All currency references in USD unless otherwise indicated

Altius Renewable Royalties Corp. (TSX: ARR) (OTCQX: ATRWF) (“ARR” or the “Corporation”), is pleased to report its financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended 2023 with a conference call to follow Thursday March 7, 2024 at 9:00 am EDT. 

The Corporation's 50% owned Great Bay Renewables ("GBR") joint venture recorded $10.4 million in royalty revenue for the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to $7.3 million in 2022, an increase of 44%. Operating cash flows at GBR were $5.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2023 as compared to $2.7 million in 2022, an increase of 89%. For the quarter ended December 31, 2023, GBR recorded $2.6 million in royalty revenue compared to $1.7 million in Q4 2022. Operating cash flows at GBR were $1.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2023 as compared to $0.4 million in Q4 2022.

Selected financial information for the Corporation is included in the table below:

ARR reported a net loss of $1.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2023, proportionate revenue⁽¹⁾ of $7.9 million, adjusted EBITDA⁽¹⁾ of $3.8 million and adjusted operating cash flow⁽¹⁾ of $3.0 million. This compares to a net loss of $0.8 million, proportionate revenue⁽¹⁾ of $4.4 million, adjusted EBITDA⁽¹⁾ of $0.8 million and adjusted operating cash flow⁽¹⁾ of $0.2 million for 2022. Total proportionate revenue⁽¹⁾ for the year was comprised of $5.2 million in royalty revenue and $2.7 million in interest income.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2023, ARR reported a net loss of $0.2 million, proportionate revenue⁽¹⁾ of $2.3 million, adjusted EBITDA⁽¹⁾ of $1.0 million and adjusted operating cash flow⁽¹⁾ of $1.3 million. This compares to net loss of $0.4 million, proportionate revenue⁽¹⁾ of $1.2 million, adjusted EBITDA⁽¹⁾ of $0.1 million and adjusted operating cash flow⁽¹⁾ of $0.6 million in Q4 2022. Total proportionate revenue⁽¹⁾ in Q4 2023 was comprised of $1.3 million in royalty revenue and $1.0 million in interest income.

Full year production from royalties acquired in late 2022 led to higher royalty revenues for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2023, compared to prior year periods.

The Corporation’s current quarter and year end results reflect the proportionate share of increased revenues at GBR offset by the proportionate share of increased costs including GBR’s non-cash share of loss in equity investments Bluestar Energy Capital LLC ("Bluestar") and Nova Energy LLC ("Nova") of approximately $0.3 million and $6.5 million respectively. Bluestar and Nova continue to engage in early-stage renewable energy development resulting in increased levels of expenses with minimal offsetting revenues thus far at those entities. Nova continues to make good progress in building its greenfield development pipeline as the current portfolio of projects has now grown to approximately 5GW of wind, solar and battery storage projects.

Subsequent to December 31, 2023 GBR announced that it had entered into a $30 million royalty investment with Apex Clean Energy (“Apex”) related to Apex’s 195 MWac Angelo Solar project in Tom Green County, Texas (“Angelo”) which is anticipated to achieve commercial operations in May 2024. In addition, another wind project from GBR's development pipeline has achieved commercial operations and is expected to contribute to GBR's revenue beginning in Q2 2024.

For 2024, GBR expects to realize renewable royalty revenue of $13.0 million to $16.0 million based upon the current royalty portfolio including construction stage assets that are expected to reach commercial operations in 2024, and recent merchant price assumptions. Additional potential revenue that may result from entitlements related to project sales by developers Hodson Energy and Hexagon Energy has not been included in this estimate.

At December 31, 2023 the Corporation held cash of $88.7 million and has 2024 expected commitments related to existing GBR investment agreements of approximately $22.5 million. In addition, during the fourth quarter, GBR entered into senior secured credit financing agreements in the aggregate amount of $246.5 million (of which $117.9 million has been drawn by GBR). The drawdown was used for closing costs as well as return of capital totaling $108.2 million to the joint venture partners. The facility has available liquidity of $105.6 million at the time of this release. This credit facility enables GBR to accelerate its growth trajectory while maintaining a competitive cost of capital. ARR has not pledged any security in favour of the agreements.

Commenting on the year, Frank Getman, CEO of GBR, said, "In 2023, we continued to make great progress in building our business. In addition to growing revenues by 44% and adding another top-tier developer to our portfolio with our $40 million investment commitment into Hexagon, we significantly expanded our liquidity and enhanced our cost of capital for future investments with the $246.5 million credit facility that closed in the fourth quarter last year.” Getman added, “We’ve started 2024 strong, with our recent $30 million royalty investment into Apex’s 195 MWac Angelo Solar project and a robust pipeline of new investment opportunities we are pursuing."

Brian Dalton, CEO of ARR added, "As experienced royalty company builders, we recognize and appreciate the contrarian investment windows being presented by current market conditions and sentiment. These are the periods when opportunities are greatest to build long-term value through the royalty model and the GBR team has put itself in an excellent position to continue to seize the current opportunity."

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

1. Management uses the following non-GAAP financial measures: proportionate royalty and other revenue (“proportionate revenue”, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (adjusted EBITDA) and adjusted operating cash flow. Management uses these measures to monitor the financial performance of the Corporation and believes these measures enable investors and analysts to compare the Corporation’s financial performance with its competitors and/or evaluate the results of its underlying business which are held primarily in jointly controlled entities. These measures are intended to provide additional information, not to replace International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) measures, and do not have a standard definition under IFRS and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. As these measures do not have a standardized meaning, they may not be comparable to similar measures provided by other companies. Further information on the composition and usefulness of each non-GAAP financial measure, including reconciliation to their most directly comparable IFRS measures, is included in the non-GAAP financial measures section of our MD&A.

Conference Call Details

A conference call and webcast will be held on Thursday, March 7, 2024 at 9:00 am EDT to provide an update and to offer an open Q&A session for analysts and investors. Access details are as follows:

DATE                Thursday, March 7, 2024 at 9:00 am EDT
EVENT              Altius Renewable Royalties Q4 and YE 2023 Financial Results Conference Call and Webcast
DIAL IN             (+1) 888 886 7786 OR (+1) 416 764 8658
WEBCAST         ARR Q4 2023

About ARR

ARR is a renewable energy royalty company whose business is to provide long-term, royalty level investment capital to renewable power developers, operators, and originators. ARR has 34 renewable energy royalties representing approximately 2.4 GW of renewable power on operating projects and an additional approximate 5.8 GW on projects in construction and development phase, across several regional power pools in the U.S. The Corporation also expects future royalties from GBR's investments in Bluestar Energy Capital, Hodson Energy and Hexagon Energy, which increase the total development project pipeline to approximately 15 GW. The Corporation combines industry expertise with innovative, partner-focused solutions to further the growth of the renewable energy sector as it fulfills its critical role in enabling the global energy transition.

Forward-looking information

This news release contains forward‐looking information. The statements are based on reasonable assumptions and expectations of management and ARR provides no assurance that actual events will meet management's expectations. In certain cases, forward‐looking information may be identified by such terms as "anticipates", "believes", "could", "estimates", "expects", "may", "shall", "will", or "would". Although ARR believes the expectations expressed in such forward‐looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. ARR does not undertake to update any forward-looking information contained herein except in accordance with securities regulation.

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