MDU Resources Group, Inc.

answer period. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star two on your telephone keypad. The webcast can be accessed at www.mdeu.com under the investor's headings, select events and presentations and click year end 2024 events earnings conference call. After the conclusion of the webcast, a replay will be available at the same location. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jason Vollmer, Chief Financial Officer of MDU Resources Group. Thank you, Mr. Vollmer. You may now begin your conference.

Thank you, operator, and welcome, everyone, to our year-end 2024 earnings conference call. You can find our earnings release and supplemental materials for this call on our website at www.mdu.com under the Investors tab. Leading the discussion today with me is Nicole Cavisto, President and CEO of MDU Resources. Also with us today to answer questions following our prepared remarks are Rob Johnson, President of WBI Energy, and Garrett Singer, our Chief Utilities Officer. During the call, we will make certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. For more information about the risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to vary from any forward-looking statements, please refer to our most recent SEC filings. We may also refer to certain non-GAAP information. For the definition and a reconciliation of any non-GAAP information to the appropriate GAAP metric, please reference our earnings release. With the completion of the Everest Construction Group spinoff occurring October 31st, we reported results of Everest as discontinued operations, and our prior period results have been restated to reflect the completion of both the Everest and Knife River spinoffs. I will provide consolidated financial results later during the call, which will reflect this change, But first, I want to turn the call over to Nicole for her remarks. Nicole?

Thank you, Jason, and thank you, everyone, for spending time with us today and for your continued interest in MD resources. 2024 was truly a transformational year for our company, during which we celebrated our 100th anniversary, completed the spinoff of Everest Construction Group, and also provided tremendous value to our stockholders. I am extremely proud of our team. We have reached our stated goal of becoming a pure play regulated energy delivery business and believe we have positioned MD resources for continued growth and future success. Underpinning all of this is the continued strong performance of our business. Our adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations increased 22% year over year to 90 cents per share. Our pipeline segment, again, achieved record earnings in 2024, a 45% increase year over year, driven by record transportation volumes and increased storage revenue. Our electric segment also experienced earnings growth in 2024, driven largely by rate relief. These achievements underscore our unwavering commitment to delivering safe and reliable service and sustainable growth with our dedicated employees playing a pivotal role in our continued success. We believe our business remains poised for compelling long-term growth prospects. At our utility, our combined retail customer base grew by 1.4%, which reinforces our company's need to proactively manage our utility infrastructure to meet the demands of our growing customer base. We also saw 6.8% rate-based growth in 2024. We continue to see data center opportunities, including the 500, excuse me, and 80 megawatts of data center load we have under signed electric service agreements. Of that total, 180 megawatts is currently online with the balance starting to come online in 2025 and expected to continue through the next few years. Our current approach is to serve these large customer opportunities with a capital light business model, which not only benefits our earnings and returns, but also provides cost savings to our retail customers. On the regulatory front, we remain very active with several ongoing actions, including a natural gas rate case filed in Wyoming on October 31st, where we are requesting an annual increase of $2.6 million, or 14%. On November 7th, the North Dakota Public Service Commission approved our natural gas rate case settlement with final rates effective December 1st. On December 11th, a multi-party settlement agreement was filed in our Washington multi-year natural gas case with rates proposed to be effective March 1st, 2025 and March 1st, 2026. On January 14th, the Montana Public Service Commission approved our interim rate increase request after reconsideration with interim rates effective February 1st and subject to refund as we finalize the general rate case outcome. Our focus remains on delivering safe and reliable electric and natural gas services to our expanding customer base with active efforts to seek regulatory recovery for our investments. As mentioned at our pipeline statement we achieved record earnings and record transportation volumes for the third consecutive year. This segment is executing well on our core strategy and delivering solid results driven by strategic expansion increased demand for transportation and storage services in continued benefit from new transportation and storage services rates that were effective August 1 of 2023. We remain committed to investing in future expansion projects to meet increasing customer demand for services, including strong interest from industrial customers and power generation projects like the recently signed agreement to serve a new electric generation facility being developed in northwest North Dakota. We are targeting an in-service date of late 2028 to begin serving gas to that facility. On November 1st, we closed on the purchase of a 28-mile natural gas pipeline lateral in northwestern North Dakota. The lateral extends our pipeline system to a natural gas processing plant in the Bakken. Our Wapiton expansion project in eastern North Dakota, which provides approximately 20 million cubic feet of natural gas transportation capacity per day, was placed in service on December 1st. We also held a non-binding open season for a potential Bacanese pipeline project, which could consist of 375 miles of pipeline construction from western North Dakota to eastern North Dakota. This open season concluded on January 31st, and we are currently evaluating those results. We are initiating 2025 earnings per share guidance in the range of 88 cents to 98 cents per share. This range reflects continued strong performance across our segments, coming off a very strong performance in 2024, as previously stated, while also accounting for the absence of nonrecurring items we experienced in 2024 in disenergies from the Everest spinoff, which together total approximately $0.04 per share of impact when comparing 2024 to 2025 guidance. As we look ahead, we are focused on our core strategy with a commitment to customers and communities, operational excellence, returns-focused initiatives in an employee-driven culture. We believe we are also well positioned for growth into the future with an anticipated capital investment of $3.1 billion over the next five years, 7% to 8% utility rate-based growth, and customer growth in the 1% to 2% annually. We also anticipate long-term EPS growth of 6% to 8%, rebasing that number off of 2025 to reflect our new pure play regulated structure, while targeting a 60% to 70% annual dividend payout ratio. We are looking forward with great optimism. The prospects for continued customer and system growth in our electric and natural gas utilities and the strong performance of our pipeline with consistent demand for pipeline services are all promising as we move into 2025. As always, MD Resources is committed to operating with integrity and with a focus on safety. We remain dedicated to creating superior shareholder value as we continue providing essential products and services to our customers while being a great and safe place to work. I will now turn the call back over to Jason for the financial update. Jason.