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Clean Energy Finance Corporation Annual Report 2018–19

Appendix C: Summary of operating costs and expenses and benchmark

Introduction

Under the CEFC Act, the Corporation must include in its Annual Report:

the Corporation’s operating costs and expenses for the financial year; and
a benchmark of the Corporation’s operating costs and expenses for the financial year against the operating costs and expenses of other comparable entities for that financial year.

The Corporation’s operating costs and expenses for the financial year are reported in the Financial Statements and Notes, and are also reproduced below in extract for convenience.

About the CEFC structure

The CEFC is a corporate Commonwealth entity with an independent Board that makes investment decisions to invest in renewable energy, energy efficient and low emissions technologies according to the CEFC Act and ministerial directions supplied by an Investment Mandate. The CEFC’s investment focus is on debt and equity that is solely or mainly Australian-based. The CEFC cannot invest directly in non-financial assets and does not have a large cash investment function. At 30 June 2019, the CEFC had 101 employees (99.59 full-time equivalent), based in Sydney (headquarters), Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth. The CEFC has drawing rights against the Clean Energy Finance Corporation Special Account maintained by the Department of the Environment and Energy.

Note on comparisons

Direct comparisons of the CEFC with other entities are difficult because:

there are very few Government-owned public purpose entities that perform the type of function the CEFC does at a similar scale;
current financial year data on other entities is not necessarily readily available; and
data is not always reported using the same expense categories across different entities.

Entities chosen for the purposes of comparison

In order to provide some meaningful comparison as required under section 74 of the CEFC Act, the CEFC has compared its consolidated 2018–19 operating costs and expenses against the latest publicly available information for three Government owned entities which were formed for public purpose with a commercial mode of operation:

Future Fund Board of Guardians as supported by the Future Fund Management Agency: Future Fund
Export Finance and Insurance Corporation, trading as Export Finance Australia from 1 July 2019: Efic
Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund: NAIF

Future Fund Management Agency (Future Fund) – structure

The Future Fund was established under Division 2 of Part 5 of the Future Fund Act 2006 and is governed by an independent Board, which makes investment decisions according to ministerial directions supplied by an Investment Mandate.

The Future Fund is neither geographically nor sector limited to renewable and low carbon technology in the same way as the CEFC, and pursues a broad sectoral spread in a range of investments. At 31 March 2019 these were: Australian equities (6.5 per cent), global equities (26.4 per cent), private equity (15.4 per cent), property (7.0 per cent), infrastructure and timberland (8.2 per cent), alternative assets (14.0 per cent), debt securities (9.3 per cent) and cash (13.2 per cent). The Future Fund had circa AUD$154 billion funds under management, invested in Australia and overseas, as at 31 March 2019.

For more information visit www.futurefund.gov.au.

Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (Efic) – structure

Like the CEFC, Efic is a corporate Commonwealth entity governed by an independent Board. Efic operates on a commercial basis and partners but does not compete with banks. From 1 July 2019, Efic’s trading name changed to Export Finance Australia. The organisation has four key functions under its enabling legislation:

To facilitate and encourage Australian export trade by providing insurance and financial services and products to persons involved directly or indirectly in such trade.
To encourage banks and other financial institutions in Australia to finance or assist in financing exports.
To manage the Australian Government’s aid-supported mixed credit program (a facility which has now been discontinued, although loans are still outstanding under it).
To provide information and advice regarding insurance and financial arrangements to support Australian exports.

Efic’s investment function is primarily related to the issuing of insurance and security guarantees, working capital guarantees and longer-term finance guarantees within these functions. Efic is headquartered in Sydney, provided facilities totalling $194 million during 2017–18 and had exposures of some $2.61 billion at 30 June 2018 (made up of circa $2.0 billion on the Commercial Account and $0.61 billion on the National Interest Account).

For more information visit www.efic.gov.au.

Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) – structure

The Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) was established on 1 July 2016 as a corporate Commonwealth entity under the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility Act 2016 (NAIF Act). A commercially focused independent Board oversees the NAIF and is responsible for making investment recommendations to deploy finance.

The NAIF offers up to $5 billion in debt or alternative financing mechanisms, which may be on concessional terms, to benefit northern Australia. It is designed to be a key catalyst for the longer-term transformation of the northern Australian economy and population through the construction of infrastructure. This may include developments in airports, communications, energy, pipelines, ports, roads, rail and water. NAIF investments may support growth in sectors across the north, such as food and agribusiness, international education, medical research, tourism, energy and resources.

For more information visit www.naif.gov.au.

Figure 32: Operating costs and expenses benchmark – Comparison with Annual Reports

	CEFC 2018–19		Future Fund 2017–18 ^(c)		EFIC 2017–18 ^{(c), (d)}		NAIF 2017–18 ^(c)
	$’000	%	$’000	%	$’000	%	$’000	%
Employee Benefit Expenses
Wages and salaries	24,864		46,987		17,200		3,905
Superannuation	1,479		2,673		1,700		311
Leave and other entitlements	375		1,062		200
Other expenses	633		–		900		441
Total Employee Benefit Expenses	27,351	41	50,722	21	20,000	11	4,657	53
Board remuneration
Wages and salaries	435		784
Superannuation	41		81
Total Board Remuneration	476	1	865	0	–	0	0	0
Total Employee and Board Remuneration and Benefits	27,827	42	51,587	21	20,000	11	4,657	53
Other costs
Interest expense	–	0			144,800	82
Provision for impairment and irrevocable loan commitments ^(h)	23,099	35			(200)	0
Concessional loan discount ^(b)	3,922	6
Professional fees and expenses	3,142	5	141,499	57	1,160	1	1,191	13
Other investment portfolio expenses	1,141	2	20,469	8	800	0	4	0
Travel and incidentals	1,240	2			600	0	597	7
Office facility costs	2,104	3			1,500	1	292	3
Insurance	291	0					20	0
Marketing and Communications	710	1			1,200	1	57	1
Depreciation and amortisation	1,031	2	2,668	1	5,000	3
Auditors’ remuneration	252	0	205	0	240	0
Administrative, IT and other expenses	1,335	2	30,721	13	1,100	1	2,029	23
Total Expenses	66,094	100	247,149	100	176,200	100	8,847	100

^a) Like for like comparisons are not strictly possible since different entities group and report costs differently.

^b) Non-cash charge that reverses over the life of the underlying loans.

^c) From 2017–18 Annual Report since 2018–19 Information is not available at the time of preparing this report.

^d) Costs are shown gross before National Interest Account allocation.

^e) From Portfolio Budget Statements 2019–20 for the Finance Portfolio.

^f) From Portfolio Budget Statements 2019–20 for the Industry, Innovation and Science Portfolio.

^g) Efic does not appear separately in the 2019–20 Portfolio Budget Statements and its 2018–19 Corporate Plan does not provide this level of detail.

^h) The new accounting standard AASB 9 changed the methodology for calculating impairment provisions with effect from 1 July 2018 for entities with a 30 June financial year end.

Figure 33: Operating costs and expenses benchmark – Comparison with Portfolio Budget Statements

	CEFC 2018–19 (actual)		Future Fund 2018–19 (estimate)(e)		NAIF 2018–19 (estimate) (f)
	$’000	%	$’000	%	$’000	%
Employee benefits	27,827	42	49,691	10	7,608	65
Supplier costs	10,215	15	453,269	89	4,046	35
Depreciation and amortisation	1,031	2	4,772	1
Concessional loan discount(b)	3,922	6
Allowance for impairment of assets and irrevocable loan commitments	23,099	35
Total Expenses	66,094	100	507,732	100	11,654	100