Pembina Pipeline CorpPPL.TOPAST TOP PICKDec 08, 2017Stock price when the opinion was issued
As of Jul 02, 2026. Market Open.
Both benefit from AI centre demand. Pembina is building a 1.8 gigawatt natural gas plant in Alberta. Half of ALA's business is in the US, regulated utilities, in Virginia--the world capital of data centre traffic. ALA also has activity in Western Canada. ALA's growth rate is higher than Pembina. ALA gets the slight edge.
APO has pretty smart people, and they're seeing an opportunity here. Purchase was from KKR, so nothing much changes.
As for PPL itself, trading a bit expensive with growth catalysts of 5-7%. Nice, visible project backlog. Nice dividend. Wouldn't add here, but you'll do OK if you own it.
Still thinks KEY is the better buy.
PPL is more pure-play pipeline infrastructure. Better dividend yield. Contracted cashflow gives you earnings and revenue visibility. This would be his preference.
ALA gives you a mix of energy infrastructure (~45%) with regulated utilities (~55%). Utility component gives more stability, but lower dividend. He's not a huge fan of utilities unless they're tied to AI infrastructure buildout.
(A Top Pick June 19/17. Up 6%.) He still likes this. It is in a great position. They acquired Veresen which did a lot of things for them. It was a financial accretive deal, and diversified their hydrocarbon mix to more natural gas. It gives them a really good pipeline of growth projects. We should start seeing the benefits of that. It gives you a 5% dividend yield, which will grow at 10% a year.