UGI Corporation

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the UGI Corporation's third quarter 2021 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After speaker presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference has been recorded, and if you require any further assistance, please press star 0. I would like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Tameka Morris. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our third quarter 2021 earnings call. With me this morning are Roger Perreault, President and CEO, Ted Yastrzewski, CFO, and Bob Beard, Executive Vice President, Natural Gas. Roger and Ted will provide an overview of our results and the entire team will then be available to answer your questions. Before we begin, let me remind you that our comments today include certain forward-looking statements which management believes to be reasonable as of today's date only. Actual results may differ significantly because of risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Please read our earnings release and our annual report on Form 10-K for an extensive list of factors that could affect results. We assume no duty to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that are different from expectations. We will also describe our business using certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these measures to the comparable GAAP measures are available within our presentation. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Roger.

Thanks, Tameka, and good morning, everyone. UGI delivered strong third quarter results and performed well while managing the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our third quarter gap EPS was 71 cents, while adjusted earnings per share was 13 cents, 5 cents over our 8 cents performance in the comparable prior year period, reflecting strong execution across our diversified business and increased margins at UGI International. On a year-to-date basis, our GAAP EPS of $4.48 and adjusted EPS of $3.30 represent record earnings through the first three quarters of the fiscal year. We are really pleased with this performance, which demonstrates the earning strength of our diversified business. During the Q2 earnings call, we shared the revised EPS guidance of $2.90 to $3 for this fiscal year. Given the strong year-to-date performance, We expect to be at the top end of our guidance range. Next, I'll comment briefly on several key accomplishments during the quarter before turning it over to Ted, who will provide you with an overview of UGI's financial performance. I'll return to cover other key operational highlights before opening it up for questions. During the quarter, our teams continue to execute on our major business initiatives as we deliver reliable earnings growth progress incremental opportunities related to renewables, and make investments to rebalance our portfolio. We are well positioned to meet our objectives and are pleased with the pipeline of opportunities ahead. Turning to the key highlights for the quarter. UGI Utilities is on track for another record year of capital expenditure where we will invest in infrastructure replacement and reinforcement. These investments, which are primarily focused on replacement of cast iron and bare steel, are expected to drive continued reliable earnings growth as our PA utility has seen a rate-based CAGR of 11.4% over the past five years. The utilities team also continues to focus on adding new customers across our system, with more than 2,200 new residential, heating, and commercial customers added in Q3, and roughly 10,000 added on a year-to-date basis. Our midstream and marketing business continues to leverage our supply assets to take advantage of opportunities that arise and we continue to expect that we will invest substantial capital over the next several years. Our recent investments in the UGI Appalachia system, including our interest in the Pine Run system, continue to perform well and we were pleased with the strong production volumes during the quarter. As we continue to see growth in demand and rising prices, We remain confident that our midstream assets position us well for future opportunities. Our LPG businesses had a strong quarter of execution as we continued to deliver on the business transformation initiatives we previously outlined. We will drive efficiencies within our operations, improve the customer experience, and remain focused on operational and commercial excellence. We are on track to deliver the previously targeted benefits for both Amerigas and UGI International and expect that this strategy, coupled with continuous improvement, will generate customer and shareholder value. Our teams are progressing on exciting and attractive range of investment opportunities in renewable solutions as we execute against the renewable strategy that we previously shared with you. We announced that UGI Energy Services has entered into definitive agreements to develop innovative food waste digester projects to produce renewable natural gas in Ohio and Kentucky through the Hamilton RNG joint venture. In conjunction with that project, pipeline quality RNG will be injected into a local natural gas pipeline that serves a regional distribution system. In addition, we are able to leverage GHI, which will be the exclusive off-taker and marketer of RNG for Hamilton RNG, similar to the arrangement with Cayuga RNG. In addition, during our last investor update, we discussed the intent to create a joint venture for the production and use of renewable dimethyl ether. We have started the regulatory filing process with the European authorities, and we will provide an update on our future calls as we progress on this venture. As you can see, we are making strong progress on a number of initiatives across our businesses. We will remain focused on executing against our strategy of delivering reliable earnings growth, exploring renewables opportunities, and rebalancing our portfolio. We are confident that this will allow us to continue to deliver long-term EPS growth of 6% to 10% and 4% dividend growth. I'll return later on the call to discuss other business updates. But at this point, I'd like to turn it over to Ted for the financial review. Ted.