Earnings call transcript: Canadian Utilities Q2 2025 shows steady growth

Canadian Utilities Limited (CU) reported its Q2 2025 earnings on July 31, highlighting a modest increase in profits and cash flows. The company posted adjusted earnings of $121 million, or $0.45 per share, up from $117 million in the same quarter last year. The stock saw a slight decline, closing at $39.04, down 0.36%. According to InvestingPro data, the company maintains a strong dividend track record, having raised its dividend for 18 consecutive years, with a current yield of 4.71%.

Key Takeaways

• Adjusted earnings rose to $121 million, a 3.4% increase from Q2 2024.
• Notable projects include the $2.8 billion Yellowhead Pipeline Project.
• Gas storage capacity doubled since 2021, with further expansions planned.
• The company maintains a strong position in the North American gas storage market.

Company Performance

Canadian Utilities demonstrated steady growth in its Q2 2025 earnings, driven by robust performance in its key segments. The ATCO Energy Systems segment contributed $116 million in adjusted earnings, marking a 4% increase. ATCO Australia also showed significant growth with a 24% increase in earnings. This performance underscores the company’s strategic focus on expanding its infrastructure and energy solutions. InvestingPro analysis reveals the company’s strong financial health, with a robust gross profit margin of 70.76% and liquid assets exceeding short-term obligations.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: Not specified in the call summary.
• Earnings per share: $0.45, up from $0.43 in Q2 2024.
• Year-to-date cash flows from operating activities increased by $105 million to $1 billion.
• Capital expenditures rose by $145 million to $783 million.

Outlook & Guidance

Canadian Utilities expects moderate full-year earnings growth in 2025, supported by continued capital investments in infrastructure. The company is exploring inorganic growth opportunities in the gas storage and midstream sectors, particularly in North America. Upcoming projects, such as the Central East Transfer Out (CETO) Project and the Yellowhead Pipeline, are poised to enhance the company’s capacity and job creation.

Executive Commentary

"We are the only utility in Alberta to reduce distribution costs during the PBR2 regulatory term," said Bob Myles, CEO. This statement highlights the company’s efficiency and competitive edge in the Alberta market. CFO Katie Patrick added, "We have a multitude of different financing sources," indicating a solid financial strategy to support ongoing and future projects.

Risks and Challenges

• Regulatory approvals for hydrogen projects may face delays.
• Potential cost overruns in large-scale infrastructure projects.
• Fluctuations in demand for gas storage due to market conditions.
• Competition in the renewable energy sector could impact growth.
• Economic downturns may affect capital availability and project financing.

The company’s Q2 performance and strategic initiatives position it for continued growth, though challenges such as regulatory hurdles and market competition remain. Trading near its 52-week high with relatively low price volatility (Beta: 0.57), Canadian Utilities maintains a Fair Value rating according to InvestingPro analysis. The platform offers additional ProTips and detailed financial metrics to help investors make informed decisions.

Full transcript - Canadian Utilities Limited (CU) Q2 2025:

Conference Operator: Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the second quarter 2025 results conference call and webcast for Canadian Utilities Limited. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press Star then one on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing Star then zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Colin Jackson, Senior Vice President, Financial Operations. Please go ahead, Mr. Jackson.

Bob Myles, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: Thank you and good morning, everyone.

Colin Jackson, Senior Vice President, Financial Operations, Canadian Utilities Limited: We are pleased you could join us for the Canadian Utilities Limited second quarter 2025 conference call. On the line today we have Bob Myles, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited, and Katie Patrick, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial and Investment Officer. Before we move into today’s remarks, we’d like to take a moment to acknowledge the numerous traditional territories and homelands on which our global facilities are located. Today I am speaking to you from our ATCO Park Head Office in Calgary, which is located in the Treaty 7 region. This is the ancestral territory of the Blackfoot Confederacy, comprised of the Siksika, the Kainai, and the Piikani nations, the Tsuut’ina Nation, and the Stoney Nakoda nations, which include the Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Goodstoney First Nations. I also want to recognize that the city of Calgary is home to the Métis Nation of Alberta Districts 5 and 6.

During our second quarter, we proudly celebrated National Indigenous History Month in Canada, a time to honor the stories, achievements, and resilience of Indigenous Peoples. May we continue to respect and celebrate the diverse history, languages, and culture of Indigenous Peoples beyond the month of June. Today you’ll hear from Bob, who will deliver opening comments along with key developments within our ATCO Energy Systems and ATCO EnPower businesses. You’ll then hear from Katie, who will discuss our Q2 financial results. Following today’s remarks, the Canadian Utilities Limited team will take questions from the investment community. Please note that a replay of the conference call, a copy of the presentation, and today’s transcript will be available on our website at CanadianUtilities.com following the call. The materials can be found in the Investors section under Events and Presentations.

Today’s remarks will include forward-looking statements that are subject to important risks and uncertainties. For more information on these risks and uncertainties, please refer to our filings with the Canadian securities regulators. During today’s presentation, we may refer to certain non-GAAP and other financial measures, including adjusted earnings and adjusted earnings per share. These measures do not have any standardized meaning under IFRS, and as a result, they may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other entities. Please refer to our filings with the Canadian securities regulators for more information, and with that, I’ll turn the call over to Bob for his opening remarks.

Bob Myles, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: Thanks, Colin, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. Let’s begin with our largest asset, ATCO Energy Systems, which includes our Alberta utilities. As we strategize and execute on our plans through 2027, we expect growth to be predominantly driven by projects in our transmission businesses in addition to pursuing efficiencies across all of our utilities. Our growth plan is the largest capital plan on which our company has ever embarked and encompasses a robust project pipeline, including the Central East Transfer Out Project and the Yellowhead Pipeline Project. These, combined with other future opportunities, including those we expect to be directly assigned by the ISO, set us up to deliver significant growth for our share owners and investors over the long term. We look forward to sharing our plans beyond 2027, and we’ll update our three-year capital forecast in our year-end disclosures.

Now, jumping into our current major projects, our Central East Transfer Out Project, or CETO, is well into the construction phase and remains on track to be completed in mid-2026. This $280 million project upgrades and strengthens the transmission system in Central East Alberta to the rest of Alberta’s interconnected electric system, improving the reliability and reducing congestion in this area. We are proud of this project and the impact it will have on our customers across Alberta. CETO is essential for integrating additional renewable energy resources and enhancing the reliability of the transmission. As Alberta’s energy landscape continues to evolve, it’s crucial we invest in projects that address our province’s changing energy needs, enhancing Alberta’s energy infrastructure while enabling a modernized system that can readily accommodate generation. We also continue to see positive momentum on our $2.8 billion Yellowhead Pipeline Project. The impact of this project cannot be understated.

Without the Yellowhead Pipeline, we believe there will be a shortfall of gas delivery on Alberta’s system due to capacity constraints. At already 90% contracted, the Yellowhead Pipeline will serve communities across Alberta, strengthening the province’s natural gas network and supporting Alberta’s growing industrial sector, including petrochemicals and refining. As I’ve indicated previously, with construction set to begin in 2026, the Yellowhead Pipeline will deliver long-term economic benefits including 24,000 jobs by 2028, $20 billion in investments, and will contribute $3.9 billion annually to Alberta’s GDP. Regarding our needs, application for the Elephant Pipeline project, we expect to hear back from the Alberta Utilities Commission in August of this year. We will then file our facilities application in Q4 as we move through the regulatory process for Yellowhead. Our teams are proactively working through the procurement process for key project materials, including the sourcing of our steel pipe.

Moving to the regulatory front in 2024, the Alberta Utilities Commission issued its decision on phase one of the second generation of the Performance Based Regulation, or PBR2 framework review. The Alberta Utilities Commission claimed that the distribution businesses failed to quantify or attribute all efficiency gains under PBR2 to specific programs or initiatives. We disagree, and our appeal with the Alberta Court of Appeal is expected to be heard in the first half of 2026. In May 2025, the Alberta Utilities Commission issued a second decision related to the PBR2 reopener proceeding involving a refund to customers. Following this phase two decision, we submitted a review and variance and a permission to appeal to the Alberta Utilities Commission and Alberta Court of Appeal last month.

At the core of its framework, Performance Based Regulation incentivizes utilities to reduce costs while maintaining safe and reliable service and then share these cost savings with customers. With that, we are extremely disappointed with the position announced by the Alberta Utilities Commission, and we fundamentally disagree with its recent decisions. We are the only utility in Alberta to reduce distribution costs during the PBR2 regulatory term, delivering more than $500 million of savings in distribution costs which customers are already benefiting from over the 2023-2028 period. As we move forward, we remain focused on being a leader in advocating for a fair, affordable, and efficient regulatory and business environment in Alberta. Before we jump into the other parts of the business, I want to take a moment to address the current wildfire situation in certain parts of our service territory. Currently, there are over 50 active wildfires across Alberta.

Addressing wildfires is a collaborative effort, and I want to thank everybody who continues to support these efforts, including our team members, first responders, businesses, government, and local authorities who are working around the clock to keep our communities safe. At this time, we remain focused on the safety of our employees and communities where we operate. While there’s been no material impact to our assets, we continue to work with all parties to ensure the safety of the communities and to take proactive measures, including wildfire mitigation and fireproofing of our infrastructure. We have an ambitious capital program and are committed to building a resilient energy system that can withstand the impacts of extreme weather-related events, including wildfires, as part of our plan and spend. Our focus continues to be on wildfire mitigation. Investing in a robust energy system includes resilient hardware such as composite poles and undergrounding.

This protects our assets and the communities where we operate, and having a stable, reliable, and resilient power grid has never been more important. Now moving to our ATCO EnPower business, starting with our hydrogen development at the Heartland Hydrogen Hub, or AH3 as we call it. We are optimistic on recent policy developments, including Bill C5, which includes the Building Canada Act. This act aims to reduce project approval duplication between federal and provincial governments with a one project, one review approach. We believe this is a positive step in the right direction, accelerating the regulatory process for national interest group projects and signaling investor confidence. We continue to engage in conversations with key stakeholders, including federal and provincial governments, to ensure our project is seen both as a nation-building project priority and part of Canada’s ambition to be an energy superpower.

We, along with our identified strategic partners, remain committed to advancing the development of this project once the regulatory framework is in place to ensure the production and transport of ammonia economically to Asia and any other consuming nations. We await a final decision by all levels of the Canadian government to enable both the approvals for transport and the economic frameworks to move forward with this project. For our Storage and Industrial Water segment, gas storage remains a fundamental asset to ATCO EnPower. Looking at our history, since 2021 we have more than doubled our capacity from 52 petajoules to 117 petajoules and expect to see our per annum revenue in 2025 more than triple from that of 2021. We would like to acknowledge both our commercial, our project, and our operational teams for this performance and the results achieved to date.

Within Alberta, we continue to see strong fundamentals with increased demand for storage stemming from the start of the LNG exports and continued development of further export volumes in the coming years. The increased demand from additional gas power generation and other industrial demand within Alberta. We see similar market fundamentals throughout North America as we explore opportunities for ATCO EnPower to achieve further growth in storage capacity and revenues beyond Alberta. Our storage facilities are highly contracted next year and position us well to repeat this record performance that we saw in 2026, or sorry, that we’ve seen in 2025. We have made final investment decisions to expand our existing storage capacity by approximately 10% through further well development and facility improvement projects with expected in service dates in 2026.

Over the next year, we will evaluate further expansion opportunities including possible pool extensions at both our Carbon and Alberta Hub natural gas storage facilities. In addition to these organic opportunities, we will continue to review inorganic growth available to complement our storage portfolio both within Alberta and in other jurisdictions. With that, I’ll pass the call to Katie to discuss our Q2 financial results.

Katie Patrick, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial and Investment Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: Thanks Bob and good morning everyone. Looking at our second quarter performance for Canadian Utilities as a whole, we delivered positive earnings growth year over year. We achieved adjusted earnings of $121 million or $0.45 per share, up from $117 million for the same period in 2024. This was despite significant headwinds including a reduction in our ROE for our Alberta utilities, conclusion of the Efficiency Carryover Mechanism or ECM, and challenges in renewable generation, more of which I’ll touch on in a moment. ATCO Energy Systems delivered adjusted earnings of $116 million in the quarter, $4 million higher year over year. Despite over $6 million of headwinds faced from the reset in our allowed ROE and conclusion of the ECM for our distribution utilities, we still delivered growth within Energy Systems. This performance was driven by growth in rate base across our utilities and cost efficiencies.

It has been a great start to the year at Energy Systems with earnings up over 4% year over year. In 2025 we will generate quality earnings but expect full year earnings growth to be more moderate at year end, impacted in part by positive tax efficiencies that we had in the second half of 2024. Moving to ATCO EnPower, we delivered adjusted earnings of $12 million for the quarter, although earnings were down year over year. This was primarily due to a challenging wind environment in Alberta and the higher compensation we received in the prior year period related to turbine availability guarantees at our Forty Mile Wind facility. Excluding these events, the EnPower business performed well as strong earnings growth was delivered within natural gas storage.

As Bob outlined earlier, we have strong fundamentals at our natural gas storage assets and we plan to further capitalize on the opportunities available in the coming years. ATCO Australia delivered adjusted earnings of $21 million in Q2. This is $4 million or 24% higher than the same period last year. As a reminder, on January 1, 2025, ATCO Gas Australia moves to operate under the Sixth Access Arrangement or AA6, which has a higher ROE of 8.23%. ATCO Australia continues to execute its strategy and be a provider of stable cash generation while driving consistent earnings for CUL in the Financing and Other segment. Adjusted earnings were $2 million higher compared to the same period in 2024. This was mainly due to the timing of some corporate expenses. As I outlined at the beginning, our business performance performed very well, achieving positive earnings for the quarter.

Despite headwinds, we continue to actively monitor our cash generation, which we used in combination with external funding to finance our enhanced capital program. Year to date, our cash flows from operating activities increased by $105 million year over year to $1 billion. This demonstrates growth within our businesses yielding additional cash flow, which in turn allows us to increase capital spending and investment in the business. Year to date, our capital expenditures increased by $145 million year over year to $783 million. This increase in spending is reflective of the funding required for system upgrades and maintenance to our existing infrastructure, along with investments into the growth projects that Bob highlighted earlier. Our strong start to the year positions us well to deliver the financial plan we set for ourselves in 2025.

Currently, we remain focused on finding efficiencies across our organization and continuing to execute on our strategy to generate long term value for all stakeholders, including shareowners. That concludes our prepared remarks. I will now turn the call back to Colin. Thank you. Thank you, Katie.

Colin Jackson, Senior Vice President, Financial Operations, Canadian Utilities Limited: Thank you, Katie. Bob, in the interest of time, we ask that you limit yourself to two questions. If you have additional questions, you are welcome to rejoin the queue. I will now turn it back to our conference coordinator for questions.

Conference Operator: Thank you. We’ll now begin the question and answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. You’ll hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you’re using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then 2. Once again, anyone with a question can press star then 1 at this time. Our first question is from Robert Hope with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Colin Jackson, Senior Vice President, Financial Operations, Canadian Utilities Limited: In the prepared remarks, you mentioned the.

Bob Myles, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: Potential for inorganic growth in other jurisdictions.

Colin Jackson, Senior Vice President, Financial Operations, Canadian Utilities Limited: On the gas storage side, maybe more broadly, how are you thinking about inorganic growth.

Bob Myles, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: Growth across the business? You know what geographies would be.

Colin Jackson, Senior Vice President, Financial Operations, Canadian Utilities Limited: Of most interest to you?

Bob Myles, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: Hi, Rob, Bob here. Yeah, we’re absolutely interested in looking at inorganic growth, for sure, in our gas storage business. We’d be interested in looking at gas storage opportunities across North America. As you know, we’re very comfortable with the environment in Alberta, but we believe in the fundamentals of gas storage, and we think there’s great opportunities across North America. We’re definitely interested in that. With regards to other inorganic opportunities, we continue to look at opportunities across our midstream sector. That would be in the other complementary areas of our gas storage, so NGL storage, we’d look at that as well. We continue to look at opportunities in generation. I would say the generation opportunities are more tied to the things not in the renewable space and more in the gas-fired generation. We’d continue to look at that opportunity as well.

Of course, we’re always interested in our utility space, but we’ve got enough growth in our current province, so we’re probably not going to look at inorganic in the utility space right now.

Conference Operator: The next question is from Benjamin Pham with BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Katie Patrick, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial and Investment Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: Hi, thanks.

Colin Jackson, Senior Vice President, Financial Operations, Canadian Utilities Limited: Based on the storage side of things with your update.

Katie Patrick, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial and Investment Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: Thanks for that. Can you remind us with your existing.

Colin Jackson, Senior Vice President, Financial Operations, Canadian Utilities Limited: Storage business, is it mostly a contracted revenue model versus the seasonal spreads that maybe some other players have been engaging in?

Bob Myles, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: I’d say it’s both. We actually do enter into longer term contracts. That is definitely a key part to our business. We also, in addition to that, look to do day to day deals as well, which tie back to the daily spreads. It’s a combination of both. Obviously, our objective is to maximize our revenue opportunities.

Colin Jackson, Senior Vice President, Financial Operations, Canadian Utilities Limited: Okay, got it.

Katie Patrick, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial and Investment Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: I know you’ve been mentioning on the financing side with First Nations.

Colin Jackson, Senior Vice President, Financial Operations, Canadian Utilities Limited: Monetization, I think that’s in reference to the Yellowhead Pipeline Project. Can you talk about the progression so far on that funding initiative? Is it also maybe more expansive to even monetizations of existing utility assets you have?

Katie Patrick, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial and Investment Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: Hi Ben, it’s Katie. Thanks for the question. I think we are very proud of our long history of partnering with Indigenous communities. We could cite many examples when we talk about how we do that, and we will continue to have broad relationships with those communities. I would say specifically in reference to Yellowhead, we are progressing those discussions. We are in the early stages of meeting with many of the communities, starting to discuss the partnership arrangement. We don’t have any definitive terms as yet, and we will keep everyone updated as we continue that dialogue with the Indigenous communities. There’s certainly interest. You know, it’s a great project for Alberta, and there’s lots of interest in participating.

Colin Jackson, Senior Vice President, Financial Operations, Canadian Utilities Limited: It sounds like just the way that the policy is set with the.

Katie Patrick, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial and Investment Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: Loan guarantees and the Canada Infrastructure Bank.

Colin Jackson, Senior Vice President, Financial Operations, Canadian Utilities Limited: It’s more limited to newer projects, is that correct?

Bob Myles, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: I’ll jump in, Katie. I would say that we’ve looked at both. If you look at our solar projects that we have here in Calgary, we constructed those projects and then we partnered with Indigenous communities to become owners in those assets after they were built. We continue to always look at opportunities where we can partner with those with different Indigenous communities. Yellowhead is a very large project, and obviously there’s a lot more focus on that right now. As Katie said, we’re making some good progress. We have informed the Alberta Utilities Commission of that process as well. It’s obviously a much larger opportunity.

Katie Patrick, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial and Investment Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: Okay, understood.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Apologies. The next question is from Maurice Choy with RBC. Please go ahead.

Colin Jackson, Senior Vice President, Financial Operations, Canadian Utilities Limited: Thank you and good morning everyone. Just want to follow up on a previous comment about inorganic growth. You mentioned non renewables. Let’s assume for now it’s gas-fired power generation. Do you mean you’re looking at inorganic growth relating to these type of assets in Alberta, or you’re kind of referencing that you might be open to U.S. deals as well?

Bob Myles, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: Sorry Maurice, just so I’m clear, did you say just with regards to generation or all inorganic growth outside Alberta?

Colin Jackson, Senior Vice President, Financial Operations, Canadian Utilities Limited: Sorry, just so I’m clear, just generation. Just generation.

Bob Myles, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: I mean our focus, I’d say priority focus would be looking at generation in Alberta. We just feel a lot more, I guess, comfortable understanding the marketplace here with regards to our current generation. If the right opportunity came along outside Alberta, we would definitely evaluate and consider it as well. I would say outside Alberta, though, my view is more looking at opportunities in the gas storage space.

Colin Jackson, Senior Vice President, Financial Operations, Canadian Utilities Limited: Got it. I guess when you think about the size of these type of deals, if these ever do emerge, how do you think about funding these? Recognizing that there is a funding need associated with Yellowhead, particularly next year?

Katie Patrick, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial and Investment Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: Yeah, I mean, I think. Thanks, Maurice. You know, we’ve talked a lot about our financing strategy and we continue to progress on that, including specifically the need for Yellowhead. We do, as we saw in the quarter, we did access the capital markets for long term debt at CUL and there was very strong demand for that product. I think we have a multitude of different financing sources should we choose to access them. Obviously each project or initiative that we would look at would be judged against, you know, its ability to be accretive for shareholders and how we can make sure that we do that through the combination of financing sources we have. Understood.

Colin Jackson, Senior Vice President, Financial Operations, Canadian Utilities Limited: If I could just finish off with just on a project front, particularly on the hydrogen. I quite like the timeline you’ve laid out on slide six for CETO and Yellowhead. I wonder whether or not you could paint a similar timeline for the hydrogen project. I know you mentioned in your prepared remarks that you’re waiting for final decisions by all governments on approvals on transport and economic frameworks. If you could just help us understand a quarter by quarter play or maybe half a half year play, what we should expect on this project.

Bob Myles, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: Maurice, where I am on the hydrogen opportunity and ammonia by rail is it really is coming down to our ability to work with government to address the ammonia by rail situation and getting everyone in agreement that we can transport ammonia by rail and do it efficiently and mostly cost efficiently. Without that, there really won’t be an opportunity to develop that in Canada, unfortunately. We’re working closely with government to try to get that in place. I’d like to think that we can get that done if it’s going to get done in the next six months, in other words, in 2025.

Colin Jackson, Senior Vice President, Financial Operations, Canadian Utilities Limited: Gotcha. Is there any bottlenecks or complications on the export terminal side, or is that all pretty clear what the solution is?

Bob Myles, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: No, I believe that there’s definitely interest in expanding for ammonia. It really comes down to the rail, getting ammonia by rail in place, and a lot of interest, you know, not to go into the details too much on it, but there’s a lot of interest in the Asian market to source ammonia from Canada. We just have to be able to show that we can actually provide, get the product to Asia.

Colin Jackson, Senior Vice President, Financial Operations, Canadian Utilities Limited: Understood. Thank you very much.

Conference Operator: The next question is from John Mould with TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

Bob Myles, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: Morning everybody.

Colin Jackson, Senior Vice President, Financial Operations, Canadian Utilities Limited: On EnPower and mainly renewables, but also on gas-fired power. Just given your prior comments in the Q&A, we may have some line of sight on a more normalized power price in Alberta, given the potential for large loads later in the decade. At what point do you start to.

Bob Myles, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: Get more active on development in anticipation.

Colin Jackson, Senior Vice President, Financial Operations, Canadian Utilities Limited: Of that rebound and renewables, how does uncertainty around TIER and the direction of those credits play into that investment decision? On the gas side, what.

Bob Myles, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: Kind of a barrier to the clean.

Colin Jackson, Senior Vice President, Financial Operations, Canadian Utilities Limited: Do electricity regulations represent spending real effort on that in your minds?

Bob Myles, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: Yeah, that’s a big question. I believe that the long-term outlook for power prices in this province is very attractive. With that being said, there still is a lot of uncertainty with the restructured energy market and how that’s going to play out. There’s also uncertainty around the transmission regulations with regards to congestion and the policies that are going to be put in place here. We still need to see more certainty on that before we make any really large investments in the province on generation. I think, not to speak for others, but I think that’s probably shared by many players as well. Those are the first things we really need to see happen. We are a believer in gas. We think gas will be here for a long time, and we’re very committed to our gas investments here.

With regards to expanding and developing some of our renewable opportunities in this province, we do have some opportunities to do that. We really need to see a lot more certainty around the electricity structure here before we would do that.

Colin Jackson, Senior Vice President, Financial Operations, Canadian Utilities Limited: Okay, great. Thanks for that. Maybe just one on Luma. Can you provide some insight into your ongoing discussions with stakeholders in Puerto Rico around that contract?

Bob Myles, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: Yeah, sure, John. The situation in Puerto Rico is, I believe everyone is committed. I can tell you we’re committed to improving the electricity situation on the island. However, it’s rather complicated when you look at the current conflict, current difficulties we have with the current political environment there. We need to continue to work on that, which our partner, Quanta, and ourselves are probably dealing with daily. There definitely is a need for significant investment to improve the system, and we’re committed to being the partner to do that. There’s a lot more work to be done on the political side down there as well.

Colin Jackson, Senior Vice President, Financial Operations, Canadian Utilities Limited: Okay, thank you.

Conference Operator: The next question is from Mark Jarvi with CIBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thanks. Good morning, everyone. Just coming back to the Hydrogen Hub project. You talked about maybe clarity on the rail in six months. I’m just curious if the window is shrinking here on the opportunity, like in terms of your engagement with customers, are they going to look to other markets? I’m just curious, if it takes longer than six months, does this opportunity pass you by then in terms of exports?

Bob Myles, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: Yeah. Mark, you know my beliefs on hydrogen. I am a believer in it. I think it’s a great opportunity for not only ourselves, but for our country. As you and I have discussed a few times, I think one of the things that’s happened is the customers in the Asian market really see this as three different sources. One is the Middle East, the second one is the Gulf Coast, and the third one is Canada. In all three locations, there’s uncertainty right now as to the availability of supply as well as the price of the supply. I do think we have this window of an opportunity to actually execute on this. We have to move quickly, otherwise the Asian market will contract elsewhere and we will have lost it, as you have said. I do think there is a short window that we have to execute.

Your comments about the rail and both cost and safety, if you had to rank one or the other, is it more the safety just in terms of who bears the risk of any issues in terms of spillage? Is that bigger than the cost, or are they pretty equal?

I would say they’re, I don’t know if they’re exactly equal, Mark, but they’re both important. Even if we solve the safety side and the risk assessment that we, you know, and we want to operate safely as well, I think we’re all committed to doing that. Even if we do that, the rail improvements that we, that the industry wants to make, you can’t have one project pay for all those improvements. That’s the challenge we have, you need more than just one project to proceed. We believe there will be more. We’re interested in building more than just one project, but it’s the first one that we need to figure out how to make that work. It’s a bit of both.

Coming to the funding conversation, potential sell down with Yellowhead, how would you think about the likelihood of issuing equity at this point? That was something you considered. There was minority sell downs, partnerships. Do you feel like you’re getting enough traction on partnerships and sell downs that issuing equity is very remote at this point, or just sort of how you’re weighing those different opportunities?

Katie Patrick, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial and Investment Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: Yeah, thanks. It’s Katie. I think that we are. The partnerships and the Indigenous partnerships certainly wouldn’t solve the entire external need that we have, but we’re very confident in our ability to get that done and that will help with some of the funding required for the project. We’re not taking equity completely off the table. There could be equity for a number of different reasons, including Yellowhead and other growth opportunities that we have. That said, I think we do have a path to use some of our balance sheet funding that we have available to fund this project in particular. We’re going to monitor what’s the best cost of capital and the best option for shareholders over the coming year to finance that project.

Can you kind of frame how much of the project I’m talking about, Yellowhead, you’d be willing to sell down? Is it up to 49%? Is it more like a 15%, 20% stake that you’d look to sell down?

Yeah, we’re not looking for the top end of what you were saying there. I think it’s more in around the 30% range that we’d be looking to sell down on that from the Indigenous Partnership perspective.

Okay, great. Thanks everyone.

Conference Operator: Once again, if you have a question, please press star then 1. Our next question is from Patrick Kenny with National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.

Colin Jackson, Senior Vice President, Financial Operations, Canadian Utilities Limited: Thank you.

Bob Myles, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: Good morning, everyone.

Just on the growing narrative and overall support around developing Canada’s resources and infrastructure in the Northern Territories and regions, I was just curious if you’re starting.

To look at some larger scale opportunities, either partnering up with the federal government or other private partners just to accelerate some new either regulated or unregulated projects.

Bit of an open-ended question, I guess, just in terms of what role.

You expect to play in developing Canada’s.

North over the coming years.

Patrick, I think you know, ATCO, our organization, we’re very committed to the North and that goes along with our commitments to Indigenous communities as well and our partnerships with them. We are looking at a number of opportunities in the North. I would say that would probably be more on our ATCO side of our business than on the Canadian Utilities side of the business. We do have an electric business in the North. We do have some gas midstream facilities in the North as well that we would look to continue to grow as the opportunities arise. We think Northern Canada is a great opportunity for our ATCO organization. Katie, I think you’d agree with that as well as we look at some of the opportunities that we’re pursuing across our group of companies.

Katie Patrick, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial and Investment Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: Absolutely. Certainly something we can discuss on the ATCO call in terms of some of the opportunities we are seeing up in the north. We have a strong presence from the ATCO Frontec business as well. It’s just generally a long-term history in the north.

Okay, thanks for that. This one’s probably for you, Katie, as well. Just on the PBR2 reopener and I.

Bob Myles, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: Guess some of the disputes with the Alberta Utilities Commission coupled with the heightened focus around needing to mitigate wildfire risks.

Just wondering if your discussions with the rating agencies are leading to any requirement to build a little bit more cushion on any of your credit metrics.

Colin Jackson, Senior Vice President, Financial Operations, Canadian Utilities Limited: Just any update you have there.

Katie Patrick, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial and Investment Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: Yes, I mean as you know, we have a strong credit rating at A. Obviously, as we go in through some of this build through Yellowhead, we will see some pressure on our credit metrics during that greenfield build time. That is a temporary situation. The PBR reopener, we view that as a temporary, as we said, a temporary use of cash because we are confident in our ability to win on appeal on that. I think the rating agency is aware of all these issues, and we are currently in for annual review with them. We still feel very confident in the strength of our balance sheet and our credit rating.

Bob Myles, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Utilities Limited: Okay, that’s great.

Colin Jackson, Senior Vice President, Financial Operations, Canadian Utilities Limited: I’ll leave it there.

Thank you.

Conference Operator: This concludes the question and answer session. I’d like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Colin Jackson for any closing remarks.

Colin Jackson, Senior Vice President, Financial Operations, Canadian Utilities Limited: Thank you, Gaylene. Thank you all for participating today. We appreciate your interest in Canadian Utilities, and we look forward to speaking with you again soon.

Conference Operator: This brings to a close today’s conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.

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