AEP Reports Contribution From Retail Energy Business, Higher Retail Margins, Update On Strategic Review

In reporting fourth quarter and full-year earnings, AEP affirmed that it expects to complete the previously reported strategic review of AEP Energy, its competitive retail business, in the first half of 2023 (the same timeline as previously provided)

Discussing the competitive retail business, Julie Sloat, AEP president and chief executive officer, said, "As far as quantifying how big is this business and what does it mean currently to AEP, the net asset position or, I guess, equity position, if you strip out the liabilities, we're talking about $193 million. The vast majority of that is working capital to the tune of about $150 million of the $193 [million], and the rest is largely IT software, and then we have a little smidge of goodwill in there of about $15 million to give you some parameters. And then another thing that I would think about is what does that mean from an EPS perspective. In 2022, this retail business contributed $0.05 of EPS. And in 2023, we have $0.04 embedded in our guidance to give you that goalpost."

AEP reported increased retail energy margins for its competitive segment in 2022 versus the prior year

For the year 2022, the competitive retail segment contributed an improvement of $0.06 per share versus the year-ago

For the fourth quarter of 2022, the competitive retail segment contributed an improvement of $0.04 per share versus the year-ago