Global Water Resources Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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May 15, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • Total active service connections increased 4.3% year-over-year to 65,163 and the company maintained an annualized 4% growth rate, supported by $15.2 million in infrastructure investments.
  • Single-family building permits in the Phoenix MSA fell 15% in Q1 and 41.5% in Maricopa, but management views this as temporary and expects multifamily and industrial demand to sustain growth.
  • The Arizona Corporation Commission approved the Farmers Water rate case, adding about $1.1 million in annual revenues, while Santa Cruz and Palo Verde rate cases requesting $6.5 million are progressing on schedule.
  • Q1 revenue rose 7.3% to $12.5 million driven by connection and consumption growth, with adjusted EBITDA up 4.4% to $5.6 million, though net income slightly declined to $0.6 million or $0.02 per share.
  • The company raised $32 million of equity and increased its credit revolver to $20 million, resulting in over $50 million of liquidity to support capital expenditures and the upcoming Tucson acquisition.
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Earnings Conference Call
Global Water Resources Q1 2025
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

I would like to remind everyone that this call is being recorded on May 15th, 2025, at 1:00 P.M. Eastern Time. I would now like to turn the conference over to Kyle Upchurch, Controller. Please go ahead.

Kyle Upchurch
Kyle Upchurch
Controller at Global Water Resources

Thank you, Operator, and welcome, everyone. Thanks for joining us on today's call. Yesterday, we issued our 2025 first quarter financial results by press release, a copy of which is available on our website at www.gwresources.com. Speaking today is Ron Fleming, President and Chief Executive Officer; Mike Liebman, Chief Financial Officer; and Chris Krygier, Chief Operating Officer. Ron will summarize the key operational events of the year. Mike will review the financial results for the first quarter, and Chris will review strategic initiatives and Arizona Corporation Commission activity. Ron, Mike, and Chris will be available for questions at the end of the call. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that certain information presented today may include forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the company's current expectations, estimates, projections, and assumptions regarding future events.

Kyle Upchurch
Kyle Upchurch
Controller at Global Water Resources

These forward-looking statements involve a number of assumptions, risks, uncertainties, estimates, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which reflect management's views as of the date hereof and are not guarantees of future performance. For additional information regarding factors that may affect future results, please read the risk factors and MD&A sections of our periodic SEC filings. Additionally, certain non-GAAP measures may be included within today's call. For reconciliation of those measures to the comparable GAAP measures, please see the tables included in yesterday's earnings release, which is available on our website. I will now turn the call over to Ron.

Ron Fleming
Ron Fleming
President and CEO at Global Water Resources

Thank you, Kyle. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We are very pleased to report the results for the first quarter of 2025. First, I will provide a few operational highlights. Total active service connections increased 4.3% to 65,163 as of March 31st, 2025, from the 12 months prior. In Q1, we maintain an annualized 4% total active service connection growth rate. Year-to-date, we have invested $15.2 million into infrastructure improvements and existing utilities to provide safe and reliable service. A majority of our planned investments in 2025 relate to our post-test year projects in Santa Cruz Water Company and Palo Verde Utilities Company, our two largest utilities located in Pinal County, for planned inclusion in our already filed 2024 test year rate application. Chris will provide updates on the rate case later on the call.

Ron Fleming
Ron Fleming
President and CEO at Global Water Resources

Now, I want to discuss organic customer growth and what is going on in our core utilities further. The single-family dwelling unit market ended 2024 with approximately 27,156 building permits issued in the Phoenix Greater Metropolitan Statistical Area. For Q1 2025, this market realized 6,406 building permits, representing a 15% decrease from Q1 of 2024. In 2024, the City of Maricopa issued 986 single-family dwelling building permits. For Q1 2025, this Maricopa market realized 190 building permits, representing a 41.5% decrease from Q1 2024. It is important to note that a single quarter, specifically Q1, is not a trend, as timing of permits being pulled can be influenced by many factors. Regardless, the 2025 permit data, showing a bit of a pullback from prior year, is not surprising considering the uncertainty around tariffs and other macroeconomic drivers that occurred.

Ron Fleming
Ron Fleming
President and CEO at Global Water Resources

We believe this is temporary, and as these things continue to cool, including inflation, there are very strong drivers for our normal growth rate to continue or even pick up. Again, as I mentioned, our Q1 annualized growth rate remained at 4%. This is because many experts still believe there is a housing shortage in Arizona, and with the strong population and job growth continuing, Metro Phoenix will retain an annual run rate approaching 30,000 housing units per year to keep pace with that net immigration and job growth, just like we saw in 2024. This demand must be met by a combination of single-family dwelling units and multi-family. We believe multi-family high-density growth that is occurring in our areas will be notable and, at some level, supplant the reduction in single-family home growth. Simply put, there is a record number of additional multi-family projects in some stage of development.

Ron Fleming
Ron Fleming
President and CEO at Global Water Resources

The fact is, the booming economy and net immigration that Arizona continues to realize requires more and more places for people to live, work, and play. That is why large-scale multi-family housing, commercial, and recreational projects continue to proceed at a high pace in Metro Phoenix and in our service areas. Additionally, the industrial manufacturing boom also continues. The 2024 committed capital investment of $50 billion into Arizona was record-setting. There have been significant further announcements made in 2025, including the most recent $100 billion announcement on the additional planned expansions at TSMC, which is in addition to the $65 billion previously announced, as the chip industry continues to explode in Metro Phoenix. Frankly, what continues to occur in Arizona is unprecedented. In fact, the all-in TSMC investment of $165 billion would be the single largest direct foreign investment in the history of our country.

Ron Fleming
Ron Fleming
President and CEO at Global Water Resources

It is just one of many announcements not yet in the historical economic investment numbers that altogether will forever change the face of Metro Phoenix. Because of these things, we remain bullish on the future potential of our inland port, Arizona service area, where Procter & Gamble acquired land and where Lucid Motors just acquired the facility previously owned by Nikola. Of note, we did sign the actual special industrial contract with P&G in December of 2024 and are awaiting their notice to proceed. We continue discussing potential projects with several large firms that would locate adjacent to P&G. While it is hard to forecast such large-scale industrial growth, we do believe it is a matter of when, not if, and it will be a meaningful utility addition to our company.

Ron Fleming
Ron Fleming
President and CEO at Global Water Resources

Additionally, the City of Maricopa continues progress on their recently announced large industrial complex consisting of over 680 acres of projects. While this project is still several years away from generating revenue, it represents another opportunity for notable growth for our company. Based on all of these trends, we believe that in the years to come, we will continue to see considerable large-scale commercial, multi-family housing, and industrial growth, in addition to strong organic housing growth. Based on our recent rate case activity, including the recent completion of rate cases and those still in process, layering new rates on top of all of this growth could drive meaningful revenue and earnings growth in the years to come. As I mentioned in our last earnings release, yes, high inflation and other cost drivers have caught up with us and are impacting our earnings growth.

Ron Fleming
Ron Fleming
President and CEO at Global Water Resources

However, it's important to recognize that 2024 was a test year for our largest utilities, whose last test year was five years ago in 2019. So we believe new rates to address all the cost increases over that time period and the significant investments we have made will drive earnings growth. As you can see from our many related announcements, we just completed the Farmers' rate case with a positive outcome, including an approximate $1.1 million annual revenue increase, and we have an additional $6.5 million annual rate increase proposed and under consideration at the ACC. We believe 2025 will be another solid year for Global Water, putting the four ways we grow our utility company together, meaning organic connections, new greenfield utilities, acquisitions, and rate cases.

Ron Fleming
Ron Fleming
President and CEO at Global Water Resources

You can see how Global Water is going to be able to grow considerably in the years to come, just like we did over the prior five years and last rate case cycle. I will now turn the call over to Mike for financial highlights.

Mike Liebman
Mike Liebman
CFO at Global Water Resources

Thanks, Ron. Hello, everyone. Total revenue for the first quarter of 2025 was $12.5 million, which was up $0.8 million or 7.3% compared to Q1 2024. The increase in revenue was primarily attributable to a 4.3% increase in active service connections and increased consumption. Operating expenses for Q1 2025 were $11.2 million compared to $10.3 million in Q1 2024. This is an increase of approximately $0.9 million or 8.3%. Notable changes in operating expenses included a $394,000 increase in depreciation and amortization, which was substantially attributable to an 11.4% increase in depreciable fixed assets as a result of our increased capital investments and the commissioning of related projects. Increased O&M costs by $403,000, which was primarily attributable to additional costs for purchase power, chemicals, and repairs due to increased consumption, as well as increases in other expenses, including contract IT services and labor services.

Mike Liebman
Mike Liebman
CFO at Global Water Resources

Thirdly, a small increase of $62,000 in general administrative costs. Now to discuss other income and expense. Other expense for Q1 2025 was $0.5 million, which is slightly higher than other expense of $0.3 million in Q1 2024. The increased expense is primarily attributable to the lower Buckeye earnout fees in Q1 2025 compared to Q1 2024. Net income for Q1 2025 was $0.6 million or $0.02 per diluted share as compared to $0.7 million or $0.03 per diluted share in Q1 2024. Now to talk about adjusted EBITDA, which adjusts for non-recurring and non-cash items such as restricted stock expense. Adjusted EBITDA was $5.6 million in Q1 2025 compared to $5.4 million in Q1 2024. This is an increase of approximately $0.2 million or 4.4%. Lastly, I'd like to touch on liquidity.

Mike Liebman
Mike Liebman
CFO at Global Water Resources

We had a successful equity capital raise in March of $32 million, and shortly after that, we extended our line of credit to May of 2027 and increased it by $5 million, going from $15 million to $20 million. When combining the $31.5 million of cash and the $20 million unused revolver, we have over $50 million of liquidity to support our capital expenditure program as well as the Tucson acquisition. This concludes our update on the first quarter 2025 financial results. I'll now pass the call to Chris to review our regulatory activity and strategic initiatives for the quarter.

Chris Krygier
Chris Krygier
COO at Global Water Resources

Thank you, Mike. Hello, everyone. It has been another solid quarter since our last update. First, as you likely saw in our press releases and heard Ron allude to earlier, the Arizona Corporation Commission approved new rates for our Farmers' Water Utility. We started charging those new rates on May 1st, so you will see those results reflected in future quarters. Second, as you heard Ron also mention, we filed our Santa Cruz and Palo Verde rate case on March 5th, 2025, requesting a net revenue increase of $6.5 million. The case is off to a solid start. On April 4th, 2025, the ACC Utilities Division staff determined that the application was administratively complete, marking off the first step in their review process. We also advanced the case further with the establishment of our procedural schedule.

Chris Krygier
Chris Krygier
COO at Global Water Resources

Commission staff testimony is due on April 1st, 2025, with hearings in the case scheduled to begin in the middle of December this year. In the meantime, we have started answering the typical data requests we received from the parties, and we will continue to keep you updated in the months ahead. Turning to the Tucson acquisition, we're targeting to close this summer. We're working on the final details and look forward to welcoming these customers into the Global Water family. This concludes the update on regulatory activity and acquisitions. I'll now pass the call back to Ron.

Ron Fleming
Ron Fleming
President and CEO at Global Water Resources

Thank you, Chris. I think Chris got a little excited there. Staff testimony is due on October 1st.

Chris Krygier
Chris Krygier
COO at Global Water Resources

October 1st, 2025.

Ron Fleming
Ron Fleming
President and CEO at Global Water Resources

We'll give them a little bit of time.

Ron Fleming
Ron Fleming
President and CEO at Global Water Resources

Thank you. To close today, I just wanted to express how proud I am of our team. Yes, while there is an interesting mix of tailwinds and headwinds in the economy right now, and our stock price has pulled back over the last few years, I also believe the last five years of performance are evidence of our ability to materially improve on all meaningful utility metrics despite such conditions. Customer growth, revenue growth, rate-based growth, and earnings growth have all been exceptionally strong, and we expect that to continue. This is because of our people, our plan, our foundation, and our unique local geographical dynamics that is not directly impacted by all the national macroeconomics. As we execute our growth plan, we intend to remain at the forefront of the water management industry and advance our mission of achieving efficiency and consolidation.

Ron Fleming
Ron Fleming
President and CEO at Global Water Resources

We truly believe that expanding our total water management platform and applying our expertise throughout our regional service areas and to new utilities will be beneficial to all stakeholders involved. We appreciate your investment in and support of us as we grow Global Water to address important utility, water resource, and economic development matters along the Arizona Sun Corridor, allowing our communities to thrive. That highlight concludes our prepared remarks. Thank you. We're available to answer any questions.

Operator

We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star, then two. Once again, to ask a question, please press star, then one. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Just a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star, then one on a touch-tone phone. Seeing no questions, this concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Ron Fleming for any closing remarks.

Ron Fleming
Ron Fleming
President and CEO at Global Water Resources

Thank you, Operator. Yeah, just want to thank everybody for participating on the call today and your continued interest in Global Water. Thanks, and we look forward to talking to you again.

Operator

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

Executives
    • Kyle Upchurch
      Kyle Upchurch
      Controller
    • Chris Krygier
      Chris Krygier
      COO
    • Ron Fleming
      Ron Fleming
      President and CEO
    • Mike Liebman
      Mike Liebman
      CFO
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