Stephen Coughlin on balance sheet
From The AES Corporation AES Q3 2025 Earnings Call · · Fyfull
“Our priority is continuing to strengthen our balance sheet and keep our investment‑grade ratings strong — it's not about gigawatt growth at any cost but profitable growth with attractive returns. We removed $2 billion of cash through actions earlier this year, executed selldowns (for example in AS Ohio) to reduce debt, and are pursuing fewer but larger projects targeting returns in the upper half of our 12%–15% IRR guidance range.”
On , Stephen Coughlin, Executive VP & CFO at AES Corp, spoke about balance sheet during The AES Corporation AES Q3 2025 Earnings Call on Fyfull.
About Stephen Coughlin
Stephen Coughlin, executive vice president and CFO of AES, participated in the company’s third quarter 2025 earnings calls on November 16 and November 23, 2025. He reported that third quarter adjusted EBITDA was $830 million, up from $698 million a year earlier, and stated that the company is reaffirming its five to seven percent long-term growth rate for adjusted EBITDA through 2027. Coughlin said AES is self-funded through 2027 and has no plans to issue equity, and that its top priority is strengthening the balance sheet and maintaining investment-grade ratings. He noted that returns on recent data center power purchase agreements are trending toward the upper end of the company’s 12 to 15 percent IRR guidance range. Separately, Coughlin has given a series of political and ideological briefings through Unconstrained Analytics, a nonprofit he leads. In these appearances, he has argued that Marxism operates as a political warfare campaign and that the left can only be understood through that framework. He has stated that the Muslim Brotherhood and neo-Marxist groups are aligned in a “united front” and that the COVID-19 lockdowns were used as a revolutionary tactic. Coughlin has also asserted that the term “democracy” as used by Democrats maps to a Marxist definition, that the destruction of families is a key Marxist objective, and that intersectionality is a form of Marxism. These views were expressed at conferences and in online briefings between 2019 and 2024.
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