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PNM Resources Management to Meet with Energy Industry Analysts and Investors This Week

^{Published on 2011-03-23 13:05:41 - Market Wire}
 

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--PNM Resources (NYSE: PNM) management will meet with industry analysts and investors today and Thursday at the Wellington Shields & Co. West Coast Seminar in Las Vegas and at J.P. Morgana™s Corporate Access Day in Boston.

The company also will give a formal presentation to analysts at the Shields Conference on Thursday. During the meetings and presentation management will affirm the companya™s 2011 consolidated ongoing earnings guidance range of $0.80 to $0.92 per diluted share. Management also will affirm the 2011 ongoing EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) guidance ranges for First Choice Power of $43 million to $53 million and for Optim Energy of $20 million to $30 million, which represents 100 percent of Optim Energya™s estimated results. PNM Resources owns a 50 percent interest of Optim Energy.

Supporting material for the investor meetings is available on PNM Resourcesa™ Web site at [ http://pnm.client.shareholder.com/investors/events.cfm ].

Background

PNM Resources (NYSE: PNM) is an energy holding company based in Albuquerque, N.M., with 2010 consolidated operating revenues of $1.7 billion. Through its utility and energy subsidiaries, PNM Resources has approximately 2,630 megawatts of generation resources and serves electricity to more than 875,300 homes and businesses in New Mexico and Texas. The company also has a 50 percent ownership of Optim Energy, which owns nearly 1,200 megawatts of generation resources in Texas. For more information, visit the companya™s Web site at [ www.PNMResources.com ].

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

Statements made in this news release that relate to future events or PNMRa™s, PNMa™s, or TNMPa™s expectations, projections, estimates, intentions, goals, targets, and strategies, are made pursuant to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Readers are cautioned that all forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and estimates and PNMR, PNM, and TNMP assume no obligation to update this information. Because actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements, PNMR, PNM, and TNMP caution readers not to place undue reliance on these statements. PNMRa™s, PNMa™s, and TNMPa™s business, financial condition, cash flow, and operating results are influenced by many factors, which are often beyond their control, that can cause actual results to differ from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These factors include: conditions affecting the Companya™s ability to access the financial markets and the Companya™s or Optim Energya™s ability to negotiate new credit facilities for those expiring in 2012, including actions by ratings agencies affecting the Companya™s credit ratings; the potential unavailability of cash from PNMRa™s subsidiaries or Optim Energy due to regulatory, statutory or contractual restrictions; the impacts of the decline in the values of marketable equity securities on the trust funds maintained to provide nuclear decommissioning funding and pension and other postretirement benefits, including the levels of funding and expense; the recession, its disruption in the credit markets, and its impacts on the electricity usage of the Companya™s customers; state and federal regulatory and legislative decisions and actions, including the outcomes of PNMa™s pending electric rate case and transmission rate case, and appeals of prior regulatory proceedings; the ability of PNM to successfully defend its utilization of a future test year in its current electric rate filing with the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission, including PNMa™s ability to withstand challenges by regulators and intervenors, in the event the pending stipulation in that case is not approved; the ability of PNM and TNMP to recover their costs and earn their allowed returns in their regulated jurisdictions; the ability of PNM to meet the renewable energy requirements established by the NMPRC, including the resource diversity requirement, within the specified cost parameters; the risk that replacement power costs incurred by PNM related to not meeting the specified capacity factor for its generating units under its Emergency Fuel and Purchased Power Adjustment Clause will not be approved by the NMPRC; the risk that PNM may not be able to recover costs of renewal of rights-of-way on Native American lands through rates charged to customers; the ongoing risks relating to PNMRa™s ownership interest in Optim Energy, including uncertainties surrounding PNMRa™s assessment of strategic alternatives for its investment in Optim Energy, the risk that a strategic transaction involving Optim Energy may not be consummated, uncertainty regarding potential additional contributions to Optim Energy, and the possibility that PNMR might recognize additional gains or impairments depending on market conditions, the form and structure of a strategic transaction, and relative fair values; the risk that Optim Energy requires additional financial sources to expand its generation capacity or otherwise but is unable to identify and implement profitable acquisitions or that PNMR and ECJV Holdings, LLC, will not agree to make additional capital contributions to Optim Energy; regulation or legislation relating to climate change, reduction of green house gas emissions, coal combustion byproducts, and other power plant emissions, including the risk that the Company and Optim Energy may have to commit to substantial capital investments and additional operating costs to comply with new environmental requirements including possible future requirements to address regional haze regulations and related Best Available Retrofit Technology requirements and concerns about global climate change, and the resultant impacts on the operations and economic viability of generating plants in which PNM and Optim Energy have interests; the performance of generating units, including the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, the San Juan Generating Station, the Four Corners Plant, and Optim Energy generating units, and transmission systems; the risks associated with completion of generation, transmission, distribution, and other projects, including construction delays and unanticipated cost overruns; uncertainty regarding the requirements and related costs of decommissioning power plants owned or partially owned by PNM and Optim Energy and coal mines supplying certain PNM power plants, as well as the ability to recover decommissioning costs through rates charged to customers; uncertainty surrounding the status of PNMa™s participation in jointly-owned projects resulting from the scheduled expiration of the operational documents for the projects beginning in 2015 and potential changes in the objectives of the participants in the projects; the risk that recently enacted reliability standards regarding available transmission capacity may reduce certain PNM transmission rights used to transmit its generation resources and provide access to transmission customersresulting in a need to purchase additional transmission capacity, reduce sales of transmission capacity, or operate generation less economically; changes in Electric Reliability Council of Texas protocols; changes in the cost of power acquired by First Choice; the ability of First Choice to attract and retain customers; collections experience; fluctuations in interest rates; weather; water supply; changes in fuel costs; availability of fuel supplies; the effectiveness of risk management and commodity risk transactions; seasonality and other changes in supply and demand in the market for electric power; the impact of mandatory energy efficiency measures on customer energy usage; variability of wholesale power prices and natural gas prices; volatility and liquidity in the wholesale power markets and the natural gas markets; uncertainty regarding the ongoing validity of government programs for emission allowances; changes in the competitive environment in the electric industry; the outcome of legal proceedings; insurance coverage available for claims made in litigation; changes in applicable accounting principles; and the performance of state, regional, and national economies.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

PNM Resources (athe Companya) uses ongoing earnings and ongoing earnings per diluted share (or ongoing diluted earnings per share) and EBITDA (earnings before interest charges, income taxes, depreciation and amortization) and ongoing EBITDA to evaluate the operations of the Company and to establish goals for management and employees. While the Company believes these financial measures are appropriate and useful for investors, they are not measures presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the U.S. (GAAP). The Company does not intend for these measures, or any piece of these measures, to represent any financial measure as defined by GAAP. Furthermore, the Companya™s calculations of these measures as presented may or may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. PNM Resources uses ongoing earnings guidance to provide investors with management's expectations of ongoing financial performance over the period presented. While PNM Resources believes ongoing earnings guidance is an appropriate measure, it is not a measure presented in accordance with GAAP. PNM Resources does not intend for ongoing earnings guidance to represent an expectation of net earnings as defined by GAAP. Management is generally not able to estimate the impact of the reconciling items between ongoing earnings guidance and forecasted GAAP earnings, nor their probable impact on GAAP earnings; therefore, management is generally not able to provide a corresponding GAAP equivalent for earnings guidance. In addition, PNM Resources uses forecasts of ongoing EBITDA and cash earnings guidance to provide investors with management's expectations of additional indicators of ongoing financial performance. Since forecasts of EBITDA and cash earnings are derived from forecasted ongoing earnings, management is not able reconcile these items to a GAAP equivalent.