Boralex Aktie

Hello, and welcome to Boralex Annual Special Shareholders Meeting. Today's meeting is being recorded. If you are participating in today's meeting and you disclose personal information, this means that you have deemed -- you've been deemed to consent to the recording, transfer, and use of the same. If you disclose personal information of another person during today's meeting, you will be deemed to represent and warrant to Computershare and the corporation that you first obtained all required consents for disclosure, recording, transfer, and use of personal information from all appropriate people for your disclosure.

I'd now like to turn the floor over to Mr. Andre Courville, Chair of the Board of Boralex. Mr. Courville, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much and good morning to all. My name is Andre Courville. I am the Chair of the Board of Boralex. Welcome to our Annual and Special Shareholders' Meeting, the -- probably the last one to our Annual and Special Shareholders Meeting. The meeting will take place in French, but a simultaneous interpretation -- real-time interpretation is available. As you may have noticed when you logged into the platform French, but real-time translation into English is available, as you may have noticed when logging to our platform.

Representative of Boralex management are attending this meeting here with me. I have Patrick Decostre, President and Chief Executive Officer; Philippe Bonin, Chief Financial Officer; Pascal Hurtubise, Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer; and Stephane Milot, Vice President, Investor Relations and Financial Planning Analysis.

I will act as Chair of this meeting, and Pascal Hurtubise will act as Secretary. Before beginning, I'd like to ask the Secretary to explain a few of the meeting procedures. I'll also let you know that our partner, Computershare has just opened the vote on the virtual platform. You are supposed to have an iPad for your votes. So Pascal, please, over to you.

Thank you, Andre. As the meeting will be held in hybrid format, and there will be both shareholders with us in the room and others taking place virtually, we would like to remind you of a few rules to ensure that the meeting runs smoothly. Only registered shareholders and duly appointed proxyholders will be able to vote and ask questions at the meeting. Those attending virtually can submit their questions by using instant messaging on the virtual interface. Those present in the room will be able to ask questions during the question period.

As described in our Management Information Circular dated May 1, 2026, duly appointed proxyholders were required to register with Computershare and obtain a control number. All other proxyholders may attend the meeting as guests. When you ask a question, please make sure that you tell us what your name is, whether you're a shareholder or proxyholder and which entity you represent, if any. We will only be answering questions during question period. Questions or comments containing inappropriate language will not be answered.

We will not be repeating questions we've already answered or those that are redundant. Registered shareholders and duly appointed proxyholders attending the meeting virtually may vote on all agenda items by electric (sic) [ electronic ] ballot. Starting now and until we inform you that the voting period has ended. Those present in the room can vote using the electronic tablet provided to them upon their arrival.

It's important to mention that shareholders who have already exercised their voting rights or completed a proxy form do not need to vote again and can simply ignore the ballot appearing on the virtual interface. Registered shareholders and duly appointed proxyholders who participate virtually in the meeting can consult the rules of conduct and procedures of the meeting as well as all other documents relevant to the meeting in the navigation bar of the virtual interface under the documents icon.

Thank you, Pascal. Before beginning the formal portion of the meeting, which will be followed by a question period. Allow me to make a few brief comments. One of the items on today's meeting agenda is the approval of the plan with the arrangement transaction with Brookfield and La Caisse. This transaction is the result of a comprehensive review process that was conducted by a Special Committee of independent directors of the Corporation and is the culmination of extensive negotiations with the Purchaser under the supervision and involvement of the Special Committee.

After careful consideration, and after consulting with outside legal and financial advisers, the Board has unanimously determined that the Arrangement is in the best interest of the Corporation and is fair for Shareholders and accordingly recommends that Shareholders vote in favor of the Arrangement Resolution.

A full description of the information and factors considered by the Board and the Special Committee is set forth in the Circular. These factors include, amongst others, the consideration of $37.25 per share, representing a substantial and compelling premium and is near the upper end of the fair market valuation range determined by Desjardins.

The consideration will be paid entirely in cash, which provides Shareholders with certainty of value and immediate liquidity and removes risks and volatility associated with owning shares of a publicly traded company because as you can see, these days, the stock market is quite volatile, and so you'll have the money. The transaction will provide the Corporation with powerful leverage to accelerate the execution of its 2030 Strategic Plan. Brookfield and La Caisse support the Corporation's strategic objectives.

And the arrangement represents an ideal opportunity for the Corporation to one, pursue the development of its operations, footprint and level of employment in Quebec; two, ensure that the Corporation's head office remains in Quebec in the long term; and three, pursue the development and maintenance of good relationships with its partners, communities, First Nations and other stakeholders. Consideration of current industry, economic and market conditions and trends were also considered.

The Corporation as a private company will no longer be exposed to share price volatility and the associated constraints. When it comes to the election of directors of the company, we present to you this year one new candidate for the position of Director, Ted Di Giorgio, who joined the Board on October 17, 2025. His experience will complement the deep and varied skills already present on the Board of Directors. I'd like to take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks to Alain Rheaume, who stepped down as Chair of Boralex, who is here with us here today.

He stepped down as Chair of Boralex's Board on September 30, 2025. Yes, did we get that date right after serving on the Board for 15 years, including 8 years as Chair of the Board. Our warmest thanks to him for his leadership, his commitment and his dedication. I'd now like to call this meeting to order. The notice of meeting and other meeting documents were mailed to shareholders and are available under the Corporation's SEDAR+ profile.

Accordingly, I will dispense with the reading of the notice of meeting. I ask the Secretary to retain all documents in the Corporation's files. In addition, some people have been identified to move and second each of the motions to be voted on today in order to facilitate the running of the meeting. Mr. Steve Gilbert and Mr. Charles Roussel of Computershare will act as scrutineers of the meeting. They will be tabulating the proxies and votes cast today. I'm advised that their report on attendance is now ready. I would like to ask them to read it to us. Mr. Gilbert from Computershare, please?

Yes, Mr. Chair. The scrutineers under signed from Computershare Inc., would like to confirm that we have at least 7 Shareholders and/or Proxyholders at the meeting representing in person or by proxy, 67,384 shares, so 68.4% of the 102,555,350 shares in circulation for Boralex Inc., and we will submit a report signed by me, Steve Gilbert, and Charles Roussel both scrutineers.

Thank you very much. The first point at the meeting is the consideration to approve the Arrangement Resolution, being a special resolution in respect of the Plan of Arrangement involving Boralex and BIF Thunder Holdings, Inc. or the Purchaser, a newly formed entity to be jointly owned by Brookfield Infrastructure Fund V and La Caisse, the full text of which is set out in Appendix C of the Management Information Circular. Pursuant to the Arrangement Resolution.

Shareholders are asked to approve a statutory Plan of Arrangement under Section 192 of the Canadian Business Corporations Act, pursuant to which the Purchaser has agreed to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares for $37.25 in cash per share. Upon completion of the arrangement, the Purchaser will acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares and the Corporation will become a wholly owned subsidiary of the Purchaser. If the arrangement becomes in effect, each Shareholder will be entitled to receive $37.25 in cash per share.

A more detailed description of the arrangement as well as the full text of the Plan of Arrangement and the Arrangement Resolution are set forth in the Management Information Circular. In accordance with the Interim Order to be effective, the Arrangement Resolution with or without variation must be approved by the affirmed vote of not less than 66.23% of the votes.

Mr. Gilbert said we are at 68%. We're good. We can continue. so cast by shareholders present in the meeting or virtually or represented by proxy at the meeting and entitled to vote at the meeting, each being entitled to 1 vote per share and 50% plus 1 of the votes cast on the Arrangement Resolution by shareholders present in person or virtually or represented by proxy at the meeting, excluding shares held by La Caisse and by persons described in Items A through D of Section 8.12 of Multilateral Instrument 61-101, Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions.

We encounter these 2 -- we meet these 2 means. In accordance with the Interim Order, we can continue. Each registered shareholder of shares of Boralex at the close of business on the record date, being April 16, 2026, is entitled to vote on the Arrangement Resolution. Unless there are any objections, I will dispense with the reading of the resolution. May I please have a motion in respect to the Arrangement Resolution as set out in Appendix C of the management Information Circular.

My name is Pascal Hurtubise. I'm a shareholder. I move that the Special Resolution in respect of the Plan of Arrangement involving Boralex and the purchaser, the full text of which is set out in Appendix C of the Management Circular dated May 1, 2026, be approved.

Thank you, Pascal.

Can I register -- can a register holder or a duly appointed proxyholder now support this motion? My name is Patrick Decostre. I'm a shareholder, and I support this motion.

Thank you, Patrick. The motion is duly put forward and seconded. The next item is the agenda -- on the agenda is the receipt of consolidated financial statements and the Independent Auditor's Report. The consolidated financial statements and the Independent Auditor's Report for the year ended December 31, 2025, as well as the related Management's Discussion and Analysis are included in Boralex's 2025 Annual Report.

This report is available under the documents icon in the navigation bar of the virtual interface. I'd like the Secretary to file and retain the Corporation's filed and audited consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2025, together with the Independent Auditor's Report thereon and the statutory declaration confirming that a copy of these documents was sent on May 8, 2026, to the shareholders who requested them. I confirm.

Thank you, Pascal. The third item on the agenda is the election of the 12 candidates proposed by management for election as directors of the Corporation. Detailed information on each of these nominees can be found in the Management Information Circular. Under the Advance Notice Bylaw adopted by the Board of Directors on March 1, 2018, and ratified by the Shareholders on May 9, 2018, a process must be followed and certain deadlines must be met in order to nominate a candidate for a director position.

No other nominations have been made in accordance with this Bylaw, only the nominations set forth in the Management Information Circular will be voted upon. I would therefore ask Pascal to present the proposal concerning the nomination of the 12 proposed nominees.

Mr. Chairman, I propose the nomination of each of the 12 following people for election as directors of Boralex. Mr. Andre Courville, Ms. Lise Croteau; Mr. Patrick Decostre, Mr. Ted Di Giorgio, Ms. Marie-Claude Dumas, Mr. Ricky Fontaine, Mr. Remi Lalonde, Mr. Patrick Lemaire, Ms. Nadia Martel, Mr. Dominique Miniere, Mr. Zin Smati, and Ms. Dany St-Pierre.

Thank you, Pascal. Can a registered shareholder or a duly appointed proxyholder now make a motion for the election of each of these people?

My name is Stephane Milot. I'm a shareholder. Mr. Chairman, I move that each of the 12 candidates be elected as a Director of Boralex and until the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders.

Thank you, Stephane. This motion is supported.

My name is Patrick Decostre. I'm a shareholder. Mr. Chairman, I support this motion.

Thank you, Patrick. The motion is duly made and seconded. We will now proceed with the fourth item on our agenda being the appointment of Boralex auditors for the fiscal year 2026. The Board of Directors, following the recommendations of the Audit Committee, proposes that PricewaterhouseCoopers be appointed as Boralex's independent auditor and that its remuneration be set by directors. I'd now like to ask Pascal to present the motion concerning appointment of auditors.

Mr. Chairman, I move that PricewaterhouseCoopers, a firm of Chartered Professional Accountants, be appointed as the Corporation's independent auditor for the year ending December 31, 2026, and that its remuneration be fixed by the Corporation's Directors.

Thank you, Pascal. Can a registered shareholder or duly appointed proxyholder now support this motion.

My name is Stephane Milot. Mr. Chair. I'm a shareholder, and I support this motion.

Thank you, Stephane. The fifth item on the agenda is the shareholders' advisory vote on Boralex's approach to executive compensation. The text of this advisory resolution is reproduced in the Management Information Circular.

I'd now like to ask Pascal to present the motion concerning the advisory vote on our approach to executive compensation.

Mr. Chair, I move, on an advisory basis and without diminishing the role and responsibilities of the Board of Directors, that the shareholders accept Boralex's approach to executive compensation as set out in the Management Information Circular.

Thank you, Pascal. Would anyone like to second this motion?

My name is Patrick Decostre. I'm a shareholder. Mr. Chairman, I support this motion.

Thank you, Patrick. The motion is duly made and seconded. We are now at the point of the vote. So, if it hasn't already been done, we invite you to vote on all items at the agenda via the electronic platform or using the tablet that you received when you arrived in the room. We'll give you about 30 seconds to exercise your right to vote if that has not yet been done.

[Voting]

Once the electronic voting is complete, the voting page will disappear and your votes will be automatically recorded. I now declare that the voting period is closed for all items mentioned in the notice of meeting. I would now ask the scrutineers to compile the voting results on all agenda items. We will return in a few moments with the scrutineers' report and the voting results.

Thank you for your patience. I will now invite Mr. Steve Gilbert of Computershare to read the scrutineers' report and the preliminary results of the votes.

Thank you, Mr. Gilbert, I confirm that the resolution regarding the arrangement was adopted. Thank you, Mr. Gilbert, I confirm that the arrangement resolution has been adopted.

Regarding the election of directors, I confirm that all 12 candidates were duly elected as directors of the Corporation. I'm also able to announce that the resolution regarding the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as Independent Auditor of the Corporation and the Advisory Resolution accepting Boralex's approach to the remuneration of Senior Management Members have been adopted.

Thank you, Mr. Gilbert. I would like to inform you that the final results of the vote will be available on SEDAR+ as soon as possible. This concludes the formal part of our meeting. Having exhausted all the items on the agenda, I declare the meeting adjourned. Before moving to closing remarks, Patrick and I will proceed to the question period, if there are any questions. We have people online, which can ask questions and people in the room here come to the microphone. You state your name, tell us if you're a delegate, a proxy holder or a shareholder and then ask your question.

I'm told the back that there are no questions virtually. So this means the matters are very clear. Things are unfolding well. So let's continue. Therefore, let's go to the next page. If there are no questions, we'll continue. So closing remarks to our CEO and Chair, Mr. Patrick Decostre.

Good morning, everyone. Board members, former members of our Board, members from management colleagues, former colleagues also, those who participated in the whole history of Boralex, my dear partners, when I say partners, I'm thinking of our advisers and our shareholders. To conclude this important shareholder -- shareholding on this meeting, I'd like to go back to what we've done in the past for Boralex and us our vision.

This exceptional business person believed in renewable energy well before it became obvious to all by drafting this sentence. I was wondering if it was obvious to all. But for us and for Bernard, it was obvious renewable energy was obvious to reach its goals to this new -- the former Cascades Energy the means to achieve this ambition, we had to acquire a publicly traded company, Boralex, initially present in hydroelectricity and with a significant presence in biomass and cogeneration, Boralex quickly expanded into wind energy.

It also extended its reach into France, the United States, and other Canadian provinces. In recent years, our growth has been driven by diversification. We have developed our solar energy business, and we are beginning to do the same when it comes to energy storage. We have also expanded our geographic presence, particularly in the United Kingdom. Boralex's development in both Canada and France is part of the emergence of a genuine industry of independent, private electricity producers in markets long dominated by state monopolies.

In this sense, our journey has gone beyond mere corporation growth. It has also contributed to advancing a new, more diversified, more open and more resilient energy model. That said, the ongoing optimization of Boralex has never been simple. Numerous constraints had to be addressed, health and safety in a new and rapidly growing industry, emerging technologies, the loss of funding required for assets and projects, stakeholder management, not to mention constantly evolving legislative and regulatory frameworks.

These constraints have changed over time, but they remain very real and critical. Today, Boralex has over 130 wind, solar, hydroelectric and storage sites totaling 3.8 gigawatts. It seems that yesterday, we only had 3 or 4 sites and with more 8 gigawatts of projects under development. It is a company that has evolved and reinvented itself and has built relationships of trust with Indigenous communities, municipalities, towns and governments.

And of all Boralex's 850 employees with completely -- with complementary talents who move the company forward every day. For me, that what matters most. The best way to describe their contribution is with a quote from one of our great philosophers. You can't just play your game. You have to play the game and bring your game into the game. I don't know if it was well translated to English, but anyways, they'll get the philosophy behind this.

The sentence is funny, of course, but at its core, it is true because the strength of teamwork isn't simply about rowing in the same direction in the same way. Robots could do that. What matters is that everyone contributes their individual strengths to the common game plan. It's the sum of all these unique and complementary talents that allow us to stand out. Boralex has true value flows in and out of our offices and facilities every day. It has a human base.

I'm talking about committed people who work very hard and enjoy doing just that. Over the years, our teams have constantly demonstrated the agility needed to navigate complex energy, regulatory, and political environments. And often, it must be said changing and unstable ones. In our sector, they are rarely a dull moment. And we've always been able to find solutions to forge our path through instability. This has become a true strength at Boralex.

You can even say that the adaptability is part of our DNA. I'm confident in our teams, and I'm deeply grateful for their continued commitment. It's thanks to them that we've been able to move forward with rigor and ambition and resiliency. Today's shareholder approval of Boralex private equity transaction marks a significant milestone for the company. As a privately held business, Boralex will have greater flexibility to pursue countercyclical strategies. It will be able to develop and acquire assets in target markets where the medium- and long-term outlook is known to be favorable.

In short, we're going to put our energy where it counts and all of this in maintaining our corporate culture, our roots in Quebec and our international presence. Today, what I feel is gratitude toward the people behind this operation, the employees, the Board of Directors, the shareholders who have supported us over the years and who have remained even in the most difficult times, the bankers who have trusted us, our lawyers and other external advisers, our partners in the communities where we operate and of course, our 2 future shareholders rather, who believe in the importance of renewable energy and Boralex's potential to develop it like Bernard believed the 35 years ago.

Thanks to this support, we can approach the future with confidence. It's an ambitious road map. We have the right partners to rewrite it with us. We share the same long-term vision. And we firmly believe that renewable energies are sustainable solutions that will -- that we must invest in to strengthen energy security. Why? Because they are perpetual energy sources unlike fossil fuels, which depend on limited resources.

Historically, access to fossil fuels has often fueled tensions and conflicts. The current international context, particularly in the war in the Middle East serves as a stark reminder of this. This is not the case with locally produced renewable energies, which do not rely on a single limited resource. Quite the contrary, they strengthen our energy autonomy, stability, and resiliency. It is with this conviction that we will together continue to develop the development, yes, of renewable energies, create value and bring to life the vision and values of Boralex's founder.

In a context where energy demand continues to rise, particularly due to the race for AI and where the fight against climate change must be accelerated. We will strengthen security, energy with clean, sustainable and unlimited energy sources. And we do this for the benefit of current and future generations. Thank you.

Well, thank you very much, Patrick. So hello again, everyone. We're almost at the time to have a cocktail together. So once again, I would like to thank you for being with us today for this AGM, which can be described as extraordinary as it marks a new milestone in the history of Boralex. Today, we reached a significant milestone in Boralex's next phase of growth.

Once finalized, this new partnership with Brookfield and La Caisse, 2 long-term investment -- investors with extensive experience in the energy infrastructure sector will provide the company with powerful leverage to accelerate the implementation of its 2030 strategic plan. The company will improve its access to capital and gain greater flexibility to invest and respond to growing demand in its markets.

Since its inception, Boralex has constantly adapted to support its growth. For example, since I joined the Board of Directors in 2019, it has expanded into Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. It has also developed its presence in the solar energy and battery storage markets. Boralex recently adopted a new strategic plan that is both ambitious and quite robust.

Brookfield and La Caisse believe in this plan and will provide the company with better tools to implement such a plan. With these 2 new shareholders, Boralex will benefit from more stable access to capital and a solid foundation to continue developing large-scale projects that will contribute to energy security. Indeed, the renewable energy sector is booming. Demand continues to grow, driven by factors such as energy security, reindustrialization, economic growth, and the energy transition.

And in the vast majority of markets, despite high volatility, growth prospects remain quite strong. All of this will continue to be done from Quebec, where the company's head office will remain. And Boralex will continue to move forward with the same values that make it unique. Finally, I would like to commend the vision of the Lemaire family, particularly that of the late Bernard and his son, Patrick, who's with us today, who built a company of which Quebec can be very proud.

Of course, I would like to thank everyone who has led Boralex over the years, both in management and on the Board of Directors. I also want to acknowledge the remarkable work of the Boralex teams. They are the ones who keep the company culture alive, who know how to adapt and who enable it to take the major steps in its development. Thanks to the commitment of all these individuals, Boralex has become and will remain a key player in the global renewable energy sector. This ends my formal speech. If you give me a minute, it's not scripted. I may hear about this afterwards. But this is our last meeting. They can say what they like.

Now when we join a Board, we don't know what we're getting into. We joined to accomplish a mission work as a team with the business' management team. And that's what I've noticed since I arrived at Boralex in 2019, a Board that is wonderful with very talented people around the table and a Management Committee under Patrick's Governance. And Patrick, we were well tooled. We had the necessary tool to do work. But it's not always obvious. You're sitting around the table, you're trying to decide this creation, this baby will hand it over to someone else.

So we've had some difficult discussions, which is normal, but I'd like to thank all Board members who support me throughout that period and especially over the last few months as we went through this and to this road map, which led us to here today. We have a few authorities to obtain a few. We're still a Board until everything is finalized. So last few words, so thank you. Thank you for joining this journey with all of you. And thank you also, perhaps I said so beforehand to our legal advisers, to our financial advisers, and to everyone who support us. And we've all missed out on many weekends before we finalize all this, but everyone worked very hard. So thank you and excellent journey to all.

[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Boralex Fourth Quarter 2025 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that the conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions]

Finally, media representatives are invited to contact Camille Laventure, Senior Advisor, Public Affairs and External Communications at Boralex. Her contact information is provided at the end of the quarterly press release.

And now I would like to turn the call over to Coline Desurmont, Director, Investor Relations for Boralex. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Boralex's Fourth Quarter and Year-end Results Conference Call. On today's call, Patrick Decostre, our President and Chief Executive Officer, will provide an update of our business. Afterwards, Stephane Milot, our Executive Vice President and Interim Chief Financial Officer, will present the financial highlights of the quarter. Then we will be available to answer your questions.

During this call, we will discuss historical as well as forward-looking information. When talking about the future, there are a variety of risk factors that have been listed in our different filings, which can materially change our estimated results. These documents are all available for consultation on SEDAR. Mr. Decostre will now start with his comments. Please go ahead, Patrick.

Thank you, Coline, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. It's a pleasure for me to present our results and key achievements for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2025.

2025 was a year of strong execution for Boralex despite greater quarterly volatility in resource generation and unfavorable year-over-year pricing comparison in France. We remain disciplined in our approach focused on our long-term strategy and continue to deliver sustainable growth while reinforcing our leadership in renewable energy.

We have been very active in the fall by submitting projects in 4 different RFPs, 2 in Ontario, 1 in New York State and 1 in the U.K. The demand for renewable remains very solid in our different markets, and we're counting on a very strong pipeline of projects to benefit from for years to come. These results not only reflects the strength and commitment of our talented teams across the organization, but also the resilience of our business model and our strong focus on creating long-term value for our shareholders and partners.

In terms of financial performance. For fiscal year 2025, total combined production was 8% higher than in 2024, but 10% below anticipated production. Wind conditions in 2025 improved compared to last year throughout North America and the commissioning of new projects provided a significant advantage. However, overall wind levels in France and in the United States fell short of our projections.

As a result, our financial performance in 2025 is below our expectations for a combined operating income of CAD 248 million and a combined EBITDA of CAD 655 million, down 2% from 2024. The increase in production was not sufficient to offset the negative impact of lower selling prices in France, as expected, due to lower prices on our short-term contract. Stephane will cover later in more details our fourth quarter results.

On the development side, 2025 was a very good year for Boralex with our portfolio of development projects and growth trajectory now exceeding 8.2 gigawatts. Our installed capacity stands at 3.8 gigawatts, representing an increase of 615 megawatts, driven entirely by organic growth.

During the year, our company entered a new phase with the launch of our 2030 strategic plan, building on the strong foundation we have established over many years and setting a clear path for continued long-term success. Since its introduction, we have made significant progress in our 4 key markets. In the United Kingdom, the commissioning of Limekiln wind farm reflects our expansion in that high potential market. Our position was also solidified with receiving ministerial approval for the 189-megawatt Clashindarroch extension, which includes both wind and battery storage. And with the recent award of a CfD for the Sallachy 44-megawatt Sallachy wind farm through the AR7 process.

Meanwhile, in France, we have consolidated our leadership position with the commissioning of 2 wind farms, Fontaine-Les-Boulans and Febvin-Palfart, totaling 29 megawatts. In addition, Boralex ranked first by cumulative capacity in the most recent French Wind Auction, securing 2 projects with a total capacity of 125 megawatts. In the U.S., we signed 2 contracts with NYSERDA for the Fort Covington and Two Rivers Solar Project, totaling 450 megawatts. Both projects have advanced to the secured stage within the year.

Looking to our progress in Canada. The commissioning of our Apuiat wind farm marks an important step in Quebec renewable energy journey. We are also moving forward with the construction of 2 major wind projects, Des Neiges Sud, for which we secured financing earlier this year, and most recently, Des Neiges Charlevoix.

Finally, we reached an important milestone with the successful deployment of battery energy storage technology. This quarter, we have -- we commissioned the Sanjgon battery energy storage system, Boralex's first operational storage project in North America developed in partnership with the Walpole Island First Nation.

The Hagersville battery energy storage project also began operations in Q4 2025, and we are very pleased to announce the commercial commissioning of the site as we received yesterday the retroactive confirmation from IESO effective February 18. This project is the largest battery storage project in Canada and has been developed in partnership with The Six Nations of the Grand River Partners First Nations. Together, these projects add 380 megawatts to our installed capacity, making us the largest battery storage operator in Canada.

We also highlight the rapid expansion of our storage activities in Ontario and the continued diversification of our portfolio in terms of technologies and also in terms of type of revenues. Both projects demonstrate our team's strong execution and ability to successfully scale new technologies in new regions.

Turning to market updates. Quebec continues to show strong momentum in renewable energy development. Hydro-Quebec has confirmed that it will launch a new call for wind power tenders in spring 2026 for Southern Quebec while launching earlier this week a call for partners for its major development zone. With our sustained presence and ongoing development activities in this market, we are well positioned to capture these upcoming opportunities.

At the federal level, Ottawa has introduced 25 global tariffs on certain steel derived products, including wind turbine towers, while also tightening import quotas. Partial exemptions have been granted and additional carve-outs may follow, particularly for projects already contracted or currently under procurement.

In the United States, NYSERDA 2025 call for tenders closed in December with results expected shortly. Also, NYSERDA has been granted expanded authority to procure up to 5.6 terawatt hour per year by 2029, signaling continued policy support and long-term demand for renewable energy in New York State. In France, after a period of uncertainty, the publication of the third Pluriannual Energy Plan in February 2026 finally sets the country's energy trajectory through 2035. It aims to increase the share of decarbonized energy in final consumption to around 60% by 2030, supported by a mix of renewable energy and nuclear generation. The framework also confirms the relaunch of renewable energy tenders starting in 2026.

I will now briefly review the main variances in our development project portfolio and growth path. Our portfolio of early, mid and advanced stages project now represents 7.2 gigawatt. The change was mainly due to the addition of projects in the early and mid-stage totaling 1,383 megawatt, partly offset by the transition of project to the secured stage and by the discontinuation or sale of other projects. The growth path now consists of 1.1 gigawatt of wind, solar and battery storage projects.

The evolution of the growth path included the addition of new projects in the secured stage, including Fort Covington and Two Rivers Solar Project totaling 450 megawatts, and the 125-megawatt Oxford BESS project. This increase was partially offset by the start of operation of 6 projects during the year, representing 615 megawatts that moved into operation. At the beginning of its new strategic plan, Boralex is very well positioned to deliver strong organic growth going forward in each of its targeted market.

Before handing it over to Stephane, I would like to say a few words on the appointment of Philippe Bonin as the new CFO announced this morning. I'm very pleased to welcome Philippe in the Boralex team. Philippe will bring extensive leadership experience from major companies in a variety of sectors and a strong strategic mindset that will be essential in supporting our 2030 growth ambitions. We look forward to his contribution as we continue to make Boralex evolve to deliver on our key objectives.

I also want to sincerely thank Stephane Milot for his outstanding work during the interim period. His dedication and deep understanding of our business has been invaluable during this transition. On a more personal note, Stephane, I want to express how grateful I am to be working with you. Your truly compassionate and people-centered leadership has made a meaningful impact here at Boralex. You are highly appreciated throughout the company, and we are very lucky to have your ongoing support and great spirit well beyond the scope of your responsibilities. Thank you, Stephane. [Foreign Language]

Hi, everyone. Thank you, Patrick, for your kind words. It has been a great opportunity with a lot of work, but also a lot of fun, I can tell you. So I truly appreciate it and look forward to continuing our journey together. Special thanks to our finance team at Corporate, North America, Europe. You rock, everyone. We did -- what a past 6 months we had together. So you really made the difference. Thank you.

So now back to the quarter. Total combined production was up 17% compared to the same quarter last year, driven by more favorable wind conditions and the impact of newly commissioned sites in Europe and North America. Production was nevertheless 7% lower than anticipated due to unfavorable weather conditions in North America and to a lesser extent, in Europe. Our combined EBITDA amounted to $203 million, up $12 million, and consolidated discretionary cash flows amounted to $56 million, up $9 million compared to the fourth quarter of 2024.

The financial results were positively impacted by better wind conditions and the contribution of newly commissioned sites in Europe and Canada, partially offset by the impact of lower prices of short-term contracts in France.

I will now provide a more detailed overview of our quarterly production. So in North America, total combined production for the quarter was 5% higher than the same quarter last year, but 9% lower than anticipated production. Production from wind assets in North America was 9% higher compared to the same quarter last year. However, production came in 6% below expectations, mainly due to lower contribution from U.S. wind farms.

Production from wind -- not, sorry, from hydro assets was 23% lower than last year and 30% lower than anticipated, mainly due to unfavorable weather conditions across North America. Production from solar assets in the United States was 9% lower than the same quarter last year and 5% lower than anticipated. In Europe, total production was 40% higher compared to the same quarter last year, but 4% lower than anticipated.

Regarding our balance sheet, available liquidity and authorized financing amounted to $681 million as of December 31, 2025, an increase of $158 million compared to December 31 of last year. Total debt stood at $4.4 billion, with project debt accounting for 85% of the total.

I would like to congratulate again our finance team for delivering [ especially ] results this year, securing $1 billion in project financing and closing $250 million corporate financing jointly led by La Caisse and Fondaction in Quebec. So these achievements highlight our ability to structure sophisticated financings on optimal terms, strengthening our financial flexibility and positioning us well to achieve our 2030 objectives.

So lastly, this year was an important one on the CSR front. Boralex was ranked first in the annual Best 50 Corporate Citizens ranking by Corporate Knights, demonstrating our leadership in sustainability among Canadian companies. Other recognitions received this year include an award presented to Boralex France for its diversity initiatives as well as the price awarded to the Hagersville battery energy storage project by the Canadian Renewable Energy Association for the Innovative Canadian Clean Energy Project of the Year. These achievements illustrate Boralex's ability to combine performance, innovation, and lasting positive impact in the communities where we operate. For more information, I invite you to read our 2025 CSR report, which was published earlier this morning along with all the other annual documents that were published.

So in conclusion, 2025 was a successful year for Boralex with the launch of our new strategic plan, supported by the commissioning of large-scale projects in our key markets. And looking ahead, we are very excited for the years to come, and we will continue our efforts to execute on our projects.

We have been active in recent tender processes in Ontario, New York State while carefully preparing for the upcoming 2026 wind power call for tender announced by Hydro-Quebec. So driven by sustained demand for renewable energy, Boralex continues to grow in a disciplined yet ambitious manner, backed by a renewable team that is fully engaged and committed to implement our strategic plan and achieve our growth objectives.

Thank you for your attention. We are now ready to take your questions. Yes.

[Operator Instructions] We are now going to proceed with our first question, and the question comes from the line of Baltej Sidhu from National Bank of Canada.

Looking forward to continue working with you, Stephane. So just a few questions for me here. On the French wind roll-offs, I think the government in France noted that it's going to be focusing on repowering existing wind farms to increase capacity and protect the environment, which we believe is going to be beneficial to your portfolio. So could you just provide a little bit of insight as to how we should be thinking about the French portfolio in that regard and what you've identified to be repowered? I don't know, you have Ally-Mercoeur and also Le Grand Camp. But any other additional details you can provide?

Yes, sure. Indeed, the government is looking to this to favor the social acceptability of project and make them easier to be authorized. Our team, as you know, we have had a recurring strategy before the 2022 crisis, and we have postponed it a little bit because the prices were so high that it was interesting to catch this value during -- up to 2025.

So no, the team -- in between, the team has worked on roughly 450 megawatts of new project reborrowing that will increase. In this 450 megawatts, there is 200 megawatts of new capacity. So it means that we have taken 250 megawatts of projects in operation and we have worked to obtain an authorization on this project. Half of these projects have already been authorized. So we will be ready to bid them in the next RFP when they will come. And typically, the Ally-Mercoeur project is both a repowering and an extension of a project that we put in service 21 year ago, I was 21 years younger at that time and you too, in France of 39 megawatts and now it's 104-megawatt project that will be put in service in 2028. So this is typically an advantage, as you mentioned, for Boralex going forward.

Yes. Just maybe a point on the megawatt that Patrick mentioned. This is like for the next, I would say, 5 years or so, like it will be bid in upcoming RFPs. It's like -- just want to mention that.

Yes. And it's a favorable situation also in terms of return. Obviously, We are developing where we are. Thanks, I would say, to the situation in the U.S., there is a little bit more pressure on the price of the turbine worldwide. So we are able to secure good price in France, as you have seen, around EUR 86 per megawatt hour, the last tender. And the price of the turbine are kept down. So it's a good return that we will have to execute with this project.

Excellent. That's great color. So just sticking on with France and the other side of the equation towards pricing. We're looking at merchants and recontracting prices that you've noted. Do you see them coming in line with your expectations? And how do we think about the cadence of recontracting those assets that are now coming off those short-term contracts?

Essentially, in France, we have a policy of what we call the reference hedging path. So we are fixing the price every year in advance, up to 3 years in advance. And the percentage of that is hedged is increasing the soon -- the closer you are to the gate closure of the year before. So that is exactly what we're doing.

So we are -- you have to understand that our team is always in the market on this with -- this is always pay as produced contract also. We are not taking volume commitment on that, and they are comparing to the possibility also to go with the brownfield PPA. But you understand that 250 megawatts of project that will be repowered in the next years is part of this portfolio of projects that are emerging today because it was the project -- the contract we early terminate in 2022. So that is another avenue for this project is to be increased and securing a 20-year contract with EDF again.

But in the current context, it's for sure that the priority is to go with the EDF contract so to build these projects. But we did, as Patrick mentioned, we had for specifically those projects, but not project, but assets where we exited the contracts, we made a lot of money in the past few years. So that was a good decision to push the repowering forward.

Great. And then just one more for me here. Could you give us an update on your 2 U.S. solar farms that I think has secured a contract, Fort Covington and Two Rivers that Patrick had touched on in the prepared remarks. So what conditions do we need to see for those 2 projects products to cross the line towards FID and if there's any expectations on kind of timing, if you can give any details on that?

Yes. Essentially, on these projects, we are working on finalizing the investment decision in terms of finalizing negotiation with model suppliers, finalizing negotiation with a BoP supplier and engineering at the same time to optimize them. So the team is working hard on this. And yes, we will provide information when we would be ready to take this investment decision.

We are now going to proceed with our next question, and the questions come from the line of Sean Steuart from TD Cowen.

A couple of questions. Patrick, hoping you can give some perspective on the upcoming wind tender from Hydro-Quebec, whether it's partnering with them on larger scale projects or advancing your own projects. Can you give us a sense of the magnitude you anticipate participating or at least submitting into that tender and expected timing on -- the clarity on timing with respect towards -- with respect to that tender.

Yes. There is 2 things. There is one for large-scale project in Hydro-Quebec as open one area, which is called Wocawson for a partnership selection process. This is -- we are -- Boralex meets all the minimum eligibility criteria for the selection. As you know, we are a partner with Hydro-Quebec since years. And so we know we have good communication with them. We know how to work with them. And our team is presently looking to all the RFP requirements, the governance structure and how we can play this with them. This is a partnership between Hydro-Quebec, Alliance de l'Est, and IPP, and it confirms what Hydro-Quebec has said 2 years ago that for the large project, they will go with IPP. So that is, I think, the good news because I know that in the market, there was a question about this. So this is confirming what we are seeing and what Hydro-Quebec has been saying for the last 2 years that there will be a position for IPPs there. So that's one thing.

The other point is they mentioned that there will be consolidation for a call for tender for a minimum of 150-megawatt size of project in Southern Quebec, and this is typically aligned with the Boralex development footprint and experience and the relationship that we have with indigenous community. And the consultation is now. The bid are due in February '27, and the award is scheduled for August '27 next year. So this is also something that is -- it will be, again, long-term contract. So very classical project in Quebec for Boralex, and we will be there to bid.

Okay. And then maybe a question for Stephane. As you work to move more projects into the secure development pipeline. Can you comment on the funding platform? Any thoughts towards incremental asset recycling or refinancing initiatives that you might have in your thought process towards bolstering liquidity?

Yes. So it's really aligned with the plan we presented in last June. So asset recycling, not necessarily in the near future, but they're in the plan. And also, like you've seen with the debt with La Caisse and Fondaction. So corporate debt, asset recycling and potential refinancing, we're working on a large one in France and always looking at other opportunities to get better conditions or flexibility in terms of financing. So pretty much in line with plan.

[Operator Instructions] We are now going to proceed with our next question, and the questions come from the line of Nelson Ng from RBC Capital Markets.

My first question just relates to Hagersville. So congrats on commissioning the project. I just want to clarify, I guess, given that it was operating since December, but only commissioned last week, will that project make a full quarter financial contribution in Q1?

Yes. We got some very limited revenue in the fourth quarter but it will kick in starting more at, say from mid-February with more regular revenue stream. So you can, in your modeling, take this data, the kind of a date to start applying the contribution that we've discussed with you in the past.

Okay. Perfect. And then just looking at that growth path chart and just looking at some of the bigger projects on the secured list. So I think you were talking about the New York solar projects earlier. The plan is to complete those projects by -- or in 2028, right?

Yes. So we're still working on with that schedule in mind. Yes. So we're going as fast as we can.

Okay. And then for the Oxford battery project, is that also a 2028 completion date project?

No. That's a 2027, if I recall.

Mid '27, yes. Yes, we obtained all the authorization. There was some final authorization that should be obtained and we were planning to obtain them in March. And finally, in February, we get everything this year. So we are -- the kickoff meeting of the project was this week.

It's going really well, financing also, everything is in line. It's going to be -- it's all green, if I could say, on this one.

Great. And then one other thing. So you were talking about recontracting in France, but I know in Texas and New Mexico, I think there are a few projects that might be selling power on a merchant basis. And I know, I guess it's a joint decision given that you own 50% of the assets. But given the demand for power in that region, like what are your thoughts on whether it's recontracting those assets, repowering them?

I will -- just one thing before -- go ahead, Nelson.

Yes. No, I'm just thinking in terms of from a repowering perspective. Like time is -- I think, time is running out in terms of prequalifying them for tax credit. So can you just talk about recontracting, repowering and some of the considerations you're looking at?

Yes. I will let Patrick answer this one. But just before, you talked about recontracting in France. It's really more like our typical repowering project that we're looking at in France, which is really like, you know, it's like almost -- it's a rebuild. It's not a repower like it could be seen in the U.S. So it's a new project where we're looking at it, and we are taking into consideration the fact that when we repower or rebuild, we remove the -- what we had in place and when we looked at returns, it's a net return on the overall project. So I just want to make sure everyone on the line get this part.

As far as U.S. is concerned, we're not in a position right now to indicate exactly what's going to be our strategy there, but we're working on different scenarios.

Okay. Got it. And then just one last question. You mentioned the short-term contracts in France in terms of the pricing headwind. I think I was doing the rough math, and I think the realized European wind price year-over-year was down about 22%, and I presume those short-term contracts are the key driver. But when you look forward into 2026, is there a rough expectation in terms of what the realized wind price would be in terms of -- like is it a smaller step down in '26?

Yes. I think as you know, all the pricing effect, Nelson, has different parts to it. For merchant, I think if you look at the forward curves, it will give you an idea. But as far as contract is concerned, we still expect in 2026 a negative but much less important negative effect than what we got in 2025, but still a negative variation because of the way we have set up the contracts when we exited contracts in end of 2022. And also the fact that we had a window, as you know, to like the 18 months measure that we could benefit from. So it's all that, that we got the benefit in a few years back and then now it's like unwinding. So 2026 will be the last year where we'll get this effect. After that, it's going to be more back to normal.

There are currently no further questions at this time. So I'll hand back to you for closing remarks.

All right. Let's go, Coline.

Yes. Thanks, everyone, for your attention. Our next conference call to announce first quarter results will be on Thursday, May 14, 2026 at 9 a.m. Have a nice day, everyone, and a nice weekend.

Thank you, everyone.

Thanks.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Boralex Third Quarter 2025 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Also note that the call is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] Finally, media representatives are invited to contact Camille Laventure, Senior Adviser Public Affairs and External Communications at Boralex. Her contact information is provided at the end of the quarterly press release.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Coline Desurmont, Director Investor Relations for Boralex. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Boralex Third Quarter Results Conference Call. On today's call, Patrick Decostre, our President and Chief Executive Officer, will provide an update of our business. Afterwards, Stéphane Milot, our Interim Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, will present the financial highlights of the quarter. Then we will be available to answer your questions. .

During this call, we will discuss historical as well as forward-looking information. When talking about the future, there are a variety of risk factors that have been listed in our different filings which can materially change our estimated results. These documents are all available for consultation on SEDAR. Mr. Decostre will now start with his comments. Please go ahead, Patrick.

Thank you, Coline, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. It's a pleasure for me to present our results and achievements for the third quarter of 2025. The total combined production for the third quarter increased by 9% compared to the same period of 2024, primarily driven by the contribution of newly commissioned sites, in Europe. The third quarter clearly reflects the benefits of our diversification by technology and region. While wind conditions in North America had been compensating for unfavorable conditions in France since the beginning of the year, the situation completely changed in the third quarter. Conditions in France while still below expectations were more favorable than in North America.

Combined EBITDA was $108 million, down $1 million compared to Q3 2024. The increase in production was not sufficient to offset the negative impact of lower prices of short-term power purchase agreements in France. During this quarter, we continued to make progress across our development project portfolio, adding 395 megawatts of new projects. Additionally, for convicted solar project in the United States reached the secured stage, adding 250-megawatt AC to our growth path. This quarter is also marked by a significant headway in construction and commissioning of major projects in Canada. We now have 3.4 gigawatts of assets in operation in our 4 key geographies and 558 megawatts of projects under the construction and ready-to-build stage.

In particular, the commissioning of the Apuiat wind farm co-developed with the new communities is a key strategic milestone for Boralex. Apuiat is the first wind farm on the Cote-Nord region and a powerful symbol of the revival of Quebec wind energy. As we wrap up our 2025 strategic plan and look ahead to 2030, Apuiat illustrate our vision of sustainable growth and our deep commitments to the energy transition. We would like to thank our team for their resilience, adaptability and focus that were key to deliver this landmark project. During this quarter, we also continued to make progress with the construction of our projects in Canada.

In Ontario, the construction of the 2 battery storage projects, Hagersville and Tilbury is advancing as planned, with commissioning scheduled by the end of the year. We were thrilled to share that Hagersville was recognized by the Canadian Renewable Energy Association, CanREA with the innovative Canadian Clean Project -- Power Project of the Year award. This recognition reflects our commitment to innovation and active contribution to the energy transition. It is part of a series of acknowledgment that highlight our dedication to sustainable development, which remains at the core of our business strategy. The Des Neiges Sud project is also progressing well as we have started building the wind turbines foundation at the site in recent weeks.

Turning to market updates. Quebec continues to show strong momentum in renewable energy development amid rising pressure to meet growing needs energy needs. The upcoming Plan de gestion intégrée des ressources energétiques expected in April will provide a detailed assessment of days needs and could introduce more ambitious targets potentially requiring Hydro-Quebec to revise its capacity expansion plans upwards. At the Federal level, the latest budget introduced a 15% clean electricity investment tax credit equivalent to the 30% clean technology investment tax credit already available further enhancing the investment landscape for future projects.

In Ontario, the ISO launched its long-term 2 RFP, LT2 to support new energy and storage capacity. Boralex submitted a proposal during the October energy window and is now advancing preparations for the second phase. The December capacity window further strengthening our position in this key growth market. In the United States, NYSERDA along its 2025 renewable energy solicitation with final results expected in February 2026. Boralex is preparing to submit bids supporting its expansion in this market.

In the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom remains a strategic market for Boralex with strong growth ambitions over the coming years. The AR7 procurement round is currently open with submission deadlines scheduled between November and January. Our U.K. team is actively preparing to submit competitive bids. In France, Boralex participated in the onshore wind call for tender last July, and we are pleased to announce that we were awarded 2 projects totaling 125 megawatts, placing us first in cumulative capacity. Across the tender, 42 projects were awarded out of 90 submission at an average tariff of EUR 86.6 per megawatt hour. This results confirm our strong position in the French onshore wind market and highlights our ability to deliver ambitious project under competitive conditions. Contract awarded to Boralex will benefit from above the average prices confirming the excellence of our bidding teams.

I will now briefly review the main variances in our development project portfolio and growth path. The decrease in our development project portfolio was mainly due to the transition of Fort Covington solar project to the secure stage. The disposal of our portfolio of small solar project in France and the revision of the installed capacity of a battery project in Ontario, partially offset by the addition of 395-megawatt of wind and solar projects in the early and mid-stage. In total, our portfolio of early, mid- and advanced stages project now consists of projects totaling more than 7 gigawatts of wind, solar and battery storage projects.

In the third quarter, our growth path represents a capacity of 1,030 megawatts, reflecting a net increase of 147 megawatts compared to the previous quarter. The transition to the secured stage of Fort Covington solar project in the United States partially offset the commissioning of Apuiat in Canada. In addition, the [indiscernible] repowering wind project in France with a total planned capacity of 14-megawatt move from the secured stage to the construction or ready-to-build stage during this quarter.

This completes my part of the presentation. I will now hand over to Stephane, who will provide a more detailed overview of our financial results. I will be back later for the Q&A session. Stephane?

Thank you, Patrick, and good morning, everyone. So thanks for being on the call with us. I understand there are a lot of companies reporting today, so very busy day for all of you. As mentioned by Patrick, the regional contribution to the production and overall results changed in the third quarter compared to the trend we had observed in the first half of the year. Total combined production was up 9% compared to the same quarter last year, mostly driven by the impact of newly commissioned facilities in Europe.

It is important to consider that production in the third quarter of 2024 was weaker than expected, which explains why the year-over-year comparison looks good. While when we compare to the anticipated production of the third quarter of 2025, the production is 13% lower. This decrease was due to unfavorable weather conditions in North America for wind and hydro and to a lesser extent, for wind in Europe. Our combined EBITDA amounted to $108 million down $1 million, primarily due to the impact of lower prices of short-term contracts in France, partially offset by the commissioning of new assets. Discretionary cash flows amounted to $9 million, down $7 million compared to the third quarter of 2024.

I will now provide a more detailed overview of our quarterly production. Production for wind assets in North America was 8% higher compared to the same quarter last year. However, production came in 16% below expectations, mainly due to lower contribution from Canadian wind farms and the delayed commissioning of the Apuiat project. Production from hydro assets was 15% lower than last year and 16% lower than anticipated, mainly due to unfavorable weather conditions in the United States. Production from solar assets in the United States was 3% higher than the same quarter last year, but 9% lower than anticipated. In Europe, total production was 19% higher compared to the same quarter last year, but 9% lower than anticipated, mainly due to unfavorable condition in France and a longer-than-expected outage at a Limekiln wind farm in August to undertake plan worked on the transition line.

Regarding our balance sheet, available liquidity and authorized financing totaling -- total, sorry, $811 million as of September 30, an increase of $288 million compared to the December 31 of last year. Total debt increased to $4.4 billion, with project debt accounting for 87% of the total. During the quarter, we continued to advance our financing strategy in support of our growth initiatives and capital diversification. In France, we have repaid our construction facility following the previously announced incremental tranche of $164 million added in July under the term loan of 2 wind farm portfolios. Finally, on the CSR front, as we advance our 2030 strategic plan, sustainability remains central to our operation from workplace culture to community engagement.

So this third quarter we made tangible progress across our strategic pillars, sorry, including project development, commissioning and partnership. In a dynamic market environment, our teams continue to execute with discipline and determination. We submitted wind projects under Ontario's LT2 request for proposal in October and are actively preparing for upcoming procurement rounds in the U.K., Ontario and New York. With a strong development project portfolio growing demand across our markets and solid financial flexibility, we are well positioned to deliver on our strategic objectives and create long-term value for investors.

This completes my part. I will now hand it to the operator for the question period.

[Operator Instructions] And the questions come from the line of Baltej Sidhu from National Bank of Canada.

So just on the France strategy, could you provide any incremental updates or share your current view thinking regarding the French strategy, particularly in relation to contracts rolling off and your views around recontracting, repowering their potential sell downs, which is notable in light of the announcement from yesterday?

Yes. Essentially, the -- all the decrease in the end of the contract that we signed in 2022 was known and scheduled. And then we have a clear path and strategy to say we want to contract, the price going forward, a certain percentage of our generation, expected generation with a certain percentage as close as we are to the real time, say, okay. So 2 years in advance or 3 years in advance, we start contracting and then this percentage increase. So we are catching the right price and not speculating on the price. So that is one side for the -- in operation.

What we have to and you have noticed that we have a repowering strategy that we had before in 2020 and 2021 that we put on the shelf a little bit during the high price period and the high-price window and now we have that again. So for example, 1 of the 2 projects that we just got awarded is the Ally reporting was an increase from 39 to 104-megawatt project with a great price for the next 20 years. So this is part of also of our strategy in France. And considering the limited amount of new project authorization, the repowering strategy is a great strategy that we will continue to have in France to increase the revenue and secure them on the long term. If I could add...

Go ahead, Baltej.

Yes. Sorry. So I just wanted to add, I think France still has a goal of embedding I think 10-gigawatts of onshore wind capacity through 2028. So just given the contracts are rolling off and to Patrick's comment that it's more beneficial to repower just given the plan and such that we could probably see Boralex looking at more repowering opportunities in that regard. Would that be a fair assumption to see?

Yes. And on top of this, it is clear that there was some I would say, instability in the French government the last year. And now we have beginning of the week when the Prime Minister and the Minister of Energy declared the award of the last tender. They confirm that the next subject on their file is -- on their desk is the [indiscernible] the planification of the energy, and this is needed for renewable industry, but also for the nuclear industry. So there is a lot of pressure in France to release these documents and that is expected in the next weeks or months. You mentioned during the fall. So the fall is not long.

And also, Baltej it's -- as you know, it's taking a bit longer now to COD project in France. So it's sure that we have a very strong pipeline. But the year 2026, 2027 are, I would say, lower than what we would like them to be in terms of addition of capacity, but it's ramping up after. So there's 2 things there. We will work for sure, on efficiency improvement during that period. And also, we believe that the situation in France could eventually lead to potential transaction. We'll be looking at this market carefully knowing that for however, that as we've talked in the past, that U.K. and U.S. are 2 areas where we want really to focus in terms of M&A, but France is -- could become an interesting region if the market remains tough.

Great. That's great color. And just another one for me, if I may. So it's great to see the 250-megawatt for Covington solar project advance to the secured stage in the U.S. Could you share any updates on the other project, the 200 megawatts for [ 2 Rivers ] and how discussions are progressing there?

Yes, they are really next -- going ahead next, it's the fact that on the cut of the quarter for Covington make it probably next month -- next quarter, sorry, [ 2 Rivers ] will do it again. So it's -- we're really working close to close on this project and consider them to take a financial -- and final investment decision beginning of next year. The team are working hard on that.

The questions come from the line of Nelson Ng from RBC Capital Markets.

I had a quick follow-up on your French project commentary. So I think, Patrick, you mentioned that one of your wind projects will be repowered to the size of 104 megawatts. So that's pretty big for a wind project in France. I think they're usually a lot smaller. Like are -- is the -- are the size of your developments in France increasing? Or was this more of a one-off size?

Thank you, Nelson. It's a good question. In 2005, Ally was the largest site in France for all the market, and it seems that it will continue. So it's a repowering and expansion of the project. We are changing -- we are today distribution connected. We will be transmission connected. So it's a place where there is room for reporting an extension. But it's clear that we're working sincere to increase the size of the project. And that's why, for example, we have sold some small solar project, and we are always looking to increase the size of the project. So this is something that is on our side, too.

And then just switching gears a bit. So you announced that you've entered into a 5-year contract with the -- for the 50-megawatt Milo wind project in New Mexico. I think when you bought the portfolio in New Mexico and Texas, a few other projects were either merchant or going to be merchants in a few years? I think is it [ Harrier and LongHorn ]? Are those facilities merchants? And are there plans to contract them under like medium-term contracts? And then just finally, could you just talk about the market? I presume power prices have moved higher or demand has moved higher given that there's a lot of data center talk in that region?

Yes, that's -- you're right, and we have some inbounds on customers and potential partners on this project, too. So the team is working to like anywhere in Boralex to optimize the asset value. And so this is the case in New Mexico and ERCOT, generally speaking.

[Operator Instructions] The questions come from the line of Mark Jarvi from CIBC.

Patrick, you brought up the Quebec situation maybe just update us in terms of when you think the next RFPs come and just sort of the status of involvement potentially for Boralex on these gigawatt scale wind cooperative projects?

Yes. Essentially, we are -- there is some, say, rumors in the market that it could be soon, but we will see what Hydro-Quebec and the government will decide going further. It's sure that there is some interesting factors somewhere, which are the fact that the export will start in New York next April. I think the export into Massachusetts will start in December. So all this will increase the demand somewhere in Quebec. So we are doing our job as much as possible to be prepared to be the good partner of Hydro-Quebec on this project, and we're also preparing us if there is an RFP for 350 and under RFP that Hydro-Quebec will do the classical procurement process. We are also ready to bid project there. So we are working on this.

If you had to say the probability of securing another contract in Quebec is it more likely on the bilateral negotiations or through the Costco RFP process?

Yes. I think what I'm saying is I am asking the team to work on both scenarios because it's the best way to increase the probability, whichever scenario will come. But I cannot tell you which scenario Hydro will decide in terms of first procurement and afterwards, if we will be competitive on both, but we're trying to be competitive in both scenarios. And due to all the demand in Quebec, I think potentially both scenario will come. So we should be prepared for both.

Okay. And then with the budget earlier this week in Canada, there was a mention of potentially introducing domestic content requirements for eligibility for the tax credits. Do you see that as a risk? Or do you think being a company that's developed in Canada for a long time gives you an edge on that in terms of procurement versus newer entrants to the Canadian market?

Yes. This is something we are [ wanting ] to ring, but we're not seeing that as a big risk presently.

We have no further questions on the phone line. So I'll hand back to you for any webcast questions that you may have.

Good. Maybe a point before we -- so is there another question?

No, we have no questions.

Okay. Maybe a point before Coline doing the closing remarks. I just want to remind everyone that we -- there's going to still be a price effect in Europe for the fourth quarter and -- but also there's going to be contribution from COD site, Hagersville, Tilbury and Apuiat so just is there. It's going to be positive and a negative outside of the normal weather conditions and as always, December -- well, Q4 is a strong period for us. So we hope that the weather will be on our side for this quarter. Thank you.

Well, thank you, Stephane, and thanks, everyone, for your attention. Our next conference call to announce fourth quarter results will be held on Friday, February 27, 2026 at 11:00 a.m. Have a nice day, everyone, and a nice weekend.

Thank you.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Boralex Second Quarter 2025 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. Please also note that today's conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions]. Finally, media representatives, I invite you to contact Camille Laventure, Senior Adviser, Public Affairs and External Communications at Boralex. Her contact information is provided at the end of the quarterly press release.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Coline Desurmont, Director, Investor Relations for Boralex. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Boralex's Second Quarter Results Conference Call. On today's call, Patrick Decostre, our President and Chief Executive Officer, will provide an update of our business. Afterwards, Bruno Guilmette, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, will present the financial highlights of the quarter. Then we will be available to answer your questions.

During this call, we will discuss historical as well as forward-looking information. When talking about the future, there are a variety of risk factors that have been listed in our different filings which can materially change our estimated results. These documents are all available for consultation on SEDAR.

Mr. Decostre will now start with his comments. Please go ahead, Patrick.

Thank you, Coline, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Before we start, I would like to take some time to highlight the other announcements we made this morning. First, I would like to sincerely thank Bruno Guilmette for his outstanding contributions over the past 7 years as our CFO. Bruno has played a key role in shaping our strong financial foundation, helping us double in size and hit major milestones. Under his leadership, the company completed several transactions and financings, including the sale to energy infrastructure partner, EIP of a stake of 30% in Boralex operating assets and development project in France.

We will miss him. Why we will miss him? We are in great hand with Stéphane Milot stepping in during the interim period. Stéphane has a strong financial background and solid experience in different finance and IR role he played in the past 30 years. He has worked closely with Bruno in the past years and knows our business inside out. Bruno, thank you for everything, and good luck for your new professional challenges.

Thank you, Patrick.

I'd like also to take the opportunity to officially welcome André Courville as the new Chair of the Board of Boralex effective September 30. André has been a valued member of our Board since 2019 and brings deep experience that will be key as we move forward with our 2030 strategy. At the same time, I want to sincerely thank Alain Rheaume for his remarkable leadership over the past 15 years, 8 of which he served as Chair of Boralex. Alain played an extremely valuable role in shaping Boralex growth, governance and long-term vision. On behalf of the entire team, thank you, Alain, for your dedication, and welcome, André.

Back to the quarter now. In the second quarter of 2025, we continued to make good progress on both development and construction activities. Our operating facilities faced mixed weather conditions across the various technologies and region in which we operate and a decrease in average selling prices as expected due to lower prices on our short-term contract in France. This quarter, total combined production increased by 10% compared to the same period of 2024, driven by a strong performance of our operating assets in North America and the contribution of newly commissioned sites in Europe. Combined EBITDA was $145 million, down $7 million compared to Q2 2024. The increase in production in North America was not sufficient to offset the negative impact of lower prices of short-term power purchase agreements in France. Bruno will later provide a more detailed overview of our second quarter financial results.

During this quarter, we were very pleased to announce the signing of 2 contracts with NYSERDA for the Fort Covington and Two Rivers solar project totaling 450 megawatts. New York State remains a strategic growth market for Boralex, and we are proud to support its renewed commitment to building a clean energy economy. While with the signing of the One Big Beautiful Bill, we now have more clarity in the U.S. market. As of today, we're confident that these 2 projects meet the safe harbor requirements, enabling us to secure eligibility for tax credit. We're making solid progress in securing panels and BoP for the construction of this project.

This quarter, we were also thrilled to share that Boralex has been named Best Corporate Citizen in Canada by Corporate Knights. This recognition highlights our strong commitment to integrating corporate social responsibility and risk management at the core of our business strategy. I'm very grateful to our teams across North America and Europe for their dedication and hard work in building a more sustainable future.

Finally, last June, we presented our strategic plan and financial objective for 2030. Our strategy builds on significant efforts made over the past years to create a high-quality project development portfolio, enabling us to set fully organic growth targets across our 4 geographic markets where demand and renewable -- for renewable energy is growing rapidly. For more details, please refer to the Investors section of our website.

Regarding market updates, Quebec recently enacted Bill 69 to accelerate energy development. It gives Hydro-Quebec greater autonomy over its project and sets an electricity generation target of an additional 60 terawatt hour. Also, under government approval, private renewable energy producers are now authorized to sell electricity directly to an adjacent private consumer, creating new opportunities for decentralized energy production and commercialization.

In Ontario, ISO has launched the first window of its long-term 2 RFP called LT2 aiming to secure 3 terawatt hour of new energy generation and 600 megawatts of storage capacity with deadline in October 2025 for the first phase and December 2025 for the second. To encourage local participation, the RFPs includes evaluation criteria to support Canadian companies. We're confident that our local expertise and strong relationships with local communities provide a solid foundation for upcoming bids in both markets.

In the United Kingdom, the government concludes the review of electricity market arrangement, REMA, by deciding to reform the national pricing system rater than split the country into different pricing zones. It is a very positive signal for the renewable sector as the reform will improve the system while maintaining investors' confidence. The United Kingdom remains a key strategic market for Boralex with strong growth ambitions for the coming years. Our U.K. team is preparing to submit bids in the next AR7 RFP with binding submission scheduled from October through December.

Now looking at our project. I'm pleased to announce the commissioning of 2 wind farms, Fontaine-Lès-Boulans, 18-megawatt and Febvin-Palfart 11 megawatt in the north of France. Both projects began operations ahead of schedule and under the budget, thanks to the dedication and expertise of our teams who have strong experience in the region.

During the second quarter, we also continue to advance with the construction of our project in Canada. All the turbines of the Apuiat project are now installed and the commercial operation date is expected at the end of September. The construct -- in Ontario, the construction of 2 battery storage projects, Hagersville and Tilbury is advancing as planned with commissioning scheduled by the end of 2025. The Des Neiges project wind farm is also progressing with commissioning planned in 2027. In May, we announced the financing of the project, marking a key milestone in its development.

I will now briefly review the main variances in our development portfolio -- project portfolio and growth path. The increase in our development project portfolio was mainly due to the addition of 242 megawatts of wind and solar projects in the early stage. In total, our portfolio of early, mid and advanced stages project now consists of projects totaling nearly 7.3 gigawatts of wind, solar and storage projects. In the second quarter, our growth path represents a capacity of 883 megawatts, reflecting a slight decrease of 4 megawatts compared to the previous quarter due to the commissioning of 2 wind farms in France totaling 29 megawatts and partially offset by the transition to the secured stage of a 25-megawatt battery storage project in the U.K. In addition, 2 solar projects in France totaling 23 megawatts progressed from the secured stage to the construction or ready-to-build stage.

This completes my part of the presentation. I will now hand it over to Bruno, who will provide a more detailed overview of our financial results, and I will be back for the Q&A session at the end. Thank you.

Thank you, Patrick. Good morning, everyone. This quarter, total combined production was up 10% compared to the same quarter last year, driven by the strong performance from operating assets in North America and the contribution of newly commissioned sites in Europe. Production was nevertheless 9% lower than anticipated due to poor wind conditions in Europe and in the United States. Our combined EBITDA amounted to $145 million, down $7 million and discretionary cash flows amounted to $12 million, down $5 million compared to the second quarter of 2024. The financial results were negatively impacted by the lower prices of short-term contracts in France and the reduced share in net earnings of joint ventures and associates.

I will now provide a more detailed overview of our quarterly production. In North America, total combined production for the quarter was 9% higher than the same quarter last year, but 6% lower than anticipated. Production from wind assets in North America was 7% higher compared to the same quarter last year, but 10% lower than anticipated. The good performance from wind assets in Canada was not sufficient to offset the lower contribution from wind assets in the United States and the delay in the commissioning of the Apuiat project.

Production from hydro assets was 19% higher than last year and 8% higher than anticipated, mainly due to favorable weather conditions in the United States. Production from solar assets in the U.S. was 13% higher than the same quarter last year and 2% higher than anticipated. In Europe, total production was 13% higher compared to the same quarter last year but 14% lower than anticipated, mainly attributable to unfavorable wind conditions in France.

Regarding our balance sheet, available liquidity and authorized financings totaled $689 million as of June 30, an increase of $166 million compared to December 31 of last year. Total debt increased to $4.3 billion with project debt accounting for 87% of the total.

During the second quarter, our finance team has successfully signed several financings for a total of more than $1.2 billion to support our growth initiatives while diversifying our sources of capital. In May, we announced alongside our partners, Énergir and Hydro-Quebec, a $960 million financing for the denied wind project currently under construction.

Later in the quarter, we closed a corporate financing of $250 million in the form of an unsecured subordinated loan maturing in 2033. The investment is jointly made by La Caisse, which is providing an amount of $200 million and a new partner, Fondaction, investing $50 million. In France, we are pleased to announce that in July, we closed the financing of an incremental tranche totaling $164 million under the term loans of 2 portfolios of wind farms and projects.

Finally, on the CSR updates for the quarter, as already mentioned by Patrick, we are very proud to be recognized as Best Corporate Citizen in Canada by Corporate Knights. I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate our CSR commitments. As we pursue our 2030 growth trajectory, we will continue to prioritize a safe, healthy and inclusive workplace for our employees. We will also extend our engagement with local communities and make environmental responsibility central to how we operate.

Looking ahead to 2050, sorry, the goal of achieving net zero emissions may seem very far, but is already shaping the decisions we make today. Our commitment to net zero aligns fully with the mission and purpose of our company. In conclusion, we continue to develop and execute our projects in attractive markets, maintaining a good financial flexibility. We remain focused on delivering long-term growth to our investors in line with the targets of our 2030 strategic plan.

As this is my last quarterly call with you, I want to thank you all for your continued support of Boralex over the last 6 years. I very much enjoyed interacting with all of our shareholders and analysts. I will leave on September 12, leaving a very experienced group of colleagues who will continue to execute with discipline. You guys know I like this word, on our recently announced strategic plan for 2030. We have a strong balance sheet to execute on this plan.

I want to take this opportunity to thank Patrick Lemaire, who I first started working with as CEO of Boralex and Patrick Decostre, who has been our CEO for the last few years and my whole finance team, who is a very strong team, and I'm very confident on the ability of this team and the transition plan we have put in place with Stéphane as the interim CFO. And I want to wish good luck to Stéphane. Many of you know him well. And what you may not know as well is that Stéphane and I joined approximately at the same time in early 2019, and we've been going on this incredible journey, doubling the size of Boralex with the team, with the management team and with the finance team since that time.

Thank you all again, and good luck, Stéphane.

Thanks, Bruno. I've been very privileged to have you and work with you in the past 6 to 7 years. So we'll continue for sure with the team and wish you all the best and until for this new challenge. So very thrilled. So on the -- on this, I think we'll go through the Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] The questions come from the line of Sean Steuart from TD Cowen.

Congratulations to both Bruno and Stéphane. Patrick, I'm wondering if you can provide any update on the hydro sales process. I think last indications where there was quite a bit of interest. Any updated perspective on how that process is playing out?

Sean, Patrick said today because of this change that I'll send all questions to me, especially the tough one. As you know, we've mentioned and talked about asset recycling as a means of financing, but we also talked a lot about discipline. And we also want to emphasize that we always have options for different types of financings, but we're always focused on the lowest cost and the best opportunity to do our financing.

So on the hydro sale specifically, the offers we received were not at the required price that we were looking for. And essentially, we said that we did not need to do the transaction because we had other options where these assets are very good, and we'll keep them in the portfolio. It offers good diversification. And you've seen that we closed on the subordinated debt financing for $250 million, and this gives us the best cost of financing in terms of alternatives and offers the liquidity needs to continue to grow our plan for the near future.

Understood. And with respect to prospective growth, at the Investor Day, there was mention of wanting to build up the current regional platform, and there was a discussion of the U.S. still being of interest even after the New York solar projects as a growth vehicle for the company. Wondering about your perspective, whether it's the reconciliation bill or the subsequent executive order and investigation and the related rhetoric around that. Does that change your perspective on the U.S. as a longer-term growth driver for this company?

First, on the project themselves in New York, as I mentioned, they are safe harbor, and we are very confident with this because it was even prior to the bill. So that is one important point, and we are working on this project to make them -- finalize them and take investment decisions in the following quarters, I would say.

On the long-term part, what is, I think, clear is that the demand in the U.S. is still -- very growing quickly and very important. So I think we have to continue to work on developing there. And the good news, I think, with the bill is no -- there is less unknown than before the bill. As long as you have the assumptions for the model, you can define the price and what is the price and every players are bidding on the same level. So we will continue to develop in the U.S. and specifically in the state of New York to create a platform there. And we will obviously continue to look to alternative in Canada, U.K. and France if it's better for capital allocation.

And the questions come from the line of Nelson Ng from RBC Capital Markets.

Bruno, I think we're all sad to see you leave. And I think that's being echoed by the market just judging from the share price reaction, but good luck in your next role.

Thank you, Nelson. I'm pretty confident that price will recover in the next few minutes. Thank you.

So first question is in France, obviously, you guys flagged that one of the headwinds is the lower-priced short-term contracts. Like when we look at the rest of this year, should we expect the same type of headwinds? And can you just give a bit more color on the -- call it, the EBITDA headwinds you see from the short-term contracts in France?

Thank you, Nelson, for your question. The -- essentially, we start from a high point where the prices in France were boosted by the different things that happened in France a few years ago, and we've been able to profit from those higher prices and contract for a few years. We're at the tail end on these contracts, and that's why you see a difference because we contracted for 3, 4, 5 years in some instances, and that's where you see the decline essentially from higher prices to what I would say, normal prices. So there is a diminishing effect as we're at the tail end this year mainly of this trend of higher prices to normal prices. So you should see a diminishing effect in the next 2 to 4 quarters.

Sorry. So the following quarters will see a smaller impact compared to the largest impact?

Very much.

Okay. Great. And then the next question just relates to the New York solar projects. I noticed that it's not on your growth path chart yet. What are some of the big milestones you need to achieve before you guys put it on the growth path?

Yes. Nelson, we are working closely with panel suppliers and BoP contractors quite advanced in engineering of the project to finalize an investment decision end of this year, beginning of next year probably. And then start of -- the start of construction formally has been done because we have already ordered transformers beginning of this year. So that I will not use start of construction because -- but the really final investment decision will be taken beginning of next year. And then it will be in service in 2028 for both projects. So this is -- we have a good local partner for BoP we are working with. So it's an interesting first project in New York for us.

Great. And then just one last question, sticking to the U.S. Like now that there is better renewable tax credit visibility, and I presume there could still be some surprises later this month. But what are your thoughts on repowering the U.S. wind projects in New Mexico and Texas. I think they are about 10 years old now. So they -- so those PTCs are rolling off. And I guess they -- if you were to repower them in the next few years, you probably need to do something about it to safe harbor them by July of next year. So any thoughts there? And obviously, it's a decision between you and your partner, EDF. What are your initial thoughts on the repowering?

Yes, we are -- we have to look to all those things depending -- but it depends for sure on the PTC, ITC situation, but it depends also on the price of electricity that we can get in Texas. And that is presently, the prices are lower than what we have experienced the last year. So we are working on different optimization of the assets. We have contracted one of the small assets in Milo in New Mexico. So we are constantly working on this and have the team -- the commercial team has different idea. But the answer is yes, we're working on this, but no clear answer of any decision or orientation I can give today.

The questions come from the line of Mark Jarvi from CIBC.

First, all the best, Bruno, and thanks for all the time in the last couple of years and thanks for stepping Stéphane.

Thank you, Mark.

Yes, there was a media article suggesting that you were exploring potential partners and different options with the U.S. or the New York projects. If you do go down that path, what would you be looking for in terms of partners? Is it risk sharing of capital? Is there something else that you're looking for in terms of partnerships, specifically in the U.S. and New York?

No, essentially, it's that. It's a way of -- we have -- like all the time, we're looking to the transaction, we are sometimes buyers, sometimes potential sellers, and we have -- we are monitoring the market there. It's a way to optimize the return and share some risk with -- for a good project. And I think that's what we're looking for essentially. We have a good team also for the development and construction of this. So essentially, this is looking for a partner at the right valuation in this market.

And you do that at pre-completion? Or is this something you want to complete the projects, crystallize the value and then bring in a partner for a sell-down?

Yes. I will not go into these details, but it is a financial optimization process. So it will depend on what are the willingness of the potential buyers to take construction risk or not and see the different value that they are giving to this. And then we will look if it's interesting for Boralex or not. And if it's a way forward for us. If it's not, we will be very happy to do the project because they have a good return and they are accretive on the free cash flow per share and they are accretive for the company.

Makes sense. And then your comment about safe harboring with the transformer investment. Was that done in 2024 or done at some point this year?

No, it was done this year. I think we had -- it was 3 months before May because I remember that it was -- there was a delay. So early 2025, yes.

Okay. And then just turning to Scotland. Can you just maybe elaborate a little bit on the impacts of the REMA, why you think that's beneficial? And then with the battery projects showing up in your advanced pipeline, just pursuit of more battery projects right now and how you sort of see the mix of wind and battery development in the U.K. playing out over the next couple of years?

Yes. The risk of -- during the REMA consultation, specifically with the former government, there was a risk of some customer-oriented bodies that were lobbying for regional prices in the U.K. And so prices could go -- could be impacted the closer you are to the loads, the -- it will -- and all the further you are to the load, the lower the price would be. And this is not what the government has decided for many reasons because otherwise, it would have impacted a lot the wind in Scotland specifically. So that is an important point for us, first of all.

And the second point is they want to continue to optimize the total cost of power in the U.K. And definitely, some -- the plan of the U.K. government is to go from 5 gigawatt to 25 gigawatt of storage in the U.K. because it's a small system compared to Continental Europe. And in this small system, they need to have more support to the grid, and that's exactly what we are doing with our project, which is called Toftingall. It's not far away. It's probably 20 kilometers from Limekiln. It's in the same area of the grid, and it's an important add-on to the generation. And the market is the U.K., as you know, is also quite sophisticated in terms of day ahead and balancing mechanism, and we are, say, playing this market or -- and this will be -- this will give more options to play it with storage and wind at the same time.

Would you say storage returns in the U.K. are comparable or better than what you'd maybe try to get in Ontario or...

No, it's comparable. It's comparable. It's a completely different situation because it's not -- we will not do -- like we do -- presently in Ontario, we do stand-alone storage. In this situation, it is clearly a storage, which is electrically close to our project of Limekiln. So it's the same dynamic, and there is a complementarity. In Ontario, we really are able with the long-term contract with the ISO to do stand-alone storage. So it's a different risk profile, but a very interesting one.

You have to -- this is excluding the ITC, in terms of return.

And the questions come from the line of Baltej Sidhu from National Bank of Canada.

Congratulations to both of you, Bruno and Stéphane. So first, with hydro being the most near-term capital recycling item, which is now off the table just given where bids had shaken out, could this change the calculus with respect to funding plans for the 5-year plan where I think capital recycling was around $900 million, and we were looking at limiting equity issuances up to $500 million.

No, it doesn't change the overall financing plan. Essentially, we have different options in the portfolio to do capital recycling. We've already identified other possibilities, and it will continue to be planned as we did in terms of the amount, but using our different options at the right time. And again, on the financing side, we have always good options in terms of debt refinancings. We've proven this quarter and other previous quarters that there's quite a bit of different options to leverage either corporate or projects. And in terms of -- so essentially, we don't expect more equity needs at the end. It's just different options, different timings for the capital recycling.

Perfect. That's great. And then just in regards to France, just given where pricing is, would there be expectations that these assets could be repowered or stay on the merchant market? Or is the corporate PPA market robust enough? What are your thoughts on that?

Yes. We had different options of repowering that we were already looking in 2020, 2021. And some of them have been shelf for a certain period because the short-term price has been very, very good, and we have been able to contract short-term price for '22, '23, '24 and '25. Definitely, we are looking to this. We have, for example, bid a project over 100 megawatts in the last tender in France, which is a repowering extension of one of these projects that we put in service in 2005 and that we have extended with very good price the last year. So this is something we are dynamically looking at and monitoring to create the more value as possible.

Great. And just one follow-up on that. So if repowering did occur, could you share any estimated cost estimates on a megawatt basis? Or is that too early to say right now?

Yes. Repowering in France, you have to look to that as somewhere new project. What you -- because in the example I'm giving, the power of the new project is 2.5x the power of the project that has been authorized in 2004 and 2002 and built in 2004. So it's a completely different situation. What is the real value of repowering is the fact that we have social acceptability, local community support and relations since in this case, 25 years almost. And that is the key point in France. Obviously, you benefit from an existing grid connection depending on the factor of power increase, but you need many times to add another grid connection. So even grid connection is not always an economy. It has been in some projects that we have repowered the last years. Sometimes it's not. But it's each project we have to look for, and we are monitoring the best time to take the decision of repowering.

So just it's -- if you're modeling for per megawatt, it's like a new project.

Yes. And what is great is you go and you bid and you obtain the long-term contract for 20 years. So you can refinance. So we are taking everything into account to be sure that it's accretive and reducing the risk for the company.

The questions come from the line of Benjamin Pham from BMO.

I wanted to touch base on the data center customer side of things. For Boralex, is there any opportunity to get leverage to that industry either through corporate PPAs or some sort of bilateral contract?

Yes, it's not the main topic that we have commercially presently. I think, as I mentioned, I think, in different Q&A, there is a lot of big players or people with firm power who are working with data center. What it left a lot of place for us because it's increased the demand on the system. But we're not specifically working on data center.

Okay. So it sounds like the companies that are well positioned, they have more scale and supplier -- and not to say you don't have supplier relationships, but it sounds like it's more of the bigger scale players that are better positioned.

Yes. On the scale side, it is the case. On the contractual part, we have shown that we have been able to sign many contracts last years with a very good margin on existing or new assets. And I think it's the right strategy for Boralex to concentrate on this instead of trying to compete with the big players who have indeed scale competitive advantage to us.

So it's focused on price and margins rather than volume in our case.

Exactly.

Okay. I know you've been discussing the [indiscernible] hydro asset, your reasons for not selling. But I just wanted to maybe expand on this a bit because I'm a bit surprised you didn't go for sale thinking that there's probably going to be the best multiple you get in your entire portfolio. So I'm wondering then just given the amount of demand, was this just simply Boralex had a certain multiple in mind and it wasn't reached? Or is there something around some sort of -- maybe -- I think you referenced some other optimization strategies that could create more value?

Yes. At some point, Ben, we need to -- clearly, we always have high expectations. As I said, we need to find the lowest alternative for lowest cost financing. So we always have high expectations from ourselves based on the quality of these assets. This is -- we'll continue to operate the assets. There might be financing opportunities in the future also to optimize further. So I think in the end, it's a question of timing of the process and valuation, but we very much believe that these assets should have a higher value than what we've had during this process. And at the same time, we were and are still working on different alternatives for financing. So we're never short on options, and we'll always take the best options for our shareholders.

Got it. Maybe my last one, and by the way, congrats on the next adventure. I'm just thinking you're probably quite intimate with the strategic plan and building it not too long ago. But how does Boralex then think about the transition now with the new CFO and the strategic plan, which Bruno would have been heavily involved with? Is there enough accountability across all your channels that develop that plan that you can seamlessly transition it that the new CFO doesn't have to go and maybe not feel comfortable with the plan or may have to recommend changes to it?

I think we've explained and demonstrated that there is a very clear transition plan. Both Stéphane, I and the whole management team have been very intimately involved in preparing the strategic plan for 2030. I'm extremely confident in the ability of the team and the skill sets to execute on this plan and everyone in management and the finance team work closely together. So there's no surprise to be expected on that front. This is a plan that will continue to be executed on and that doesn't change the targets we've put in place.

Exactly. And I think we have Stéphane is supervising the FP&A since many months now, have been involved himself with the FP&A team in the modernization of the thing. Eric is working as VP Finance for all the financing and has been involved since now years in the different financing we have. And so there is no question around this. And Pascal Laprise-Demers that you have seen also was instrumental to according all those things with the strategic part of the project. And there is a lot of people behind this. So it was a bottom-up top-down, bottom-up, top-down process, and I think we have margin and different ideas of optimization. So as I mentioned, we will miss Bruno, but we're not alone, and we have a strong team with us.

And -- and you know we have a mid- to long-term business. So you can look at our growth plan, our specific assets that are in the growth path. And you can see that this is a clear path and the strategy numbers based on the actual projects that we have and the plan is based on organic growth. So there should not be -- and there will not be surprises on that front.

And I can add -- just one point, Ben, on -- like when we present our plan, it's like we have source and use of funds and we give indication of where we want to go. But at Boralex, with Bruno, it will continue with me and with the whole team. We want to have options. We're always looking ahead. We are evaluating different financing options. So it's not going to track necessarily perfectly year-over-year what has been said. But overall, for the next 5 years, we stay the course, like this is where we're going, and we always select the option that is the most favorable for the company and the shareholders. So I just wanted to add that.

[Operator Instructions] The questions come from the line of Robert Hope from Scotiabank.

Congrats to Bruno and Stéphane. Questions regarding Quebec Bill 69. How do you think the authorization of direct sales will impact the market there? And how will you set the organization to better interact with large power users in the province?

Yes. Essentially, we are -- we have been already in different conversations with large customers during the last years. And because -- the reason why there is this part of the law is because customers and IPPs have been advocating that it's a way like in France, in the U.K., in the U.S. to do something directly and that is good for the system, okay? And that's a way to bring power quicker to the system. So I think this is one thing which is interesting. So we are already in relation with some customers and have experience of doing this in France specifically and listen to customers.

The demand in Quebec is very high. As you have seen, Hydro-Quebec, the plan is -- and the law is speaking about a 60 terawatt hour increase of demand, which is really significant increase of demand. So there will be many opportunities for IPPs, even if Hydro-Quebec is working, as you know, on larger projects, but they are working and they are saying that they will continue to work with IPPs because we have experience of doing that in other place. So I think it's -- it will help also Hydro-Quebec to build lines also, which is very important to bring more power on the system. And all those things, I think, are good news at the end for the industry.

We have no further questions on the phone. I will now hand back to you for any questions on the webcast that you may have. Thank you.

Thanks, everyone, for your attention. Our next conference call to announce third quarter results will be on Friday, November 7, 2025 at 11:00 a.m. Have a nice day and a nice vacation for those waiting for the end of the quarterly reporting. Thank you.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you, and have a great day.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Boralex 2025 Investor Day. I am Coline Desurmont, Director of Investor Relations. And I would like to thank you for joining us today here in the room and also those that are joining us on the webcast.

Regarding the organization, we will start with a full 2-hour presentation, followed by a 30-minute Q&A session, both in person and online attendees are encouraged to participate and ask questions. Afterwards, we invite you to join us for lunch where you will have more opportunity to interact with our management team here today.

So before we proceed, I would like to draw your attention to the disclaimer statements. This contains important information regarding forward-looking measures, non-IFRS measures and other financial measures, combined basis non-IFRS measures that we use during the presentation. For more detail definitions of these items, please refer to the non-IFRS financial measures slides at the end of this presentation. We do not have any printed presentation here in the room, but I think you should have received it by e-mail and otherwise, it's available on our website.

Now let's start. Here in the front row, we have a good group of speakers representing a mix of corporate and business unit leaders, starting with Patrick Decostre, President and CEO; Bruno Guilmette, EVP and CFO; Pascal Laprise-Demers, SVP, Corporate Strategy and Business Performance; Marie-Pierre Morel, Senior Director, Development in Québec; Adam Rosso, SVP, Development, North America; Julie Cusson, SVP, U.K.; Nicolas Wolff, EVP and General Manager, Europe; Robin Deveaux, EVP and General Manager, North America; and to finish Mihaela Stefanov, SVP, Integrated Risk and Management and CSR.

You can see we have a complete agenda today as we aim to provide you with valuable insights into Boralex strategic direction. So I hope you enjoy it. And with that, I hand it over to you, Patrick.

Thank you, Coline, and it's nice to be here. The last time we were in presence, it was 2019. It was before a new name was known for all of us, COVID-19 and then in 4 years ago, we did it completely virtually. So it's great. And as you can see, the team has been also renewed. And as I will say now and in conclusion, we're showing you our bench, but a very small part of the bench of talent at Boralex. And that is one of the goal today is to show you that.

So just to start of a quick snapshot of Boralex. We're in this business in 35 years. And so we have a real industrial experience. We have been through many turbulent period, many crisis, and we have, from the beginning, an industrial approach of our business.

Our success, I was mentioning that, is based on the 825 people who are working for us and in the 4 different jurisdictions that we are operating. We have 3.3 gigawatts in operation to date, it was 3.2 at the end of last year, and it's diversified in technology and geographies. 93% of our revenues are contracted with 11 years of remaining duration. We will certainly come back to this figure later today. We're listed in Toronto with around $3.3 billion market cap.

The strat plan that we will present to you today, [ 2023 ] reflect the important effort that we put the last years on our growth strategy to increase significantly our pipeline of projects -- our portfolio of projects from 3 gigawatts to 8 gigawatts today. It means that the plan is fully organic -- fully organically based. It doesn't mean that we will not do any M&A, but it's -- we achieved the financial target with only organic projects that we know are in the pipeline today. And this is completely de-risk if you compare to the last plan we present to you.

The installed capacity has increased from 2.2 gigawatt to 3.2 gigawatt by the end of '24. And again, it confirms our ability to put in service new assets. And this year, we will put in service more than 600-megawatt by the end of the year. During this period, our combined EBITDA at a compound annual growth rate of 7%. For the future, we're targeting a higher organic EBITDA CAGR, reflecting our confidence in the strength of our pipeline and our execution capabilities. We're also introducing a new AFFO per share metric fully aligned with long-term shareholders' interest and directly tied to our management incentives.

And for all employees, I repeated that many times with Investor Relations, all employee at Boralex as from 40% to 50% of their short-term incentive plan linked on the increase, the growth of the AFFO per share metric. We will maintain our financial discipline. If you see, and Bruno will come back to that, if you look to the last 4 years, we have demonstrated that when we're speaking about financial discipline, it's really something real at Boralex. And the balance sheet today is stronger than it was 4 years ago and 6 years ago. And we will invest a little bit less in 2025 and 2026, but start investing a lot of new projects from 2027, which are, as I mentioned already in the pipeline.

Finally, we will continue to target a minimum internal rate of return between 10% to 12% with adjustments over time to reflect our cost of capital, specific risk technological risk or regional risk. And finally, we are strategically positioned to leverage the strong market fundamentals despite the noise that we are hearing probably every day of every hours, the long-term fundamentals have not changed and even more, it's accelerated, and that's an important point.

We aim to extend, I mentioned that, the average remaining duration from 11 years in 2024 to 14 years in 2030, increasing revenue visibility financial stability in line with our long-term growth objective. As a joke, I can say to you, we have no view to mid-40s and just think or hold you will be in the mid-40s. This would give you a view of the stability of Boralex for the next 20 years.

We are actively exploring strategic M&A in the U.K. and key regions of the U.S. to complement our organic growth and make us an important player in this market, specifically New York and the U.K., as I mentioned. And as I mentioned, again, one of the objective of today is to show you a part of the bench, a part of the team of Boralex and be sure that your investments are in good hands with us.

So now I will leave the floor to you, Bruno. You will start with the financial strategy and objective, and I will be back for a question period afterwards. Thank you.

Thank you, Patrick, [Foreign Language].

Good morning, everyone. [Foreign Language]. It is my pleasure to be here with you today. With the first slide -- controlling the slides, thank you. You see my favorite words there, financial discipline. Over the last 5 years, we have grown our cash flows and cash flows on invested capital more than the average of our peers while maintaining a strong balance sheet.

You can see on the slide how efficient we have been on the use of our capital. We will maintain this disciplined financial strategy for the next 5 to 6 years. The capital allocation to -- there you go, the capital allocation to develop the pipeline of projects and to build our new projects is our priority. We have been able to grow while controlling the amount of debt, which has grown only by a CAGR of 3% over the last 5 years between '20 and '24. And we have issued equity only once in the last 6 years.

How did we do it different ways? We have been able to size important refinancing opportunities for more than $2.7 billion. We have also sold 30% of our French business to our partner -- our Swiss partner, EIP at an interesting and attractive value demonstrating that we can take advantage of the value gap between private markets and public markets.

Our refinancings have yielded lower interest costs and higher net cash flows. And we continue to unlock capital and we'll continue and insist on recycling capital in and demonstrate that we have more opportunities to do so in this new plan. We continue to create value towards this. This is a way to finance our growth, and we'll increasingly do it.

The next few pages may be of interest to you. We're presenting our new targets. First, let me start with the business targets for 2030. We intend to double our capacity to reach 7 gigawatts by 2030. We have a strong pipeline, a strong growth path, and we intend to leverage it to get to that result. Will -- our team is committed to continue to build a safe, inclusive and responsible organization committed to a net-zero trajectory by 2050.

Let me then talk to -- I'll just insist on one thing, but I believe Patrick mentioned it as well, is our installed capacity and our growth is going to be in our 4 key markets: Canada, France, the U.K. and the U.S. In Canada, we'll focus on mainly Eastern Canada, Ontario and Québec and see if we can find other opportunities throughout the country.

On the financial targets. The first thing I'd like to say is these targets are built around our organic growth only. we'll look opportunistically at doing M&A, but these are financial targets for organic. Therefore, a strong base again, based on our existing pipeline and growth path. We added some financial targets for 2030. You will see operating income consolidated growing by 12% to 14% CAGR. 7% to 9% on consolidated EBITDA CAGR, and 8% to 10% on combined EBITDA to reach more than $1 billion in 2030 on combined EBITDA.

Just a quick flash back. It was $492 million when I joined in 2019. We've gone quite a bit. We've seen quite a bit of growth since then, and we expect to see even better growth in the future. Our minimum return in -- for investment criteria in our projects remains at a minimum 10% to 12% IRR delivered.

We've also introduced new targets. New targets on a per share basis. We've presented net cash flows from operating activities per share consolidated and net and discretionary cash flows per share consolidated. And you can see that we expect to reach up to $2.70 for the discretionary cash flows per share in 2030, and 8% to 10% CAGR for both of these measures over the next 5 years.

On to the next slide. How are we going to fund this? Our analysts are eagerly waiting for that slide as I was told this morning because we did not share this one with them in the early part of the day. The allocation for growth for projects that are going to be COD before the end of 2030 is $6.8 billion. The $1.2 billion that you see there is the allocation for capital for projects that are going to be COD after 2030. Of the $6.8 billion, approximately $5 billion of this is going to be funded via project debt.

We already closed on the 2 financings for our battery projects in Ontario and the Des Neiges Sud project the financing, which was nearly $1 billion, sorry. Noteworthy is also the change in the range of ratio of our dividend payout ratio of 20% to 40% of our AFFO. Beyond project debt, our plan includes proactive capital recycling for $900 million to benefit from the valuation gap that still exists between private market valuations and public markets.

So we'll do -- we'll continue to do partnerships like we've done with EIP in the future. We have -- we are targeting certain types of assets, but only once we've created the value with these assets that we can leverage with our teams.

We do not have plan to issue equity in the short term. But I've here marked in this plan, approximately $500 million over the course of the next 5 to 6 years. But again, there is no need for equity this year or next year. Depending on the results of our other financing initiatives, we certainly will continue to try to lower that amount of needed equity.

Another important aspect of our growth in this plan is the increase of the average PPA duration. As you can see on this slide, we can -- we're going to see an increase of an average duration of 11 years at the end of 2024 to 14 years at the end of 2030. And that is because our projects today have a longer PPA duration on average, if I recall, of 22 years. These are the projects that we're signing today of PPA is ranging between 15 years and 30 years.

So in conclusion, our financing strategy is on track. It's not a revolution. It's an evolution of what we have been doing in the last few years. We are confident in achieving all of these elements that we talked about today, we have proven that we can do so. We have additional capital recycling opportunities, namely we already mentioned that we're looking at capital recycling in with our Canadian hydro assets.

This is ongoing, and we hopefully can give you additional information at the next quarterly results. We have ongoing discussions to potentially increase our debt at the corporate level, a more information to follow. And we also are looking at refinancings across our portfolio in the different regions and the different types of assets.

I will now invite my colleague, Pascal Laprise-Demers. Please, Pascal, please join me.

Thanks, Bruno. So it's a pleasure to see you all here today to talk about our strategy. For the next section, I will try to bring you in a bit more depth of actually how we aim to deliver on the targets that Bruno just mentioned. So basically, what we need to actually deliver, but also what is the business model that will get us there.

So let's start by a few fundamentals on our business model and how we actually create value. We truly believe those are important to differentiate us and allow us to create the best across the full life cycle of the project. They are not new actually. They are actually how we run our business and how we manage uncertainty around our strategy.

First one, we are a real industrial player that work on the details that matter. We are on site. We have a comprehensive approach to asset management and to development. The performance of our asset is a priority and our position of a developer and owner and an operator, bring unique qualities to our project and a full life cycle approach that not a lot of players can have to the depth that we do.

Second, we have a long-term and disciplined investment strategy, just as Bruno just mentioned. We are balancing the risk and the cash flows, and we are a rigorous investor. We always aim to have the benefit of the risk that we take, and we remain in very proven technologies, market and approach. Our value creation thesis is always clear, and we are very disciplined at executing it.

Third, we are entrepreneurs. We actually are very stakeholder-centric in our organic development, and we try to anticipate market made reasonable and calculated bets that lead us to be ahead of the curve. That's actually how we did in Ontario, and that's why we have actually great battery projects that are going to be COD in the next year and as well in Québec, where we were some of the first to actually bring back projects in line.

Fourth and last, we manage our portfolio of assets based on its market valuation, but also on the marginal value that we can add. We make the arbitrage between the capital sources, of course, including recycling, but we take portfolio decisions based on the value that we can bring and the runway that we see further in the segment. It's essential to maintain our eyes on the right priorities and build the right competencies.

So those 4 fundamentals are really how we work days and nights and give you, hopefully, a bit more color at how we are balancing the sustainable growth with performance.

Let's move to how we actually deliver on our plan by 2030. Our strategy is kind of simple and based on 3 pillars that you see on the screen there. Our growth is mainly targeting at executing the projects that we have in the pipeline while continuing to plan for our growth after 2030.

The second pillar is the efficiency and the resiliency that we are building as we grow our company and structure ourselves across several dimensions. We see opportunity to enhance our margin through digital and automation, but also through simplification and optimization. This goes across different domains from the financial standpoint all the way to the very operational on-site problems that we aim to solve and always get better.

Over the '25 to 2030 time frame, we also seek to continue to build a safe, inclusive and responsible organization that is committed in a trajectory of net-zero by 2050. This will make us better equipped to grow and to go through the different cycles and uncertainty like we see these days.

Finally, there's a few dimensions that we truly believe will differentiate us in the long run. And those -- and one of this is actually being close to our client and really be a partner of reference for them. We also believe that in the time frame, we'll need to learn even better how to nurture and develop talents because this will be key for the next time horizon and actually to win versus others. So by working on those 3 levers, we are comfortable that we balance our growth and performance, but also through time because it would be wrong to forget some of those dimensions in the early days. But we cannot go past having the performance in the short term.

So let's dig a bit more into our growth plans actually. So I will not go through all, but you can see on the screen, across our markets, ambitions are fairly high for renewable. And the topic right now is not that much about the ambition, but it's about delivering. It's good to have plans but like plans are just as good on paper. We need to actually get the assets to the clients, and that's what the market are asking from us.

So of course, the levers behind this growth are similar across the world. We can talk about decarbonization as one of the -- sorry, we can talk about electrification as one of the only serious decarbonization lever. We can talk also about the economic transition to electrification because there's a bunch of use that are actually economically more viable now with electricity. I don't think I need to talk about AI to this crowd. I'm sure you're following that daily. So I'm sure it's a big topic that you know about. We often forget about the aging fleet of electric assets, and this starts to be more and more real through time and is actually driving demand as well in our markets.

Finally, population growth, but also movements are actually having impact on the different market that we target -- that we target here. So what about our plan when we look at that? Doubling every 5 year doesn't sound that aggressive after all. But that's why we also need to continue to prep for 2035 and beyond.

So let's go more specifically into our growth. So as mentioned earlier, our growth is based on a healthy organic pipeline of almost 8 gigawatts that we built over the last year. Our priority is now to execute and deliver. We aim to double our installed capacity within 5 years, as you can see, within our 4 core market of U.S., Canada, France and U.K.

Over the next 5 years, in an industry that takes 4 to 8 years for projects to be developed, there's not a lot of surprises. So the projects that you see there are, for most of them, they are big ones that you already heard about. We can talk about the battery project in Ontario, where we have 2 this year, but also Oxford coming up for a total of 55 megawatts of 4-hour batteries. You will also see the 1,200 megawatt of the Des Neiges project in Québec that we have in partnership with Hydro-Québec in Énergir. You will see the 2 major projects we announced in New York for 450-megawatt of solar, and this will always already bring us to 5 gigawatts.

So what does it mean? It's that through our advanced project and through our pipeline of 6 gigawatt, we need to secure 2 more over the next few years to actually fuel this growth, also bring some other back early. You see a lot of key advanced projects in secured that we aim to bring earlier in the pipe. And this will drive our growth.

M&A will be opportunistic, but also more targeted on markets that we aim to accelerate like the U.S. and the U.K. So this brings me to the path we will use to accelerate in smaller markets like U.S. and U.K. The cycle you see actually on the screen represents our approach that is based on talent first and leveraging existing expertise within Boralex to accelerate the cycle. Taking projects in different stages of development, allow us to beat the long development time line at reasonable cost.

And on the other side, recycling capital fast allow us to bring scale, which is often required to really lead in those markets. So this cycle is nothing new actually. That's how we developed with a partner in the U.K. over the last years. That's actually how Patrick developed France as well through time over 15 years. And it also represents the knowledge that we have that our development will be through local talent and expert that will continue to drive our growth.

So this sum up how we aim to deliver by 2030 and how we are prepping to continue actually our growth story beyond as well. Our 3 pillar of growth, efficiency and the topic where we need to differentiate long term are a strong base and will drive performance over the next few years.

On this, I will let Marie-Pierre come and talk about more specifically our presence in each of our markets and the rest of the team.

[Foreign Language] Good morning, everyone. It's such a pleasure to be with you today here to discuss further the market opportunities for Québec.

So first, let's take a glance on our position in Québec. And I think Patrick has alluded to it in the opening. We have obviously 30 years -- 30-plus years of experience in Québec, making Boralex one of the largest IPP owning 688 megawatts of combined installed capacity of project with wind and hydro operating assets. Our position is not only based on the experience, but also what we've built throughout those years of experience out in the field. Obviously, one of the key things that we have is solid partnership with host communities and local communities where we have our project and First Nation obviously, as well.

Another thing that we have is the experience that we built throughout the years for developing large-scale wind projects but also many type of projects. And also, we have the ability -- we built the ability to build those strong relationship also with the government of Québec and Hydro-Québec as well. And all this leads to a strong position in Québec and a deep understanding of this market and obviously, the local grid. And therefore, this prove that Québec is a strong home base geared for what's next.

And speaking of what's next, let's deep dive a bit into the market overview of Québec. By 2035, Hydro-Québec will seek an additional 10 gigawatts to 10,000 megawatts of additional wind capacity, so wind-only capacity to add to its current portfolio. And the market in Québec is really booming for many reasons, and one of them is the government of Québec aims for reducing its greenhouse gases emission by 37.5% and by 2030.

Another reason why the Québec market is booming is also because we have this new business model, I would say, new business model, but it's core to Boralex for many years is that the partnership with First Nation and local community would be at the heart of every renewable energy project leading the energy transition in Québec.

And I'll come back to that in a minute, but that's really one of our strength, and that's really important in the whole strategic plan of Boralex because we have the ability to build trust and authentic relation with local partners. And obviously, a booming market plays favorable political and regulatory environment, one that is really hungry for the energy transition.

So now, are we on track to meet our ambition in Québec? While we currently have 683 megawatts of contracted projects, which will be commissioned by 2030. We have the Apuiat project. This project of 200-megawatt is located on the north shore of St. Lawrence River near Sept-Iles, and it is on jointly at 50% with the Innu Nation, which is the First Nation in Québec.

We have also -- and Pascal has alluded to this large-scale project, so the Des Neiges portfolio is a large-scale project located on the flagship site of la Seigneurie de Beaupré. This is still on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River but closer to Quebec City.

So this portfolio is composed of 3 phases of 400-megawatt each. The first one is Des Neiges Sud, then we have the Des Neiges Charlevoix, and then we have the Des Neiges Ouest. And this portfolio of project is owned at 33% by Boralex with partners, mainly Hydro-Québec and Énergir. Other key projects that will be commissioned by 2030, we have a smaller project, which is called Monnoir. This project of 100-megawatt is located on the South Shore of Montreal. And it is owned jointly at 50%, jointly with local electricity co-op on the South Shore of Montreal.

And then we have Arthabaska, 265 megawatts a project that is located very close to our office in Kingsey Falls at the center of Quebec near Victoriaville. And this project is owned as well at 50% jointly with local community, namely [indiscernible].

And on top of that, obviously, we were adding a pipeline of projects of more than 1 gigawatt in development. So all in all, our ambition in Quebec is to capture 1/3 of the wind market opportunities. And you recognize that we'll develop this will achieve this target based on the growth pillar that Pascal just presented to you those 3 pillars.

Here, it's decline in 4. So I'll explain them to you. First is we're going to leverage development and large-scale project expertise that we currently have as the one that we put forward in the Des Neiges portfolio.

The second pillar is we'll continue to grow a ready-to-bid win portfolio just to make sure that we are agile and quick onto any offtake opportunity whenever or wherever they arise in the market.

The third one, mainly -- I mean, this is the key pillar for Quebec for the jurisdiction, I should say. We have to continue to nurture and strengthen our relationship with the key stakeholders and partners and obviously, First Nations. Again, this is really a cornerstone in this market. It is truly a competitive edge for Boralex, and that allows us not only to build a foundation for future and long-term growth, but also to be present locally out in the field, something that is embedded in our culture. And finally, the last pillars -- the last pillar, I should say, act with agility to capture any potential complementary opportunity in the market.

And on that, I'll leave it to you, Adam. [Foreign Language]

[Foreign Language] Hello, everyone. We will continue the discussion through our different jurisdictions by going west into Ontario where good things grow.

My name is Adam Rosso, and I'm the Senior Vice President of Development here at Boralex. I'll start off with a quick review of our operational assets in Ontario. We currently own and operate 346 megawatts over 2 technologies. We have a portfolio of wind projects down in the southwestern part of Ontario. We have a large-scale transmission connected project, namely the Niagara Region Wind Farm, which I will touch base on a little bit. And a 16-megawatt hydro assets in the North, a run-of-river asset named Yellow Falls.

We have extensive knowledge in Ontario, predicated on all of the development work that we've been doing on the wind portfolio as well as our battery storage portfolio. We have execution capabilities that are being demonstrated right now within the battery storage portfolio, which we'll touch base on a little bit.

As Marie-Pierre indicated, one of our cornerstone attributes is strong relationships. We're able to create trust with our local municipalities, create trust with our indigenous communities. And I'll get into a quick example of such endeavor with the Niagara Region Wind Farm, because it is an archetype of how we have approach development writ large across our key markets within North America. That project was one of the very first projects Boralex entered into with a 50-50% indigenous partnership as well as working with 5 key municipalities on the development and building and support of those projects within those key communities. And we have leveraged those attributes to continue the development across our key markets.

All right. Ontario, Minister Lecce released the IRP last week, the integrated resource plan. And to say the least, it is an ambitious project. You listen to the types of things that our Minister is talking about with regards to nation-building projects, large infrastructure projects and unleashing the north -- the potential of the north in our province of Ontario. To be able to execute on large infrastructure projects, there's one key element that we need in this province, and that is energy.

If you look at the IRP, Ontario is projected to have a 75% growth by 2050 in our energy markets with a large amount of that being procured and installed and built out in the next decade. Well, what does that mean for a company like Boralex? We very have local -- we have very strong local ties. We've got fantastic relationships with our procurement entities and our aim here is to be a reference developer within the province to provide solutions to the province with regards to their energy needs.

If you look at how the IRP is set up, Ontario is looking at attempting to procure 7.5 gigawatts of procurements before the end of 2034. Our intent here in Ontario because this is one of our home markets and a key market for us is to develop strong key fundamental projects. We have a guiding tenant in our development team, and that's -- think like a smart system planner, where would a smart system planner want our assets. And that guides us in terms of having disciplined investment, strong quality projects that we plan on executing on in the next number of years.

Ontario -- if you read the IRP, Ontario really is using a everything goes kind of approach. Nuclear is going to play a role, battery storage is going to play a role, gas may even play a role. Renewables in our opinion, will certainly play a major role, well-sited quality projects will ensure that our province is able to meet our infrastructure goals and our energy requirements within the province. The ISO right now is running a procurement called the long-term energy 2 Window 1 procurement that will both have energy and capacity streams.

We plan on participating in both of those procurements with an eye on developing long-term projects, a long-term pipeline of quality assets, thinking again like a smart system plan or where would they want to put them. Our battery storage portfolio is a signature portfolio projects.

And I want to refer back to the Niagara Region Wind Farm because it's archetype really did form the process and the approach of the success of really the underlying success of our battery search portfolio. All 3 of these projects are 50% indigenously owned and supported. They all have municipal support resolutions and agreements with our local municipality.

I know some of you were able to go visit the Hagersville battery storage project yesterday, and I'm happy to answer any questions and tell you the stories of how that project came to be over the lunch hour because I think it's a pretty fascinating experience. It was one of the very first things that I did at Boralex nearly 13 years ago was actually signed with a parcel of land. So I'm happy to give you the history on how the Niagara Region Wind Farm and the relationship specifically with Six Nations and some of the local municipalities, we were able to leverage those things.

As Marie-Pierre indicated, strong municipal relationships going above and beyond in terms of managing our relationships and creating trust and transparency with the local communities really is a cornerstone of how we develop both in Quebec, Ontario and New York.

The Tilbury site is an 80-megawatt battery storage project located directly beside a transmission asset in the community of Lakeshore. It is a 50% indigenously owned project Walpole Island. They were a legacy community that we had strong relationships with in prior procurements. And I'm very proud to say that we were able to get one across the line with that community for their benefit and look forward to that project COD in the next number of months.

And not to be outdone in the LT1 procurement. We won the Oxford project. It was an additional 125-megawatt for our battery storage system that will come online sometime in 2027. That portfolio of projects is 2 gigawatt hours worth of battery storage systems, which represents one of our fastest and most successful portfolios that we've been able to deliver to date in the province, very proud for these things.

Battery storage will have obviously a 22-year contract, a 28-year tenure, complemented by our recently developed trading group within Boralex. We look forward to maturing into that market in Ontario and really driving value through understanding the local market ensuring that we've got the talent properly developed and acquiring and hiring the right type of people to do that right work and look forward to working with the trading team on those assets.

And again, one last quick point. All 3 of the projects are eligible for the 30% ITC. So our goal here in the province of Ontario really is to be the reference development shop. We have a very strong team here in Ontario, supported by all of our teams across Boralex, but the local knowledge that we have here in the province is wonderful to have within our company.

Again, cornerstones, First Nation projects are absolutely key. Based on where we are developing, we should anticipate continued investment and collaboration and equity partnerships with indigenous communities on almost all projects going forward in the province of Ontario.

Most importantly, we're looking at building on our past wins. Right now, the team has momentum. Boralex has momentum within the province of Ontario, and we continue to want to drive that momentum forward and bring our unique way of working and doing development within the province to hopefully, a suite of projects that will participate in the Window 1 energy and capacity markets.

All right. Shifting gears, heading south to the United States. Boralex has 20 years of experience or expertise in the United States across 3 different technology platforms, largely due to our run-of-river facilities in New York. We have a portfolio of wind assets in Northern Texas and Western or Eastern New Mexico and a solar portfolio of -- sorry, portfolio of projects within the CAISO market in California with additional projects in Alabama and Indiana.

The United States represents obviously a very strong demand growth. As Patrick indicated earlier today, the fundamentals of energy growth and -- of energy growth period will drive investment for us in the United States, focusing on high-quality core fundamental projects. Again, putting our hat on thinking like a smart system planner, our approach in our key markets like New York really rely on smart transmission system planning community support and good project fundamentals with strong, strong community support.

New York, recently, or NYSERDA, recently, have reiterated their strong commitment to the renewables movement within that state, which gives us strong indication for continued investment in New York. What we are seeing is PPA is also becoming longer in tenure, they provide opportunities for us to look at other markets. We see growing opportunities for the collaboration between business and local governments. We see repowering and restructuring as a potential option on some of our current assets. We will continue to investigate those as the time goes on.

And we also see mid-stage projects, some of which we'll discuss in a moment, being available and well positioned for buyers in terms of increasing demand for high-quality assets. Given the rhetoric that you hear within the news, we see still very strong appetite for continued investment and interest in high-quality projects that are helping states who are responsible for their energy meet their demands.

So in the recent weeks, we had a very exciting announcement in terms of 2 solar projects. These projects are in the north country -- in the north part of New York State. You could probably throw a stone from Québec and hit some of our solar panels once they're built. We may put a little [indiscernible] on the back of some of those panels for our Québec folks. Fort Covington coming in is a 250-megawatt AC solar facility located in the town of Fort Covington and Franklin County. We have the 2 Rivers project is a 200-megawatt AC solar project located in Brasher and Massena, at St. Lawrence Counties. These two projects are core and fundamental for our strategy in New York. They connect to a brand-new transmission line.

The North Country is in full support of our projects our approach, our long-time investment in the community and relationships with our -- both our landowners with many stakeholders across the New York Spectrum, both with strong support from NYSERDA and strong support from ORES. We hope to mature these projects in the coming months to drive them towards a COD date within the 28 time frame. There's still things that we need to be able to accomplish in terms of engineering and investment to nail down a firm date, but that's where the projects are trending right now.

We do have a pipeline of nearly of just over 1,000 megawatts of mid- to late-stage solar projects or mid-stage projects within the state of New York that we look to continue to invest and grow our pipeline because of the strong signals from NYSERDA continued support and investment within that state.

Okay. So I've mentioned this a few times disciplined approach. Within the New York market and given the uncertainty that you see within the policy at the federal level. We are taking a very disciplined approach, meaning only the highest quality projects that we are bringing to the table from a development perspective, receive resources. We prioritize these markets that have good strong signals. We strengthened -- we plan on continuing to strengthen our regional team by investing in people and ensuring that we acquire all of the right talent to be able to execute on these projects properly and within a timely manner.

And we will be taking a look at using strategic M&A opportunities to either accelerate into different markets and to use a risk adjusted awareness approach to ensure that the projects that we do bring to bear are the ones that have the highest chance of receiving a final investment decision.

And on that note, I'd like to invite Julie.

Good morning to our North American audience, and good afternoon to our European audience, I think who are online. So it's a pleasure to be with you today to present our -- is it changing? Here we go -- to present who is Boralex currently in the U.K. and what are our ambitions for the future.

So we've been around since 2017 because of a 50-50 joint venture that we signed a couple of years before, at the time -- I'm sorry, with Infinergy. We acquired all the shares of Infinergy in 2022. Acquiring at the same time, a great portfolio of a project of just about 700 megawatts. And we commissioned on April 1 of this year, our first project, wind farm, our Limekiln projects, the flagship of our U.K. development, a 106-megawatt wind project in Northern Scotland. So by commissioning this project, we became also an owner and operator of asset in the U.K. So that was a great achievement for all the team.

So why the U.K. is so interesting for Boralex, and that's what I want to discuss with you this morning. I think there's 4 things that we need to discuss. So first, the government ambition. It's not just about policies. It's also for the U.K. government. The question of energy security since 2005, the U.K. has became a net importer of energy. So it's very important for them, not only for net-zero, but also to assure their independency. They also have a growing population, just above 80 million. I think for the first time of the European history, they are larger than their friends. So it's also a growing need and demand for the U.K. market.

So they set up a very ambitious renewable targets that what you can see on the screen at the moment. What they want to develop through the Clean Power 2030 action plan is really to double the onshore wind capabilities and also almost triple the solar also assets there and it's not written on this slide, but also just in terms of best projects, so battery projects, they want to go from a current 5 gigawatt to 25 gigawatts of battery projects by 2030. So very ambitious target. So that's the second point. They are there. The U.K. is there to outcome our project.

The third aspect is also the market. So we do have in the U.K. CFD contracts through allocation round. So we're just about to start the 7th round on August 7. So it's coming very soon. It's going to be an ambitious round because this allocation round is CFD contracts will mostly be in operation for 2030. So it is a big target for the U.K. government. And with that comes a 15 years contract, so steady flows of revenues, which is also something that we do like for us and for our investors.

And then the fourth aspect is the real possibility for us and Boralex to become leaders in the U.K. market. So when we look around, when we look at our competitors, we think we can become in the top leaders of the U.K. market as independent producer. That's also very interesting for us.

All the government wants to do that and how they want to accelerate this program. And it's -- probably those of you who knows well, the -- well, the U.K., you've heard about the REMA, Review of Electrical Market arrangement. So the government of the U.K. wants to set up a framework, a regulatory framework that is there, that is modern, that will allow removing constraints, lowering costs also of energy in the U.K. So this is something that we expect. And also, they want to build a stronger grid capacity to reduce, as I said, the constraints and cost.

So right now, everybody is asking the same question when we will have news from the REMA regulations. We're expecting this probably during the summer because we need to know what will happen probably before the start the launch of the allocation round 7. If it's not this, it's going to be another reform of national pricing systems. We know that the U.K. needs to unlock constraints just in terms of grid.

So whether you speak with people at the Department of Energy, whether you speak to the NISO, so the grid operator of GEM, which is the regulatory body in the U.K. everybody is really thinking about how to bring inward investment out to make sure that we deliver the target that the government of Mr. Starmer committed to. So it's going to be still exciting place to continue to drive.

There is also something that I haven't mentioned, but it is really important. So when you look at the grid management at the moment, we see a lot of what is called the [ Zambia ] project. So it's congesting the grid. We are currently the government through NISO is reviewing this. So it's going to be a first ready, first connected type of system. We expect us as developers in the U.K., we expect a lot from this because it's going to remove some projects from the interconnection queue.

So when we look forward, what are we doing? We're setting the pace to succeed in the U.K. That's what we've been doing for the past years. We are building currently -- we continue building the team, the development team, whether it's estate people project development, people, talent that are also very knowledgeable in terms of getting planning consents. So that's what we are building at the moment. We also want to diversify not only in Scotland, but in England and Wale. So we're looking at that, breaking also new skills internally, whether it's with new technologies, so not only when, but looking at best projects, solar projects, so that's very interesting.

We do have a dedicated now M&A team in Europe that, as Patrick mentioned, is very much focusing in the U.K. So this is what I talking about when I say we're setting the pace for the organic growth. We are also developing our energy marketing perspective. The U.K. market is a very mature complex market. So that's also internal capabilities that we are still developing.

So what are we doing? We're doing the recipe of success of Boralex over the past 35 years, getting this at this crossroad of having great talents in markets where we think that they are going to drive and deliver. So that's it for me.

I think I'm going to hand over to Nicolas.

Good morning. Thanks, Julie, for this presentation. I've gone through the growth platform. So we'll be discovering now the mutual platform, the French platform.

In France, we have now more than, I think, 25 years of experience. It's a lot. It's a lot of experience. We are the first independent player in the wind sector. We have more than 1.34 gigawatts in operations, which is pretty significant with more than 315 people. And we do have a strong pipeline of developing projects over 2 gigawatts. We've doubled the size of this development portfolio over the past 5 years.

And as mentioned by Bruno, a few years ago, 3 years ago, we signed an agreement with a Swiss Infra fund, Energy Infrastructure Partners, selling 30% of the business, operating assets and development portfolio, helping us to boost the business in France. We have now a mature market, of course. And on this market, we see a few positive elements.

First of all, we do have a very strong and robust regulatory framework. The states over the past years has been pushing for decarbonization with very challenging targets in terms of renewable, solar and wind. We have now a kind of consensus regarding 2 pillars, renewable and nuclear. And this wasn't the case a few years ago. But right now, as we speak, I think we all understand that we do need those 2 pillars to achieve those decarbonization targets.

We also have a very competitive auction system. The solar auction is providing us with around EUR 80. The wind auction system is putting us with around EUR 87, EUR 88. So super good prices compared to the rest of Europe.

As it is a mature market, we do have also some opportunities in terms of reporting, so replacing old machines by new machines. So those projects have been put on hold during the crisis because the prices were pretty high. But right now, we are coming back to, as we call standard prices. And I guess this reporting opportunities would be booming.

As it is a mature market is also a consolidation market. And therefore, we believe that some of the small players will probably disappear because the market is now super competitive. And it is some up Boralex additional opportunities. And last but not least, during the Choose France Summit a few weeks ago in Versailles, President Macron announced a massive plan regarding intelligence -- artificial intelligence and data centers. And we are looking at developing France as a kind of a hub. And of course, this will generate a lot of needs in terms of green electricity. And for sure Boralex will play an important role in this program.

Now our goal today on this market is, first of all, to capitalize on our strong position regarding the wind assets. We will pursue our efforts regarding the solar projects. And we do have a lot of new solar projects arriving later in '26, which are the benefits of the investments we've made during the first strategic plan. We do also foresee some reporting opportunities, looking at our very old assets, and we aim at replacing those all machines by new technology, producing more and decreasing the cost of energy.

And also, we do have a specific asset in France is what we call the Energy Solutions. And I would like to spend some time on this particular topic because I think it's a key differentiator of regarding Boralex. So a few years ago, we've developed what is called today Energy Solutions department. And this structure is helping us to navigate from the different commercialization platforms. So of course, a few years ago, we were only having stated CFDs, formerly known as filling tariffs.

As you know, the CFDs are providing us with good tariffs right now as we speak. But we've also launched a few years ago, the PPAs -- corporate PPAs, aiming at creating some contracts directly with big industrial companies. And we've created a team to do so. We've developed a sales approach or, let's say, a more customer-centric approach to achieve that. And a year ago, we developed what we call now the Utility PPA and the merchant positions.

So in other words, instead of being stuck to only one platform, we are able to navigate for the platforms, optimizing our position and making some arbitrage on this platform, aiming at creating more value. So we do have -- thanks to those different platforms, a very dynamic way of managing our portfolio, optimizing the value creation throughout our 90 projects being currently in operations in France. And I do think this is a key differentiator regarding Boralex versus the rest of the competition because this is basically giving us a lot of agility in the way we manage those assets.

So here are some examples of initial companies with whom we signed corporate PPAs over the past years. So as you know, we started a few years ago, in a very basic manner, selling our greenfield, the old projects we had, which were getting out of the filling tariff. And we gave them a second life through those corporate PPAs.

And then 3 years ago, we started with greenfield PPAs, meaning that we've created new projects using a PPA to finance, install and operate the solar projects or the wind farms. And right now, as we speak, we can sign 20 years corporate PPA. So this is giving us a good visibility. And as mentioned by Bruno, this is really important regarding the long-term stability for the company.

So to conclude, I would like to underline that we are slowly but surely moving from a megawatt centric organization to a value creation organization. And the company has been shaped around this new target, and I think we'll be very successful in the future.

So without further ado, I will ask Robin to join us on the stage. Robin?

Thank you, Nicholas. First hello, everyone. Thank you again for joining us today. I am very pleased to be here with the rest of the very talented group to look at the initiative the company is putting together for -- to address this -- and to address this very incredible market that we're seeing right now.

First, let me also introduce myself, Robin, and acknowledge the recent change we had in the leadership 6 days in the job today. Recently got announced last week after the announcement of the retirement of Hugues Girardin, who's been with the company for close to 35 years. So I want to thank him as well for all the hard work he put in. That's not a small feature.

Now in the current context, we've decided to take the opportunity to present to you a portion of the procurement strategy that we're putting in North America and how we think it's going to play a key role in the years to come. So being on the discussion on the change in the organization, over the past year, we have centralized the procurement activities to be managed by experts from a decentralized, closer to the operation and the construction team, we've centralized that in order to address the challenges that we see in the market. Today, a dedicated team, a dedicated team of talented individual is working constantly to deploy the best practices and laying out the foundation necessary to address the challenges that we see.

One, attract and retain the right talent, define the coherent procurement strategy and support the execution of our strategic plan. We believe that an approach that is aligned towards the total cost of ownership will drive significant value for the organization and for most derisk the project over a great period of time.

Now regardless of all of that centralized function, and we believe that there are still challenges that exist, and we need to -- those will need to be addressed in the years to come. So again, a slide to show what we believe will be the challenges that we'll face in the next -- during that strategic time line in the next 5 years. So we've proposed to lay it out for you one of those -- a couple of those challenges and how we plan to address it.

On the wind side, we see 3 major ones: increased complexity in the logistics, particularly on the -- due to larger onshore turbine size, both from a hub height and a rotor diameter. We now face a world where 98% of the turbines sold today have more than 115 meters of hub height. So that creates a lot of risk on the execution.

So decreasing willingness, second, decreasing willingness of the supplier to assume those logistical risk. So that's a risk that is now there more by the developers. And we see also a shortage of across markets of shortage of specialized labor, crane operator, experienced technicians and commissioners. How do we plan to address that? We integrate the logistics as part of the early planning process of those projects. This includes preliminary assessment during the development phase and detailed analysis during the RFP phase as well in stages throughout the market.

We also include prenegotiated contract terms that prioritize the responsibility, that prioritize so we share responsibilities with the suppliers prebaked as we advance on the contracts that we negotiate with the supplier story. On the solar side, what we see is a global supply market of panel now exceed the demand, leading to a lower module price despite protectionist measures. Having said that, regulatory uncertainties in the U.S. with regards to incentive programs and restrictions related to foreign entities are creating challenges for the domestic solar manufacturing. We also see issues with traceabilities of materials and labor on the solar supply chains. Again, how do we address that? We foster through strategic partnerships with Tier 1 suppliers. We collaborate with O&M to anticipate risk. And again, prenegotiations of key terms of contract within the RFP stage is also a key -- play a key role sorry.

We're also taking active positions with our government relation groups to influence policies on both sides of the border. We believe that it is this current environment, this will be key to see the problems for.

On the ESG side, we enforce a strategic -- strict ESG requirements including force labors prevention and carbon footprint certification. My friend, Marie and I will definitely cover that in the presentations to come. So no, I'm not going to spoil the presentations. On the storage front, again, 3 main risks. Adam spoke about the greatness of those projects. We see a unique business model requiring complex evaluations and suppliers and equipment while the technologies and the regulatory landscape are still evolving. That is specific to the batteries. We see rapidly expanding markets with many unproven new suppliers. And we see also protection measures and dependencies on the Chinese supply chains that we'll need to address.

Again, how do we address that? We closely work with battery market trends. We closely monitor battery market trends. We evaluate non-Chinese alternatives and work with technical teams, both internally and externally to address concerns.

We model key inputs in our investment model that includes tariff, lithium pricing, all of the key movers both the RFP stage and the FID decisions. So that's very key for us. We prioritize life cycle cost, safety, warranties and technology selections. And again, those prenegotiated contractors that focused on risk sharing.

Last but not least, major electrical equipment. What we see is a newly extended lead time for key components, such as transformer. We now see some suppliers with lead times up to 36 months. This has been the norm for the last 2 to 3 years, and we have limited -- we see very limited and insight in terms of solving that issue for now. So volatility in the market price like copper and steel is also a risk that we're tackling on and we're following on.

Solution plant flexibility in the procurement of long lead items. That includes aligning the project pipeline with the lead times. It's also deciding whatever we want to integrate the procurement as part of the BOP or the BOP contract or self-source the equipment on our side. All of those risks and solutions are now built within our procurement strategy lean on 4 essential pillars.

What are those pillars? The business intelligence where we stay informed on the market trend, we make well-informed decisions. We make strategic partnerships, invest in relationships with the right suppliers to optimize efficiencies and reduce the risk. We also look at the risk management by identifying risks such as tariff and local content requirements and keep options open. Last but not least, the sustainability-driven procurements, it aligns our investments with our core values that will -- and the market realities that we'll be describing later on.

So now in a couple of minutes on in the case of New York Solar. I know the slide is pretty packed, but I want people to focus on the derisking aspect of the project. Goal here is to present an opportunity for everyone to see how every step of the way we derisk the project from a procurement perspective. So if you look at the -- at where we started, we structured the process to start early on during the RFP phase last year, we focused on unifying options and the sensitivities and the risk as well, sorry.

This is also where our key relationship with suppliers comes into play between -- before the RFP, sorry. After that, between the RFPs and the PPE awards, we continue to refine our strategies, we challenge ourself. We track the domestic content manufacturing process to make sure that we're up to speed with the latest and greatest information that are available, especially in this current environment.

Given the current environment, again, our GR group is regularly in Washington to meet with policymakers to make sure that we have the maximum visibility over the investment horizon. We also put forward a safe harboring strategy with long lead items that given the risk that we were seeing on the ITC will pay off in the investments to come. We've worked with BOP -- again, in that phase, we've worked with the different BOP contractors to obtain the optimal results between the price, the quality, the schedules and the health and safety on the sites.

After that, between the PPA and then final investment decisions, what we're going to do is we're going to select and secure the equipment from a BOP perspective and also focusing on the terms that will allow us to build the project. Last steps for us will be able to transfer the project to our dedicated team on the operations and maintenance team and the asset management that will take care of our asset for the next 30 years. Thank you very much.

And I'll have Mihaela present the ESG initiative.

[Foreign Language] You didn't spoil my presentation. I have many other scoops. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you so much for coming today. So my name is Mihaela Stefanov, and I'm responsible for corporate social responsibility and risk management at Boralex, and I will speak about our CSR strategy today, a topic that I'm absolutely passionate about. So as you have probably noticed, it's the second strategic plan in which we do have a CSR ambition.

So probably where I would like to start today is really to -- by answering the question, why? Why is it so important for us as a company? You have heard many of my colleagues presenting our strategic plan, it's a good plan. It's a solid plan. We're eager to jump in and to execute it, but it takes 2 things, 2 things that are quite important for us to succeed.

First of all, it takes focus. Focus on the needs and the priorities of our stakeholders. You have heard my colleagues talk about local communities, health communities about our talent, about our people, about procurement as well. So the focus on the needs and the priorities for all of our stakeholders is absolutely key because those are key ingredients for us to succeed in our strategic plan. And yes, I'm not going to forget you your priorities as investors and lenders, obviously, also quite important.

The second thing that we need is rigor, again, rigor in execution, but also rigor in targeting the risks and the opportunities which even though they're not financial. If we don't manage them well, they will have very real, very concrete financial impacts. I'm talking here about local acceptability. Health and safety. Again, having the right talent and the right expertise to execute our plan.

So this is what our -- I forgot to change the slide. My apologies. This is what our strategy is all about is actually how we create value for our stakeholders and also how we protect the value for the company, the financial value of the company. This is what our CSR strategy is all about. So where are we headed for 2030?

Before getting there, I would like to actually backtrack a few years and tell you how we started. Our first CSR strategy was created in 2020 when we became very, very intentional about managing the risks and the opportunities that are related to our business model and that are extra financial. So what we did is that we identified 10 priorities very much linked to our business model. We hired a team. We defined a plan, and then we executed it.

And fast forward a few years later, as you can see, we're starting to be quite recognized in our sector. And just because we're among friends, I don't think this is recorded here. So I'll give you in a scoop -- a scoop. Oh, it is. They're going to be -- we're going to be kidding aside. There's going to be some really exciting announcements next week. So please stay tuned for that.

But besides the reputation of advantages of the positioning that we're getting into a sector and also with our different stakeholders, we're also achieving some quite interesting benefits in terms of financials. You have a few examples here. We have increased the pool of investors. So you may know that many of our investors are based in Europe, where the CSR performance is part of the criteria that they actually use in order to decide whether they want to invest or not in our company.

Same thing for lenders in order for us to access financing for new projects. Today, we have to demonstrate a certain threshold of CSR performance. Otherwise, we're not going to get the money that we need in order to continue developing. We are able to access exclusive RFPs because we do have a certain level of performance. Again, this is [indiscernible] linked with our growth.

Robin, you mentioned also leveraging CSR as a vector to develop strong relationships with some of our suppliers. This is what we do as well. That's how we secure our supply chain in order to help us continue growing. And obviously, we're attracting very talented people who are excited to work in a company like ours. So we will be continuing our journey in 2030 by keeping the same recipe, the same recipe of success.

So we're not going to change -- we're not going to change our priorities because they're the right ones. We're going to continue working on a safe and welcoming environment for people. We're going to continue respecting the communities and respecting the environment because this is how we're going to get the social license to operate and secure it and make sure that we also get the permits that are required in order for us to continue executing our strategic plan.

As a public company, I think you will agree with me on that one is sound governance and also a good ethical culture absolutely required. And finally, while 2050 may seem very far away, and I'll let you compete, how older you're going to be in 2050, so although it may feel quite far away, it's already shaping our decisions today because we want to be net 0 by 2050. And this is really a commitment that is very much aligned with the core of who we are in terms of our mission and in terms of our purpose as a company.

So we're going to continue executing on our CSR strategy to create value for the company and really supporting the different risks and opportunities that we need to resolve in order to continue growing. And on that note, Patrick, I think you had some closing remarks.

Thank you, Mihaela, and first, the closing remark is to say thank you to the team we present today. It was really interesting, I would say, even for me. So it's great. More seriously also thank you to the team online because you can see part of the things today, but there was a lot of work done by you. So thank you again. That's incredibly important. And thank you to Stefanov, you're not on stage, but you're for the third time, the top gun in your position. So we have to say, yes, great. Thank you. He promised that he will stay for the next 5 years because in mission impossible mission, I don't know the name in English, but there is 8 episodes, so it will stay for the next 5 years.

Okay, what are the key takeaways except that of today? It's extensive knowledge of the market. You have seen a part of the team again, but you have seen that we know what we do. And we know why we do the things. That's incredibly important. We have spoken about trust with partners, with community, with investors, with stakeholders. That's in the DNA of the company that we want to be the reference development team. You mentioned that, Adam. And I think it's clear in Nicolas, Marie-Pierre and Julie, that we want in the 4 jurisdiction where we are, be the reference development team and the go to where -- when you have a project to develop, Boralex will come. And that's why it's so important also to be in this right market and not to be too much diversified and not to be in just one market. So I think the balance diversification of Boralex in 4 jurisdiction is incredibly important.

Our approach to just did it about CSR is a risk approach. And our approach to supply chain and procurement is also a risk approach. So a disciplined approach that is also in line with what we have done last year in financials and the target that we are showing to you are purely organic target, and we know that what is important is to execute on that and again, be very, very disciplined.

The key word for me today is derisking. When I'm looking to this plan compared to what we have done last year, and yes, the environment seems to be more turbulent and it is more turbulent. But come back in 2021, we didn't knew -- we didn't know what will happen for the 4 years, we just went through with the inflation, with the disruption in supply chain, with the war in Ukraine, with the war in Gaza, with all those things. So we were already in 2021 in a turbulent state. What do we say about 2007, 2008, it was also a turbulent time. So we went through that for the last 36 years.

So we go now to Q&A session. Thank you again for listening, and thank you to the team again. Thank you.

Thank you, everyone, for your attention. I think we're ready to take questions. For people in the room. Please wait for the mic to reach you, so everyone can hear your questions clearly. So yes, I think there's some there.

It's Nelson Ng from RBC Capital Markets. First question is, what are your initial thoughts on the big beautiful bill? I know there's -- I think as long as you start construction this year, you have until probably 2029 to complete. So I think you can fully tax qualifier projects. But obviously, other participants in the market, maybe like rooftop solar and others are -- they don't have it so well. I think the latest quote I see is [indiscernible] down like 40% and First Solar is down close to 20%. But what are your general thoughts?

Well, essentially, you mentioned it, Nelson, it's -- it's a situation where our main project for the next years are safe harbor and in the right window to be executed without impact. So that's where the money is. That's where the value is. What is important for us is that the situation stabilized when they -- so when we will be at the next RFP of NYSERDA, we will know what are the assumptions. What is really complex is not to know the assumptions. Sometimes it's give us very interesting situation like the [indiscernible] project you visited today. We didn't put the assumption of the ITC, but it was unknown. And when there is this uncertainty, it's more complex.

Again, the fundamentals are there. So I presume that the U.S. Senate and Congress will come back with something which will be viable and somewhere the ITC and the tax credit are in the U.S. economy since 1977, a long time ago.

I have one more question for Bruno. So on your funding plan, as you highlighted, analysts are looking closely at that. You have about, I think, $5.9 billion of debt financing relative to the $8 billion of CapEx. I don't see a bar for tax credits. Obviously, that's going to be a big part of the funding. Is that included in the debt?

We've included it in the appropriate boxes in part in the debt part is because we are expecting to bridge finance the ITCs.

Sean Steuart from TD Cowen. Thanks, everyone, for the thoughtful presentations. A question on Quebec growth opportunities. Curious on your perspective with change at the top of house there, how you expect that could affect IPPs and Boralex's opportunities to participate in growth going forward in partnership with the utility?

Yes, it's a good question. First, I would like to congratulate Michael Sabia for his promotion. It will be -- with his energy and pace, it will be great, I'm sure, for Canada. So that's the first point. The second point is, I think the plan in Quebec is quite clear, and there is place for everyone. There is a place for many IPPs and there is place for Hydro-Quebec to do large project in partnership with IPP. So I'm thinking that the presentation of Marie-Pierre and in some way, the presentation of Adam in Ontario, shows that it's incredibly important to be like we are linked with First Nations and local communities. And to have this trust. I'm not saying Hydro-Quebec doesn't have it, but I'm saying that it's important sometimes to have a partner who is doing this job.

And so I think we have just to see where it goes in terms of management, but I -- the demand is there. The industrial investments are there. And in a situation where the federal government wants to do of Canada super power, it is also with electricity. And so the easiest way to deploy new electricity would be green electricity. So very, very confident.

And just one other question. Bruno, on capital recycling, can you give us a sense of what could be on the table beyond the hydro portfolio? It sounds like maybe you're willing to consider some advanced development projects selling down those stakes. Any perspective beyond the hydro, what might be on the table? And if equity valuations aren't cooperating, is there an ability to flex that if you're not as willing to issue equity a few years down the road?

Yes. I'll answer your -- the last part of your question first, we believe that there's still today a significant gap between private equity, private valuations and public valuations, private being higher. And that -- so that gap still exists and we, in our view, will continue to exist. So just from a -- just making sure that we are able to tap into that market is important from a funding perspective and maximizing shareholder value. The different -- I mean -- importantly for us is really to create value in a segment of our business, whether it be technical technology-driven or regional and to do the capital recycling at the right time once we've created value and derisked that part of the business. A number of the financial investors are looking for derisk cash flows long term. That's what we believe we can bring to them as potential partners.

And our approach in general will be to sell down as opposed to selling completely to sell down on specific parts of the business and keep control and keep the operation and the management. So stay tuned for what are the possibilities, but we have -- we're looking in structuring our different assets so that we can do that future partnership. There are existing partnerships. Let's not forget about our existing partnerships with the First Nations, with the municipalities, with the IP, and we're also counting on future partnerships in large projects where other investors could join us at the beginning, like we're doing in Des Neiges project, which is a large project, and we have energy and Hydro-Quebec as partners early on.

So there are different types of partnerships, but the important thing is there's value. We have a plan towards some of these specific opportunities, and it's structured that way so that we can do it.

Mark Jarvi from CIBC. Bruno, following up on the asset recycling, are you able to share roughly what you think the spread between selling down and then reinvesting the capital can be done that in terms of -- is it a couple hundred basis points, 300, 400 basis points?

All depends on what we sell down and what we reinvest in, clearly, it's not -- that's clear. Today, we still see 300 to 500 basis points, depending on what we're looking at to sell down and the valuation of our stock price, generally speaking, not looking at some of the parts, but generally speaking, the average valuation of Boralex in the public market.

And just on that -- the debt financing in that Slide 16 is $5.9 billion of new project debt. Is that exclusively tied to new assets? Or are you planning to optimize debt and put some debt on existing assets today to surface value?

We can increase, and we're looking at opportunities, as I mentioned, I think, on the refinancing side in some of our assets. So that could be incremental, that could be seeking more flexibility on the financing side. We have quite a bit of project finance, as you know, 89% long term, fairly structured and some cash flow that has dropped in our structures. So we want to make sure that we optimize the debt as well as the new debt on the new assets. So we'll continue to simplify and potentially increase a little bit on the debt side, but not overall increase of debt, but the reallocation of debt. I mean we have project debt and we have corporate debt. So that's also an area we're looking at to rebalance.

Just to be clear, so that $5.9 million is largely on new asset growth?

Yes.

Last question for me is just on the gap to get to the 7 gigawatts...

And just the $5 billion is on new assets yielded before 2030 and the $0.9 million is for the after.

Got it. And just on the gap to get to the 7 gigawatts, you've shown the bridge to 5-plus. If you had to think of the markets your highest confidence level to source that incremental 2 gigawatts, how would you rank them?

Well, essentially, we have 8 gigawatt portfolio of projects. We have projects in the U.K. that are not in this 7 gigawatt -- in this 5 gigawatts, sorry, that we will bid in the next round. We have -- we have certainly project in France. We have a potential project in Ontario also in battery storage, probably. So I am reasonably confident that we can reach that. And that's the reason why we are presenting this to you today. We are not giving the names because sometimes it's competitively sensitive. But -- or all the time, it is competitively sensitive, but it's -- we are confident that we can reach this.

Baltej Sidhu from National Bank. So I just want to touch on capital recycling as we mentioned, the spread in public and private valuations and your ability to historically monetize at accretive levels. But then now the focus is on organic growth, which we appreciate. So could you just contextualize how we should think about on a holistic basis organic growth, M&A and asset recycling? Would that look more of a split of 80-20 geared towards organic growth? Or how should we think about that?

As we -- I mean, we wanted to make sure that we presented organic growth mainly today because I think that's presenting on the strength of what we have done in the past and our teams as they presented today. And we are able to demonstrate that we're going to have a growth of -- a quite interesting growth just with the organic part. Having said that, M&A remains on our plan in terms of opportunities, but we believe that we'll keep the flexibility to, as discussed, either increase our presence in the U.K., increase our presence in the U.S. as we find those opportunities on the development side and where we can create additional values on operating assets. But that's over and above the numbers that we've presented today.

Having said that, we have teams that are always scouting the market in -- on the M&A front, specifically in the regions that we are in today. And asset recycling for us is also -- I mean you can see that as M&A as well because it's finding the right buyers, finding the right partners at the right valuation at the right time when there is the trigger that we feel we've created enough value. So that's also buying and selling in the right market.

Great. And then just on the return profile when you're targeting assets, the 10% to 12% levered IRR, that would be independent of debt refinancing, capital recycling and all those other initiatives?

Yes, the 10% to 12% is a base case long-term model of our existing -- of our projects without refinancing without selling down. It's a good question. It's a good point.

Nick Boychuk from Cormark Securities. Coming back to the 10% to 12% project-level IRR that you're expecting, curious also with the U.S. IRA, if that were to be canceled, and you had to say in New York State procure first solar panels and domestic content, would a project like that still meet your 10% to 12% threshold? And how would you compare that to something like a wind project, for example, in Quebec or Scotland?

Yes. Thank you, Nick. Essentially, the -- as Bruno mentioned, and it's important because many investors when they're speaking about 10% to 12% are also speaking about more merchants than what we are doing. We're contracted. Second point, no refi, no repowering. That's very important.

To your question specifically, the project which are contracted today with NYSERDA are safe harbor. So I do not expect -- never know, but I do not expect the full repealing of the IRA tomorrow, which canceled everything because this will be so disruptive. For the next project, it would be really a question of will NYSERDA be ready to pay the right price because everyone will be on the same level playing field to bid and we will be in this position.

What we're doing is developing large size project with community support, access to the grid and good resource. And then we're working on procurement. We're working on financing to optimize everything and to beat the others. But if the competition changed, it would change for all players. And that's the reason why we think New York will continue to be an interesting market.

And if you look to the price I don't think they are public yet, but the price we obtained in this contract and the price that the market obtained in the last contract, there is a huge gap. And that is accepted by the offtaker.

Sorry to confirm that the gap is to your favor? So presumably, the IRR on that project would have been higher than a prior bid?

The answer is yes. But the gap is also covering some costs which are higher because of domestic content and other things. So -- but the answer is yes. You remember the target of Boralex in the past was 8% to 10%. Now it's 10% to 12%. So this is covered by that, and we take into account also the increased cost of the debt in this project.

Understood. And coming, I guess, to the competitive nature of that process, are you seeing any more opportunity for some of these corporate PPAs or any other corporate structures that would maybe backfill that? Like if nicer to, let's say, wasn't willing to pay up in order to make this economic, would you have the same opportunities for corporate PPA in North America as you're seeing in Western Europe?

In the state of New York, I don't think we have great experience today of corporate PPA. This is not a corporate PPA market specifically because NYSERDA is there. Should that change -- there may be a change. That's what happened in France. When the price was going down on the RFP and then there was an interest on our side to go for corporate PPA, the Ukraine crisis, the Ukraine war -- it all of us in Europe, and then the off-takers say, okay, there is also an interest for us to buy from these people. And then that's why we signed with all the people we signed the last year.

So -- but I think the important point is we are agile in Europe and in North America to pivot if this is changing. The team who is working on the Ontario trading for the battery storage is also working to optimize some of the small assets that we have in hydro in New York to change the contract to optimize them, are working on assets in Texas and New Mexico to optimize them. So the team are looking and screening everything all the time to optimize everything we can.

It's Ben Pham, BMO Capital Markets. Maybe the first question, on your financial targets, you had 3 in the last plan, you have 5 now. Can you rank order the priorities or importance of what's most important to you? I mean I can guess what it is, but from your perspective just a thought process? And then maybe just a follow-up to that, is there any projects hypothetically M&A organic that you're faced with a situation where there's maybe not a proportionate benefit in all those financial metrics? And how do you weigh and balance that potential outcome?

I'll start with the first question. I'll probably ask you to restate the second one. So in terms of our targets, they're all important, I think, from a perspective from -- certainly from my perspective and from the company's perspective, we've often said that we're focused on the growth of AFFO cash flows and to, I guess, to the general demand, we have decided to give a target on AFFO per share, which we've always been focused on. Let's state that. It's clear.

I mean, significant part of the compensation of the -- all the employees in the company is based on the growth of the AFFO per share beating the best year always. So AFFO per share is certainly one that is quite important, but the growth of EBITDA, doubling the capacity -- I mean the teams -- I think it's demonstrated that we start from a team on the ground or teams on the ground that are developing megawatts, profitable megawatts and that work hard to get those to operating and then to make sure that these are driving good cash flows, long-term contracted, visible that's the model of Boralex.

And then optimizing around that when we said base case return and then adding returns over that, we have different options to do that. We've demonstrated these different options over the last few years and we'll continue to do so.

Maybe to reframe the second question, maybe an example where you have an M&A transaction and for some reason, it's meaningfully beneficial to EBITDA. But the free cash flow impact is not as exciting maybe in the next 3 years, but it looks exciting 4 and 5. It sounds like your leading principle there is it's free cash flow. It's going to drive that. Like you look at EBITDA growth, but that's not going to -- you would pass on potential transaction.

It needs to be accretive on a per share basis over a fairly short period of time, yes.

And maybe my second one on maybe the pipeline, 8 gigawatts -- and I'm just working backwards here when you think about projects being constructed, it's probably what, a 2-year window or so to build wind or solar, is that right? [indiscernible] 2030, you probably started construction 2028. So when do you actually need to get these projects through development for you to hit that time line? Because I know 5 years is quite a ways away, right? But got to work backwards, right, to hit the 2030 target.

So you're right. It's -- we have essentially 3 years, specifically and even in when it depends where you are because in France, in Scotland, we have been able to build in less than 2 years in Canada, forget about it. So definitely, we need to be -- to have this project quickly. In battery storage could be less than 2 years. But the point is -- the question of Robin today speaking about transformers, circuit breakers and all those things. So there is always a critical -- so -- yes, 2027, 2028 will be the last time to say, okay, we are in line for this target organically. We should have started the project.

I'm Vimal from ACS Group. I had a couple of questions. First one on the $5 billion debt issuance. Do you have a FX mix in mind for that?

Not from the top of my head, but it's really based on -- if you look at where the projects are, refinance in local currency for these projects. So I just don't have it from the top of my head.

The second one is on the IRR target, 10% to 12%. Is that based on the current rate environment? And could there be potential upside if you go to a more normalized rate environment in a couple of years?

It is based on the current rate environment. We've -- we usually use long-term forward curves on -- but we're not planning -- we haven't planned a reduction in interest rates or anything to modify or impact those numbers. So yes, there could be a different direction depending on rate movements. But we I think, as Patrick mentioned, our agility, we've been able to adjust from a lower rate environment to a higher rate environment. We adjust our pricing. And importantly, we don't get -- we don't spend a lot of money before we are -- we have fixed our cost, and we are able to match with our pricing in our contracts.

Sorry, this is Stephane. Just want to come back to Ben's point. Just want to highlight the discipline in AFFO per share for acquisitions. This is really, really important to us. So I know sometimes when we say we do acquisitions, people get a bit worried in the you will issue shares. So I don't know whether this be accretive or not. But we have and we looked at a lot of opportunities in the past 5 years. And purposely did not go ahead. And we're short of our 2025 target. So it shows really great discipline. And I think you should expect that also going forward, we're not chasing megawatt we're not chasing at any price to do a transaction. We'll do it if it makes sense for the company and if it's accretive. I just wanted to highlight that.

Any other questions from the room?

Are there any impacts that are expected from like the new Rule 899 in the U.S. with regards to subsidiaries and how they pay back dividends to Canada?

At the moment, we don't expect significant impacts from that. That's our assumption today.

Mark Jarvi from CIBC. A couple of other questions. Just the last plan, diversification was a big talking word, don't seem to see that today. Is it with the view that you've diversified enough that you're happy with the technology opportunities and markets, and it's less of a focus and it's just about finding the best risk-adjusted returns and what's in front of you today?

I think it's still a driver, but I'm clear we will -- we are planning to stay in the same jurisdiction. If you go back in 2021, we had 50% of a portfolio of development in the U.K., not a complete team, not an asset in operation and not the development that we have today. And in the U.S., we were looking to quickly deployment in solar, specifically, there was bumps in the road, but diversification is still an important point. But I'm not saying that I target to be completely balanced between wind and solar. And there are many reasons.

There is more value in wind profile for the grid -- the solar profile, which is producing during the day by definition is interesting. But if you look to advanced markets like California or Spain, there's more cannibalization of price. So this is a market where it becomes important, interesting to do storage. So the balance of wind and the opportunity that we have in Canada and wind, I'm very happy with that in the U.K., it's the same and a little bit less solar than expected in the previous plan for 2030. That's perfect and probably more storage because in 2021, when we issued the plan, we were seeing, okay, we will have storage, we were not thinking to have storage by the end of this year with these long-term contracts.

So potentially some systems are evolving quicker than expected, but we have been able to catch these opportunities.

And the other item would be talk about agility and being nimble as an organization. It's obviously increasing focus around scale, particularly you think about procurement. So the trade-off there for Boralex right now, what has become more challenging from a scale perspective? And what solutions are you using right now to combat that?

Yes. It's essentially all the centralization of and the work together of the team with procurement is incredibly important. I'm used to say that suppliers they like also agility of their customers. And they like to -- not agility to do small project, but the agility to negotiate contract where the risk management of the contract are interesting for both party and creating value. I think we have -- this is a signature of Boralex for years. So we'll continue to do that. You have seen today again that the company is not relying, I remember, I'd say, 10 years ago, the company was relying on probably 4, 5 person specifically involved in everything. It's not the case today. So we have a great bench of talent in our organization. We have reviewed the organization many times and will continue. That's also an important point when you're growing up. And yes, that's the way we're doing.

Anyone else have a question? No.

Stephane, any questions from online?

Other question? No question from the virtual. We're so efficient, we finished 30 minutes earlier. So.

Okay. Great. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you.