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Atlantica Yield reports 2015 Financial Results

 

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Revenue for the full year 2015 reached $790.9 million, more than double that achieved in the previous year.

 

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Further Adjusted EBITDA including unconsolidated affiliates increased by 107% year-on-year to $636.5 million in 2015, compared with $308.0 million in 2014.

 

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Very strong cash available for distribution of $178.5 million in the year, meeting our guidance.

 

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While the business performance is strong, the Board of Directors decided that it is prudent to postpone the decision regarding Q4 2015 dividend until Q2 2016.

 

Financial Results 2015

 

February 29th, 2016 – Atlantica Yield (“ABY”), the sustainable total return company that owns a diversified portfolio of contracted assets in the energy and environment sectors, closed 2015 delivering very solid operating results, confirming the trend of previous quarters. Revenues amounted to $790.9 million, representing a 118% increase year-on-year and Further Adjusted EBITDA including unconsolidated affiliates (“FA EBITDA”) reached $636.5 million, a 107% increase compared to 2014. In the fourth quarter of 2015, cash available for distribution amounted to $36.8 million, representing a 30% increase versus the same quarter of the previous year. With this, our cash available for distribution in the full year reached $178.5 million, meeting our announced guidance.

 

2015 Highlights

 

 

Key Performance Indicators

 

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Segment Results

 

 

 

 

 

 

2015 has been very important in terms of growth and the successful integration of our acquisitions. Growth has been particularly important in our Renewable energy segment, where we reached 1,441 MW of installed capacity. We produced 2,536 GWh of clean electricity during the year, which is nearly three times the 2014 production.

 

Performance in our renewable energy assets has been mixed in 2015, with assets such as Mojave and our Spanish plants performing at or above expectations, while Solana, our wind assets in South America and Kaxu should improve in 2016.

 

In our Renewable energy segment, Mojave achieved outstanding operating results during its first year of operation in 2015 and we expect this asset to maintain this solid operating momentum in order to reach its run rate in 2016. Solana, only in its second year of operating is expected to improve its performance in 2016, due to a number of initiatives implemented at the end of 2015 and the first part of 2016. Actually, these initiatives are already showing some significant improvements in the beginning of 2016. Solar assets in Spain have outperformed expectations, reflecting a very solid operating performance. Kaxu started its operations in early 2015 and is still going through its ramp up phase, however, it has already shown an improvement in 2016. Wind assets in Uruguay have shown a stable operating performance, in line with expectations, although the lower wind resource in the first half of the year resulted into a lower generation than forecasted.

 

Our availability-based assets have all delivered very good availability levels. Our Conventional power generating facility in Mexico, ACT, exceeded another year its contractual targets regarding electricity and thermal generation. In our Transmission line and Water segments our assets have either comfortably achieved or exceeded forecasted availability levels.

 

Net Income was negatively affected by a one-time non-cash impairment of our preferred equity investment in Brazil amounting to $210.4 million. Without considering this effect, Profit attributable to the company would have amounted to $1.4 million in the full year 2015.

 

Liquidity and Debt

 

As of December 31, 2015, consolidated cash and cash equivalents amounted to $514.7 million, of which $45.5 million was cash available at the Atlantica Yield corporate level. In addition, short-term financial investments at the project level amounted to $77.1 million. As a result, total liquidity including short-term financial investments amounted to $591.8 million as of December 31, 2015.

 

Net project debt and net corporate debt amounted to $5,001.4 million and $619.0 million, respectively, as of December 31, 2015. Net corporate debt / CAFD pre-corporate debt service ratio remains below our internal target of 3x.

 

Guidance

 

We have revised expectations for the year 2016 to reflect:

 

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the existing uncertainty on the dividend from our preferred equity investment in Brazil;

 

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potential one time delays in distributions in 2016 expected from certain assets due to the current situation of our current sponsor; and

 

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expected operating performance as well as incremental expenses related to the process of separation from our current sponsor.

 

As a result, we expect CAFD for the year 2016 to be in the range of $170 million to $200 million and dividend per share to be in the range of $1.45 to $1.80 per share.

 

In addition, we are initiating guidance on FA EBITDA, with an expected FA EBITDA for 2016 in the range of $750 million to $800 million.

 

We expect 2016 to be a transition year and as such we do not expect 2016 to be representative of our run-rate, as some of the reasons which caused the lower guidance are one time events.

 

Dividend

 

Taking into consideration the above mentioned uncertainties derived from the current situation of our sponsor, the Board of Directors is taking a prudent approach and has decided to postpone the decision on the dividend corresponding to the fourth quarter of 2015, until the second quarter of 2016.

 

Strategic Objectives for 2016

 

 

Details of the Results Presentation Conference

 

Atlantica Yield’s Managing Director, Santiago Seage, and its CFO, Francisco Martinez-Davis, will hold a conference call today, February 29, at 4:30 pm EST.

 

In order to access the conference call participants should dial: +1 855 402 7761 (U.S.) / +44 (0) 2031 474 609 (U.K.). A live webcast of the conference call will be available on Atlantica Yield's website. Please visit the website at least 15 minutes earlier in order to register for the live webcast and download any necessary audio software.

 

Forward-Looking Statements

 

This news release contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, all statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this prospectus, including, without limitation, those regarding our future financial position and results of operations, our strategy, plans, objectives, goals and targets, future developments in the markets in which we operate or are seeking to operate or anticipated regulatory changes in the markets in which we operate or intend to operate. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “aim,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “guidance,” “intend,” “is likely to,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “projected,” “should” or “will” or the negative of such terms or other similar expressions or terminology. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. Our actual results of operations, financial condition and the development of events may differ materially from (and be more negative than) those made in, or suggested by, the forward-looking statements.

 

Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated above include, among others, general economic conditions, changes in government expenditure budgets, challenges in making acquisitions, changes in public support of renewable energy, weather conditions, legal challenges to regulations, changes to subsidies and incentives that support renewable energy sources, government regulations, the volatility of energy and fuel prices, counterparty credit risk, failure of customers to perform under contracts, our ability to enter into new contracts as existing contracts expire, reliance on third-party contractors and suppliers, failure of newly constructed assets to perform as expected, failure to receive dividends from assets, changes in our tax position, unanticipated outages at our generation facilities, the condition of capital markets generally and for yieldcos in particular our ability to access capital markets, adverse results in current and future litigation, developments at Abengoa, S.A. and our ability to maintain and grow our quarterly dividends. Furthermore, any dividends are subject to available capital, market conditions, and compliance with associated laws and regulations. These factors should be considered in connection with information regarding risks and uncertainties that may affect Atlantica Yield’s future results included in Atlantica Yield’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov.

 

Atlantica Yield undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or developments or otherwise.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

 

We present non-GAAP financial measures because we believe that they and other similar measures are widely used by certain investors, securities analysts and other interested parties as supplemental measures of performance and liquidity. The non-GAAP financial measures may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures of other companies and have limitations as analytical tools and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our operating results as reported under IFRS as issued by the IASB. Non-GAAP financial measures and ratios are not measurements of our performance or liquidity under IFRS as issued by the IASB and should not be considered as alternatives to operating profit or profit for the year or any other performance measures derived in accordance with IFRS as issued by the IASB or any other generally accepted accounting principles or as alternatives to cash flow from operating, investing or financing activities.

Consolidated Statements of Operations

(Amounts in thousands of U.S. dollars)

 

 

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Consolidated Statement of Financial Position

(Amounts in thousands of U.S. dollars)

 

Consolidated Cash Flow Statements

(Amounts in thousands of U.S. dollars)

 

 

Reconciliation of Further Adjusted EBITDA including unconsolidated affiliates to Profit/(loss) for the period attributable to the parent company

 

Reconciliation of Further Adjusted EBITDA including unconsolidated affiliates to net cash provided by/ (used) in operating activities

 

Cash Available For Distribution Reconciliation (Historical)

 

 

Cash Available For Distribution Reconciliation (Guidance)

 

About Atlantica Yield

 

Atlantica Yield is the corporate brand for Abengoa Yield plc, a total return company that owns a diversified portfolio of contracted renewable energy, power generation, electric transmission and water assets in North & South America, and certain markets in EMEA (www.atlanticayield.com).

 

 

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