JUNO BEACH, Fla., April 20 /PRNewswire Interactive News Release/ -- FPL Group, Inc.
The results are before a $19 million, 11 cents a share, after-tax expense related to a proposed merger with Entergy Corporation, which was terminated recently.
"FPL Group had a strong first quarter, and each of our businesses should continue to experience solid growth. We are targeting overall earnings per share growth at FPL Group of seven percent in 2001," said James L. Broadhead, chairman and chief executive officer.
"Strong customer growth and increased usage of electricity, due to sustained cold weather in the quarter, contributed to higher revenues and earnings for FPL Group's primary subsidiary Florida Power & Light Company," said Mr. Broadhead. "FPL Energy, our independent power producer subsidiary, also reported healthy earnings growth as a result of additions and enhancements to its power plant portfolio in 2000, and FPL FiberNet provided a modest contribution to earnings as it continued to expand in Florida."
Florida Power & Light
Florida Power & Light Company's net income increased to $113 million from $106 million, a 6.6 percent increase, while earnings per share rose to 67 cents from 62 cents a year ago, an 8.1 percent increase.
FPL customer accounts increased to more than 3.9 million, up 2.4 percent. Sustained cold weather during January caused electricity usage per customer to increase by 5.7 percent. January had more days with the average temperature below 66 degrees -- the point at which many customers turn on their heat -- than in any month since 1981. During the height of the cold spell in early January, the company experienced its all time peak demand for electricity of 18,219 megawatts.
Soaring oil and gas prices increased FPL's cost for fuel to $741 million compared with $479 million in the first quarter a year ago. Fuel costs are passed directly to customers with no profit derived by FPL. "We expect to provide a refund of approximately $100 million to our customers beginning in June as a result of the higher revenues at FPL," said Mr. Broadhead. The revenue refund is part of the utility's agreement with Public Counsel and approved by the Florida Public Service Commission, which provides sharing with customers of revenues that exceed a certain threshold. The refunds will begin to appear on customer's bills in June and are expected to average approximately $17 per residential customer. The company accrues for the expected annual refund on a monthly basis.
FPL Energy
FPL Energy's net income rose to $19 million, or 11 cents a share, compared with $15 million, or nine cents a share, in the first quarter of 2000. In the quarter, FPL Energy had plants with approximately 1,000 more megawatts in operation than the prior year quarter. The higher earnings from this larger power plant portfolio were somewhat offset by expenses associated with expanded project development activities.
"We expect to grow FPL Energy's portfolio to more than 9,500 megawatts by the end of 2003," said Mr. Broadhead. "We already have announced specific projects totaling more than 5,300 megawatts, and we have a strong development pipeline of more than 10,000 megawatts that should fuel solid growth of this business."
Since the beginning of 2001, FPL Energy announced:
* It will build, own and operate the world's largest wind energy project.
The wind farm will be located along the Washington-Oregon border and
produce 300 megawatts of clean, renewable electricity. It is scheduled
to be largely complete by the end of this year.
* Construction has begun on a 535-megawatt natural gas-fired,
combined-cycle power plant in Bastrop County, located near the
high-growth area of Austin, TX. It will be jointly owned by FPL Energy
and Coastal Power Company and operated by FPL Energy. It should be
operational by the second quarter of 2002.
* The first units of a 25.5-megawatt wind farm in Iowa County, Wisconsin
are generating power, and the others should be fully operational by the
end of the second quarter.
* It is building a 278-megawatt wind-powered electric generating facility
located on King Mountain in Upton County, TX, near the Midland-Odessa
area. The wind farm is expected to be in operation by the end of the
year.
* It will build, own and operate a 668-megawatt, natural gas-fired,
simple-cycle power plant in Calhoun County in northeastern Alabama. The
company expects to begin operation of the plant in the summer of 2003.
* It will build, own and operate a 1,789-megawatt, natural gas-fired,
combined-cycle plant in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, one of the largest
independent generation projects in the state. It will own 95% of the
Forney, TX plant, which is expected to begin commercial operation in the
second quarter of 2003.
Corporate and Other
Corporate expenses were up compared to prior year quarter due largely to higher interest expense. These higher expenses were somewhat offset by earnings from FPL FiberNet. The subsidiary, a leading provider of fiber-optic network solutions in Florida, completed metropolitan fiber-optic networks in Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa in the first quarter. It plans to complete networks in West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Jacksonville and St. Petersburg in the next 60 to 90 days. By year-end, the company will have more than 2,500 route-miles or nearly 350,000 fiber miles in Florida. The company recently announced an agreement to lease a portion of its network in Florida to BellSouth.
Other Highlights
* The board of directors increased the quarterly common stock dividend
from 54 cents to 56 cents a share.
* FPL projected a 20 percent generating reserve margin for the summer,
thereby assuring its customers that there would be a sufficient supply
of electricity this summer. The projections were part of a report to
the Florida Public Service Commission outlining new FPL power plants
entering service this year or planned for the future.
* The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission voted unanimously to approve a
proposal from the three major electric utilities -- Florida Power &
Light Company, Florida Power Corp., and Tampa Electric Company -- to
move ahead with plans to create a for-profit transmission company called
GridFlorida.
(A webcast of FPL Group's first quarter earnings conference call, scheduled at 9 a.m. EDT on Friday April 20, 2001, is available on FPL Group's Web site, http://www.fplgroup.com/, by following the link provided.)
FPL Group, with annual revenues of more than $7 billion, is one of the nation's largest providers of electricity-related services. Its principal subsidiary, Florida Power & Light Company, serves approximately 3.9 million customer accounts in Florida. FPL Energy, LLC, FPL Group's U.S. energy-generating subsidiary, is a leader in producing electricity from clean and renewable fuels. Additional information is available on the Internet at http://www.fplgroup.com/, http://www.fpl.com/ and http://www.fplenergy.com/.
FPL Group, Inc.
Financial Summary
(in millions, except per share amounts)
Three Months Ended March 31,
2001 2000
FPL kilowatt-hour sales 21,341 19,691
Operating Revenues $1,941 $1,468
Operating Expenses
Fuel, purchased power and interchange 951 542
Other operations and maintenance 310 285
Depreciation and amortization 240 259
Taxes other than income taxes 169 145
Total operating expenses 1,670 1,231
Other Income (Deductions)
Interest charges and preferred stock dividends (89) (66)
Other - net 15 7
Total other deductions - net (74) (59)
Income Taxes 68 57
Net Income Excluding After-Tax Effect of Merger
- Related Expenses 129 121
Merger-related expenses (19) --
Net Income $110 $121
Earnings per share (basic and assuming dilution) $0.65 $0.71
Weighted-average shares outstanding
(assuming dilution) 169 171
Twelve Months Ended March 31,
2001 2000
FPL kilowatt-hour sales 93,620 88,999
Operating Revenues $7,555 $6,493
Operating Expenses
Fuel, purchased power and interchange 3,278 2,401
Other operations and maintenance 1,282 1,264
Depreciation and amortization 1,013 1,019
Taxes other than income taxes 641 616
Total operating expenses 6,214 5,300
Other Income (Deductions)
Interest charges and preferred stock dividends (316) (252)
Other - net 101 79
Total other deductions - net (215) (173)
Income Taxes 372 331
Net Income Excluding After-Tax Effect of Merger
- Related Expenses and Nonrecurring Items 754 689
Merger-related expenses (60) --
Redemption of interest in cable
limited partnership -- 66
Impairment loss on Maine assets -- (104)
Litigation settlement -- (42)
Net Income $694 $609
Earnings per share (basic and assuming dilution) $4.09 $3.56
Weighted-average shares outstanding
(assuming dilution) 170 171
FPL Group, Inc.
Earnings Per Share Summary
Three Months Ended March 31,
2001 2000
Earnings Per Share
Florida Power & Light Company $0.67 $0.62
FPL Energy, LLC 0.11 0.09
Corporate and other (0.02) --
Subtotal 0.76 0.71
Merger-related expenses (1) (0.11) --
Total $0.65 $0.71
Twelve Months Ended March 31,
2001 2000
Earnings Per Share
Florida Power & Light Company $3.84 $3.62
FPL Energy, LLC 0.52 0.37
Corporate and other 0.08 0.04
Subtotal 4.44 4.03
Merger-related and nonrecurring items:
Merger-related expenses (2) (0.35) --
Redemption of interest in cable limited
partnership - Corporate and Other -- 0.39
Impairment loss on Maine assets - FPL Energy -- (0.61)
Litigation settlement - FPL -- (0.25)
Subtotal (0.35) (0.47)
Total $4.09 $3.56
(1) FPL $(0.10) and Corporate and Other $(0.01).
(2) FPL $(0.32); FPL Energy $(0.01) and Corporate and Other $(0.02).
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SOURCE: FPL Group, Inc.
Contact: FPL Group, Inc. Corporate Communications Media Line,
305-552-3888