Atlantic Power Corporation Releases Fourth Quarter and Year End 2016 Results

Financial Results

Three Months Ended December 31, 2016

The primary operational factors that affected the Company's results for the fourth quarter of 2016 included lower water flows at Curtis Palmer, lower waste heat at the Company's Ontario plants, a scheduled maintenance outage at Oxnard, turbine maintenance expense at Kapuskasing and North Bay and severance cost at Kapuskasing, North Bay and Nipigon.  These negative drivers were partially offset by higher water flows at Mamquam. 

Net loss attributable to Atlantic Power Corporation for the fourth quarter of 2016 of $(6.6) million included a $1.2 million non-cash impairment of the remaining goodwill at Moresby Lake and a $12.7 million charge for the non-cash accelerated amortization of intangible assets related to the PPAs at Kapuskasing and North Bay, which were terminated early as described in the Company's January 9, 2017 press release.  Net loss for the fourth quarter of 2015 of $(88.6) million included a $127.8 million non-cash impairment of long-lived assets and goodwill, primarily at Williams Lake.  The $82.0 million reduction in net loss in 2016 was primarily attributable to the reduction in impairment expense and an increase in the fair value of derivative instruments, partially offset by higher amortization expense, a reduction in largely unrealized foreign exchange gain, lower income tax benefit and the operational factors described previously.      

Project income for the fourth quarter of 2016 was $13.3 million versus project loss for the year-ago period of $(104.3) million.  The $117.6 million improvement from project loss in 2015 to project income in 2016 was primarily attributable to lower impairment expense and an increase in the fair value of derivative instruments as described previously, partially offset by higher amortization expense and the operational factors described previously. 

Project Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2016 was $42.3 million, a decline of $8.1 million from $50.4 million in the year-ago period.  Primary contributors to the decline were a $3.3 million reduction at Curtis Palmer due to lower water flows; a $5.0 million decrease at Kapuskasing and North Bay due to lower waste heat, turbine maintenance expense, and severance expense; and a $2.2 million decrease at Oxnard due to the scheduled maintenance outage.  Results for Kapuskasing, Nipigon and North Bay included $1.1 million of severance expense related to the revised operational status of and contractual arrangements for these plants announced in the Company's January 9, 2017 press release.  These decreases were partially offset by a $2.2 million increase at Mamquam due to favorable water flows and lower maintenance expense.    

Cash provided by operating activities of $19.9 million was in line with the $19.7 million reported for the year-ago period.  Significant uses of cash provided by operating activities during the fourth quarter of 2016 included $15.0 million of term loan amortization, $3.0 million of project debt amortization and $2.1 million of preferred dividend payments.    

Year Ended December 31, 2016

The primary operational factors that affected the Company's results for the year ended December 31, 2016 included an extended planned outage at Morris in the third quarter, lower water flows at Curtis Palmer, lower waste heat and fuel price escalation at some of the Company's Ontario plants, a contractual price adjustment at Calstock, and a scheduled maintenance outage at Oxnard.  These negative drivers were partially offset by the absence of an outage at Manchief (compared to 2015) and higher water flows at Mamquam. 

Net loss attributable to Atlantic Power Corporation of $(122.4) million for the year ended December 31, 2016 increased $60.0 million from a net loss of $(62.4) million in 2015.  The increased net loss was the result of a $32.8 million non-cash write-off of deferred financing costs in the second quarter attributable to the Company's refinancing activities (included in interest expense), $12.7 million of accelerated amortization expense in the fourth quarter related to the Kapuskasing and North Bay PPAs, a $13.9 million largely unrealized foreign exchange loss as compared to a $60.3 million unrealized foreign exchange gain in 2015, and the absence of income from the discontinued Wind business ($19.5 million in 2015).  The operational factors described previously had a net negative impact.  These negative factors affecting the 2016 net loss were partially offset by reduced impairment expense ($85.9 million in 2016, mostly in the third quarter, as compared to $127.8 million in 2015) and a $22.5 million positive variance in the fair value of derivatives.  Another positive factor was that corporate general and administrative costs declined $6.8 million in 2016 from 2015. 

Project income of $10.1 million for the year compared favorably to project loss of $(41.4) million for 2015.  The 2016 result benefited from lower impairment expense as previously described, a favorable change in the fair value of derivative instruments, higher project income at Manchief, which had a scheduled maintenance overhaul in the second quarter of 2015, partially offset by lower project income at Morris, which had an extended planned outage in the third quarter of 2016, lower project income at Curtis Palmer due to lower water flows, a contractual price adjustment at Calstock, a scheduled maintenance outage at Oxnard and increased amortization expense. 

Project Adjusted EBITDA of $202.2 million for the year decreased $6.7 million from $208.9 million for 2015.  Primary contributors to the decline were a $10.1 million reduction at Morris due to lower revenues and higher maintenance expense resulting from the extended outage in 2016, a $3.3 million decrease at Curtis Palmer due to lower water flows, and a decrease of $7.6 million at the Ontario projects due to lower waste heat, fuel escalators and a contractual price adjustment at Calstock.  The stronger U.S. dollar had a negative non-cash translation impact of approximately $2.9 million, almost all of which was in the first quarter.  These negative factors were partially offset by a $7.2 million increase at Manchief, which had a major gas turbine outage in 2015, and a $6.7 million increase at Mamquam due to higher water flows.      

Cash provided by operating activities of $111.8 million increased $24.4 million from the 2015 level of $87.4 million.  The increase was primarily attributable to a $29.3 million reduction in cash interest payments due to debt repayment in 2015 and 2016 and the absence of make-whole premiums associated with the redemption of the 9.0% Senior Unsecured Notes in 2015, a $6.8 million reduction in corporate G&A expense and a positive variance in changes in working capital.  These positive drivers were partially offset by the loss of $21.9 million of operating cash flow from the Wind businesses, which were included in the 2015 result.  The $6.7 million decrease in Project Adjusted EBITDA described previously also had a negative impact on operating cash flow in 2016.  In 2016, the Company used its $111.8 million of cash provided by operating activities to amortize $96.5 million of term loan and project debt, make capital expenditures of $7.2 million and pay preferred dividends of $8.5 million.           

2017 Guidance

The Company has not provided guidance for Project income or Net income because of the difficulty of making accurate forecasts and projections without unreasonable efforts with respect to certain highly variable components of these comparable GAAP metrics, including changes in the fair value of derivative instruments and foreign exchange gains or losses.  These factors, which generally do not affect cash flow, are not included in Project Adjusted EBITDA.    

The Company has initiated guidance for 2017 Project Adjusted EBITDA in the range of $225 to $240 million.  The increase from the 2016 level of $202.2 million is primarily attributable to the expiration on December 31, 2016 of an above-market gas supply contract for two of the Company's Ontario projects.  Other positive factors include an expected full year cash return on completed optimization investments; an expected return to average water flows, particularly at Curtis Palmer and Mamquam; and revised operational and contractual arrangements for Kapuskasing and North Bay as described in the Company's January 9, 2017 press release, net of the cost of putting those plants into a non-operational status.   Morris is also expected to have a positive comparison because of the extended outage it underwent in 2016, but this is expected to be more than offset by a planned maintenance outage at Frederickson in 2017 and expenses associated with preparing Tunis for a return to service in 2018 under the new PPA. 

Table 2 provides a bridge of the Company's 2017 Project Adjusted EBITDA guidance to Cash provided by operating activities.  For purposes of providing this bridge to a cash flow measure, the impact of changes in working capital is assumed to be nil.

Liquidity and Balance Sheet

Liquidity

As shown in Table 3, the Company's liquidity at December 31, 2016 was $204.1 million, essentially unchanged from $205.1 million at September 30, 2016.  An $8.2 million reduction in the unrestricted cash balance was mostly offset by a $7.2 million increase in borrowing capacity resulting from a reduction in letters of credit outstanding.  The unrestricted cash of $85.6 million includes approximately $60 million at the parent, of which the Company considers approximately $50 million to be discretionary cash available for general corporate purposes.   

Atlantic Power Corporation
Table 3 – Liquidity (in millions of U.S. dollars)
Unaudited
		December 31, 2016			September 30, 2016
Revolver capacity		$200.0			$200.0
Letters of credit outstanding		(81.5)			(88.7) Werbung Mehr Nachrichten zur Atlantic Power Aktie kostenlos abonnieren E-Mail-Adresse Bitte überprüfe deine die E-Mail-Adresse. Benachrichtigungen von ARIVA.DE (Mit der Bestellung akzeptierst du die Datenschutzhinweise) -1 Vielen Dank, dass du dich für unseren Newsletter angemeldet hast. Du erhältst in Kürze eine E-Mail mit einem Aktivierungslink. Hinweis: ARIVA.DE veröffentlicht in dieser Rubrik Analysen, Kolumnen und Nachrichten aus verschiedenen Quellen. Die ARIVA.DE AG ist nicht verantwortlich für Inhalte, die erkennbar von Dritten in den „News“-Bereich dieser Webseite eingestellt worden sind, und macht sich diese nicht zu Eigen. Diese Inhalte sind insbesondere durch eine entsprechende „von“-Kennzeichnung unterhalb der Artikelüberschrift und/oder durch den Link „Um den vollständigen Artikel zu lesen, klicken Sie bitte hier.“ erkennbar; verantwortlich für diese Inhalte ist allein der genannte Dritte. Andere Nutzer interessierten sich auch für folgende News 08:56 - PR Newswire Samson Rock Capital LLP - Form 8.3 - Accrol Group Holdings plc 08:55 - PR Newswire Samson Rock Capital LLP - Form 8.3 - Wincanton Plc 08:18 - PR Newswire Cohen & Steers Capital Management - Form 8.3 - Tritax Big Box REIT plc SolarBank    Wie die Revolution der sauberen Energie eine solide Investitionsmöglichkeit bieten könnte weiterlesen» Anzeige wo-site-teaser-box-16755_site-teaser-box_2024-04-25_09%253A00%253A00_2024-04-26_09%253A00%253A59