TransAlta holds Annual Investor Day Conference
November 06 2009 - 10:48AM
Marketwired
TransAlta Corporation (TSX: TA) (NYSE: TAC) held its annual
Investor Day Conference in Toronto today where its executive
leadership team provided investors with a comprehensive review of
its financial outlook for 2009 to 2012.
"In 2009, TransAlta tackled the operational challenges in our
Alberta coal facilities, accelerated the growth of our renewable
energy portfolio and deepened our development pipeline,
recontracted our Sarnia natural gas facility, and made significant
strides along the path to reduce our carbon footprint," said Steve
Snyder, president and chief executive officer. "These initiatives
are the core of our strategy to deliver near and long-term value to
our shareholders. On the strength of these initiatives, and
assuming no increase in demand or natural gas prices before 2011 in
our core markets, we expect earnings and cash flow growth to resume
in 2010."
"TransAlta has a unique portfolio of diverse and
highly-contracted assets that underpin our low to moderate risk
strategy and support our dividend. On top of this foundation, we
expect investors will assign increased value in the years ahead to
TransAlta's position as Canada's leading publicly-traded provider
of renewable energy," said Snyder.
Today, renewable and natural gas assets account for 43 per cent
of TransAlta's installed megawatts and nearly 50 per cent of the
company's earnings before interest taxes and depreciation
(EBITDA).
At today's meeting, TransAlta showed that the majority of its
plants perform at or above the median of industry benchmark levels.
For the few that don't, the company provided an update on its plans
for improving performance to a stable 90 per cent fleet
availability level. Based on a unit-by-unit analysis, TransAlta now
believes a 90 per cent fleet availability level offers a superior
economic return when compared to the company's previous target of
92 per cent. The level of capital required to achieve 90 per cent
availability also reduces the risk that capital will become
stranded by carbon regulation that remains highly uncertain.
TransAlta's major maintenance work in 2009 is already resulting in
lower forced outages at its Alberta coal plants. The company is
targeting to reduce forced outages at these facilities by 4.5 per
cent in 2010.
"We believe TransAlta has the best renewable energy development
portfolio in Canada. In the near-term we see great potential to add
more contracted revenues from wind in jurisdictions across Canada
as well as geothermal in Southern California. In the medium and
longer-term, there is potential to develop our hydro resources in
Alberta as well as baseload natural gas combined cycle facilities
as an alternative to lifecycle investments at our Alberta coal
sites. The announcement of funding for our Project Pioneer, the
world's first large scale coal-fired power plant carbon capture and
storage (CCS) retro-fit project, moves us one step closer to making
coal a valuable and sustainable fuel in a carbon-constrained
environment. We will continue to weigh the longer-term replacement
of coal generation with natural gas against the economics and
viability of continuing to run our coal plants with CCS," said Dawn
Farrell, Chief Operating Officer.
TransAlta also announced the commencement of commercial
operations at its 66 MW, $115 million Blue Trail Wind Farm. The
project was completed one month ahead of schedule and on-budget.
Located four kilometers from Fort MacLeod, Blue Trail has 22, 3-MW
wind turbines. It will provide an annual average of 195,000
megawatts hours per year of electricity - enough to meet the needs
of 29,000 homes.
TransAlta now has a net generation capacity of 8,723 MW in
operation, of which 22 per cent or 1,966 MW is renewable energy. In
addition, there are 477 MW under construction and nearly 700 MW
considered in advanced development.
Speaking to the company's financial outlook, Brian Burden, Chief
Financial Officer, said, "Over the 2010 - 2012 period, we expect
cash flow from operations to be approximately $3 billion. After
accounting for the dividend, and sustaining and announced growth
capital, we expect to have approximately $600 million of free cash
available. While our priority remains to deliver low carbon growth
projects that will provide long-term cash flows, we will remain
disciplined in our capital allocation and weigh these opportunities
against other capital allocation alternatives and maintaining our
investment grade credit ratings."
Links to the webcast and presentation slides are available on
TransAlta's website, www.transalta.com, under Webcasts in the
Investor Relations section. A recording of the webcast is also
available on TransAlta's website.
Dial in number:
Toll-free North American participants 1-888-396-8064
TransAlta is a power generation and wholesale marketing company
focused on creating long-term shareholder value. We maintain a
low-to-moderate risk profile by operating a highly contracted
portfolio of assets in Canada, the United States and Australia. Our
focus is to efficiently operate our biomass, geothermal, wind,
hydro, natural gas and coal facilities in order to provide our
customers with a reliable, low-cost source of power. For nearly 100
years, we've been a responsible operator and a proud contributor to
the communities where we work and live. TransAlta is recognized for
its leadership on sustainability by the Dow Jones Sustainability
North America Index, the FTSE4Good Index and the Jantzi Social
Index.
This news release may contain forward-looking statements,
including statements regarding the business and anticipated
financial performance of TransAlta Corporation. These statements
are based on TransAlta Corporation's belief and assumptions based
on information available at the time the assumption was made. These
statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that
may cause actual results to differ materially from those
contemplated by the forward-looking statements. Some of the factors
that could cause such differences include legislative or regulatory
developments, competition, global capital markets activity, changes
in prevailing interest rates, currency exchange rates, inflation
levels and general economic conditions in geographic areas where
TransAlta Corporation operates.
Note: All financial figures are in Canadian dollars unless noted
otherwise.
Contacts: TransAlta Corporation - Media inquiries Michael
Lawrence Manager, External Relations (403) 267-7330
michael_lawrence@transalta.com TransAlta Corporation - Investor
inquiries Jennifer Pierce Vice President, Communications &
Investor Relations (403) 267-7622 or 1-800-387-3598 in Canada and
U.S investor_relations@transalta.com TransAlta Corporation -
Investor inquiries Jess Nieukerk Manager, Investor Relations (403)
267-3607 or 1-800-387-3598 in Canada and U.S.
jess_nieukerk@transalta.com www.transalta.com
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