2023-11-16 19:20

Nov 16 (Reuters) - The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on Thursday voted unanimously to pass the alternate proposed decision (APD) that would raise customer bills by nearly 13% in Pacific Gas and Electric's (PCG.N) General Rate Case. The state's biggest utility, PG&E, serves more than 16 million people across 70,000 square miles in Northern and Central California. The company in its General Rate Case review on revenue requirements for 2023-2026 moved to raise revenue by nearly 26% in the 2023 test year. The APD set the 2023 revenue requirement at $13.52 billion, reflecting an 11% increase from 2022. According to the regulator, customers would see an increase of $32.62 on their bills, compared with PG&E's request of $38.73. PG&E had requested a near 15% increase in customer bills, saying it would invest more than half of the requested revenue requirement for its wildfire risk management plans. CPUC judges had earlier suggested raising revenue by 11% or 13% from 2022. However, PG&E said in October this year it does not see either decisions suggested by the CPUC as sufficient, adding it was falling short of providing the funding to accomplish the necessary safety work it has proposed on behalf of customers. One of the main wildfire mitigation efforts PG&E has been undertaking is undergrounding, or burying power lines. This lessens the need for public safety power shutoffs — a last resort during dry, windy conditions to reduce the risk of sparking a wildfire. In 2021, PG&E had said it would bury 10,000 miles of power lines in high-risk fire zones as a safety measure after its equipment caused multiple destructive wildfires over several years. So far in 2023, the company said 197 miles of powerlines had been undergrounded and energized as of Oct. 30. The end-of-the-year target is 350 miles. The APD has authorized 1,230 miles of undergrounding. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/california-regulator-decide-pge-base-rate-hike-request-2023-11-16/

2023-11-16 19:18

Nov 16 (Reuters) - A fierce storm packing hurricane-force wind gusts dumped more than a foot (30.5 cm) of rain on parts of South Florida on Thursday, flooding homes and streets, downing power lines and trees and leaving tens of thousands of homes and business without power. The storm, which started on Wednesday, dropped almost 14 inches of rain from Key Largo to Fort Lauderdale while wind gusts topped out at 86 mph (136 kph), the U.S. National Service said on Thursday. More than 86,000 homes and businesses remained without electricity early on Thursday afternoon across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, according to the tracking site poweroutage.us, as the storm crawled north. The number of outages topped out at more than 100,000 late on Wednesday. "The worst is over for South Florida, but they'll still see two to four inches today before it's over," David Roth, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said on Thursday. The system will also bring two to four inches of precipitation to Central Florida, he said, before the storm moves north to the Carolinas in the evening and into Friday. A flood watch remained in effect for Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties on Thursday. The storms were driven by a low pressure system and warm waters in the Gulf colliding with cooler air and water on the state's Atlantic coast, Roth said. The severity and frequency of major storms affecting the U.S. in recent years is linked to global warming. This year's Atlantic hurricane season, which officially runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, has been another in a string with above average activity. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/south-florida-storm-dumps-more-than-foot-rain-2023-11-16/

2023-11-16 17:42

Nov 16 (Reuters) - Chile's SQM (SQMA.SN), the world's second-largest lithium producer, saw more than $1 billion wiped from its market value on Thursday as investors reacted to a third quarter profit hammered by sliding prices of the key battery metal. SQM's Santiago-listed shares had lost around 8% by early afternoon trading, accounting for some 1 trillion Chilean pesos ($1.13 billion), a day after the company said its net income had more than halved from a year earlier. In a conference with analysts, executives said they would not slow output, and instead continue producing lithium at maximum capacity and building up warehouse inventories, though sales volumes could be limited in line with market indices. "The idea is to be prepared when inventories return to the normal level and customer purchases are reactivated," said SQM's lithium vice-president Carlos Diaz. Prices for lithium, an ultralight metal used for electric vehicle (EV) batteries, have dropped more than 60% on fears of softening global demand for EVs. They hit a two-year low this month. Nevertheless, SQM executives said they expect EV demand to remain resilient in the long-term. SQM's senior commercial vice-president for lithium Felipe Smith attributed lower prices to softer EV demand outside China coupled with high component supplies causing excess inventories to accumulate across the whole battery supply chain. Smith said SQM could contract its sales volumes in line with market indices, adding the firm had also entered into several new long-term index-linked supply deals. Chile is looking to boost state control over its lithium industry with state miner Codelco (COBRE.UL) leading talks with private miners such as SQM. The talks cover areas such as how lithium production will be run on the Atacama salt flats, taking into account relations with local communities and environmental sustainability. "We both agreed that having a sustainable operation in the long-term is the most important target," SQM Chief Executive Ricardo Ramos said of the talks with Codelco over the Atacama development, adding that he did not expect significant production growth there. ($1 = 882.4700 Chilean pesos) https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/chile-lithium-miner-sqm-builds-inventories-prices-slide-2023-11-16/

2023-11-16 17:39

Nov 16 (Reuters) - Asset management giant BlackRock (BLK.N) on Thursday officially filed for a spot ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF), doubling down on its cryptocurrency bets amid investor optimism about the approval of such investment vehicles. The iShares Ethereum Trust, which was registered last week and will be listed on Nasdaq if approved, will give investors access to ether - the second most popular cryptocurrency - without directly owning it. BlackRock is proposing to convert the trust to a "spot" ETF, which means it will own ether instead of futures products tied to the crypto token. While futures-based crypto ETFs have previously been approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the regulator has long contended that the spot crypto market is prone to fraud and manipulation. But in August, a federal appeals court ruled that the SEC was wrong to reject an application from digital asset manager Grayscale Investments to create a spot bitcoin ETF. The landmark victory for Grayscale has prompted a wave of enthusiasm among companies that filed for such investment vehicles in recent months, and has helped restore some faith in the crypto industry after it was shaken by several high-profile collapses last year. BlackRock dipped its toes in the crypto space with its filing for a spot bitcoin ETF in June. Its latest filing indicates that the Wall Street behemoth is aiming to move beyond bitcoin, the world's most popular cryptocurrency. The company will be vying with crypto natives such as Grayscale and Valkyrie and traditional finance giants like Invesco (IVZ.N) for market share. Coinbase Custody, a unit of crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN.O), will hold the proposed ETF's ether in custody. The company is also the proposed custodian of BlackRock's bitcoin ETF. BlackRock did not immediately respond to a request seeking additional comment. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/blackrock-woos-investors-ethereum-trust-further-crypto-push-2023-11-16/

2023-11-16 17:16

BRASILIA, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Brazil's Institutional Relations Minister Alexandre Padilha said on Thursday there will be no initiative from the government to change its fiscal target, which currently foresees erasing the country's fiscal deficit by next year. His remarks come amid recent chatter that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's administration was considering tweaking the goal to make room for a small deficit and preserve public investments. "We made it clear that there has not been and will not be any government initiative to change the fiscal target that has been set by the budget bill," Padilha told reporters after meeting with congressional leaders in Brasilia. The minister said the government was focused on getting Congress to pass multiple measures it has proposed in order to increase revenue, which are seen as essential for Lula to meet its zero fiscal deficit pledge. Earlier in the day, Congressman Danilo Forte - the sponsor of the country's 2024 budget bill in the lower house - had already said the Lula administration had agreed not to tweak the fiscal goal. "Any possibility of an amendment to the bill has been removed, which is important as it provides us some balance," Forte told reporters. https://www.reuters.com/markets/brazil-maintain-target-zero-fiscal-deficit-2024-2023-11-16/

2023-11-16 17:08

CAB plans January trading update - investor CAB has been "reaching out" to investors - source "We recognise that this is going to take time"-CAB LONDON, Nov 16 (Reuters) - CAB Payments (CABP.L), whose stock plunged more than 70% last month after a profit warning, has pledged to some investors it will hit a revised 2023 revenue target and publish a trading update in January, as the cross-border payments processor fights to win back market trust. Oliver Brown, a fund manager at R.C. Brown and a former top-20 investor in the newly-listed company, said he was called by a senior CAB executive on Friday, who was "very contrite" in the wake of last month's profit warning. "CAB are absolutely adamant that they are not going to have another profit warning (in 2023)," Brown said, but added it could take years to rebuild market trust and the company was planning a market update in January. "We feel we have been over-promised. It was a company growing incredibly quickly - and is still growing at a reasonable pace," he said. "If they don't hit these revised numbers, there will be even bigger questions." In an emailed statement, CAB said it was focused on listening to shareholders and delivering on forecasts of strong growth to build back trust in its investment case. "We recognise that this is going to take time and thank our current and new shareholders for their continued support," the company told Reuters. CAB markets itself as a fast-growing fintech with a global network to help governments, institutions and organisations such as NGOs make payments in countries such as Nigeria and Cameroon. But its shares plunged last month after it slashed its revenue forecasts by 17%, setting a new 2023 revenue growth target of at least 20%, blaming "recent challenges" in some of its key currency markets such as the Central and West African franc, as well as uncertainties surrounding the Nigerian naira. CAB's management team has since been "reaching out to a lot of investors", one source familiar with the situation said. CAB's stock, which listed at 335 pence in July in an IPO that raised around 300 million pounds ($374 million) for insiders such as Africa-focused private equity firm Helios Investment Partners, ended the day at 62.8p on Thursday. MORIBUND MARKETS CAB's stock rout comes as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) attempts to help reinvigorate a moribund IPO market and compete with rivals such as New York by simplifying listing rules and easing burdens on new entrants - while trying to maintain market confidence. The fallout from the CAB listing has triggered a debate about whether the risk factors detailed in IPO documents fail to offer investors proper insight and should be better policed. An FCA spokesperson declined to comment when asked whether the regulator would investigate CAB or its top-flight financial and legal advisers, including JP Morgan, Barclays and Allen & Overy. Barclays, JP Morgan and Allen & Overy declined to comment. Tom Bacon, an M&A and corporate finance partner at law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, said the ultimate responsibility for the prospectus lay with company directors. But the FCA also has a remit to ensure IPO sponsors carry out due diligence and advise clients and the regulator on their abilities to comply with obligations. "This whole debacle is likely to be detrimental to London's IPO ambitions for some time," said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown. ($1 = 0.8024 pounds) https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/cab-payments-pledges-hit-revised-targets-after-stock-plunge-investor-2023-11-16/