Note 5 - Financing

3 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2022

Notes to Financial Statements

Debt Disclosure [Text Block]

Short-term

Spire, Spire Missouri and Spire Alabama have a syndicated revolving credit facility pursuant to a loan agreement with 12 banks, which was amended July 22, 2022, to increase the commitment and sublimits and extend the agreement through July 22, 2027. The amended 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 December 31, 2022, total debt was less than 65% of total capitalization for each borrower. There were no borrowings against this credit facility as of December 31, 2022.

Spire utilizes a commercial paper program (“CP Program”) pursuant to which Spire 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.

In March 2021, Spire Missouri entered into a loan agreement with several banks for a $250.0, 364-day unsecured term loan with an interest rate based on LIBOR plus 65 basis points. The loan was repaid in March 2022.

After quarter end, 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 accrues at either, as selected by the Company, a base rate or an adjusted forward-looking secured overnight financing rate (“SOFR”). Adjusted SOFR is based on one- or three-month term SOFR, as selected by the Company, plus a SOFR adjustment of 0.10% per annum plus a margin of 0.80% 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, 2022, $843.4 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, 2022
Highest borrowings outstanding	$	1,230.0		$	—		$	651.2		$	274.0		$	1,230.0
Lowest borrowings outstanding		829.5			—			439.6			76.7			829.5
Weighted average borrowings		1,071.3			—			529.6			138.3			1,071.3
Weighted average interest rate		4.4	%		n/a			4.3	%		4.2	%		4.4	%
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	%
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	%
As of December 31, 2021
Borrowings outstanding	$	596.0		$	250.0		$	180.4		$	173.7		$	846.0
Weighted average interest rate		0.4	%		0.7	%		0.4	%		0.4	%		0.5	%

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, 2022, 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,
	2022		2021
Spire	$	1.6	$	1.1
Spire Missouri		0.5		—
Spire Alabama		0.7		0.8

On  October 13, 2022, Spire Alabama issued $90.0 of notes due  October 15, 2029, bearing interest at 5.32% and $85.0 of notes due  October 15, 2032, bearing interest at 5.41%. Interest is payable semi-annually. The notes are senior unsecured obligations and rank equal in right to payment with all other senior unsecured indebtedness of Spire Alabama. Also on  October 13, 2022, Spire Gulf issued $30.0 of first mortgage bonds due  October 15, 2037, bearing interest at 5.61% payable semi-annually. The bonds rank equal in right to payment with the other first mortgage bonds issued by Spire Gulf. The bonds were issued under a supplemental indenture with collateral fall away provisions whereby, under certain conditions, Spire Gulf  may elect to exchange the bonds, which are secured, for unsecured notes.