The Renewables Infrastructure Group Limited (TRIG) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, and welcome to The Renewable Infrastructure Group Investor presentation. [Operator Instructions] we are joined by the TRIG management team, and I would now like to hand you over to Managing Director, Minesh Shah, to begin the presentation.

Welcome to TRIG's 2024 Results Presentation. 2024 saw continued dislocation between TRIG's underlying performance and its share price performance. The fundamentals that underpin TRIG's investment proposition remain favorable. We have a large diversified portfolio of renewable generation and energy storage assets that span 6 power markets and 4 technologies that support both energy security and energy transition across the U.K. and Europe. Over 50% of our revenues projected over the next 10 years are directly linked to inflation indices. Our revenues have good inflation linkage, which is particularly relevant in a macro climate where the prospect of protectionism from governments could lead to inflationary pressures. And TRIG continues to benefit from the expert management team that brings together InfraRed's investment pedigree with RES's operational excellence With over 30 individuals dedicated to the day-to-day management of TRIG as well as the ability to draw on the wider InfraRed and RES businesses as needed. And this positions TRIG well in a shifting macro and geopolitical environment. Now turning to TRIG's financials. Our net asset value at the balance sheet date was 115.9p per share, and Phil will go into more detail on this shortly. The ongoing strength of the company's business model has given the board confidence to increase the share -- the dividend per share to 7.55p per share as well as project increasing dividend cover. Now EBITDA was down year-on-year, and most of this was expected due to lower power prices, but it was also impacted by transmission grid outages previously reported. With the associated third-party cables now fixed, we see EBITDA improving in 2025. The portfolio value is underscored by over GBP 200 million of disposals at a 10% premium to carrying value. And this is in stark contrast to the prevailing share price, which, therefore, implies over a 10% dividend yield and a base case 12% annualized return, with the opportunity to outperform this through the managers' initiatives to enhance value through disposals development activities as well as commercial and technical enhancements, which Chris will cover later in the presentation. Now these market conditions have been prevalent for the last 2 years now. And on this slide, we highlight our response and the progress we've made over the last 24 months to enhance returns for shareholders and the long-term prospects of TRIG. We also look forward to 2025. So over the past 2 years, we've continued to strengthen TRIG's position. We have delivered GBP 210 million disposals at over a 10% premium to carrying value. And this has contributed to over GBP 0.5 billion reduction in debt over the same period. And the underlying return expectations from the portfolio has increased, which has underpinned a 10% increase in the dividend since the February 2023 results. The strength of TRIG has enabled the Board to triple the size of the buyback program to GBP 150 million or approximately 8% of the shares in issue at the current share price. And the company remains on a very strong footing with high levels of cash flow visibility, the average cost of debt being only 3.5% and 80% of revenues projected for 2025 at a fixed price per unit generated. Capital allocation has been in the spotlight. It is a topic that we have been consistently vocal over the past 24 months. We are pleased to have delivered on our 2024 capital allocation priorities for reducing gearing whilst increasing shareholder income and capital returns, demonstrating the resilience of the portfolio as a whole and the benefits of diversification. With nearly GBP 200 million sales delivered in 2024, ample debt capacity across the group and the more significant operational issues now fixed, TRIG is well positioned to increase dividend cover and further increase capital allocation to shareholder returns in 2025. And Phil will go into more detail on TRIG's debt capacity later in the presentation. Current capital allocation to investment activity in 2025 remains minimal, relating to the build-out of the Ryton battery storage project. The key message on this slide is that we are very mindful of TRIG's recent share price performance and the impact on shareholder returns and are able to report that the strong foundations that we have laid have enabled the Board to significantly increase capital allocation to shareholder returns in 2025. And finally, before I hand over to Phil, I've mentioned a couple of times the benefit diversification brings to the resilience of TRIG and its dividend. On this slide, a brief reminder of TRIG's portfolio. We have a 60-40 split between the U.K. and the rest of Europe. And our technology split remains 80% wind, 14% solar and 6% battery storage. And you've heard from me in the recent past that we have an ambition to increase solar and batteries in the portfolio. Mindful of the market conditions and adhering to our capital allocation priorities means this is currently being met through the sale of wind projects. And at this time, buybacks present a high hurdle rate for cash transactions to acquire further solar and battery positions. I'll now hand over to Phil, TRIG's CFO, to take us through the financials.

Thank you, Minesh. I'll take you through the financial highlights and the valuation movements for 2024. The valuation of the investments and therefore the net asset value has declined in the year, mostly driven by macroeconomic factors, including increasing our U.K. discount rates and external impacts on the portfolio, including third-party transmission cable failures and grid outages and also adjustments to operating assumptions, including reduced project energy yields. Now at the 31st December 2024 is 115.9p per share of a portfolio value of GBP 3.1 billion. And over the last 24 months, we've agreed the disposal of 7 wind farms, all at good premia to our valuation and the disposals above NAV provide good confidence in the company's portfolio valuation. Being an investment company, the valuation movement reduces earnings, which in the year are minus 4.7p, which means after dividends paid in the year 7.4p and with the benefit of share buybacks that NAV has reduced by 11.8p per share. Dividend cover before project level debt repayments in the year of GBP 206 million was 2.1x. And dividend cover after those repayments was 1.0x. The dividend cover has been tighter than usual this year, the most significant calls being the offshore cable failures. These are now fixed and both wind farms are back to full generation. We expect this level of dividend cover to improve to more normal levels of 1.1x to 1.2x from 2025. And the target dividend for 2025 is 7.55p, which is a 1.1% increase from the level paid for 2024. We report EBITDA for 2024 GBP 493 million, which covered debt amortization and the dividend. Stepping through the valuation bridge shows the trail from the opening valuation of GBP 3,509 million, the closing valuation of GBP 3,116 million. And starting from the left investments of GBP 48 million we made in the year funding the construction of the Ranasjö and Salsjö wind farm in Sweden, the Ryton battery project in the U.K. and our investment in the Fig Power. GBP 104 million of cash proceeds were received from the sale of 2 Scottish wind farms and one Irish wind farm. And the EUR 100 million proceeds from the partial sale of Gode that was announced in August, will be received in the next few days. Cash flow is up for the investments in the year of GBP 228 million, which takes us the rebased valuation of GBP 3,226 million. And the rest of the bridge represents the operating income shown in the profit and loss account. And I'll be going into more detail on each of these items in the following slides. But briefly, on the bridge, we show the impact of the movement in FX on our euro-denominated assets. Sterling has strengthened 5% against the euro, resulting in a loss before the hedge offset of GBP 66 million, as shown on the bridge. The company hedges FX outside of the portfolio and the gains on these hedges mostly offset this impact, resulting in net FX loss to the company for the year of GBP 13 million. Power price forecasts have declined in the front end of the power curve, which has reduced now slightly. We have increased discount rates for our U.K. assets in the final quarter of the year by 0.3%, reflecting recent increases in U.K. government bond yields and lower outturn inflation in U.K. and Europe in 2024 reduced now slightly. The final item on the bridge portfolio return for the period of GBP 65 million, and that represents a 2.6% annualized increase, which is behind the expected return represented by the opening portfolio discount rate of 8.1%. And this predominantly reflects impacts in relation to external grid and transmission infrastructure outages, the impact of lower than forecast actual generation and power price and the annual review of operating assumptions, including asset-level energy yields and operating costs. The next slide provides more detail on power price forecasts. Power price forecasts have declined in the near term following the recent mild and wet winters of 2023 and 2024. As a reminder, our approach is to take an average of 3 forecasters cannibalized power curves. In the medium to longer term, forecasts were a touch higher than before, albeit the overall impact is slightly negative to NAV. Near term forwards are higher off the back of increases in gas prices in recent months. And they're above our December 2024 valuation assumptions. On the top right of the slide, we continue to provide data on our average assumed wholesale power prices. And in the bottom right, the donut showed a proportion of our forecast revenues that are fixed per megawatt hour and exposed to merchant pricing. The point to note is the high proportion, which is fixed, 80% for 2025, 70% over the next 10 years, providing inflation -- sorry, providing protection against variation in power prices and good inflation linkage. And with recent inflation data coming in higher than expected, this inflation linkage is important. Discount rates and inflation are addressed in the next slide. For discount rates, the slide shows the risk-free rates or benchmark government bond yields relative to the portfolio discount rate. The overall portfolio weighted average discount rate has increased by 0.5% during the year to 8.6%, which implies a 4.7% risk premium of the U.K. EU blended risk-free rate. We have increased the valuation discount rates applied to U.K. assets by 0.3% in the final quarter of 2024, recognizing rising U.K. government gilt rates. U.K. gilt rates are now a little above the levels of Q3 '23 when we last increased the valuation discount rates applied. European government bond rates have also increased in recent months, but are not at the levels of Q3 2023 and significantly lower than U.K. rates. And so we've not amended the valuation discount rates applied for our European investments. The increase in portfolio discount rate also recognizes the addition of Fig Power and a materially higher discount rate than the average of the portfolio, the disposal of lower returning projects and a small impact from the movement through time near to more merchant flows for projects with subsidies. The company carries out an independent valuation exercise each year and also commissions a review of the valuation discount rates. The independent value has again confirmed that the valuation discount rates are appropriate. This slide also contains the inflation consumptions. Outturn inflation for 2024 came in a little lower than the level forecast of the December '23 valuation, and our forecast inflation assumptions remain unchanged. The next slide covers the items included in the balance of portfolio return. Impacts in relation to external grid and transmission infrastructure adversely affected NAV by 2.4p per share. This item includes the third-party cable failures of the Hornsea One and East Anglia One U.K. offshore wind projects, greater uncompensated grid downtime in Germany, an increase in allowances for grid downtime and increased grid loss factors applying to transmission connected U.K. wind projects. RES undertakes an annual review of the operational assumptions, including asset level entry yields and operating costs, and this adjustment adversely affected NAV per share by 2.4p and a 1.8p adverse impact of lower than forecast actual generation and power price during the year. As covered at the interim results, projections of Origin certificate pricing have declined due to higher supply of EU certificates from hydroelectric producers and lower demand for U.K. certificates from retail electricity suppliers REGO and Guarantee of Origin revenues in 2024 was strong, with an average achieved price of around GBP 4 of REGOs being higher than Guarantee of Origin certificates, owing the portfolio overall around GBP 15 million in the year. And we have successful disposal activity in the year of 4 projects against 3 countries, which has realized a gain of 0.7p per share and also a further 0.1p per share of value arising from active revenue fixing. This slide bridges the NAV per share during the year and analyzes the movement between macro items and the impact of lower generation changes in engine yields and project budgets including the impacts of grid and transmission losses, then active management in the year with NAV gains delivered principally from disposals, revenue management and share buybacks. This slide shows our continued focus on reducing the short-term RCF debt balance. And during the year, we disposed several projects, including the Gode sale proceeds during the next few days, realized GBP 185 million. We invested GBP 48 million in construction projects, GBP 21 million in share buybacks in 2024. And the RCF balance once the go to proceeds are received next week will be around GBP 230 million. We aim to reduce the RCF balance further to GBP 100 million by the end of 2025 and targeting GBP 300 million of disposals and financings to fund this whilst meeting our capital commitments and the enlarged share buyback program. This slide provides some new disclosure on TRIG's debt capacity. TRIG's conservative capital structure with the vast majority of our debt is long-term fixed rate and amortizing during fixed revenue periods provides us with the flexibility to take on more debt when it is right for the company and to improve shareholder returns. The long-term debt is repaying at the rate of around GBP 190 million per year. Our gearing level of 37% is moderate, and we have gearing headroom in our structure of a good level of projects without gearing in place. And we expect to term out some of the existing RCF balance. The portfolio has a good level of gearing capacity that can be added whilst retaining a comfortable level of total debt. Our revenue management program and our development program will provide further debt capacity in addition to existing fixed revenues, enable debt to be carried for longer to optimize the capital structure and grow shareholder returns. My final slide covers revenues and EBITDA for the portfolio. Revenues of 2024 was GBP 671 million and EBITDA of GBP 493 million. Revenues were low in 2024 compared to 2023. Most of the reduction was expected, given the decline in power prices from elevated levels in 2023. Other causes of lower revenue in 2024 were the impact of divestments and the external grid and transmission infrastructure outages. These revenue reductions flowed through to EBITDA and to distributable cash flows. The movement in distributable cash flows from 2023 to 2024 is less than a reduction in revenues. This is due to the taxes levied on high power prices during 2023, including windfall taxes, which led to higher taxes at project level in 2023 that did not apply in 2024. This slide also provides some detail on average power prices achieved. Fixed revenue levels for 2024 and the direction of travel for 2025, showing a high level of fixed revenues per megawatt hour in 2025 and a more positive power price outlook for 2025 than 2024, particularly in the U.K. and Spain. That brings me to the end of the financial items, and I shall now hand over to Chris, who will cover our operational performance.

Thanks, Phil. I will now take you through the operational highlights in the year. In 2024, we generated almost 6 terawatt hours of clean renewable electricity. That's enough to power the equivalent of 1.6 million homes and to avoid 2 million tonnes of CO2. Underlying generation was 2% below budget. This is consistent with the wind and solar radiation in the year, which weighted across the TRIG portfolio in the U.K. and Western Europe, was substantially on budget. However, the export of electricity was impacted by grid outages, some of which were commercially well protected, but there remained an impact with exported electricity 5% below budget. The split of generation by region is shown in the table. Within France, the older Southern projects suffered from downtime ahead of their repowering with new turbines over the next 2 to 3 years. The U.K. and the portfolio as a whole, both notably outperformed the wind focused peer group in the year. On this next slide, you can see the wind and solar variation -- sorry, wind and solar irradiation weighted across TRIG's projects in each region. Variations are shown compared to the long-term average. We're striking for 2024 on the right-hand side, is how the variability across every region when weighted for the location and size of TRIG's assets, effectively saying that wind and solar levels were consistent with their budgets. It's important to note that for the TRIG's portfolio, the weighted average wind and solar irradiation has been split an equal number of years above and below average compared to the much longer-term data set. This is consistent with our expectations. There are a number of ways that RES as operations manager preserves and adds value to TRIG. RES has been at the forefront of the renewables industry for over 40 years with extensive development, construction and operational experience. In all of the technologies and geographies of TRIG, the dedicated operations team supplement its own capabilities by drawing upon the specialists available in every area. This makes us uniquely positioned, reserve value, manage risk and to identify and deliver on opportunities. Here, we show the main areas of focus. In the top right, increased revenue both through increasing the energy yield and the price you get paid for it, which then flows down into the profit of the P&L. Moving around to increase project life, which is done safely and economically using RES's development expertise and our technical know-how of the equipment itself. Continue around to reduce operating costs, performed whilst focusing on long-term value and maintaining asset health, ensuring that we have the right contractual structures in place. And then finally, development. Focusing on new development opportunities as reflected in the 1 gigawatt development portfolio, I'll come to you shortly with the rights and storage project progressing well through construction and the forthcoming Cuxac repowering. More generally, where RES acts as a site manager, which for TRIG is about 1/3 of the sites, an independent study by a leading market adviser shows that RES outperforms the average enabling an extra percent of energy yield to be secured for RES 1%, delivering significant value to TRIG. RES is also an active participant as a senior or Board member on a wide range of renewable and associated industry bodies, helping to ensure that TRIG's position is well represented within the electricity industry. Turning now to energy yield enhancements. This slide shows some of the activities that we're currently focused on, progressing through trial phases and into deployment across multiple sites with indicative energy yield increases shown on the right-hand side. I won't step through each of them. A couple of highlights would be the installation of the first wave of blade hardware at 8 U.K. and French onshore wind sites and at 2 offshore wind farms where we're doing power curve upgrades. These increase the energy extracted for a given wind speed , all now progressing well in their trial phases ahead of a wider rollout. Some of these activities are seasonal. You clearly wouldn't want to perform rope access down to wind turbine blade in the middle of winter. We've got some great plans ahead for the summer. So more to come in all of these areas, which I'll update you on in future periods. RES has a strong track record of value delivered, with over GBP 70 million secured over the last 5 years through extending project lives, reducing operating costs and structures and increasing revenues, such as through increasing energy yields and higher valued or new revenue streams. In the near term, we've already identified opportunities of a similar value to deliver in the next 2 years. But ultimately, we continue to identify new commercially attractive opportunities through our deep understanding of the technologies and markets to deliver value to stream. Looking further ahead at the 1 gigawatt development pipeline, construction of the Ryton storage project is progressing nicely. Groundworks well progressed and factory inspections performed. This project ultimately expected to deliver high returns than available elsewhere. The Cuxac wind farm we're powering the south of France, selected new turbines, which were double the site capacity alongside a new 20-year government revenue contract, which would allow to be debt financed, if considered appropriate. The Spennymoor storage project successfully accelerated its good connection date from 2031 -- sorry, from 2021 to 2026, with underlying development work progressing too. Beyond these projects, we've got the brownfield development activities. So this is like repowering sites with new wind turbines or PV panels or performing site extensions or such like. Also greenfield activities, brand-new sites such as those being progressed by Fig Power, our storage development company. These development activities will continue to require modest investment to deliver attractive returns. I'm going to hand back to Minesh.

Thank you, Chris. I'll conclude today's presentation with a brief recap of TRIG's key strategic drivers. Firstly, TRIG benefits from a large diversified portfolio. This provides resilience to TRIG's cash flows and delivered a 2.1x gross cash cover in 2024, which is expected to grow in 2025. We've also reduced debt by over GBP 0.5 billion over the last 2 years. Together, this has enabled the Board to increase the dividend in 2025 and provides room for increasing investor returns going forward. Secondly, responsible investment. We are focused on prudent capital allocation and responsible investment decisions. We've delivered over GBP 200 million of sales at over a 10% premium to carrying value. And this has enabled the Board to triple the share buyback program. We continue to take a conservative approach to the balance sheet with over GBP 1 billion of debt projected to be repaid over the next years, providing us with maximum flexibility going forward. And finally, operational excellence is core to the management team's philosophy and mindset seeking to achieve more with the portfolio that we have through commercial and technical enhancements. And you've heard about this extensively from Chris. So today, we've continued to highlight the strong underlying prospects for the TRIG's portfolio and that with a disciplined approach to investment management, we are optimizing the portfolio, reducing gearing and delivering attractive shareholder returns concurrently. Thank you for your time.

Thank you to those of you viewing online, and thank you for the questions that have been submitted. We'll endeavor to get through as many questions as we can, but please do continue to submit them throughout the Q&A session. I'll open with a question for Minesh. So we've had a couple of thoughts around growth and reach to growing the funds net asset value and growing the income from the fund. And Minesh, would you be able to elaborate a bit more.

Yes. Thank you. The progressive dividend that TRIG has is a really important part of our strategy, and we know that it's very important for shareholders. What we sought to demonstrate through these returns is the resilience of that dividend and the opportunity to grow that income going forward. It was covered 2.1x on a gross cash cover basis in 2024. We expect this to increase going forward. And where is that growth going to come from? Some of that is inflation correlation. Over 50% of our revenue is projected over the next 10 years are directly linked to inflation indices and then through enhancements. We have 3 key areas where this could happen, development and construction activity that's taking projects from their inception through development, building them and taking them into operations, typically allowing us to invest at higher IRRs. Secondly is around disposals to selling assets at or above the carrying value. And given the current share price, recycling that into investing in the company's shares, and therefore, boosting cash flows available for shareholders who continue to hold the shares. And then thirdly, commercial and operational and technical enhancements, doing more with the assets we have, either through revenue management or some of the really exciting things that Chris and his team are working on in relation to adding hardware to turbines, improving the software so that wind farms improve their output and also reducing downtime to really extract more from the assets that we have, altogether providing that route to growing both the capital base as well as the income.

And you touched on share buybacks there. We've had a question through that perhaps is one for Phil to add as well around the expected return on share buybacks and how we view the increase in the buyback program to GBP 150 million relative to the increase in the dividend.

Yes, the math on the share buyback is relatively straightforward. At today's share price, you are retiring a dividend yield of over 10%. And and the marginal cost of debt is around 5.5%. So actually, for every million you're buying back, your increasing cash flow is on that million by 4.5% or say, for long-term shareholders. So it's compelling to undertake the share buyback program. We've delivered GBP 200 million of sales over the last couple of years. And the visibility around cash flows, both the sales proceeds and the operational cash flows is what's given the Board the confidence to triple the size of the share buyback program from GBP 50 million to GBP 150 million, which represents about 8% of the company's shares in issue at prevailing share price. At this share price, it is a very compelling investment for the Board to make when they consider their capital allocation decisions.

Perfect. And then in terms of other investment decisions, we've had questions around diversifying into other areas such as further renewable scheme developers such as Fig Power, hydroelectric and even gas-powered plants. Can you elaborate a bit more on the way that you're viewing investment in these areas?

Sure. Our investment policy is focused on renewable generation assets and supporting infrastructure, both of those really contributing to both energy security and energy transition in the U.K. and Europe and therefore, benefiting from those mega trends that exist. For us, the expansion into battery storage assets from this generation assets is really important because it allows us to not necessarily only be a price taker, but also respond to price signals and the increase in volatility that variable generation can bring. And energy storage is going to be a really important part of the energy transition and energy security for Europe. If we consider other technologies, we monitor them, we would consider operational complexity, the ability to invest at scale as well as the impact on portfolio construction, risk management, and the returns available. And we're regularly reviewing this as managers and with the Board. The current focus is wind, solar and flexible capacity through battery storage.

And then around Fig Power, which was mentioned there in battery storage. We've been asked what's the timing and the overall projection for Fig Power projects coming online will be. So Chris, I was wondering if you could give a bit more detail on how we manage the development process for projects such as this and the other development projects within the portfolio.

Yes. Thank you. We make use of a wider development experience, both in InfraRed and in RES in overseeing the projects, making sure that they're progressing at an appropriate rate. It's around risk management, risk mitigation and then securing consents and securing land rights as well. We then need to make sure that we're looking at how we then deploy capital on those projects over time. Clearly, very different levels of capital to sell them as development assets or sell them during or at the end of construction. And so we balance those decisions with what Minesh was referencing earlier in terms of other alternative uses for capital. Good progress being made. We've got 1 project progressing here at the head of the pack. We're making -- are actively making decisions on that now in terms of capital deployment. And yes, it's exciting time, seeing those projects progress, and being really good progress on consents. Around about 2/3 of the projects secured consents during the period. So yes, exciting time.

Thanks, Chris. And then around portfolio construction, one for Phil on the topic of the GBP 300 million worth of asset disposals and financings that we flagged in our recent announcement. Could you give a bit more detail on how we're identifying the opportunities within the portfolio for these and the confidence of continuing to exit disposal at a premium to NAV.

Okay. So when we're looking at disposals, we're very keen to retain good diversification across the portfolio. And we are also keen to retain index-linked revenues. And then we then also have to look at where we have approaches from people buying assets is what sort of assets they want and try and marry those up. Sales process are taking quite some time at the moment. And so I think you need to run more sales processes than you ultimately want to conclude to make sure you get a good outcome from those. I think we'll also look at terming out some of that RCF debt. We've got quite a lot of projects in the portfolio, which don't have gearing in place, we can put gearing into. Those projects have got subsidy and don't have gearing. So that's a good home for that. And so we've got a good level of headroom there. And I think probably we will term out some of that RCF debt as well, albeit at the current cost level of GBP 230 million and the cost of 5.5%. It's not a particular concern, but I think we'd like to reduce it a bit more to give a company more options in the future.

And then another one around the outlook for the portfolio. So the U.K. interest rate outlook is for a fall in interest rates over 2025. What impacts would that have on the portfolio and specifically dividend cover?

On the cash flows, it will have quite a small impact because most of the debt across the portfolio is fixed rate and amortizing and the average cost of debt is 3.5%. These will be debt instruments that we've put in historically, either by us or by people before we bought those projects. And the revolving credit facility will be around GBP 230 million due in next week once we have the proceeds from the most recent sale in and repaid. And so if you had a balance of GBP 200 million and you dropped by 1%, and you'd be saving GBP 2 million, which is handy. It's not going to be transformational for dividend cover, but it's useful. I think the bigger impact would be the faster U.K. interest rates reduce, the more likely we might see rerating of our share price, and that's the more fundamental item.

And mentioning the share price and the current discount to net asset value, there are couple of points on this and one for Minesh. We had a pre-submitted question regarding the investment manager fee and operations manager fee, which was flagged in the Q4 net asset value announcement. I'm not sure if you'd be able to give a bit more detail on that as well as the other tools that are disposal to help narrow the discount.

Yes. Thank you. So specifically on this topic of the management fees, there's quite a fulsome update made this morning in a separate announcement and the Board remain available to discuss that, engaging directly with shareholders, both by direct correspondents and as part of the company's AGM later in the year. In relation to the tools at our disposal to kind of -- in relation to the share price and the net asset value, clearly demonstrating the resilience of the dividend and the opportunity for that to grow is very important and having delivered 2.1x gross cover, having continued to degear and reduce debt, all really important to ensure that resilience going forward. Buying back the company's shares also enhances cash flows available for shareholders who continue to remain shareholders of TRIG. And then finally, we continue to make disposals. We've led the way in the sector with over GBP 200 million of disposals at a premium to carrying value. We're progressing further disposals and would hope to look to crystallize those during the course of this year to further underscore where we've marked the valuation in the NAV, but fundamentally, yes, there is a stark contrast between the underlying performance, the sales proceeds and where the share price is trading. Thus, we are investing in our own shares through share buybacks.

And then something that many shareholders on the call may be aware of is the blocking of buying on Hargreaves Lansdown and the current situation regarding the ability to purchase trade shares there. Is there anything that you can detail on how we are engaging with Hargreaves Lansdown to reverse this decision on that platform?

Yes, engaging with them extensively. Throughout this period, we have provided them with the necessary disclosures required by MiFID. The FCA's guidance was very clear in relation to zero cost disclosures. There are no charges levied on shareholders by TRIG. The costs TRIG have are expenses of the company, and the dividend is net of that, shareholders trade the shares net of that as well. Platforms have taken different views. There are other platforms where TRIG shares continue to be traded, and we're actively engaging with those platforms that have decided to not allow trading to understand better why and given we've provided the relevant data, what else they would require for trading to be resumed. But like I say, there are plenty of other platforms where shares can continue to be bought by investors.

And obviously, the investment platform engagement is one part of our shareholder base. We've also been asked how we are in contact with our wider shareholder base to understand the current discount to net asset value.

Yes. We extensively engage with shareholders. Both the Chairman of the Board and the Board of Directors engage with shareholders as well as the management team. We have an e-mail where shareholders can submit questions and feedback, and we respond to each of those where those are addressed to the Chair, then the response comes back from the Chair as well. So we're happy and welcome feedback from shareholders and will engage proactively.

And then just one final question, moving out on portfolio construction and perhaps one for Chris to touch around the relative performance of our solar projects in Spain versus to our U.K. solar projects. So the differential there in terms of what we'd expect.

They're quite different assets on a few levels. The U.K. assets are substantially smaller. Capping out around about 30 megawatts as opposed to Spain, where they're more like 300 megawatts, and different technology in Spain as well. So it's a single access tracking. And so the -- some part is over, all the panels are moved. One of the Spanish sites is also [ by facial ], so yet reflected light off the ground, which is then also used to converting into electricity. It's also a lot more south, of course. So radiation levels are higher and outcover is different. So typically, you will expect capacity factors of around about 24% as opposed to south of England being more like 12%. Other differences as well, of course. The amount we get paid are radically different. So the Spanish projects are merchants. So we have -- effectively, we get market prices. We have got a fix in place now as well to manage some of that exposure. And then in the U.K., they typically they are rock based, right? So these are renewable tickets. So around about GBP 50 per megawatt hour with a multiplier of 1.6 or so and depending on the site, in addition to electricity price. So the amount we get paid is notably different. So big Spanish sites, low price per megawatt hour, small GB sites high price. So they're all important, and we're working to look after more.

And then we've actually just had 1 more question come in, which I think, Chris, it would be useful for you to touch on, and then maybe Minesh can add, is around the flexible capacity battery storage within the portfolio and the different competencies required to manage these projects and how that might differ from more traditional renewables infrastructure projects.

Clearly, it's a lot more condensed, the sites, than you would on the solar side or wind farm. And typically, we will combine operational maintenance. I think that has been the panel work and the asset management, so asset contractual management, financial management. So we combine that into one contract typically so to improve the communication across the asset and the way in which it's managed. There's the offtake arrangement, so the selling of the products that we've got an ancillary service, so a good quality product, helping the greater stay within a very close margin to 50 hertz, say, or buying low selling pie, so load shifting from different times of day. So there are different qualities you need there. We engage with offtakers as part of that process, offtakers, the utilities that you'll be familiar with plus some other companies. So a bit of a mix, it's high voltage, of course, it is, and so you need very capable skills on that side. And data, we see this across the whole of the renewable spectrum, the importance of high-quality data on storage, in particular. Having high-quality, high-resolution data is important to then really understand what's going on in the battery and to maximize the way in which you're able to interact with the market. Do you have anything to add to that, Phil?

Yes. I mean RES and InfraRed are experienced in both these sectors. As you say, one of them is around specialized buying and selling electricity during different times of day, which is often driven by an algorithm, and they are expert in that. And then solar is about making sure that you've got as efficient as possible the maximum availability. So there are commonalities, but also quite different, but I think between both managers, they will confirm about the...

Yes, the experience is important, isn't it? So InfraRed have previously owned a platform focused on storage and was very successful and those have been involved in storage for a very long time now, both in the U.S. and then in the U.K. We bought the first project into the U.K. with 20 megawatts, still in the portfolio, but is a [ box run ] project and providing ancillary services to National Grid. So has a really good experience there.

Thank you very much both. And that was the final question that we've got time for today. So thank you once again for viewing and sending through your questions and if there's anything further, please do get in touch with the company directly, as Minesh mentioned via our TRIG email address. Thank you very much.

Thank you for joining us today. That is all we have time for. That concludes TRIG investor presentation. Please take a moment to complete a short survey following this event. I hope you enjoyed today's webinar.