Calpine: Don't Expect Large Scale Retail M&A, Smaller Book Purchases Possible

Calpine's President of Retail, Trey Griggs, reiterated during an earnings call that the company is satisfied with its retail platform after several acquisitions, and does not intend to pursue any additional large scale retail M&A

In response to an analyst question about retail M&A, Griggs said, "We built a platform that we like. So I think large scale M&A is unlikely. We'll continue to investigate things that are cheap, smaller acquisitions of books, but organic growth is a heck of a lot cheaper and, frankly, more fun. So we'll be focused on organic growth and small M&A, but you shouldn't expect large deals."

Thad Hill, Calpine’s President and Chief Executive Officer, noted that the company's retail business has its own billing system, call center, and customer information systems, and does not see a need to replicate those.

Calpine forecast 2017 retail load served as 65 TWh, or more than 70% of its wholesale generation, versus 25% in 2016

Calpine reported the following statistics regarding its retail business:

• ~80% Retention Rate

• Average contract term: ~2 years

• Average customer duration: >5 years