Anonymous ID: 0e2f5f May 3, 2019, 8:04 p.m. No.6408542   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>8716 >>8930 >>8995 >>9081 >>9164

PG&E unable to strike deal over renewable power contracts: court documents

 

(Reuters) - PG&E Corp was unable to reach a deal with NextEra Energy Inc and other companies with which it has billions of dollars in power contracts in a jurisdictional dispute over the bankrupt utility’s ability to walk away from or amend those agreements, according to court documents.

 

The matter will now be decided by the judge overseeing PG&E’s bankruptcy “in the coming weeks,” according to the documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Friday.

 

At issue is whether the bankruptcy court or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has jurisdiction over the power purchase contracts, which are worth up to $42 billion.

 

San Francisco-based PG&E wants the matter resolved in bankruptcy court, while NextEra and others want FERC involved. FERC has said it has “concurrent jurisdiction” with the bankruptcy court in such matters.

 

The contracts have emerged as one of the most contentious issues in PG&E’s bankruptcy, which the company launched in January in the face of tens of billions of dollars in potential liability stemming from wildfires in California in recent years that may be traced to its equipment.

 

The question of what will happen to the power contracts is critical for California’s goal to source 60% of its power from sources of renewable energy by 2030. Most of the power contracts in question are for solar or wind resources to fulfill the state mandate.

 

“PG&E recognizes its important role in supporting the state’s commitment to clean energy initiatives and remains committed to continuing to help California achieve its bold clean energy goals,” the company said in an emailed statement.

 

“We appreciate the concerns from stakeholders across the state concerning the impact that Chapter 11 filing could have on the state’s clean energy progress. PG&E has made no decisions as to whether to assume or reject contracts as part of filing for Chapter 11.”

 

Officials from NextEra were not immediately available for comment.Last month, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali urged the companies and PG&E to try to reach an agreement by a May 3 deadline. In the court papers made public on Friday, they said they were unable to reach an agreement.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pg-e-us-renewables/pge-unable-to-strike-deal-over-renewable-power-contracts-court-documents-idUSKCN1S91W6

Anonymous ID: 0e2f5f May 3, 2019, 8:20 p.m. No.6408693   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>8866

>>6408564

 

Warren Buffett Buys Into a Different Amazon

 

A less growth-charged, more profitable profile may have attracted Berkshire Hathaway stock pickers to the e-commerce giant.

Warren Buffett has repeatedly said he was an “idiot” for not buying stock of Amazon.com Inc. when the company was younger and its share price was lower. Now comes news that his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. plopped some shares of the e-commerce giant in its shopping cart, at a time when Amazon is shedding some but not all of the characteristics that made the Oracle of Omaha shun technology companies for years.

 

One of the investing lieutenants at Berkshire Hathaway — not Buffett himself, he stressed to CNBC — opted to buy Amazon shares for the firm in recent months, Buffett said on Thursday. He was very insistent that it wasn’t him doing the Amazon buying, perhaps because Buffett’s reputation as a lifetime proponent of value investing would be dinged by a purchase of Amazon stock.

 

This is a company, after all, that is valued at 50 times analysts’ average of earnings expected in 2020. By contrast, Berkshire’s other big bet on a technology giant — Apple Inc., which the firm has held since 2016 — is valued at 16 times by the same measure.

 

Amazon shares are definitely not a bargain, unlike the $41, nearly one-and-a-half-pound T-bone at Buffett’s favorite steakhouse. In 2014 and early 2015, when Amazon’s financial results were ugly and investors lost faith, that might have been a more Buffett-like time to buy. Its stock market value has gained a stunning $800 billion since that time. To be fair, Amazon shares weren’t inexpensive even in 2014 on a multiple of earnings.

What a Comeback

 

Amazon's market value has climbed by $800 billion since hitting a low point in May 2014

 

Still, Amazon is showing more Buffett-ish characteristics. It’s not going to turn into a “cigar butt” stock that the investing idol loves, but by Amazon standards the company is getting less turbocharged by growth and more obsessed with profits. Whether that’s a good thing for Amazon investors other than Berkshire Hathaway is debatable.

 

On the growth front, it’s clear that Amazon’s main business in e-commerce has lost a step or two, and executives have offered lame explanations for the hiccups. In the first quarter, the number of individual items sold on Amazon’s online shopping malls rose 10 percent from a year earlier. The growth rate was 22 percent just one year earlier. It marked the second consecutive quarter in which Amazon’s e-commerce sales appeared to be growing not much faster than U.S. online sales overall.

At the same time, Amazon is getting relatively more profitable. I say relatively because Amazon is notorious for delivering decades of slim-to-no profits. But Amazon’s operating profit margin in the first quarter was a record — 7.4 percent, or a bit lower than Gap Inc.’s operating margin last year. Not swimming in profits, for sure, but hefty by Amazon standards. That doesn’t put Amazon in Buffett’s cheap and beaten-down territory, but it’s also not wildly unprofitable Uber.

 

That share of profit is likely to go down, at least this year. Amazon is set to spend $800 million in the current quarter — and who knows how much after that — as it works to shift the two-day standard shipping on deliveries to Prime members down to one day. Amazon executives also have said the company spent less than it expected on hiring in the first quarter, and that’s likely to increase in the latter part of 2019.

 

Amazon still isn’t a bargain. It’s a company more focused on profits in the last few years, but still not very profitable — and mostly by design. Amazon’s mix of businesses has shifted in such a way as its costs for products, or cost of goods, are declining more as a share of revenue than spending is increasing for shipping, package-delivery centers, employee salaries and other operating costs. Amazon, in short, has the power to control the level of profit it generates. It’s a great position to be in.

 

A less growth-charged, structurally more profitable Amazon might have been enough to attract the attention of Berkshire’s stock pickers. It remains to be seen whether that’s the Amazon most other investors actually want.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-05-03/warren-buffett-s-berkshire-hathaway-buys-into-a-different-amazon?srnd=premium-asia

 

of course they trot this old bag out to entice people to buy into tit while the execs start dumping shares.

 

recent panel is in the memefolder

https://www.secform4.com/insider-trading/1018724.htm

Anonymous ID: 0e2f5f May 3, 2019, 9:15 p.m. No.6409120   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>9139

>>6409081

not adding the buffet story good call. sounds alot like the rothy/disney story a few weeks ago. Unable to confirm that buy or this recent chatter about AMZN. It could have been pulled off in the dark-pools.The normal site's are only capturing a small percentage of what really habbens. Dark-pools are not trackable.

Was hesitant to put in here but chatter non-the-less.

o7

Anonymous ID: 0e2f5f May 3, 2019, 9:23 p.m. No.6409165   🗄️.is đź”—kun

>>6409139

tracking divestments/investments is important, let's us all know what these people are doing and let's everyone know what the capital flow looks like. The big one's are important. Trotting out buffet or his ilk when the markets are so clearly over-values is just shearing sheep imo.

Anonymous ID: 0e2f5f May 3, 2019, 9:30 p.m. No.6409210   🗄️.is đź”—kun

>>6409098

only concert I ever walked out of. Couldn't take a 40 minute opening number. Just fuggen torture. Plus the crap in the parking lot with "three cheese pita's" and don't take out pack of cigs because it's like fly's on shit, "got a cig bro?"