Canadian Utilities Limited

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the fourth quarter 2023 results conference call for Canadian Utilities Limited. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and 0. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Colin Jackson, Senior Life Sustainability. Please go ahead, Mr. Jackson.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. We're pleased you could join us for Canadian Utilities' fourth quarter 2023 conference call. With me today is Canadian Utilities Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Brian Scrobot, as well as ACCO Empower's Chief Operating Officer, Bob Miles, and ACCO Energy Systems Chief Operating Officer, Wayne Stensby. Before we move into our formal agenda, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the numerous traditional territories and homelands on which our global facilities are located. Today, we're speaking to you from our ACCO Park head office in Calgary, which is located in the Treaty 7 region. This is the ancestral territory of the Blackfoot Confederacy, comprised of the Siksika, the Kainai, and the Pagani Nations, the Tsitsinu Nation, the Tsotinakota Nations that include the Chikniki, Bearspaw, and Good Stony First Nations. The city of Calgary is also home to the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3. We honor and respect the diverse histories, languages, ceremonies, and culture of the Indigenous people who call these areas home. Brian will begin today with some opening comments on our financial results and recent company developments, followed by an update from Wayne and Bob on their respective business segments. Brian, Bob, and Wayne will then take questions from the investment community. Please note that a replay of the conference call, a short supplementary presentation, and a transcript will be available on our website at canadianutilities.com. and can be found in the investor section under the headings events and presentations. I'd like to remind you that our remarks today will include forward-looking statements that are subject to important risks and uncertainties. For more information on these risks and uncertainties, please see the reports filed by Canadian utilities with the Canadian securities regulators. And finally, I'd like to point out that during this presentation, We may refer to certain non-GAAP and other financial measures, such as total of segment measures, adjusted earnings, adjusted earnings per share, and capital investment. These measures do not have any standardized meaning under IFRS, and as a result, they may not be comparable to similar measures presented in other entities. And now, I'll turn the call over to Brian for his opening remarks.

Thanks, Colin, and good morning, everyone. Thank you all very much for joining us today for our fourth quarter 2023 conference call. 2023 was a great year for Canadian Utilities Limited. We achieved adjusted earnings of $596 million or $2.21 per share for 2023. This performance was in line with our expectations for 2023 given the rebasing occurring in our Alberta-based distribution utilities during the year and the receding inflation in our Australia natural gas distribution business. Overall, our ACCO Energy Systems business continue to perform very well with our transmission utilities providing stable stability and continued strong operating performance to help offset the pressures associated with rebasing at our distribution utilities. On the electric distribution side, we saw rate-based growth, deficiency carryover mechanism, and operational efficiencies to help to partially offset this rebasing pressure in the period. Similarly, in our Alberta-based natural gas business, rate-based growth, operational efficiencies, and the efficiency carryover mechanism provided similar relief. Moving to our natural gas distribution business in Australia, we continue to see strong growth in key operating metrics, such as new connections, tariff rates, and system volumes throughout the year. Australia's in-country inflation profile, however, continue to be the driving factor of the year-over-year earnings pressure experience. As we discussed in our conference calls throughout 2023, 2022 saw inflation build rapidly, especially in the second half of the year, with full-year inflation reaching almost 8% by year-end 2022. As a result of this building profile, our 2022 earnings were exceptionally strong and created a parable that was difficult to compete with in 2023 as inflation levels began to moderate. This trend resulted in us reporting a year-over-year decline of $20 million for this business in the year. Looking ahead to 2024, in-country estimates continue to suggest a further modernization inflation with estimates in the 3% to 3.2% range, and we do expect this to create further pressure on Australia earnings. We do not, however, expect the same degree of year-over-year volatility in 2024 comparables as full-year 2023 inflation for Australia declined to 4% by year-end. With Wayne joining us for the conference call today, this is likely a great point for me to pass the call over to him to speak a little bit more about the successes that we saw in the agro-energy systems business in 2023 and how we're seeing things shape up for 2024. Wayne?