SAN DIEGO, Dec. 11, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE) today announced that the company's Chairman and CEO Jeffrey W. Martin was named Chief Executive of the Year by S&P Global Platts at its 22nd Annual Global Energy Awards event. Additionally, Sempra Energy received the Deal of the Year award for the sale of its South American businesses completed in April and June 2020.
"These awards are a tremendous honor and really a credit to the strength and resiliency of our company and 18,000 employees who continued to execute on our strategic priorities despite the challenges we all faced this year," said Martin. "As our industry adapts to a unique set of challenges, we see an opportunity to distinguish our company by serving the changing needs and expectations of customers. That is why at Sempra we are focused on continuing to build a high-performing culture and investing in smart, new infrastructure right here in North America to provide greater access to cleaner forms of energy."
At its 22nd Annual Global Energy Awards, S&P Global Platts highlighted corporate and individual leadership and superior performance in 21 categories spanning the entire global energy complex. A record 300 nominations from 43 countries were received this year. This year's awards reflect the ongoing evolution of the industry and highlight technology, innovation and leadership, as well as an accelerated focus on the energy transition to a lower-carbon environment. Sempra was a finalist in six categories.
Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Martin Awarded for Visionary Leadership
Martin was named Chief Executive of the Year in part due to his strategic vision, strong leadership and sharp focus on advancing a purpose-driven culture at Sempra Energy. While presenting the award for Chief Executive of the Year, Martin Fraenkel, president of S&P Global Platts, said that this recognition shows "demonstrated clarity of vision, judgment and motivational skills that transform and empower organizations. Judges look for a leader like Jeff who is highly respected both by peers and competitors, admired and followed by employees, trusted by investors and welcomed by the community."
When Martin was appointed chairman and CEO of Sempra Energy in 2018, he laid out a strategic plan to realign the company's business activities around a bold new mission to be North America's premier energy infrastructure company. To advance that mission, Martin and his team are credited with divesting non-core assets over the last two years, while recycling sales proceeds into new acquisitions and infrastructure investments in key growth markets – California, Texas, Mexico and LNG exports.
Sempra Energy is committed to advancing a leadership position in the global energy transition and meeting demand from customers who are seeking cleaner and more sustainable forms of energy. Martin discussed this approach in his keynote speech at the 2019 Platts Global Energy Outlook Forum in New York City: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1ru47wfadA.
Sempra Recognized with Deal of the Year Award
Sempra Energy's Deal of the Year recognition demonstrates the significance of accomplishing the sale of its South American businesses amid the backdrop of a global pandemic. For background and further details on the sales, view this press release: https://www.sempra.com/sempra-energy-advances-north-american-strategy
The global nature and scope of the South American transactions created complexities that required innovative solutions. Led by Sempra Energy's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Trevor Mihalik, the company's deal team and partners successfully completed the sale of the largest electric utility in Peru and the third-largest electric utility group in Chile, closing both international transactions during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, while coordinating teams in multiple jurisdictions around the world.
The completion of the sales of the South American businesses marked the conclusion of the company's overall, two-year capital rotation plan. Over the past two years, Sempra Energy has successfully repositioned its infrastructure portfolio around key contiguous growth markets and is committed to advancing its record five-year capital plan with a focus on improving the safety and reliability of its utility transmission and distribution investments in California and Texas.
About Sempra Energy
Sempra Energy's mission is to be North America's premier energy infrastructure company. With more than $60 billion in total assets at the end of 2019, the San Diego-based company is the utility holding company with the largest U.S. customer base. The Sempra Energy companies' more than 18,000 employees deliver energy with purpose to over 35 million consumers. The company is focused on the most attractive markets in North America, including California, Texas, Mexico and the LNG export market. Sempra Energy has been consistently recognized for its leadership in sustainability, and diversity and inclusion, and is a member of the S&P 500 Utilities Index and the Dow Jones Utility Index. The company was also named one of the "World's Most Admired Companies" for 2020 by Fortune Magazine.
About S&P Global Platts
At S&P Global Platts, we provide the insights; you make better informed trading and business decisions with confidence. We're the leading independent provider of information and benchmark prices for the commodities and energy markets. Customers in over 150 countries look to our expertise in news, pricing and analytics to deliver greater transparency and efficiency to markets. S&P Global Platts coverage includes oil and gas, power, petrochemicals, metals, agriculture and shipping.
S&P Global Platts is a division of S&P Global, which provides essential intelligence for companies, governments and individuals to make decisions with confidence. For more information, visit http://spglobal.com/platts.
This press release contains statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions with respect to the future, involve risks and uncertainties, and are not guarantees. Future results may differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements represent our estimates and assumptions only as of the date of this press release. We assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or other factors.
In this press release, forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "plans," "estimates," "projects," "forecasts," "should," "could," "would," "will," "confident," "may," "can," "potential," "possible," "proposed," "target," "pursue," "outlook," "maintain," or similar expressions, or when we discuss our guidance, strategy, goals, vision, mission, opportunities, projections or intentions.
Factors, among others, that could cause our actual results and future actions to differ materially from those described in any forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties relating to: California wildfires, including the risk that we may be found liable for damages regardless of fault and the risk that we may not be able to recover any such costs from insurance, the wildfire fund established by California Assembly Bill 1054 or in rates from customers; decisions, investigations, regulations, issuances of permits and other authorizations, renewals of franchises, and other actions by (i) the Comisión Federal de Electricidad, California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), U.S. Department of Energy, Public Utility Commission of Texas, and other regulatory and governmental bodies and (ii) states, counties, cities and other jurisdictions in the U.S., Mexico and other countries in which we operate or do business; the success of business development efforts, construction projects and major acquisitions and divestitures, including risks in (i) the ability to make a final investment decision, (ii) completing construction projects on schedule and budget, (iii) the ability to realize anticipated benefits from any of these efforts once completed, and (iv) obtaining the consent of partners; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our (i) ability to commence and complete capital and other projects and obtain regulatory approvals, (ii) supply chain and current and prospective counterparties, contractors, customers, employees and partners, (iii) liquidity, resulting from bill payment challenges experienced by our customers, including in connection with a CPUC-ordered suspension of service disconnections, decreased stability and accessibility of the capital markets and other factors, and (iv) ability to sustain operations and satisfy compliance requirements due to social distancing measures or if employee absenteeism were to increase significantly; the resolution of civil and criminal litigation, regulatory inquiries, investigations and proceedings, and arbitrations; actions by credit rating agencies to downgrade our credit ratings or to place those ratings on negative outlook and our ability to borrow at favorable interest rates; moves to reduce or eliminate reliance on natural gas and the impact of the extreme volatility of oil prices on our businesses and development projects; weather, natural disasters, accidents, equipment failures, computer system outages and other events that disrupt our operations, damage our facilities and systems, cause the release of harmful materials, cause fires and subject us to liability for property damage or personal injuries, fines and penalties, some of which may not be covered by insurance (including costs in excess of applicable policy limits), may be disputed by insurers or may otherwise not be recoverable through regulatory mechanisms or may impact our ability to obtain satisfactory levels of affordable insurance; the availability of electric power and natural gas and natural gas storage capacity, including disruptions caused by failures in the transmission grid, limitations on the withdrawal of natural gas from storage facilities, and equipment failures; cybersecurity threats to the energy grid, storage and pipeline infrastructure, the information and systems used to operate our businesses, and the confidentiality of our proprietary information and the personal information of our customers and employees; expropriation of assets, the failure of foreign governments and state-owned entities to honor the terms of contracts, and property disputes; the impact at San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E) on competitive customer rates and reliability due to the growth in distributed and local power generation, including from departing retail load resulting from customers transferring to Direct Access, Community Choice Aggregation or other forms of distributed or local power generation, and the risk of nonrecovery for stranded assets and contractual obligations; Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC's (Oncor) ability to eliminate or reduce its quarterly dividends due to regulatory and governance requirements and commitments, including by actions of Oncor's independent directors or a minority member director; volatility in foreign currency exchange, interest and inflation rates and commodity prices and our ability to effectively hedge the risk of such volatility; changes in tax and trade policies, laws and regulations, including tariffs and revisions to or replacement of international trade agreements, such as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, that may increase our costs or impair our ability to resolve trade disputes; and other uncertainties, some of which may be difficult to predict and are beyond our control.
These risks and uncertainties are further discussed in the reports that Sempra Energy has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 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, www.sempra.com. Investors should not rely unduly on any forward-looking statements.
Sempra North American Infrastructure, Sempra LNG, Sempra Mexico, Sempra Texas Utilities, Oncor and Infraestructura Energética Nova, S.A.B. de C.V. (IEnova) are not the same companies as the California utilities, SDG&E or Southern California Gas Company, and Sempra North American Infrastructure, Sempra LNG, Sempra Mexico, Sempra Texas Utilities, Oncor and IEnova are not regulated by the CPUC.
SOURCE Sempra Energy
