Mauricio Gutierrez
Analyst · Goldman Sachs. Your line is open
Thank you, Kevin and good morning, everyone. And thank you for your interest in NRG. I'm joined this morning by Kirk Andrews, our Chief Financial Officer. Also on the call and available for questions we have Elizabeth Killinger, Head of our Retail Mass business and Chris Moser, Head of our Operations. This earnings call marks the four year anniversary since we started a new direction for NRG. We have accomplished many things together. We refocus and streamline our business to better serve our customers. We significantly reduced our total debt and strengthened our balance sheet which is now on a path to an investment grade rating. We provided discipline and transparency on how we invest our capital and most importantly we have done it the right way for our employees and our stakeholders. The company has never been stronger or with a brighter future than it is today. I'd like to start by highlighting the key messages for the quarter on a slide 3. First our integrated business delivered EBITDA in line with our 2019 expectations during a period of volatile market conditions further validating the benefits of integration between retail and wholesale. As such we're also reaffirming 2020 guidance. Second we have a comprehensive sustainability framework with industry leading carbon reduction goals. Given that I view these frameworks as foundational to our business and an integral part of our long term strategy I will provide additional details later in the presentation. And third we continue to execute our capital allocation strategy by adhering to our principles and our commitment to being excellence towards shareholder capital. Moving to the business of financial highlights on Slide 4. Beginning with our 2019 scorecard on the left hand side of the slide we executed well on all our priorities. We delivered a strong financial and operational results despite challenging market conditions during the summer. We also had our best safety year ever marking these the second back to back years of record performance Congratulations to all my colleagues for this remarkable accomplishment. With respect to our transformation plan, we deliver on our goals. We have now completed over 90% of the plan with all cost savings on working capital completed and $80 million of additional margin enhancement remaining to be achieved in 2020. After two years of focusing on rightsizing the business and strengthening our balance sheet, in 2019, we focused on perfecting our integrated business. We signed 1.6 gigawatts of medium term solar PPAs in (inaudible) returned our Gregory plant to service ahead of the summer and acquired Stream Energy adding important capabilities to our retail portfolio. We also announced the acceleration of our science based carbon reduction goals to align with guidance from the new intergovernmental panel on climate change to limit global warming to 1.5 degree Celsius so as to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Finally, we continue to add year to our capital allocation principles and provided additional transparency into our long term capital allocation plan. In 2019, we returned approximately $1.5 billion to shareholders through share repurchases and dividend. We also announced the increase of the dividend from $0.12 per share to a $1.20 per share with the first payment made in the first quarter of 2020. During the fourth quarter, we received an upgrade from Moody’s with a positive outlook moving us closer to our goal of a solid investment grade rating. On the right hand side of this slide, similar to how we have presented the financials throughout the year, EBITDA is shown on a same store basis adjusted for asset sales and deconsolidations. We ended the year with $1.977 billion of EBITDA or 24% higher than last year. While we deliver on EBITDA, our free cash flow came in the large expected range due to timing issues with Kirk which Kirk will address in greater detail later in the presentation. On the next two slides, I want to talk to you about our comprehensive sustainability framework. It is one that expands across our business from operations on employees to customers and suppliers. Sustainability is embedded in our culture aligned with our strategy and necessary for our long-term success. Beginning on slide 5, our sustainability philosophy is guided by three core principles: accountability, transparency and engagement. So let me start with accountability. Good intentions are just not enough. We need goals that are clear and measurable. We have a few examples in this slide including safety, environmental responsibility and our commitment to inclusion and diversity. You have heard me say this before, safety is our number one priority. We measure and report our safety performance every quarter and we hold ourselves accountable to top (inaudible) performance. In this way we’re able to take corrective actions to improve our performance in the areas where we fall below our standards. Like safety we have many other goals across our business that measure not just what we do but how we do it including our carbon reduction goals which I will address in more detail in the next slide. Measurable goals are important. But we also need to communicate our progress in a clear and transparent way. We do this every year with the release of our sustainability report. We were the first and only company in our sector to comply with the sustainability Accounting Standards Board or SASB back in 2016. We were one of the first companies to publicly commit to the task force on climate related financial disclosures or TCFD. And recently we were awarded a leadership level across all three Carbon Disclosure projects or CVP programs on climate risk water security and supply chain engagement. Finally we are committed to engaging and investing in the communities where we live and do business from major cities with large concentrations of customers to smaller communities that are home to our power plants and employees. In 2019 alone we donated to almost 700 organizations. But we aren’t just focused on monetary donations. We're also investing our time in the communities with over 11,000 volunteer hours my our employees across 264 organizations. We also participate with organizations like CECP where we presented our sustainability framework and long term strategy to investors. This engagement is something that makes us very proud and defines us as a company. Now let me turn to Slide 6. I want to talk to you about our decarbonization efforts as we transition our business away from traditional generation and closer to the retail customer. In September of last year we accelerated our carbon reduction goals to confirm with a 1.5 degree trajectory. This means reducing our carbon emissions 50% by 2025 and to be net zero by 2050. These goals are some of the most ambitious in the sector and we're proud with the progress that we have made to date. We are already 83% of the way to our 2025 goal with clear line of sight to achieve it with our current portfolio. Although our baseline is 2014, we have been decarbonizing our fleet since 2010 as you can see on the left hand side of the slide. We have reduced our carbon emissions by 40 million metric tons in just the last 10 years. That is the equivalent of taking 9 million cars off the road every year. As you can see, our actions move the needle. We will continue to share our progress and plans in the months to come. From an earnings perspective, as we progress towards decarbonization, cogeneration is contributing less and less to our earnings. Moving to the right side of the slide, in just the last six years coal as a percentage of our total revenues has decreased 55% and that is inclusive of capacity revenues. This is an important distinction as energy revenues have been the bulk of the decline and our coal assets in the east now act primarily as insurance for grid reliability and not for electric generation. Finally, sustainability is an integral part of our culture and incorporated in our strategic decisions. We continue to take concrete actions to limit our own carbon footprint while also providing customers with cleaner energy choices such as electricity plants from renewable resources. I look forward to updating you on our progress in the future and be on the lookout for the release of our annual sustainability report in early May. Now turning to slide 7, I want to provide you a brief update on our core markets. Beginning on the left side of the slide, as you can see on the chart electric demand in ERCOT continues to grow at the fastest pace in the nation between 2% and 3% per year for the foreseeable future. Now as you all know the direct result of this robust (inaudible) growth is a record-high supply and demand balance for reserve margin. This requires a tremendous amount of generation investments simply to maintain the current low reserve margin. As a large participant in the market we are looking to facilitate solid new builds to improve reliability and rebalance our portfolio by entering into medium term PPAs. These PPAs enabled the developers to obtain cost effective financing and tax equity to economically develop the project. And for us they complement our generation profile, lower our cost structure and allows us to better serve our customers. From an overall market perspective, we expect ERCOT to remain tight and volatile for the foreseeable future. Our integrated platform is well-positioned to thrive during this volatile and emerging renewable build cycle. Moving to the right side of the slide, we are seeing steady progress in all of our core markets with FERC ISOs addressing the current market design and adapting it to the evolved grade of the future. While progress has not been perfect we support efforts that create durable markets that benefit consumers and foster the transition to a cleaner and sustainable energy future. In ERCOT regulators continue to refine our scarcity pricing mechanism to incentivize new generation which is predominantly renewable and intermittent while adequately compensating existing resources that provide firm generation. In the East FERC issued a ruling on the PJM capacity market proceeding which resulted from its finding that current market design is unjust and unreasonable. This ruling seeks to correctly account for resources that receive state subsidies particularly out of markets nuclear subsidies that stifle development of renewable energy and distorts the integrity of competitive markets. This ruling is just the most recent in a series of market reforms that PJM and FERC have undertaken since 2004 to protect the integrity of competitive markets. Moving to capital allocation on slide 8. You can see that our track record is directly in line with our roadmap to value creation of stabilize rightsize and now redefine our company. During 2019 we achieved our investment grade credit metric target. We announced the highly accretive stream retail transaction and closed it within three months. And in line with my commitment to returning capital, we increased our dividend tenfold and executed $1.44 billion in share repurchases. For our 2020 capital allocation plan, we are already executing. We paid our first dividend under our recently announced a $1.20 per share with 7% to 9% annual growth dividend policy. We have already begun executing share repurchases under our current $400 million share buyback program consistent with a 50% return of capital commitment. And like in 2019 and every year since I took over as CEO, you can expect disciplined and timely allocation of our excess on permitted capital as we earn it throughout the year. Last, I want to remind everyone about our capital allocation framework on the right side of the slide. As you can see on the waterfall, we remain committed to maintaining top docile safety and operational excellence. We will continue to have a strong balance sheet having now achieved investment grade credit metrics. And last quarter we provided enhanced visibility into our long term capital return philosophy at least 50% will be return through our mix of dividends and share repurchases. For the other 50%, we remain committed to our growth investment criteria which must meet or exceed our financial professionals and be consistent with our core strategy or it will be returned to shareholders. Now given that the seasonality of our cash flows and liquidity ultimately in form capital allocation, it is my intention for the 50% return of capital to be allocated more programmatically with a dividend paid quarterly and share repurchases throughout the year. At the risk of being redundant, as we have consistently said on nearly every earnings call and every meeting, we are committed to being prudent allocators of shareholder capital. We will continue to demonstrate our discipline by every year into our stated principles and allocate capital to opportunities that maximizes long term value for your investment. That's our mindset. So with that, I will turn it over to Kirk for the financial review.