Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. (Operator instructions) And your first question will come from the line of Paul Clegg from Jefferies. Please proceed.
Paul Clegg – Jefferies
Hi, guys. Thanks for all the detail. Thanks for taking my question. You went through a lot of metrics here on the sensitivities on '09 guidance. Can we safely assume then that it's really – it's primarily energy pricing and metals pricing that bracket the upper and lower end of that, that caused the widespread?
Tony Orlando
Well, certainly those are the biggest two without question. The other factor will be how things play out on the waste market. We feel pretty good about the waste market. There tends to be little volatility there. And as we noted, we've got about 15% of our waste that's coming into merchant volume. So we'll have to see how that plays out. But yes, the big two items are clearly the energy price and the scrap metal.
Paul Clegg – Jefferies
Okay. And can you also comment on what you're seeing in terms of M&A opportunities with the downturn, are there opportunities to get more attractive assets at reasonable multiples, are people being more realistic about what they can get?
Tony Orlando
Short answer is, yes. There's definitely better opportunities than there were previously and more sellers and fewer buyers.
Paul Clegg – Jefferies
Okay. And particularly which – is it waste energy facilities particularly or what other types of assets do you think that you might be looking around at over the next year?
Tony Orlando
Well, as we've said in the past, the focus internationally will be on building out a platform that is focused on energy from waste whereas here in the U.S., of course, we'll look for waste energy opportunities, although there aren't all that many available. So we'll look where there are opportunities in the U.S. for waste energy, but we'll also look at other renewable energy facilities like the biomass that we pursued and maybe kind of branch out to try to leverage our existing platform in the U.S., whereas we're really trying to develop a platform in Europe and Asia.
Paul Clegg – Jefferies
Okay. Thanks very much.
Mark Pytosh
Thanks, Paul.
Operator
Your next question will come from the line of Ron Oster from Broadpoint AmTech.
Ron Oster – Broadpoint AmTech
Good morning. I was wondering if you could comment, I think in the beginning of your prepared remarks, you mentioned that 70% of your 2010 electricity sales were under contract. Is that – has that been – I believe that's changed from the 50% we've heard previously. Am I remembering that correctly or has there been some changes there?
- To read the full transcript on Seeking Alpha, click here »
