Rubis (RUI) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Foreign Language] [Operator Instructions] I will now hand over to Jacques Riou, who is Managing Partner, to start off this conference.

Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon, hello, and thank you for taking the time out of your very busy schedules to be with us for this afternoon. We are here to talk about our business and our results for the first half of 2021. I would just like to start off by focusing on a few key highlights of this first half. I'm sure that you are all familiar with the expression that's been going around that we are getting back to normal. We're on the road to recovery and that we have excellent profit per unit levels. And contrary to what could be expected, this is actually a fantastic result, given the conditions that we have been operating in. And those conditions below, we have seen an increase in oil prices, very strong increase. I'm sure that you all remember that in terms of our distribution business, now, obviously, there is exploration and production as well. In terms of distribution, the increase in oil prices will have to have an impact on our end users, but while still ensuring that we have sound margins. So this is something that we see throughout all of our business. And we're also facing headwinds elsewhere, especially in terms of COVID. Now it may seem perfectly self-explanatory, but in the first half of 2021, we have been facing considerable pressure coming from the COVID crisis in our respective countries, in Europe, in Portugal, for example, also in the Caribbean area. A lot of the island states found themselves completely cut off from the rest of the world, like our business in Jamaica, Africa as well and the rest of Eastern Africa, where we have business there. So that had a major impact on the 2 quarters of this first half of the year, whereas last year, it was only the second quarter that was most hard hit by COVID. The first semester -- first quarter was fairly normal for 2020. So what does the road to recovery look like for us? Well, it looks it would be a year where we are like 2019 levels. And it would be getting back to our record profit levels for 2019. And the first word that comes to mind is resilience. It's been resilient in facing up against external shocks from -- coming from the various crisis -- economic crisis. And this is something that we have been growing for many years now, and we've been able to show it in these recent years. So we have been able to increase business despite hardship. And the reason for that is because we have a few fundamentals in place. We have quality markets that we have selected, and we have business in those quality markets. We tend to have a leader position in those markets, thanks to a number of key assets. We also have a strong balance between a large number of markets, geographic areas that are quite different. And we also have a wide variety of customers and clients. And all of that makes one of our major strengths. And I would say that the main reason why we are so resilient is because we have top quality managers who manage each of our different businesses. They are leading professionals in their sectors. And within our organization, they have a large blend of autonomy and responsibilities. They can take so many decisions on their own, which means that our group as a whole can be highly reactive to changing situations. And the teams working under our managers are also high-quality, top-quality teams. Also following the strategy for a decarboned (sic) decarbonized operations, which we presented at our general assembly last year, we have also carried out a number of major leaps and bounds forward in various areas. For example, we have invested in Hydrogène de France, Hydrogen de France, just recently, and it is well disclosed. That partnership is about making them one of the largest secondary shareholders at 20%, and they are a specialist in hydrogen, which is a market with considerable potential. And their specific tack is that they want to produce green electricity, which is constant electricity. And they also operate in industrial battery packs, and they have a Canadian patent for their battery modules and fuel cells in particular. We also have an agreement with the teams there to say that we will be a priority client when we wish to invest in the different projects that they want to run. And these projects are run by Hydrogène de France when it comes to green electricity production, non-intermittent electricity production. And they would be using hydrogen, obviously, to produce that electricity. They have a EUR 1 billion pipeline. So therefore, we feel that we have some good prospects for we -- us as a group, but also for us working with them at Hydrogène de France. Also in terms of CSR, we published our road map, 2022-2025 roadmap. We also signed on to the United Nations Global Compact, and we became a member of that, which was a major milestone for us. So what we can see is that CSR is well structured within the group and is highly organized, and it's a strongly proactive-type approach. It is something that we can see carried forward by all the employees throughout the group. And the last point, you obviously remember that we committed to go forward with a share buyback program that we started last December, and we have carried out a first tranche. And then we have also kicked off just in this second half the second tranche of the share buyback program. Moving on to a few key figures, and we'll give you more details a little later. In terms of volumes, 2.65 million cubic meters of volumes are up 7%. Also compared to pre-COVID levels, we are up 2% and down 6% on a constant scope basis because obviously, as you are fully aware, there was a number of investments carried out, for example, in Eastern Europe -- sorry, in Eastern Africa, not Eastern Europe, Eastern Africa, predominantly in Kenya. So we can see there's a change in volumes there. And we have, for example, strong bitumen growth, strong resilient market with LPG and, obviously, very clear reasons there because there has been aviation impact there at 56% of pre-COVID level. So there's been a bit of a drop there, and I'm sure we can all understand why. In terms of unit margins, now EUR 122. That's up 2%. Again, that's despite an increase in oil byproduct price increases. But obviously, plus 5%, that's excluding East Africa because East Africa is a recent acquisition for us. And so strong booming -- boom there, but it's also being restructured. EBIT, EUR 188 million, up 10%. That's down 12% compared to pre-COVID levels. Now I think that's a good reflection of the current times. And what it shows is that, that is exactly where we are. We are between those 2 levels of business. For net income group share, it's down 2% on reported. In 2020, just as a quick reminder, there was a Rubis Terminal in joint venture, which came into effect there, which actually changed those -- had an impact on those figures for us, which means that if we just look at these figures as they stand, it's hard to actually compare the proper -- to compare them properly. But the Rubis Terminal, if we exclude that, it's up 33% of the underlying, which is down 11% on 2019. So again, we see that we're in the middle there, and I think it shows exactly where the business lies today. Now just one point I would like to highlight, which I feel is very important in -- is EUR 238 million in terms of cash flow, which is a considerable increase on 2020 and also up on 2019. What that shows is that just shows how top quality our performance and our results are here because it shows that we are up not only on our highest year on record 2019, but also compared to last year, such a strong cash flow position. So as we move on to our different businesses, I'll hand over to Bruno Krief to touch on the second part of our conference.

So we are going to look at operations within Rubis Énergie. It's organized in 2 areas: retail and marketing on the one hand, and the other areas, support and services. So let's first look at retail and marketing. I think that this is a perfect illustration, this truck, which is carrying gas tanks in Portugal, our subsidiary Rubis Gas. These are P35s. There's 35-kilo cylinders as well as the traditional 12-kilo cylinders. But aside from cylinders, we also deliver bulk of gas. That's the B2C area. We do direct sales. We also sell fuels for aviation, power plants. We sell LPG, lubricants and bitumen. And so let's drill down into the details. So firstly, let's take a look back at this second -- this -- the last half. Volumes picked back up, as you can see -- on the left-hand side of the graph, you see regular increase or picking up since the second quarter of 2020. So we inched our way back up from minus 31% to minus 14%, minus 12% to minus 6% and second quarter 2021, 24%. So you see that we are back on track. We're recovering well. Also we can note that the overall stringency that we have been exposed to has increased. And it is the Oxford organization that applies this to the basket of operations of the group across our 41 countries. So what you see here, when you compare 48 for H1 2020 to the same for H1 2021, you see that the overall stringency index has increased. It is higher. Next table. What you have here is the split in volumes, the breakdown in our volumes. You see that our volumes have shown resilience, especially in the 2 main areas, LPG and service stations, petrol sales in service stations. Overall, these 2 segments account for 70%, 7-0 percent, of our overall gross margin, down only 4% against 2019, which was pre-COVID. So you see that there is resilience here, and we see plus 2% compared to 2020 for LPG and plus 15% for service stations. So bitumen accounts for 12% of our gross margin, 10% of volumes growth there, recorded an increase of 60% -- 50% compared to 2019, so no impact from COVID. Let's end with aviation fuel, 5% of our sales or margin, so weighing in less than other products, 7% in terms of volumes. There was quite an impact from the pandemic since there is an almost 60% drop as compared to pre-COVID times 2019. So today for this quarter, I would say that we're doing a little bit better. And I think we're around minus 35% more or less, so on the mend. So overall, we have minus 6% against 2019 and plus 7% against 2020. So I'm going to tell you a little more about our 3 main geographical areas, Europe, Caribbean, Africa. In Europe, as you know, LPG is, in and of itself, not highly impacted by the pandemic. It has shown good resilience. It has stood up very well, despite the lockdowns. And in Europe, LPG accounts for about 90% of our profit margin. So Europe did very well, performed very well in this environment. Aviation, obviously, a very small proportion for this continent. So on the right, you see our EBIT, EUR 30 million for this half -- EUR 38 million, almost at the same level as before COVID, EUR 39 million. So you see that Europe really did not suffer much of an impact and withstood the pandemic quite well. Here's the breakdown for the Caribbean. They're, again, a big major geography for our group. There are 3 factors that really impacted our results. A, comment -- we've seen 2 -- we are talking about the Caribbean region, and we now have this right slide for the Caribbean. So 3 factors that explain the growth or the trend in our operations in that area. First of all, COVID, the pandemic, the region is a big tourist destination, big region, obviously, for aviation; and also the situation in Haiti, which has weathered a number of social, political, economic crises that really came to -- ahead over the past -- during the past few months, having a great impact on our earnings and price levels. We're really waiting for a reset in Haiti with a new political agenda. And international donors, organizations and the U.S. may refresh their stats and completely change their attitude and support to the island. So we're waiting to see what's going to happen. Our unit profit in the island -- our unit margin was hit as a result of increased sales prices -- increased prices, but that effect came with a certain lag. Service stations don't all sell the same products. And so some of them may take 2 or 3 months to pass on that price increase to consumers. So we'll only see the true effect within 2 or 3 months. So here, you have our EBIT, which is EUR 33 million, down from the EUR 49 million first half 2020, but slightly up compared to the first half of 2021. Africa. Africa showed good performance in terms of EBIT with an increase of 64%. There are really 3 drivers here. The bitumen business did very well in terms of volumes, in terms of margin. There are a number of infrastructure projects that have started up. And Rubis and its teams were able to gain market shares and gain a foothold in new geographies, and I'm referring to Western Africa. Eastern Africa, well, we have -- we started operations there in 2019. We have Kenya and surrounding countries. That's a catchment area of 200 million people. And operations have been reorganized, and we are seeing the first positive effects also been investments in rebranding stations, et cetera. And so results are starting to come in. We have La Rénion Island, its contribution is on the rise. Same for the Indian Ocean as a whole and Madagascar. All that area suffered the effects on -- in terms of their stocks in 2020 with the price effect in 2020. The impact was negative in 2020, and we are now starting to see normal results emerge once again from that region. So that was the geographical breakdown. So let's recap quickly. This is a useful table. EBIT, EUR 146 million. That's for the retail and marketing part, plus 7% against 2020, but minus 17% as against 2019. In -- for Europe, we have EUR 38 million. We're almost back to 2019 levels, minus 2% only, despite the pandemic. Caribbean region, the larger Caribbean region, as we just mentioned, we see quite a downslide against 2019. But it's important to note that this decline is a decline when compared with 1919 (sic) [ 2019 ], which was a record year. Africa, plus 9% against 2019, so we did better than before the pandemic in terms of the contribution of Africa to our overall figures. We can move on to Rubis Support and Services. And here, you have an illustration of the contribution of the various sectors. Refinery, through our refineries in Caribbean, EUR 14 million. That's approximately 1/4 of our profit. Here we have a price and profitability mechanism where you have regulated pricing. There's also shipping, both in the Caribbean and in the bitumen sector, nice increase, plus 80% and plus almost 80%, respectively, for trading on the one hand and shipping and bitumen trading, thanks to an increase in volumes and also an increase in trading and shipping activities, thanks to the development of the downstream segment. We also own in the Indian Ocean, Madagascar and other countries. So we own storage facilities and pipeline management operations, stable contribution here compared to last year with EUR 6 million. So Support and Services overall generated an EBIT of EUR 61 million that is up by 21%. So just a word on Rubis Terminal, as you know, this is a business line, which is a joint venture. We do storage in 4 countries, France, Netherlands, Arab zone and Turkey, Spain with an acquisition made last year. It was a successful industrial and commercial integration. And the contribution of that acquisition to our revenue is very positive, accounting for about 1/3 of our earnings. On this graph here, you see our revenue and our EBITDA. So plus 4% over this half as against 2019 on a like-for-like basis and 38% -- close to 40%, with Tepsa integrated. Remember, that's about a 30% additional contribution. Free cash flow is on the same trend, plus 5% and plus 41% respectively, so pro forma and like-for-like. So cash flow generation, which really provides its value to this JV. Now our income statement. So in summary, I would say that there's nothing much to say on -- about revenues since -- for Rubis, which operates in distribution. It's not the best indicator because we bear the brunt of volatility in barrel prices. We saw that EBIT was on the rise by 10% as compared to 2020, but down 12% when compared to 2019. You also have the share here of Rubis Terminal. That's a contribution to our net income. 57% is our stake in the JV, so down from EUR 2.6 million to EUR 1.2 million. But there are noncash items here, which have brought down the net income, including goodwill depreciation related to the Tepsa acquisition. So these are charges that are in the books, and they do have a cash effect -- or rather they do not have a cash effect. You also have the financial leverage mechanism that was set up when organizing the JV with an impact on our financial expenditures. And that also explains why our income is down. In terms of our tax rate, it moved down from 39% to 18%. I would say that, that's more or less normal for the group, and it's logical compared to the countries we're in, the geographies and the activities such as shipping, trading. In France, the rate of tax has moved down, is now lower. Also last year, the tax rate was artificially high since our income incorporated an impairment as related to Haiti, but that impairment was not tax deductible. So that is why our tax rate was artificially high in 2020. Now at 18%, I would say that, that's a standard rate of corporate tax across our group. Interesting to note, the adjusted net income from continuing operations, that's the last line, so excluding Rubis Terminal. In 2020, you will remember, we deconsolidated Rubis Terminal, so that had an impact on our books. And when you look at a constant scope of integration and also take into account the nonrecurring events, what you see is a growth of 33%, EUR 132 million for that same scope as compared to 2020. But that is still lower than what we were recording in 2019, EUR 148 million, but we are edging closer. And that's why we would say there's a return to normal as it were. Because quarter after quarter, we're seeing our performance and our income increasing. So we should be back to normal after all the conditions normalize and once COVID restrictions are fully -- have fully been eased. I think we need to move back, cash flow. So on this table, we have 4 things really that stand out. Operating cash flow before adjusting for Rubis Terminal, well, you see our -- so before the change in working capital, EUR 238 million. So you have -- that's really an acid test for the -- for our cash improvement compared to 2020, but we're even up by 8% as compared to 2019. So obviously, between 2019 and 2021, there were some big differences in terms of our earnings. But at cash flow level, the figures are just as good and, in fact, better. So cash flow variation, obviously, you have working capital requirements, which are an important parameter. But you see that between H1 2020 and H1 2021, there was a quite big swing, EUR 130 million of cash that was generated via lower [ oil ] prices. But in 2021, plus EUR 100 million -- or rather EUR 178 million cash spent on different items. So overall, on average, on the medium term, I would say that the variations cancel each other out. So variations in working capital requiring cancel each other. But between 2020 and 2021, there were some very significant swings, quite unprecedented, so minus 30% and plus 40%. And obviously, that explains huge cash variations in our balance sheet. In terms of the share buyback program that was kicked off at the last 4 months of last year and was implemented and set up, it represents roughly EUR 104 million. That was the first tranche. And then the second tranche, July to November of this year. So there's a maximum of EUR 60 million by November. In terms of the effect coming from net debt, so taking into account all of this, net debt is around EUR 398 million, so roughly EUR 400 million, which is quite modest, given the change in EBITDA over the past few months. So I would say that the group is still fully able to take on new businesses, to acquire other businesses. When you look in the past, we had a 1.7 net debt ratio to EBITDA ratio. So you can see that we've got quite strong ability to take on more debt without reaching debt levels that would be too high. So there you have an overview of both the industrial side and the financial side of our business. Maybe I'll now hand over to Clarisse.

Hello. My name is Clarisse Gobin-Swiecznik, and I'll be here to tell you all about our Corporate Social Responsibility policy for Rubis Group. It is a fundamental driver for our group, given the fact that the world is changing. So who am I? Well, I've been in the company for the past 10 years now. I was in charge of development for the 2 major subsidiaries, for Rubis Terminal for 7 years and then Rubis Énergie for about 2 years now. I joined central management in 2019. And I am Managing Director in charge of CSR, investment in renewable energies and communication. So before going into the details of the presentation, I would just like to give you a bit of a reminder as to what has happened so far in 2021 in terms of CSR. 2021 was quite a fantastic year in terms of CSR. We had our first roadmap for 2022-2025. It was published just last Monday. We also joined the UN Global Compact back in August. It was also an opportunity for us to build up our teams for renewable energies and climate within Rubis Énergie. It's also the first time we've been able to invest in renewable energies with Hydrogène de France. And we also kicked off back in July a consultancy program to draft new programs for decarbonizing our operations. So now let's look at our first CSR roadmap, which, for us in terms of strategy, it's important for both us and for you. This first roadmap is our ability to be able to drive CSR policies seeking progress. There are 3 main areas: the planet, people and value creation. We can also, thanks to this, better communicate with stakeholders as to what we are doing. We actually have indicators, 18 indicators to measure what we are doing. First and foremost, we want to reduce our carbon impact by diversifying our businesses and to provide customers with more low-carbon solutions and to also reduce any accidents that may occur because of that. So we also have more information on this next slide. So this is the roadmap, but please do go and read it on our website. Back in 2021, we gave a target of minus 20% of CO2 emissions for scopes 1 and 2 by 2030. But on top of that, in 2022, we will set an objective to reduce emissions for scope 3A. So this is everything for outsourced transport, excluding the sold products. And in 2023, we would use an internal carbon price to be able to help drive and better manage investments and costs. Talking about the diversity within our staff, training and security, sorry, just come back to this page here. To give you a key example, the group says that it will have at least 30% of women in managerial positions by 2025 for Rubis Énergie. But also, it will increase training for all diversity matters. So 100% of all CEOs and HR directors will have specific training on how to fight against prejudice. Now moving on to the third final column, it's about operating with integrity because it's about acting with integrity, but also about communicating with those people in countries wherever we have business by communicating more about all of our societal-type activities. So for that, by 2023, 100% of all employees will be trained up as to ethical and anticorruption practices. And as of 2023, we will have systematic consideration of CSR criteria when selecting suppliers and service providers for the most significant capital expenditures. So this is a roadmap for the 4 years -- next 4 years, and we will give you regular updates with key figures on that. And as of 2025, we will renew our roadmap with new indicators. As we said earlier, Rubis is currently a member of the Global Compact by the United Nations, and this is a continuation of all activity that the group has been doing for some years now, respect of human rights, fighting against corruption and also any initiative to better protect the environment. And of the 17 social -- sustainable development goals by the United Nations, we are continuing to focus on 8 of them: access to energy for as many people as possible, implementing the HSE standards, focusing on diversity, sharing of wealth and anticorruption. I would now like to quickly focus on the climate. First and foremost, we'll focus on the climate organization, the committee that we have. We have focused more on CSR and climate for the past 2 years now by having more and more people devoted to that. In 2019, we set up the committee and it's a perfect gender balance with 3 men, 3 women, and they meet 4 times a year to outline the group's climate strategy. They come up with monthly reports -- or they're given monthly reports so that the committee can take stock of progress that is being made. We have the support of 3 main divisions within the group, and they are also part of the committee, support from finance, HSE and technical and operations. The main missions of this committee focus on 3 key areas. They have to monitor, reduce and compensate. So they have to find ways of measuring the overall carbon footprint, which was first done last year and is done every year. Reducing means reducing emissions by implementing specific programs and by diversifying into more low-carbon energy sources. And when you can no longer reduce emissions, we will seek to offset and compensate for that. So on this slide here, you have an overview of all of the major action plans that we have put in place for the past few years to give our customers more carbon-free or low-carbon solutions. First and foremost, we want to talk about biofuels. This is specifically for our individual private customers. This is something that we've been doing since 2020, which is HVO, which is a -- it's a man-made type fuel, it's synthetic fuel. And sales have doubled in just a year, going up to about 500 cubic meters on average, which is quite a considerable change there. LPG for us is a major fuel to help the energy transition in Africa and also in Madagascar, Haiti, East Africa, Southern Africa as well. This is a very interesting fuel, especially because it is a way of replacing coal and wood fuel. And it also helps tackle deforestation and mortality rates with women and young children. It represents roughly about 50% of all LPG sales. Moving on to business-to-business. In Africa, a lot of businesses in industrial sites are wanting to transform their sites into low-carbon or low-CO2 emitting sites by having LPG or hybrid solar systems. We transform roughly 950 tonnes per year. Continuing on with what we're doing, as Jacques said in his introduction, we have a climate strategy, which focuses on investing in new energies as a way of adding to our more traditional businesses. So we have a partnership with Hydrogène de France, Hydrogen de France, which is a way for us as a group to have production and sale of renewable electricity, which is specifically important for the areas where we have business. Now I won't go over to what Jacques has already said, but what I can say, in addition, is that CEOG, which is one of our major long-term programs in the West of Guyana, it has received all of the authorizations from the local authorities, and we are hopefully going to be able to give you some fantastic news in the very near future. So as part of the introduction, I said that we have kicked off a consultancy program to seek more carbon-free solutions. Now what this means is that we want to set up a carbon curve for 2035 for all scopes, 1, 2 and 3A. And we also want to ensure that we have the right levels of investment to be able to achieve our goals. So we have a decarbonization plan that we will be able to announce in 2022. At the same time, we have also kicked off our first decarbonization plans such as alternative fuels within our different fleets. We have, like, Rubis in Caribbean, which has just signed off on a few agreements to completely over-change all of its -- the fueling of its ships, and it is also beneficial for its light and heavy shipping. We have also been able to continue to work with all of our service stations and networks in Madagascar, the Channel Islands, Barbados and soon in Portugal. To conclude, end of 2021, the CDPA (sic) [ CDP ] will issue its scoring for Rubis, which would give us a good understanding of whether we are on track for our decarbonization programs. And this is all part of us and our ability to be more transparent with all of our stakeholders. Thank you very much. And I'll now hand over back to Jacques.

Clarisse, thank you very much. Bruno, thank you very much. As you can see, these are such important topics for the CSR. CSR is very much proactive when it comes to CSR. And what's really exciting to see is that this is something that all of our staff are really onboard with. Obviously, I won't go back over all of our financial results over the first half, but what I would like to say is that for the future, we are very well set. In Africa, we have growth that, as you have seen, is quite strong. Also given what is happening in the Caribbean area, dealing with a number of external shocks, there is a quite limited impact coming from there. But it is nothing to do with our own strategy. So the issues we're facing there are external. So we have considerable growth drivers. And for those growth drivers -- so these are areas that -- from an operational side, this is areas of the business that have been able to prove time and time again that they are able to grow. For example, we have seen a fantastic return of some countries who were somewhat penalized in the past because of political reasons or because of the COVID crisis. And here, I'm talking about countries, specifically in the Caribbean area. So these are countries who will be able to get back up on their feet and push forward into the future. Bitumen as well, some interesting perspectives there because we can see that we have been able to extend our business throughout Africa with greater coverage. LPG. LPG is a transition energy. It's a form of fuel that we sell in the -- nearly all areas where we have business. And it has seen some fantastic performance and is high profitability levels. Another main growth driver is in Eastern Africa. Eastern Africa is an area where we can -- have only started to invest just recently, and it is constantly growing, and it's growing quite fast. So I think it's a perfect opportunity for us to focus on East Africa now. So we have its General Manager here with us today in Paris. So what better opportunity than to have him present Eastern Africa to you and to give us more insight into the business we have there. Remember, we started investing there in 2019. Now for those of us who are very familiar with this, you would probably say, look, Africa is not an island, and we know what Rubis is like -- that Eastern Africa, it's not an island. But that said, we still feel that it's a very interesting area. There is a strong population base in there, 200 million people there. It's a large percentage of the African population. And correctly speaking, this is an area that has been considering -- has seen high growth, with roughly 5% to 7% of GDP growth for the time being. Also population growth, which is quite considerable at 2% to 3% annually. So these are sound drivers for our business to properly grow in the area. So having invested in Eastern Africa, that has given us other benefits. For example, more or less 400 stations out of group, which is a considerable advantage to our portfolio, which has roughly 1,000 stations to its name so far. Just very quickly before I hand over. On the right-hand side, you have a graph there. It shows that the main leaders are Vivo Energy and Total with roughly 20% of market share each, and we have around 10%. So what that means is that this is just a starting block for us. And those leaders, that's where we want to end up. So the road is clear. We know where we're headed, and we know what our goal is. So again, we are just still in the early days. We're just getting the motor revving, but I think that the road ahead is an interesting road ahead for us. I'll now hand over to Jean-Christian Bergeron to present us with Eastern Africa. And again, he is General Manager for Rubis Énergie East Africa, and he's got a lot of experience in the area. And he is in charge of this Eastern Africa section.

Thank you very much for this introduction. And I will be speaking English. Speaking to participants. So thank you, Jacques. Once again, I'm very pleased to be here with you today. It's a very exciting journey that we started in 2019 when we bought 2 companies, KenolKobil and Gulf. As you said, we are at the beginning of the journey, and we are very confident that we are going to deliver the expected results and most likely a bit more. Maybe a few words to introduce myself. I spent 28 years in Total, now Total Energies. You can imagine, it's quite a long journey with Total, mainly in downstream. Adding many things, as you can imagine, in 28 years, be it in Europe or outside Europe. I had experience in Africa, in Asia, in Middle East and also a strong experience in retail. I used to manage the entire retail business for Total. So I think it has given me the exposure and the knowledge of the retail business. And as a matter of fact, in East Africa, we have great challenges in terms of bringing the retail network to the level that we expect as Rubis in terms of the business, in terms of standards. So I joined Rubis in 2019 when the management of Rubis came to me with this nice and exciting project. You can imagine the decision was not so easy. But I can tell you that, today, I'm so glad and so happy that I took the decision, and I'm very excited and happy about the job that we are doing in East Africa. So maybe instead of presenting you with a couple of slides, the business we have in East Africa, I thought a short video could help you better to understand what we are doing. So I suggest that we start with that video presenting our activities in East Africa. [Presentation]

So I get that video gave you a flavor of what we are doing and the journey that has started in East Africa. Maybe a key information that we need to be aware of, the situation of the companies that we bought in 2019, that will explain you why we need to obviously invest. And we can imagine that it will take a bit of time for all the fruits to be seen. But at the same time, it's giving you a fair idea about the potential of that investment that we did in East Africa. The company we bought, KenolKobil, there was very few investment over the last 10 years. And if you know a bit about retail, you should be aware that investment is key to sustain the performance. So we have a unique opportunity. But obviously, we need to rebrand. We need to renovate also all the gas stations we have. And as you have understood, we have more than 400 gas station. And also, obviously, by joining Rubis, we are bringing to these companies more compliance, safety policies, and we are also giving more customer focus. So all that together gives us a lot of opportunity in order to create more value for the Rubis Group. The journey has started, as I said before, and we have now more than 125 station that are fully renovated. They are -- meaning that they shifted from Kenol or Kobil or Gulf to Rubis. So it's 125. You need to understand that at the beginning, obviously, it took a bit of time because you need to find the contractors, you need to find the people who can do the job. Now we are well on our way, and we are rebranding between 10 to 15 sites every month. That's why we are targeting end of 2022 to complete the rebranding process. So it's a significant investment. You need to rebrand. But as I said before, you need also to bring the service stations to our standards. So it mean that we need also to invest a bit in the forecourt. There's a bit of civil works. You need to renovate some buildings. Sometimes you have to completely refurbish the service station, meaning that you may have to knock down and rebuild completely the station. So we have an investment that can be from $80,000 (sic) [ EUR 80,000 ] per site till EUR 250,000 and sometimes even more. But because of what you can see on the left-hand side of the slide, the results are extremely promising. You can see the average throughput, meaning what we sell every month in a non-Rubis branded site, you can see 85,000 liters per month. And for the sites which have become Rubis already, we are now selling close to 250,000 liters. So it's a very significant improvement. I can tell you from my experience, it's quite an amazing success. So obviously, we need to continue and not relax too much because every day is a new beginning, is a new start, but we are very confident. And you can see maybe what is most important, I would say, we are now catching up vis-à-vis competition because when you look at the top 3 guys, their average throughput per month is now very close to what Rubis is doing today. And you know that it's a long process. And the results we have today are results after 1 year, 18 months. And we hope, we expect that the sales in our Rubis sites will continue to grow. So it's very promising, and that is the reason why despite the investment that we are doing, we expect so far to have a return of investment below 3 years. So as I said, by end of 2022, the program will be completed, together with the solarization program. So we started. We have a couple of sites now which have been solarized, and we have also the plan to complete the full solarization of our sites by 2023, 2024. In addition to the heavy investment that we are doing to refurbish, renovate, bring the existing retail outlet network to our standards, we continue to grow because obviously, there are new roads, new infrastructure developments. So we need also to support that growth, and we plan to add 10 to 15 new service station per year. In 2021, we are already at 10. So most likely for 2021, we will be in a position to increase our footprint by more than 15 gas station. We discussed at the beginning of the presentation about the market share. Today, the market share for retail is 11.5%. The market share that Jacques gave you was for the entire business. But for retail only, it's 11.5%, and we are targeting to reach 20% market share by 2024. So it's ambitious. But in the meantime, when you look at the results, when you look at the positive impact of the Rubis brand, we are very confident that these numbers will be achieved. We are not only rebranding. It's very key that we also give our customers a reason to believe, a reason to come to our sites. And definitely, we have chosen to be very convenient, close to our customers. We are trying to become more innovative. And obviously, we give more focus to the customer care, to the quality of the welcoming behavior of our staff at the forecourt. So convenience mean more shops. It is interesting to notice that at the beginning, they were no shops in the retail business we acquired. So we started that journey from 0 shop in January 2020. Today, we have 30 shops. We plan 50 by the end of the year, and the target is to have at least 50% of our sites with a shop, a convenience store by the end of 2022. We're also developing a partnership with key brands in East Africa because that is part also of the convenience offering that we want to give to our customers. When it comes to innovation, you could see in the short video that we introduced a Rubis app that gives a lot of also convenience to our customer. They can pay. They can get their LPG on delivered. There are many opportunities of being more convenient to our customers. Today, we have more than 25,000 downloads. We have more than 5,000 transactions every month. It's something that is picking up quite rapidly, and we are very hopeful that it will support the growth of the business. And it will also give the company a nice and positive image in terms of how innovative we are. Innovation is also the way we manage our site, automation of our sites. And obviously, customer care, it's also key, and that's why we have launched a mystery shopper program. And you can see that the Rubis sites are already overperforming the market and especially our main competitors. That shows that there is definitely a very nice acceptance, positive acceptance from the market about the Rubis brand. So we need to continue to deliver the expectations our customers have today in order to continue to grow, but we are very confident that the strategy we have for retail is giving the expected results. We are talking a lot about retail. But obviously, we have a full-fledged strategy that I'm sharing with you on that slide. So to make it short, the key pillars of our strategy is to become the preferred brand. We have KPIs in order to assess that we are becoming, by end of 2024, the preferred brand. And you saw in different slides before that we are fighting against big names, which are good, which are excellent. So our challenge is to be able to become the preferred brand. We want to be a company, a nice place to work, and it's a key, I would say, a commitment from my side because when you bought different companies, you can imagine that people have a different background. You can imagine because these 2 companies were local companies, that the way the people were managed is not exactly the same way that we want. As an international company, responsible company, we want to manage our people. So there's a strong focus in order to become a great place to work, and we have also some commitments, some KPIs to make sure that we are heading towards that. I already said, we want to be very innovative. And we have, for instance, one KPI, I would target that by 2024, we should be able to do at least 20% of our sales through some digital channels. So it can be the app, it can be Internet. And most likely, tomorrow, there will be another channel. But we need to take that way in order to make sure that we can stay a sustainable company, which is our fourth pillars. Being sustainable is obviously safety. Today, we are monitoring our TRIR, which obviously was not done in the past. We have a TRIR of 1. We are targeting 0.8 by the end of the year, 0.5 in 2022. And we want to make sure that nobody is getting hurt while working for Rubis. We want also -- but it was largely discussed before, we want to reduce our carbon footprint. So you saw some solarization. We are also targeting to introduce some biofuels hopefully in 2023 in Kenya. We are working on it. We'll see what will be done. And obviously, we know that to be sustainable, we need also to deliver the expected profitability to our shareholders. So we are working towards that. And once again, my main takeaway message is be confident we are going to deliver this profitability and these returns very soon. Maybe as a conclusion, I would say that we are midway. We started in 2019. 2020, obviously, we had to cope with the COVID, which was not helping us a lot. And in the meantime, it was also important to set up all the processes, review the management of the company, change of the people, bring new talents from other companies, et cetera. So we did that. We started also the rebranding program by mid-2020. So you have to understand that it takes a bit of time, and now we are full speed. So we are midway from our journey to deliver the results by 2024. We are midway. And now we can see that the strategy we are implementing is bringing what we can expect and even sometimes more in term of results. We are also looking at some additional opportunities. So it's not only looking at some possible acquisition of very targeted companies. We don't really need to grow. We need to optimize what we have today. But obviously, because the market is extremely fast in the way people are looking at how they can enter the market or exit the market, there will be a lot of opportunities. So we will be looking at these opportunities carefully but without any rush because, as I said, the main focus today is to obviously consolidate the assets that we have. And there are 2 topics also that we are looking at. It's obviously LPG. It's an extremely growing -- faster growing market. Today, the market in East Africa is maybe 400,000 tonnes, and we expect the market to double in the next 5 to 10 years, so we'll see. But it will give us a lot of opportunities. LPG is an energy -- transition energy, so it's also consistent with our global policies. So we are very hopeful that we can grow our business. And because you saw that bitumen is a key business for Rubis, and we don't have so far bitumen activities in East Africa. We are working closely with the bitumen teams in order to see how we can enter the business and bring more value also to the group by adding that business line, which we discussed it before, is quite profitable. So that is, I would say, the road map. Once again, we are very committed, very excited about the journey. I think the team is excellent. I think we picked the best guys in East Africa. So now we have the right team. We have the right financial support for the group in order to be able to invest and deliver the road map. So we start seeing the results. And I can assure you that in the 2, 3 years to come, the results of East Africa will be a great contributor to the results of the group. Thank you.

Thank you very much for the presentation. It's fantastic to see all that's happening in Eastern Africa, and we're quite excited to see what is already underway. I'm sure that you have all seen through what was presented and also in the videos that we have really top-quality sales points throughout the region, and that really helps drive our brand recognition because we've only been in the area for a short time now. But really, we're having really good feedback from customers, and our brand recognition is very much on the rise. We have been able to really carve out our position in the local market. I would now like to open up to Q&A and feel free to ask any questions, and we are here to answer.

[Operator Instructions] We have the first question from Mr. Mourad.

I actually had 3, maybe 4 more technical question. First up on Haiti, can you please give us the EBITDA level for Haiti in the first half of 2021 and what you're expecting for full year 2021? And then on the volume split for regulated and nonregulated markets, what are your levels there? And there's also a bit of an offset impact from the -- impact being felt in the Caribbean region. Are you expecting to see the same impact in African markets, for example, in Kenya? My third point is on Rubis Terminal. From what I gather on Rubis Terminal, you're roughly EUR 2 million, EUR 3 million or EUR 75 million before being sold off. So what are -- what charges are you going to have to face between EBIT and net profit? Is EUR 2 million the level that you're looking at? Is that what you're expecting? And then the operating cost or the overhead costs, can you just talk me through the overheads?

Well, let's start off by answering that last question. Yes, you obviously saw that there was a rise in overheads, which is due predominantly to the fact that we have the incentive program, which is for our employees. So that is actually booked within the holding accounts. Obviously, there are different subsidiary impacts that come in there, but that's a different story. So yes, the figure there is up by EUR 7 million compared to last year. So that is what I could give you there as an answer to explain why there is that gap there because the holding change is all on that specific line. What was the third question?

Rubis Terminal. Rubis Terminal, the new structure of the financials of Rubis Terminal. Yes, it is quite normal. It's what we want to set in. Just tell us a bit about that.

So yes, you have the overall financial structure, which it is an LBO. So 5.5x EBITDA, EUR 600 million in debt currently on the income statement. So that debt level will -- it reflects the bonds that were raised. Now obviously, it will be paid back ultimately. But what you have here for the first half is 6 full months of debt level at that level, which is an interest rate at roughly 5%. And that's compared to only 1 month of debt level for the same period 2020. So that needs to be taken into account. This is a recurrent item for our books in the future. And in terms of half -- this half of net results, we have the PPA, which is the goodwill -- which is the purchase price allocation for goodwill, which is something that comes into effect because of what we're seeing in Spain and also what we're seeing in Rubis Terminal back in 2020. But all of the -- these effects really came in and was felt in February. So what we need to take into account here is that you have amortization of roughly EUR 7 million of amortization that came and hindered or dropped those overall results. Now it will come back in the future because this is a 5- to 10-year amortization process. But what we must bear in mind is that here, this is an acquisition. It's an acquisition that came to leverage debt -- high levels of debt. Our own equity, which was when compared to levels -- to that level of debt and also reimbursement schedule, which is going to help generate free cash flow, both before interest, investment -- sorry, which is really what is -- what we used to calculate the impact that will have on our investors. So here, when we're talking about generating free cash flow, when compared to the investment brought in from new investors like Rubis and its partners, you have a cash return, which we calculate at roughly 10%. And I think that's the important figure to bear in mind, more so than the net profit as such. I hope you understood me, and I hope that answers your question. So that was for Rubis Terminal, yes. Now what was the second question?

Well, there was the first question on Haiti and EBITDA effect.

So Haiti had a record level of EBITDA generation in 2019, EUR 45 million roughly. 2020, well, we saw the first effects of COVID on business. And also, we had the nonapplication of structured pricing because of the previous government's influence there, because the previous government didn't actually consult with the oil industry actors there. And that brought about a drop of roughly 25% of EBITDA in the area. And I'm sure you remember that last year, we actually had a loss in value for the business in Haiti, so minus 25% roughly. Now when we're looking at 2021, the first half of 2021, we have EUR 10 million less EBITDA generation compared to last year, and that's where we currently stand. Is it satisfactory? Well, given the challenging climate we're in, because the reason it's satisfactory is because we have strong volumes. We can still bear another drop in the current climate, but we have supplies. We can continue to provide customers. We have demand in the country, that's there, and we can supply that demand. Now what we are expecting to see is that there will be a change in governance, that things will be taken more seriously, especially the politicians. Local politicians will take the situation more seriously because they will hopefully understand that they need to have an energy industry, an oil industry that is fully functioning and is in place so that they can operate and turn a profit. And I think that they should be aware of this, that they should become aware of this if things do improve in the country at all levels of governance. And that's what we can hope for.

There was also a question on volumes in countries with a regulated price mechanism. Maybe Jean-Christian can answer.

Yes, I can answer for the group and also for Eastern Africa. So we have price regulation in Africa everywhere, except in South Africa, Uganda, Morocco. So we're used to that kind of environment. And so the volumes only concern the network because there's no regulation for bitumen, for aviation, et cetera. So it's really the service station network. And about half our service stations are in regulated priced countries. And I kind of like that environment because you have guaranteed margins since you have guaranteed prices. You -- this -- there are some states that work this very well, and you have consumer prices that are acceptable to consumers. And that doesn't have a negative impact on volumes. So in Kenya, we have regulated prices. Therefore, our margins are protected. And the prices are on a good trend because the government has decided not to fully pass on the price -- the oil price increase.

So generally speaking, when you look at a 6-month period, any adjustments, you can't fully pass on adjustments in a 6-month period. You need to look at the entire year to assess the impact of changes in regulated prices. But government needs to do its job, and there have been some problems with the pledges made, for example, in Haiti and other places. But these -- this always happens in our industry. It happens infrequently, but we're familiar with that. And the only solution is to come back -- to reset everything and to come back to price calculation formulas and come back to what's in the contract. And we've been used to that for more than a decade.

Another question -- the next question, please, Emmanuel Matot.

I hope you can hear me well.

Yes. We can hear on the set.

So first question, can you give us a bit of information on the months of July and August? Has the trend back to normal continued? Also, concerning regulated pricing, I think that there are some governments -- some countries that are suffering financially, with citizens not being able to absorb an increase in pricing. So what about -- what does that mean for you? Are you in a tight spot because of that? Second question, your targets for reducing CO2 emissions. Your goal is to move into lower carbon activities or to lower carbon emissions. So for scope 3 emissions, now you mentioned scope -- in your road map, the road map applies to scopes 1, 2 and 3. Do you have specific targets for scope 3 emissions? And then a question on acquisitions. What is the most difficult factor for you, market valuations? Has it been COVID-related restrictions on travel? Have you been able to go and inspect your infrastructure?

Well, first, I'd like to give more details about price formulas. Jean-Christian will be able to confirm this. But you have a time line for application or enforcement of a certain price. And we have nothing unusual in the Caribbean. So we have a more or less stable political situation for the past 10 years. Prices have fluctuated, both upwards and downwards, and price fluctuations or variations in pricing are applied. The time lag for the effect is 3 days to a few months, and it changes depending on the product category, aviation or products with different prices and service station networks. But this is not a new situation. We have been living with this and experiencing this within this company for 3 decades. So there should be no cause for concern. You've -- we've seen violent price hikes or drops in the past, and margins remained stable. And you can see that in our half year accounts. You see that our unit margin has remained stable despite the very violent fluctuations in our supply prices. So our group is in a position to absorb those shocks. Up to 50%, we can price freely. And so we can pass on the increase immediately. As for the remaining 50%, there is also an adjustment in prices sometimes with a time lag. But in any case, the system is devised in such a way, and we are diversified enough to ensure that things offset each other, more or less and, therefore, remain more or less stable. Then concerning the first 2 months of the third quarter, so you mentioned July and August, that was your question. The information we have is more or less positive, and we should see continuation of a normalization of volume, so a return to normal in terms of volumes in most areas and sectors in the Caribbean. There is good demand across all segments, including aviation, because tourism picked up quite significantly over the past 3 months in this region. So that's what I can say about the initial portion of that third quarter. And I think there was another question.

Yes. What are we doing in terms of scope 3 emissions? These are more difficult to work on and control than scopes 1 and 2 because we're not entirely responsible for those emissions. So I think Clarisse explained it quite well. Whenever there's an opportunity to use biofuels or low carbon fuels, we do so. And we introduce them, for example, what we did in Jersey and Guernsey. What's difficult is to find sufficient quantities of those products because we're not producers. As you know, we're not an exploration, production nor refinery with the exception of SARA. So we have to be able to find sufficient quantities of product. And there, I think that our entire industry needs to find a solution, needs to work on solutions, and we will definitely pick them up and incorporate them as they appear. Also, I'd like to add something. U.S. operators, for example, Exxon, more than European operators are focusing on biofuels. It looks a lot like they want to protect their existing assets, which are already depreciated, amortized and are looking for true low carbon, very low carbon fuels. And if other big companies invest in those products, then that will be beneficial to us, and we'll be able to offer these products to our customers. Some of our products are low in terms of carbon emissions, for example, LPG, which really is a transition energy. And then there's bitumen, one of our major products. Using bitumen does not produce carbon emissions. So you also need to take into consideration the different environments, Europe versus Africa. Africa accounts for barely 3% of carbon emissions around the planet, and their economies have needs that have absolutely nothing in common with the needs of industrialized economies like Europe or China, elsewhere. Therefore, the emissions are very -- at a very different level as well. So I hope that we answered your 3 questions. There was one last question on acquisitions. Yes, that is always very exciting. Now even if I had something to announce, today is not when I would announce it. No, no change in our acquisition policy. We have financial firepower that we worked hard to achieve. We have a lot of available cash for acquisitions. And so we are continuing to focus on possible acquisitions, but there's nothing more that we can say at this stage.

Next question, Jean-Luc Romain.

Two questions on HDF and then on Eastern Africa. HDF Energy, in their first project... [Inaudible for the interpreter. Unfortunately, the sound quality is not sufficient for the interpreter.]

Now your sound was not very good, couldn't hear very well on the set. But I think that there was a question on pipelines. So yes, we have a partnership with HDF. But in all areas, those areas where we already have operations are a priority. But we also have intentions to invest in other areas. So broad -- we have broad ambitions. As for the pipeline project which was disclosed or mentioned by HDF themselves, there are 2 immediate operations. They're both important. So CEOG that Clarisse mentioned, 100 -- an investment of EUR 130 million; and one in Barbados, which is not yet closed yet, but it is part of the pipeline. And it's quite comparable, although larger. So two -- it's early days yet. We can't reveal any figures yet. But of course, we will announce the start-up of the first operation very soon. It should be CEOG, but we have other projects on the cards. Now the hydrogen market, bear in mind, is only starting up. And so everyone will have to show some patience. The outlook is good. We will give news quarter-by-quarter. But right now, it is too early to share any figures with you.

There was a question on Eastern Africa, but we did not hear.

It's actually -- I had not asked it yet. [Very bad sound. The interpreter cannot hear.]

The sound was very bad. We do apologize.

Yes. But I think I got the gist of your question. So LPG, as we said, this is a source of energy that we really want to develop because it's cleaner. It's cleaner at any rate than charcoal, which requires forest to be chopped down. So the market is growing swiftly. Now retail does not really happen via service stations but via distributors. So they deliver supply and customers with gas cylinders. I mean, they can drive right through to people's doorsteps. And there's a project which is really exciting. We hope it will really be profitable. We are developing a pay-as-you-go plan for customers, easier for people to have access to the energy. Right now, you need to get a cylinder, and there's a down payment or a deposit of $25. And that's a lot of money for people to basically set aside. So the easiest way is pay as you go. You can have the mother of a household pay $1 in the morning and get enough gas for the day. And we tested that in 300 households in Nairobi, very positive. We'd like to extend that to a larger proportion of the territory, and that would give us access to the end customer. And that's always a very positive for us.

We have a question from [ Laurent Parmentier ].

I would just like to draw your attention to Slide 8 on LPG. You said that it is roughly 26% of EBIT for the branch -- or the division. But what will be the impact on LPG deliveries for individual people -- in France but even within Europe?

So I'm not sure if I understand your question because here on Page 8, we're talking about half results for Europe division. You spoke of EUR 38 million. Maybe that's what you're referring to there.

Yes. No, that's exactly what I'm talking about, EUR 38 million.

LPG?

Yes, LPG.

Could you please just repeat your question there? Because I think we may have just missed the crux of the question.

Do you have a part of LPG that is delivered to people already with gas?

What are you talking about? What do you mean there? Because I'm struggling to answer your question there. Natural gas, okay. So here, we're talking about gas. This is gas used for heating, but 2 very different markets, natural gas and LPG gas. So natural gas is what we call like city gas, it's -- for want of a better word. In France and Europe, it is transferred through pipes that are managed by the city. But LPG, this is for those areas where natural gas cannot be delivered. So the delivery networks are completely different. It's through canisters, through tanks. But it is -- and gas canisters and gas tanks. But it's not actually delivered through the pipelines within the city. So I guess, you could say that they aren't really competing gases because where you have one, you have the other one where you don't have the other. So natural gas is for cities that are connected to the pipelines, whereas LPG, it's more rural areas where they're cut off from the gas network. Does that really answer your question? Or maybe I've missed the point there.

Yes, in part. So yes, okay. So here, you're talking about gas delivered to peri-urban or rural areas. So that's used for heating?

Well, I mean, the use of the 2 gases is very much the same, be it natural gas, where you're tapped into the network, or be it our LPG, where it's in bottles, then it's used for the same purposes. It's used for cooking obviously but also for heating, and the uses for the gas are the same. That said, LPG can be used a little differently because it is also used in some cars, for cars that run on LPG gas. But for the time being, there are a few other subsidiary uses, but they aren't very widespread for the time being. Predominantly, it's used for cooking, heating and also water heating.

Roughly 2/3 of LPG gas are used for households.

But really, I was asking about the RE2020. What is the RE2020 impact going to be on natural gas? What about households who will no longer be allowed to actually heat using gas?

Well, I think it's a little different. Here, we're talking about new housing and new buildings. But in concrete terms, there are very few new buildings used for housing that have gas heating. A lot of the buildings are now heated using electricity or using heat pumps or it's using timber pallet, again, because there are still installations happening that they -- that we already have installations out there that need to be maintained. And for the time being, we haven't really felt the direct impact from RE2020.

And just remember, LPG is used a lot in renovation. So the end of heating oil is going to bring around a broader change in terms of heating, in-house heating. And LPG replaced that quite well. And Rubis as a brand and other companies with us, we work predominantly in renovation areas. So therefore, because renovations still happen, we won't see much of a difference happening to our business. I mean, that is the reality of LPG as an industry, which is quite a unique industry.

Now just remember, we're talking about European countries and in France, in particular. In the Caribbean region and in Africa, very different regulation, and LPG is a very different business over there. And Rubis, we can utilize LPG as a way of tackling deforestation and reducing wood for heating because there's a huge difference when you make a cup of coffee on a wood fire as opposed to a gas fire, a huge difference. And it's not only just fast and easier to use than wood, but it's also so much better. So LPG is the ideal alternative to wood as a source of heating all throughout Africa. So obviously, I understand you're talking about outside of Europe. I completely agree with you there.

Last question is from Christine Ropert from Gilbert Dupont.

Yes. I have 2 questions on investment levels that you're expecting to see for the business here. And what prospects do you have for more normative type in normal investment levels because we -- that will come into the consolidated booking accounts for acquisitions that you already have or that you are planning for? And for 2020, 2021, you spoke of growth of the operating income. And what do you mean by that? If you could just give me some insights there because I'm not really exactly sure what you're referring to when you're speaking about that specific growth there.

Two fantastic questions. So in terms of investment, I'm sure that you saw that in the first half, we had at a level of EUR 90 million across the group. That EUR 90 million, you have EUR 60 million in maintenance investment. And the rest is directly in growth, so building up our capabilities. So over a year, we will invest roughly EUR 100 million, EUR 110 million in maintenance and around EUR 80 million -- or EUR 70 million to EUR 80 million on investment into growth opportunities. So that's for a normal year. This year, obviously, we are still facing some challenges coming from the COVID crisis. So it will probably be more around EUR 160 million to EUR 180 million overall. Now obviously, there may be a considerable increase where, for example, we invested just recently in 2 new bitumen companies. And remember, when you invest in a bitumen machine, it costs around EUR 30 million. So that can be quite hefty, and it requires a lot of investment. So that initial investment will then increase. And this is just to give you a bit of color there to understand where the investments are coming from. So really, around INR 160 million, EUR 180 million per year in investment, EUR 100 million of which will be in maintenance businesses and activities. As for your other question, Rubis Énergies is the main operational business. So when we talk about operational profit, it's after taxes. So we talk about net profit, and that's why we're focusing on Rubis Énergies, excluding the holding. I hope that's clear.

So what basis are you working on? What's your baseline for 2020?

So our baseline for 2020, well, we don't actually have it here -- on the tables here because we didn't plan on talking about it here, because that's more of an annual figure that we give. It doesn't really have much importance here for the half year -- or half year results. So the annual results for Rubis Énergies, well, we could give it to you maybe later on in a one-on-one conversation after this presentation because I don't want to -- I don't have the figure to give with you -- to give it to you right now. But again, the definition is it's the operational net profit ended at specifically to Rubis Énergie. And that's not including Rubis Terminal, obviously.

And I believe that was our last question, unless there's another one in the pipeline. So now it remains for me to thank you for your attention. Thank you for your interest in our company. We do appreciate it. And I would say, see you latest at the beginning of next year for the release of our annual accounts. Thank you once again for your attention. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]