Altus Power, Inc. (NYSE:AMPS) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Chris Souther: Hey guys. Thanks for taking my questions. So, it sounds like there is still some more headcount and platform investment catch-up here for 2024. I am curious whether you think we will exit 2024 in a place where we get kind of more operating leverage going forward. So, EBITDA growing faster than kind of revenue or if there is just kind of a multi-year continued investment at a similar pace of growth?

Dustin Weber: Yes. Hey, Chris, I will start. This is Dustin. Yes, I think we are proud of our margins. I think we ended at around 60%. And if you would look at 2024 guidance to the midpoint, we are about the same. So, obviously, deciding exactly how and how much we reinvest those dollars into our business is a key decision for us. And so, we are making those decisions. I think like the opportunity that we have in front of us really informs us that we need to keep making those investments into our platform, particularly those tasked with development and on the technical side. I would say second, and on the heels of just growing our asset base by 90% last year, we are also intensely focused on building out our technical operations and maintenance teams that ensure that we are generating as much clean energy as possible out of our systems and that we can sell to customers at a discount.

So, we have had very high margins in the past. We will continue to have high margins and while also building out our platform and bolstering our teams.

Chris Souther: Got it. Okay. And then maybe just the ARR versus the kilowatt hour produced estimate, it seems like the dollar per kilowatt hour that you expect to produce with the current asset base is below the historical average. Is that just a function of new assets throughout this year that were kind of back-end loaded, or are there conservative or changes in your SREC or other assumptions, just wanted to see if we can get some color there and maybe it’s just a math camp question.

Dustin Weber: Yes. Chris, so we will get into it on Investor Day some more. And I like that this math camp name is really taking off. But I think you hit on it, and Gregg covered it a little bit earlier is, not all megawatts are created equal. That’s probably the main theme here. You referenced the portfolio in the Southeast, which comes at lower per KW power prices, which of course corresponds to a lower purchase price for us. So, that’s probably the big driver. But yes, I mean I think the RECs are kind of even, I would say, to maybe, we all know that RECs, a lot of these incentive programs that states put into place years ago are kind of stepping down in a modest fashion over time. And so there might be a little bit of that in there as well. But I would say for the most part, it’s just a function of where we have been growing our portfolio over the course of the last year.

Chris Souther: Got it. Thanks. I will hop back in the queue.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] The next question is a follow-up from the line of Jon Windham with UBS.

Jon Windham: Hey, perfect. Thanks for having me back on. My line dropped while you were answering the question, user error, no doubt. Can we go back to the weather just for a second? You mentioned December. Any comments around since you have monthly data January and February that give you confidence going into this year? Thanks.

Dustin Weber: Yes. Hey Jon. Yes, so, I would say, we are putting out guidance today, and we have accounted for all known matters of variability in that guidance. So, we don’t expect any big changes from weather.

Jon Windham: Perfect. Thank you. And if you will amuse me here for one more, I can’t believe we made it this far into a call without an AI question. I get questions from investors asking about Altus’ exposure to AI data centers. Any comments around that would be appreciated. Thank you very much for taking the questions.

Gregg Felton: Hey Jon. Thanks for the questions. This is Gregg. I think the obvious comment that we think investors should be focused on is, there is a lot being written about the massive demand increase for electricity associated with AI and the data center growth that’s being forecast. Clearly, that’s inflationary from a long-term perspective for power prices, not only in terms of the natural gas consumption, the power side of it, but probably as, if not more importantly, because of the infrastructure and the T&D or transmission distribution spend. So, a core thesis that we have here is, of course, our contracts, as everyone knows, are predominantly or majority floating rate in nature and designed to capture upward pricing from increasing electricity demand. And so that is the way that we think we are at play on that theme.

Jon Windham: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. At this time, we have reached the end of our question-and-answer session, and I will turn the call back to Lars Norell for concluding remarks.