Genie Energy Ltd.

Good morning and welcome to Genie Energy's fourth quarter and full year 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 A0. 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. With me today are Michael Stein, Genie Energy's CEO, and Avi Golden, its CFO. We'll discuss operational and financial results for the three months of the year ended December 31st, 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 statements. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to those discussed in the reports that we file periodically with the FCC. G&E assumes no obligation to 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 we forecast. During their remarks, management makes 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 Gini.com 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 released to their respective segments income from operations for all periods presented. I will now turn the conference over to Michael Stein, GENIE's Chief Executive Officer.

Thank you, Brian. Welcome to GENIE Energy's year-end 2022 earnings call. This quarter capped off a very strong year in which we delivered record fourth quarter and full year gross margins and profits. While energy prices remained high, we saw less volatility than in previous quarters, and we were able to continue to benefit from the combination of being well-positioned from a risk management perspective and our limited customer acquisition efforts at GRE. Looking at our two segments, Gini Retail Energy, or GRE, generated a record Q4 gross profit margin of 44.4% and adjusted EBITDA of $20.9 million. During the quarter, our retail book grew modestly as we largely remained on the sidelines in terms of customer acquisition, excluding a small acquisition of book customers in the Midwest and Northeast. GE Renewables, or GRU, revenue growth reflected an increase in the services we provided to third-party customers. Additionally, we made some investments in resources to support our vertically integrated strategy to develop and own solar power generation projects. From a capital allocation perspective, we redeemed $8.4 million in par value of preferred stock while paying our regular 7.5 cent quarterly common dividend and the base dividend on the outstanding preferred stock for a total of approximately $10.5 million in capital return to stockholders during the quarter. Now I'll provide a quick overview of our business and strategy. GRE owns and operates retail energy providers, or REPs, that service a portfolio of retail customers in 17 of 28 deregulated states and Washington, D.C. We actively manage our REPs and their customer bases, both geographically and within geographies. In response to evolving market conditions, we will invest in customer acquisition in both during some periods, while reducing our growth investment or obligations to customers during other periods to drive higher margins as we did in calendar 2022. 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 products and services to our customer base. Our Genie Renewable segment seeks to generate outsized returns from multiple high-growth 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, billing, and management services. As we move forward with our own projects, the strength of our vertical integration strategy will become more evident as we provide these services to our internally owned projects. Transitioning to our 2023 outlook, we currently believe we can generate a $40 to $50 million range, well above our pre-2022 normalized $25 to $30 million range. In addition, we expect we can materially grow our customer base, and we will continue to be on the lookout for fairly valued M&A opportunities. Looking to the first quarter at GRE, wholesale energy costs are stabilizing at lower levels relative to the past year, while many of the utilities we compete against are locked into higher supply costs. Accordingly, we moved back into customer acquisition mode in many jurisdictions and expect to see double-digit customer growth over Q4 with continued solid gross margins and profits. Looking to the full year for GRU, We expect to complete construction of at least a few GENIE-owned projects while continuing to evaluate a large pipeline of potential opportunities. We expect GRU to grow into a major national player in consultative energy services spaces. The work we are doing now will set us up with assets that can provide attractive returns for many years to come. In summary, we had record bottom line results for 2022. 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 our stockholders. Now I'll turn the call over to Avi for his discussion of our Q4 financial results.