Just Energy: Not "Chasing" New Product Opportunities Through Acquisitions In Near-Term, Focused On Profitability Of Current Operations

May 17, 2019

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Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com

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During an earnings call yesterday, Just Energy Chief Executive Officer Patrick McCullough made the following comment in response to a question regarding whether Just Energy would pursue acquisitions similar to its acquisition of Filter Group

"The focus we have right now, honestly, is really getting the company cleaned up and efficiently operating, profit and cash. So we have a very strong internal focus, I've made a very specific request to our team to not chase new product opportunities that come through acquisitions or new geographies. We are expanding sales. We're looking at new channels, that's a lot to do in the first place, as well as frankly deliver superior profit and cash performance to our shareholders. So, the short answer to the question is 'no', does that mean that's going to last forever? No, it means expect a couple more quarters of really getting this operation tight and something that we could refer to as a higher standard of excellence. And then we'll get back into inorganic expansion ideas," McCullough said

That being said, in terms of opportunistic customer book acquisitions, Just Energy does earmark a portion of funds under a $250 million financing instrument for book acquisitions if the company sees pricing on customer books become attractive, such as resulting from potential future market volatility. The company is not currently seeing attractive pricing on customer books, executives said

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