Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (BIP) Q1 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending March 31, 2022

May 4, 2022 9:00 a.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Brookfield Infrastructure Partners First Quarter 2022 Results Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, today's program maybe recorded.

And now I would like to introduce your host for today's program, David Krant, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead, sir.

David Krant

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Brookfield Infrastructure Partners' First Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. My name is David Krant, I'm the Chief Financial Officer of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners. Joining me today is Sam Pollock, our Chief Executive Officer; and Scott Peak, our Chief Investment Officer for North America. Following our prepared remarks, Ben Vaughan, our Chief Operating Officer will join us to take your questions.

At this time, I'd like to remind you that in our remarks today, we may make forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks, and future results may differ materially. For further information on known risk factors, I would encourage you to review our annual report on Form 20-F, which is available on our website.

I would like to begin with a few comments around the current macroeconomic environment. Top of mind for investors today are the elevated inflation levels, rising interest rates and decelerating global growth that creates headwinds for many industries. During these periods, the infrastructure sector generally outperforms. The growth and resiliency inherent in infrastructure assets is derived from inflation linked revenues, and the ability to pass through operating costs to customers.

Exposure to rising interest rates is mitigated by long-term capital structures largely on a fixed rate basis given the highly predictable cash flow these assets produce. From a valuation perspective, these established frameworks employed across revenue, expense, and debt financing protect or expand margins through revenue compounding offsetting increases in our capital costs. These attributes in combination with strong operational performance and last year's successful capital deployment have resulted in record results to start the year.

We're pleased to report funds from operations or FFO of $493 million, a 14% increase year-over-year. This was the highest in our partnership history. FFO per unit of $0.96 was 3% above the prior year as a result of the shares issued in conjunction with the acquisition of inter pipeline or IPL and the equity offering completed in November and it gets to meaningfully contribute to our first quarter results.