Tag: Revenue Resiliency (Page 2 of 2)

Lights Go Out on the Largest Leveraged Buyout in History

This is Part 1 of a 2 part blog post on utility financial risk. Part 1 focuses on utility revenue risk and Part 2 focuses on utility debt risk.

power-plant1

On April 29, 2014, the Texas-based utility Energy Future Holdings Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, ending the largest leveraged buyout on record. Utility bankruptcies in general are rare, but even outside of the utility realm, a bankruptcy of more than $40 billion in an asset-based industry is unheard of. So naturally many of us are left asking questions – what went wrong and are other utilities at risk of going bankrupt? Continue reading

Release of Revenue Resiliency Review for Water Utilities

Mary Tiger is the Chief Operating Officer of the Environmental Finance Center at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The water industry, just like any other, suffers from a variety of financial constraints and challenges. Over the last decade the water industry has endured myriad challenges that impact the most common business models, including a decrease in water demand, economic recession, increasing need for infrastructure replacement, growing stakeholder involvement and concerns, and extreme weather impacts. And while these issues are a concern for many, there is no universal list that encompasses the suite of financial issues each utility faces, and subsequently, there is no single “silver bullet” strategy for revenue resiliency.  There are, however, many lessons that can be learned in assessing how well a water utility’s business model has endured over the last decades and in investigating how those in the industry (and beyond) are thriving despite hardship. And that is just what the Environmental Finance Center, in partnership with Raftelis Financial Consultants, has been doing on behalf of the Water Research Foundation.

Continue reading

Newer posts »