SJW Group

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to SJW Group First Quarter 2025 Financial Results Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would like now to turn the conference over to Ann Kelley, Chief Accounting Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Michelle. Welcome to the first quarter of 2025 Financial Results Conference Call for SJW Group. I will be presenting today with Eric Thornburg, Chair of the Board, President, and Chief Executive Officer. Andrew Walters, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Bruce Hawk, Chief Operating Officer, and Kristen Johnson, Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer. For those who would like to follow along, slides accompanying our remarks are available on our website at sjwgroup.com. Before we begin today, I would like to remind you that this presentation and the related materials posted on our website can 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 the 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 Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which may be obtained on our website. All forward-looking statements are made as of today, and SJW Group disclaims any duty to update or revise such statements. You will have an opportunity to ask questions at the end of the presentation. This webcast is being recorded and an archive of the webcast will be available until July 21st, 2025. You can access the press release and the webcast at SJW Group's website. In addition, some of the information discussed today includes the non-GAAP financial measures of adjusted net income and adjusted diluted earnings per share that have not been calculated in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States or GAAP. These non-GAAP financial measures should be considered as a supplement to the financial information prepared on a GAAP basis, rather than an alternative to the respective GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are presented in the table in the appendix of our presentation. I will now turn the call over to Andrew.

Thank you, Anne. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I am honored to serve as Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of SJW Group, and I'm looking forward to becoming the Chief Executive Officer following Eric Thornburg's planned and well-deserved retirement on July 1st. I want to add my sincere gratitude to Eric for his leadership and fellowship over the years. I look forward to continued partnership with Bruce, Kristen, Ann, and Willie, and my colleagues at SJW Group as we chart our course for a journey of continuous improvement and excellence through servant leadership. I'm pleased to share that in the first quarter of 2025, we continue to meet drinking water and environmental regulations, deliver on our public health and environmental stewardship commitments, and provide high quality water and service to customers. We also delivered strong financial results, including a nearly 41% increase in net income from the first quarter of 2024. on a gap basis. Our performance reflects our continued execution of our proven growth strategy focused on investments in our infrastructure and water systems across our national footprint and constructive engagement and consensus building with key local stakeholders, all with an eye on affordability. Some highlights from the first quarter. San Jose Water's 2025 to 2027 general rate case was delivered on time and was effective on January 1st. Connecticut Water's water infrastructure and conservation adjustment and water revenue adjustment filings were approved. Maine Water's petition to unify our 10 different rate districts and our rate case for the Camden Rockland Division are progressing before the Maine Public Utility Commission. Texas Water's second system improvement charge application is before the Public Utilities Commission of Texas. In quarter one, $78 million was invested in water and wastewater utility infrastructure across all four states, and we are on track to meet our 2025 capital plan. Importantly, we continue to create long-term shareholder value with earnings per diluted share of 49 cents and adjusted non-GAAP earnings per diluted share of 50 cents in the first quarter. And as you will hear later, we remain laser-focused on operating efficiency. And we recognize colleagues in each local operation for their contributions to our safety culture. As expected, 2025 looks to be a strong year for SJW Group as we build on our foundation for sustained growth and long-term value creation. And I want to thank our talented team across the nation for making that happen. The completion of successful general rate cases in our two largest jurisdictions in 2024 has reduced potential regulatory risk for the next couple of years. These two states generated 90% of our water utility services net income in 2024. Our 2025 capital plan is a 34% increase over 2024 actual spend. We don't foresee any significant issues from current US economic conditions. The vast majority of our supplies are domestic, with some used components and materials from other countries. The leadership transition Eric announced last quarter is progressing smoothly. Our new team is complete with the execution exception of a new chief accounting officer to assume Ann's duties as she becomes our new chief financial officer effective July 1st. Kristen will also share details about the newest impactful leader who just joined our team last week. Our long-term growth strategy beyond 2025 will continue to focus on timely recovery of our robust $2 billion five-year capital plan that is needed to maintain reliable service and high-quality water as well as solid regulatory relationships that are built on outcomes that serve customers and capital providers. While not in our baseline growth plan, we will continue to pursue opportunistic acquisitions that benefit our customers and make financial and strategic sense. We will do that with a focus on financial discipline and a steadfast commitment to affordability. We are leveraging our scale, operational efficiencies, and technological advancements to manage costs while providing for our systems to remain robust, resilient, and reliable. As evidence of our financial discipline, S&P raised the credit outlook for SJW Group to stable. We will continue to focus on important credit metrics as we are committed to maintaining our A category credit rating. We will discuss all this in more detail later in the call, but for now, let me turn the call back to Ann to take you through our financial results.