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spk06: Welcome to Atlantica's first quarter 2023 financial results conference call. Atlantica is a sustainable infrastructure company. Just a reminder that this call is being webcast live on the internet and a replay of this call will be available on Atlantica's corporate website. Atlantica will be making forward-looking statements during this call based on current expectations and assumptions, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from our forward-looking statement if any of our key assumptions are incorrect or because of other factors discussed in today's early presentation or because of other factors discussed including the risk factor section of the accompanying presentation and in our latest reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. all of which can be found on our website. Atlantica does not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements. Joining us for today's conference call are Atlantica's CEO, Santiago Feige, and CFO Francisco Martinez-Davis. As usual, at the end of the conference call, we will open the lines for a Q&A session. I will now pass you over to Mr. Feige. Please, Seth, go ahead.
spk02: Good morning, and thank you for joining for our first quarter 2023 conference call. I will start with a couple of messages before Francisco takes us through our results. In the first quarter, revenue on adjusted VDA increased by 1.5%. and 4% respectively on a comparable basis, while cash available for distribution increased by 4.6% year over year on a comparable basis.
spk01: Okay. Thank you, Santiago. Please turn to slide number four, and good morning to everyone. In slide number four, I will present our key financials for the first quarter of 2023. Revenue reached $242.5 million, which represents a 1.5% growth on a comparable basis, excluding the effect of foreign exchange. Adjusted EBITDA amounted to $172.2 million, representing an increase of 4% on a comparable basis. Regarding cash available for distribution, we generated $61 million in the first quarter of 2023, an increase of 12.1 year-over-year. This includes $4.1 million from the sale or part of our equity interest in our development company in Colombia to a partner. Without this impact, CAFTI would have increased by 4.6 year over year. On the following slide, number five, you can see our performance by geography and business sector. In North America, revenue decreased by 2% to $72.8 million in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same period of last year. The decrease was mainly due to lower solar resource in Arizona and in California in the quarter. In South America, revenue increased by 14% compared to the first three months of 2022, up to $43.7 million, and EBITDA increased 16% to $33.8 million. This increase was mainly due to newly consolidated assets, assets which we've recently entered operation and inflation indexation mechanisms in our contracts. On a constant currency basis, adjusted EBITDA in the Maya region increased by 10% to $88 million compared to the first quarter of 2022. This was mostly due to higher production and inflation indexation at CACHU and also lower operating expenses in our solar assets in Spain. Looking below at the results by business sector, we can see similar effects. Let's now please turn to slide number six, where we will review our operational performance. Electricity produced by renewable assets reached 1.2 gigawatt hours in the first three months of 2023, an increase of 9% versus the same period of 2022, mainly due to the increase in production in our solar assets in Spain, where solar radiation was very good in the period and to the contribution from the recently consolidated assets and those that have entered in operation recently Looking at our availability-based contracts, in our efficient natural gas and heat segment, availability decreased, mainly due to our scheduled major overhaul, which did not impact revenue. In our water assets and transmission lines, continued to achieve very high availability levels in the first quarter of 2023. On the next slide, number seven, we would like to review our net debt position. Net debt as of March 31st, 2023 was 4.1 billion, a slight increase versus March 31st, 2022. In addition, we closed the quarter with net corporate debt of $968 million. With this, our next corporate debt to cap the pre-corporate debt service ratio to the 3.3 times. With this, I conclude today's presentation. Thank you for joining us. We will now open the line for questions. Operator, we are ready for Q&A.
spk06: Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by 1 on your telephone keypad. If for any reason you would like to remove that question, please press star followed by 2. Again, to ask a question, please press star followed by 1. As a reminder, if you are using a speakerphone, please remember to pick up your handset before asking your question, and please do ensure that you have unmuted locally. Our first question today comes from the line of Andy Zulnitsky from Seaport. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
spk05: Thank you. Good morning. So maybe first, if we could start with your strategic review. You know, your majority shareholder has a bit more flexibility on their balance sheet. So I just wonder, now that they didn't acquire Kentucky Power, so I'm wondering if that is impacting your strategic review? And also, you know, given the some expansion in credit spreads, you know, how do you even think about what the goal of the review is?
spk02: Good morning, Andy. So regarding your question, obviously, I cannot comment on one of our shareholders. The only thing I can say there, I can make reference to the announcement we made. about this review, which is from Boeing, and to the fact that Algonquin expressively supported or supports that process. And I cannot speculate much more than that, Andy, as you understand.
spk05: Understood. So now, so, you know, so under the current, you know, the status quo, basically, so, you know, you're basically still trying to acquire third party assets. I mean, is there, has there been any... Any change in the competitive landscape given the higher cost of financing? Are you seeing more openness from sellers to adjust their expectation for the valuations of their assets given the higher cost of capital?
spk02: So as you know, our growth strategy has two components. One is development and construction, where we continue executing on our plan and executing on the pipeline that we shared with you in our 2022 results presentation. The second part of our growth strategy is about acquisitions, as you mentioned. And there, what we see is a very active market. It is true, a market where sellers and buyers' expectations, given the changes, the macro changes that have been happening in the last few quarters, not always meet. Nevertheless, renewable energy, we see a very active market, lots of owners willing to be selling assets. It's a question of time. that sellers and buyers end up meeting. There have been some transactions closing. There have been others that have been delayed, but we continue believing that there will be opportunities and actually the macro environment might help in that regard.
spk05: Okay. And lastly, the financing of such acquisition. Talk about, you know, if you would have to issue either equity or bonds to finance any such acquisitions, I guess it depends on the size. But, you know, any flexibility you have with additions of project level debt, any sort of refinancing of existing debt in order to help yourself from a CAFTI perspective, again, just looking for some signs of financing flexibility in this environment.
spk01: Andy, it's Francisco. Thank you for your question. You saw in the presentation our leverage ratio went down in the first quarter. We continue to have ample room to finance acquisitions. And as I said, we will have to see at that particular time what's the best option that we have to financing. But as I said, we have room. on the leverage, so it does that. We just need to see what the best financing strategy is.
spk05: Okay, thank you.
spk06: Thank you. The next question today comes from the line of Julian de Mullen-Smith from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
spk04: Hey, good morning, Steve. Thank you very much. Just to follow up on the last question a little bit more directly, would you expect to pursue acquisitions here during the pendency of the strategic review? And if so, to what extent would you think about achieving kind of a mid versus low single-digit dividend growth here? I'm just curious on activity during the pendency of this, first off.
spk02: Good morning, Julian. Going to your question, At this point in time, our study again is about investing in development. It is also about acquisitions whenever we find the right opportunity. When we announced the strategic review, we said explicitly that we would continue developing our growth strategy so our growth strategy is not influenced by the review in any way and depending obviously on which investments we close and we don't close we might end up in let's say in a higher part of the range or a lower part of the range still at the end of Q1 it's a bit too soon to be able to be very prescriptive At this point in time, we think that we are delivering and working well on both sides of the growth strategy, development and acquisition opportunities.
spk04: Got it. In the strategic review here, are you looking at the kinds of assets that you're investing in or geography at all as part of that, or is this just a question about selling assets or not?
spk02: So, again, I wouldn't like to speculate regarding the review. This is something that we are conducting, and I want to be respectful of a process that we have. I don't know where I afford.
spk04: I was wondering if it would impact the kind of acquisition you did. With that said, if I can pivot back to Europe, I mean, and obviously I'd love to hear if you have any brief power thoughts in the U.S. at this point. But as you look at the European backdrop and potential for continued data points through the mid part of this year on various country actions in response to coordinated EU subsidy efforts, is there anything new across your portfolio that you might want to highlight as an opportunity on that front? As you think about... I had a tense moment.
spk02: Yeah, I think that in general, we are facing an environment from a market point of view that has never been so attractive, I would say. And in the US, I'm not going to elaborate about IRA. In our case, we do have some repowering opportunities in the short and the midterm. And clearly, regulation for that at this point in time is much clearer than a year ago. In the case of Europe, we continue to see opportunities. We do think that the European Union is coming up with programs that should help in that regard, probably programs that are slower than what we saw in the U.S., but eventually we believe that we are going to be able to capture opportunities. Last quarter, we talked briefly about a small hydrogen project that is being supported by a European program. And going forward, there should be more, and we are working on a number of those opportunities. And whenever they become realities, we will be talking about them.
spk04: Janet. All right, fair enough. That will be still working its way through. Thank you, Jack.
spk06: Thank you. The next question today comes from the line of Eli Rodney from National Bank of Canada. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
spk03: Morning, everyone. Just filling in for Rupert here. First, if I could touch on Spain, specifically Spanish power prices and how they've evolved throughout the year so far. Could you touch on how that sort of evolved versus your expectations? And where do you see the market heading for the rest of the year versus expectations?
spk02: So specifically in Spain, power prices are a bit softer than what the market expected and what futures were saying at the end of last year and what the regulator expected. In our case, as you know, our assets in Spain are regulated and therefore the value or the IRR of the assets are not affected by or should not be affected by price fluctuations in a certain year obviously there can be a short-term impact so your cash revenues can be a bit better or a bit worse in the short term and the regulation takes that into account so not something we are let's say overly worried about at this point in time our expectation if you look at the futures and the market that prices should be stronger in the second half but again Okay, great.
spk03: And just a quick one on Chile. In light of the recent news of you reaching financial close on 80 megawatts of solar there, it looks like it's in a pretty good location pricing-wise. Just wanted to see if there's any incremental color you can give on pricing expectations, return expectations, etc.
spk02: So in the case of Chile, the 80 megawatts that we talked publicly about last quarter, if I recall properly, that are currently under construction, they will be subject to a certain regulation in Chile. So these assets will be regulated through something that is locally called PMGD. And therefore, we don't need to worry as much about market prices. We do think that the return will be reasonable locally. And again, the good thing is that even this regulation, which is basically taking into account market prices, but giving visibility over the midterm, we know what cash return we are going to be making in the short and the midterm with really good returns.
spk03: Okay, great. So in mind, it was a comparable project. Thanks. That's it for me. Thank you.
spk06: Thank you. The next question today comes from the line of Mark Jarvie from CIBC. Please go ahead.
spk00: Your line is now open. Yeah, good morning. I'm just wondering, Santiago, if you can comment on timeline, strategic review, just in terms of how it's evolved since you initiated and when you might have some updates for the market.
spk02: So I cannot comment much. Putting a timing on these processes is very difficult. Whatever I say might be totally off. So we are working on that. That's as much as I can probably say.
spk00: Fair enough. And then kind of, if I understand your comments, you're open to acquisitions alongside Greenfield Development. What about on selected positions as a source of funding? Would you be open to selling some select assets or parts of the portfolio while you're still going through strategic review?
spk02: Yes, as we said in the announcement of the free review, let's say our life continues and our strategy is the same while we do that. So on top of our investments and our growth, we always consider and we continue considering opportunities if we believe that they create value and that they can be accretive from a cash generation point of view, obviously.
spk00: Okay, thank you.
spk06: Thank you. Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. There are no additional questions waiting at this time, so I'd like to pass the conference back over to the management team for any closing remarks.
spk02: Thank you very much. Thanks, everybody, for joining in today. Thank you. Thank you.
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