Crius Energy Sets Growth Plans for Texas, Comcast in Reporting Earnings

Crius outlined its growth priorities for the year in releasing first quarter earnings.

Crius said it expects four key initiatives to be key drivers of organic growth: entry into Texas, commercial customer segment expansion, its strategic partnership with Comcast, and solar growth.

In Texas, where Crius recently acquired TriEagle Energy, Crius expects to introduce its network marketing brand to the Texas market in the second half of 2015.

Regarding commercial growth, Crius will leverage TriEagle's broker relationships and platform across Crius' larger footprint, plus add natural gas and solar to TriEagle's portfolio

As was exclusively first reported by EnergyChoiceMatters.com, the Crius-Comcast Energy Rewards partnership launched offers in several Illinois and Pennsylvania markets in April, and Crius expects to expand offers under the Comcast partnership in the second half of 2015.

As of March 31, 2015, Crius was serving 581,000 residential customer equivalents (RCEs), versus 569,000 as of December 31, 2014 and 587,000 a year ago.

The net growth of 12,000 RCEs from December 31, 2014 to March 31, 2015 reverses a net loss of 11,000 RCEs from September 30, 2014 to December 31, 2014. Crius said that this represents the first net organic growth in customers since the fourth quarter of 2013

Note that the March 31, 2015 customer count does not include the customers acquired from TriEagle, which were acquired after the close of the quarter. Crius had approximately 800,000 RCEs pro-forma upon the acquisition of TriEagle Energy which closed on April 1, 2015.

Gross customer additions during the three months ended March 31, 2015 were 102,000 RCEs

Crius said that its direct marketing channels alone have acquired more than 100,000 gross RCEs over the past two quarters.

At March 31, 2015, Crius was serving 511,000 electric RCEs and 70,000 natural gas RCEs

For the three months ended March 31, 2015, Crius reported Adjusted EBITDA of $14.5 million, compared to a loss of $4.3 million in the first quarter of 2014.

Gross margin for the three months ended March 31, 2015 was $40.3 million, or 23.9% of revenue, compared to $19.1 million, or 10.7% of revenue, in the first quarter of 2014. The improvement was primarily attributable to improved energy procurement and risk management in the current quarter together with the absence of the severe impacts of the "polar vortex" weather event experienced in the first quarter of last year, plus an increased contribution from solar energy sales. Gross margin in the current quarter benefited from increased electricity and natural gas usage per customer due to colder than normal temperatures together with low energy prices and volatility.

Total revenue for the first quarter of 2015 was $168.3 million, a decline of 5.2% from the first quarter of 2014, primarily reflecting reduced volumes from the previous quarter. Solar revenue was $2.3 million for the first quarter of 2015, up from $0.9 million in the first quarter of 2014

Crius electric volumes for the quarter ending March 31, 2015 were 1,264 GWh. Natural gas volumes were 3.238 million MMBtu

Electric gross margin for the first quarter of 2015 was $22.37/MWh. Natural gas gross margin for the first quarter of 2015 was $2.73/MMBtu