NewJersey Resources Corporation

Hello and thank you for standing by. My name is Regina and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the New Jersey Resources Fiscal 2024 Fourth Quarter and Year End Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star then the number one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, press star one again. I would now like to turn the conference over to Adam Pryor, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Welcome to New Jersey Resources fiscal 2024 fourth quarter and year-end conference call and webcast. I am joined here today by Steve Westhoven, our President and CEO, Roberto Bell, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, as well as other members of our senior management team. Certain statements in today's call contain estimates and other forward-looking statements within the meaning of the securities law. We wish to caution listeners of this call that the current expectations, assumptions, and beliefs forming the basis of our forward-looking statements include many factors that are beyond our ability to control or estimate precisely. This could cause results to materially differ from our expectations as found on slide two. These items can also be found in the forward-looking statements section of yesterday's earnings release furnished on form 8K and in our most recent forms 10K and 10Q as filed with the SEC. We do not, by including this statement, assume any obligation to review or revise any particular forward-looking statements referenced herein in light of future events. We will also be referring to certain non-GAAP financial measures, such as net financial earnings or NFE. We believe that NFE, net financial loss, utility gross margin, financial margin, adjusted funds from operations, and adjusted debt provide a more complete understanding of our financial performance. However, these non-GAAP measures are not intended to be a substitute for GAAP. Our non-GAAP financial measures are discussed more fully in item seven of our 10-K. The slides accompanying today's presentation are available on our website and were furnished on our form 8-K filed yesterday. Steve will begin with this year's highlights beginning on slide four, followed by Roberto, who will review our financial results. Then we will open the call for your questions. With that said, I'll turn the call over to our president and CEO, Steve Westhoven. Please go ahead, Steve.

Thanks, Adam, and good morning, everyone. This was an excellent year for NJR, driven by strong financial performance across all of our business segments. In addition, we successfully completed a number of pending items, most notably the successful resolution of NJNG's base rate case in energy efficiency programs. This provides greater certainty as we enter fiscal 2025, which along with strategic investments throughout our businesses, leaves NJR positioned for success well into the future. In fiscal 2024, we exceeded the high end of the NFEPS guidance range that we raised earlier this year. This is our fourth consecutive year of surpassing initial guidance, demonstrating the strength of our diversified business model and our ability to deliver shareholder value. We have an industry-leading stated NFEPS long-term growth rate of 7 to 9 percent, and more importantly, our actual performance consistently exceeds that target. At New Jersey Natural Gas, we grew our customer base and reported a record level of energy efficiency investments through our Save Green program. Clean Energy Ventures commissioned our first community solar project, built on a capped landfill in New Jersey, which will provide clean energy to low- and moderate-income customers. It was a busy year for CEB, with nearly 70 megawatts of projects either placed in service or under construction. S&T continued to drive organic growth with Leaf River completing a booster compression project and initiating a new capacity recovery project. These will contribute to higher revenues over time through the enhanced storage services and operational efficiency. Energy services benefited from an outsized contribution from the asset management agreements announced in 2020 while delivering significant value from its long option strategy during the January weather event. And finally, our Home Services Division completed approximately 80,000 service calls with a near five-star Google rating and was recognized as a RUDE Top 20 Pro Partner for the eighth consecutive year. Overall, this was a great year with many accomplishments from our team. As we look ahead, NJR is well positioned for future growth as we outline on slide five. The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities approved a settlement to New Jersey Natural Gas' base rate case last week, securing recovery for investments that ensure safe and reliable service for our roughly 583,000 customers. Roberto will go through the details shortly, but overall, we were very pleased to reach a fair and equitable resolution with all parties. I want to thank the Board of Public Utilities and their staff and the Division of Rate Council for their hard work. We have a constructive working relationship with them that ensures the interests of both customers and shareholders are fairly balanced. Last month, we also received approval from the BPU for New Jersey Natural Gas to expand its energy efficiency offerings available through Save Green through 2027. At CEV, we continue to focus on commercial solar with over one gigawatt in our project pipeline, the largest in our company's history. In line with this strategy, we just completed the sale of our Sunlight Advantage residential solar portfolio. This transaction not only strengthens our balance sheet, but also sharpens our focus on commercial solar growth. We are well positioned to capitalize on commercial projects with high single-digit unlevered returns, reinforcing our commitment to clean energy and sustainable growth. At S&T, Adelphia Gateway filed a rate case with FERC to reflect the investments made in its pipeline system, and we are moving forward with our capacity recovery project at Leaf River. With a focused strategy and momentum across all segments, NJR is well-positioned to deliver on its long-term growth objectives, as reflected in our fiscal 2025 NFEPS guidance outlined on the next slide. NJR is maintaining its long-term NFEPS growth target of 7 to 9%, and after multiple years of outperformance, we are rebasing to $2.83 per share as of this current fiscal year. This is consistent with our previously stated long-term NFEPS guidance. For fiscal 2025, our initial NFEPS guidance range is 305 to 320 per share. This exceeds our long-term growth rate of 79% and reflects the one-time gain from the Sunlight Advantage transaction. We feel that our complementary portfolio of businesses provides a solid foundation that supports this leading growth rate which we outlined on slide seven. Looking ahead, key drivers to achieve our 79% growth target include continued rate-based investments, customer growth, and an expansion of our energy efficiency investments through Save Green at New Jersey Natural Gas. Additional capital deployment at CEV, providing stable revenues from commercial solar investments that operate at high operational availability. At Leaf River, strong demand for storage capacity that improves our re-contracting rates and allows us to further expand our total working capacity. At Adelphia, the expected recovery of investments through our rate case. And at Energy Services, we continue to benefit from the long-term asset management agreements and stable cash flows. Finally, NJR's diversified business model has mechanisms in place that provide additional upside potential driven by market opportunities and operational performance. Together, these drivers offer strong visibility into our long-term growth trajectory. On slide 8, we break out our fiscal 2025 NFEPS by segment, with approximately 70% of our NFEPS expected to come from utility operations. We have a strong foundation to provide reliable returns and long-term stability for our shareholders. Now let's discuss our complementary business units, starting with New Jersey Natural Gas on slide 9. At New Jersey Natural Gas, we invested $503 million in fiscal 2024, with 42% of that capex providing near real-time returns. Customer growth remained steady all year, driven by a combination of both new construction and conversions. Our focus will be on leveraging advanced technologies and innovation solutions to meet the evolving needs of our customers. Moving to slide 10, our clean energy ventures business continues to focus on expanding commercial solar opportunities CEV has over a gigawatt of commercial solar projects as potential investment options. Additionally, the sale of Sunlight Advantage strengthens our balance sheet while allowing us to prudently recycle capital. Moving to slide 11, our storage and transportation business continues to deliver stable returns through fee-based revenues. In fiscal 2024, we completed the booster compression project and initiated our 4-BCF capacity recovery project at Leaf River, supporting incremental firm capacity sales. Additionally, we filed a rate case with PERC for Adelphia Gateway to reflect the investments made in our pipeline system, which will further enhance the long-term value of this critical infrastructure. While we're still in the early stages of the rate case process, we hope to reach a resolution in calendar year 2025. With that, I'll turn the call over to Roberto for a review of the financial results. Roberto?