Vistra Corp (VST)

[Enterprising Investor]

Vistra Energy Reports First Quarter 2017 Results (5/17/17)

DALLAS, May 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Vistra Energy (NYSE: VST), the parent company for TXU Energy and Luminant, today reported first quarter 2017 net income of $78 million and cash provided by operating activities of $141 million. Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter 2017 was $276 million and adjusted free cash flow was $(48) million.

Curt Morgan, Vistra Energy's chief executive officer, remarked, "Vistra Energy is off to a great start in 2017, delivering solid earnings despite some headwinds created by mild winter weather in Texas, once again demonstrating the resilience of our integrated model. Our retail team continues to excel at customer acquisition and retention—growing residential customer counts in the quarter. The team's performance resulted in lower levels of customer churn than anticipated, which partially offset lower than expected earnings driven by reduced consumption from the mild winter."

Morgan added, "Complementing our premier retail business, our wholesale generation operations were highly reliable during the quarter, achieving commercial availability of 95%, and our wholesale commercial operations team achieved realized prices nearly 55% higher than settled prices during the quarter."

"Further, our corporate team concluded the process for our shares to be uplisted to the New York Stock Exchange as planned, with our first day of trading on the NYSE last Wednesday," Morgan said. "We are executing on our commitments and we will continue to work tirelessly to deliver value to our shareholders."

2017 Guidance

Vistra Energy is reaffirming its 2017 guidance ranges, reflecting an adjusted EBITDA range of $1,350 million to $1,500 million and an adjusted free cash flow range of $745 million to $925 million.

Liquidity

As of March 31, 2017, Vistra Energy had total available liquidity of approximately $1.99 billion, including cash and cash equivalents of $916 million, $210 million in available letter of credit capacity under its term loan C facility, and $860 million of availability under its revolving credit facility, which remained undrawn at March 31, 2017. Liquidity increased by approximately $150 million in the first quarter of 2017 due to increased available cash and reduced letter of credit postings.

Additional Updates

Vistra Energy continues to see increased demand from its retail customers for products utilizing renewable resources. As a result, in May Vistra Energy executed on a couple of initiatives that will allow it to continue to provide solutions to meet customers' changing needs and preferences:
•TXU Energy launched its "Free Nights and Solar Days" retail product offering, combining its most popular Right Time Pricing PlanSM with green, solar energy.
•Vistra Energy acquired a 180 MW solar development project located in West Texas, which will support enhanced renewable offerings by its retail organization and will further augment Vistra Energy's integrated portfolio. The facility is expected to be operational in the summer of 2018.

Earnings Conference Call

Vistra Energy will host a conference call today, May 18, 2017, beginning at 11 a.m. EDT (10 a.m. CDT) to discuss these results and related matters. The live, listen-only webcast of the conference call and the accompanying slides that will be discussed on the call can be accessed via the investor relations section of Vistra Energy's website at www.vistraenergy.com. For those unable to participate in the live event, a replay of the call will be available on the Vistra Energy website for one year following the call.

About Non-GAAP Financial Measures and Items Affecting Comparability

"Adjusted EBITDA" (EBITDA as adjusted for unrealized gains or losses from hedging activities, tax receivable agreement obligations, reorganization items, and certain other items described from time to time in Vistra Energy's earnings releases) and "adjusted free cash flow" (cash from operating activities excluding changes in margin deposits and working capital and adjusted for capital expenditures, other net investment activities, preferred stock dividends, and other items described from time to time in Vistra Energy's earnings releases), are "non-GAAP financial measures." A non-GAAP financial measure is a numerical measure of financial performance that excludes or includes amounts so as to be different than the most directly comparable measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP in Vistra Energy's consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive income, changes in stockholders' equity and cash flows. Non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the most directly comparable GAAP measures. Vistra Energy's non-GAAP financial measures may be different from non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies.

Vistra Energy uses adjusted EBITDA as a measure of performance and believes that analysis of its business by external users is enhanced by visibility to both net income prepared in accordance with GAAP and adjusted EBITDA. Vistra Energy uses adjusted free cash flow as a measure of liquidity and believes that analysis of its ability to service its cash obligations is supported by disclosure of both cash provided by (used in) operating activities prepared in accordance with GAAP as well as adjusted free cash flow. The schedules attached to this earnings release reconcile the non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable financial measures calculated and presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

Media
Allan Koenig
214-875-8004
[e-mail]

Analysts
Molly Sorg
214-812-0046
[e-mail]

About Vistra Energy
Vistra Energy is a premier Texas-based energy company focused on the competitive energy and power generation markets through operation as the largest retailer of electricity and generator in the growing Texas market. Our integrated portfolio of competitive businesses consists primarily of TXU Energy and Luminant. TXU Energy sells retail electricity and value-added services (primarily through our market-leading TXU Energy™ brand) to approximately 1.7 million residential and business customers in Texas. Luminant generates and sells electricity and related products from our diverse fleet of generation facilities totaling approximately 17,000 MW of generation in Texas, including 2,300 MW fueled by nuclear power, 8,000 MW fueled by coal and 6,000 MW fueled by natural gas, and is a large purchaser of wind-generated electricity.

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