Earnings Labs

NextEra Energy, Inc. (NEE)

Q1 2016 Earnings Call· Fri, Apr 29, 2016

$94.12

-2.48%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the NextEra Energy and NextEra Energy Partners Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time for opening remarks, I would like to turn the call over to Amanda Finnis. Please go ahead.

Amanda Finnis - Director Investor Relations

Management

Thank you, Priscilla. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our first quarter of 2016 combined earnings conference call for NextEra Energy and NextEra Energy Partners. With me this morning are Jim Robo, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NextEra Energy; John Ketchum, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of NextEra Energy; Armando Pimentel, President and Chief Executive Officer of NextEra Energy Resources; and Mark Hickson, Senior Vice President of NextEra Energy, all of whom are also officers of NextEra Energy Partners; as well as Eric Silagy, President and Chief Executive Officer of Florida Power & Light Company. John will provide an overview of our results and our executive team will then be available to answer your questions. We will be making forward-looking statements during this call based on current expectations and assumptions, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from our forward-looking statements if any of our key assumptions are incorrect or because of other factors discussed in today's earnings news release, in the comments made during this conference call, in the risk factor section of the accompanying presentation, or in our latest reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, each of which can be found on our website, www.nexteraenergy.com and www.nexteraenergypartners.com. We do not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements. Today's presentation also includes references to non-GAAP financial measures. You should refer to the information contained in the slides accompanying today's presentation for definitional information and reconciliations of certain non-GAAP measures to the closest GAAP financial measure. With that, I will turn the call over to John. John W. Ketchum - Chief Financial Officer & Executive VP-Finance: Thank you, Amanda, and good morning, everyone. NextEra Energy and NextEra Energy Partners are off to a strong start to…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We'll take our first question from Julien Dumoulin-Smith with UBS. Your line is open.

Julien Dumoulin-Smith - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · UBS. Your line is open

Hi. Good morning and congratulations. John W. Ketchum - Chief Financial Officer & Executive VP-Finance: Thank you. Good morning, Julien.

Julien Dumoulin-Smith - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · UBS. Your line is open

So, perhaps first on the cadence of signing up these contracts that you just discussed. When do you expect to start seeing them come through, obviously there is a lot of work with the chop ahead of you. Is it later this year and or is that really going to be a next year event? And ultimately within that 2017, 2018 window you talk about is this largely weighted towards 2018 in service? John W. Ketchum - Chief Financial Officer & Executive VP-Finance: Yeah. Okay. So, for the contracts that we just signed, 250 megawatts, those are for 2017 delivery and then we also announced the 100 megawatt acquisition of the High Lonesome Mesa project and the acquisition has already closed for that one facility. And then for your second question Julien, in terms of how we see the shape of the 2017 and the 2018 build, I think we see more of a pull forward of demand into 2016 on solar, so more the solar activity occurring in 2018. And then with wind you know I think, relatively balanced between 2017 and 2018, but perhaps more activity in 2018.

Julien Dumoulin-Smith - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · UBS. Your line is open

Got it. Excellent. And then if you can just clarify a bit your intentions here just 2016 equity needs, and then also interest still in the Oncor process or is that – is that on the back burner here? John W. Ketchum - Chief Financial Officer & Executive VP-Finance: I'll take the first one and then the second, I'll kick it to Jim. We currently don't see an equity need in 2016. Again, we announced the closing of the Forney and Lamar sale, which netted cash proceeds of approximately $457 million, which puts us in a pretty good position for the year. On the second question, I will ask Jim to answer that. James L. Robo - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: So, Julien, I am not going to comment on any individual acquisition other than to say what we've consistently said about acquisitions, which is first of all there is no imperative for us to do one. Second, that we have a pretty tight screen on what we would be willing to do and it would have to make sense both strategically for us and would have to make sense financially and would have to in our view create significant shareholder value. And I think that's kind of all that I am willing to say at this point on Oncor or any of the rest of the M&A, other than again that we will be very financially disciplined about how we approach it, and the focus is going to be on creating shareholder value.

Julien Dumoulin-Smith - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · UBS. Your line is open

But to clarify, perhaps admist the balance sheet implications of the acceleration of the renewal plan, do you see this as expedited data knoll (35:57), can you perhaps comment on that angle? John W. Ketchum - Chief Financial Officer & Executive VP-Finance: Right. James L. Robo - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. So, I think, what I said about there is no imperative for us to do regulated M&A, we don't have to do it. I think is – is addresses that Julien. Obviously we've been very successful on the renewable front, but we've also been very successful on recycling capital and we're going to continue to recycle capital. We're committed to doing that and we're obviously committed to continuing to have a strong balance sheet and strong credit. So, we feel good about where we are right now and we continue to have one of the best balance sheets in the industry and I guard it pretty jealously. And we're going to continue to be focused on creating value like we have over the last decade for our shareholders.

Julien Dumoulin-Smith - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · UBS. Your line is open

Thanks for being explicit. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We will move next to Stephen Byrd with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open. Stephen Calder Byrd - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Hi. Good morning. John W. Ketchum - Chief Financial Officer & Executive VP-Finance: Good morning, Stephen. Stephen Calder Byrd - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Congrats on great results. I was interested by the comments that you made in your prepared remarks on repowering of wind and you mentioned needing to get some IRS guidance. Could you speak a little bit further of what specifically you need to see from the IRS to allow you to move forward? And then, can you just speak – I know, you can't give a sense of the magnitude, but just what kinds of opportunities could then present themselves in terms of repowering, would these be for sort of new RFPs, where you could, in a low cost way compete against the Greenfield or how should we think about this opportunity? John W. Ketchum - Chief Financial Officer & Executive VP-Finance: I'm going to direct that question to Armando.

Armando Pimentel - President and Chief Executive Officer, NextEra Energy Resources, LLC

Analyst

Hey, Stephen. Good morning. Stephen Calder Byrd - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Good morning.

Armando Pimentel - President and Chief Executive Officer, NextEra Energy Resources, LLC

Analyst

So a couple of things, like last time when the – excuse me, the PTC extension was passed by Congress. We're all awaiting guidance on, that started construction, how long out into the future can you build and still get those PTCs. In addition, it looks like – excuse me, the IRS may provide guidance on something relating to repowerings. There is no, we don't know that that's going to happen yet or not. We've talked about repowerings in the past with investors. We have repowered some of our sites in the past, we've torn turbines down and put up new turbines. What we're actually looking at is the possibility of enhancing some of our older sites and still being able to qualify for new production tax credit. So, it's difficult at this point to say how big the opportunity is, and it's actually difficult to say exactly what the IRS guidance would have to look like for us to feel comfortable. The IRS has current guidance on what I'll call if you have an old piece of equipment and you refurbished that equipment to some extent there are some cases where that new refurbished equipment could get all of the tax benefits of a new piece of equipment. And so, that guidance is already out there. How and when it might apply to what we're talking about, is something that we're interested in. So at this point, it's an opportunity. It could be a good small opportunity or it could be a significant opportunity. I think we will absolutely have more to say on this if it's a decent opportunity on the next call. Stephen Calder Byrd - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Very much, understood. And just shifting gears to, curious about Texas in terms of the renewables…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We'll go now to Greg Gordon with Evercore ISI. Your line is open.

Greg Gordon - Evercore ISI

Analyst

Hey, good morning. Thank you. Can I ask another question about Texas? Just in general given the sort of the destabilization of what is happening there on the regulatory front with regard to uncertainty around how taxes are going to be calculated in the future, as it relates to the Oncor proceeding? Is that a less attractive environment for you in general for investment? John W. Ketchum - Chief Financial Officer & Executive VP-Finance: Yeah. I think the only thing I'd say about that is, there is a statute on the books currently in Texas, and other than that I am not going to comment on it.

Greg Gordon - Evercore ISI

Analyst

Okay. But clearly the commissioners who are currently sitting on that PUC are creating a lot of uncertainty around the interpretation of that statute, right? James L. Robo - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Hey Greg. This is Jim. I think if there was uncertainty it's been driven by the Hunt's application. I think there was some talk of doing a workshop and that workshop has been put off. And so I think depending on what happens, I think it's all going to come down to depending really on what happens with the Hunt's application, and I think that's a very specific case to a very specific situation and a very specific structure. And I'd be very hesitant to draw any conclusions about other utilities in Texas. We're not concerned for example about Lone Star.

Greg Gordon - Evercore ISI

Analyst

Okay, great. That was really the gist of the question. And then the second question is with regard to the rate case. I know the numbers stand on their own in terms of the modest revenue increases that you're asking for in the context of the request, but you've said before, in multiple occasions, that you think that this case is going to be predominantly an ROE case. So has there been any – is it too early or has there been any sort of commentary from the intervener groups, the commission, the staff, around where the data is around your ability to continue to earn returns in the ranges that you currently have. Obviously your performance in the state has been excellent and that's a good reason to grant that? John W. Ketchum - Chief Financial Officer & Executive VP-Finance: Yeah, hard to disagree with you Greg on that; look, it's too early. We've – it's – we've filed our case and we're doing responses to a variety of questions and this process will take place between now and July when the case is really all filed and then we'll go from there.

Greg Gordon - Evercore ISI

Analyst

Okay. So, we really won't start to see the meat of the sort of back and forth, in terms of testimony, until sort of after July? John W. Ketchum - Chief Financial Officer & Executive VP-Finance: Yeah. It will typically go into the July process and then obviously if we go into hearings that will be at the end of August, beginning of September.

Greg Gordon - Evercore ISI

Analyst

Okay. Thanks, guys. Have a great day. John W. Ketchum - Chief Financial Officer & Executive VP-Finance: You too. James L. Robo - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thanks, Greg.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Abe Azar from Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.

Abe C. Azar - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Your line is open

Good morning. Do you have any update on the NET expansion pipeline project, and maybe a little bit more broadly what opportunities are you seeing to add pipeline projects, so, besides the Sabal Trail announcement from this morning? John W. Ketchum - Chief Financial Officer & Executive VP-Finance: So a couple of things. NET, we're still – obviously it hasn't been a year yet since we closed it. And when we did close it, and we announced that one of the things we said is we were excited about all of the opportunities, not only what we thought were identified opportunities, but all of the unidentified opportunities, because it was a vast pipeline system inside of Texas. Since then, we've seen continued activity from the Mexican front and we are not in Mexico just to clear that point up. But from the Mexican front that they continue to import a lot of gas and have a lot of needs. That's creating opportunities, opportunities that we hope will actually turn into something for NET, because in particular, our pipes are – NET pipes are well placed in Texas to be able to provide to Mexico. In terms of the expansion projects, there were a couple of projects; there were some smaller projects that we expected to get completed during the first 12 months or 18 months. I don't know that many of those projects have fallen off the radar. As a matter of fact, there has been more projects that have been added on, what I'll call the small-scale optimization, which is good, which is good for NET. And then, there were a couple of larger expansion projects that we had until – under the terms of the agreement, until the end of this year, to figure out whether they were going to come in or not. And those appear okay at this point; one of them actually appears quite favorable. I think we're not going to know the pace of actually signing something up with, particularly with the Mexican Government isn't as quick as we would like to see. So we would like for – we'll probably see more activity and we'll have more to say towards the end of the year. There is a $200 million incentive payment to the owners – previous owners of NET, should those expansion projects come online and obviously if they don't, that saves NET $200 million. So, I think the previous owners and us are all well incented to get the expansion projects done, but it's just a little too early to figure out how we're going to do by the end of the year.

Abe C. Azar - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Your line is open

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We'll go now to Matt Tucker from KeyBanc Capital. Your line is open.

Matt Tucker - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I wanted to follow-up on the previous question on NET first. From an NEP perspective, could you just comment on how the performance has been so far relative to your expectations at NET? John W. Ketchum - Chief Financial Officer & Executive VP-Finance: Yeah, it's been right on Matt – right on expectations.

Matt Tucker - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. Great. And then keeping with NEP, would you be willing to give any color on your drop down plans for the balance of the year and how you would finance drop downs? Both if you were hypothetically to do something today or in current market conditions and how you would finance in kind of an ideal scenario, if there is a difference there? John W. Ketchum - Chief Financial Officer & Executive VP-Finance: Yeah, I mean, we feel really good about where we are with NEP. As we said in the prepared remarks, a lot of flexibility for the balance of the year with the equity raise, $287 million for the Seiling I & II acquisitions, and now what we feel is available debt capacity around $300 million to $400 million, it gives us a chance to be very opportunistic about growth for the balance of the year.

Matt Tucker - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Great. And then just last one from me could you comment on what you're seeing in terms of the third-party M&A market from an NEP perspective right now? And what's NEP's appetite like right now for third-party M&A? John W. Ketchum - Chief Financial Officer & Executive VP-Finance: So there is, we've talked about the M&A market both the asset acquisition market and the small renewable developer market before, and there is quite a bit of activity in what I'll call the asset M&A market out there and we're – we look at all of those opportunities but it's really a very small percentage of opportunity that come to fruition for us. On the other larger development M&A market, I think Jim has commented before that there is very few players that we would be interested in, only because the way that they put deals together and the way they manage their projects is a little different than us. And so, I wouldn't really expect, at least in the near-term, for us to be doing any significant acquisitions at NEP. James L. Robo - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: The only thing I would add is, that we have such a massive pipeline of projects at NEER that can be dropped down into NEP, that there is not a huge need for us to be looking at third-party acquisitions. And frankly, our focus remains at NEER on great renewable development work and on creating an even more massive pipeline of things that we can drop down into NEP this year and going forward.

Matt Tucker - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Yeah. Thanks, guys. John W. Ketchum - Chief Financial Officer & Executive VP-Finance: Just adding on also to what Jim said about the portfolio available at Energy Resources, if you exclude the 2015-2016, we got about 12 gigawatts. We have another 4 gigawatts on for 2015-2016, and then for 2017-2018 if we're successful in hitting the midpoint of the 4,100 megawatts I mentioned before, by the end of 2018, you are right around 20 gigawatts. So puts us in great shape from a NEP perspective.