Former Halliburton CEO Dave Lesar has been appointed the new CEO at Centerpoint Energy. He replaces Scott Prochazka, who left in February. He has been a non-Executive director since May.

Centerpoint is an electric and gas utility that serves more than 7 million metered customers in Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas.

Mr Lesar joined Halliburton in 1993 and was Chairman and CEO from 2000 to 2017. For the past year he has been serving as the interim CEO at Health Care Service Corporation, the largest private health insurer in the US.

Compensation package

In his new role, Mr Lesar will receive a base salary of $1.35 million (same base as his predecessor). He will also receive a sign-on equity award of $1 million that will vest over three years. The company will also facilitate the relocation of Mr Lesar from Dallas to Houston by buying his Dallas residence for $1.2 million. (The head office of Halliburton was in Dallas until it moved to Houston in 2002).

Executive changes

Centerpoint has been in some turmoil recently. Former CEO Prochazka left with a cash severance payment of $7.3 million. He was also received the vesting of stock awards ($4.7 million) and the continued vesting of performance share units (could be worth up to $7.9 million).

In April, Xia Liu, the CFO, bolted after less than a year in the role, for a similar role at WEC Energy. Kristie Colvin, the Chief Accounting Officer, was appointed the interim CFO, pending the appointment of a new CEO.

In February, the company announced the sale of its Infrastructure Services and Energy Services divisions, in two separate transactions, for a combined $1.3 billion. The divisions made up about a third of Centerpoint’s total revenues, but weren’t very profitable. The company took a loss on sale of $234 million, after taking into account goodwill impairment.

Activist Investor

In May, Centerpoint also received new equity funding of $1.4 billion from a group of investors  that includes activist investor, Elliott Management. Elliott first invested in Centerpoint in 2015.

Elliott appears to be following a similar playbook to its investment in NRG Energy in 2017. NRG has its head office in New Jersey and its operations in Houston. It took over the retail operations of Houston’s Reliant Energy in 2009. It then overstretched itself after a series of acquisitions. Elliott’s pressure forced it into cost cutting and asset sales. I wouldn’t be surprised if Centerpoint is taken over within the next couple of years.

SEC Filing – Centerpoint appoints Lesar as CEO

Spark Energy stock price

Nathan Kroeker is out as the CEO of Spark Energy. He is replaced, on an interim basis, by founder and chairman, Keith Maxwell, who still owns approximately 66.5% of the stock.

The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in west Houston. It supplies energy to residential and commercial customers operating in 19 states.

It’s not clear what prompted the change. EBITDA rose in 2019 to $71 million and the company has net debt of only $66 million. Its share price is currently $6.20, down from $10 earlier in the year.

Mr Kroeker had been the CEO since April 2014. Prior to that. he was the CFO of Spark between 2010-2012. He had a base salary of $450,000. The SEC filing doesn’t mention any details of his severance package. However, the annual proxy for 2018, filed in April last year, stated that Mr Kroeker was entitled to severance of one year’s salary, payable in twelve monthly installments.

He will also get his 2019 earned bonus (the 2018 figure was $250,000) and a pro-rated 2020 target bonus. Mr Kroeker’s unvested stock awards will also vest. As the annual proxy statement for 2019 has not been filed, I can’t quantify their specific worth, but it is likely to be over $2 million.

Mr Maxwell will receive a salary of $1 for his interim CEO role, though he is paid $250,000 in fees for his non-Executive chairman position.

Spark appointed Jim Jones as its new CFO in June 2019. He replaced Rob Lane, who stepped down to become the CFO at Sunnova Energy, which went public in July.

SEC filing – Spark Energy CEO

Scott Prochazka, CEO of Centerpoint Energy, has resigned from his position with immediate effect.  John Somerhalder, a director of the company, has been appointed interim CEO while the Board conducts a search for a new CEO. The Board determined that ‘now is the right time for a new leader with a fresh strategic perspective.’

Centerpoint Energy has a market capitalization of $13.7 billion.  It has nearly $35 billion in assets and serves 7 million customers in 8 states.

Mr Prochazka has been with the company since 2001 and had been CEO since January 2014. He had a base salary of $1.323 million. According to the 2018 proxy statement, technically there are no formal severance payments due to Mr Prochazka, unless it is a change of control.

[UPDATE 03-09-20 The company has filed a separation agreement and it’s a whopper. Mr Prochazka will get a lump sum cash payment of $7,348,584. His 2016-2018 stock awards will also vest. It’s hard to tell, but they are probably worth about the same again]

When CFO Bill Rogers retired in March 2019, the Compensation Committee gave him a special lump-sum cash payment of $360,000 (about 60% of his base salary). He also had joined the company in 2001.

Xia Liu was appointed as the new CFO in April 2019.

SEC filing – Centerpoint CEO resigns

SEC Filing – Separation Agreement