Genie Energy Ltd. - Annual Report: 2020 (Form 10-K)

 

UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

 

FORM 10-K

 

☒ Annual report pursuant to section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020,

 

or

 

☐ Transition report pursuant to section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

 

Commission File Number:1-35327

 

Genie Energy Ltd.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 

 

520 Broad Street, Newark, New Jersey 07102

(Address of principal executive offices, zip code)

 

(973) 438-3500

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

 

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

 

 

Securities registered pursuant to section 12(g) of the Act: None 

 

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

 

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

 

 

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☒

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No ☒

 

The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant, based on the closing price on June 30, 2020 (the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter) of the Class B common stock of $7.36 per share, as reported on the New York Stock Exchange, was approximately $126.9 million.

 

As of March 12, 2021, the registrant had outstanding 24,786,062 shares of Class B common stock and 1,574,326 shares of Class A common stock. Excluded from these numbers are 1,319,876 shares of Class B common stock held in treasury by Genie Energy Ltd.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

 

The definitive proxy statement relating to the registrant’s Annual Meeting of Stockholders, to be held May 12, 2021, is incorporated by reference into Part III of this Form 10-K to the extent described therein.

 

 

 

Index

Genie Energy Ltd.

 

Annual Report on Form 10-K

 

 

As used in this Annual Report, unless the context otherwise requires, the terms “the Company,” “Genie,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to Genie Energy Ltd., a Delaware corporation, and its subsidiaries, collectively.

 

BUSINESS OVERVIEW

 

Genie Energy Ltd. is a global provider of energy services that, through various subsidiaries and other ventures, supplies electricity, and natural gas to residential and small business customers in certain portions of the United States, Europe and Asia. Additionally, through its Genie Energy Services division, the Company provides commercial and industrial brokerage, commercial solar consultative services, design, supply and installation and community solar marketing services.

The Company owns 99.3% of its subsidiary, Genie Energy International Corporation ("GEIC"), which owns 100% of Genie Retail Energy ("GRE"), 100% of Genie Retail Energy International LLC ("GREI"), 100% of Genie Energy Services ("GES") and 97% of Genie Oil and Gas, Inc. ("GOGAS"). 

GRE owns and operates retail energy providers ("REPs"), including IDT Energy, Inc. ("IDT Energy"), Residents Energy, LLC ("Residents Energy"), Town Square Energy, LLC and Town Square Energy East, LLC ("collectively, "TSE"), Southern Federal Power ("SFP") and Mirabito Natural Gas, ("Mirabito"). GRE's REP businesses resell electricity and natural gas to residential and small business customers. The majority of GRE's customers are located in the Eastern and Midwestern United States and Texas. Mirabito supplies only natural gas to commercial customers in Florida. 

GREI holds the Company's REPs that serves retail customers in the United Kingdom under the name Orbit Energy and in Japan ("Genie Japan"). It holds a 92.5% controlling interest in Lumo Energia Oyj ("Lumo Finland"), a REP serving residential customers in Finland and 100.0% of Lumo Energi AB ("Lumo Sweden"), which serves retail customers in Sweden. 

GES holds a 100% interest in Diversegy LLC (Diversegy), a retail energy advisory and brokerage company that serves commercial and industrial customers throughout the United States and manages our 60.0% controlling interest in Prism Solar Technology, Inc. ("Prism"), a solar solutions company that is engaged in solar project marketing, solar solutions consultation, installation design and project management services. 

GOGAS has concluded its oil and gas exploration operations and is winding down its remaining operations. In December 2020, Afek Oil & Gas Ltd. ("Afek"), a subsidiary which had been operating an oil and gas exploration project in the Golan Heights in Northern Israel, completed the final tests on one of its completed exploratory wells. Analysis of the tests' results found no traces of light oil resources suitable for commercial development. As a result, Afek ceased its exploratory operations. 

CORONAVIRUS DISEASE (COVID-19)  

Starting in the first quarter of 2020, the world and the United States experienced the unprecedented impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

For the year ended December 31, 2020, the impacts of COVID-19 were evident in several key aspect of our business operations and the corresponding financial impact has been mixed. Our customers are predominantly residential, so we benefited from the increased demand for electricity as many customers are working from and spending more time in their homes. On the other hand, like other retail energy providers, the Company suspended its face-to-face customer acquisition programs in March 2020 as public health measures were implemented to combat COVID-19, resulting in a decrease in gross meter acquisitions. The reduction in gross meter acquisitions decreased customer acquisition expenses in 2020 and limited growth in domestic meters served. Churn in 2020 decreased in part, as our competitors also suspended their face-face marketing programs. COVID-19 public health restrictions relaxed in some of GRE's domestic market in the third quarter of 2020, facilitating a partial reactivation of the previously curtailed customer acquisition channels.

REPORTABLE SEGMENTS

 

In December 2020, we revised our reportable segments in connection with the conclusion of our final exploration activities of GOGAS, as discussed above. The assets, liabilities, results of operations and cash flows related to the activities of GOGAS were aggregated with corporate for all periods presented.

The change in reportable segments did not result in a reallocation of the Company's existing goodwill. 

We now have three reportable business segments: GRE, GRE International and GES. Our reportable segments are distinguished by types of service, customers and customer geography. Financial information by segment and geographic areas is presented in “Note 18 — Business Segment Information” in the Notes to our Consolidated Financial Statements in this Annual Report.

 

GENERAL BUSINESS INFORMATION

 

Our main offices are located at 520 Broad Street, Newark, New Jersey 07102. Our telephone number is (973) 438-3500 and our web site is www.genie.com.

 

We make available free of charge through the investor relations page of our web site (http://genie.com/investors/sec-filings/) our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and all amendments to these reports, and all beneficial ownership reports on Forms 3, 4 and 5 filed by directors, officers and beneficial owners of more than 10% of our equity as soon as reasonably practicable after such material is electronically filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We have adopted a Code of Business Conduct and Ethics for all of our employees, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer. Copies of our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics are available on our web site.

 

Our web site (https://genie.com) and the information contained therein or incorporated therein are not incorporated into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

 

 

KEY EVENTS IN OUR HISTORY

 

In November 2004, IDT Corporation, or IDT, our former corporate parent, launched a retail energy provider business in New York State under the brand name IDT Energy.

 

In October 2011, we were spun-off by IDT and became an independent public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

 

In December 2013, GRE acquired Dallas-based Diversegy, LLC, a retail energy advisory and brokerage company that serves commercial and industrial customers throughout the United States. 

 

In November 2016, GRE purchased Retail Energy Holdings, LLC, which operates REPs under the brand name Town Square Energy. The acquisition expanded GRE’s serviceable markets into Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and new territories in Ohio.

In July 2017, through a joint venture with Energy Global Investments Pty Ltd. GRE launched Shoreditch to market electricity and natural gas service to residential and small business customers in the U.K. 

 

In August 2017, GRE acquired Mirabito Natural Gas, a commercial supplier located in Florida. The acquisition expanded GRE’s serviceable markets into Florida.

In May 2018, GRE acquired Smile Energy G.K. (subsequently renamed as Genie Japan), a Japanese company licensed to provide electricity to end-use costumers in Japan and in February 2019, began enrolling customers in Japan.

In October 2018, Genie acquired a 60.0% interest in Prism, a solar solutions company that is engaged in U.S.-based manufacturing of solar panels, solar installation design and project management. 

In January 2019, GRE acquired an 80.0% interest in Lumo Finland, a provider of electricity to residential customers in Finland with approximately 32,000 residential customers in Finland.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

 

In January 2020, GREI increased its interest in Lumo Finland to 92.5%.

In April 2020, the Company acquired a license to sell natural gas to customers in the State of Georgia.

In second quarter of 2020, our Lumo Sweden subsidiary began enrolling customers.

In October 2020, the Company completed the sale of certain assets of Prism located in Highland, New York.

In October 2020, the Company acquired the remaining 23.0% interest in Shoreditch, its REP business operating in the U.K. as Orbit Energy, which increased the Company's interest to 100%.

In December 2020, Afek completed the final planned testing on one of its completed exploratory wells. After finding no traces of light oil, Afek began to shut down its operations.

In January and February of 2021, the Company experienced unprecedented price volatility in the Japanese and Texas markets. These events are expected to have an estimated adverse impact on our first quarter of 2021 consolidated results of operations of $2.5 million in Japan and $12.8 million to $14.0 million in Texas.

 

DIVIDENDS

 

We pay a quarterly dividend on both of our common and preferred stock. The aggregate dividends paid in the year ended December 31, 2020 on our Class A and Class B common stock (the “Common Stock”) was $8.7 million, as follows:

 

 

 

 

 

As announced on March 11, 2021, we suspended our dividends on our common stock to rebuild our cash position in light of the losses incurred from the effects of Winter Storm Uri as discussed above.

The aggregate dividend paid in the year ended December 31, 2020 on our Preferred Stock was $1.5 million, as follows:

 

 

 

 

 

On February 16, 2020, we paid a quarterly Base Dividend of $0.1594 per share on the Preferred Stock for the fourth quarter of 2020 to stockholders of record at the close of business on February 8, 2020 in the aggregate amount of $0.4 million.

 

BUSINESS

Genie Retail Energy

Overview

 

GRE is comprised of REPs and related businesses. GRE’s REP businesses purchase electricity and/or natural gas on the wholesale markets and resell these commodities to their residential and business customers in deregulated markets in the United States. The positive difference between the net sales price of electricity and natural gas sold to its customers and the cost of their electricity and natural gas supplies and related costs are the REP businesses’ gross profits. 

 

GRE’s U.S. REP businesses operate in certain utility territories within the deregulated retail energy markets of sixteen states in the United States: Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Rhode Island and Texas, as well as in Washington, D.C. As part of our ongoing business development efforts, we evaluate opportunities in other deregulated jurisdictions to accelerate the growth of our customer base and to reduce operational and regulatory risk associated with geographical concentration.

 

GRE’s  REP businesses operate under several brand names including IDT Energy, Residents Energy, Town Square Energy, Southern Federal Power and Mirabito. GRE's diverse offerings, in both the electricity and natural gas markets included either variable rate or fixed rate offerings or both. Throughout their electricity market, GRE's REPs offer green electricity. Green electricity supply is 100% matched with renewable energy certificates, or RECs that reflect the generation of electricity from renewable sources.

 

Historically, GRE has expanded its REP businesses through organic growth of its REPs adding new customers through customer acquisition programs at a rate faster than customers lost through attrition or churn – as well as through acquisitions of other REPs and books of business. New customers are generally acquired through a combination of marketing and sales channels including door-to-door solicitation, telemarketing, online and digital marketing, direct mail, and by competitive bidding for exclusive contracts awarded by certain municipalities, where authorized by state laws. These municipal aggregation contracts award participating residents’ electricity supply to a single supplier at a fixed price that is typically established through a competitive bidding process.

 

GRE evaluates its customers base both in terms of the numbers of commodity meters served and the number of Residential Customer Equivalents ("RCEs") represented by these meters. An RCE is a unit of measure denoting the typical annual commodity consumption of a single-family residential customer. One RCE represents 1,000 therms of natural gas or 10,000 kWh of electricity.

Customer churn is a significant factor in the REP business. GRE's REPs monthly churn rates average between four and seven percent per month. Customer churn tends to decrease when commodity prices fall, when weather-driven consumption decreases, when the price to REP customers decreases relative to competitors including the incumbent utility provider, or when the REPs incentivize customer tenure. Customer churn tends to increase when commodity prices rise, when weather driven consumption increases or spikes, or when the price to REP customers increases relative to the prices charged by competitors including incumbent utility providers. Newly acquired customers typically have higher rates of churn than longer-tenured customers. 

 

 

GRE’s revenue comprises approximately 80.5% and 90.9% of our total consolidated revenue in 2020 and 2019, respectively. In 2020, GRE generated revenue of $305.3 million comprised of $270.9 million from sales of electricity, $33.6 million from sales of natural gas, and a minimal amount of other revenue, as compared with revenue of $286.6 million in 2019, comprised of $246.7 million from the sales of electricity, $39.9 million from the sales of natural gas and a minimal amount of other revenue. GRE's electricity sales as a percentage of total sales have increased in recent years.

 

GRE’s REP revenue is seasonal. Approximately 47.7% and 46.9% of our natural gas revenues in 2020 and 2019, respectively, were generated during the first quarter, when the demand for heating peaks. Although the demand for electricity is not as seasonal as natural gas, approximately 31.8% of total revenues from electricity sales in 2020 and 2019, were generated in the third quarter when the demand for cooling peaks.

 

Unusual weather patterns can significantly impact GRE’s financial results. For example, a polar vortex resulted in unusually sustained cold weather in the first quarter of 2014. This increased demand was characterized by extraordinarily large spikes in the wholesale prices GRE paid for its electricity and natural gas supplies. As a result, GRE's REP experience abnormally high rates of churn and the Company refunded a significant amount to its variable rate customers to cushion the impacts on their monthly bills. Potential changes in global climate may produce, among other possible conditions, unusual variations in temperature and weather patterns, resulting in unusual weather conditions, more intense, frequent and extreme weather events and other natural disasters. Some climatologists believe that these extreme weather events will become more common and more extreme which will have a greater impact on our operations.

As of December 31, 2020, GRE serviced 370,000 meters (305,000 electric and 65,000 natural gas), compared to 370,000 meters (297,000 electric and 73,000 natural gas) as of December 31, 2019. 

 

REP Industry Overview

 

REPs operate in deregulated retail energy markets in the US. REPs purchase electricity and natural gas on the wholesale markets and resell these commodities to their customers including homeowners, renters and small to mid-sized commercial and governmental operations and institutions. Generally, incumbent local utilities continue to handle electricity and natural gas distribution, billing, and collections. The utilities remit the proceeds collected for the commodity supply portion of their bills less certain fees to the REPs.

 

REPs generally have no significant fixed assets and low levels of capital expenditure. Their cost of revenue is incurred to purchase electricity and natural gas in their respective wholesale markets and other factors. Selling, general and administrative expenses are primarily related to customer acquisition, customer retention, billing and purchase of receivables, or POR, fees paid to the utilities, and program management.

 

As of December 31, 2020, there were thirty U.S. states in which there is some level of energy deregulation. We currently market in all the states where residential deregulation covers both electricity and natural gas and in some states where residential deregulation covers only one commodity. We are in the process of applying for licenses or setting up operations in certain such states and are constantly evaluating market opportunities in others. 

Some competitors in certain REP markets have engaged in unfair business practices in order to recruit new customers. These practices can create an unfavorable impression about our industry with consumers, regulators or political bodies. Further, such practices can lead to regulatory action that negatively impact us and the industry.

 

 

Customers; Marketing

 

The services of GRE’s U.S. REPs - IDT Energy, Residents Energy, Town Square Energy, Southern Federal Power and Mirabito - are made available to customers under several offerings with distinct terms and conditions. The offerings include variable rate programs whose prices change month-to-month, fixed contracts whose unit price remains the same for the agreed upon term and renewable contracts. A significant portion of our customer base is enrolled in variable rate products, which enable us to recover our wholesale costs for electricity and natural gas by adjusting the rates we charge to our customers. The frequency and degree of these rate adjustments are determined by GRE. Variable rate products are available to all customers in all states served by GRE’s REPs except for Connecticut.

 

As of December 31, 2020, customers on variable rate products constituted approximately 57.2% of our electric load. The balance comprised customers on fixed rate agreements. 

 

GRE’s REPs offer renewable or green energy supply options in all their markets. Renewable electricity supply is 100% matched with renewable energy certificates, or RECs, that reflect the generation of electricity from sources such as hydro-electric wind, solar and biomass.

 

The electricity and natural gas we sell through all of our offerings are metered and delivered to customers by the local utilities. The utilities also provide billing and collection services for the majority of our customers. For a small number of customers, we perform our own billing and collection.

In many states, GRE’s REPs’ receivables are purchased by the utilities in their territories for a percentage of their face value. Over the course of 2020, the associated cost was approximately 1.2% of GRE's revenue in exchange, the utility accepts a first priority lien against the customer receivable without recourse to the REP. Programs operating within this framework are preferred to as purchase of receivables, or POR, programs, and they mitigate our credit risk. At December 31, 2020, 87.0% of GRE’s net accounts receivables were under a POR program.

Certain utilities in Connecticut, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Washington, D.C., Massachusetts and Maryland offer POR programs, without recourse. these programs permit customers with past-due balances to remain in the POR and consolidated bill programs. However, utilities in New Jersey generally do not permit customers with past-due balances beyond 120 days to enroll or remain in their POR programs. After a certain amount of time (determined based on the specific commodity), the REP becomes responsible for the billing and collection of the commodity portion of the future invoices for its delinquent customers. Certain utilities in Delaware, Illinois, New Hampshire, Ohio and Rhode Island do not offer POR but they do offer consolidated billing. In Florida and Texas, there are no POR programs and the customers are billed directly.

 

GRE targets markets in which we can procure energy in an efficient and transparent manner. We seek to purchase wholesale energy where there is a real-time market that reflects a fair commodity price for all participants. This allows GRE to reflect a true market cost base and adjust its rates to its variable rate customers taking into account prevailing market rates.

 

We regularly monitor deregulated or deregulating markets in states where we do not yet operate to determine whether and under what conditions we could operate profitability. We may initiate the licensing process in a selected region to facilitate entry into that region contingent upon favorable deregulatory developments.

Procurement and Management of Gas and Electric Supply

Certain of GRE's REPs are party to an Amended and Restated Preferred Supplier Agreement with BP Energy Company, or BP, through November 30, 2023. Under the agreement, the REPs purchase electricity and natural gas at market rate plus a fee. The obligations to BP are secured by a first security interest in deposits or receivables from utilities in connection with their purchase of the REP’s customer’s receivables, and in any cash deposits or letters of credit posted in connection with any collateral accounts with BP. The ability to purchase electricity and natural gas under this agreement is subject to satisfaction of certain conditions including the maintenance of certain covenants. At December 31, 2020, the Company was in compliance with such covenants.

 

GRE is required to meet certain minimum green energy supply criteria in some of the markets in which it operates. We meet those thresholds by acquiring renewable energy certificates, or REC’s. In addition, GRE offers green or other renewable energy products to its customers in all of the territories in which we operate. GRE acquires green renewable energy conversion rights or attributes and REC’s to satisfy the load requirements for these customers.

 

GRE does not own electrical power generation, transmission, or distribution facilities, or natural gas production, pipeline or distribution facilities. For their natural gas supply, GRE’s REPs currently contract with Dominion Transmission, Inc., National Fuel Supply, Williams Gas Pipeline and Texas Eastern Transmission and others for natural gas pipeline, storage and transportation services. For electricity supply, they, utilize the New York Independent System Operator, Inc., or NYISO, and PJM Interconnection, LLC, or PJM, for electric transmission and distribution. NYISO operates the high-voltage electric transmission network in New York State, and administers and monitors New York’s wholesale electricity markets. PJM is a regional transmission organization that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of thirteen states (including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Illinois) and the District of Columbia. In Texas, SFP acquires power through the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).

 

For risk management purposes, GRE’s REPs utilize forward physical delivery contracts for a portion of their purchases of electricity and natural gas, which are defined as commodity derivative contracts. In addition, GRE’s REPs enter into put and call options as hedges against unfavorable fluctuations in market prices of electricity and natural gas.

 

The ISOs perform real-time load balancing for each of the electrical power grids in which GRE REPs operate. Similarly, load balancing is performed by the utilities or local distribution company, or LDC, for each of the natural gas markets in which GRE operates. Load balancing ensures that the amount of electricity and natural gas that GRE’s REPs purchase is equal to the amount necessary to service its customers’ demands at any specific point in time. GRE’s REPs are charged or credited for balancing the electricity and natural gas purchased and sold for their account by their suppliers and the LDCs. GRE’s REPs manage the differences between the actual electricity and natural gas demands of their customers and their bulk or block purchases by buying and selling in the spot market, and through monthly cash settlements and/or adjustments to future deliveries in accordance with the load balancing performed by utilities, LDCs, and/or ISOs.

Competition

 

As an operator of REPs, GRE competes with the local utility companies in each of the markets in which it provides services and with many other licensed REPs. In some markets, competitor REPs are affiliated with local utilities. GRE also competes with several large vertically integrated energy companies as well as smaller independent operators. Competition with the utilities and REPs impacts GRE’s gross margins, customer acquisition rates and exposes GRE to customer churn.

 

REPs and utilities offering fixed rate products or guaranteed pricing often are unable to change their sell rates offered to customers in response to underlying commodity price volatility. In a downward moving commodity cost environment, variable rate REPs typically become more competitive as they benefit from the lag that utilities experience in reducing their sell rate to reflect the lower commodity costs, and they may benefit from decreases in margin pressure, improvements in the customer acquisition environment, and lower rates of churn. In a rising commodity cost environment, REPs that offer variable rate products, and reflect real-time commodity costs, will typically become less competitive with fixed rate providers, experience increased margin pressure, a more challenging customer acquisition environment and higher rates of customer churn.

 

Increasing our market share depends in part on our ability to persuade more customers to switch from other providers to one of our REPs at a higher rate than our customers churn to other providers. Moreover, local utilities and some REPs may have certain advantages such as name recognition, financial strength and long-standing relationships with customers. Persuading potential customers to switch to GRE requires significant marketing and sales operations.

 

Regulation 

 

REPs such as ours must be licensed in each state and utility service territory in which they operate. Each is subject to the rules and regulations governing the operations of REPs in each jurisdiction.

 

Although the rates charged by GRE’s REPs are not regulated in the same way as the rates of utility companies, the manner in which the REPs market to potential customers, and the relationships between the REPs and their customers, are heavily regulated. GRE’s REPs must also comply with various quarterly and/or annual reporting requirements in order to maintain their eligibility to provide service. In certain jurisdictions the REPs are required to publish product offers with the applicable regulatory commissions, or in the public domain, generally on a website established for such purpose. In addition to the regulations that govern the relationships between GRE’s REPs and their customers, GRE’s REPs also maintain specific Terms & Conditions or Terms of Service for each product in each jurisdiction that the parties agree to be bound by.

 

The Company is party to legal proceedings that arise in the ordinary course of business including those with utility commissions or other government regulatory or law enforcement agencies. 

As of December 31, 2020, GRE’s REPs operate in sixteen states and District of Columbia. The State of New York, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the State of New Jersey, the State of Maryland, the State of Illinois, the State of Ohio, the State of Michigan , the State of New Hampshire, the State of Rhode Island, the State of  Connecticut, the State of Florida, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the State of Delaware, the State of Maine, the State of Texas, the State of Georgia. The federal government and related public service/utility commissions, among others, establish the rules and regulations for our REP operations

Like all operators of REPs, GRE is affected by the actions of governmental agencies, mostly on the state level, by the respective state Public Service/Utility Commissions, and other organizations (such as NYISO, ERCOT and PJM) and indirectly by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC. Regulations applicable to electricity and natural gas have undergone substantial changes over the past several years as a result of restructuring initiatives at both the state and federal levels. We may be subject to new laws, orders or regulations or the revision or interpretation of existing laws, orders or regulations.

New York Public Service Commission Orders

In December 2017, the New York Public Service Commission (“PSC”) held an evidentiary hearing to assess the retail energy market in New York. On December 12, 2019, following the completion of the post-hearing briefings in the proceedings, the PSC issued orders adopting changes to the New York retail energy market, effective April 16, 2020 (“2020 Orders”).  The 2020 Orders limits the types of services energy retailer marketers may offer new customers or renewals, in terms of pricing for non-renewable commodities, and renewable product offerings. Although the Company is working to ensure that its products and services are fully compatible with the 2020 Orders, such compliance may adversely impact customer acquisition and renewal revenue and profitability.  The Company is evaluating its options, both by itself and in tandem with other industry participants, to challenge or petition for additional clarity and changes to the 2020 Orders. There is insufficient basis to deem any loss probable or to assess the amount of any possible loss based on the changes instituted by the 2020 Orders. As of December 31, 2020, New York represented 19.4%of GRE’s total meters served and 14.7%of the total residential customer equivalents (“RCEs”) of GRE’s customer base. For the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, New York gross revenues were $56.7 million and $63.2 million, respectively.

A RCE represents a natural gas customer with annual consumption of 100 mmbtu or an electricity customer with annual consumption of 10 MWh. Because different customers have different rates of energy consumption, RCEs are an industry standard metric for evaluating the consumption profile of a given retail customer base.

State of Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority

On September 19, 2018, the State of Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (“PURA”) commenced an investigation into Town Square following customer complaints of allegedly misleading and deceptive sales practices on the part of Town Square. The Connecticut Office of Consumer Counsel had joined in the investigation. Although Town Square denies any basis for those complaints and any wrongdoing on its part, it is cooperating with the investigation and responding to subpoenas for discovery. On June 17, 2020, the PURA or Authority notified Town Square that it was advancing its investigation by assigning Prosecutorial (PRO) staff for the purpose of investigating Town Square’s compliance with licensed electric supplier billing, marketing, and licensing requirements, and, if appropriate, facilitating settlement discussions among the parties that contains, but is not limited to, an appropriate civil penalty, extensive retraining of the supplier’s third-party agents, and retention of all sales calls with continued auditing.  If a settlement is not achieved and PRO staff believe the Authority should take further action regarding alleged non-compliance, the Authority requests that PRO staff petition the Authority setting forth its recommendations citing to supporting facts and law. As of December 31, 2020, Town Square’s Connecticut customer base represented 11.6% of GRE’s total meters served and 12.8% of the total residential customer equivalents of GRE’s customer base. As of December 31, 2020, no claims or demands have been made against Town Square by either agency, and there is insufficient basis to deem the loss probable or to the assess the amount of any possible loss. Nevertheless, the parties have begun to engage in preliminary settlement discussions.

In the fourth quarter of 2020, the enforcement division of PURA contacted Residents Energy concerning customer complaints received in connection with alleged door-to-door marketing activities in violation of various rules and regulations, including a ban on door-to-door activities during the pertinent time period as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Residents Energy denies any allegations of wrongdoing. In January and February of 2021, Residents Energy responded to the limited information requests and discovery made by the enforcement division. On March 12, 2021, the enforcement division filed a motion against Resident Energy with the adjudicating body of PURA, seeking the assessment of $1.5 million in penalties, along with a suspension of license for eighteen months, auditing of marketing practices upon reinstatement and an invitation for settlement discussions. As noted above, Residents Energy denies any wrongdoing, and there is insufficient basis to deem or assess the probably amount of any loss. For the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, gross revenues from sales in Connecticut were $38.0 million and $35.6 million, respectively.  

In response to complaints that IDT Energy enrolled consumers without their express consent and misrepresented the amount of savings those consumers would receive, the Office of the Attorney General of the State of Illinois (“IL AG”) has been investigating the marketing practices of IDT Energy and has alleged violations of the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act, 815 ILCS 505/1 et seq. and the Illinois Telephone Solicitations Act, 815 ILCS 413/1 et seq. Shortly thereafter, the Illinois Commerce Commission ("IL ICC") commenced a similar investigation. Although IDT Energy denies any wrongdoing in connection with those allegations, the parties (including IL ICC) settled the matter pursuant to a court approved consent decree that includes restitution payments in the amount of $3.0 million, temporary suspension of all marking activities directed at new customers through December 31, 2020, and implementation of various compliance and reporting procedures.

In third quarter of 2018, the Company recorded a liability of $3.0 million recorded as a reduction of electricity revenues in the consolidated statement of operations. As of December 31, 2020, Illinois represented 2.5% of GRE’s total meters served and 1.2% of the total residential customer equivalents of GRE’s customer base. For the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, IDT Energy’s gross revenues from sales in Illinois were $7.0 million and $10.1 million, respectively.

Employees

As of March 5, 2021, GRE employed 125 full time employees, 57 of whom are located in the Jamestown, New York office, 48 of whom are located in our New Jersey office, 13 of whom are located in our Arizona office and 7 is located in Texas with SFP.

GRE International

GRE International is comprised of REPs operating in the U.K., in Finland, through our 92.5% interest in Lumo Finland, in Japan, and in Sweden. GRE’s REP businesses purchase electricity on the wholesale markets and resell these commodities to their residential customers through both variable rate and fixed rate programs.

GRE International's REP businesses operate under several brand names including Lumo Energia, Genie Energy Japan, and Orbit Energy (United Kingdom). Lumo Finland, Lumo Sweden and Genie Energy Japan resell electricity, while Orbit Energy supplies both electricity and natural gas.

On October 8, 2020, the Company acquired the remaining 23.0% interest in Orbit Energy that it did not previously own, which increased the Company's interest to 100%. Prior to October 8, 2020, GRE International accounted for its investments in Orbit Energy under the equity method of accounting. 

As of December 31, 2020, GRE International's REPs, including Orbit Energy, served 195,000 meters, an increase from 127,000 meters as of December 31, 2019. The increase was due to the continuous investment in the growth of Lumo Finland, Orbit Energy and Genie Japan. The Company also started the commercial operations of Lumo Sweden in the second quarter of 2020. As of December 31, 2020, GRE International served 103,000 RCEs, an increase from 65,000 RCEs as of December 31, 2019. The increase in RCEs primarily resulted from the increase in meters served as discussed above.

Nordic Electricity Market

Lumo Finland and Lumo Sweden (together, Lumo) serve the Nordic electricity market. 

The Nordic electricity system utilizes a mixture of generation sources. Hydro, nuclear biomass and wind power are among the main primary sources of electricity generation. The Nordic region has a large share of electricity heated houses, resulting in a consumption profile that is higher than in the rest of the European Union (“EU”). Electricity consumption is highly dependent on weather factors, with lower electricity demand in the summer and increased consumption in the wintertime.

Lumo's REPs generally have no significant fixed assets and low levels of capital expenditure. Their cost of revenue is incurred through the purchase of electricity and natural gas in their respective wholesale markets. Selling, general and administrative expenses are primarily related to customers acquisitions, customer retention, billing and collections.

Lumo Finland

Lumo Finland was founded in 2015 and began servicing customers in 2016. Lumo Finland operates in the Finnish electricity market. The Company acquired an 80.0% controlling interest of Lumo Finland in January 2019 and has since increased its ownership to 92.5%. Lumo Finland operates in all of Finland and sells electricity primarily to private consumers and small businesses. 

Lumo Finland's revenue is seasonal. Approximately 62.8% of total revenues in 2020 were generated in the winter (28.4% in first quarter of 2020 and 34.4% in the fourth quarter of 2020) when the demand for heating is high. Approximately 64.1% of total revenues in 2019 were generated in the winter (31.4%  in first quarter of 2019 and 32.7% in the fourth quarter of 2019).

Lumo Sweden

Lumo Sweden is a Swedish REP founded in October 2019. Lumo Sweden started its commercial operations in April 2020. Its customers are spread across Sweden, and are primarily residential with some being small business. In 2020, as a start-up year, Lumo Sweden mostly focused on growing its customer base and developing its strategy.

The Swedish electricity market is divided into four different price areas based on geographic location. The capital Stockholm region is the biggest market for Lumo Sweden. Historically, the price for supply in the northern price areas has been the cheaper compared to the other price areas in the southern part of the country, due to a number of hydroelectric power plans and lower demand. The price in the south, however, has been the higher due to a higher demand with lower local supply, mostly solar and wind.

Marketing

Lumo acquires customers primarily through branded and affiliated websites. Lumo's marketing efforts focus on digital channels such as search engine marketing, social media, display and email marketing. These digital channels are designed to drive traffic to Lumo's branded websites. Lumo's branded site offers customers variable rate and fixed rate products. Remarketing for customers who have already visited the website is done as display advertising on both social media and search engines.

The customers are also offered multiple billing and payment methods in order to make payment convenient. The customer can also access their consumption through an online portal where they can access their invoices, payments, contract and other documents.

 

Acquisition and Management of Electric Supply

The Nordic electricity market consists of various marketplaces that are “time windows” for physical trading in electricity: the day-ahead market, the intra-day market and the balancing market. In the Nordic countries, the vast majority of trading is done on the day-ahead market (spot market), and the “system price”, which is the common Nordic price for all hours of the next following 24-hour period, is crucial for price formation within the other time windows (the intra-day and balancing markets and the financial market for long-term contracts).

 

The intra-day market is primarily a correction market, where participants have the opportunity to trade into balance, including adjusting any earlier trading. The intra-day market closes one hour before the delivery hour. The balancing market is trading in automatic and manual reserves used by the Nordic transmission system operators (“TSOs”) in order to maintain power balance during the hour of operation. Nord Pool Spot is responsible for the day-ahead market and the intra-day market, while the TSOs are responsible for the balancing market.

For risk management purposes, Lumo typically employs put and call options as hedges against unfavorable fluctuations in market prices of electricity. The hedges are usually done 3 to 6 months ahead of delivery depending on estimated volumes.

Competition

There are dozens of registered REPs in Finland and Sweden, including those operated by energy producers, affiliates of local grid companies and independent contractors. In recent years, the REP industry has experienced consolidation resulting in larger REPs. 

A significant portion of Finland’s residential customer base continue to purchase its supply from their local grid company’s affiliate REPs despite the proliferation of competitive suppliers. Most new REPs seek to build market share with aggressive pricing. The main focus of Lumo is to gain new customers, upgrading these customers to better margin products while controlling churn and balancing growth and profitability.

Regulation

Each REP in Finland or Sweden must be registered with each countries' Energy Authority in order to be able to operate. Although REPs enjoy certain freedom with respect to their operations (i.e. marketing and pricing), they must comply with various regulations and laws, including Finnish or Swedish Energy authority rules and regulation governing electricity supply pricing, marketing, types of offerings and contracts, as well as general guidelines set forth in the Finnish  or Swedish Electricity Market Law. 

Genie Energy Japan

The Japanese electricity market became deregulated in April 2016. Presently, there are approximately 750 REPs licensed in Japan. REPs purchase electricity on the wholesale markets and resell the commodities to their customers, who may include homeowners, renters and small to mid-sized commercial and governmental operations and institutions. The local utilities continue to handle electricity transmission and distribution, line maintenance and meter reading with the REP’s responsible for invoicing the customer and collecting payments for both the commodity and transmission and distribution portions of the services. The REPs remits the transmission and distribution portion of the bill to the utilities.

REPs in Japan generally have no significant fixed assets and low levels of capital expenditure. Their cost of revenues is incurred to purchase electricity and natural gas in their respective wholesale markets and other factors. Selling, general and administrative expenses are primarily related to customer acquisition, customer retention, billing, and collections.  

Genie Japan operates in nine of the ten deregulated electric utility territories in Japan, with Okinawa being the only territory where it does not operate. Genie Japan offers both variable rate and fixed rates to its customers.

In January 2021, the Company experienced unprecedented price volatility in the Japanese market. These events are expected to have an estimated adverse impact on our first quarter of 2021 consolidated results of operations of $2.5 million.

 

Marketing

New customers are acquired through a combination of marketing and sales channels including door-to-door solicitation, telemarketing, affinity partner sales, and online and digital marketing. Products are made available to customers under several offerings with distinct terms and conditions. Similar to the United States, a significant portion of new customers are enrolled in variable rate programs via automatically renewing or month-to-month agreements, which enable us to adjust the cost of electricity to the rates charged to our customers. The frequency and degree of these rate adjustments is not restricted by regulation.

During 2020 physical sales were reduced due to Covid-19. From April to June 2020 a national state of emergency suspended door-to-door sales completely. In August 2020 and in January 2021, the government had declared state of emergencies and urged citizens to stay at home as much as possible. These periods resulted in reduced physical sales capabilities.

Genie Japan offers three payment types: credit card, auto bank draft, and convenience store payment for customers' convenience.

Acquisition and Management of Electric Supply

Genie Japan procures electricity for its customers through forward monthly supply transactions from wholesale electricity providers, as well as day-ahead spot electricity purchases on Japan Electric Power Exchange ("JEPX"). Currently, Genie Japan is acquiring electricity with five wholesale electricity supply companies. A third party vendor performs the scheduling of our forward supply purchases and makes purchases, or sales, on our behalf for any additional electricity needed for our customers on the day ahead JEPX market.

 

Electricity for our customers is scheduled through Organization for Cross-regional Coordination of Transmission Operators, Japan ("OCCTO"), which coordinates with the nine electric utility companies for the transmission and delivery of our electricity supply. These contracts are typically provided by wholesalers which purchase bulk generation supply and on-sell to retailers. In addition, wholesalers can also provide physical contracts that are backed by financial contracts traded on one of two futures exchanges. Genie Japan also can use trade over-the-counter swaps. 

  

Our electricity purchases that are less, or greater, than our customers actual usage is settled through purchases, or sales, respectively, in the balancing market. Each of the nine utility companies will perform this balance service for the actual load of our customer and the supply delivered. The utilities invoice Genie Japan on a monthly basis for additional charges, or credits, resulting from these balancing.

 

For risk management purposes, Genie Japan utilize forward physical delivery contracts for portions of our purchases of electricity to reduce price risks.

Competition

Presently, there are approximately 750 REPs licensed in Japan. In some territories, competitor REPs are affiliated with local utilities. Genie Japan also competes with several large vertically integrated energy companies as well as smaller independent operators. Some of the REPs only operate regionally, while others, like Genie Japan, sell throughout Japan. 

Many of the REPs pricing structure have a variable component that is based on an energy cost index from a trailing 3 or 6 months period, while Genie Japan pricing is based on future market expectations. In a downward moving commodity cost environment, our pricing typically becomes more competitive as we benefit from the lag that other REPs experience in reducing their sell rate to reflect the lower commodity costs, and we may benefit from decreases in margin pressure, improvements in the customer acquisition environment, and lower rates of churn. In a rising commodity cost environment, our variable rate products reflect real-time commodity costs, which will typically become less competitive, in the short-term with other REPs, and we may experience increased margin pressure, a more challenging customer acquisition environment and higher rates of customer churn.

 

Genie Japan's products were designed to be the most competitive for higher electricity use customers. Our pricing product offers increasing percentage of savings the more electricity a customer uses, while the pricing structure of other REPs have tiered pricing structure with higher pricing for the higher monthly usage tiers. Increasing our market share depends in part on our ability to find those higher use customers and persuade the pricing advantage of our price product versus the incumbent utility pricing. Other REPs have certain advantages such as name recognition, financial strength and long-standing relationships with customers. Persuading potential customers to switch to Genie Japan requires significant marketing and sales operations.

 

Regulation

REPs such as Genie Japan, must acquire a license from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry ("METI"). METI regulates the industry and has one set of regulations and rules that govern the operations of REPs for the entire country.

 

Although the rates charged by REPs are not regulated by the METI in the same way as the rates of utility companies, the manner in which the REPs market to potential customers, and the relationships between the REPs and their customers, are regulated through REP guidelines published by METI. Genie Japan must also comply with various monthly and annual reporting requirements to METI in order to maintain their eligibility to provide service. REPs are also required to collect from end users the Renewable Energy Generation Promotion Levy and remit this to the Green Investment Promotion Organization.

United Kingdom

GRE international holds a 100.0% interest in Shoreditch, which operates Orbit Energy, a REP that operates in the United Kingdom.

The Gas Act of 1986 led to the privatisation of British natural gas market while the Electricity Act of 1989 provided for the privatization of the electricity industry. The residential energy market was opened to competition between 1996 and 1999.

  

Orbit was incorporated in 2015 and is licensed to sell both electricity and natural gas in the United Kingdom. In July 2017, the Company entered into a joint venture in which it held a noncontrolling interest. Orbit started its commercial operations in January 2018. Orbit operates in the mainland United Kingdom, excluding Northern Ireland serving primarily residential customers. Orbit provides customers with a choice of fixed-price contracts, typically ranging in jurisdiction from one to three years, with the majority taking one-year fixed-price contracts. Orbit also provides variable price products to its customer. At December 31, 2020, approximately 40.0% of customers were on a variable price product. A small portion of the Orbit’s customers are on a government mandated price cap.

Marketing

 

Before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Orbit used a wide range of marketing tools to acquire new customers including door-to-door sales, venue sales, telephone and digital through price comparison engines. Majority of the customers were acquired through the use of third-party marketing and sales companies. During the pandemic, however, Orbit closed down its door-to-door and venue sales operations and relied primarily on telephone marketing. The majority of customers are now acquired through the use of third-party marketing sales companies. Orbit is primarily targeting customers who are on a relatively high tariff with their existing suppliers presenting target customers with potential savings compared to their current suppliers.

Approximately 80.0% of the U.K. market is on credit meters. These customers typically pay on receipt of bill or through a monthly flat direct-debit ("DD") or credit card payment which is set to recover the annual consumptions. The other 20.0% of the customers pay for their energy consumptions using pre-payment meters. These meters are "topped" up using tokens and allow customers to only use what they paid for, thus enabling greater control on consumption.

Orbit is responsible for billing and collecting from its customers directly. Invoices and statements of account are sent on a monthly basis for credit customers and annual statements are delivered for its pre-pay customers. The majority of its customers receive their statements of account on a quarterly basis.

Approximately 90.0% of the credit customers have an active DD or credit card arrangement with Orbit and pay for their annual consumption through flat monthly payments. 

Procurement and Management of Gas and Electricity

 

REPs in the United Kingdom generally have no significant fixed assets and low levels of capital expenditure. Their cost of revenues is incurred to purchase electricity and natural gas in their respective wholesale markets and other factors. Selling, general and administrative expenses are primarily related to customer acquisition, customer retention, billing, and collections.

Orbit does not own electrical power generation, transmission, or distribution facilities, or natural gas production, pipeline or distribution facilities.

Orbit Energy has an exclusive contract with Shell U.K. Limited ("Shell") to provide electricity and natural gas to Orbit until June 2024, with an option (not an obligation) to extend through June 2027. Shell provides access to the forward market such that Orbit can enter into a forward hedge for its customers which protects Orbit from mark-to-market fluctuations. Shell also provides extended payment facilities of an additional 30 days compared to the U.K. payment terms up to a limit of £5.0 million at an interest of LIBOR plus 5.0%. Shell charges an additional £0.9 per therm of natural gas and Mwh of electricity for all delivered volume on top of the wholesale costs. The contract with Shell is secured by Orbit's shares. The contract is also subject to satisfaction of certain conditions including the maintenance of certain covenants which includes minimum levels of cash, gross margin, net worth, as defined in the contract, earnings before tax, as defined in the contract and provision for bad debts on accounts receivable. At December 31, 2020, we were in compliance with such covenants.

Orbit has the ability to purchase electricity from other sources through Shell, if lower costs are available.

Orbit currently contracts with the National Grid of United Kingdom and seven distribution companies that deliver electricity to fourteen regions in the United Kingdom.

 

Orbit also contracts with CNG Energy Ltd. to ship the natural gas from injection point to the customers. CNG is primarily an intermediary between Orbit and the gas pipeline companies.

 

Competition

 

GRE competes with other independent energy providers. More than 70.0% of the market is dominated by the “Big 6” energy companies in the United Kingdom with the rest of the market served by small and mid-size energy supplier similar to Orbit.

REPs compete on price, customer service, ease of switching service providers and other ancillary services.

 

Regulation

 

The energy market in the United Kingdom is regulated by the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (“OFGEM”). OFGEM is a non-ministerial government department and an independent National Regulatory Authority, recognized by European Union Directives. The OFGEM’s role was originally defined in the privatisation statutes (Gas Act of 1986 and Electricity Act of 1989) but was significantly changed by the Utilities Act of 2000, which gave OFGEM a new primary duty of protecting consumers wherever appropriate by promoting effective competition. One of its key secondary duties is to protect the interests of low-income customers. OFGEM regulates minimum levels of standards and how an energy company communicates with its customers with respect to timing of invoicing, price change communication, information that is provided on invoices, compensation and levels of smart meter installation. OFGEM also set a maximum price that a REP can charge a customer if the customer has not actively chosen a tariff or if they are on a variable tariff. U.K. REPs are required to provide a variety of reports to OFGEM including customer complaints, meter read performance and tariffs by customers to collect data on topics of interest or to check on compliance with the licence conditions. Inspection by OFGEM is done through these reports and monitoring public information like customer feedback on social media. In addition, OFGEM conducts quarterly review with our Orbits account manager. OFGEM also has the power to carry out ad-hoc inspections.

Employees 

 

As of March 5, 2021, GRE International employed 64 employees, 21 of whom are located in Finland, 16 of whom are located in our Japan office and 27 of whom are located in United Kingdom.

Genie Energy Services

 

GES is comprised of businesses that market and provide energy solutions. GES currently consists of  (i) our controlling interest in Prism (ii) Diversegy, and (iii) Genie Solar Energy.

Prism Solar Technologies 

 

The Company acquired a 60.0% controlling interest in Prism in October 2018. On April 12, 2019, Prism restructured its ownership. The Company now holds 60.0% interest in Plus EnerG which owns 100% of Prism. In the second quarter of 2020, Prism renegotiated a contract with a customer which resulted in impairment of customer relationship of $0.8 million included in the consolidated statements of operation. Prism also provided a full impairment of its remaining goodwill of $0.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Prism is a solar solutions company engaged in solar panel manufacturing, solar installation design and project management. In the U.S., Prism’s solar panels are used in residential, office and commercial buildings. Residential applications include solar sunrooms (solariums), skylights, canopies and sun decks. Prism's solar panels are used in the construction of parking canopies, electric vehicle car ports, parking structures, vertically mounted on buildings and many other custom applications.

 

Certain of Prism’s solar panels are designed with high efficiency N-type silicon solar cell technology designed into bifacial solar modules. This technology results in a reduction in the average cost per kilowatt hour. Elements of the technology that Prism uses are protected under patent application. The glass-on-glass design of the solar panels increases the durability and lifetime value of the solar panels. Unlike traditional solar modules, where photo-voltaic (“PV”) cells can only use the sunlight that strikes the front of the module, Prism’s bifacial modules generate energy on both sides, capturing a substantial amount of light scattered from clouds and surrounding surfaces. In traditional modules this additional light is not converted into electricity.  Prism’s solutions are especially valuable when Prism's modules are mounted over highly reflective backgrounds, such as white roof, snow, sand, or other light-colored surfaces.

 

Solar Industry Overview

 

Products and services in this industry consist of silicon modules and cells, thin-film modules and cells and other modules cells. The demand for solar panel manufacturing is impacted by government programs, commodity prices and international trade.

 

Solar energy is one of the fastest growing forms of renewable energy with numerous economic and environmental benefits that make it an attractive complement to and/or substitute for traditional forms of energy generation. In recent years, the price of PV solar power systems, and accordingly the cost of producing electricity from such systems, has dropped to levels that are competitive with or even below the wholesale price of electricity in many markets. The rapid price decline that PV solar energy has experienced in recent years has opened new possibilities to develop systems in some locations with limited or no financial incentives. Worldwide solar markets continue to develop, aided by the above factors as well as demand elasticity resulting from declining industry average selling prices, both at the module and system level, which make solar power more affordable. 

The solar industry continues to be characterized by intense pricing competition, both at the module and system levels. In particular, module average selling prices in the United States and several other key markets have experienced an accelerated decline in recent years, and module average selling prices are expected to continue to decline globally to some degree in the future. In the aggregate, we believe manufacturers of solar cells and modules have significant installed production capacity, relative to global demand, and the ability for additional capacity expansion. We believe the solar industry may from time to time experience periods of structural imbalance between supply and demand (i.e., where production capacity exceeds global demand), and that such periods will put pressure on pricing. 

Multiple markets within the United States, exemplify favorable characteristics for a solar market, including (i) sizeable electricity demand, particularly around growing population centers and industrial areas; (ii) strong demand for renewable energy generation; and (iii) abundant solar resources. In those areas and applications in which these factors are more pronounced, our PV solar energy solutions compete favorably on an economic basis with traditional forms of energy generation.

Customers; Marketing

The services of GES – Diversegy and Prism – are made available to customers via multiple channels and under several offerings.  The majority of our customer base consists of medium to large commercial customers who are looking to be more efficient with their energy consumption.  Our sales channels and marketing activities include a direct sales force, commission-only referral agents, telemarketing, digital marketing and radio advertising.

Sources of Material and Manufacturing

We have designed our manufacturing processes to produce high quality products that meet our customers’ requirements at competitive costs.

At Genie Solar Energy and Prism, customers have the choice of buying their solar systems either by paying for the system themselves or by financing it with third parties. GES is responsible for sales, manufacturing, project management of the installation, and collection of payment from the customers.

Competition

The market for solar electric power technologies is competitive and continually evolving. In the last year, we faced increased competition, resulting in price reductions in the market and reduced margins, which may continue and could lead to loss of market share. Our solar power products and systems compete with many competitors in the solar power market, including, but not limited to Canadian Solar Inc., Hanwha QCELLS Corporation, JA Solar Holdings Co., Kyocera Corporation, LG Corporation, Jinko Solar, NRG Energy, Inc., Panasonic Corporation, Sharp Corporation, SunRun, Inc., Tesla, Inc., Trina Solar Ltd., Vivint, Inc., LONGi Solar, REC Group, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. Ltd. and First Solar, Inc.

 

We also face competition from resellers that have developed related offerings that compete with our product and service offerings, or have entered into strategic relationships with other existing solar power system providers. We compete for limited government funding for research and development contracts, customer tax rebates and other programs that promote the use of solar, and other renewable forms of energy with other renewable energy providers and customers.

 

Research and Development

Prism devotes substantial resources to research and development with the objective of developing new products and systems, adding new features to existing products and systems and reducing unit costs of our products and systems. Our development strategy is to identify features, products, and systems that reduce the cost and improve the effectiveness of our solutions for our customers. The Company measures the effectiveness of our research and development by metrics including product unit cost, efficiency, reliability, power output, and ease of use.

Regulation

 

Federal government support for renewable energy

 

On December 22, 2017, the U.S. government enacted comprehensive tax legislation commonly referred to as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Tax Act”). The Tax Act makes broad and complex changes to the U.S. tax code, including, but not limited to, (i) reducing the U.S. federal corporate rate from 35% to 21%; (ii) requiring companies to pay a one-time transition tax on certain unrepatriated earnings (where applicable) of foreign subsidiaries; (iii) generally eliminating the U.S. federal income tax on dividends received from foreign subsidiaries; (iv) requiring current inclusion in the U.S. federal taxable income of certain earnings of controlled foreign corporations; (v) eliminating the corporate alternative minimum tax (“AMT”) and changing how existing AMT credits may be realized; (vi) creating the base erosion anti-abuse tax (“BEAT”), a new minimum tax; (vii) creating a new limitation on the deductible interest expense; and (viii) changing rules related to uses and limitations of net operating loss carryforwards created in tax years beginning after December 31, 2017.

 

The U.S. federal government provides an uncapped investment tax credit, or “Federal ITC,” that allows a taxpayer to claim a credit of 30% of qualified expenditures for a residential or commercial solar generation facility. The Tax Act did not make any changes to the existing laws surrounding tax credits for renewable energy. The Federal ITC is currently scheduled to be reduced to 26% for solar generation facility construction that begins on or after January 1, 2020 and to 22% for solar generation facility construction that begins on or after January 1, 2021. A permanent 10% Federal ITC is available for non-residential solar generation facility construction that begins on or after January 1, 2022.

 

U.S. state government support for renewable energy

 

Many states offer a personal and/or corporate investment or production tax credit for renewable energy facilities, which is additive to the Federal ITC. Further, more than half of the states, and many local jurisdictions, have established property tax incentives for renewable energy facilities that include exemptions, exclusions, abatements and credits. Certain of our renewable energy facilities in the U.S. have been financed with a tax equity financing structure, whereby the tax equity investor is a member holding equity in the limited liability company that directly or indirectly owns the solar generation facility or wind power plant and receives the benefits of various tax credits.

 

Many state governments, utilities, municipal utilities and co-operative utilities offer a rebate or other cash incentive for the installation and operation of a renewable energy facility for energy efficiency measures. Capital costs or “up-front” rebates provide funds to solar customers based on the cost, size or expected production of a customer’s renewable energy facility. Performance-based incentives provide cash payments to a system owner based on the energy generated by their renewable energy facility during a pre-determined period, and they are paid over that time period. Some states also have established FIT programs that are a type of performance-based incentive where the system owner-producer is paid a set rate for the electricity their system generates over a set period of time.

 

There are 40 states that have a regulatory policy known as net metering. Net metering typically allows our customers to interconnect their on-site solar generation facilities to the utility grid and offset their utility electricity purchases by receiving a bill credit at the utility’s retail rate for energy generated by their solar generation facility in excess of electric load that is exported to the grid. At the end of the billing period, the customer simply pays for the net energy used or receives a credit at the retail rate if more energy is produced than consumed. Some states require utilities to provide net metering to their customers until the total generating capacity of net metered systems exceeds a set percentage of the utilities’ aggregate customer peak demand.

 

Many states also have adopted procurement requirements for renewable energy production. There are 29 states that have adopted a renewable portfolio standard (“RPS”) that requires regulated utilities to procure a specified percentage of total electricity delivered to customers in the state from eligible renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power generation facilities, by a specified date. To prove compliance with such mandates, utilities must procure and retire RECs. System owners often are able to sell RECs to utilities directly or in REC markets.

 

RPS programs and targets have been one of the key drivers of the expansion of solar and wind power and are expected to continue to contribute to solar and wind power installations in many areas of the United States. In addition to the 29 states with RPS programs, eight other states have non-binding goals supporting renewable energy. 

Diversegy 

Diversegy is a commercial energy advisory firm helping clients to reduce costs, mitigate risk, and improve their bottom lines through the development and implementation of energy utilization and sourcing strategies. Diversegy works with customers to lower their energy supply costs, reduce their consumption with LED upfitting and other means, as well as provide on- and off-site generation with solar. 

In 2020, Diversegy accounted for 0.5% and 7.7% of the Company’s consolidated revenue and GES segment's revenue, respectively. Diversegy operates as an energy broker and advisor to industrial, commercial and municipal across deregulated energy markets in the U.S. Most of our customers are enrolled in multi-year contracts that have a fixed rate with our partner suppliers. The supplier is fully responsible for risk management, billing and collections. Diversegy receives commissions from the supplier for the referral either as an upfront payments or as a residual over the life of the customers' contract.

Diversegy markets its services though an in-house sales force as well as independent third-party brokers. 

Genie Solar Energy

Genie Solar Energy is a sales and general contracting organization. Genie Solar Energy sells rooftop solar system to commercial and industrial clients who benefit by either lower consumption, lower cost of energy and by accruing financial benefits from their respective states and the U.S government for investing in renewable energy. Genie Solar Energy acquires the customers, manages the procurement of materials and labor involved in installing the solar system and arranges for third party financing when the customer requires it.

 

Employees

 

As of March 5, 2021, GES employed 13 full time employees, all of whom are located in our New Jersey office.

Employees and Human Capital Resources

Attracting and retaining qualified personnel familiar with our businesses who head our different businesses units is critical to our success. As of March 5, 2021, we had 202 employees, 138 located in United States, 27 located in United Kingdom, 21 located in Finland and 16 located in Japan.

Our human capital resources objectives include, as applicable, identifying, recruiting, retaining, incentivizing and integrating our existing and new employees, advisors and consultants. To accomplish that, our compensation practices are designed to attract and retain qualified and motivated personnel and align their interests with the goals of the Company and with the best interests of our stockholders. Our compensation philosophy is to provide compensation to attract the individuals necessary for our current needs and growth initiatives, and provide them with the proper incentives to motivate those individuals to achieve our long-term plans, which includes among other things, equity and cash incentive plans that attract, retain and reward personnel through the granting of stock-based and cash-based compensation awards.

Intellectual Property

 

We rely on a combination of patents, copyrights, trademarks, domain name registrations and trade secret laws in the United States and other jurisdictions and contractual restrictions to protect our intellectual property rights and our brand names. All of our employees sign confidentiality agreements. These agreements provide that the employee may not use or disclose our confidential information except as expressly permitted in connection with the performance of his or her duties for us, or in other limited circumstances. These agreements also state that, to the extent rights in any invention conceived of by the employee while employed by us do not vest in us automatically by operation of law, the employee is required to assign his or her rights to us.

 

 

 

RISK FACTORS

 

Our business, operating results or financial condition could be materially adversely affected by any of the following risks as well as the other risks highlighted elsewhere in this document, particularly the discussions about regulation, competition and intellectual property. The trading price of our Class B common stock and Series 2012-A Preferred Stock could decline due to any of these risks.

Our business, results of operation and financial conditions could be adversely affected by the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions put in place in connection therewith.

 

We are responding to the global outbreak of COVID-19 by taking steps to mitigate the potential risks to us posed by its spread and the impact of the restrictions put in place by governments to protect the population. We continue to execute our business continuity plan and have implemented a comprehensive set of actions for the health and safety of our customers, employees and business partners We have implemented work from home policies where appropriate.

 

We continue to implement strong physical and cyber-security measures to ensure our systems remain functional to both serve our operational needs with a remote workforce and to provide uninterrupted service to our customers. We face challenges due to the need to operate with the remote workforce and are addressing those challenges so as to minimize the impact on our ability to operate.

 

For the year ended December 31, 2020, the impacts of COVID-19 on our operations and financial results have been mixed. Our consolidated revenues for year ended December 31, 2020, compared to 2019, increased by $64.0 million equivalent to 20.3%. At December 31, 2020, global total meters served increased to 565,000 and RCEs increased to 440,000 representing increases of 14.0% and 9.1% respectively, compared to December 31, 2019. U.S. domestic meters served was flat at 370,000 and RCE increased to 337,000 representing a 9.8% increase compared to December 31, 2019 levels. 

 

We benefited from the increased demand for electricity by residential customers due to more people working from their homes. On the other hand, like other retail providers, we suspended our face-to-face customer acquisition programs in March 2020 as public health measures were implemented to combat COVID-19, resulting in a decrease in gross meter acquisitions and a slight reduction in the U.S. domestic meters served. The reduction in gross meter acquisitions decreased our customer acquisition expense in the second quarter of 2020. Churn for the second quarter of 2020 decreased as our competitors suspended their face to face marketing programs. 

 

In the last months of 2020 and first months of 2021, much of the world experienced a surge in new COVID-19 cases and the impact of that increase and public health measures that may be instituted or reinstituted are difficult to predict. If the COVID-19 pandemic continues for a prolonged period, or impact the territories we serve more significantly than it has today, our business, operations and financial condition could be impacted in more significant ways. The continued spread of COVID-19 and efforts to contain the virus could have the following impacts, in addition to exacerbating the impacts described above:

 

●

Adversely impact our strategic business plans and growth strategy;

 

●

Result in increases in purchase of receivable, or POR fees and allowance for credit bad debt expense as a result of delayed or non-payment from our customers, both of which could be magnified by federal or state government legislation that requires us to extend suspensions of disconnections for non-payment;

 

●

Reduce the availability and productivity of our employees and third-party resources;

 

●

Cause us to experience an increase in costs as a result of our emergency measures;

 

●

Cause a deterioration of the credit quality of our counterparties, including power purchase agreement counterparties, contractors or retail customers, that could result in credit losses

 

●

Cause impairment of long-lived assets; and

 

●

Cause a deterioration in our financial metrics or the business environment that adversely impacts our credit ratings.

 

The situation remains fluid and it is difficult to predict with certainty the potential impact of COVID-19 on our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows. 

 

Risks Related to Genie Retail Energy and GRE International

 

The REP business is highly competitive, and we may be forced to reduce prices or incur additional costs.

 

GRE’s REP businesses face substantial competition both from the traditional incumbent utilities as well as from other REPs, including REP affiliates of the incumbent utilities in specific territories. As a result, we may be forced to reduce prices, incur increased costs or lose market share and cannot always pass along increases in commodity costs to customers. We compete on the basis of provision of services, customer service and price. Present or future competitors may have greater financial, technical or other resources which could put us at a disadvantage. Additionally, our experience has shown that utilities do not change their rates offered to customers immediately in response to increased prices for the underlying commodities.

Conversely, in a downward moving commodity cost environment, GRE’s REPs variable rate plans may benefit from the lag that utilities experience in reducing their sell rate to reflect the lower cost base in the commodity markets, and may reflect commodity costs decreases in their offerings and rates.

 

Increasing our market share depends in part on our ability to persuade more customers to switch to GRE’s services than those that churn from us to other providers or back to the local utility. Moreover, local utilities and some REPs may have certain advantages such as name recognition, financial strength and long-standing relationships with customers. Persuading potential customers to switch to GRE’s REPs requires significant marketing and sales operations. As we enter new international markets, we will face additional competitive environment. If GRE is not successful in convincing customers to switch both domestically and internationally, our REP businesses, results of operations and financial condition will all be adversely affected. 

Our current strategy is based on current regulatory conditions and assumptions, which could change or prove to be incorrect.

From time to time, various states may propose or modify legislation regulations which could adversely affect our marketing practices and ability to acquire and serve customers. The Company and the REP industry as a whole is working with government representatives, legislators, and advocacy interest groups to lobby for legislation and regulation that most effectively protects customer interests while preserving the competitive structure of deregulated markets. We also seek to expand and diversify into new markets with regulatory structures that are more favorable to the competitive retail supply of energy.

For example, in December 2017, the New York Public Service Commission (“PSC”) held an evidentiary hearing to assess the retail energy market in New York. On December 12, 2019, following the completion of post-hearing briefings in the proceedings, the PSC issued an order adopting changes to the New York retail energy market, effective April 16, 2020 (“2020 Orders”). The 2020 Orders limit the types of the services energy retailer marketers may offer new customers or renewals, in terms of pricing for non-renewable commodities and renewable product offerings. Although the Company is working to ensure that its products and services are fully compatible with the 2020 Orders, such compliance may adversely impact customer acquisition and renewal revenue and profitability. The Company is evaluating its options, both by itself and in tandem with other industry participants, to challenge or petition for additional clarity and changes to the 2020 Orders.  As of December 31, 2020, New York represented 19.4% of GRE’s total meters served and 14.7% of the total residential customer equivalents (“RCEs”) of GRE’s customer base. For the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, gross revenue from New York were $56.7 million and $63.2 million, respectively. 

Any legislative or regulatory changes that negatively impacts the sale of fossil fuels or electricity derived therefrom would adversely affect the results of our operations and financial conditions.

 

 

Fixed Rate Products or Guaranteed Pricing Programs could result in losses or decreased profits if GRE fails to estimate future commodity prices and commodity consumption accurately.

 

REPs and utilities offering fixed rate products or guaranteed pricing often are unable to change their sell rates offered to customers in response to volatility in the prices of the underlying commodities or changes in the regulatory environment. Sudden spikes in commodity prices, particularly when coupled with rapid, unexpected increases in consumptions, expose us to the risk that we will incur significant unforeseen costs in performing fixed rate contracts. During the year ended December 31, 2020, GRE’s meters enrolled in offerings with fixed rate characteristics constituted approximately 37.7%  and 6.3% of GRE’s electric and natural gas load, respectively. Fixed rate products are becoming a greater part of our offering, and such products may be mandated by regulators.

However, it is difficult to predict future commodity costs. Any shortfalls resulting from the risks associated with fixed rate programs will reduce our working capital and profitability. Our inability to accurately estimate the cost of providing services under these programs could have an adverse effect on our profitability and cash flows. We employ an active and robust hedging program. Within this exercise there are inherent assumptions about consumption and pricing. There is risk that volatility with take place outside of the range of potential outcomes contemplated by the program. In these instances, the hedge will not be sufficient to control for risk and losses may occur.

Commodity price volatility could have an adverse effect on our cost of revenues and our results of operations.

 

Volatility in the markets for certain commodities can have an adverse impact on our costs for the purchase of the electricity and natural gas that GRE sells to its customers. In our fixed or guaranteed price products, we cannot, and in our variable price products, due to customer or competitive factors, we may not always be able or choose to, pass along increases in costs to our customers. This would have an adverse impact on our margins and results of operations. Alternatively, volatility in pricing for GRE’s electricity and natural gas related to the cost of the underlying commodities can lead to increased customer churn. In times of high commodity costs, our variable pricing model and commodity purchasing approach can lead to competitive disadvantages as we must pass along all or some portion of our increased costs to our customers.

GRE’s growth depends in part on its ability to enter new markets.

 

We have recently entered the United Kingdom, Japanese, Finnish and Swedish markets. New markets, both domestic and international, are evaluated based on many factors, which include the regulatory environment, as well as GRE’s REP businesses ability to procure energy in an efficient and transparent manner. We seek to purchase wholesale energy where there is a real time market that reflects a fair price for the commodity for all participants. Once new markets are determined to be suitable for GRE’s REP businesses, we expend substantial efforts to obtain necessary licenses and will incur significant customer acquisition costs and there can be no assurance that we will be successful in new markets. Furthermore, and as discussed in the Risk Factor entitled "The Company's business is subject to the risks of international operations" there are regulatory differences between the markets that we currently operate in and new markets, including, but not limited to, exposure to credit risk, additional churn caused by tariff requirements, rate-setting requirements and incremental billing costs. A failure to identify, become licensed in, and enter new territories may have a material negative impact on our growth, financial condition and results of operations.

The Company is subject to laws and regulations worldwide, changes to which could increase the Company’s costs and individually or in the aggregate adversely affect the Company’s business.

 

As the Company is expanding its operations geographically, including operations in international jurisdictions, the Company is subject to laws and regulations affecting its domestic and international operations in a number of areas. These U.S. and foreign laws and regulations affect the Company’s activities including, but not limited to, our pricing structure and marketing activities.

 

Compliance with these laws, regulations and similar requirements may be onerous and expensive, and they may be inconsistent from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, further increasing the cost of compliance and doing business. Any such costs, which may rise in the future as a result of changes in these laws and regulations or in their interpretation, could individually or in the aggregate make the Company’s products and services less attractive to the Company’s customers, delay the introduction of new products in one or more regions, or cause the Company to change or limit its business practices. The Company has implemented policies and procedures designed to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations, but there can be no assurance that the Company’s employees, contractors, or agents will not violate such laws and regulations or the Company’s policies and procedures.

 

 

The Company’s business is subject to the risks of international operations.

 

As the Company grows its international operations, it may derive a significant portion of its revenue and earnings from such operations. Compliance with applicable U.S. and foreign laws and regulations, such as import and export requirements, anti-corruption laws, tax laws, foreign exchange controls and cash repatriation restrictions, data privacy requirements, environmental laws, labor laws and anti-competition regulations, increases the costs of doing business in foreign jurisdictions. Although the Company has implemented policies and procedures to comply with these laws and regulations, a violation by the Company’s employees, contractors, or agents could nevertheless occur. In some cases, compliance with the laws and regulations of one country could violate the laws and regulations of another country. Violations of these laws and regulations could materially adversely affect the Company’s brand, international growth efforts and business.

The Company also could be significantly affected by other risks associated with international activities including, but not limited to, learning new markets, adopting to different cultural norms and practices, economic and labor conditions, increased duties, taxes and other costs and political instability. The Company is also exposed to credit and collectability risk on its trade receivables with customers in certain international markets. There can be no assurance the Company can effectively limit its credit risk and avoid losses.

Unfair business practices or other activities of REPs may adversely affect us.

 

Competitors in the highly competitive REP market have engaged in unfair business practices to sign up new customers. Competitors engaging in unfair business practices create an unfavorable impression about our industry on consumers, regulators or political bodies. Such unfair practices by other companies can adversely affect our ability to grow or maintain our customer base. The successes, failures or other activities of various REPs within the markets that we serve may impact how we are perceived in the market. Further, such practices can lead to regulatory action, such as the recent New York PSC Order and other regulatory proceedings and investigations the Company is subject to in several states, that can negatively impact us and the industry.

Demand for REP services and consumption by customers are significantly related to weather conditions.

 

Typically, colder winters and hotter summers create higher demand and consumption for natural gas and electricity, respectively. Milder than normal winters and/or summers may reduce the demand for our energy services, thus negatively impacting our financial results.

 

Unusual weather conditions, which may become more commonplace, may have significant direct and indirect impacts on GRE’s business and results of operations.

 

Potential changes in global climate may produce, among other possible conditions, unusual variations in temperature and weather patterns, resulting in unusual weather conditions, more intense, frequent and extreme weather events and other natural disasters.

A confluence of issues in January and February 2014 associated with the 2013-2014 winter season’s polar vortex resulted in extraordinarily large spikes in the prices of wholesale electricity and natural gas in markets where GRE and other retail providers purchase their supply. Repeats of the circumstances or similar circumstances could similarly harm margins and profitability in the future, and we could find it necessary to take similar or other actions that would have a negative impact on our financial condition and results of operations.

 

Because our variable pricing plan resulted in increased prices charged to customers, we experienced an increase in customer churn as utilities and fixed price REPs appeared to have more attractive pricing, although those increased churn levels have peaked. A failure to mitigate an increase in churn could result in decreases in meters served and revenues.

The retail electricity price increases discussed above resulted in large numbers of customers filing informal and formal complaints to state utility commissions, state attorneys general and state legislators. IDT Energy was served with several thousand formal and informal customer complaints to state utility commission and state attorneys general related to the winter retail price increases. IDT Energy has responded to each customer complaint it has received and attempted to resolve each complaining customer’s concerns. GRE’s REPs also paid approximately $5.0 million in rebates to affected customers in the year ended December 31, 2014. IDT Energy was not under any obligation to provide such rebates and did so in order to mitigate the impact of the price increases on its customers notwithstanding that the underlying cause of the price increase was beyond GRE’s control.

 

If certain REPs, however, are determined to have acted in a manner that was harmful to customers, the entire industry can suffer due to the reputational harm.

In certain markets, we contractually commit to provide customers with a fixed price, irrespective of our cost of supply in the wholesale energy markets. Even under variable contracts, we seek to manage customer price expectations by using reasonable efforts to avoid or mitigate potential pass-throughs related to unforeseeable weather events (even where such pass-throughs are contractually permissible). Although we use our best efforts to reasonably hedge our commodity positions to absorb weather-related cost spikes, we cannot always anticipate unforeseeable extreme weather events, and we may be forced to absorb these cost increases in order to serve our customers.

In January 2021, weather volatility and the lack of adequate gas reserves drove the prices on the JEPX to $2,390 per megawatt hour for an extended period of time. Although our supply commitment for our customers in Japan was reasonably hedged for expected winter weather conditions, the extreme usage spike exposed us to further unexpected cost increases. The Company expects this event to adversely impact our first quarter of 2021 consolidated result of operations by approximately $2.5 million.

In mid-February of 2021, the State of Texas experienced unprecedented cold weather and snow. With the grid overtaxed and rolling blackouts being enforced, by order of ERCOT, real-time commodity prices during the crisis escalated astronomically. Although our supply commitment for our customers in Texas was reasonably hedged for expected winter weather conditions, the extreme usage spike exposed us to further unexpected cost increases. Despite our cost increases related to the unprecedented price volatility in real-time electricity prices, we maintained customer rates under current agreements with customers.

Our current estimate is that the impact on our consolidated profitability will likely be in the range of $12.8 million to $14.0 million for the first quarter of 2021. The Company expects to disclose the full impact in its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ending March 31, 2021 to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in May 2021.

 

GRE is subject to litigation that may limit its operations.

 

In connection with the 2013-2014 events described in the Risk Factor above entitled “Unusual weather conditions may have significant direct and indirect impacts on GRE’s business and results of operations”, IDT Energy was also sued in separate putative class action suits in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, partially related to the price increases during the winter of 2014. From time to time, IDT Energy is also subject to inquiries, investigation or action from public utility commissions or other governmental regulatory or law enforcement agencies related to compliance of its practices with statutory or regulatory schemes. These matters are more fully discussed in Note 16 of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including that IDT Energy entered into a settlement in connection with the three putative class actions, and with multiple regulators and governmental bodies terminating litigation with no admission of liability or finding of wrongdoing by IDT Energy.

IDT Energy does not believe that it was at fault or acted in any way improperly with respect to the events of winter 2014 or in connection with any other practices that are subject to investigation or litigation. Although we have taken action to insulate us and our customers from future similar events, we cannot assure that those actions will be effective and we will not be subject to litigation in the future.

Such class action lawsuits or other claims against us could have a material adverse impact on our financial condition, competitive position or results of operations.

 

Regulatory conditions can affect the amount of taxes and fees we need to pay and our pricing advantages.

 

We are subject to audits in various jurisdictions for various taxes, including income tax, utility excise tax and sales and use tax. Aggressive stances taken recently by regulators increase the likelihood of our having to pay additional taxes and fees in connection with these audits. In the future, we may seek to pass such charges along to our customers, which could have an adverse impact on our pricing advantages.

 

We face risks that are beyond our control due to our reliance on third parties both domestically and internationally and our general reliance on the electrical power and transmission infrastructure within the United States.

 

Our ability to provide energy delivery and commodity services depends on the operations and facilities of third parties, including, among others, BP, NYISO, PJM Shell, Energia Suomi and Astmax. Our reliance on the electrical power generation and transmission infrastructure within the United States makes us vulnerable to large-scale power blackouts. The loss of use or destruction of third party facilities that are used to generate or transmit electricity due to extreme weather conditions, breakdowns, war, acts of terrorism or other occurrences could greatly reduce our potential earnings and cash flows.

 

The REP business, including our relationship with our suppliers, is dependent on access to capital and liquidity.

 

Our business involves entering into contracts to purchase large quantities of electricity and natural gas. Because of seasonal fluctuations, we are generally required to purchase electricity or natural gas in advance and finance that purchase until we can recover such amounts from revenues. Certain of GRE’s REPs have a Preferred Supplier Agreement with BP pursuant to which we purchase electricity and natural gas at market rate plus a fee. The agreement has been modified and extended since 2009, and is scheduled to terminate on November 30, 2023 subject to renewal by agreement of the parties. In addition to other advantages of this agreement, we are only required to post security with BP. There can be no assurance that we will be able to maintain the required covenants, that BP will be able to maintain their required credit rating, or that the agreement will be renewed upon its expiration. In addition, the security requirements outside of the BP agreement may increase as we enter other markets. Difficulty in obtaining adequate credit and liquidity on commercially reasonable terms may adversely affect our business, prospects and financial conditions.

 

A revision to certain utility best practices and programs in which we participate and with which we comply could disrupt our operations and adversely affect our results and operations.

 

Certain retail access “best practices” and programs proposed and/or required by state regulators have been implemented by utilities in most of the service territories in which we operate. One such practice is participation in purchase of receivables programs under which certain utilities purchase customer receivables for approximately 98% of their face value in exchange for a first priority lien in the customer receivables without recourse against a REP. This program is a key to our control of bad debt risk in our REP business.

The REP business depends on maintaining the licenses in the states in which we operate and any loss of those licenses would adversely affect our business, prospects and financial conditions.

 

 

GRE’s REP businesses require licenses from public utility commissions and other regulatory organizations to operate its business. Those agencies may impose various requirements to obtain or maintain licenses. Further, certain non-governmental organizations have been focusing on the REP industry and the treatment of customers by certain REPs. Any negative publicity regarding the REP industry in general, including, but not limited to, legislatures potentially seeking to restrict the activities of REPs and GRE in particular or any increase in customer complaints regarding GRE’s REP businesses could negatively affect our relationship with the various commissions and regulatory agencies and could negatively impact our ability to obtain new licenses to expand operations or maintain the licenses currently held. In the aftermath of the polar vortex, several regulatory bodies adopted more aggressive policies toward REPs, including the action against IDT Energy in Pennsylvania described elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Any loss of our REP licenses would cause a negative impact on our results of operations, financial condition and cash flow.

 

The REP business depends on the continuing efforts of our management team and our personnel with strong industry or operational knowledge and our efforts may be severely disrupted if we lose their services.

 

Our success depends on key members of our management team, the loss of whom could disrupt our business operation. Our business also requires a capable, well-trained workforce to operate effectively. There can be no assurance that we will be able to retain our qualified personnel, the loss of whom may adversely affect our business, prospects and financial conditions.

 

We could be harmed by network disruptions, security breaches, or other significant disruptions or failures of our IT infrastructure and related systems or of those we operate for certain of our customers

 

To be successful, we need to continue to have available, for our and our customers' used, a high capacity, reliable and secure network. We face the risk, as does any company, of a security breach, whether through cyber-attack, malware, computer viruses, sabotage, or other significant disruption of our IT infrastructure and related systems. As such, there is a risk of a security breach or disruption of the system we operated, including possible unauthorized access to our and our customers' proprietary or classified information. We are also subject to breaches of out network resulting in unauthorized utilization of our services or products, which subject us to the costs of providing those products or services, which are likely not recoverable. The secure maintenance and transmission of our and our customers' information is a critical element of our operations. Our information technology and other systems that maintain and transmit customer  information, or those of service providers or business partners, may be compromised by a malicious third party penetration of our network security, or that of a third party service provider or business partner, or impacted by advertent or inadvertent actions or inactions by our employees, or those of a third party service provider or business partner. As a result, our or our customers' information may be lost, disclosed, accessed or taken without the customers' consent or our product and service may be used without payment.

 

Although we make significant efforts to maintain the security and integrity of these types of information and systems, there can be no assurance that our security efforts and measures will be effective or that attempted security breaches or disruptions would not be successful or damaging, especially in light of the growing sophistication of cyber-attacks and intrusions sponsored by state or other interests. We may be unable to anticipate all potential types of attacks or intrusions or to implement adequate security barriers or other preventative measures. Certain of our business units have been the subject of attempted and successful cyber-attacks in the past. We have researched the situations and do not believe any material internal or customer information has been compromised.

Network disruptions, security breaches and other significant failures of the above-described systems could (i) disrupt the proper functioning of our networks and systems and therefore our operations or those of certain of our customers; (ii) result in the unauthorized use of our services or products without payment, (iii) result in the unauthorized access to, and destruction, loss, theft, misappropriation or release of proprietary, confidential, sensitive or otherwise valuable information of ours or our customers, including trade secrets, which others could use to compete against us or for disruptive, destructive or otherwise harmful purposes and outcomes; (iv) require significant management attention or financial resources to remedy the damages that result or to change our systems and processes; (v) subject us to claims for contract breach, damages, credits, fines, penalties, termination or other remedies; or (vi) result in a loss of business, damage our reputation among our customers and the public generally, subject us to additional regulatory scrutiny or expose us to litigation. Any or all of which could have a negative impact on our results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.

 

Our growth strategy depends, in part, on our acquiring complementary businesses and assets and expanding our existing operations, which we may be unable to do.

 

Our growth strategy is based, in part, on our ability to acquire businesses and assets that are complementary to our existing operations. We may also seek to acquire other businesses. The success of this acquisition strategy will depend, in part, on our ability to accomplish the following:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There can be no assurance that we will be successful in pursuing any or all of these steps. Our failure to implement our acquisition strategy could have an adverse effect on other aspects of our business strategy and our business in general. We may not be able to find appropriate acquisition candidates, acquire those candidates that we find or integrate acquired businesses effectively or profitably.

Risks Related to Genie Energy Services

Competition in solar markets globally and across the solar value chain is intense, and could remain that way for an extended period of time. An increased global supply of PV modules has caused and may continue to cause structural imbalances in which global PV module supply exceeds demand, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. 

In the aggregate, we believe manufacturers of solar cells and modules have significant installed production capacity, relative to global demand, and the ability for additional capacity expansion. We believe the solar industry may from time to time experience periods of structural imbalance between supply and demand (i.e., where production capacity exceeds global demand), and that such periods will continue to put pressure on pricing. We believe the solar industry is currently in such a period, due in part to recent developments in China, which include feed-in-tariff reductions causing deferment of in-country project development. During the past several years, industry average selling prices per watt have declined, at times significantly, both at the module and system levels, as competitors have reduced prices to sell inventories worldwide. There may be additional pressure on global demand and average selling prices in the future resulting from fluctuating demand in certain major solar markets such as China. If our competitors reduce module pricing to levels near or below their manufacturing costs, or are able to operate at minimal or negative operating margins for sustained periods of time, or if demand for PV modules does not grow sufficiently to justify the current production supply, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.

If PV solar and related technologies are not suitable for widespread adoption at economically attractive rates of return or if sufficient additional demand for solar modules, related technologies, and systems does not develop or takes longer to develop than we anticipate, our net sales and profit may flatten or decline and we may be unable to sustain profitability.

In comparison to traditional forms of energy generation, the solar energy market continues to be at a relatively early stage of development and depend on certain government subsidies to be attractive to customers. If utility-scale PV solar technology proves unsuitable for widespread adoption at economically attractive rates of return or if additional demand for solar modules and systems fails to develop sufficiently or takes longer to develop than we anticipate, we may be unable to grow our business or generate sufficient net sales to sustain profitability. In addition, demand for solar modules, related technologies, and systems in our targeted markets may develop to a lesser extent than we anticipate. Many factors may affect the viability of widespread adoption of utility-scale PV solar technology in our targeted markets, as well as the demand for solar modules and systems generally.

The reduction, modification or elimination of government incentives could cause our revenue to decline and harm our financial results.

The market for on-grid applications, where solar power is used to supplement a customer’s electricity purchased from the utility network or sold to a utility under tariff, depends in large part on the availability and size of government mandates and economic incentives because, at present, the cost of solar power generally exceeds retail electric rates in many locations and wholesale peak power rates in some locations. Incentives and mandates vary by geographic market. Various government bodies in most of the countries where we do business have provided incentives in the form of feed-in tariffs, rebates, and tax credits and other incentives and mandates, such as renewable portfolio standards and net metering, to end-users, distributors, system integrators and manufacturers of solar power products to promote the use of solar energy in on-grid applications and to reduce dependency on other forms of energy. These various forms of support for solar power are subject to change (as, for example, occurred in 2015 with Nevada’s decision to change net energy metering; and in 2017 with California's adoption of new time-of-use rates that reduced the price paid to solar system owners for mid-day electricity production), and are expected in the longer term to decline. Even changes that may be viewed as positive (such as the extension at the end of 2015 of U.S. tax credits related to solar power) can have negative effects if they result, for example, in delaying purchases that otherwise might have been made before expiration or scheduled reductions in such credits. Governmental decisions regarding the provision of economic incentives often depend on political and economic factors that we cannot predict and that are beyond our control. The reduction, modification or elimination of grid access, government mandates or economic incentives in one or more of our customer markets would materially and adversely affect the growth of such markets or result in increased price competition, either of which could cause our revenue to decline and materially adversely affect our financial results.

We may be unable to profitably provide new solar offerings or achieve sufficient market penetration with such offerings. 

We may expand our portfolio of offerings to include solutions that build upon our core competencies but for which we have not had significant historical experience, including variations in our traditional product offerings or other offerings related to commercial and industrial customers and community solar. We cannot be certain that we will be able to ascertain and allocate the appropriate financial and human resources necessary to grow these business areas. We could invest capital into growing these businesses but fail to address market or customer needs or otherwise not experience a satisfactory level of financial return. Also, in expanding into these areas, we may be competing against companies that previously have not been significant competitors, such as companies that currently have substantially more experience than we do in the residential, commercial and industrial, or other targeted offerings. If we are unable to achieve growth in these areas, our overall growth and financial performance may be limited relative to our competitors and our operating results could be adversely impacted.

An increase in interest rates or tightening of the supply of capital in the global financial markets (including a reduction in total tax equity availability) could make it difficult for customers to finance the cost of a PV solar power system and could reduce the demand for our modules or systems and/or lead to a reduction in the average selling price for such offerings.

Customers may depend on debt and/or equity financing to fund the initial capital expenditure required to develop, build, and/or purchase a PV solar power system. As a result, an increase in interest rates, or a reduction in the supply of project debt financing or tax equity investments (including reductions due to a change in tax related incentives that benefit tax equity investors, such as the reduction of the U.S. corporate income tax rate to 21% under the Tax Act, which could reduce the value of these incentives), could reduce the number of solar projects that receive financing or otherwise make it difficult for our customers or our systems business to secure the financing necessary to develop, build, purchase, or install a PV solar power system on favorable terms, or at all, and thus lower demand for our solar modules, which could limit our growth or reduce our net sales. See the Risk Factor entitled “The reduction, elimination, or expiration of government subsidies, economic incentives, tax incentives, renewable energy targets, and other support for on-grid solar electricity applications, or other adverse public policies, such as tariffs or other trade remedies imposed on solar cells and modules, could negatively impact demand and/or price levels for our solar modules and systems and limit our growth or lead to a reduction in our net sales, thereby adversely impacting our operating results” for additional information. In addition, we believe that a significant percentage of our customers install systems as an investment, funding the initial capital expenditure through a combination of equity and debt. An increase in interest rates and the reduction of the U.S. corporate income tax rate as described above could lower an investor’s return on investment in a system, increase equity return requirements, or make alternative investments more attractive relative to PV solar power systems and, in each case, could cause these customers to seek alternative investments.

We face intense competition from manufacturers of crystalline silicon solar modules, as well as other thin film solar modules; if global supply exceeds global demand, it could lead to a further reduction in the average selling price for PV solar modules, which could reduce our net sales and adversely affect our results of operations. 

The solar and renewable energy industries are highly competitive and are continually evolving as participants strive to distinguish themselves within their markets and compete with the larger electric power industry. Within the global PV solar industry, we face intense competition from crystalline silicon solar module manufacturers and other thin film solar module manufacturers. Existing or future solar module manufacturers might be acquired by larger companies with significant capital resources, thereby further intensifying competition with us. In addition, the introduction of a low cost disruptive technology could adversely affect our ability to compete, which could reduce our net sales and adversely affect our results of operations.

 

Problems with product quality or performance may cause us to incur significant and/or unexpected contractual damages and/or warranty and related expenses, damage our market reputation, and prevent us from maintaining or increasing our market share.

We perform a variety of quality and life tests under different conditions upon which we base our assessments and warranty. However, if our products perform below expectations, we could experience significant warranty and related expenses, damage to our market reputation, and erosion of our market share.

 

If any of the assumptions used in estimating our warranties prove incorrect, we could be required to accrue additional expenses, which could adversely impact our financial position, operating results, and cash flows. Although we have taken significant precautions to avoid a manufacturing excursion from occurring, any manufacturing excursions, including any commitments made by us to take remediation actions in respect of affected modules beyond the stated remedies in our warranties, could adversely impact our reputation, financial position, operating results, and cash flows.

 

Any widespread product failures may damage our market reputation, cause our net sales to decline, require us to repair or replace the defective products or provide financial remuneration, and result in us taking voluntary remedial measures beyond those required by our standard warranty terms to enhance customer satisfaction, which could have a material adverse effect on our operating results.

Our failure to protect our intellectual property rights may undermine our competitive position, and litigation to protect our intellectual property rights or defend against third-party allegations of infringement may be costly.

Protection of our proprietary processes, methods, and other technology is critical to our business. Failure to protect and monitor the use of our existing intellectual property rights could result in the loss of valuable technologies. We rely primarily on patents, trademarks, trade secrets, copyrights, and contractual restrictions to protect our intellectual property. We regularly file patent applications to protect certain inventions arising from our R&D and are currently pursuing such patent applications in various countries in accordance with our strategy for intellectual property in that jurisdiction. Our existing patents and future patents could be challenged, invalidated, circumvented, or rendered unenforceable. Our pending patent applications may not result in issued patents, or if patents are issued to us, such patents may not be sufficient to provide meaningful protection against competitors or against competitive technologies.

 

We also rely on unpatented proprietary manufacturing expertise, continuing technological innovation, and other trade secrets to develop and maintain our competitive position. Although we generally enter into confidentiality agreements with our associates and third parties to protect our intellectual property, such confidentiality agreements are limited in duration and could be breached and may not provide meaningful protection for our trade secrets or proprietary manufacturing expertise. Adequate remedies may not be available in the event of unauthorized use or disclosure of our trade secrets and manufacturing expertise. In addition, others may obtain knowledge of our trade secrets through independent development or legal means. The failure of our patents or confidentiality agreements to protect our processes, equipment, technology, trade secrets, and proprietary manufacturing expertise, methods, and compounds could have a material adverse effect on our business. In addition, effective patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret protection may be unavailable or limited in some foreign countries, especially any developing countries into which we may expand our operations. In some countries, we have not applied for patent, trademark, or copyright protection.

 

Several of our key raw materials and components are either single-sourced or sourced from a limited number of suppliers, and their failure to perform could cause manufacturing delays and impair our ability to deliver solar modules to customers in the required quality and quantities and at a price that is profitable to us.

Our failure to obtain raw materials and components that meet our quality, quantity, and cost requirements in a timely manner could interrupt or impair our ability to manufacture our solar modules or increase our manufacturing costs. Several of our key raw materials and components are either single-sourced or sourced from a limited number of suppliers. As a result, the failure of any of our suppliers to perform could disrupt our supply chain and adversely impact our operations. In addition, some of our suppliers are smaller companies that may be unable to supply our increasing demand for raw materials and components as we expand our business. We may be unable to identify new suppliers or qualify their products for use on our production lines in a timely manner and on commercially reasonable terms. A constraint on our production may result in our inability to meet our capacity plans and/or our obligations under our customer contracts, which would have an adverse impact on our business. Additionally, reductions in our production volume may put pressure on suppliers, resulting in increased material and component costs.

 

Existing regulations and policies and changes to these regulations and policies may present technical, regulatory, and economic barriers to the purchase and use of solar power products, which may significantly reduce demand for our products and services.

The market for electric generation products is heavily influenced by federal, state and local government laws, regulations and policies concerning the electric utility industry in the United States and abroad, as well as policies promulgated by electric utilities. These regulations and policies often relate to electricity pricing and technical interconnection of customer-owned electricity generation, and changes that make solar power less competitive with other power sources could deter investment in the research and development of alternative energy sources as well as customer purchases of solar power technology, which could in turn result in a significant reduction in the demand for our solar power products. 

 

We may not realize the anticipated benefits of past or future business combinations or acquisition transactions, and integration of business combinations may disrupt our business and management.

We have made several acquisitions in prior years, including the acquisition of Prism Solar Technologies, and in the future we may acquire additional companies, project pipelines, products, or technologies or enter into joint ventures or other strategic initiatives. We may not realize the anticipated benefits of such business combinations or acquisitions, and each transaction has numerous risks, which may include the following:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mergers and acquisitions of companies are inherently risky, and ultimately, if we do not complete the integration of acquired businesses successfully and in a timely manner, we may not realize the anticipated benefits of the acquisitions to the extent anticipated, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, or results of operations. In addition, we may seek to dispose of our interests in acquired companies, project pipelines, products, or technologies. We may not recover our initial investment in such interests, in part or at all, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, or results of operations. 

 

Risks Related to Genie Oil and Gas  

 

Genie Oil and Gas is subject to regulatory, legal and political risks that may limit its operations.

 

Our operations and potential earnings may be affected from time to time in varying degree by regulatory, legal and political factors, including laws and regulations related to environmental or energy security matters, including those addressing alternative and renewable energy sources and the risks of global climate change and legal challenges. Such laws and regulations continue to increase in both number and complexity and affect our operations.

 

Risk Related to Our Financial Condition and Reporting

 

We had a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting in previous years and cannot assure you that additional material weaknesses will not be identified in the future.

Management identified deficiencies in our internal controls over financial reporting which aggregated to a material weakness, specifically related to management's review of the income tax provision. Remediation of these weaknesses had not yet been completed, and therefore these deficiencies continued to exist as of December 31, 2020 (see Item 9A Control and Procedures in this Annual Report on Form 10-K).

We also reported in our Annual Report on Form 10-K as of December 31, 2018, a material weakness in internal control related to an application, which the Company uses to process a wide variety of functions for GRE related to customer enrollment, customer programs and price plans, rebate programs, sales commissions, invoicing, and invoice payment information. During 2019, we completed the remediation measures related to the material weakness and concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2019. Completion of remediation does not provide assurance that our remediation or other controls will continue to operate properly.

While we aim to work diligently to ensure a robust internal control that is devoid of significant deficiencies and material weaknesses, given the complexity of the accounting rules, we may, in the future, identify additional significant deficiencies or material weaknesses in our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. Any failure to maintain or implement required new or improved controls, or any difficulties we encounter in their implementation, could result in additional significant deficiencies or material weaknesses, cause us to fail to meet our periodic reporting obligations or result in material misstatements in our financial statements. Any such failure could also adversely affect the results of periodic management evaluations and annual auditor attestation reports regarding the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting required under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and the rules promulgated under Section 404. The existence of a material weakness could result in errors in our financial statements that could result in a restatement of financial statements, cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations and cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information, leading to a decline in our stock price. See Item 9A Controls and Procedures for a further discussion of our assessment of our internal controls over financial reporting.

 

 

Risks Related to Our Capital Structure

 

Holders of our Class B common stock and Series 2012-A Preferred Stock have significantly less voting power than holders of our Class A common stock.

 

Holders of our Class B common stock and Series 2012-A Preferred Stock are entitled to one-tenth of a vote per share on all matters on which our stockholders are entitled to vote, while holders of our Class A common stock are entitled to three votes per share. As a result, the ability of holders of our Class B common stock and Series 2012-A Preferred Stock to influence our management is limited.

Holders of our Series 2012-A Preferred Stock are entitled to an annual dividend and such payments may have a negative impact on our cash flow.

 

Holders of our Series 2012-A Preferred Stock are entitled to receive an annual dividend, payable quarterly in cash. The payment of such dividend could have a negative impact on our cash flow and cash balances. If dividends on any shares of the Series 2012-A Preferred Stock are in arrears for six or more quarters, whether or not consecutive, holders of the Series 2012-A Preferred Stock shall have the right to elect two (2) additional directors to serve on our Board, and this could have a negative impact on the market price of our equity securities.

 

Eight trusts for the benefit of sons and daughters of Howard S. Jonas, our Chairman of the Board of Directors, hold shares that, in the aggregate, represent more than a majority of the combined voting power of our outstanding capital stock, which may limit the ability of other stockholders to affect our management.

 

Eight trusts for the benefit of children of Howard S. Jonas, (the "Trusts"), our Chairman of the Board, collectively have voting power over 5,121,214 shares of our common stock, (which is all the issued and outstanding shares of the Class A common stock), which are convertible into shares of our Class B common stock on a 1-for-1 basis, and 3,546,888 shares of our Class B common stock), representing approximately 68.0% of the combined voting power of our outstanding capital stock, as of March 9, 2021. In addition, as of March 9, 2021, Howard S. Jonas holds 3,328,601 shares of our Class B common stock. Each of the Trusts has a different, independent trustee.

Howard Jonas serves as our Chairman of the Board, which is not an officer position.  However, he is our founder and served as an executive officer, including our Chief Executive Officer, for a very significant time period, and the members of the Board and management often look to him for guidance on major financial, operational and strategic matters. 

Howard S. Jonas does not have the right to direct or control the voting of the shares of our common stock that is held by the Trusts, and the independent trustees hold sole voting and dispositive power over the common stock held by the Trusts. However, he is the trustor of the trusts and is the father of each of the beneficiaries of the Trusts and his views may be taken into account by the trustees and others related to the Trusts.

We are not aware of any voting agreement between or among any of the Trusts and/or Howard S. Jonas, but if such a voting agreement or other similar arrangement exists or were to be consummated, if all or several or all of the Trusts were to act in concert, or if we issued additional Class A common stock, certain or all of the Trusts and/or Howard S. Jonas along with holders of the Class A common stock would be able to control matters requiring approval by our stockholders, including the election of all of the directors, amendment of organizational documents and the approval of significant corporate transactions, including any merger, consolidation or sale of all or substantially all of our assets. As a result, the ability of any of our other stockholders to influence our management may be limited. In addition, our dual class structure has an anti-takeover effect, and accordingly, the holders of the shares of Class A common stock have the ability to prevent any change in control transactions that may otherwise be in the best interest of stockholders.

 

 

None.

 

 

Our headquarters are located at 520 Broad St., Newark, New Jersey. Our lease for our office space at 520 Broad Street expires in April 2025 and is for 8,631 square feet and includes two parking spots per thousand square feet of space leased. The annual base rent is $198,513. We have the right to terminate the lease upon four months’ notice and upon early termination Genie will pay a penalty equal to 25% of the portion of the rent due over the course of the remaining term. Upon expiration of the lease, we have the right to renew the lease for another 5 years on substantially the same terms, with a 2% increase in the rental payments.

 

GRE’s Jamestown, New York offices are located at 3315 North Main Street where we lease approximately 12,000 square feet of space. GRE’s Florida office is located in Holiday, Florida where we lease approximately 4,350 square feet. GRE’s Arizona office is located in Chandler, Arizona where we lease approximately 3,300 square feet. GRE’s Texas office is located in Houston, Texas where we lease approximately 4,200 square feet.

Genie Energy's Tokyo, Japan offices are located at PMO Hamamatsucho 8F, 2-5-5 Hamamatsucho Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0013 where we lease approximately 2,023 square feet of space. Lumo's Helsinki, Finland office are located at Teollisuuskatu 21 00510, Helsinki, Finland where we lease approximately 3,143 square feet of space. Shoreditch’s U. K. offices are located at st/ Dunstans House, 201 Borough High Street, London, SE1 1JA where we lease approximately 830 square feet of space.

 

Certain legal proceedings in which we are involved are discussed in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements — Notes 16, Legal and Regulatory Proceedings, in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, which is incorporated by reference.

 

 

Not applicable.

 

 

 

 

CLASS B COMMON STOCK

Our Class B common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “GNE”.

 

On March 9, 2021, there were 305 holders of record of our Class B common stock and 8 holders of record of our Class A common stock. All shares of Class A common stock are beneficially owned by eight trusts or the benefit of children of Howard Jonas, our Chairman of the Board. These numbers do not include the number of persons whose shares are in nominee or in “street name” accounts through brokers. On March 11, 2021, the last sales price reported on the New York Stock Exchange for the Class B common stock was $7.20 per share.

 

PREFERRED STOCK

 

The Series 2012-A Preferred Stock is listed and traded on the NYSE under the symbol “GNEPRA”. Trading began on the NYSE on October 24, 2012.

 

On March 9, 2021, there were 4 holders of record of our Series 2012-A Preferred Stock. These numbers do not include the number of persons whose shares are in nominee or in “street name” accounts through brokers. On March 11, 2021, the last sales price reported on the New York Stock Exchange for the Series 2012-A Preferred Stock was $9.19 per share.

 

Additional information regarding dividends required by this item is incorporated by reference from the Management’s Discussion and Analysis section in Item 7 to Part II and Note 13 to the Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 to Part II of this Annual Report.

 

The information required by Item 201(d) of Regulation S-K will be contained in our Proxy Statement for our Annual Stockholders Meeting, which we will file with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after December 31, 2020, and which is incorporated by reference herein.

 

 

Performance Graph of Stock

 

We are a smaller reporting company as defined by Rule 12b-2 of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 and are not required to provide the information under this item. 

 

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

 

The following table provides information with respect to purchases by us of our shares during the fourth quarter of the year ended December 31, 2020.

 

 

 

We are a smaller reporting company as defined by Rule 12b-2 of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 and are not required to provide the information under this item.

 

This Annual Report contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements that contain the words “believes,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “plans,” “intends” and similar words and phrases. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results projected in any forward-looking statement. In addition to the factors specifically noted in the forward-looking statements, other important factors, risks and uncertainties that could result in those differences include, but are not limited to, those discussed under Item 1A to Part I “Risk Factors” in this Annual Report. The forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this Annual Report, and we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Investors should consult all of the information set forth in this report and the other information set forth from time to time in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including our reports on Forms 10-Q and 8-K.

 

The following discussion should be read in conjunction with the Consolidated Financial Statements and Notes thereto included in Item 8 of this Annual Report.

 

 Overview

We are comprised of Genie Retail Energy ("GRE"), Genie Retail Energy International ("GRE International") and Genie Energy Services ("GES").

GRE owns and operates retail energy providers ("REPs"), including IDT Energy, Residents Energy, Town Square Energy ("TSE"), Southern Federal and Mirabito Natural Gas. GRE's REP businesses resell electricity and natural gas primarily to residential and small business customers, with the majority of the customers in the Midwestern and Eastern United States and Texas.

GRE International holds the Company's REPs that serves retail customers in the United Kingdom under the name Orbit Energy and in Japan.  It holds 92.5% controlling interest in Lumo Energia Ojy ("Lumo Finland"), a REP serving residential customers in Finland and 100.0% of Lumo Energi AB ("Lumo Sweden"), which serves retail customers in Sweden. In October 2020, the Company acquired the remaining 23.0% interest in Shoreditch which increased the Company's interest to 100%.

GES holds Diversegy, a retail energy advisory and brokerage company that serves commercial and industrial customers throughout U.S. and our 60.0% controlling interest in Prism Solar. Prism is a solar solutions company that is engaged in solar project marketing, solar solution consultation, installation design and project management services. 

In December 2020, Afek Oil & Gas Ltd., the oil and gas exploration project in the Golan Heights in Northern Israel (“Afek”), completed the final planned testing on one of its completed exploratory wells. The test was conducted as prior analysis indicated that a zone within the well potentially contained evidence of hydrocarbons at levels sufficient to warrant additional testing. After analyzing the results of the test and subsequent activity, as no traces of light oil were found. As a result, Afek ceased its exploratory operations. The remaining assets and liabilities and the results of operations are included within the corporate segment for reporting purposes.

As part of our ongoing business development efforts, we seek out new opportunities, which may include complementary operations or businesses that reflect horizontal or vertical expansion from our current operations. Some of these potential opportunities are considered briefly and others are examined in further depth. In particular, we seek out acquisitions to expand the geographic scope and size of our REP businesses.

Coronavirus Disease (COVID 19)

Starting in the first quarter 2020, the world and the United States experienced the unprecedented impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

For the year ended December 31, 2020, the impacts of COVID-19 are evident in several key aspects of our business operations and the corresponding financial impact has been mixed. Our consolidated revenues for the year ended December 31, 2020, compared to the same period in 2019, increased by $64.0 million equivalent to 20.3%. 

Our customer base is predominantly residential, so we benefited from the increased demand for electricity when customers are working from their homes. On the other hand, like other retail energy providers, we suspended our face-to-face customer acquisition programs in March 2020 as public health measures were implemented to combat COVID-19, resulting in a decrease in gross meter acquisitions and a flat growth in the U.S. domestic meters served. The reduction in gross meter acquisitions decreased our customer acquisition expense in the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to 2019. Churn the year ended December 31, 2020 decreased compared to 2019, in part, due to our competitors suspending face to face marketing programs. 

We did not experience any significant changes in our workforce composition and were able to implement our business continuity plans with no significant impact to our ability to maintain our operations. We continue to maintain strong physical and cybersecurity measures in order to both serve our operational needs with a remote workforce and to ensure that we continue to provide services to our customers. We face challenges due to the need to operate with a remote workforce and are continuing to address those challenges so as to minimize the impact on our ability to operate. 

Beginning the third quarter of 2020, public health restrictions have begun to ease in some of our markets which allow us to resume face-to-face sales and marketing. Looking ahead, we expect to see a modest rebound in meter acquisition, however, any reversal of the easing of restrictions would impact that expected rebound.

 

There are many uncertainties regarding the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we are closely monitoring those impacts of on all aspects of its business, including how it will impact our customers, employees, suppliers, vendors, and business partners. We are currently unable to predict the impact that COVID-19 will have on our financial position and operating results due to the complexities of the impacts and numerous uncertainties that are beyond the Company's control. We expect to continue to assess the evolving impact of COVID-19 on our business and assets and intend to make adjustments accordingly.

 

Genie Retail Energy

 

GRE operates REPs that resell electricity and/or natural gas to residential and small business customers in Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas, Rhode Island, and Washington, D.C. GRE’s revenues represented approximately 80.5% and 90.9% of our consolidated revenues in the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively

 

GRE’s cost of revenues consists primarily of natural gas and electricity purchased for resale. Certain of GRE’s REPs are party to an Amended and Restated Preferred Supplier Agreement with BP Energy Company, or BP, which is in effect through November 30, 2023. Those REPs ability to purchase electricity and natural gas under this agreement is subject to satisfaction of certain conditions including the maintenance of certain covenants.

 

As an operator of REPs, GRE does not own electrical power generation, transmission, or distribution facilities, or natural gas production, pipeline or distribution facilities. Instead, GRE’s REPs contract with various pipeline and distribution companies for natural gas pipeline, storage and transportation services, and utilizes NYISO, PJM, ISO New England and MISO for electric transmission and distribution. GRE’s cost of revenues includes scheduling costs, ISO fees, pipeline costs and utility service charges for the purchase of these services.

 

For risk management purposes, GRE’s REPs utilize put and call options and swaps as hedges against unfavorable fluctuations in market prices of electricity and natural gas and to reduce exposure from price fluctuations. The put and call options and swaps are recorded at fair value as a current asset or liability and any changes in fair value are recorded in cost of revenues. The impact of these options and swaps on cost of revenues is relatively small in comparison to the purchases of gas and electricity for resale.

 

The electricity transmission and distribution operators perform real-time load balancing for each of the electrical power grids in which GRE’s REPs operate. Similarly, the utility or the local distribution company, or LDC, performs load balancing for each of the natural gas markets in which GRE’s REPs operate. Load balancing ensures that the amount of electricity and natural gas that GRE’s REPs purchase is equal to the amount necessary to service their customers’ demands at any specific point in time. GRE’s REPs manage the differences between the actual electricity and natural gas demands of its customers and its bulk or block purchases by buying and selling in the spot market, and through monthly cash settlements and/or adjustments to futures deliveries in accordance with the load balancing performed by utilities, LDCs, and electricity transmission and distribution operators. Suppliers and the LDC’s charge or credit GRE for balancing the electricity and natural gas purchased and sold for its account.

 

 

Local utilities generally meter and deliver electricity and natural gas to GRE’s REPs' customers. The local utilities also provide billing and collection services on GRE’s REPs behalf for most of customers and certain local utilities offer purchase of receivables, or POR, programs. GRE’s REPs receive the proceeds less the utility’s fees for purchase of receivables billing and other ancillary services, where applicable. 

Volatility in the electricity and natural gas markets affects the wholesale cost of the electricity and natural gas that GRE’s REPs sell to customers. GRE’s REPs may not always choose to pass along increases in costs to their customers for various reasons including competitive pressures and for overall customer satisfaction. In addition, GRE’s REPs offer fixed rate products or guaranteed pricing and may be unable to change their sell rates offered to fixed rate and guaranteed pricing customers in response to volatility in the prices of the underlying commodities. This can adversely affect GRE’s gross margins and results of operations. Alternatively, increases in GRE’s REPs rates charged to customers may lead to increased customer churn.

 

GRE’s REPs’ selling expense consists primarily of sales commissions paid to independent agents and marketing costs, which are the primary costs associated with the acquisition of customers. Selling, general and administrative expense includes compensation, benefits, utility fees for billing and collection, professional fees, rent and other administrative costs.

 

Seasonality and Weather

 

The weather and the seasons, among other things, affect GRE’s REPs’ revenues. Weather conditions have a significant impact on the demand for natural gas used for heating and electricity used for heating and cooling. Typically, colder winters increase demand for natural gas and electricity, and hotter summers increase demand for electricity. Milder winters and/or summers have the opposite effect. Unseasonable temperatures in other periods may also impact demand levels. Potential changes in global climate may produce, among other possible conditions, unusual variations in temperature and weather patterns, resulting in unusual weather conditions, more intense, frequent and extreme weather events and other natural disasters. Some climatologists believe that these extreme weather events will become more common and more extreme which will have a greater impact on our operations. Natural gas revenues typically increase in the first quarter due to increased heating demands and electricity revenues typically increase in the third quarter due to increased air conditioning use. Approximately 47.7% and 46.9% of GRE’s natural gas revenues for the relevant years were generated in the first quarter of 2020 and 2019, respectively, when demand for heating was highest. Although the demand for electricity is not as seasonal as natural gas (due, in part, to usage of electricity for both heating and cooling), approximately 31.8 % of GRE’s electricity revenues for 2020 and 2019, respectively, were generated in the third quarters of those years. GRE’s REPs’ revenues and operating income are subject to material seasonal variations, and the interim financial results are not necessarily indicative of the estimated financial results for the full year.

Concentration of Customers and Associated Credit Risk

 

GRE’s REPs reduce their customer credit risk by participating in purchase of receivable programs for a majority of their receivables. In addition to providing billing and collection services, some utility companies purchase those REPs’ receivables and assume all credit risk without recourse to those REPs for those purchased receivables. GRE’s REPs primary credit risk with respect to those purchased receivables is therefore nonpayment by the utility companies. Certain of the utility companies represent significant portions of our consolidated revenues and consolidated gross trade accounts receivable balance during certain periods, and such concentrations increase our risk associated with nonpayment by those utility companies.

There was no single utility company or customer that accounted for 10% or greater of our consolidated revenues and gross trade accounts receivable for the year ended December 31, 2020 and at December 31, 2020 or 2019.

  

Purchase of Receivable

Utility companies offer purchase of receivable, or POR, programs in most of the service territories in which we operate. GRE’s REPs reduce their customer credit risk by participating in POR programs for a majority of their receivables. In addition to providing billing and collection services, utility companies purchase those REPs’ receivables and assume all credit risk without recourse to those REPs. GRE’s REPs’ primary credit risk is therefore nonpayment by the utility companies. In the year ended December 31, 2020, the associated cost was approximately 1.0% of GRE's revenue. At December 31, 2020, 87.0% of GRE’s net accounts receivables were under a POR program.

Class Action Lawsuits

Although GRE endeavors to maintain best sales and marketing practices, such practices have been the subject of certain class action lawsuits.

On October 5, 2018, named plaintiffs Scott Mackey and Daniel Hernandez filed a putative class action complaint against IDT Energy in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection , 47 U.S.C. § 227 et seq. On November 17, 2020, IDT Energy settled with the named for plaintiffs in exchange for a  minimal payment and the case has been dismissed.

On February 18, 2020, named Plaintiff Danelle Davis filed a putative class action complaint against Residents Energy and GRE in United States District of New Jersey alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C § 227 et seq. Residents Energy denies allegations in the complaint and plans to vigorously defend this action. Based upon the Company's preliminary assessment of this matter, a loss is not considered probable, nor is the amount of loss if any, estimable as of December 31, 2020.  On or around October 9, 2020, Residents Energy filed a preliminary motion to dismiss one of the counts in the complaint, and to dismiss Genie Retail Energy as a named defendant.

See Notes 16, Legal and Regulatory Proceedings, in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, which is incorporated by reference.

Agency and Regulatory Proceedings 

From time to time, the Company responds to inquiries or requests for information or materials from public utility commissions or other governmental regulatory or law enforcement agencies related to investigations under statutory or regulatory schemes. The Company cannot predict whether any of those matters will lead to claims or enforcement actions or whether the Company and the regulatory parties will enter into settlements before a formal claim is made. See Notes 16, Legal and Regulatory Proceedings, in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, which is incorporated by reference, for further detail on agency and regulatory proceedings. 

New York Public Service Commission Orders 

 

In December 2017, the New York Public Service Commission (“PSC”) held an evidentiary hearing to assess the retail energy market in New York. On December 12, 2019, following the completion of post-hearing briefings in the proceedings, the PSC issued orders adopting the changes to the New York retail energy market, effective April 16, 2020 (“2020 Orders”). The 2020 Orders limit the types of the services energy retailer marketers may offer new customers or renewals, in terms of pricing for non-renewable commodities and renewable product offerings. Although the Company is working to ensure that its products and services are fully compatible with the 2020 Orders, such compliance may adversely impact customer acquisition and renewal revenue and profitability. The Company is evaluating its options, both by itself and in tandem with other industry participants, to challenge or petition for additional clarity and changes to the 2020 Orders. There is insufficient basis to deem any loss probable or to assess the amount of any possible loss based on the changes instituted by the 2020 Orders.  As of December 31, 2020, New York represented 19.4% of GRE’s total meters served and 14.7% of the total residential customer equivalents (“RCEs”) of GRE’s customer base. For the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, gross revenue from New York was $56.7 million and $63.2 million, respectively.

An RCE represents a natural gas customer with annual consumption of 100 mmbtu or an electricity customer with annual consumption of 10 MWh. Because different customers have different rates of energy consumption, RCEs are an industry standard metric for evaluating the consumption profile of a given retail customer base.

State of Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority

On September 19, 2018, the State of Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (“PURA”) commenced an investigation into Town Square following customer complaints of allegedly misleading and deceptive sales practices on the part of Town Square. The Connecticut Office of Consumer Counsel has joined in the investigation. Although Town Square denies any basis for those complaints and any wrongdoing on its part, it is cooperating with the investigation and responding to subpoenas for discovery. On June 17, 2020, the PURA or Authority notified Town Square that it was advancing its investigation by assigning Prosecutorial (PRO) staff for the purpose of investigating Town Square’s compliance with licensed electric supplier billing, marketing, and licensing requirements, and, if appropriate, facilitating settlement discussions among the parties that contains, but is not limited to, an appropriate civil penalty, extensive retraining of the supplier’s third-party agents, and retention of all sales calls with continued auditing.  If a settlement is not achieved and PRO staff believe the Authority should take further action regarding alleged non-compliance, the Authority requests that PRO staff petition the Authority setting forth its recommendations citing to supporting facts and law. As of December 31, 2020, Town Square’s Connecticut customer base represented 11.6% of GRE’s total meters served and 12.8% of the total residential customer equivalents of GRE’s customer base. As of December 31, 2020, no claims or demands have been made against Town Square by either agency, and there is insufficient basis to deem the loss probable or to the assess the amount of any possible loss.

In the fourth quarter of 2020, the enforcement division of PURA contacted Residents Energy concerning customer complaints received in connection with alleged door-to-door marketing activities in violation of various rules and regulations, including a ban on door-to-door activities during the pertinent time period as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Residents Energy denies any allegations of wrongdoing. In January and February of 2021, Residents Energy responded to the limited information requests and discovery made by the enforcement division. On March 12, 2021, the enforcement division filed a motion against Resident Energy with the adjudicating body of PURA, seeking the assessment of $1.5 million in penalties, along with a suspension of license for eighteen months, auditing of marketing practices upon reinstatement and an invitation for settlement discussions. As noted above, Residents Energy denies any wrongdoing, and there is insufficient basis to deem or assess the probably amount of any loss. For the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, gross revenues from sales in Connecticut were $38.0 million and $35.6 million, respectively. 

For the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, gross revenues from sales in Connecticut were $38.0 million and $35.6 million, respectively. 

 

State of Illinois Office of the Attorney General

 

In response to complaints that IDT Energy enrolled consumers without their express consent and misrepresented the amount of savings those consumers would receive, the Office of the Attorney General of the State of Illinois (“IL AG”) has been investigating the marketing practices of IDT Energy and has alleged violations of the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act, 815 ILCS 505/1 et seq. and the Illinois Telephone Solicitations Act, 815 ILCS 413/1 et seq. Shortly thereafter, the Illinois Commerce Commission ("IL ICC") commenced a similar investigation. Although IDT Energy denies any wrongdoing in connection with those allegations, the parties (including IL ICC) settled the matter pursuant to a court approved consent decree that includes restitution payments in the amount of $3.0 million, temporary suspension of all marking activities directed at new customers through December 31, 2020, and implementation of various compliance and reporting procedures.

 

In third quarter of 2018, the Company recorded a liability of $3.0 million recorded as a reduction of electricity revenues in the consolidated statement of operations. As of December 31, 2020, Illinois represented 2.5% of GRE’s total meters served and 1.2% of the total residential customer equivalents of GRE’s customer base. For the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, IDT Energy’s gross revenues from sales in Illinois were $7.0 million and $10.1 million, respectively.

CRITICAL ACCOUNTING POLICIES 

 

Our financial statements and accompanying notes are prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America, or U.S. GAAP. The preparation of financial statements requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses as well as the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities. Critical accounting policies are those that require application of management’s most subjective or complex judgments, often as a result of matters that are inherently uncertain and may change in subsequent periods. Our critical accounting policies include those related to the allowance for doubtful accounts, goodwill and income taxes. Management bases its estimates and judgments on historical experience and other factors that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions. See Note 1 to the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Annual Report for a complete discussion of our significant accounting policies. 

 

Revenue Recognition

Revenues from  Sale of Electricity and Natural Gas

Revenue from the single performance obligation to deliver a unit of electricity and/or natural gas is recognized as the customer simultaneously receives and consumes the benefit. Variable quantities in requirements contracts are considered to be options for additional goods and services because the customer has a current contractual right to choose the amount of additional distinct goods. GRE and Genie Japan records unbilled revenues for the estimated amount customers will be billed for services rendered from the time meters were last read to the end of the respective accounting period. The unbilled revenue is estimated each month based on available per day usage data, the number of unbilled days in the period and historical trends. Revenues from Shoreditch are accrued based on industry data flows and National Grid data. Revenue calculated from sale of electricity and natural gas includes an estimate of the quantity in units of electricity or natural gas supplied to customers by profile class. The estimate is made using historical consumption patterns, industry estimated consumption rates, and takes into consideration industry reconciliation processes. The estimated revenue is superseded when customer meter reads are received; at which point estimates are adjusted to actual usage. 

Utility companies offer purchase of receivable, or POR, programs in most of the service territories in which we operate, and GRE’s REPs participate in POR programs for a majority of their receivables. We estimate variable consideration related to our REPs' rebate programs using the expected value method and a portfolio approach. Our estimates related to rebate programs are based on the terms of the rebate program, the customer’s historical electricity and natural gas consumption, the customer’s rate plan, and a churn factor. Taxes that are imposed on our sales and collected from customers are excluded from the transaction price.

We recognize the incremental costs of obtaining a contract with a customer as an asset if it expects the benefit of those costs to be received in a period longer than one year. We determined that certain sales commissions to acquire customers meet the requirements to be capitalized. For GRE, we apply a practical expedient to expense costs as incurred for sales commissions to acquire customers as the period would have been one year or less. Incremental customer acquisition cost GRE International entities are capitalized and amortized over a range of eighteen and twenty-four months. These costs and the related amortization are recorded within sales and marketing expenses. Total capitalized customer acquisition costs to obtain a contract was  $0.8 million for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019. At December 31, 2020, capitalized customer acquisition cost of $0.6 million and $0.2 million were included in other current assets and other assets, respectively, on the consolidated balance sheet. The Company continuously monitors its customer relationship periods to ensure compliance with the application of the standard.

Revenues from Sale of Solar Panels

Our revenue from sales of solar panels are recognized at a point in time following the transfer of control of the solar panels to the customer, which typically occurs upon shipment or delivery depending on the terms of the underlying contracts. For sales contracts that contain multiple performance obligations, such as the shipment or delivery of solar modules, we allocate the transaction price to each performance obligation identified in the contract based on relative standalone selling prices, or estimates of such prices, and recognize the related revenue as control of each individual product is transferred to the customer, in satisfaction of the corresponding performance obligations.

Allowance for Doubtful Accounts

 

We maintain an allowance for doubtful accounts for estimated losses that result from the inability or unwillingness of our customers to make required payments. The allowance for doubtful accounts was $8.8 million at December 31, 2020 and $2.6 million at December 31, 2019. Our allowance is determined based on known troubled accounts, historical experience and other currently available evidence. Our estimates of recoverability of customer accounts may change due to new developments, changes in assumptions or changes in our strategy, which may impact our allowance for doubtful accounts balance. We continually assess the likelihood of potential amounts or ranges of recoverability and adjust our allowance accordingly, however, actual collections and write-offs of trade accounts receivable may materially differ from our estimates.

Acquisitions

 

The purchase price of each acquisition we consummate is allocated to the net assets acquired based on estimates of their fair values at the date of the acquisition. Any purchase price in excess of these net assets is recorded as goodwill. The allocation of purchase price in certain cases may be subject to revision based on the final determination of fair values during the measurement period, which may be up to one year from the acquisition date. Results of operations of acquired companies are included in our results of operations as of the respective acquisition dates. 

The accounting for business combinations requires estimates and judgment as to expectations for future cash flows of the acquired business, and the allocation of those cash flows to identifiable intangible assets, in determining the estimated fair value for assets acquired and liabilities assumed. The fair values assigned to tangible and intangible assets acquired and liabilities assumed are based on management’s estimates and assumptions, as well as other information compiled by management, including valuations that utilize customary valuation procedures and techniques. If the actual results differ from the estimates and judgments used in these estimates, the amounts recorded in the financial statements could result in a possible impairment of the intangible assets and goodwill, require acceleration of the amortization expense of finite lived intangible assets, or the recognition of additional consideration which would be expensed.

Goodwill

 

Our goodwill balances were $25.9 million and $12.1 million at December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. Goodwill is not amortized since it is deemed to have an indefinite life. It is reviewed annually (or more frequently under various conditions) for impairment using a fair value approach.

Goodwill is the excess of the acquisition cost of businesses over the fair value of the identifiable net assets acquired. Goodwill and other indefinite lived intangible assets are not amortized. These assets are reviewed annually (or more frequently under various conditions) for impairment using a fair value approach.

The fair value of the reporting unit is estimated using discounted cash flow methodologies, as well as considering third party market value indicators. Calculating the fair value of the reporting units requires significant estimates and assumptions by management. Should the estimates and assumptions regarding the fair value of the reporting units prove to be incorrect, the Company may be required to record impairments to its goodwill in future periods and such impairments could be material.

  

  

We perform our annual goodwill impairment test as of October 1. In reviewing goodwill for impairment, we have the option, for any or all of our reporting units that carry goodwill - to first assess qualitative factors to determine whether the existence of events or circumstances leads to a determination that it is more likely than not (i.e. greater than 50%) that the estimated fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount. If we elect to perform a qualitative assessment and determines that an impairment is more likely than not, we then required to perform the quantitative impairment test, otherwise no further analysis is required. We also may elect not to perform the qualitative assessment and, instead, proceed directly to quantitative impairment test. The ultimate outcome of the goodwill impairment review for a reporting unit should be the same whether we choose to perform the qualitative assessment or proceeds directly to the quantitative impairment test. In 2020, we elected to perform a qualitative analysis for our GRE  and GRE International reporting units as of October 1, 2019. The Company determined, after performing a qualitative analysis, that there was no evidence that it is more likely than not that the fair value of any identified reporting unit was less that the carrying amounts, therefore, it was not necessary to perform a quantitative impairment test. We determined, after performing qualitative analysis, that there was no evidence that it is more likely than not that the fair value of any identified reporting unit was less that the carrying amounts, therefore, it was not necessary to perform a quantitative impairment test. We performed quantitative impairment analysis for Prism reporting unit. As a result of this test, we concluded that the carrying value Prism reporting unit exceeded its fair value of reporting unit including the allocated goodwill. Therefore, we recognized a goodwill impairment charge of $0.4 million. There is no goodwill allocated to other reporting units as of October 1, 2019.

The determination of the fair value of our reporting units is based on an income approach, that utilizes discounted cash flows for each reporting unit and other Level 3 inputs as specified in the fair value hierarchy in ASC Topic 820, Fair Value Measurements and Disclosure. Under the income approach, we determine fair value based on the present value of the most recent cash flow projections for the reporting unit as of the date of the analysis and calculate a terminal value utilizing a terminal growth rate. The significant assumptions under this approach include, among others: income projections, which are dependent on future sales, new customers, customer behavior, competitor pricing, operating expenses, the discount rate, and the terminal growth rate. The cash flows used to determine fair value are dependent on a number of significant management assumptions such as the expectations of future performance and the expected future economic environment, which are partly based upon our historical experience. The estimates are subject to change given the inherent uncertainty in predicting future results. Additionally, the discount rate and the terminal growth rate are based on judgment of the rates that would be utilized by a hypothetical market participant.

Income Taxes

 

Our current and deferred income taxes and associated valuation allowance are impacted by events and transactions arising in the normal course of business as well as in connection with special and non-routine items. Assessment of the appropriate amount and classification of income taxes is dependent on several factors, including estimates of the timing and realization of deferred income tax assets, the results of Internal Revenue Service audits of our federal income tax returns, and changes in tax laws or regulations.

 

The valuation allowance on our deferred income tax assets was $15.2 million and $44.8 million at December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. We employ a tax strategy that enables us to currently deduct losses from our foreign subsidiaries against our profitable U.S. operations and we assess the realizability of deferred taxes quarterly. Because of our current projections, we concluded that we meet the criteria of more likely than not in order to utilize our deferred federal income tax assets in the foreseeable future and have released the valuation on the assets that we will utilize.

 

We use a two-step approach for recognizing and measuring tax benefits taken or expected to be taken in a tax return. We determine whether it is more-likely-than-not that, a tax position will be sustained upon examination, including resolution of any related appeals or litigation processes, based on the technical merits of the position. In evaluating whether a tax position has met the more-likely-than-not recognition threshold, we presume that the appropriate taxing authority that has full knowledge of all relevant information will examine the position. Tax positions that meet the more-likely-than-not recognition threshold are measured to determine the amount of tax benefit to recognize in the financial statements. The tax position is measured at the largest amount of benefit that is greater than 50 percent likely of being realized upon ultimate settlement. Differences between tax positions taken in a tax return and amounts recognized in the financial statements will generally result in one or more of the following: an increase in a liability for income taxes payable, a reduction of an income tax refund receivable, a reduction in a deferred tax asset, or an increase in a deferred tax liability. We review and adjust our liability for unrecognized tax benefits based on our best estimate and judgment given the facts, circumstances and information available at each reporting date. To the extent that the outcome of these tax positions is different from the amounts recorded, such differences may affect income tax expense and actual tax payments.

 

RECENTLY ISSUED ACCOUNTING STANDARDS

Information regarding new accounting pronouncement are included in Note 1 — Description of Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies, to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, 

 

RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

 

We evaluate the performance of our operating business segments based primarily on income (loss) from operations. Accordingly, the income and expense line items below income (loss) from operations are only included in our discussion of the consolidated results of operations.

 

 

Year Ended December 31, 2020 compared to Year Ended December 31, 2019

 

Genie Retail Energy Segment

 

 

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Revenues. GRE’s electricity revenues increased in 2020 compared to 2019. The increase in electricity revenues in 2020 compared to 2019 was the result of increase in electricity consumption partially offset by decrease in the average price charged to customers. Electricity consumption by GRE's REPs' customers increased 18.7% in 2020 compared to 2019. The increase in electricity consumption reflected an increase in average electricity consumption per meter, which increased by 12.3% in 2020 compared to 2019 and a 5.7% increase in average number of meters served. The increase in per meter consumption reflects a sustained focus on the acquisition of higher consumption meters, warmer weather during summer of 2020 compared to 2019 and increased residential electricity consumption resulting from COVID-19 "stay-at-home" orders. The average rate per kilowatt hour sold decreased by 7.5% in 2020 compared to 2019. 

 

GRE’s natural gas revenues decreased in 2020 compared to 2019. The decrease in natural gas revenues in 2020 compared to 2019 was a result of decreases in average meters served, natural gas consumptions, average rate per therm sold and average consumption per meter. Natural gas consumption of GRE's REP's customers decreased by 6.7% in 2020 compared to 2019. Average meters served, decreased 3.6% in 2020 compared to 2019 and average consumption per meter decreased by 3.1%.  The average rate per therm sold decreased 9.9% in 2020 compared to 2019.

Other revenue in 2020 included commission from selling third-party products to customers.

Gross meter acquisitions in 2020 were 212,000 compared to 308,000 in 2019. 

The decreases reflect reduced sales activity in the second quarter of 2020 as a result of COVID-19 related public health restrictions on certain sales channels. Gross meter acquisitions in 2019 includes the impact of a municipal aggregation deal in New Jersey which added approximately 35,000 meters. The number of meters served was relatively flat at December 31, 2020 compared to December 31, 2019. In 2020, average monthly churn decreased to 4.4% compared to 5.3% in 2019. The reduction in churn reflects the impact of a shift in our customer mix related to channel, product and geography as well as continuing increase in the ratio of fixed rate to variable rate customers, where fixed rate customers generally have lower rates of churn. The reduction in churn also reflects decreased sales activity by competitors as a result of COVID-19 related restrictions.

The average rates of annualized energy consumption, as measured by residential customer equivalents, or RCEs, are presented in the chart below. An RCE represents a natural gas customer with annual consumption of 100 mmbtu or an electricity customer with annual consumption of 10 MWh. Because different customers have different rates of energy consumption, RCEs are an industry standard metric for evaluating the consumption profile of a given retail customer base.

 

 

RCEs increased 9.1% at December 31, 2020 compared to December 31, 2019 primarily due to our recent focus on adding higher consumption meters, warmer than average weather in 2020 and COVID-19 driven shift to work-from-home which increased per-meter consumption. 

 

 

Cost of Revenues and Gross Margin Percentage. GRE’s cost of revenues and gross margin percentage were as follows:

 

 

Cost of revenues for electricity increased in 2020 compared to 2019 primarily because of increases in electricity consumption partially offset by a decrease in the average unit cost of electricity. Electricity consumption by GRE's REPs' customers increased 18.7% in 2020 compared to 2019. The average unit cost of electricity decreased by 8.0% in 2020 compared to 2019. Gross margin on electricity sales increased in 2020 compared to 2019 because the average rate charged to customers decreased less than the decrease in the average unit cost of electricity.

Cost of revenues for natural gas decreased in 2020 compared to 2019 primarily because of decreases in total natural gas consumption and average unit cost of natural gas. Natural gas consumption by GRE’s REPs’ customers decreased by 6.7% in 2020 compared to 2019. The average unit cost of natural gas decreased 20.9% in 2020 compared to 2019. Gross margin on natural gas sales increased in 2020 compared to 2019 because the decrease in the average rate charged to customers decreased more than the average unit cost of natural gas. 

 

Selling, General and Administrative. The decrease in selling, general and administrative expense in 2020 compared to 2019 was primarily due to decreases in marketing and customer acquisition costs and employee-related costs partially offset by increase in provision for doubtful accounts and costs related to POR programs. Marketing and customer acquisition expenses decreased by $4.1 million in 2020 compared to 2019 due to reduced pace of customer acquisition activities related to COVID-19 related public health restrictions. Employee-related expenses slightly decreased by $0.1 million in 2020 compared to 2019 primarily due to a reduction in the number of employees. Provision for doubtful accounts and costs related to POR programs increased by $2.8 million in 2020 compared to 2019 as a result of entrance to non-POR markets (which led to an increase in the provision for doubtful accounts) and increase in revenue.  As a percentage of GRE’s total revenues, selling, general and administrative expense increased from 18.6% in 2020 to 17.0% in 2019.

GRE International 

GRE International holds our stakes in REPs outside of North America. These businesses currently include our stake in Shoreditch, which operates as Orbit Energy in the U.K., Genie Japan, and our controlling stake in Lumo, which operates in certain portions of Scandinavia. In the second quarter of 2020, we started commercial operations in Sweden through a wholly owned entity. 

On October 8, 2020, the Company acquired 23.0% interest in Shoreditch that it did not previously own. The results of operations of GRE International include the accounts of Shoreditch from the date of acquisition through December 31, 2020.

Prior to the acquisition of the remaining 23.0% of Shoreditch, we accounted for our investment in Shoreditch under the equity method of accounting. Under this method we recorded our share in the net income or loss of Shoreditch. Therefore, revenue generated, and expenses incurred were not reflected in our consolidated revenue and expenses. The accounts of Shoreditch are consolidated to the consolidated financial statements after the acquisition.

 

 

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Meters served by GRE International's REPs, including Shoreditch, increased to 195,000 at December 31, 2020 from 127,000 at December 31, 2019 primarily as a result growth in Shoreditch's and Lumo Finlands's customer bases. The Company also started the commercial operations of Lumo Sweden and Genie Japan in second quarter of 2020 and second quarter of 2019, respectively.

RCEs of GRE International's REPs, including Shoreditch at December 31, 2020 increased to 103,000 from 65,000 at December 31, 2019 primarily from the increase in meters served as discussed above.

Revenue and Cost of Revenue. GRE International's revenues and cost of revenue increased in 2020 compared to 2019 primarily due to the consolidation of Shoreditch in October 2020, increase in meters served in Lumo Finland and the start of commercial operations of Lumo Sweden and Japan in the second quarter of 2020 and 2019, respectively. Shoreditch increased GREI's revenue and cost of revenue in 2020 by $22.4 million and $19.8 million, respectively. Meters served by Lumo Finland increased by 73.5% at December 31, 2020 compared to December 31, 2019.  

Selling, General and Administrative. The increase in selling, general and administrative expense in 2020 compared to 2019 was primarily due to the consolidation of Shoreditch in October 2020, increase in activity in level of operations in Lumo Finland and Japan and start of commercial operations of Lumo Sweden. Shoreditch increased GREI's selling, general and administrative expenses in 2020 by $4.9 million.

Equity in net loss of joint venture. Prior to the acquisition of the controlling interest in Shoreditch in October 2020,  we accounted our ownership interest in Shoreditch using the equity method since we had the ability to exercise significant influence over Shoreditch's operating and financial matters, although we did not control Shoreditch. As of October 7, 2020, the book value the Company's investment in Shoreditch was reduced to nil as a result of the Company's share in accumulated losses of Shoreditch using the equity method of accounting, and as result, the Company did not recognize a certain portion of its share in net losses Shoreditch prior to the acquisition in October 2020 as the Company had no obligation to fund the Shoreditch losses. The Company's share in Shoreditch’s net loss in 2020 was $1.5 million compared to $4.4 million in 2019. The decrease is primarily due to decrease in capital contributions to Shoreditch for the period from January 1, 2020 to October 7, 2020 compared to the year ended December 31, 2019.

GES Segment

The GES segment is composed of Prism, in which we acquired a 60.0% controlling interest in October 2018, Diversegy and Genie Solar. 

 

 

 

Revenue.  GES's revenues increased in 2020 compared to 2019. The increase in revenues was the result of the delivery of a large number of orders at Prism particularly in the first half of 2020. Prism discontinued the relationship with its principal customer in the second quarter of 2020 resulting to decrease in GES revenues by 91.7% in the second half of 2020 compared to the first half of 2020. Revenue from Diversegy includes commissions, entry fees and other fees from our energy brokerage and marketing services businesses.

Cost of Revenue. Cost of revenues increased in 2020compared to 2019. The increase in cost of revenues primarily the result of a significant increase in deliveries of solar panels in 2020. Cost of revenue related to Diversegy included commissions incurred by our energy brokerage and marketing services businesses.

Selling, General and Administrative and Impairment of Customer Relationship and Goodwill. Selling, general and administrative expenses decreased in 2020 compared to 2019 primarily because of the streamlining of operations of Prism in first quarter of 2020.

In March 2020, we initiated a plan to sell the property, plant and equipment of Prism. Prism's 4.75% notes payable to Catskill Hudson Bank are collateralized by Prism's land and building and improvements. Prism's property, plant and equipment with a net book value of $2.8 million and notes payable with net book value of $0.9 million were reclassified as assets and liabilities held for sale and reported at lower of fair value less cost to sell and net book value. In the first quarter of 2020, the Company recorded a $0.2 million write-down to fair value of certain property and equipment.

In second quarter of 2020, Prism renegotiated a contract with a customer which resulted in impairment of customer relationship of $0.8 million included in the consolidated statements of operation. 

In October 2020, Prism completed the sale of all assets held for sales and recorded a net loss from disposal of $0.3 million included in the selling, general and administrative expenses in the consolidated statements of operations. A portion of the net proceeds was used to settle the notes payable of Prism classified as liabilities held for sale at a carrying amount of $0.8 million.

In the fourth quarter of 2020, we recognized impairment charge of $0.4 million against the goodwill previously recognized when we acquired a controlling interest in Prism in October 2018 reducing the value of goodwill related to Prism to nil.

 

Corporate

 

Corporate does not generate any revenues, nor does it incur any cost of revenues. Corporate costs include unallocated compensation, consulting fees, legal fees, business development expense and other corporate-related general and administrative expense.

 

 

The increase in Corporate general and administrative expense in 2020 compared to 2019 was primarily due to expenses incurred by GOGAS related to the final testing of exploratory well in Golan Heights as discussed above, partially offset by decreases in stock-based compensation and professional and consulting fees. As a percentage of our consolidated revenues, Corporate general and administrative expense decreased from 2.0% in 2019 to 1.8% in 2020.

Consolidated

 

Selling, General and Administrative. Stock-based compensation expense included in consolidated selling, general and administrative expense was $1.1 in 2020 and 2019. At December 31, 2020, aggregate unrecognized compensation cost related to non-vested stock-based compensation was $1.7 million. The unrecognized compensation cost expected to be recognized over the average service period of 2.4 years.

As a percentage of our consolidated revenues, selling, general and administrative expense decreased from 23.0% in 2019 to 20.3% in 2020.

 

The following is a discussion of our consolidated income and expense line items below loss from operations.

 

 

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Interest Income. The decrease in interest income in 2020 compared to 2019 was primarily due to a decrease in interest rates on cash and cash equivalents.

Interest Expense. The decrease in interest expense in 2020 compared to 2019 was primarily due to the settlement of a revolving line of credit in April 2020.

 

Other Income, net. Other expense, net in 2020 and 2019 consisted primarily foreign currency transaction gains and losses.

 

Provision for Income Taxes. The increase in provision for income tax in 2020 compared to 2019 is primarily due to the higher taxable income of GRE in 2020 compared to 2019. 

 

 

Net (Income) Loss Attributable to Noncontrolling Interests. Income attributable to noncontrolling interest in 2020 was mainly consist of noncontrolling interest share in income resulting from write-off of intercompany payable of GOGAS entities within the Company. The income was offset by the share of noncontrolling interest in the losses mainly from Prism, Lumo Finland and Citizens Choice Energy. Loss attributable to noncontrolling interest in 2020 is primarily from the losses of Prism, Lumo Finland and Citizens Choice Energy.

Gain on Consolidation of Subsidiary. Gain on consolidation of subsidiary in 2020 was from the acquisition of the controlling interest of Shoreditch in October 2020. The gain pertains to the estimated fair value of the noncontrolling interest to Shoreditch immediately prior to acquisition. The carrying value of our investment in Shoreditch immediately before the acquisition was nil.

LIQUIDITY AND CAPITAL RESOURCES 

 

General

 

In February 2021, a series of severe winter storms (collectively, Winter Storm Uri) struck the mid-western United States. The storm triggered unprecedented increases in electricity demand in combination with significant reductions in supply within the Electric Reliability Council of Texas ("ERCOT") service area. Wholesale electricity prices reached or exceeded maximum allowed clearing prices for sustained periods and rolling blackouts impacted millions of residential and commercial customers across the State of Texas.

 

In January and February of 2021, the Company experienced unprecedented price volatility in the Japanese and Texas markets. These events are expected to have an estimated adverse impact on the first quarter of 2021 consolidated result of operations of $2.5 million in Japan and $12.8 million to $14.0 million in Texas.

We currently expect that our cash flows from operations in the next twelve months and the $36.9 million balance of unrestricted cash and cash equivalents that we held at December 31, 2020 will be sufficient to meet our currently anticipated cash requirements for at least the period from January 1, 2021 to March 16, 2022.

 

At December 31, 2020, we had working capital (current assets less current liabilities) of $36.3 million.

 

 

Operating Activities

 

Cash provided by continuing operating activities was $23.1 million and $15.8 million in the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. Net income from continuing operations after non-cash adjustments decreased cash flows by $28.4 million for 2020 compared to $15.7 million in 2019. The increase is primarily the result of favorable results of continuing operations in 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.

Our cash flow from operations varies significantly from quarter to quarter and from year to year, depending on our operating results and the timing of operating cash receipts and payments, specifically trade accounts receivable and trade accounts payable. Changes in working capital decreased cash flows by $5.0 million for 2020, compared to 2019. Changes in other assets decreased cash flows by $1.1 million for 2020, compared to 2019.

Certain of GRE's REPs are party to an Amended and Restated Preferred Supplier Agreement with BP Energy Company, or BP, which is to be in effect through November 30, 2023. Under the agreement, the REPs purchase electricity and natural gas at market rate plus a fee. The obligations to BP are secured by a first security interest in deposits or receivables from utilities in connection with their purchase of the REP’s customer’s receivables, and in any cash deposits or letters of credit posted in connection with any collateral accounts with BP. The ability to purchase electricity and natural gas under this agreement is subject to satisfaction of certain conditions including the maintenance of certain covenants. At December 31, 2020, we were in compliance with such covenants. At December 31, 2020, restricted cash—short-term of $0.5 million and trade accounts receivable of $47.0 million were pledged to BP as collateral for the payment of trade accounts payable to BP of $16.7 million at December 31, 2020.

We had purchase commitments of $131.3 million at December 31, 2020, of which $85.3 million was for purchases of electricity.

Orbit Energy has an exclusive contract with Shell U.K. Limited ("Shell") to provide electricity and natural gas to Orbit Energy until June 2024, with an option (not an obligation) to extend through June 2027. Shell provides access to the forward market such that Orbit Energy can enter into a forward hedge for its customers which protects Orbit Energy from mark-to-market fluctuations. Shell also provide extended payment facilities of an additional 30 days compared to the U.K. payment terms up to a limit of £5.0 million at an interest of LIBOR plus 5.0%. Shell charges an additional £0.9 per therm of natural gas and Mwh of electricity for all delivered volume on top of the wholesale costs. The contract with Shell is secured by Orbit Energy's shares. The contract is also subject to satisfaction of certain conditions including the maintenance of certain covenants which includes minimum levels of cash, gross margin, net worth, as defined in the contract, earnings before tax, as defined in the contract and provision for bad debts on accounts receivable. At December 31, 2020, Orbit Energy was in compliance with such covenants.  At December 31, 2020, Shoreditch was in compliance with all such covenants. At December 31, 2020, Shoreditch total liability to Shell was $7.0 million, which is included in trade accounts payable and accrued expenses in the consolidated balance sheet. 

From time to time, we receive inquiries or requests for information or materials from public utility commissions or other governmental regulatory or law enforcement agencies related to investigations under statutory or regulatory schemes, and we respond to those inquiries or requests. We cannot predict whether any of those matters will lead to claims or enforcement actions.

 

Investing Activities

 

On July 17, 2017, the Company’s subsidiary, Genie Energy UK Ltd. ("GEUK), entered into a definitive agreement to launch Shoreditch, a joint venture to offer electricity and natural gas service to residential and small business customers in the United Kingdom, using the trade name Orbit Energy. In 2020 and 2019, the Company contributed $1.5 million and $3.2 million, respectively, to Shoreditch.

On October 8, 2020, the Company entered into an agreement (the “Purchase Agreement”) with Energy Global Investments Pty Ltd ("EGC") under which  GEUK purchased EGC’s remaining interest in Shoreditch, in exchange for a cash payment of £1.3 million (equivalent to $1.7 million on the date of closing) offset by £0.2 million (equivalent to $0.2 million on the date of closing) in amounts owing from EGC to the Company under a loan provided to EGC in 2018 related to EGC’s capital contributions to Shoreditch. Prior to October 8, 2020, the net book value of the Company's investment in Shoreditch was nil. Following the transaction, Shoreditch is a wholly-owned subsidiary of GEUK. Shoreditch had $2.7 million of cash at the date of acquisition.

In December 2020, the Company invested $5.0 million in the Class B common stocks of Rafael Holdings, Inc., a publicly-traded company ("Rafael"). Rafael also issued warrants to purchase an additional 43,649 of Rafael's Class B common stock at $22.91 per share up to June 6, 2022. The Company does not exercise significant influence over the operating or financial policies of Rafael.

In March 2020, the Company initiated a plan to sell the property, plant and equipment of Prism. Prism's 4.75% notes payable to Catskill Hudson Bank were collateralized by Prism's land, building and improvements. In the first quarter of 2020, Prism's property, plant and equipment and notes payable were reclassified as assets and liabilities held for sale and reported at lower of fair value less cost to sell. In the first quarter of 2020, the Company recorded a $0.2 million write-down to the fair value of certain property and equipment.

In October 2020, the Prism completed the sale of all assets held for sale with an aggregate proceed $2.7 million of and recorded a net loss from disposal of $0.3 million included in the selling, general and administrative expenses in the consolidated statements of operations. In October 2020, Prism settled the 4.75% notes payable to Catskill Bank previously classified as liabilities held for sale with full payment of the principal amount of $0.9 million.

Our capital expenditures were $0.2 million and $0.4 million in 2020 and 2019, respectively. We currently anticipate that our total capital expenditures in the year ending December 31, 2021 will be between $0.5 million and $1.0 million.

In connection with the acquisition of Lumo Finland in January 2019, the Company has a conditional continuing call option to purchase a portion or the entire noncontrolling interest from the sellers during the period beginning at the third anniversary of the Lumo Finland Closing Date and ending three years later.

Financing Activities

 

In each of 2020 and 2019, we paid aggregate Base Dividends per share of $0.6376 on our Series 2012-A Preferred Stock. The aggregate preferred stock dividends paid in each of 2020 and 2019 were $1.5 million. On February 18, 2021, we paid a quarterly Base Dividend of $0.1594 per share on our Series 2012-A Preferred Stock for the fourth quarter of 2020 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on February 6, 2021.

 

In 2020 and 2019, we paid aggregate dividends per share of $0.33 and $0.30, respectively, to stockholders of our Class A common stock and Class B common stock. The aggregate dividends paid in 2020 and 2019 were $8.7 million and $8.1 million, respectively. 

As announced on March 11, 2021, we suspended our dividends on our common stock to rebuild our cash position in light of the losses incurred from the effects of Winter Storm Uri as discussed above.

In 2020, we received minimal proceeds from the exercise of stock options for which we issued 4,133 shares of our Class B common stock. In 2019, we received $1.4 million from the exercise of stock options for which we issued 205,350 shares of our Class B common stock.

On March 11, 2013, our Board of Directors approved a program for the repurchase of up to an aggregate of 7.0 million shares of our Class B common stock. In 2020, we acquired 233,602 Class B common stock under the stock repurchase program for an aggregate amount of 1.7 million. In 2019, we acquired 732,869 Class B common stock under the repurchase program for an aggregate amount of $5.6 million. At December 31, 2020, 5.9 million shares remained available for repurchase under the stock repurchase program.

On November 28, 2019, Genie Japan entered into a Loan Agreement with Tokyo Star Bank for a ¥100.0 million (equivalent to $0.9 million) short-term credit facility. Genie Japan provided a letter of credit issued by JPMorgan Chase amounting to ¥100.0 million (equivalent to $0.9 million) as collateral. The outstanding principal amount incurred interest at Tokyo Star Bank's short-term prime rate plus 0.25% per annum. Interest was payable monthly and all outstanding principal and any accrued and unpaid interest matured on May 13, 2020. Genie Japan settled the Loan agreement and paid the outstanding balance of ¥100.0 million (equivalent to $0.9 million) on May 13, 2020.

On May 13, 2020, Genie Japan entered into a new Loan Agreement with Tokyo Star Bank for a  ¥150.0 million (equivalent to $1.4 million) short-term credit facility ("May 2020 Loan"). Genie Japan provided a letter of credit issued by JPMorgan Chase in the amount of ¥150.0 million (equivalent to $1.4 million) as collateral. The outstanding principal amount incurs interest at 3.0% per annum. Interest is payable monthly and all outstanding principal and any accrued and unpaid interest matured on November 13, 2020. On November 13, 2020, Genie Japan and Tokyo Star Bank amended the May 2020 Loan to extend the maturity date to March 13, 2021. At September 30, 2020, $1.4 million was outstanding under the May 2020 Loan. At December 31, 2020, the effective interest rate was 3.0%.

On December 5, 2019, we entered into the first amendment of Credit Agreement with JPMorgan Chase Bank (“Credit Agreement”) to extend the maturity date to December 31, 2020. On December 8, 2020, we entered into the second amendment of its existing Credit Agreement to extend the maturity date to December 31, 2021. The Company continues to have the aggregate principal amount of $5.0 million credit line facility (“Credit Line”). The Company pays a commitment fee of 0.1% per annum on unused portion of the Credit Line as specified in the Credit Agreement. The borrowed amounts will be in the form of letters of credit which will bear interest of 1.0% per annum. The Company will also pay a fee for each letter of credit that is issued equal to the greater of $500 or 1.0% of the original maximum available amount of the letter of credit. We agreed to deposit cash in a money market account at JPMorgan Chase Bank as collateral for the line of credit equal to $5.1 million. As of December 31, 2020, JP Morgan Chase Bank issued $2.3 million letter of credit from the Credit Line. As of December 31, 2020, none of the letters of credits were drawn upon. At December 31, 2020, the cash collateral of $5.2 million was included in restricted cash—short-term in the consolidated balance sheet.

On April 4, 2017, GRE, IDT Energy, and other GRE subsidiaries entered into a Credit Agreement with Vantage Commodities Financial Services II, LLC ("Vantage"), for a $20.0 million revolving loan facility. The borrowers consist of our subsidiaries that operate REP businesses, and those subsidiaries’ obligations are guaranteed by GRE. The borrowers have provided as collateral a security interest in their receivables, bank accounts, customer agreements, certain other material agreements and related commercial and intangible rights. The outstanding principal amount incurs interest at LIBOR plus 4.5% per annum. Interest was payable monthly and all outstanding principal and any accrued and unpaid interest matured on April 3, 2020. In April 2020, the revolving line of credit expired and we paid outstanding balance of $3.5 million.

On December 11, 2019, Prism refinance the 5.95% notes payable to Catskill Hudson Bank that were due in November 2019. The outstanding balance of notes payable of  $0.9 million December 11, 2019 was payable in monthly equal installments for period of ten years. The outstanding principal amount incurred fixed interest at 4.75% per annum. The notes payable were secured by Prism's commercial property in Highland, New York. In March 2020, the outstanding balance of the notes payable was transferred to liabilities held for sale. On October 16, 2020, Prism settled the notes payable to Catskill Bank previously classified as liabilities held for sale with full payment of the principal amount of $0.8 million

In 2020, we paid $0.5 million to repurchase 58,650 shares of our Class B common stock, and, in 2019, we paid $0.5 million to repurchase 48,197 shares of our Class B common stock tendered by our employees to satisfy tax withholding obligations in connection with the lapsing of restrictions on awards of restricted stock. Such shares were repurchased by us based on their fair market value on the trading day immediately prior to the vesting date.

 

Series 2012-A Preferred Stock

 

At December 31, 2020, there were 2.3 million shares of our Series 2012-A Preferred Stock issued and outstanding with an aggregate liquidation preference of $19.7 million. Each share of our Series 2012-A Preferred Stock has a liquidation preference of $8.50 (the “Liquidation Preference”), and is entitled to receive an annual dividend per share equal to the sum of (i) $0.6375 (the “Base Dividend”) plus (ii) seven and one-half percent (7.5%) of the quotient obtained by dividing (A) the amount by which the EBITDA for a fiscal year of our retail energy provider business exceeds $32 million by (B) 8,750,000 (the “Additional Dividend”), payable in cash. EBITDA consists of income (loss) from operations exclusive of depreciation and amortization and other operating gains (losses).

 

The Series 2012-A Preferred Stock is redeemable, in whole or in part, at our option following October 11, 2017 at 101% of the Liquidation Preference plus accrued and unpaid dividends, and 100% of the Liquidation Preference plus accrued and unpaid dividends following October 11, 2018.

 

During any period when we have failed to pay a dividend on the Series 2012-A Preferred Stock and until all unpaid dividends have been paid in full, we are prohibited from paying dividends or distributions on our Class B or Class A common stock.

 

The Base Dividend is payable (if declared by our Board of Directors, and accrued, if not declared) quarterly on each February 15, May 15, August 15 and November 15, and to the extent that there is any Additional Dividend payable with respect to a fiscal year, it will be paid to holders of Series 2012-A Preferred Stock with the May dividend. With respect to the payment of dividends and amounts upon liquidation, dissolution or winding up, the Series 2012-A Preferred Stock is equal in rank to all other equity securities we issue, the terms of which specifically provide that such equity securities rank on a parity with the Series 2012-A Preferred Stock with respect to dividend rights or rights upon our liquidation, dissolution or winding up; senior to our common stock; and junior to all of our existing and future indebtedness.

 

Each share of Series 2012-A Preferred Stock has the same voting rights as a share of Class B common stock, except on certain matters that only impact our common stock, as well as additional voting rights on specific matters or upon the occurrence of certain events.

On March 21, 2020, the Board of Directors of the Company approved a program to redeem up to $4.0 million worth of the Company's Preferred Stock in accordance with the Certificate of Designations for the preferred stock. There was no redemption under this program in 2020.

 

 

CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATIONS AND OTHER COMMERCIAL COMMITMENTS

 

The following table quantifies our future contractual obligations and other commercial commitments at December 31, 2020:

 

Payments Due by Period

 

 

 

OFF-BALANCE SHEET ARRANGEMENTS

 

We do not have any “off-balance sheet arrangements,” as defined in relevant SEC regulations that are reasonably likely to have a current or future effect on our financial condition, results of operations, liquidity, capital expenditures or capital resources, other than the following. GRE has performance bonds issued through a third party for the benefit of certain utility companies and for various states in order to comply with the states’ financial requirements for retail energy providers. At December 31, 2020, the Company had outstanding aggregate performance bonds of $13.7 million and $2.3 million of unused letters of credit.

 

We are a smaller reporting company as defined by Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and are not required to provide the information under this item.

 

Our primary market risk exposure is the price applicable to our natural gas and electricity purchases and sales. The sales price of our natural gas and electricity is primarily driven by the prevailing market price. Hypothetically, for our GRE segment, if our gross profit per unit in 2020 had remained the same as in 2019, due to changes in the price of natural gas and electricity, our gross profit from electricity sales would have increased by $4.9 million in 2020 and our gross profit from natural gas sales would have decreased by $1.3 million in 2020.

Hypothetically, for our GRE International segment, if our gross profit per unit in 2020 had remained the same as in 2019, our gross profit from electricity sales would have decreased by $6.6 million in 2020. 

 

The energy markets have historically been very volatile, and we can reasonably expect that electricity and natural gas prices will be subject to fluctuations in the future. In an effort to reduce the effects of the volatility of the cost of electricity and natural gas on our operations, we have adopted a policy of hedging electricity and natural gas prices from time to time, at relatively lower volumes, primarily through the use of put and call options and swaps. While the use of these hedging arrangements limits the downside risk of adverse price movements, it also limits future gains from favorable movements. We do not apply hedge accounting to these swaps or options, therefore the mark-to-market change in fair value is recognized in cost of revenue in our consolidated statements of operations. Refer to Note 5 – Derivative Instruments, for details of the hedging activities.

 

 

Our Consolidated Financial Statements and supplementary data and the report of the independent registered public accounting firm thereon set forth starting on page F-1 herein are incorporated herein by reference.

 

 

None.

 

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

The Company, under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of the design and operation of the Company’s “disclosure controls and procedures” (as defined in Rule 13a-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”)), as of December 31, 2020. Based on our evaluation, our principal executive officer and principal financial officer concluded that the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures were ineffective as of December 31, 2020 due to the material weakness described below.

Management's Annual Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

 

We, the management of Genie Energy Ltd. and subsidiaries (the “Company”), are responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting of the Company.

The Company’s internal control over financial reporting is defined in Rule 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) promulgated under the Exchange Act as a process designed by, or under the supervision of, the Company’s principal executive and principal financial officers and effected by the Company’s board of directors, management and other personnel, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of the Company’s financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States and includes those policies and procedures that:

 

Management has assessed the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2020. In making this assessment, the Company’s management used the criteria established in Internal Control — Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (“COSO”). 

 

Under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, we conducted an evaluation of our internal control over financial reporting, as prescribed above, as of December 31, 2020. Based on our evaluation, our principal executive officer and principal financial officer concluded that the review of our income tax provision was not designed and maintained at an appropriate level of precision to prevent or detect a material misstatement on a timely basis. Accordingly, management has determined that this control deficiency constitutes a material weakness.

Because of this material weakness, management has concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was not effective as of December 31, 2020. This material weakness could result in misstatements of financial statement accounts and disclosures that would result in a material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements that would not be prevented or detected.

Notwithstanding the material weaknesses discussed below, our management has concluded that the consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K fairly present in all material respects our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows for the periods presented in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles.

The effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2020 has been audited by BDO USA LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, as stated in their report which appears herein.

Management Action Plan and Progress to Date

In response to the material weaknesses, we have taken certain actions and will continue to take further steps to strengthen our control processes and procedures in order to remediate such material weaknesses. We will continue to evaluate the effectiveness of our internal controls and procedures on an ongoing basis and will take further action as appropriate. Management has formed multiple aspects of an overall remediation plan, which will be implemented in the second quarter of 2021.

The preliminary plan includes:

• Engaging a third party tax consultant with specific expertise in international taxation and business acquisitions; and
  
  
• Perform a formal detailed review of tax implications for all business acquisitions as part of the management review and diligence process.

Acquisition of Shoreditch

We acquired a controlling interest in Shoreditch in October 2020. Management has excluded the operations of this business from our evaluation of, and conclusion on, the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting as of December 31, 2020. Shoreditch constituted 24.8% and 12.9% of our total assets and net assets, respectively, as of December 31, 2020, and 5.9% of our consolidated revenue for the year then ended.

 

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

There have been no changes in our internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) or 15d-15(f) of the Exchange Act) that occurred during the fourth quarter period that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, the Company’s internal control over financial reporting. 

 

None.