Northwest Natural Holding Co (NWN) 2025 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and thank you all for attending the Northwest Natural Holdings Company Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. My name is Brika, and I will be your moderator for today. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to pass the conference over to your host, Nikki Sparley, Head of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may proceed, Nikki.

早安，感謝大家參加西北天然控股公司 2025 年第二季財報電話會議。我叫 Brika，今天我將擔任你們的主持人。（操作員指示）現在，我想將會議交給主持人、投資者關係主管 Nikki Sparley。謝謝。你可以繼續，Nikki。

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to our second quarter 2025 earnings call. A presentation for today's call is available on our Investor Relations website at irnwnaturalholdings.com. And following this call, a recording will also be available on our website.

謝謝。早安，歡迎參加我們 2025 年第二季財報電話會議。今日電話會議的簡報可在我們的投資者關係網站 irnwnaturalholdings.com 上取得。電話會議結束後，錄音也將在我們的網站上發布。

Turning to slide 2. As a reminder, some things that will be said this morning contain forward-looking statements. They are based on management's assumptions, which may or may not occur. For a complete list of cautionary statements, refer to the language at the end of our press release. Additionally, our risk factors are provided in our 10-Q and 10-K filings.

翻到幻燈片 2。提醒一下，今天早上要說的一些話包含前瞻性陳述。它們基於管理層的假設，這些假設可能會發生，也可能不會發生。有關警告聲明的完整列表，請參閱我們新聞稿末尾的語言。此外，我們在 10-Q 和 10-K 文件中提供了風險因素。

We will also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. For additional disclosures about these non-GAAP measures, including reconciliations to comparable GAAP results, please see the slides that accompany today's call, which are available on the Investor Relations page of our website.

我們也將參考某些非公認會計準則財務指標。有關這些非 GAAP 指標的更多揭露，包括與可比較 GAAP 結果的對賬，請參閱今天電話會議附帶的幻燈片，這些幻燈片可在我們網站的投資者關係頁面上找到。

Please note, our guidance assumes continued customer growth, average weather conditions, and no significant changes in prevailing regulatory policies, mechanisms or assumed outcomes or significant changes in local, state or federal laws, legislation or regulations.

請注意，我們的指導假設客戶持續成長、天氣條件平均、現行監管政策、機製或假定結果沒有重大變化，或地方、州或聯邦法律、立法或法規沒有重大變化。

For context, we have three business segments: our Northwest Natural Gas Utility, our SiEnergy Gas Utility, and our Northwest Natural Water Utility, our other category includes our Interstate Storage Services, asset management services, Northwest Natural Renewables, and holding company expenses. As a reminder, our gas utility earnings are seasonal with a majority of revenues and earnings generated in the first and fourth quarters during the winter heating months. We expect to file our 10-Q later today.

就背景而言，我們有三個業務部門：西北天然氣公用事業、SiEnergy 天然氣公用事業和西北天然水公用事業，我們的其他類別包括州際儲存服務、資產管理服務、西北天然再生能源和控股公司費用。提醒一下，我們的天然氣公用事業收入具有季節性，大部分收入和收益是在冬季供暖月份的第一季和第四季度產生的。我們預計將於今天稍晚提交 10-Q 報表。

Please note, these calls are designed for the financial community. If you are an investor and have additional questions after the call, please contact me directly at 503-721-2530. News Media may contact David Roy at 503-610-7157.

請注意，這些電話會議是為金融界設計的。如果您是投資者，並且在通話後還有其他問題，請直接撥打503-721-2530與我聯絡。新聞媒體可致電 503-610-7157 聯絡 David Roy。

Moving to Slide 3. With us today are Justin Palfreyman, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Ray Kaszuba, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Justin will update on each of our businesses, and Ray will walk through our financial results, liquidity and financing and guidance. After Justin and Ray's prepared remarks, they will be available along with other members of our executive team to answer your questions.

移至幻燈片 3。今天與我們一起出席的有總裁兼首席執行官賈斯汀·帕爾弗雷曼 (Justin Palfreyman) 和高級副總裁兼首席財務官雷·卡蘇巴 (Ray Kaszuba)。賈斯汀將介紹我們每項業務的最新情況，雷將介紹我們的財務業績、流動性和融資以及指導。在賈斯汀和雷發表準備好的演講後，他們將與我們執行團隊的其他成員一起回答您的問題。

With that, I will turn it over to Justin on slide 4.

說完這些，我會把幻燈片 4 交給賈斯汀。

Thanks, Nikki. Good morning, and welcome, everyone. I am pleased to report that Northwest Natural Holdings had a solid second quarter and first half of 2025. We continue to execute well on initiatives across all of our businesses and we remain confident that our financial results are on track for the year. We reported adjusted net income of $2.28 per share in the first six months of 2025 compared to net income of $1.60 per share for the same period last year.

謝謝，尼基。早上好，歡迎大家。我很高興地報告，西北天然控股公司在 2025 年第二季和上半年表現穩健。我們繼續在所有業務領域中良好地執行各項計劃，並且我們仍然相信今年的財務業績將步入正軌。我們報告 2025 年前六個月的調整後淨收入為每股 2.28 美元，而去年同期的淨收入為每股 1.60 美元。

Our combined utility customer growth rate was 10.6% for the 12 months ended June 30, 2025.

截至 2025 年 6 月 30 日的 12 個月內，我們的綜合公用事業客戶成長率為 10.6%。

This substantial growth was driven by our gas utilities in Texas. Northwest Natural Water also contributed incremental meter growth, posting a 5.8% increase. We reaffirmed our annual 2025 adjusted earnings guidance today and continue to expect our long-term earnings per share growth rate to be 4% to 6%. While our growth and financial metrics are strong, the real momentum lies in how we're executing against our strategic priorities for 2025.

這一大幅增長是由我們在德克薩斯州的天然氣公用事業推動的。西北天然水務公司也貢獻了增量水錶成長，增幅達 5.8%。我們今天重申了 2025 年年度調整後獲利預期，並繼續預期長期每股收益成長率為 4% 至 6%。雖然我們的成長和財務指標強勁，但真正的動力在於我們如何執行 2025 年的策略重點。

Moving to slide 5. Our key initiatives are translating into tangible outcomes, and we're progressing well toward our full year targets. Turning first to our Northwest Natural Gas Utility. After careful consideration, we filed an Oregon general rate case in December 2024 to recover our critical investments in gas infrastructure and expenses related to providing safe and reliable service to customers.

移至投影片 5。我們的主要舉措正在轉化為切實的成果，我們正在順利實現全年目標。首先談談我們的西北天然氣公用事業。經過仔細考慮，我們於 2024 年 12 月提起了俄勒岡州一般費率訴訟，以收回我們在天然氣基礎設施方面的關鍵投資以及與為客戶提供安全可靠服務相關的費用。

Northwest Natural and parties have been working collaboratively and constructively. Last month, parties filed a settlement resolving Northwest Natural's revenue requirement components of the case. That included a revenue requirement increase of $21.3 million.

西北自然資源公司和各方一直在進行建設性的合作。上個月，雙方達成和解，解決了西北自然資源公司在該案中的收入要求。其中包括2,130萬美元的收入需求增加。

The settlement also included a 50-50 capital structure; an ROE of 9.5%, an increase from the previous 9.4%; and a cost of capital of approximately 7.12%. In addition, rate base would increase $144 million since the last case for a total of $2.2 billion. We expect an order from the commission on the full rate case this fall with rates effective October 31.

和解還包括 50-50 的資本結構；ROE 為 9.5%，高於先前的 9.4%；資本成本約為 7.12%。此外，自上次案件以來，費率基數將增加 1.44 億美元，總計 22 億美元。我們預計委員會將於今年秋季就全額稅率案發布命令，稅率將於 10 月 31 日生效。

We carefully consider the effect on customer bills and broader affordability concerns and the ending result of the case is expected to be a relatively modest 2.5% rate increase. Taking into account this rate increase and preliminary gas cost estimates, we expect Northwest Nashville residential customers this fall will be paying about the same as they did 20 years ago for their gas service.

我們仔細考慮了對客戶帳單和更廣泛的負擔能力問題的影響，預計該案件的最終結果將是相對溫和的 2.5% 的利率上漲。考慮到此次費率上漲和初步的天然氣成本估算，我們預計今年秋季納許維爾西北部的居民用戶支付的天然氣服務費用將與 20 年前大致相同。

Turning to our SiEnergy Gas Utility in Texas. SiEnergy continues to produce strong customer growth and is hitting its financial targets. Perhaps most importantly, SiEnergy posted a sizable increase to its customer backlog and now has signed contracts representing over 217,000 future meters. That backlog includes meters from the acquisition of Hughes Gas Resources, which we have rebranded as Pines Holdings, another fast-growing Texas gas utility. Pines added approximately 7,000 connections northeast of Houston with a contracted backlog of 12,000 meters.

轉向我們位於德克薩斯州的 SiEnergy 天然氣公用事業公司。SiEnergy 持續實現強勁的客戶成長並正在實現其財務目標。或許最重要的是，SiEnergy 的客戶積壓量大幅增加，目前已簽署了超過 217,000 個未來電錶的合約。這些積壓訂單包括收購休斯天然氣資源公司 (Hughes Gas Resources) 所產生的儀表，我們已將其更名為 Pines Holdings，這是另一家快速發展的德州天然氣公用事業公司。Pines 在休士頓東北部新增了約 7,000 個連接，合約積壓量為 12,000 公尺。

The integration has gone smoothly. On a combined basis, SiEnergy and Pines served approximately 83,000 customers at June 30, 2025. While SiEnergy is about 10% of our business today, its high-growth potential makes us optimistic about its future and we anticipate SiEnergy to be an increasing portion of our business mix moving forward.

整合進展順利。截至 2025 年 6 月 30 日，SiEnergy 和 Pines 合計服務客戶約 83,000 名。雖然 SiEnergy 目前只占我們業務的 10% 左右，但其高成長潛力使我們對其未來充滿信心，我們預計 SiEnergy 未來將佔據我們業務組合中越來越大的比例。

Turning now to Northwest Natural Water. Collectively, our water and wastewater utility customer base grew 5.8% over the last 12 months, including 3 acquisitions. Our CapEx plan for 2025 continues to be robust as our utilities replace end-of-life infrastructure, improve our wastewater treatment facilities, and support clean water and continued growth in our communities.

現在來談談西北天然水。總體而言，我們的水和廢水公用事業客戶群在過去 12 個月中成長了 5.8%，其中包括 3 次收購。隨著我們的公用事業公司更換報廢基礎設施、改善我們的廢水處理設施並支持清潔水和社區的持續發展，我們的 2025 年資本支出計畫將繼續保持強勁。

To recover on water investments, in 2025, we are working hard on rate cases at multiple water utilities, including in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. We remain confident in the long-term earnings prospects of Northwest Natural Water.

為了在 2025 年收回水務投資，我們將努力處理愛達荷州、華盛頓州和俄勒岡州等多家水務公司的費率案件。我們對西北天然水的長期獲利前景仍然充滿信心。

The business is making great progress on its customer growth, CapEx and rate case goals for 2025.

該企業在 2025 年的客戶成長、資本支出和利率案例目標方面取得了巨大進展。

Now a brief update on Northwest Natural Renewables. Both of our renewable natural gas projects continue to run smoothly with current production levels meeting our expectations. These projects and our related fixed price offtake contracts with investment-grade counterparties provided solid earnings and cash flows during the first half of 2025. We expect this to continue going forward. Importantly, our renewable gas business has no meaningful exposure to the RIN or LCFS markets.

現在簡單介紹一下西北天然再生能源的情況。我們的兩個再生天然氣項目繼續順利運行，目前的生產水準符合我們的預期。這些項目以及我們與投資等級交易對手簽訂的相關固定價格承購合約在 2025 年上半年提供了穩健的收益和現金流。我們預計這種情況將持續下去。重要的是，我們的再生氣體業務對 RIN 或 LCFS 市場沒有任何重大影響。

In conclusion, I am happy to report that all of our businesses are in a strong financial position and poised for future growth.

最後，我很高興地報告，我們所有的業務都處於強勁的財務狀況並為未來的成長做好了準備。

With that, let me turn it over to Ray to cover the financials in more detail.

接下來，讓我將話題交給雷，讓他更詳細地介紹一下財務狀況。

Thank you, Justin, and good morning, everyone. Turning to slide 6. We reported adjusted net income of $315,000 or $0.01 per share for the second quarter of 2025 compared to a loss of $2.8 million or $0.07 per share for the same period in 2024. Adjusted net income excludes the effects of transaction and business development costs.

謝謝你，賈斯汀，大家早安。翻到幻燈片 6。我們報告 2025 年第二季的調整後淨收入為 315,000 美元或每股 0.01 美元，而 2024 年同期的虧損為 280 萬美元或每股 0.07 美元。調整後的淨收入不包括交易和業務發展成本的影響。

The improvement in net income reflected higher margin from new rates at our Oregon gas utility, partially offset by higher O&M expense, depreciation, and interest expense.

淨收入的成長反映了俄勒岡州天然氣公用事業公司新費率帶來的利潤率提高，但被更高的營運和維護費用、折舊和利息費用部分抵消。

For our Northwest Natural Gas segment, net income increased $4.5 million or $0.12 per share. Margin increased $16.9 million, mainly due to new rates in Oregon effective November 1, 2024. O&M increased $6.3 million, mainly reflecting higher payroll and benefits expense. Depreciation and general taxes increased $4.8 million due to continued investment in our system.

對於我們的西北天然氣部門，淨收入增加了 450 萬美元，即每股 0.12 美元。利潤增加了 1,690 萬美元，主要原因是俄勒岡州於 2024 年 11 月 1 日實施了新費率。O&M 增加了 630 萬美元，主要反映了工資和福利支出的增加。由於對我們系統的持續投資，折舊和一般稅收增加了 480 萬美元。

SiEnergy net income of $1 million or $0.03 per share for the second quarter of 2025. In our first year after the acquisition, margin and net income are trending well and in line with our expectations.

SiEnergy 2025 年第二季淨收入為 100 萬美元，即每股 0.03 美元。收購後的第一年，利潤率和淨收入趨勢良好，符合我們的預期。

Our water segment net income increased $1.8 million or $0.04 per share. The key drivers were new rates at our largest water and wastewater utility in Arizona and additional revenues from the ICH utilities after the acquisition in September 2024.

我們的水務部門淨收入增加了 180 萬美元，即每股 0.04 美元。關鍵驅動因素是亞利桑那州最大的供水和污水處理公用事業公司的新費率，以及 2024 年 9 月收購 ICH 公用事業公司後獲得的額外收入。

Finally, the adjusted net loss from our other businesses increased $4.2 million or $0.11 per share compared to the same period last year. This increase was primarily due to higher interest expense at the holding company.

最後，我們其他業務的調整後淨虧損與去年同期相比增加了 420 萬美元，即每股 0.11 美元。這一增長主要是由於控股公司的利息支出增加。

On slide 7, we've outlined our year-to-date results. Adjusted net income was $92.1 million or $2.28 per share for 2025 compared to $61 million or $1.60 for the same period of 2024. The year-to-date increase in net income reflected being similar to the second quarter. Namely, strong net income across all business segments, including new rates at our gas utility in Oregon, contributions from SiEnergy, higher net income from our water utilities, and earnings contribution from renewables. These items were partially offset by higher operations and maintenance costs, depreciation and interest expense.

在第 7 張幻燈片上，我們概述了今年迄今為止的業績。2025 年調整後淨收入為 9,210 萬美元或每股 2.28 美元，而 2024 年同期為 6,100 萬美元或每股 1.60 美元。今年迄今的淨收入成長與第二季相似。即所有業務部門的淨收入均強勁，包括俄勒岡州天然氣公用事業的新費率、SiEnergy 的貢獻、水務公用事業的更高淨收入以及可再生能源的收益貢獻。這些項目被更高的營運和維護成本、折舊和利息費用部分抵消。

Turning to our growth outlook and guidance on slide 8. We reaffirmed annual 2025 adjusted earnings guidance today in the range of $2.75 per share to $2.95 per share. Results for the first half of 2025 were in line with our expectations, and we remain confident in our full year guidance.

轉向幻燈片 8 上的成長前景和指導。我們今天重申了 2025 年年度調整後獲利預期，範圍為每股 2.75 美元至每股 2.95 美元。2025 年上半年的業績符合我們的預期，我們對全年業績指引仍充滿信心。

As a reminder, we expect quarterly earnings cadence for 2025 of the consolidated companies to be roughly similar to the past couple of years. We continue to expect SiEnergy and Northwest Natural Water to each provide approximately $0.25 to $0.30 of adjusted earnings per share this year.

提醒一下，我們預計合併後公司的 2025 年季度獲利節奏將與過去幾年大致相同。我們繼續預計 SiEnergy 和 Northwest Natural Water 今年將分別帶來約 0.25 美元至 0.30 美元的每股調整後收益。

Collective organic customer growth was 1.9% during the first half of 2025 on an annualized basis. For 2025, we continue to project 2% to 2.5% consolidated organic customer growth across our utilities.

2025 年上半年，整體有機客戶成長率以年率計算為 1.9%。到 2025 年，我們繼續預測我們公用事業的綜合有機客戶成長率將達到 2% 至 2.5%。

Turning to our capital expenditures. For the year, consolidated capital expenditures are expected to be in the range of $450 million to $500 million anchored by significant projects at our Northwest Natural Gas Utility related to modernizing end-of-life meters, system reinforcement, and gas storage upgrades.

談到我們的資本支出。今年，綜合資本支出預計將在 4.5 億至 5 億美元之間，主要由西北天然氣公用事業公司涉及報廢儀表現代化、系統加固和天然氣儲存升級等重大項目支撐。

Our CapEx projections only include line of sight projects that have been specifically identified and estimated. It does not include CapEx related to any pending or future acquisitions. Longer term, we continue to expect an earnings per share growth rate of 4% to 6% compounded annually from 2025 adjusted EPS.

我們的資本支出預測僅包括已明確確定和估計的視線項目。它不包括與任何未決或未來收購相關的資本支出。從長期來看，我們繼續預期從 2025 年調整後的每股盈餘來看，每股盈餘年複合成長率將達到 4% 至 6%。

Moving to slide 11. Regarding capital structure, our objective remains to keep our balance sheet strong with ample liquidity. At June 30, 2025, we had liquidity of approximately $550 million with significant availability on our gas utility line of credit and cash on hand.

移至投影片 11。關於資本結構，我們的目標仍然是維持強勁的資產負債表和充足的流動性。截至 2025 年 6 月 30 日，我們的流動資金約為 5.5 億美元，其中有大量可用天然氣公用事業信貸額度和現金。

We continue to see modest regular common equity financing needs in 2025 with equity issuances expected to be in the range of $65 million to $75 million. In 2025, we have no material debt maturities, although we do expect to refinance the existing SiEnergy debt this year of approximately $148 million.

我們繼續看到 2025 年適度的定期普通股融資需求，預計股票發行額將在 6,500 萬美元至 7,500 萬美元之間。2025 年，我們沒有重大債務到期，儘管我們預計今年將為 SiEnergy 現有的約 1.48 億美元債務進行再融資。

In summary, we are pleased with our performance for the first half of 2025 and remain confident in achieving our financial targets for the full year. Thanks for joining us this morning. With that, we will open it up for questions.

總而言之，我們對 2025 年上半年的業績感到滿意，並對實現全年財務目標充滿信心。感謝您今天上午加入我們。有了這些，我們就可以開始回答問題了。

(Operator Instructions) Selman Akyol, Stifel.

（操作員指示）Selman Akyol，Stifel。

This is Tim on for Selman. Congrats on the quarter. Just wanted to start off with SiEnergy. It's been under your belt for a couple of quarters, and now you guys have added Pines. So just wondering if you could talk about the growth you're seeing there now maybe versus a quarter or two ago when you first kind of acquired it.

這是提姆代替塞爾曼。恭喜本季取得佳績。只是想從 SiEnergy 開始。你們已經為此努力了幾個季度，現在又增加了 Pines。所以我想知道您是否可以談談您現在看到的成長情況，與一兩個季度前您第一次收購它時相比。

I know you guys mentioned the impressive backlog, but just curious if you could expand a bit on that.

我知道你們提到了令人印象深刻的積壓問題，但我只是好奇你是否可以對此進行一些詳細說明。

This is Justin Palfreyman. I appreciate the question. So things are progressing well down in Texas and SiEnergy, I would say, is performing as expected for us this year. As you've probably seen, there's been a lot of discussion about housing slowing down a bit in Texas.

這是賈斯汀·帕爾弗里曼。我很感謝你提出這個問題。所以德州的情況進展順利，我想說，SiEnergy 今年的表現符合我們的預期。您可能已經看到，關於德克薩斯州住房市場放緩的討論很多。

And in some of our communities, we've seen signs of that. But overall, there continues to be strong growth down there. A lot of new meter sets in addition to extremely strong backlog growth, as we mentioned on the call.

在我們的一些社區中，我們已經看到了這種跡象。但總體而言，那裡的經濟仍在持續強勁成長。正如我們在電話中提到的那樣，除了極其強勁的積壓訂單成長之外，還有很多新的電錶組。

And to give you a little more color on that, we had an annual goal of a certain amount of meters to add to our backlog this year and the business development team has already exceeded that goal by midyear. And so there's just a lot of interest down there, a lot of ongoing growth and Pines just enhances that for us as well.

為了讓您更清楚地了解這一點，我們今年的年度目標是增加一定數量的儀表以完成積壓訂單，而業務開發團隊已經在年中超額完成了這一目標。因此，那裡有很多興趣，有很多持續的增長，而 Pines 也為我們增強了這一點。

Got it. That's nice to hear. And then just one last one for me. You guys kind of mentioned a couple upcoming water rate case. Just wondering kind of the scale of those or how big we should expect those to be?

知道了。聽到這個消息我很高興。對我來說，還有最後一個。你們提到了幾起即將發生的水費案件。只是想知道它們的規模或我們應該預期它們有多大？

Yes. For the most part, the water rate cases because we have a combination of multiple subsidiaries across our water company. For the most part, the individual water rate cases themselves are relatively small. So in some cases, we're talking less than $1 million of revenue requirement. In some cases, it's more than that, which is why you typically see us executing somewhere between three and five rate cases a year right now, and you saw that last year as well.

是的。在大多數情況下，水費情況都是如此，因為我們的水務公司有多家子公司。在大多數情況下，單一水費案件本身相對較小。因此在某些情況下，我們談論的收入要求低於 100 萬美元。在某些情況下，這個數字會更高，這就是為什麼您通常會看到我們現在每年執行三到五個利率案例，而且您去年也看到了這種情況。

(Operator Instructions) And I can confirm that does conclude the Q&A session today. And I would like to hand it back to Justin for some closing comments.

（操作員指示）我可以確認今天的問答環節已經結束。我想把會議交還給賈斯汀，請他發表一些結束語。

Well, thanks, everybody, for joining. It was a pretty straightforward quarter. As always, if you have additional questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to Nikki, and thanks again for joining everybody.

好吧，謝謝大家的參與。這是一個相當簡單的季度。像往常一樣，如果您有其他問題，請隨時聯繫 Nikki，再次感謝大家的加入。

Thank you all for dialing in. I can confirm that does conclude the Northwest Natural Holdings Company Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect, and please enjoy the rest of your day.

謝謝大家的撥入。我可以確認西北天然控股公司 2025 年第二季財報電話會議確實結束了。感謝您的參與。現在您可以斷開連接，並享受剩餘的一天。