RGC Resources Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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August 7, 2024

There are 4 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us as we discuss RTC Resources' 2024 Third Quarter Results. I am Tommy Oliver, Senior Vice President, Regulatory and External Affairs for RTC Resources. I am joined this morning by Paul Nestor, President and CEO of RGC Resources and Tim Mulvaney, our VP, Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I want to review a few administrative items. First, we have muted online and ask that all participants remain muted.

Operator

2, the link to today's presentation is available on the Investor and Financial Information page of our website at www.rgcresources.com. 3rd, at the conclusion of the presentation and our remarks, we will take questions. So let's turn to Slide 1. This presentation contains forecasts and projections. Slide 1 has information about risks and uncertainties, including forward looking statements that should be understood in the context of our public filings.

Operator

Slide 2 contains our agenda. We will discuss the MVP, review our quarterly operational and financial results, provide a regulatory update, discuss the outlook for full year fiscal 2024 and provide a brief or brief comments on fiscal 2025 with time allotted for questions at

Speaker 1

the end. So I'll turn the presentation over to Paul now to talk about the MVP. Well, thank you, Tommy, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. We hope your day is off to a good start.

Speaker 1

We thought we would just end the suspense immediately in the earnings call and talk about Mountain Valley at the beginning. Hopefully, you had MVP in service and in fact on that same day receipt of the initial natural gas delivery into our Roanoke gas system. It's hard to believe, but we're almost 2 months in operation now as of this day. We're just so excited to have finally reached and achieved this milestone. Although gas flows started in mid June, the shipper contracts for the capacity and demand charges did not go into effect on July 1 and that was contemplated in those agreements.

Speaker 1

Tim is going to give us some additional color on how this transition from construction to pipeline operation will be reflected in our financial statements when he gives us his remarks shortly. Moving on to Slide 4. This is a picture we've used in some of our other presentations. You may have seen it, but it's what the Mountain Valley Pipeline right of way looks like once it has been restored and the vegetation is that an opportunity to take hold. As you can see, it's quite beautiful.

Speaker 1

The joint venture is completing the restoration along the entire right away of the pipeline as we speak. One important point, once this restoration is finished, the construction project will also be deemed complete. And at that point, RGC Midstream's final ownership level will be set. In other words, our percentage of the operating earnings and the available cash flows from the joint venture will be locked in at that point in time. Moving to Slide 5, we've included a picture of our Lafayette interconnect in today's presentation.

Speaker 1

That's one of our 2 interconnects to the Mountain Valley, the other being the Summit View Gate Station in Franklin County. Both interconnect stations are complete and in fact attached to MVP and gas is flowing. We stated this for many, many years, but these stations will enable the additional firm capacity provided by MVP and contracted for by Roanoke Gas to enter the Roanoke Gas system and of course also provide gas through that. Some of you interconnect in Franklin County for the first time in Franklin County's history. We are working earnestly to connect our first customer in Franklin County and we expect that connection to be completed very, very soon.

Speaker 1

In fact, the picture on the agenda page that Tommy reviewed was from just a few weeks ago where we were installing the natural gas main in the Summit View Park downstream of the Summit View gate station. Finally, we're just going to mention this one last time. We really believe the Mountain Valley, now that it's operational, will spur economic development in this region. We're excited about that. We continue to actively participate with our Roanoke Regional Partnership and Virginia Economic Development Partnership and the other localities, their economic development offices to promote and enhance economic development.

Speaker 1

With that, I'll turn it

Operator

back to Tommy. Thank you, Paul. And we're now on Slide 6. Main extensions and renewals for the 1st 9 months of 2020 4 fiscal year totaled 4.6 miles, and we connected 478 new services. In addition, we renewed 3 19 during that same period.

Operator

This reflects continued growth in our rate base and customer base. Now on Slide 7, where we're showing our delivered gas volumes for the quarter. Volumes overall were 6% lower compared to the Q3 of last year, with the decline attributable to the continuation of warmer weather throughout the Q3 of the 2024 fiscal year. This is very evident in the residential and commercial volumes, which are much more weather sensitive than industrial usage. Slide 8 shows delivered gas volumes for the 2024 fiscal year to date.

Operator

And as shown, total volumes have remained steady compared to last year's comparable period. We're on Slide 9 now. Our CapEx spending totaled $16,600,000 for the 1st 9 months of fiscal 2024 compared to $19,400,000 last year at the same time. This decrease is attributable to the $3,100,000 spent in 2023 related to the RNG project. Paul will discuss the full year capital spending projection shortly.

Operator

I'm now going to turn it over to Tim Mulvaney, our Treasurer, CFO, who will discuss our financial results. Tim?

Speaker 2

Thank you, Tommy. Moving on to Slide 10. As we noted last quarter, we continue to experience cost pressures compared to a year ago, particularly for personnel and professional costs. 3rd quarter operating income decreased $240,000 or 13 percent to $1,600,000 compared to the Q3 of 2023 as the higher costs were not offset with new revenues during the quarter. New interim rates went into effect July 1 under the February 2 filed rate case.

Speaker 2

Tommy will discuss the rate case in more detail in a moment. Equity and earnings of the unconsolidated affiliates or MVP was down $237,000 pre tax compared to a year ago as the transition from construction phase that included non cash AFUDC to the operational phase occurred this quarter. With the MVP in operation, going forward, the company will recognize its share of earnings from the MVP favorably adjusted for a basis difference between the company's share of the MVP assets and the carrying value of our investment. You may recall that we took a size we took sizable write downs of our investment in 2022. This basis difference will be amortized over the operational life of the MVP for 40 years.

Speaker 2

Interest expense increased $145,000 compared to the same quarter a year ago due to the higher interest rate environment, which is impacting our floating rate debt that supports our investment in the Mountain Valley Pipeline and our Roanoke Gas line of credit. Our net income was $160,000 in the Q3 of this year compared to $690,000 in the same quarter a year ago. The combination of cost pressures, lower MVP results and higher interest expense led to the decline. EPS was $0.02 per diluted share for the Q3 this year compared to $0.07 per diluted share in the quarter a year ago. The year to date numbers are also on Slide 10.

Speaker 2

The performance for the 9 months is more favorable than the Q3 alone. Net income was $11,600,000 or $1.15 per diluted share through 9 months of fiscal 2024 compared to $10,300,000 or $1.04 per diluted share in fiscal 2023. While the inflationary pressures and higher interest rates were present as they were in the Q3 of fiscal 20 24, revenues from the prior year rate case were present for all 9 months in fiscal 2024, but only for 6 months in fiscal 2023. Additionally, our share of AFUDC earlier in 2024 was stronger. I will now turn the presentation back to Tommy discuss our latest rate case and regulatory developments.

Operator

Well, thank you, Tim. As we noted in our earnings call from last quarter, Roanoke Gas filed for an increase in base rates on February 2 with the Virginia State Corporation Commission. The company is seeking an annual increase in its base rates of $4,300,000 or approximately 5% increase in total revenues. The increase includes a projected rate base through June 30, 2025 and an increase in our authorized ROE to 10.35 percent, which reflects current market conditions. Unlike our prior rate case, we did not roll our SAVE rider into base rates nor did we roll in our RNG rider.

Operator

The audit of the rate case continues. Staff's testimony is due in the case on September 20 and a hearing with the commission is set for November 7. We do not expect final resolution until the Q2 of 2025. With regard to the SAVE and RNG riders, on May 30, we filed for an update to the RNG rider and on June 28, we filed for an update to our RNG rider. Both of these cases are pending before the commission with the resolution expected in September of 20 24.

Operator

I will now pass the presentation to Paul Nestor to discuss our full year 2024 and expectations for 2025. Yes.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Tommy. And we're going to start by just reviewing our Roanoke Gas Capital Investment Plan, which is on Slide 13. We're holding firm to what we've been communicating on that at $21,700,000 for this fiscal year. As discussed a few moments ago, it is lower than last year. We obviously had the one time step up in 2023 related to the RNG facility investment.

Speaker 1

We continue to focus on our growth strategies in the regulated utility of customer growth and infrastructure renewal. As you can see, SAVE spending this year is going to get close to $10,000,000 something we're very happy about, improving the safety and reliability or I should say continuing to improve the safety and reliability of our natural gas distribution system. Moving to Slide 14, and maybe before we talk about the EPS guidance, I just want to summarize Tommy and Tim's comments. Really the 1st 9 months of the year have been really strong. I'm very happy with the company's performance.

Speaker 1

I think all of our employees and our departments are firing on all cylinders doing exactly what we asked, which is to focus on customer service and safety. Tommy and his team from a regulatory standpoint, as you can tell, have been very busy working very closely with the commission staff on all of these proceedings. We're just, again, very pleased with where we are through the 1st 9 months. I believe $1.15 EPS is what Tim reported to us a moment ago. So as you can see for our full fiscal year, which ends September 30, we kept the upper end of the range of $1.16 per share.

Speaker 1

We've moved the lower end up $0.02 to $1.12 We feel very, very comfortable with that right now. We think, again, the we think, again, the outstanding performance of the company and our employees and in fact, our customers too. Our customers economically have been hanging right in there so far this summer. Despite the 4th quarter being a lower revenue period, we're optimistic that this performance trend is going to continue for the next approximately 50 to 55 days toward the end of the fiscal year and push us toward the upper end of this EPS forecast. With that, let's talk for a minute about 2025.

Speaker 1

Ordinarily, at this call, we would give some guidance for the next fiscal year. We've listed out several of what we're calling drivers or key variables to the next fiscal year. Obviously, the rate case, as Tommy just discussed, is still ongoing and the final outcome of that is pending in this inflationary environment as Tim has discussed. We see a lot of that continuing or persevering into fiscal 2025. We're going to do everything we can as a management team and as a company to manage expense and keep that as reasonable as we can.

Speaker 1

We've got a great history of doing that. I think we're practiced in that. So it's not a new experience for us and that's something again I'm expecting good results from. Interest rates, we think are going to hopefully trend favorably in 2025. There's prevailing literature on that, particularly with what the Fed may do over the next 3 to 6 months.

Speaker 1

So we're optimistic that we may see some with our floating rate debt, some favorable interest rate activity. Tim talked about the Mountain Valley investment and what that means to RGC Midstream. There is a change there as he discussed from the AFUDC related to the construction and now our operational earnings. Year over year, we'll see a decline in the book earnings related to that, but again, the cash flows are going to start in 2025. So we're excited about cash finally coming back to us from that investment.

Speaker 1

We're still working on our capital spending plans for next fiscal year, but we think it should be very similar to this year in that $20,000,000 to $22,000,000 range. And as always, we're in discussion with our Board about our shareholder dividend and we're again setting expectations for that relative to next year's earnings. We're seeking to maintain a fairly consistent payout ratio relative to those earnings. So with that, we're not providing any EPS guidance right now for 2025. Again, we're still working on that vigorously.

Speaker 1

We hope to be able to share that before the end of the fiscal year. So that concludes our prepared remarks. If you have any questions, please dial 1 to unmute your line. 1.

Speaker 3

Good morning, Paul. Good morning, Tommy. Good morning, Tim.

Speaker 1

Mike, good morning. Thank you for joining us. Hope you're well today.

Speaker 3

Doing all right. Glad earnings season is winding down. It seems to have been a longer one this quarter. Congrats on the on Mountain Valley getting the flows finally into your service territory. Paul, you'd mentioned you're getting ready to connect your first customer there.

Speaker 3

Is that in that industrial park in Franklin?

Speaker 1

It is, Mike. It's approximately 1500 feet from our gate station within the park. And we're just excited about that. And in fact, working closely with the county to bring that to fruition. And we hope to have a little sort of ribbon cutting and ceremony around that when it's ready.

Speaker 1

But it is within some of you business part.

Speaker 3

Are you I've asked this before, but now with Mountain Valley open, it's probably a better question today. Are you seeing what's the level of inquiries you're seeing now that gas is flowing? Has that gone up? Has it remained static? Is there a lot in that pipeline that looks now like it's actually going to come to realization?

Speaker 1

Yes. It continues to be a good question and thank you for asking it again. This region has continued to have steady inquiry is what I would say Mike from economic development prospects. I don't know that it's increased now that Mountain Valley is finished, but it certainly has changed the tone and tenor of some of those inquiries. In other words, prior to completion and certainly if you went back in time when there were still, magnificent legal challenges.

Speaker 1

It was when do you think it will be done and when could we expect it to be done now that it is done? It just provides so much certainty to that prospect about what their opportunity is to receive gas potentially directly from Mountain Valley at some of you or as a blended product in our existing run of gas system.

Speaker 3

Okay. And then just one final one. So looking forward to 2025 and the drivers, the one thing I didn't see on the slide is and perhaps maybe you can add some color to it here. What was the negative weather impact to earnings for 2024 through your winter heating season? Because I'm just trying to get a feel for what earnings could be if we have normal weather conditions this year?

Speaker 1

Yes, that's a great question too. We're still fortunate here in Virginia to have weather normalization and weather normalization allows us, Mike, to adjust back to normal weather. So I think our sort of 30,000 foot level answer to that question is we really didn't, in our firm load, see negative earnings impact. Tommy or Tim, anything you want to add to that relative to the W and A?

Operator

I think you captured it pretty well, Paul.

Speaker 1

Yes. Again, the industrial customers, and I think was alluded to in the remarks and in fact in our 10 Q, they've been steady too, which we're pleased about. Certainly, there's uncertainty in the economy going forward. But so far, they've been steady. So I hope that answered your question.

Speaker 2

It does. I mean,

Speaker 3

with most of my gas utilities coverage, even when even those that have weather normalization riders, there's usually a little bit of upside that they can realize if it's a colder winter. So and I'm just asking because I know this was extremely warm this year. And just trying to get a feel from a forecasting perspective of where numbers might be if we get a cold one.

Speaker 1

Yes. Certainly, Tim or Tom, you may remember the exact statistic. This was one of the warmer winter seasons on record. My memory was we were greater than 20% warmer than normal over the winter period. But certainly, we would see increased volume lift in delivery, Mike, if we return to a normal winter.

Speaker 1

The other side of our W and A mechanism, if it's colder than normal, we're going to return to customers and happy to do that. We think that's the appropriate way, again, when you're adjusting back to pure normal, 30 year normal for that to work.

Speaker 3

All right. Thank you, gentlemen.

Speaker 1

Thank you so much. Do we have any other questions? Any other questions at this time? Okay. Well, hearing none, this concludes our 4th quarter earnings call.

Speaker 1

And again, thank you so much for taking time out of your morning to join us. And we really look forward to speaking with you again in early December as we review our full year physical results. We hope you all have a safe and pleasant day and rest of the week. Thank you.

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Key Takeaways

  • Mountain Valley Pipeline operational: MVP began natural gas deliveries into Roanoke’s system in mid-June, with both Lafayette and Summit View interconnects complete and the first Franklin County customer hookup imminent, unlocking contracted capacity and regional economic development potential.
  • Q3 financial performance: Operating income fell 13% to $1.6 million and net income dropped to $160,000 ($0.02/share) due to higher personnel and interest costs and the transition from MVP construction earnings, while YTD net income rose to $11.6 million ($1.15/share) on full-year rate case revenues and stronger early-year AFUDC.
  • Regulatory update: Roanoke Gas seeks a $4.3 million (5%) base rate increase with a 10.35% ROE (hearing Nov. 7, decision expected Q2 2025), and pending SAVE and RNG rider updates are slated for a September 2024 resolution.
  • Outlook and guidance: FY2024 EPS guidance remains $1.12–$1.16 under a $21.7 million capex plan focused on customer growth and system renewal, while FY2025 drivers include final rate case results, inflationary cost management, interest rate trends, MVP cash flows, and a similar $20–22 million investment level.
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RGC Resources Q3 2024
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