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Boralex Inc. reported its second-quarter 2025 earnings, revealing a significant miss in earnings per share (EPS) compared to forecasts, while surpassing revenue expectations. The company’s EPS stood at a loss of $0.10 against a forecasted gain of $0.1264, marking a surprise of -179.11%. In contrast, revenue reached $215 million, exceeding the forecast of $207.29 million by 3.72%. Following the announcement, Boralex’s stock price declined by 5.72%, closing at $28.86, reflecting investor concerns. According to InvestingPro data, the company maintains impressive gross profit margins despite operating with a significant debt burden of $4.06 billion.
Key Takeaways
- Boralex reported an EPS loss, significantly missing forecasts.
- Revenue surpassed expectations, with an actual of $215 million.
- Stock price fell 5.72% in response to the earnings miss.
- The company continues to expand its renewable energy portfolio.
- Strong demand for renewable energy noted in key markets.
Company Performance
Boralex’s overall performance in Q2 2025 showed mixed results. While the company managed a 10% year-over-year increase in total combined production, its earnings were adversely affected by lower short-term power purchase agreement prices in France. Despite the EPS miss, Boralex continues to leverage its diversified portfolio, with significant projects underway in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
Financial Highlights
- Revenue: $215 million, up from the forecast of $207.29 million.
- EPS: -$0.10, compared to the forecast of $0.1264.
- Combined EBITDA: $145 million, down $7 million from Q2 2024.
- Available liquidity increased to $689 million from $523 million as of December 31, 2024.
Earnings vs. Forecast
Boralex’s EPS of -$0.10 fell short of the expected $0.1264, resulting in a negative surprise of 179.11%. This marks a significant deviation from previous quarters, where the company had generally aligned with market expectations. However, revenue performance was strong, with a 3.72% positive surprise.
Market Reaction
Following the earnings announcement, Boralex’s stock dropped by 5.72%, closing at $28.86. This decline reflects investor disappointment with the EPS miss, overshadowing the revenue beat. Currently trading at $42.78, the stock has shown remarkable resilience with a 54.69% return over the past year. InvestingPro analysis indicates the stock is trading at premium valuations, with a P/E ratio of 7.16 and offers an attractive dividend yield of 5.89%. For deeper insights into Boralex’s valuation metrics and growth potential, investors can access the comprehensive Pro Research Report, available exclusively on InvestingPro.
Outlook & Guidance
Looking forward, Boralex remains committed to its strategic plan targeting net-zero emissions by 2030, with a focus on organic growth and renewable energy development. The company has several projects in the pipeline, including the New York solar projects expected to be operational by 2028. InvestingPro analysts maintain a strong buy consensus with a high target of $50, suggesting potential upside. The company’s overall financial health score of 3.12 (GREAT) on InvestingPro’s proprietary rating system indicates strong fundamentals despite near-term challenges.
Executive Commentary
Bruno Guilmat, CFO, emphasized financial flexibility, stating, "We continue to develop and execute our projects in attractive markets, maintaining good financial flexibility." CEO Patrick DeCoste highlighted the importance of the U.S. market, noting, "The demand in the U.S. is still growing quickly and very important."
Risks and Challenges
- Lower power purchase agreement prices in key markets like France.
- High total debt of $4.3 billion, primarily project debt.
- Potential policy uncertainties in the U.S. affecting future projects.
- Competition in the renewable energy sector.
- Market volatility impacting stock performance.
Q&A
During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the halted hydro asset sale process, to which management responded that offers were unsatisfactory. Boralex also discussed exploring partnerships in the U.S. and potential repowering of French wind assets, indicating strategic adjustments in response to market conditions.
Full transcript - Boralex Inc (BLX) Q2 2025:
Conference Operator: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Boralex Second Quarter twenty twenty five Financial Results Conference Call. Note that all lines will be in listen only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session in which financial analysts, shareholders and investors will be invited to ask their questions by pressing star one and one on the telephone and wait for their name to be announced. If you wish to ask questions via the webcast, please type them in the question box and click submit. Please also note that today’s conference is being recorded.
For webcast participants, you can also ask questions during the conference, but they will be answered by email after the call. Finally, media representatives are invited to contact Camille LaVenture, Senior Advisor, Public Affairs and External Communications at Boralex. Her contact information is provided at the end of the quarterly press release. I would now like to turn the conference over to Colleen de Thiermont, Director, Investor Relations for Boralex. Please go ahead.
Colleen de Thiermont, Director, Investor Relations, Boralex: Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Boralex’s second quarter results conference call. On today’s call, Patrick DeCoste, our President and Chief Executive Officer, will provide an update of our business. Afterwards, Bruno Guilmat, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, will present the financial highlights of the quarter.
Then we will be available to answer your questions. During this call, we will discuss historical as well as forward looking information. When talking about the future, there are a variety of risk factors that have been listed in our different filings, which can materially change our estimated results. These documents are all available for consultation on SEDAR. Mr.
DeCostre will now start with his comments. Please go ahead, Patrick.
Patrick DeCoste, President and Chief Executive Officer, Boralex: Thank you, Colleen, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Before we start, I would like to take some time to highlight the other announcements we made this morning. First, I would like to sincerely thank Bruno Guilmette for his outstanding contributions over the past seven years as our CFO. Bruno has played a key role in shaping our strong financial foundation, helping us double in size and hit major milestones. Under his leadership, the company completed several transactions and financings, including the sale to energy infrastructure partner EIP of a stake of 30% in Boralex operating assets and development project in France.
We will miss him. Why we will miss him? We are in great end with Stephane Millot stepping in during the interim period. Stephane has a strong financial background and solid experience in different finance and IR role he played in the past thirty years. He has worked closely with Bruno in the past years and knows our business inside out.
Bruno, thank you for everything and good luck for your new professional challenges. Thank you, Patrick. I’d like also to take the opportunity to officially welcome Andre Corville as the new chair of the Board of Boralex effective September 30. Andre has been a valued member of our Board since 2019 and brings deep experience that will be key as we move forward with our 2030 strategy. At the same time, I want to sincerely thank Alain Reum for his remarkable leadership over the past fifteen years, eight of which he served as Chair of Boralex.
Alain played an extremely valuable role in shaping Boralex growth, governance and long term vision. On behalf of the entire team, thank you, Alain, for your dedication and welcome, Andre. Back to the quarter now. In the second quarter of twenty twenty five, we continued to make good progress on both development and construction activities. Our operating facilities faced mixed weather conditions across the various technologies and region in which we operate and a decrease in average selling prices as expected due to lower prices on our short term contract in France.
This quarter, total combined production increased by 10% compared to the same period of 2024, driven by a strong performance of our operating assets in North America and the contribution of newly commissioned sites in Europe. Combined EBITDA was 145,000,000 down $7,000,000 compared to Q2 twenty twenty four. The increase in production in North America was not sufficient to offset the negative impact of lower prices of short term power purchase agreements in France. Bruno will later provide a more detailed overview of our second quarter financial results. During this quarter, we were very pleased to announce the signing of two contracts with NYSERDA for the Fort Convicton and Two Rivers solar project totaling four fifty megawatt.
New York State remains a strategic growth market for Boralex, and we are proud to support its renewed commitment to building a clean energy economy. With the signing of the one big beautiful bill, we now have more clarity in The U. S. Market. As of today, we’re confident that these two projects meet the safe harbor requirements enabling us to secure eligibility for tax credit.
We’re making solid progress in securing panels and BOP for the construction of this project. This quarter, we were also thrilled to share that Boralex has been named Best Corporate Citizen in Canada by Corporate Knights. This recognition highlights our strong commitment to integrating corporate social responsibility and risk management at the core of our business strategy. I’m very grateful to our teams across North America and Europe for their dedication and hard work in building a more sustainable future. Finally, last June, we presented our strategic plan and financial objective for 02/1930.
Our strategy builds on significant efforts made over the past years to create a high quality project development portfolio, enabling us to set fully organic growth targets across our four geographic markets where demand for renewable energy is growing rapidly. For more details, please refer to the Investors sections of our website. Regarding market updates, Quebec recently enacted Bill 69 to accelerate energy development. It gives Hydro Quebec greater autonomy over its project and sets an electricity generation target of an additional 60 terawatt hour. Also, under government approval, private renewable energy producers are now authorized to sell electricity directly to an adjacent private consumer, creating new opportunities for decentralized energy production and commercialization.
In Ontario, ISO has launched the first window of its long term two RFP called LT2, aiming to secure three terawatt hour of new energy generation and 600 megawatt of storage capacity with deadline in October 2025 for the first phase and December 2025 for the second. To encourage local participation, the RFPs includes evaluation criteria to support Canadian companies. We’re confident that our local expertise and strong relationships with local communities provide a solid foundation for upcoming bids in both markets. In The United Kingdom, the government concludes the review of Electricity Market Arrangement, RIMA, by deciding to reform the national pricing system, greater than split the country into different pricing zones. It is a very positive signal for the renewable sector as the reform will improve the system while maintaining investors’ confidence.
The United Kingdom remains a key strategic market for Boralex with strong growth ambitions for the coming years. Our UK team is preparing to submit bids in the next AR7 RFP with binding submission scheduled from October through December. Now looking at our project, I’m pleased to announce the commissioning of two wind farms, Fontaine Leboulon 18 MW and Fabienne Palphard 11 MW in the North Of France. Both projects began operations ahead of schedule and under the budget, thanks to the dedication and expertise of our teams who have strong experience in the region. During the second quarter, we also continue to advance with the construction of our project in Canada.
All the turbines of the Apuid project are now installed and the commercial operation date is expected at the September. In Ontario, the construction of two battery storage projects, Acresville and Tilbury, is advancing as planned with commissioning scheduled by the 2025. The Denege project wind farm is also progressing with commissioning planned in 2027. In May, we announced the financing of the project marking a key milestone in its development. I will now briefly review the main variances in our development portfolio project portfolio and growth path.
The increase in our development project portfolio was mainly due to the addition of two forty two megawatt of wind and solar projects in the early stage. In total, our portfolio of early, mid and advanced stages project now consists of project totaling nearly 7.3 gigawatt of wind, solar and storage projects. In the second quarter, our gross path represents a capacity of eight eighty three megawatt, reflecting a slight decrease of four megawatt compared to the previous quarter due to the commissioning of two wind farms in France totaling 29 megawatt and partially offset by the transition to the secured stage of a 25 megawatt battery storage project in The UK. In addition, two solar projects in France totaling 23 megawatt progressed from the secured stage to the construction or ready to build stage. This completes my part of the presentation.
I will now hand it over to Bruno, who will provide a more detailed overview of our financial results, and I will be back for the Q and A session at the end. Thank you.
Bruno Guilmat, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Boralex: Thank you, Patrick. Good morning, everyone. This quarter, total combined production was up 10% compared to the same quarter last year, driven by the strong performance from operating assets in North America and the contribution of newly commissioned sites in Europe. Production was nevertheless 9% lower than anticipated due to poor wind conditions in Europe and in The United States. Our combined EBITDA amounted to $145,000,000 down $7,000,000 and discretionary cash flows amounted to $12,000,000 down $5,000,000 compared to the 2024.
The financial results were negatively impacted by the lower prices of short term contracts in France and the reduced share in net earnings of joint ventures and associates. I will now provide a more detailed overview of our quarterly production. In North America, total combined production for the quarter was 9% higher than the same quarter last year, but 6% lower than anticipated. Production from wind assets in North America was 7% higher compared to the same quarter last year, but 10% lower than anticipated. The good performance from wind assets in Canada was not sufficient to offset the lower contribution from wind assets in The United States and the delay in the commissioning of the EPRIOT project.
Production from hydro assets was 19% higher than last year and 8% higher than anticipated, mainly due to favorable weather conditions in The United States. Production from solar assets in The US was 13% higher than the same quarter last year and 2% higher than anticipated. In Europe, total production was 13% higher compared to the same quarter last year, but 14% lower than anticipated, mainly attributable to unfavorable wind conditions in France. Regarding our balance sheet, available liquidity and authorized financings totaled $689,000,000 as of June 30, an increase of $166,000,000 compared to December 31. Total debt increased to $4,300,000,000 with project debt accounting for 87% of the total.
During the second quarter, our finance team has successfully signed several financings for a total of more than $1,200,000,000 to support our growth initiatives, while diversifying our sources of capital. In May, we announced alongside our partners Energir and Hydro Quebec, a $960,000,000 financing for the Deneyshed wind project currently under construction. Later in the quarter, we closed a corporate financing of $250,000,000 in the form of an unsecured subordinated loan maturing in 02/1933. The investment is jointly made by La Caisse, which is providing an amount of $200,000,000 and a new partner, Fondation, investing $50,000,000 In France, we are pleased to announce that in July, we closed the financing of an incremental tranche totaling $164,000,000 under the term loans of two portfolios of wind farms and projects. Finally, on the CSR updates for the quarter, as already mentioned by Patrick, we are very proud to be recognized as best corporate citizen in Canada by Corporate Knights.
I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate our CSR commitments. As we pursue our 2030 growth trajectory, we will continue to prioritize a safe, healthy, and inclusive workplace for our employees. We will also extend our engagement with local communities and make environmental responsibility central to how we operate. Looking ahead to 02/1950, the goal of achieving net zero emissions may seem very far, but is already shaping the decisions we make today. Our commitment to net zero aligns fully with the mission and purpose of our company.
In conclusion, we continue to develop and execute our projects in attractive markets, maintaining a good financial flexibility. We remain focused on delivering long term growth to our investors in line with the targets of our 2030 strategic plan. As this is my last quarterly call with you, I want to thank you all for your continued support of Boralex over the last six years. I very much enjoyed interacting with all of our shareholders and analysts. I will leave on September 12, leaving a very experienced group of colleagues who will continue to execute with discipline, you guys know I like this word, on our recently announced strategic plan for 02/1930.
We have a strong balance sheet to execute on this plan. I want to take this opportunity to thank Patrick Lamare, who I first started working with as CEO of Boralex and Patrick DeCoste, who has been our CEO for the last few years and my whole finance team, who is a very strong team, and I’m very confident on the ability of this team and the transition plan we have put in place with Stephane as the interim CFO. And I want to wish good luck to Stephane. Many of you know him well, and what you may not know as well is that Stephane and I joined approximately at the same time in early twenty nineteen, and we’ve been going on this incredible journey, doubling the size of Boralex with the team, with the management team, and with the finance team since that time. Thank you all again, and good luck, Stephane.
: Bruno? Go ahead, one more question. Thank
Stephane Millot, Interim CFO, Boralex: you. Sorry, Stephane. Thanks, Alberto, and I’ve been very privileged to have you and work with you in the past six or seven years. So we’ll continue for sure with the team and wish you all the best and I’m thrilled for this new challenge. So very thrilled.
So, on this, I think we’ll go through the Q and A.
Conference Operator: Thank To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. If you wish to ask your questions via the webcast, please type them in the question box and click submit. Please standby while we confirm the Q and A roster. This will take a few moments. Thank you.
We are now going to proceed with our first question. And the questions come from the line of Sean Steuart from TD Cowen. Please ask your question. Your line is open.
Sean Steuart, Analyst, TD Cowen: Thank you. Good morning. Congratulations to both Bruno and Stefan. Patrick, I’m wondering if you can provide any update on the hydro sales process. I think last indications where there was quite a bit of interest.
Any updated perspective on how that process is playing out?
Bruno Guilmat, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Boralex: Hi, Sean. Patrick said today because of this change that I he’ll send all questions to me, especially the tough one. No. As you know, we’ve mentioned and talked about asset recycling as a means of financing, but we also talked a lot about discipline, and we also want to emphasize that we always have options for different types of financings, but we’re always focused on the lowest cost and the best opportunity to do our financings. So, on the hydro sales specifically, the offers we received were not at the required price that we were looking for.
And essentially, we said that we did not need to do the transaction because we had other options. These assets are very good, and we’ll keep them in portfolio. It offers good diversification. And you’ve seen that we closed on subordinated debt financing for €250,000,000 and this gives us the best cost of financing in terms of alternatives and offers the liquidity needs to continue to grow our plan for the near future.
Sean Steuart, Analyst, TD Cowen: Understood. And with respect to prospective growth, at the Investor Day, there was mention of wanting to build up the current regional platform and there was discussion of The U. S. Still being of interest even after the New York solar projects as a growth vehicle for the company. Wondering about your perspectives, whether it’s the reconciliation bill or the subsequent executive order and investigation and the related rhetoric around that.
Does that change your perspective on The U. S. As a longer term growth driver for this company?
Patrick DeCoste, President and Chief Executive Officer, Boralex: First, hi, Sean. On the project themselves in New York, as I mentioned, they are safe harbored and we are very confident with this because it was even prior to the bill. So that is one important point, we are working on these projects to make them finalize them and take investment decisions in following quarters, I would say. On long term part, what is I think clear is that the demand in The US is still very growing quickly and very important. So I think we have to continue to work on developing there.
And the good news, I think, with the bill is no is less unknown than before the bill. As long as you have the assumptions for the model, can define the price and what is the price and every players are bidding on the same level. So we will continue to develop in The U. S. And specifically in the state of New York to create a platform there.
And we will obviously continue to look to alternative in Canada, in UK and France if it’s better for capital allocation.
Sean Steuart, Analyst, TD Cowen: Okay, understood. That’s all I have for right now. Thanks very much.
: Thank you.
Conference Operator: We are now going to proceed with our next question. And the questions come from the line of Nelson Ng from RBC Capital Markets. Please ask your question.
Nelson Ng, Analyst, RBC Capital Markets: Great. Thanks and good morning everyone. Bruno, I think we’re all sad to see you leave and I think that’s being echoed by the market just judging from the share price reaction. But good good luck in your next role.
Bruno Guilmat, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Boralex: Thanks. So Thank you, Nelson. I’m I’m pretty pretty confident the price will recover in the next few minutes. So thank you.
Nelson Ng, Analyst, RBC Capital Markets: So so first question is in France, like, obviously, you you guys flagged that one of the headwinds is the lower priced short term contracts. Like when we look at the rest of this year, should we expect the same type of headwinds? And can you just give a bit more color on the, call it, the EBITDA headwinds you see from the short term contracts in France?
Bruno Guilmat, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Boralex: Thank you, Nelson, for your question. Essentially, we start from a high point where the prices in France were boosted by the different things that happened in France a few years ago, and we’ve been able to profit from those higher prices and contract for a few years. We’re at the tail end on these contracts and that’s why you see a difference, because we contracted for three, four, five years in some instances and that’s where you see the decline essentially from higher prices to what I would say normal prices. So there is a diminishing effect as we were at the tail end this year mainly of this trend of higher prices to normal prices. So you should see a diminishing effect in the next two to four quarters.
Nelson Ng, Analyst, RBC Capital Markets: Sorry. So the following quarters, we’ll see a smaller impact compared to the Very much so. Yes. Okay. Great.
And then the next question just relates to the new New York solar projects. I noticed that it’s not on your growth path chart yet. What are some of the big milestones you need to achieve before you guys put it on the growth path?
Patrick DeCoste, President and Chief Executive Officer, Boralex: Yeah, Nelson. Good morning. We are working closely with the panel suppliers and BOP contractors, quite advanced in engineering of the project to finalize an investment decision end of this year, beginning of next year probably. And then the start of construction formally has been done because we have already ordered transformers beginning of this year. So I will not use start of construction because the really final investment decision will be taken beginning of next year.
Then it will be in service in 2028 for both projects. So so this is, we have a good good local partner for BOP, we are working with. So it’s a it’s an interesting, it’s an interesting first project in New York for us.
Nelson Ng, Analyst, RBC Capital Markets: Great. Thanks, Patrick. And then just one last question, sticking to The US. Like, now that there is better, renewable tax credit visibility, and I presume there could still be some pry some surprises later this month. But what are your thoughts on repowering The US wind projects in New Mexico and Texas?
I I think they are about ten years old now. So they so those PTCs are rolling off, and I guess they like, if you were to repower them in the next few years, you probably need to do something about it to safe harbor them by July. So any thoughts there? Obviously, it’s a decision between you and your partner, e d EDF. What are your initial thoughts on the repowering?
Patrick DeCoste, President and Chief Executive Officer, Boralex: Yeah. We have to look to all those things depending of but it depends for sure on PTC ITC situation, but it depends also on the price of electricity that we can get in Texas. And is presently the prices are lower than what we have experienced the last year. So we are working on different optimization of these assets. We have contracted, one of the small assets in Milo in New Mexico.
So we are constantly working on this and have the team as the commercial team has different ID. But, the answer is yes, we’re working on this, but, no no clear answer of any decision or orientation I can give today.
Nelson Ng, Analyst, RBC Capital Markets: Okay, great. Thanks, Patrick. I’ll leave it there.
: Thank you. Thank you.
Conference Operator: We are now going to proceed with our next question. And the questions come from the line of Mark Jarvi from CIBC. Please ask your question.
Mark Jarvi, Analyst, CIBC: Thanks. First, all the best, Bruno, and thanks for all the time in the last couple of years, and thanks for stepping in, Stephane.
Bruno Guilmat, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Boralex: Thank you, Mark.
Mark Jarvi, Analyst, CIBC: Yeah. There was a media article suggesting that you were exploring potential partners and different options with The US or the New York projects. If you do go down that path, what would you be looking for in terms of partners? Is it risk sharing of capital? Is there something else that you’re looking for in terms of partnerships, specifically in The US and in New York?
Patrick DeCoste, President and Chief Executive Officer, Boralex: No, essentially, it’s that. It’s a way of we have, like all the time we’re looking to put the transaction. We are sometimes buyers, sometimes potential sellers, and we’re monitoring the market there. It’s a way to optimize the return and share some risk for good project. And I think that’s what we’re looking for essentially.
We a have have a good team also for the the the development and construction and and of this. So so, essentially, this is looking for a partner at the right valuation in this this market.
Mark Jarvi, Analyst, CIBC: And you do that pre completion, or is this something you want to complete the projects, crystallize the value, then bring in a partner for a sell down?
Patrick DeCoste, President and Chief Executive Officer, Boralex: Yeah. I would not go into these details, but it is a financial optimization process. So it will depend on what are the willingness of the potential buyers to take construction risk or not and see the different value that they are giving to this. And then we will look if it’s interesting for Boralex or not. If it’s a way forward for us.
If it’s not, we will be very happy to do the project because they have a good return and they are accretive on the free cash flow per share and they are accretive for the company.
Mark Jarvi, Analyst, CIBC: Makes sense. And then your comment about safe harboring with the transformer investment, was that done in 2024 or done at some point this year?
Patrick DeCoste, President and Chief Executive Officer, Boralex: No. It was done this year. I think we had it was three months before May because I remember that there was a delay. So early twenty twenty five, yes.
Mark Jarvi, Analyst, CIBC: Okay. And then just turning to Scotland, can you just maybe elaborate a little bit on the impacts of the RIMA, why you think that’s beneficial? And then with the battery projects showing up in your advanced pipeline, just pursuit of more battery projects right now and how you sort of see the mix of wind and battery development in The UK playing out over the next couple of years?
Patrick DeCoste, President and Chief Executive Officer, Boralex: Yeah. The risk of during the RIMA consultation, specifically with the former government, there was a risk of some customer oriented bodies that were lobbying for regional prices in The UK. And so prices could be impacted the closer you are to the loads, further you are to the loads, the lower the price would be. And this is not what the government has decided for many reasons, because otherwise it would have impacted a lot the wind in Scotland specifically. So that is an important point for us, first of all.
And the second point is they want to continue to optimize the total cost of power in The UK and definitely some the plan of the UK government is to go from five gigawatt to 25 gigawatt of storage in The UK because it’s a small system compared to Continental Europe. And in this small system, they need to have more support to the grid and that’s exactly what we are doing with our project, which is called Tufting Hole. It’s not far away, it’s probably 20 kilometers from Lime Kiln. It’s in the same area of the grid and it’s an important add on to the generation. And the market is The UK, as you know, also quite sophisticated in terms of day ahead and balancing mechanism.
And we are say, playing this market and this will give more options to play it with storage and wind at the same time.
Mark Jarvi, Analyst, CIBC: Would you say storage returns in The UK are comparable or better than what you’d maybe try to get in Ontario?
Patrick DeCoste, President and Chief Executive Officer, Boralex: It’s comparable. It’s comparable. It’s a completely different situation because we will not do we do presently in Ontario. We do standalone storage. In this situation, it is clearly a storage which was electrically close to our project of Limekine, so it’s the same dynamic and there is a complementarity.
In Ontario, we really are able with the long term contract with the ISO to do standalone storage. So it’s a different risk profile, but a very interesting one.
Mark Jarvi, Analyst, CIBC: Got it. Mark, thanks
Stephane Millot, Interim CFO, Boralex: for that you have to this is excluding the ITC, like,
Conference Operator: Correct. Terms
Stephane Millot, Interim CFO, Boralex: of Yep.
Mark Jarvi, Analyst, CIBC: Okay. Understood. Okay. Thanks, everyone.
Conference Operator: We are now going to proceed with our next question. And the questions come from the line of Bhartip Sidhu from National Bank of Canada. Please ask your question.
Colleen de Thiermont, Director, Investor Relations, Boralex0: Good morning, and thank you for taking my questions, but I’ll hold congratulations to both of you, Bruno and and Stephane. So first, with with hydro being the most near term capital recycling item, which is now off the table just given where it had shaken out, Could this change the calculus with respect to funding plans for the five year plan? I think capital recycling was around 900,000,000, and we we were looking at limiting equity issuances up to 500,000,000.
Bruno Guilmat, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Boralex: No. It doesn’t change the the overall financing plan. Essentially, we have different options in the portfolio to do capital recycling. We’ve already identified other other possibilities, and it will continue to be planned as we did in terms of the amounts, but using our different options at the right time. And and, again, on the financing side, we have we have always good options in terms of debt, refinancings.
We’ve proven this this quarter and other previous quarters that there’s quite a bit of of different options to to leverage other corporate or projects. And in terms of so, essentially, we don’t expect more equity needs at the end. It’s just different different options, different timings for the capital recycling.
Colleen de Thiermont, Director, Investor Relations, Boralex0: Okay. That’s great. And then just in regards to France, just given where pricing is, would there be expectations that these assets could be repowered or stay on the merchant market, or is the corporate PPA market robust enough? What are your thoughts on that?
Patrick DeCoste, President and Chief Executive Officer, Boralex: Yeah. We good morning. We had different options of repowering that we were already looking in 2020, 2021, and some of them have been shelved for a certain period because the short term price has been very, very good and we have been able to contract short term price for 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. Definitely, we are looking to this. We have, for example, bid a project over 100 megawatt in the last tender in France, which is a repowering extension of one of these projects that we put in service in 2005 and that we have extended with very good price the last year.
So this is something we are dynamically looking at and monitoring to create the more value as possible.
Colleen de Thiermont, Director, Investor Relations, Boralex0: Great. And just one follow-up on that. So if repowering did occur, could you share any estimated cost estimates on a megawatt basis? Is that too early to see right now?
Patrick DeCoste, President and Chief Executive Officer, Boralex: Yeah. Repowering in France, you have to look to that as somewhere new project. Because in the example I’m giving, the power of the new project is 2.5x the power of the project that has been authorized in 2002 and built in 02/2004, so it’s a completely different situation. What is the real value of repowering is the fact that we have social acceptability, local community support and relations since, in this case, twenty five years almost. And that is the key point in France.
Obviously, you benefit from an existing grid connection depending of the factor of power increase, but you need many times to add another grid connection. So, even grid connection is not always an economy. It has been in some projects that we have repowered the last years, sometimes it’s not. But it’s each project we have to look for and we are monitoring the best time to take the decision of repairing. Hello, Martin?
Colleen de Thiermont, Director, Investor Relations, Boralex0: Yep. That’s great for me. Alright. Thank you.
Stephane Millot, Interim CFO, Boralex: Okay. Thank you. So just it’s if in your modeling for per megawatt, you know, it’s it’s like like a new project.
Patrick DeCoste, President and Chief Executive Officer, Boralex: Yeah. And what is great is you go and you bid and you obtain the long term contract for twenty years, so you can refinance. So we are taking everything into account to be sure that it’s accretive and reducing the risk for the company.
Conference Operator: We are now going to proceed with our next question. And the questions come from the line of Benjamin Fan from BMO.
Patrick DeCoste, President and Chief Executive Officer, Boralex: I
: wanted to touch base on the data center customer side of things. For Boralex, is there any opportunity to to get leverage to that industry either through corporate PPAs or some sort of sort of bilateral contract?
Patrick DeCoste, President and Chief Executive Officer, Boralex: Yeah, it’s not the main topic that we have commercially presently. I think, as I mentioned, I think in different Q and A, there is a lot of big players or people with firm power who are working with data center. What it left a lot of place for us because it’s increased the demand on the system, but we’re not specifically working on data center.
: Okay. So it sounds like the companies that are well positioned now, they more scale and supplier. And not to say you don’t have supplier relationships, but it sounds like it’s more of the bigger scale players that are better positioned.
Patrick DeCoste, President and Chief Executive Officer, Boralex: Yeah. On the scale side, it is the case. On the contractual part, we have shown that we have been able to sign many contracts the last years with very good margin on existing or new assets. And I think it’s the right strategy for Boralex to concentrate on this instead of trying to compete with the big players who have indeed scaled competitive advantage to us.
: So it’s
Bruno Guilmat, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Boralex: focused on price and margins rather than volume in our case. Exactly.
: Yeah. Okay. I I and thanks for that. I know you know you’ve been discussing the K Hydro assets, reasons for for not selling. But I I just wanted to maybe expand on this a bit because I I am a bit surprised you didn’t go for sale thinking that this probably gonna be the best multiple yet in your entire portfolio.
So I’m wondering then, just given the amount of demand, was was this just simply Boralex had a certain multiple in mind and it wasn’t reached? Or is there something around some sort of maybe I think you referenced some other optimization strategies that could create more value.
Bruno Guilmat, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Boralex: Yeah. At some point, Ben, we need to clearly, we always have high expectations. As I said, we need to find the lowest alternative for lowest cost financing, so we always have high expectations from ourselves based on the quality of these assets. This is we’ll continue to operate the assets. There might be financing opportunities in the future also to optimize further.
So, I think in the end it’s a question of timing of the process and valuation, but we very much believe that these assets should have a higher value than what than what we’ve had during this process. And at the same time, we were and are still working on different alternatives for financing. So we’re never short on options, and we’ll always take the best options for our shareholders.
: Okay. Got it. Then maybe my last one, and by the way, Renaud, congrats on our next adventure. Just thinking you’re you’re probably quite intimate with the strategic plan and building it not too long ago. But how does Borlaix then think about the transition now with a new CFO and the strategic plan, which Bruno would have been heavily involved with.
Is there enough accountability across all your channels that develop that plan that you can seamlessly transition it that the new CFO doesn’t have to go and maybe not feel comfortable with the planner or may have to recommend changes to it?
Bruno Guilmat, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Boralex: I think we’ve we’ve explained and demonstrated that there’s a very clear transition plan. Both Stephane, I, and the whole management team have been very intimately involved in preparing the strategic plan for 02/1930. I’m extremely confident in the ability of the team and the skill sets to execute on this plan, and everyone in management and the finance team work closely together. So there’s no surprise to be expected on that front. This is a plan that will continue to be executed on and that doesn’t change the targets we’ve put in place.
Patrick DeCoste, President and Chief Executive Officer, Boralex: Exactly. And I think we have Stefan is supervising the FP and A since many months now, has been involved himself with the FP and A team in the modernization of the thing. Eric is working as VP of Finance for all the financing and has been involved since no years in the different financing we have. So there is no question around this. Pascal Laprise de Merce that you have seen also was instrumental to, say, according to all those things with the strategic part of the project.
There is a lot of people behind this, so it was a bottom up top down, bottom up top down process, and I think we have margin and different ideas on optimization. So, I’d like mention, women and miss Bruno, but we’re not alone and we have
Bruno Guilmat, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Boralex: a strong team with us. And you know we have a mid to long term business, so you can look at our growth plan, our specific assets that are in the growth path, and you can see that this is a clear path and a strategy numbers based on actual projects that we have, and the plan is based on organic growth. So there should not be and there will not be surprises on that front.
Stephane Millot, Interim CFO, Boralex: And Bf, I can add just one point then on, like you know when we present our plan, it’s like we outsource and use our funds and we give indication of where we want to go. But at Boralex, Bruno and it will continue with me and with the whole team, want to have options, we’re always looking ahead, we are evaluating different financing options. So not going to track necessarily perfectly year over year what’s been said, but overall for the next five years we stay the course. Like this is where we’re going and we always select the option that is the most favorable for the company and the shareholders. Just wanted to add that.
Conference Operator: Okay.
: Thank you very much.
Conference Operator: We are now going to proceed with our next question. And the questions come from the line of Robert Hope from Scotiabank. Please ask your question.
: Morning and congrats to Bruno and Stephane. Questions regarding Quebec Bill 69. How do you think the authorization of direct sales will impact the market there? And how will you set up the organization to better interact with large power users in the province?
Patrick DeCoste, President and Chief Executive Officer, Boralex: Yeah. Yeah. Essentially, we are we have been already in different conversation with large customers during the last years. And because the reason why there is this part of the law is because customers and IPPs have been advocating that it’s a way like in France, in The UK, in The US to do something directly and that is good for the system. That’s a way to bring power quicker to the system.
So I think this is one thing which is interesting. So we are already in relation with some customers and have experience of doing this in France specifically and listen to customers. The demand in Quebec is very high. As you have seen Hydro Quebec, the plan is and the low is speaking about a 60 terawatt hour increase of demand, which is really significant increase of demand. So there would be many opportunities for IPPs, even if Hydro Quebec is working as you know on larger projects, but they are working and they are saying that they will continue to work with IPPs because we have experience of doing that in other places.
So I think it will help also Hydro Quebec to build lines also, which is very important to bring more power on the system and all those things I think are good news at the end for the industry.
: Thank you. That’s it for me. Thank you.
Conference Operator: We have no further questions on the phone. I will now hand back to you for any questions on the webcast that you may have. Thank you.
Colleen de Thiermont, Director, Investor Relations, Boralex: Thanks, everyone, for your attention. Our next conference call to announce third quarter results will be on Friday, 11/07/2025 at eleven a. M. Have a nice day and a nice vacation for those waiting for the end of quarterly reporting. Thank you.
Stephane Millot, Interim CFO, Boralex: Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you.
Conference Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you, and have a great day.
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