NRG Says Expanding Texas Retail Margins Made Company "Comfortable" With Significant Expansion Via Dominion Retail Book, Forecasts Book's Contribution

Expanding retail margins in Texas made NRG Energy "comfortable" with expanding its retail business so significantly in Texas through the acquisition of Dominion Retail's customer books, executives said during an earnings call yesterday.

"[W]e held retail unit margins overall and increased them in Texas while growing customer count in both Texas and the Northeast. This is one of the key reasons why we felt comfortable expanding our platform even further with the closing of Dominion's retail electricity business," said NRG Chief Operating Officer Mauricio Gutierrez.

NRG CFO Kirk Andrews said that NRG does not expect any significant EBITDA contribution from the Dominion Retail book as it transitions the Northeast customer base through the remainder of the year.

"Beyond 2014, however, we expect the net addition of 500,000 retail customers from the Dominion Retail acquisition, which also includes the Cirro franchise in Texas, to deliver a run rate of $40 to $50 million in adjusted EBITDA," Andrews said