Expansion and growth, but increasingly in the name of renewable energy

D. The Audax Group has moved from the very beginning to be present in other markets besides the Spanish one. Since the opening of the Portuguese branch in 2013, there has been a succession of investments in Europe: 2014 Italy, 2015 Germany and Poland, 2017 Holland. A decidedly rapid expansion, especially in a competitive sector like the energy one…
Yes, we can define it as a rapid expansion, but never reckless. Each single operation was carried out with caution, according to clear investment logics and careful risk analysis. I would say that the development of the Audax Group abroad is guided by at least two criteria.
First, all those highly competitive and already highly mature energy markets, typical of Northern European countries, such as Sweden, Finland, Denmark or the United Kingdom itself, are excluded from current expansion strategies. Advanced markets, in which the delicate transition from a monopoly or oligopoly situation to one of true liberalization has already occurred, with the active participation of a multiplicity of subjects in the energy supply.
Second criterion, we do not aspire to enter markets that, on the contrary, are excessively blocked, rigid and to date still far from possible openings to real competition between players. To be clear, those where the presence of state-owned companies is still too significant.
D. So you are looking for a middle way…
Audax looks with interest at those countries where the transition to a liberalized market is taking place or is about to take place. Only there is it useful and makes sense to bring our solutions, our working method, our vision.
This is why, after Spain and Portugal, Italy is an ideal market to invest in and to which we can propose our idea of energy consumption.
Q. For Audax, then, do expansion and growth continue to be concepts that go hand in hand?
In the 2020 strategy we are talking about 1/3, 1/3, 1/3. That is, the two-year objective is to reach a substantial equivalence of turnover considering the activities carried out respectively in Spain, Europe and Latin America. Although, to date, most of the returns on investments are Spanish, we are still witnessing a significant growth of what we can call the "European share" and therefore also Italian.
The greatest delay - if we can call it that - concerns the expansion in Central and South America. This difficulty in penetration is due not only to the relative temporal proximity of the investments, but also to the differences between the nations of interest from an economic, political and, above all, normative-regulatory point of view.
D. Panama is an example of what penetration at those latitudes could be like…
Without a doubt. Audax is present in Panama in a dual role, that of energy producer with a wind farm - under construction - of 66 MW of installed power and over 150 million dollars invested, and that of seller, following agreements made with local entities to access the retail energy market of the Central American country.
Q. So do we expect Audax to be present in other markets?
Yes, it is in our plans. However, I would like to add a brief reflection. Investing abroad is, without a doubt, a pillar of our development strategy; but it cannot be the only one. In this sense, we have always reasoned in terms of diversification of activities and areas on which to focus. Diversifying to reduce the economic-financial but also regulatory-legislative risks that an energy player may encounter while operating in a given market.
Q. Director, could you indicate another “pillar”?
For Audax, energy must be above all clean. And therefore come from renewable, safe and environmentally sustainable sources.
A strategic choice that is doubly positive and has an ethical component, to be understood as a dutiful commitment that each of us - especially if we are a collective subject - must take on with regard to the conservation of the Planet and therefore of our future and that of generations to come. And an economic-financial component, considering that a green policy can lead to interesting advantages in monetary terms. An element that for a company that employs thousands of people and supplies energy to hundreds of thousands of customers is anything but negligible.
Q. So is renewable energy worth it?
The price of electricity produced by gas- or coal-fired power plants is inevitably subject to the fluctuations of this type of fuel. Fluctuations that we know depend on a plurality of factors that are different from each other, difficult to control and that range from market speculation, to the taxation of each individual country, to their greater or lesser availability up to questions of a geo-political nature.
Investing in wind or solar photovoltaic technology is, instead, independent of the factors mentioned above. This is why it seems to us the right way, in every sense.
Q. How green will Audax Group's energy be?
We have set ourselves a goal: to ensure that by 2020, 60% of the energy sold to our customers (private or business) comes from renewable sources.
Green energy can come directly from plants owned by Audax (as already happens or will happen thanks to wind and photovoltaic parks in Panama, France and Poland) or from other producers, by virtue of purchasing agreements capable of guaranteeing advantageous prices for the entire supply chain, from the producer to the final consumer.
Q. How long will we have to wait to reach this kind of agreement?
Nothing, it's already happening. In March of this year, we signed a contract to purchase clean energy from a major Spanish producer, Cox Energy. In short, it is a PPA, Power Purchase Agreement, long-term energy purchase agreements between renewable energy producers and large sales companies. The terms of this operation concern the coverage of 660MW of installed power, enough to distribute 1,300 GWh per year of green energy, equivalent to the consumption of more than 390 thousand families. Considering the numbers and figures of the operation, it is the largest PPA ever signed to date for the purchase of photovoltaic energy.