Piedmont Natural Gas Initiates Fiscal Year 2011 Earnings Guidance

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Nov 01, 2010, 08:01 ET

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Nov. 1, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Charlotte based Piedmont Natural Gas (NYSE: PNY) is initiating its earnings guidance for the fiscal year ending October 31, 2011 in the range of $1.50 to $1.60 per diluted share.

The guidance for the fiscal year 2011 reflects the following assumptions:

Margin growth from gross customer additions of 1.2% in the Company's North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee markets,

A $1.0 million annual margin increase effective November 1, 2010 pursuant to a settlement approved in the Company's 2010 South Carolina Rate Stabilization Act proceeding,

A 2.3% increase in O&M expense primarily driven by payroll, pension and medical costs,

Utility capital expenditures of $313 million, including $148 million for pipeline infrastructure investments to serve the Wayne and Sutton power generation projects in North Carolina which will increase the Company's Allowance For Funds Used During Construction (AFUDC),

A fifteen percent ownership interest in SouthStar Energy Services for the entire year,

Open market share purchases to offset the Company's Dividend Reinvestment Program and other stock based programs with no permanent reduction in shares outstanding for fiscal year 2011,

A new revolving credit agreement in place in the first quarter of fiscal year 2011, replacing the current facility which will expire in April 2011,

The call of the Company's 6.25% 30-year Insured Quarterly notes in June, 2011 to be refinanced with lower cost long-term debt, and

No additional long-term debt issuance during fiscal year 2011.

Forward Looking Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current expectations and information currently available and are believed to be reasonable and are made in good faith. However, the forward-looking statements are subject to future events, risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the statements. Factors that may make the actual results differ from anticipated results include, but are not limited to, weather conditions, rate of customer growth, the cost and availability of natural gas, competition from other energy providers, new legislation and regulations and application of existing laws and regulations, economic and capital market conditions, the cost and availability of labor and materials and other uncertainties, all of which are difficult to predict and some of which are beyond our control. For these reasons, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements when making investment decisions. The words "expect," "believe," "project," "anticipate," "intend," "should," "could," "will," "assume," "can," "estimate," "forecast," "future," "indicate," "outlook," "plan," "predict," "seek," "target," "would," and variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are only as of the date they are made and we do not undertake any obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statement, either as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. More information about the risks and uncertainties relating to these forward-looking statements may be found in Piedmont's latest Forms 10-K and 10-Q, which are available on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov.

About Piedmont Natural Gas

Piedmont Natural Gas is an energy services company primarily engaged in the distribution of natural gas to more than one million residential, commercial and industrial utility customers in North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, including 52,000 customers served by municipalities who are wholesale customers. Our subsidiaries are invested in joint venture, energy-related businesses, including unregulated retail natural gas marketing, interstate natural gas storage and intrastate natural gas transportation. More information about Piedmont Natural Gas is available on the Internet at http://www.piedmontng.com/.

SOURCE Piedmont Natural Gas