Duke Energy reported a rare loss for the last three months of 2022 as it wrote down the value of the commercial renewable energy business that it's selling. The Charlotte company also says it will cut costs by $300 million this year.
Duke lost $531 million in the quarter, mainly because of the $1.3 billion charge for its renewables division. It now expects to sell the business later this year in two pieces - one that sells wind and solar energy to other utilities and businesses and another that installs rooftop solar systems for big customers.
Duke also had $105 million in expenses related to the cost-cutting campaign. That includes an unspecified number of layoffs, reducing the use of outside consultants, and the costs of consolidating its Charlotte operations from four buildings into its new headquarters uptown.
"It's a mix of internal labor spend and external spend - heavier on the external spend," Brian Savoy, executive vice president and chief financial officer at Duke Energy, said. "We prioritized what is mission-critical and what's not."
Excluding those one-time expenses, the Charlotte-based company reported a profit of $869 million, or $1.11 per share. That beat Wall Street analysts' expectations.