SEC Company Response from FIRSTENERGY CORP (FE) (CIK 0001031296) (FE) — Sep 21, 2006
FIRSTENERGY CORP (FE) (CIK 0001031296)
Date: Sept. 21, 2006 · CIK: 0001031296 · Accession: 0001031296-06-000224
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File numbers found in text: 333-21011
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CORRESP
1
filename1.htm
SEC Response Letter
September
21,
2006
Mr.
Jim Allegretto
Senior
Assistant
Chief Accountant
Division
of
Corporation Finance
Securities
and
Exchange Commission
Mail
Stop
3561
100
F Street, N.E.
Washington,
D.C.
20549
Re:
FirstEnergy
Corp.
Form
10-K for
Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2005
Filed
March 2,
2006
Forms
10-Q for
Fiscal Quarters Ended
March
31, 2006
and June 30, 2006
File
No.
333-21011
Dear
Mr.
Allegretto:
This
letter is in
response to your correspondence dated September 8, 2006 regarding your review
of
the filings by FirstEnergy Corp. on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended
December 31, 2005 (Form 10-K), and Forms 10-Q for the periods ended
March 31, 2006 and June 30, 2006. Your comments are indicated below in
italics, followed by our responses.
FORM
10-K
FOR FISCAL YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2005
Exhibits
31.1 and
31.2
1.
In
future
filings, please provide separate Section 302 and Section 906
certifications for each registrant.
Response:
In
future
filings we will provide separate Section 302 and Section 906
certifications for each registrant.
2.
In
future
filings, please revise your certifications to replace references
to
“annual report” with “report”. You may continue to refer to “annual
report” in Item 1 of the certification. Note that the language of the
certifications required by Section 302 of Sarbanes Oxley and
Item 601(b)(31) of Regulation S-K should not be altered.
Similarly, please revise your certifications in future filings of
Form
10-Q to replace references to “quarterly report” with
“report”.
Response:
In future
filings we will remove the words “annual” and “quarterly” on the
respective exhibits.
Exhibit
13
Management’s
Discussion and Analysis of Results of Operations and Financial
Condition, page
4
Executive
Summary, page 4
3.
We
note
your presentation of the non-GAAP measures “earnings before unusual items”
on page 4 and “cash earnings” on page 22. We assume you consider such
measures to be non-GAAP measures of performance. If so, indicate
as such
and provide cautionary disclosure that the non-GAAP measures may
not be
comparable to similarly titled measures used by other entities. We
believe
the non-GAAP measures should not be considered an alternative to
net
income, the most directly comparable GAAP measure, as an indicator
of
operating performance. If you agree, you should so state. If you
do not,
explain why.
Response:
We do
consider the non-GAAP “earnings before unusual items” on page 4 and “cash
earnings” on page 22 as non-GAAP measures of performance. In future
filings we will explicitly state that fact and provide cautionary
disclosure that the non-GAAP measures may not be comparable to similarly
titled measures used by other entities.
We
believe
that the non-GAAP measures should not be considered an alternative
to net
income, but as complimentary to, net income, the most directly comparable
GAAP measure, and are useful to readers of our financial statements,
when
considered together with net income, in understanding our overall
operating performance. We have disclosed our rationale in the first
paragraph on page 5 of the Form 10-K following the Non-GAAP reconciliation
to net income on the preceding page. With regard to the non-GAAP
“cash
earnings” measure, our rationale for its inclusion is contained in the
paragraph preceding the Reconciliation of Net Income to Cash Earnings
on
page 22.
Further,
in arriving at these measures, it appears you exclude items that
are
recurring in nature. Please note that if you intend to include non-GAAP
performance measures that exclude items of a potentially recurring
nature
in future filings, you should demonstrate the usefulness of the measure.
In this regard, you should fully address the bullet points in Question
8
of our Frequently Asked Questions Regarding the Use of Non-GAAP Financial
Measures, available on our website at www.sec.gov,
in
crafting your revised disclosures. In this regard, ensure you revise
your
disclosures as follows:
Disclose
the specific manner in which you use the non-GAAP measures to conduct
or
evaluate your business. If you do not use the measures in any of
the above
manners, explain your basis for presenting the measures.
Response:
With regard
to Question 8 of the Commission’s Frequently Asked Questions Regarding the
Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures, we respectfully submit that
FirstEnergy has never used a non-GAAP measure in an attempt to smooth
earnings. We use the non-GAAP measures to assess operating performance
-
that is, to assess results without adjustments due to material items
such
as non-core asset sales and/or impairments, the impacts of new
legislation, litigation, accounting standards or similar authoritative
pronouncements that may create a new asset or liability as a result
of
past transactions, and the actions of regulators that either create
regulatory assets related to costs incurred in prior annual fiscal
periods
or that disallow regulatory assets that were created in prior annual
fiscal periods. The intent of the adjustments from GAAP to non-GAAP
measures is to provide a meaningful representation of current year
operating results.
2
Discuss
the economic substance behind your decision to use the
measures.
Response:
We believe
the non-GAAP measures provide meaningful supplementary information
for the
reader to interpret FirstEnergy’s operating performance for an annual
fiscal period, from both an earnings and cash generation perspective.
The
items reconciling non-GAAP measures to GAAP measures are prominently
displayed and described in our disclosures so that operating trends
are
not distorted by the types of unusual items that may occur during
an
annual fiscal period as described above. In our non-GAAP reconciliation
of
“Earnings Before Unusual Items” to “Net Income” on page 4 of the Form
10-K, there are items that are included in more than one year, but
that
fact alone does not cause those items to be defined as recurring.
Our
reasoning for each item included in more than one year on page 4
is
summarized below:
–Cumulative
effect of accounting changes - These are isolated instances that
result
from the adoption of new accounting standards.
The
caption in each year
may be the same, but the circumstances are unrelated from year to
year.
–Non-core
asset
sales/impairments - FirstEnergy is completing its program of divesting
a
defined group of non-core assets following
its 2001 acquisition of GPU, Inc. That program necessarily spanned
several
years and is not recurring in nature.
–Davis-Besse
extended outage impacts - The impacts relate to a single, significant
unplanned and highly unusual outage at our
Davis-Besse nuclear plant that spanned several years because of the
complexity of both the remediation efforts that were required
and the regulatory and legal issues that had to be addressed.
We
do not
expect that any of the other items in the reconciliation that relate
to
just one year would recur in the following two years.
Disclose
the material limitations associated with use of the measures as compared
to the use of the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure.
For
example, how does exclusion of an economic event produce a measure
that is
at least equal in qualitative content to the comparable GAAP
measure?
Response:
We
do not
believe the non-GAAP measures should be considered an alternative
to net
income because the measure may not be comparable to similarly titled
measures used by other entities. We will disclose this limitation
in
future filings that include non-GAAP
measures.
3
Disclose
the manner in which you compensate for these limitations when using
the
measures.
Response:
We do not
display non-GAAP measures more prominently than GAAP measures and
we
provide complete and robust disclosures of GAAP
measures.
Please
show us how the revised disclosures will read in future filings.
Response:
In addition
to what we currently disclose regarding non-GAAP financial measures,
the
following cautionary language will be added:
Generally,
a
non-GAAP financial measure is a numerical measure of a company’s
historical or future financial performance, financial position, or
cash
flows that either excludes or includes amounts, or is subject to
adjustment that has the effect of excluding or including amounts,
that are
not normally excluded or included in the most directly comparable
measure
calculated and presented in accordance with accounting principles
generally accepted in the United States (GAAP). Earnings per share
before
unusual items on a non-GAAP basis (normalized earnings per share)
is not
calculated in accordance with GAAP because it excludes the impact
of
“unusual items”. Unusual items reflect the impact on earnings of material
events that are not routine, including those that may be related
to
discontinued businesses or the cumulative effect of an accounting
change.
Management believes presenting normalized earnings calculated in
this
manner provides useful information to investors in evaluating the
ongoing
results of FirstEnergy’s businesses and assists investors in comparing the
company’s operating performance to the operating performance of other
companies in the energy sector. In addition, cash earnings (non-GAAP)
are
not defined under GAAP. Management believes presenting this non-GAAP
measure provides useful information to investors in assessing
FirstEnergy’s operating performance from a cash perspective without the
effects of material unusual economic events. FirstEnergy’s management
frequently references these non-GAAP financial measures in its
decision-making, using them to facilitate historical and ongoing
performance comparisons as well as comparisons to the performance
of peer
companies. These non-GAAP measures should be considered in addition
to,
and not as a substitute for, their most directly comparable financial
measures prepared in accordance with
GAAP.
Contractual
Obligations, page 26
4.
Please
consider revising your table to include estimated interest payments
on
your debt. Because the table is aimed at increasing transparency
of cash
flow, we believe these payments should be included in the table.
If you
continue to choose not to include these payments, a footnote to the
table
should provide any additional information that is material to an
understanding of your cash requirements. See Section IV.A and Footnote
46
to the Commission’s MD&A Guidance dated December 29, 2003, available
at www.sec.gov.
Response:
In future
filings we will include estimated interest payments on debt in the
table
of contractual obligations in the Management’s Discussion and
Analysis.
4
Consolidated
Statements of Income, page 46
5.
Please
revise to present the subtotal income before income taxes. Refer
to the
requirements of Rule 5-03(b)(10) of Regulation
S-X.
Response:
In future
filings we will present the subtotal “Income Before Income
Taxes”.
6.
Please
revise to present the subtotal income before cumulative effects of
changes
in accounting principles. Refer to the requirements of Rule 5-03(b)(16)of
Regulation S-X.