Barry Perry
Analyst · TD Securities. Your line is open
Good morning, everyone. This year remains a very active one for Fortis as we continue to build on our track record of performance and execution delivering strong results across all meaningful financial and operational measures. At the same time, we have made significant progress towards completing the acquisition of ITC, which remains on track to close by year end. Fortis has $29 billion of assets virtually all of which are regulated. Our model of having a low risk, highly diversified utility business where each utility is run autonomously by experienced and local management team, continues to be a competitive advantage for us. This model supports our growth strategy, which is a simple one. We want to leverage the footprint of our utilities, operating expertise as well as a reputation and financial strength to develop opportunities and that’s exactly what we are doing. Across the business, we have invested, managed and advanced key projects to drive growth in our portfolio, including targeting additional energy infrastructure. Our $9.3 billion, 5-year capital plan remains on track and we expect to invest $1.9 billion this year. We have a history of outperformance and capital investment relative to our plan, so we would expect the numbers in the outer years to climb as we have more visibility in future capital projects. Our capital program is largely focused on transmission and distribution across our utilities and is reflective of our ongoing capital needs in each business to continue to provide safe, reliable and cost effective energy service to our customers. Excluding ITC, we expect our 2016 midyear rate base to be $17.3 billion and to exceed $20 billion by 2020 growing at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 4.5%. We have a low risk, highly executable capital plan and we continue to have success in bringing major projects in on time and on budget. In the second quarter, Caribbean utilities completed its 39.7 megawatt generation expansion project on schedule and below budget for a total cost of $79 million. At the same time, our lower mainland system upgrade at FortisBC Energy progressed. The project addresses system capacity and pipeline condition for the gas supply system in the lower mainland area of British Columbia. With a total capital cost of more than $400 million, we have invested $26 million to-date. This upgrade is expected to be completed in 2018. Construction continues on the Tilbury LNG facility expansion in British Columbia. It is our largest ongoing capital project with an estimated cost of $440 million. We have invested $368 million to-date. We had expected the in-service date to be the end of this year, but it has been pushed back slightly into the first quarter of 2017. The slight delay will not impact the total project cost or any customer commitments related to LNG delivery from the facility. An important factor in our continued growth is finding incremental investments in our existing franchises and I want to update you on the progress we are making here. Our recent acquisition of Aitken Creek is a great example of this strategy and action. This transaction closed on April 1 and contributed $4 million in earnings this quarter. Purchased for $266 million, Aitken Creek is an integral part of the Western Canada’s natural gas transmission network and is the only underground gas storage facility in British Columbia. This acquisition is the right fit for us both operationally and strategically and positions us well to further expand our gas infrastructure in British Columbia. It is also uniquely positioned to benefit from the development of proposed LNG export projects, where it could provide balancing services to suppliers and LNG exporters. The proposed pipeline expansion project for Woodfibre LNG continues to progress. FortisBC Energy received environmental approval from the Squamish First Nation during the second quarter. The Woodfibre LNG project itself has also achieved significant milestones, including signing a heads-up agreement for the uptake of 1 million tons per year of LNG for 25 years starting in 2020. Woodfibre LNG is targeting a final investment decision by the end of 2016. As a reminder, this project is approximately $600 million and is not currently reflected in our base capital plan. We continue to see the potential of further expansion at our Tilbury facility. In May, we announced the 20-year take-or-pay fuel service agreement with Hawaiian Electric. This agreement had a number of conditions, including the approval of the proposed merger between HECO and NextEra. Earlier this month, the Hawaiian state regulator denied the merger and HECO has terminated our agreement. Notwithstanding this setback, the further Tilbury LNG expansion remains an important opportunity for Fortis and we remain optimistic about further developments at the site. The New York Transco project continues to advance with FERC approving rates early this year and three projects being placed in service during the second quarter. Fortis grows both organically and by acquisition and has successfully executed several key acquisitions since 2004. These acquisitions complement and diversify our portfolio, expand our rate base and reduce overall regulatory risk. The acquisition of ITC is another great example of our acquisition strategy in action. As the largest independent fully regulated electric transmission utility in the U.S., the acquisition of ITC is a singular opportunity to diversify our business in terms of regulatory jurisdiction, business risk profile and regional economic mix. ITC reported its second quarter results yesterday and they continue to demonstrate strong financial and operational performance, including operating earnings of $0.58 per diluted common share for the quarter, capital investment of approximately $375 million for the first half of the year and rate base and construction work in progress of $5.7 billion. We continue to expect the deal to be nicely accretive in 2017. The strength and breadth of this business combination provides the expertise and financial capacity to further capitalize on investment opportunities in our franchise regions and the scale to grow our business further. Let me remind you of the scale of the business combination of Fortis and ITC. Enterprise value was approximately $42 billion and our 2017 combined capital expenditures are expected to be approximately $2.9 billion and our 2017 midyear rate base is expected to be about $26 billion. Turning to milestones and timelines, we continue to expect that the ITC transaction will close by the end of the year and we have made significant progress in this regard. To-date, we have received the necessary regulatory approvals from both Fortis and ITC shareholders, secured the minority investment in ITC with GIC and have filed all regulatory applications. We are working closely with the regulators to advance these regulatory dockets. Additionally, we completed our registration with the SEC, obtained approval to list our shares on the New York Stock Exchange and received approval from the committee on foreign investment in the U.S. for the transaction. In the second half of the year, we will continue to advance the process for closing the transaction, including securing permanent long-term debt financing and working to obtain the necessary state and federal approvals. I am proud of the team, both Fortis and ITC and the tremendous progress we have made in the last 6 months. To wrap up, we are well-positioned for sustained growth. Our business is in excellent shape. It’s very low risk and well diversified. We expect continued growth in our business in 2016 and results in 2017 will benefit from the expected outcome of the TEB general rate case, the impact of ITC and the continued growth of our underlying business. We have the financial strength and flexibility to maintain predictable dividend growth. Our track record for dividend growth, the best of any public company in Canada at 42 consecutive years, is expected to continue with 6% average annual dividend growth through 2020. We expect long-term value creation from the execution of our capital plan, the balance and strength of our diversified portfolio of businesses as well as growth opportunities from additional infrastructure investment beyond our base plan. Karl?