SAN DIEGO, Feb. 22, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Sempra Energy
(NYSE:SRE) today announced that its board of directors has approved
an approximate 9-percent increase in the dividend on shares of the
company's common stock to $3.58 per
share, on an annualized basis, from $3.29 per share. This is the eighth consecutive
year that Sempra Energy has increased its common stock dividend,
which has grown more than 40 percent since 2013.
The first quarterly installment of the new common stock
dividend, $0.8950 per share, is
payable April 15, 2018, to common
stock shareholders of record as of March 23,
2018.
The board of directors also declared a quarterly dividend of
$1.60 per share on the company's
recently issued 6-percent Mandatory Convertible Preferred Stock,
Series A. The dividend will be payable April
15, 2018, to preferred stock shareholders of record as of
April 1, 2018.
Sempra Energy, based in San
Diego, is a Fortune 500 energy services holding company with
2016 revenues of more than $10
billion. The Sempra Energy companies' more than 16,000
employees serve approximately 32 million consumers worldwide.
This press release contains statements that are not
historical fact and constitute forward-looking statements within
the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. These statements can be identified by words such as
"believes," "expects," "anticipates," "plans," "estimates,"
"projects," "forecasts," "contemplates," "assumes," "depends,"
"should," "could," "would," "will," "confident," "may," "can,"
"potential," "possible," "proposed," "target," "pursue," "outlook,"
"maintain," or similar expressions or discussions of guidance,
strategies, plans, goals, opportunities, projections, initiatives,
objectives or intentions. Forward-looking statements are not
guarantees of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties and
assumptions. Future results may differ materially from those
expressed in the forward-looking statements.
Factors, among others, that could cause our actual results
and future actions to differ materially from those described in any
forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties relating
to: actions and the timing of actions, including decisions, new
regulations, and issuances of permits and other authorizations by
the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), U.S. Department
of Energy, California Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal
Resources, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety
Administration, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health,
states, cities and counties, and other regulatory and governmental
bodies in the United States and
other countries in which we operate; the timing and success of
business development efforts and construction projects, including
risks in obtaining or maintaining permits and other authorizations
on a timely basis, risks in completing construction projects on
schedule and on budget, and risks in obtaining the consent and
participation of partners; the resolution of civil and criminal
litigation and regulatory investigations; deviations from
regulatory precedent or practice that result in a reallocation of
benefits or burdens among shareholders and ratepayers; approvals of
proposed settlements or modifications of settlements; delays in, or
disallowance or denial of, regulatory agency authorizations to
recover costs in rates from customers (including with respect to
amounts associated with the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station
facility and 2007 wildfires) or regulatory agency approval for
projects required to enhance safety and reliability; increasing
prevalence of wildfires in California and risk that we may be found
liable for damages regardless of fault, such as in cases where the
doctrine of inverse condemnation applies, and risk that we may not
be able to recover any such costs in rates from customers in
California; the risk that rulings
by the CPUC such as denying recovery for wildfire damages may raise
our cost of capital and materially impair our ability to finance
our operations; the availability of electric power, natural gas and
liquefied natural gas, and natural gas pipeline and storage
capacity, including disruptions caused by failures in the
transmission grid, moratoriums or limitations on the withdrawal or
injection of natural gas from or into storage facilities, and
equipment failures; changes in energy markets; volatility in
commodity prices; moves to reduce or eliminate reliance on natural
gas; the impact on the value of our investments in natural gas
storage and related assets from low natural gas prices, low
volatility of natural gas prices and the inability to procure
favorable long-term contracts for storage services; risks posed by
actions of third parties who control the operations of our
investments, and risks that our partners or counterparties will be
unable or unwilling to fulfill their contractual commitments;
weather conditions, natural disasters, accidents, equipment
failures, computer system outages, explosions, terrorist attacks
and other events that disrupt our operations, damage our facilities
and systems, cause the release of greenhouse gases, radioactive
materials and harmful emissions, cause wildfires and subject us to
third-party liability for property damage or personal injuries,
fines and penalties, some of which may not be covered by insurance
(including costs in excess of applicable policy limits), may be
disputed by insurers or may otherwise not be recoverable through
regulatory mechanisms or may impact our ability to obtain
satisfactory levels of insurance, to the extent that such insurance
is available or not prohibitively expensive; cybersecurity threats
to the energy grid, storage and pipeline infrastructure, the
information and systems used to operate our businesses and the
confidentiality of our proprietary information and the personal
information of our customers and employees; capital markets and
economic conditions, including the availability of credit and the
liquidity of our investments; fluctuations in inflation, interest
and currency exchange rates and our ability to effectively hedge
the risk of such fluctuations; the impact of recent federal tax
reform and uncertainty as to how it may be applied, and our ability
to mitigate any adverse impacts; actions by credit rating agencies
to downgrade our credit ratings or those of our subsidiaries or to
place those ratings on negative outlook; changes in foreign and
domestic trade policies and laws, including border tariffs, and
revisions to international trade agreements, such as the North
American Free Trade Agreement, that make us less competitive or
impair our ability to resolve trade disputes; the ability to win
competitively bid infrastructure projects against a number of
strong and aggressive competitors; expropriation of assets by
foreign governments and title and other property disputes; the
impact on reliability of San Diego Gas & Electric Company's
(SDG&E) electric transmission and distribution system due to
increased amount and variability of power supply from renewable
energy sources; the impact on competitive customer rates due to the
growth in distributed and local power generation and the
corresponding decrease in demand for power delivered through
SDG&E's electric transmission and distribution system and from
possible departing retail load resulting from customers
transferring to Direct Access and Community Choice Aggregation or
other forms of distributed and local power generation, and the
potential risk of nonrecovery for stranded assets and contractual
obligations; and other uncertainties, some of which may be
difficult to predict and are beyond our control.
Forward-looking statements also include, statements about the
anticipated benefits of the proposed merger involving Sempra
Energy, EFH, and EFH's 80.03 percent indirect interest in Oncor,
including future financial or operating results of Sempra Energy or
Oncor, Sempra Energy's, EFH's or Oncor's plans, objectives,
expectations or intentions, the anticipated impact of the merger,
if consummated, on the credit ratings of Sempra Energy or Oncor,
the expected timing of completion of the merger, plans regarding
future capital investments by Sempra Energy or Oncor, future return
on equity or capital structure of Sempra Energy or Oncor, and other
statements that are not historical facts. Additional factors, among
others, that could cause our actual results and future actions to
differ materially from those described in any forward-looking
statements include risks and uncertainties relating to: the risk
that Sempra Energy, EFH or Oncor may be unable to satisfy all
closing conditions including obtaining bankruptcy court and
governmental and regulatory approvals required for the merger, or
that required bankruptcy court and governmental and regulatory
approvals may delay the merger or result in the imposition of
conditions that could cause the parties to abandon the merger or be
onerous to Sempra Energy; the risk that the merger may not be
completed for other reasons, or may not be completed on the terms
or timing currently contemplated; the risk that the anticipated
benefits from the merger may not be fully realized or may take
longer to realize than expected and that liabilities that survive
the bankruptcy will be greater than we anticipate; the risk that
Sempra Energy may be unable to obtain, additional permanent equity
financing for the merger on favorable terms; the risk that
indebtedness Sempra Energy incurs in connection with the merger may
make it more difficult for Sempra Energy to repay or refinance its
debt or take other actions, which may decrease business flexibility
and increase borrowing costs; the diversion of management time and
attention to merger-related issues; and related costs, whether or
not the merger is completed, as well as disruptions to our
business; and the risk that Oncor will eliminate or reduce its
quarterly dividends due to its requirement to meet and maintain its
new regulatory capital structure, or because any of the three major
credit rating agencies rates Oncor's senior secured debt securities
below BBB (or the equivalent) or Oncor's independent directors or a
minority member director determine it is in the best interest of
Oncor to retain such amounts to meet future capital
expenditures.
These risks and uncertainties are further discussed in the
reports that Sempra Energy has filed with the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC). These reports are available through the
EDGAR system free-of-charge on the SEC's website, www.sec.gov.
Investors should not rely unduly on any forward-looking statements.
These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof,
and the company undertakes no obligation to update or revise these
forecasts or projections or other forward-looking statements,
whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise.
Sempra South American Utilities, Sempra Infrastructure,
Sempra LNG & Midstream, Sempra Renewables, Sempra Mexico and
Infraestructura Energética Nova, S.A.B. de C.V. (IEnova) are not
the same as the California Utilities, SDG&E or Southern
California Gas Company (SoCalGas), and are not regulated by the
California Public Utilities Commission.
[SRE-F]
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SOURCE Sempra Energy