MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
LIQUIDITY AND CAPITAL RESOURCES As a Crown corporation, SaskEnergy’s primary sources of capital are cash from operations, debt — which is borrowed through the province’s General Revenue Fund — and equity advances from CIC, the Province’s Crown corporation holding company. Equity advances are rarely used to finance Crown corporations as CIC prefers to use its Subsidiary Crown Dividend Policy to manage its equity interests in its commercial enterprises. Cash from operations is SaskEnergy’s most important source of capital. As a utility, cash from operations is relatively stable and the Corporation relies upon it to fund dividends, debt servicing costs, and a significant proportion of its Other Gains and Losses Other losses for the 12 months ending March 31, 2018 of $13 million were $20 million lower compared to the loss of $33 million for the same period in 2016-17. The Corporation transferred a non-core storage asset from a single cash generating unit into a larger cash generating unit of storage assets, a result of changing corporate strategy. The reversal of a $15 million impairment loss taken on the non-core storage asset is fully offset by other storage and processing asset impairments. The Corporation recorded a $25 million impairment charge against its treatment and compression facilities and a $6 million impairment was recorded on one of its non-core storage facilities during 2017-18. Through an assessment
investment in pipeline facilities. Long and short-term debt can be borrowed through the Province of Saskatchewan to meet any long or short-term incremental capital requirements, and to repay debt as it matures. Sources of liquidity include Order in Council authority to borrow up to $500 million in short-term loans, and a $35 million uncommitted line of credit with the Toronto-Dominion Bank. By borrowing through the Province, SaskEnergy has access to the Province’s borrowing capacity and North American capital markets. The SaskEnergy Act allows the Corporation to borrow up to $1,700 million. of recoverable amounts from future operations, it was determined that the estimated recoverable amounts are less than the net book values of these assets. Over the previous five years, non-core storage facilities have generally been profitable; however, with the continued development of shale gas, the differentials between current and future prices of natural gas have disappeared. Forward price differentials have slowly diminished such that the current differentials are insufficient to support the book value of non-core storage assets. Offsetting the impairments was insurance proceeds of $2 million to settle the remainder of the outstanding claim relating to a cavern wellhead fire that occurred in 2014.
(millions)
March 31, 2018
March 31, 2017
Change
$
312 (258) (58)
$
225 (198) (37)
$
87 (60) (21)
Cash provided by operating activities Cash used in investing activities Cash used in financing activities Decrease in cash and cash equivalents
$
(4) $
(10) $
6
33
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