ANNAPOLIS, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure Capital, Inc. ("Hannon Armstrong," "we," "our" or the "Company") (NYSE: HASI), a leading investor in climate change solutions, today released the following letter from its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Jeffrey W. Eckel.
Dear Stakeholders:
Given the tragic and unprecedented times that we are experiencing, I wanted to update you on the actions that Hannon Armstrong is taking and the impact on our business. Most importantly, our employees are healthy, and we are open for business, as shown by this week’s Iowa project investment announcement.
Our first concern is our employees and their families, and as such, we took action on March 10 to close the office and move to a remote workforce. We took this action ahead of many others as we recognized the seriousness of the situation and wanted to protect our employees. We have spent significant time and resources over the last several years to update our IT infrastructure and our use of the cloud to allow us to take this action. I am glad to report that our infrastructure is working well and that we are continuing to identify new investment opportunities and work to close business remotely.
Secondly, in this time of market uncertainty, liquidity and the portfolio asset quality are paramount. As long-term focused investors, we are always cognizant of the potential for market disruptions and over the last year, we have increased our cash balances and short-term liquidity while reducing our leverage. We have also always focused on portfolio diversification and maintaining multiple sources of capital including through syndication. As many of you may know, we used the syndication channel successfully in the 2008 crisis. We believe we are in strong financial shape for this disruption and will make our next dividend payment on April 10, 2020.
Unfortunately, not everyone was as well prepared, which has negatively impacted on our share price. As reported by Bloomberg News, on Wednesday afternoon there was a liquidation of a small UBS trust that used a high level of leverage to invest in a number of mortgage REITs, including our shares. This rapid liquidation caused our share price and that of a number of others to decline to near-term lows. We do not believe this liquidation reflects the long-term fundamentals of our business and believe much of the selling experienced was driven by algorithms and/or broader market conditions and not HASI fundamentals.
We believe we are positioned to weather the storm and several of our executives and directors, including me, purchased additional shares this week. I look forward to updating you further on our first quarter call and hope everyone remains safe.
Respectfully,
Jeffrey W. Eckel
Chairman and CEO
About Hannon Armstrong
Hannon Armstrong (NYSE: HASI) is the first U.S. public company solely dedicated to investments in climate change solutions, providing capital to leading companies in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and other sustainable infrastructure markets. With more than $6 billion in managed assets as of December 31, 2019, Hannon Armstrong’s core purpose is to make climate-positive investments with superior risk-adjusted returns. For more information, please visit www.hannonarmstrong.com. Follow Hannon Armstrong on LinkedIn and Twitter @HannonArmstrong.
Forward-Looking Statements:
Some of the information in this press release contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended that are subject to risks and uncertainties. For these statements, we claim the protections of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in such Sections. These forward-looking statements include information about possible or assumed future results of our business, financial condition, liquidity, results of operations, plans and objectives. When we use the words "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "plan," "continue," "intend," "should," "may" or similar expressions, we intend to identify forward-looking statements.
