Ameren Corporation

Greetings and welcome to Ameren Corporation's third quarter 2021 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note that this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce our host, Andrew Kirk, Director of Investor Relations for Ameren Corporation. Thank you, Mr. Kirk. You may begin.

Thank you, and good morning. On the call with me today are Warner Baxter, our chairman, president, chief executive officer, Michael Main, our executive vice president and chief financial officer, and Marty Lyons, president of Ameren Missouri, as well as other members of the Ameren management team joining us remotely. Warner and Michael will discuss our earnings results and guidance, as well as provide a business update. Then we will open the call for questions. Before we begin, let me cover a few administrative details. This call contains time-sensitive data that is accurate only as of the date of today's live broadcast and redistribution of this broadcast is prohibited. To assist with our call this morning, we have posted a presentation on the emirateinvestors.com homepage that will be referenced by our speakers. As noted on page two of the presentation, comments made during this conference call may contain statements that are commonly referred to as forward-looking statements. Such statements include those about future expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, strategies, targets, estimates, objectives, events, conditions, and financial performance. We caution you that various factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. For additional information concerning these factors, please read the forward-looking statements section in our news release we issued yesterday and the forward-looking statements and risk factors sections in our filings with the SEC. Lastly, all per share earnings amounts discussed during today's presentation, including earnings guidance, are presented on a diluted basis unless otherwise noted. Now here's a Warner who will start on page four of our presentation.

Thanks, Andrew. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. To begin, I am pleased to report that our team continues to effectively execute our strategic plan across all of our businesses, which includes making significant investments in our energy infrastructure to enhance the reliability and resiliency of the energy grid, as well as transition to a cleaner energy future in a responsible fashion. These investments, coupled with our continued focus on disciplined cost management, are delivering significant value to our customers, communities, and shareholders. We will now do our third quarter earnings results. Yesterday, we announced third quarter 2021 earnings of $1.65 per share. Our earnings were up 18 cents per share from the same time period in 2020. This slide highlights the key drivers of our strong performance. Michael will discuss the key drivers of our third quarter earnings results a bit later. Due to the continued strong execution of our strategy, I am also pleased to report that we raised our 2021 earnings guidance. Our 2021 earnings guidance range is now $3.75 per share to $3.95 per share, compared to our original guidance range of $3.65 per share to $3.85 per share. Turning now to page five, where we reiterate our strategic plan. The first pillar of our strategy stresses investing in and operating our utilities in a manner consistent with existing regulatory frameworks. This has driven our multi-year focus on investing in energy infrastructure for the long-term benefit of our customers. As a result, and as you can see on the right side of this page, during the first nine months of this year, we invested significant capital in each of our business segments. These investments are delivering value to our customers. As I said before, our energy grid is stronger, more resilient, and more secure because of the investments we are making in all four business segments. As we head into the winter months, I'd like to highlight some of the value these investments have created in our Ammon, Illinois and Ammon, Missouri natural gas businesses. Our natural gas transmission and distribution investments are focused on upgrading and modernizing gas main and equipment infrastructure. all the strength and safety and reliability of our system for our customers. Being mindful of the gas distribution issues experienced in the industry in the past, I will note that our Ameren Illinois and Ameren Missouri natural gas distribution systems are comprised almost entirely of plastic and protected coated steel pipelines. There is no cast iron pipe in our systems, and we expect to eliminate all unprotected steel pipe by the end of this year. These investments are just another example of how we are putting our customers at the center of our strategy. Moving now to regulatory matters, in late March, Amity, Missouri filed a request for a $299 million increase in annual electric service revenues and a $9 million increase in annual natural gas service revenues with the Missouri Public Service Commission. In our Illinois electric business, we've requested a $59 million base rate increase in our required annual electric distribution rate filing. These proceedings are moving along on schedule. Michael will provide more information on these proceedings a bit later. Finally, we've remained relentlessly focused on continuous improvement and disciplined cost management, including retaining many of the cost savings that we realized in 2020 due to the actions we took to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19. Moving to page six and the second pillar of our strategy, enhancing regulatory frameworks and advocating for responsible energy and economic policies. Over the years, we have been successful in executing this element of our strategy by delivering value to our customers through our investments in energy infrastructure and through extensive collaborations with key stakeholders in all of our regulatory jurisdictions. I am very pleased to report that these efforts paid off again in the third quarter when the Illinois legislature passed the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, or CEJA, which was later signed by Governor Pritzker. CEJA is a constructive piece of legislation that addresses the key objectives that we felt were important for our customers and the communities we serve. It will enable us to continue to make important infrastructure investments to enhance the reliability and resiliency of the energy grid through a new forward-thinking regulatory framework. It will also give us the ability to earn fair returns on those investments, as well as enable us to invest in two solar and or battery storage pilot projects. CJ allows for an electric utility to opt in to a multi-year rate plan effective for four years beginning in 2024. We are currently working with key stakeholders and will continue to over the course of 2022 to establish specific procedures, including performance metrics, to implement this legislation. Subject to finalizing key aspects of this rate-making framework, we anticipate filing a multi-year rate plan by mid-January 2023. Michael will discuss this constructive piece of legislation in more detail in a moment. Shifting now to the federal level, where important energy legislation continues to be discussed. Needless to say, the situation around federal legislation remains fluid and ever-changing. One thing that remains constant is our strong support for clean energy transition tax incentives, including wind and solar production tax credits, transmission and storage investment tax credits, as well as direct pay and normalization opt-out provisions. We also continue to strongly support significant funding for research, design, and development for new clean energy technologies, electrification of the transportation sector, and grid resiliency. We support these important legislative initiatives because we strongly believe they will deliver significant long-term benefits to our customers, communities, and country. We will continue to work with key stakeholders, along with our industry colleagues, to advance constructive federal energy and economic policies that will help us transition to a cleaner energy future in a responsible fashion. Speaking of our transition to a cleaner energy future, please turn to page 7 in the discussion of future transmission investment needs. As we have discussed with you in the past, MISO completed a study outlining the potential roadmap of transmission projects through 2039, taking into consideration the rapidly evolving generation mix that includes significant additions of renewable generation based on announced utility integrated resource plans, state mandates, and goals for clean energy or carbon emission reductions, among other things. In a MISO's future one scenario, which is the scenario that resulted in an approximate 60% carbon emissions reduction below 2005 levels by 2039, MISO estimates approximately $30 billion of future transmission investment would be necessary in the MISO footprint. Under its Future 3 scenario, which resulted in an 80% reduction in carbon emissions below 2005 levels by 2039, MISO estimates approximately $100 billion of transmission investment in the MISO footprint would be needed. It is clear that investment in transmission is going to play a critical role in the clean energy transition, and we are well positioned to plan and execute potential projects in the future for the benefit of our customers and country. We continue to work with MISO and other key stakeholders and believe certain projects outlined in Future 1 are likely going to be included in this year's MISO transmission planning process, which is expected to be completed in early 2022. Moving now to page 8 and an update on litigation regarding Amherst, Missouri's past compliance with the new source review provisions of the Clean Air Act. As you may recall, this litigation dates back to 2011. And the Department of Justice, on behalf of the EPA, filed a complaint against Amna, Missouri, alleging that in performing certain projects at the Rush Island Energy Center, we violated the new source review provisions of the Clean Air Act. In 2017, the district court issued a liability ruling and, in September 2019, ordered the installation of pollution control equipment at the Rush Island Energy Center as well as at the Labadee Energy Center. In September of this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the District Court's 2019 order that requires us to install a scrubber at our West Island Energy Center, but denied the order to install additional pollution control equipment at Lannaty. Last month, we filed a request for rehearing with the U.S. Court of Appeals. While we wait for a final decision from the courts, we continue to assess several alternatives to effectively address the Court of Appeals' decision including legal, operational, and regulatory measures. In reviewing these options, we are also carefully assessing the impact on customer costs, as well as generation or transmission investments needed to maintain system reliability. And we are certainly mindful of the policies that are being considered at the federal level to help address climate change. Should our decision result in a material change to our integrated resource plan, we will file an updated plan with the Missouri PSC. Turning to page nine, we remain focused on delivering a sustainable energy future for our customers, communities, and our country. This page summarizes our strong sustainability value proposition for environmental, social, and governance matters, and is consistent with our vision, leading the way to a sustainable energy future. Beginning with environmental stewardship, last September, Airman announced this transformational plan to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 across all of our operations in Missouri and Illinois. This plan includes interim carbon emission reduction targets of 50% and 85% below 2005 levels in 2030 and 2040, respectively, and is consistent with the objectives of the Paris Agreement in limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. We also have a strong long-term commitment to our customers and communities to be socially responsible and economically impactful. This slide highlights the many things we are doing for our customers and communities, including being an industry leader in diversity, equity, and inclusion. Further, our strong corporate governance is led by a diverse board of directors focused on strong oversight that's aligned with ESG matters. And our executive compensation practices include performance metrics that are tied to sustainable long-term performance, diversity, equity, inclusion, and progress towards a cleaner, sustainable energy future. Finally, this slide highlights our very strong sustainable growth proposition, which is among the best in the industry. Turning to page 10, we will drill down further on this key element. Our strong sustainable growth proposition is driven by a robust pipeline of investment opportunities of over $40 billion over the next decade that will deliver significant value to all of our stakeholders in making our energy grid stronger, smarter, and cleaner. Importantly, these investment opportunities exclude any new regionally beneficial transmission projects, including the potential roadmap of MISL transmission projects I discussed earlier, all of which would increase the reliability and resiliency of the energy grid, as well as help to enable our country's transition to a cleaner energy future. In addition, we expect to see greater focus on infrastructure investments to support the electrification of the transportation sector in the future. Our outlook to 2030 does not include significant infrastructure investments for electrification at this time. Maintaining constructive energy policies that support robust investment in energy infrastructure and a transition to a cleaner energy future in a safe, reliable, and affordable fashion will be critical to meeting our country's future energy needs and delivering on our customers' expectations. Moving to page 11. Another key element of our sustainable growth proposition is the five-year earnings per share growth guidance we issued in February, which included a six to eight percent compound annual earnings per share growth rate from 2021 to 2025. This earnings growth is primarily driven by strong rate-based growth and compares very favorably with our regulated utility peers. Importantly, our five-year earnings and rate-based growth projections do not include 1,200 megawatts of incremental renewable investment opportunities outlined in Ammon, Missouri's Integrated Resource Plan. Our team continues to assess several renewable generation proposals from developers. We expect to file with Missouri PSC for approval of a portion of these planned renewable investments this year. I am confident in our ability to execute our investment plans and strategies across all four of our business segments. That fact, coupled with our sustained past execution of our strategy on many fronts, has positioned us well for future success. Further, our shares continue to offer investors a strong dividend, which we expect to grow in line with our long-term earnings per share growth guidance. Simply put, we believe our strong earnings and dividend growth outlooks result in a very attractive total return opportunity for shareholders. Finally, turning to page 12, I will wrap up a few comments about the organizational changes we announced a few weeks ago. Over the past eight years, I have had the great privilege to serve as Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Ameren. During this time, I have been very fortunate to lead a team that has done an excellent job in executing our strategy and delivering strong value to our customers, communities, and shareholders. Last month, I was humbled and honored that the Board of Directors elected me to serve as Executive Chairman, effective January 1, 2022. At the same time, and consistent with our robust succession planning process, I was very pleased that the Board of Directors also elected Marty Lyons to serve as President and Chief Executive Officer, as well as to join the Board of Directors on January 1st. Marty is an outstanding leader and is exceptionally qualified to lead our company as CEO during this transformational time in our industry. Of course, many of you know Marty very well, as he spent a decade as the company's Chief Financial Officer. And during the past 20 years, Marty has demonstrated strong operational, financial, regulatory, and strategic acumen. I must say that I'm very excited about our new forward-thinking leadership structure. Working closely with Marty and our strong leadership team, I will remain actively engaged in overseeing important strategic matters impacting the company, including our transition to a cleaner energy future. I will also remain focused on key energy and economic policy matters, especially in my leadership roles at the Edison Electric Institute and the Electric Power Research Institute, as well as engaging with key stakeholders. Marty will take on the significant duties of the CEO, which includes leading all aspects of Ameren's strategy development and execution, as well as the day-to-day operational, financial, regulatory, legal, and workforce matters impacting the company. I, along with our board of directors, are very confident that Marty is clearly ready to lead Ameren as its new CEO. With that, I'll congratulate Marty once again for his promotion to CEO and turn it over to him to say a few words.