Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (AQN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. My name is Ken Moore, I'm the Chair of the Board of Directors of Algonquin Power. This year to proactively deal with the unprecedented public health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and to mitigate risks to the health and safety of our communities, shareholders, employees and other stakeholders, the meeting is being held in a virtual-only format through the Lumi virtual meeting platform. This platform is accessible to all of our shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders regardless of their physical locations, and allows our shareholders to participate, submit questions and vote upon the matters before us today. The unprecedented times we are all facing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic sees organizations around the world adapting to the most difficult of circumstances. These times test organizational agility and adaptability and necessitate that we go about our business in new and uncharted ways. Our ability to successfully navigate through these new challenges rests on the shoulders of each and every one of our employees. And before we start the formal process of the meeting, I want to take this opportunity to say directly to our employees, thank you. You are the reason that our company has been able to continue providing essential services to our customers through these trying times, and always. All of you have quickly learned and adapted to a new way of working together safely amidst one of the most challenging times we've ever faced as a society. We're truly proud of you and thankful for your continued dedication and service to our customers and communities. Thank you for sustaining energy and water for life. We couldn't do it without you. And now let's turn to the formal business of our Annual Meeting. Participating in this virtual meeting with me are Mr. Christopher Ball, Ms. Melissa Stapleton Barnes, Mr. Christopher Huskilson, Mr. Christopher Jarratt, Mr. Randy Laney, Mr. Ian Robertson, Ms. Masheed Saidi, Ms. Dilek Samil and Mr. George Steeves, who are directors of the corporation. Ian Robertson is also the Chief Executive Officer; and Chris Jarrett is the Vice Chair. Also present from the corporation are Arun Banskota, President; David Bronicheski, Chief Financial Officer; Jennifer Tindale, Chief Legal Officer; and George Trisic, Chief Governance Officer. I now officially call the meeting to order. I will chair the meeting and appoint George Trisic, Chief Governance Officer and Corporate Secretary of the corporation, to act as Secretary of the meeting and AST Trust Company Canada, through its representatives to act as scrutineers for the meeting. Given the virtual format of today's meeting, we would request that shareholders who have specific comments or questions on a formal item of business make such written submissions now, clearly identifying the applicable item of formal business. During the course of this meeting, at the appropriate time, such submissions will be addressed prior to voting on the applicable motions. Following the formal business of the meeting, Ian Robertson, joined by Arun Banskota, will provide an overview of the corporation's activities, and we will have a question-and-answer session. If you have any questions, not specifically relating to an item of formal business to be discussed at today's meeting, please feel free to submit those questions at any time during the meeting. [Operator Instructions] We will do our best to ensure that all shareholder questions are addressed at the conclusion of the meeting. But if for any reason, we are unable to do so during the meeting, we will endeavor to follow-up with shareholders after the meeting. Based on the Scrutineer's Report, proxies were received from the holders of a sufficient number of common shares to constitute a quorum. I therefore declare that meeting is properly constituted for the transaction of business. The final report on attendance will be retained with the records of the corporation. Given this is a virtual meeting, the voting at today's meeting will be conducted by online ballots for all matters. If as a registered shareholder or duly appointed proxy holder, you're using your control number to log into the meeting, and you accept the terms and conditions of the meeting, you will be provided the opportunity to vote by online ballot. If you've already voted by proxy and you vote again by online ballot during the meeting, your online vote during the meeting will revoke your previously submitted proxy. If you have already voted by proxy and do not wish to revoke your previously submitted proxy, do not vote again during the online ballot. The polls will be open for all items of business to be voted on at the same time. This will allow you to vote on each item immediately or if you prefer, you may wait until the conclusion of discussion on each item prior to casting your vote. The items of business to be voted on and your available voting options will be visible on the voting panel on your screen. To submit a vote, please click on the voting choice displayed on your screen. Once discussion has concluded on all items of business, we'll provide a few additional moments to enter your votes. I will then declare voting closed on all matters of business. The results of the vote on each matter will then be announced prior to the close of the meeting. I now declare the online voting polls open on all items of business. The notice calling this meeting, together with a form of proxy and Management Information Circular have been sent to each of the directors, the corporation's auditor and each intermediary and registered holder of common shares of the corporation as of April 20, 2020, the record date for the meeting. I direct that the confirmation of delivery of the Notice of the Meeting received from AST Trust Company Canada, and the Scrutineer's complete report on attendance be annexed to the minutes of the meeting. In addition, copies of the Annual Report containing the audited financial statements of the corporation for the year ended December 31, 2019, had been sent to each intermediary and registered holder of common shares of the corporation. Additionally, copies of materials are available on the corporation's website and on our SEDAR profile at sedar.com. Accordingly, with the consent of the meeting, I will dispense with the reading of the Notice of the Meeting. The first item of business is the presentation of the corporation's 2019 Annual Report containing the corporation's audited financial statements for the financial year ended December 31, 2019. I direct that the financial statements and Auditors report be attached as a schedule to the minutes of the meeting. Unless there's an objection, I will dispense with the reading of the Auditor's Report. If any shareholders have questions relating to the financial statements, these questions can be submitted at any time and will be addressed after the formal business concludes, when Ian Robertson and Arun Banskota provide an overview of the corporation's activities. The next item of business is the reappointment of the Auditors of the corporation. I request a motion that Ernst & Young LLP be reappointed as Auditors of the corporation until the end of the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until a successor is duly appointed.

My name is Chris Jarratt, and I so move.

Would anyone care to second the motion?

My name is David Bronicheski, and I second the motion.

Thank you. In order to be carried, the motion must be passed by a majority of the votes cast. At this time, we would ask the moderator to please advise of any questions that have been received on this matter from the participants of this meeting.

Mr. Chair, I confirm that we did not receive any questions in relating to this matter.

No further comments or questions that -- having been received, we will conduct the vote by way of online ballot. As previously noted, if you have already voted by proxy and you vote again during the online ballot during the meeting, your online vote during the meeting will revoke your previously submitted proxy. If you've already voted by proxy and do not wish to revoke your previously submitted proxy, do not vote again during the online ballot. Registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders can choose to vote by online ballot now by selecting the applicable voting options. I will announce the results of the vote at the conclusion of the meeting. [Voting]

We will now proceed with the election of directors. The corporation's articles provide that the Board of Directors is to determine from time to time, the number of directors within the minimum and maximum numbers provided for in the articles. The Board has determined the number of directors to be elected at the meeting to be 10. As described in the Management Information Circular sent to shareholders with the notice of this meeting, under the majority voting policy adopted by the Board of Directors with respect to the election of directors, where a nominee for Director is not elected by at least the majority, being 50% plus 1 vote, of the votes cast with regard to his or her election, that director must immediately tender his or her resignation to the Board. In such instance, the Corporate Governance Committee will, within 90 days of the shareholders meeting, determine whether to accept the resignation, which absent exceptional circumstances should be accepted. The resignation will become effective when accepted by the Board. In the interest of expediency, I would like to call on David Bronicheski to make the nominations on behalf of the management of the corporation.

I nominate the individuals named in the Management Information Circular to stand for election as directors of the corporation, namely: Christopher Ball, Melissa Stapleton Barnes, Christopher Huskilson, Christopher Jarratt, Randy Laney, Kenneth Moore, Ian Robertson, Masheed Saidi, Dilek Samil and George Steeves.

Particulars of these 10 nominees for whom, in the absence of instructions to the contrary, management proxies will be voted are set out in the Management Information Circular. These nominees have accepted their nominations. If elected, these nominees will hold office until the end of the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until their successors are elected or appointed in accordance with the articles and bylaws of the corporation. Pursuant to our events notice bylaw, there have been no director nominations put forward other than the directors nominated on behalf of management as set out in our Management Information Circular. Accordingly, I declare the nominations closed. May I have a motion for the election of the 10 persons nominated as directors?

My name is George Trisic, and I so move.

Would anyone care to second the motion?

My name is David Bronicheski, and I second the motion.

Thank you. At this time, we would ask the moderator to please advise of any questions that have been received on this matter from the participants of this meeting.

Mr. Chair, I confirm we did not receive any questions in relation to this matter.

No comments or questions having been received, we will conduct the vote by a way of online ballot. In accordance with the corporation's majority voting policy, we'll have individual voting for directors to be conducted by way of online ballot. As previously noted, if you have already voted by proxy, and you vote again during the online ballot during the meeting, your online vote during the meeting will revoke your previously submitted proxy. If you have already voted by proxy and do not wish to revoke your previously submitted proxy, do not vote again during the online ballot. Registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders can choose to vote by online ballot now by selecting the applicable voting options. I will announce the results for the vote at the conclusion of the meeting. [Voting]

The next item of business relates to the proposed amendments to the corporation's Employee Share Purchase Plan. The growth of the corporation has resulted in an increase in employees eligible to participate in the plan. In order to provide the cooperation with sufficient capacity to service the increased participation in the plan, shareholders are being asked to pass a resolution approving an increase to the fixed maximum number of common shares reserved for issuance under the Employee Share Purchase Plan from 2 million common shares to 4 million common shares. The text of the resolution is set out in Schedule A to the Management Information Circular. In order to be effective, the resolution must be approved by a simple majority of votes cast by shareholders, whether at the meeting or by proxy. May I have a motion that the resolution to approve the increase to the fixed maximum number of common shares reserved for issuance under the Employee Share Purchase Plan as described in the management information secular be approved.

My name is Chris Jarratt, and I so move.

Would anyone care to second the motion?

My name is David Bronicheski, and I second the motion.

Thank you. At this time, we would ask the moderator to please advise of any questions that may have been received on this matter from the participants of this meeting.

Mr. Chair, I confirm we did not receive any questions in relation to this matter.

No comments or questions having been received, we will conduct the vote by a way of online ballot. As previously noted, if you have already voted by proxy and you vote again during the online ballot during the meeting, your online vote during the meeting will revoke your previously submitted proxy. If you have already voted by proxy and do not wish to revoke your previously submitted proxy, do not vote again during the online ballot. Registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders can choose to vote by online ballot now by selecting the applicable voting options. I will announce the results of the vote at the conclusion of the meeting. [Voting]

The next item of business is the confirmation approval -- and approval of the corporation's Virtual Meeting Bylaw. On March 25, 2020, in light of public health concerns related to COVID-19, the corporation adopted, with immediate effect, a bylaw allowing for shareholder meetings to be held entirely by virtual means. The purpose of the Virtual Meeting Bylaw is to ensure the health and safety of the corporations community, shareholders, employees and other stakeholders, and to facilitate the attendance or participation of shareholders at shareholder meetings regardless of their geographic location. In order for the Virtual Meeting Bylaw to remain in effect following this meeting, it must be confirmed and approved by a simple majority of votes cast by shareholders, whether at the meeting or by proxy. Accordingly, shareholders are being asked to pass the resolution confirming and approving the corporation's Virtual Meeting Bylaw. The text of the resolution is set out in Schedule C to the Management Information Circular. May I have a motion that the resolution to confirm and approve the corporation's Virtual Meeting Bylaw, as described in the Management Information Circular, be approved.

My name is Chris Jarratt, and I so move.

Would anyone care to second the motion?

My name is David Bronicheski, and I second the motion.

Thank you. At this time, we would ask the moderator to please advise of any questions that have been received on this matter from the participants of this meeting.

Mr. Chair, I confirm we did not receive any questions in relation to this matter.

No comments or questions having been received, we'll conduct the vote by way of online ballot. As previously noted, if you have already voted by proxy and you vote again during the online ballot during the meeting, your online vote during the meeting will revoke your previously submitted proxy. If you have already voted by proxy and do not wish to revoke your previously submitted proxy, do not vote again via online ballot. Registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders can choose to vote by online ballot now by selecting the applicable voting options. I will announce the results of the vote at the conclusion of the meeting. [Voting]

As described in the Management Information Circular, in 2012, the Board of Directors adopted a policy to annually provide shareholders with an advisory vote based on the model, Say on Pay, for Board of Directors published by the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance. Accordingly, the corporation wishes to obtain shareholder consideration of the corporation's approach to executive compensation through an advisory vote. The text of the resolution is set out in Schedule E to the Management Information Circular. The affirmative vote of a simple majority of the common shares voted will be required for approval on an advisory basis. As this is an advisory vote, the results will not be binding on the Board of Directors. However, the Board will take into account the results of the vote, together with feedback from shareholders in the course of shareholder engagement activities in considering its approach to executive compensation in the future. May I have a motion that the resolution to approve the approach to executive compensation disclosed in the Management's Information Circular, as described in the Management Information Circular, be approved.

My name is Chris Jarratt, and I so move.

Would anyone like to second the motion?

My name is David Bronicheski, and I second the motion.

Thank you. At this time, we would ask the moderator to please advise of any questions that have been received on this matter from the participants of this meeting.

Mr. Chair, I confirm we did not receive any questions in relation to this matter.

No comments or questions having been received, we'll conduct the vote by a way of online ballots. As previously noted, if you've already voted by proxy and you vote again during the online ballot during the meeting, your online vote during the meeting will revoke your previously submitted proxy. If you have already voted by proxy and do not wish to revoke your previously submitted proxy, do not vote again during the online ballot. Registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders can choose to vote by online ballot now by selecting the applicable voting options. I will announce the results of the vote at the conclusion of the meeting. [Voting]

It is now 4:22. The online ballots on all items of business will close at 4:23. For those of you who have not yet voted on all of the items of business, please do so now. As previously noted, if you've already voted by proxy and do not wish to revoke your previously submitted proxy, do not vote again during the online ballot. We will now take a short break while the polls close and the results are tabulated by the scrutineers. [Voting] [Break]

I confirm the online ballots are now closed, and the scrutineers have tabulated the results. I'm pleased to confirm that the scrutineers have reported to me that all matters put to a ballot have been passed with the requisite shareholder approval. Accordingly, I declare that the motion on the reappointment of the corporation's Auditors has passed. I declare each of the 10 nominees for the Board of Directors elected. I declare that the motion to amend the Employee Share Purchase Plan has passed. I declare that the motions confirm and approve the Virtual Meeting Bylaw has passed, and I declare that the Advisory Resolution to approve the approach to executive compensation has passed. A report disclosing the voting results on each item of business at the meeting will be filed on SEDAR and disclosed in a press release promptly following the meeting. Is there any other formal business that may properly be brought before this meeting?

Mr. Chair, I confirm we did not receive any request for other formal business.

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the formal business brought before the meeting. I wish to thank you for attending, and I now declare this meeting to be terminated. We will now continue with presentations from Ian Robertson and Arun Banskota related to the corporation's activities. Following these presentations, management of the corporation in attendance will be pleased to answer any questions you may have about the corporation. I would now like to turn things over to Ian Robertson, CEO of the corporation.

Thanks, Ken, and good afternoon, everyone. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for joining us for our first virtual Annual General Meeting. While I always looked forward to the opportunity to stand before you at these meetings, we are grateful to have access to the technology that enables us to connect with you in these unprecedented times. Before continuing, I do want to make our legal team happy by highlighting that our discussions during this management presentation will include certain forward-looking information and non-GAAP financial measures. At the end of the presentation, we'll post a slide containing important information about these items. Reference can also be made to our most recent annual and interim management discussion and analysis filed on SEDAR and EDGAR for additional information on these items. Now let's get on with the presentation. Looking at the agenda for this section of the meeting, I'm going to take about 15 minutes or so to provide you with an overview of our business, a summary of our financial performance over the course of 2019 and highlight some of our more notable strategic achievements of the year. I'll turn things over to Arun Banskota, our newly appointed President, who will then take the stage to walk you through our organization's response to operating through the COVID-19 pandemic. Secondly, provide you with some commentary on how we've executed on some of our sustainability and ESG goals to date. And lastly, wrap up with a look forward to the coming years. Over the past 30 or so years, we're proud to have grown this company to a global organization with more than $11 billion in total assets supported by 2,500 valued employees. We operate as 2 business groups. The legacy business started by Chris Jarratt and myself right here in Canada over 30 years ago, is our nonregulated renewable energy group. This business group currently represents about 30% of our total operations and is comprised of over 50 renewable and clean energy facilities, representing more than 2,000 megawatts of generating capacity and which generally operate under long-term power sales agreements. Our regulated services group makes up the other 70% of our business and is comprised of rate-regulated water, gas and electric utilities, currently serving over 800,000 customer connections across 40 utility systems in 13 U.S. states and now 1 Canadian province. We also have 2 pending acquisitions, New York American Water and the Bermuda Electric Company, referred to affectionately as BELCO, which we anticipate, when closed, will bring our total customer connections to close to 1 million. Two common themes across these business groups, which bear highlighting: Firstly, they're comprised of bricks and mortar, long-lived assets, demonstrating multiple decades of predictable earnings and cash flows; and secondly, a strong pipeline of growth opportunities, which will continue to create value. Turning to the next slide. I'd like to spend a couple of minutes highlighting the 2019 financial performance. Consistent with our custom of the past decade or so, we're pleased to deliver yet another year in which we demonstrated strong absolute and relative performance against ourselves and our peers. For 2019, it bears highlighting that our adjusting earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization or EBITDA of close to $840 million represents a 4% increase year-over-year. And our 2019 adjusted net earnings per share of $0.63, represents 10% growth over 2018 when adjustments are made for the onetime impacts related to U.S. tax reform 2 years ago. We exited the year with nearly $11 billion in valuable assets, a 16% increase over 2018. We're also extremely proud of our track record of very strong total shareholder return, or TSR, as it's known, which essentially measures the combined benefits of a rising share price, coupled with the cash we delivered to shareholders through dividends. We see this as a key measure of our ability to create value for our shareholders. For 2019, our total shareholder return, or TSR, was 40% and our 5-year cumulative TSR is over 140%. While we believe that on an absolute scale, our 2019 performance is compelling, it's always important to measure results against the peer group. In comparing annual results, Algonquin's 2019 TSR of over 40% beat both the TSX Capped Utilities and broader TSX Composite Index quite handsomely. And on a 5-year basis, the contrast is even more stark. With our 5 year TSR of 141%, more than doubling the TSX Capped Utilities and TSX Composite Index 5-year TSRs of 59% and 36%, respectively. Moving to the next slide. We're very mindful of the important role our dividend plays in the total return expectations of our shareholders. We're pleased that the growth in our EPS has supported the continued growth in our dividend. In 2019, our organization paid annual dividends per share of $0.55, which actually represents a 10% increase over the previous year. We're pleased to have continued that tradition with a 10% growth in our dividend in 2020, a tradition, which is now over 10 years in length. Moving to the next slide. 2019 marked another year of growth for our company across various aspects of the business. Within our regulated services group, we announced the acquisition of BELCO, the Bermuda's electric utility. We completed 2 previously announced acquisitions, our first Canadian utility, New Brunswick Gas, as well as St. Lawrence Gas in New York, adding close to 30,000 customer connections to our service footprint in jurisdictions not previously served. Both acquisitions are expected to provide opportunities for future growth. We saw the announcement of New York American Water, which represents a sizable regulated water and wastewater utility acquisition, with the addition of 125,000 customer connections across 7 counties in Southeastern New York. We also made significant progress on our goal of investing in 600 megawatts of sustainable cost-effective wind power to serve the needs of customers within our Midwest electric service territory, with all 3 wind facilities in the Midwest commencing construction. And finally, we completed $8.5 million in rate reviews, which is an ongoing strategy of our utilities group to ensure an appropriate return is earned on capital invested in our various utility systems. Within our Renewable Energy group, we commenced construction of close to 850 megawatts of wind and solar projects. And with that, hopefully, I succinctly summarized how we performed in 2019. I'd like to turn things now over to our newly appointed President, Arun Banskota. Arun, over to you.

Thank you, Ian, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm very pleased to be here and discuss issues that impact the present and the future of Algonquin. On the next slide, first, I would like to discuss something that currently affects all of us, and the reason we are hosting a virtual Annual General Meeting this year. COVID-19 has presented unprecedented challenges to organizations with global impacts. And I want to first discuss how we are navigating through the pandemic. As a business providing mission-critical energy and water services, we have existing business continuity plans referred to as BCP to ensure we continue to provide those services for our customers or be able to recover as quickly as possible in the event we are faced with events such as hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, fires, et cetera. These BCPs cover every element of our business and all the processes required to deliver these mission-critical services. As soon as we got visibility into COVID-19, we set up a war room approach and started analyzing our BCPs for immediate actions and then revised these BCPs to take into account for longer-term scenarios. Given this intense focus, we are fortunate to report that we have not had any issues in the delivery of mission-critical services to our customers and do not anticipate any. The health, safety and well-being of our employees, customers and the communities in which we operate is always a top priority. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company restricted business travel, implemented work from home policies where possible, adopted physical distancing requirements and other precautions intended to protect the health and safety of our employees and customers. We have approximately 72% of our office and field employees either working from home or starting their day from home rather than the office. Out of our 2,500 employees, we are fortunate that we have only had 7 cases of COVID-19 within our ranks so far, 3 of whom have fully recovered and returned to their primary workplace. And importantly, no further transmission to other employees due to the social distancing measures. We believe this is a testament to rapid measures we took early on as well as our efforts on social distancing protocols that we have put in place. For those who are not able to work remotely, we have implemented preventative measures to help keep them safe on the job. We take seriously our duty to serve the communities in which we operate. While the majority of our customers continue to regularly pay their utility bills, to lessen any potential financial hardship due to COVID-19, we have temporarily suspended service disconnections for non-bill payments across our Liberty Utilities service areas, waived late payment charges and suspended collection activities. We also recently made a $500,000 donation to support the communities within our service territories, including our low-income individuals, food banks and first responders. Additionally, we are helping our local COVID heroes by providing access personal protective equipment with a donation of 25,000 face masks. With the onset of COVID-19 in March and all the uncertainty that it brings, coupled with Algonquin's largest capital program in its history of an expected $9.2 billion through the end of 2024, our treasury team wanted to move quickly to put additional liquidity in place. As a margin of safety, we have obtained an additional $1.6 billion of bank credit, over and above the almost $1 billion we already had. So we know with confidence we have the ability to move forward with our updated current year capital expenditure plan, independent of the state of the capital markets. Algonquin has updated its capital expenditure estimates for the 2020 fiscal year. The company expects to defer between $100 million to $300 million of capital expenditures, originally planned for 2020 to 2021. The majority of these deferrals are being taken to take a bit of the stress, both financial and operational off our organization as it learns to operate under the current circumstances. But keep in mind, this deferral in no way diminishes our commitment to our overall 5-year, $9.2 billion capital plan. At Algonquin, we continue to publicly reaffirm our commitment to sustainability and our environment, social and governance, referred to as ESG, goals. In 2019, we published our updated sustainability report, which highlights our sustainability goals and demonstrates the company's leading role in the transition to a low-carbon economy. Our efforts are paying off. We are proud to have been recently recognized by Corporate Knights as among the top 10 of its Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations, the highest ranked Canadian company and the highest ranked electric utility on the list. We are also proud that Algonquin was recently recognized in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index for our commitment to supporting gender equality. We welcome Kirsten Olsen as Chief Human Resources Officer to our executive management team, which is now comprised of 30% female leadership. Algonquin has been recognized as a 10-plus year legacy responder for Carbon Disclosure Project, an accolade that acknowledges the company's commitment to environmental disclosure and action. Through our decarbonization initiatives and renewable growth, you can see that our fleet is turning a nice shade of green. On the nonregulated side of the business, we have 1,400 megawatts of new renewables in the development pipeline, 841 megawatts of which are currently in construction. And our plans to bring the fleet in the Midwest are becoming a reality, with 600 megawatts of new wind under construction to replace closing of the Asbury coal plant, which was shut down as of March 1, 2020. This closure is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 1 million metric tons annually. And finally, the company has recently been the recipient of industry safety awards as an industry leader in accident prevention and health and safety recognition. I would like to conclude the presentation with a glimpse at what the future of Algonquin holds. The company's entrepreneurial spirit has driven a strong growth profile with an identified $9.2 billion capital expenditure plan through the end of 2024. And we remain confident in our ability to execute on our current growth plans, while continuing to seek new opportunities. What will the next few years bring? Pursue our $2.5 billion nonregulated renewable energy growth pipeline, advance our $6.7 billion of regulated utility customer-focused investments, continue to reliably, safely and sustainably deliver essential water, gas and electric services to our customers and communities. And we expect that our business mix will remain similar to the current 2/3 regulated, 1/3 nonregulated split. And we intend to retain our investment-grade credit rating. We are confident in our ability to continue to deliver strong shareholder returns through share price appreciation and dividend growth. And lastly, we remain focused on sustaining energy and water for life. I would like to now turn things back over to our CEO, Ian Robertson. Ian, over to you.

Thanks, Arun, for those insightful words. And before we open it up to questions, I wanted to wrap up with a couple of closing remarks. On a personal level, I'm gratified to have had the opportunity to have found this company together with Chris Jarratt over 30 years ago and to have formally led the organization as its CEO for the past 13 years. And while I feel entitled to lay claim only to a small portion of the credit, I can assure you that I'm extremely proud of the many accomplishments of the company, which are more appropriately attributed to the dedication of our talented team. For those of you close to me, I believe it's obvious that my personal entrepreneurial spirit runs true. And I believe this spirit has been deeply infused throughout the organization. However, for me, like most true entrepreneurs, I suspect, it's always about finding and climbing the next mountain, a challenge that has been increasingly on my mind for the past couple of years as we undertook the difficult task of finding a CEO successor to continue the tradition of value creation by this great company. At the start of the year, we announced that Arun had joined the company, which allowed the implementation of my plan to transition from the role of CEO. While it's always a challenging task for an outsider to come in to lead an organization, a task that's been made even more difficult by the unusual times in which we're living, I'm extremely pleased to be able to report Arun's great progress in understanding the company's dynamics and the breadth of the issues confronting this organization. I will say his intellectual curiosity and courage have equipped him to craft his own strategies for continuing our history of unprecedented shareholder value creation in our chosen industry. Consequently, I'm now comfortable to transition out of the formal role of CEO over the next month or so, but have confirmed to Arun that I, together with Chris Jarratt, will remain accessible to him to provide whatever support he might find helpful over the balance of the year. As you may recall earlier this year, the company and I jointly outlined the concept of my involvement, with a separately funded investment vehicle, which could potentially collaborate with Algonquin on finding and capitalizing on new opportunities. Confident now that Algonquin is being left in capable hands, I see a clear road ahead to intensely focus my energies and efforts on this new life chapter, but always remain focused on continuing to contribute to the Algonquin story, a story which has been and will always be a huge part of who I am. And with that, Ken, perhaps we can open things up to questions.

Thanks, Ian. We would now like to invite any supplemental questions from shareholders or proxy holders present at the meeting. As with the physical meeting, we will observe the same protocols of appropriateness and relevance to the meeting. Rest assured, we will not be attempting to limit or filter legitimate questions, and we'll do our best to address issues raised. As previously noted, to the extent we are unable to respond to a submitted question, we will endeavor to follow-up with you after this meeting. [Operator Instructions]

Mr. Chair, we'll just pause for a couple of minutes to allow time for questions to queue up. Mr. Chair, the first question we'd like to pose is to Arun. And the question is, could Arun provide a little bit more information on his background and give some insight into what he saw in Algonquin as he accepted the role of President. Arun?

Sure. Thank you, David, and thank you for the question. So I have 30 years in the industry and a combination of leading large businesses, most recently, Amazon's global data center business or El Paso's global power business and doing multiple project development globally, taking projects all the way through greenfield through project construction, project financing and operations. And finally, I spent 10 years in the clean tech space, taking 3 concepts to commercialization, including in ground-mounted solar, electric vehicle infrastructure and carbon capture. In terms of the fit with Algonquin, I thought my passions around growth, operational excellence and environmental social governance, ESG, fit extremely well with the Algonquin platform. And that's really the reason I'm here to be able to continue to drive this forward. In terms of growth, my 30 years career has been pretty much about that. And in terms of operational excellence, Algonquin has 53 generating facilities, 40 utilities across 14 different jurisdictions. And I think operational excellence is very valid across not only those assets, but including all functions and processes within the organization. And lastly, having spent 10 years in the clean tech space, I'm very committed to taking a leadership position in the ESG space for Algonquin. So my passions fit very, very well with the platform that is Algonquin today.

Thanks very much, Arun. The next question, I'll pose to Ian Robertson. It's a technology question, which is obviously of interest to Ian all the time. And it has to do with the battery technology, and whether there's been advances in battery technology over the last year and whether there's going to be application or investment opportunities for Algonquin in the future.

Well, I'll say the short answer to your question is, yes, David, but I suspect the poser of the question was looking for something a little bit more insightful than that. Clearly, with renewable energy being the cheapest form of generation and completely aligned with the societal goal of reducing reliance on fossil fuels, the biggest challenge, of course, is that we only get that energy when the sun shines and the wind blows or it rains. And the great equalizer for renewable energy is, of course, battery storage. I think as the world makes strides to electric mobility and the buying power that's coming in terms of batteries, we are definitely seeing the efficacy of energy storage starting to fall. We're seeing battery prices below $100 a kilowatt hour. And that's a big breakpoint in terms of how battery storage can play a big role in supporting renewable generation. And so we remain incredibly optimistic and focused on how we can deal with the Achilles heel of renewable generation, which, of course, is its intermittency. So there you go, David.

Thanks, Ian. The next question has to do with our pending acquisition of Bermuda Electric. And for that, I'll go to Chris Jarratt. And the question specifically is, why did Algonquin decide to make this acquisition? And when do we think it will close?

Sure, David. Thanks. Maybe I'll start with when we think it's going to close. So just by way of background, the ascendant began the process in October 2019 to seek the necessary regulatory approvals. The regulatory authority began its public consultation formally on April 3, which concluded May 4. And the short answer is, we don't actually know when it is expected to occur. But we have pretty high expectations that it will be in the coming months, probably in Q2. So that's our best guess at this time. With respect to what we saw in the BELCO acquisition, I think we saw it as completely aligned with our commitment to sustainability. And we think that the utility represents a great collection of quality utility operations. And embedded in the utility, there's lots of opportunities to make investments to improve resilience, reduce environmental impact and drive long-term benefits for the customers. But the utility is very supportive of our strategic plan. And just once again, we think it's high-quality assets in a high investment-grade region. And we just think it's totally aligned with our expertise. And we're always on the hunt for opportunities to decarbonize utilities, and this one is a prime example. So that's the summary of kind of what we saw in the acquisition.

Thanks, Chris. And with that, Mr. Chair, that concludes our questions that we have received.

Thanks, David. On behalf of the Board and management of the corporation, I would like to thank all of our shareholders as well as others who have joined us today for your support and your attendance at this meeting. Thank you.