CenterPoint Energy, Inc (Holding Co)

Good morning and welcome to CenterPoint Energy's second quarter 2020 earnings conference call with senior management. During the company's prepared remarks, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. There will be a question and answer session after management's remarks. To ask a question, press star 1 on your touchtone keypad. To withdraw your question, press pound. I will now turn the call over to David Morty, Director of Investor Relations. Mr. Morty?

Thank you and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our second quarter 2020 earnings conference call. Dave Lessar, CEO, and Christy Colvin, interim CFO and CAO, will discuss our second quarter 2020 results and provide highlights on other key areas. Today, management will discuss certain topics that will contain projections and forward-looking information that are based on management's beliefs, assumptions, and information currently available to management. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks or uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially based upon various factors, including weather, regulatory actions, the economy and unemployment, commodity prices, the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, and other risk factors noted in our SEC filings. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statement for any reason. We will also discuss guidance for 2020 in two components. In summary, the utility EPS guidance range includes net income from our utility segments as well as after-tax operating income from the corporate and other segment. This guidance range considers operations performance to date and assumptions for certain significant variables that may impact earnings, as noted in our earnings release. The guidance range also reflects dilution and earnings as if the Series C preferred stock were issued as common stock and incorporates our COVID-19 scenario ranges, which Christy will discuss further in her remarks. Utility EPS guidance range also assumes an allocation of corporate overhead based upon its relative earnings contribution. Utility EPS guidance excludes midstream investments EPS range, results related to our recent divestitures, and costs and impairment resulting from the sale of these businesses. certain expenses associated with merger integration and business review and evaluation committee activities, severance costs, earnings or losses from the change in the value of SENS and related securities, and changes in accounting standards. In providing this guidance, CenterPoint Energy uses a non-GAAP measure of adjusted diluted earnings per share that does not consider the items noted above and other potential impacts, including unusual items, which could have a material impact on GAAP-reported results for the applicable guidance period. We also provide guidance for midstream investments, which takes into account, among other things, the outlook provided by Enable on their earnings calls. For further information on our guidance methodology and a reconciliation of the non-GAAP measures used in providing earnings guidance during today's call, please refer to our earnings news release and our slides, which can be found under the Investors section on our website. As a reminder, we may use our website to announce material information. I'd like to call your attention to our upcoming corporate responsibility report, which we anticipate publishing later this year. In addition to carbon reduction efforts, the report will highlight employee and supplier diversity and inclusion, COVID-19 risk management, governance, safety, and more. Before Dave begins, I would like to mention that this call is being recorded. Information on how to access the replay can be found on our website. Finally, I will note that in contrast with previous conference calls, slides should be considered supplemental materials and are not paced with the upcoming remarks. I will now turn the call over to Dave.

Thank you, Dave, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. First, I'd like to say how excited I am to be leading CenterPoint Energy and am honored by the trust the board has placed in me. Additionally, I'd like to thank all of our operations personnel for their unwavering commitment and tireless efforts delivering on CenterPoint's brand promise of being always there for our customers during these unique and challenging times presented by COVID-19. In my first 30 days, I've tried to hit the ground running, and I can tell you that I am greatly energized about the future of this company. Before I provide my remarks, I'm going to pass it off to Christy to cover a brief business and financial overview of our second quarter results. Christy?