Tag Archives: cash

Ivy Portfolio March Update

The Ivy Portfolio spreadsheet tracks the 10-month moving average signals for two portfolios listed in Mebane Faber’s book The Ivy Portfolio: How to Invest Like the Top Endowments and Avoid Bear Markets . Faber discusses 5, 10, and 20 security portfolios that have trading signals based on long-term moving averages. The Ivy Portfolio spreadsheet on Scott’s Investments tracks both the 5 and 10 ETF Portfolios listed in Faber’s book. When a security is trading below its 10-month simple moving average, the position is listed as “Cash”. When the security is trading above its 10-month simple moving average, the position is listed as “Invested”. The spreadsheet’s signals update once daily (typically in the late evening) using dividend/split adjusted closing price from Yahoo Finance. The 10-month simple moving average is based on the most recent 10 months, including the current month’s most recent daily closing price. Even though the signals update daily, it is not an endorsement to check signals daily or trade based on daily updates. It simply gives the spreadsheet more versatility for users to check at his or her convenience. The page also displays the percentage each ETF within the Ivy 10 and Ivy 5 Portfolio is above or below the current 10-month simple moving average, using both adjusted and unadjusted data. If an ETF has paid a dividend or split within the past 10 months, then when comparing the adjusted/unadjusted data you will see differences in the percent an ETF is above/below the 10-month SMA. This could also potentially impact whether an ETF is above or below its 10-month SMA. Regardless of whether you prefer the adjusted or unadjusted data, it is important to remain consistent in your approach. My preference is to use adjusted data when evaluating signals. The current signals based on February 29th’s adjusted closing prices are below. This month VNQ , TIP and BND are above their moving average and the balance of the ETFs are below their 10-month moving average. The spreadsheet also provides quarterly, half year, and yearly return data courtesy of Finviz . The return data is useful for those interested in overlaying a momentum strategy with the 10-month SMA strategy: Click to enlarge I also provide a “Commission-Free” Ivy Portfolio spreadsheet as an added bonus. This document tracks the 10-month moving averages for four different portfolios designed for TD Ameritrade, Fidelity, Charles Schwab, and Vanguard commission-free ETF offers. Not all ETFs in each portfolio are commission free, as each broker limits the selection of commission-free ETFs and viable ETFs may not exist in each asset class. Other restrictions and limitations may apply depending on each broker. Below are the 10-month moving average signals (using adjusted price data) for the commission-free portfolios: Click to enlarge Click to enlarge

El Paso Electric Company’s (EE) CEO Mary Kipp on Q4 2015 Results – Earnings Call Transcript

Operator Good day. And welcome to the El Paso Electric Company Fourth Quarter 2015 Earnings Call. Today’s conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Lisa Budtke. Please go ahead. Lisa Budtke Thank you, Diana. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining the El Paso Electric Company fourth quarter 2015 earnings call. My name is Lisa Budtke, and I’m the Director of Treasurer Services and Investor Relations for El Paso Electric. On the call with us today are CEO, Mary Kipp; CFO, Nathan Hirschi; and other members of the senior management. You should have a copy of our press release and today’s presentation. And if you do not, you can obtain them from the website on our Investor Relations page. We currently anticipate that our 2015 Form 10-K will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on or before Monday, February 29, 2016. A replay of today’s call will be available shortly after our call ends, and will run through March 9. The details as they relates to the replay are disclosed in our press release. On Slide 2 of our presentation you will see our Safe Harbor provisions. In summary, our earnings presentation, comments and answers to your questions may include statements that are not historical and that constitute forward looking statement. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the company’s actual results in future periods to differ materially from the expectations stated here. As the format of this presentation does not permit a full discussion of these risks, please refer to our Form 10-K and other SEC filings for a discussion of risk factors that should be considered. These filings may be obtained upon request from the Company, on our website or from the SEC. The Company cautions that the risk factors discussed in these filings are not exhaustive, and do not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that maybe made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Mary. Mary Kipp Good morning, everyone. On Slide 3 of the presentation I’ll briefly cover our financial performance in 2015. During the fourth quarter, we were able to record positive earnings of $0.02 per share despite the negative impact resulting from regulatory lag associated with the placement of new assets into service in the first quarter of 2015 without a corresponding increase in revenues. For the year, we reported net income of $81.9 million, or $2.03 per share which was right at the mid point of our guidance range issued during our third quarter earnings call. Also of note on January 28, 2016 the Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.295 per share payable to shareholders on March 31, 2016. If you now turn to Slide 4 of the presentation, I’d like to point out some of the significant highlights that the company achieved in 2015. As I look back on all of the challenges we faced at 2015, I am extremely proud of the achievements made by the company during a very dynamic year. We began the year by completing construction of the first two generating units at the Montana Power Station. These first two units were completed on schedule and are currently providing enough energy to serve 80,000 homes in our growing service territory. We also completed construction of our new 100,000 square foot Eastside Operation Center in early 2015. The new operation center incorporates green design features which include energy efficiency and water conservation concepts. The operation center will also consolidate many of our El Paso warehousing, fleet, line crew and engineering personnel into one location, allowing us to improve the efficiency of operations, including outage response time. One of the biggest accomplishments in 2015 was the filing of rate cases in both Texas and New Mexico. The cases were necessary to seek recovery of approximately $1.3 billion that has been invested in new electric plant to meet customer growth and grid modernization since June 2009. I am also pleased with the progress of construction on the latest addition to our portfolio of local generation. Construction of Montana units 3 and 4 is on schedule on budget and is progressing well. In 2015, our consistently growing service territory and hotter than normal summer weather combined to create another native peak record of 1,794 megawatts achieved on August 6, 2015. This was the second native peak record achieved by the company during 2015. El Paso Electric has set a new native peak record in 10 out of the last 11 years. I am also pleased that Palo Verde had another stellar year in 2015 increasing its capacity factor to 94%. Palo Verde recorded its highest output ever in 2015 and once again ranks as the nation’s largest power producer for the 24th consecutive year. Also during 2015, the company was able to successfully implement a management transition strategy. Several key management positions were filled from within the company in 2015 which will leave the company well positioned for the future and will enable us to provide the safe and reliable service that our community has grown to know. Also in 2015, our employees’ commitment to excellence and our continued focus on our customers allowed us to maintain favorable customer satisfaction rating. I am also happy to see how the El Paso Electric family came together to benefit the local community last year. Our employees devoted their time and effort by volunteering almost 10,000 hours to our communities. At this time, I’d like to turn to Slide 5 where I will discuss the company’s 2016 objectives. Construction of Montana units 3 and 4 continues as planned. We expect unit 3 to be available for commercial operation in time for our summer peak and we anticipate that unit 4 will be placed into service by the end of this year, which are among our main objectives for 2016. Placing these two generating units into commercial operation by the end of the year is one of the main objectives for the company. Also in 2016, we anticipate further lowering our carbon footprint by becoming a coal free utility. We intend to sell our 7% ownership interest in Four Corners the Units 4 and 5 and associated common facilities to Arizona Public Service Company in July pending regulatory approval. This transaction will not only allow us to become a cleaner utility but it will help limit the company’s financial obligations relating to changing environmental regulations. Our 2016 objectives also include the negotiations of a new collective bargaining agreement with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 960, which represent approximately 38% of our local workforce. The current agreement expires in September of this year. We look forward to working with our union to reach a new agreement that allows us to continue to provide our customers with a high level of service. The addition of affordable large scale solar projects to our generation mix has been an objective of the company for several years now. We currently receive over 5% of our total generating capacity from solar resources. As the cost of producing large scale solar continues to decrease, we’ll be exploring the possibilities for expanding this resource. In the near term, our integrated resource plan called for the addition of 8 megawatts of large scale solar to be added to our system by year end. Over the past several years El Paso Electric has consistently ranked near the top for grid reliability as complied by the Public Utility Commission of Texas. And we are confident we will continue on that trend in 2016. In addition, our customer care department has made it a priority to always try to improve upon the good results of recent customer satisfaction surveys. And additional objective that is very important to our company is to continue to improve communication and relationships with all our stakeholders. Last but not least the next round of rate cases will be primarily driven by the need to recover cost for Montana Units 3 and 4. These cases are currently anticipated to be filed in early 2017. If you will now turn to Slide 6, I’ll provide some details on our current rate case filings in Texas. In Texas, we initially filed for an increase in non-fuel base revenues of $71.5 million which was then revised to $63.3 million. The filing also included a requested return on equity of 10.1% and in equity ratio of 49.5%. On January 21, 2016, the company filed a joint motion to abate the procedural schedule for our Texas rate case filings. The joint motion was filed on behalf of the company, the city of El Paso, the Public Utility Commission of Texas Staff, the Office of Public Utility Council and the Texas Industrial Energy Consumers. The motion to abate the procedural schedule was filed in order to facilitate ongoing settlement talks. We continue to work towards a settlement with all parties and we will continue to file weekly updates with the PUCT regarding progress. We anticipate that the company will begin billing customers for the new rates during the second quarter of this year, but pursuant to legislative changes, we have the ability to surcharge customers for new rates relating back to consumption beginning on January 12, 2016. On Slide 7, I’ll provide a brief update of our New Mexico regulatory filing. In New Mexico, our original rate case filing requested a non-fuel base rate increase of $8.6 million, which we subsequently lowered to $6.4 million. Hearings on the merits of the general rate case took place in mid- November. Last week the hearing examiner recommended a $640,000 non-fuel base rate increase. Although we are not in agreement with all the items contained within the hearing examiner’s recommendation, we recognized that this is just another step in the process and look forward to making our case before the full New Mexico Commission. The commission currently is schedule to issue a final order by April 8, 2016 although this deadline maybe extended by the commission up to two months. All parties in the case will be filing exceptions to the hearing examiner’s recommendation in the coming weeks. After which there will be an opportunity for parties to respond to those exceptions. The primary reason for the difference between our request of $6.4 million and the hearing examiner’s recommendation of $640,000 is due to approximately $97.7 million for pension and other post employment benefit liabilities on a total company basis being included as a rate base offset. Another reason for the difference between our ask and the hearing examiner’s recommendation involves return on equity. We’ve requested an ROE of 9.95% and the hearing examiner’s recommended an ROE of 9.6%. These two items comprise a little over 1/2 the difference. Several smaller cost of service items make up the remaining difference. A critical component of the hearing examiner’s recommended decision is that substantially all of our plant in service was deemed reasonable and necessary. The treatment of our pension and other post employment benefit liability as a rate base offset is one of the items to which we will file an exception. Our attorneys and other members of the regulatory team are still evaluating the recommended decision and are identifying all items to which we will accept. We currently anticipate that a final order from the New Mexico Commission could be issued in the second quarter. Also along the regulatory front in New Mexico, we recently participated in hearing regarding the sale and abandonment of our 7% ownership in Units 4 and 5 and related facilities at the Four Corners plant. On February 2, the company filed an opposed joint stipulation reflecting a settlement agreement. We anticipate receiving a final order by the first half of this year. In December 2015, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authorized Arizona Public Service Company to purchase our ownership interest in Units 4 and 5 and common facilities of Four Corners. So we anticipate closing this transaction in July of 2016. If you will turn out to Slide 8, our potential timeline for the next round of rate cases has not changed. In New Mexico, the company anticipates filing a rate case in a first quarter of 2017 using an historic test year ended September 30, 2016. Although Montana Power Station unit 4 is not scheduled to be placed into service until December of 2016, precedent in New Mexico allows us to include in rate base plant addition completed within five months of the test year and date. A final order in new rates would then be anticipated to take effect during the first quarter of 2018. Looking at the Texas timeline, we also anticipate filing our rate case in the first quarter of 2017 using an historic test year ended September 30, 2016. Our timeline reflects a potential final order to be issued during the first quarter of 2017. However, due to legislative changes we have the ability to surcharge customers for new rate relating back to consumption beginning on the 155th day after the rate case is filed. This means the effective date for new rates could be applied as early as the third quarter of 2017 even if the schedule for the rate case were to be extended. I’d now like to turn the call over to Nathan who will discuss our financial results. Nathan Hirschi Thank you, Mary. Turning to Slide 9, we list the key earnings drivers for the fourth quarter and the year compared to the prior year. Beginning with the negative drivers for the quarter, earnings were lowered by $0.07 per share due to decreased AFUDC resulting from lower balance of the construction work in process. As we’ve discussed, this was primarily due to the placement of service of Montana Units 1 and 2 and the Eastside Operation Center in the first quarter of 2015. Placing these assets into service also contributed to increase depreciation expense resulting in a $0.03 per share reduction in earnings for the quarter. The impact of regulatory lag associated with placing these assets into service without a corresponding increase in revenue was expected and is the primary reason that we have filed the rating for rate increases in Texas and New Mexico. Increased administration and general expense also decreased earnings per share by $0.04 for the quarter and was primarily due to increased payroll cost and employee incentive compensation as well as increased payroll and benefits cost. Also during the quarter, interest accrued on $150 million senior notes issued in December 2014 negatively impact earnings by $0.02 per share. Earnings also declined during the quarter by $0.02 per share due to decrease deregulated Palo Verde Unit 3 revenues reflecting a decline in the price of natural gas when compared to the same period of last year. On the positive side, net income for the fourth quarter of 2015 compared to the same period last year was positively affected by a decrease in operation and maintenance expense related to our fossil fuel generating units. The decrease in expense was primarily due to decrease maintenance at the Four Corners and Newman plants. The lower level of O&M expense resulted in an increase in earnings of $0.06 per share. However, a planned outage at Four Corners was moved from the fourth quarter of 2015 to the first quarter of 2016. So we will have a corresponding increase in the first quarter. Retail non-fuel base revenues also increased during the fourth quarter primarily driven by an increase in number of customer in a residential customer class and slightly more favorable weather conditions. Non-fuel base revenues increased earnings by $0.02 per share when compared to the same period of 2014. As you can see on the same slide, many of the same drivers then impacted the fourth quarter earnings also serve as drivers for the year-to-date results of $2.03 per share. The earnings drivers that impacted the year-to-date results that were not already mentioned for the fourth quarter were investment and interest income and the Palo Verde performance rewards. Investment and interest income had a positive impact on earnings for the year due to gains resulting from the further diversification and rebalancing of our Palo Verde decommissioning trust portfolio, which increased earnings by $0.07 per share. Palo Verde performance rewards impacted the year negatively by $0.04 per share due to the performance rewards associated with the 2009 to 2012 performance periods being recorded in 2014 with no comparable amount in 2015. As these amounts are normally recorded upon the completion of our Texas fuel reconciliation filings. If you now turn to Slide 10, we have provided a chart to illustrate the weather conditions experienced in our service territory during the past 10 years. The chart includes a comparison of normal weather to the actual weather recorded in our service territory. As you can see heating degree days in 2015 were 10.3% higher than the same period last year but remain 3.6% below the 10 year average. In 2015, cooling degree days were 5.3% higher than the 10 year average and 6.3% higher than 2014, which helped to drive the increase in revenues from our residential customers and primarily impacted our third quarter results. Now turning to Slide 11, we’ve provided a comparative analysis of the changes in retail non-fuel base revenues and megawatt hour sales by customer class for the fourth quarter of 2015 compared to the same period of 2014. During the quarter, total retail non-fuel base revenues increased by $1.4 million pretax, or 1.2% over the same period in 2014. The increase was primarily due to a 2.6% increase in megawatt hour sales to the residential customer class which also recorded a 3% increase in non-fuel base revenues reflecting favorable weather and 1.4% increase in the average number of customer served. As we have provided the same analysis for the year on Slide 12. For the year total retail non-fuel base revenues increased by $14.3 million, pretax were 2.6% over the same period in 2014. Most of this was attributable to increase sales to the residential class, hotter than normal summer weather was largely responsible for the 5.1% increase in residential non-fuel base revenues when compared to the same period in 2014. Now turning to the Slide 13, our cash capital expenditures for 2015 for additions to electric utility plant were $281.5 million. In terms of cash dividends, we paid $47.1 million during the 12 months ended December 31, 2015. On December 31, 2015 we have liquidity of approximately $166 million including a cash balance of $8.1 million and borrowing capacity available to us on our credit facility. As we continue to make progress on our current construction program, we anticipate returning to the debt markets in the first half of 2016 to issue long-term debt. Now turning to Slide 14, I’d like to provide our five years projections of capital expenditures. On this chart you will see that we plan to spend $231 million on construction expenditures in 2016. Over the next five years, we currently anticipate spending approximately $1.1 billion to ensure that we have the generating capacity required to meet our customers’ growing demand for electricity. The projection also includes expanding and updating our transmission and distribution infrastructure. These amounts are subject to revision as we continue to adjust and revise our construction plans. Now turning to Slide 15, I would like to discuss everybody’s rate base projection based on our current construction plan. As Mary mentioned earlier, we anticipate Montana Units 3 and 4 to be placed in commercial operation by the end of 2016. After the completion of these two units, total rate base is expected to grow to approximately $2.1 billion. This amount is an approximation of our rate base at the time of our next rate case filings in 2017. Turning to Slide 16, I would like to wrap up today’s presentation with some comments regarding our 2016 earnings drivers. Once we get further down the road on our rate cases, we will provide specific guidance. For now, we will discuss some key earnings drivers for 2016. As you can see there are several factors that will negatively impact earnings in 2016. Most of the negative drivers are directly related to the regulatory lag which will especially impact the first quarter and in fact could result in negative earnings per share for the first quarter of 2016. The primary components of regulatory lag in 2016 are higher property taxes, lower AFUDC, increased O&M, depreciation expense and interest expense. Other items that are anticipated to negatively impact earnings include a higher effective tax rate, a return to normal weather conditions and a decrease in investment and interest income. The effective tax rate is anticipated to increase to approximately 36% for the next several years due to higher state income taxes and a reduction in the manufacturing credit due to bonus depreciation being extended through 2016. Earnings are anticipated to be positively impacted by rate increases in Texas and New Mexico as well as customer growth. Again just emphasize the point it is possible that we could have negative earnings per share in the first quarter of 2016. At this time, I’d like to turn the call back over to Lisa. Lisa Budtke Thanks, Nathan. Diana, please open the call for questions. Question-and-Answer Session Operator [Operator Instructions] We will go first to Brian Russo of Ladenburg Thalmann. Brian Russo Hi, good morning. Good, thanks. Can you quantify if any the impact to rate case from bonus depreciation? Nathan Hirschi Yes. The bonus depreciation will help us out — will give us about $30 million effect in 2016, and then over the next — until it expires in 2019 it will be about $65 million benefit. So a moderate benefit and it has been factored into that to the rate base charge that we showed on schedule on 15. Brian Russo Okay. So and I apologize but I didn’t — wasn’t — didn’t have time to compare slide 15 with your prior update but there have been some adjustments on that slide. Nathan Hirschi Some adjustments although it’s pretty consistent with what we’ve shown in the past. Brian Russo Okay. So I guess the $65 million is the cash flow benefit. Is there any rate base offset? Nathan Hirschi Yes. That it will both be a cash flow benefit and the rate base offset. But that’s at the end of the four year period. For 2016, it kind of have an offsetting effect, we think we will be in NOL position so it won’t really have that dramatic effect for 2016. It will — we will generate bonus depreciation that we didn’t initially anticipate. Some of that will be offset by some NOLs. So won’t have that dramatic effect. Brian Russo Okay. Understood. And then on the CapEx slide, it looks like there were some upward increases in the annual CapEx. Can you maybe talk about that? Nathan Hirschi Well, yes, it’s very comparable to what we saw last year actually. What we had was we had — what we had last year is relatively high year in 2015, that is $281 million that we expanded this year right. But we added a relatively high year in 2020 when we anticipate building the next two combined cycles. So we ended the year slightly below with the five year projection at $284 million– I am sorry $1.084 billion, which is slightly below what we had in the five year projection last year. But so that stays relatively consistent to what we had last year on a five year basis. Brian Russo Okay. And can you talk about whether normalized load growth in 2015 and kind of what your outlook is? Nathan Hirschi Yes. Well, obviously we had a very good year last year from a revenue perspective and from NOL that was obviously attributable to the very hot summer. If you remember we had — we had 106 days in a row what was over 90 degree. So we had a very nice summer and of the revenue growth we think about half of it was attributable to above average weather. So we think of course we saw solid customer growth which we continue to see at the 1.4% and that’s real positive. And so some of the growth was clearly related to customer growth and they are expanding service territory. And perhaps about $5 million about half of the — $5 million to $6 million about half the growth was revenue — was weather related. Brian Russo All right. And then just with the new legislation and taxes and your ability to capture the rate increase 155 days prior to when rates are effective. How does it kind of like flow through the income statement and it’s kind of like conceptually the margin impact from that. Nathan Hirschi Yes. That’s why the first quarter looks kind of challenging. Although at the day — when we ultimately when we settled the Texas rate case, we will be able to relate back to revenues to usage to January 12. But we won’t record that in the first quarter. We won’t — we don’t have the certainty of the amount of the rate increase or that until we have a final order. So when we have the final order which we anticipate would be likely in the — during the second quarter, that’s when we would pick up the revenue that would relate back and then would be built as a surcharge over perhaps an 18 months period to recover that. So that’s one of the reasons why we have a kind of challenging first quarter that revenue would not — we don’t feel comfortable recording that revenue until the second quarter assuming all the regulatory works out as we had hoped. Brian Russo Okay. So when new rates go into effect you will collect over an 18 months period conceptually rate effective starting in January of 2016. Nathan Hirschi Yes. That’s how we envision it working, yes. Operator Thank you. [Operator Instructions] We will go next to Ben Budish of Jefferies. Ben Budish Hey, good morning, guys. How are you doing? I have a quick question on the Mexico. It looks like with Texas it should be fairly easy to push those rates back to January, is there any kind of sensitivity to like the delay in implementation of rates if –get pushed back into June. Or any guidance on that? Nathan Hirschi Yes. I mean that is one of the issues. We had originally anticipated putting in new rates perhaps April 1 in New Mexico. And as the case continues it will be pushed back a little bit later in the year. We are not sure exactly how quickly it could move pretty — it could move relatively fast from here but it could delay further in the year. We think probably June 30 — June 1 is probably a reasonable day assumption. Mary Kipp And yes because so much of our revenue is dependent on second and third quarters. We are hopeful that we’ll have the new rate in time to take advantage of them during this quarter. Ben Budish Okay, great. And then I saw one of the — obviously the year-over-year drivers below AFUDC. In the release you had mentioned that it was due both to Montana 1 and 2 being put into service and reduction in the rate base, sorry AFUDC rate, is that reduction significant or is that only you are probably looking forward like when 3 and 4 going, I am thinking about the timing and comparing that to one to one end? Nathan Hirschi I am sorry the rate — Ben Budish AFUDC rate, yes. Nathan Hirschi Yes. Now the rate should be relatively constant from what we have now. We just have a more outstanding balance on our short — on our revolving credit facility which kind of drop cause the rate to go down a bit. So you’ll see the rate that we disclose in the 10-K coming up when we file that, that should be pretty close to the rate that we have going forward. Operator [Operator Instructions] And it appears we have no further questions. I’d like to turn the conference back over for additional or closing remarks. Lisa Budtke Thank you, Diana. I just want to thank everyone for joining us on today’s call. And please be safe. Operator Thank you for your participation. That does conclude today’s conference. You may now disconnect. 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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AES Tiete’s (AESYY) CEO Britaldo Soares on Q4 2015 Results – Earnings Call Transcript

AES Tiete S.A. ADR ( OTCPK:AESYY ) Q4 2015 Earnings Conference Call February 24, 2016 9:00 AM ET Operator Good morning, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to AES Tiete Energia S.A. conference call that is operated by Chorus Call Brasil. In this conference call we will talk about the earnings results of 2015 of the Company. The IR area of AES Tiete Energia also informs you that the release of these earnings result is already available on our site, ri.aestiete.com.br. All participants are connected on a listen-only mode and subsequently, we will have a Q&A session where we will give you further instructions to participate. [Operator Instructions] and we would like to remind you that this conference call is being recorded and is also being transmitted through webcast through the site ri.aestiete.com.br. On behalf of AES Tiete Energia, we would like to clarify that forward-looking statements made during this conference call regarding business prospects, projections and operating targets and financial targets of the Company are forecasts based on current expectations. These expectations may change due to variables like market conditions, economic performance of the country and economic performance of international markets. The presentation will be followed by the slides that you may visualize through the webcast and they will be carried out by our CEO, Mr. Britaldo Soares and the Vice CEO of Investor Relations, Mr. Francisco Morandi. At the end, our officers will be at your disposal to answer any further questions. Now, I would like to give the floor to Mr. Britaldo Soares. Please Mr. Britaldo Soares, you have the floor. Britaldo Soares Good morning to all, we are now going to begin the presentation of the results of AES Tiete for 2015. I’m going to give you a summary of some highlights of 2015 and then I’ll turn the floor over to Francisco Morandi who’s going to give you more details. Today with us are Julian Nebreda, which according to the material fact, last week, will be appointed the new CEO of the AES Brazil Group and also our VP for Operations in Generation, Mr. Italo Carvalho Freitas, and as you all know, Italo Freitas will be the new CEO of AES Tiete Energia as of April 1, 2016. Also with us is VP of Institutional Relations, Mr. Paulo Camillo, the VP for Legal and Compliance, Mr. Pedro Bueno and the VP of Generation Business, Mr. Ricardo Cyrino and with the Investor Relations team. Moving on to Slide 2, we will begin with hydrology, and I would like to highlight the improvement in the affluence in the period. The average affluence in the southeast, mid-west regions in the end of 2015 was 85% of the long term average. That is 15 percentage points above the 70% of 2014. Average affluence in the quarter was above the historical average and at the end of Q4 2015 was 105% of the long term average relative to 74% in Q4 2014. It was therefore possible to see higher levels in the reservoirs in the system as compared with the previous periods, and at the end of 2015, the level was 29% relative to 22% at the end of 2014. The reservoir levels of our power plants also had an increase by 30 percentage points and at the end of 2015 were at 65% relative to 35% in December 2014. This recovery in the levels of the reservoirs have also to do with the lower consumption by 2% when we compare 2014 to 2015. The lowering at the end of the quarter was a 7.1% as compared with 12.2% in Q4 2014. As regard to the year of 2015, the lowering was 15.8% as compared with 9.3% in 2014. This lowering of the MRE in 2015 is in line with the Company’s guidance and had an impact of R$593 million on the Company’s bottom line. This will be talked about by Francisco. As regard to the commercialization strategy, in this quarter, we sold 140 megawatt average for three years at an average price of R$152 per megawatt hour for delivery as of 2016. We currently have contracted 95% of our available energy for 2016 and 88% for 2017. I would also like to highlight the completion of the Company restructuring of AES Tiete in December 2015. AES Tiete has been incorporated by its previous controller, Companhia Brasiliana de Energia and was then called AES Energia S.A. Brasiliana de Energia had an investment, had a stake in AES Eletropaulo, Uruguaiana, Elpa and Servicos, and all of these stakes were transferred to a new holding of the Group, which is called Brasiliana Participacoes. The main objectives of thee corporate restructuring were to strengthen AES Tiete as the platform for growth of AES in Generation in Brazil, to improve corporate governance by migrating AES Tiete to level 2 of BM&FBovespa to consolidate liquidity by means of negotiating a single instrument, the unit and the negotiation started as of January 4th and units are composed by 1 common share and 4 preferential shares, and then also it simplifies the shareholders’ agreement between AES and BM&FBovespa thus making the decision-making process of AES Tiete faster. Moving on to Slide 3, we consider this restructuring and to allow for comparisons, we will present to you the financial results of AES Tiete before the merger and the results of the continued operations of AES Tiete Energia S.A., excluding the results of those companies, which were transferred to Brasiliana Participacoes. Let’s begin with AES Tiete S.A. before the merger. We saw that the net revenue for the year was R$2.3 billion in 2015, 18% lower than the revenue of 2014 and this has to do with the lower volume and price of energy sold in the spot market. The costs and OpEx excluding depreciation amounted to R$1.2 billion in the year, a 46% drop relative to 2014. They were impacted by the reduction of the Company’s exposure to the spot market, which also reflects a lower volume and price of the spot in the period. Therefore, it went from R$688 per megawatt hour to R$287.20 per megawatt hour in 2015. Manageable PMSO in 2015 was R$197 million, an 8% reduction in actual terms as compared with 2014. This was a better performance relative to the zero projection that we had in the beginning of 2015. The cost reduction in actual terms has to do with our initiatives to improve efficiency, manage assets and realize costs in the last few years. EBITDA amounted to R$1.4 billion this year relative to R$918 million in 2014. In view of the reduction of costs and OpEx and consequently the net income increased to R$726 million, relative to R$449 million in 2014. Analysing the EBITDA of the continued operations of AES Tiete Energia we can see that EBITDA was R$1.3 billion in 2015, relative to R$914 million in 2014. This has to do with the positive effect of the reduction of costs with energy bought from AES Tiete. The net income for the year was R$739 million in 2015 relative to R$413 million in 2014, a 79% increase in view of the lower cost of energy bought and the tax credit for R$43.7 million arising from the corporate restructuring. As regard to the payout of dividend AES Tiete Energia’s management has proposed a payout of complementary dividends of R$463.8 million relative to Q4 2015, totalling R$721 million for the year 2015, with a payout of 99.3% in the year. As regard to relevant recognitions, the Company continued in the Corporate Sustainability Index of Bovespa for the 9th consecutive year. In 2014, we were awarded the Eloy Chaves Golden Award which recognizes safety standards. I’m now going to turn the floor over to Francisco Morandi to continue the presentation. Francisco Morandi Thank you, Britaldo. Good morning to all. Moving on to Slide 4, you see the levels of the reservoirs and the thermal dispatch. As you can see on the graph on the left-hand side, there was an improvement in the level of reservoirs which started and these levels were 22% in December 2014 and are now 29% of the useful volume in December 2015. As said before, the recovery of the reservoir levels of the national integrated system has to do with the better affluence and this, in Q4, it was 116% above the historical average in the long term, relative to 80% in Q4 2014. There was also a lower load in the year, and the reduction was by 2%. On the right-hand side of slide, you see the evolution of the reservoirs as compared with the volume of thermal dispatch in the last few years. You see that thermal dispatch is still high but begins to be reduced. In the quarter, thermal dispatch was 14.7 gigawatt average, relative to 17.4 gigawatt average in Q4 2014. On Slide 5, we present a comparison between the thermal dispatch in the merit and outside the merit order since January 2012 and the trends of the spot price. As you can see on the graph, as of May 2015, you can see a relevant increase in the dispatch out of merit order, which can be seen in grey in the graph and this explains the low amounts of the spot price, especially in the southeast and mid-west. The thermal dispatch in January 2016 is at 12 gigawatt month, gigawatt average, only 4 gigawatt hour in the merit and the rest out of the merit order. The spot pricing generally was R$31 per megawatt hour. We believe that the reason for this high dispatch in this period has to do with the conservative attitude of CMSE to ensure better levels in the reservoirs to face the dry periods in April. However, the position adopted by CMSE to maintain thermal generation in high levels, using dispatch out of the merit order allows for a gap between the formation of prices of energy and the actual operation of the system. This additional cost of dispatch out of the merit order is borne by consumers through the ESS, a charge on the system and makes — skews the formation of prices in the market. This is a point that should be reviewed. Moving on to Slide 6, we show the main information relating to the level of the reservoirs and the energy generated. The affluence seen in the regions, southeast and mid-west where our dams are, closed the fourth quarter of 2015 at the 105% under the historical average. That is above the 74% of Q4 2014. As a consequence, more energy was generated quarter on quarter at the expense of 138%. As you can see on the slide, the volume of the energy generated increased in terms of — in yearly terms and in quarterly terms. In Q4 2015, it was 1,169 megawatt average, the equivalent to 104% of our assured energy relative to 848 megawatt average in Q4 2014. On the right-hand side, we present the trend of the levels of reservoirs which at the end of 2015, had 65% of equivalent energy relative to 35% in the fourth quarter of 2014. Yesterday, just so you know, our reservoirs were at 94.5%. On Slide 7, you see the lowering in the MRE for 2014 and ’15. The lowering in Q4 2015 was 7.1%, that is, 5.1 percentage points lower than what we saw in Q4 2014, which was 12.2%. This is due to the recovery of affluences in the period and this affluence was 116% above the historical average in Q4 2015, relative to 80% in Q4 2014. When we look at the lowering at an annual basis, you can see an increase by 6.5 percentage points. In the year 2015, lowering was 15.8% relative to 9.3% in 2014. This can be explained by the negative hydrology in the first half of 2015, by the maintenance of thermal dispatch and by the lower load. As said before, the GSF and its impact in the Company are in line with the projections. Therefore, there was a negative impact on the Company’s EBITDA for R$593 million in 2015, which is lower than the impact seen in 2014, which was R$816 million, however, a very challenging impact for our business. When we talk about the cash position of the Company, I am going to talk more about it, but since the July 1, 2015, APINE obtained an injunction for all hydro generators like our Company, which prevents the impact of the GSF to be allocated to those generators who have this injunction. Considering that we did not adhere to the proposal of accepting the GSF, we are still covered by this injunction. As regard to our forecast for the GSF impact in 2016, it will not be significant for our result, given our contracted position for 2016 and the low prices of the spot market expected for the year, bearing in mind the current hydrological scenario. On Slide 8, we present the result for the billed energy and the net revenue. The billed energy as reduced by 6% in Q4 2015, relative to Q4 2014 because of the lack of energy sold in the short term and the reduction of volume of energy sold under the contract with Eletropaulo. In a yearly comparison, there was a reduction by 4% in the billed energy, and this was because of the drop in billed energy in the spot market. The net revenue therefore in Q4 of 2015 was reduced by 28% as a result of the lower volume of energy billed in the spot market and a lower price in the comparison between the periods. On a yearly basis, the drop was by 18%, because of the reduction of the energy sold in the spot market, which was partially offset by the greater net revenue coming from the higher price of energy sold to AES Eletropaulo. Net revenue in Q4 2015 went to R$637 million and in 2015, was R$2.6 million. In the upcoming Slide 9, we talk about the cost of 2015 compared to the ones in 2014, the light blue part shows the impact of the price reduction in the spot market and a consequent lower cost purchasing energy due to the reduction of the spot price of the period. It is possible to absorb a reduction of 46% in the cost on a yearly comparison. Now, regarding manageable cost, there was an increase of 2% in the quarter, mainly due to the increase of the line of personnel readjusted to salary of 8% registered in July on a higher headcount in the quarterly comparison. Now, if we assess the real growth, there was a drop of 7.6% in the yearly comparison performance above the guidance that previously was announced by the Company that forecast zero growth in real terms. When we see slide 10, we can see that the EBITDA registered in the fourth quarter totalled R$404 million, vis-a-vis a negative EBITDA, up R$37 million on the fourth quarter of 2014. Throughout the year, the EBITDA was R$1.402 billion presenting an increase of 53% when compared to the year 2014. Our net income was R$233 million this quarter, compared to a loss of R$76 million during the fourth quarter of the past year. At the year, net profits were R$726 million, 62% above what was registered in 2014. The main factors that explain the performance of the quarter are lowering of the period seasonality of physical guarantee and a drop of the volume of energy delivered to Eletropaulo in the period regarding dividend payout. As mentioned, the Company’s management approved a payout of R$463.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2015 and added to the value distributed in 2015, totalled R$721.1 million throughout the year with a payout of 99%. This distribution will be deliberated in the general meeting of the Company that will take place on April 30 this year. It is important to highlight that this payout of dividend was calculated that on registered income by AES Tiete Energia, excluding from this calculation, the spun-off assets of the operations of AES Eletropaulo, AES Elpa, AES Uruguaiana and AES Servicos. For comparison, if we consider the same criteria to determine the value that would be paid out via the result of AES Tiete before the incorporation, our total dividend would be in the range of R$432.1 million, the value would be R$31.7 million, would be the proposed payout and it has been submitted to be approved in the general meeting. On the upcoming slide, Slide 11, we will talk about the investments. The investments of the fourth quarter of 2015 totalled R$62 million. This is an increase of 44% vis-a-vis, the R$4 million invested during the fourth quarter of 2014. Most of these investments were destined to modernize and preventive maintenance of the plants. We would like to highlight our Vermelha, Barra Bonita, Bariri and Ibitinga plant. In addition to around R$9 million that were for projects of IT to optimize the internal operational processes. Throughout the year investments totalled R$168 million, 10% above the investments of 2014 and above the announced projection due to the increase of interest rate capitalized in the period. The investments of these were for preventive maintenance and modernization of our plants and to maintain its operating conditions and to assure the availability of power generation with productivity gains, efficiency and greater generation of revenue in the upcoming years. In our next slide, Slide 12, we observe that operating cash generation of the quarter was R$409 million affected by the drop of the average spot price between periods and an injunction obtained by APINE that is of June 1, 2015 that prevents hydroelectric displacement be allocated to the generators that hold this injunction of the settlement. Through the year, we see an operating cash generation of R$1.25 billion vis-a-vis operating cash generation of R$1.19 billion in the year of 2014. Due to the matters that have been approached previously, the free cash of fourth quarter of 2015 was positive in R$317 million vis-a-vis to positive R$179 million of the same period last year. This performance is due to an increase of R$574 million in operating cash generation. This is a result of a lower impact of GSF, lower volume of spot price in 2015 and an injunction which prevents the GSF to allocate the holders of the generators obtained, now the issuance of a promissory note in December of 2014 of R$500 million and an increase of net financial expenses in a quarterly comparison which results in an increase in interest rates in the period. So, the final balance of our cash in the fourth quarter of 2015 was R$739.6 million compared to the R$501.4 million of the fourth quarter of 2014. Now, regarding the position of 2015, the free cash was R$496 million, totalling R$441 million lower than what was registered in 2015. Now, this performance is due mainly to the settlement of the first issuance of debenture and the second issuance of promissory notes, issued in December — amortized in December 2015, partially offset by the fourth issuance of debentures and lower expense of income tax, R$262.4 million due to a lower result between the compared period. As a result, the cash balance totalled R$739.6 million in 2015, when compared to the R$501.4 million in 2014. Now, when we talk about indebted net, Slide 13, we can see our level of leveraging that close, fourth quarter of 2015, 6.5 times the net debt to EBITDA reflection of the lowering of the [indiscernible] of the APINE injunction and the reduction of gross indebtedness of the Company, our net debt closed the quarter at R$644 million versus R$1.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014 affected by the settlement of the first issuance of debentures on April 1, 2015 with amortization of R$300 million and the settlement of the second issuance of the promissory note on December 17, 2015 with amortization of R$500 million partially offset by the fourth issuance of debentures in the middle of December of 2015. Throughout the timeline of the debt amortization we can absorb a debt of R$161 million that was amortized in 2015. This value is broke out by the maturity of the first series of the fourth issuance of debentures. In 2016, we don’t expect amortization. In 2017, we will amortize R$235 million mainly regarding the amortization of the second series of the fourth issuance. Now, in terms of our evolution of customer portfolio on Slide 14, we can see the evolution focus contracting our own energy as of 2016 considering the termination of the contract with AES Eletropaulo in December of 2015. The level of contracting for 2016 is already at a safe level of approximately 95%. Thus, for 2016, we have decided to maintain a parcel of available energy in order to reduce possible exposure, risks in the short term market due to hydrological risk. For 2017, we have traded 88% of the available energy which guarantees the Company certain flexibility to carry as of 2018. Now, for 2018, we have traded 60% already for 2019, 26% and for 2020 we have traded 12% of available energy as you can see in the chart. Since October, we have traded approximately 140 average megawatts in a period of three years and average prices of R$152 per megawatt hour to be delivered as of 2016. Our expectation is that — in terms of price, will be in the range of R$120 to R$150 per megawatt order to be delivered as of 2018. After this, I would like to give the floor back to Britaldo. Britaldo Soares Thank you, very much Francisco. In a nutshell, the year of 2015 has shown a number of challenges for the electric sector, downturn of energy consumption in the country and the partial recovery of our hydrology, the drop of the average spot price, were strongly affected in the positive variation of the net income and the drop of operating expenses and cost. When we compare 2015 and 2014, the impact of GSF dropped from R$816 million in 2014 to R$593 million in 2015. Now, regarding energy contracting and following the strategy that we defined, well, we have created a portfolio of contracts that is very consistent, that positions us positively for the upcoming year, being able to do our contracting in a consequent and an adequate fashion. In addition to this, I would like to talk about our corporate reorganization. We are simplifying the decision process of the Company, more — that is more simplified and we are preparing the Company to grow, that is a trend and to improve our corporate governance and to improve its liquidity. That would be the unit negotiation. Before we go to our Q&A session, I would like to give the floor to Julian Nebreda, that as we communicated through a relevant fact on the past 17th, now he is chairing the AES Group in Brazil and subsequently, Italo de Freitas that is the AES — is the Chair of AES Tiete. Julian Nebreda Thank you, very much Britaldo. It is a great satisfaction that I become CEO of the Group AES Brazil, this is as of April 1st. One of my missions is to drive the growth of AES in the country through business expansion of generation of AES Tiete. It is impossible to see the future without recognizing what this Company is today. I would like to thank now, Britaldo for his excellent work in the past years that he has dedicated and how he has dedicated his time to the companies of AES. I am absolutely sure that he will continue contributing as the Chair of our Board of our Company, but I also — I now would like to give the floor back to Britaldo. Britaldo Soares Thank you, very much Julian, and now I will ask Italo to please. I give him the floor. Italo Carvalho Freitas Good morning to everyone. I would like to thank everybody for participating in this conference call. I would like to take advantage to tell you that I will be focussed on the operational excellence and looking for the growth of this Company. It is important to recognize the achievements of Britaldo throughout the time. He was a CEO when we were just started, great evolution. He is part of the — for nine consecutive years of sustainable — it was the first generator in America to be certified in asset management. A result of a consistent effort developed in order to guarantee our operational excellence. Britaldo also was in the forefront of the commercial transformation preparing the Company for challenges of the free market. Thank you very much. Britaldo Soares Thank you very much. Now, we will start our Q&A session and now we are at your disposal. Thank you, very much. Question-and-Answer Session Operator [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Ms. Carneiro from Santander. Carolina Carneiro Good morning to all. I wanted to ask you a question given that you talked about the Company’s future, the restructuring, so what is going to be the strategy for Tiete now, going forward? Are you going to take part in auctions? Are you going to focus more on existing assets? Are you looking at any M&A? What is your focus today relative to the focus that the AES Group would have relative to the type of source you would be looking for going forward? Britaldo Soares Thank you, Carolina. I’m going to ask Ricardo Cyrino to address your question and then I will add anything as I may deem necessary. Ricardo Cyrino Good morning, Carolina. As regards to our growth strategy, it is in place and we are looking for projects underway. We had two thermal projects underway for 500 megawatt in the state of Sao Paulo and we are developing a third thermal project, also in the state of Sao Paulo. We have been developing projects with solar energy. One of them is being prepared to take part in a reserve auction, a project for 150 megawatt in Sao Paulo with an additional 30 megawatt in Minas Gerais and this is close to Agua Vermelha and we are also looking for opportunities developed by third parties, wind, farms in the northeast so we can look at these projects and assess them. So, we assess opportunities in terms of acquisitions, be it for renewable sources like wind or other sources as we may deem important. Britaldo Soares Thank you Cyrino. As Ricardo said, you might have noticed that there is no substantial change in the strategy. We basically continue to focus on thermal as before and this also has to do with our obligation to expand in Sao Paulo and we’re also focusing on renewable sources. We are developing solar projects in the concession areas and also we look for M&A opportunities and we look for wind projects. So, this is the backbone of our strategy. Something else that we have been doing, and this can be for the mid-term is technology to store energy in batteries and the precedent market still has to be developed. We have to work on the regulatory front. First case is being structured now, and as you might know, AES is a leader in the space on this type of technology and we are bringing that into AES Tiete. Carolina Carneiro Thank you very much. Operator The next question comes from Mr. Peretti from JPMorgan. Henrique Peretti I have a question having to do with the long term price. You have megawatt average for three years at R$152 but your expectation is between R$120 and R$150 as of 2015. If the average price is R$152, why don’t you believe that the price could be higher than R$150 in the long term and do you think it is closer to R$120 or R$150? Given that the prices in the short term are very low because of the hydrology, I could maybe assume that in the short term clients could be paying R$100, and then above R$150 in 2018. So, the weighted price would be R$150 for three years. Am I right in my assumptions? Could you give us a little bit more color please? Britaldo Soares Thank you, Henrique. I’m going to ask Ricardo Cyrino to address your question and I will jump in if necessary. Ricardo Cyrino Hello Henrique, good morning. Yes, the range of price is wider now. As of 2018, your comment is right, the short term prices, especially for 2016 are extremely low, in view of the recovery of the reservoirs and the lower demand. So, this combination of better hydrology and lower demand gives us a buffer for 2016 and the prices drop a lot in 2016. The spot price is expected to remain low in 2016 and there will be an addition on top of this price for the next few years, R$60, R$70, these are this week’s figures for 2016. For 2017, prices are expected to be low. R$100, R$110 per megawatt hour and there is a new variable there, the uncertainty relative to the hydrology. Are the reservoirs going to hold these good levels or not? When you go further away in 2018, R$120, R$150 for three year contracts, so this would cover from 2018 to 2020. So, we have this wider range of prices. We don’t know when the economy’s going to recover. If the economy should recover faster, prices will be driver upwards. If the hydrology is good and the economy takes longer to recover, we will work on the lower part of the range, but in five years, the guidance is for a marginal cost of expansion and we are talking about a range above R$150, but we’re focussed on three years. That is why the range is so big. Henrique Peretti Yes, I was thinking that if the short term price, the market price is R$60, R$70 for 2016 and then R$70 or R$100 for 2017 reaching R$150 in 2018, so the weighted average wouldn’t be R$152 for three year contracts. So, for 2018 you might be closing contracts above R$150. As I read it, the prices as of 2018 would be way above R$150 to give us a weighted average at R$152. So, are you being conservative? Ricardo Cyrino Now, I understood the other part of your comment. Yes, you’re right, when we closed these deals that we are reporting on today, it was October, November, December 2015 and the prices in the market were higher and yes, for 2018 the prices were in the range of R$160 per megawatt hour. So, we expected that prices would be higher also in 2016. That was the market condition at that time. We closed contracts at R$152 per megawatt hour. Since, we expected prices to go down shortly in 2016, in the A minus 1, we sold a lot of energy at R$142 per megawatt hour and these are December prices. So, this volume is what we are reporting on today. Then with the increase in the inflow, we saw a decline in short term prices and they influence the price of contracts in the first two years. So, R$152 are contracts that we closed in Q4, with all the uncertainties that there were at that time in terms of the hydrology, the load for the years 2016 and going forward. Henrique Peretti Oh good. I thought you had signed contracts in the first quarter. Thank you so much for the clarification. I had a last question, what is the profile of clients who are signing this type of contract? Ricardo Cyrino The profile of clients is very varied, very diversified. We have large clients, industrial clients, commercial clients. We have some contracts with generators and few contracts with trading commercializing companies. It’s a diversified portfolio. Operator [Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Luciano Costa from Reuters. Luciano Costa Good morning. Thank you all for the call. We had recent news that Duke Energy might sell their assets in Brazil and Tiete is seen by some analysts as a Company that could have synergy and be interested in those assets. Are you looking at these assets? What is your analysis — how do you analyze, how do you assess Duke? Britaldo Soares Luciano, we always look at what is happening in the market and we do that very carefully. What I can say is that this asset has been put in the market many times. So, yes, we see what happens in the market. That’s what I can say now. Operator Since there are no further questions. I would like to turn the floor over to Mr. Soares for his final remarks. Britaldo Soares I would like to thank you all very much for participating for attending our conference call and being so kind to me and I would like to make myself available together with the team to take any other questions you might have about the results of 2015. Thank you very much and have a nice day. Operator AES Tiete’s conference call has now ended. We thank you all for participating. Copyright policy: All transcripts on this site are the copyright of Seeking Alpha. 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