PG&E Corp. said yesterday that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the company regarding public disclosures and losses related to wildfires, Reuters reported. PG&E Corp said in a regulatory filing that it learned on March 20 that the SEC was investigating it in relation to its public disclosures and accounting for losses associated with the 2017 and 2018 Northern California wildfires and the 2015 Butte fire. PG&E, which provides electricity and natural gas to 16 million customers in northern and central California, faces widespread litigation, government investigations and liabilities that could potentially exceed $30 billion because of the fires in 2017 and 2018. The fire last November killed at least 86 people in the deadliest and most destructive blaze in California history. PG&E sought chapter 11 protection in January facing the prospect of, potentially, billions of dollars in liabilities linked or suspected to be linked to its equipment. Read more.
In related news, PG&E Corp. spent $127 million on financing, legal and other fees in its first two months in bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. The California power giant expects chapter 11 costs for this year to range from $360 million to $430 million, according to a slide presentation posted online yesterday. The costs for the first quarter included $114 million in financing and $24 million in “legal and other costs,” offset by $11 million in interest income. The reported first-quarter profit was less than half the figure from a year earlier — net income was $136 million, or 25 cents a share, down from $442 million. Read more.
