SAN DIEGO, May 23, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE) updated its financial outlook in advance of its financial analyst conference today in New York City.

During a live webcast at 1 p.m. EDT today, Sempra Energy's management team will provide an update on Sempra Energy's strategic plan.

"At today's analyst conference, we will outline a number of exciting growth opportunities that, combined with our existing assets, should enable us to continue to deliver superior returns to our investors," said Debra L. Reed, chairman and CEO of Sempra Energy.

Sempra Energy narrowed its earnings-per-share guidance for 2013 to $4.30 to $4.60 from prior per-share guidance of $4.30 to $4.80.  The 2013 earnings guidance includes $0.30 per share of earnings for the recognition of additional authorized revenues for 2012 operations under the recent General Rate Case decision for San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Gas Co.   

Sempra Energy set earnings-per-share guidance at $4.25 to $4.55 for 2014 and $5.10 to $5.60 for 2017.  This earnings guidance does not reflect any significant contribution from the Cameron LNG liquefaction-export project, which is not expected to be in full operation until the end of 2018.

Additionally, the company reaffirmed its long-term compound annual earnings growth target of 6 percent to 8 percent.  At today's conference, Sempra Energy executives will discuss additional growth opportunities that could result in a compound annual earnings growth rate of 8 percent to 10 percent through 2017.  

Executives also will detail at the conference capital-expenditure plans and forecasted earnings by business unit.  From 2013 through 2017, Sempra Energy expects capital expenditures and investments to average approximately $2.9 billion annually.

Internet users may listen to the live webcast at www.sempra.com by clicking on the "Investor" section and also find conference presentation slides at the same location.  A replay of the conference will be available on the site 24 hours after the conference.

Sempra Energy, based in San Diego, is a Fortune 500 energy services holding company with 2012 revenues of approximately $10 billion.  The Sempra Energy companies' nearly 17,000 employees serve more than 31 million consumers worldwide.

This press release contains statements that are not historical fact and constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  These statements can be identified by words like "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "forecasts," "estimates," "may," "will," "would," "could," "should," "potential," "target," "outlook," "project," "maintain," "depends," "pursue" or similar expressions, or discussions of guidance, strategies, plans, goals, opportunities, projections, initiatives, objectives or intentions.  Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance.  They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions.  Future results may differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements.  Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon various assumptions involving judgments with respect to the future and other risks, including, among others: local, regional, national and international economic, competitive, political, legislative and regulatory conditions and developments; actions and the timing of actions by the California Public Utilities Commission, California State Legislature, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, U.S. Department of Energy, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, California Energy Commission, California Air Resources Board, and other regulatory, governmental and environmental bodies in the United States and other countries where the company does business; capital market conditions, including the availability of credit and the liquidity of investments; inflation, interest and exchange rates; the impact of benchmark interest rates, generally Moody's A-rated utility bond yields, on the California utilities' cost of capital; the timing and success of business development efforts and construction, maintenance and capital projects, including risks inherent in the ability to obtain, and the timing of the granting of, permits, licenses, certificates and other authorizations; energy markets, including the timing and extent of changes and volatility in commodity prices; the availability of electric power, natural gas and liquefied natural gas, including disruptions caused by failures in the North American transmission grid, pipeline explosions and equipment failures; weather conditions, natural disasters, catastrophic accidents, and conservation efforts; risks inherent in nuclear power generation and radioactive materials storage, including catastrophic release of such materials, the disallowance of the recovery of the investment in, or operating costs of, the generation facility due to an extended outage, and increased regulatory oversight; risks posed by decisions and actions of third parties who control the operations of investments in which the company does not have a controlling interest; wars, terrorist attacks and cyber security threats; business, regulatory, environmental and legal decisions and requirements; expropriation of assets by foreign governments and title and other property disputes; the impact on reliability of SDG&E's electric transmission and distribution system due to increased power supply from renewable energy sources; the impact on competitive customer rates of the growth in distributed and local power generation and the corresponding decrease in demand for power delivered through our electric transmission and distribution system; the inability or determination not to enter into long-term supply and sales agreements or long-term firm capacity agreements; the resolution of litigation; and other uncertainties, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the control of the company.  Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements are further discussed in the most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q that Sempra Energy has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  These reports are available through the EDGAR system free-of-charge on the SEC's website, www.sec.gov, and on the company's website at www.sempra.com.

Investors should not rely unduly on any forward-looking statement.  These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof, and the company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or other factors.

Sempra International, LLC, and Sempra U.S. Gas & Power, LLC, are not the same companies as San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) or Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) and Sempra International, LLC and Sempra U.S. Gas & Power, LLC are not regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission. Sempra International's underlying entities include Sempra Mexico and Sempra South American Utilities. Sempra U.S. Gas & Power's underlying entities include Sempra Renewables and Sempra Natural Gas.

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SOURCE Sempra Energy