HAMILTON, BERMUDA--(Marketwired - Sept. 15, 2014) - Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners L.P. ( TSX:BEP.UN )( NYSE: BEP ) (" Brookfield Renewable ") will be hosting a meeting today for the investment community in New York, where management will provide an overview of its business objectives, market opportunity, and strategy for continued long-term growth.
Brookfield Renewable is also announcing an increase in its distribution growth target to 5% - 9% annually, up from 3% - 5% previously. The company expects to achieve this new target while maintaining its target current payout ratio of 60% to 70% of Funds from Operations ("FFO"). The increased guidance reflects Brookfield Renewable's positive long-term fundamentals and strong organic growth prospects, including attractive inflation-linked contracts, growing cash flows tied to an improving economy and rising energy prices, and a robust development pipeline of projects with premium return potential.
The event is scheduled to begin this afternoon at approximately 3:15 p.m. EDT. A live webcast of the event will be available on the Investor Relations page of the company's website at www.brookfieldrenewable.com . A copy of the related presentation will also be available on the website.
Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners (TSX:BEP.UN)( NYSE:BEP) operates one of the largest publicly-traded, pure-play renewable power platforms globally. Its portfolio is primarily hydroelectric and totals approximately 6,700 megawatts of installed capacity. Diversified across 72 river systems and 13 power markets in the United States, Canada, Brazil, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, the portfolio's output is sold predominantly under long-term contracts and generates enough electricity from renewable resources to power more than three million homes on average each year. With a portfolio of high-quality assets and strong growth prospects, the business is positioned to generate stable, long-term cash flows supporting regular and growing cash distributions to shareholders. For more information, please visit www.brookfieldrenewable.com .
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This news release contains forward-looking statements and information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, the "safe harbor" provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and in any applicable Canadian securities regulations, concerning the business and operations of Brookfield Renewable.
Forward-looking statements may include estimates, plans, expectations, opinions, forecasts, projections, guidance or other statements that are not statements of fact. Forward-looking statements in this news release include statements regarding the quality of Brookfield Renewable's assets and the resiliency of the cash flow they will generate, Brookfield Renewable's anticipated financial performance, future commissioning of assets, contracted portfolio, technology diversification, acquisition opportunities, expected completion of acquisitions, future energy prices and demand for electricity, economic recovery, achievement of long-term average generation, project development and capital expenditure costs, diversification of shareholder base, energy policies, economic growth, growth potential of the renewable asset class, the future growth prospects and distribution profile of Brookfield Renewable, and Brookfield Renewable's access to capital. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "scheduled", "estimates", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "potentially", "tends", "continue", "attempts", "likely", "primarily", "approximately", "endeavours", "pursues", "strives", "seeks" or variations of such words and phrases, or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved.
Although we believe that our anticipated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements and information in this news release are based upon reasonable assumptions and expectations, we cannot assure you that such expectations will prove to have been correct. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information as such statements and information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from anticipated future results, performance or achievement expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and information.
Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated or implied by forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, our limited operating history; the risk that we may be deemed an "investment company" under the Investment Company Act; the fact that we are not subject to the same disclosure requirements as a U.S. domestic issuer; the risk that the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting could have a material effect on our business; changes to hydrology at our hydroelectric stations or in wind conditions at our wind energy facilities; the risk that counterparties to our contracts do not fulfill their obligations, and as our contracts expire, we may not be able to replace them with agreements on similar terms; increases in water rental costs (or similar fees) or changes to the regulation of water supply; volatility in supply and demand in the energy market; exposure to additional costs as a result of our operations being highly regulated and exposed to increased regulation; the risk that our concessions and licenses will not be renewed; increases in the cost of operating our plants; our failure to comply with conditions in, or our inability to maintain, governmental permits; equipment failure; dam failures and the costs of repairing such failures; exposure to force majeure events; exposure to uninsurable losses; adverse changes in currency exchange rates; availability and access to interconnection facilities and transmission systems; health, safety, security and environmental risks; disputes, governmental and regulatory investigations and litigation; local communities affecting our operations; losses resulting from fraud, bribery, corruption, other illegal acts, inadequate or failed internal processes or systems, or from external events; risks relating to our reliance on computerized business systems; general industry risks relating to operating in the North American, Brazilian and European power market sectors; advances in technology that impair or eliminate the competitive advantage of our projects; newly developed technologies in which we invest not performing as anticipated; labour disruptions and economically unfavourable collective bargaining agreements; our inability to finance our operations due to the status of the capital markets; the operating and financial restrictions imposed on us by our loan, debt and security agreements; changes in our credit ratings; changes to government regulations that provide incentives for renewable energy; our inability to identify sufficient investment opportunities and complete transactions; risks related to the growth of our portfolio and our inability to realize the expected benefits of our transactions; our inability to develop existing sites or find new sites suitable for the development of greenfield projects; risks associated with the development of our generating facilities and the various types of arrangements we enter into with communities and joint venture partners; Brookfield Asset Management's election not to source acquisition opportunities for us and our lack of access to all renewable power acquisitions that Brookfield Asset Management identifies; our lack of control over our operations conducted through joint ventures, partnerships and consortium arrangements; our ability to issue equity or debt for future acquisitions and developments will be dependent on capital markets; foreign laws or regulation to which we become subject as a result of future acquisitions in new markets; and the departure of some or all of Brookfield's key professionals.
We caution that the foregoing list of important factors that may affect future results is not exhaustive. The forward-looking statements represent our views as of the date of this news release and should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this news release. While we anticipate that subsequent events and developments may cause our views to change, we disclaim any obligation to update the forward-looking statements, other than as required by applicable law. For further information on these known and unknown risks, please see "Risk Factors" included in our Form 20-F.
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING USE OF NON-IFRS MEASURES
This news release makes reference to funds from operations ("FFO"), which is not a generally accepted accounting measure under International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS") and therefore may differ from definitions of funds from operations used by other entities. We believe that these are useful supplemental measures that may assist investors in assessing the financial performance and the cash anticipated to be generated by our operating portfolio. Funds from operations should not be considered as the sole measure of our performance and should not be considered in isolation from, or as a substitute for, analysis of our financial statements prepared in accordance with IFRS. For further information, including a reconciliation of FFO to net income, please see our Form 20-F.
