Companhia Paranaense de Energia (ELPC) 2012 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning and thank you for waiting. Welcome to the Companhia Paranaense de Energia COPEL's webcast to present results of the first-quarter 2012.

We would like to inform you that all participants will be in a listen-only mode during this presentation. And then, we will have our Q&A session and further instructions will be given. (Operator Instructions).

Before we continue, we would like to clarify that statements which might be made during this conference call regarding COPEL's business prospects and operating and financial targets are based on beliefs and assumptions of the Company and also on currently available information. The future looking statements are not performance guaranteed as they involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions as they look forward to future events and therefore rely on circumstances which might or not occur.

Investors must understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions and other operating factors could affect the future performance of COPEL and lead to results which differ materially from those expressed in this forward-looking statement.

With us we have Mr. Ricardo Portugal Alves, CFO and IRO. The presentation which will be delivered by COPEL's management can be followed on the Company's site, www.copel.com/ri. We would now like to ask Mr. Ricardo Portugal Alves to take the floor.

Good morning everyone. It's a pleasure to be able to speak to you this morning and we have here [Adriano Vivaldi], who is our accounting superintendent; Solange Gomide, who is our capital market superintendent; and Breno Lemos, who most of you know, our manager of Investor Relations department.

So we will now show you our results of the first-quarter 2012, which all of you have already seen and there is -- we have an update about our work of our generation and transmission assets.

First of all, I'd like to draw your attention once again to the information on our energy market. The growth of the market is very good. The energy sales which has moved up by the sum of COPEL Distribuicao and COPEL (inaudible) has increased 7.3% in the first quarter. That's about 90% above the national average, which was 3.9%. In the sales of COPEL this was moved upward by residential, commercial and industrial consumption.

So let's analyze the results for the first-quarter 2012. Operating revenue, as you may observe, grew 11% visa-a-vis the same period of 2011, totaling BRL2 billion for the following reasons. First of all, the growth of the market, 6.5% increase in revenue from electricity sales to final customers, 14.5% for the use of the power grid impacted most of all by the expansion of the market and the tariff adjustment average effect of 3% applied as from June 2011, and this will be felt throughout the year.

The power sales to distributors grew 16.5% because of the contract readjustment for energy commercialization in the regulated environment and because of a higher revenue of the electric power [chamber of commerce] BRL77 million in the first quarter of 2012, compared to BRL49 million in the first-quarter 2011 plus the revenue stemming from the sale of power, which is the result of the sum of the revenues (inaudible) resale and use of power grid grew 11.4% for the period.

Third, it is important to mention as well the increase of 9% from the telecommunications revenue due to the expansion of the customer base and diversification of products and solutions offered. COPEL's Telecomunicacoes has today 1,569 customers, 44% growth when compared to March 2011 and investors in 334 towns of Paranas and 2 in Santa Catarina.

The fourth item is an increase of 23% in the revenues of piped gas supplied by Compagas due to the price adjustment, 8.5% as from August 2011 and another 4.5% as from March 2012 and also a greater sales volume, a growth of 8% in the quarter.

On slide number 5, we may see that from January to March 2012 the operating costs and expenses increased 15% vis-a-vis the same period in the previous year and due to the following factors. First of all, an upturn of 11% in the electric power account both for resale because of the growth extent with the power acquisition or from the auction in regulated market.

Second, an increase of 44% in the purchase of natural gas from Compagas due to the aforementioned, the sales growth and the cost increased related to the gas acquisition itself, as reflection of the depreciation of the real and the increase of the price of oil basket which we adjust the price of gas.

And third, the make-up of BRL68 million provision due mostly to the monetary correction and interest coming in for litigation cases, when the probability on building the case is high, a total of BRL52 million, and the rest, which is BRL67.7 million is through provision credits for bad loans. It's good to emphasize that the effects for these provisions are not recurring.

On the sixth slide, we can see an explanation -- a clear explanation about the increase by 22.7% of personnel cost. First of all, because of the salary readjustment of 7.7% applied as from October 2011, which is the third case of COPEL.

The indemnities paid in the voluntary redundancy and succession plan of BRL7 million and the provision in profit sharing which came to BRL13 million. After carrying out these adjustments, the personnel account will be 14%. And this increase of 14% can be explained by the following items.

First, less transfer a cost to the fixed assets for the first quarter of 2012. Second, an increase to 4.4% in the headcount, which at the end of the quarter was a total of 9,322 employees. According to the ANEEL 442,010 resolution which made it mandatory to have personnel and client service in all concession areas.

And third, because of the review of the structure of careers and compensation between the month of June and December 2011, which -- whose objective was to reduce the costs with our turnover. The effect of this step, as we have already mentioned in the previous call, were needed.

As turnover in the Company has been significantly dropping and another very important point is the voluntary redundancy succession plan. We have had a total of 555 employees who signed up for the program of which 31 have already resigned at the end of this quarter. And when these employees leave the Company, we will be able to see a drop of about 8% on the payroll. And these employees will leave the Company by the end of 2012, beginning of 2013 and this effect will appear during the year of 2013.

Regarding the consolidated EBITDA during the first quarter of 2012, it remained stable vis-a-vis the same period of 2011 totaling BRL585 million, a margin of 29% over the operating revenue. Copel Geracao e Transmissao accounted for 52% of cash generation and 58% of operating margin whereas Copel Distribuicao came in with 25% and 15% of operation margin.

If we exclude the effects of all acquisitions carried out in the first quarter, EBITDA would have totaled BRL640 million. Thus from January to March 2012, the COPEL's net income was BRL320 million, an amount 17% lesser than that presented in the same period of 2011, but with growth well above the market consensus.

And also as we did with the EBITDA, we also eliminated the effects of the provision mentioned and with the accrual of BRL43 million which refer to the [retrenchment] of the fair value of the financial assets of our distributor because of new estimates of the life of these assets, in other words, altering the depreciation rates of the distributor, we would total BRL387 million of net income in the first quarter. The consolidated net margin and the real income of BRL387 million (inaudible) was 22% while the distribution was 8%.

So, in general, these were the highlight of COPEL's results which seem very good and show our capacity of consistence and constant cash growth. We hope the scenario evaluation the Company's securities are still traded in discounted multiples when compared to peers and particularly taking into account commitment with the creation of value for shareholder base.

So how are we creating value? Through our new projects, for example transmission. As you may see on slide 9, we are responsible for the building and operation of six blocks of transmission one in the auctions of December of last year and March of this year, a total of 3,000 kilometers of high tech voltage lines which will run through the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Parana, Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais, Goias, Mato Grosso, Maranhao. And these activities have positioned COPEL strategically on the new frontiers of expansion, and it is rather too much to repeat, but today we are the eight Group in the ranking of the largest transmission groups of Brazil.

Regarding our generation work, I would like to inform you that the Maua plant right now in its concluding phase should enter commercial operation by middle of the year. And also it is worthwhile mentioning that recently ANEEL recognized the -- that force majeure has recognized that it was not the responsibility of COPEL because of the delay of the project. So there is no penalty during -- imposed during this because of it. COPEL has been delivering power through its commercialization contracts through Maua buying part of the energy from the market.

Regarding the SHP Cavernoso II will be concluded full in 2012 according to the schedule. Regarding the Colider plant, which we are building in Mato Grosso, more than 1,700 people are working after entering the dry areas which goes from May to September. The work is following the schedule and we possibly will bring this forward or bring forward the commercial operation date initially forecast to the end of 2014.

So thank you all for participating in this call. And now we could go on to our questions and answers. And we have with us Adriano, Breno and Solange to help me answer these questions. Thank you so much.

(Operator Instructions). Carolina Carneiro, Santander.

My question is the (inaudible) of power. We have seen some companies being accessed in the Company with the third price which is a bit better what we had seen in the last stock market. So could you give us an update for 2013, you had about 200 megawatt to sell still? So just correct me if I'm wrong. So could you update me if there's anything new regarding this contract or have they been forecast by the market for the sale of this energy. That's my first question.

And a second one regarding Araucaria. We know that much that had been talked about, a lot has been left aside because of the better water situation last year. But perhaps now this has been taken up again. Petrobras is not talking so much about this. But do you still have something -- are you still talking to Petrograd about the possibility of negotiating from all oil contact to have Araucaria's energy sold in the auction?

Thank you, Carolina, for your questions and thank you for being here at this conference call. And regarding our first question, in fact, COPEL is managing to close all the energy portfolio selling to free market. At the end of last year and the third quarter of last year, the beginning of this year, there was about 20% of energy available for sale. At the end of March of this year, we will have 13.7% of energy to be sold for 2013.

This means more or less 270 to 300 megawatt. And we are managing to close our contracts for two or three years to deliver into '13, 2014, '15 and at attractive prices. We are benefited by the increase in (inaudible) and today we are managing to place this energy for three customers with tariffs which vary from BRL90 to BRL105, BRL108, perhaps BRL110 per megawatt hour.

Regarding Araucaria, of course, COPEL continues to negotiate with Petrobras on just whether to sign a long-term contract for gas at prices which will allow us to have a good return. We have not yet closed anything. Our conversations continue, but what is of interest is that the Araucaria due to the hydrological issues it said would dispatch energy and it has been just patching up its capacity since March of this year.

By the end of the month of May, we are sure that it will discuss this. And from then on, it will depend on the hydrological conditions. Probably in June, we'll still be doing it, we'll be doing it still and this is important for us and as you know the plant is (inaudible) to Petrobras, but the greater the outlay, the greater the revenue of Copel as we show in the sale.

Therefore regarding Araucaria, we are greatly positive and they are producing to full capacity. I'm not sure how long this will continue but I think that by the end of May, we can continue to produce. So this has been producing March, April, May, so this will increase our revenues. I hope I have answered your question.

Yes, thank you.

Vinicius Canheu, Credit Suisse.

Now on your personnel cost, there are two questions. First, we have seen the impact of your [career] restructuring and I want to know if there is any increase which you might come along from this review or new review processes of this career restructure?

And secondly, you said that your personnel costs might go up 8% in 2013 because of those who joined up to the voluntary redundancy plan. So how has this compared to your target and when do you think you will be able to achieve your target and what can be done to achieve this target? Can this pick on (inaudible) or do you have a deadline build in mind? Can you help me with this?

Thank you for your question. Well, no, there is no forecast of additional salary adjustments because this career plan was concluded at the end of last year. Obviously the effect of this plan are appearing now in 2012.

Regarding what we call the [PSPV], which is the plan for the --- which is the voluntary plan for redundancy and succession, we have until the end of the year a total of 555 employees who will resign, and this is almost half of our initial target although this target will be increasing a little.

So of those 555 employees according to the wage average, it will give us a drop in the --- of 8% on the -- in payments. It could be higher. Our target, our initial target was that by the end of 2014 about 1,300 employees would leave. We reviewed our human resources and they reviewed all of this, and made a slight increase in the total number of employees who could be laid off by the end of 2014. It could be about 1,500 employees.

What does this mean? These are employees who have been in the Company more than 20 years, so over the age of 50, these employees can join up for the program. So the number of employees have gone up a little bit compared to the initial target. And if the number is just 555, then there should be an increase of 8%. And in the next few years we will have a lot of joining back of 2013 and 2014.

I would say that by the end of this program, I would say almost 1,300, 1,400 people will turn up and resign and, as I have said, these are employees who have been with the Company for more time. So we have some extra benefits. We have higher wages and the impact is significant.

We also must not forget that some of the employee joined up to the program, Adriano did, have to make a position for all indemnity this person will receive. So as soon as you have the (inaudible) 13 months calculated very roughly you have the pay back of this program.

Yes, that is what I wanted to know. Thank you very much.

[Cristiano Presintiser, Zeraselpatouru].

I have two questions. First -- my first question regarding the purchase of energy, you said that the prices was BRL219-BRL110 per megawatts hour. What could be the level of these prices in euros contract so we can know how much this has increase or been reduced?

And also the second question regarding cost reduction program that were mentioned in the fourth quarter call, whether this has had any impact in the results of the first quarter, and is this going to have an impact on the results through the year?

Good morning, Cristiano, and thank you very much for your question. The contract that we are having now which is between BRL90 and BRL105 per megawatt hour is with particularly the contracts which on average of about BRL77, BRL78, BRL79 per megawatt hour. We are selling this energy at a value of about -- that which were selling before.

Regarding cost reduction (inaudible), there is a work group which has superintendence from all the departments of the Company and they meet quite frequently and they will be presenting by the end of this month the purpose for cost reductions as they see it. Obviously we already know what should be done. But so that everyone in the Company understand this and are convinced that is measure of important, all the department of the Company participate in this group. So by the end of the month, we will present the proposals and diagnosis and then the top management will adopt those which through their mind are less important.

But in the first quarter there is no effect yet of this program. We will have reflections of this program in the first month in the second quarter, not yet, but as from the third quarter we would be able to communicate the steps that we are taking and the effect of all this, what are the savings which will be generated. Thank you.

Felipe Leal, Merrill Lynch.

I'd like to know how the financing BNDES programming is going for your projects. For Maua and other ongoing projects, is the financing coming in or are you still waiting for the money to come in?

In Maua, we haven't withdrawn everything. The last withdrawal, I think was last year but, yes, there are the project portfolios we have presented to BNDES BRL1.5 billion for the Colider plant, for the Araraquara Taubate transmission line, the [Takeenu] substation, which is in Sao Paulo. The coverage numbers of two small plants, which will be coming into operation at the end of October and Maua finished. We have a --- it's still under analysis and we hope that we will be able to draw this money, this financing throughout this year.

So what has happened I've already said that in the last call, (inaudible). In January, we received the financing on the total loan financing by BNDES and it came in January of this year. Now our conversation about [BDS] was okay and the analysis perhaps can only be true will be we will start to draw first on this.

And we hope that all of them by the end of this year we're going to have the chance of receiving part of the financing. And you also touched on a very important point. Because of these analysis which are lengthy and they involved documentation that COPEL had to produce, you always fix the total equity before receiving your finances because it's important that COPEL and its partners have enough cash to be able to do this because the financing always delayed and it's not the fault of the financing agent. So (inaudible) that they have and you have to comply by presenting documents, environmental certifications and environmental licenses. (Technical difficulty). Sorry for that interruption.

So all these top petro projects and we will present this in our portfolio, request to be on BNDES so that we can have financing for this. Some of these projects where COPEL is not majority holder, the request will be done immediately by the FDF. When COPEL has the majority, we will go to the National Monetary Council. And that process there is lengthy but at the end everything will work out, and we do get our money and this is very important. Thank you for the (inaudible).

(Operator Instructions). [Edwardo Gomiti], HSBC.

I have two questions. First, perhaps renegotiation our share in the plant of Parigot de Souza, and the second question is the CapEx. So what is that for the first quarter? I'd like to know what we can expect of investments for the year in transmission. Thank you.

Edwardo, (inaudible) going to have to answer the question for you.

Edwardo Gomiti, (inaudible). Edwardo, regarding the Parigot de Souza, we still are depending on a suit which is in the court with (inaudible) environmental issue. So we are working and we'll update everything. But unfortunately we have to wait for that to come through first.

So we continue to depend on this which is in the court. Regarding execution of CapEx, in the first quarter, we executed 16% of that amount approved by the Board, and as -- when the Board approves the CapEx, a value up to that amount, it's difficult to execute the total amount. We think that our execution detail will be higher than last year. In last year, there was a change in the management of COPEL and there were investments and therefore costing was not so high which has not achieved the forecast.

But this year we think that forecast will be carried out. Well, it's difficult to say yet, because the first quarter, just the first quarter didn't really show the trend that we look at year on year, but should be about 85% to 90% of the CapEx that will be executed and carried out with regard taking into account the new projects that we will be getting into. But these are projects we might bid in auction whatever or some acquisition. We want to have very good results in this year. It will be less for 2013, but 80% to 90% will be our projection for CapEx this year. Thank you.

And there are no more questions for the participants. We would like again like to ask Ricardo Portugal Alves to take the floor for his final remarks.

Well, to conclude our call, I would like to invite you to participate on the 27th of June, next month at the New York Stock Exchange of our birthday celebrating on 15 years of COPEL's listing on this exchange. Governor Beto Richa will be there and I would like to send -- I will be sending an e-mail to you all inviting you.

COPEL is the first company of the electric power industry in Brazil to have its shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange. So once again, thank you very much for participating and please feel free to telephone or send e-mails to us all or mainly to our Investor Relations department. Thank you so much.

Ladies and gentlemen, COPEL's conference call on the first-quarter 2012 results is closed. Thank you so much and have a good day.

Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call. The interpreter was provided by the Company sponsoring this Event.