CALGARY, ALBERTA--(Marketwired - Dec. 3, 2015) - Enbridge Income Fund Holdings Inc. (TSX:ENF) (the "Company") announced today that its Board of Directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.1414 per common share ("Share") to be paid on January 15, 2016 to shareholders of record at the close of business on December 31, 2015, and a cash dividend of $0.1555 per Share to be paid on February 16, 2016 to shareholders of record at the close of business on February 1, 2016 (the "January Dividend"). The January Dividend represents a 10% increase in the monthly dividend, consistent with previously announced expectations related to the completion of the Enbridge Inc. drop down transaction to Enbridge Income Fund (the "Fund"), which closed on September 1, 2015 (see the Company's June 19, 2015 and September 1, 2015 news releases).
"This was a transformational year for the Fund with the acquisition of Enbridge Inc.'s Canadian Liquids Pipelines business and certain Canadian renewable energy assets," said Perry Schuldhaus, President, Enbridge Income Fund Holdings. "The Company remains well positioned to deliver annual 10% dividend growth through 2019 with the Fund's low risk diversified portfolio of assets, which continue to provide stable cash flow growth. The Company has increased dividends annually, with this latest announced increase producing a 36% increase in the dividend since November 2014 and a cumulative average dividend growth rate of 12.8% over the last five years."
Both dividends are designated eligible dividends for Canadian tax purposes that qualify for the enhanced dividend tax credit. Eligible shareholders may participate in the Company's Dividend Reinvestment and Share Purchase Plan ("DRIP"), where they may elect, without brokerage fees, to automatically reinvest their dividends in additional Shares (which are issued at a 2% discount to the weighted average market price of the Shares) or make optional cash payments to purchase additional Shares. Details of the DRIP are available on the Company's website. Shareholders who wish to participate in the DRIP should contact either the Plan Agent or their investment dealer (beneficial shareholders) for further information and to enroll.
In addition, the Company also announced a guidance range for 2016 available cash flow from operations ("ACFFO") of $1.75 billion to $2.05 billion for the Fund Group. The Fund Group includes the Fund's direct investee, Enbridge Commercial Trust and indirect investee, Enbridge Income Partners LP, which holds indirectly the operating assets.
"We expect the cash generating capabilities of Enbridge Income Fund's businesses to increase substantially in 2016 from the combination of its strong base business and new capital projects being brought into service," concluded Mr. Schuldhaus.
The Shares trade on the TSX under the symbol ENF.
FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION
Forward-looking information, or forward-looking statements, are included in this news release regarding future dividend and cash flow expectations, the low risk nature of the Fund Group's portfolio of assets and the Fund Group's ACFFO. Although the Company and the Fund believe these forward-looking statements are reasonable based on the information available on the date such statements are made and processes used to prepare the information, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and readers are cautioned against placing undue reliance on forward-looking statements. By their nature, these statements involve a variety of assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results, levels of activity and achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Material assumptions include assumptions about: expected supply and demand for crude oil, natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGL) and renewable energy; prices of crude oil, natural gas, NGL and renewable energy; exchange rates; inflation; interest rates; availability and price of labour and pipeline construction materials; operational reliability; customer and regulatory approvals; maintenance of support and regulatory approvals for projects; anticipated in-service dates; weather expected earnings/(loss) or adjusted earnings/(loss); expected earnings/(loss) per share; expected future cash flows and expected future ACFFO; and estimated future dividends or distributions. Assumptions regarding the expected supply of and demand for crude oil, natural gas, NGL and renewable energy, and the prices of these commodities, are material to and underlie all forward-looking statements as they may impact current and future levels of demand for the Fund's services. Similarly, exchange rates, inflation and interest rates impact the economies and business environments in which the Fund Group operates and may impact the level of demand for the Fund Group's services and cost of inputs, and are therefore inherent in all forward-looking statements.
The most relevant assumptions associated with forward-looking statements on projects under construction, including estimated completion dates and expected capital expenditures include: availability and price of labour and pipeline construction materials; the effects of inflation and foreign exchange rates on labour and material costs; the effects of interest rates on borrowing costs; the impact of weather; customer and regulatory approvals on construction and in-service schedules, as well as economic and competitive conditions. Risks such as changes in tax law and tax rate increases, and those discussed in the Company's and the Fund's filings with Canadian securities regulators may also impact assumptions. The impact of any one risk, uncertainty or factor on a particular forward-looking statement is not determinable with certainty as these are interdependent and the Company's or the Fund Group's future course of action depends on management's assessment of all information available at the relevant time. Except to the extent required by applicable law, the Company and the Fund assume no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements made in this news release or otherwise, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. All subsequent forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, attributable to the Company, the Fund or persons acting on the Company's or the Fund's behalf, are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements.
NON-GAAP MEASURES
This news release contains references to ACFFO. ACFFO is defined as cash flow provided by operating activities before changes in operating assets and liabilities (including changes in regulatory assets and liabilities and environmental liabilities) less distributions to noncontrolling interests and redeemable noncontrolling interests, preference share dividends and maintenance capital expenditures, and further adjusted for unusual, non-recurring or non-operating factors. Management believes the presentation of ACFFO provides useful information to investors and shareholders as they provide increased transparency and insight into the performance of the Company. Management uses ACFFO to assess the performance of the Company and to set its dividend payout target. ACFFO is not a measure that has standardized meaning prescribed by accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (U.S. GAAP) and are not U.S. GAAP measures. Therefore, this measure may not be comparable with similar measures presented by other issuers.
ABOUT ENBRIDGE INCOME FUND HOLDINGS INC.
Enbridge Income Fund Holdings Inc. is a publicly traded corporation. The Company, through its investment in Enbridge Income Fund, holds high quality, low risk energy infrastructure assets. The Fund's assets consist of a portfolio of Canadian liquids transportation and storage businesses, including the 2,306-kilometre Canadian segment of the Mainline System (the largest conduit of oil into the United States), the Regional Oil Sands System, the Canadian segment of the Southern Lights Pipeline, Class A units entitling the holder to receive defined cash flows from the US segment of the Southern Lights Pipeline, a 50 percent interest in the Alliance Pipeline and interests in more than 1,400 megawatts of renewable and alternative power generation capacity. Information about Enbridge Income Fund Holdings Inc. is available on the Company's website at www.enbridgeincomefund.com.