Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the ACTU Limited Second Quarter 2019 Results Conference Call and Webcast. As a reminder, all participants are in listen only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions.
I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Myles Dougan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Mr. Dougan.
Thank you, Carl. Good morning, everyone. We're pleased you could join us for our Q2 2019 conference call. With me today is Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Dennis DeChamplain and Assistant Controller, John Jeffery. Dennis will begin today with some opening comments on our financial results and recent company developments.
Following his prepared remarks, we will take questions from the investment community. Please note that a replay of the conference call and a transcript will be available on our website at ackco.com and can be found in the Investors section under the heading Events and Presentations. I'd like to remind you that all our remarks today will include forward looking statements that are subject to important risks and uncertainties. For more information on these risks and uncertainties, please see the reports filed by ATCO with Canadian Securities Regulators. And finally, I'd also like to point out that during this presentation, we may refer to certain non GAAP measures, such as adjusted earnings, adjusted earnings per share, funds generated by operations and capital investment.
These measures do not have any standardized meaning under IFRS, and as a result, they may not be comparable to similar measures presented in other entities. And now, I'll turn the call over to Dennis for his opening remarks. Thanks, Myles,
and good morning, everybody. Thanks very much for joining us today on our Q2 2019 conference call. ATCO announced higher adjusted earnings in the Q2 of 2019 of $78,000,000 or $0.68 per share compared to $61,000,000 or $0.53 per share in the Q2 of 2018. Higher Q2 2019 earnings were recorded in Structures and Logistics, Neltume Ports and Canadian Utilities. Structures and Logistics earnings were stronger due to incremental earnings from the LNG Canada workforce accommodation project and higher rental activity.
Neltume Ports contributed another solid $4,000,000 in earnings driven by copper cargo volumes. In Canadian Utilities, higher earnings were mainly due to favorable electricity and natural gas transmission regulatory decisions, rate based growth, further cost efficiencies and lower income taxes. In the Structures and Logistics business, modular structures successfully commenced both manufacturing and site construction work for the LNG Canada workforce accommodation project. Manufacturing is planned to continue through 2020 and the first modules are on schedule to be installed by the end of July 2019. In the United States, our contract for the installation, rental and service of a 1500 person camp for fire disaster relief in Chico, California will continue to see the ongoing value of rental, maintenance and service earnings from the initial date of occupation in April of 2019 through to early 2020.
Modular Structures has secured multiple contracts for approximately $27,000,000 with the government of British Columbia's supportive housing program in response to the growing issue of homelessness and communities. The first project was successfully handed over in June 2019. The remaining two projects are expected to be complete in the second half of twenty nineteen. Modular Structures was also awarded 2 contracts for a total of $14,000,000 to supply modular product for Marriott Hotels in California. These projects are expected to be completed in the second half of twenty nineteen.
In the second half of twenty nineteen, modular structures business activity will continue to ramp up due to the execution of secured contract work such as LNG Canada, ongoing rental earnings from Chico, California, PMC contracts in the U. S. And Canada and orders with major mining companies in Western Australia. Higher earnings in Canadian Utilities came from the favorable impact of electricity and natural gas transmission regulatory decisions, ongoing growth in the regulated rate base, further cost efficiencies and lower income taxes. Canadian Utilities also entered into definitive agreements subject to customary closing conditions to sell non regulated electricity assets.
The Canadian fossil fuel based electricity generation portfolio sale is for aggregate proceeds of approximately $835,000,000 and will occur as 3 separate transactions. The first transaction closed in July 2019 the remaining two transactions are expected to close in the second half of twenty nineteen. The Alberta PowerLine Limited Partnership sale is for total proceeds of $300,000,000 including the assumption of approximately $1,400,000,000 of APL debt and is expected to close in the Q4 of 2019. All in all, we continue to advance ATCO's strategy to diversify into continued disciplined capital recycling and Canadian Utilities, continued disciplined capital recycling and Canadian utilities and explore new opportunities to expand our global presence. That concludes my prepared remarks, and I'll now turn the call back over to Miles.
Thank you, Dennis. And I'll turn the call over to our conference coordinator
now for questions. Certainly. We will now begin the question and answer session. In the interest of time, we ask you to limit yourself to 2 questions. If you have additional questions, you are welcome to rejoin the near the top of the webcast frame and type their question.
The ATCO Investor Relations team will follow-up with you by e mail after the call. Once again, The first question comes from Linda Ezergailis of TD Securities. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Linda.
Good morning. Hi. I'm wondering if you could give us an update on some of the initiatives that you're looking at to maximize the value of your Real Estate footprint. Specifically, might there be some other asset sales? Are you considering developing some of the properties yourself?
Can you comment on how that business is evolving?
Thanks, Linda. We are looking at development opportunities of some of the lands that we own in ATCO Investments Limited, the real estate arm of the company. Those are, I'll call them longer term plays that we're looking at now, so nothing immediate. In terms of opportunistic asset sales, we have listed AtcoCentre 2 in Calgary and some that's a small outdoor parking lots and land in Downtown Calgary for sale. So that's we're progressing with that opportunity.
That may or may not close in 2019. Those are the two things that are most active in the company right now.
That's helpful. Thank you. And as we look at the tax changes in Alberta, can you comment on your outlook for taxes at the ATCO level?
There wasn't much in terms of additional earnings coming from the decrease in the provincial corporate tax rate that affects the deferred tax liability that the companies have on their balance sheets. It impacted Canadian Utilities and ATCO picked up its 52% of that. But outside of Canadian Utilities, there's nothing material in terms of kind of tax upsides from ATCO's other investment companies.
Okay. Thank
The next question comes from Maurice Choi of RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Thank you and good morning. I want to start off with the Structures and Logistics business. So now that the federal government has given the TMX project a go ahead again. Can you just discuss what sort of impact this may have on your S and L business moving forward?
Good morning again, Maurice. Yes, the with TMX, I'll say if and when as and when that project advances, there will be requirements for workforce housing. We are with in a partnership with indigenous community that's along the route in British Columbia. So we would be putting in a bid for camps along that portion of the route. We'll see when they put shovels in the ground and my understanding is when that happens, there will be an immediate need for workforce housing for those construction crews.
So that we're working on that. And even if we weren't successful on supplying for TMX that goes to help the demand in Western Canada, which should help open up other opportunities as well.
And I guess a follow-up to that is just your view on margins. I recall in the past that you mentioned that margins were tight but improving. Obviously, congratulations on a few contract wins this quarter. Can you just discuss a little bit about your view of margins landscape?
Yes. I mean the margins are improving, especially on certain types of contracts on that we're seeing in Central Canada, the U. S. And the Eastern seaboard of Australia. Of course, with the workforce housing business, the more remote and the more complex, the higher margin, that's the higher margin side of the business.
So advancements with LNG Canada, TMX, if that comes to fruition, then that should definitely help the business.
And then my second part of the question is about Neltimi ports. So it does seem like everything is going as planned. Any update on deploying the rest of the cash that's sitting in Ultomiris ports?
No, not in this quarter. We haven't announced anything. We're continuing to work on a number of development opportunities, greenfield, brownfield and M and A activities. We hope to be able to continue the announcements of deployment of that capital for the next quarter.
Okay. Thank you.
Thanks, Maurice.
This concludes the question and answer session.