UNITIL Corporation

Today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Christopher Golding, Vice President of Finance and Regulatory. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us to discuss Unitil Corporation's second quarter 2025 financial results. Speaking on the call today will be Tom Eisner, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Dan Herstack, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. Also with us today are Bob Hebert, President and Chief Administrative Officer, and Todd Diggins, Chief Accounting Officer and Controller. 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 risk 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 Security 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'll now turn the call over to Chairman and CEO Tom Eisner.

Great. Thank you, Chris, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. I'm going to begin on slide three, where today we announced adjusted net income of $4.7 million and adjusted earnings of $0.29 per share for the second quarter of 2025. Those adjusted amounts, which exclude acquisition-related costs, represent an increase of $0.4 million or $0.02 per share compared to the second quarter of 2024. Through the first six months of the year, adjusted net income was $33.1 million, or $2.03 per share, an increase of $1.6 million, or $0.07 per share, compared to the same period of the prior year. During the call today, we will discuss a number of strategic updates, including the ongoing UES rate case and the regulatory review of the main natural gas and aquarium acquisitions, which are expected to close by the end of 2025. We will also provide an overview of recently passed legislation in Maine protecting fuel choice. Looking ahead, we see a strong financial outlook and today affirm, reaffirm our long-term guidance for earnings growth, dividend growth, and rate-based growth. Moving now to slide four, the regulatory reviews of the Maine natural gas and aquarium water transactions are progressing on schedule. Starting with the regulatory review of Maine natural gas, The Office of the Public Advocate, which is the only intervener in the case, recently filed testimony that did not object to the acquisition. Technical conferences are planned for August and September, with the current decision deadline set for November 5th. You may recall that in the case of Bangor Natural Gas, we were able to reach a settlement with all parties. We will actively pursue a settlement in this case and could potentially receive a decision ahead of the currently scheduled deadlines. Bill Meyer- Moving to the Aquarian Water Companies, we are currently working through approval dockets in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. Bill Meyer- The joint petition filed with the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities is progressing through information requests and we have requested that the Department issue a decision on or before November 1. Bill Meyer- In New Hampshire, a hearing is scheduled for early September and we have requested a decision by the same date as the Massachusetts docket. The proceeding in Maine has only one intervener, the Office of the Public Advocate, which declined to file testimony. The current procedural schedule for that docket has a deadline of December 15th for a decision from the Maine PUC. Given the progress of these dockets, we remain optimistic that the Aquarian acquisition will close by the end of 2025. Turning to slide five, as I mentioned during our previous call, We expect the acquisitions to accelerate rate-based growth to approximately 10% annually through 2029, supporting earnings growth near the top end of our guidance range. Collectively, the acquisitions are expected to be earnings neutral in the short term, but will be earnings accretive over the long run after new distribution rates take effect. Moving to slide six, I'd like to briefly touch on the policy and legislative backdrop for natural gas in Maine, which recently became the 27th state to pass fuel choice legislation. This legislation preserves the rights of residential consumers and businesses to choose the energy system and fuel type they prefer, including natural gas. Natural gas remains a clean, reliable, and affordable option in the cold weather states we serve, and we are pleased that legislators recognize the value that natural gas provides to customers. New Hampshire passed similar legislation in 2021, and together Maine and New Hampshire represent about 85% of our natural gas customers. As both states rely heavily on fuel oil for home heating, we believe natural gas will continue to play a key role in lowering energy costs for consumers and reducing home heating fuel emissions. I also wanted to mention that yesterday Lee Zeldin, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, visited New Hampshire and met with Governor Kelly Ayotte and other state officials. As part of that meeting, Administrator Zeldin talked about one of the top priorities of the Trump administration, increasing energy supply to the Northeast. During that meeting, Governor Ayotte announced her support for a revival of the Constitution Pipeline as an option to reduce energy supply prices in the Northeast, noting that we need more natural gas here in New Hampshire. We see increasing support for natural gas here in New England as an option to reduce energy supply volatility and improve affordability for customers. Turning now to slide seven, I'd like to highlight a couple of significant milestones we reached in the second quarter, beginning with our completion of the utility scale solar project in Kingston, New Hampshire. This facility is a first of its kind project for the company and the state of New Hampshire. and represents an investment that will benefit our customers and communities for years to come. We made significant progress since breaking ground a little over a year ago, and are very proud of what has been accomplished. As a reminder, this facility will be included in rate base, and we are currently seeking cost recovery through our UES base rate case. Another notable project is the replacement of our advanced metering infrastructure, or AMI system, which is progressing as planned. This system incorporates state-of-the-art smart meters that can provide near real-time information to customers, enabling improved energy decision-making and grid optimization. We've begun the rollout in our Massachusetts service area, and approximately 60% of the meters have been replaced to date. We expect to complete our meter replacements in Massachusetts by the end of the year, and in 2026, we will begin the replacement of our AMI system in New Hampshire. The meter upgrades in Massachusetts and New Hampshire will require approximately $40 million of capital investment, and as a reminder, the Massachusetts portion of this investment is eligible for accelerated cost recovery. With that, I'll now pass it over to Dan, who will provide greater detail on our second quarter financial results. Dan?