Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. Common Shares

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Algonquin Power and Utilities Corp fourth quarter 2018 and full year results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Christopher Jarrett, Vice Chair of Algonquin Power and Utilities Corp. Please go ahead, Mr. Jarrett.

Great. Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on our fourth quarter and full year earnings results conference call. As mentioned, my name is Chris Jarrett, and I'm the Vice Chair of Algonquin Power and and Utilities Corp, and joining me on the call today are Ian Robertson, our Chief Executive Officer, and David Bronaczewski, our Chief Financial Officer. We do have a supplemental webcast presentation that accompanies this call, and you can access that from our website. Our audited financial statements and the MD&A are also available on our website, CDAR, and on EDGAR. Before continuing the call, we would like to remind you that our discussion on this call will include forward-looking information and non-GAAP financial measures. And at the end of the call, we will read a not-so-brief legal notice in respect of both forward-looking information and non-GAAP financial measures. On the call today, Ian's going to start with the strategic highlights of Q4, as well as our full year 2018. David will follow with the financial performance highlights, and then Ian will conclude the prepared portion of the call with an overview of our strategic growth plan for 2019 and beyond. As usual, we'll then open the lines up for questions, and as usual, we ask you to restrict your questions to a maximum of two, and then re-queue if you have additional questions. And with that, I'm going to turn things over to Ian to start with the 2018 highlights.

Thanks, Chris. And good morning, everyone, and thanks for taking the time to join us today from lovely Oakville, Ontario. It's a solar-friendly, sunny but cold day. We appreciate that the last quarter call gives us a chance to perhaps pause and reflect on the progress we made over the entire year. And looking in that rearview mirror, we see a number of corporate achievements supported by another solid year of financial performance. We'll then spend some time looking in a bit more detail at our plans for the current year and also longer term as our team works on successful execution against our five-year strategic plan. So given that this year is our year-end earnings call, and while the quarter itself is important, it's probably more relevant to examine the main elements which we believe underpin the value of our organization. So firstly, I am pleased to report that the current business has delivered strong and stable year-over-year growth in our key financial metrics. Adjusted earnings per share of 66 cents for the year marks a 16% improvement over the prior year. 2018 adjusted EBITDA also increased by around 16% as compared to 2017. With our commitment to maintaining a strong balance sheet, we're pleased that we exited 2018 on solid ground from a credit metrics perspective. And lastly, we're very mindful of the core role that our dividend plays in the total return expectations of our shareholders. Signaling their continued conviction in the growth and stability of our businesses, our board of directors approved a 10% increase in our dividend, again, in 2018. Secondly, 2018 saw the successful execution on a diverse array of growth initiatives, which will deliver future shareholder value. Capitalizing on one of our core competencies, we completed development of 150 megawatts of sustainable wind and solar generating capacity with the commissioning of our 75 megawatt Great Bay solar project in Maryland and our 75 megawatt Amherst Island wind project here in Ontario. Outside Canada and the U.S., we advanced our international growth strategy with significant development activities underway in our AGES joint venture. and completed our acquisition of a 41.5% interest in a company called Atlantica Yield. Within our regulated utility business, we made meaningful progress on our plans to save customers up to $300 million through replacing a material portion of our fossil-based power supply with 600 megawatts of new wind capacity in Missouri and Kansas. In terms of growing our regulated footprint, 2018 saw us continue our history of successful M&A with our initial entree into the Canadian utility marketplace through the announcement of an agreement for the acquisition of the provincial New Brunswick gas franchise, an acquisition that's expected to be immediately accretive and provide opportunities for future growth. Lastly, we advanced our commitment to investor-owned electric transmission here in Canada by partnering with Fortis and our respective First Nation partners. We're confident that this combined electricity transmission project will greatly improve energy accessibility and reduce environmental impacts for 17 remote First Nations communities in Northern Ontario. More about that in a bit. And lastly, the third element of our value proposition is our diverse pipeline of identified growth opportunities across our business groups. At our 2018 Vestor Day, we highlighted a $7.5 billion line-of-sight pipeline of growth opportunities, which our business groups are committed to capitalizing on over the coming five years. Within our Liberty Utilities businesses, we have an extensive array of organic investment initiatives underway with a focus on providing new solutions to customers while maintaining competitive utility rates. Specifically, we're focused on accelerating Liberty Utilities' transition to our renewable energy supplies and improved energy accessibility with our Greening the Fleet initiatives. Within Liberty Power, a total of $2.2 billion investment is expected to be allocated to nine separate power projects in North America. and also toward international growth opportunities such as our ATN3 transmission line, which you've heard about in Peru. And finally, we remain committed to maintaining sustainability and to drive to operational excellence as core components of how we operate our business. And with that, I'll turn things over to David for a review of our Q4 and full year 2018 financial results. David? Thanks, Ian, and good morning, everyone.