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spk06: Good morning and welcome to American Waters' first quarter 2021 earnings conference call. As a reminder, this call is being recorded and is also being webcast with an accompanying side presentation through the company's investor relations website. Following the earnings conference call, an audio archive of the call will be available through May 11th, 2021. U.S. callers may access the audio archive toll-free by dialing 1-877-8255. 344-7529. International callers may be listened by dialing 1-412-317-0088. The access code for the replay is 101-551-50. The audio webcast archive will be available for one year on American Waters and Faster Relations website at ir.amwater.com slash events. I'd now like to introduce your host for today's call, Mr. Ed Vallejo, Vice President of Investor Relations. Mr. Vallejo, you may begin.
spk04: Thank you, Nick, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for today's call. And at the end of our prepared remark, as usual, we will open the call up for your questions. Now, during this conference call, both in our prepared remarks and in answers to your questions, we may make forward-looking statements that represent our expectations regarding our future performance or other future events. These statements are predictions based upon our current expectations, estimates, and assumptions. However, since these statements deal with future events, they're subject to numerous known and unknown risk uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from the results indicated or implied by such statements. Additional information regarding these risks, uncertainties, and factors, as well as a more detailed analysis of our financials, and other important information is provided in the earnings release and in our May 3rd, 2021 Form 10-Q, each as filed with the SEC. Reconciliations for non-GAAP financial information related to O&M efficiency ratio and return on equity can be found in our earnings release and in the appendix of the slide deck for this call. Also, this slide deck has been posted to our investor relations page of our website. All statements in this call related to earnings and earnings per share refer to diluted earnings and earnings per share. And for purposes of the anchor year on long-term EPS growth guidance, the anchor is weather-adjusted 2020 EPS of $3.84. And with that, I'll turn the call over to America Water's President and CEO, Walter Lynch.
spk05: Thanks, Ed. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us. Before we move to quarter results, let me speak for a moment about our recent growth news. As you know, a key part of our strategy is to operate in states where we can best serve customers, drive efficiencies, and continue to grow our regulated business. Recall that earlier in the year, we announced the sale of our Michigan operation, and as you know, in late 2019, we announced the sale of our New York operation. This slide shows what our new regulated service territory will look like after the announced transactions are completed. Moving to slide six, we recently announced what will be the largest municipal acquisition in Pennsylvania American Water's history. On April 6th, we signed an agreement to acquire the wastewater treatment and collection system for the city of York, Pennsylvania. This agreement will add an equivalent customer connection total of more than 45,000. As part of the agreement, Pennsylvania American Water will also continue to provide contracted wholesale wastewater treatment and disposal for seven surrounding communities of York. We look forward to developing strong relationships that meet the needs of all customers, including those outside the city. This is yet another example of our strategy to grow where we can add value. It was also executed under Act 12 of 2016, which allows municipalities to sell their water and wastewater systems for a price based on the fair market value of the facilities. York Mayor Michael Helfrich said, quote, this is a new day for York. one filled with an unwavering optimism as our residents and businesses can finally breathe a sigh of relief for the first time in decades, end quote. Turning to slide seven, New Jersey American Water announced an agreement during the first quarter to acquire the water and wastewater assets of Egg Harbor City, New Jersey. This municipally owned water and wastewater system serves approximately 3,000 customer connections. The agreement is notable as it's the first sale being executed through New Jersey's Water Infrastructure Protection Act, or WIPA. That law facilitates the sale or lease of municipally owned water or wastewater systems that meet certain criteria, such as significant noncompliance. Egg Harbor City Mayor Lisa Giampetti said, this sale will mean better infrastructure, stable water rates, and millions in funds for the city. Additionally, Virginia American Water signed an agreement to acquire the drinking water assets of the town of Waverly. This municipally-owned water system serves approximately 900 customer connections and is our first agreement signed under new fair market value legislation in the Virginia Commonwealth. To date this year, we've added approximately 4,500 customer connections through closed acquisitions and organic growth. We have under agreement more than 86,000 customer connections, including the City of York. In total, The acquisitions closed so far this year and all those under agreement represent approximately $440 million in additional rate base and an estimated $115 million of follow-on additional capital expenditures over the next five years. And our growth pipeline remains strong with more than 1.2 million customer connection opportunities. Lastly, I'd like to provide an update on the sale of New York American Water. In late March, 2021, the New York State Department of Public Service Special Counsel released the findings of their municipalization study. As expected, the study focused primarily on the need for tax relief for customers, including recommendations to eliminate the special franchise tax. The study also focused on the feasibility of municipalization. These findings were not addressed in the governor's recently released budget. Our New York subsidiary continues to work constructively with the New York State Department of Public Service including through ongoing settlement discussions with all parties, and we remain confident that the sale will be completed. We're working diligently to close the transaction. Assuming progress continues as expected, we believe that the net impact from New York results on 2021 results won't impact our 2021 guidance range. Further, we don't anticipate any impact on the expected timing of our previously discussed future equity needs. Let's move to slide eight and cover our first quarter results. Our first quarter 2021 earnings per share of 73 cents were up 7.4% compared to the first quarter 2020. We invested capital of $342 million in the first quarter as we continue to balance that investment by focusing on operating and capital efficiencies, constructive regulatory outcomes, and by leveraging the size and scale of our business. As a reminder, we've challenged ourselves with a new O&M efficiency target of 30.4% by 2025. With this strong start to 2021 and continued execution of our strategies, we're affirming today our 2021 earnings guidance range of $4.18 to $4.28 per share. We're also affirming our long-term EPS compound annual growth rate in the 7% to 10% range. Turning to slide nine. Let's go through some of the regulatory and legislative highlights of the first quarter of 2021. In February, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission unanimously approved a previously filed settlement agreement between Pennsylvania American Water and the PUC Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement. The request was driven by $1.64 billion of investment from 2019 through 2022. Pennsylvania American Water was authorized additional annualized revenues of $90 million over a two-year period, excluding an agreed-to reduction in revenues for tax savings passed back to customers as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. On April 7th, the Missouri Public Service Commission approved an agreement reached by the parties in Missouri American Water's request for a rate adjustment. The rate order includes approximately $620 million in water and wastewater system improvements made since the end of 2017. Rates will be effective on May 28th, 2021, and will result in additional annualized water and wastewater revenue of $22 million, excluding the reduction in revenue for tax savings passed back to customers, also a result of TCGA. We also have a pending rate case in Iowa, which is moving on schedule, and we filed a rate case in West Virginia on April 30th. Additionally, as we've reported previously, California American Water filed for new rates in July 2019. The case covers 2021 through 2023. In January 2021, California American Water submitted to the Commission a comprehensive settlement with the Public Advocate's Office and several interveners. If the global settlement is adopted by the Commission without changes, revenues will increase by $33.5 million over three years, with agreed capital investments of $165 million in 2021 and 2022. And just yesterday, California American Water filed its cost of capital application with the commission. As part of the application, California American Water requested an authorized cost of equity of 10.75%, cost of debt of 4.35%, and overall rate of return of 8%, which is sufficient to provide California American Water with the opportunity to earn a reasonable return on its investments. The case covers 2022 through 2024 with the revised cost of capital to be effective January 1, 2022. Regarding the Monterey Peninsula water supply project, as a reminder, California American Water refiled its application to the Coastal Commission on November 6, 2020. On December 3, 2020, the Coastal Commission sent a notice requesting additional information needed to consider the application complete. In March 2021, California American Water provided the requested responses And once staff deems the application complete by statute, the Coastal Commission would have 180 days to process it. Moving to state legislation on slide 10, we continue to see states take action to help address water and wastewater challenges. In Kentucky, the governor signed into law new acquisition adjustment legislation. This law allows systems to be acquired above net book value when certain criteria are met. The law also establishes a timeline for a PFC decision on an acquisition, which is within 60 to 150 days of application approval. In Indiana, there are two pieces of legislation that have been signed into law that will benefit our current and future customers. Act 1287 creates a mechanism that reduces the required upfront cost to new customers for a water and wastewater utility to extend service to underserved areas. And act three 49 establishes a tax writer for water and wastewater utilities based upon any change in state or federal income tax law on the national level. We're pleased to see that water and wastewater infrastructure is included in both the administration's build back better plan, as well as introduced in state legislature or federal legislation. There continues to be a significant need to invest in water and wastewater infrastructure, not just within our system, but broadly across the United States. We think the proposed funding to state revolving funds for drinking water and the possible expansion of a water LIHEAP program would directly benefit our customers. The administration's plan also includes a tax package, and Susan will talk about that in a moment. Moving to slide 11. Customers remain at the center of every decision we make. This means smart investments balanced by efficient operations and capital deployments. For the 12-month period ending March 31, 2021, our O&M efficiency ratio was 34.1%, a decrease from 34.5% for the 12-month period ending March 31, 2020. As we note each quarter, our adjusted O&M expenses are slightly higher today than they were in 2010. Since then, we've added approximately 327,000 customer connections while expenses only increase at a compound annual growth rate of 1.1%. Before I turn the call over to Susan, let me cover a few additional items. You may have seen in our 10Q a discussion around a matter related to HOS, and likely you saw a note from a rating agency commenting on that disclosure. As noted in the 10Q, I want to remind you that this is a matter that relates to a subpoena received by AWR, an American water subsidiary that operates a portion of HOS, The subpoena seeks information related only to HOS's metropolitan New York City operations. As we noted in the 10Q, AWR is cooperating fully with the investigation. While it's impossible to predict the outcome at this point, we do not believe it will result in any material impact or overall operations or financial results. As a final note on the business, I'd like to congratulate Mark McDonough, who was recently named President of New Jersey American Water, and Steve Curtis, who will replace Mark as president of our military services group. These are great examples of how we build and leverage the deep bench strength of American water. Both Mark and Steve have had increasing roles of responsibility throughout their careers in American water and are models of our values. And I'll end with a thank you to our employees for their continued response to COVID-19. We continue to execute our preparedness plans as we look to reintegrate those employees who have been working remotely. As always, safety is our top priority. This past March, we were very pleased that it was our first month in our history where no OSHA recordable incidents occurred throughout our entire company. Our commitment to zero injuries and incidents will continue because no injury is ever acceptable to us. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Susan now.
spk01: Thanks, Walter. And let's start on slide 13 with a bit more detail on results. As Walter highlighted, first quarter 2021 earnings were 73 cents per share compared to 68 cents per share in the first quarter of 2020. Results for the regulated business segment were 74 cents per share, an increase of 6 cents per share, primarily driven by continued growth from infrastructure investment, acquisitions, and organic growth. Results for the market-based business were 9 cents per share, a decrease of 3 cents per share, as we saw an increase in claims in the homeowner services group due largely to weather-related events. Parent company results improved 2 cents per share in the first quarter of 2021 as compared to the same period in 2020. Moving on to slide 14, regulated results increased 6 cents per share, as I said. We saw a $0.19 per share increase in revenues from new rates in effect, as well as earnings from acquisitions. O&M expense increased by $0.08 per share and somewhat offsetting with an increase in depreciation of $0.05 per share in support of growth in the business. As previously mentioned, the market-based business results decreased $0.03 per share in the first quarter of 2021 as compared to the first quarter of 2020. The lower results were due to increased claims expense, which was driven by extreme cold weather, primarily in Texas and Illinois, and the continuation of stay-at-home activities, as we saw throughout most of 2020 due to the pandemic. The parent results improved two cents per share in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the first quarter of last year. The improved results were largely driven by a number of small items that increased expenses in the first quarter of 2020, offset by higher interest expense to support growth in the regulated business. While I'm on the subject of results, I'd also like to discuss the company's lower effective income tax rate in the quarter. This was primarily due to an increase in the amortization of excess accumulated deferred income taxes from the settlement of general rate cases in New Jersey and Pennsylvania that approved the timing and method by which the excess deferred taxes are returned to customers. The increased amortization of excess deferred taxes lowers tax expense and has largely offset dollar for dollar with lower revenue, resulting in no impact to earnings. We will continue to see this impact and the resulting lower effective tax rate as the amortization continues in these states and others as similar provisions are put in place. And as a reminder, the excess accumulated deferred income taxes resulted from the federal rate being lowered from 35% to 21% as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, as Walter mentioned. Moving on to slide 15, the continued successful execution of our regulatory strategy is a key element of our ability to consistently deliver financial results. To date, the regulated businesses have received $123 million in annualized new revenues in 2021. This includes $92 million from the Pennsylvania and Missouri rate cases discussed earlier, excluding the agreed reduction in revenues for tax savings passed back to customers, and $31 million from infrastructure surcharges. In addition, the Pennsylvania rate case includes a second step increase of $20 million, effective January 2022. We have also filed requests and are awaiting final orders on three rate cases, totaling an annualized revenue request of $61 million. And as Walter mentioned, we are also closely following President Biden's tax proposal and evaluating the impact that the current proposal would have on our long-term growth strategy. While there are many proposed provisions that need further analysis, our early indications are that there will be minimal impact to our plan. And finally, moving on to slide 16, on April 28, 2021, our Board of Directors increased the company's quarterly cash dividend payment from 55 cents to 60.25 cents per share. We continue to be a top leader in dividend growth. We have grown our dividend at a compound annual growth rate of about 10% over the last five years, significantly outpacing our peers in the Dow Jones Utility Average and the Philadelphia Utility Index. We expect to continue our dividend growth at the high end of the 7% to 10% range, as we know that is very important to many of our shareholders. Also, we continue to target a dividend payout ratio of 50% to 60% of earnings. As this quarter's results demonstrate, we continue to consistently deliver on our earnings commitment. Regulatory execution, along with the results from our market-based businesses, allows us to continue that performance. We believe that delivering on results combined with our strong earnings growth and superior dividend growth expectation provides excellent value for our shareholders as we continue to outperform our peers. And with that, let me turn the call back over to Walter for a few closing remarks.
spk05: Thanks, Susan. Before we move on to your questions, in April we were very proud to issue our first annual inclusion and diversity report. This report highlights the efforts we've undertaken and the strides we've made advancing our commitment to inclusion and diversity. ESG is a journey, and our INV report is another way that shows how we're constantly striving thanks to the contributions of every employee to build an inclusive and mutually respectful workplace. To launch this report internally, we were honored to have Mr. Irvin Magic Johnson join us virtually for a conversation on inclusion, diversity, and allyship. Additionally, we had an incredible community healing discussion with our employees to provide a chance for even more open and honest dialogue and inclusion. We believe that a company's strength is its people, and the diversity of our workforce makes us even stronger. With that, we're happy to take your questions.
spk06: We'll now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touch-tone phone. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we'll pause momentarily to assemble the roster. First question comes from Sargish Chopra of Evercore ISI. Please go ahead.
spk09: Hey, good morning, Walter and Susan. Good morning.
spk05: Morning, Girish.
spk09: Thanks for taking my question. Good morning. I have a couple here. First, Walter, just to clarify the New York American sale process, I know a lot of moving pieces, but Are we still targeting this year close? Is that the current plan?
spk05: Yes, that's right, Durgash. You know, we're still working through, as I said in prepared remarks, still working through with, you know, staff and others, and, you know, we're hoping to be and expecting this year. Understood. Thank you.
spk09: And then just on the subpoena, can I just clarify that this is related to specifically homeowner services within American water resources business and the information that you might be sharing, is that just New York specific or are there other states involved in the subpoena?
spk05: Yeah, it's specific to our New York City metropolitan operations in HOS. That's exactly right, Durgash.
spk09: Got it. And obviously there's no set timeline here as to how this matter gets resolved.
spk05: Now, not at this point. Again, we continue to work and cooperate in the investigation.
spk09: Okay, understood. Just one big picture then, Walter, just your thoughts on the Biden sort of the American jobs plan. You know, they talk about several hundred billion dollars of investment, you know, on lead and then water and wastewater assets. What are the implications to your existing business? And then just your regulated acquisition growth strategy.
spk05: Yeah, so let me start with we're really happy that the administration is focusing on water and wastewater as part of the infrastructure plan. So we like the attention that the industry is getting. And we think that the plan will benefit our customers primarily by having access to low-interest financing that's part of the plan. And so, you know, we access it right now on the water side. We want to get access in the wastewater side. That's a growing segment of our business, and we want our customers to benefit like others from the low-interest loans. So, you know, overall, we're very excited about the program, and we want to participate like the municipalities do on the wastewater side.
spk09: Perfect. And just does it, how does, I mean, does it increase your sort of footprint on the regulated acquisition side, or does it sort of, Since, you know, there'd be a lot of aid given to sort of systems across the country, does it derail your regulated acquisition growth strategy? How would you sort of characterize that?
spk05: Well, you know, there's, as we've said, and I've said in my remarks, there's significant needs out there in the water and wastewater side. You know, for us, it's not going to change our plan. Our pipeline continues to grow. We're going to continue to provide meaningful solutions for communities, and we're committed to our plan, and we don't see any change to our plan going forward.
spk09: Understood. Perfect. Thanks, guys. Much appreciate the time.
spk06: Thanks, Ragesh.
spk01: Thanks, Ragesh.
spk06: Thank you. And the next question is from Julian Dumoulin-Smith of Bank of America. Please go ahead.
spk08: Hey, good morning, team. Thanks for the time and the opportunity. Maybe to kick things off after Ragesh's question here, Can I follow up and ask you guys about your latest thinking on the administration just around PFAS regulations, hazardous determinations there, and just, you know, obviously there's a lot of different pieces that could move here. And any at least preliminary thoughts on where things could go and more specifically how that could impact your business?
spk05: Yeah, Julian, thanks for the question. We think there's going to be a lot more focus on PFAS in this administration. I know they formed a task force, I believe it was last week, to look at What are the next steps to establish an MCL? Right now there's a health advisory limit of 70 parts per trillion, and we think that there's going to be a lot more focus on it. So we'll have to wait and see. But the EPA is really science-driven, and they want to make sure it's based on science. And I think there's going to be a coming together of the science and the need to establish an MCL, and we look forward to participating and working with the administration to establish that.
spk08: Got it. And hazardous determination, that's just part of the broader context here, right?
spk05: That's right. That's all part of this work that's going to be going on.
spk08: Got it. All right. Excellent. And then I suppose a little bit more nuanced here. As you think about the impacts here in the quarter on the market-based business here, you're probably still broadly within plan on the year and have some offsets. Just can you speak to that? Obviously, The payouts and the warranties, et cetera, obviously a little elevated here. Just if you can speak to that a little bit on the offsets, et cetera, and how you're tracking.
spk05: Yeah, with the HOS business, we're seeing higher claims on the wastewater side. People are spending more time in their homes, and that's causing apparently additional breaks that we're having to repair. And then on the partnership side, we have seen a little bit of a slowdown in those partnerships, yet we still have a really good pipeline of opportunities. But those are the two areas, I think, that have been somewhat impacted by the pandemic and our business going forward.
spk01: Jillian, I might just add on that point, in addition to what Walter said, we did see a little bit higher claims in the quarter from these weather-related events. We did see some water claims, particularly in Texas, Illinois, and a few other parts of the country. really driven by the extreme weather that occurred. And we would expect, of course, that to now sort of be over. Some of the wastewater claims that Walter's talking about, as long as we continue this, you know, a bit more of the stay at home, we may see elevated claims there. But I think the exposure to the weather related, we've isolated in this quarter.
spk08: Got it. So how do you think about that relative to the full year? I mean, obviously, if the wastewater continues a little bit elevated, just offsets, et cetera. Probably not too material, right?
spk01: It's really not too material now. I mean, we saw, you know, roughly a penny or so of that impact related to the stay-at-home activities in this quarter. And, you know, as you can see across the country, states are starting to loosen up, so there'll be some return. So I certainly think we'll see this start to mitigate, and in any event, we don't see it as material for the year.
spk08: Excellent, guys. Thank you all very much. Have a nice day.
spk01: Thanks, Jillian.
spk04: Thanks, Jillian.
spk06: Thank you. And the next question is from Nigel Kim of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
spk02: Thank you. Just a couple for me. The first one, you know, with the recently announced Pennsylvania and New Jersey transactions, how do you think about, you know, potential cadence and magnitude of, you know, the equity guidance that you gave at the analyst day? Just thinking through 21, 22. You know, if it's going to be split up, or are we still assuming, you know, kind of a bulk number in one year?
spk05: Well, first, let me talk about the growth. And we're really excited for these two acquisitions in our two biggest states. It's all part of what we're doing in providing solutions for communities with the city of York on the wastewater side and then the Egg Harbor City. You know, in the first WIPA, that's really important. It's the first WIPA acquisition. And we're hopeful many other communities are going to see the benefits of that and continue to sell their systems to New Jersey American Water and Pennsylvania American Water. But it's really about providing meaningful solutions. And, again, as we've talked about, having consolidated tariffs and the ability to spread those costs across a big customer base, over 700,000 customer connections, really helps those communities to mitigate and minimize customer bill impacts. So that's a competitive advantage of ours. It's part of our strategy to make sure that communities understand the value that we can bring to them through investment. And I wanted to spotlight the follow-on investment and how significant that is to our growth and to providing solutions for communities. So we're really excited about these two acquisitions and how they're going to play into future growth in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
spk01: Then, Sue, maybe let me just comment on the equity needs because that was a follow-on part of your question, I think. you know, when we built our plan and laid out our financing plan over the five years, you know, we anticipated an increase in our growth from acquisition, and we reflected that at Analyst Day. Now, whether or not we've identified these specific transactions, you know, it's a different question, but we had anticipated a step up in growth and built our plan accordingly. So long answer to your question, I don't see any change from these specific acquisitions that we've now highlighted in any change to our equity financing timing or any of other our financing plans over the course of the five years.
spk02: Got it. Just from a timing perspective, is there a possibility that we could see some of that equity in the 21 timeframe, or is it more beyond 21?
spk01: No, it's beyond 21. At Analyst Day, I think we indicated that it's still about $700 million of equity in the five years, and it's still roughly in sort of the middle of that five-year timeframe. Um, so no, no, I would not anticipate anything in 2021.
spk02: Got it. And then my second question, um, I guess maybe for Walter is, you know, obviously these two acquisitions in states that have, you know, favorable, um, systems in place for such a growth, you know, with the, the pending New York sale, and then the recently announced, you know, Michigan, um, as well, when you just look across your, your footprint in the different states, um, You don't have to name any, but are there opportunities to potentially monetize some of the other states to concentrate more on the jurisdictions that offer the better systems for organic and inorganic growth?
spk05: Yeah, we do a constant assessment of where we're operating, where can we provide the best value for customers, and where can we grow our systems. And we'll continue to evaluate our footprint, but we're really happy where we are right now. And we continue to grow. If you look at our pipeline, we're growing. We have eight states where we have 32 agreements. So it's not just in one or two or three states. It's really across our footprint. And we'll continue to provide solutions, again, for communities across our footprint.
spk02: Understood. Thank you both.
spk06: Thank you. Thank you. Next question comes from Steve Leishman of Wolf Research. Please go ahead.
spk07: Hey, good morning. So just a question on the, hey, Walter, on the disclosure of this subpoena in homeowner services. I guess it doesn't say, I think, in your release, just if the company's done its own investigation and if they determined anything was done wrong. Do you have any color information on that?
spk05: Yeah, Steve, and given that it's an ongoing investigation, we really can't comment any more on it other than what we have in the disclosure.
spk07: Okay. All right. And then, Walter, on your end call, you had kind of hinted at a larger acquisition or more growth coming in your tuck-in acquisitions and the like. Should I assume that was the York acquisition? deal that ended up officially getting announced or, or is that still kind of relevant for something else?
spk05: Well, let me, let me approach it from this. We continue to build our pipeline. We continue to again, provide solutions for communities. And, uh, if you, if you look over the last year, we've almost doubled our pipeline. We've done the biggest acquisition in Pennsylvania, American waters history. So we're, we're going to keep doing much of the same Steve.
spk07: Okay. Great. And just on the New York American sale, if I understood you correctly, it sounds like neither your forecast nor your equity timing should be impacted at all by whatever happens with the outcome of the sale. Yes, that's correct, Steve. Great. That was very clear. Thank you.
spk05: Okay, Steve. Thank you.
spk06: Steve. Thank you, and again, if you have a question, please press star then one. Next question comes from Richard Sutherland, KP Morgan, please go ahead.
spk03: Hi, good morning. Just maybe following up on that last point real quick. The sale timing, would it impact, I guess, where you land within the range of your 21 guidance or phrased differently? You know, you have some timing assumption associated with closed, presumably baked in. Can you disclose what that assumption is and, you know, what a quarter or two difference may do to where you land in the range?
spk01: Hey, Rich, it's Susan. Probably not going to add much more detail to that. I would just echo what Walter said in his prepared remarks and in his answer a minute ago. We just don't see it having any impact on 2021.
spk03: Fair enough. Thank you. And then just separately, curious at a high level in terms of your O&M efficiency ratio, what impacts you've seen on your efforts there over the past year under the pandemic and what that may mean for sort of progress and efficiencies going forward as we reopen?
spk05: Yeah, it's been a big focus for us, as you know, Rich, and we're going to continue to focus on every area of our business where we can drive efficiencies. We've improved it from 34.5 to 34.1, as I said in my remarks, and we're confident that we can hit our goal in 2025 at 30.4. So we're going to continue to do the things that we've been doing, focusing on technology, leveraging our supply chain, and really leveraging our culture of looking for every dollar, that we can save and continue to provide the service that our customers expect. So that's the journey we're on. We're going to continue to execute on that, and we're confident in our goal in 2025. Great.
spk03: Thanks for taking my question.
spk06: Thank you.
spk07: Thanks, Rich.
spk06: Thank you. The next question comes from Larry Mitchell of HSBC. Please go ahead.
spk00: Hi, good morning, everyone. I've just got another couple of high-level questions about geography, which is something I'm always interested in. When I look at your coverage across so many states, does the Biden proposal change the view of your opportunities across states? I mean, you've already said that it's not going to change your growth trajectory, but any nuance there? And also, in terms of what's missing in terms of major regulatory mechanisms, in states now that you would like to see? Thank you.
spk05: Yeah. Hello, Verity. Walter here. Yeah, the administration's proposed plan does not change our outlook at all on acquisitions. Again, we continue to build our pipeline of opportunities. We're providing meaningful solutions. And really, when you look at the size of our business, how long we've been in business since 1886, and the expertise that we have and the ability to share costs across the customer base, we bring tremendous value to communities, and they realize that, and that's why they're talking to us about potentially selling their water and wastewater systems.
spk00: Yes, I just wanted to know whether the states in which you're active, Biden proposals create new opportunities in particular states.
spk05: I'm not sure it would create new opportunities. You know, the great thing is that It really talks about water and wastewater where before we were always left out. And I think there's a realization in this country that there's so much fragmentation and so many improvements that need to be made that the private sector of American water can play a really integral role in moving that forward. And that's what we're excited about.
spk00: Great. So what's missing? What would you like to see that's missing in terms of fair value or infrastructure surcharges?
spk05: We continue to work with states on fair market value legislation. As I said, Kentucky is now the 11th state within our footprint to have fair market value legislation. It's really an affirmation of the value that we provide and the I think the recognition of the legislatures and the governors that they want us to play a role in consolidating the market and adding our expertise to many of these small systems that don't quite have the expertise. So we do have in the appendix, um, an overview of fair market value by state and the specific, uh, parts of it, fair market value. So, you know, refer to that and you can see again, 11 out of our, of our 16 states have fair market value legislation. And we're going to continue to work with states that don't have it and continue to work, you know, to tell our story about the value we can provide.
spk00: Great. Thanks.
spk05: Okay. Thank you, Verity.
spk06: This concludes our question and answer session. And I'd like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Walter Lynch for closing remarks. Please go ahead.
spk05: Thank you for joining our call today. We appreciate and value your participation and the work you do on behalf of your clients. We hope our open and transparent discussions give you confidence in our company and the investment of our stock. As a reminder, our virtual annual shareholder meeting will be held next week on May 12th at 10 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. We hope that you'll join us. In the meantime, if you have any additional questions, please call the IRR team and we'll be happy to answer them. Thanks again and be safe. Conference is now concluded.
spk06: Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.
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