DBA Sempra

Good day and welcome to SEMPRA's first quarter earnings call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn it over to Glenn Donovan. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to SEMPRA's first quarter 2023 earnings call. A live webcast of this teleconference and slide presentation are available on our website under the investor section. Here in San Diego, we have several members of our management team with us today, including Jeff Martin, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Trevor Mihalik, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Kevin Segarra, Executive Vice President and Group President. Justin Byrd, Chief Executive Officer of Semper Infrastructure. Alan Nye, Chief Executive Officer of Encore. Peter Wall, Senior Vice President, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer, and other members of our Senior Management Team. Before starting, I'd like to remind everyone that we'll be discussing forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statement we make today. The factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially are discussed in the company's most recent 10-K and 10-Q file with the SEC. Earnings per share amounts in our presentation are shown on a diluted basis, and we'll be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to the presentation slides that accompany this call for a reconciliation to GAAP measures. We also encourage you to review our 10Q for the quarter ended March 31st, 2023. I'd also like to mention that the forward-looking statements contained in this presentation speak only of today, May 4th, 2023, And it's important to note that the company does not assume any obligation to update or revise any of these forward-looking statements in the future. With that, please turn to slide four and let me hand the call over to Jeff.

Thank you all for joining us today. We're excited to report that through the first four months of this year, we've accomplished several significant objectives that advance our business strategy and position the company for future success. We're off to a great start for this year, so what I'd like to do is provide you updates on several key business developments, growth opportunities over the next half decade, and our EPS guidance for 2023 and 2024. After that, Trevor and Justin will walk us through the business and financial achievements for our three growth platforms, and at the end of today's call, we'll reserve time for your questions. Turning now to business developments. Encore completed its base rate review last month with an updated ROE of 9.7% and a continuation of its existing equi layer of 42.5%. This constructive outcome provides strong support for Encore's credit ratings and the expanded capital spending that's needed to meet the strong growth that's continuing to occur across its service territory. Just last week, Encore's board met and reviewed the company's updated five-year capital plan, which increased from roughly $15 to $19 billion. Encore continues to see strong demand growth on its system and the need to make additional capital investments in transmission, distribution, and new technology to continue improving safety and reliability. It's also important to note that we expect Encore management will again refresh their long-term capital plan in the future, with a view toward increasing it for the roll-forward five-year period ending in 2028. Next, I'd like to mention that I'm pleased with the recent positive final investment decision at Port Arthur LNG. It's an important milestone that highlights the growing franchise value of Semper Infrastructure and how well positioned that platform is for continued growth through the end of the decade. We also have a lot of respect for ConocoPhillips and their management team, Their participation in the capital structure and offtake creates strong alignment with us for successful execution of the project. I would note as well that we're bullish about future LNG opportunities and expect the U.S. LNG capacity will grow annually at a double-digit clip through the end of the decade, and that SEMPRA infrastructure is well-positioned to help the U.S. extend its leadership position in this area. With these developments and a newly updated view of our planned capital spending across all three growth platforms, we're announcing SEMPRA's new 2023 to 2027 capital plan of $40 billion. Note, too, that this number only includes SEMPRA's proportion ownership share of the capital being allocated to Encore and SEMPRA infrastructure, including Port Arthur LNG. This year, we're celebrating SEMPRA's 25th anniversary. Our 20,000 employees are on a mission to build North America's leading energy infrastructure company, and it's our commitment to innovation, sustainability, and leadership that guides our discipline investment strategy. We aim to provide a growing and competitive dividend while also increasing the company's earnings per share over the long term at rates of growth that continue to trend above the industry average. With that backdrop, we're affirming our full year 2023 adjusted EPS guidance range of $8.60 to $9.20 and issuing our full year 2024 EPS guidance range of $9.10 to $9.80. Together, this updated guidance and our new capital plan provide a solid foundation for our long-term projected 6% to 8% compounded annual EPS growth rate which we're also affirming today. Now I'll turn the call over to Trevor to discuss our five-year capital plan in more detail and provide a summary of our business and financial results.