debt_leverage_profile
Regulated utility with ~5-6x Debt/EBITDA; 20% rate rise adds ~$30-40M annual interest expense, pressuring FFO/Debt toward 14-15%
Inferred
Agent_Inference
interest_rate_sensitivity
~70% fixed-rate long-term debt; 20% rate increase on variable/refinancing exposure raises annual interest cost ~$25-35M, ~5-8% EPS drag
Inferred
Agent_Inference
geopolitical_supply_exposure
High intensity; European gas dependency on Russia exposed structural energy security vulnerabilities.
Medium
GICS-commodity-overlay-v1
supply_chain_dependency
Gulf Coast natural gas pipeline chokepoints (Sabine Pass corridor) and transformer/electrical equipment supply from Asia-Pacific manufacturing hubs
Inferred
Agent_Inference
international_expansion_readiness
Cleco operates exclusively in Louisiana; zero international revenue exposure, no sovereign currency devaluation risk applicable
Inferred
Agent_Inference
geographic_footprint
100% Louisiana-based regulated utility; no international revenue markets, no currency devaluation exposure
Inferred
Agent_Inference
commodity_exposure_profile
High intensity; commodities: Natural Gas, Coal, Uranium, Crude Oil, Copper (grid), Lithium (storage); geopolitical: European gas dependency on Russia exposed structural energy security vulnerabilities.
Medium
GICS-commodity-overlay-v1
vendor_lock_dependency_score
Entergy transmission grid interconnection represents a non-substitutable operational dependency; natural gas suppliers approach 30%+ fuel cost share
Inferred
Agent_Inference
business_model_type_primary
Regulated electric utility; no cloud infrastructure dependency — operations run on OT/SCADA systems, not AWS/GCP/Azure critical path
Inferred
Agent_Inference
business_model_type_secondary
IT/back-office cloud termination would cause billing and CRM disruption but core grid operations unaffected; recovery feasible within 60-90 days
Inferred
Agent_Inference
switching_cost_profile
Minimal API coupling risk; legacy utility SCADA and ERP systems; vendor switching costly but not cloud-API dependent in revenue-critical way
Inferred
Agent_Inference
howey_test_risk_index
Fails Howey Test — regulated utility sells electricity as a commodity service, not an investment contract; near-zero securities classification risk
Inferred
Agent_Inference
regulatory_burden_tier
Very High
Medium
GICS-regulatory-overlay-v1
data_sovereignty_risk
Low GDPR exposure (no EU operations); moderate CCPA risk for ~290K Louisiana customer records; compliance costs estimated under $5M annually
Inferred
Agent_Inference
antitrust_exposure_flag
State-sanctioned monopoly in Louisiana service territory; antitrust risk low but rate-setting oversight by LPSC creates regulatory capture scrutiny
Inferred
Agent_Inference
regulatory_exposure_profile
Very High burden; regimes: FERC, NERC, EPA, NRC, State PUCs, DOE; Rate-case lag and clean-energy mandates compress returns on regulated asset base.
Medium
GICS-regulatory-overlay-v1
revenue_model_type
~95% recurring via regulated tariff-based utility rates under multi-year rate orders; minimal transactional revenue
Inferred
Agent_Inference
monetization_vector
Regulated cost-of-service tariffs billed monthly to ~290K residential and commercial customers; revenue recovery through LPSC-approved rate base
Inferred
Agent_Inference
pricing_architecture
Cost-of-service regulation with fuel adjustment clauses; pricing stress-tested by LPSC rate cases; cannot raise rates unilaterally, limiting margin compression risk
Inferred
Agent_Inference
pricing_power_rating
Moderate — regulated ROE capped ~9.5-10.5%; fuel cost pass-through via FAC provides partial protection; rate cases lag inflation by 12-24 months
Inferred
Agent_Inference
target_gross_margin_bracket
Regulated utility gross margin ~35-45%; EBITDA margin ~30-35%; compressed by fuel costs, transmission charges, and depreciation on rate base
Inferred
Agent_Inference
churn_vulnerability_index
No free-rider risk; captive monopoly service territory; customer churn structurally impossible without relocation; distributed solar net-metering creates minor volumetric leakage
Inferred
Agent_Inference
headcount_cost_structure
Revenue growth is capital-linear not headcount-linear; doubling capacity requires infrastructure capex, not proportional headcount; O&M labor ~20% of costs
Inferred
Agent_Inference
marginal_cost_of_growth
Sublinear headcount growth; marginal revenue growth driven by rate base expansion and rate cases, not staff additions; capital intensity dominates growth cost
Inferred
Agent_Inference
franchise_compliance_risk
Not a franchise network; operates as a regulated monopoly utility; compliance drift risk minimal but LPSC audit and reporting requirements are continuous
Inferred
Agent_Inference
customer_acquisition_metric
CAC near zero — monopoly franchise territory; at 10x scale, rate base returns still capped by regulatory ROE; growth economics don't improve with scale
Inferred
Agent_Inference
network_effect_present
No network effects present; utility value does not increase with more users; grid reliability slightly improves with load density but not a competitive moat
Inferred
Agent_Inference
asset_efficiency_ratio
AI displacement risk low for core grid operations; moderate for back-office functions; asset-heavy model (PP&E ~$4B+) limits AI-driven efficiency gains to <5% opex
Inferred
Agent_Inference
recession_resistance_tier
Tier 1 recession-resistant; electricity is non-discretionary; residential load declines <3-5% in recessions; commercial/industrial load more sensitive (~10-15%)
Inferred
Agent_Inference
customer_segment_primary
Residential customers (~55% of revenue); ~200K+ accounts in central and southeastern Louisiana; individually low concentration risk
Inferred
Agent_Inference
customer_segment_secondary
Commercial and industrial customers (~40-45% of revenue); top 10 industrial customers may represent 10-15% of total revenue, moderate concentration
Inferred
Agent_Inference
characteristic_occupations
["11-0000 Management Occupations", "13-0000 Business and Financial Operations Occupations", "15-0000 Computer and Mathematical Occupations", "17-0000 Architecture and Engineering Occupations", "23-0000 Legal Occupations", "41-0000 Sales and Related Occupations", "43-0000 Office and Administrative Support Occupations", "47-0000 Construction and Extraction Occupations", "49-0000 Installation, Maintenance, and Repair Occupations"]
High
SOC-2018/GICS-overlay
agent_automatable_labor_share
0.34 (HIL — ~34% of characteristic roles agent-automatable)
Medium
SOC-2018 + agentic-exposure-v1
capital_expenditure_profile
Active reallocation: grid modernization, MISO transmission projects, and renewable integration capex rising; legacy coal asset depreciation accelerating; forward-state capex dominant
Inferred
Agent_Inference
sec_cik
1089819
Inferred
Agent_Inference
ticker
Cleco is privately held (acquired by Macquarie/British Columbia Investment in 2016); no publicly traded equity ticker; not listed on NYSE or NASDAQ
Inferred
Agent_Inference