SJW Group

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the SJW Group Second Quarter Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentations, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask the question at that time, please press star-1-1 on your touch-tone telephone. As a reminder, today's conference call is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Mr. James Lynch, Chief Accounting Officer. Sir, you may begin.

Thank you, Operator. Welcome to the 2022 Second Quarter Financial Results Conference Call for SJW Group. I will be presenting today with Eric Thornburg, Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Andrew Walters, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. For those who would like to follow along, slides accompanying our remarks are available on our website at www.sjwgroup.com. Before we begin today, I would like to remind you that this presentation and related materials posted on our website may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are based on estimates and assumptions made by the company in light of its experience, historical trends, current conditions, and expected future results, as well as other factors that the company believes are appropriate under the circumstances. Many factors could cause the company's actual results and performance to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. For a description of some of the factors that could cause actual results to be different from statements in this presentation, we refer you to the financial results press release and to our most recent forms, 10-K, 10-Q, and 8-K, filed with the Security and Exchange Commission, copies of which may be obtained on our website. All forward-looking statements are made as of today An SJW group disclaims any duty to update or revise such statements. You will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the presentation. And as a reminder, this webcast is being recorded and an archive of the webcast will be available until October 24th, 2022. You can access the press release and the webcast at our corporate website. I will now turn the call over to Eric Thornburg.

Eric. Welcome everyone and thank you for joining us. I'm Eric Thornburg and it is my honor to serve as Chair, President and CEO of SJW Group. It is my pleasure to be joined on this call by Jim Lynch, Chief Accounting Officer and Andrew Walters, Chief Financial Officer. We thank our 700 plus employees for their passion and commitment to clean drinking water and delivering world-class service to customers, communities and each other. They are the backbone of our local water and wastewater utilities. Our people responded head on to the challenges of 2022 and the second quarter. Drought. We're experiencing drought across all of our operations, from exceptional drought in Texas to extreme drought in California, as well as moderate levels in Connecticut and Maine. Our people are managing water resources, operations, and supporting customer conservation measures. They are also planning for system needs, as we are all facing a warmer climate with more extreme weather events. Regulatory changes and delays. Revenues for the quarter were impacted as a result of a change in the approved water revenue adjustment mechanism in Connecticut to update the timing of consumption, resulting in a revenue shift from the second quarter of 2022 to the second half of the year. In California, San Jose Water Company is expecting a decision in its 2021 California general rate case in the fourth quarter of 2022. Had the settlement agreement filed with the California Public Utilities Commission last January been approved, revenues for the quarter would have been higher. We will discuss this later in greater detail. Supply chain. We're seeing longer lead times for ordering pipe and other products necessary to invest in building and maintaining our water systems. Our scale and proficiency with advanced planning and procurement are making a difference in keeping our capital spending plan on track. Inflation. The water industry is seeing the impacts of inflation from fuel to labor. Our leaders are working with their teams to blunt the effects of inflation by leveraging our scale and obtaining competitive pricing on key items while scouring budgets for opportunities to absorb increased costs without compromising on water quality or service or being good stewards of the environment. And interest rates. As the financial markets are changing and interest rates rising, our finance and accounting teams have worked to secure financing at very competitive rates. Our financial results in the second quarter are within our expectations, given these challenges, and the lengthy general rate case and cost of capital proceedings in California. We reaffirm our 2022 guidance of $2.30 to $2.40 per share. Andrew will speak to this and regulatory matters in greater detail. Now, Jim Lynch will discuss our financial results.