Southern Co CEO Sees Opportunities To Obtain Assets
January 28 2009 - 2:48PM
Dow Jones News
Power company Southern Co. (SO) said Wednesday it sees
opportunities to buy assets during the economic downturn and credit
crisis, including assets beyond its traditional center of
operations in the southeastern U.S.
"As a result of the current liquidity issues in the market, we
see opportunities to obtain assets, including renewable generation,
around the region and across the nation," Chairman and Chief
Executive David Ratcliffe said during a conference call on the
company's 2008 results.
Ratcliffe didn't elaborate on potential targets, other than to
say that while the company would prefer to buy assets in the
Southeast, "we're not going to limit ourselves geographically at
this point."
The company forecast capital expenditures for 2009-2011 of $16.6
billion.
Paul Bowers, Southern's chief financial officer, said the budget
reflects spending requirements to meet the long-term growth of the
Southeast, and environmental and reliability rules.
"We believe current market conditions could enable us to further
improve both the short- and long-term growth profile of Southern
Power," Bowers said on the call.
Bowers also said that while Southern historically has seen
annual customer growth rates of around 1.5%, this rate declined to
0.6% in the fourth quarter. He added that the company expects this
lower growth to continue for most of 2009, though the long-term
economic fundamentals of the Southeast remain strong.
Southern Co. earlier Wednesday posted a 9% drop in
fourth-quarter net income to $185.6 million, or 24 cents a share, a
penny a share below the average forecast from analysts polled by
Thomson Reuters. Full-year 2008 earnings came in at $1.74 billion,
or $2.26 a share.
The company forecast 2009 earnings per share of $2.30 to $2.45,
saying that in a postrecessionary economy, it targets a long-term
average EPS growth rate of 6%.
-By Mark Long, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-4427;
mark.long@dowjones.com
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