Enbridge makes progress on utility purchases; raises earnings forecast

Enbridge Inc. has raised its earnings forecast for the year in light of the successful completion of two previously announced purchases of U.S. gas utilities.

The Calgary-based energy infrastructure company said Friday it now expects adjusted earnings for 2024 of between $17.7 billion and $18.3 billion, up from a previous forecast of $16.6 billion to $17.2 billion.

The higher forecast incorporates expected revenue contributions from the East Ohio Gas Company and Questar Gas Company, which Enbridge now owns following the successful closure of a previously announced purchase agreement from Virginia-based Dominion Energy Inc.

Chief executive Greg Ebel said Friday Enbridge also expects the closure of the previously announced purchase of a third utility, the Public Service Company of North Carolina, to take place in the third quarter.

Enbridge's $14-billion US purchase of the three utilities was first announced last September, and was viewed by market-watchers as a major vote of confidence by the Canadian company in the long-term outlook for natural gas.

"We are well on our way to creating 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.

The purchase of the three U.S. utilities gives Enbridge natural gas utility operations in Ohio, North Carolina, Utah, Idaho and Wyoming a significant presence in the U.S. utility sector.

Once the final transaction closes, Enbridge will effectively have doubled the scale of its gas utility business, and balanced its asset mix evenly between natural gas, renewables and liquids.

In total, Enbridge's gas utility business will have a combined rate base of more than $27 billion and about 7,000 employees, delivering over nine billion cubic feet per day of gas to approximately seven million customers.

Enbridge financed the acquisitions through a combination of cash and debt. It also used a portion of the proceeds from the sale of its Alliance Pipeline and Aux Sable gas processing facility, which closed in the second quarter of 2024.

On Friday, Ebel did not rule out additional merger and acquisition activity by Enbridge.

"Asset sales are still very much part of what we look at," he said.

"But I wouldn't say there's anything near-term that we have to do ... If we do anything significant on the asset sale side, it will be solely as a result of getting a great price on something."

Enbridge reported Friday that its second-quarter profit was $1.85 billion, where it roughly sat a year ago.

Its earnings for the period ended June 30 amounted to 86 cents per share compared with 91 cents a year prior.

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 compared with $1.38 billion a year earlier.

Those adjusted figures amounted to earnings of 58 cents per share in its latest quarter, down from an adjusted profit of 68 cents per share in the second quarter of 2023.