PG&E Corporation Completes Planned Market Equity Issuances for 2016
PG&E Corporation (NYSE: PCG) has announced that, subject to the closing of the previously announced sale of 4,900,000 shares
of its common stock through a registered public offering underwritten by Morgan Stanley and BofA Merrill Lynch, it has completed
its currently planned market issuances of equity for year 2016. The proceeds from the offering when combined with the anticipated
equity raised through its internal equity programs, which include its 401(k) and dividend reinvestment program, are expected to
satisfy the company’s expected equity needs for 2016.
This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall
there be any sale of these securities, in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to
registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.
PG&E Corporation
PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG) is a Fortune 200 energy-based holding company, headquartered in San Francisco. It is the parent
company of Pacific Gas and Electric Company (“Utility”), California’s largest investor-owned utility. PG&E serves about 16
million Californians across a 70,000 square-mile service area in Northern and Central California.
This press release contains forward-looking statements of future expectations, including the expected equity needs for 2016 and
the ability to satisfy those needs through proceeds from this offering and PG&E Corporation's internal equity programs. Actual
results and equity requirements may differ materially from those anticipated. Factors that could cause actual results and equity
requirements to differ materially include:
- the timing and outcomes of the final phase two California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”)
decision in the 2015 gas transmission and storage rate case, the transmission owner rate cases, and other ratemaking and
regulatory proceedings and whether the CPUC approves the settlement agreement relating to the 2017 General Rate Case and its
resolution of the remaining issues in the proceeding;
- the timing and outcomes of the CPUC decision in the Utility’s natural gas distribution record-keeping
practices investigation, the CPUC Safety and Enforcement Division’s unresolved enforcement matters relating to the Utility’s
compliance with natural gas-related laws and regulations, and the other investigations that have been or may be commenced
relating to the Utility’s compliance with natural gas-related laws and regulations, and the ultimate amount of fines, penalties,
and remedial costs that the Utility may incur in connection with the outcomes;
- the timing and outcomes of the CPUC’s investigation of communications between the Utility and the
CPUC that may have violated the CPUC’s rules regarding ex parte communications or are otherwise alleged to be improper, and of
the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco and the California Attorney General’s office investigations in connection with
communications between the Utility’s personnel and CPUC officials, whether additional criminal or regulatory investigations or
enforcement actions are commenced with respect to allegedly improper communications, and the extent to which such matters
negatively affect the final decisions to be issued in the Utility’s ratemaking proceedings;
- the timing and outcomes of the sentencing phase of the federal criminal prosecution of the Utility
and any post-trial motions; whether the jury’s verdict in the federal criminal prosecution of the Utility could harm its
relationships with regulators, legislators, communities, business partners, or other constituencies and make it more difficult to
recruit qualified personnel and senior management; whether the verdict could negatively affect the outcome of future ratemaking
and regulatory proceedings, for example, by enabling parties to argue that the Utility should not be allowed to recover costs
that the parties allege are somehow related to the criminal charges on which the Utility was found guilty or to seek any
additional fines, remedies or disallowances; and whether the jury verdict could result in increased regulatory or legislative
scrutiny with respect to various aspects of how the Utility’s business is conducted or organized;
- the outcome of the Butte fire litigation, and whether the Utility’s insurance is sufficient to cover
the Utility’s liability resulting therefrom or if insurance is otherwise available; and whether additional investigations and
proceedings will be opened;
- whether we and the Utility are able to repair the harm to our reputations caused by the jury verdict
in the federal criminal prosecution of the Utility, the state and federal investigations of natural gas incidents, matters
relating to the indicted case, improper communications between the CPUC and the Utility; and the Utility’s ongoing work to remove
encroachments from transmission pipeline rights-of-way;
- whether the Utility can control its costs within the authorized levels of spending, the extent to
which the Utility incurs unrecoverable costs that are higher than the forecasts of such costs, and changes in cost forecasts or
the scope and timing of planned work resulting from changes in customer demand for electricity and natural gas or other
reasons;
- the amount and timing of additional common stock and debt issuances by us, including the dilutive
impact of common stock issuances to fund our equity contributions to the Utility as the Utility incurs charges and costs,
including fines, that it cannot recover through rates;
- the outcome of the CPUC’s investigation into the Utility’s safety culture, and future legislative or
regulatory actions that may be taken to require the Utility to separate its electric and natural gas businesses, restructure into
separate entities, undertake some other corporate restructuring, or implement corporate governance changes;
- the outcomes of future investigations or other enforcement proceedings that may be commenced relating
to the Utility’s compliance with laws, rules, regulations, or orders applicable to its operations, including the construction,
expansion or replacement of its electric and gas facilities; inspection and maintenance practices, customer billing and privacy,
and physical and cyber security
- the impact of environmental remediation laws, regulations, and orders; the ultimate amount of costs
incurred to discharge the Utility’s known and unknown remediation obligations; and the extent to which the Utility is able to
recover environmental costs in rates or from other sources;
- the ultimate amount of unrecoverable environmental costs the Utility incurs associated with the
Utility’s natural gas compressor station site located near Hinkley, California;
- the impact of new legislation or Nuclear Regulatory Commission (“NRC”) regulations, recommendations,
policies, decisions, or orders relating to the nuclear industry, including operations, seismic design, security, safety,
relicensing, the storage of spent nuclear fuel, decommissioning, cooling water intake, or other issues; the impact of actions
taken by state agencies, that may affect the Utility’s ability to continue operating Diablo Canyon; whether the CPUC approves the
joint proposal that will phase out the Utility’s Diablo Canyon nuclear units at the expiration of their licenses in 2024 and
2025; whether the Utility obtains the approvals required to withdraw its NRC application to renew the two Diablo Canyon operating
licenses; and whether the Utility will be able to successfully implement its retention and retraining and development programs
for Diablo Canyon employees, and whether these programs will be recovered in rates;
- whether the Utility’s information technology, operating systems and networks, including the advanced
metering system infrastructure, customer billing, financial, records management, and other systems, can continue to function
accurately while meeting regulatory requirements; whether the Utility and its third party vendors and contractors (who host,
maintain, modify and update some of the Utility’s systems) are able to protect the Utility’s operating systems and networks from
damage, disruption, or failure caused by cyber-attacks, computer viruses, or other hazards; whether the Utility’s security
measures are sufficient to protect against unauthorized or inadvertent disclosure of information contained in such systems and
networks, including confidential proprietary information and the personal information of customers; and whether the Utility can
continue to rely on third-party vendors and contractors that maintain and support some of the Utility’s information technology
and operating systems;
- the impact of droughts or other weather-related conditions or events, wildfires (such as the Butte
fire), climate change, natural disasters, acts of terrorism, war, or vandalism (including cyber-attacks), and other events, that
can cause unplanned outages, reduce generating output, disrupt the Utility’s service to customers, or damage or disrupt the
facilities, operations, or information technology and systems owned by the Utility, its customers, or third parties on which the
Utility relies; whether the Utility incurs liability to third parties for property damage or personal injury caused by such
events; and whether the Utility is subject to civil, criminal, or regulatory penalties in connection with such events; and
whether the Utility’s insurance coverage is available for these types of claims and whether the amount of insurance is sufficient
to cover the Utility’s liability;
- how the CPUC and the California Air Resources Board implement state environmental laws relating to
greenhouse gas, renewable energy targets, energy efficiency standards, distributed energy resources, electric vehicles, and
similar matters, including whether the Utility is able to continue recovering associated compliance costs, such as the cost of
emission allowances and offsets under cap-and-trade regulations, and whether the Utility is able to timely recover its associated
investment costs;
- whether the Utility’s climate change adaptation strategies are successful;
- the impact that reductions in customer demand for electricity and natural gas have on the Utility’s
ability to make and recover its investments through rates and earn its authorized return on equity, and whether the Utility is
successful in addressing the impact of growing distributed and renewable generation resources and changing customer demand for
natural gas and electric services;
- the supply and price of electricity, natural gas, and nuclear fuel; the extent to which the Utility
can manage and respond to the volatility of energy commodity prices; the ability of the Utility and its counterparties to post or
return collateral in connection with price risk management activities; and whether the Utility is able to recover timely its
electric generation and energy commodity costs through rates, including its renewable energy procurement costs;
- the amount and timing of charges reflecting probable liabilities for third-party claims; the extent
to which costs incurred in connection with third-party claims or litigation can be recovered through insurance, rates, or from
other third parties; and whether the Utility can continue to obtain adequate insurance coverage for future losses or claims,
especially following a major event that causes widespread third-party losses;
- our and the Utility’s ability to access capital markets and other sources of debt and equity
financing in a timely manner on acceptable terms;
- changes in credit ratings which could result in increased borrowing costs especially if we or the
Utility were to lose our or its investment grade credit ratings;
- the impact of federal or state laws or regulations, or their interpretation, on energy policy and the
regulation of utilities and their holding companies, including how the CPUC interprets and enforces the financial and other
conditions imposed on us when we became the Utility’s holding company, and whether the ultimate outcomes of the CPUC’s pending
investigations, the criminal prosecution, and other enforcement matters affect the Utility’s ability to make distributions to us,
and, in turn, our ability to pay dividends;
- the outcome of federal or state tax audits and the impact of any changes in federal or state tax
laws, policies, regulations, or their interpretation; and
- the impact of changes in U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, standards, rules, or
policies, including those related to regulatory accounting, and the impact of changes in their interpretation or
application.
See “Risk Factors” and “Forward-Looking Statements” in PG&E Corporation’s prospectus and the related prospectus supplement,
and similarly titled sections in PG&E Corporation’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015,
Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2016 and June 30, 2016, and other reports that may be filed with
the Securities and Exchange Commission.
PG&E Corporation
Brian Hertzog, 1 415-973-5930
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