Spire Inc (SR) 2024 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to Spire's Fiscal 2024 Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions). Please note that today's event is being recorded.

早安，歡迎參加 Spire 2024 財年第三季財報電話會議。（操作員說明）。請注意，今天的活動正在錄製中。

I would now like to turn the conference over to Megan McPhail, Managing Director of Investor Relations. Please proceed.

我現在想將會議交給投資者關係董事總經理梅根·麥克菲爾 (Megan McPhail)。請繼續。

Good morning, and welcome to Spire's Fiscal 2024 Third Quarter Earnings Call. We issued an earnings release this morning you may access on our website at spireenergy.com. There is a slide presentation that accompanies our webcast, and you may download it from either the webcast site or from our website.

早安，歡迎參加 Spire 2024 財年第三季財報電話會議。我們今天早上發布了收益報告，您可以透過我們的網站 spireenergy.com 存取。我們的網路廣播附帶一個幻燈片演示文稿，您可以從網路廣播網站或我們的網站下載它。

Before we begin, let me cover our safe harbor statement and use of non-GAAP earnings measures. Today's call, including responses to questions, may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although our forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, there are various uncertainties and risk factors that may cause future performance or results to be different than those anticipated. These risks and uncertainties are outlined in our quarterly and annual filings with the SEC.

在開始之前，讓我先介紹一下我們的安全港聲明和非公認會計準則獲利指標的使用。今天的電話會議（包括對問題的答覆）可能包含 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》含義內的前瞻性陳述。儘管我們的前瞻性陳述是基於合理的假設，但存在各種不確定性和風險因素，可能導致未來的績效或結果與預期不同。我們向 SEC 提交的季度和年度文件中概述了這些風險和不確定性。

In our comments, we will be discussing non-GAAP measures used by management when evaluating our performance and results of operations. Explanations and reconciliations of these measures to their GAAP counterparts are contained in both our news release and slide presentation.

在我們的評論中，我們將討論管理階層在評估我們的績效和經營績效時所使用的非公認會計準則衡量標準。我們的新聞稿和投影片簡報中均包含這些措施與公認會計原則對應措施的解釋和調節。

On the call today is Steve Lindsey, President and CEO; Scott Doyle, Executive Vice President and COO; and Steve Rasche, Executive Vice President and CFO. Also in the room today is Adam Woodard, Vice President and Treasurer.

今天參加電話會議的是總裁兼執行長 Steve Lindsey； Scott Doyle，執行副總裁兼營運長；以及執行副總裁兼財務長 Steve Rasche。今天出席會議的還有副總裁兼財務長 Adam Woodard。

With that, I will turn the call over to Steve Lindsey. Steve?

這樣，我會將電話轉給史蒂夫林賽。史蒂夫？

Thanks, Megan, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us for Spire's Fiscal Third Quarter Earnings Call for a review of our quarterly performance and an update on recent developments and outlook.

謝謝，梅根，大家早安。我們感謝您參加 Spire 第三季財報電話會議，回顧我們的季度業績並了解最新動態和前景。

Turning to slide 3. Let's start with our quarterly results. This morning, we reported a net economic earnings on NEE basis, fiscal third quarter loss of $0.14 per share compared to an NEE loss of $0.42 per share a year ago, improvement year-over-year reflected improved results across all of our business segments. Scott and Steve will provide a deep dive into these results and an outlook in a moment.

轉到投影片 3。讓我們從季度業績開始。今天早上，我們公佈了以 NEE 為基礎的淨經濟收益，第三財季每股虧損 0.14 美元，而去年同期的 NEE 虧損為每股 0.42 美元，同比改善反映了我們所有業務部門業績的改善。斯科特和史蒂夫稍後將深入探討這些結果和展望。

Throughout the year, we have maintained our focus on cost management and creating efficiencies across the organization. This is important as we strive to keep build as low as possible for our customers. This past quarter, we heightened these efforts and launched an initiative to improve long-term customer affordability. These efforts are targeted at lowering our overall cost structure and improving operational efficiency, securing the benefits of our investments in technology and infrastructure upgrades. Most of the benefits of this work will come in fiscal years 2025 and 2026. We're seeing some of these savings during the fiscal year, and we expect them to partially offset headwinds experienced at the gas utility during the year.

在這一年裡，我們一直專注於成本管理和提高整個組織的效率。這很重要，因為我們努力為客戶提供盡可能低的建置。上個季度，我們加強了這些努力，並發起了一項旨在提高客戶長期承受能力的措施。這些努力的目的是降低我們的整體成本結構並提高營運效率，確保我們在技術和基礎設施升級方面的投資效益。這項工作的大部分好處將在 2025 和 2026 財年實現。我們在本財年看到了其中的一些節省，我們預計它們將部分抵消今年天然氣公用事業公司遇到的不利因素。

As you'll recall, this winter, we saw lower-than-expected margins due to warm winter weather in Missouri and higher interest rates overall. While we are also seeing stronger performance in our marketing and midstream businesses with three quarters of this fiscal year behind us, it's not possible for us to claw back all of the shortfall. As a result, we now expect to earn between $4.15 and $4.25 per share this fiscal year. Our efforts set us up well for fiscal year '25 and beyond, and we remain confident in our long-term strategy to grow our businesses, invest in infrastructure and drive continuous improvement to deliver value over the long term with a steadfast commitment to safety.

您可能還記得，今年冬天，由於密蘇裡州溫暖的冬季天氣和整體利率上升，我們的利潤率低於預期。雖然我們的行銷和中游業務也表現強勁，本財年已經過了四分之三，但我們不可能彌補所有的缺口。因此，我們現在預計本財年每股收益為 4.15 美元至 4.25 美元。我們的努力為我們 25 財年及以後的發展奠定了良好的基礎，我們對發展業務、投資基礎設施和推動持續改進的長期策略充滿信心，以堅定的安全承諾實現長期價值。

A key component of our long-term success is attracting new and growing businesses to our communities and states through economic development. We operate in states that serve as great partners to attract projects that bring significant jobs and investment in the communities we serve. Several factors come into play when a company looks for a location to build a facility with one of the biggest being access to reliable, affordable energy, energy like natural gas.

我們長期成功的關鍵組成部分是透過經濟發展吸引新的和不斷增長的企業來到我們的社區和州。我們在一些州開展業務，這些州是優秀的合作夥伴，可以吸引為我們服務的社區帶來大量就業和投資的項目。當公司尋找地點建造設施時，有幾個因素會發揮作用，其中最大的因素之一是獲得可靠、負擔得起的能源，例如天然氣等能源。

This fiscal year in Missouri, we've seen 25 publicly announced economic wins since the beginning of FY24. These projects represent an expected investment of nearly $3.5 billion in our state's economy, resulting in the creation of over 3,500 jobs. Further in Alabama, the latest state report for calendar year 2023 includes 184 wins in new and existing projects, creating more than 8,000 jobs and $6.4 billion of investment in the state.

自 2024 財年年初以來，密蘇裡州本財年已取得 25 項公開宣布的經濟勝利。這些項目預計為本州經濟投資近 35 億美元，創造超過 3,500 個就業機會。此外，在阿拉巴馬州，2023 日曆年的最新州報告包括 184 個新項目和現有項目的中標，為該州創造了 8,000 多個就業機會和 64 億美元的投資。

We're committed to our collaboration with key stakeholders on this important topic. Earlier this month, we hosted Missouri business and government leaders to discuss economic development and ways to drive new business going forward. In Alabama, we remain actively engaged in strategic planning for the state led by the Department of Commerce to support future growth. As natural gas remains the fuel of choice for economic development, we'll continue to collaborate and drive further investment in our communities.

我們致力於與主要利益相關者就這一重要主題進行合作。本月早些時候，我們接待了密蘇裡州商界和政府領導人，討論經濟發展和推動新業務發展的方法。在阿拉巴馬州，我們繼續積極參與由商務部領導的州戰略規劃，以支持未來的成長。由於天然氣仍​​然是經濟發展的首選燃料，我們將繼續合作並推動對社區的進一步投資。

Before moving on, I'm pleased to say that in June, we published our sixth sustainability report covering our continued progress across four key priorities: the environment, safety, people and governance. This comprehensive report highlights our sustainability commitment to all key stakeholders, including reducing emissions and efforts to support our commitment to the communities we serve. I encourage you to learn more about our sustainability efforts in the report, which is available on our website at spireenergy.com.

在繼續之前，我很高興地說，六月，我們發布了第六份永續發展報告，涵蓋了我們在四個關鍵優先事項方面的持續進展：環境、安全、人員和治理。這份綜合報告強調了我們對所有主要利害關係人的永續發展承諾，包括減少排放以及支持我們對所服務社區的承諾的努力。我鼓勵您在報告中了解更多有關我們可持續發展工作的信息，該報告可在我們的網站 spireenergy.com 上獲取。

With that, I will now hand the call over to Scott to provide an update on the utilities.

現在，我將把電話轉給斯科特，以提供有關公用事業的最新資訊。

Thank you, Steve, and good morning, everyone. Let's turn to slide 4 for an update on our gas utilities. During the quarter, our employees continued to deliver for our customers, providing them safe and reliable energy with a focus on excellent service and customer affordability. This important work is supported by the constructive regulatory mechanisms across our jurisdictions that allow us to make significant investments to deliver natural gas to our customers and receive timely recovery of associated costs.

謝謝你，史蒂夫，大家早安。讓我們轉向投影片 4，了解天然氣公用事業的最新情況。本季度，我們的員工繼續為客戶提供安全可靠的能源，並專注於優質服務和客戶負擔能力。這項重要工作得到了我們轄區建設性監管機制的支持，這些機制使我們能夠進行大量投資，向客戶提供天然氣，並及時收回相關成本。

In Alabama, our rates are set on a forecasted budget and our annual RSE rate setting process will begin this fall. In Missouri, our semiannual infrastructure rider, ISRS, allows us to recover revenues for certain eligible projects in between rate cases. We currently are benefiting from revenues reflected in this rider with an annualized run rate of $36.9 million. And earlier this month, we filed a new ISRS request with the Missouri PSC for an additional $17.7 million, representing our fourth request since our last general rate case. This request covers investment in system upgrades through August of this calendar year.

在阿拉巴馬州，我們的費率是根據預測預算設定的，我們的年度 RSE 費率設定流程將於今年秋天開始。在密蘇裡州，我們半年一次的基礎設施附加條款 ISRS 使我們能夠在費率情況下收回某些符合條件的項目的收入。目前，我們正受惠於該附加險所反映的收入，年化運作率為 3,690 萬美元。本月早些時候，我們向密蘇裡州 PSC 提交了新的 ISRS 請求，要求額外支付 1,770 萬美元，這是自上次一般費率案件以來我們的第四次請求。該請求涵蓋截至今年 8 月的系統升級投資。

Looking ahead, we expect to file a general rate case in Missouri in the last calendar quarter of 2024. Our top priorities include updating our cost of service, rate base and rate of return. We will also look to improve our recovery of volumetric revenue, including the impacts of both weather and conservation. This could be through a modification to the existing weather normalization adjustment rider, WNAR, or through a newly proposed mechanism or rate design. We look forward to working with key stakeholders throughout the process.

展望未來，我們預計將在 2024 年最後一個季度在密蘇裡州提交一般費率案件。我們的首要任務包括更新我們的服務成本、費率基礎和回報率。我們還將尋求改善體積收入的恢復，包括天氣和保護的影響。這可以透過修改現有的天氣正常化調整附加條款（WNAR）或透過新提出的機製或費率設計來實現。我們期待在整個過程中與主要利益相關者合作。

As Steve mentioned during the quarter, we launched a customer affordability initiative to lower our overall cost structure and improve operational efficiency across the organization. This initiative included expense reductions across shared services and utility business units, including a targeted reduction in workforce and a retirement incentive program.

正如史蒂夫在本季度提到的，我們啟動了一項客戶負擔能力計劃，以降低整體成本結構並提高整個組織的營運效率。該措施包括削減共享服務和公用事業業務部門的費用，包括有針對性地減少勞動力和退休激勵計劃。

Other areas we are targeting include streamlining our leadership structure, standardizing our work processes and capturing the O&M benefits associated with our capital investments. Further impairment is incorporate alignment of our field workforce through optimization of available resources and efficient deployment of capital.

我們瞄準的其他領域包括精簡我們的領導結構、標準化我們的工作流程以及獲取與我們的資本投資相關的營運和維護效益。進一步的損害包括透過優化可用資源和有效部署資本來調整我們的現場勞動力。

I would like to highlight that earlier this week, ahead of schedule, we renewed our labor agreement with our largest union representing employees in our St. Louis market service territory. This three-year agreement is a win-win as it provides stability to our workforce and allows us to focus on operational excellence.

我想強調的是，本週早些時候，我們提前與代表聖路易斯市場服務區域員工的最大工會續簽了勞動協議。這項為期三年的協議是雙贏的，因為它為我們的員工隊伍提供了穩定性，並使我們能夠專注於卓越營運。

Turning back to the broader customer affordability initiative, we expect to see these cost savings and improved efficiencies across the organization to support our long-term growth expectations. And let me reassure you, none of these actions will impact the safety and reliability of our natural gas system.

回到更廣泛的客戶負擔能力計劃，我們期望看到整個組織的成本節約和效率提高，以支持我們的長期成長預期。讓我向您保證，這些行動都不會影響我們天然氣系統的安全性和可靠性。

Moving to our quarterly results. Utility earnings benefited from new rates in both Missouri and Alabama compared to the prior year. Utility run rate O&M was lower than last year, driven by lower operational expense, partially offset by higher bad debts.

轉向我們的季度業績。與前一年相比，密蘇裡州和阿拉巴馬州的公用事業收入受益於新的費率。由於營運費用降低，公用事業運行率 O&M 低於去年，但壞帳增加部分抵消了這一影響。

Slightly better interest expense was more than offset by lower gas carrying cost credits reflecting our successful conclusion of collecting deferred gas costs from Winter Storm Uri and the winter of 2022. We are seeing increased depreciation expense year-over-year as we continue to spend on infrastructure to provide safe and reliable energy.

利息支出的略微改善被較低的天然氣運輸成本抵免所抵消，這反映出我們成功地從冬季風暴烏里和 2022 年冬季收取了遞延天然氣成本。隨著我們繼續在基礎設施上投入資金以提供安全可靠的能源，我們看到折舊費用逐年增加。

Turning now to slide 5 for an update on our capital investment plan. We continue to invest significant amounts of capital focused on modernizing infrastructure at our gas utilities. For the first nine months of fiscal 2024, CapEx totaled $631 million, which was primarily at our gas utilities. Year-over-year, our gas utility CapEx increased 14% to $501 million with a focus on upgrading distribution infrastructure and connecting more homes and businesses. Investment in our midstream segment totaled $130 million fiscal year-to-date, and we remain on track for completion of our Spire Storage West project in the last calendar quarter of 2024.

現在轉向投影片 5，了解我們資本投資計畫的最新情況。我們繼續投入大量資金，重點將天然氣公用事業的基礎設施進行現代化改造。2024 財年前九個月，資本支出總計 6.31 億美元，主要用於我們的天然氣公用事業。我們的天然氣公用事業資本支出年增 14%，達到 5.01 億美元，重點是升級配送基礎設施並連接更多家庭和企業。本財年迄今為止，我們中游部門的投資總額為 1.3 億美元，我們仍有望在 2024 年最後一個季度完成 Spire Storage West 專案。

We continue to install advanced meters for residential customers across our service territory. In fiscal year-to-date, we have installed approximately 265,000 advanced meters bringing the total number of customers benefiting from this technology to 750,000. We've increased our total meter investment by $30 million this year, taking our expected FY24 capital investment target to $830 million from $800 million. Our expected total capital expenditure plan remains $7.3 billion over the next 10 years. Our focus will continue to be on infrastructure upgrades to support the safety and reliability of the system.

我們繼續為整個服務區域的住宅客戶安裝先進的電錶。截至本財年，我們已安裝了約 265,000 個先進電錶，使受益於該技術的客戶總數達到 75 萬人。今年，我們將儀表總投資增加了 3,000 萬美元，將 2024 財年的預期資本投資目標從 8 億美元增加到 8.3 億美元。我們預計未來 10 年的總資本支出計畫仍為 73 億美元。我們的重點將繼續放在基礎設施升級上，以支援系統的安全性和可靠性。

To sum it up, we are well positioned for success over the longer term as we execute on our robust capital investment plan to support the growth and performance of our utilities and our gas-related businesses. We believe in the ability of our experienced management team and employees to successfully lead us into the future.

總而言之，隨著我們執行穩健的資本投資計劃以支持我們的公用事業和天然氣相關業務的成長和業績，我們已經做好了長期成功的準備。我們相信經驗豐富的管理團隊和員工有能力成功帶領我們走向未來。

I will now hand the call over to Steve Rasche to provide a financial update.

我現在將把電話轉交給史蒂夫·拉斯切（Steve Rasche），以提供最新的財務資訊。

Thanks, Scott, and good morning, everyone. We reported a fiscal third quarter loss on a net economic earnings basis of $4.3 million or $0.14 per share, compared to a loss of just under $19 million or $0.42 per share last year. We saw a year-over-year improvement across all of our segments.

謝謝斯科特，大家早安。我們公佈的第三財季淨經濟虧損為 430 萬美元，即每股 0.14 美元，而去年的虧損略低於 1,900 萬美元，即每股 0.42 美元。我們看到所有細分市場都較去年同期有所改善。

Our gas utilities improved to a loss of $11 million, $1.3 million better than last year, reflecting new rates offset by higher depreciation and bad debt expense. Gas marketing results were $3.5 million higher due to improved transportation margins.

我們的天然氣公用事業公司的虧損減少至 1,100 萬美元，比去年減少 130 萬美元，反映出新的利率被較高的折舊和壞帳費用所抵銷。由於運輸利潤率提高，天然氣行銷業績增加了 350 萬美元。

Our midstream business posted higher results driven by additional storage capacity at Spire Storage West, and new rates across both of our storage businesses. As a reminder, new rates kicked in effective April 1, the beginning of injection season, and we are benefiting from higher demand and rates for both our new capacity as well as our re-contracted existing capacity. Midstream results also benefited from the acquisition of MoGas and the inclusion of Salt Plains in net economics earnings this year. Other reflects higher interest expense, partially offset by lower corporate costs.

由於 Spire Storage West 的額外儲存容量以及我們兩個儲存業務的新費率，我們的中游業務取得了更高的業績。提醒一下，新費率於 4 月 1 日（注入季節開始）生效，我們受益於新產能和重新簽約的現有產能的更高需求和費率。中游業績也受惠於收購 MoGas 以及將 Salt Plains 納入今年的淨經濟收益。其他反映了較高的利息支出，部分則被較低的企業成本所抵銷。

Slide 7 provides detail on key variances, and we'll focus on the net variance column, which removes the cost of our customer affordability initiatives principally employee severance and other related restructuring costs. Hitting on a couple of the highlights. Contribution margins overall were higher across the gas utilities, marketing and midstream for the reasons that I just touched on.

投影片 7 提供了關鍵差異的詳細信息，我們將重點關注淨差異列，該列消除了客戶負擔能力計劃的成本，主要是員工遣散費和其他相關重組成本。重點介紹幾個亮點。由於我剛才提到的原因，天然氣公用事業、行銷和中游部門的整體邊際貢獻較高。

Looking at operations and maintenance expenses. For the gas utility, O&M expenses decreased by $1.7 million as a $4.4 million increase in bad debt expense offset a $6.1 million reduction in other expenses. For the nine months of our fiscal year, our run rate utility costs are down $7 million, excluding bad debts for a year-over-year decline of 2%.

查看營運和維護費用。對於天然氣公用事業公司，營運和維護費用減少了 170 萬美元，因為壞帳費用增加了 440 萬美元，抵消了其他費用減少的 610 萬美元。在本財年的 9 個月中，我們的營運費率公用事業成本下降了 700 萬美元，其中不包括壞賬，年減 2%。

Finishing up our O&M expenses, marketing is in line with last year and midstream was higher due to the addition of Salt Plains and MoGas. And interest expense was higher by $2 million, driven mostly by higher interest rates and short-term debt balances this quarter.

完成我們的營運和維護費用，行銷費用與去年一致，由於鹽平原和 MoGas 的增加，中游費用更高。利息支出增加了 200 萬美元，主要是由於本季利率和短期債務餘額上升。

Our three-year financing plan is largely unchanged from last quarter. Our ATM program has placed roughly $33 million in forward settlements so far this year. This leaves very modest equity needs through 2026. I would also note that we repaid our $200 million term loan in May. And we continue to target FFO to debt at 15% to 16% on a consolidated basis.

我們的三年融資計劃與上季基本沒有變化。今年迄今為止，我們的 ATM 計畫已進行了約 3,300 萬美元的遠期結算。這使得 2026 年的股權需求非常有限。我還要指出的是，我們在 5 月償還了 2 億美元的定期貸款。我們繼續將合併後的 FFO 債務目標定為 15% 至 16%。

Now turning to our outlook. As we look at our year-to-date results and our forecast for the final quarter, including the pull-through of our customer affordability initiatives, here's how we think about fiscal year '24 and more importantly, fiscal year '25. As Steve mentioned, we certainly had headwinds coming out of the winter, essentially in two areas. First, lower-than-expected margins at our Missouri Utility due to warm unmitigated weather. Second, higher-than-expected interest expense at both the gas utilities and corporate.

現在轉向我們的展望。當我們審視今年迄今的業績和對最後一個季度的預測（包括客戶負擔能力計劃的落實情況）時，以下是我們對 24 財年以及更重要的是 25 財年的看法。正如史蒂夫所提到的，我們確實在冬季遇到了阻力，主要是在兩個方面。首先，由於天氣溫暖，密蘇裡州公用事業公司的利潤率低於預期。其次，天然氣公用事業公司和企業的利息支出均高於預期。

We did have one strong tailwind, O&M cost control. This is not a new trend as we have worked for over many years to keep our discretionary costs low, taking advantage of our investments in technology, innovation and infrastructure upgrades. And we continue to show good trends this year. However, the timing of those savings, higher bad debt expenses and the realization that the added benefits of our customer affordability efforts will only partially offset the shortfall of margins and interest we carried into this quarter.

我們確實有一個強大的推動力，那就是維運成本控制。這並不是一個新趨勢，因為我們多年來一直致力於利用我們在技術、創新和基礎設施升級方面的投資來保持較低的可自由支配成本。今年我們繼續展現出良好的趨勢。然而，這些節省的時機、更高的壞帳費用以及我們對客戶負擔能力努力所帶來的額外好處的認識，只能部分抵消我們本季的利潤和利息的短缺。

So we've adjusted our earnings guidance for the remainder of this year as follows. We are lowering our gas utility range to $213 million to $221 million, down $8 million from last quarter's update and down $18 million at the midpoint from our initial guidance for the reasons I just mentioned. We raised the ranges for gas marketing and midstream to reflect the strong performance this year, with each up $8 million at the midpoint compared to our initial guidance. Corporate cost estimates moved up $6 million at the midpoint to between $24 million and $28 million, reflecting the impact of higher interest expense and the timing of cost savings. Putting it all together, we've lowered and narrowed our earnings target range for fiscal year '24, $4.15 to $4.25 per share.

因此，我們對今年剩餘時間的獲利指引進行瞭如下調整。基於我剛才提到的原因，我們將天然氣公用事業範圍降低至 2.13 億美元至 2.21 億美元，比上季度的更新減少了 800 萬美元，比我們最初的指導值中點減少了 1800 萬美元。我們提高了天然氣行銷和中游的範圍，以反映今年的強勁表現，與我們最初的指導相比，中點各增加了 800 萬美元。企業成本預估中位數上調 600 萬美元，達到 2,400 萬至 2,800 萬美元，反映了利息支出增加和成本節約時機的影響。總而言之，我們降低並縮小了 24 財年的獲利目標範圍，即每股 4.15 美元至 4.25 美元。

Now despite the lower finish this year, we are well positioned heading into fiscal year '25. We expect to get back to normal margins in Missouri. We've also collected the deferred gas cost as Scott mentioned, which should relieve some pressure on our short-term borrowings going forward, and the benefit from a lower cost structure, and we expect to return to the planned growth trajectory that we introduced at the beginning of this fiscal year. As a result, we remain confident in our long-term net economic earnings per share growth target of 5% to 7%.

現在，儘管今年的業績較低，但我們在進入 25 財年時處於有利位置。我們預計密蘇裡州的利潤率將恢復到正常水平。正如史考特所提到的，我們也收集了遞延天然氣成本，這應該會減輕我們未來短期借款的一些壓力，並從較低的成本結構中受益，我們預計將回到我們在本財年伊始。因此，我們對每股 5% 至 7% 的長期淨經濟收益成長目標仍充滿信心。

Thanks again for your confidence and trust to place in us. And we look forward to speaking more about 2025 and beyond in our year-end earnings call in November.

再次感謝您對我們的信任與信任。我們期待在 11 月的年終財報電話會議上更多地談論 2025 年及以後的情況。

Steve, let me turn it back over to you for some final comments.

史蒂夫，讓我把它轉回給你一些最後的評論。

Thank you, Steve. Spire has delivered a solid third quarter, and we are laser-focused on finishing our fiscal year well positioned for success and growth over the long term.

謝謝你，史蒂夫。Spire 的第三季業績表現強勁，我們專注於完成本財年，為長期的成功和成長做好準備。

Thank you all for joining us today. We will now take your questions.

感謝大家今天加入我們。我們現在將回答您的問題。

(Operator Instructions) Richard Sunderland, JPMorgan.

（操作員指令）Richard Sunderland，摩根大通。

Starting with the cost efforts, what is the potential magnitude of benefits here? And is this directly in response to the 2024 headwinds. I guess I'm trying to understand how much is embedded in 2024 for cost savings versus what you can realize in '25 and '26?

從成本工作開始，這裡潛在的效益有多大？這是否是對 2024 年逆風的直接回應？我想我想了解 2024 年可以節省多少成本，而 25 年和 26 年可以實現多少？

Rich, it's Steve Lindsey. I'll start with kind of the overarching themes here. So first of all, cost management is not new to us. I think we've got a very strong record of doing this. I think what we did say is that we need to ramp this up a little bit. So we're going to get a little bit here at the end of '24, but really the focus is on '25 and '26, and that this is not one and done.

里奇，我是史蒂夫林賽。我將從這裡的總體主題開始。首先，成本管理對我們來說並不陌生。我認為我們在這方面有著良好的記錄。我認為我們確實說過我們需要稍微加強這一點。因此，我們將在 24 年末了解一些內容，但實際上重點是在 25 和 26 年，而且這還沒有完成。

And so this is comprehensive. So it involves looking at really through the lens of what is adding value for the company. And then in some cases, what can we stop doing that's really not adding value? So it could be optimizing workforce. It could be process improvement that we continue to focus on. It could be really leveraging the investments that we've made in infrastructure and technology, even things like logistics, where you start to pair workforce with fleet and supply chain. So I think it's comprehensive, and it's intended to be long term.

所以這是全面的。因此，它需要真正從為公司增加價值的角度來看待。然後在某些情況下，我們可以停止做哪些實際上不會增加價值的事情？所以它可能會優化勞動力。我們持續關注的可能是流程改善。它可以真正利用我們在基礎設施和技術方面的投資，甚至是物流等方面的投資，你可以開始將勞動力與車隊和供應鏈配對。所以我認為它是全面的，而且是長期的。

So I'm going to turn it over to Scott and Steve to follow up a little more, but I just want to go deep kind of the overarching theme of -- this isn't something that we just started in terms of we've been managing costs. This is an initiative that has accelerated and it's bigger than we've done in the past. But we think, again, it's not a one and done. It's really a change as we move forward into the future.

因此，我將把它交給斯科特和史蒂夫進一步跟進，但我只想深入探討整體主題——這不是我們剛開始的事情，因為我們已經一直在管理成本。這是一項正在加速的舉措，而且比我們過去所做的規模更大。但我們再次認為，這還沒完成。當我們邁向未來時，這確實是一個變化。

Rich, this is Scott. And maybe just to give you a few categories of things that have come out of this initiative that we're working on. And then I'll hand it over to Steve to give a little more color on the financial implications.

里奇，這是斯科特。也許只是為了向您提供我們正在進行的這項舉措中所產生的幾類內容。然後我將把它交給史蒂夫，讓他進一步說明財務影響。

But as Steve Lindsey was mentioning, one of the things we targeted was leadership consolidation, particularly in our shared services and in our operating units as well. So that we're -- to a common model and have some consolidated leadership in places where we didn't have it before. Some other places we've looked are in our corporate facilities, we have both in Birmingham and in St. Louis plans to consolidate facilities in those locations where we will reduce maintenance expense, reduce lease expense associated with operating two facilities and bringing them into one, for instance, here in the St. Louis Downtown area.

但正如史蒂夫·林賽（Steve Lindsey）所提到的，我們的目標之一是領導力整合，特別是在我們的共享服務和營運部門中。因此，我們採用了一個共同的模式，並在我們以前沒有的地方擁有了一些統一的領導力。我們考慮過的其他一些地方是我們的公司設施，我們在伯明翰和聖路易斯都計劃整合這些地點的設施，我們將減少維護費用，減少與運營兩個設施並將其合併為一個設施相關的租賃費用，例如，在聖路易市中心地區。

As we talked about our reduction in force in our early retirement incentive, both those programs have concluded. And so we are now experiencing the benefit associated with those reductions in force. Those are '24 impacts, but those will continue into '25 and beyond. And then beyond that, there's some of these other things such as software licensing or conclusion of certain IT projects for which either the workforce or the effort of the consulting expense has been brought to a conclusion that we're able to eliminate at this time as well.

當我們談論減少提前退休激勵時，這兩個計劃都已經結束。因此，我們現在正在體驗與減少兵力相關的好處。這些是 24 年的影響，但這些影響將持續到 25 年及以後。除此之外，還有一些其他事情，例如軟體授權或某些 IT 專案的結束，這些專案的勞動力或諮詢費用的努力已經得出結論，我們目前能夠消除這些問題出色地。

So I'll hand it over to Steve Rasche for some additional color on the financial implications.

因此，我將把它交給 Steve Rasche，以提供有關財務影響的更多資訊。

Rich, to answer your question directly, we were in the process of going through this initiative at the time of our last call. If anybody who spent to it know this is not fine. You want to do it in a thoughtful way, and I think we did. Our focus is on bending down the cost curve for our cost structure. Think about it as long term, here are the things that we need to do in order to create headroom in our bill and continue to see those cost savings.

Rich，直接回答你的問題，上次通話時我們正在實施這項計劃。如果任何花錢的人都知道這不好。你想以一種深思熟慮的方式來做這件事，我想我們做到了。我們的重點是降低成本結構的成本曲線。從長遠來看，我們需要做以下事情，以便在我們的帳單中創造空間並繼續看到這些成本節省。

In terms of what -- we didn't really see a lot this quarter. In fact, as Scott mentioned, the bulk of the savings actually landed at the beginning of July. So we should see some benefit in the fourth quarter. We'll talk about that when we get to November, but I wouldn't want to oversell that because when you're trying to carve out some of your cost structure, those are generally one- to two-year initiatives. We clearly see a lot more benefit going into and through '25 because these kind of cascade out as time goes on. And we'll speak a bit more to that when we get to the year-end call. And I would say that if you look at our results for our cost management and the gas utility, this quarter or for the first three quarters, that's a pretty clean analysis without a lot of benefit of the things we've done to add on top of it.

就內容而言，本季度我們並沒有真正看到太多。事實上，正如斯科特所提到的，大部分節省的資金實際上是在七月初到位的。因此，我們應該會在第四季度看到一些好處。我們將在 11 月討論這個問題，但我不想過度誇大這一點，因為當你試圖制定一些成本結構時，這些計劃通常是一到兩年的計劃。我們清楚地看到，進入 25 年以及整個 25 年，我們會獲得更多的好處，因為隨著時間的推移，這些好處會逐漸顯現出來。當我們進行年終電話會議時，我們會對此進行更多討論。我想說，如果你看看我們本季度或前三個季度的成本管理和天然氣公用事業的結果，這是一個非常乾淨的分析，沒有從我們所做的添加的事情中獲得很多好處它的。

No, that's very helpful. And I guess a follow-up here, digging into that 5% to 7% growth language from the script versus the lower 2024 guidance, do you expect 2025 to be at the midpoint of the 5% to 7% range? Or are you trending lower in the range as cost efforts ramp?

不，這非常有幫助。我想接下來，深入研究腳本中 5% 至 7% 的增長語言與較低的 2024 年指導，您預計 2025 年將處於 5% 至 7% 範圍的中點嗎？或者隨著成本努力的增加，您的範圍趨於下降？

It's a great question, Rich. And again, we'll get to year-end and talk about '25 at that point, specifically for '25. But you're right. If you think about the pushes and pulls, and we spoke to them on the call, so I won't repeat them here. I mean we've got a lot of tailwinds and there are a couple of headwinds that we're going to have to deal with. We clearly are targeting as we always would in the middle of the range.

這是一個很好的問題，里奇。再說一遍，我們將在年底討論“25”，特別是“25”。但你是對的。如果您考慮過推和拉，我們在電話中與他們交談過，所以我不會在這裡重複。我的意思是，我們有很多順風車，也有一些我們必須應付的逆風車。我們顯然一如既往地瞄準了範圍的中間位置。

And the real question that we'll debate as we go through the next three months or four months because it would be November is what's the timing of the cost savings? And how does that impact '25? And then as you know, we'll be in a rate case in Missouri. So we'll have to deal with that. But clearly, being two years plus out in Missouri, we should have a little bit of regulatory lag in Missouri. We've done a pretty good job of offsetting that.

在接下來的三個月或四個月（因為那時是 11 月）中，我們將討論的真正問題是節省成本的時間是什麼時候？這對 25 世紀有何影響？然後如你所知，我們將在密蘇裡州遇到一個費率案件。所以我們必須處理這個問題。但顯然，在密蘇裡州已經兩年多了，我們在密蘇裡州的監管應該有一點滯後。我們在抵消這一點方面做得很好。

And as Scott highlighted in his comments, we're getting good pull through with a lot of cooperation in Missouri. So that does a pretty good job of offsetting a lot of the regulatory lag in Missouri. So short answer is we always target the middle of the range. The long answer is we've got some work to do between now and then, and we'll speak more to it when we get to the year-end call.

正如斯科特在評論中所強調的那樣，我們在密蘇裡州的大量合作中取得了良好的進展。因此，這很好地抵消了密蘇裡州的監管滯後。所以簡短的回答是我們總是以範圍的中間為目標。長的答案是，從現在到那時我們還有一些工作要做，當我們召開年終電話會議時，我們將對此進行更多討論。

David Arcaro, Morgan Stanley.

大衛‧阿卡羅，摩根士丹利。

I'm wondering if you could just elaborate maybe on some of those puts and takes into 2025. Just thinking about like you'll get a recovery, hopefully, in terms of weather normal sales. But then what persists, I guess, into next year? Like does the interest rate headwind potentially persist? Could you see some of the strength that you had in the marketing and midstream segments. Could that continue into next year. So yes, we'd just love to unpack a few of those drivers?

我想知道您是否可以詳細說明 2025 年的一些看跌期權和期權。只是想想，在天氣正常的情況下，你的銷售有望恢復。但我猜什麼會持續到明年呢？例如利率逆風是否可能持續存在？您能看到您在行銷和中游領域的一些優勢嗎？這種情況能否持續到明年。那麼，是的，我們只是想解壓縮其中一些驅動程式？

Yes, it's a great question. Let me start on the last part, the marketing and midstream and then we can come back to the other -- to the utilities. Clearly, we're seeing the step-up in the midstream business that you would have expected given the amount of capital that we've invested both in the expansion of Spire Storage West and adding Salt Plains and MoGas over the last two years, and the guidance that we talked about last quarter and stepping that up in a material way is what you should expect.

是的，這是一個很好的問題。讓我從最後一部分開始，即行銷和中游，然後我們可以回到另一個部分——公用事業。顯然，考慮到過去兩年我們在 Spire Storage West 擴建以及增加 Salt Plains 和 MoGas 方面投入的資金量，我們看到了中游業務的增長，這是您所期望的，並且我們上季度談到的指導以及以實質方式加強這項指導是您應該期待的。

Now when we get to next year, we're getting closer to a run rate for that business. And so we'll step into the range that we would expect, and you would expect us then to attain given the returns on investment that we should get from deploying that capital. And so what you see now is just kind of stepping in a lot closer to where that terminal value or run rate is going to be clearly for the existing facilities, and I would put Salt Plains in that category along with the pipelines. Spire Storage West will continue to play into the remaining capacity as we get into '25, as we've talked about before.

現在，到了明年，我們就越來越接近該業務的運作率。因此，我們將進入我們期望的範圍，並考慮到我們應該從部署該資本中獲得的投資回報，您會期望我們能夠實現。因此，您現在看到的只是更接近現有設施的最終價值或運行率，我將鹽平原與管道一起歸入該類別。正如我們之前討論過的，隨著進入 25 年，Spire Storage West 將繼續利用剩餘容量。

Marketing, we view the business the same in terms of where the baseline earnings are for the business and the guidance that we launched this year reflected where we believe the earnings power for that business is, given normal market conditions. We did have the ability, as we talked about earlier this year, to create value, especially early in the winter season, and we're seeing a little bit of opportunity now, and we adjust real time our expectations there, generally on the upside. We will rebase. I know folks don't like that word, but our expectations for that business are it should grow in its base business, but we're not expecting outsized growth that you would expect if you were to look at the guidance raise that we saw this year. But it's clearly a very valuable component of our overall business, and we like the earnings that it drives because it helps us to get some capital that we can redeploy and invest in utility rate base.

行銷方面，我們認為該業務的獲利基準是相同的，而且我們今年推出的指導反映了我們認為在正常市場條件下該業務的獲利能力。正如我們今年早些時候談到的，我們確實有能力創造價值，尤其是在冬季初期，我們現在看到了一些機會，我們實時調整我們的預期，總體上是向上的。我們將重新設定基準。我知道人們不喜歡這個詞，但我們對該業務的期望是它應該在其基礎業務中增長，但如果您查看我們看到的指導提高，我們預計不會出現您所期望的大幅增長年。但它顯然是我們整體業務中非常有價值的組成部分，我們喜歡它帶來的收益，因為它幫助我們獲得一些資本，我們可以重新部署和投資於公用事業費率基礎。

With that, let me turn it over to the team on the utility side.

這樣，讓我將其移交給公用事業的團隊。

Yes. And thanks, David. This is Steve. I would say, yes. I mean our assumption would be around more normal weather, not as warm as we had. But in addition to that, we're going to get a full year of the O&M impacts that we're talking about. And so I think even if we do have some weather issues that we're going to look to be able to overcome that by having a full year of the O&M benefit. So that's from the utility perspective, I will think about it.

是的。謝謝，大衛。這是史蒂夫。我會說，是的。我的意思是，我們的假設是天氣比較正常，而不是像我們那樣溫暖。但除此之外，我們還將獲得我們正在討論的一整年的營運和維護影響。因此，我認為，即使我們確實遇到一些天氣問題，我們也希望能夠透過全年的營運和維護效益來克服這些問題。所以從實用的角度來看，我會考慮一下。

And then Adam, you want to talk a little bit about our thoughts relative to the interest?

然後，亞當，你想談談我們對興趣的看法嗎？

Right. We're not trying to play interest forward at all, but I feel like there's certainly some -- we are seeing balances start to move down, which would give us some mitigation there as well relative to this year. I would add too, as Scott Doyle mentioned earlier that we would also see some bolstering of revenue in the utility around new ISRS coming in.

正確的。我們根本不想提高利息，但我覺得肯定有一些——我們看到餘額開始下降，這將使我們相對於今年的情況有所緩解。我還要補充一點，正如斯科特·多伊爾之前提到的那樣，隨著新的 ISRS 的推出，我們還將看到公用事業公司的收入增加。

Got it. Yes, that's clear. That makes sense. And then I was wondering if there's any early indications that you might offer in terms of how much of a rate increase you might be expecting to request in Missouri with the rate case coming up, any important dynamics to consider there, whether there's a lot of lag to catch up on or if it could be a smaller ask overall?

知道了。是的，這很清楚。這是有道理的。然後我想知道是否有任何早期跡象表明，隨著利率案例的出現，您可能會在密蘇裡州請求加息多少，需要考慮的重要動態，是否有很多滯後於追趕，或者整體要求是否可以較小？

No, more to come on that, David. We clearly would look to -- as we've talked about, look to address the weather normalization mechanism and then just really looking to recover the capital that we've deployed and true up cost of service.

不，還有更多，大衛。正如我們所討論的，我們顯然會尋求解決天氣正常化機制的問題，然後真正尋求收回我們已部署的資本並調整服務成本。

(Operator Instructions) Gabe Moreen, Mizuho.

（操作員指示）Gabe Moreen，Mizuho。

I know the cost savings stuff has been addressed quite a bit, but I just had one more, which is on, I think, some of the restructuring charges that showed up this quarter. I think the $4.4 million. Just wondering to the extent you expect those to show up in '25 or just ongoing basis? And whether you'd care to quantify what those may be kind of going forward?

我知道節省成本的問題已經得到了相當多的解決，但我剛剛還有一個問題，我認為這是本季度出現的一些重組費用。我認為是 440 萬美元。只是想知道您希望這些內容在 25 年出現還是持續出現？您是否願意量化這些未來可能會發生什麼？

Yes. Gabe, this is Steve, let me take a shot at that. And as I mentioned, anybody who's been through these know that they're not fun and you want to try to get them done and get them in the rearview mirror just for the benefit of the team and culture, and that's exactly what we did. We made our best day ever on the costs associated with that and as you alluded to, and I think I spoke to on the call, most of those are related to employee separation costs, a few restructuring costs.

是的。加布，這是史蒂夫，讓我試試看。正如我所提到的，任何經歷過這些的人都知道它們並不有趣，你想要嘗試完成它們並讓它們出現在後視鏡中，只是為了團隊和文化的利益，而這正是我們所做的。我們在與此相關的成本方面取得了有史以來最好的一天，正如您所提到的，我想我在電話中談到過，其中大部分與員工離職成本和一些重組成本有關。

Now having said that, we have a lot of initiatives that are in flight, and we continue to work them. At this juncture, I couldn't tell you whether there will be additional costs associated with those. We try our best to estimate those. Should there be any, we would highlight those at the end of the year. And I think you could rest assured that if we're incurring any of those, there are great benefits associated with the lower cost associated with them going forward in the '25.

話雖如此，我們有許多措施正在實施，我們將繼續實施它們。目前，我無法告訴您是否會產生與這些相關的額外費用。我們盡力估計這些。如果有的話，我們會在年底強調這些。我認為您可以放心，如果我們發生其中任何一個，那麼在 25 世紀，與它們相關的較低成本會帶來巨大的好處。

And then maybe if I can ask a bigger question kind of on the dividend and the payout ratio here. And I know you talked about the 5% to 7% and your confidence in that longer term, but it sounds like between the cost savings as well as the rate case, there's some work to do. Any thoughts to maybe slowing the dividend growth as you kind of work through that over the next 12 to 24 months?

然後也許我可以問一個關於股息和支付比率的更大問題。我知道您談到了 5% 到 7% 以及您對長期的信心，但聽起來在成本節約和費率情況之間，還有一些工作要做。在接下來的 12 到 24 個月內，您是否有可能減緩股息成長的想法？

No thought of it right now. We'll engage in that discussion with our Board as we go to the year-end, which is when we change our dividend going forward into the next year. We've been at or near 5% increases for the last couple of years. So at the low end of our growth range, to your point, we want to make sure to watch that payout ratio, but we would clearly -- there's no indication that we wouldn't continue to grow the dividend. It might be at the lower end of a range of our growth for the factors that you talked about.

目前還沒有想到。到年底時，我們將與董事會進行討論，屆時我們將調整明年的股利。過去幾年我們的成長率一直達到或接近 5%。因此，就您而言，在我們成長範圍的低端，我們希望確保關注派息率，但我們顯然會——沒有跡象表明我們不會繼續增加股息。對於你談到的因素，它可能處於我們成長範圍的低端。

Selman Akyol, Stifel.

塞爾曼·阿克奧爾，史蒂菲爾。

Two quick ones for me. Given the success that you've seen in midstream, just curious, as you think about capital allocation on a go-forward basis in CapEx spending, would you anticipate putting more in that area?

對我來說兩個快點。鑑於您在中游中看到的成功，只是好奇，當您考慮資本支出支出的未來資本配置時，您是否預計會在該領域投入更多資金？

Well, great to hear from you, Selman. So I think right now, our focus on completing the project and delivering our expectations on that. I think any other investments in that facility or anything else are down the road, but right now our focus is really delivering on our commitments. And so that's where we're looking at right now. So the additional capital that's been deployed, we're very comfortable that the returns are going to exceed our initial expectations. And so we think this investment continues to be the right approach for that facility.

好吧，很高興收到你的來信，塞爾曼。所以我認為現在我們的重點是完成該專案並實現我們對此的期望。我認為對該設施或其他任何東西的任何其他投資都正在進行中，但現在我們的重點是真正兌現我們的承諾。這就是我們現在正在研究的地方。因此，我們對已部署的額外資本的回報將超出我們最初的預期感到非常滿意。因此，我們認為這項投資仍然是該設施的正確方法。

Yes. And Simon, if you look at our long-term capital forecast, which was included in the material, you'll see that, that investment drops off to maintenance CapEx. So there'll be a little bit in the first fiscal quarter of '25 because the construction will continue in Spire Storage West through the beginning of heating season, so fourth calendar quarter of this year. But after that, it's really more maintenance CapEx. And then if there are some small organic investments that make sense, we would clearly take advantage of those. And that's, I think, where we'll sit for a loan.

是的。西蒙，如果您查看材料中包含的我們的長期資本預測，您會發現投資下降到維護資本支出。因此，25 年第一財季會有一點，因為 Spire Storage West 的施工將繼續進行到供暖季節開始，即今年第四季。但在那之後，實際上更多的是維護資本支出。然後，如果有一些有意義的小型有機投資，我們顯然會利用這些投資。我想，這就是我們申請貸款的地方。

Understood. And then I know there's a number of ads and tracks in your FFO to debt and you're targeting 15% to 16%. But can you say where it's at now?

明白了。然後我知道您的 FFO 中有大量廣告和曲目需要償還債務，而您的目標是 15% 到 16%。但你能說一下它現在在哪裡嗎？

Sure. S&P had put out a report in early June that have laid out approximately 11% on their calculation. Based on that equivalent, we're above 12% now, and we look at it a little bit differently as far as the construction of that metric and would cite something a little closer to 13%.

當然。標準普爾在 6 月初發布了一份報告，根據其計算結果列出了大約 11%。基於這個等價物，我們現在已經超過 12%，而且我們對該指標的構建的看法略有不同，並且會引用更接近 13% 的數據。

Paul Fremont, Ladenburg.

保羅‧弗里蒙特，拉登堡。

I guess my first question is, if you could elaborate a little bit on your assumptions for growth longer term in the marketing business. What is driving sort of that growth?

我想我的第一個問題是，您是否可以詳細說明您對行銷業務長期成長的假設。是什麼推動了這種成長？

Paul, this is Steve Rasche. Let me take a shot at that. We've tended to see our marketing business, the base business. Again, remember the base business for the marketing group is to gain customers, gain penetration into what is a large market and procure transport, store and deliver natural gas to those customers, which are commercial, industrial, other utilities and the like. And the growth in that business is generally through adding to the team, adding to the relationships, adding to the contracts. And we would expect that growth to be in the growth range that supports our overall growth for the business.

保羅，這是史蒂夫·拉斯奇。讓我試試。我們傾向於看到我們的行銷業務，即基礎業務。再次強調，行銷團隊的基本業務是贏得客戶，滲透到大市場，並為這些客戶購買運輸、儲存和交付天然氣，這些客戶包括商業、工業、其他公用事業等。該業務的成長通常是透過增加團隊、增加關係、增加合約來實現的。我們預計這種成長將在支持我們業務整體成長的成長範圍內。

When you see outsized growth in terms of actual reported numbers, that's generally additional volatility or market opportunity to optimize the assets that we have to invest in and have in our portfolio to meet our customer needs. But we continue to think about that base business as we did at the beginning of the year and as was asked earlier, and we'll think about it again as we go to '25. And we didn't want to get too far out over our skis because although the market has been more volatile and there's been opportunities for three of the last four years, we've been through markets where the opportunities are less, and we don't want to bank on that or plan for that, but we'll clearly take the opportunity if it presents some.

當您看到實際報告數字大幅成長時，這通常意味著額外的波動或市場機會來優化我們必須投資和投資組合中的資產以滿足客戶需求。但我們會繼續像年初那樣考慮基礎業務，正如之前所問的那樣，當我們進入 25 年時，我們會再次考慮它。我們不想讓我們的滑雪板走得太遠，因為儘管市場波動更大，並且過去四年中的三年都有機會，但我們經歷過機會較少的市場，而且我們不這樣做。一點或為此制定計劃，但如果有機會的話，我們顯然會抓住這個機會。

Yeah, and the only piece I would add to that is that part of our business line is very asset light. And in terms of -- it doesn't require a lot of investments similar to midstream. And so Pat and his team have done a great job over the years of developing the relationships that Steve has mentioned, delivering on the commitments that we make. And I think reputationally, they're in a very good spot. They operate on a lot of pipelines, and they're continuing to grow from a geographic perspective. So we think that's a good business to continue to be in.

是的，我唯一要補充的是，我們的部分業務線資產非常輕。就其而言，它不需要與中游類似的大量投資。因此，帕特和他的團隊多年來在發展史蒂夫提到的關係方面做得很好，並兌現了我們所做的承諾。我認為從聲譽上來說，他們處於一個非常好的位置。他們在很多管道上運營，並且從地理角度來看它們正在持續增長。所以我們認為這是一個值得繼續從事的好生意。

Great. And then I guess my second question is, you mentioned interest rates as part of the revision and this year guidance, were you anticipating lower interest costs in your original guidance? Or how is the interest sort of a variable?

偉大的。然後我想我的第二個問題是，您在修訂和今年的指導中提到了利率，您是否預計最初的指導中的利息成本會降低？或是變數的興趣是如何排序的？

Paul, great question. This is Adam. No, we weren't expecting lower interest rates. It really was and we had mentioned this a little bit earlier in the year, we had a bit of -- given the warmer weather or some of our deferred gas costs hung around longer and it's stuck around longer, and those balances were a little bit more than what we had expected. So I think we were not too far off of where interest rates are from our internal forecast, it was really the balances that didn't meet our expectations.

保羅，好問題。這是亞當。不，我們並沒有預期利率會降低。確實是這樣，我們在今年早些時候就提到過這一點，考慮到天氣變暖或我們的一些遞延天然氣成本持續時間更長，並且停留時間更長，這些餘額有點多超出了我們的預期。因此，我認為我們的利率與我們內部預測的差距並不太遠，實際上是餘額沒有達到我們的預期。

At this time, we are showing no further questioners in the queue, and this does conclude our question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Megan McPhail for any closing remarks.

目前，我們在隊列中沒有顯示更多提問者，這確實結束了我們的問答環節。現在我想將會議轉回梅根麥克菲爾發表閉幕詞。

Thank you for joining us this morning. We look forward to speaking with many of you in the coming weeks. Have a great day.

感謝您今天早上加入我們。我們期待在未來幾週內與你們中的許多人交談。祝你有美好的一天。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation, and you may now disconnect.

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演示，您現在可以斷開連接了。