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Empresa Nacional De Electricidad’s (EOC) CEO Ramiro Alfonsin on Q2 2015 Results – Earnings Call Transcript

Empresa Nacional De Electricidad S.A. (NYSE: EOC ) Q2 2015 Earnings Conference Call July 28, 2015 05:00 PM ET Executives Ramiro Alfonsin – Deputy CEO and CFO Analysts Zakill Fernandez – Scotia Bank Nicholas Schild – Santander Bank Rodrigo Mora – Moneda Asset Management Operator Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the First Half 2015 Endesa Chile Earnings Conference Call. My name is Carmen and I will be your operator for today. During this conference call we may make statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements could include statements regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of Endesa Chile and its management with respect to, amongst other things, Endesa Chile’s business plans, Endesa Chile’s cost reduction plans, trends affecting Endesa Chile’s financial condition or results of operations, including market trends in the electricity sector in Chile or elsewhere, supervision and regulation of the electricity sector in Chile or elsewhere and the future effect of any changes in the laws and regulations applicable to Endesa Chile or its affiliates. Such forward-looking statements reflect only our current expectations, are not guarantees of future performances or involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. These factors include a decline in the equity capital markets of the United States or Chile, an increase in the market rates or interest in the United States or elsewhere, adverse decisions by government regulators in Chile or elsewhere and other factors described in Endesa Chile’s Annual Report on Form 20-F, including under Risk Factors. You may access our 20-F on the SEC’s website www.sec.gov. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on those forward-looking statements, which speak only as of that date. Endesa Chile undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements or to disclose any development as a result of which these forward-looking statements become inaccurate. I would now like to turn the presentation over to Mr. Ramiro Alfonsin, Deputy CEO and CFO of the company. Please proceed. Ramiro Alfonsin Thank you, Carmen. Good afternoon everyone and welcome to Endesa Chile’s conference call to review the first half 2015 result. My name is Ramiro Alfonsin. I’m Deputy CEO and CFO of the company and joining me today is Mrs. Susana Rey, Endesa Chile’s Head of the Investor Relations Director and our Investor Relations team. As always we will be available to assist you and answer any questions you may have after this call. First of all I would like to highlight the most important events during this first half in slide two. Generation rose by 8%, mainly explained by higher combined cycle generation in Argentina and higher hydro generation in Colombia and Peru. We continue to face higher energy demand in Chile and Colombia of over 3% growth from 2013 and 5% growth in Peru and Argentina also compared to 2014. Our consolidated EBITDA increased 9%, reaching $744 million, as a result of a significant improvement in Chile as a consequence of higher energy sales, average energy sale price and the consolidation of GasAtacama since January 2015. In Chile on July 1 Bocamina started operations for economic dispatch by the CDECSIC operation center. In Colombia, El Quimbo, that we have being constructing for the past three years started to fill its reservoir reaching 95% completion. We expect to start operations during this fourth quarter 2015 of this 400 megawatt plant. Regarding our future investments the Board of directors Of Endesa Chile have been reviewing and decided to endorse a portfolio of projects presented by the management, amounting to 6,300 megawatts. For this total amount 3,001 megawatts are to be developed in the next five years. Now, let’s focus on slide three. When compared first half 2014 with the first half 2015 the most important consolidated changes are as follows. Revenue grew 14% mainly due to higher energy sales in Chile and in Argentina. Our physical sales increased by 11% mainly explained by higher sales to regulated customers and to the spot market in Chile and higher sales to spot market in Argentina. Costs increased by 16%, primarily due to higher fuel consumption. Thus consolidated EBITDA increased by 9% reaching $744 million. Our financial results reached an expense of $134 million, an increase of 3% mainly due to negative change rates differences in Chile and higher financial expenses in Argentina. Income from a related companies decreased by 18% mainly explained by the lower result in Enel Brasil and the full consolidation of GasAtacama since May 2014. Taxes increased 26% mainly due to higher taxable base and the tax rate in Chile that increased from 20% in 2014 to 22.5% in 2015. Net income attributable to Endesa’s shareholders decreased by 2% amounting to $146 million. On slide four you can see each of the countries contribution to our EBITDA. From a total amount of $744 million, 44% comes from Colombia, 31% comes from Chile, 20% from Peru and 5% from Argentina. Our operations in Brazil are accounted under the equity metrics and contributed a total of $38 million reflected in our related company result. In slide five, regarding our physical sales we experienced an increase of an 11% during this first half mainly due to 70% higher sales in Chile, mainly to distribution companies. We increased 750 gigawatt hours due to higher volumes from the energy biddings that we won in 2013 and also to unregulated customers. 80% sales in Argentina to the spot markets due to increased availability of our Costanera’s combined cycle. Let me remind you that the spot sales in Argentina corresponds to the sales to CAMMESA. 8% higher energy sales in Colombia to distribution companies, in particular sales that have been contracted at better prices and also sales to the spot as a consequence of higher hydro dispatch in Guavio. Partially this was offset by a 6% lower sales in Peru to distribution companies. In slide six let’s take a look at our financial position. Consolidated debt has decreased $850 million since June 2014 reaching $3.5 billion primary due to the exchange rate effect and the bond payment made by Endesa for $543 million. Lower debt also in Costanera $403 [ph] million as a consequence of a renegotiation with Mitsubishi and also lower debt in Edegel [ph] of $47 million as a consequence of a bank loan repayment. Of the total debt of $3.5 billion only 26% matures in the next two years and 91% corresponds to Chile and Columbia. Our consolidated debt has an average life of seven years with an average cost of 7% unadjusted for maturity and duration. In slide seven most of our funds from operations were used in CapEx, including Quimbo, Los Cóndores and the optimization of Bocamina II and Tarapacá and with the remaining cash of 2014 we paid $514 million in dividend. Now I would like to give you a brief summary of our operating performance on a country by country basis starting with slide eight. Regarding the Argentinean energy sector energy demand in the system increased 5% reaching 66 terawatt hours. Total available energy in reservoirs as of June 2015 increased to 65%, an improvement of 160 gigawatt hours compared to the same period last year. Reservoirs relevant to Endesa increased to 66%, an improvement of 51 gigawatt hour. Prices in Argentina as you are aware have been frozen in 120 Argentinian pesos per megawatt hour since 2002. EBITDA from our Argentinean operations were similar than the first half of 2014 amounting to $41 million, primarily influenced by higher fixed cost associated with inflation during 2014 and 2015 and salary readjustment during this period. These were partially offset by higher revenues as a consequence of more availability in Costanera. In Chile in slide nine, the energy sector demand in the SIC increased 3.5% totaling 33 terawatt hours. The total available energy in reservoirs as of June 2015 improved significantly compared to the same period last year, 348 gigawatt hour higher. Regarding the reservoirs relevant to Endesa Chile we improved 290 gigawatt hour, and particularly Laja and in Ralco. Through June 2015 the average material cost in the SIC declined from $175 to $149 per megawatt hour, 50% lower than in the same period last year. EBITDA from our operations in Chile doubled when compared to the first half of 2014 amounting to $230 million mainly due to higher physical sales, higher average energy price of $3 and the full consolidation and better results of GasAtacama. Regarding our plant of Bocamina let me tell you that on July 1, 2015 the Bocamina II power plant became available for economic dispatch, after obtaining the required authorizations and completing the operational testing period that began in June. Bocamina I is currently under the testing period and is expected to become available for economic dispatch during the next month. As of June 2015 Bocamina I and Bocamina II generation amounted to over 200 gigawatt hour. In slide 10 regarding the Colombian energy sector, during the first half the electricity demand in the system amounted to 32 terawatt hour, representing a 3% increase compared to the same period last year. The total energy stored in reservoirs as of June 2015 decreased by 213 gigawatt hours compared to the same period last year. Regarding reservoirs relevant to Endesa it decreased 145 gigawatt hours. Average marginal cost decreased from $137 to $78 per megawatt, 43% lower than in the same period last year as a consequence of the interest of – and the linear expectations in 2014. I would like to remind you that last year was exceptional for us in Colombia benefitting from good hydrology, particularly where we are present. Colombian EBITDA decreased by 14% to $329 million mostly explained by the devaluation of the Colombian pesos and $14 million wealth tax payment related to the tax reform of last year, that we mentioned in our first quarter presentation. This was partially offset by 9% higher hydro generation through El Vario [ph]. In Peru in slide 11 the electricity demand reached 19 terawatt hours, 5% higher than last year, the highest growth rate in the region. The total energy stored in reservoirs as of June 2015 were in the same level compared to last year. Regarding reservoir relevant to Endesa, it increased 40 gigawatt-hour. Let me remind you that at this period of time reservoirs are in the lower volumes of water in Peru. Marginal prices in the Peruvian spot market averaged $26 per megawatt hour decreasing by 32% with respect to the first-half of 2014, partly reflecting the new capacity added to the system, particularly by — combined cycle and other higher availability of existing power plants. Thus Peruvian EBITDA increased 4% reaching $145 million due to 6% higher revenue as a result of higher toll revenues and the conversion effect resulting from the exchange rate of the Peruvian Sol. This was offset by lower sales prices due to lower demand. Finally in slide 12, regarding the Brazilian energy sector the first half electricity demand in the system reached 268 terawatt hour, 2% lower than the same period last year. The total energy stored in reservoirs as of June 2015 decreased compared to the same period last year. Enel Brazil EBITDA decreased by 16% to $319 million, explained by 62% lower EBITDA in Ampla due to higher energy purchases in the spot market and to 33% lower EBITDA in Cachoeira Dourada our hydro plant as a consequence of the drought. This was partially offset by higher EBITDA in Coelce due to higher demand and Fortaleza, our combined cycle in the Northeast of Brazil. We remind you that Enel Brasil is accounted for under the equity method and our 37% ownership amounted to $38 million of net attributable income for the first half 2015. Now let me focus on our investments under construction. In slide 13, as of June 2015 let me highlight that we started the filling of El Quimbo reservoir. The project has reached 95% completion and we expect to start operations of this 400 megawatt plant during the fourth quarter of 2015. In regards to Los Cóndores run of river hydro plant located in Chile, upon its completion will add approximately 150 megawatt of installed capacity to the state. As of June 2015 the level of completion has reached 15%. We are currently developing important social work in the region in order to develop different projects with the local community. Regarding our future investments the Board of Director has been reviewing and decided to endorse a portfolio of projects presented by the management. The key criteria when selecting the projects to be developed was profitability, execution time and social and environmental feasibility. Each new project will be addressed under the methodology called a strategic plan of sustainable redevelopment. That includes the early involvement with the community. Establishing a continued relationship and implementing share value mechanism is in a territory where we plan to be present. The portfolio for Chile, Peru, Colombia and Brazil amounts to 6,300 megawatts of which 3,100 megawatts will be developed in the next five years. In the case of Chile the portfolio can see these projects for a total of up to 3000 megawatts, which represent more 50% of the current installed capacity of Endesa Chile. From this total amount 2200 megawatts will be developed in the next five years. The projects are in different stages of development and their focus is on providing growth opportunities for Endesa Chile. In terms of technologies this would be concentrated on hydro electric and natural gas plants, thus contributing to cleaner generation metrics and lower emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. In this sense the management presented 23 projects in Chile of which 54% are hydro and 36% are gas and in Peru and Brazil and Colombia 13 projects of a total 3300 megawatts of which 40% are hydro and 55% are gas. Before ending this conference call on slide 14, let me brief you an update regarding the reorganization process. Following the presentation presented on May 18th, the SVS have answered clarify certain legal aspects and corporate government suggestions related to their reorganization plan. In particular the SVS has resolved that. the reorganization as this has been structured cannot be considered as a related party transaction. The reorganization should be considered as a single transaction as much as possible. And that the only the merger triggers the use of the withdrawal right for the dissident or not present shareholders. On the other hand the SBS reminded the Board of Director its duty to preserve the interest of all shareholders and to act in line with the corporate interest. On July 27, Endesa Chile filed into the SVS a significant event informing the market that the Board of Directors resolved that if approved the transaction should be executed in a following way. Each of the companies of the current companies known as Endesa Chile would carry out its spin off separating Chilean activities from those in other Latin American countries. Once the spinoffs are materialized, the subsequent international companies, Chelicera America, and Endesa Americas would merge into Enuresis Americas. The resulting companies would be based in Chile and listed in the same stock exchanges as before the spin offs. It is the intention of Endesa Chile to continue with the development of this transaction in strict compliance with the resolution number 15452 of the SVS. In addition, the Board of Directors of Endesa Chile resolved that the independent directors committee should grant an opinion on the transaction. On slide 15 we are presenting an indicative transaction timeline. The Board of Directors is currently evaluating the transaction. Expected timeframe to have an opinion is October 2015. If the board of director resolves to proceed with the transaction it would then called for an extraordinary shareholders meeting for December to vote on the spin-off. Once they spin offs have materialized and both vehicles are listed the second extraordinary shareholders meeting will be called to vote the merger. Finally on slide 16, I would like to highlight the most important issues here in this period. Prior consolidated energy sales due to increase in electricity demand. As I mentioned physical sales increased 11%, in particular increasing in Chile and Columbia the demand has increased 3% and Peru and Argentina demand has increased 5%. Consolidated EBITDA increased by 9% reaching $744 million mainly explained by a significant improvement in Chile. The company continues to show a solid financial position and a suitable debt maturity pattern. Consolidated debt has decreased by $850 million and average life is of seven years. On July 1, 2015 the Bocamina Power Plant become available for upcoming dispatch, adding to our portfolio of 350 megawatt of coal power plant. Bocamina has produced as of June 30 over 200 gigawatt hour. Access to liquefied natural gas and these regasification facilities allow us to continue to provide secured energy for Chile through a safe reliable efficient and sustainable operation. As of June 2015, we started filling the reservoir of El Quimbo. That has now reached a 95% completion and is expected to start operations during the fourth quarter of 2015. The corporate reorganization process is expected to conclude by the third quarter of 2015. If the Board of Directors decides to move forward on the transactions calling the extraordinary shareholder meeting for December. Regarding our future investments, the Board of Directors endorsed the portfolio of projects presented by the management amounting to 600. 300 megawatt from this total amount 3000, over 3000 megawatt are to be developed within the next five years. This concludes our review of Endesa Chile financial results for the first half of 2015. Now I will be glad to answer any quarters you might have. Carmen? Question-and-Answer Session Operator Thank you. [Operator Instructions] And our first question is from the line of Zakill Fernandez from Scotia Bank. Your line is now open. Zakill Fernandez Hi, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my question. The first thing I would like to ask is related to the CapEx in the Chile unit. If you could tell us how much is related to Bocamina II work, I don’t know if that’s possible? The second question is related to the Argentina operations, the revenue per megawatt and only you have seen energy revenues improved markedly quarter-over-quarter to $15 per megawatt hour. On the EBITDA level it was off by higher G&A but if you could provide a bit of color on the revenue per megawatt increase that would be appreciated? And the third question is related to the higher contracted level in Colombia if it’s related to any new contracts that pertain to El Quimbo, if we should expect this contracted level to remain high and if you still think that with [indiscernible] Endesa or Empresa should be able to fill the reservoir before December 2015 and get El Quimbo started? Thank you. Ramiro Alfonsin Yes, we can disclose the CapEx for Bocamina. I think we have disclosed in the past it’s roughly $180 million. This will be expanded during the next two years. So this will include 2015 and 2016. We expect to finalize all the environmental modifications we are doing into the plant. Regarding the revenues of Argentina we have basically the same revenues per megawatt hour that we had the previous year. Now in July there was been a new reform that the government has applied and it will be applied with effect from February 2015, and in this reform our revenues will be increased and will be corrected by inflation at least the large part of our income will be corrected by inflation. Regarding the new contract in Colombia we are not currently contracting El Quimbo and we will do so once we have certainty that the operations of this plant comes into place and the reservoir as you say is expected to be filled before the end of this year, probably in the coming two months but then we have to start the operations and the testing of this new plant, we expect this — this is why we’re speaking about the last quarter. But we do expect the reservoir to be filled much before than the end of this year. Thank you Zakill for your questions. Zakill Fernandez Oh, that was very clear, thank you. Operator And our next question is from Nicholas Schild from Santander. Nicholas Schild Hi, and thank you for taking my question. I have two questions if we can go one by one. First of all if you look at GasAtacama generation in June we have seen an increase in diesel generation. Does this respond to higher sales to spot market or are you selling somehow energy to using the interline to Argentina, and if it’s possible or are you doing something concrete to put more gas in the facility doing swaps with Argentina or having anything with the gas regasification port of source? Ramiro Alfonsin So going by one by one Nicholas thank you for your questions. The current generation in GasAtacama is being put into the spot market. We’re not currently exporting to Argentina. This is currently under evaluation. The Argentina authorities granted this authorization in the past month and this is something that we’re going to consider. Regarding installing the spot [ph] and we are doing this, sending one of our gas ships that we were supposed to receive in Quintero, we send it to [indiscernible] and we are regasifying the gas there. Nicholas Schild Okay, thank you. And the second question, the last contract you signed for renewal energy with Enel was at around $105 per megawatt hour. However your previous contracts seeing that year and the previous year were below $90 per megawatt hour. And why is the increase in price? And do you think if — or can you me what is the economical rationality of having direct contract with Enel Green Power and not trying to search for other renewal players to get the contract. Ramiro Alfonsin Yes, we are permanently reviewing and seeing what is available in the market and we’re not disclosing the prices of these contracts, although they might be close to what you’re mentioning. The energy we purchased from Enel Green Power on this last contract is based, a large part of it is based on geothermal. And this is a more predictable and stable energy that once, if we can purchase with other renewable sources. And we believe that there are very few suppliers in Chile currently that can provide this amount of energy. And as you know in the last two bids that we were granted we won 4.2 terawatt hours of contracts at roughly $126 per megawatt hour. So we do believe these contracts to be profitable and this is why we closed them. Nicholas Schild And do you have any direct contract with other renewal companies upside of Enel Green Power? Ramiro Alfonsin We are constantly reviewing those and if we have a suitable offer we will close them yes. Nicholas Schild Okay, thank you for the questions Ramiro. Ramiro Alfonsin No problem, Nicolas. Operator And our next question is from Rodrigo Mora from Moneda Asset Management. Your line is now open. Rodrigo Mora Hi, Ramiro. I have a question related to Bocamina I and Bocamina II. I would like to know if the energy generated by both plants were recognized by Endesa Chile’s second quarter results. Ramiro Alfonsin Yes, Rodrigo thank you for the question. Maybe we haven’t been clear. As of June 30th we have generated over 200 gigawatt hours. To be precisely it’s roughly 220 gigawatt hour with these two plants. And since there were not dispatched or recognized by CDEC at this point, this energy was sold to the spot market and this is in our figures yes, on the balance sheet and on the results that we presented. Rodrigo Mora Okay, thank you. Now and another question is related to the lack of water in San Isidro Complex especially for the next summer. Are there any actions that Endesa Chile is doing at this complex to solve the problem of water supply? Ramiro Alfonsin Yes, we’re carrying out a lot of evaluations to close and there are many alternative technical alternatives [ph] that require maybe long time. What we’re doing in the short term is that we’re bringing trucks with water. Currently we have been doing that for the past couple of months. And we have allow that one full combined cycle is working fully as a combined cycle and that the other one is performing as a combined cycle doing 12 hours daily more or less. So while we have high prices we’re able to produce with a combined cycle. This is the short term alternative that we have devised. And we’re currently under environmental authorization to take these fluids that have resulted from the power plant out to a mining company. We have an agreement signed with them but we need the environmental permit to do that and this is what we’re currently doing. If we manage to get this permit in this short term we will be able to produce with the two full cycles during the summer. Rodrigo Mora Okay, thank you, Ramiro. Ramiro Alfonsin I really appreciate your question. Operator And we have a follow up question from the line of Zakill Fernandez from Scotia Bank. Zakill Fernandez Hey, hi guys sorry for interrupting. Just very two quick ones. I wanted to know about the contracted level in Peru. It seems to be down versus at the last year, is this sort of a new level or will you try to contract more? And the second question is you talked a little bit about the new project in Chile, a new portfolio of project that include hydro and gas. I want to know if the figures that you gave for these projects include the strips of land that Endesa bought from BNS National [ph], I think last year. Thank you. Ramiro Alfonsin Regarding the reduction in contracted levels we have a particular reduction in Peru regarding our liberalized customers and we have some mining customers that have reduce their new demand considerably and although we are looking at alternatives to contract, prices are quite low currently in Peru. So it would be difficult to find out — to find other contracts at these prices during this year. We are looking into that Zakill. Regarding Chile we’re not providing — we’re not disclosing which are the projects. What we’re trying to face now is a different approach to this project, trying to work with the communities to establish relationships and to be involved in the very early stages of the designing of the projects with the communities. So it wouldn’t be serious and we’re not disclosing the names of where these projects are targeted. I’m sorry I cannot answer regarding whether these are in these territories or in other regions of Chile. Zakill Fernandez Got it, that’s probably smart. So thanks again. Ramiro Alfonsin Okay. Operator And we do have a follow up from the line of Rodrigo Mora from Moneda Asset Management. Rodrigo Mora Yes, Ramiro, I have another question related to the contract of Endesa in Chile. At the end of this year the company end important contract with a steel and iron mining company. What alternatives is the company analyzing to sell this energy available? Ramiro Alfonsin Currently if you look at our numbers Rodrigo, we have been during this first semester purchasing energy. So we are not in the short term looking at contracting or increasing our contracts. Having high marginal prices our purchases cost us roughly a $130 per megawatt hour. So the reduction on the contracted volume for us during this first semester and I would say during the next 12 months is actually better than increasing our portfolio. What we are considering to participate on the next bid in 2015 and there to propose potential projects to these new bid. Rodrigo Mora Okay. Are you thinking that the company will have available Bocamina II and I and more LNG and more hydro conditions, so to finish this contract could be not good. Ramiro Alfonsin I don’t know. I see your problem, but our purchases, I imagine we are purchasing roughly 2 terawatt-hour in this first semester or 1.5 terawatt hour in this first semester at $130. So even if Bocamina come in we are not looking — we do not feel the pressure or we not feel it convenient to go out and continue to increase our contracted volume. Rodrigo Mora Okay. So if the company is not analyzing or participating in other auctions for example if a customer call El Medro [ph]? Ramiro Alfonsin No, let me be clear on that. We are first possibly seeing the market and talking to liberalized customers and we have some part of energy that we can commit at suitable prices. But we’ll not look in — or we’re not very — we don’t feel pushed since our portfolio now with more on the buying side and on the tenant side. We still have to see how the hydrology performed this year. It’s still very early to know. Rodrigo Mora Okay. Ramiro, could you give us more details of how the project the investment plan in Chile, what kind of projects that you mentioned on the presentation? Ramiro Alfonsin Yeah, we are basically…. Rodrigo Mora I mean 23 projects in hydro, 64% in hydro and 36% in gas. Ramiro Alfonsin Yes, for the time being Rodrigo as I mentioned our approach is to work with the communities and we feel that we have to address them first to work with local authorities to try decide with them the project that is suitable, has very little environmental and social impact and this is how we want to address the project and to see whether socially, environmentally and community wise these projects are feasible before delivering more details on how the project or what’s the content of this project. Rodrigo Mora I understood, the new way to do the things. Ramiro Alfonsin Yeah, what we have we hope — we are convinced it’s going to work better and it is sustainable approach that we have to handle as a utility. Rodrigo Mora Okay, thank you, Ramiro. Ramiro Alfonsin Thank you. Appreciate it. Operator And our next question is from Rodrigo Garcilaso from JBM [ph]. Unidentified Analyst Hi, thanks for the call. I got one simple question is that considering the recently announced project portfolio especially in Chile is there a certain leverage ratio that you don’t want to surpass in order to develop all this announced projects there certain net debt to EBITDA ratio that you want to surpass to develop this? Thank you. Ramiro Alfonsin Thank you Rodrigo for the question. We certainly want to keep our investment grade and therefore having this the ratios cap which would be better than three times EBITDA, debt to EBITDA certainly parameter that we will keep on looking. Our financial depth is very solid. We have very little debt we feel we can face this investment project with confidence but we certainly are going to target the investment grade and we’re not to waste asset. Unidentified Analyst Have you already approached to the rating agencies to start discussing this possible project or is this three times net debt to EBITDA level to maintain the rating or you are reproaching the…? Ramiro Alfonsin Very early, since we have just being approved by the Board which are the projects we can tackle and how we must address them and this new policy of addressing the projects the time frame to develop one of these projects. The hydro project is quite long in permitting wise and investment wise. So it’s still very early in our analysis to do so. Our rating has been stable in the past year so we feel confident we will not have a problem with that. Unidentified Analyst Okay very clear, thank you. Operator Okay we do have a follow up from Nicholas Schild from Santander. Nicholas Schild Hi Ramiro again. One simple question if we do a simple exercise and take out the 2000 there, what’s expected for the next five years in Chile, we take out the Enel two metro of 490 megawatt. The rest divided by the number of project give you that the average size of the project should be 90-100 megawatt which is in line with what Mr. Thorat [ph] has said of doing smaller project, easier to get approval. But do you have any perception on what should be the return on investment capital of those projects or how much are you requiring for those investment? Ramiro Alfonsin Well the – EBIT number what we are doing to address is each of the projects once we see that socially environmentally the recent visibility we are going to review it with the market we certainly are going to address for a spread compared to our whack but there is not a specific number that I can say this is the approach we have. Nicholas Schild Okay and you are saying that you are going to try to socialize the project on to share is this sharing the revenues with the communities or can you elaborate if you have any specific mechanism sold that you could in order to get the trust on community and try to get approval from that? Ramiro Alfonsin No we are basically looking at value sharing and mechanism and basically it’s working in the very early stages with the community because we have learned that if you work together with them there are ways to mitigate the impact environmentally and socially and this is one we want to address. Nicholas Schild By value sharing investment like you’ve been giving them a certain percentage of the net income generated by the facility or something like that? Ramiro Alfonsin This is not defined we still have to see how they lay out different works that the ministries are carrying out. In Defense the tariff equivalency that the energy ministry is putting forward. So for the time been what we’re seen is that we need to work with them we need to define value share mechanisms that bind the projects or otherwise. But we need discuss it on a page-by-page issue. Nicholas Schild Sure thank you. Ramiro. Ramiro Alfonsin No problem. Operator And next question from Rodrigo Mora from Moneda Asset Management. Rodrigo Mora I have a last question is relating to the agreement with ASKNL to operate the [indiscernible] facility. Will this agreement extend to the end of this year? Ramiro Alfonsin That’s an excellent question. That has been a very profitable agreement for us in the first semester. And it depends very much on the hydrology but this is something that we’re going to have to analyze in this first — in the second semester. Rodrigo Mora So there is no decision today. Ramiro Alfonsin Today there is no agreement with Enel yet, no. Rodrigo Mora Okay, thank you. Ramiro Alfonsin Okay. Operator And I’m not showing any other questions in the queue. I would like to turn the call back to Mr. Alfonsin for any final remarks. Ramiro Alfonsin Thanking you everyone for your interest in the company. I would like to remind you that we are available throughout our Investor Relations team and would be glad to help you and assist you on any further questions you may have. Thank you. Have a good afternoon. Operator Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today’s conference. This concludes the program and you may all disconnect. Have a wonderful day everyone. Copyright policy: All transcripts on this site are the copyright of Seeking Alpha. However, we view them as an important resource for bloggers and journalists, and are excited to contribute to the democratization of financial information on the Internet. (Until now investors have had to pay thousands of dollars in subscription fees for transcripts.) 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CMS Energy (CMS) Q2 2015 Results – Earnings Call Transcript

CMS Energy Corporation (NYSE: CMS ) Q2 2015 Earnings Conference Call July 23, 2015 8:30 AM ET Executives D.V. Rao – VP, Treasurer, Financial Planning & IR Tom Webb – EVP & CFO Analysts Julien Dumoulin-Smith – UBS Dan Eggers – Credit Suisse Jonathan Arnold – Deutsche Bank Paul Patterson – Glenrock Associates Operator Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the CMS Energy 2015 Second Quarter Results and Outlook Call. This call is being recorded. After the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Instructions will be provided at that time. [Operator Instructions] Just a reminder, there will be a rebroadcast of this conference call today beginning at 12 P.M. Eastern Time running through July 30. Presentation is also being webcast and is available on CMS Energy’s website in the Investor Relations section. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. D.V. Rao, Vice President and Treasurer, Financial Planning and Investor Relations. Please go ahead. D.V. Rao Good morning and thank you for joining us today. Our earnings news release issued earlier today and the presentation used in this webcast are available on our website. This presentation contains forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties. These statements should be considered in the context of the risks and other factors detailed in our SEC filings. These factors could cause CMS Energy’s and Consumers’ results to differ materially. This presentation also includes non-GAAP measures. A reconciliation of each of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is included in the appendix, and posted in the Investor section of our website. Now, let me turn the call over to Tom Webb, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Tom Webb Thank you, D.V., and good morning everyone. Thanks for joining our call. As always, we deeply appreciate your interest in our company and for spending time with us today. And John sends his regrets that he can’t join us today. He is recovering from a medical procedure and we look forward to his return in a few weeks. I know he’ll miss fielding your questions today. So we’ll begin the call with an overview of the quarter and provide an update on the legislative process, before turning to more detail on the gas business, the fast half and our growth model, and then we’ll close with Q&A. For the first half of the year, adjusted earnings per share were $0.98, down $0.07 from last year but up $0.03 on a weather-adjusted basis, were $0.13 ahead of plan. Today, we’re reaffirming our full-year adjusted earnings per share guidance of $1.86 to $1.89, and as you know, this reflects real growth of 5% to 7% of last year’s actual results. We filed our gas rate case last week for $85 million. Like our previous cases, it’s small and primarily driven by capital investment. Even with this rate case, we expect total customer bills to decrease in 2016 due to lower gas commodity prices. Last month, we self-implemented our electric rate case at $110 million, and we expect an order for this case in December, which would mark 2.5 years since the last order. Our predictable growth has continued over that time and we have self-initiated many cost reductions to keep prices low for our customers. Here you can see the impact of our actions along with constructive regulatory environment. Our industrial rates are at a competitive level that’s attracting new business to the state. Rates could be improved further with changes to ROA policy, creating a competitive advantage for Michigan’s business in the Midwest and in the country. As we’ve improved industrial rates, residential bills have remained low at about $3 a day. Recently we committed do more in Michigan and help grow businesses. Our spending on in state goods and services will be $1 billion per year over the next five years. By helping to make Michigan a competitive state in which to do business, we are seeing growth. In Grand Rapids, the largest city in our service territory, housing, GDP, population growth and unemployment are all better today than Michigan as a whole and the U.S. Overall, Michigan is moving towards becoming a top 10 state and Grand Rapids is leading the way. Michigan’s energy law update can help to drive this growth. Bills are now in committees with the house and senate. Recently Senate Committee Chairman Mike Nofs introduced a comprehensive bill after considerable research and debate. The Senator’s bill proposes to keep the ROA cap. However, the bill stipulates stringent requirements for both, ROA suppliers and customers. In order to protect all customers from reliability and price volatility, the supplier would be required to procure a minimum of three years of capacity. And ROA customers who decide to stay with alternative suppliers would be required to provide a three-year notice prior to returning to bundled utility service. Once the customer returns from ROA, they are no longer eligible to switch back. These policy leaders are broadly in agreement with the integrated resources plan process which would give the state the flexibility it needs among many things, to enable investment in needed new generation and comply with state and federal environmental regulations. The IRP would replace the existing certificate of necessity process with a more comprehensive longer term decision making process. The IRP would provide us with the assurance of recovery and allow us to plan capacity resources for a decade or more. This transparent process could include new gas capacity, renewables and efficiency programs. Now on the regulatory front, I’m please to highlight the Governor’s announcement yesterday of the appointment of Norm Saari as a new Public Service Commissioner. He has a long track record of public and private service in the utility sector and public policy space. We look forward to working with him. We continue to look at and evaluate new investment opportunities that could increase the capital spending in our 10-year plan. When we look at these opportunities, we evaluate each one by asking, does it add customer value; does it reduce O&M cost; does it help balance our fuel sources and/or is it mandated by state or federal regulations, and none of our investments in the plan or those identified as opportunities are big bets. Our gas business is one of the larger distribution systems in the country. This scale provides many investment opportunities for additional growth. We’ve been upgrading our compressor stations, installing new transmission lines and replacing aging infrastructure. We could do more and we could accelerate the pace. Our plan calls for doubling gas investment over the next 10 years. This brings our investment mix to over one-third gas. Our customers benefit from the safety, reliability and cost effectiveness of the gas plant. If fuel costs remain low, additional headroom will allow us to make these investments without impairing price. On average, our gas customers spend about $2 a day. That’s equal to their bill in 2004. Now here’s a little more detail on our results. For the second quarter, our earnings were $0.25 a share on both, a reported and an adjusted basis. This is a nickel below last year or a penny on a weather-normalized basis. Weather in June was the mildest in 15 years. Cooling days where 50% lower than last year. Economic sales also were flat as one substantial low-margin customer came through a temporary supply interruption. For the first half of the year, our results were $0.98 or $0.86 on whether-normalized basis. That’s $0.03 better than 2014. And at the mid-year checkpoint, we are $0.13 a share or 15% better than our plan. We have lots of room to move. As you can see here with first half weather-normalized earnings up $0.03, we’re positioned well. Even with a nickel of cost in the second half associated with new mortality tables and lower discount rates, our cost reductions of $0.12 more than offset this. For the full-year, costs are down about 3% and new rates already have been implemented. At mid-year, our earnings per share is $0.13 ahead of plan, and like last year and many of the years and the decade prior to that, we added substantial customer reliability work and still plan to hit our 5% to 7% guidance. O&M reinvestment of $18 million is underway, including more forestry work at the utility and accelerating a planned major outrage at DIG from 2016 into this year. The DIG pull ahead accomplishes a double benefit of accelerating the DIG outage cost into 2015 when we had ample room to absorb it and bringing up capacity in what will be a very tight market in 2016. In addition, we’ll be increasing DIG’s capacity by 38 megawatts and these reinvestments could add $20 million to profitability next year. From time to time, some of you ask us, how we accomplish consistent earnings growth year-end and year-out and how we do it without raising customer rates above inflation. As you know, we have a robust capital investment program and a substantial opportunity to increase it. However, we build our investment plan starting with customer rates growing no faster than inflation. And here is how we do that. Our O&M cost reductions worth about 2% a year; conservatively forecast sales growth of about 0.5 point a year; avoidance of block equity dilution worth about a point and other self-funds five points of investment. This permits earnings to grow 5% to 7% and customer rate impacts stay below inflation. Here is our capital investment program for the next 10 years. Investment in our gas business grows substantially. Investment in our electric business continues to grow too but at a slower pace. And please remember that our earnings growth is not predicated on sales growth or cost reductions. Upsides from these are directed to our customers. Even without any upsides, our capital investment program over the next 10 years will be 45% larger than the last 10 years. As a percent of market cap, CMS investment was 10% over the last 10 years. It’s 16% over the next 10. This exceeds peers. The opportunity to increase that investment by as much as $5 billion to over $20 billion continues to be practical, particularly when many of the investment opportunities do not increase customer bills. A lot of the capital investment we put in place enables us to reduce O&M cost. These are down 10% since 2006, and we’ll reduce these costs another 7% by 2018. There is no magic to this cost reduction program. It’s simple. Natural changes in our business like coal to gas generation and Pole Top Hardening make the difference. Here is more detail around cost reduction actions, down 6% in two years as we switch from coal plants, which requires substantial number of people to operate, to gas generation and wind firms, which require about 10% of the workforce needed to run coal, we’ll be able to reduce our O&M by $35 million. By continuing our program to harden our Pole Tops, we reduce future storm-related damage and we capitalize rather than expense that work. These are just a couple of examples of how we’ve reduced our cost 3% last year and are in the middle of a program to do another 3% this year. Since 2006 through 2014, ours is the only utility to reduce its cost, down almost 3% a year. We forecast reductions perhaps conservatively at 2% a year between 2014 and 2018. The outlook for the economy in our utility service territory continues to be bright. As you can see here, many companies from a variety of sectors have announced new factories and businesses. This will add new growth of almost 3%. Despite this, we continue to plan conservatively, including overall sales growth at about 1.5% over the next five years and industrial growth of about 2%. While this is another opportunity in our model to minimize customer rate growth, there may be a little upset. One more element of the self-funding model that promotes robust rate base and earnings growth without allowing customer rates to grow faster than inflation is the benefit from a large stockpile of NOLs. Typically a utility would lose about 1% of its earnings growth through dilution associated with new equity to fund growth. In our case, we’re fortunate to be able to invest our cash in utility growth rather than taxes avoiding full points of dilution. So the model is simple and perhaps it’s a little unique. We start our planning by keeping nominal customer rate growth below inflation, or in other words, we provide real rate reductions. With cost reductions, modest sales growth, no block equity dilution and shrinking surcharges, we’re able to grow rate base by 5% to 7% and with substantial opportunity to do more. Many of our capital investment opportunities not yet in our plan can be accomplished without any increase to customer bills. This includes replacing PPAs as they expire and the potential that customers on ROA may return to bundled service, creating more headroom to pull ahead incremental capital investment. So here’s the PPA example of growth not included in our plan. We have more PPAs than our peers, and as they are replaced, we’re able to build new gas generation at a cost that’s lower than the existing PPAs. What a nice way to grow our business and provide reliability for our customers without increasing their bills. And here is the opportunity should ROA customers choose to return to bundled service. As they return, which may be a better economic choice for them, all our customers can experience rate reductions of about 4%. This provides headroom for more investment to meet customer needs. Think of it by replacing expiring PPAs and building for returning ROA customers, we’d add 3,000 megawatts of new generation that’s not yet in our plan. And this is without increasing customer bills at all, a clear win for our customers and a clear win for our investors. You can see the need for new generation in MISO’s most recent report. MISO updated their 2016 capacity forecast showing MISO will be short 1.5 gigawatts in Zone 7 by spring. With our newly purchased Jackson gas plant, we can provide sufficient capacity for our bundled customers. We can’t however be sure if AES suppliers can do the same for those ROA customers. And by the way, our mix of coal field capacity has been reduced from over 40% to a third today, and as you can see in the appendix slide with coal plant closures next year, the mix will be below 25%. With our business model, we’ve been able to deliver consistent earnings growth of more than 7% each year for over a decade, through recessions, through adverse weather, through changing policy leadership and through anything else that came our way. As we do, we hope you to see this as a sustainable model for our customers and our investors for a decade ahead. As you can imagine, with this consistent investment growth, our operating cash flow as a percent of market cap has gone from less than our peers five years ago to greater than our peers today, with prospects that additional growth will provide an even larger cash flow. This is a nice place to be providing resources for the future, resources to invest more for our customers, more rate base growth and/or improve capital structure. So here is our sensitivity chart that we provide you each quarter to assist you with assessing our prospects. In this time of rising and volatile interest rates, it’s comforting to know that our model is not very sensitive to changes in interest rates. At the utility, higher borrowing costs related to higher interest rates is largely offset by the impact of higher discount rates on our benefits and retiree programs and perhaps a higher return on equity in the future. At the parent, our practice includes pre-funding parent debt two years in advance and maintaining a smooth maturity schedule. This insulates us from substantial risk to change in interest rates. If for example interest rates rise from our plan by 100 basis points, the annual earnings impact would be less than a penny a share, and we already include high interest rates in our 10-year plan. Here is our report card for 2015. We’re in a good position and at the midway point with substantial benefit from the Arctic blast earlier in the year and better-than-planned cost reductions so far this year. We’re putting the surplus to good use with reliability improvements for our utility customers and we’re accelerating outages to enhance the outlook for 2016. Continuing our mindset that focuses on customers and investors permits us to perform well. We hope you agree. We’ve achieved substantial improvements in customer value and customer satisfaction. We have the best cost reduction track record in the nation. We are in our 13th year of premium earnings and dividend growth, and we plan to continue this performance for some time. So thanks for your interest and your support. We appreciate your calling in, and we’d be delighted to take your questions. So operator, would you please open up the line? Question-and-Answer Session Operator Certainly, and thank you very much Mr. Webb. The question-and-answer session will be conducted electronically. [Operator Instructions] We’ll pause for just a second. Our first question comes from Michael Weinstein with UBS. Your line is open. Julien Dumoulin-Smith Good morning, it’s Julien here. Tom Webb Good morning. Nice to hear your voice. Julien Dumoulin-Smith Likewise. So I suppose first quick question if you don’t mind, just with regards to legislative developments. Just to be very clear about expectations. As far as the latest proposals from Nof moving through this summer, is that still in line with what you’re expecting in terms of return to ROA and return to customers? Tom Webb The bottom line is yes it is, and I would just comment, keep in mind that we’re not planning on any return in our financial plans that you see. That’s kind of all of an upside. We suspect as the policymakers work through this during the summer months and do something before the end of this year that from an ROA standpoint, there may be an economic opportunity that comes out of the law where customers will decide it’s probably better to be with bundled service, because they are likely to have to secure not only energy but capacity as they go forward. And to do that, they may find bundled service a better place to do, and that’s exactly what we like. We like seeing them make the right economic decisions. So the answer again to your question is yes. Julien Dumoulin-Smith Great, excellent. Perhaps coming back to the cost-cutting efforts. Just to be clear, how are you setting up in the next or I suppose the pull forward isn’t quite happening to the same extent. What are you thinking year-over-year? Just I know you have a broader confidence in your 5% to 7% growth rate, but how do you think year-over-year in terms of cost-cutting effectiveness? I know it’s a little early but just kind of curious. Tom Webb Well, we feel very good about what we’re doing. As you recall, I mentioned that we’re ahead of plan already. You can see that on the reinvestment slide when you have a chance to peek at that. You’ll see our cost savings are better than what we anticipated to the extent of about four or five pennies. So that’s pretty good. That’s a big number. So the plans for this year are good. The reinvestment will continue. Now if I told you how much we’d reinvest at the end of the first quarter call, it would be a lot more. And what I tell you at this call because of the cool weather that we had in June. But when you look at that reinvestment slide, you still see we’ve got lots of room to move and lots of decisions to head, to tailor into what are the right places to put our money and still deliver for you on the profits. Julien Dumoulin-Smith Great. And a last little detail. As you’re assuming we get some developments on the legislation in forthcoming periods, how swiftly thereafter would you anticipate making a filing or talking about new generation construction just in terms of a timeline since we’re coming up against here potentially seeing this legislation going forward? Tom Webb Yes, a little premature to say exactly what we do because we need to see what the final shape of the plan is, but think of it in two fashions. There will be – likely be this new IRP process. So that will have work done by the state to start planning where we need to be to meet PPA requirements, to do our own state requirements on environmental, all of that. That will be followed by the official IRP process. So that will take a little while. So I suspect what you’ll see in the law are some bridging actions. Now I’m just speculating, but take something like energy efficiency to ensure that we continue to do the good work we’re doing today, there may be a little bridge that says you continue on the program you have today for a period of time before you go into new things. Is that sort of thinking that wants me to hesitate a little bit on how soon we say we’ll announce new capacity, part of it will depend on how the ROA plan goes, returns to customers, part of it will depend on the needs of what may come out of the EPA in August and September, maybe more renewables. So we’ll put all that together, be talking to the regulators and policymakers and then probably have something if you made me guess early next year to give you a sense of where we think we’re going and what our proposals are. Julien Dumoulin-Smith Thank you very much. Good luck. Tom Webb Julien, thank you. Operator The next question is from Dan Eggers of Credit Suisse. Your line is open. Dan Eggers Hi. Good morning, guys. Just extending on Julien’s question about the IRP process. Can you maybe walk through how you see it working as best you can tell right now, working with the commission to kind of layout the parameters for renewables, for efficiency, for conventional generation? And then with the shortfall in ‘16 in Michigan, even with the MISO updates, how you go about trying to resolve that in the context of a bigger policy goal? Tom Webb I’d be glad to do that. First of all, think about what we’ll do. We’ll make sure our bundled customers are covered. So from a capacity standpoint, we’ve got a lot of optionality, even though the state is going to be sure probably at the least the Lower Peninsula [ph] and the spring of next year, we will have tools to take care of our folks. What we’re uncertain about and part of what the law is about is who is going to take care of the ROA customers. Is that something that the AESs are willing to do economically with those ROA customers or it’s something where we really do need to step in for long-term planning basis. So here are the steps. First, the public service commission will put some parameters together for the IRP filings. So it will take a little time to do that. Second, within a couple of years of the enactment, there has to be IRPs filed. So you see there is a little flexibility in there, but that’s the next step, and that will include a long-term outlook. And then before we file an IRP, if you follow the bills the way they are structured today, we would do bid an RFP to make sure we understand what’s out there in the market that we would factor into our plans. Now you might think of that as, what does that mean? You’re not going to able to build thing. I wouldn’t think of that at all. I’d think of that as the common sense that we use. Remember, we were about to build a new gas generation plant in [indiscernible], and instead we twice went out on our own to check the market. And in the second check, which was last December, we found, my goodness there is a far better deal for our customers. So we were thrilled to put that in place and did that, change our capital investment totals at all? No, because we backfilled with things that we can’t fit in today with things that needed to be fit in it and so that worked just perfect. So then when you get into the RFP process, there is they call it a shot clock, interesting a little basketball hooper is in here. There will be a 270 day process for that to go through. So you see that’s a little bit of a long process, and therefore there will be some bridging in between on several issues which could include energy efficiencies, it could include a bridging around generation plants where the existing con might be used as a quick process to cover needs in the future and not have to wait for a year or two or so to make those decisions. That’s all up in the air. That’s all the kind of discussion that’s happening this summer, and everybody seems to have their heads screwed on very right to make sure that the state and our customers are taken care of. That makes sense? Dan Eggers It does. Now let me ask the simple question which is when we sit from the outside looking at next year, what should we look from you guys as far as how you address the shortfall in Michigan for ‘16 and ‘17? Tom Webb Well, two points. First point, remember, we are inside of those numbers you see. We’re covered. We have adequate plans in place to take care of all of our bundled customers. If for some reason there was an emergency and I’ll do a theoretical thing, all ROA customers chose to come back to bundled service right away, we would find short-term measures to cover that and think purchases on the market, think use of short-term PPAs, think DIG, think all the list of options like that, there are many. So short-term, we could be in very good shape. Longer term, we want to plan for more certainties. So what we would work on is how to put more permanent capacity in place in Zone 7, so our customers will essentially own their generation as opposed to renting it. Dan Eggers Okay, got it. I guess one last question, Tom. If you could just – what do you see as the kind of the big bridge drivers if we look at the second half of ‘15 versus ‘14? I think you probably need to make $0.15, $0.17 more in this second half than you did last year. Just what are kind of the chunky pieces you see helping to get to that number? Tom Webb Yes, that’s a good question. If you can, if you’ll refer to slide 12, you will happen to see sort of the best roadmap, but I think it’s in the slides first half, second half. When you look at the second half, we already have programmed in actions that give us lower O&M, and that’s in the $0.12 that you see, that’s largely what that is. And those are all underway, so there is no like new cost reductions that desperately need to be found. And then you’ve got the mortality tables that are the full-year effect. You remember it was $45 million, so just the portion that impacts in the second half is about a nickel of bad news. Then you got rate release and everything else. Remember, just about all of our rate release that we’re talking about is really second half. So think of the electric rate case as an example. On the electric rate case, we just self-implemented. So we’re actually collecting that. We get all that upside as we go through the second half of the year, something we didn’t have in the first half of the year. So I would tell you there is a lot of natural things like that, that don’t require a lot of wishing and praying or worrying of any kind. And then have you think about slide 13 that shows the reinvestment plan. We’re actually still in the mode of looking where we deploy our resources in steps throughout the course of the year to go from $0.13 better than planned to what would leave you with a good 5% to 7% earnings growth. So we are in, I’d say great shape. This is actually a fun place to be. It’s little tougher when it’s the other way like it was about three years ago when we had a really mild winter and we had a fine $0.13, which we did, and as you know, the actuals speak for themselves we’re in great shape. So not a lot of pressure for us, but you can see our normal cost reductions coming in place. We’re now getting rate release in the second half. We didn’t have in the first half. And so the comps, I guess, are a little busy easier if you look at it that way. Dan Eggers Great. Thanks for time and best recovery wishes for John, please. Tom Webb Thank you for that. Thanks Dan. Operator The next question is from Jon Arnold with Deutsche Bank. Your line is open. Jonathan Arnold Hi, good morning. Tom Webb Good morning, Jonathan. Jonathan Arnold Just quick question on the slide where you show the 6% to 8% opportunity versus 5% to 7% in the plan. Tom you mentioned – you have sort of short-term and long-term labels there. Can you just – it seems like you’re going a step further towards raising the growth rate without actually doing that. How do you think about short-term, and are you meaning to imply that in the next year or so we could be there? Tom Webb I think that’s fair enough. There is a mix of things, some of which are short-term and some of which are a little bit longer term. So when you think about the generation side of things, those are a little bit longer term adds into our plan, but there is plenty of short-term things to do as well. And I’m actually going to take you to slide that you prefer not to be taken to I think, instead of the one you’re talking to, and that’s slide 13 which shows the reinvestment curve again. Here is the best way I can encourage everybody to think about this. There are some very important things we don’t have to do but we sure would like to do for our customers. Tree trimming is one of the simplest explanations I have. Our tree trimming cycle is closer to 10 years and it should be closer to five or six years. So the commission is kind enough to give us a little bit more with each rate case and then they know every time we can find an opportunity to do a little bit more when we have good news from cost reductions or weather or whatever it is, we also do a little bit more. What I would caution everybody is, yes, underneath we could probably be growing a lot faster than 5% to 7%, but inside as long as we have that opportunity to do these important things for our customers, we’re going to do those, and I think there will be things like that to do certainly this year, and I think certainly next year, and then we’ll talk about the future after that and that’s not a hint up or down, we’ll just talk about that a little bit later. The other thing it does for us is by doing this work like the DIG pull ahead and like more tree trimming and whatever, it actually makes it easier for us to deliver the next year because our customers are better off, we pull cost ahead that would have happened in the next year or the year after, but it makes it easier for us to deliver the good results that you need to see. So no move from the 5% to 7%, certainly not today. Jonathan Arnold So the – you do at some point run out of things that you can accelerate like will you catch up on tree trimming and is that part of the motivation for putting this opportunity number out there? Tom Webb Well, we get asked the question enough that we wanted to show with the investment profile how easy the model works. So if we had more investment, we can do that without putting stress on our customers and still give them average rate increases that are less than inflation. That’s the point. The point is less so to say, look for 6% to 8% earnings growth in the near-term, just know that the capacity is there, but our desire to use that capacity this year, next year and who knows beyond that is important and it’s paying off. It’s paying off for our customers, and then indirectly it’s paying off big time for all of our investors by allowing us to have that happy customer group as well as to be able to deliver that 5% to 7% every year. Jonathan Arnold Okay. So can I just – one follow-up on that, Tom, the NOLs. Can you remind us how much runway you still have on NOLs and how – when those end out of that sort of – how does that fold into the longer term growth outlook? Tom Webb Yes, we’re good on NOLs for several years to go. The gross NOLs are near $1 billion still, and remember, then you got to net that for the tax effect. And I believe in your appendix you do have our operating cash flow slide, and it will show you in the bottom bright yellow bar when anybody gets a chance to look at that, that NOLs and credits are still positive and available all the way through 2020, and the NOLs are used up a little earlier than that depending on bonus depreciation and depending on other tax things. But at this point, we’re still pretty comfortable telling you, we can go five years without any block equity because of that tax opportunity. I’m a little embarrassed because every time I – once a year I have to explain to you it has to go out another year. Probably five years ago, I think we were telling you that we had five years to go and today our time is up, but fortunately we have another five years to go. Jonathan Arnold Great. Thank you, Tom. Tom Webb Thank you, Jonathan. Operator The next question is from Paul Patterson with Glenrock Associates. Your line is open. Paul Patterson Good morning. Tom Webb Good morning. Paul Patterson Just wanted to touch base a little bit on the sales growth. Could you give us a little bit more of a flavor as to when we look at the 0.5% growth, how much of that’s focused on industrial versus the other rate losses? Tom Webb Yes, happy to do that. So we – our first half sales growth weather-adjusted weather-normalized for electric was flat. You’ll see that in our addendum, you’ll see that data. Paul Patterson Yes, I did see that. Tom Webb Yes. And you’ll see residential down and commercial up a little bit. That’s nothing to really get too nervous about because we’ve seen that flat to down to up a touch. It’s oscillating. Those two are not making the big recovery. Now typically you would see after recession. So that’s still ahead of us. That hasn’t started happening yet. The point for today is probably more around the industrial side. When you look at the data, our growth was over 1% in the first half and we know that its underlying growth is better than 2%. So you may say what’s happening. Now I have to be careful because I can’t talk about a specific company, but there is an individual company that’s a big customer, a very low margin customer of ours and they have an interruption on the supply side, and it was a stubborn one. And I’m not even sure and it’s not my business to say when they’ll be coming out of that, but obviously they’ve worked their way through that. And when that comes back through, you’ll see the industrial numbers back up to what we think is a more reasonable level. So keep in mind, we expect that to happen for the future and we really haven’t factored in all the 3% of new growth from new businesses locating which will be largely late this year, mostly ‘16 and some ‘17. But the answer to your question was, in the analysis think industrial as of today. Paul Patterson Okay, but when we look at that 0.5% increase, how much, I guess, what I’m really saying is going forward? How much do you guys associate that coming from industrial versus higher margin residential and commercial? Tom Webb Yes, I can help you on that. So when you look at that, think of the long-term growth as flat to positive on residential and commercial. And that may be where we are under calling things a bit, because typically there is a point after recession where the jobs and the employment bring in more residential, which brings in more commercial. The industrial side in our assumptions going forward is the main driver because we have great visibility into that. We know the folks that are expanding. We know the folks that are shrinking, if they were, but mostly net expanding. And we know the folks that are coming into the state that have announced, who’ve shared of that and those that are looking that we can announce because they haven’t yet. So we feel pretty good on that side. Does that help? Paul Patterson That’s very helpful. Just in terms of the sensitivity since you guys always provide, is that – when we look at that 1%, is that basically across the customer groups or is that pretty much with the same trends that you’re seeing in terms of industrial leading that? Do you follow what I’m saying? Tom Webb I do. That sensitivity we do on an average basis. Paul Patterson Okay. Tom Webb So, if you will, think about the sensitivity that would be oriented more to industrial than to residential, that would make the sensitivity a little less so, because residential is key in here. So we do an average. Paul Patterson Okay. And then IRP versus the mandate, which is one of the differences we see inside the legislation I think. Does that make a significant difference in terms of what you think the sales growth outlook would be, or is it just a question of what’s selected in terms of making the – does it have an impact I guess on decision [ph]. Tom Webb Yes, I don’t think that’s going to have a big deal on sales growth and competition where you were going. So when we talk about having or not having a mandate and using the IRP, that mandate would have been around renewables is a simple example. If you don’t have a mandate because the policymakers would rather make sure that the IRP process is more thoughtful around what the important things are doing, and in an IRP process you might come up with 4% renewables as opposed to a mandate might say something else. The policymakers think the IRP process will be more thoughtful. And when we get into all the needs for capacity, for environmental compliance and those sorts of things, I think you’re naturally going to see a mix of renewables, a continuing mix of energy efficiency and we’ll probably need to put some capacity in place. So when you were relating it to sales growth, I know you were thinking more choice. I would tell you, we’ve assumed 10% continues forever in our plans. So if you were to conclude that ROA customers might be coming back in this process that will actually help sales. Paul Patterson Okay. Tom Webb Okay? Paul Patterson That’s great. Really appreciate it. Thanks so much. Tom Webb Pleasure. Thank you for calling in. Operator I’m showing no further questions at this time, I’ll turn the call back over to Mr. Webb. Tom Webb Thank you very much. We appreciate everybody joining us today. We had a strong first half. We look forward to the second half of the year and we expect to see an improved energy law as we’ve been talking about today, and we expect to see an order on our electrical rate case in December, and we expect to deliver predictable financial results. So thanks for your interest and spending time with us today. We’ll see in the near future. Operator This concludes today’s conference. We thank you everyone for your participation.