Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. Common Shares

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Algonquin Power and Utilities Corp. Second Quarter 2019 Analyst and Investor Earnings 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 1 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.

Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us on our 2019 Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. As mentioned, my name is Chris Jarrett, and I'm Vice Chair of Algonquin Power and Utilities Corp. As usual, joining me on the call today are Ian Robertson, our Chief Executive Officer, and David Bronachewski, our Chief Financial Officer. To accompany our earnings call today, there's a supplemental webcast presentation available on our website, algonquinpowerandutilities.com. Over the course of this call, we will be providing information that relates to events and expected financial positions which should be considered forward-looking, and we direct you to our full disclosure on forward-looking information and non-GAAP financial measures available on our website. And we will read the interesting full disclosure disclaimer at the end of this call. We've had a very busy and exciting quarter. On our call this morning, Ian's going to provide details regarding our recent announcements and strategic achievements in the quarter. Dave is going to follow up with financial highlights, and then Ian will conclude with an update on the areas of growth that we're focused on in 2019 and beyond as we execute on our strategic plans. We'll then open up the lines for questions, and as usual, we ask you to restrict your questions to two and then re-queue if you have additional questions to allow others the opportunity to participate. And with that, I will turn things over to Ian to talk about our strategic achievements in the quarter.

Thanks, Chris, and welcome, everyone, to our Q2 earnings call. I appreciate you taking the time to be with us today. So I'll start the conversation today with the main highlights in the quarter. Firstly, in terms of financial results, while our quarterly EBITDA was generally in accordance with expectations, our diversified portfolio delivered a story of puts and takes with some higher-than-average dividend income contributions from our renewable energy assets, offset by year-over-year weather-impacted earnings in our Midwest electric utility. We will clearly welcome the implementation of revenue decoupling in Missouri during our 2020 Empire rate case. Secondly, adjusted earnings per share of 11 cents, but slightly below our expectations, primarily due to unbudgeted carrying costs for the committed capital earmarked for our previously announced New Brunswick gas acquisition and actuarially driven increases in our non-cash pension expense in New Hampshire. a request for recovery of which will be included in our upcoming Energy North rate case. Lastly, consistent with our commitment to tangibly deliver the benefits of our growth to shareholders, the Board of Directors increased the dividends paid by AQM by 10% in May of this year. Looking now at our recent announcements, we had a very busy and exciting quarter. In early June, we announced an agreement to extend our regulated utility footprint internationally through the acquisition of the Bermuda Electric Light Company. This transaction is expected to close later this year. Secondly, in the Midwest, we were pleased to receive the final Certificate of Convenience and Necessity from the Missouri Public Service Commission in respect of our Greening the Fleet Wind Development Initiative. We would note that consistent with its role of being the reasoned opposition, the Missouri Office of the Public Council filed a rehearing request on our approvals. While using production tax credits to subsidize rate-based generation may be perceived as somewhat innovative, we are confident in the compelling savings which will be delivered to our customers, which benefits have been proven through the last two years of public proceedings. Thirdly, as you will have noted in our MD&A, we have fully executed on our strategy to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the USPTCs, with the addition to our growth pipeline of a participation in the development of the 470-megawatt Texas-based Maverick Creek wind project. And lastly, in addition to these new projects, I wanted to highlight progress made on our existing pipeline of opportunities. Firstly, we made the final investment decision to proceed with our previously disclosed Great Bay 2 solar project, a 45-megawatt expansion to our existing 75-megawatt solar project located in Maryland. The energy and renewable energy credits produced by the incremental generating capacity will be sold under a 10-year synthetic PPA. Secondly, we hope that our organization's commitment to sustainability has been formally recognized by the capital markets with the successful completion of our first $300 million Canadian dollar green bond offering, the proceeds of which are committed to our renewable wind and solar energy developments. And finally, we're pleased with our second offering of subordinated debt in the U.S. capital markets with $350 million of bonds being issued to help fund our CapEx plans. All told, we believe we took positive new steps to build the business and bring value to shareholders in the quarter. With that, I'll pass it over to David for a review of our Q2 2019 financial results. David?