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Companhia Paranaense de Energia’s (ELP) CEO Luiz Fernando Leone Vianna on Q1 2016 Results – Earnings Call Transcript

Companhia Paranaense de Energia (NYSE: ELP ) Q1 2016 Earnings Conference Call May 13, 2016 2:30 PM ET Executives Luiz Fernando Leone Vianna – Chief Executive Officer Luiz Eduardo da Veiga Sebastiani – Chief Financial and Investor Relations Officer Adriano Fedalto – Accounting Superintendent Sergio Luiz Lamy – President of Copel GeT Antonio Sergio de Souza Guetter – President of Copel Distribuição Analysts Miguel Rodrigues – Morgan Stanley Operator Good afternoon and thank you for waiting. Welcome to Companhia Paranaense de Energia Copel conference call to discuss the first quarter of 2016 results. We would like to inform you that all participants will be in a listen-only mode during the company’s presentation. Afterwards, we will have a session for questions and answers, when further instructions will be given. [Operator Instructions] Before proceeding, we wish to clarify that forward-looking statements that might be made during the call related to Copel’s business perspectives, operating and financial targets, and projections are beliefs and assumptions of the company’s management as well as information currently available. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions as they refer to future events and therefore will depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. General economic conditions, industry conditions, and other operating factors may affect the future performance of Copel leading to results that differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Participating in this call, we have Mr. Luiz Fernando Leone Vianna, CEO of the company; Mr. Luiz Eduardo da Veiga Sebastiani, CFO and Investor Relations Officer; Mr. Gilberto Mendes Fernandes, Business Management Officer; Mr. Jonel Nazareno Iurk, Business Development Officer; Mr. Antonio Sergio de Souza Guetter, President of Copel Distribuição; Mr. Sergio Luiz Lamy, President of Copel GeT; Mr. Ricardo Goldani Dosso, President of Copel Renováveis; Mr. Franklin Kelly Miguel, President of Copel Comercialização; and Mr. Francisco Cesar Farah, CFO of Copel Telecom. The presentation will be made by Copel’s management and it can be followed at the company’s website, www.copel.com/invesor relations. Now, we would like to give the floor to Mr. Luiz Fernando Vianna, CEO of the company. Mr. Vianna, you have the floor. Luiz Fernando Leone Vianna [Interpreted] Good afternoon, everyone. My colleagues in the executive committee, all participants, welcome to our call to talk about the results of the first quarter of 2016. I would like to start by talking about important regulatory issues that bring or could bring relevant impact on Copel. The first point and it couldn’t be different, is the 4th Tariff Revision Cycle of Copel Distribuição. We certainly are a company to develop such as a process. As you have already had access to the documents available at the ANEEL website in the number #20 Public Hearing that shows a net remuneration base of R$4.8 billion with the new cycle. This increase means that our distribution company doubled in size in the last four years. However, it’s important to highlight the investment was not made only with extensions. We also invested quite a lot with the improvement in the quality of service that we deliver. And this led us to be recognized as one of the best distribution companies in the country. Now, with the beginning of the 4th cycle, all these investments will be remunerated. And for this reason, we are certain that we have adopted the adequate strategy for the business. The 4th cycle still brings about other important points such as the remuneration of special obligations and the trajectory of costs that will allow us to have a more adequate coverage for the PMSO expenditures within the cycle that starts in 2016. Nevertheless, the most interesting point is that the practices, [the clever strategy] [ph] by Copel Distribuição should suffer a reduction of approximately 10% with the beginning of the new cycle, which is targeted for consumers, because they will be spending less with energy and for the company as well, because it brings a substantial delinquency reduction and growth in consumption, factors that have been impacting our results in the last few quarters. However, it’s important to stress that the process hasn’t been concluded yet. The hearing is still open until May 19 and after this period the prices would be validated and rectified by the ANEEL administration. And conclusion is estimated for the end of June. According – continuing with the regulatory theme, as Resolution 706, coming from Public Hearing 04, will talk about an important advance into the issue of involuntary over-contracting of business. The new rule allowed us to consider part of the energy that we receive through the quota system as involuntary over-contracting, which was enough to mitigate Copel’s distribution risk [negative as seen] [ph]. In transmission, the Ministry of Mines and Energy got the news about the RBSE implementing, which are the transmission assets already existing in May 2000, by means of ordinance 120 of 2016 and ANEEL established the integration of RBSE to the regulatory asset base, the restatement of the value of the assets since 2012 and payments of indemnity by means of RAP since the tariff process of 2017. This is interesting to say that the cost of own capital to be considered in the restatement of the asset value is 10.4% in near-term, which allows us to have this adequate restatement of the amount to be indemnified. In the case of Copel, this amount has not been ratified by ANEEL yet. And I would like to mention that any effect on our results or conditions to the ratification of the final result of the evaluation report by the regulators, ANEEL. Just to remind you, in March 2015, we submitted to ANEEL the evaluation report to the amount of R$882 million referring to RBSE and the date of it was December 31, 2012. On slide number 4, I would like to highlight that we have important achievements related to the projects that we are building. Starting with Colíder, the Supreme Court of Justice in a decision supported by technical studies canceled the injunction that mandated Copel GeT to suppress 100% of the vegetation of the area to be flooded by the reservoir, and confirmed that the suppression of 70% of the area was environmentally adequate. With that, the work is then concentrated in the construction of the transmission line that will be linking the Colíder plants to the interconnected systems, and the electromechanic assembly of the equipment. Commercial operations should start in the first-half of 2017. We also had an important achievement related to the Baixo Iguaçu project in which we hold a 30% stake and we are building in partnership with Araucária [ph] in a recent decision. And they approved an additional 130 days for waiver of responsibility for the plant and the total number of days now is 756, which means at the beginning of the sale to other utilities was postponed to the end of 2018. And this is enough time for us to build the plant and start commercial operations. In the transmission segment, SPC Matrinchã concluded its construction work and over 1,000 kilometers of lines have already been planted and commissioned successfully. And now, we need a confirmation by the regulators in order to officially start operation of these projects. Besides Matrinchã other transmission projects are about to be concluded and start commercial operation. SPC Guaraciaba should start-up by the end of June, whereas SPC Paranaíba has already concluded construction of 346 kilometers of lines and should come on stream by the end of next month. Jointly, these three projects will bring about to Copel around R$158 million. Lastly, I would like to highlight that we have recently held two auctions for the sale of energy in the free market in which we have sold over 6 million megawatt hours in products, where delivery in two to five years, and starting delivery as of June 1, 2016 then January 1, 2017, and then January 1, 2018. Our strategy is to hold additional auctions in order to reduce the amount of energy, whose contracts have been terminated and allows a better predictability for the generation business. It’s important to highlight that the results already obtained allows us to make or give a significant step in order to reach this objective. Now, I give the floor to my colleague, Sebastiani, our CFO, who will talk in detail about the results for the period. Luiz Eduardo da Veiga Sebastiani [Interpreted] Thank you, Mr. Luiz Leone Vianna, our CEO. As he said, we have a participation of all these executives due to this important moment for the company. And thank you very much for participating in this call. As you will see on Slide #5, some events again impacted our results in the first quarter of 2016. We posted over R$120 million in provisions, of which R$84 million are related to labor litigation and R$32 million to civil loses. We posted R$38 million in allowance for doubtful accounts because of the economic crisis that we are going through in Brazil. And that has a direct impact on Copel Distribuição results. Economic crisis has been impacting energy consumption leading to a drop of 4.3% in the capital market of Copel Distribuição, in line with the drop in consumption that we see in the country. The decrease in Copel’s results is also explained by the lower results of Araucária TPP, which represented only [indiscernible] in the first quarter of 2016, accruing R$14 million loss in the period vis-à-vis earnings of over R$150 million in the first quarter of 2015, besides the drop in results which also impacted by the lower allocation of energy at Copel GeT to the short-term market aligned to the lower value of the spot price in the period. Slide #6 now, details of our operating revenue, with the reduction of 27% in the first quarter of 2016, being close to R$3 billion. The main reason for this decrease is the recognition of the result of sectorial assets and liabilities that was negative by R$527 million in the first quarter of 2016, when there was a positive result of R$561 million in the first quarter of 2015 due to the amortization of R$402 million in the period coming mainly from the recovery via tariff of the deferrals realized in 2013 and 2014, and the negative constitution of R$144 million coming from the reduction in the value of the CDE, the economic development account, and the lower cost with the purchase of energy vis-à-vis the current coverage. Revenue from delivery to end customers grew by 19% due to the adjustments of the tariffs to the Copel Distribuição tariff over last year. Nevertheless, these adjustments were affected negatively by the charges and by the slowdown in the captive markets of Copel Distribuição and the free markets of Copel GeT. Revenue from sales to other utility, that means the many of the sales of Copel GeT and all the sales of Araucária TPP had a 47% reduction in the first quarter of 2016, resulting in the lower dispatch of TPP, the lower volume of energy allocated [indiscernible] by Copel GeT, and lower spot price as we mentioned. Revenue from the use of the power grid grew by 44% due to the tariff adjustment applied by Copel Distribuição in June 2015 and also the increase of revenue of the transmission segment coming from the RAP adjustments and the startup of new Copel assets. Other operating revenues items made up by telco revenue, gas distribution and others grew by 6% and reflect mainly the 31% increase in the telco revenue which comes from the increase in the client base. On the next slide, Slide #7, we show the operating costs and expenses that were below R$2.8 billion in 1Q 2016, 23% less than the one that we had in the same period 2015. This can be attributed mostly to the 33% decrease in the cost with the purchase of energy because of the end of existing energy contracts that were replaced by energy contracts coming from the quota system, much cheaper and the reduction of the Itaipu tariff. Regarding the other costs, it’s important to say, that we had higher expenditures with charges for the use of the grid, due to the dispatch of TPP’s results by the order of merit. Manageable costs went up 12% in the first quarter this year due to higher personnel cost and third-party services due to inflation that reached 10% in the period. The provisions and reserves line, as I said before on Slide 5, represented R$121 million was impacted by labor and doubtful accounts provisions. But when compared to the same period in 2015, we see a 45% decrease in the period. But it’s important to highlight that in the first quarter of 2015 we posted R$73 million in allowance for doubtful accounts related to the difference between the contract of Colíder plants and the spot price, which means a higher amount of provisions at the beginning of last year. On Slide 8, we show the EBITDA that was 37% lower year on year, totally R$528 million in the first quarter this year with 17% margin over the operating revenues. The Copel GeT cash generation accounted for 86% of the consolidated EBITDA and Copel Telecom 5%, the other companies in the group accounted for 9% and the main contribution came from Elejor. Copel Distribuição closed the first quarter of 2016 with a negative EBITDA of R$29 million vis-à-vis a positive result of R$49 million in the beginning of 2015. But we have the effect we consider non-recurring, because of that we show on Slide 9, the comparison between the adjusted EBITDA of Copel Distribuição. As we know, the tariff for Copel Distribuição compensate for coverage for delinquency that for the current tariff cycle is of about R$13 million per quarter. However, the tariff increases and the economic stagnation have been contributing to an increase in the level of delinquency that is higher than the tariff coverage and ended up having a negative impact of R$22 million. The results of the distribution company in this sector decide in a non-recurrent fashion, we posted R$38 million in legal claims, provision for legal claims. And in February, we had some organizational adjustments that caused the transfer of part of our fuel cost from the holding company to subsidiaries with higher impact on Copel Distribuição. Considering these adjustments the adjusted EBITDA of the first quarter of 2016, which has been positive in R$38 million, 58% lower than the adjusted EBITDA of the first quarter of 2015, reflecting very clearly the impact from the market downturn, therefore the economic scenario that we have in the country now. On Slide 10, we show the consolidated net income of Copel, which reached R$136 million in the first quarter of 2016, 71% lower than year-on-year. Analyzing the results of the subsidiaries, you can see that Copel Distribuição posted R$39 million of losses in the first quarter of 2016, vis-à-vis a positive result of R$29 million in the first quarter of 2015. Copel GeT ended the period with R$165 million net income, 60% lower on a year-on-year basis, whereas Copel Telecom reached R$11 million net income, dropping 23% year on year. Specifically about Telecom, it’s important to say that the drop that we saw in the quarterly income is directly related to the increase in the financial expense that came from the increase in the debt that’s necessary to support the subsidiary’s expansion of services. Before opening for questions, I would like to talk about the leverage of the company. As you can see on Slide #11, the indebtedness of Copel measured by the net debt to EBITDA ratio grew in the last few years, then closed March at 3.3 times. It’s important to highlight that this ratio is as planned is below the limit imposed by the covenants that also lower than what we see in similar companies. This increase in the leverage was expected, but it has to do with the significant expansion [indiscernible] the company has been going through and will be reduced with the beginning of the cash flows from the different projects that we are building, many of them starting up in the next few months. So these were now our highlights. We are available to you now to answer any questions that you might have. Question-and-Answer Session Operator Thank you. Now, the floor is open for questions. [Operator Instructions] Mr. [Kaikobet Gonzales] [ph] from Citibank. Unidentified Analyst [Interpreted] Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for the call. Now, talking about provisions, R$84 million related labor claims, could we go more in-depth, what was exactly that? And do you expect this to continue for the remainder of this year? Thank you. Luiz Fernando Leone Vianna [Interpreted] Thank you. I will give the floor to the accounting person of Copel. Unidentified Company Representative [Interpreted] Good afternoon, Kaikobet. Referring our provisions for contingencies in the first quarter of 2016, in fact we had a very [non-recurring thing] [ph] that was collected to – from the existing labor union, so very prudently we applied a conservative approach and this event represents about R$45 million in our provision. And with here our allowance for doubtful accounts is coming up because of delinquency represented R$30 million of this R$112 million. And the others are the ones that you are familiar with, R$45 million should be non-recurrent for the next few quarters. And we are monitoring very closely the issue of delinquency in order to maintain or to move down as much as we can this amount of provision for that specific end. Thank you. Operator Mr. [Jimmy Saskenia] [ph] from Credit Suisse. Unidentified Analyst [Interpreted] Good afternoon. I have two questions. The first one about provisions, you explained about the provision regarding expenses that there was a big reversal as well. Maybe you could mention what it was all about, could you point any commitment? And the second question has to do with what Sebastiani shared about the covenants. When we look at Slide #11, I understand that there are many projects that will be coming on-stream in the next few quarters. But when we look at the average for the last 12 months, we see deterioration in generation. And the situation has a negative impact may on the third quarter of last year. As we look ahead, okay, you have new projects coming on stream, but as we look at the average of the 12 months, generations and distribution worsened, because of Araucaria maybe. So do you believe there will be any break of covenant? Are you negotiating any of the covenants that you still have? Adriano Fedalto [Interpreted] Good afternoon, one again. This is Adriano from accounting making brief remarks about contingencies. Regarding this reduction, if I understood correctly vis-à-vis last year in 2015 the provision of R$75 million referring to the difference of price for the Colíder plant. And then, we had complied to the contract fully, but there was still a doubt about the price. We only took the full amount and we provisioned the difference of R$75 million prudently. As soon as this is judged, we will be able to reverse this provision in the future quarter as soon as we have a legal decision about that. Unidentified Analyst [Interpreted] Just to clarify, the reversal of R$15 million, you’re saying that we had provision R$75 million for Colíder, and you reverted R$50.8 million of this amount? Adriano Fedalto [Interpreted] No, no. I’m sorry, I’m sorry. There is some misunderstanding. The comparison that I am making is between 2015 to 2016. This is what represents the variation of minus R$47 million in our results. Unidentified Analyst [Interpreted] No. My question was about Slide #5. When you talk about the breakdown of provisions et cetera, there are reversals. On Slide #5, was it something specific that was reverted? Adriano Fedalto [Interpreted] Okay, I understand. So in 2015, we had two events that represent the R$50 million, R$24 million in benefits to employees regarding the Copel Foundation and we were able to revert R$24 million. And another one, which is trivial as well, difference of the context of almost R$28 million, almost R$29 million also is something non-recurring and that was reverted during this period. So if you add up these two events, we have this difference of R$50 million… Unidentified Analyst [Interpreted] Okay, very clear. And the other point is about the covenants. Sergio Luiz Lamy [Interpreted] The President of Copel GeT, good afternoon. Before Mr. Sebastiani make specific remarks about covenants, I would like to make one remark about the result of Copel Generation and Transmission, in the first quarter and the expectation for the second quarter, and of course it is linked to the issue of covenants. As we’ve said before, I would say that three factors came into play that was very relevant in this regard impacting the results of the first quarter. The first one was that last year, we have made an allocation of free energy, which was much stronger in the first quarter, and then this year we made a more linear allocation over the year and this tends to show better results as we evolve over the year. And the second answer was very much impacted also, and this has to do with the spot price with a sensitive recovery and a trend. We believe that the trend would continue to be there for the next few quarters. And we believe there will be more positive impact on our results coming from the increase in the stock price. And then, Araucaria also was a driver as we believe that, at least the second quarter or part of the third quarter. By the end of the second quarter and part of the third quarter, it will come back online due to the Olympics, so we have a positive outlook for better trend. Operator Now, Mr. Sebastiani. Luiz Eduardo da Veiga Sebastiani [Interpreted] One of the most important things that have already been mentioned by Lamy, and the worst moment that we see, which is the beginning of the first quarter and that was already mentioned, because of the economic scenario and the specific reality of this [last year] [ph], and what regards for instance to the non-residential [ph] GDP and the positive outlook that was mentioned by Lamy, so all that leads us to have a positive scenario for the future. The covenants are analyzed on a daily basis, all of the time, we track our covenants, and it was still below the average of the factors, and below the average of the covenants that we see, and that are only posted at the end of the period. So I understand we are concerned which is legitimate, also it is important also to clarify to you and to everybody that we have a permanent monitoring of the covenant, and observing a better scenario from now on for the next few quarters. We’ve driven high degree of comfort with the risk indicator. Unidentified Analyst [Interpreted] So you expect an improvement in the 12-month EBITDA, offsetting the deterioration of distribution and generation compared to last year, so you believe the situation will not worsen? Luiz Eduardo da Veiga Sebastiani [Interpreted] No. Our outlook as far as that is not negative. We have already established our covenants below the limit and below the average of the sector, and because of all the factors that I mentioned, our outlook is positive as we said. Unidentified Analyst [Interpreted] One last question. The issue of exceeding it, is it only for one quarter or two quarters? Did you have any type of debate? Luiz Eduardo da Veiga Sebastiani [Interpreted] It’s at the end of the year – the fiscal year. That will conclude the merger of the covenants with the contracts that we have in place. Unidentified Analyst [Interpreted] Thank you. Operator [Mr. Lacio Lusali] [ph] from UBS. Unidentified Analyst [Interpreted] Regarding to volume of energy that you sold, 300 megawatts sold in each year and the comparison with the price cut. So the price cut over time. It becomes more and more difficult to predict the EBITDA for distribution. What will be the record level of EBITDA? Can you have the visibility? And do you expect an improvement because of the next tariff revision? So how much do you believe the EBITDA will be going up? Unidentified Company Representative [Interpreted] This is [Lamy Matialon] [ph] In relation to the sale to commercialization company in 2016, while the generation company should 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. And the amount that we showed, I don’t have the exact figures here with me, but we were rather successful with a sense of selling all the energy that we are making available for this auction. So besides having been able to create all our available energy, we were able to reach average prices that are very satisfactory around R$128 per megawatt hour. I can send you the exact figures for each year later after this conference about the result of the auction, okay. I’ll give them to you later. Unidentified Analyst [Interpreted] Just to the order of magnitude, is there anything – it was reasonably significant, but always within a negotiation strategy? Luiz Fernando Leone Vianna [Interpreted] We’re going to the energy during – over several different auctions during the year. It’s an amount that will exceed the annual value as of 2017 of R$200 million, R$250 million just to give you an order of magnitude, okay. Unidentified Analyst [Interpreted] Okay. Operator [Rodrigo Guchelin from Gusachi] [ph]. Unidentified Analyst [Interpreted] Good afternoon. Thank you for the call. My questions were about the covenants, in your [indiscernible] volume of energy sold. It was not so clear to me, I mean, the volume of energy sold, it seems to me that at the beginning you’re having a more aggressive effort around 125 to 130, they’re also megawatt hour. Am I interpreting correctly, what you said? Luiz Fernando Leone Vianna [Interpreted] What’s your name please? Could you repeat your name? Unidentified Analyst Vudilu [ph]. Luiz Fernando Leone Vianna [Interpreted] Vudilu, good afternoon. The sound is very bad. So I would like to ask you to repeat the question. Unidentified Analyst [Interpreted] I had two questions, one about the covenant that you have already answered. And the other one, I need some more color about the order of magnitude of your energy sales of the Comitaligadura [ph] company. Is it according to the prices that are acceptable between R$130 and R$125 per megawatt hour, could you clarify this, please? Luiz Fernando Leone Vianna [Interpreted] We had a few auctions in place, in which we sold energy from the generation company, in one modality and the Comitaligadura in another modality. So, you are asking about the Comitaligadura company and because of that, I am going to give the floor to the president of this company. Unidentified Company Representative [Interpreted] Good evening. The [indiscernible] it was very concentrated and incentivized and the expectation that we have is attempting around R$165 as of 2017. For 2016, the amount is slightly lower, and with the purchase is more feasible. Within conventional, R$30, R$35 is slightly below this amount. Unidentified Analyst [Interpreted] Thank you. Operator Also Lusali from UBS. Unidentified Analyst [Interpreted] I had a question about distribution and the recurring EBITDA. How much it will increase with the implementation of the tariff revision? And since the move there R$200, R$250 average megawatts that’s already sold by the generation company is very high volume. So, it slightly better than between R$150 and R$200, that’s all I have just checked, okay. Luiz Eduardo da Veiga Sebastiani [Interpreted] Now, I’ll turn it Antonio Guetter, President of Copel Distribuição who will answer your other question. Antonio Sergio de Souza Guetter [Interpreted] Hello, [Murino. No, Marcelli] [ph], sorry, okay, and everybody, about the reduction in our EBITDA as we have said before, it tends mainly from distributions and also by the problems that we have the distribution company regarding the allowance for doubtful account. Because at the moment that the country is dealing with recession and reduction in consumption, and at the same time here in Paraná as another state, we have an increase in cost of energy, and this results a reduction in the size of our market and the increased delinquency. As a consequence, our allowance for doubtful accounts, we have been working very strongly, and our allowance for doubtful account even increasing our cost to – and also work with a client in order to revert this delinquency cost and we believe that this decision with tariff that we have a trend of change in 10% over June, we would be seeing a reversal in this current – of the EBITDA that was negative this quarter. I believe that the market will continue to be weak, and looking at the scenario that we have for this year, we believe we will not even have R$100 million EBITDA do you agree or may be a little bit more than that? [Indiscernible] as our CFO said, we have already reached the worst point of the year, and now we expect EBITDA – we already see that in terms of delinquency because we see already a reversal in our curve, because we put in place many actions in this regard. And we believe that the level that we will have by the end of this year will depend a lot on what a new administration the new government does, but we believe there will be a positive trend in the market reduction in delinquency whether actions regarding allowance for doubtful accounts, we will start to have the effects. Unidentified Analyst [Interpreted] How much of your EBITDA would increase because of the carrying provision, how much should we expect? Luiz Fernando Leone Vianna [Interpreted] I think you are following that, we expect to be doubled our asset. As a consequence, we believe that we will approximately double our EBITDA. Unidentified Analyst [Interpreted] Thank you very much. Thank you for the answer. Operator Miguel Rodrigues from Morgan Stanley. Miguel Rodrigues [Interpreted] Good afternoon. Two things. First, leverage. Net debt to EBITDA that you delivered it is already addressed by the CDE and what is the exact balance today? Going back to the energy portfolio, what about contracts will now come back on, are you going to accelerate expecting prices to pick up or do you tend to have new auctions and what is your intention regarding this? Luiz Fernando Leone Vianna [Interpreted] New covenants, net debt and EBITDA is not part of that calculation, okay. Sergio Luiz Lamy [Interpreted] Good afternoon. This is generation and transmission. Although we have an expectation trend and that’s a trend in the prices of energy from now up until the end of the year. Our strategy, a strategy based on the average price. So we are going to hold many auctions starting next month. So we do have many different auctions during the year not just for us to have an average selling price for the year, okay? Miguel Rodrigues [Interpreted] Let’s say the market conditions worsen, are you expecting R$125 to R$130, and do you expect market price is different from that, are you going to hold back on your auctions? Sergio Luiz Lamy [Interpreted] Our expectation is positive in the phase of having more favorable market prices. Of course, if this does not materialize, then we do have to address the amounts of energy to be sold due to the market prices with the decrease of rate, or increase of rate regarding the market prices and how they develop. Miguel Rodrigues [Interpreted] Thank you. Operator [Operator Instructions] There are no more questions, I would like to give the floor back to the company for the closing remarks. Luiz Fernando Leone Vianna [Interpreted] This is the CEO of Copel speaking. As we have said before, we had not only at Copel, but in the sector as a whole and in the country, we had a very unfavorable first quarter. We understand that the power sector was even better than the average for the country and our outlook, and we are very much convinced when we say we will be back in the second quarter. We will have better results than the first and place our bets on this new moment that the company’s starting to look and expecting a recovery, because of exchange and we are rather hopeful. We believe there would be improvements to the country and we will be able to close 2016 with a much better perspective than we have in the first quarter. Thank you. Operator Copel’s conference call about the results of the first quarter of 2016 is closed. 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American DG’s (ADGE) on Q1 2016 Results – Earnings Call Transcript

American DG Energy Inc. (NYSEMKT: ADGE ) Q1 2016 Results Earnings Conference Call May 13, 2016, 11:00 AM ET Executives Bonnie Brown – Chief Financial Officer John N. Hatsopoulos – Co-Chief Executive Officer Benjamin Locke – Co-Chief Executive Officer Analysts Haydn Cole – Essex Asset Management Tom Retol – Private Investor Andy Rieger – Private Investor Mike Wuzuka – Oppenheimer Walter Schenker – MAZ Partners Operator Good morning and welcome to the American DG Energy First Quarter 2016 Financial Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. There will be an opportunity for you to ask questions at the end of today’s presentation. In addition to management Charles Maxwell, American DG Energy’s Chairman and energy industry expert will be available to take your questions during the Q&A session. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. The recording of this conference call will be available for playback approximately one hour after the end of the call and will remain available until Friday, May 20, 2016. Individuals may access the recording by dialing 877-344-7529 from inside the U.S., 855-669-9658 from Canada or 412-317-0088 from outside the U.S. Enter the replay conference number of 10084854 followed by the pound sign. Now, I would like to introduce Bonnie Brown, American DG Energy’s Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead. Bonnie Brown Thank you. Good day and thank you all for joining us on our first quarter 2016 earnings call. I’m Bonnie Brown, American DG Energy’s Chief Financial Officer. On the call with me today are John Hatsopoulos and Benjamin Locke, our Co-CEOs, John Estabrook, our VP of Finance and Robert Panora, Director of Operations. Before we begin, I’d like to read our Safe Harbor statement. Various remarks that we may make about the Company’s future expectations, plans and prospects constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the Safe Harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We may make forward-looking statements about our future financial performance that involve risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties could cause our results to differ materially from our current expectations. We encourage you to look at the Company’s filings with the SEC to get a more complete picture of our business including the risks and uncertainties just mentioned. Also during this call, we will be referring to certain financial measures not prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or GAAP. A reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures used on this call to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is available in our press release and in the tables accompanying that release. While we may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we specifically disclaim any obligation to do so even if our estimates change, and therefore you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as representing our views as of any date subsequent to today. I now turn it over to John Hatsopoulos for some opening remarks. John N. Hatsopoulos Ladies and gentlemen thank you very much for joining us. This is a period of transition for American DG and with the goal of the returns of our existing facilities rather than continue on growth. We do have a good backlog which Ben Locke my Co-CEO who by the way has done a spectacular job along with Bob Panora in improving the returns of the existing equipment which I believe are about 60 and we are well on our way. I think Ben will tell you where we stand. Our returns are improving; we believe that sometime this year if not whole year will be cash flow positive. Anyway that’s our goal and by the way, it’s not a projection, it’s a goal. With that I’d like to ask Ben to give you an update of where we stand. Benjamin Locke Thank you, John. Before I go on to review of our results, I’d like to provide a quick review of our business for those who might be new to the call. ADGE and EuroSite power are on the business of settling energy into form of electricity, heat and cooling to customers who wish to save money spends on traditional sources of energy. We own the assets that produce the energy onsite and earn revenue as the customers pay ADGE a discounted rate for electricity and heat or cooling. This model called On-Site Utility or OSU is quite common and practical with energy technologies, such as wind, solar and co-generation systems. The OSU model is an essential part of any distributed generation infrastructure, so it’s not every customer at the capital or the financial flexibility to own the asset outright. As I stated in stated in past calls and John has just mentioned, our main focus last year and continuing into this year is to improve the operation of our existing fleet, in order to increase productivity while optimizing our margins and improving our cash flow. Our result of the past quarters and continuing into the first quarter of this year confirmed the success of this effort as we are seeing solid improvements in our margins. I believe demonstrating robust and consistent margins for ADGE is the most important metric to guide our business going forward. We have also undertaken efforts to reduce our operating expenses with good results. With that, I’ll review the financial results for the quarter; followed by an update on operations which Bonnie will provide detail on. Our total revenues for the first quarter were approximately $2.2 million compared to approximately $2.5 million in the first quarter of last year. This reduction in revenue was expected with the reallocation of the underperforming LLC sites in mid-2015. Revenues for the quarter were also adversely affected by other factors such as weather and lower utility rate at some of our sites, which Bonnie will provide more detail on just a few minutes. Our margins excluding depreciation however improved slightly to 32.7%, a 5% increase over the first quarter of 2015. This reaffirms that our efforts to improve performance and reduced costs are affective even with the milder weather and changes in utility rates this quarter. We have achieved on non-GAAP EBITDA cash flow positive quarter with an inflow of approximately $81,000, as opposed to outflows of approximately $430,000 in the comparable prior year period another milestone that supports our efforts over the past year are successful. Other notable accomplishments over the quarter include the reduction in outstanding convertible debt. Last week we eliminated 9.3 million in convertible debentures that was due in May of 2018 in exchange for approximately 14.7 million shares of EuroSite power. With this swap of EuroSite power shares and exchange for partial elimination of the convertible debt American DG Energy reduce the convertible debt outstanding 9.2 million. The company is pursuing a similar debt exchange transaction for the remaining convertible debt outstanding and expect to complete that subsequent transaction in the coming weeks. This transaction substantially improves ADGE’s balance sheet and along with the improvements in margins put ADGE in good position to complete their remaining site improvements and our project backlog. And also eliminates the risk of potential shareholder dilution that may have resulted from a debt to equity conversion. And as I mentioned our efforts to reduce expenses is showing results. Our overall operating expenses have decreased to $1,080,00675, a 21.2% improvement over the first quarter of 2015. Turning to EuroSite. They received almost $370,000 in 2016 from the U.K. government for construction activities in 2015. The enhanced capital allowance program in the U.K. is a cash energy tax incentives for energy saving plant and machinery, which includes CHP system. Also this week EuroSite raised $7.25 million in the private placement. I encourage you to listen to EuroSite’s earning call on Monday for more detail on their progress. With that, I’d like to turn it over to Bonnie for more detail on our operations. Bonnie? Bonnie Brown Thank you, Ben. I’ll be providing an overview of the company’s operations for the first quarter of 2016, more specifically the performance of the systems we are operating here in the United States. Throughout 2015 and 2016, the company has focused on improving domestic fleet operations, which consists of 76 fully owned systems and 16 that have shared ownership with our LLC partner. As we discussed in our last call, we recognized that with efforts these systems could provide significantly better financial returns. In the first quarter of 2016, energy production by CHP system improves for the ADGE fleet by 1% as compared to the same period in 2015. We consider this a positive outcome given the unusually warm winter experienced in the Northeast United States where our fleet is located. With those who lived in this region will not soon forget the winter of 2015 with record cold temperatures in snowfall and as a sharp contrast to one year later. Quantitatively speaking the difference is evident when heating loads are compared, Boston [ph] which is typical with reduction in the 2016 Q1 heating load of 30% in the same period in 2015. While energy production was up by 1% reported revenue declined by 12% due to lower utility rates in the range. However just as utility production cost has dropped due to lower natural gas prices ADD has life like benefit. ADGEs cost to reduced electricity year-over-year have declined more or less in proportion to our revenue. Consequently our gross margin has not suffered by deduction improved by 5%. While electricity prices are down overall, we are encouraged to see electric rates in Massachusetts climbing. We are hopefully this trend will continue and expand into other regions. Our initiatives to improve existing fleet performance has been on two tracks. First has been to selectively complete evaluations and upgrades to those sites that have unrealized potential for revenue and margin. This a very successful strategy, our four clients [ph] sites in New York City area that comprised 37% of our fleet have collectively increased production by 7% in the first quarter of 2016 as compared to the first quarter of 2015. The second track can cause fleet-wide improvements that follow four basic areas; communication, instrumentation, water treatment and demand management. Water treatment has been found to be very effective and inexpensive preventative maintenance measure. In addition, more expensive site instrumentation that’s accessible through the Internet can help us diagnose and correct problems quickly and efficiently. Regarding demand management, we have taken a fleet-wide initiatives to increase our revenue by billing more customers for this additional unbilled financial benefit. Let me explain, commercial towers in the U.S. typically include a significant charge associated with the facilities peak usage. Even if the peak period is only for a few minutes. From an ADF perspective, realizing this benefit requires two elements. First, we must manage the CHP system, such that it is always operational considering key facility usage. Second, we must add additional on-site instrumentation such as the benefit is recorded for accurate invoicing. While this initiative is just under way, we have greatly refined the implementation process and hope to upgrade most of the fleet by year end to include this additional billing and adjust our operating strategy accordingly. We were pleased to have built approximately 50,000 for demand saving in the quarter, a 60% increase from the same period in 2015. We would like to exercise this increased revenue has no associated cost, except for that one-time case instrumentation setup. As mentioned last quarter, we assumed a full ownership of eight sites from our LLC partner. Our efforts thus far have been focused on upgrading needs to our standards. While we have made good amount of progress it is required a significant down time of units while the work is being performed. Our expectation is that we will bringing most of these sites back to full operating status in the next two quarters. We have also been engaged in bringing new sites online and reducing our backlog. We are pleased to report that [indiscernible] project in [indiscernible] and New York is under construction assets, a delay of several years. The site which will have a capacity of 1.5 megawatts will be our largest site to-date [indiscernible] in New York. The construction delay was a direct result of Hurricane Sandy, specifically the extensive parking damage resulted in significant building from changes in beach front areas. This process resulted in several years of permit delays in engineering changes, which is thankfully behind us. Now I want to turn the call back to Ben to conclude our discussion. Benjamin Locke Thanks, Bonnie. So looking forward to the rest of the year, I am very confident that our efforts to improve performance are existing fleet, reduce expenses wherever possible and complete our backlog to contribute revenues with good margins will result in improved financial performance for the company going forward. Also with the elimination of half our convertible debt and the expectation to eliminate the rest of the debt ADGE will be in excellent financial condition to develop strategy for additional growth. In summary I continue to strongly believe that ADGE’s business model is good, the fundamental economic drivers for our OSU models remain favorable and ADGEs business will continue to show improvement in 2016. Thank you for listening to our call and I’ll turn the call back over to the operator for questions. John N. Hatsopoulos Before we do this, can I mention something that one of the concerns that we have had is capital and we have been hesitant to expand our fleet because we are not about to raise money at the current stock price or for money for a company that when we had that kind of a debt overhanging us. The demand exists, we do have enough capital to complete our units that we have in our backlog, once we eliminated debt, we have three banks that have shown interest in loaning us money, but those at this point not till we eliminate the balance of the debt. With that, we’ll open it for questions. Question-and-Answer Session Operator [Operator Instructions] Today’s first question comes from Walter Schenker of MAZ Partners. Please go ahead. Walter Schenker If you in fact eliminate the convertible debt on terms similar to which you just did the conversion that will reduce American DG Energy’s interest in EuroSite to roughly what? Bonnie Brown 1.3%. Benjamin Locke The answer is we reduced our holding in EuroSite to about 1.3% Bonnie said. Walter Schenker Okay. So extensively the decision was made that you’re separating the company, so that [indiscernible] which has – okay so ADGE has to rise or sink as an investment in value based on its ability to grow in the U.S. market and EuroSite which already able to raise Bonnie witnessed in recent announcement and growing backlog and more government support we’ll be able to really – so you don’t believe, I’m sorry I’ll rephrase the question. You don’t believe EuroSite is in fact more attractive and that effectively what you’re doing is, is reducing the potential for American DGE pretty close and we no longer have an interest in EuroSite. John N. Hatsopoulos That’s actually true. The problem is that nobody ever gave us credit for all the shares that we owned at EuroSite and you’ve seen what has been done to the stock, which was trading well below the value of the EuroSite shares. And why this is a decision that we have to make. The second reason is that EuroSite takes a lot of attention from the ADGE management and we needed to separate it especially since their overseas and we’re here. But that’s where we are and I’m sorry Bonnie. Bonnie Brown It is the debt and in addition, we needed to – we needed to do. John N. Hatsopoulos Bonnie is right. If we don’t remove the debt, we cannot borrow money, we cannot borrow money, we cannot grow. If we do with the – and we are in a process of final negotiations to remove the part of the debt that we like to do. Then we can raise at least we’ve been told that we can raise money from bank and institutions and resume the growth of the company if we so desire. But right now $80 million, $90 million worth of debt, even though it was – its three years away, it’s in 2018, May of 2018. The banks and investors were not willing to loan us money, with this of earning. So we had to make a decision, do we want to make the company debt free to allow to borrow money if they need to or do we need to keep going and eventually selling EuroSite shares to pay the debt. Otherwise we could not over the next two years have a profit, the cash flow profit of $18 million. Walter Schenker Okay. I got it. Thank you. John N. Hatsopoulos You’re welcome. Operator And our next question comes from Mike Wuzuka [ph] of Oppenheimer. Please go ahead. Mike Wuzuka Good morning everybody. A part of my question was answered by the previous caller, but as a follow-up now. What’s the backlog for the booked projects for the remainder of this year? If you said it I missed it. Benjamin Locke Yeah, well, the backlog is a combination of ADGE and North America and EuroSite. EuroSite has a backlog and we’re on seven projects and I imagine Paul will give some detail to those on his call on Monday. So I’ll speak to the ones on ADGE side, a big portion of the backlog is project that Bonnie mentioned. A couple of buildings or five building specifically in New York that underwent tremendous construction delays and permitting problems as a result of Sandy and there was a huge knot to untangle, but we’ve been successfully able to untangle that and now construction is going on in a very brisk pace. So we’re happy about that, so the hope is that those units will come on soon. They’re not going to all come on at once, but come on sequentially, but we’ll have more updates on that. So that’s five units, we’ve got another project that’s nursing home, that is got – a unit that is very near commissioning. So that should be starting very soon. We have another project we announced the Salvation Army I know earlier this year. That is in the midst of getting construction bids to make sure that all the estimates that we put together in the OSU match was coming in from the actual contractors. And then we have a few projects with a very large location of our Stevens University as many of our systems, many of our co-gen, many of our CHP system installed. We had two CHP systems and two chillers that we’ve been planning to install there that have been stuck behind Stephen’s own construction schedules. They are knocking down buildings and putting up new buildings and so they are very good customers all of ours. So we are patiently waiting for them to get through their own construction planning before we’re able to install the backlog of systems there. So I’d say Mike, the main thing you should be looking for in terms of backlog accomplishment is certainly this large lunar project and this nursing home in New Jersey. Mike Wuzuka Well it seems to me that the future of this company is to add systems and from what I’m gleaning from the conversation today a couple of things. First of all at some point in time and Bonnie can probably address this better, we will no longer consolidate EuroSite if I’m correct in interpreting once the debt is extinguished and the EuroSite final ownership of EuroSite shares is transferred to new owners. Without the EuroSite consolidation, it seems to me that ADGE at least going into 2017 for all intensive purposes is in a caretaker status and that worries me because the future is booking systems and building systems and bringing them onto the operating fleet and I am little concerned about whether we are going to refocus our attention and adding to the fleet. Benjamin Locke Yet, Mike, so I can understand you’re feeling that way, but I don’t believe that is the case. What we’ve been doing very conscientiously is making sure that the company is in a good place before we start growing it to the next step. I think certainly before taking on a multitude of new projects, we absolutely had to make sure that all of those things that Bonnie mentioned about instrumentation, water quality, how we measure demand, how we get revenues is optimized as much as we can and we’re getting there, number one. And number two making sure that our balance sheet is strong enough to support as John mentioned getting funding to start new projects. So there is no lack of potential new project for us and in fact we’re kind of eager to start some of these new projects and continue to grow the business. But we have to be disciplined on the efforts that we’re doing right now to make sure we’re in good position to do that. John N. Hatsopoulos This is John and I want to add something to what Ben just said. We would negligent if we as a company with a huge debt that sounds, we can wake up some morning and we know we cannot pay it. On the other hand by making the company cash flow positive, then the future of the company is very positive and that’s what we decided to do. The board decided to do it. As a matter fact, we have on the confidence goals charging Maxwell was the leader of this kind of strategy. And we feel that we have – if we have a company by the end of the year that can have a future is the right thing to do. Now whether it’s caretaker or no caretaker as long as cash flow positive it’s going to be around for a long time. Mike Wuzuka Okay. Then as a follow-up there was a think piece I think on April 26 where it was announced that the state of New York and six utilities have joined into a new program, I think it’s called solar progress partnership, where the state of New York and the local utilities are going to promote solar systems and as a green energy effort, if you will. And I’m beginning to get – be a little curious as to how that might impact ADGE going forward because it seems that the state of New York now is moving toward and the local utilities, apparently six of them in the state of New York are moving toward solar projects and how will that impact ADGE and the ADGE efforts in and around New York City? Benjamin Locke Sure, Mike, I can talk about that a little bit. Certainly solar gets a lot of attention. There are I’m familiar with the project that you mentioned. But just equally there are CHP projects that the state is putting focus on as well. So I don’t think the existence of that initiative doesn’t mean that that’s the only kind of game in town indeed there are very good programs that continue to evolve for CHP, particularly in very high demand regions like in New York et cetera. So I’m not worried that that solar focus is going to take away from the focus on CHP because there’s plenty of attention there. Secondly, I will that Tecogen came out with the new product, I’m not sure if you’ve been following that, but the new Tecogen product is specifically designed to accept other types of distributed generation inputs. Its inverter, just to get a little technical here, its inverter is rated for higher, than what the CHP output is. Meaning that the CHE can be running and you can have solar imports or battery or wind, but we’re talking solar to supplement. So I think the new Tecogen product is a new tool for ADGE to look at solar as an overall system to be deployed in some of these areas. Mike Wuzuka And then as a final follow-up there have been a series of announcements in and around New York City where large companies like Johnson Controls and Honeywell and to some extent Siemens are entering the CHP market with offering for instance school districts – entire district projects in a single relationship spread over a number of years. From a competitive standpoint what’s our ability to compete with companies like Johnson Controls, Honeywell, Siemens and it’s my understanding now that even Kohler is going to be getting into some sort of combined heat and power systems. And how can we compete against these guys? Benjamin Locke Sure. Yeah, I’m familiar these large ESCOs have such large national presence that their whole business model is to send an entire city or an entire town or entire school district to do everything from insulation, window replacement, solar and now as you rightly point out CHP is a part of that. I don’t think we could compete with them, with that breadth of energy services that they provide. I think ADGE has expanded our charter a little bit, not just to be CHP and chillers, but we’re also looking at boiler work. I don’t think we’d want to compete with them for those far-reaching projects. I think our niche is a good one and that projects that are kind of a underneath the radar of these large ESCOs working again with residential, with hospitality and with healthcare and YMTAs and things of that nature is our sweet spot where we don’t rub up against these big guys. And so I think that’s the answer and I don’t think we want to compete with these guys, we stay away from their turf and they’re generally staying away from our turf. John N. Hatsopoulos But Ben, again this is John. I thought in some cases the Honeywells and the Siemens and Johnson Controls have been customers of ours. Benjamin Locke Well, they’ve been customers of the equipment. John N. Hatsopoulos Of Tecogen. Benjamin Locke Of Tecogen, yeah, but not ADGE. John N. Hatsopoulos That is correct. Mike Wuzuka Okay, well. I appreciate the update. Benjamin Locke Sure. Mike, thank you. Operator [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Andy Rieger [ph], a Private Investor. Andy Rieger Real quick questions for Bonnie, this is just more of just a curiosity question or just from balance sheet and cash flow. What does the pro forma liability section look like? Do we kill all of the convertible debentures spoke to the $1.5 million and the $17 million and the notes payable to the related parties or what does that long-term section look like, once all these transactions are completed. Bonnie Brown Well, some of the debentures will remain – some of them are EuroSite, so you have to remember our balance sheet is consolidated as presented here. So I can speak to ADGE, because EuroSite has not done their earnings call or released their earnings yet. So our goal is to remove all of the debt from ADGEs books. So there will be no debt on ADGEs balance sheet, which is just a convertible. John N. Hatsopoulos Andy, we said this, the consolidation adds the debt of EuroSite, so once the presentation stops ADGE will have zero debt. Andy Rieger No. I get that, I was just making sure that all I’m saying I just wanted to confirm that. Bonnie Brown Okay. Andy Rieger That’s it. Thank you. Benjamin Locke Okay. Thanks, Andy. Operator [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Tom Retol [ph], a Private Investor. Please go ahead. Tom Retol I’m sorry, I got disconnected, so I don’t know if this question was just asked or not, but what’s the decision made to the exchange EuroSite stock instead of ADGE stock for the reduction or the elimination of the debt? John N. Hatsopoulos We had to pay the debt somehow, so we traded the stocks of EuroSite, unfortunately because there is very little float in the marketplace, does not trade and it trades by appointment. So we couldn’t have sold shares of EuroSite in the open market without – to pay off the debt. So we had to make private deals with private investors. That’s the only to do it. Tom Retol Okay, so the debt holders would prefer to have EuroSite stock as opposed to ADGE stock? John N. Hatsopoulos We don’t want to dilute ADGE, no, no, we didn’t want to do it because if we gave $0.30 of whatever the stock is right now shares would have had to give them almost all the company to pay it off. So this is not what we thought is the best interest of our shareholders. Selling, giving shares even if there was to it, we didn’t even want to consider this kind of thing. So our goal is not to pay the debt with our ownership of the company, we don’t want to give away the ownership, the company wants get its act all together as we are planning to do will be more valuable. Tom Retol Okay. Thank you. Benjamin Locke Thank you, Tom. Operator And our next question comes from Haydn Cole of Essex Asset Management. Please go ahead. Haydn Cole Good morning, thanks for taking my question. I’m just thinking about sort of like the recent change to getting cash flow positive here in the quarter, which is I think very positive and I guess, what I’m interested in the margin even though it is kind of steadily improving 1% again this quarter. It seems like the profitability is most leverages by the utility rates. So I’m wondering like on a going forward basis, how we feel about that. You know because it seems like that if the end goal they pay their goal the shareholders is to see more value creation that maybe there’s some things that we – are you all got thinking about managing the downside risk of more deflation and utility pricing? Are you thinking about that? Benjamin Locke Yeah, I think a lot about that, and I’ll answer it in two ways, as Bonnie mentioned as energy prices go down and electric rates go down we’re hedged a little bit by the fact that our operating expenses for running the equipment also go down because the gas is going down in price, well the gas bills that we’re paying are going down. So we have a natural hedge against reduced electric rates that way. Secondly, the electric rates are not to too much of attention [ph] here but are complexed with different utilities. That I think what Bonnie described as the demand portion of an electric rate versus the basic you know what you everyone understands is that cents per kilowatt hour is very nuance and sometimes you see one go down and the other go up. And if ADGE is not in the position to take advantage of that change in tariff structure, particularly the demand component then you’re right, then we start to lose out. So I think one of the ways that we’re reacting to the changing utility structure is to make absolutely sure that we have all those things that Bonnie mentioned in terms of instrumentation, monitoring et cetera to make sure that we’re able to capture the demand component. So that if the demand component – if the cents per kilowatt goes down, but demand component goes back up, we’re able to benefit from that. So those are the two things that I think we can do. Now in general electric rates are trending upward, I think if you speak with energy, any energy analyst and certainly Mr. Maxwell is one of the best of them, will agree that over the long-terms infrastructure drives electric costs, certainly in New York that’s the case. So in the long term I think we’re going to continue to see healthy electric rates to support our business model. John N. Hatsopoulos I want to add to what Ben has just said, that one of our directors is a gentlemen called John Rowe. He was the chairman and CEO of their largest I believe nuclear facilities electric production facility in the United States. And this is his feeling also, that on the long-term basis utilities will find a way to get there bond or flesh. Benjamin Locke Yeah and then certainly as we mentioned before the influx of more solar just puts more of the cost burden of the electric utility on the other rate payers, like any analyst will substantiate that that’s the problem. It’s a problem facing the overall electric utility industry today is the promulgation of more distributed generation. That’s good for our business model. Haydn Cole Yeah, and then I guess, so I like that I cannot agree with those things and I don’t know if that’s good or not, but I feel like that we’re aligned fairly strategically on those thoughts. And I guess, the thoughts that I’m also curious about is it seems like there’s a lot of strong ties and great connective tissue obviously with Tecogen and their technologies. I wonder strategically on a going forward basis, how much more we can reasonably I guess, speculate that we’re going to benefit from their different and new technologies because the recent one if I’m not mistaken is more focused on autos and doesn’t really have an impact on utilities, on-site utilities. Benjamin Locke Yeah, that’s though completely separate from American DGE. Haydn Cole Right. But do we think about kind of what they – because we’re using their technology essentially like is there any concern that I don’t know, don’t have access to newer things that they’re developing because they’re more sort of going into another direction and not on-site direction? Benjamin Locke Yeah, I don’t think so, Tecogen’s core business model remains as CHP equipment, as well as the heat pumps and chillers and the improvements that Tecogen is making on those, I mentioned the new CHP product that’s got a lot of innovation, plus all of that is going to help out American DGE. Now the efforts that Tecogen is making on the auto emissions, that’s a different business that Tecogen is going to go after, but that doesn’t take away from their core business of making equipment. Haydn Cole Okay. All right. Thanks guys. Benjamin Locke Thanks very much. Operator And that concludes today’s question-and-answer session and today’s conference call. We thank you all for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect your lines and have a wonderful weekend.6 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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US Geothermal’s (HTM) CEO Dennis Gilles on Q1 2016 Results – Earnings Call Transcript

US Geothermal Inc (NYSEMKT: HTM ) Q1 2016 Earnings Conference Call May 11, 2016 13:00 ET Executives Dennis Gilles – Chief Executive Officer Doug Glaspey – President and Chief Operating Officer Kerry Hawkley – Chief Financial Officer Analysts Jim McIlree – Chardan Capital Gerry Sweeney – ROTH Capital Markets Jonathan Lo – Raymond James Chip Richardson – Wedbush Securities Operator Greetings and welcome to the U.S. Geothermal 2016 First Quarter Earnings Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host Mr. Dennis Gilles, Chief Executive Officer. Thank you. Dennis, you may begin. Dennis Gilles Thanks, Chris. Good day, everyone and welcome to our first quarter 2016 earnings call. Today, I am joined by our President and Chief Operating Officer, Doug Glaspey; and our Chief Financial Officer, Kerry Hawkley. Our earnings release was issued yesterday and can be found on our website, usgeothermal.com. under the tab News. U.S. Geothermal’s three operating plants performed very well during the third quarter and generated availabilities ranging from 96% to 100% of the power output. However, our financial performance fell slightly short of our expectations due primarily to a one-time fee for engagement of financial advisors, plus higher than projected weather temperatures for the quarter and the breakdown of one of the production pumps at our Raft River project. In spite of those impacts, we produced our 14th straight quarter of positive EBITDA and cash flow, with both revenues and cash flows from operation exceeding those of the prior year. I am pleased with the steps we have taken to announce our 96 megawatts of advanced stage development projects. The pipeline of opportunities we have built provides us with a very strong platform for growth. Doug will provide more details on the operations and the development shortly, but first I would like to turn the meeting over to our CFO, Kerry Hawkley for an update on our financials. Kerry? Kerry Hawkley Thank you, Dennis and good morning to our listeners on the call. Before beginning, we would like to remind you that the information provided during this call may contain forward-looking statements relating to current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about future events that are forward-looking as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements generally relate to the company’s plans, objectives and expectations for future operations and are based on management’s current estimates and projections of future results or trends. Actual future results may differ materially from those projected as a result of certain risks and uncertainties. During the call, we will present non-GAAP financial measures, such as EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income. Reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP measures and management’s reason for presenting such information is set forth in the press release that was issued last night. Because these measures are not calculated in accordance with GAAP – U.S. GAAP, it should not be considered in isolation from our financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP. I will now discuss the financial statements of U.S. Geothermal for the quarter ended March 31, 2016. Our financial statements and MD&A were prepared in a condensed format. Our balance sheet at March 31, 2016 total assets are $224.7 million. Total liabilities are $96.0 million. Non-controlling interests have been reduced to $26.2 million. Net stockholders’ equity has increased to $102.5 million. Cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash and bonds decreased in the first quarter as the company paid down notes payable and non-controlling interest. Our results of operation for the past quarter were consistent with our expectations. Revenues for the quarter were $8.5 million, up $29,000 from 2015 a one-time charge of $750,000 for the financial advisors and legal costs related to the investigation of strategic alternatives affects both professional and the management fees and travel and promotions. Annual bonuses paid to employees of $281,000 in the first quarter affects both plant production expense and employee compensation. These costs were recorded and paid in the second quarter in 2015. Net income before tax of $1.3 million in 2016 was down from $2.2 million for last year. Without the one-time charge for the review of strategic alternatives, 2016 would have been consistent with 2015. Net income attributable to the U.S. Geothermal was $150,000 in 2016 compared to $730,000 in 2015 again reflecting the effect of the one-time adjustment for cost of evaluating the strategic alternatives. Our statement of cash flows. We began the year with cash and cash equivalents of $8.7 million. Cash generated by operations was $5.0 million. Issuance of common stock generated $1.2 million. Though payments reduced our total debt by $1.8 million, payments to non-controlling interests were $2.5 million and the purchase of additional interest at Raft River energy was $1.6 million. Capitalized development costs at WGP geysers in El Ceibillo totaled $1.6 million for the quarter. We ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $7.4 million. Our statement of changes in stockholders’ equity, we added net income attributable to U.S. Geothermal of $150,000 during the quarter. The accumulated deficit net of tax is now $17.3 million, down from a high of $32.8 million on December 31, 2012. Shares of common stock issued upon exercise of stock options were 225,000 shares. Another 2.5 million shares were issued under the ATM. Cash of $2.5 million was distributed to our non-controlling interest partner, Enbridge and common stock issued an outstanding at March 31, 2016 totaled 110.3 million shares. Please review the disclosure on Page 37 in the MD&A section regarding the net income attributable to the non-controlling interest and the net income attributable to U.S. Geothermal and its shareholders. For the first quarter of 2016, Neal Hot Springs contributed $1.2 million, San Emidio contributed $265,000 and Raft River contributed $53,000 for a total net income attributable to U.S. Geothermal and shareholders of $1.52 million. From that exploration activities and corporate overhead cost $1.37 million, all of these figures are net of tax. The company is well-positioned to act on any future opportunities resulting from our organic growth or potential M&A activities. I would like to thank you for your continued interest in U.S. Geothermal. I will turn the call over to Doug Glaspey, our President and Chief Operating Officer. Doug Glaspey Thank you, Kerry. Good day, everybody and we appreciate you being on the call today and your interest in the company. Our total generation for the first quarter from all three facilities was 93,788 megawatt hours. At Neal Hot Springs, the generation for the first quarter was 53,671 megawatt hours, with an average generation of 25.4 net megawatts per hour of operation. Neal operated at 96.7% availability for the quarter. We are planning at Neal to drill the freshwater well. During the second quarter to support our hybrid cooling system and as soon as we get our final approvals will be ready to go on that. At San Emidio, we had generation of 20,433 megawatt hours for the quarter, with an average generation of 9.4 net megawatts per hour. San Emidio operated at 99.4% availability for the quarter. At Raft River, we had generation of 19,684 megawatt-hours, with average hourly generation of 9.4 net megawatts per hour. Raft operated at 100% availability for the quarter. As Dennis mentioned earlier, we took production well RRG-2 offline in February on the pump failed. We pull that pump in March and they kept the well offline in preparation for drilling operations to add a second production leg to increase our overall production. That drilling is expected to be completed during the second quarter, with a total cost of the project estimated at approximately $3 million, which also includes a new pump cooling water well improvements and a few other ancillary upgrades needed to handle higher flow into the plant. Our operations team continues to ensure strong, stable performance at each of our power plants. On the development side, at WGP Geysers, we continue to move that project forward in preparation for start of construction. On March 6, we received the approved transmission interconnection agreement with the California Independent System Operator and Pacific Gas and Electric. With that approval, we made an initial payment of $1 million on a total estimated cost of $1.9 million for the cost of the grid operators’ portion of the work in the substation. We are also well on our way to getting our updated divisional use permit from Sonoma County, which is still expected to be issued in the second quarter of 2016. The conditional use permit again is required before we can start construction on the project. We are continuing our discussions for a power purchase agreement with a number of interested parties. On March 1, we mentioned earlier, we submitted a PPA proposal under a request for proposals from one of the new community choice aggregators in the San Francisco Bay Area, but we did not make initial shortlist, though the discussions with them are continuing. We will be submitting another proposal within the next couple of weeks and additional RFPs are expected to be issued yet in 2016. Bilateral negotiations or direct negotiations are also possible, but many of these folks require RFP type systems. At El Ceibillo, in Guatemala we have retained Mandeep [ph] Engineering from Iceland to advise the company on development of the well field and to construct the reservoir model for the project. El Ceibillo was located within a large volcanic complex, and Mandeep has specific expertise in volcanic host of geothermal systems and they worked for us on this project in the past. We have identified the location for a large diameter well, which will intersect the production zone. Preparations are being made to start drilling during the second quarter, followed by a flow test of the reservoir to provide modeling data for the reservoir model. The Guatemala government through the national electrical energy commission or CNEE has announced that its preparing to issue a 40-megawatt RFP exclusively for geothermal power. The CNEE is acting on the request of two of the large power distributors in Guatemala and has retained a large U.S. based consulting firm to prepare that RFP, the RFP is expected to be released during the second quarter. At San Emidio Phase 2, as part of the permitting process to deepen our two wells, additional plant and migratory bird surveys are being required by the Bureau of Land Management before drilling operations can commence. These are time of the year surveys, so cannot be done prior to May to ensure that the plants are actively growing. Plans have been made to complete these two wells early in the third quarter. The final interconnection study process was started by NV Energy in February. This facility study is expected to be completed during the second quarter of 2016 and would allow an additional 3.9 megawatts of transmission bringing our total transmission capacity to 19.9 megawatts to cover the Phase 2 plant requirements. In mergers and acquisitions, I will make a note that at Raft River, we completed the acquisition of Goldman Sachs interest in the project with the final payment of $1.635 million on March 31. This acquisition gives us the increased cash flow from the property and the new ownership structure allows the U.S. Geothermal to invest in new drilling to improve the plants generation output and can increase its contribution to your company. And in April, we received our first cash distribution from Raft River of $1.145 million. As noted previously, we have plans to drill a new leg on production well RRG-2. If that drilling is successful, we hope to increase the plant output by up to 3 megawatts annual average, which allows us to take advantage of the full 13-megawatt output allowed under the PPA. In regard to the power plant equipment we purchased in December, all of the major and long lead equipment for the construction of three binary geothermal plants was acquired for a total purchase price of $1.5 million, which is approximately 5% of the equipment’s estimated original cost of $28 million. The first payment of $750,000 was made upon signing the agreement and the final payment of $750,000 was made in January 2016. The components for the three units being purchased as we have said are all new and unused and represent approximately 70% of the components needed for a full plan. The equipment is from the same manufacturers and is of the similar size and design to the equipment that the company has installed at Neal Hot Springs and either San Emidio power plants. The design output of the acquired units is approximately 35 megawatts, but the actual output of these units will ultimately be determined by the resource conditions found at the site where we are installing. The three equipment packages meet the major long lead equipment requirements for the company’s proposed San Emidio 2 power plant 10 megawatts and Crescent Valley 1 power plant at 25 megawatts or alternatively it could be used in El Ceibillo, Guatemala. This equipment gives us the ability to expand our megawatt output at our existing advanced stage development projects, at significantly lower cost and in a much shorter construction timeframe. Since we have entered the second quarter, I want to remind everyone that we scheduled our annual plant maintenance outages during this period. At Raft River and Neal, the PPA price for March through May is approximately 73% of the yearly average price, due to the spring runoff or high generation conditions in the Idaho Power hydro power system. Taking advantage of this low-price period reduces the impact to our revenue for these maintenance outages. To-date, we have completed the annual outages at San Emidio and at Neal Hot Springs unit 1. Raft River’s outage starts next week, and the remainder of Neal Hot Springs will follow. It’s a very busy time of year for our operations team. In summary, we have 45 megawatts of power in production, and another 96 megawatts in advance development. We are very focused on bringing these projects forward as quickly as possible and growing value for all of our shareholders. And now, I will turn the call back over to Dennis. Dennis Gilles Thank you, Doug. Firstly, we would like to reaffirm our 2016 consolidated guidance that we had previously provided. Based on our current operations only, we expect operating revenues between $29 million and $34 million, adjusted EBITDA between $15 million and $19 million, EBITDA between $14 million and $18 million and net income as adjusted of $4 million to $8 million. Also, we wish to reaffirm our guidance for U.S. Geothermal only, which is less minority interest, of which we expect adjusted EBITDA of $9 million to $12 million and net income as adjusted of $1 million to $4 million. We have a number of development opportunities that can improve this performance, such as the well drilling plan at Raft River later this spring, the projected benefits from that drilling have not been included in our current guidance forecast. And as the year progresses we will be updating and tightening the range on all of our guidance This past fall, our Board of Directors undertook a review of strategic alternatives with the assistance of Marathon Capital. That process was concluded this quarter, when after reviewing the various alternatives available, the special committee of the Board, which was made up exclusively of independent directors concluded that the greatest long-term value for our shareholders would be obtained by staying in the current course. Our mission is to become the largest pure play geothermal independent power producer, providing renewable power 24/7 with a consolidated portfolio of 45 megawatts under operations and management. The acquisition of the majority of Goldman Sachs’ ownership interest at Raft River project at year end allowed us to successfully increase our shareholder portion of that portfolio by 20% going from 30 megawatts to now 36 megawatts. Additionally, we continue to advance our 96 megawatts of project in our advanced stage pipeline. We are very focused on obtaining a power purchase agreement for those projects, which is where we contract with a buyer for all of the output generated by that project for the next 20 to 25 years at a fixed price. On the legislative front, I am pleased to note that the U.S. government has extended the start of construction date that geothermal projects can qualify for the 30% investment tax credit. Any geothermal project that has begun construction, begun construction that is by December 31, 2016 now qualifies for that tax credit. And I want to point out that’s a tax credit, not a deduction. That investment tax credit allows 30% of the project’s cost to be taken as a credit against any tax payments in the year the project goes into operation. And basically to utilize that credit, we would bring a tax partner into our project similar to what we had done on Raft River with Goldman Sachs. There is a growing interest in the market for baseload renewable electricity to replace the phasing out coal, nuclear and once through cool plants along the California coast. All of which have historically provided firm predictable baseload generation. While solar and wind power will continue as sources of renewable energy, it should be noted that they supply intermittent power and not baseload power. The issue of climate change has grown tremendously over the last few years and shows no sign of abating. Government industries are increasingly favoring renewable energy over fossil fuels. Geothermal is the best form of renewable energy and we intend to work hard to ensure we can grow this company for the benefit of our stockholders and to make our contribution to favorably impact climate change. Now operator, I would like to open the call for questions. Question-and-Answer Session Operator Thank you. [Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from the line of Jim McIlree from Chardan Capital. Please proceed with your question. Jim McIlree Thank you. Doug, can you tell us why you didn’t make the shortlist for the choice aggregator RFP? Doug Glaspey That’s a good question, Jim. No, my guess would be its all based on price. So, we don’t know what the other folks bid. We only know what we bid. There hasn’t been a – they don’t come back and tell you why you didn’t make the short list. So, it’s really just a guess at this point. Dennis, I don’t know if you have another view of that? Dennis Gilles No, we do know that late in their bid process, they modified their bid conditions and opened up their bidding to existing renewables in addition to just new renewables. Initially, they had stated it was going to be for new renewables only and they opened it to existing. Existing renewables as they have been fully, the project is fully paid off are able to offer their product to try to get it re-contracted at a very competitive cost. And that’s what we believe happened, but we don’t know that for sure. Jim McIlree Okay. And then Doug, you implied that maybe it’s not over, you are going to resubmit. I was confused by that or where you saying that you are going to resubmit for different RFPs that are out there? Doug Glaspey Well, both Jim. They ask us the initial submittal. They ask for some additional information, which I believe we have provided now. Jim McIlree Yes. Doug Glaspey So, it’s not a bid issue. And in addition, there are new RFPs coming out, not from the same entity, but from several other entities in California. Jim McIlree Okay, that’s great. Thank you. And then on El Ceibillo, I think I heard you say that there is – you are expecting a government RFP for 40 megawatts, that’s dedicated to geothermal. What kind of competition do you have down there for geothermal supply? Doug Glaspey Well, we are waiting to see what the exact requirements are. They have come out of the RFP process. But our expectation is similar to what’s been happening in the U.S. now, they want – they will only accept bids from people that have a reservoir – a defined reservoir. They will want people that have development experience. Of cause, they want reservoirs in the country and that’s a very shortlist in Guatemala right now. We only know of maybe one or two others that might be able to qualify under those conditions. And we are probably as advanced or more advanced than most. So, we see our chances of being very good for that RFP and hopefully it’s slated to come out in May. If it lags a little bit, that won’t surprise me since it is the new – first time they have gone through this process, but we have high hopes under the process and having at the geothermal specific is just a reflection at the offtakers, which are brokers in the area are looking for reliable baseload power rather than an intermittent resource. Jim McIlree And assuming that it all went according to schedule, which I know it’s a dangerous assumption, when would that RFP be decided and the contracts left? Doug Glaspey Our hope is that it will be done before the end of the year if they get it out in May. Dennis Gilles Yes, we don’t know how aggressive their schedule is, because the RFP hasn’t serviced yet. Jim McIlree Alright, okay. Doug Glaspey We know the tetra-tech guys that are putting us together. So, we know they are on the job. They are in the country right now working on it. It’s been actively pursued. So, all we can do at this point is wait to see and hit the street. Jim McIlree Okay. And Kerry, can you just give us a summary of what the cash needs are and the cash availability is to fund those needs. I know that there is a lot of – it seems like a lot of things are going on and I am just having trouble tracking this on all of the cash requirements for the year? Kerry Hawkley Well, you do realize we do have about 10 million plus that’s generated internally by our three projects. There is a good possibility that we will evaluate other opportunities for funding. There is Raft River that’s not levered at all. If we wanted to go that way, there is also the possibility of some options and warrants that we have outstanding being exercised. We have seen some renewed interest in that. It’s generated probably a $1 million in the last quarter. So, I would expect we would have just from internal and issuance of options and warrants will have probably $12 million to $13 million generated there before we have to tap any type of debt and/or equity raise. We haven’t done an equity raise since December of ‘12. And of course, we do have the Raft project un-levered. So, those would be our sources, our uses over the next year. We are talking $3 million at Raft. We are talking probably another $3 million at El Ceibillo, but we would target those based on cash available and how we perceive or how we progress I guess on the PPA front. On WGP Geysers, we feel like we already have all the equity requirements already invested in that. And so if we go forward on that project, that would be potentially a tax equity investor and some project level debt that we would go there. Does that give you a flavor? Jim McIlree That does. Thank you. And if I can just ask on that same thing, the Neal project for the water cooling, Doug you might have said how much that’s going to cost, but that’s not a lot, correct? Doug Glaspey For the water well drilling that’s not a lot. And what our plan will be there Jim is if we find the water we need, of course we will do the final engineering on the project and then we have to go to our joint venture partner, look at the total dollars and we are expecting it to be in the $7 million to $10 million range for a full installation. And decide how we want to fund that. There are reserves at the project level that maybe – we may be able to use. And as a matter of fact, as far as additional income, we have some short-term well reserves that come out of reserve later this year. So there will be several million dollars that come out of the reserves at Neal, if you don’t consume them in any upgrades at the project. Jim McIlree Got it. Okay, that’s very helpful. Thank you very much. Operator And our next question comes from the Gerry Sweeney from ROTH Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question. Gerry Sweeney Hey, good morning guys. Thank you for taking my call. Dennis Gilles Good morning Gerry. Gerry Sweeney Question on Raft River, it sounds like the well went down because of the pump, curious of the impact on the power generation, it sounded like it was running at 100%, but also any commentary also it sounded like it did have some type of impact, so curious on that front. Also, the timing of the well work, we work at Raft River and how long it will be out of service and general impact and how we should look at it for the quarter? Doug Glaspey Our expectation to have that – to keep the well down as you said the pump went down anyway and it’s normally, it took us several weeks to get a pump rig on the site to pull it. And then it’s normally a 10 day to 15 day evolution after that to either rebuild or replace the pump and get it back in the hole. We decided to keep that well down, since we are planning in the short-term to drill that second leg. The economic hit because we are in the 73% period, it was about $40,000 to $50,000. So it’s not a huge amount, it’s not enough to put a pump back in the well until we drill. My expectation is that we will be drilling within the next 30 days, if all goes well. We have bids in from contractors. They are ready to go. So it really just becomes a timing matter at this point. I want to have that well back online no later than mid-June, I would say, because in July, August of course we go into our 120% pay period and we don’t want to miss that with the whatever additional production we get out of that well. Gerry Sweeney Got it. And then swinging back to the Geysers project, I understand that PPA was cumulative choice organization, how many other PPAs are floating around out there and are they similar in structure and style or are they looking for just new renewable generation, just a little bit of thoughts, comments on that, just to get a better sense or view of the opportunity that’s pending? Dennis Gilles Well, there are a number of opportunities pretty much, pretty much every community choice aggregator and utility in the state is looking for renewables. They continue to do that to meet the ever increasing Renewable Portfolio Standard in California that was recently raised from 33% up to 50%. So they need to and most of them are contracted up to the 20% level already. So they need to continue to acquire by legislative requirements, additional renewables. Now having said that though, we are currently in a period of low price natural gas, because of that low price natural gas there is the ability to buy power in the very near-term, in the next – the belief is in the next 1 year or 2 years at very low prices and so that’s cause them to not be as anxious or in a rush. Now having said that though, not all of them are taking that same approach, we are in active discussions with many of them. Some of them have formal bid solicitation processes where they go out like the recent one did, with a request for bid. We respond to it, you wait and then you are advised whether or not you have been selected. Others allow bilateral negotiations where they will sit down at the table with you and just negotiate the terms of the agreement. So it really depends on the entity and it really depends on their timing. Unfortunately, we are not in the driver seat on the timing they are. And they do it as their needs or their procurement cycle allows. Gerry Sweeney Got it, that’s helpful. I appreciate it. And then just one more question on the Geysers, assuming you get the conditional use permit, you won’t start construction until you have a PPA in hand, is that correct, is that the right way to look at that? Dennis Gilles That’s correct. Construction will not start, really than three key critical items for starting the construction on the project. One of them was the transmission interconnection agreement, which could have taken anywhere from 2 years to 5 years to obtain. So having that out of the way is a very critical element. The next key element is the conditional use permit and that depending on public opposition, depending on need, depending on community views and depending on environmental impacts and whatnot, could never occur or could occur over a period of say 2 years or to 4 years. And we are right at the dotting the Is and crossing the Ts on that, that as Doug mentioned, we expect to hear definitely this quarter. So at least that our belief, it’s that this quarter that’s what we are being told. So the third piece, the third leg of the stool then is the power purchase agreement. And we really couldn’t provide at a firm date and tell you, have the transmission interconnection, so we could have initial discussions, but we weren’t able to have detailed discussions or provide detailed pricing until we had that out of the way. So those discussions are ongoing now. So all three need to be done before construction can start. Gerry Sweeney Got it. So the transmission interconnection agreement really opened open up the negotiation of bidding process? Dennis Gilles That’s correct. Gerry Sweeney Okay. Thank you very much. Dennis Gilles Thanks Gerry. Operator And our next question comes from the line of Jonathan Lo from Raymond James. Please proceed with your question. Jonathan Lo Actually most of my questions have been answered. But just on a potential dividend, how are you guys looking at that in the future? Dennis Gilles Dividend is something that we have looked at and continued to look at. One of the things that would probably need to occur given our share price at some point, before we would consider a dividend is a share consolidation and we would probably do that in concert with a significant event, we just put the current share price that we have any dividend that would be offered in order to do a dividend with the income that the company has, it would be a small fraction of a cent, which is just I don’t know, I think it’s too complicated. So in that’s a down the road item, it’s not something that’s immediately envisioned, but it is something as long as we continue, which we don’t see any reason why wouldn’t to be a profitable company than that something that is out in the future. Right now our primary focus though with the cash that we are generating though is reinvesting it into the growth opportunities. Jonathan Lo And then similar to earlier question, on the PPA opportunities in California, are there many of them there? Dennis Gilles Yes. We are in discussion with the numerous companies. I can’t give the names of the companies or the exact number, but it’s not just a single company, it’s multiple companies. Jonathan Lo That’s all for me. Thanks. Dennis Gilles And something to point out to Jonathan, in California, while California is a market for our – clearly, a market for our Geysers project, which is located in California, it’s also a market for our other projects. California is in the process of changing its independent system operator from a single state to basically the Western United States and that’s forecast to occur over the next several years and be in place I think by the end of 2018. Our anticipated online date for many of our projects is out there in that same timeframe. So, projects in Nevada, Oregon, Idaho would all be then eligible to generate to meet the requirements of that broader electric grid, which is not – which currently is the California grid, but it would be expanded to the Western United States. So, when we have discussions with these counterparties, we are not just discussing our Geysers opportunity is my point. Operator And our final question comes from the line of Chip Richardson from Wedbush Securities. Please proceed. Chip Richardson Hello. I was just wondering it seems like you spent quite a bit of money on Marathon exploration. Can you give us any kind of color on how that went? It seems like it was awfully expensive for the periods of time involved? Dennis Gilles Yes, it was expensive. But the information that we received, we found to be very beneficial at least the board yet in assessing what they believed to be the value of the company. With that information in hand and looking at what opportunities we had available to us, the special committee concluded that staying the course was in fact the best grout. But the view of the special committee was it was a valuable exercise and worth the cost that was expanded in order to do the exercise. Chip Richardson Okay. Also, we have a big new shareholder who is acquired I guess in the neighborhood of 12 million shares, can you characterize the company’s relationship with the investor and how that’s going? Dennis Gilles Yes. And Chip, I do want to point out besides that one, we also have another, we have – that was James Atlas, we also have Bradley Radoff, who has accumulated 5.6 million shares. And so collectively between them, you have got almost 18 million shares held out of our 111 million. So, a pretty good portion of the company. They have been – they both share the same address in Houston. So, I am not sure what their affiliation with each other is, but we do know that, that is a minimum. Now, having said that, both of them in any calls that they had with us have been very cordial, they like the company, they like its direction, they like its management, they like the opportunities that they see ahead. Again, what’s their specific motive, what’s their specific interest beyond that, we have no idea. All we know is they like what they have seen and they are very supportive in their discussions. Chip Richardson Anything to add to that? Dennis Gilles No, I think it’s at least what we have heard is they saw the company has been undervalued when they first started buying and then they kept flying. And they like the long-term strategy that the company has. So, short of that, we have got a good relationship with them. And at this point, we look forward to having them as shareholders. Chip Richardson Great. I certainly concur that the stock continues to be undervalued. And now that what you guys are doing has been very positive and just hopefully can keep going and accelerate the growth? Dennis Gilles Well, that’s our hope as well, Chip. Doug Glaspey Yes, thanks Chip. Chip Richardson You are welcome. Thank you. Operator Gentlemen, there no further questions at this time. I will turn the conference back over to you for any closing remarks. Dennis Gilles Well, great. I want to thank everybody for your continued support of the company. As Chip noted, we wished these opportunities would happen more quickly, but we don’t see the opportunities falling away. They continue to be there. We are excited about those opportunities and the growth that they bring for the company. Similar to our Goldman acquisition, we are looking for in the short-term ways of increasing near-term value. We spent a considerable amount of time and attention trying to increase the visibility of the company. We are often told as we meet with perspective shareholders and they look at our company and they look at the long-term contracted cash flows that they see very minimal downside exposure and they see very large upside potential. That’s how we consider ourselves and we look forward to what lies ahead for the company. And thank you for your continued support. And with that, we will bring the call to an end. Thanks, operator. Operator Thank you everyone. Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today’s teleconference. We thank you for your time and participation today. You may disconnect your lines at this time and have a wonderful rest of your day. 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. 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