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Utilities - Regulated Water - NASDAQ - KY
$ 25.77
4.67 %
$ 408 M
Market Cap
13.56
P/E
EARNINGS CALL TRANSCRIPT
EARNINGS CALL TRANSCRIPT 2015 - Q1
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Executives

Frederick McTaggart - President and Chief Executive Officer David Sasnett - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Analysts

Michael Gaugler - Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Gerry Sweeney - ROTH Capital Partners John Bair - Ascend Wealth Advisors LLC George Whiteside - SWS Financial Services.

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the Consolidated Water Company’s First Quarter 2015 Operating Results Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode.

[Operator Instructions] This conference call may include statements that may constitute forward-looking statements, usually containing the words believe, estimate, project, intend, expect, or similar expressions. These statements are made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Forward-looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements.

Factors that would cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, continued acceptance of the company’s products and services in the marketplace, changes in its relationship with the governments of the jurisdictions in which it operates, the ability to successfully secure contracts for water projects in other countries, the ability to develop and operate such projects profitably and other risks detailed in the company’s periodic report filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

By making these forward-looking statements, the company undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this conference call. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Rick McTaggart, President and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead..

Frederick McTaggart Chief Executive Officer, President & Director

Thank you, Alisa. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. David Sasnett, our CFO is also joining me on the call this morning from our Florida office.

Our first quarter financial results were positively impacted by approximately $1.4 million reduction of development expenses related to our 100 million gallon per day desalination plant project in Rosarito Mexico and this is compared to the prior year’s quarter, and by $100,000 increase in consolidated gross profit due to reduced operating costs.

These improvements were partially offset by $310,000 non-cash impairment charge of our investment in Ocean Conversion, BVI, which David will discuss in more detail later in the call.

Retail revenues in terms of dollars were essentially flat this past quarter compared to the prior year’s first quarter, in spite of a 2% volume increase in our Cayman retail water sales. This volume-based revenue increase was offset by a reduction in energy-related charges, resulting from lower electricity prices.

We were very pleased to see that retail sales volumes continue to trend higher consistent with the 3% average growth rate for retail sales volumes for the full-year ended December 31, 2014.

Retail segment gross profit increased by approximately 2% due to cost reductions resulting from lower electricity prices, enhanced pressure control of our water distribution system on Grand Cayman, and energy savings from our newly commissioned solar energy project..

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Additionally, rainfall in our Grand Cayman service area was slightly less this past quarter than in the first quarter 2014, and was slightly above the 30-year average rainfall. Based on historical results, we believe that changes in the number of tourists, visitors, as well as rainfall patterns have had an impact on our water sales in Grand Cayman.

Consequently, we believe that continued growth in tourist air arrivals and possibly drier weather conditions would tend to increase our retail water sales.

In three new hotel resort projects in various stages of development continue to take shape within our Seven Mile Beach Grand Cayman utility franchise area with 263 room Kimpton Hotel is under construction and is expected to open late next year.

And the redevelopment of the Hyatt hotel property into a 224-room hotel and conference center, as well as a new five-star hotel development across from the Camana Bay project of Seven Mile Beach are currently in the planning stages. And each of these projects if completed should enhance our retail water sales in the future.

We noted in recent disclosures that our Cayman utility license was extended to June 30th of this year, in order to allow the government and ourselves to conclude negotiations for a new utility license. On March 23, we received a letter from the Minister of Works in Grand Cayman responding to our letter of November 2014.

And in that letter the Minister made various points as follows. Firstly, the Cayman Islands government plans to create a new Public Utilities Commission, however, the negotiation of our new retail license will not depend on the formation of such commission. So that means we’ll continue to negotiate with the water authority under the new law.

They also made a point that they are not prepared to consider our request to include non-potable water, as well as potable water in our exclusive license area until after the negotiations for a new license of recommenced.

They further made the point that rather than allow the company to submit its counterproposal to the water authorities June 2010 draft RCAM license, the water authority will prepare a new license with the understanding that we will have an opportunity to propose amendments.

Furthermore, the principle of subsidization of residential customer rates, by commercial customer rates would continue under the new license, the juncture makes the residential customers happy. And finally, he suggested that in the new license, we eliminate our minimum monthly volume charge to residential customers.

And I charge essentially if you used to garner income from a service connection possibly while customers not using water during a wetter part of the year, because we do have fixed overhead costs in the business that relate to customer connections.

We understand that the water authority itself is currently preparing regulations to implement in RCAM type regulatory model for its own rate setting process and operations. And we further understand that the water authority will provide us with a draft of our proposed new license after their own regulatory changes have been implemented.

We cannot say with any certainty when the negotiations will recommence. But we do expect to continue to be granted extensions of our current license that facilitate the negotiations in the process.

Now looking at Bulk segment, Bulk segment revenues declined $1.6 million this past quarter compared with the first quarter of 2014, due to lower energy pass-through charges to our customers, resulting from significantly lower fuel prices and electricity costs in our business.

However, Bulk segment gross profit increased by 3%, or approximately $100,000 due to the enhancement of the safety margin on our energy cost guarantees at some of our bulk water plants by improving energy efficiency..

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The Services segment incurred a smaller operating loss this past quarter compared to the first quarter of 2014, due to the tapering of costs relating to the development activities of our 100 million gallon per day, seawater desalination plant in Rosarito, Mexico.

And this is, as we move closer to the end of the initial development cycle of this very important regional project. David, I’d like you to just speak about the OC-BVI impairment charge now..

David Sasnett

Okay. Good morning, everyone. Consolidated Water qualities investment in our British Virgin Islands affiliate back in 2003. The time the amount we pay for this investment significantly exceeded our percentage ownership for the book value of OC-BVI’s assets. And as a result our investment in OC-BVI contained a significant amount of underlying goodwill.

A portion of this goodwill is written off back when OC-BVI lost the cash flows from its Bar Bay state plant, as a result of this agreement with the government and litigation which discussed extensively in our filings.

The remaining carrying value of our investment at OC-BVI after that write-off was then estimated at market value, which was based upon the cash flows OC-BVI expected to generate from its remaining principal operations which are the Bar Bay plant. On the U.S.

GAAP, we required to periodically compare the market value of our investment in OC-BVI just carrying value. And for market value if such investment exceeds carrying value to record an impairment charge through this carrying value to market.

On each quarter the expected cash flows from Bar Bay decreased as OC-BVI’s water supply contract with the BVI government matures. So, as this cash flows decrease, its projected market value or estimated market value decreases.

Consequently, we necessarily required to amortize our goodwill by writing down our investment in OC-BVI each quarter as the contract matures. Now presently after the end of this quarter, we have about $1.6 billion of the implied goodwill in our investment at OC-BVI.

This is after the adjustment the impairment charge we took this quarter on that investment with $310,000. And $1.6 million will continue to be amortized written off until such time as OC-BVI gains to contract for its Bar Bay plant.

So investors that are looking at our results can expect a comparable write-off in future quarters the $1.6 million until we booked about $3.10 this quarter. So not a reasonable, I think the comparable amount will be booked each subsequent quarter until such time as we can announce hopefully that we have a new contract for OC-BVI at the Bar Bay plant.

But if such contract is not obtained then full $1.6 million ultimately be written off. Furthermore, the worst-case scenario occurs and OC-BVI required to shutdown this Bar Bay plant. OC-BVI will be required to take impairment charge on the book value of the assets there.

Net loss will flow to our income statement as we pick up our accessories of their equity results. So I hope that clarifies the situation.

As I earlier we booked $310,000 our impairment charge this quarter, it’s reasonable to assume that until this time or less OC-BVI, you get a contract for Bar Bay, we’ll have to take a comparable charge into each quarters. And I hope that explains things for people. And I’ll turn next back to you Rick..

Frederick McTaggart Chief Executive Officer, President & Director

Thanks, David. I’d like to speak a bit more about our Mexico project now. In February we received approval or approved environmental permit from the Mexican environmental regulator for the Rosarito plant, as well as the rezoning confirmation from Municipality of Rosarito, which rezoned the project site for industrial use.

Also in February, we entered into a Letter of Intent with a potential equity partner with substantial financial resources and successful track record and completing capital projects in Mexico. And we did this to enhance the quality of our proposal under the new public-private partnership law in the state of Baja California, Mexico.

And this law was enacted last summer. This new law sets the framework through which private entities such as ourselves can make unsolicited proposals to the state for services and infrastructure, such as the Rosarito plant.

Consequently, this past quarter we submitted our initial proposal to the state to provide desalinated water from the Rosarito plant. In accordance with the requirements of the new law, and we’re currently awaiting the results of the state’s evaluation process.

If the state decides to proceed with the project then it’s required to conduct a public tender and, we and our partners intend to submit a more detailed proposal in the future consistent with the terms of the tender.

Right now, we can’t say one that’s all going to happen, they have a certain leeway within the law, I think up to six months to review the proposal. So we would expect to hear back from them sometime between the end of March and six months forward.

And we and our partners obviously look forward to further progress, including obtaining other required permits for the project during the remainder of 2015, and we hope that we’ll be able to see the completion of this very important projects which will be the largest in the company’s history. Now, I’d like to open up the call for questions..

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from Michael Gaugler from Janney Montgomery. Please go ahead..

Michael Gaugler

Good morning, everyone..

Frederick McTaggart Chief Executive Officer, President & Director

Hey, Mike..

Michael Gaugler:.

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Frederick McTaggart Chief Executive Officer, President & Director

That’s correct. I mean, there is things that now appear to be inconsistent with what they’re trying to achieve ultimately, including the non-potable water issues, and we would expect those things to be add out there in negotiations.

And we believe that having a minimum charge particularly for some of the larger commercial customers is very important to the success of the return on capital type rate model..

Michael Gaugler

Okay. And then, I guess just kind of a follow-up, don’t even know, if you can answer this or not.

But I mean, would this make more sense to negotiate the new license with the plant public utility commission versus your competitor?.

Frederick McTaggart Chief Executive Officer, President & Director

Yes. And we’ve made that point recently to the government representatives. We hope that they give us some consideration..

Michael Gaugler

All right. Yes, I would just, again, just kind of thinking through that earlier comment about removing a minimum charge, if they wanted to do that.

They should let you keep your current license parameters versus moving to a different model?.

Frederick McTaggart Chief Executive Officer, President & Director

Yes. I’m sure, we’re going to have quite a lot of discussion with them. And, as you’ve mentioned, it’s very important to us that we have an independent entity that we are negotiating with and we’ve requested that..

Michael Gaugler

Okay, thanks. That’s all I had..

Frederick McTaggart Chief Executive Officer, President & Director

Yes..

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Gerry Sweeney from ROTH. Please go ahead..

Gerry Sweeney

Good morning, David. Good morning, Rick..

Frederick McTaggart Chief Executive Officer, President & Director

Hey, Gerry.

Gerry Sweeney

Speaking about the RCAM model, this might be a little bit premature, but have you done any type of sensitivity analysis, as to possibly what assets would be involved in model, potentially some rates.

What it would do to capital spending, anything along those lines?.

Frederick McTaggart Chief Executive Officer, President & Director

Absolutely, yes, we’ve modeled it out, and we’ve made observations and done some sensitivity testing. Of course, we can only model it based on the terms of the original proposal they gave us, while it’s almost five years ago. And then also taking into consideration how they regulate the electricity company here, which is on a similar basis.

So we really won’t be able to run exact models until we get a new draft license from the water authority..

Gerry Sweeney:.

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Frederick McTaggart Chief Executive Officer, President & Director

Well, I think rate of return model, obviously encourages the utility to invest more capital to keep its rates up. So I mean, that’s a very obvious theme. The other stuff, I think, I’ll just leave for later on to discuss..

Gerry Sweeney

Okay. And then just flipping over to the charge on the OCI, I’m assuming just to clarify the contract is in place, the contract is a finable, and so as those cash flows decrease, the current value of that asset decreases, which creates that charge.

Just a couple of quick questions, when does the contract come towards, I guess, the final ending borrowing any extension?.

Frederick McTaggart Chief Executive Officer, President & Director

The last month of revenue is February 2017..

Gerry Sweeney:.

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David Sasnett:.

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So we probability weighted those scenarios in our projections of expected cash flows.

But the worst-case scenario is at the end of seven years, excuse me, at the end of seven-year contract, which occurs in February of 2017, they decided simply began with one plant and they have and make it combinations for getting water to the area and it’s presently served by Bar Bay. I think it doesn’t happen, but we can’t roll it up..

Gerry Sweeney

Okay.

But at the end of the day, I mean, there is certainly some moving parts, it sounds like your water is cheaper than their large plant, and demand issues are in flex, so there is certainly some moving parts?.

David Sasnett:.

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Gerry Sweeney

Okay, got it. Flipping over to Mexico a real quick, I think I read in a Q, spending levels through the rest of 2015 will be about $1.6 million..

David Sasnett

That’s our estimate, yes..

Gerry Sweeney:.

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Frederick McTaggart Chief Executive Officer, President & Director

Well, Gerry, I mean I don’t want to talk too much about that, because there will be a public tender process. So there is always the possibility that somebody comes in and other groups make proposals that might be attractive to the government.

So from my standpoint, my perspective, we have achieved a lot of things that would take another competitor many years to achieve going forward. I mean, we have repurchased land at a very strategic side. We have an agreement with Federal Electricity Commission, where we’re leasing properties, strategic property within power plant site.

And as you mentioned, we’ve already obtained some of the permits required to construct a plan, a very important permit. So we think the timing is going to be very important.

The state is very enthusiastic about getting this new water supply, and also doing some sort of trade deal, or sale deal for some of that water to go into the United States, and there are actively pursuing that..

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Gerry Sweeney

Okay. That’s very helpful. That’s what I need. I appreciate it. Thank you..

Frederick McTaggart Chief Executive Officer, President & Director

Yes..

Operator

Our next question comes from John Bair from Ascend Wealth Advisors. Please go ahead..

John Bair

Thank you, and good morning.

Your partnership that you established in February of this year, if I read it right in the Q, is good for one year to February 2016, is that right?.

Frederick McTaggart Chief Executive Officer, President & Director

Yes, correct..

David Sasnett

Correct..

John Bair

Okay.

And the anticipation is that you’ll get something back from the regulatory agencies within six months, right just idea…?.

Frederick McTaggart:.

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John Bair:.

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Frederick McTaggart Chief Executive Officer, President & Director

Yes, we do..

John Bair:.

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Frederick McTaggart Chief Executive Officer, President & Director

That’s not our application, that’s Otay Water District’s application. Anything that’s being done on the United States, the Board would be done by Otay Water District, we are not in a position to comment on that..

John Bair

Okay.

So you don’t really know what the status of that is at this point, that’s fair?.

Frederick McTaggart Chief Executive Officer, President & Director

Other than what we reported, that’s what I’m aware off..

John Bair:.

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Frederick McTaggart Chief Executive Officer, President & Director

Well, this recent quarter is rainy season in Bali. So it’s not a great quarter to be reporting results..

David Sasnett

But quite frankly speaking, the marketplace continues to be very price sensitive. And you’ll see the increase in the volume of water that we produced going forward this quarter, because there due to the dry season, that’s what has really impressed the supply there. At some point in time, we’ve made a long-term investment in Bali.

At some point in time, we’re confident that, they simply will have to buy from us. But for the time being, they’re continuing, a lot of these hotels are continuing to tap into ground wells, which just provides them the freshwater, not the best freshwater in the world, they can filter at least in their hotels and is practically free at the moment.

The reason why we invested in Bali is, because long-term that that’s not a viable solution, they’re going to exhaust the aquifer and don’t have the source of water other than coming to our plant.

There will be opportunities that exited their own diesel there and some hotels actually tried to do reverse as much as on their own and they’ve not been particularly successful. But for us it’s still a waiting game. And I can’t say the uncertainty when they’ll finally pull the trigger on this.

We’re therefore minimizing our investment in Bali, and if we do anything else in the future there, we’ll probably end up building plants rather people until we’re comfortable we can be able to currency list there, in India where the price sensitivity in some of these markets..

John Bair:.

Operator:.

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David Sasnett

No, we actually talks to the government that Bali is kind of a strange place, it’s difficult to deal with governments in general, and for some reason, Bali governments even more challenging the most.

If they were quick and proactive and did things the way I think, we would expect them to do things, so wouldn’t really be a lot of questions on Bali, because they would build reservoirs, dams, and things like that.

So while you support, you suggest like a sense we have talked about hotels, none of them seem to want to pull the resources or talk about our unified solution..

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John Bair

Okay. All right. Thank you very much..

Frederick McTaggart Chief Executive Officer, President & Director

Sure. Thanks, John..

Operator

Our next question comes from George Whiteside from SWS Financial. Please go ahead..

George Whiteside

Good morning. One of my questions is in regard to Cayman and you referenced the fact that there would be the possibility of someone recovered or unamortized capital costs there, if for some reason the contract were not renewed on those assets.

What were Cayman’s alternatives on water be?.

Frederick McTaggart Chief Executive Officer, President & Director

I think we were mentioning that in relation to the Ocean Conversion BVI business in Tortola that that’s not an issue in Cayman license negotiations..

George Whiteside

All right. I misunderstood then..

Frederick McTaggart Chief Executive Officer, President & Director

Sure. Not a problem..

George Whiteside

My second question is what is the status of your involvement in belief?.

Frederick McTaggart:.

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George Whiteside

Well, it sounds as though the major issue is, as you described the currency kind of repatriation, if you will. And I presume you’re under negotiations on that issue..

Frederick McTaggart:.

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George Whiteside

Thank you..

Frederick McTaggart Chief Executive Officer, President & Director

My pleasure..

Operator

Having no further questions, this concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. McTaggart for any closing remarks..

Frederick McTaggart Chief Executive Officer, President & Director

I just like to thank everybody for joining us. We had some great questions today, and I look forward to speaking with you again in August when we e reporter our second quarter results. Thank you..

Operator

The access to digital replay of this conference, you may dial 1877-344-7529 or 1412-317-0088, beginning at approximately 1 PM Eastern Time. You will be prompted to enter our conference number, which will 10065412. Please record your name and company when prompted. The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation.

You may now disconnect..

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