Altus Power Inc (AMPS) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, and welcome to Altus Power's fourth quarter and full year 2023 conference call. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded and participants are in a listen-only mode question and answer session will follow the formal presentation this time for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to Chris Shelton, Head of Investor Relations.

下午好，歡迎參加 Altus Power 2023 年第四季和全年電話會議。提醒一下，今天的電話會議正在錄音，參與者處於僅聽模式，問答環節將在這次正式演講之後進行開場白和介紹，我想將電話轉給投資者主管 Chris Shelton關係。

Good afternoon, and welcome to our fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings call. Joining me on today's call are large Meralco, Chief Executive Officer, and Dustin Weber, Chief Financial Officer. In addition, Co-Chief Executive Officer. Gregg Felton will be joining us for Q&A.

下午好，歡迎參加我們的 2023 年第四季和全年財報電話會議。參加今天電話會議的還有大型 Meralco 執行長和財務長達斯汀韋伯 (Dustin Weber)。此外，也擔任聯合執行長。格雷格費爾頓將加入我們的問答環節。

This afternoon, we issued a press release and a presentation related to matters to be discussed on this call. You can access both documents on our website, www.staar.com in the Investors section. This information is also available on the SEC's website.

今天下午，我們發布了與本次電話會議討論事項相關的新聞稿和簡報。您可以在我們的網站 www.staar.com 的投資者部分存取這兩份文件。此資訊也可以在 SEC 網站上找到。

As a reminder, our comments on this call may contain forward looking statements. These forward looking statements refer to future events, including Ulta's Power's future operations and financial performance. When used in this call, the words expect, believe will plan forecast estimate and similar expressions as they relate to all of this power identify forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties which could occur cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted in the forward-looking statements. While this power assumes no obligation to update these statements in the future or as circumstances change, except as required by law for more information. We encourage you to review the risks, uncertainties and other factors discussed in our SEC filings that could impact these forward-looking statements. Specifically, our 10-K filed today with the SEC.

提醒一下，我們對本次電話會議的評論可能包含前瞻性陳述。這些前瞻性陳述涉及未來事件，包括 Ulta's Power 的未來營運和財務表現。在本次電話會議中使用時，「期望」、「相信將計劃」、「預測估計」等詞語以及與所有這些權力相關的類似表達方式都識別出前瞻性陳述。這些陳述受到各種風險和不確定性的影響，這些風險和不確定性可能導致實際結果與前瞻性陳述中的預測有重大差異。儘管該權力不承擔在未來或情況發生變化時更新這些聲明的義務，除非法律要求提供更多資訊。我們鼓勵您查看我們向 SEC 提交的文件中討論的可能影響這些前瞻性陳述的風險、不確定性和其他因素。具體來說，我們今天向 SEC 提交了 10-K。

During this call, we will also refer to adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin, which are non-GAAP financial measures. We are also introducing a new non-GAAP measure annual recurring revenue or ARR, which we will discuss later on this call or is an estimate that Management uses to determine the expected annual revenue potential of our operating asset base at the end of the calendar year. Arr assumes customary weather, production expenses and other economic market conditions as well as seasonality. We are unable to provide a reconciliation from GAAP to ARR. Our management team uses all of these non-GAAP financial measures to plan, monitor and evaluate our financial performance, and we believe this information may be useful to our investors. These non-GAAP financial measures exclude certain items that should not be considered as substitute for a comparable GAAP financial measures, all this powered methods of computing. These non-GAAP financial measures may differ from similar measures used by other companies. More detailed information about these measures and a reconciliation from GAAP to adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin is contained in both the press release and the presentation that we issued today.

在本次電話會議中，我們還將提及調整後 EBITDA 和調整後 EBITDA 利潤率，這是非 GAAP 財務指標。我們還引入了一種新的非公認會計原則衡量年度經常性收入或ARR，我們將在本次電話會議稍後討論，或者是管理層用來確定我們運營資產基礎在日曆年末的預期年收入潛力的估計。Arr 假設通常的天氣、生產費用和其他經濟市場條件以及季節性。我們無法提供從 GAAP 到 ARR 的調整表。我們的管理團隊使用所有這些非公認會計準則財務指標來規劃、監控和評估我們的財務業績，我們相信這些資訊可能對我們的投資者有用。這些非公認會計原則財務指標不包括某些項目，這些項目不應被視為替代可比較的公認會計原則財務指標，所有這些都是動力計算方法。這些非公認會計準則財務指標可能與其他公司使用的類似指標不同。有關這些措施的更多詳細資訊以及 GAAP 與調整後 EBITDA 和調整後 EBITDA 利潤率的調整表均包含在我們今天發布的新聞稿和簡報中。

With that, I will now turn the call over to Lars for his prepared remarks.

現在，我將把電話轉給拉斯，聽取他準備好的演講。

Thanks, Chris, and welcome to our call in a challenging environment. We're very happy to be speaking to you at the end of a record year for Altace power. We built all this to be a clean power company and we architected our platform with the goal to be both resilient and nimble to create value for customers and investors in any market climate and the capacity to take advantage of opportunities when they arise.

謝謝克里斯，歡迎在充滿挑戰的環境中接到我們的電話。我們很高興在 Altace 電力創紀錄的一年結束時與您交談。我們打造這一切是為了成為一家清潔電力公司，我們建立平台的目標是具有彈性和靈活性，能夠在任何市場環境下為客戶和投資者創造價值，並能夠在機會出現時抓住機會。

From the beginning, we have focused on recruiting and retaining what we believe to be the best team in the industry with best-in-class access to capital to deliver value to our customers and shareholders.

從一開始，我們就專注於招募和留住我們認為是業內最好的團隊，擁有一流的資本獲取管道，為我們的客戶和股東創造價值。

As highlighted on page 3 of our presentation, our team continued to execute in 2023, and we notched a number of achievements that are testament to the growth available in our expanding market segment and the strength and momentum of our company. We became the leader of our markets as the largest owner operator of commercial solar in the country, and we're starting to see the benefits that a category leader and choice for a customer-centric company that generates and delivers clean power every day. We grew our enterprise customers by over 50%, and we for forecast that our portfolio in operation as of year end will generate over 1 billion kilowatt hours for those customers this year. We're also growing our capability to serve those customers faster and better, for example, with Altace IQ, which is our AI enabled software that, among other things, helps our customers measure their carbon footprint.

正如我們簡報第 3 頁所強調的，我們的團隊在 2023 年繼續執行，我們取得了許多成就，這些成就證明了我們不斷擴大的市場領域的成長以及我們公司的實力和勢頭。作為全國最大的商業太陽能業主營運商，我們成為了市場的領導者，我們開始看到作為類別領導者和選擇每天生成和提供清潔電力的以客戶為中心的公司的好處。我們的企業客戶成長了 50% 以上，我們預計，截至年底，我們的投資組合今年將為這些客戶發電超過 10 億度。我們也正在增強我們的能力，以更快更好地為這些客戶提供服務，例如，使用Altace IQ，這是我們支援人工智慧的軟體，除此之外，它可以幫助我們的客戶測量他們的碳足跡。

We also had a record year for asset additions totaling 426 megawatts, of which approximately 74 megawatts were newbuild assets and output, which we are looking to grow further in 2024. Our very significant asset growth during the year. Expressed as expected, annual recurring revenue equals to $183 million, a new metric. As noted earlier, we're pleased with the visibility towards 2024's revenue targets. That is a our number provides the market and intend to make use of it as we continue on our mission to educate investors for details on the revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth during the fourth quarter and for the full year 2023.

我們的資產新增總量也創下了歷史記錄，總計 426 兆瓦，其中約 74 兆瓦是新建資產和產量，我們希望在 2024 年進一步成長。我們這一年的資產成長非常顯著。如預期所示，年度經常性收入等於 1.83 億美元，這是一個新指標。如前所述，我們對 2024 年收入目標的可見度感到滿意。這是我們為市場提供的數字，我們打算利用它，繼續履行我們的使命，讓投資者了解第四季度和 2023 年全年收入和調整後 EBITDA 成長的詳細資訊。

Please turn to Page 4. Dustin will go into more detail in a moment, but we ended the year with $155 million of revenue, GAAP net income of negative $26 million and $93.1 million of adjusted EBITDA. While that adjusted EBITDA number is a record for Altace and indicative of significant growth at 59% over the prior year's number, it's not where we expected to be for the full year, and the difference is driven by three factors. The first and primary driver. We were surprised by the stubbornly bad weather across most parts of the country during the fourth quarter, recalling that the amount assumption we harvested in Q3 was on the light side as well. Based on our 15 years of operating history, it's rare to see two consecutive quarters below norm, but that happened in Q4 of two thousand and twenty three seconds. And the operational downtime of portions of our portfolio was higher in the fourth quarter than our historical norm outages can be unpredictable when they happen by adding technical staff in the field and building out an active component and inventory of spare parts system, we are cutting repair lead times and bringing operations to normal levels.

請翻到第4頁。達斯汀稍後會詳細介紹，但我們年底的收入為 1.55 億美元，GAAP 淨利潤為負 2,600 萬美元，調整後 EBITDA 為 9,310 萬美元。雖然調整後的 EBITDA 數字創下了 Altace 的紀錄，並且表明比上一年的數字顯著增長了 59%，但這並不是我們預期的全年數字，而且這種差異是由三個因素造成的。第一個也是主要的驅動力。我們對第四季全國大部分地區的持續惡劣天氣感到驚訝，回想起我們在第三季的收穫量假設也偏少。根據我們 15 年的營運歷史，連續兩個季度低於正常水平的情況很少見，但這種情況發生在第四季度的 2023 秒。第四季我們部分產品組合的營運停機時間高於我們的歷史正常停機時間，透過增加現場技術人員並建立活躍的組件和備件系統庫存，停機發生時是不可預測的，我們正在削減維修交貨時間並使營運恢復正常水準。

Third, we experienced delays in the onboarding of assets, those that are newbuilds as well as those we onboard that are already in operation while some of these delays relate to overtaxed utility interconnection crews and building departments. An element of it reflects our organization being stretched a little thin from the significant asset growth we're experiencing we consider this to be temporary, and we are actively adding to our construction and asset servicing platform to better execute on the growth opportunities available to us.

第三，我們在資產裝載方面遇到了延誤，無論是新建資產還是我們裝載的已投入營運的資產，其中一些延誤與負擔過重的公用事業互連人員和建築部門有關。其中一個因素反映了我們的組織因我們正在經歷的重大資產成長而有些捉襟見肘，我們認為這是暫時的，我們正在積極增加我們的建設和資產服務平台，以更好地執行我們可用的成長機會。

Turning now to page 5 and looking forward to 2024, taking a range of weather and system performance parameters into account and for the first time offering a view on revenue, we are projecting that our 2024 revenue will be in the range of $200 million to $222 million. We are further projecting that this will result in 2024 adjusted EBITDA in the range of $115million to $135 million. Our cash generation is an important source of funding for Altace, and we expect to take cash from operations and reinvest them into additional customer engagements and solar assets with the intention to drive further growth in these metrics in future years.

現在翻到第 5 頁，展望 2024 年，考慮到一系列天氣和系統性能參數，並首次提供收入觀點，我們預計 2024 年的收入將在 2 億美元至 222 美元之間百萬。我們進一步預測，這將導致 2024 年調整後 EBITDA 在 1.15 億美元至 1.35 億美元之間。我們的現金產生是 Altace 的重要資金來源，我們希望從營運中獲取現金，並將其再投資於更多的客戶參與和太陽能資產，以期在未來幾年推動這些指標的進一步成長。

Importantly, we believe we are positioned to execute our growth plan in 2024 without the issuance of dilutive equity.

重要的是，我們相信我們有能力在 2024 年執行我們的成長計劃，而無需發行稀釋股權。

Our adjusted EBITDA projection for 2024 also includes growing our SG&A budget to reflect our efforts to put in place the capabilities that will continue to set us apart and allow us to retain and expand our market leadership position.

我們調整後的 2024 年 EBITDA 預測還包括增加 SG&A 預算，以反映我們為建立能力而付出的努力，這些能力將繼續使我們與眾不同，並使我們能夠保持和擴大我們的市場領導地位。

On the next slide, page 6, you will find our growing asset base and operation and pipeline of growth assets that we expect for 2024. We are currently pursuing over one gigawatts of newbuild opportunities and assets in operation, both of which when constructed or closed, would allow us to begin delivering clean power under long-term contracts with our customers, we relentlessly apply our playbook for large enterprises that are coming to us from CBRE, Blackstone or other channels. And we seek to continuously refine our approach to speed up the client engagement process. We were frustrated that some contracting times remain elongated or in the case of community solar that the implementation of announced state programs have gotten delayed. At the same time, we are encouraged with the number and volume of large property owners that are choosing to enter programmatic partnerships with Altace. And we continue to build out our construction platform to have the capability to deliver on that growing newbuild flow. In the meantime, we are using that same engineering and construction know-how and horsepower to due diligence and onboard operational assets. Our sector continues to consolidate in our December acquisition of Unico platform pipeline and customer relationships exemplifies AltaGas's intention to play a leading role in that consolidation. Further, we continue to see an attractive pipeline of acquisitions of assets and operations for example, in January, we closed the transaction with the toll, which adds 20 municipal school at Enterprise time in another 2000 community solar customers to our portfolio as our portfolio approaches one gigawatt in size, we are seeing the increased benefits of being a larger platform, including the ability to more efficiently service our customers and us.

在下一張投影片第 6 頁上，您將看到我們預計 2024 年將持續成長的資產基礎以及成長資產的營運和管道。我們目前正在尋求超過 1 吉瓦的新建機會和正在運營的資產，無論是建成還是關閉，都將使我們能夠根據與客戶的長期合約開始提供清潔電力，我們堅持不懈地為大型企業應用我們的劇本透過CBRE、Blackstone 或其他管道聯繫我們。我們力求不斷完善我們的方法，以加快客戶參與過程。我們感到沮喪的是，一些合約時間仍然延長，或者就社區太陽能而言，已宣布的國家計劃的實施已被推遲。同時，我們對選擇與 Altace 建立程序化合作夥伴關係的大型業主的數量和數量感到鼓舞。我們繼續建造我們的施工平台，以便有能力交付不斷增長的新建流程。同時，我們正在使用相同的工程和施工專業知識和能力來進行盡職調查和船上營運資產。我們的產業在 12 月收購 Unico 平台管道和客戶關係中繼續整合，這體現了 AltaGas 打算在整合中發揮主導作用的意圖。此外，我們繼續看到一系列有吸引力的資產和業務收購管道，例如，一月份，我們完成了與收費公司的交易，隨著我們的投資組合接近，我們將另外2000 個社區太陽能客戶中的20 所市政學校添加到我們的投資組合中規模為一吉瓦，我們看到了成為更大平台所帶來的更多好處，包括能夠更有效地為我們的客戶和我們提供服務。

Turning now to page 7 and before handing over to Dustin, I'd like to highlight some themes from our segments of the market and some of the things that we're focused on for this year. As we said upfront, we continue to see robust appetite for clean electric power from commercial tenants and strong demand for the associated decarbonization benefits and ancillary income available to landlords in these market conditions. We are really pleased with the superior unit economics available in commercial solar between rate tariffs available to commercial clients and the retail rates that our community solar customers pay our customers continue to pay a lot for power. As a consequence, Altace continues to be able to deliver meaningful value to our customers while benefiting from very attractive unit economics on our assets, we are starting to observe the benefits of our market leadership position. For example, we enjoy greater brand recognition with tenants and landlords. We receive more inbound calls from potential channel partners in markets we've just entered, and we believe that we are seeing most of the available opportunities in our parks.

現在翻到第 7 頁，在交給達斯汀之前，我想強調一下我們細分市場的一些主題以及我們今年重點關注的一些事情。正如我們之前所說，我們繼續看到商業租戶對清潔電力的強勁需求，以及在這些市場條件下對房東可獲得的相關脫碳效益和輔助收入的強勁需求。我們對商業太陽能在向商業客戶提供的費率和我們的社區太陽能客戶支付的零售費率之間提供的卓越的單位經濟效益感到非常滿意，我們的客戶繼續為電力支付大量費用。因此，Altace 繼續能夠為我們的客戶提供有意義的價值，同時受益於我們資產非常有吸引力的單位經濟效益，我們開始觀察我們市場領導地位的好處。例如，我們在租戶和房東中享有更高的品牌認知。在我們剛剛進入的市場中，我們收到了更多來自潛在通路合作夥伴的來電，我們相信我們在園區中看到了大部分可用的機會。

Finally, as Altace power matures as a public company, we want to continue to refine and improve our market communications. We take seriously the importance of investor education and the additional disclosures that we are presenting today are intended to provide greater clarity into the business. We're also very pleased to announce that our first Investor Day will take place on May 14, and we look forward to interacting with market participants at this event in outlining our long term strategic vision and multiyear growth plan. We will also provide greater details on all of the important areas of the Altace platform with a focus on our technical competencies like our expertise and physical assets as well as our digital capabilities.

最後，隨著 Altace power 作為上市公司的成熟，我們希望繼續完善和改善我們的市場溝通。我們認真對待投資者教育的重要性，我們今天提供的額外披露旨在使業務更加清晰。我們也非常高興地宣布，我們的首個投資者日將於 5 月 14 日舉行，我們期待在本次活動中與市場參與者互動，概述我們的長期戰略願景和多年增長計劃。我們還將提供有關 Altace 平台所有重要領域的更多詳細信息，重點關注我們的技術能力，例如我們的專業知識、實體資產以及我們的數位能力。

With that, I'm happy to hand over to Dustin for details on the numbers. Dustin?

至此，我很高興將有關數字的詳細資訊交給達斯汀。達斯汀？

Thanks, Lars. And thanks to our investors and analysts for joining the call today. Please join me on slide 8 as I cover our financial highlights for 2023. Starting with the fourth quarter our operating revenues grew to $34.2 million compared to $26.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2022, an increase of 28% for the full year, we achieved a record $155.2 million of operating revenues, up from $101.2 million in 2022, an increase of 53%. Both fourth quarter and full year revenue growth was driven primarily by new additions to our portfolio.

謝謝，拉爾斯。感謝我們的投資者和分析師今天參加電話會議。請與我一起觀看投影片 8，我將介紹 2023 年的財務亮點。從第四季開始，我們的營業收入從2022 年第四季的2,680 萬美元增至3,420 萬美元，全年成長28%，我們實現了創紀錄的1.552 億美元營業收入，高於2022 年的1.012億美元。成長了53%。第四季和全年營收成長主要是由我們投資組合的新增內容所推動的。

Turning to GAAP net income for the quarter, we posted a net loss of $40 million compared to net income of $67.1 million during the fourth quarter of 2022. This variance was primarily the result of a noncash loss of $17.7 million from the fair value remeasurement of our alignment shares versus a gain of $70.7 million during the fourth quarter of 2022. This same remeasurement was also a driver for the full year 2023, resulting in net loss of $26 million compared to net income of $52.2 million for 2022, you should continue to expect a quarterly mark-to-market of our alignment shares, which will largely be dependent on the change in our share price during the period.

就本季 GAAP 淨利而言，我們公佈的淨虧損為 4,000 萬美元，而 2022 年第四季的淨利為 6,710 萬美元。這一差異主要是由於我們調整股票的公允價值重新計量造成 1,770 萬美元的非現金損失，而 2022 年第四季則獲得了 7,070 萬美元的收益。同樣的重新計量也是 2023 年全年的推動因素，導致淨虧損 2600 萬美元，而 2022 年淨利潤為 5220 萬美元，您應該繼續預期我們的調整股票按季度市值計算，這將在很大程度上取決於我們的股價在此期間的變化。

Moving to adjusted EBITDA, we reported $17.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to $16.6 million in Q4 of 2022, an increase of 5%. As Lars discussed, fourth quarter weather continued the trend we described during our third quarter call and was the primary driver of kilowatt hours coming in below our 2023 expectation. For the full year, adjusted EBITDA amounted to $93.1 million compared to $58.6 million in 2022, still representing a 60% growth. Despite headwinds from weather, we continued to drive profitability with adjusted EBITDA margin achieving 60% during 2023, an increase compared to 58% from 2022, driven by the economies of scale benefits from our larger operating portfolio.

至於調整後 EBITDA，我們報告 2023 年第四季為 1,730 萬美元，而 2022 年第四季為 1,660 萬美元，成長了 5%。正如 Lars 所討論的，第四季的天氣延續了我們在第三季電話會議中所描述的趨勢，是導致千瓦時低於我們 2023 年預期的主要因素。全年調整後 EBITDA 為 9,310 萬美元，而 2022 年為 5,860 萬美元，仍成長 60%。儘管受到天氣的不利影響，我們繼續提高盈利能力，調整後的EBITDA 利潤率在2023 年達到60%，較2022 年的58% 有所增長，這得益於我們更大的營運投資組合帶來的規模經濟效益。

Please turn to Slide 9 for our 2024 guidance of full year revenues and adjusted EBITDA. In addition to provide greater visibility into our forward expectations, we're happy to also be providing year end ARR metric, which we think will help you understand how management looks at performance of our business. We intend to drill down further into financial metrics during our Investor Day in May, including the composition of our ARR, which is our estimated production measured in kilowatt hours times an estimated average price. So we sell kilowatt hours to our customers for our 896 megawatts of assets in operation. At year end 2023, we expect $183 million of annual recurring revenues. We add to that the assets closed in Q1, predominantly those associated with our acquisition of Atoll as well as forecasted revenue growth associated with other assets we expect to add to our operating portfolio throughout 2024. Altogether, we expect 2024 revenue to fall in the range of $200 million to $222 million, which represents a 36% increase over 2023 at the midpoint and adjusted EBITDA to fall in the range of $115 million to $135 million, an increase of 34% at the midpoint. We believe this guidance range appropriately incorporates our experience in 2023 and allows for a wider range of variability in key drivers impacting generation, notably forecasted sunlight hours and system availability.

請參閱投影片 9，以了解我們的 2024 年全年營收和調整後 EBITDA 指引。除了更了解我們的前瞻性預期之外，我們很高興還提供年終 ARR 指標，我們認為這將幫助您了解管理層如何看待我們的業務績效。我們打算在 5 月的投資者日期間進一步深入了解財務指標，包括 ARR 的組成，即我們以千瓦時衡量的估計產量乘以估計平均價格。因此，我們向客戶出售千瓦時，以獲得 896 兆瓦的營運資產。到 2023 年底，我們預計年度經常性收入將達到 1.83 億美元。我們補充說，第一季關閉的資產主要是與我們收購 Atoll 相關的資產，以及與我們預計在 2024 年全年添加到我們的營運投資組合中的其他資產相關的預期收入成長。總而言之，我們預計2024 年營收將在2 億美元至2.22 億美元之間，比2023 年中位數成長36%，調整後EBITDA 將在1.15 億美元至1.35 億美元之間，比2023 年中位數成長34 %。中點。我們認為，這項指導範圍適當地結合了我們在 2023 年的經驗，並允許影響發電的關鍵驅動因素存在更廣泛的變化，特別是預測的日照時數和系統可用性。

Turning to slide 10, which highlights our demonstrated access to capital in the fourth quarter. To start, we closed the $200 million construction facility with Blackstone, which provides significant flexibility as it can be drawn for projects at any phase, whether during development, construction or operating.

轉向幻燈片 10，其中突出顯示了我們在第四季度獲得資本的管道。首先，我們與 Blackstone 合作完成了價值 2 億美元的建設設施，這提供了極大的靈活性，因為可以在任何階段（無論是開發、建造還是營運期間）為專案提取資金。

Next, we announced a $163 million upsize of our Blackstone term loan facility which provided long-term financing for both our basalt acquisition as well as many of our recently completed assets.

接下來，我們宣布將 Blackstone 定期貸款融資規模擴大 1.63 億美元，為我們的玄武岩收購以及我們最近完成的許多資產提供長期融資。

Finally, we welcome Goldman Sachs and Canadian Pension Plan as capital providers with the closing of a new $100 million holdco financing. We believe this efficient financing positions us to continue increasing our market share and executing on the robust growth opportunities available to us.

最後，我們歡迎高盛和 Canadian Pension Plan 作為資本提供者完成新的 1 億美元控股公司融資。我們相信，這種有效的融資使我們能夠繼續增加我們的市場份額，並抓住我們可用的強勁成長機會。

Moving to Slide 11 to review our expected funding plan. We continue to have no plans to issue dilutive equity or equity-like securities to finance our growth plan. Our successful execution of multiple financings in the fourth quarter has positioned us in the strong cash position of $290 million to end the year, which allowed us ample flexibility to close the Vitol acquisition. In January, we plan to fund our remaining 2024 growth plan with a combination of funds from our Blackstone term funding, facility tax equity partnerships and cash from the balance sheet as our development and construction activity continues to expand. Our working capital needs are able to be funded by the new construction facility as well as our corporate revolving credit facility. Once these projects are completed and begin delivering clean energy to our customers, we plan to utilize our term loan funding facility, which carries a long term fixed rate on borrowings it 200 to 250 basis points spread over the prevailing 10-year treasury rate.

前往投影片 11 回顧我們的預期融資計畫。我們仍然沒有計劃發行稀釋股權或股權類證券來為我們的成長計劃融資。我們在第四季度成功執行了多項融資，使我們在年底前擁有 2.9 億美元的強勁現金狀況，這使我們有足夠的靈活性來完成對 Vitol 的收購。隨著我們的開發和建設活動不斷擴大，1 月份，我們計劃透過 Blackstone 定期融資、設施稅股權合作夥伴關係和資產負債表中的現金組合來為我們剩餘的 2024 年成長計畫提供資金。我們的營運資金需求可以透過新的建築設施以及我們的企業循環信貸設施來滿足。一旦這些項目完成並開始向客戶提供清潔能源，我們計劃利用我們的定期貸款融資工具，該工具的借款利率為長期固定利率，比現行 10 年期國債利率高 200 至 250 個基點。

In summary, we believe the strength of our balance sheet and existing sources of capital position us to take advantage of the robust growth opportunities available to us, thanks to our industry-leading platform, which generates significant cash flow and has access to the necessary financing to support our growth.

總而言之，我們相信我們的資產負債表實力和現有資本來源使我們能夠利用我們可用的強勁增長機會，這要歸功於我們行業領先的平台，該平台產生大量現金流並能夠獲得必要的融資支持我們的成長。

That concludes my review of our financials. And with that, we're ready to take your questions.

我對我們財務狀況的回顧到此結束。至此，我們準備好回答您的問題了。

Thank you. We'll now be conducting a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question at this time, please press star one from your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two. If you'd like to remove your question from the queue For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please while we poll for questions.

謝謝。我們現在將進行問答環節。如果您此時想提問，請按電話鍵盤上的星號一。確認音將表示您的線路已在問題佇列中。您可以按星二號。如果您想從佇列中刪除您的問題 對於使用揚聲器裝置的參與者，可能需要在按星號鍵之前拿起聽筒。請稍等一下，我們進行投票提問。

Thank you. Our first question today is coming from the line of Andrew McCopCo with Morgan Stanley. Please ask your question.

謝謝。我們今天的第一個問題來自摩根士丹利的安德魯‧麥科普科 (Andrew McCopCo)。請提出你的問題。

Mike, thanks for taking the question on, I guess maybe to start out with the guidance on, thanks for giving us annual recurring revenue number, can you maybe just help us bridge the gap to the 2024 guidance range, maybe both for revenue but also for adjusted EBITDA. Last year, you gave us kind of an exit par number the right way to kind of maybe think about that if you just apply the 2023 adjusted EBITDA margin against the ARR. and then kind of compare that to 2024 guidance range and then it looks like it seems like there would be a delta. If you could maybe give us a sense for what gets you to the middle of the range. Are you still on track for the 100 megawatts that you're planning to bring online and how much of that will be driven by additional acquisitions?

麥克，感謝您提出這個問題，我想也許可以從指導開始，感謝您向我們提供年度經常性收入數字，您能否幫助我們縮小與 2024 年指導範圍的差距，也許既可以是收入，也可以是調整後的EBITDA。去年，您給了我們一個退出面值數字，如果您只將 2023 年調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率應用於 ARR，那麼也許可以考慮一下。然後將其與 2024 年指導範圍進行比較，然後看起來似乎會有一個增量。如果您能讓我們了解一下是什麼讓您達到了中間範圍。您是否仍有望實現計劃上線的 100 兆瓦裝置容量？其中有多少將由額外收購推動？

Sure, Andrew. Let me kick this off this is Greg and perhaps Dustin will chime in as well. So thanks for the question, Tom, is the first point I think we should make is that we are very focused on increasing the visibility into our business. And we've taken deliberate steps to make Altace easier for our investors to understand and model. We think this first idea of producing not only annual revenue guidance, but also introducing annualized recurring revenues or ARR is a very important element in order to facilitate modeling. Specifically as we're also introducing annual expected production of in-place operating assets so that baseline of ARR should feature prominently in the modeling. And of course, that leaves the annual growth wedge. And in addition to our annual guidance, we'll be focused on giving you the tools necessary to understand our longer-term opportunity and visibility as it relates to any large acquisitions that we might make. We're intending to provide disclosure around those as well and just the final point I'll make is that on our first Investor Day in May, we intend to cover a number of other areas of our business that haven't yet. I've been on full display for investors. And we're looking forward to sharing insights on our technical capabilities and capabilities as it relates to not only physical assets but also the technology. So there's a lot more disclosure that we're looking to provide and a lot more visibility. We're looking to provide specifically to allow you to take that ARR and bridge it forward over the next not only this year but beyond. Dustin, do you want to add anything to that?

當然，安德魯。讓我開始吧，這是格雷格，也許達斯汀也會插話。因此，謝謝湯姆提出的問題，我認為我們應該提出的第一點是，我們非常注重提高我們業務的可見性。我們已經採取了刻意的措施，讓我們的投資者更容易理解 Altace 並進行建模。我們認為，不僅產生年度收入指導，而且引入年化經常性收入或 ARR 的第一個想法對於促進建模來說是一個非常重要的元素。具體來說，我們還引入了就地營運資產的年度預期產量，因此 ARR 基準應在建模中佔據顯著位置。當然，這就留下了年度成長楔子。除了我們的年度指導之外，我們還將專注於為您提供必要的工具，以了解我們的長期機會和可見性，因為它與我們可能進行的任何大型收購有關。我們也打算圍繞這些內容進行揭露，我要說的最後一點是，在五月的第一個投資者日，我們打算涵蓋我們尚未涵蓋的許多其他業務領域。我已經向投資者充分展示了。我們期待分享我們的技術能力和能力的見解，因為它不僅涉及實體資產，還涉及技術。因此，我們希望提供更多的披露和更多的可見性。我們希望提供專門的服務，讓您能夠利用該 ARR 並將其向前推進，不僅是今年，而且是以後。達斯汀，你想補充什麼嗎？

No, I think you summarized it well, Greg, I would just add that we think a are our highlights the power of our recurring nature of our long-term customer relationships and we think it's informative and provides visibility and building blocks from 2023 results to our 2024 guidance. Greg talked about the growth wedge that can come in a lot of forms for us where we can add larger amount of megawatts later in the year and kind of fill that growth wedge for we get a smaller amount earlier in the year that would contribute more meaningful to the '24 revenues.

不，我認為你總結得很好，格雷格，我只想補充一點，我們認為這是我們強調的長期客戶關係的循環性質的力量，我們認為它提供了豐富的信息，並提供了從2023 年結果到我們的 2024 年指導。格雷格談到了成長楔子，它可以以多種形式出現，我們可以在今年晚些時候增加更多的兆瓦電量，並填補該成長楔子，因為我們在今年早些時候獲得了較小的數量，這將做出更有意義的貢獻到'24年的收入。

And let me say, let me maybe just also you asked about just the texture perhaps of the opportunities that we're seeing. And there's a significant flow of opportunities that are available to us and we fully expect to extend our leadership position in commercial scale solar. So on the newbuild side, we do expect to increase our construction cadence in 2024 from what was a record of 74 megawatts last year. And then as it relates to acquisitions of assets in operation, we are seeing a robust flow of consolidation opportunities, which should grow our market share. Of course, we closed on one such acquisition in Q1, and there are more in our pipeline that we are pursuing as well.

讓我說，也許您也問過我們所看到的機會的質地。我們擁有大量的機會，我們完全期望擴大我們在商業規模太陽能領域的領導地位。因此，在新建方面，我們確實預計 2024 年的建設節奏將比去年創紀錄的 74 兆瓦有所提高。然後，由於與收購營運中的資產有關，我們看到了強勁的整合機會，這應該會增加我們的市場份額。當然，我們在第一季度完成了一項此類收購，我們也正在尋求更多收購。

Understood. That's super helpful context. And then maybe as a follow-up to that, can you maybe just give us an update on your return thresholds from? Is there opportunity to increase your returns from here and you kind of talked about and brand recognition, the power of the platform and some of the prepared remarks. And I think across the utility scale solar development landscape, we are starting to see some targeted increases in returns from some of the larger players? And just curious if that's a potential read-through to the C&I space.

明白了。這是非常有用的背景。然後，也許作為後續行動，您能否向我們提供有關您的退貨閾值的最新資訊？是否有機會從這裡增加您的回報，您談到了品牌認知度、平台的力量以及一些準備好的評論。我認為在公用事業規模的太陽能開發領域，我們開始看到一些較大參與者的回報有針對性的增加？只是好奇這是否是對 C&I 領域的潛在通讀。

Yes.

是的。

I think there's no question that the financing environment specifically as it relates to higher interest rates should and is translating into higher return opportunities. So without question, we are seeing that today and we expect to see that throughout this year. Maybe I'll take the opportunity on the back of that to talk about a little bit of just the environment that we're seeing, Andrew, because it's no secret that some market participants are experiencing the pitfalls associated with a lack of cash flow generation and capital structures that are also stressed by the current higher interest rate environment. And as you know, that profile translates into dilutive equity issuances or even worse, in some cases, legitimate questions about the viability of a business. And we, on the other hand benefit from a number of key structural advantages as a starting point. One of the biggest differences is our business generates cash flow from existing operations. And also we only invest capital when there are attractive growth opportunities. And to your question that, of course, means nominally attractive growth in terms of the things that are in front of us, but they have to meet the return thresholds that makes sense in the context of the current environment that we there are a variety of other things that we can detail and we'll go into those on Investor Day. But it is critical for me to highlight that we built our business also to have durable access to world-class financing, and we've consistently shown our ability to efficiently access capital, not only in terms of our ongoing access to the Blackstone funding facilities, but also the very recent and attractively priced financing from our partners at Goldman and Canadian pension plans. So we're feeling good about our position. We think that our position is somewhat unique relative to what's going on the landscape and for sure, the current environment should lend itself to high return opportunities.

我認為毫無疑問，特別是與較高利率相關的融資環境應該並且正在轉化為更高的回報機會。因此，毫無疑問，我們今天看到了這一點，並且預計今年全年都會看到這一點。也許我會藉此機會談談我們所看到的環境，安德魯，因為眾所周知，一些市場參與者正在經歷與缺乏現金流生成相關的陷阱以及資本結構也受到當前較高利率環境的壓力。如您所知，這種情況會轉化為稀釋性股票發行，甚至更糟的是，在某些情況下，會導致對企業生存能力的合理質疑。另一方面，我們從許多關鍵的結構性優勢中受益。最大的區別之一是我們的業務從現有業務中產生現金流。而且我們只會在出現有吸引力的成長機會時進行資本投資。對於你的問題，當然，這意味著我們面前的事物名義上具有吸引力的增長，但它們必須滿足在當前環境下有意義的回報閾值，我們有各種各樣的環境其他我們可以詳細說明的事情，我們將在投資者日討論。但對我來說，重要的是要強調，我們建立業務也是為了能夠持久地獲得世界一流的融資，而且我們始終如一地展示了我們有效獲得資本的能力，而不僅僅是在我們持續獲得Blackstone 融資設施方面，還有我們的高盛合作夥伴和加拿大退休金計畫最近提供的價格極具吸引力的融資。所以我們對自己的處境感覺良好。我們認為，相對於正在發生的情況，我們的地位有些獨特，可以肯定的是，當前的環境應該適合高回報機會。

Great.

偉大的。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Our next question comes from the line of Justin Clare with ROTH MKM.

我們的下一個問題來自 Justin Clare 和 ROTH MKM 的對話。

And can you just use your query?

您可以只使用您的查詢嗎？

Yes.

是的。

Hi, Ron. Thanks for taking the questions here.

嗨，羅恩。感謝您在這裡提出問題。

Absolutely love though. (multiple speakers)

不過絕對是愛。（多個發言者）

So first off, I did want to ask about Q4. Just wondering how much lower was the generation in the quarter versus what you would typically expect historically, what's that what's the difference between the historical norm?

首先，我確實想問一下第四季的情況。只是想知道本季的發電量與您通常預期的歷史水平相比低了多少，這與歷史標準之間有什麼區別？

And then was the issue only really whether related in terms of the performance of the operating assets or was there any system availability issue as well.

接下來的問題只是是否與營運資產的效能相關，或者是否也存在任何系統可用性問題。

And then I guess finally on that same point is how do you consider weather and the generation of the assets in your 2024 guidance?

然後我想最後在同一點上，您如何在 2024 年指導中考慮天氣和資產的生成？

How do you think about that?

您對此有何看法？

Hey, Justin, this is Dustin. I'll start in on that one. So yes, 2023, we tackled a number of variables on continued supply chain disruptions, particularly as it relates to transformers and switchgears continued slowness by utilities on completing interconnections. Greg referenced the new paradigm of higher interest-rate environment. And so there's some challenges there. I would say weather is one that variable that we couldn't mitigate, and it was the primary driver for our financial results falling short of target in '23.

嘿，賈斯汀，這是達斯汀。我將從那個開始。所以，是的，到 2023 年，我們解決了供應鏈持續中斷的一些變量，特別是與公用事業公司完成互連的變壓器和開關設備持續緩慢有關的變量。格雷格提到了高利率環境的新典範。因此存在一些挑戰。我想說，天氣是我們無法緩解的變量，它是我們 23 年財務表現未達到目標的主要驅動因素。

On the other main contributor was that we expected more revenue contribution from new assets added in Q4. Q4 was one of our best quarters ever in terms of adding new megawatts between new builds and assets and operation, we added 175 megawatts. And the vast majority of those projects, including the salt acquisition, came on very late in December and therefore didn't contribute much to our Q4 revenue. That's a complete. Those is huge for us and setting us up for '24 and we're going to get a full year revenue in '24 from those. So And so overall, I would say it was those are the two primary drivers. So we feel very good about how we've positioned ourselves for 2024. We do expect a more normalized sunlight hours than we've gotten in 2023. And so we're feeling good about that.

另一個主要貢獻者是我們預期第四季度新增資產將帶來更多收入貢獻。第四季是我們有史以來最好的季度之一，在新建、資產和營運之間增加了新兆瓦，我們增加了 175 兆瓦。這些項目中的絕大多數，包括鹽收購，都是在 12 月很晚才開始的，因此對我們第四季的收入貢獻不大。這樣就完整了。這些對我們來說意義重大，為我們的 24 年做好準備，我們將在 24 年從中獲得全年收入。總的來說，我想說這是兩個主要驅動因素。因此，我們對 2024 年的定位感到非常滿意。我們確實預期日照時數將比 2023 年更正常。所以我們對此感覺良好。

Okay.

好的。

I appreciate it.

我很感激。

And then I was wondering if you could also talk about just where you see timelines for projects today. So from the time you sign a contract you how long do would you typically anticipate before you can complete construction, is that extending? Is it being pulled forward? And then I know you're talking about expanding your workforce. Do you see an opportunity to bring timelines and as you expand your workforce and the construction capabilities?

然後我想知道您是否也可以談談您今天看到的專案時間表。那麼，從您簽訂合約之日起，您通常預計需要多長時間才能完成施工，是否會延長？是不是被往前拉了？然後我知道您正在談論擴大勞動力。隨著您擴大勞動力和建立能力，您是否看到了帶來時間表的機會？

Hey, Jonathan, this is Lars. I'll take that question. Just to start where you ended, absolutely. The intention with growing our platform is of course, to use a larger team, whether it's engineering or design or construction or construction supervision to overcome whatever challenges exist in the market with respect to building departments or utility interconnection queues or whatever the case might be. So the answer to the first part is it varies significantly by market and it varies, of course, also if you look at our pipeline. If it's an self-originated deal where we've done all the work ourselves in normal time lines might be 12, 15 or 18 months in some markets worse, we're able to do better than that right now and often case, we're able to do better if it's the behind-the-meter solar system so that we don't have to wait for some utility community solar program to open up in exactly the right way on when it is a community solar program. For example, in some of the states on the East Coast, they have been a little slower to open and they've been a little smaller in terms of their aperture for what system sizes can be submitted into them. And whenever that happens, assets that we've already signed leases for with clients. There's still there are they just get pushed out to the right? So instead of being able to build those assets and be done with them and say October of this year, we might currently predict that we're going to be done with them in February of next year or whatever the case might be. We continue to grow our platform to overcome these challenges. We, like Greg said, are expecting to build more newbuild assets next year than we did this year. The timelines for deals that we take over from channel partners where they might have done most of the development work continue to be much shorter. In those cases, we might be looking at sort of a nine to 12 month construction period instead of 2015. And so between the different markets and the different sources of deal flow and a growing platform, we feel pretty good about where we are in spite of some of the challenges with timing from utilities and some progress.

嘿，喬納森，這是拉爾斯。我來回答這個問題。絕對是從你結束的地方開始。當然，發展我們平台的目的是使用更大的團隊，無論是工程、設計、施工或施工監督，以克服市場上存在的有關建築部門或公用事業互連隊列或任何情況的挑戰。因此，第一部分的答案是，它因市場而異，當然，如果你看看我們的管道，它也會有所不同。如果這是一項自行發起的交易，我們自己在正常時間範圍內完成了所有工作，在某些市場上可能需要12、15 或18 個月（更糟），但我們能夠做得比現在更好，而且通常情況下，我們」如果是表後太陽能係統，我們就能夠做得更好，這樣我們就不必等待一些公用事業社區太陽能專案以完全正確的方式開放，當它是社區太陽能專案時。例如，在東海岸的一些州，它們的開放速度要慢一些，而且在可以提交的系統規模方面，它們的孔徑要小一些。無論何時發生這種情況，我們都已經與客戶簽訂了租賃合約。還有他們只是被推到右邊了嗎？因此，我們目前可能預測我們將在明年 2 月或任何情況下完成這些資產，而不是能夠建造這些資產並在今年 10 月完成它們。我們不斷發展我們的平台來克服這些挑戰。正如格雷格所說，我們預計明年將建造比今年更多的新建資產。我們從通路夥伴那裡接手的交易的時間表仍然要短得多，而通路合作夥伴可能已經完成了大部分開發工作。在這些情況下，我們可能會考慮 9 到 12 個月的建設期，而不是 2015 年。因此，在不同的市場、不同的交易流來源和不斷增長的平台之間，儘管在公用事業和一些進展方面面臨一些挑戰，但我們對自己所處的位置感到非常滿意。

Okay.

好的。

I appreciate it.

我很感激。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Vikram Bagri with Citi. Please proceed with your question.

謝謝。我們的下一個問題來自花旗集團的維克拉姆·巴格里 (Vikram Bagri)。請繼續你的問題。

Good afternoon, everyone. I wanted to start with ARR and put some numbers around the previous question on the call. If I assume it's 60% EBITDA margin on the year-end ARR that you disclosed about $183 million. It seems like at year end the EBITDA run rate was around 110. So you added about $31 million of EBITDA, including grade three. Did this implies that EBITDA addition was at like $72,000 per megawatt, which seems low relative to your what your target has been historically about 100,000, 250,000 per megawatt of EBITDA added.

大家下午好。我想從 ARR 開始，並在電話會議中圍繞上一個問題添加一些數字。如果我假設您揭露的年末 ARR 的 EBITDA 利潤率約為 1.83 億美元，則為 60%。年末 EBITDA 運行率似乎約為 110。因此，您增加了約 3,100 萬美元的 EBITDA，其中包括第三級。這是否意味著 EBITDA 增加約為每兆瓦 72,000 美元，相對於您歷史上每兆瓦 EBITDA 增加約 100,000、250,000 美元的目標來說，這似乎較低。

Al, I wanted to make sure I understand this right and what the factors behind that are. A couple of things that come to mind is perhaps the SG. and E. was somewhat understated at the end of year-end 2022, perhaps the EBITDA per megawatt added in '23 was slightly lower. Maybe you have changed the Radianz assumptions that you have in calculation of EBITDA and our asset prices are having an impact on the on the EBITDA as well. So wondering if you can help us understand and help us bridge that gap and between our EBITDA per megawatt that you add on also include M&A?

Al，我想確保我正確理解這一點以及背後的因素是什麼。我想到的一些事情可能是SG。 E. 在 2022 年底有所低估，也許 23 年增加的每兆瓦 EBITDA 略低。也許您已經改變了計算 EBITDA 時的 Radianz 假設，而我們的資產價格也對 EBITDA 產生了影響。因此，想知道您是否可以幫助我們理解並幫助我們彌合這一差距以及您添加的每兆瓦 EBITDA 之間的差距，還包括併購？

Hey, guys, it's Greg. Thank you for the question. And this is definitely the type of detail that we would like to get into with you and make sure that you have an appreciation for how we're looking at the world.

嘿，夥計們，我是格雷格。感謝你的提問。這絕對是我們希望與您討論的細節類型，並確保您了解我們如何看待世界。

So the first important point is, yes, we are reinvesting in the platform every year and the SG&A Align has been growing. That takes the form of expanding our team in all areas, frankly. But we referenced some on this call every technical area of the firm is growing to support our capabilities and to build our business. I think Dustin, we saw 25% type of growth numbers or more. And so I think the year over year increase in SG&A is one source of the bridge.

所以第一個重要的一點是，是的，我們每年都會對該平台進行再投資，而 SG&A Align 一直在成長。坦白說，這就是在各個領域擴大我們的團隊。但我們在這次電話會議中提到了一些公司的每個技術領域都在不斷發展，以支持我們的能力並建立我們的業務。我認為達斯斯汀，我們看到了 25% 或更多的成長數字。因此，我認為 SG&A 的逐年成長是橋樑的一個來源。

The other thing, but to specifically reference, as it relates to your question is not all megawatts are created equal as it relates to the revenue opportunity, the revenue per system is very much a function of the market that we're in. So for example, in the Southeast where we added the basalt assets, those the revenues associated with those assets are going to be on the margin lower and the revenue of a similarly sized portfolio in the Northeast might be just because the price per kilowatt hour that we're charging for every unit of energy that we're producing is lower. So we definitely have a desire to walk through that. And we have an intention for something of a math camp in our Investor Day, which is really intended to get into the model. But I'd say, Dustin, I think it is true that on average, the revenue per megawatt hour added or kilowatt hour added in 2023 was probably brought down our average price per kilowatt hour. It doesn't mean the returns were any less attractive to be clear because we paid less relative to a lower revenue. It's just the mix might change. And that's going to continue to change, frankly, as we expand our geography across the country. We're in '25 states and growing in new markets. It might come with a different revenue profile depending on where we're adding assets.

另一件事，但要具體參考，因為它與您的問題相關，並不是所有兆瓦都是平等的，因為它與收入機會相關，每個系統的收入在很大程度上是我們所處市場的函數。例如，在我們添加玄武岩資產的東南部，與這些資產相關的收入將會較低，而東北部類似規模的投資組合的收入可能只是因為每千瓦時的價格我們對生產的每單位能源的收費較低。所以我們絕對希望能夠解決這個問題。我們打算在投資者日舉辦數學營，真正的目的是讓人們深入了解模型。但我想說，達斯汀，我認為平均而言，2023 年每兆瓦時或每千瓦時增加的收入可能會降低我們每千瓦時的平均價格。需要明確的是，這並不意味著回報的吸引力會降低，因為相對於較低的收入，我們支付的費用較少。只是混合可能會改變。坦白說，隨著我們在全國範圍內擴大業務範圍，這種情況將繼續發生變化。我們的業務遍及 25 個州，並在新市場中不斷發展。根據我們添加資產的位置，它可能會帶來不同的收入狀況。

Understood. And then on financing. It appears you are you've clearly indicated no need for equity this year. But longer term, can you frame how much room do you have to add more megawatts before needing any outside equity also, I was wondering if you can share how you look at leverage internally and where you stand on those metrics. I'm just trying to understand the financing needs as we look beyond 2024?

明白了。然後是融資。看來您已經明確表示今年不需要股權。但從長遠來看，您能否確定在需要任何外部股權之前您需要增加多少兆瓦的空間，我想知道您是否可以分享您如何看待內部槓桿以及您對這些指標的立場。我只是想了解 2024 年以後的融資需求？

Sure.

當然。

Let me start with that. So I think that we have been very focused. We are large shareholders of the company, and we are very focused on shareholder experience. And we've been pretty consistent in our messaging that we have no desire to issue equity at dilutive prices. So our business plan has specifically been designed to limit our need for equity capital. We, of course, started 2024 with $219 million of cash on the balance sheet, supplemented by our Blackstone construction facility, which was undrawn at year end as well as our access to attractively priced long-term financing facilities.

讓我從那開始。所以我認為我們非常專注。我們是公司的大股東，我們非常注重股東體驗。我們的訊息一直非常一致，即我們不想以稀釋價格發行股票。因此，我們的商業計劃是專門為限制我們對股權資本的需求而設計的。當然，2024 年伊始，我們的資產負債表上有 2.19 億美元的現金，並輔以我們的 Blackstone 建築貸款（該貸款在年底尚未動用）以及我們獲得價格有吸引力的長期融資貸款的機會。

So and then finally, I should mention because there's a bit of disruption in the tax equity market, we can talk more about, but we have excellent and ongoing access to tax equity, which we don't think everyone else does in the market. So we feel very good about our financing access. We're going to be focused on not issuing equity. And we have a clearly, we think, demonstrated some avenues to raise capital, specifically the holdco financing would be the most recent one in 2023. But we have other nondilutive sources of capital contemplated to allow us to continue to execute on our growth plan. Certainly well, into the future. That is our current operating plan.

最後，我應該提到，因為稅收公平市場存在一些混亂，我們可以更多地討論，但我們擁有良好且持續的稅收公平機會，我們認為市場上的其他人都沒有這樣做。所以我們對我們的融資管道感覺非常好。我們將專注於不發行股票。我們認為，我們已經明確展示了一些籌集資金的途徑，特別是控股公司融資將是 2023 年的最新融資途徑。但我們考慮了其他非稀釋性資本來源，以使我們能夠繼續執行我們的成長計劃。當然好，展望未來。這就是我們目前的營運計劃。

And perhaps we should just say a word about the way, um, you know, our investors look at leverage as well. We have a we have a page in the investor presentation that's online that we should that we should bring out again. And we, of course, like Greg said, intend to walk through this stuff in math camp on May 14, the Investor Day. But basically our debt is rated investment grade. We have a significant collateral balance of solar contracts that, in many cases are 25 years. In some cases, longer than that, some assets are brand-new. Others have been with us for some time, but that collateral balance is a well-diversified portfolio of other investment grade contracts, which are our customer contracts spread across the country.

也許我們應該談談我們的投資者看待槓桿的方式。我們在網路上的投資者簡報中有一個頁面，我們應該再次推出。當然，正如格雷格所說，我們打算在 5 月 14 日投資者日的數學營中討論這些內容。但基本上我們的債務被評為投資等級。我們有大量的太陽能合約抵押品餘額，在許多情況下是 25 年。在某些情況下，比這更長的時間，某些資產是全新的。其他人已經在我們這裡工作了一段時間，但抵押品餘額是其他投資等級合約的多元化投資組合，這些合約是我們遍布全國的客戶合約。

When you look at our main debt, which is our funding facility with Blackstone, that debt really goes against that collateral balance of solar contracts with customers in relative to the value of the collateral balance. The debt is sized fairly conservatively. And so when we look at the amount of debt service that comes on comes due each year when we consider the leverage ratios, we and others, for example, Goldman Sachs and the Canadian Pension Plan feel very comfortable about the room we have left in Altice in the cash that we're generating. And we don't think that we brought that particular viewpoint, which is to say, look at the main funding facility relative to our asset values. We haven't brought that forth yet in a way that allows everyone truly understand that we're going to do better job with that.

當您查看我們的主要債務（即我們與 Blackstone 的融資安排）時，您會發現，相對於抵押品餘額的價值，該債務確實與與客戶簽訂的太陽能合約的抵押品餘額相抵觸。債務規模相當保守。因此，當我們考慮槓桿率時，考慮到每年到期的償債金額，我們和其他人，例如高盛和加拿大退休金計劃，對我們在 Altice 留下的空間感到非常放心我們創造的現金。我們認為我們沒有提出那種特定的觀點，也就是說，相對於我們的資產價值來看主要融資工具。我們還沒有以一種讓每個人真正理解我們將做得更好的方式提出這一點。

Thank you. And one last question, if I can squeeze in one more on. Can you talk about what you what you're targeting in terms of return for new acquisitions and how competitive is M&A versus organic growth.

謝謝。最後一個問題，我是否可以再補充一個。您能否談談您在新收購的回報方面的目標是什麼，以及併購與有機成長的競爭力如何。

That's all I had. Thank you.

這就是我所擁有的一切。謝謝。

Yes, we think our customer contracts as being fairly similar, whether it's an asset that we build from scratch or one of our channel partners builds having spent six or nine months developing an asset before they come to us or if we're looking at a portfolio that have a series of assets that have just been completed for our clients. In each case, we look at the terms of the contract, it's a 25 year contract. Is it a 25 year contract to deliver clean energy we look at the system itself, has it been built. So the specifications that we look for and once we've done the due diligence and gone through investment committee, we feel relatively comfortable both looking at newbuild assets and assets and operation as being relatively similar to each other.

是的，我們認為我們的客戶合約非常相似，無論是我們從頭開始建立的資產，還是我們的通路合作夥伴在找到我們之前花了六到九個月開發資產，或者如果我們正在尋找一個包含剛剛為我們的客戶完成的一系列資產的投資組合。在每種情況下，我們都會查看合約條款，這是一份 25 年的合約。這是一份為期 25 年的提供清潔能源的合約嗎？我們看看系統本身是否已建成。因此，我們正在尋找的規格，一旦我們完成了盡職調查並通過了投資委員會，我們對新建資產以及資產和營運都相對相似感到相對放心。

And in terms of on the return measures, we, of course, are mindful that we'd invest in with interest rates higher in the market right now. And frankly, with power prices continuing to be fairly elevated for most of our customers and definitely community solar customers, we are entitled to look for a good return on those. And that's a significant spread against whatever the benchmark rate is in the market, and that's on an unlevered basis. And this asset needs to be able to be attractive to Altace on an unlevered basis from a unit economic perspective. And then, of course, the most effective way for us to hold that asset is in our funding facility that then produces even higher returns.

就回報指標而言，我們當然注意到我們現在會以市場利率較高的方式進行投資。坦白說，由於我們的大多數客戶（尤其是社區太陽能客戶）的電價持續相當高，我們有權尋求良好的回報。與市場上的任何基準利率相比，這都是一個巨大的利差，而且是在無槓桿的基礎上。從單位經濟角度來看，這項資產需要能夠在無槓桿的基礎上對 Altace 具有吸引力。當然，我們持有該資產最有效的方式是透過我們的融資工具，從而產生更高的回報。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Our next question is from the line of Jon Windham with UBS. Please proceed with your question.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的 Jon Windham。請繼續你的問題。

Perfect.

完美的。

Thanks for taking the questions.

感謝您提出問題。

Looking forward to mass camp on, can we start with you mentioned some delays in state policies. Can we get a little specific there? And what particular states we should be keeping an eye on.

期待大規模露營，我們可以從您提到的國家政策的一些延遲開始嗎？我們能具體說一下嗎？以及我們應該關注哪些特定狀態。

Sure.

當然。

This is Lars, and thanks for that question out. There is, for example, a very popular state on the East Coast where we own a lot of solar assets in a state that we've been in more than a decade. They have a community solar program that just started going or got going last year we were very fortunate. We swept some of the most awards under that program together with Blackstone, and they're linked portfolio last year. And those assets are now finishing finished through construction and up and running. But the next sleeve was anticipated to basically open up again so that we could submit a number of deals that we already have signed leases for these leases were signed with CBRE Investment Management. They were signed with clients of CBRE. There was more assets from link or Blackstone in there, and all of them were ready to basically go into construction. But for whatever reason, the state decided to limit the sites of each new solar system in this particular go around to one megawatt per system, we had a number of assets that were five megawatts in size and six megawatts in size and seven and eight megawatts in size. And so we had a choice we can either submit those assets into this limited one megawatt size or hold off until the next sleeve opened up, which we are led to believe will happen in June of this year.

我是拉斯，感謝您提出這個問題。例如，東海岸有一個非常受歡迎的州，我們在那裡擁有大量太陽能資產，我們已經在這個州待了十多年了。他們有一個社區太陽能計劃，去年剛開始或開始實施，我們非常幸運。我們與 Blackstone 一起囊括了該計劃下的一些最多獎項，去年它們與投資組合相關。這些資產現已完成建設並投入運作。但預計下一個套筒基本上會再次打開，以便我們可以提交一些我們已經簽署的租賃協議，這些協議是與世邦魏理仕投資管理公司簽署的。它們是與 CBRE 的客戶簽署的。那裡有更多來自 Link 或 Blackstone 的資產，所有這些資產基本上都已準備好投入建設。但無論出於何種原因，國家決定將每個新太陽能係統的站點限制在每個系統一兆瓦左右，我們擁有許多資產，大小分別為五兆瓦、六兆瓦、七兆瓦和八兆瓦在尺寸方面。因此，我們可以選擇要么將這些資產提交到這個有限的一兆瓦規模，要么推遲到下一個套筒打開為止，我們相信這將在今年 6 月發生。

Since we've made the tactical and strategic decision to actually hold off. We don't want to send the hard work that we put into the six and seven megawatt asset into a program sleeve that for the moment is limited to one megawatt we actually held off. And all of that those assets are still there with us. We're going to get into construction as soon as they get picked into the program, but at least for the moment, that caused the delay for us.

因為我們已經做出了實際延遲的戰術和戰略決定。我們不想將我們在六兆瓦和七兆瓦資產上投入的辛勤工作投入到計劃套筒中，而目前我們實際推遲的項目僅限於一兆瓦。所有這些資產仍然在我們身邊。一旦他們被選入該計劃，我們就會立即開始施工，但至少目前來說，這導致了我們的延誤。

Appreciate that.

感謝。

And then the other thing I want to get into a little bit of help from us all get a little bit more comfortable with the guidance is the Miss around weather in the fourth quarter, investors' experience with blaming weather from the wind industry has not been good rights like weather this quarter and whether again, it just turns out that the capacity factor assumptions were too high. Do you have other than just some idea of how things have tracked maybe last year by quarter over the last couple of years on in terms of you hitting your targeted production, like how common is this how far out of the box was the fourth quarter?

然後，我希望大家能對指導意見有所幫助的另一件事是第四季度的天氣小姐，投資者將風電行業歸咎於天氣的經歷並沒有得到改善。良好的權利就像本季度的天氣一樣，是否再次，事實證明容量因素假設太高了。除了對過去幾年中逐季的情況在實現目標產量方面的情況有一些了解之外，您是否還有其他一些想法，例如第四季度的情況有多普遍？

Sure.

當然。

This is Lars and letting customers follow up. So we're happy because we have a 15-year operating history at Altice. We've seen a lot of weather in the beginning of Altace. Most of our history, most of the assets that we built were all in the Northeast because that's where we're located and we knew a lot about the programs in Connecticut, New Jersey and so forth. Then we tended to see occasionally a bad weather through out of the Northeast region during one quarter. But even during those years, we didn't tend to see it happening two quarters in a row in 2014, '15, '16, we started branching out across the country and we built assets in Y. in California and other states. And then it became increasingly rare to see a even one quarter show a particularly sort of nationwide of bad weather pattern. And so in the Q3 and Q4 period of 2023, in spite of having a very well diversified portfolio, weather on both coasts turned really bad and in particular, California that's usually sort of faced with a little bit had a lot of rain in atmospheric rivers and other things going on. So based on this 15-year operating history, this was not something that we had seen before. And as a consequence against us, and we want to make sure that the guidance that we've left for 2024 is understood to incorporate a fair amount of careful analysis going into yet?

我是 Lars，正在讓客戶跟進。所以我們很高興，因為 Altice 擁有 15 年的營運歷史。我們在 阿爾塔斯 初見過很多天氣。我們的大部分歷史、我們建造的大部分資產都在東北部，因為那是我們的所在地，我們對康乃狄克州、新澤西州等地的計畫了解很多。然後，我們往往會在一個季度內看到東北地區偶爾出現惡劣天氣。但即使在那些年裡，我們也沒有看到這種情況在 2014 年、15 年、16 年連續兩個季度發生，我們開始在全國範圍內擴展業務，並在加州和其他州建立了資產。然後，越來越罕見地看到四分之一的國家出現全國範圍內的惡劣天氣模式。因此，在 2023 年第三季和第四季度，儘管投資組合非常多元化，但兩岸的天氣都變得非常糟糕，特別是通常面臨大氣河流中的大量降雨的加州以及其他正在發生的事情。因此，根據這 15 年的營運歷史，這是我們以前從未見過的。因此，我們希望確保我們為 2024 年制定的指導方針被理解為納入了大量的仔細分析？

Yes, I think the thing that's right. I would add that John one on anecdote is December, which was particularly frustrating, was down over 20% from historic norms and forecast. So that was certainly a surprise to us. And Lars touched on like how we how we think about weather as it relates to our forecast, we really want to make sure that we're continuing to diversify our portfolio, which is currently 25 states. That's one aspect and we need to make sure our forecasts are right and appropriately allowing for this variability. And we feel good that we've done that for 2024.

是的，我認為這是對的。我想補充一點，約翰的一則軼事是 12 月，這尤其令人沮喪，比歷史標準和預測下降了 20% 以上。所以這對我們來說確實是一個驚喜。Lars 談到了我們如何看待天氣，因為它與我們的預測有關，我們真的希望確保我們繼續實現我們的投資組合多元化，目前我們的投資組合涵蓋 25 個州。這是一方面，我們需要確保我們的預測是正確的，並適當地考慮到這種變化。我們很高興我們在 2024 年做到了這一點。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Our next question is from the line of Chris Souther with B. Riley. Please proceed with your question.

我們的下一個問題來自 Chris Souther 和 B. Riley。請繼續你的問題。

Hey, guys, thanks for taking my questions on. So it sounds like there's still some more headcount and platform and investment catch up here for 2024. And I'm curious whether you think we'll exit 2024 in a place where we get kind of more operating leverage going forward. So minimum EBITDA growing faster than kind of revenue or if there's kind of a multiyear continued investment at a similar pace of growth?

嘿，夥計們，感謝您回答我的問題。因此，聽起來 2024 年仍有更多的員工數量、平台和投資趕上。我很好奇你是否認為我們會在 2024 年退出時獲得更多的營運槓桿。那麼，最低 EBITDA 的成長速度快於某種收入的成長速度，或者是否存在以類似成長速度進行的多年持續投資？

Yes. Hey, Chris, I'll start as Dustin, um, yes, I think um, you know, we're proud of our margins. I think we ended up around 60%. And if you look at 2024 guidance to the midpoint were about the same so obviously deciding exactly how and how much we reinvest those dollars into our business is a key decision for us, um, and so you know, we're making those decisions. I think like the opportunity that we have in front of us really informs us that we need to keep making those investments into our platform, particularly those tasked with development and on the technical side, I would say, second and on the heels of just growing our asset base by 90% last year, we're also intensely focused on building out our technical operations and maintenance teams from that that that aren't ensure that we're generating as much clean energy as possible out of our systems and that we can sell to customers at a discount. So we had very high margins in the past and will continue to have high margins and well also building out our platform and bolstering our teams kind of.

是的。嘿，克里斯，我將從達斯汀開始，嗯，是的，我想嗯，你知道，我們為我們的利潤感到自豪。我認為我們最終達到了 60% 左右。如果你看看2024 年的中點指引，結果大致相同，那麼顯然，準確地決定如何以及多少將這些資金再投資到我們的業務中，對我們來說是一個關鍵決定，嗯，所以你知道，我們正在做出這些決定。我認為我們面前的機會確實告訴我們，我們需要繼續對我們的平台進行這些投資，特別是那些負責開發和技術方面的投資，我想說，其次是在增長之後去年我們的資產基礎減少了90% ，我們也高度重視建立我們的技術營運和維護團隊，但這並不能確保我們從我們的系統中產生盡可能多的清潔能源，並且我們可以以折扣價出售給客戶。因此，我們過去擁有非常高的利潤率，並將繼續擁有高利潤率，並且還將建立我們的平台並增強我們的團隊。

Okay. And then maybe just the ARR. versus the kilowatt hour produced estimate. It seems like on the dollar per kilowatt hour that you expect to produce with the current asset base is below the historical average. Is that just a function of new assets, you know, throughout this year that we're kind of back end loaded? Or are there conservative or changes or interest rate or other assumptions? I just wanted to see if we could get some color there.

好的。然後也許只是 ARR。與發電千瓦時的估計值相比。看起來您預計以當前資產基礎生產的每千瓦時美元價格低於歷史平均水平。這是否只是新資產的功能，你知道，今年全年我們都在後端加載？或是否有保守或變動或利率或其他假設？我只是想看看我們能否在那裡得到一些顏色。

Maybe it's just I'm asking a question.

或許我只是想問一個問題。

Yes. Yes, Chris. So we will get into it on Investor Day, some more and I like that this math can't fund name is really taking off, Tom, but I think you hit on it and Greg covered a little bit earlier is not all megawatts are created equal. That's probably the main theme here on your reference to the euro. We have a portfolio in the Southeast, which comes out at lower per KW on power prices, which of course corresponds to a lower purchase price for us. So that's probably the big driver on it. But by I mean, I think and I think Rex are kind of eat even I would say to maybe we aren't we all know that Rex, a lot of these incentive programs that states put in place years ago are kind of stepping down in a modest fashion over time. And so there might be a little bit of that in there as well. But I would say for the most part, it's just a function of we've been growing our portfolio over the course of the last year.

是的。是的，克里斯。所以我們將在投資者日討論這個問題，還有更多，我喜歡這個數學無法資助的名字真的很受歡迎，湯姆，但我認為你注意到了這一點，格雷格早些時候提到過，並不是所有的兆瓦都是創造出來的平等。這可能是您提到歐元的主題。我們在東南部有一個投資組合，每千瓦的電價較低，這當然對應於我們較低的購買價格。所以這可能是最大的推動因素。但我的意思是，我認為雷克斯有點吃，即使我想說也許我們不是我們都知道雷克斯，各州幾年前實施的許多激勵計劃都在逐步退出隨著時間的推移，一種謙虛的時尚。所以裡面可能也有一些這樣的東西。但我想說，在很大程度上，這只是我們在過去一年中不斷擴大投資組合的結果。

Thanks,

謝謝，

Thank you.

謝謝。

As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question at this time, you may press star one from your telephone keypad. The next question is a follow-up from the line of Jon Windham with UBS.

提醒一下，如果您此時想提問，可以按電話鍵盤上的星號一。下一個問題是瑞銀集團喬恩溫德姆 (Jon Windham) 的後續問題。

Okay, perfect.

好的，完美。

Thanks.

謝謝。

I may back on my line dropped. While you were answering the question user error, no doubt on, can we go back to the weather just for a second, you mentioned December, any comments around to have monthly data, January and February that give you confidence on going into this year?

我的線路可能會斷線。當您回答用戶錯誤的問題時，毫無疑問，我們可以先回顧一下天氣嗎？您提到了 12 月，有任何關於月度數據（1 月和 2 月）的評論讓您對進入今年充滿信心嗎？

Thanks, John. Yes, so I would say we're putting out guidance today, and we've accounted for all known matters of variability in that guidance. So and we don't expect any from any big changes from weather.

謝謝，約翰。是的，所以我想說，我們今天發布了指導意見，並且我們已經考慮了該指導意見中所有已知的可變性問題。因此，我們預計天氣不會有任何重大變化。

Perfect.

完美的。

Thank you. And I feel honored amused me here for one more simply, we made it this far into a call without a question. I get questions from investors asking about Altace exposure to a data centers. Any comments around that would be appreciated. Thank you very much for taking the questions.

謝謝。我很榮幸能在這裡逗樂我，更簡單地說，我們毫無問題地進行了通話。我收到投資者詢問 Altace 對資料中心的影響。任何對此的評論將不勝感激。非常感謝您接受提問。

Hey, John, thanks for the question. This is Greg. I think the obvious comment that we think investors should be focused on is there is a lot being written about the massive demand increase for electricity associated with AI. And the data center growth is being forecast. Clearly that's inflationary from a long-term perspective for power prices, not only in terms of the natural gas consumption, the power side of it, but probably as if not more importantly, because of the infrastructure and the T&D or transmission distribution spend. So a core thesis that we have here is, of course, our contracts, as everyone knows, are predominantly or majority floating rate nature and designed to capture upward pricing from increasing electricity demand. And so that is the we that we think we're a play on that theme.

嘿，約翰，謝謝你的提問。這是格雷格。我認為投資者應該關注的一個明顯評論是，有很多關於與人工智慧相關的電力需求大幅增長的文章。資料中心的成長正在被預測。顯然，從長期角度來看，這對電價來說是通貨膨脹的，不僅是在天然氣消耗、電力方面，而且可能更重要的是，因為基礎設施和輸配電或輸配電支出。因此，我們在這裡的核心論點當然是，眾所周知，我們的合約主要或大部分是浮動利率性質，旨在從不斷增長的電力需求中獲取上調價格。所以這就是我們認為我們是這個主題的一個遊戲。

Thank you. At this time we've reached the end of our question-and-answer session, and I'll turn the call back to Lars to for concluding remarks.

謝謝。此時，我們的問答環節已經結束，我將把電話轉回拉爾斯，讓他做總結發言。

Thank you very much, operator, and thanks to everyone who has been listening. We look forward to meeting with you on our Investor Day to continue the location. But just in summary, for this particular fourth quarter call in the year, we feel very good. The team feels very good. Also, it's profitable. We're the market leader. We're growing revenue and EBITDA in 2023 by 50% to 60% in a very challenging market. And we're going to keep growing in 2024 as well. We're working hard to educate investors, and we're not going to leave any stone unturned as it relates to making sure that we bring forth the sort of precursors to revenue that we work with every single day so that you can follow our progress each quarter and throughout the year and we feel good about our destination. We are a market leader and we intend to go and take that position to market dominant position, but are going to talk more about that in the Investor Day, and we look forward to seeing everyone there. Thank you very much.

非常感謝您，接線員，也感謝所有收聽的人。我們期待在投資者日與您會面，並繼續該地點。但總而言之，對於今年第四季的特別電話會議，我們感覺非常好。團隊感覺非常好。而且，它是有利可圖的。我們是市場領導者。在充滿挑戰的市場中，我們的營收和 EBITDA 到 2023 年將成長 50% 至 60%。我們也將在 2024 年繼續成長。我們正在努力教育投資者，我們不會不遺餘力，因為這涉及確保我們帶來我們每天都在努力的收入先兆，以便您可以關注我們的進展每個季度和全年，我們對我們的目的地感覺良好。我們是市場領導者，我們打算將這一地位提升為市場主導地位，但我們將在投資者日更多地討論這一點，我們期待在那裡見到每個人。非常感謝。

This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and thank you.

今天的會議到此結束。此時您可以斷開線路，謝謝。

For your permission, Peter.

徵得您的許可，彼得。