at a level of sales on the platform COP 4 trillion. Now those COP 4 trillion comes from consolidated Colombia. While we used to refer as the operation is going to bring COP 800 billion, and the rest is going to be executed through our business -- platform business model. This includes 176 megawatts that are going to come from solar energy, but we will be building 136 megawatts at around COP 1.3 trillion of investment. We have the investments from Caoba, where you can highlight the assets of Level 3 and 4 assets. But then we were going to have Sahagun, which is going to be connected to Tesorito. And we have Toluviejo to really advance on that. So we have Caoba, Tesorito and the investment adds to USD 180 million. And as Ricardo was mentioning the -- in terms of payment execution was around USD 60 million. So we'll still need to round up everything around Tesorito. And we are thinking of the capital that comes from our wind power complex in La Guajira. So adding all that, we have COP 4 trillion, as we mentioned, it is really important. By complementing what Ricardo was mentioning by the closure of 2021. So for 2022, the platforms are going to have 70% of the investments of the organization has to do. And that's the most important lever -- leverage that we're going to have for growth. Now EBITDA, all these plans that we have are going to go into service from this year on. So at an EBITDA level compared to 2021, we don't -- we're not expecting significant variation, but not really high because the price of these investments and the positive effects in the income for managing, you will see it further ahead. In net utility, we will continue with the line of the EBITDA with one additional exercise that you can all do, which is the financial exercise of the first semester of the previous year, you know that 80% of our indebtment capacity -- 80% of our debt, which is set in Colombia, which is around COP 3.4 trillion, it's really linked to the IBR and the IPC in our programs, especially IPC is one of the strongest one. So in terms of the expectations of the IPC, they are around 4% for 12 months on a maximum. But for this first few months of the year compared to the previous year, we're hoping a growth in the financial expense. And we will see -- it won't have a big negative impact on the net financial operation. That's what I can tell you in terms of what we are estimating for this year in terms of the most relevant figures for 2022.

Esteban just a small clarification. The consolidated CELSIA indicator, how high can it reach with the investment peak that you're anticipating for the following years?

So we're not anticipating going above 3.5x the EBITDA debt for CELSIA consolidated since the platforms are not consolidated because they're investment vehicles. And this will allow us for the leveraging, thanks to the model to maintain it well below the indicator that we have from the 2 agencies in short term and in long term. That's perfect, Diego.

Diego. Thank you for your question. Are there any other inquiries, questions?

No. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Diego. Okay. So I'm going to continue that we are seeing some questions in the chat and in the Q&A section, and we will be working around those. So we have from Luis Alberto Cardona. He says I'm Luis Alberto Cardon and he's asking sales been so positioned in the Colombian market with a sustainable growth. I would like to know which are the strategies and the actions the company has started in order to achieve the capital market? And finally, to prevent from hostile takes and things that are happening currently with Gilinski Group, SURA Group and Nutresa Group.

Very important question, Mr. Alberto. When you look at the work that we've been doing with the investors and the interaction work with the different analysts when the shareholders call us, we've been recognized as one of the companies with best standards in that front. However, Luis, this doesn't reflect in the actions. So today, we're giving very detailed figures as we had never done before. So we're daring to show you the value that we feel it's worth after many of the reports that are not really reflecting what we're doing. So when you hear the answer that we gave to Diego, that are no small figures. We are the company from the private sector with the biggest investment train, and we're very happy and very thrilled with that. But this generates a lot of responsibilities, right? This data or what this is showing is that we're generating value for the shareholders through these models. So today, telling you all these details that we -- that there are figures of around COP 1.9 trillion that are not being considered in the report. We're talking about shares that is at a price of COP 4,200. We hope to really reflect that value for the benefit of all the shareholders. And looking at the dividends, the good perspective, the consolidation of the company, it's how it's occupied, how it worries for the customers, how it takes care of the customer. Well we can have a closer value to the ones that we're picturing that are fundamental for the company. So thank you, Luis, for the question.

Okay. Thank you, Ricardo. Now we're going to turn to the chat from Carlos he's saying congratulations on the results. For 2022, what means of new financing are you foreseeing?

So look, in terms of new financing, we're hoping on the on values or numbers that are that are not too big -- that are not too significant. We have the lists that are ready for the exercise in order to manage all those turns to manage the short term. And here, in terms of financing, we're looking at the payment of Bajo Cauca, that's COP 1 trillion. We're going to set it there. But with the work capital and the investment, we're not going to see over 10% in the consolidated even less during the year, especially with the Bajo Cauca. We're going to meet some that, but we can finance that with our own part.

Okay. Thank you, Esteban. Now we're going to give the floor to someone raising their hand Juan Carlos Quijano. Please go ahead. Juan Carlos, your microphone is muted, please can you click on the icon to activate the -- your microphone. Okay. That looks like Juan Carlos having issues with his microphone. So now let's jump to the Q&A section. Juliana Garcia, she's asking, congratulations on the results. How are you aligning the dividend policies with the growth plans?

So Juliana, yes, we're going to answer from 2 fronts. So we've always been very careful with the dividends to have it really aligned with the growth policies of the company and the needs. So look what's happened in the previous 5 years -- in the last 5 years. In the last 5 years, this will give you a picture for the future. So we have -- we've seen 8% indebtment capacity and our assets have grown in over 35%, which shows you that we've been able to combine a sustainable growth in an aggressive -- really aggressive growth without having a really big growth in dividends. So the dividend policy, which is really strong goes hand in hand with this question. So once we do the outlook on this front, we've done a mission at a CELSIA level. We did a capital mentioned at CELSIA Colombia level. And Esteban, can you remember the figure? It was almost COP 2 trillion in 2018. COP 2 trillion in CELSIA Colombia. They were COP 5 billion in CELSIA Colombia, and we have had in return almost COP 1 trillion. So yes, COP 1 trillion in dividends. So in the moment when we've needed the shareholders have supported us, have supported the growth. So Juliana, every day, we're looking at us. You know that Grupo Argos is one of the main investors and they do really good allocation of capital. And we're always staying above the [indiscernible] and we are generating value on a yearly basis. And without limiting growth because the platform strategy really allows that growth and maximizing profitability. This goes hand-in-hand with the dividend policy that we have. And we're doing a payout of around 100% and as we were sharing you with Esteban allows us to continue on the path without limitations and that's the dividend policy. It's aggressive policy, but in the moment, when we need to ask for support to continue growing and it makes sense. You know that we will do the proposal, we would do the -- a really well-done proposal, the one that's best suited. So thank you, Juliana, for your question.

Okay, Ricardo. Now we have a question from Glenco SAS. The people we're really trusting on the reports, but unfortunately, the market is not showing this in the share price. So have you thought of repurchasing insurance with the money of the dividends? This way, the dividends would be higher for the shareholders and the market could reflect this.

Yes. Now considering share re-buying, it's always a possibility. We always have it on the table and be able to have -- to generate dividends for the shareholders. You start to see a payment per action -- payment per action. But with all the -- with how the market has moved -- with all the moves that we've seen in the market we are considering these actions, but with a very comprehensive work and a really comprehensive deploy of the information and once the analysts can and the market has all the information of what we're doing here, I think that -- we can turn to different strategies. But having an acquisition strategy without really the market having the opportunity of debating and looking at the strategy of the company, we think -- we feel that the timing wouldn't be adequate.

And now to complement Ricardo the deal that we were offering because this is looking more to a fixed profitabilities -- is really good. It's -- as you're mentioning, as you say, we need for the market to digest all of this, to process all of this.

Thank you to the representatives of Glenco. And Diego Mesi is raising his hand. Diego Mesi, please you can turn your microphone on. Jonathan, can we please activate the microphones for the people who want to participate?

Yes. Sorry, no, I was -- I raised my hand by accident, sorry.

Okay. So now let's go to the Q&A. We have Nicolas Erazo. He says good morning for the CELSIA team, excellent results, which could be the payout level for the utilities from now on? And the second question, what is the level of leverage for the net debt and EBITDA for 2022 and on the long term?

Well, I think the second question is in line what we were discussing with Diego. So it's below that indicator of 3x or AAA indicator. Now regarding the payout, I think that we're getting closer to a higher payout. If you look at the historic, which was around 50, 60, so we're now reaching 90 payout. Now a flow of the platform that is not necessarily captured in the reports, this implies that we have a flow capacity, cash capacity and the payer is going to be really close to the net utility always reflecting very important things. So we have a small cushion for patrimonial growth so that we're not always working on the limit and to be able to reach those market opportunities. And for the payout, we will always consider the net outcomes from the results such as the [indiscernible] that we have so that in cash, we have the accountable things. So with those 2 exceptions, what we're seeing in the AAA, you can see that it's consistent with the process -- the historic process.

[Operator Instructions] We have a question from Byron. What is CELSIA doing to growth in clean energies and electric vehicles infrastructure?

Brian, that's a very quick question and answer. So you see the pipeline for the solar power. We are doing a really big bet there, 1.3 gigawatts. So small installations, we're doing a lot, and we're hoping at around 30 megawatts yearly in that segment. So we're really betting on the solar power. We really want to lead, be the leaders in the market. We're really committed to that at a very supporting partner that we have. And in other terms -- in other clean technologies with wind power, we have projects for 300 megawatts in Guajira. We're starting to build the first wind power park and hopefully we'll be done -- will be ready by the end of this year and operational by the start of the following year. We hope we can start incorporating that into our generation portfolio. So we're working really hard on solar and wind power. Now in terms of electric vehicles, we sold our electric buses business, what we had acquired for transmission, but we have all the associated assets that means the substations, the charge stations, all those assets for the operation to provide back into those buses. So for that model, we're still growing, and we're seeing a lot of opportunities. And additionally, we are -- we have a business of electric chargers. We have a very big share in the country, the chargers to be installed in working place in public places and in private residents. We're setting up a network for our clients, and we're helping all the different dealers so that they can bring -- continue bringing electric vehicles. Almost all big motor companies have announced plans to electrify all their fleet in -- by 2030. So this market is going to continue growing and CELSIA is going to continue investing and betting on that front so that we can be the partners on electric vehicles -- the leaders of electric vehicles. Hopefully, CELSIA's share would be like Tesla's share at some point.

Okay. Brian, thank you very much. So Juan Pablo is laughing, but you'll see Juan Pablo. He's doing parallel with the CEO of Tesla as well, right? Okay. So Glenco SAS and Eduardo -- they ask again, but we've discussed this. The term of repurchase of shares. I don't know if you'd like to give more in-depth detail.

No repurchase is not on the agenda right now. We've studied, but it's not on the agenda. What we have is the strategy of communicating the shareholders, everything that we're doing, so that they can incorporate into their assessment exercises. And we will look that further in the implications of that in the future.

And yes, Diego Buitrago just raised his hand. Diego, you can unmute your microphone.

Yes. I would just like to ask if the situation of the global logistics, Ukraine, Russia, I think are you anticipating any issues, risks in the transportation for the panels for the turbines for the motors? Is there any risk linked to those global dynamics that we're seeing that could delay the projects or adding over cost? If you could comment on that.

Yes, yes, we've been just like the rest of the planet, we've been suffering from the delays in the supply chain and inflation in some of the equipment that we're shipping. And now in terms of the Ukraine-Russia crisis, we don't see any issues coming -- arising from that. Everything is manufactured directly in Europe, and they are shipping from Europe and everything in solar panels is from -- comes from China. And we are looking into a midterm supply from a different part other than China, the substations, the transformers have a different supply. So I think the Ukraine crisis, I know that this is no new news. The gas price is going to continue changing. So remember that 4 weeks ago, the conferences -- the meetings pre are, where all the strategy that United States were mounting regarding gas supplies, and that was, let's say, they spend a lot of time in that. What's that going to continue doing? The pressure of the -- on the increase of the gas price? But we provided -- we're supplied by the United States. So that -- there, we are seeing something really complex situation there. But we see a window opening there. The urea is USD 250, and it reaches USD 700 to USD 900. And when you talk about the hydrogen, hydrogen might end up being into something really important. So we see -- we are seeing very interesting windows in the future. That would be -- hopefully, this crisis will end up soon and things can stabilize. And in a conflict like that, there's never winners. There are never winners.

Thank you for your answer.

Okay. So right now, we don't have any other questions from the Q&A section from the chat and from the panelists. So yes, hopefully, we will be able to see you in March in Medellin. And hopefully, we can open a very constructive dialogue, especially around the platforms and that can be reflected in the share value expectations. So greetings and congratulations to all the CELSIANs because there are some CELSIANs connected. So thank you very much. Have a good day. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]