Note 7 - Notes Payable and Credit Agreements

12 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2023

Notes to Financial Statements

Debt Disclosure [Text Block]

7. NOTES PAYABLE AND CREDIT AGREEMENTS

Spire, Spire Missouri and Spire Alabama have a syndicated revolving credit facility pursuant to a loan agreement with 12 banks through July 22, 2027. The loan agreement has an aggregate credit commitment of $1,300.0, including sublimits of $450.0 for the Spire holding company, $575.0 for Spire Missouri and $275.0 for Spire Alabama. These sublimits may be reallocated from time to time among the three borrowers within the $1,300.0 aggregate commitment, with commitment fees and interest margins applied for each borrower relative to its credit rating, as well as sustainability rate adjustments based on Spire's DART (“Days Away Restricted or Transferred”) rate and methane emissions reductions. The Spire holding company may use its line to provide for the funding needs of various subsidiaries. The agreement also contains financial covenants limiting each borrower’s consolidated total debt, including short-term debt, to no more than 70% of its total capitalization. As defined in the line of credit, on September 30, 2023, total debt was less than 65% of total capitalization for each borrower. There were no borrowings against this credit facility as of September 30, 2023 and 2022.

Spire has a commercial paper program (“CP Program”) pursuant to which it may issue short-term, unsecured commercial paper notes. Amounts available under the CP Program may be borrowed, repaid and re-borrowed from time to time, with the aggregate face or principal amount of the notes outstanding under the CP Program at any time not to exceed $1,300.0. The notes may have maturities of up to 365 days from date of issue.

On January 5, 2023, Spire Missouri entered into a loan agreement with several banks for a $250.0 unsecured term loan due October 5, 2023. Interest was based on the secured overnight financing rate (“SOFR”) plus an adjustment of 0.10% per annum plus a margin of 0.80% per annum. The loan was repaid on May 8, 2023.

Information about short-term borrowings, including Spire Missouri’s and Spire Alabama’s borrowings from Spire, is presented in the following table. As of September 30, 2023, $706.9 of Spire’s short-term borrowings were used to support lending to the Utilities.

	Spire			Spire						Spire
	(Parent Only)			Missouri						Alabama			Spire
	CP			Term			Spire			Spire			Consol-
	Program			Loan			Note			Note			idated
Year Ended September 30, 2023
Highest borrowings outstanding	$	1,282.0		$	250.0		$	656.9		$	274.0		$	1,482.0
Lowest borrowings outstanding		354.4			—			3.8			76.7			489.0
Weighted average borrowings		776.3			66.8			327.9			119.1			843.1
Weighted average interest rate		5.0	%		5.5	%		4.9	%		4.9	%		5.0	%
As of September 30, 2023
Borrowings outstanding	$	955.5		$	—		$	540.6		$	124.1		$	955.5
Weighted average interest rate		5.6	%		0.0	%		5.6	%		5.6	%		5.6	%
As of September 30, 2022
Borrowings outstanding	$	1,037.5		$	—		$	445.3		$	260.9		$	1,037.5
Weighted average interest rate		3.3	%		0.0	%		3.3	%		3.3	%		3.3	%