Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (NYSE:AQN) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Arun Banskota: Beyond the outside date, we have actually done all of the planning necessary to be able to close. So that is not a constraint. As you know, we put in the new two or three in February. So we are as always have been using reasonable best efforts, and we continue to use reasonable best efforts right up to the outside date. And beyond that, there is — it would not be prudent for me to speculate on timing, inside date — outside date. So I will leave it at that for now.

Dariusz Lozny: Okay. Great. Thank you for that color. And maybe just one other one on your 2023 EPS guidance. Obviously, when you guys came out with that in January, there were some embedded assumptions in there about your interest expense. And obviously, we’ve seen some volatility in the rate market since then. Can you maybe — are you in a position to comment at all about as far as where you’re tracking in that $0.55 to $0.61 band, specifically related to that interest expense component?

Darren Myers: Hi, Dariusz. I mean, really, I mean, as you said, there’s a lot of volatility, obviously going on right now. We’re very comfortable still $0.55 to $0.61. So we reiterated that guidance. And I would say that everything is all in all, where we would have been during the last update, which in January that we gave in the investment community.

Dariusz Lozny: Okay, great. Thank you for that color. I’ll leave it here.

Operator: Our next question is from David Quezada with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

David Quezada: Thanks. Morning, everyone. Maybe I’ll start with one on the ’23 capital plan. Curious if Kentucky Power doesn’t go through do you think that you could add some projects back into the plan? Or would affordability on the regulated side, still limit the investments there, consistent with your comments, maybe are there some renewable projects that could go back in? Just any thoughts on that scenario?

Arun Banskota: Sure, David. So on our $1 billion program, as I said before, that includes Kentucky Power in our base case, which we provided color to you at our January 12 update. And as we’ve discussed before, we certainly have a lot more growth opportunities on both the regulated side of the business and the renewable side of the business. So I don’t want to speculate on what happens, but we have lots of options to deploy capital, but we’ll obviously be looking at it from customer affordability, our own capital intensity requirements, funding requirements and all of those factors.

David Quezada: Okay. Excellent. Thanks for that. And maybe just a follow-up on the — or maybe just a clarification on the asset sales. Is it fair to say that, I guess, you’re still potentially looking at other asset builds outside of Atlantica and you don’t need to wait for an outcome on the Atlantica process in order to be having conversations with respect to potential other asset sales?

Arun Banskota: We are comfortable with our $1 billion asset sales that we announced in January. And again, like I said, we have lots of options to get to that $1 billion range. We are deep in the planning stages, and we will certainly let our investor community know with time.

David Quezada: Thanks for that Arun. I’ll turn it over.

Operator: Our next question is from Nelson Ng with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Nelson Ng: Thanks. Just a quick follow-up question on interest rates. So I think with the sale of assets in Q4, it looks like you reduced your floating interest rate exposure a bit. Can you talk about how you’re looking to manage your floating interest rate exposure going forward? And I presume the plan is still unchanged in terms of if you close Kentucky Power, you’ll be drawing down on your floating credit facility?