Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure plc (NASDAQ:AY) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Santiago Seage: So I’ll give you a quick answer and Francisco can complement if needed. As we all know, assets are regulated and therefore, whatever short-term changes happen have no impact. This year, what we have seen is market power prices are lower than last year in Europe and regulation has been adjusted accordingly, and increased the payments we received. That’s why bottom line, the impact there in the full year should not be material. And obviously, from a value point of view, there should be no impact because at the end of the day, regulation complements whatever revenues you are making in the market, plus, in our case, in the solar assets we have in Spain, market revenues are a much smaller part than the regulated payments we will receive.

Very different from other technologies like wind, where market revenues are more important. In our case, most of our revenues are coming from regulation. So nothing material there. If you want more detail, I’m sure Francisco and Investor Relations will be able to help you there.

David Quezada: Excellent, thank you.

Operator: Thank you. The next question today comes from the line of Agnieszka Storozynski from Seaport. Please go ahead, Angie. Your line is now open.

Agnieszka Storozynski: Good morning. So I might have missed it, but did you guys comment on where we are at your strategic review process, has there been any change in the direction of this review given changes that are happening at your majority owner and rising interest rates? Thanks.

Santiago Seage: Thank you, Angie and good morning. So I don’t have — we don’t have any update regarding the strategic review and that continues the review is ongoing, and there’s not much I can add there.

Agnieszka Storozynski: Okay. And just moving on, you talked about the recent regulatory changes in Spain. When I look at your portfolio of assets, you have tariff resets in 2026 and then 2032. I’m just wondering, when you look at the current CAFD or EBITDA of these assets, would you actually expect that level to be sustained following those future resets? Again, I think we all know the formula, but just wondering what your take is currently?

Santiago Seage: So probably my best answer would be, as you rightly pointed out, more or less half of our revenues will be reviewed in early 2026. The other half would be reviewed in early 2032. So I would say that that review is still too far away to be able to make lots of predictions. As you know, that review is based on a calculation by the regulator, where they try to estimate simplifying a lot the cost of capital of the industry. And therefore, I think that the answer to your question is going to depend on what happened with some of the macro variables in the next few years. We would not expect anything significant there. But depending on what happens, again, with the variables you use to calculate a WAC [ph] the answer might be slightly different.

Agnieszka Storozynski: That’s all I have, thank you.

Santiago Seage: Thank you Angie.

Operator: Thank you. The next question today is from the line of Nelson Ng from RBC Capital Markets. Nelson, please go ahead. Your line is now open.

Nelson Ng: Great, thanks and good morning everyone. So on your developments, I just want to ask about the potential cost pressures, labor and supply chain dynamics. So you have projects in both North and South America. Obviously, the U.S. labor market is pretty tight. But can you just comment on how you’re managing the — I guess, the labor market dynamics in the U.S. in terms of the Coso Battery development? And then can you also comment on the labor markets in South America?