Orrön Energy AB (publ) (ORRON) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

August 5, 2026

OM SE Utilities Independent Power and Renewable Electricity Producers earnings 43 min

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Jenny Sandstrom

executive
#1

Hi, everyone. Welcome to Orron Energy's Q2 presentation. Joining us today, we have our CEO, Daniel Fitzgerald; and CFO, Espen Hennie, who will run us through the presentation and the latest developments of Orron Energy. At the end of the presentation, we will have a Q&A session. So feel free to send the questions as we go along. We will collect and go through them at the end. With that, I'd like to hand over to Daniel Fitzgerald to start off this presentation.

Daniel Fitzgerald

executive
#2

Thank you, Jenny, and good afternoon, and welcome to our second quarter results presentation, where Espen and I will give an overview of the performance for the first half of the year and then also the strategic direction for the company, including the Cloudberry transaction, which we announced during Q2. I wanted to start today with a quick overview of Orron Energy, where we stand today and then most importantly, where the valuation sits for the company today. And I think that the title on this slide really tells a massive story around the compelling value proposition. And we don't need to go far beyond the transaction with Cloudberry to understand where that value sits and why that value sits within Orron Energy. And for a long period of time, almost since inception of the company, we have traded with a discount to the underlying value of our assets. If I look first at the Cloudberry transaction, which we will touch on in the coming slides in a bit more detail, that transaction will translate into a 27% ownership in Cloudberry, where we have divested a large portion of our Nordic assets, with the exclusion of Karskruv. And in return, we will receive shares and cash in Cloudberry. When I look at the value of that share today, so that 27% shareholding, it equates to around SEK 5.7 per share in Orron Energy. And today, we're trading close to SEK 7 a share. When I look over to the right-hand side, you see very clearly the value of this shareholding in Cloudberry versus the value of our market capitalization. And today, the value of that share based on closing prices on Monday, was EUR 149 million against a market cap of EUR 188 million. And so we believe that the assets we've sold to Cloudberry creates a fantastic company in Cloudberry, which we'll touch on. But even more so, the remaining value inside Orron Energy, implied value as per our market cap today is only EUR 39 million. And when I look over to the rest of the slide on the left-hand side, I take Karskruv, which is a good asset in the SE4 price region in Southern Sweden. If we look at an electricity price between EUR 70 and EUR 85 per megawatt hour, which we've achieved EUR 70 year-to-date. The futures price for rest of the year is EUR 85, and we expect that to continue into 2027. We are going to generate between EUR 12 million and EUR 16 million of EBITDA. So even the 3 years of EBITDA equals the valuation of the remaining company with no value on the rest of it. When I look at where assets trade today, we're more like 10x EBITDA. We've seen transactions in the market closer to that level. And so the true value of Karskruv is significantly higher than what the remaining value within Orron Energy is. We also then don't need any value for the greenfield business to make up our market cap beyond Karskruv. The greenfield business, it's starting to get into its regular monetization phase, and you'll see a little bit more today on the data center side, where we have some really strong upsides from that business, and we're going to be starting to see that value coming in. And so we see a large benefit not only from Karskruv, but also from the greenfield business compared to where the implied value of the remaining company sits. And the final point, which is also really important, is, with the Cloudberry transaction, we delever the business. And that means we sit with a clean balance sheet. We have a EUR 50 million facility sitting behind it and plenty of liquidity to go and grow the business. Should we need more debt capacity, there is more debt capacity within the business, and we have the means of capitalizing the greenfield business should we wish to. So if I put all of that together simply, I think the mark-to-market on Cloudberry really underpins the core of the value in the company. On top of that, we have some fantastic upsides well beyond where the market cap sits today, which does make Orron Energy a very compelling value proposition as it stands today. If we spend a few minutes on the Cloudberry transaction, this really is a formative transaction, both for Cloudberry and for Orron Energy. We have a lot of value within our assets in the Nordics, and we have a lot of -- we had a lot of ambition with them, which doesn't stop on the back of this transaction. We have taken a view for a long period of time that with the increasing complexity in the market, the energy systems, the penetration of renewables, the need to be active in the ancillary markets, balancing and more diversified, we need a larger scale company. And we've been working down that pathway within Orron Energy for a long period, as had Cloudberry. And now is the right time to combine those 2 businesses into what is one of the leading Nordic IPPs, Nordic-focused IPPs, and the largest listed one focused solely on the Nordics. We then blend both asset bases and teams, which are very complementary, which gives you a pan-Nordic platform across all of the technologies with the strengths and competence of both Cloudberry and Orron Energy together. And I'm really excited about what this platform is going to be able to deliver in the coming years. Orron Energy will remain a 27% owner in Cloudberry. We will take positions on the Board and be very active in their journey going forward. And we see this platform as a very, very strong platform to go and create value, to consolidate and grow the business across the Nordics with the local competence that needs to be successful. And so upon closing of the transaction, we see a very bright future, and we intend to be a long-term holder of the shares in Cloudberry as part of that. When I look at the consideration for the transaction, so on the left, we start with the assets that we sold, which is the entirety of our Nordic business, excluding the Karskruv asset. With that comes the strength of our team and the competence of our team to blend into Cloudberry's competence and teams. It gives a slightly different flavor and geographical focus to what Cloudberry has. So it's very, very complementary. When I look at the consideration for that transaction, first and foremost, we will retain a 27% shareholding in Cloudberry and become the largest owner in Cloudberry. And we sit alongside a range of other large and strategic shareholders within that business who share the same ambition to go and grow this company to a much larger size and scale. Secondly, we'll have the repayment of nearly all of our net debt position. And so that will come at closing of the transaction, and we have a small payment for the cash remaining in the business. And so when I look at that same picture on the bottom of this slide, we end up with a transaction valuation of around -- or value of the shares of around EUR 149 million against the market cap within Orron Energy of EUR 188 million, which is really compelling when you look at the future value of our business. Completion, we expect in Q3 of this year. So we have already received some of the regulatory approvals needed in Sweden, and we have also yesterday approved the elements necessary at the Cloudberry EGM. And so we have a few more elements to see through the course of August, and I expect this to close before the end of Q3 once we fulfill all of the outstanding conditions. Turning more inside Orron Energy's business, looking at the first 6 months of this year. And you will have noted in our external reporting now that we talk about the continuing operations and the discontinued operations. The continuing operations are those elements that remain within Orron Energy and exclude the elements that have been sold to Cloudberry. Within our reporting of the continuing business, we also exclude the shareholding in Cloudberry from the performance of that in the historical accounts, and we'll account for that going forward in a slightly different way, which Espen will touch on. Year-to-date power generation of 113 gigawatt hours, leading to revenues, including project sales, of around EUR 13 million and EBITDA of just shy of EUR 3 million. Important to note that our EBITDA also includes around EUR 4 million worth of spend on the Sudan case, which now drops away almost to 0 on the back of the conclusion of the District Court trial in May. And so our financial strength as a company, not only will we have a clean balance sheet at closing with 0 net debt on it, we will have the reduction in the Sudan costs with a verdict expected end of the year and then strong cash generation, both from Karskruv and the underlying project businesses. For the Sudan case, we obviously finished that in May. Our view all along, and still remains today, is that we will see a full acquittal of both the defendants and a dropping of the forfeiture related to the court case. And so in December of this year, we expect a verdict, as communicated by the judge in the case. And we've also submitted to the court a historical claim for costs incurred for the defense of the individuals and company. And so this amounts to around EUR 76 million, and we expect -- once we have the judgment in December, not only do we expect an acquittal of the individuals, a dropping of the forfeiture, but we also expect an element of a reimbursement of historical costs related to the case. And so that really is an important milestone for the company, and we look forward to the outcome from that verdict and have no doubt in what the final judgment will be in the Sudan case. Looking at Karskruv performance. We're in line with where we expect to be with Karskruv. So year-to-date production of around 113, and we expect full year production somewhere around the 240, 250 gigawatt hours for this year, including weather impacts, price curtailment, ancillary services, and availability warranties. Year-to-date, we have an achieved price on Karskruv of EUR 70 a megawatt hour, and that has underpinned around half of our cash generation for the first half of this year. It really is a strong asset. It's in the SE4 price region, relatively new asset brought online in 2023, and provides significant cash flow for the remaining business to be able to continue to invest in the greenfield development portfolio and also growth for the business. So Karskruv is a core asset. We intend to use that cash flow and the asset value to then continue to grow our business longer-term. We're very close to investment decision on a battery project at Karskruv, which will add further flexibility into the Karskruv asset and increase revenues at the same time. Stepping now into our development business. I think it's clear to say that we're not only delivering on the solar and battery side of that business, we've also been building in the background for the last 2 or 3 years a data center business out of the same competence that comes from our renewable portfolio. And so as it stands today, we have around 12 gigawatts worth of projects, where around 8 gigawatts are sitting in the solar and battery domain and 4 gigawatts in the data center domain. As we see the evolution of grids, AI, data center markets, renewable penetration across Europe, we see a convergence of these elements all into one space. And I think our ability to go and secure land, secure grid, secure permits, and deliver projects is really important when we look on both sides of this equation, whether it's from the renewable side, the power side, the grid side, or the data center side. There's no doubt today that data centers have a massive value in the market, but that value only exists if you're able to get power to these sites. And I think bringing our renewable competence alongside the data center businesses that we have evolved over the last period gives us a really strong platform. When I look towards grid operators, towards grid reform, towards investors, we can tick all the boxes across that portfolio by providing not only stand-alone power solutions from the grid, which is now congested globally, but also the ability to provide renewable energy, to provide storage into those data centers, and to essentially provide a campus or an energy hub that allows you to have both production, storage, and demand through a data center on the one site. And so we will see the German platform is now in the market with a range of these energy hubs, and we'll start to see the value of those coming forward alongside the traditional stand-alone data center opportunities. And our teams across certainly U.K. and France plus Germany have the same skills to provide projects for data centers as we need for renewable power and storage. And so it is really complementary, and I'm excited to see how that will evolve over the coming weeks and months as we start to step more into the market with some of these newer opportunities. It would be remiss of us not to focus a small amount on our data center business. If I look at the market today, the growth in AI and the growth in the need for computing power and data centers is massive. And with that drives a valuation on data centers that's beyond where we've seen in the markets historically and also in the renewable space. And we're focusing on data centers with 3 kind of core themes, all centered around power and all centered around our core competence. So firstly, we need the land for the data centers. We need the permits, et cetera. But we have the ability to provide power in 3 different means. Firstly, through a traditional site, which is a stand-alone grid-connected data center. Secondly, through private wire, either through projects that we've generated ourselves or through third-party connections because we understand that element of power delivery to site, and we have many means of doing that. And then thirdly, by providing energy hubs, which is essentially that whole package in one: storage, generation, grid connection, and data centers. And today, we have a large portfolio of around 4 gigawatts. In the U.K., we have 1.1 gigawatts are ready to permit, of which 300 megawatts is in an active sales process. In Germany, we have energy hubs where we have co-located batteries storage -- sorry, battery, solar, and data centers behind the meter, and we're also in the market with a range of those in Germany. So this really is an exciting platform. I think we will ensure that we continue to grow this, and it has a massive value when I look across its peer group that's either in the listed or private domain in the transactions we've seen happening. And so we will be looking at how to best realize the value from this portfolio going forward, whether that is to capitalize the portfolio, take projects further, whether it's to monetize a portion of the portfolio, or potentially to offer a spinout or a listing separately of our data center and renewable growth platforms. So we'll spend more time on that in the second half of this year, and we'll come back to the market when we're ready to share. But really, really exciting to see some of these projects in the market already. And then stepping into the sales side of this, which is a really important element of this business. It's great to get the projects maturing, to get the grid and land secured and move into permitting, but we really also need to be monetizing this portfolio. So as of today, we have a range of sold projects totaling around 260 megawatts, EUR 15 million. And then if we step into the sales processes that are ongoing now, we have a suite of solar projects, 3 solar projects in the U.K., 1.8 gigawatts in the market. And that portfolio is awaiting the final grid connection dates and details, which is expected in Q4 or early Q1 next year. And so we may see that process -- depending on the values on the table, we'll see that process continuing through the second half of this year. The second process in the U.K. is a 300-megawatt data center site, and that's launched, and we'll see more discussion around that in Q3 of this year. Exciting portfolio in Germany is the launch of around 3 gigawatts of energy hubs. Quite early stage, but have the ability to provide renewable power, storage, and data centers all behind the meter. And given that combination, we score very, very highly in the recent grid reform in Germany, which gives us accelerated and preferential access to the grid. And so those projects now are in the market, and we'll see where the opportunity sits in the second half of this year. And that's backed up by further projects totaling around 12 gigawatts across that entire platform. And so with that, I think 3 key pillars that we focus on in the business now, shareholding in Cloudberry and growing the value of that, the value of Karskruv, and then the value of this development portfolio. And I think it becomes a lot easier for investors to understand the true value within Orron Energy, and we can now clearly see the misplacement of that value relative to where our market cap is. So with that, I'll pass over to Espen to run through the financials for the second quarter.

Espen Hennie

executive
#3

Thank you, Daniel, and good afternoon, everyone. I'll go through the financials for Q2. Obviously, this quarter is a bit different from the -- compared to the previous quarters due to the Cloudberry transaction. And as Dan already has mentioned, all the part of the business that will be divested to Cloudberry as part of the transaction is now classified as discontinued operations. So the focus on this slide and the coming slides is then now on the continuing operations, which consists of the Karskruv wind farm and the European greenfield platform. If you want further information on discontinued operations, then I would refer you to our quarterly financial report. And also going forward, post-closing, we will report our net share of the Cloudberry profit into our financial statements according to the equity method of accounting. Looking then at Q2, strong quarterly revenues, EUR 6.2 million for the quarter, which is backed by a very solid performance from project sales, EUR 3.7 million of project sales in Q2, which is a record for the company. So our Q2 revenues then almost at par with Q1, where we saw record pricing in the Nordic region. EBITDA for the quarter, EUR 1.1 million. And as Dan mentioned, it's important to keep in mind that this includes a cost of EUR 1.8 million related to the Sudan legal case. And going forward, our costs related to that will be a fraction of what we had in the quarters behind us, since that trial ended in May, and we now expect a verdict late this year during December. Power generation, 46 gigawatt hours, and achieved price of EUR 56 per megawatt hour. We have -- we will go into that in a bit more detail at a later slide when we look at the breakdown of the achieved price for Karskruv. Net debt at the end of Q2 was -- if we include the discontinued operations, was EUR 91 million. And as I have said before, at closing of the Cloudberry transaction, we expect to have a net debt position close to 0, as the EUR 93 million of debt as of year-end '25 will be assumed or settled by Cloudberry, leaving then also in a very robust and healthy financial position and further backed by a EUR 50 million credit facility, supported by the same group of banks that was in our previous facility, which then provides us with a lot of flexibility and optionality for future business growth. Then I look at our '26 guidance for continuing operations only, so for our Karskruv wind farm and the European greenfield platform. Starting with power generation, we expect that to end up in between 210 and 270 gigawatt hours for the full year. And our first half year actuals were 113. So as Dan mentioned, we are on track to end up close to the midpoint of that range. And also that range also takes into account weather impacts and price curtailment and ancillary services, as Dan said. Operating expenses for the full year, we expect that to total in between EUR 4 million and EUR 5 million, and that -- this is then purely related to Karskruv. And actuals for the first 6 months were EUR 2.2 million. G&A for continuing operations, there also, we expect full year cost of in between EUR 4 million and EUR 5 million. And here also, we have first half actuals of EUR 2.2 million, sort of supporting our full year outlook -- and so as you can see, very much delivering in line with full year expectations on all parameters here. Sudan legal costs, here, we expect a full year cost of EUR 4.5 million. And here, it's important to note that our actual cost for the first 6 months was EUR 4.1 million. So implicitly, we only expect then EUR 400,000 of costs for the second half, which represents a 90% drop in costs compared to first half, reflecting that, as I said earlier, the trial has ended, ended in May, and now very, very limited cost exposure. And as I said also, with verdict expected in December. Capital expenditure. This is investments into our European greenfield platform, just maturing projects and making them ready for divestment processes. We have spent EUR 4.2 million year-to-date and expect for the full year here to end up close to EUR 8 million. And as you also can see, I mean, the year-to-date revenues actually exceed what we have allocated our capital into the greenfield platform year-to-date. So as I said before, a very strong start of the year from our greenfield platform. Then a look at some key financial metrics. Only for continuing operations, as I said before, if you start looking -- if you start with revenues, here we have -- we are showing quarterly revenues going back to the same quarter last year. And as I said, Q2 revenues almost at par with Q1, where we had record pricing throughout the Nordic region. And if you compare -- if you do a year-over-year comparison, you can see a very significant increase to revenues of almost EUR 4 million up, which is then explained by the contribution from project sales in Q2, whereas back in Q2 last year, we had yet to conclude our first divestment, which started in Q3. And then you see we have had booked revenues in back-to-back quarter since then with then, like I said, all-time high of almost EUR 4 million in Q2. Same pattern then, EBITDA close to the Q1 level despite lower pricing and lower volumes throughout -- or in South of Sweden, supported by the project sales. And if you do a year-over-year comparison, very, very material increase. And I think the key takeaway on this slide is the dotted line, where we have added back the Sudan legal costs. So it's showing EBITDA excluding Sudan legal costs, and as I said before, since we now going forward, expect very marginal costs related to the Sudan case. This is a lot more representative -- presents a lot more representative picture of the potential for future EBITDA generation from our continuing operations. And over the last 3 quarters, that has been in between EUR 3 million and EUR 4 million on a quarterly basis. And if you do a rolling 12 months, the last 4 quarters, EUR 11 million of EBITDA generation from our continuing operations, which is a very solid EBITDA contribution and provides us then with future growth opportunities and a lot of robustness from a financial perspective. Then I look at achieved price for continuing operations. So this is then the achieved price for our Karskruv assets. The average system price for the first 6 months of '26 was EUR 79 per megawatt hour. This was supported by very favorable market environment, obviously, impacted by the geopolitical situation, a tight gas market, but also more some other factors in the Nordic region, namely a very supportive hydrological balance and also nuclear utilization, which has been below the average. And we also expect -- these factors we expect to continue also for the coming months. So it's also a strong outlook for pricing in the Nordics going forward, and maybe especially in the southern part of Sweden, where Karskruv is located. And if you look at the spot price relevant for Karskruv, the average SE4 price during the first 6 months was EUR 89, so a 12% premium to the average system price. Solid premium, but still actually a low premium in a historical context, but very important for our revenue contribution. And then if you do the breakdown to our achieved price for the first 6 months, we had EUR 1 of contribution from ancillary services and GoOs. And then we had a negative impact from our hedges due to the very strong pricing. We had a loss on our hedges. Obviously, that is a favorable outcome. We want -- that's actually the outcome we want as opposed to the other way around. So that had a negative impact on our achieved prices. And as we said before, those hedges are put in place to support the downside. And since we're not fully hedged to lose on those, it actually makes us better off than if we are ending up gaining on the hedges. Then we had a small capture price discount, less than 10% capture price discount in the first half year of '26, resulting in an all-in achieved price for Karskruv of EUR 70 per megawatt hour. And if we take a look back and look at the important variables impacting the achieved price for Karskruv, if you look at the right-hand side of the slide here, starting with the premium of the SE4 price region to the average system price in the Nordics. As I mentioned, it was 12% in the first half of '26, which has been, as I said, low in a historical context. In '25, it was more than 50%; '24, almost 40%. And if you look at the long-term average, the 10-year horizon from 2016 to 2025, the average premium has been 31%. So obviously, a very favorable location for wind farm in the Nordics, which we expect to support revenues also going forward. And then capture price discount, another important variable for our revenues. Here, we have seen a favorable trend over the last couple of years. '24, we had a capture price discount of 22%, which dropped down to 12% in '25, partly helped by price curtailment. And then a very low capture price discount of 7% first half of '26. We have said in the past, prior to the Cloudberry transaction, looking at our portfolio then, including the discontinued operations, that we expected a long-term average for the capture price discount of in between 20% and 25%. Karskruv has always delivered a lower capture price discount, so a more favorable capture price discount than the average of the rest of the portfolio, due to -- partly due to location, but also due to the curtailment optionality. So on average, that sort of that low -- on average, Karskruv has been in the order of 10 percentage points lower capture price discount compared to the rest of the portfolio. So we think a more representative capture price discount going forward, but also keeping in mind that it will be volatile, especially on a quarterly basis, we think sort of more a representative expectation for Karskruv long-term is then more 10% to 15% as opposed to the 20% to 25% as we put forward for the portfolio prior to the Cloudberry transaction. So with that, I'll hand the word back to Daniel.

Daniel Fitzgerald

executive
#4

Thank you, Espen. And just one quick slide to sum up. I think I hope we've made it clear on the value proposition within Orron Energy. And I think the Cloudberry transaction does a number of things for us. One, it creates the Nordic listed, Nordic-focused leading IPP in Cloudberry, 2 terawatt hours of production, the ability to integrate all of the disciplines from early-stage development to construction to repowering, life extension, hybridization, batteries, data centers, new renewable projects, hydro, solar, and wind. So it creates a really fantastic company. And then for Orron Energy alone, that represents -- that value of 27% in Cloudberry represents more than 80% of our share price as it stands right now. So that really is an element that's mark-to-market, it's simple to value, and you can understand where that value is relative to where we're trading. And the rest of the portfolio, whether it's the greenfield business, which we touched on a bit more, the optionality and the revenue generation coming out of that, the strategic pivot a little bit into data centers to add those into the core business, really gives us a strong platform. Karskruv is a fantastic asset, delivering long-term cash flows. And if I just look at the Cloudberry stake plus Karskruv, I get to somewhere that's either, what's almost a doubling of where the share price sits today without any value for the rest. When I look at Sudan, we've finished now in the District Court, we expect a verdict that's in our favor. And the EUR 76 million or 800 -- just north of SEK 800 million that we've claimed in terms of reimbursement represents between SEK 2.5 and SEK 3 a share in terms of the value today. So when I add up all of the sum of the parts, I end up significantly in excess of where the share price is trading today. And we do that with a very, very clean and solid balance sheet with almost 0 net debt post closing of the transaction. So we believe Orron Energy is in a fantastic place today. We have a lot of upside and optionality that we expect to deliver on in the coming quarters. And then the value is underpinned by that share in Cloudberry, which is a fantastic Nordic platform growing in this space. So with that, I'll pass over to Jenny, and we'll move through the Q&A.

Jenny Sandstrom

executive
#5

Yes. Thank you very much. For anyone joining us online, feel free to send across questions. We already have a lot of good questions. But if you're joining us and you haven't already submitted your questions, then now it's a good time to do so. We've got -- let's start with one question around the stock price. Very surprised that the stock market doesn't recognize the value of Orron in the stock value. What would be the trigger for the stock to close the gap between value and price?

Daniel Fitzgerald

executive
#6

I think I'll pass that question back to shareholders to answer. I think inside our share, we've always traded with some discount to underlying NAV. And I think it's obviously something we're working on to try and close that gap between NAV and the value of the assets. And I think the Cloudberry transaction really, really demonstrates the value of our assets on the market. When I look at the value of Karskruv or the value of what we've done, it's multiples on where the share price is today. So I think we're putting all of the information forward to allow shareholders to make a decision. And the second element will be on the back of the Sudan outcome. I think a range of investors are waiting to see the end of the Sudan trial to see the verdict. And on the back of that, I see a significant re-rating in our stock price as we move into a much cleaner investment story.

Jenny Sandstrom

executive
#7

Thank you very much. There's also a few questions around the transaction. Why was the Cloudberry deal considered the best way to create value for your shareholders?

Daniel Fitzgerald

executive
#8

Yes. I think we've always -- as I said in the presentation, we've always viewed this sector as somewhere where we need scale and size. And we've been working for a long period to grow that scale. We've been moving in a range of acquisitions. And I think creating a Nordic champion at the leading Nordic listed and Nordic-focused platform is really important, whether it's us acquiring or merging with Cloudberry or some others. And I think this opportunity in terms of timing, in terms of valuation, in terms of us becoming a strategic owner in Cloudberry, allows us to do all of that. It creates a fantastic platform, fantastic company, and it gives us a clear mark-to-market in our share price to understand the value. We also have, within Cloudberry, the ability to use the equity to grow that business, and that option has been off the table for Orron Energy, given the discount to value and the Sudan case. And so this allows us to have a shareholding in Cloudberry, which has then allowed to use its -- or can effectively use its equity to grow if it's value-accretive for the company.

Jenny Sandstrom

executive
#9

And why was Karskruv not included in the Cloudberry deal?

Daniel Fitzgerald

executive
#10

Yes, I think it's a good question. Why isn't this a full merger? I think 2 key elements to that. One, the retention of Karskruv allows us to continue to fund our growth and fund our greenfield business and provides a platform to do that. The second element is, had we included Karskruv into the Cloudberry transaction, it would have pushed us above a threshold in Norway, which meant we would have had to make a mandatory bid for the remainder of the Cloudberry business. And obviously, there's no means of doing that within Orron Energy post the transaction. And so both on the technicality and then strategically, because of where we want to continue to grow our development business and potentially deploy more capital into that space over time, it allows us to do both of those or treat both of those elements in the right way, hence, the exclusion of Karskruv from the Cloudberry deal.

Jenny Sandstrom

executive
#11

And why are you not looking at solar or data center projects in Sweden? Are you no longer growing in Sweden? Or what's the strategy there?

Daniel Fitzgerald

executive
#12

Yes, we're still growing. So we have a range of solar projects in Sweden. We have data centers, we have batteries, and that portfolio will stay with our Nordic business and be a part of Cloudberry. The reality for solar in the Nordics, it's still challenging to make it economically viable. So it's on the edge economically. But it doesn't mean we're not developing those projects and taking them forward and managing our cost base. The Nordics is a fantastic location for data centers, and I'm looking forward to seeing our business, combined with Cloudberry, giving the ability to go and grow that data center business from within the combined entity going forward. We have a range of projects in that space, as do Cloudberry. And I think as they get closer to maturity, you'll start to hear more about those.

Jenny Sandstrom

executive
#13

Can you give a time line or status of the 1.8-gigawatt sales process in the U.K., and 300-megawatt project?

Daniel Fitzgerald

executive
#14

Yes, we have an ongoing sales process for that 1.8 gigawatt portfolio of solar in that there's a 300-megawatt solar project, and then we also have a stand-alone 300-megawatt data center project. We're not going to comment a lot on the details of those transactions. We have a range of bids on the solar package, and we've only just launched on the data center package, and we'll come back to the market when we have news to share on the outcome of those processes.

Jenny Sandstrom

executive
#15

Excellent. The delayed Agri-PV project in Germany, could you give us some color on what the delay means for future sale of the project?

Daniel Fitzgerald

executive
#16

Yes, we sold -- at the end of last year, we sold 3 solar projects to Gulermak, and we had a range of deliverables, and it's taken us slightly longer to secure the grid for those specific projects, which is meant under the current construct, they don't participate in that transaction. We expect those to reenter the market in the second half of this year, and we'll update once we have more details on the sales processes. We'll update the market as we normally do.

Jenny Sandstrom

executive
#17

Great. And then in terms of the German energy hubs, when do you expect to launch the sale of these? And do you have a time line for a future sale?

Daniel Fitzgerald

executive
#18

Yes, the project is live. So very, very recently live, I'd say. End of July, the portfolio went into the market. Too early to say exactly what the outcome is going to be. We'll need to let that process run its course, and then we'll come back when we have the outcome of that. You should expect it in the second half of this year for sure.

Jenny Sandstrom

executive
#19

And then going to data centers, given your power grid expertise, how far up the data center value chain can you go? Why stop at selling projects and not building them out and selling at a later stage?

Daniel Fitzgerald

executive
#20

Yes. We have this discussion routinely within the solar projects, battery projects, and now data center projects. So there's no doubt that we have the capability to build it all the way out. However, the CapEx needs for data centers are an order of magnitude bigger than what we're able to do. So we want to ensure that we have some revenues coming in to ensure that we don't take full market risk on all of this with the entire company. And so like the solar projects and the strategy so far, you should expect us to see some form of revenue recognition and then redeploy that capital into carrying projects further and continuing to grow our business.

Jenny Sandstrom

executive
#21

And there's a lot of ongoing activities in the EU to promote the green transition, such as electrification, battery investments. Is this something you noticed in your operations and developments?

Daniel Fitzgerald

executive
#22

Yes, I think absolutely across the EU, certainly, Germany and U.K., there's huge ambition to continue down the pathway of deploying renewables and greening the grid. But we're also in the same journey, seeing huge constraints from the grid perspective with a flood of demand projects around data centers and other demand, but also the renewable space. And so this concept of an energy hub, I think, is really important as we look towards not only meeting the needs of future society, both from a power and Internet data center perspective, but also from a grid and infrastructure perspective. And what we're putting forward is a campus that essentially generates its own power, consumes its own power, and uses the grid for the bit in the middle. And that's going to deliver a lot of stability back towards grid. It's going to deliver a lot of stability towards society in terms of the power generation, power pricing. But then more importantly, for the demand centers, as it provides a route to generating their own power, hedging the cost, and having certainty over the supply of power. So energy hubs, I see as a really important element going forward, and we see the legislation and reform moving alongside that journey.

Jenny Sandstrom

executive
#23

And going into hedging, do you have any hedges on Karskruv moving forward and the remaining production?

Daniel Fitzgerald

executive
#24

Yes. We have some hedges, some baseload hedges for Karskruv, actually the same hedges that we had at the end of Q1. So we have disclosed them in our quarterly reports. You can find all the details there on volumes and the price levels for Q3 and Q4. We have not added to the position since we announced the Cloudberry transaction. So -- and we have now hedges up until year-end '26 and nothing beyond that as we speak.

Jenny Sandstrom

executive
#25

And the final question then, how do you see the short- and long-term position and strategy for Orron?

Daniel Fitzgerald

executive
#26

Yes. I think short-term, we've laid out the key themes for the business. So Cloudberry transaction, we need to close that transaction, which we expect within Q3, integrate the businesses and then support the growth of Cloudberry as an active shareholder. Karskruv is delivering as it should, as expected. The greenfield business really is a big focus for the second half of this year. We've built a fantastic platform, and we now need to see the value delivery out of that platform, which is coming with a range of projects in the market and a range of projects maturing. And then we see the outcome of the Sudan trial at the end of this year. So next 6 months to 12 months is really, really key around Cloudberry, greenfield development, and Sudan. And then we'll come back to the market later on with the direction for growth and continued growth. We're active in a lot of markets. We're active on the M&A space. And I think you've seen that in our history that we continue to find very accretive things to do for shareholders. And so we will continue down that pathway with all of the key pillars of our business.

Jenny Sandstrom

executive
#27

Thank you very much. If there are no further questions, I would like to thank everyone for joining us today. And you know where to find us in case there's something that comes up or something comes to mind. Any questions afterwards, you feel free to reach out, and we're more than happy to answer. So have a lovely afternoon, everyone, and great summer ahead.

Daniel Fitzgerald

executive
#28

Thank you very much.

Espen Hennie

executive
#29

Thank you.

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