Maha Capital AB (publ) ($MAHAA)

Earnings Call Transcript · May 6, 2026

OM SE Energy Oil, Gas and Consumable Fuels Special Calls 52 min

Highlights from the call

In the first quarter of 2026, Maha Capital AB (publ) reported significant developments following its merger with KEO, which is expected to enhance its fintech capabilities. The company is focusing on scaling its fintech business, particularly in Latin America and Canada, where it aims to capture a growing market for digital payments. Management highlighted that they are well-positioned to leverage the $170 trillion global cross-border payment market, with a specific focus on a projected $1.6 trillion B2B payment market by 2024. Revenue and earnings figures for Q1 2026 were not disclosed, but management indicated that they expect to start disbursing approved credit lines post-merger, which could drive future revenue growth.

Main topics

  • Merger with KEO: The completion of the merger with KEO is a pivotal moment for Maha, enhancing its capital structure and fintech capabilities. Management stated, "We are very happy with this partnership to have here Alessandro with us," indicating strong confidence in the collaboration.
  • Fintech Business Expansion: Maha is scaling its fintech operations, particularly through products like WorKEO and the Global Trade Card, which facilitate cross-border payments. Management noted, "We do see here a massive trend of cross-border payments with instant settlement," highlighting the potential for significant revenue growth.
  • Venezuela Operations: Maha has successfully enforced its call option for the PetroUrdaneta asset in Venezuela, positioning itself to capitalize on the country's oil market. Management emphasized, "We do see ourselves here not only already with an asset with very good experience, but position ourselves as maybe the player that can really do more things there," indicating optimism about future production.
  • U.S. Listing Plans: Maha is pursuing a U.S. listing, potentially through a SPAC, which management believes could provide a fast track to market access with limited dilution. They stated, "We do see here as very good eyes to having this connection with the United States as well," reflecting confidence in this strategic move.
  • Market Positioning: Maha's focus on smaller credit lines in Latin America distinguishes it from larger banks, which typically pursue larger loans. Management noted, "The big banks want to give larger lines with long terms," indicating a clear market niche.

Key metrics mentioned

  • Revenue:
  • Net Income:
  • Projected Revenue from Fintech: $250M - $300M (Potential revenue from fintech operations as stated by management.)
  • Projected Net Income from Fintech: > $100M (Expected net income from fintech operations.)
  • Market Size for B2B Payments: $1.6T (Projected size of the global B2B payment market by 2024.)
  • Average Credit Line:

Maha Capital AB is positioned for significant growth with its merger with KEO and expansion into fintech and Venezuelan oil markets. The strategic focus on digital payments and the favorable regulatory environment in Venezuela present strong catalysts for future performance. Investors should monitor the execution of the U.S. listing and the operational progress in both fintech and oil production for potential risks and rewards.

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Paulo Thiago Arantes Mendonca

Executives
#1

Okay. First of all, pleasure here to be with you all and also for the broadcast spectators, a pleasure here to be with you again. We invited today this investors meeting to update the market from our -- first our closing that occurred in the month of April and also for the next steps here for the company. So, we will start -- we have prepared here a presentation. And again, a pleasure to be with you all. So, starting here the presentation. Today, Maha with the conclusion of the transaction with the merger of KEO, is the new capital structure that we have. And here, we also welcome to our shareholder basis the KEO family, right? I think we have been here very -- in the last months. It was an amazing history that we are building together. So, we are very happy with this partnership to have here Alessandro with us. Fortunately, Paolo that he has a newborn in home, he couldn't come. But hopefully, he will have many opportunities to visit Stockholm. So here, as we mentioned, we split our assets in mainly two areas. One is this fintech business that we are here scaling up day by day on a very interesting business model. There is -- we do believe here, we are very well positioned to capture this massive trend of digitalization of payments. And when we look to the market, we will talk a little bit of the market, but this trend is not only growing fast, but the size of the market is really something that the same way people stopped using money, cash, right? People stopped using checks. There is a huge trend of businesses also starting to digitalize their payments in a much more convenient solution. On the second one, we are a very different company, right? We do have a fintech that drills wells or a junior well that lends money, right? It's not -- we don't want to be both. But we have been in the last two years in Maha in which we acquired this option in the Venezuela called PetroUrdaneta. We acquired in a moment in which the country was still closed. So, we bought -- we acquired an option to enforce it in a moment in which -- it happened right in the beginning of this year. So today, with this new movement, United States have released several general licenses, allowing companies, U.S. entities, which is our case to operate in Venezuela. So, in April, we also enforced the call. So now we are effectively the owners of the assets. And we will also talk a little bit about the asset and next steps. Remember, we still have an additional call option of 16% that can be exercised until April of 2028. Talking here a little bit about our fintech businesses. So today, we have two main products in our company. One, we call it WorKEO, which is our basically working capital and inventory optimization for companies. It's a short-term credit for the companies from 30 to 120 days in which we charge not only the interchange fee for having the access to the network, but also an interest rate when the companies want to extend the payments, right? So, in some ways, we make money by anticipating to the supplier, which we call interchange fee, but also extending the term to the companies. The currency in which we operate WorKEO is Mexican pesos, Brazilian reals, U.S. and Canadian dollars. And the second one is we call it the Global Trade Card are basically cross-border payments and travel and expenses management. So, the same way we offer them 30- to 100-day solution. This is a U.S. dollar solution. And also, the way Maha KEO makes money is basically the composition of these two elements, the interchange fee and also the interest rate. This is a very interesting area of the company that -- and I was saying that the same way the world started -- stopped using cash, right, stopped using checks. We do see here a massive trend of cross-border payments with instant settlement. So, if you're a company in Brazil and you want to purchase an equipment from the United States, or from Canada, our solution really offers instant settlement. So, this really creates not only a convenience to the company, but also with the instant settlement allows -- facilitates the buyer and the supplier to really remove the risk of liquidation. Sometimes Swift takes seven days, sometimes even 10 days. So we do see here that we are in a market, not only the huge market size, but also extremely convenient to the company. And with the trend that -- there was a very nice study that companies in the United States that started digitalizing their corporate purchases, 99% never went back to manual payments because it's really convenient, it's really easy instead of you making a Swift to pay Google Cloud or Amazon Web Service in the United States, you only pay it by credit card in the business segment. Talking a little bit about our markets. So, as I mentioned, we are -- it's a large untapped and fast-growing market. Remember that also another interesting thing is that this market, mainly in our areas of interest, right, that is Latin America and Canada, the large banks, they are not here interested in, I would say, competing with us because our lines for the companies, they are not $30 million, $40 million lines. The big banks want to give larger lines with long terms. Our lines are much smaller lines, but we give them the convenience of fast payment and instant payments, no liquidation risk, right? But it's also something that the big banks are not looking because they are not willing here to make an underwriting process for a $500,000 check. So, we do position ourselves even though on very good companies, but for this kind of credit lines. We are focused mainly in Latin America. So, in Latin America, as we all know, we have very high interest rates. We will talk a little bit about that. We are -- the fintech business is a very asset-light business with extremely scalable platform. Every day -- we talk here directly, but every day is a new opportunity. Every business you go is somebody to give credit. So, the market size, the area in which you can really give credit are not only subsidiaries, but small businesses, restaurants, companies that need to trade in U.S. dollars. There is the sector -- we are completely agnostic to sector, of course, we're expecting a lot of the concentration. But in fact, it's something very I talk sometimes passionate about the fintech, even though my service was on that. But everywhere we go is an opportunity, right? We go to have a dinner, we talk with the restaurant that imports food from Japan. So everywhere, we see an opportunity. And that's the beauty here of what we can offer with our technology, exactly. We have a proprietary blockchain technology for instant payments. So, this really, as we mentioned, that allows instant payments cross-border and an experienced Board, management and very good institutional investors that are together with us in this story. So here, as I mentioned in the beginning of our conversation, when we look to the total worldwide global cross-border payment, we're talking of a market of $170 trillion. Of course, this is not our addressable market because these cross-border payments, they have long-term transactions. We are -- when we look to the B2B share of the global growth is the massive. It's almost $165 trillion. So, the massive of the global cross-border are in businesses. Then we have, I think, the most our -- how can we call our addressable market. We are talking here of the global B2B payment market size. We're talking of $1.6 trillion in 2024. And when we look to our market of -- sorry here of Latin America, we are talking here of almost $80 billion today, right? But when we look to this extremely high trend of people really moving to digitalizing payments. We really see here these numbers really growing considerably within the next few years. So, from BRL 86 billion going to almost BRL 190 billion within the next -- almost eight years. Talking a little bit about our addressable market, right? We really like to focus in Latin America because remember, our revenues are comprised by the interchange fee, which is basically a fixed fee plus the interest rate, right? When we go to these countries, these are countries that historically, right, we have large interest rates for instance in Brazil, almost 14% now. Colombia, the same, Mexico, 7%. So, being positioned in these markets, right, really gives us attractive yields and with very good companies, right? Because these companies sometimes are subsidiaries of American companies. So sometimes we are lending money to companies that their credit risk is very solid. But due to our technology and convenience -- and remember, we are small lines, we have a better -- we have a very good credit risk with a very good yield. And remember that our revenues are split between buyer and supplier, it's not a heavy burden for any of them. As we mentioned here today, our average term is from 30 to 120 days, but we have an average of 62 days. This is our main number today in our clients. I will pass here the word to Roberto. I think we -- now we concluded the closing, right? We are -- we can finally start to increase our credit lines and all the approved credit lines that we had waiting until closing happened. So, we are here -- we are presenting the numbers of the last quarter, the first quarter 2026 that had not yet happened closing. But our closing happened April 3. So this quarter on, we will start disbursing the approved credit lines that we have been doing. And finally, our closing happened. We are very excited with the fintech. But Roberto, please.

Roberto Marchiori

Executives
#2

Thank you, Paulo. Welcome, everyone. So, as Paulo was mentioning, right, even we have here the average of last Q4 2025 and the figures of Q1 2026. These numbers, of course, will still not be reflected on our financial statements because the closing happened during Q2 in the first days of April. So, comparing the total portfolio that we had on our fintech business, so our average line basically also supported by Paulo just said, we were stable, a small increase on the average credit line, which means -- which the lines that we approved for clients. So, it means we increased a number of clients approved under the underwriting process. And now, as we see here, clients on average basis increase their usage of the lines because we are doing also a work of talking more of the clients so they can start using more, increasing their exposures inside these limits that they already have with us. And as you can see, also the average annual yield has a small reduction, but this is because we are focusing on more large companies instead of medium to small. If you comprise this inside our products, you can see the same trend on KEO, which is basically our Mexican operation. So, we see a small increase in number of credit lines and also the average of our outstanding amount of credits. And you can see the impact on the average yield through this Mexican exposure. And you see the same trend here also in the Global Trade Card. We increased basically the average of the outstanding credit also in this work of talking with the current clients and waiting a little bit to start onboarding new clients after closing. This was an important task of ours here to start increasing the lines right after closing. And here, I think we already showed this page previously in another presentation we hold. The idea here is to present also some color, right, on the potential and the capacity we have on the fintech business. So when we combine the products that we want to pursue not only in the Mexican market, but also Brazil, Canada and also boosting the GTC, the Global Trade Card, and considering this capacity of reaching $10 billion in theorical transactions. I mean $10 billion is not the credit, but the transactions performed by these credit lines, we could reach revenues in this range of $250 million, $300 million, which can bring us to this earning capacity of more than $100 million, which is net income. So that means we can start using this cash for increasing the portfolio, maybe other considerations in terms of shareholder remuneration. But if you look at this capacity in terms of earning and use average peers valuation multiples that you see in the market, you can have a sense on how much and how scalable this platform could be in the future. And here going to the KEO Rails our blockchain technology. I think this is interesting to understand, like Paulo was saying, this digitalization also is supportive when you come and provide the service of having the instant payment solution. The point is to be a solution for the treasury guys from these companies on the B2B relationship between buyer and seller. And the KEO Rails technology is based on the blockchain environment where we can make instant payment even though in certain markets, you still don't have the technology or the financial infrastructure. So providing this technology, not only local markets, but in the future also in this cross-border environment, is something very powerful and something that will be very convenient when you look transactions nowadays, taking more than two days to be settled. And this creates some friction between buyer and seller sometimes because normally, the seller only wants to send their sales right after they confirm the payment is done. So, this is also very powerful in this relationship on the B2B side.

Paulo Thiago Arantes Mendonca

Executives
#3

I think just as a comment, when we look for countries like Canada, which we're going to mention we are launching in Canada in the next month. But companies still pay, for instance, taxes in checks, right? So, when you have the ability, right, to pay a specific tax, everything digitally, you never go back to the check, right? So, this is something that once you migrate to a digital solution, a convenient solution, it's really it doesn't make sense at all to return to manual payments. So, I think this is also a market like Canada still have this kind of payments like that.

Roberto Marchiori

Executives
#4

And it creates also a more secure environment, right, because it's a platform, so you avoid any manual risk. So, it's very interesting under our treasury and also internal controls perspective, which normally all CFOs of these companies like to have internally. Do you want to?

Paulo Thiago Arantes Mendonca

Executives
#5

So talk a little bit about our new Board that is being elected in August -- sorry, in May. We have Paulo that will be elected as the Chairman. I will remain in the Board, Fabio and I from Starboard, our friend, Halvard here that is together with us. Carlos Gomez and also Miles Molyneaux that is representative of Next Sparc, one of our investors here in our capital raise. So, we are here very happy with not only a long list of institutional investors from the oil world and also from the tech world, right? We have Hayfin, Montreux and Next Sparc together with KEO that are here very active and respectable shareholders. Our key executive team, as you all know, I have Roberto here, Barbara, Tarsilla and Leandro here in our team. Well, changing completely here the topic from fintech to Venezuela. We know this topic is being also very active worldwide, right? And maybe I would start here summarizing again a little bit of our assets, right? We -- the asset we own is PetroUrdaneta is an asset that is 60% from PetroUrdaneta, 25% Maha, 16% Novonor. Remember that we still have the option until March 2028. Our field is located in the region of Maracaibo. We will talk a little bit about the region in the next slide. It's an asset that has reached its peak production in the 1950s, it's almost 240,000 barrels per day with a cumulative production of 1.4 billion barrels. When we look to this kind of oil in place and reserves, we are talking here of an asset with almost 9 billion barrels of oil in place, right? And with already a recovered production of 1.4 billion. And just for us to put the dimension, right, of the size of this asset. When we are talking of additional 700 million barrels of reserves, we are basically talking of reserves of larger than countries, not underestimating Italy, Alessandro, but we are larger than all Italy. For instance, Norway has around 7.5 billion barrels of oil. So, we have 700 million barrels. So just putting the dimension on the size of this asset. We also have a very interesting thing. It's not only oil, but we have light oil. I think this is playing a very important dynamics in the country because Venezuela historically is a country with heavy oil. And with the heavy oil, you need to blend with medium/light oils. And in the last years, right, Venezuela was blending their heavy oil with oil from other countries, specifically Iran. And now with this approach of United States, this oil should be coming from United States. So having your light oil in Venezuela, we believe, should be an important role because not only is more -- it's closer, right, in terms of distance, but also in terms of pricing. We do believe our oil could be very well priced in the right time. And in terms of gas as well, I think the gas really plays an amazing role here, not only for power generation in the region, but we also are close to Chevron's main asset in the region that is Petroboscán. And we are -- and we believe we could be a very significant partner, not only in energy demand because their asset is heavy oil and ours is light, but also -- sorry, not only in the blending, but also in the gas, right, that we can really provide gas for energy demand in the region. Today, Venezuela's problem is the energy. It's not the lack of oil. Oil, the geological risk there is inexistent, but you need energy. And us having gas, we do position ourselves very well on that as well. We have already created a development plan with PDVSA. So, our technical analysis, we really want to revamp this production back to the 40,000 -- and we also have this around $60 million of past dividends that are comprised here in the negotiation with PDVSA. Talking here about Venezuela, right? I think this slide is very interesting because we really show the different areas in Venezuela. When we look to Venezuela, we have regions of heavy oil, which we call it the Orinoco and La Faja. And the region which we describe as the light green is the region where the light oil prevails most, right? So, 15% of Venezuela reserves are in the Maracaibo region. And that's where we believe when we hear that Venezuela has 300 billion barrels, but a huge stake of this recovery of volume is not commercial because it's very heavy, you need to develop a lot of CapEx. But the area in which the oil is most commercial is the Maracaibo region because it's lighter oil. You have -- you are in the lake. So, in terms of infrastructure, you are also very well positioned. And you also don't need to bring light oil from other places. You don't need those massive mixers to mix -- a huge CapEx to mix your heavy oil with light oil. So in terms of OpEx per barrel and CapEx per barrel, we do see here our asset as a very selective and premium inside Venezuela, light oil and gas specifically that will give us not only a better OpEx per barrel, better CapEx per barrel. But finally, in terms of productivity. When we look to the past wells of PetroUrdaneta, there were wells that produced 30,000 barrels per day, 15,000 barrels per day, 1 well. When we look to Brazil, PetroReconcavo produces 25,000 barrels, 25,000, 27,000 barrels per day, and it's worth $1 billion. So, we're talking of one well in our field producing almost one company. Brava, which is our previous company produced 80,000 barrels per day. So, putting here the magnitude, not only the size of our reserves, but the productivity that we have on those wells. This in the 1950s, 1960s. So we do believe that today, we can really, hopefully, with more technology, get to similar outcomes on successful production. So this is a little bit of our plan, right? Of course, as I mentioned here, we are close to Petroboscán, that is Chevron's asset. We are here very keen on evaluating strategic partnerships, as I mentioned, on the gas, on the light oil. So this is the business plan we concluded last year. So taking this production back to 40,000 barrels per day. Just a final remark here, we -- I think we also -- first, we were, let me say, the first movers -- I wouldn't say the first mover, but one of the first movers to go to Venezuela. We went back in 2022. And in addition for us being the first ones to start and again, very compliant with OFAC in the United States, we really consider ourselves humbly here to really have led, right, one of the -- maybe the largest cycle of revitalization of onshore in Latin America, with our previous company, 3R. We bought basically around $2.2 billion of assets from Petroboscán onshore and offshore. We really -- this company today is producing almost 80,000 barrels per day. So, we do position ourselves again on a very humble position, but maybe the group together, Starboard, our friends here from DBO, Halvard, Svein and Kjetil we really position ourselves as maybe the party that has done the most in the onshore in Latin America. I think we invested a lot of money. We took this company to capital markets. At some point, we operated 1/3 of all the wells in Brazil onshore. So, we have here a very good experience. And again, we are trying here to replicate something in Venezuela in a moment in which we are really seeing a very strong and effective approach from Venezuela and the United States. So, this approximation, we're really seeing, of course, with very good eyes, not only in terms of the general licenses, but also flights, commercial flights from United States to Venezuela again, reopening of Embassies. So, all -- it's, in fact, rebuilding a whole country. And we do see ourselves here not only already with an asset with very good experience, but position ourselves as maybe the player that can really do more things there, right? When we look to the country, a country that is producing 1 million barrels per day, and they really want to go back to the 2.5 million, 3 million barrels. So, we want to participate in this story of revamp. And hopefully, we consider ourselves as a very strategic and well positioned to get only with the asset we already have. I think we have here more two, three slides. I think one -- I think this slide maybe I can explain here, Roberto.

Roberto Marchiori

Executives
#6

Sure.

Paulo Thiago Arantes Mendonca

Executives
#7

I think many, many, many questions have arise from this recent press release that we have announced. And I would like here to take some minutes, right, to explain. First of all, we do here consider the businesses of Maha really, really moving right to the United States for two main reasons, right? First, the fintech business is very dollarized. It's very also with the credit card American Express that is an American company. As you all know, KEO World is an American Express license. This is the first reason. The second reason is also this Venezuelan angle is being very supported by the United States. So we do see here as a movement, and we've explained this since the beginning of the transaction that we intended to do a listed in the United States. So it is our intention to proceed the path of being listed in the United States. This transaction, when we look to it, and maybe I think our communication was not effective to the market, but we really see this potential movement with two main angles. One, a very fast-track listing, right? I don't know how much familiar you guys are with SPACs, but SPACs are the special purchase acquisition corporation that are entities that are already listed, in this case, New York Stock Exchange, the main board, which they hold cash. And when you announce a merger, the shareholders of the SPAC, they can decide yes or no to redeem their shares. So, in this case, Blue Water has $130 million in a trust. But when we announce the merger and when we -- if we complete, those shareholders can decide to stay the deal or not. So, when we looked to this transaction, we are very familiar that those SPACs nowadays, they do have very high redemptions, right? So when we look to the current market, they do have redemptions of sometimes 80%, 90%. So, when we look to this transaction it was a transaction in which we could be listed in the United States in the main board, that is something very interesting with a very limited dilution. Maybe we couldn't express ourselves well. But when we put in the math, the redemptions SPAC usually have, we are talking here of a very small dilution, right? We're not talking here of a dilution of $130 million to $490 million. This $130 million -- again, this is a math that happens if we move forward. But really, the idea is to really go -- have the outcome, fast track to be listed, but with a very small dilution. And I don't want here to use precise numbers, but theoretically, let's assume here 90%. We're talking of $13 million to $490 million. So, it's around 2%, 3% dilution. I'm just making either side on a scenario of 90% reduction. So, it's a path that -- of course, we always say that the market is sovereign, right? I think the market didn't appreciate the communication. But we just wanted to express a little bit how are we seeing this, again, this potential deal. It's a fast track to be listed in the New York Exchange. And when we consider the nature of the redemptions, this really becomes a very limited dilution. And again, we -- of course, here, we are, of course, considering us doing our own path from doing dual listed. But if we have some partners, right, that only in terms of lawyers expenses, if you have all these expenses being done in the cost of a small dilution, we really see with good eyes. But I just wanted to express that, explain a little bit which is the nature we are seeing for this deal. And again, we -- if there is one thing that we are convinced that, again, this Venezuela topic today in United States is very -- has a good momentum, right? United States really wants to be very active, not only in loyal, but also in everything. So being listed in the United States really attracts not only several institutional investors, also debt financing, right, as this is being public, but we do believe the United States having access to debt for Venezuela is also good for the fintech as well. Liquidity as well. So I just wanted to point out that this is the way we see the deal, even though it's up to $130 million, but the nature of SPACs, it really creates this very high redemption analysis, and this is -- today with AI, we can all search here how have been the redemptions from other SPACs. And that's the way we were looking to that always respecting our main idea of moving to the United States. Well, finally, we always like -- and Roberto always likes to put the light of what is to come, and I think they are very positive, right? So basically, in the first half of this year, we exercised our call option. We completed the listing process with NASDAQ. We approved the transaction in January, and we finally concluded the capital raise in April. And for the next quarters and the remaining of the year, I think we would like here to highlight some important aspects, right? One, on the fintech side is really the launch of WorKEO Canada very shortly. I think it's a market that we are very well positioned to capture and grow fast. And also, Brazil, probably a little bit -- we hope that after the World Cup because in the World Cup really is a moment that -- not only Brazil, but for the summer, right, all the world is -- things happen after the summer. So, we do want here to really start Brazil very quickly. In terms of oil and gas, I think also important to highlight two things. One, we have initiated a certification of reserves for our asset now with top-tier companies that they can do certifications again in Venezuela. And the law that was approved in January in Venezuela, they give 180 days for the companies to sign new agreements. So, we are in the process of negotiating and adapting to these new agreements under the new law. This new law really creates a very clear evidence of using United States law. So we -- in certain ways, we see this as very good eyes to having this connection with the United States as well. And finally, we do want to move forward with the U.S. listing. Maybe it can be our own dual listing, maybe this potential transaction with the SPAC. But we still want here -- again, it's -- we do see here the U.S. market as a very adequate house to Maha, not only in the oil and gas on the business. And again, also subsequently to the spin-off, right? We do see that those two assets, they really belong separate. They do not belong together, right? We think different profile of investors. And that's the way we see -- and again, right, I think we have here shareholders, KEO that are -- their expertise has been in the fintech. So we do see here the sponsorship of KEO's founders running the fintech, of course, with our help of execution, but also our experience on the oil. So, we do also see that we are here to shareholders, even though we are a private equity fund, we like agnostic things, but we do see here that we have very strong and solid sponsorship from our shareholders. With that said, we conclude the presentation. I think what we would like to do now, we tried here to summarize some questions we received from e-mail, from the investors. We try to summarize them. We will here try to answer them. And then, of course, open to the audience here the question. So, I will start here with the question.

Paulo Thiago Arantes Mendonca

Executives
#8

So, regarding the option for the next 16% to PetroUrdaneta, when does it expire? Could you say anything of the price? So, this option expires in April -- sorry, March of 2028. So, we still have around two years to exercise the option. The price of this option reflects a fair market value considering not only discount rates on Venezuela, but also a price to NAV to Venezuela. So, it's basically a math that we call an independent report to calculate the discounted cash flow of the asset with Venezuela's cost of equity, Venezuela price to NAV. Of course, today with all those changes, right? Remember that Venezuela not only is providing new contract, but there is ongoing a very important discussion within those agreements that Venezuela is opening the space to royalties reduction, right? So, when we look to our assets, there is going to be at least what considers the law of royalties reduction on our assets. So there is a strong openness to attracting investors. Of course, we don't see buying, right, the remaining stake at the same price we bought the first one. But we have this call that we see first as interesting to Maha on increasing its stake in the field. The reference valuation of 12.84% represents a 14-day VWAP ending April 27. Given the share price has moved meaningfully since announcement, will the reference value be revisited in the definite agreement? And if so, on what basis? So here, we -- in fact, when we look right, to the SPACs and to Maha, this was a math that was basically market valuations, right? And again, with this framing of bringing a limited dilution to have a very fast track access to the U.S. listing. Definitely, we have zero interest in being diluted at these levels. So here, definitely, this price, as long as I understand, shouldn't be changed negatively, right? So definitely, the 12.84% was a math that was done. Again, if we pursue on this deal, we really see this path of fast track with a limited dilution. I don't know, Roberto, do you want to add here, please?

Roberto Marchiori

Executives
#9

No, I think replying the question. Here, the intention is not to reduce the price considering the current market price. And potentially, the impact here will be less dilution because the redemption rates can increase considering the effect of this price right now.

Paulo Thiago Arantes Mendonca

Executives
#10

Correct. Perfect. Do you assess that the capital from the proposed transaction is sufficient to initially drive PetroUrdaneta? Or do you see a need for additional capital or partnerships? I think this is a very good question. Again, here, we when we look to our Venezuelan asset, I think the moment now is really to sign these new agreements under the new law with the revised framework that the country will -- is proposing to lots of companies with new royalties, new income tax, new operating agreements, new financing agreements. So this is our main target, let me say in this way. Here, of course, here, we -- as we all know, we have this option until April 2028 to acquire the remaining stake. And at the right terms and pricing, we see this as very accretive to the shareholders. And in terms of the development plan of PetroUrdaneta, of course, there is here an important element of equity, but also an element of debt, right, to start here the CapEx for PetroUrdaneta. So yes, we believe that even with the redemptions -- high redemption of the SPAC, we do see here that we are self-funded here for this beginning of the project. But of course, we are here super open to evaluate partnerships, right? We strongly believe that the moment to do that is after we conclude those steps, right? We conclude the agreement. We conclude the recertification of reserve that's a very important element here to the market to understand, "Okay, how much is the net present value of the asset?" So I think these are the most important moments after that to look to a partnership. That's really the way at least here with our head of private equity, it's the recipe, right, to maximize the value of our asset. But definitely, we are seeing here in Venezuela extremely -- being extremely positioned by American companies that want to have their staff there. And I think we have not only an amazing asset, but we have an asset that has a very long-term concession and the new law also allows to extend this timing. So -- we do see here that partnerships will be considered again, after we concluded this legal/financial work to really maximize the valuation of our assets. Why did you decide to go for the SPAC solution rather than a traditional listing process? Look, we -- again, this announcement we did was an announcement having as essence a high redemption, right? So when we look to the SPAC, we would not be spending our money on the dual listing process, we will be, of course, having a limited dilution. But again, the money comes from a third party, right? So we want to preserve -- we would -- a way to preserve our cash and have a similar outcome with third-party resources. So -- but of course, we are here evaluating all alternatives, and I think that's a very good question. We -- if this deal -- we do see here -- and we also try here to express here the market to understand the benefits of this SPAC deal because it's really not only a fast track, but also not using our own cash for all this process. But we are evaluating here all the alternatives. In light what concrete initiatives are you now taking to secure new analyst coverage and increase visibility to our institutional investors? Yes, we are here very active with new researchers and analyst coverage. So hopefully, within the very, very short term, research reports will be going out to the market, hopefully, very soon, right, Roberto?

Roberto Marchiori

Executives
#11

Yes.

Paulo Thiago Arantes Mendonca

Executives
#12

But that's -- we know the importance of research reports, not only for the market. But again, this is a different company, right? It's not a company that is -- it's an oil with a fintech. So, I think it will be very important to the money to understand the valuation -- the sum of the parts, not the consolidation valuation. I think even we were talking today, right, that we are in the price -- the share price that we had today was before what -- we were around 10 before what happened in Venezuela. So, our Venezuela asset is worth zero. And when we look at what happened in this quarter, right, and maybe the Norwegian market is very expert and a professional on that. But today, we humbly see the Middle East oil assets having a risk maybe no higher than potentially Latin America, Venezuela. Venezuela, it's 1 hour 30 from Miami. It's now becoming a very important position from United States. So, we are defective shareholders in terms of reserves, it's something that we have already outlined it. So, we do see here the risk of Venezuela has passed, right? I think we do see here the assets, not only Venezuela, but for Latin America. We're seeing this in Argentina as well. Having here a discount on the NAV, even sometimes better than assets that are positioned in more complex regions. Hopefully, this war ends soon, right, but not making here any comment. But today, there is a risk in Middle East for oil companies that they are seeing here with concern. Given -- how do you view the possibility of -- I think we answered this one, right, of bringing in a strategic partner, right? I think -- we want here definitely to make this job now of concluding the agreements, but definitely, a strategic partner is something that we are looking for. Has Maha commissioned -- does it intend to commission an independent reserve? Yes. So, as we mentioned here, we are -- we have already started and we expect to publish the reserve report as per the time frame together with the agreements, right? I think the reserve report we have is not only a technical line, but economical. So, this should also come with the analysis of royalties and income taxes. Given the valuation you provided with Maha at a market cap of $400 million on Blue Water for $130 million, is it fair to assume that whole Maha would approach 80% and PDVSA 20%? If the full amount is $130 million, yes. But again, the redemptions are high. So, the outcome of this is much more a higher stake for Maha, more than 80%, much more. And with also Maha, right -- Maha and its shareholders being the -- by far, the largest economic stake on -- if this deal really comes through, we see it with good eyes. This quick movement to the U.S. in a moment in which the capital markets like energy, capital markets like -- if we look to companies that have been transacted on the fintech business on the same segment that we have, such as [indiscernible], we're also seeing here amazing valuations, and that's where we believe our niche is different -- is similar, but we are focused on LatAm and Canada. But with that said, I think we tried here to summarize the questions. I think, again, it was a pleasure here to be with you all and with our broadcast spectators. And I also would like here to thank not only Alessandro that's here in Sweden, but also Paolo that couldn't come this time, but definitely will be here and also our other shareholders, Halvard and Svein, and the pleasure here to be with you all. Thank you very much.

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