Page 8 - BB Energy Brochure

CEO’s Message

trusted and transparent relationship with our banking and
financial partners has allowed us to continue growing our
financing lines to US$ 3.4 billion.

In October 2021, we launched a debut US$ 500 million US
borrowing base facility using the KomGo platform - the
first digital borrowing base in the USA, which positions
BB Energy at the forefront of innovation and transpar-
ency in the trade finance sector. We also successfully re-
financed a syndicated Revolving Credit Facility (RCF) for
US$ 210 million.

In a continuing drive to improve governance, we have
established several committees under the remit of our
CFO, Jacques Erni, and invited to the Board of Directors,
Dominique Beretti, ex-global Head of Trade and Com-
modities Finance at Société Générale and Gaby Abdel-
nour ex-CEO of JP Morgan Asia.

In addition to the increase in our trading flows in the
regions where we have historically operated, BB Energy
Mohamed Bassatne continued to expand its investments both in downstream
and trading flows in growth regions such as Africa and
Latin America during 2021. We opened new offices in
We are living in an increasingly volatile and complicated Casablanca and reached our target of ten operational
world. We have barely recovered from the Covid pandemic retail stations under our brand ‘Société Pétrolière’.
to find ourselves unexpectedly hit, on 24 February 2022, We hope this will create more synergies to supply the
by the war in Europe. This upheaval has not only trig- Moroccan market with Diesel in order to further support
gered a geopolitical crisis which has shaken the world’s our end users.
economy spiraling the price of oil to over a decade’s high
at US$ 120 per barrel; but like in all wars the innocents In 2021, the growth of our crude trading activity stood
suffer. out in North America, where traded volumes increased by
over 40% from 2020. We were also successful in growing
BB Energy’s global and diversified business footprint, ex- our distillate transactions by almost 27% during 2021;
cellent customer relationships, market knowledge, logis- this growth was largely due to securing strategic short
tical expertise, and most importantly our robust business positions in Latin America. Consequently, the substan-
model built on three key pillars - Agility, Adaptability, tial increase of our distillate portfolio allowed BB Energy
and Reliability - have been critical to ensure our contin- USA to become a key player in that market.
ued success and overcome the rising pressure and vol-
atility on the global energy and commodities markets. BB Energy has continued to support the Energy Transi-
tion and the path to Net-Zero. We have embarked on a
Market disruptions emphasized BB Energy’s outstand- transformational journey towards cleaner and greener
ing market knowledge and logistical expertise in helping energy. In January 2020, the Group established a
our customers to realign their supply chains. We swiftly division dedicated to managing and investing in renew-
found attractive sources of supplies and as a result able energy and emission reduction projects, titled BBE
our trading volumes increased across the board. I am RED (Renewable Energy Division). Since its inception,
therefore pleased to report that BB Energy successfully BBE RED has grown rapidly in activity and size, with more
navigated these challenges to achieve another strong than 20, and growing, highly skilled personnel with ex-
performance in 2021. We increased our trading volumes pertise spanning across the renewables space working
by 24% compared to 2020 financial year, reaching a total towards BB Energy’s transition. Through a focused ac-
of 41 million tonnes, and a turnover of US$21 billion quisition and investment strategy, we have built up the
dollars. company’s operations in solar energy generation and
carbon emission reduction initiatives.
Another significant challenge faced by the industry is
access to financing and liquidity to support the increased In April 2021, the Group acquired Solar Century Africa
level of volatility in global markets. BB Energy’s long-term (SCA), an integrated solar company which develops,

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