Note 6 - Financing

3 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2023

Notes to Financial Statements

Debt Disclosure [Text Block]

6. FINANCING

Short-term

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 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 December 31, 2023, total debt was less than 65% of total capitalization for each borrower. There were no borrowings against this credit facility as of December 31, 2023.

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.

After quarter end, on January 3, 2024, Spire Missouri entered into a loan agreement with several banks for a $200.0 unsecured term loan due October 3, 2024. Interest accrues at the one-month term secured overnight financing rate (“SOFR”) plus a SOFR adjustment of 0.10% per annum plus a margin of 0.90% per annum.

Information about short-term borrowings, including Spire Missouri’s and Spire Alabama’s borrowings from Spire, is presented in the following table. As of December 31, 2023, $810.8 of Spire’s CP Program borrowings was used to support lending to the Utilities.

	Spire (Parent Only)			Spire Missouri					Spire Alabama			Spire
	CP			Term		Spire			Spire			Consol-
	Program			Loan		Note			Note			idated
Three Months Ended December 31, 2023
Highest borrowings outstanding	$	1,135.0		$	—	$	643.6		$	132.5		$	1,135.0
Lowest borrowings outstanding		955.5			—		526.5			107.9			955.5
Weighted average borrowings		1,043.5			—		583.3			119.8			1,043.5
Weighted average interest rate		5.7	%		n/a		5.7	%		5.7	%		5.7	%
As of December 31, 2023
Borrowings outstanding	$	1,047.5		$	—	$	633.3		$	128.5		$	1,047.5
Weighted average interest rate		5.7	%		n/a		5.7	%		5.7	%		5.7	%
As of September 30, 2023
Borrowings outstanding	$	955.5		$	—	$	540.6		$	124.1		$	955.5
Weighted average interest rate		5.6	%		n/a		5.6	%		5.6	%		5.6	%
As of December 31, 2022
Borrowings outstanding	$	1,227.0		$	—	$	651.2		$	145.8		$	1,227.0
Weighted average interest rate		4.9	%		n/a		4.9	%		4.9	%		4.9	%

Long-term

The long-term debt agreements of Spire, Spire Missouri and Spire Alabama contain customary financial covenants and default provisions. As of December 31, 2023, there were no events of default under these financial covenants.

Interest expense shown on the statements of income is net of the capitalized interest amounts shown in the following table.

	Three Months Ended December 31,
	2023		2022
Spire	$	3.8	$	1.6
Spire Missouri		1.2		0.5
Spire Alabama		0.4		0.7