UNITIL Corporation

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q4 2022 UNITO Earnings Conference 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 the question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising that 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 now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Todd Diggins, Director of Finance. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us to discuss Unitil Corporation's fiscal year 2022 financial results. Speaking on the call today will be Tom Meister, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, and Bob Hebert, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer. Also with us today is Dan Herstack, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer. We will discuss financial and other information on this call. As we mentioned in the press release announcing today's call, we have posted information including a presentation to the investor section of our website at Unitil.com. We will refer to that information during this call. Moving to slide two, the comments made today about future operating results or events are forward-looking statements under the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted. Statements made on this call should be considered together with cautionary statements and other information contained in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and other documents we have filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements speak only as of today and we assume no obligation to update them. This presentation contains non-GAAP financial measures The accompanying supplemental information more fully describes these non-GAAP financial measures and includes a reconciliation to the nearest GAAP financial measures. The company believes these non-GAAP financial measures are useful in evaluating its performance. With that, I will now turn the call over to Chairman, President, and CEO, Tom Meister.

Great. Thanks, Todd. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. I'm going to begin on slide four, where today we announced another strong year of financial results with net income of $41.4 million, or $2.59 per share. This represents an increase of $0.24 per share, or 10.2 percent over 2021, driven by higher adjusted gross margins achieved through customer growth and execution of our regulatory agenda. Looking forward, we reaffirm our long-term guidance of 5 to 7 percent growth in earnings per share, with operating efficiency, cost control, and disciplined investment continuing to be our focus. From a business and financial perspective, 2022 certainly had its challenges. Ultimately, we were able to overcome these challenges and finish the year strong. We successfully wrapped up two rate cases and now have a majority of our customers under decoupled rates. S&P improved our credit outlook to stable and now rates our business risk as excellent, and we secured additional liquidity through our credit facility. Bob will provide a refresh on our investment plan later in the call, but I'd like to highlight the robust investment opportunities that remain before us and reaffirm our expectation for long-term rate-based growth in the range of 6.5% to 8.5%. Turning now to slide five, our customer and employee satisfaction ratings remain among the best in the industry, and we have been recognized as one of New Hampshire's most desirable places to work. These ratings reflect our tireless commitment to our customers and employees and are also closely aligned with how we approach sustainability. Sustainability is fundamental to our strategy, and it's clear that managing clean, reliable, and efficient energy systems is something that our employees are proud of and our customers greatly appreciate. Moving on to slide six, I'd like to quickly touch on some additional operation metrics that helped make 2022 an impressive year. Beginning with the powerful winter storm that swept through the Northeast in late December, also known as Winter Storm Elliott, Our team showed tremendous dedication in restoring service to over 99% of affected customers within 48 hours. This was truly a Herculean effort under challenging circumstances, and our customers greatly appreciated it. I'm proud of the outstanding performance by all of our employees and their dedication to our customers. 2022 was also a record year for both electric reliability and gas emergency response. Our electric system safety of 67 minutes placed us well within the top quartile of the industry for electric reliability. Likewise, our average response time of less than 19 minutes placed us among the industry leaders for gas emergency response. Unitil is known for exceptional service and dedication to safety and reliability, and this year did not disappoint. Moving now to slide seven, As discussed last quarter, we filed a request for a public interest determination for a utility scale solar project in the state of New Hampshire. The procedural schedule has been set and significant progress is being made. This facility is expected to provide economic benefits for our customers for many years and we look forward to working with stakeholders in the coming months. An order is expected in early May and if approved, construction will begin shortly thereafter. With that, I'll now pass it over to Bob, who will provide greater detail on the quarterly and year-to-date results.