CASE STUDY

Providing an unfiltered view to a complex situation mired in regulatory and political issues

  • Credit
  • Utilities
  • North America

PG&E is an American investor-owned utility (IOU) with publicly traded stock. Headquartered in San Francisco, PG&E provides natural gas and electricity to most of the northern two-thirds of California. On January 14, 2019, PG&E announced that it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in response to the financial challenges associated with the catastrophic wildfires that occurred in Northern California in 2017 and 2018.

Third Bridge Forum was very insightful on the PG&E situation. It’s hard to talk about Californian regulatory issues without considering the politics. The political issue is the most important with PG&E, so it’s great to get an unfiltered view, which is not something we would get from any other research sources.

Prop Desk Analyst, Top Tier Investment Bank

Research Insights

Third Bridge Forum has provided coverage on PG&E since Feb 2018, reviewing the impact of the California wildfires on the utilities business from a legal, financial, regulatory and environmental perspective. Given the high level of legal and policy uncertainty related to PG&E specifically and California more broadly, we conducted more than 10 interviews with policy advisors, attorneys, FERC agents, former c-level executives and safety commissioners.

The content generated from these interviews addresses in great detail the total cost estimates of claims from insurance and government entities, the legal theory behind inverse condemnation, the role of different agencies, the bankruptcy processes around dissemination of facilities, the sale of generation assets and the future of renewable PPA contracts tied under PG&E. The interviews also included discussions related to Edison and Sempra. 

Outcome

Third Bridge Forum has been an indispensable and differentiated research resource for leading credit managers and traders across the U.S., providing unique insights on the PG&E situation since February 2018.