(Calgary) Enbridge has raised its full-year profit forecast in light of the completion of two previously announced acquisitions of U.S. gas utilities.
The Calgary-based energy infrastructure company said Friday it now expects adjusted 2024 profit of between $17.7 billion and $18.3 billion, up from a previous forecast of $16.6 billion to $17.2 billion.
The upward guidance incorporates expected revenue contributions from The East Ohio Gas Company and Questar Gas Company, which Enbridge now owns following the successful closing of a previously announced purchase agreement with Virginia-based Dominion.
President and CEO Greg Ebel said Friday that Enbridge also expects to close its previously announced purchase of a third utility, Public Service Company of North Carolina, in the third quarter.
Enbridge’s $14 billion purchase of the three utilities was first announced last September and was seen by market watchers as a major vote of confidence by the Canadian company in the long-term prospects of natural gas.
“We are on track to create the largest natural gas utility in North America,” Ebel said on a conference call with analysts to discuss the company’s second-quarter financial results.
Once the final transaction is completed, Enbridge will have effectively doubled the size of its gas utility business and balanced its asset allocation evenly between natural gas, renewables and liquids.
In total, Enbridge’s gas utility business will have a combined rate base of more than C$27 billion and employ approximately 7,000 people, delivering more than nine billion cubic feet of gas per day to approximately seven million customers.
Enbridge financed the acquisitions with a combination of cash and debt. It also used a portion of the proceeds from the sale of its Alliance and Aux Sable gas processing facilities, which closed in the second quarter of 2024.
On Friday, Mr. Ebel did not rule out further merger and acquisition activity by Enbridge.
“Asset sales are still an integral part of what we’re looking at,” he said. “But I wouldn’t say we need to do anything in the short term. […] If we do anything significant in asset sales, it will only be because we get a good price on something.”
Enbridge reported Friday that its second-quarter profit was $1.85 billion, about the same as a year ago.
Its profit for the period ended June 30 was 86 cents per share, down from 91 cents a year earlier.
The results beat analysts’ expectations of 63 cents per share, according to financial markets firm LSEG Data and Analytics.
On an adjusted basis, Enbridge earned $1.25 billion, down from $1.38 billion a year earlier.
Those adjusted numbers show earnings of 58 cents per share in the latest quarter, down from adjusted earnings of 68 cents per share in the second quarter of 2023.