Genie Energy Ltd.

Good morning and welcome to Genie Energy's third quarter 2022 earnings call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by a zero. After today's presentation by Genie Energy's management, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note this event is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Brian Siegel of Hayden IR.

Thank you, Operator. With me today are Michael Stein, Genie Energy CEO, and Avi Golden, Genie Energy CFO, who will discuss operational financial results for the three-month period ended September 30, 2022. Any forward-looking statements made during this conference call, whether general or specific in nature, are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those which the company anticipates. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, The specific risks and uncertainties discussed in the reports that we file periodically with the SEC. Gini assumes no obligation to either update any forward-looking statements that we have made or may make, or to update the factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those that they forecast. During their remarks, management may make reference to adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure. Management believes that its measure of adjusted EBITDA provides useful information to both management and investors that supplement our core operating results. Our earnings release, which is posted on the IR page, includes a reconciliation of consolidated adjusted EBITDA to its nearest comparable gap measures, consolidated net income and income from operations for all periods presented. In addition, adjusted EBITDA for applicable segments are reconciled in the earnings release to their respective segments' income from operations for all periods presented. Finally, please note that Genie Retail Energy International's results were accounted for under discontinued operations during the third quarter, and our historical results reported today and discussed on this call reflect this move. I will now turn the call over to Michael Stein, Genie Energy's Chief Executive Officer.

Thank you, Brian. Welcome to Genie Energy's third quarter 2022 earnings call. We achieved record third quarter margins in profits this quarter as energy prices remained high with increased volatility. We were well positioned from a risk management perspective, and in combination with our reduced customer acquisition efforts at GRE, we were able to generate significant year-over-year increases in gross profit, adjusted EBITDA, net income, and cash flow from operations. Looking at our segments, Genie Retail Energy, or GRE, generated a record Q3 gross profit of $43 million and adjusted EBITDA of nearly $28 million. Over the course of the third quarter, we executed our plan to suspend operations and are no longer servicing customers in the Scandinavian market. As a result, GREI's results are now reflected in discontinued operations in our financial statements. Gini Renewables, or GRU as we have taken to calling it, had an exciting quarter. First, we signed several new contracts to build solar arrays for commercial customers, which significantly grew our backlog of existing business. Separately, we also made significant progress in our vertically integrated strategy, where we will build or acquire solar farms ourselves or through sunlight energy investments. In the third quarter, GRU secured the site rights on which to potentially build 64 megawatts of solar generation in New York and Pennsylvania. We expect the first project to receive full approvals necessary for construction in the fourth quarter. Once construction begins, we expect the solar field to be generating power as soon as the second quarter of 2023. This project, a community solar farm which will be wholly owned and operated by GRU, will leverage our vertically integrated business model and strong balance sheet. We will keep you apprised of our progress on this project, as well as the significant milestones achieved with our other projects as they advance through the permitting process. Also this quarter, we redeemed $1 million in par value of preferred stock, while paying our regular 7.5 cent quarterly common dividends. and the base dividend on the outstanding preferred stock for a total of approximately $3.25 million in capital returns to stockholders during the quarter. After the quarter, we announced that we would redeem an additional $8.3 million in stated value of our preferred stock on November 15th, leveraging our strong balance sheet to increase future cash flows available to common stockholders. After the November 15th redemption, there will be a further $8.4 million worth of preferred stock outstanding. We intend to continue redeeming at least $1 million of preferred stock on a quarterly basis in the coming quarters. Now I'll provide a quick overview of our business and strategy. GRE operates retail energy providers, or REPs, that service a portfolio of retail customers in 18 of 28 deregulated states and Washington, D.C. We actively manage our reps and customer bases both geographically and within geographies. In response to evolving market conditions, we will invest in customer acquisition and growth during some periods while reducing our growth investment or obligations to customers during other periods to drive higher margins, as we have done this year. Underlying our strategy is our risk mitigation team, which, among other things, hedges our forward obligations to preserve margins during times of price volatility. In terms of customer acquisition, our programs seek to increase market share in existing territories, expand into new areas, and offer additional product and services to our customer base. In light of current energy market conditions, we expect to generally continue our strategy of margin preservation over the near term. However, despite the current volatility, we are seeing opportunities within certain areas to potentially be more aggressive in customer acquisitions. Our genie renewable segment seeks to generate outsized returns from multiple high growth potential opportunities related to solar energy generation. Our businesses currently provide services to third party solar farm owners and operators ranging from a full suite of solar procurement and installation services to customer acquisition building and management services. As we move forward with our own project, the strength of our vertical integration strategy will become more evident as we also provide these services to GENIE or Sunlight Energy owned and operated farms. On that note, GENIE took several steps forward during and since the third quarter in furtherance of this strategy. We acquired the site rights to 64 megawatts of potential solar generation and we expect to break ground on one of these projects during the next two quarters. As we work to advance the remainder of these projects through the permitting process, we continue to hunt for additional opportunities to own and or operate with Jeanne's balance sheet or with Sunlight Energy's investments to evaluate additional opportunities. We currently have over 50 megawatts of projects either under exclusive due diligence or in active negotiations with well over one gigawatt of projects in our evaluation pipeline. These projects are in various stages and range from early site rights to more mature cash flow producing assets. Looking to the fourth quarter, at GRE, we currently expect adjusted EBITDA to remain strong and to exceed historical seasonal averages. In addition, we expect that Gini Renewables will contribute strong revenue in the remainder of the year, and we look forward to updating you on the progress of our solar business as more information becomes available. In summary, we had record bottom line results for the first three quarters, and we expect to continue to generate another strong year-over-year increase in consolidated adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter. We have also taken several steps forward in our efforts to generate long-term growth in our emerging renewables businesses. And finally, we continue to fulfill our commitment to return capital to stockholders. Now, I'll turn over the call to Avi for his discussion of our Q3 financial results.