Annual Report 2014
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Annual Report 2014 CONTENTS Chairman’s and CEO’s Report 2 Management Discussion and Analysis 4 Directors’ Report 16 Remuneration Report 22 Corporate Governance Statement 32 Annual Financial Statements 36 Directors’ Declaration 100 Independent Auditor’s Report 101 Share and Shareholder Information 103 Corporate Directory Inside Back Cover ERM Power Limited (ERM Power, Company, Group, we, our) was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange on 10 December 2010. This review is for the year ended 30 June 2014 with comparison against the previous corresponding period ended 30 June 2013 (previous year or previous period). All reference to $ is a reference to Australian dollars unless otherwise stated. Individual items totals and percentages are rounded to the nearest approximate number or decimal. Some totals may not add down the page due to rounding of individual components. CONTINUED SUCCESS CHAIRMAN’S It is our pleasure to record another successful year for ERM Power, one in which we operated safely and delivered record sales and profits, built the foundations for further growth and consolidated our position as one of the four pillars of the Australian energy sector. AND CEO’S REPORT Operating in a competitive and dynamic environment, we delivered higher underlying earnings and dividends as our electricity sales business continued to grow strongly, our generation business delivered another year of solid contribution and our gas business delivered its first operating profits. We also participated in the sale process for the assets of Macquarie Generation and established a new electricity metering business, which will grow and further diversify our earnings. HIGHER EARNINGS Our strong performance continued in FY 2014 with underlying NPAT1 32% higher than FY 2013 when a number of significant items2 are excluded. Pleasingly, the Board has approved another increase in dividends for the full year. BUSINESS ENERGY GROWTH Our electricity sales business, which trades as ERM Business Energy, experienced another record year, increasing volumes by 27% to 14.1 terawatt hours (TWh) and increasing revenue and earnings as we continued to expand our share of the business market in Australia. The business, which operates in every state and the Australian Capital Territory, remained Australia’s fourth largest electricity retailer accounting for 8.7% of all sales in the National Electricity Market. We maintained our growth in the large business market, particularly in New South Wales and Victoria where sales volumes rose by 56% and 31% respectively. This growth was supplemented by our entry into the small business market which began on 1 July 2013 with more than 10,000 sites in New South Wales contracted. We have signed ‘multi-site’ contracts and aim for similar success with ‘single site’ customers as marketing drives traffic to our online sign-up portal. We finished FY 2014 billing with more than 24,000 customer sites including more than 14,000 small business sites. Our forward contract sales over the next two years are 23.6TWh, including a $900m contract with the NSW Government and $100m contract extension with the Federal Government, both signed in FY 2014 and to commence in FY 2016. The working capital component of our financing facility from Macquarie Bank Ltd was increased to $160m from $100m to support the continued growth of our electricity sales business. For the third successive year ERM Business Energy was ranked number 1 for customer satisfaction3 in business electricity and we maintained our operational excellence with billing accuracy and billing collection rates above 99%, which were achieved with our industry-leading, internally-developed systems and processes. We have been reviewing a number of new markets in which to expand our successful business energy retail model. The United States had been identified as a possible new market for the Company and a feasibility study commenced during the year to determine the viability of establishing a business in the US. 1 Refer to Glossary of Management Discussion and Analysis. 2 Refer to Appendix A1.2 of the Management Discussion and Analysis for details of the Significant Items. PAGE 2 ERM POWER ANNUAL REPORT | 2014 GENERATION PERFORMANCE production and operational challenges at Red Gully. A perforation of the primary resource was completed in June 2014 and we are well The Oakey and Neerabup power stations performed safely, positioned to obtain a certified reserve estimate in the short term. delivering consistent revenue and earnings with continued high A seismic survey has been completed in the area surrounding the availability and reliability and no environmental breaches. We moved Red Gully discovery and production facility which has highlighted a to full ownership of Oakey after buying the remaining 16.67% we number of significant prospects for low cost expansion. did not own and repaid its remaining debt using funds raised in a $75m share placement. We recognised a $39.1m income tax Since balance date we have announced the sale of our West benefit as a result of Oakey joining the ERM Power tax consolidated Australian gas assets to Empire (including our interest in Red group with our move to 100% ownership. This benefit will be Gully) and agreed to participate in a subscription and rights issue realised over the depreciable lives of the assets. to recapitalise that company. The transaction is subject to Empire shareholder approval being obtained in the first half of FY 2015. A range of options are available for Oakey when it comes off The restructure of our West Australian gas assets into a more contract from January 2015 including internal use by our electricity capital efficient ownership model will allow us to focus on electricity sales business, selling financial products in the wholesale market retailing and generation. It will give Empire access to funding and and selling specialised financial/physical products such as gas investors with which to commercialise the Red Gully and Gingin tolling agreements to gas and/or electricity market participants. We West wells and continue exploration. remain confident about the long term value of this high quality asset which was purchased at a discount to its replacement value and is Our east coast gas interests comprise a passive interest in Metgasco well located to benefit from growth in south-east Queensland. Limited and exploration areas in NSW. These assets have been impacted by ongoing regulatory and public policy uncertainty Neerabup power station is in the early years of a long term contract in NSW. We will continue to keep these assets on hold until and is expected to grow in value as its operations more than cover investment conditions materially improve. its debt servicing obligations. We retain development approval for a number of sites on the east coast and in Western Australia for future power stations but demand for new generation remains PEOPLE AND COMMUNITY low and development will proceed only when the market improves. We maintained our excellent safety performance with no recordable or lost time injuries and no reportable environmental incidents or MACQUARIE GENERATION BID breaches of environmental licence conditions. During the year, we pursued one of the largest transaction Through partnership and sponsorship programs, we also supported opportunities in our history with a bid for the assets of sporting groups, the arts, youth education, community and Macquarie Generation being sold by the NSW Government. charitable organisations. We conducted a disciplined due diligence process with careful As we look back on another successful year, we recognise the consideration of the medium and long term outlook for electricity dedication and hard work of our people led by the executive demand from the grid. This included assessments of aluminium management team together with the contribution and support industry risk and emissions policy risk for coal-fired generation and of our fellow directors. we priced our bid accordingly. While we enjoyed strong support for our participation in the process from shareholders and financiers, ultimately our bid was not successful. OUTLOOK We ended the year in a stronger financial position and with more Shareholders can be assured that the company employed robust growth opportunities than a year ago. Our priorities include: processes and maintained a disciplined approach throughout. Nevertheless, during the course of our preparation for the bid, the • delivering our FY 2015 results company’s share price was subdued over a lengthy period. This • growing our electricity sales to large businesses was as a result of preparations to secure financing and market • building scale in the small business segment speculation that the funding of a successful bid would significantly dilute our share capital. • establishing a metering business Fortunately, our business has continued to perform strongly, • restructuring our gas assets setting new sales and profit records, and the share price has • optimising returns from the Oakey power station started to recover. • continuing to reduce unit costs, and • assessing international expansion for our business energy GAS retail model. Our gas business became operationally profitable with the start of gas and condensate sales from the Red Gully facility in Western We remain focussed on achieving our goal of being the preferred Australia, which is jointly owned with, and operated by, Empire Oil energy supplier to businesses across Australia and delivering value &