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CPFL Energia’s (CPL) CEO Wilson Ferreira Jr on Q4 2015 Results – Earnings Call Transcript
CPFL Energia S.A. (NYSE: CPL ) Q4 2015 Earnings Conference Call March 21, 2016 10:00 AM ET Executives Gustavo Estrella – IR, Finance Wilson Ferreira Jr – CEO Analysts Vinícius Canheu – Credit Suisse Miguel Rodrigues – Morgan Stanley Operator Good morning and thank you for waiting. Welcome to CPFL Energia’s Fourth Quarter of 2015 Earnings Conference Call. Today, with us we have Mr. Wilson Ferreira Jr, CEO of CPFL Energia; and other officers of the company. This call is being broadcast simultaneously on the Internet and the Investor Relations Web site of CPFL Energia’s www.cpfl.com.br/ir, where you can also find the banner for download. We would like to inform you that all participants will be in listen-only mode during the company’s presentation. Afterwards, there will be a question-and-answer Session when further instructions will be given. [Operator Instructions] I would like to remind you that this call is being recorded. Before proceeding, we would like to mention that forward-looking statements are being made under the Safe Harbor of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1996. Forward-looking statements are based on the belief and assumptions of CPFL Energia’s management and on information currently available to the company. Forward looking statements are not guarantees of performance, they involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions as they relate to the future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions and other operating factors may also affect the future results of CPFL Energia and may cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Now would return the conference over to Mr. Wilson Ferreira Jr. Mr. Ferreira you may proceed. Wilson Ferreira Jr Thank you very much, G ood morning. Welcome everybody and investors and analysts that accompany us in this fourth quarter of 2015 earnings conference call and also update you about the whole year as well. I would like to start by Page 3 and where we make an introduction, where we are starting from this year, we understand that 2015 was a very positive year from the regulatory view point. In 2016 regarding the rainfall perspective we believe that the worst of the crisis of the electric sector and hydrologic crisis is over. So I would like to start on the hydrologic scenario on Page 4, where do you see a demonstration of that. We have the data of last Friday, we got to about 555% of storage in our regulatory equivalent of INPS. The out focus to get to close to 60% at the end of this month and on the lower part, you have the very clear reasons why we have this good situation, if you take that three summers. In this summer we have always being the lower end 12 to 13 to 14, 36 [ph] below and the previous on 10% in the wet period, this same normal steady 2% to below LTA from ’14 to ’15, and year as you can see on the chart we’re already 6% above the LTA. So this is very satisfactory, this is fundamental for us to have a final solution to the same related to dispatches. But here we are talking about mainly the South-East and Central-West. As you can see we are in a very comfortable situation, as you can see 127% in January, 86% February in ACTW and again 100% in March 2016. This is a comfortable situation so we can well imagine that by the end of April or the wet season, we will be very close to these curves of the last 20 years, which gives us a very comfortable outlook from the view point of Energia. So two other utilities on Page 5, we have the perspective for 2016. We are considering 90% of the ATL, we are higher than that and 40% of thermal dispatch. In November 2016, the reservoir levels will be in line with 1987 to 2015, this is very important, you can see that we can — we get close to 60% near April if the same leveled of storage are maintained, the one that we had about three months. So this way, looking at the scenario of load which is practically stable 0.9% higher in fact, and the thermal dispatch 61% of the thermal situation, in the work hypnotics, we would have a 50% dispatch and we would get to 31%, and then the real condition estimated by the OMS that would be close to 49%. So you can see that we will be turning the page on the problems that we have faced in the last three years. Now Page 6, another fundamental thing was solved at the end of 2015 in our case. And for a modest company at the beginning of 2016 regarding the GSF, which was another big concern, that was addressed. On Page 7, you have this specific case of CPFL. We have 41 plants, 7 HPPs and 34 SHPPs. It was a level of 716 megawatts average, several amazing [ph] case is not exposed to this kind of risk and of the $7.60. We had 65% regulated market and 35% free market. All this 65%, 455 megawatts average that you can see below. They were all renegotiated and the product that we choose was SPC which is a maximum potation. So the GSF estimated by [indiscernible] in 2015 was R43.5 megawatt hour, the risk premium adopted by the choices we made was 9.5 megawatt hours. So we are entitled to a reimbursement of R32.55 per megawatt hour, with a positive effect on no adjusted EBITDA of 2015 of the R134 million, with full coverage to all contracts of CPFL involved in this market. Another page let me turn, on a problem that was relevant in the last couple of years, to the sector and mainly to generators, now the 13, which was another concern in 2015. And we will show you the perspective regarding the pressure on difficult steps of those, we carried out many important actions in last year mainly regarding the ETR and tariffs flags and the tariff realizement as we call it, but this has already started 2015 with cash in balances and by the end of the year. The situation when it started to deteriorate and on Page 9, we already show you a very positive perspective for the next few months, so the reference that I had made regarding tariff realism actions that meant an increase of 53.3% on our tariffs, 39% of the PTR, HRs and EPRs besides the 14% of the tariffs flags. You can see on the right that the third quarter of 2015 was the one where we had the peak of the use of the cash by made of CDE R1.9 billion of credit vis-à-vis the systems or customers and this situation improves in the last quarter already, also due to the reduction of the tariff banners 1.7 billion and as you can see on the lower part of the chart with the lower tariff established rate of pool [ph] and lower CDE quota, besides the perspective — the hydrological perspective therefore lower thermal dispatch. Our expectation is that by September this year we will have these firms totally coming back to the distributors cash. So this was a big financial problem to most of the DisCos and the situation will change by September this year at least as far as our group is concerned. When we get to 2016 will problems in 2016 starting on page number 10 regarding over contracted position. On page 11, we have a little bit of this moment and the perspectives for the solution to these thing that will occur to most DisCos in Brazil. Given that in the last few years there was a reduction in consumption in the previous year was practically maintained stable, the outlook for this year, the perspective is flat, but the contracts that were signed in the past in order to cope with the perspective that we saw for consumption at the time we will determine this over contracted position higher than the regulatory limit of the 105%. Because of that ANEEL submitted a discussion, two things. The first about 10 days ago and that should be voted next week by the agency themselves and because of this provisional management we have the methodology to recognize and voluntarily surplus coming from the contracts that are quoted from 2012 to now, we have the situation and this provokes to most of this DisCos together with the regular contracts and the auctions carried out A minus five, A minus six, A minus one, that they would have over contracting positioned, we will expect that this will be voted tomorrow however it’s not as the agenda so due to the need or emergence of the decision we will expect this to be voted by next week and this proposal alone is enough to solve the problem in the short run for CPFL. The reduction that comes from this AP004 is 4% and in the short run this effects the whole sequence of contracting by DisCos within the short turn there is a 4% reduction placing all the CPFL DisCos within the range of 105% up. So this is very important for all the companies and specifically for CPFL because by itself it’s on the short term problem. It is also true that we are dealing with something that is already underway with the big migration of customers, because of that there is another [indiscernible] underway and the contributions ends today. And there is a postponement or suspension of contracts for new energy. There is a good potential of plans that are delayed so a methodology is being created to reduce bureaucracy, so that this can be done quickly. It’s important to stress that there is a reasonable potential here to do this kind of job. We know the large plans that are delayed or then large number of plans that are delayed. So with this action alone and together with one on the right, referring to migration of customers which has a higher volume today increasing this over contracted position because there is no regulation to deal with this migration of special customers, specifically. So in 2013, there was CH085 which discussed a root to adjust DisCos’s contract position due to migration of special customers, so that we could have the proportion, a restitution of contract. As we have the exit of these special customers, this is being discussed with Anil [ph], and I believe that the three proposals taken together will make this team of over contracted positions be solved in a very transparent and sale manner because of the moment that we are living today. It is true that, we might have an important solution for the sector in the next few days, regarding the conclusion of PA004 and this is very important because of the needs of DisCos fourth — future auctions. And finally the challenge that we will be facing is a microeconomic scenario that everybody will be facing, because of all this turbulence and volatility that the country has been leaving. On Page 13, we have the scenario that is used by CPFL as a reference for its forecast. For a long time, we have been using CIBG-A and LCA [ph] and you can see our main figures here, figures that are being the basis for our future planning process. In the GDP thing, we had a drop of 3.8 and we believe there will be 3% drop this year, recovery only in this 2017. The results steamed from variation in the industrial production on the right that’s up to 8.3 last year and expected to drop an additional 4.7 this year, to rebound in 2017. And total payroll that affects mainly residential dropped 5% last year. This year, we expected to drop an additional 3.1% rebounding in 2017. I would like to remind you that we having an expectation because of the restatement of contracts inflation was 10.7 last year. We believe it will be 7.2 this year. So higher than the limit and going back to the center of the target or higher than the center of this target in 2017 with 5.3%. This means that we have to be very careful in terms of developing activities in the energy sector. Just to end this point, I would like to mention that I think it’s important to have these things of 2015 solved and as you can see we are addressing all the possibilities for 2016. On Page 14, we have the highlights, the first one is negative. Sales dropped by 5.3% and in the concession area, residential minus 2%, commercial minus 2.2%, industrial minus 9.6%, aggravating the scenario of industrial consumption on the lower part. We have the results of 2015, a reduction of 4% and the sales in the concession area of distributors the same 2% residential, seems to have reached the bottom commercial minus 1%, industrial minus 6.9%. In spite of all this reduction we continued our investments, we invested almost R0.5 billion in the fourth quarter closing the year with R1.428 billion, 30% higher than our investments in 2014. We renegotiated the hydrological risk as I said to 458.8 average. We have the issue of the company’s ratings SNP as doubly AA minus, which AA maintained, this was recent it was a weak ago. There is a recognition on the part of rating agencies mainly regarding the liquidity of the group contributing to the maintenance of the rating perspective and entry of CPFL Energia’s shares in the IBrX-50 and becoming a component stock of the ICO2 Carbon Efficient index in January 2016 so this is very good news. They were maintained in the ISE index for the 11th consecutive year and CPFL was classified as the member of the sustainability yearbook 2015 prepared by RobecoSAM responsible for the review of the DJSI. So these are the main highlights of the fourth quarter. Now just to talk about sales in the fourth quarter and afterward we will tell you about the year. On Page 15, we see a drop in the captive market of 4.1 as I have already mentioned in the green area. You see the free customers especially industrial a drop of 8.5% and the total in the concession area and 5.3 minus as I said, and the negative highlight here is that the industrial sector with the 9.6% drop on year-on-year comparison reaching 5.3 negative. The positive outlook occurs in our valuation of contracted demand over the same months of 2014, since June we kept the contract demand higher positive on a year-on-year comparison mainly in the off period and off peak and the peak a slight reduction of 0.8 June, 0.9 September in December the demeanor was different so peak going up and off peak continue to grow at 1.6%. The participation of industrial that was once upon a time 40 and now it’s 39% you can see that this breakdown is more or less kept. You can see that in this specific area of the concession area of growth in the concession area mainly in the southeast and south the group had the performance that was lower than Brazil, Brazil dropped 3.3 and we dropped 5.3 in our concession areas in volume in the southeast 4.3 and I DisCos 4.9 and in the south we had a slightly better performance fees of Brazil the south going down 8% and we are going down 7.1%. On the next page, sales in 2016 will drop of 4.3%-3.3% in the captive market very close to what we had said to the at the beginning of the year 3.3 and to USD dropping by 5.8. We had already said that the biggest contribution was the drop of 6.9% in industrial. I had said 40% industry for the whole year but as you saw due to the drop at the end of the year there was a loss of relative share to 39% and the figures in the comparison between the regions, but CPFL you can see 4% drop and here 2% to 3%. Last year we had an increase of 0.1% in our generation results capacity in renewable from 915 to 930. You can see renewable and conventional. Page 17, delinquency which is the cause of concern to many analyst and investors on the after part of the slide. We see the evolution of the number of total days that we have delinquency up to deemed, non-verification of payment. The good news is that we had a reduction in December and we expect it to drop as we see the dropping down of tariff banners and you can see that in terms of billing from 19 and the last 12 months is stable 0.83, 0.84 and this figure is relatively stable and what’s has been establishing this is the account of the group beside the increase in the accounts and the decrease is salaries and increase in employment. As you may remember last year we had the removal of some customers, the lower income customers that had incentives. So in number of builds it’s practically half in the B group 116,000. And it has not stopped dropping in spite of the index of D90 over the revenues is kept constant practically. It’s important to highlight that all the actions and we make many reports to you about that between 30% and 50% of cards and all the instrument available to the company you can see this is the evolution of the provision for doubtful accounts. You can see 60% here on our tariffs, 50% in allowance for doubtful accounts as you can see on the Slide. This reinforcement is important because if I look at the percentage of recoverable revenue over billings in the last 12 months, we had — we expected 12.9, 2.9 in the fourth quarter of ’14 and 4.25% in the fourth quarter of ’15. Keeping this alliance allowance of doubtful accounts, 50% higher than we expected around R30 million, R35 million. And finally on page 18, we bring the results of the fourth quarter. The first line I think is the reported result IFRS, in the second line what we always have, incorporating the proportionate consolidation of our assets, it’s different from the IFRS and our consideration as regards to the sector of financial assets and liabilities and non-recurring items. So starting with IFRS on the fourth quarter of 2015, we have a drop of 8.7% on net revenue reaching 4.507 billion and this is related to that consolidation of assets and liabilities they had in the last quarter of 2014 so looking at the recurring value it’s approximately switching an increase of 15 million. So this revenue increase, so the fact that throughout the years especially goes to the tariff increases although on the fourth quarter we have a non-recurring item from the last quarter of ’14. EBITDA and IFRS there is a decrease of 35% a drop of R237 million and in the proportionate and recurrence values we’re talking about a decrease of 7.7%, 70 million reaching R844 million. The EBITDA is my guide in the last line of the net profit net income with a drop of 22.8% which is 363 million in the last quarter or a decrease of 10.7% as R255 million. At the bottom of the Slide either on the consolidation or the total assets, but liabilities of the item either on the consolation or the total financial assets and liabilities for that quarter. And our non-recurring items. The total financial assets and liabilities of the year of ’14 in GFF and energy purchases that is verified here both in ’14 and less in ’15 both cores had a [indiscernible] and Renovates. The effect of the renegotiation of the GFS the risk of premium, the insurance reimbursement for the Bio Pedra plant as the addition of this fourth quarter the impairment of two assets and accounting procedure recommended by our auditor and the non-recurring effects CPFL Renovaveis that occurred in the last fourth quarter of 2014. So which would be the fact when we adjust the EBITDA. We have 70 million in the last quarter of ’15 and different considering the structural financial assets on this previous year there is an effect of 428, so the recurring value of ’14 turned it into 428 from 1005 for the fourth quarter of ’15, removing 161. After this we move on to Page 19, as I see the evaluation of the main item, so we’re now discussing the comparison of the 25% but the drop of 7.7% right now as you can see on the chart, there is important negative effect on distribution for the currency variation and the dollar was volatile last year, and in the last quarter. The increase of 10.9 in the IPCA or the 10.5 of EGPM [ph] it’s an important variation. We will talk about the results of our manageable cost in a minute. But in the last quarter we have a very close value to that of the inflation. The drop of the market and the distribution area was 33 million, a decrease in the result, the adjustment of ETR and CBA [ph] San Antonio, highlighted in our release, regarding a procedure obtained by [indiscernible] and applied to all our companies. Deal also allows for doubtful account the additional 12 million and because the cost of the collection actions that we implemented to maintain this allowance of sell through accounts. The sale of assets in the fourth quarter a small amount, legal interjection of R17 million, is a positive result, the pass through of fiscal things, of 15 million as a procedure to avoid the volatility on the pass through of these simple things and other items amounting to 12 million. So this distribution is clearly what is responsible in the last quarter for the negative variation of our business. Conventional generations report 10.4% positive results, the seasonality strategy contributed with 9 million the better performance of EPAZA in 20 million since September of 2012 and other smaller amounts of 3 million. For renewable generation and important highlights of an increase over growth of 57.7% or 64 million on one side because of the lower energy purchase of SHPTS biomass plant for 15 million. Lower [indiscernible] was 11, asset write-off of 5 million and the commercial startup of — contributing with R33 million to these results. CPSL will handled wages [ph] for the first time attributing an EBITDA as a company higher than R1 million but an important growth phase delivering the projects that we’ll have this year. For commercialization services and holding the result was 6.2% higher or R2 million, in the previous year we were working with a multi ability ceiling and the company had checked results. We are very pleased with the results on commercialization we had and the five products, so the bottom line, to the generate conventional and renewable generation activities were positive, commercialization also positive. Distribution was negative results in mostly due to the volatility of the exchange rates and the drop off markets that are the main elements to determine this variation. On Slide 15 we have the manageable expenses, based on our cost per expense management program and I think this is the main result if you look since the implementation in recurrent values on the right side, business is of 18% equivalent to R326 million at this time reaching R1.430 billion we would have if it weren’t for that action, but it was an expressive result and significant result and I this reduction occurs both on MSO and the contracts and also in personnel in real terms. And the year from ’14 to ’15 the actions throughout the crisis brought a decrease in real terms of 6% when compared to Li [ph] I just yam up the period. If we see the comparison of [nominal value year we had an increase of 2.8% and inflation of around 10% so it’s 6% less as reported and in the whole series we’re maintaining the level of R1.350 billion – L1.400 billion over the last five years. The company’s been growing and the nominal costs are being maintained stable. And this is very important especially at this period of crisis. Now on Slide 21, from the results considering the 10% decrease on this last quarter, resulting from the reduction of 7.7% in EBITDA was a better financial result of 54.7% decrease, a negative net financial results, contribution of a 150 million positive, the variation of fiscal concession financial assets was 96 million, the placement of [indiscernible] of facto financial assets and liabilities. and the resources that we have at CVAs, CVA at 59 million a type of currency variation that was positive in this negative EBITDA of 50 million which is transparent in the effects of results. We have [indiscernible] of interest in fines and installment payments so that’s some works that we had developed to manage delinquency of such by these arrears and these net financial expenses negative and 59 million as you can see all the companies result in the fourth quarter 2014 the CVA on average was 11.7 and in fourth quarter of 2015 14.4, these depends over financial revenues and the tax that we did not have in 2014 and others, that 17 million. We had an increase in 3.2% in depreciation and amortization in terms of [Indiscernible] increase of income tax and social contribution also earned 65 million. So we then refer to profits of R255 million. On page 22, as an overview of the comparison of 2014 and 2015 and we can see an increase in that revenue IRS of 17% so the retain 19.159 million in the year. EBITDA as stable with the decrease of 11 million amounting to 3,750 in net income drop 1.3 million or 11 million amounting 875 million. I believe that you analyst have a preference of looking at these results in the manageable view point. And the company has an increase of 20% on revenue tariff increases have an important effects and here since from March and April amounting 18,915 billion. EBITDA with an increase of 1.2% amounting to R3,948 billion and then also with the impact of the financial cost and the CVI the net income amounts through 1,924 billion at the increase of 3.2%. These difference between IFRS and the recurrent results growth, they are affected by the GSF in 2015. Estimated GFS minus risk work premium of 134 million and the expenses. On the previous year’s you remember we had the spectral efforts and liabilities of CVI amounted 338.1 and the expenses with GFS in the year of 2014 amounted to 333 million. So these are the main differences determining this variations. But considering the crises and the regulatory challenges the drop in consumption and if you look at the companies with current results. Our growth was slightly positive considering the scenario we can say it is significantly positive so what’s the results on slide 23 as we did last year recognizing the volatility and the results of the market the recommendations as the constitution of Charley reserve strengthening our 2014 fiscal and the amount of R393 million and we also proposed the reversal of this statutory results due to stock dividends and you can see at the bottom of this presentation that the cost distributed to each of the bonus shares of 0.15 to 0.78 per share and considering it as a whole those stock dividends is equivalent to 0.39 per share. You should note that the subsequent proposes of 2.5075704448% in the ratio of 0.02507570448% new share at the same type for each share. The total number of shares that make up the company though the capital stock will go 933,14,250 shares to 1,17,914,746 with the issuance of 24,900,531 shares to be distributor to shareholders under article 169 of law 6404/76. subscribed in pay capital, so stock will go from 5.348 to 5.741. On the right, we had the breakdown of this result. In that income for the fiscal year individually of 865 million, results from previous year is 26, prescribed dividend another six with a net income base of 397 million. Legal reserve of 5% is 43 million, statutory reserve of the Concession Financial Assets is the reserves without cash of R255 million and statutory reserve from this proposal of Strengthening of Working Capital of R393 million. We also recommend, the payment of the minimum inventory dividend of R205 million, corresponding to 25% of net income of the fiscal year equivalent to $0.20 per share, 26CA, 6CA, $4.75 [ph] per share. The movement of these reserves for the period of 2015, the company proposes a minimum payment of 205 million and the statutory reserve for working capital and dividends of another R393 million. Now we are on Slide 24, another source of concern from analyst and investors, the company reports the reserve where the net debt — adjusted net debt over adjusted EBITDA is of 341. And as we had in the previous quarters, considering the relevant of the CVA as such we have a reconciliation if we had — if it did not have that reimbursements of the CVA throughout the last year, we would then have our investors slightly below at 2.984. The track at the of the bottom illustrate this movement with the amounts in ’14 and the extension in 2015, since the first quarter going from 1.18 billion in the first quarter to the conclusion of the third quarter at 1907 and the last quarter was 1,682. In our understanding considering the push backs of this fiscal the next two or three months, tomorrow we will have a small [five] distributors here, in April we will have [indiscernible] which the largest in June with RGE, we understand that these volumes will become positive for the company as of September. On Page 25, reporting the increase in the nominal price of the debt. And this series we have the higher nominal cost and nominal in real with an important indexing on CVI and the other specialty would be in the ’18 on long term interest rates, 6% on the Prefixed PSI and 3% on sanctioned plus funds. It’s a comfortable situation in terms of liquidity, so with a cash at the end of the year 5.400 million, it’s an almost 2.4 times the amortization of the last 12 months. Average center of 3.5% in this short is only of 13.3% of the total, so it is a comfortable scenario considering the perspective. With that acquisition is just the Group’s perspective an increase. On Page 26, with the future investment perspective IFRS on the top, consolidating with the petitions recognized by IFRS. But I think it will be better to analyze it on the bottom with the pro forma investments of 1,200 million last year with an important challenge now. Regulatory enumeration remuneration for police man RJE over the next two years, increasing the distribution investments to approximately R1.2 million — R1.4 million for the next two years. And approved cost for [indiscernible] on generation and the project for the consolidation and services. This year then we will show invest closer to break 1 million. And there is a decrease because of the closer of [indiscernible] projects, once new project are included this will increase but this is in the company’s perspective for the five year investment plan, the pro forma of around R8.700 billion. But this commitment should grow and the company both on distribution and generation and generation of renewable on 27th reporting the capital markets indicators IBrX-50 is an important reference for investors one of the main stock indexes of local market and most trades shares and some liquidity CPFL joined in January 2016 sensing with the [indiscernible] with a carbon efficient index and same on IBrX-50 and we remain among the 35 companies the market share of this index of approximately R1 trillion, market cap. On page 28 the share performance with an increase of 2.1 compared to the decrease of 3.8 on the New York so there is a smaller job compared to Dow Jones and this is mostly related to the currency, there is also an average increase from savings volume. And the company is included in the main indexes over the last year. These remind me remarks, with our vice president and officers to answer your questions. Question-and-Answer Session Operator Ladies and gentlemen, we will start the questions-and-answers session [Operator Instructions]. Our first question is from Vinícius Canheu from Credit Suisse. Vinícius Canheu Hello Wilson, good morning I have two questions. The first one is just a confirmation of some data you provided and the second one will be a question that I asked on the previous call about the contract and now proposal that is being developed. You said that you would be able to reduce contract and 4%, so the disclose, the average level of this over contracted position is over 109% and then which is have this decrease should be within the 100% that will be no loss resulting from it. Wilson Ferreira Jr Yes, the figures are below 109 and they will be below 105 especially within the next two years. Vinícius Canheu So that gives you some room for the next years? Wilson Ferreira Jr Yes. Vinícius Canheu And my second question, we see an improvement in the environment with the CVA more control there and we’re following on the call, so there is considerable amount of assets available in the market. And I’ve been asking you if the time to take more risk has arrived or if it is the time to be more conservative considering the economic scenarios time to be more conservative at least these opportunities for the future because of the risk of the business and risk of balances. So has this changed or this proposal being more conservative to hold and there will be the positions throughout the year, or do you see a greater appetite now if that ties you to maybe take in excess of [indiscernible] provisions for this year? Wilson Ferreira Jr It’s not a matter of being conservative it’s the matter of being disciplined. The group being disciplined I think we do have an improvement in the scenario. We are focused in the evaluation of opportunities and with the VP, but we’re in a better position but we will not let go of being disciplined. And even with the minimum dividend and that illustrates the focus of the group is to have a capital structure that is more robust and healthier we are leveraged and that is strategy to create value because of the income tax advantages and so on. But we are a company that is focused on growth. But I would say the time is now for favorable to the buyer because the price of assets shall decrease. Of course we will analyze opportunities if we verify an opportunity, we maintain an appetite but with what we maintain above all is discipline. I think it’s important when we don’t have certainty of how the market will be, we understand that this is crucial. We feel confident with the decision that we took with the dividend position or the last movement of the agency as regards Itaipu and determining this perspective of higher liquidity, of course we will use these results of our work with the M&A and Greenfields with the discipline required by the current times. Vinícius Canheu Excellent, thank you. That was very clear. Operator Miguel Rodrigues, Morgan Stanley. Miguel Rodrigues Wilson, could you talk about your debt rollover plans, 2.3 billion maturing in the short run so what would be the refinancing cost that you estimate and to which extent you could consider amortizing part of this debt and do you have high visibility about debentures for infrastructure more specifically distribution which was a point under discussion as well. Wilson Ferreira Jr I will ask Gustavo Estrella to start to answer your question because he is sees very much involved in both things deferred over. Gustavo Estrella This is an important aim and we focused a lot of attention on that mainly as beginning of last year we already imagined having a very challenging year such as a lot of the cases really 2015, so we have brought this, forward and we wrote over practically all the debt that we had maturating in the short run before the scenario materialized so our situation regarding liquidity very comfortable. We’re closely the year with over R5 billion, R4.5 billion. So all our needs for refinancing by the end up to the end of 2017 are totally under control, we have no exposure whatsoever to the credit market in Brazil today. You know that this market is much smaller in terms of volume and with much higher cost fee because of the CDI at the levels that they are or the spread that we have charged in the market. So today, we’re monitoring the market looking for alternatives and for other solutions, thinking about 2018 maturing. So as far as 2017 our debt is totally under control, so we’re very comfortable. We can look around the market and if we see a good opportunity for funding then of course we will go after it. If we don’t find one then we monitor things with our eyes turned on 2018. And one of the challenges that we have in this market is regarding new funding sources already going to your second question undoubtedly the Company is very much involved in this team of infrastructure debentures. We have already held meetings with Ministry of Mines and Energy and with self-sales in order to find a way to expand the benefit to the distribution sector. There is no definition yet coming from the Ministry, but I would say the outlook is positive and the Ministry understands that the challenge that we face today regarding financing, very long-term investments like 20 to 30 year investments. Most of the companies today finance their CapEx with short-term capital, so I think the government is hearing this with silver book ears because it has to do with the sustainability of investment and the long-term investment facilities have to be created and of course it has to do with the infrastructure debentures. So we’re bullish about getting the source of funding for the distribution sector, but so far there is no definition from the government as yet. Thank you very much. Miguel Rodrigues One second question maybe to Wilson. There was something about the valuation of sale that to be seems to be pricing to be expensive that would reduce the attractiveness of the auction, so some concessions are not reaching the targets of financial quality required by ANEEL, so how do expect this consolidation process in distribution to happen, do you believe that the players that are not reaching their targets will be looking around for prospective buyers already by the beginning of this year before they face problems because they are not reaching the targets imposed by ANEEL? So I would like to hear from you how you think consolidation will happen in distribution. Wilson Ferreira Jr I think consolidation is necessary and it will occur, so I don’t have much doubt about that the fourth cycle and the situation of renewal of concession albeit the financial situation of some concession that are not performing, this is desirable, so 63 distributors would not make a lot of sense, so of course this will probably undergo a grouping process until you can rush analyze the number. You know the amount or number of pages that you need to report a very small concession and now you analyst are going to watch analyst go. When you about our sales which was the company that has a very positive market it’s a company that was located in the market at its such a growing company that has operating performance that is lower than other such as ours. And one of the reference is that you use in order to evaluate the company as the implicate value in the multiplication of the regulatory asset base, so the company that is more efficient has a value that already impressive, multiple with higher than the market, but in the specificities of cell gate this figure is almost 30% higher so when we talk about the price or attributed price, you would evaluate the company that will be participating and you will see whether the acquisition is possible it is only possible if you can play your technology or process fees of systems and bring the company from next per share as the performance to a why, performance higher the ‘x’. And we don’t know why but the analyst I think do not know that yet, why this price was established so we have to have a deeper understanding of the price until we can imagine the processes to have in the other companies and the cases of one linked to a lesser price. I think this was a good thing in the process that was placed for renewal that is for sake the duration because even the operators that face problems be at regarding quality or financial they have time and being private they are not going to wait to have a probably agency because the example regarding this were not good for those who owned the company so when you have this time and if you have the adequate time and if you are seeing this adverse time that you will not be able to perform accordingly, the most adequate and more and in order to preserve the residual value of the company the best thing is to divest, to sale in the end things become easier because of geographic extremity or facility in terms of systems, so I think we will see this kind of movements. Operator Lilyanna Yang, UBS. Lilyanna Yang Thank you for the question. I have one question regarding M&A. Do you think that you and other selling asset in 2016 at a broader question. Would you be interested in participating in transmission because regulatory returns are better than distribution even more so when the traditional players in transmission are facing financial difficulties okay my two questions. Wilson Ferreira Jr Thank you for the question. Yes, we believe that state such as [Indiscernible], today is an important day for them today and tomorrow when they will be holding meetings to refinance with the government but another alternative and even in order to be able to do something in the stake would be to sell off so privatize sum of the concessions and I think this will be considered more seriously now, these are assets that are facing a good momentary of the prices the concessions have just been renewed I’m talking about the stake concessions so I have no doubt that this kind of moves has a potential in the specification wise, as you mentioned, the last move that they made regarding separating or spinning off Brazilian and is on some a few things that the executives has been mentioning going into the direction that you had just refer to and this company is well placed and they have a concession and they are the most efficient concession there. So of course if these things occur we will be assessing the perspectives and of course they are assets that would make a lot of fence in our growth process provided financial discipline is maintained. Lilyanna Yang And what about translation? Maybe you haven’t noticed that we have been getting into this segment, which shows us a criteria to participate especially to make fineable facilities that are — where we may have an increase in terms of usage. The first one is the Paulista Lajeado substation, it was an important substation for the need of the CPFL, Companhia Paulista de Força e Luz and we saw that the players — it was an excellent investment that we made that we was a major investment by the end of last year. We had the second asset, we participated in the auction we were the winners of [indiscernible] and I agreeing with you that the outlook for investments in transmission have improved quite somatically, so the prices established to attract more payers, they have already reached quite good level, we are obtained a lot of attention to this and always thinking about financial discipline. You have a maturation that is of one or two years and you have financing from this [indiscernible], and you have — you can issue infrastructure ventures. So we have been analyzing these opportunities very thoroughly. Lilyanna Yang If you allow me another question about distribution segment, the EBITDA was weaker than we expected, we find this quarter that delinquency increase slightly. So what would be guidance for the current level of EBITDA acceptable? And would this be possible to reship this year, where the GDP is expected to increase? Wilson Ferreira Jr I’ll ask Gustavo to give an answer. Gustavo Estrella I think some of the topics here are important to mention, first is that in this quarter, unlike the year results, you have an important impact of the currency exchange variation and that impacts negatively our EBITDA, but it returns and this shall be adjusted first to be able analyze the distribution EBITDA more in a recurring fashion. Another saying, as you mentioned about delinquency wasn’t show the data and I think we do have a nominal increase in delinquency in absolute term considering the moments. But on the other hands, there is some stability in the percentage level these are the revenue. And when we consider our delinquency it is increase up to this point have been offset by the increase in revenue from finds and interest that we have. There has been a slightly positive effect even when we also consider the increase on expenses that we have with a greater control of delinquency now talking about the amounts of cuts and, I think we have to be a little bit trifle with the EBITDA of the this course because there is a non-recurring effect as well of the currency variation and the other effect is outside in the other line of the results and therefore it does not affect our net income line. So when we consider the perspective of course there is an impact of the market, especially in the home markets and the reinvention market. On the industrial market we still have the preserved margin with the demand contract. But of course we suffered from a decrease in the residential consumption. Analyzing 2016, the scenario is slightly different, we already see the perspective of increase in energy consumption from residences when compare to 2015. We have a growth of between 2% and 2.5% but the perspective of market increase for 2016 and with the tariff on the opposite from last year, because last year we had an a whole 60% increase on tariff for this year this perspective is very different. It is because of the decrease of the tariff flag, we already are on yellow and we will evolve to the green flag. There is also an expectation of a decrease in the tariff values vs budget. Which is throughout the year. Considering at this course, especially June and bit up to an [indiscernible] to October. We see an expectation of a tariff decrease and be that’s in this case that will demand more than 25% of tariff decrease not including this tariff flag. So that should also bring a more positive perspective in terms of power consumption in our concession areas. But the main messages are, first reading the results carefully when considering the distributional fourth quarter of 2015 because it is the different from what is expected from 2016. We now have a more positive outlook for distribution as of this year either because of the rebound of the market, with the expectation of, a small rebound of the market, but the expectation of the tariff reduction throughout the year. And the impact of the tariff reduce, bit up to I had a tariff at the end of last year and this will be consolidating the entire results as of 2016 the small distribution companies now are also undergoing the tariff review process in March with the perspective of regaining larger or higher margins and this is the scenario that we have for distribution. Thank you. Operator We now close the questions-and-answers session. I would like to turn the floor to Mr. Wilson Ferreira Jr for his final remarks. Wilson Ferreira Jr I think with this last question, what Gustavo said is very important. As I said, I think the year of 2015 was without a doubt the worse during this crisis. 2016 tends to be better due to a number of variables. The decrease that we verified in consumption and that we detailed to you our expectation and what we have verified already especially in February, it’s more about the flat growth and the legislative consumption. So, the negative effects of delinquency we believe either with the change on tariff flag or with the reduction resulting from CDR [ph] and if I, we’ll benefit consumers. So we understand the business a positive perspective. As regards to generation the main problem were definitely sorted and the financial aspect that disciplined group as ours always is concerned with now has a real possibility for resolution. So, what has been established for 2016 clearly better for the group than the conditions we had in 2015 and I think that now we the inspiration of our governance, our shareholders and our business culture, yes there will be a series of opportunities they will be analyzed with our discipline and on the other hand we have the internal opportunities of businesses that we have already formed for simple CPFL Energia with a remarkable site of opportunities for profit of it materializing these three market areas you seen an important migration and momentum [indiscernible] the surplus. The company has this competence and this ability to make it position and of course all processes of rationalizing cost and the productivity processes implemented in the company. So I understand that the year 2016 is a challenge for all Brazilians and for the whole country and it will be for us as well. But as we always say it is also a year of great opportunity for those who have prepared for this moment and CPFL has prepared. So we are confident in the performance of our operations due to the preparation we’ve undergone in the last two years. We thank you for your attention to our conference call. Operator CPLF Energia conference call is now closed. We thank you all for your participation. Have a good 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. (Until now investors have had to pay thousands of dollars in subscription fees for transcripts.) So our reproduction policy is as follows: You may quote up to 400 words of any transcript on the condition that you attribute the transcript to Seeking Alpha and either link to the original transcript or to www.SeekingAlpha.com. 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Gas Natural SDG’s (GASNF) CEO Rafael Villaseca on Q4 2015 Results – Earnings Call Transcript
Gas Natural SDG SA ( OTC:GASNF ) Q4 2015 Earnings Conference Call February 3, 2016 4:00 AM ET Luis Calvo Good morning to everyone. Welcome to the presentation of results of Gas Natural Fenosa for 2015. The presentation will be done by our CEO, Mr. Rafael Villaseca, accompanied by the CFO, Mr. Carlos Alvarez, and the General Director for Strategy and Development, Mr. Antonio Basolas. After the presentation will start, we’ll have a Q&A session and it won’t be possible to accept questions on the phone. We’ll begin with the people in the room and then we’ll answer the questions that have been sent in using the form that you will find on the website. And we request those of you who use this form of asking questions to send in the questions during the presentation, because once we have started it will not be possible to send any more questions in. I’ll pass the floor to our CEO, Mr. Ramon Villaseca. Rafael Villaseca Good morning to everyone. Welcome to the meeting. We’re going to explain the closing of our year and the situation of the strategic plan. This is the agenda, the order of the day. We’ve got the strategic plan objectives, 2013/2015. Next we will talk about the results of 2015, and finally we will give you details about the P&L account and then conclusions and the Q&A session. We begin with the strategic plan. We have to say that the key data of the year are that our net profits have been €1,502 million, an increase of 2.7% over the previous year. If we talk about the EBITDA without — 2015 non-restated EBITDA, I’ll explain what that means, it’s €5,376 million, which is an increase of 10.8%. The need to express the data of the previous year has to do with the fact that we have discontinued our liquid gas operation in Chile. And to adjust this, as a result of this operation, our partial disinvestment in the gas business, in GLP in Chile, leads to a situation where the increase is 10.8% in non-restated terms. If we did, the increase would be 8.6%. The net investments of the period have dropped by 62.1%. The total is €1,422 million, because mainly of atypical operations, the purchase of the Chilean group CGE and the purchase of the new methane ship. So our financial structure is sound. We continue to deleverage and we’ve reduced the net debt by 7.6% as regards the previous year. As regards the dividend, the Board will propose to the AGM the payment of €0.9328 per share, payable in cash. We’ve advanced a dividend of €0.4078. The complement would be €0.5250 to be paid as from July 1. So the total amount to be paid out as dividends would be €933.4 million, which is an increase of 2.7% as regards the previous year. That means a payout of 62.1%, and it means a profitability per dividend of 5% as regards or as compared to the previous year. So we are honoring our commitments as expressed in the 2013/2015 strategic plan. As regards the remaining financial targets, you have them on this graph. We had committed an EBITDA of more than €5 billion and that has been the case. We’ve made €5.3 billion. A net income of €1.5 billion, which has also complied with the target. A net debt to EBITDA ratio of about 3, and it has been 3. And a dividend payout of 62%, which in fact has been 62.1%. So it’s a source of satisfaction to be able to say once again that we have accomplished what we promised, we have delivered what we promised. Now, if we look at the strategic plan overall, as a whole, and including profitability for shareholders in the 2013/2015 period, you see that if we consider the price and the dividend, profitability for the shareholder has been up 58.4% in the 2013/2015 period, which is equal to a cumulative return of 16.6% for that period. Now, that period, we have to remember the factors of the economic environment and energy environment. Also within the aims, qualitative aims of our strategic plan, we have to say that the three lines of growth that we had set out to achieve were networks, generation and gas. So in these three lines, there’s been significant advance made, which will undoubtedly bear fruit in the near future. In the distribution network business, we’ve increased our points of supply by 3.7m and we’ve got an additional potential of 1m connection points for between here and 2020. As regards the gas networks, we’ve got a concession for the Arequipa region in Peru and the new concessions for gasification in Mexico, the purchase of Gas Directo in Spain, or direct purchase of gas in Spain, the entry into new towns in Spain and the recent purchases of liquid gas networks that belonged to Repsol. As regards gas and electricity networks, we have to underline an increase as a result of the purchase of the Chilean company CGE. As regards electricity, we’ve added 520 megawatts to our generation portfolio as a result of the incorporation of the Bii-Hioxo plant in Mexico, the Torito plant in Costa Rica and the purchase of Gecalsa. We also have to highlight the creation of Global Power Generation and the entry of the KIA Company into that business. As regards the wholesale gas business, we have signed agreements for 11 bcms associated with different projects, two in the US, Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi; the Yamal project, liquid gas project in Russia; the Shah Deniz project in Azerbaijan; and the purchase of five new ships that are going to be incorporated gradually, one of them has already been incorporated, which will increase our capacity by almost 1m cubic meters for the management of the liquid natural gas business. As regards the synergies that we had contemplated in the strategic plan, we’ve covered them satisfactorily. The aim was €300 million. At the end of 2015, the total was €306 million. Here you see the increase of these synergies obtained, and we would have to add that’s the next plan to consider, all the ones that will result from the CGE operation. And we have to point out too that the main reductions in costs have been discretional services costs, rationalization of operational costs and optimization of costs in corporate areas. It was foreseen, you know, the beginning of this year, this quarter, that we were going to present the strategic plan for 2016/2018, with a larger vision of up to 2020 but a three-year plan. And we have to say that we think it’s convenient to delay this to the second quarter. We have May 30 as the set date. Because the process is being finalized, the strategic plan is being finalized, and very soon we will begin the internal review and approval process. But the volatility of the financial and currency markets and the volatility of the energy indexes all over the world and uncertainty as regards the growth of emerging markets and what that will mean in terms of the energy that they need have led us to decide that we need a little bit more time to see what the variables are going to be within our activity and business, and we are trying to avoid giving you figures that are not definite or ranges that are not definite. Up until now, we have always liked to be able to produce specific figures and objectives. So we’ll take our time. We will finalize the strategic plan, and at the same time try to see whether we have greater visibility as to what is going to happen. But this won’t go beyond May 30, as I’ve just said. Now, if we go into the breakdown for 2015, considering everything, all things considered, it’s been a very good year in spite of the very difficult situation of commodity prices, especially Brent, and the situation of currency markets. We have to point out there’s a sound behavior of regulated businesses and a great stability of these businesses in Spain and South America. And at the same time, we have to say that we’re very satisfied about the purchase of the CGE company in Chile, and this was a very good operation which has produced profits after considering the costs of the operation right from year one. In Spanish America, there’s been a general growth of all our activities, even in countries where the economic situation is not as good as it was a few years ago, but we must say that the devaluation of currency, foreign currency in recent months especially has had a negative impact. However, we have been able to make up for those effects with results that have complied with the strategic plan. If we look at the evolution of EBITDA by business lines, here you see it, it’s grown by 8.6%, 10.8% without considering the disinvestment in the GLP business. If we do consider that, as I said before, there is an agreement with the minority shareholder group of Gasco to proceed with the splitting of that business and disinvestment, which has not yet been finalized but it will probably be finalized. So in accordance with accounting rules, we have to discontinue, and that is what causes this adjustment that causes the figure to go down from 10.2% to 8.6%. It’s important to point out that the networks have allowed a growth of €557 million, but as you’ll see in a minute in detail, even if we discount the CGE factor, which accounts for a lot of this growth, the quote/unquote organic growth has been above — exceeded 3.4%. As regards the electric generation business, it’s relatively flat in terms of EBITDA. Wholesale gas business, there’s a negative amount of €109 million, which we’ll give you details about now, due mainly to the evolution of the commodity scenarios. As regards other activities, 28 negative points, mainly because the previous year we had the effect of the sale of our telecommunications business. As regards the EBITDA breakdown, if we look at main effects or main factors that have determined it, we see that the scope, the perimeter for consolidation, the purchase of GCE has increased that EBITDA by €431 million, CGE and Gecalsa, especially the Chilean group, and discounting the negative effects of disinvestments of the previous year. The translation of currencies, when it comes to the balance, basically corresponding to the Latin American investments, if you put that into the consolidated balance there’s a positive balance of €19 million, which is important because of the correlation between the dollar and foreign currencies which has made up for this. As regards the regulatory measures, there’s an impact of — negative impact of €59 million resulting from the new regulation measures of the gas business, which only partially affected 2014 but have affected 2015 fully. And finally, the activity, which is net, obviously, includes the effects of scenarios in the commodity markets, has grown by €28 million. If we analyze the factors that I was talking about now and we start with the effects of foreign currencies on the consolidated results of the Group, you see that the total is €19 million, with a singular or quite peculiar behavior. In the first three quarters it was positive, but it — first two quarters, but it was negative in the second two quarters and been positive at the end of the year. Now, this is an important situation. The interaction between exchange rates of the different currencies has led to a situation where the behavior you see on the right, of the dollar, made up for, to a large extent, the negative behavior of the Brazilian currency and Colombian currency. But as you can see, especially in the last two quarters, clearly in the last two quarters, those negative factors couldn’t be made up for through the influence of the dollar. And that we see because the current behavior of the dollar has not really changed as compared to the previous year, and it’s not having this mitigating effect on the devaluation of the Latin American currencies. But we have to insist that the devaluation of these currencies is the result in those South American countries of the inflation that they have in some of these countries. And you must remember that the regulatory formulas that cover our services for gas and electricity distribution in many countries include inflation, and in some countries the ups and downs of the exchange rates. So when these readjustments take place, as recently in Mexico, that is made up for via tariffs. The inflation and exchange rate effects are made up for using tariffs. One case is Mexico. It was resolved fortunately positively recently. If we look at the businesses and networks, the networks account for almost 60% of the EBITDA of the Company. As you can see on this graph, we have compared the EBITDA for the two years and the differences we’ve expressed in different items. Problems of exchange rate, impact of regulations, impact of consolidation perimeter, and finally the column corresponding to activity, the business itself. Now, if we discount all those effects, exchange rate, regulation, consolidation perimeter, the activity in the networks has involved an increase of EBITDA of €233 million, which means an increase of 9.2%. If we consider that networks account for almost 60% of the business and that 52% is generated outside of Spain, most of this EBITDA has to do with the gas networks, and we must insist that the regulations are stable there and there’s a high potential for growth. The incorporation of CGE has been very relevant, but we have to insist that even if we don’t take that into consideration, the increase as a result of activity of the EBITDA has been, I repeat, 9.2%. The business continues to grow very much, and we have to say that the effects of devaluations can be mitigated as a result of the tariff adjustment operations in exchange rates and inflation in the countries. We have to say, you know, that the purchase of the Chile operation has been very positive for this Company, after discounting the purchase costs, positive in terms of the bottom line of our accounts from day one, and there’s a high potential for growth too. Although it is true that in 2015 the Company — the Group did not have the atypical positive values that we achieved in 2014, the Group has progressed very favorably in its different lines of business, and we’re convinced that this has borne fruit but will continue to do so in the future, with a very high potential for growth which we are going to utilize immediately. In terms of the generation businesses, power generation, they account for 19% of the EBITDA of our Group. Here you have it broken down, Spain and international, GPG. You see that if we discount, we take away the phenomenon of the foreign exchange that only affects the GPG and the consolidation perimeter, the result has been €53 million negative, whose main reason has to do with the lower margins of electricity in our country. 74% of the business is in Spain, 26% abroad. Abroad, mainly, we have PPAs; the contracts are PPAs. And you can see that there’s €45 million more resulting from the fact that most of the income in this activity, in this business, is in dollars. Now, as regards the gas business, it’s important to point out that generation accounted for 19% of our EBITDA. Gas accounts for 21% of our EBITDA, but of that 21%, 7% is infrastructure and 15% is procurement. I have to insist procurement, which you are obviously very interested in, accounts for 15% of our EBITDA. Now, as you can see, the infrastructure business dropped by €42 million, 14%, as a result mainly of the lower degree of activity of the Maghreb/Europe pipeline, which belongs to us. Procurement dropped by 12.6%, €114 million, which we will break down in a minute for you. But as you can see, in spite of the very, very difficult situation of the international energy markets, we’ve been able to advance and make progress, and you can see this on this chart more clearly. On the left, you see the amounts that we’ve sold in supply, retail, industrial, domestic and LNG. You see how they’ve gone up and down. All told, the volumes have gone up by 1.8%. As you can see on the right, you can see the evolution of the unit margins of all these business lines of the Group in supply as a whole. And as you see, as regards the previous year there’s been a drop of 14.1%. We’ve gone from €2.90 to €2.49, the EBITDA, so there’s a drop of 14.1%. But allow me to summarize. All the EBITDA of the business, the completely overall EBITDA, has dropped by 12.6% as a result of a drop in the unit margins of 14.1%, which has been made up for by an increase in volume of 1.8%. Now, when one year ago, just over one year ago, we gave you the figures of the first quarter, we said that we foresaw that in this year the drop, the decrease, would not exceed two digits, but it has. It has. It’s 12.6% as compared to the previous year, the drop in EBITDA of the business. Now, in the same period — the reasons are clear; you know them, we could not imagine what would happen. We’ve dropped by 12.6%. But Brent has dropped by 50% in the same period, National Balance Point has dropped by 21% and the Henry Hub by 35%. Now, these factors have been very much concentrated in the third and fourth quarters, and that explains why we’ve not been able to comply with this desire of not exceeding or reaching two digits and we’ve even gone above it — slightly above it. And this has been due to the enormous volatility of general energy prices, as I have explained when I’ve presented these changes between — when we compare 2014 and 2015. If we look at the net income, we’ve grown by 2.7%, and here you have the big items that explain and account for this increase of 2.7%. Firstly, we have the provision — the impairment of our investments last year, in Union Fenosa Gas mainly, €458 million, and also the positive effect of the fiscal reform, which produced €325 million last year which is not — that amount is not there this year. And then the values obtained as a result of disinvesting in telecommunications, €185 million, what we got back from that. So next we’ve got to consider that the consolidation perimeter, mainly the investment in Chile and the disinvestment in telecommunications, has produced a net amount of €47 million. And the activity of the Company without bearing in mind these phenomena has increased the profit after taxes by €45 million. That simplifies the results. Now, if we do the same in terms of cash flow of the holding and the situation of the debt, we have to highlight the cash flow is very relevant, has been very relevant, very positive in 2015, and it has allowed us to have the debt to EBITDA ratio at 3 in spite of the significant investment last year when we bought CGE. The generated FFO is €3,575 million, 25% more than the previous year, and that has allowed us to invest up to a total of €1,560 million, pay €1,070 million in dividends and have a free cash flow of more than €900 million. The graph also explains the impact of €315 million deriving from the restatement of the financial data of the discontinuation of the business in Chile. So the debt has gone down by 7.6% and we have a debt to EBITDA ratio of 3. That means €15,648 million. If we look at our investments, you see on the left total investments, €1,767 million, and on the right you see the evolution of investments, net tangible and intangible investments. On the left you see 79% of investments have been in distribution and networks. It’s important to point out that on the right you see that the situation — the Company has invested, including the investment of CGE, up to a value of €6,987 million, which is an average annual amount of €2,200 million. We have continued with our activities. We’ve disinvested in telecommunications and Begasa and we’ve incorporated KIA, a strategic partner, to Global Power Generation, with a contribution of $550m. At the end of the last financial year, we acquired 8.3% of the capital of Metrogas, and then there’s the thing of the discontinuity of the GLP business in Chile. We came to an agreement with the shareholders of Gasco to divide the company into two parts, the gas business which will be incorporated into our Company and the GLP business which is going to be discontinued. Now, in the long term, what can we say about the last few years? Well, the financial discipline and the robustness of our business are noteworthy. We have had clear financial robustness. We not only complied with quantitative profit and EBITDA targets in our strategic plan, but in addition we managed to grow, acquiring the Chilean company for €4.3 billion. And all of this has been done compliant with the borrowing levels that we had set ourselves. So we have a good distribution, a good geographical distribution, and our credit indicators are really very robust, with a flow per operation that’s really noteworthy and an average cost of debt of 4.5%. Now, to conclude, let me tell you that we are satisfied that our balanced business model has made it possible for us to circumvent the difficulties that we have had in the businesses indirectly related to the macro variables of the energy sector and energy commodities. We have been able to comply with our growth targets in terms of EBITDA and profit after tax. Our business model has also been strengthened and our dividend has also been very good. That’s the reason why we believe that the Company’s efforts should be appreciated, and of course they will be seen in our new business plan which will be presented to you in May. So this is all I wanted to say. The more detailed figures can be found in the presentation. And now I’m at your entire disposal in case you have any questions. Question-and-Answer Session A – Luis Calvo So let’s start with the Q&A session, starting by the questions from the floor here. Before you ask your question, please identify yourself. The first question is going to be asked by Fernando. Fernando Garcia Hello. I come from MainFirst and I have three questions. The first one, I would like to ask your guidance in terms of the new commodity situation and the world growth. Because the previous guidance was based upon compensating for the fall in margins with volume, but what is your take on this now? And the second question is I would like some detail on the hedging for generation prices in Spain for 2016. And in terms of the commodity impact, you’ve given us the impact in terms of EBITDA, but could you please give us the impact on the net profit? And what do you think is going to be the impact on the different currencies for the net profit of 2016, taking into account the current commodity situation? Thank you. Rafael Villaseca Well, we have said this on several occasions. We don’t give guidance figures for current financial years, but we can make a few comments about what our take on things is. This year, our main activity is going to be focused on the organic growth of our core activities, basically the networks. In terms of gas distribution, at a world level we believe that increase in supply points will be around 770,000 and in Spain the figure will be around 300,000, justified by the acquisition of the supply points of GLP and Repsol. In Chile we also expect to grow by 150,000, and Colombia 120,000. Also, tariff reviews have positively started in Mexico and we hope that the period until 2020 will close positively in terms of electricity distribution, but will grow significantly in Latin America. In Colombia we expect to make investments to improve the network and reduce our losses. In terms of the electrical business, we will enjoy a full year for Torito and Gecalsa. And in terms of gas distribution, we believe that there’s going to be an increase of 6%. We will also have two new methane vessels, which will help us mobilize early gas quantities coming from Cheniere. And as you know, these quantities are going to be smaller and there’s a certain delay. So this year, the impact is not going to be too significant. The contract really starts next year. Now, in terms of growth investments, we believe that they will be around €2 billion, basically focused on the network business, as I said before. This is going to be a challenging year, there’s no doubt about that, because of the commodity situation and also because of the exchange rates, because as I said, the fluctuations of the U.S. dollar are not compensating for the falls in the Brent price. So things are behaving in a different way from what used to be the case, and this is a factor that needs to be considered. And we also need to consider the situation of demand. In January, demand in Spain did not really start off very promisingly. Red Electrica already said that the demand in Spain fell by about 5%. So we need to see how things evolve in the rest of the year. So it’s a challenging year. We will have two face up to the volatility of demand, and we will also have to tackle the exchange rate and the commodity situation. These are things that are outside our control, but we’ll try to manage them as efficiently as possible. Carlos Alvarez Well, we don’t do hedging, financial hedging. We have a hedging called natural hedging and through two formulae. First one, the volumes sold in our wholesale and retail markets and part of the gas that we are burning in our combined cycles has a certain index for the majority pool. So with those two formulae, we obtain a hedging of almost 100% of the volumes generated, but we don’t act on the hedging markets in an artificial way. Regarding your third question, we don’t have a detail of BDI per business. We just give information about EBIT. But to give you some indication, to answer your question at least partially, most countries where there is exchange rate differences, we have minorities, because — well, even including U.S. dollars for NPL, except for the cycles in Mexico, which is also U.S. dollar. In the other countries, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, etc., there’s minorities and so the bottom line effect is lower, so the impact of exchange rate differences for the whole of the Group is lower. So, in other words, the effect — the U.S. effect for combined cycles is slightly higher. Luis Calvo Any further questions from the floor? Yes, Alejandro? Alejandra Vigil Hello. Good morning. Alejandra Vigil from Cygnus Asset Management. I have two questions. One of them is again on GNL, or LNG. Well, the growth in volumes cannot be compensated for with a fall in margins. This year we have witnessed a fall of 14%. Now, what do you expect the figure to be for 2016 in terms of the fall of unit margins? And the second question has to do with the remuneration to the shareholder. You have maintained your payout target in line with your strategic plan, but 2016 is a year in which, with the €2 billion in investment you announced, well, your debt ratio will go down. So do you expect to devote more of that cash flow to the shareholder? Are you expecting to increase your payout? Rafael Villaseca Well, one of the reasons — one of the things we are now analyzing for the strategic plan is a movement of the significant variables of the energy scenario, to decide what scenarios are going to affect our strategic plan. I would like to mention the higher volatility. The Company is doing its best to manage this situation, which is such that from January to January the fall in Brent price was 35%, and this was not mitigated by the dollar factor. And this is atypical. We need to see how things evolve in the end, and this will also affect our forecasts. In any case, it is true that the increase in volume will allow us to more positively manage this situation, but the situation is challenging. I also want to insist on the importance of all this within our earnings, 15% of the total of EBITDA. And we also need to take into account the management factors. In terms of the dividend for the next strategic plan, well, we have been as good as our word, which is what we normally do, and the Company will decide what the new policy is, if it does change it. This is a decision that has not been made. We will decide this later. But my opinion is that the company has a very powerful cash generation, and this might allow the Company, even in the current circumstances, to maintain the current dividend, although this is a decision that needs to be made by the board of directors and it has not been made. And I would like to say that the Company does have a robust generation of cash, even in the current circumstances. Luis Calvo Any further questions from the floor? Yes? Unidentified Analyst I’m sorry. Good morning. I wanted to mention three things. First of all, could you give us an update on Egypt? Number two, the financial expenditure, this 4.5%, what can we expect for 2015? Because some bonds will start falling due, so are you going to launch a transaction such as Repsol has conducted in terms of buyback? And what about the tax rate? Thank you. Rafael Villaseca Well, in terms of your first question, we are having negotiations with the Egyptian government. There are two fronts, two lines of action. The first one is the legal avenue. The Company will defend its rights, tooth and nail. The second avenue is the negotiations that we’ve had with the Egyptian government for a long time to find a positive settlement. We trust that this will happen. There have been explicit declarations of the Egyptian authorities in this regard which make us believe that there will be a positive solution. Because Egypt, the main reason why it is not honoring its obligations with us, well, they said that they couldn’t because of a lack of gas, but now the situation is changing rapidly. So we trust that in the medium term, an agreement will be reached that allows us to recover our rights in Egypt and defend our interests in that country. Carlos Alvarez Yes. What we’re doing, we are making some buybacks. Well, we really — you know that our subsidiaries in Chile had a lot of debt denominated — well, in a certain unit we generated a certain volatility in your P&L, which was hardly in agreement with the policy that Gas Natural defends. And so last year we started — we launched a plan to try and denominate all that debt in pesos, and the idea is to continue on this path gradually and in 2016, so we’re doing that. And secondly, I think that this 4.5% we have this year is the average. It has to do with the incorporation of [indiscernible], which had an EBITDA that was three times higher than ours, namely debt that was quite significant. And this raised or this led to an increase in the cost of debt that we have at a consolidated level. Next year we will reduce the figure a little, but don’t expect too big changes. We’ll be slightly below 4.5% in 2016, but just slightly below the figure. In terms of the tax rate in Spain, in 2015 the rate was 28%. In 2016 it will be 25%. And there’s also fiscal changes in other countries, so the reduction of the effective rate will not be as high as we might think. There will be a reduction, but it won’t be equal to the difference that we’re going to have in Spain, because in other countries the rate has increased rather than decreased, as it has done in Spain. Luis Calvo Any further questions from the floor? There’s no further questions from the floor. Therefore, I will read the questions that we have received through the Internet. We will start by Carolina from Morgan Stanley. She has three questions. One of them was answered already. It was about the gas margins. And the other two questions are the following. For 2017, what is the volume of gas that is already contracted? And then the second question is whether we believe that the profit for 2015 will be a historic low and whether this is going to continue in the next few years. Carlos Alvarez Well, we said this during the presentation. For 2017, we will have the Cheniere contract indexed to Henry Hub. And then there’s the recurrent activities of the Company. We have the industrial volume which keeps renewing itself, and we will have a similar portfolio. And therefore — and the same will happen in the residential market and so there’s incremental volumes. And rather than volumes we need to focus on indexing, the indexing process. When we made the presentation of the third quarter, we already said that we have already three bcms indexed to Henry Hub. So this is what to some extent allows us to keep working, and it allows us to have naturally hedged amounts, which is what really counts. And the rest is the Company’s normal activity, which is the commercial activity that we still have, especially in the main two areas in terms of volumes, namely Spain and Europe, in industrial and residential markets where we still have a share that is around 45% in Spain in terms of sales. Rafael Villaseca In terms of the question as to whether 2015 can be considered a historic low, well, I don’t think so. We will see this in the strategic plan, but there’s no doubt that some strategic scenarios could make this impossible. Reductions of 50%, as we’ve had in the macro energy market and in the currency markets, could of course affect the businesses that are more linked to these variables. Now, volatility in energy indices and in exchange rates will be a very significant factor. Having said this, I can say that this needs to be placed in the context. This would affect a significant part of the businesses, but especially the 15% devoted to the supply business, which would be heavily affected. The others would be less affected. So I just want to say that the evolution will be closely related with the macro situation, both in terms of energy indices and exchange rates. And secondly, without any doubt, there are factors to do with the business mix that are such that this could be seen not as a phenomenon that is directly related to the bottom line, because there are other businesses that are less affected. So the supply business is the most exposed one, but it only accounts for 15% of our activity. Luis Calvo The next few questions come from Manuel Palomo. Its two questions that have already been answered, so we will go on to the next analyst, Javier Suarez. He asks five questions. Three of them have been answered. And the two that still need an answer are, first of all, can you indicate the reasons why provisions have been reduced in 2015 with respect to 2014? And the second is the Chilean newspapers have said that Gas Natural is analyzing the takeover of CGE. What are your plans for restructuring your activities in Chile? Carlos Alvarez Reduction of provisions, basically, the greatest provisions we have along those lines are those for delinquency. And the most significant one is the area of Colombia, where we have a presence in the Caribbean, but the most — there’s others, but the most relevant one is the Colombian one. And here there’s been a negative effect in terms of currency, because currency differences are in our favor, thanks to the devaluation of the Colombian peso. So in constant currency, in local currency, there’s not much variation. There’s a slight reduction, but it’s at the same levels as the previous year. This is the most significant thing. Rafael Villaseca Now, with respect to Chile, this news is significant. What the Company is analyzing is the merger of CGE with Gasco, once we have divided Gas Natural off, and with Gas Natural Fenosa Chile, not with the mother company but with our company in Chile, our affiliate in Chile. So it will be a merger between these three companies, simplifying the organizational chart. It’s just a project. What is already underway is the split of Gasco into two businesses, and then we will retain the Gas Natural business. And then there will be this reshuffling process, which would not affect Gas Natural but only Gas Natural Fenosa Chile. Carlos Alvarez Yes, the three companies are three shareholding companies. Gasco has a stake in electricity distribution companies and the new Gasco, Gas Natural, has a stake in Natural Gas and GasSur, which are two independent companies. And Gas Natural Chile holds shares for the whole of Chile. So the idea is just to simplify the structure; instead of having three holding companies, have a single one. Luis Calvo Right. The next few questions come from Cosma Panzacchi from Bernstein. He is asking seven questions. Three of those have been answered already. I will read out the other four. The first one refers to the prospect, the growth — organic growth prospects versus inorganic growth prospects. And the second one, given the flat performance of networks in Europe, the negative impacts coming from Latin America which will negatively affect the networks’ growth in 2016, and given the weakness in gas sales in 2016, would it be fair to expect that the only growth in 2016 might come from inorganic options? And if not, could you clarify the range of organic growth you expect in 2016? Rafael Villaseca Well, I don’t share your viewpoint, really. The network business, and I was mentioning it during the presentation, we believe that next year there will be a growth of 770,000 supply points, of which 300,000 will be in Spain in the gas business. Now, the performance in terms of EBITDA of gas networks in 2015 does not represent any growth, because it compares with €60 million of the previous year because of regulatory reasons. In 2014, half of the year was affected by the new regulation, and 2015 was affected, the whole year, by the new regulation, but now we have incorporated the one shot to our results basis. We still believe that the growth of gasification in Spain is going to give us vegetative growth. We expect the same from Mexico and the same for Colombia. The growth in Latin America will come from the translation of currencies, depending on how currencies perform. So we believe that that, plus the review of tariffs which are already happening and which incorporate the inflation and exchange rate effects, will still allow us to grow our networks especially. As I was saying before, growth in 2016 will come from organic growth, as I already said. Luis Calvo Okay. The second question is about gas margins. The LNG of the United States seems not to be competitive, if you compare it with the current prices in Europe, for spot prices or prices linked to oil. And you also said that buyers of — European buyers of LNG in the United States wish to enter into long-term contracts and so they would be willing to pay a premium. Would that premium be around 10% to 15% above the hub prices? Rafael Villaseca Well, in the first place, let me tell you that we don’t believe that the situation is exactly like that. If you think about 2017, of the 4.5 bcms that we will be buying related to Henry Hub, 3 bcms have already been sold, linked to Henry Hub, and we believe that the others will be managed appropriately. So we don’t expect a negative situation with respect to those volumes. In any case, and in a more strategic manner, we observe that the North American natural gas market in the first place, given the adjustment that has occurred because of the price falls and because of the applications of efficiencies of American producers, has adjusted to price levels that are low and stable, and they will stay low and stable for a long time. We don’t expect increases in the Henry Hub figure. We believe that — like other analysts, we also believe that the efficiencies of the sector and the structures — the efficiencies have been adapted to the current situation and the prices will remain low. And then there’s Brent linked prices, and we believe that at some point they will have to slowly go up. It might be a moderate rise, but in the medium term we believe that North American gas, and there’s going to be 8 bcms in that market and so it will have a significant weight, so it will become competitive in general terms. Now, specifically as far as we are concerned, we have been striving to mitigate this effect for quite a long time already. Luis Calvo The next question from Cosma Panzacchi. The third quarter, we were told that two-thirds of the contract of Sabine Pass/Cheniere contract had been finalized. What about the third part of that contract? Rafael Villaseca Well, we’re negotiating it. We’re in negotiations. We’re working on many of our portfolios. They don’t just have one index. They have several indexes for a lot of our customer portfolios. So we’re convinced that we will be able to manage that issue for 2017 reasonably well. Luis Calvo And the final question. Could you give us an indication as to the status of the reform of gas regulation in Chile? Rafael Villaseca The reform of gas in Chile is undergoing — is going through Parliament. It’s got to go to the Senate, the proposal. It was published at the end of December. We published this. We said that we had important meetings in Santiago de Chile with the Minister for Energy and President Bachelet to present to her our expansion plan in Chile, in accordance with the policies of the Chilean government to intensify the gasification of the country. As a result of that, we were very well received by the authorities, and we are convinced that the law that will be finally approved by Chilean Parliament will intensify and accelerate the gasification of the country. We are convinced as a result of those meetings, and also because it’s a basic energy policy in Chile to gasify the country. And even more, because last week there was news — in the news we saw that the ministers of Chile and Argentina have agreed to supply Argentina with gas through Chile, which will strengthen even more the determination of the Chilean government to gasify their country. So as a result of this, we have high hopes and we’re launching all our investment plans, of course pending the final approval of the law. But we’re convinced that it will be a good law and will incentivate gasification of the country. Luis Calvo Good. The next question is from Martin Young, Canada. One of these questions has been replied to. The second one is what conversations have you had with the supervisor as regards shareholders? Rafael Villaseca Well, we haven’t had any conversations. That’s an issue of Repsol. We don’t have much to say about that. Luis Calvo Ivan Martin [ph] has asked a question that’s already been answered. Franco from Merrill Lynch Bank of America has asked four questions. Three of them have been answered. The final one is would you be open to considering a sell/buyback operation? How do you think this could affect your ability to increase your purchases? Rafael Villaseca No, we have not considered an operation like that. Luis Calvo The next question is from Borja Pagoaga from La Caixa. And he asks, considering the political regulatory risk that exists, have you considered the possibility of a social bonus within the gas business to protect deprived families? Rafael Villaseca Well, we don’t — we haven’t envisaged this. In the gas business, it’s very different from the electric business. Most of the cost of what we sell has to do with supply so it doesn’t really make sense, as it would in the electric market, for the distributor to carry that cost. I don’t think that’s in line with the EU regulations. Social support’s all very well, but has to be channeled through other routes. Luis Calvo Javier Garrido asks a question that has been answered already. And to finish, we have two questions from Fernando Lafuente from N+1. He says could you give us more details about the margin for electric trading in Spain? There’s been a drop in 2015. Why has that been? The second question is, when you’ve explained the supply details of the gas business, you haven’t included the effect of the exchange rate. Why? Because most of these costs are in dollars; there should have been a positive impact and it should have been finally more negative for the activity. Carlos Alvarez I’ll answer the second question first. When we talk about exchange rate, we’ve said it several times, and its effects on the P&L account, we only refer to the exchange rates that have to do with the translation from non-euro currencies to euro currencies in the consolidation process. That’s the only effect that we contemplate and envisage in the slide. The other effect, the dollar, within the gas business or the electricity business, is part of — it’s like a commodity. It’s part of the exchange rate commodity. And we’ve repeated it several times, not just today but — just now but during the presentation, it’s on the slides, one of the mitigating factors in 2015 that has allowed the drop in the energy commodities, basically, it hasn’t had such a relevant effect because of the reverse correlation in 2015 between these currencies and the dollar. That’s in the presentation and it’s on the graphs; in the third-quarter presentation too, it was. There’s a bullet point there. And that is the situation that has helped us. Another, different matter is, as the CEO has said, that in January we say — we can see that at this time this is not the situation. The commodities are dropping, Brent and what have you, and the dollar, however, is more or less similar to what it was before. So that would be the explanation. As regards the first question, I think that there’s a bit of everything there. But to summarize, the margin as a whole is lower in electricity than the previous year. There’s a bit of a mix. The hydraulic component this year has been lower than the hydraulic part the previous year. Coal has been higher than the previous year. So that makes the generation cost as a whole slightly higher than the previous year. If we add that in 2014, especially in the first half, that year benefited from better margins especially in trading, because prices had been low. Contracted prices had been low and pool prices were high, and that allowed for margins that are not possible now because the scenario is different. So that series of — that mix of effects has led to a situation where electricity this year has produced slightly less money than the previous year. Luis Calvo Good. Well, thank you. There are no more questions, so we are going to finish this session. I’ll pass the floor to our CEO, Mr. Rafael Villaseca, for him to close the meeting. Rafael Villaseca Well, thank you. 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