Brookfield Renewable Announces Record Results and 5.5% Distribution Increase

BROOKFIELD, News - Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. (TSX: BEP.UN; NYSE: BEP) ('Brookfield Renewable Partners', 'BEP') reported financial results for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2022.

'2022 was another successful year, continuing our track record of double-digit average annual FFO growth for more than a decade and executing on our growth initiatives, increasing our renewable power presence in all our core markets and expanding into transition investments', said Connor Teskey, CEO of Brookfield Renewable. 'Looking forward, we remain a leading global owner, operator, and builder of clean energy that is uniquely positioned with our strong balance sheet, liquidity position and access to institutional capital to capture the largest and most attractive decarbonization investment opportunities around the world.'

Brookfield Renewable reported FFO of $1.005 billion or $1.56 per Unit for the twelve months ended December 31, 2022, an 8% increase on a per Unit basis over the same period in the prior year. After deducting non-cash depreciation and other expenses, our Net loss attributable to Unitholders for the twelve months ended December 31, 2022 was $295 million or $0.60 per unit.

Other highlights include

Advanced key commercial priorities including securing contracts for over 11,000 gigawatt hours per year of generation, continuing our approach of partnering on a global basis with the largest corporate purchasers of green power.

Continued to accelerate our development activities, commissioning approximately 3,500 megawatts of new projects that are expected to contribute $45 million of FFO annually on a run-rate basis. We also continue to execute on our 19,000-megawatt under construction and advanced stage pipeline, which, along with our sustainable solutions pipeline, is expected to contribute approximately $235 million of FFO annually to Brookfield Renewable once commissioned.

Closed or agreed to invest up to $12 billion ($2.8 billion net to Brookfield Renewable) of capital across multiple transactions and regions.

Maintained our strong balance sheet and executed approximately $10 billion of financings, generating $2 billion ($1.2 billion net to Brookfield Renewable) in proceeds from upfinancings and bolstering our liquidity, which stands at $3.7 billion, while continuing to minimize our exposure to floating interest rates or near-term maturities.

Completed or are advancing up to $4.6 billion (approximately $1.6 billion net to Brookfield Renewable) of asset recycling activities.

A Record Year for Growth

2022 has been our strongest year for growth to date. We closed or agreed to invest up to $12 billion ($2.8 billion net to Brookfield Renewable) to be deployed over the next five years, which represents almost half of our growth target for that period. We invested across all major decarbonization asset classes, including utility-scale wind and solar, distributed generation, nuclear, battery storage, and transition investments. This puts us in an excellent position to outperform both our growth and return targets.

The investment environment for renewables remains highly compelling. Corporate clean energy demand, low-cost energy profile, electrification, and energy independence continue to be key trends accelerating renewable deployment. Our disciplined approach to investing, long-dated history of owning and operating clean energy assets, and access to large-scale capital put us in a leadership position. Our track record demonstrates that we are uniquely capable of capturing some of the most attractive scale opportunities and we expect to be able to replicate this strategy looking forward.

In renewable development, we agreed to invest up to $6.4 billion (approximately $1.4 billion net to Brookfield Renewable) of capital through both organic growth within our existing businesses and acquiring new complementary platforms that enhance our current offering. We invested in three large renewable development businesses in the U.S. - Urban Grid, Standard Solar, and Scout Clean Energy. With these investments, we continue to expand our presence in the U.S., and it continues to be our largest market with approximately 74,000 megawatts in operations and development. On the back of the Inflation Reduction Act and strong corporate demand, we are actively pulling forward development projects in the U.S., which is increasing the growth prospects of these businesses beyond our original underwriting.

Since this time last year, our global renewable power development pipeline has nearly doubled to almost 110,000 megawatts today. Included in this project pipeline are 19,000 megawatts which are advanced stage and construction-ready. This represents meaningful value in the ground and will contribute significant cash flows once completed. Additionally, our global, technologically diversified fleet means we are a partner of choice for multinational corporations seeking large-scale, low carbon energy solutions.

We also formed a strategic partnership with Cameco to acquire Westinghouse, one of the world's largest nuclear services businesses. We believe that nuclear power and hydroelectricity are the only forms of clean, dispatchable, baseload power generation and will be a key enabler of the rapid growth of intermittent solar and wind. As the leading original equipment manufacturer and provider of essential products and services to half the global nuclear power generation fleet, Westinghouse is a critical player in the energy transition. We expect total equity invested to be ~$4.5 billion (up to $750 million net to Brookfield Renewable). We, alongside our institutional partners, will own a 51% interest with Cameco owning 49%. Westinghouse is well positioned to capture the increasing global tailwinds for nuclear and expect the transaction to close in the second half of 2023.

Lastly, we entered a number of new high growth transition asset classes that are complementary to our core renewable assets, including carbon capture and storage, recycling, and renewable natural gas ('RNG'), through small upfront investments with experienced partners, that are structured with downside protection, discretion over future investment and significant potential upside returns on our capital. This includes an investment in California Bioenergy, a leading California-based developer, operator, and owner of RNG assets. We have invested an initial $150 million ($30 million net to Brookfield Renewable) into the business in a downside protected convertible structure and have a priority right to invest up to an additional $350 million ($70 million net to Brookfield Renewable) to support the development of new agriculture RNG assets, many of which have offtakes with corporate customers we know through our renewable platform.

Our Access to Capital Has Become Increasingly Valuable

We have said for many years that the strength of our balance sheet and our ability to invest alongside large-scale institutional capital represents a significant competitive advantage.

Throughout our history, we have prioritized capitalizing the business with a strong investment grade balance sheet, utilizing long duration non-recourse debt, and maintaining high levels of liquidity. We have operated this way for many years, ensuring that we maintain a low risk financial profile and focusing on financial strength and flexibility. We recognize that this can often be overlooked as part of investors' risk-reward equation, in particular during expansionary periods. However, we believe it is critical to our long-term success, and over time, contributes meaningfully to the compounding of our cash flows and the total returns delivered by our units.

Furthermore, our structure of investing alongside Brookfield's private funds provides access to scale, long-term institutional capital, allowing us to target sizable deals where there is often limited competition. Combined with our platform capabilities, this allows us to execute some of the largest and most attractive decarbonization opportunities, positioning us to generate strong risk-adjusted returns.

Investor appetite for the energy transition remains very strong. We have seen significant institutional demand to invest alongside experienced owners, operators, and investors like us. The success of Brookfield's first $15 billion transition fund demonstrated this, establishing the world's largest private fund dedicated to facilitating the global transition to a net-zero economy. A key part of Brookfield's private fund strategy is developing relationships with large pools of long-term private capital who seek both the opportunity to invest alongside us, both by investing in our private funds, and also directly in the investment as co-investors. This co-investment program further enhances our access to capital, and it provides another source of liquidity.

In today's market, where access to capital is limited for some market participants, this becomes an even more meaningful competitive advantage. Institutional capital supports our ability to invest in great businesses and achieve strong results that maximize long-term returns for our investors. The scale of our transition fund, and the institutional relationships and capital it brings, is another meaningful step change in our funding strategy that we will continue to employ as we grow our business.

Operating Results

Our underlying business continues to perform very well. During the year, we generated FFO of over $1.0 billion, or $1.56 per unit, reflecting solid performance and an increase of 8% versus the same period last year. Our operations benefited from strong global power prices, and continued growth, both through development and acquisitions.

Our business is backed by high-quality cash flows, in large part from our perpetual hydro portfolio, which has become an increasingly valuable source of clean, baseload power as more intermittent renewables come online. With over 5,000-gigawatt hours of generation available for re-contracting across our portfolio over the next five years, and the positive pricing environment for our hydro portfolio, we have significant capacity across our fleet to execute on accretive contracts that we expect to contribute additional FFO and generate a low-cost funding source for our growth.

Our hydroelectric segment delivered FFO of $667 million. Our hydro assets globally continue to exhibit strong cash flow resiliency given our increasingly diversified asset base, inflation-linked power purchase agreements, and ability to capture strong power prices.

Our wind and solar segments generated a combined $579 million of FFO. We continue to benefit from contributions from acquisitions and the diversification of our fleet, which are underpinned by long duration power purchase agreements that provide stable revenues. Our distributed energy and sustainable solutions segment generated $154 million of FFO, benefiting from both acquisitions and organic growth across the portfolio.

We have also increased the scale of our development activities, almost doubling our renewable power pipeline from 62,000 megawatts last year to almost 110,000 megawatts today. In 2022 alone, we commissioned approximately 3,500 megawatts of capacity, including completing our 850-megawatt Shepherds Flat wind repowering project on time and on budget.

Furthermore, we have strong visibility into our near-term development pipeline, with almost 5,000 megawatts of projects representing significant dollars in the ground that we expect to build out in the next year and for which we have secured substantially all required funding. Additionally, over 14,000 megawatts of our remaining advanced-stage development projects have been materially de-risked. Together with our sustainable solutions pipeline, these projects are expected to contribute approximately $235 million of incremental run-rate FFO once commissioned.

Balance Sheet and Liquidity

Our financial position remains excellent, and our available liquidity is robust, providing significant flexibility to fund our growth. We are resilient to rising interest rates globally, with over 90% of our borrowings being project-level non-recourse debt, with an average remaining term of 12 years, no material near-term maturities in the next five years, and only 3% exposure to floating rate debt.

Despite market volatility, our access to deep and varied pools of capital continues to be differentiated. We have approximately $3.7 billion of available liquidity, giving us significant financial flexibility during periods of capital scarcity. During the year, we secured approximately $10 billion of financings across the business, resulting in approximately $2 billion ($1.2 billion net to Brookfield Renewable) in upfinancing proceeds.

We are also accelerating our capital recycling activities, which are both an accretive funding lever and a critical part of our full-cycle investment strategy. We expect to imminently close the fifth and final tranche of the sale of our 630-megawatt solar portfolio in Mexico, generating $400 million in the aggregate ($50 million net to Brookfield Renewable). Furthermore, we are advancing numerous capital recycling opportunities, which have attracted lower cost of capital buyers searching for de-risked and mature renewable assets. In this regard, we have initiated several capital recycling initiatives that could generate up to $4 billion in aggregate ($1.5 billion net to Brookfield Renewable) of proceeds when closed and provide significant incremental liquidity in the coming quarters.

Distribution Declaration

The next quarterly distribution in the amount of $0.3375 per LP unit, is payable on March 31, 2023 to unitholders of record as at the close of business on February 28, 2023. This represents a 5.5% increase to our distribution, bringing our total annual distribution per unit to $1.35.

In conjunction with the Partnership's distribution declaration, the Board of Directors of BEPC has declared an equivalent quarterly dividend of $0.3375 per share, also payable on March 31, 2023 to shareholders of record as at the close of business on February 28, 2023.

The quarterly dividends on BEP's preferred shares and preferred LP units have also been declared.

Distribution Currency Option

The quarterly distributions payable on the BEP units and BEPC shares are declared in U.S. dollars. Unitholders who are residents in the United States will receive payment in U.S. dollars and unitholders who are residents in Canada will receive the Canadian dollar equivalent unless they request otherwise. The Canadian dollar equivalent of the quarterly distribution will be based on the Bank of Canada daily average exchange rate on the record date or, if the record date falls on a weekend or holiday, on the Bank of Canada daily average exchange rate of the preceding business day.

Registered unitholders who are residents in Canada who wish to receive a U.S. dollar distribution and registered unitholders who are residents in the United States wishing to receive the Canadian dollar distribution equivalent should contact Brookfield Renewable's transfer agent, Computershare Trust Company of Canada, in writing at 100 University Avenue, 8th Floor, Toronto, Ontario M5J 2Y1 or by phone at 1-800-564-6253. Beneficial unitholders (i.e., those holding their units in street name with their brokerage) should contact the broker with whom their units are held.

Distribution Reinvestment Plan

Brookfield Renewable Partners maintains a Distribution Reinvestment Plan ('DRIP') which allows holders of BEP units who are residents in Canada to acquire additional LP units by reinvesting all or a portion of their cash distributions without paying commissions. Information on the DRIP, including details on how to enroll, is available on our website at www.bep.brookfield.com/stock-and-distribution/distributions/drip.

Additional information on Brookfield Renewable's distributions and preferred share dividends can be found on our website at www.bep.brookfield.com.

Brookfield Renewable

Brookfield Renewable operates one of the world's largest publicly traded, pure-play renewable power platforms. Our portfolio consists of hydroelectric, wind, utility-scale solar and storage facilities in North America, South America, Europe and Asia, and totals approximately 25,400 megawatts of installed capacity and a development pipeline of approximately 110,000 megawatts of renewable power assets, 8 million metric tons per annum ('MMTPA') of carbon capture and storage, 2 million tonnes of recycled material and 3 million metric million British thermal units of renewable natural gas pipeline. Investors can access its portfolio either through Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. (NYSE: BEP; TSX: BEP.UN), a Bermuda-based limited partnership, or Brookfield Renewable Corporation (NYSE, TSX: BEPC), a Canadian corporation. Further information is available at https://bep.brookfield.com. Important information may be disseminated exclusively via the website; investors should consult the site to access this information.

Brookfield Renewable is the flagship listed renewable power company of Brookfield Asset Management, a leading global alternative asset manager with approximately $800 billion of assets under management.

Please note that Brookfield Renewable's previous audited annual and unaudited quarterly reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ('SEC') and securities regulators in Canada, are available on our website at https://bep.brookfield.com, on SEC's website at www.sec.gov and on SEDAR's website at www.sedar.com. Hard copies of the annual and quarterly reports can be obtained free of charge upon request.

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