NASDAQ:HNRG Hallador Energy Q4 2025 Earnings Report $18.87 +0.32 (+1.73%) Closing price 05/7/2026 04:00 PM EasternExtended Trading$18.52 -0.35 (-1.83%) As of 05/7/2026 07:25 PM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Massive. Learn more. ProfileEarnings HistoryForecast Hallador Energy EPS ResultsActual EPS-$0.01Consensus EPS -$0.01Beat/MissMet ExpectationsOne Year Ago EPSN/AHallador Energy Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$101.94 millionExpected Revenue$105.48 millionBeat/MissMissed by -$3.53 millionYoY Revenue GrowthN/AHallador Energy Announcement DetailsQuarterQ4 2025Date3/12/2026TimeAfter Market ClosesConference Call DateThursday, March 12, 2026Conference Call Time5:00PM ETConference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptPress Release (8-K)Annual Report (10-K)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfilePowered by Hallador Energy Q4 2025 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrMarch 12, 2026 ShareLink copied to clipboard.Key Takeaways Positive Sentiment: Hallador reported strong 2025 results with total revenue up 16% to $469.5M, net income of $41.9M, adjusted EBITDA roughly tripling to $56M, and operating cash flow up 23% to $81.1M. Positive Sentiment: The company secured an ERAS slot and funded ~$14M of refundable deposits to pursue up to 515 MW of natural gas capacity at Merom, targeting commercial operation around Q3 2029 and highlighting a speed-to-market/cost advantage from the existing interconnection. Negative Sentiment: Merom faced equipment failures in Q4 and Q1 that reduced unit availability, leaving management to guide consolidated Q1 2026 results similar to Q4 2025 and plan a major ~60-day outage beginning in May to restore reliability. Positive Sentiment: Market dynamics are tightening for accredited capacity across MISO, driving strong interest from utilities and industrials in decade-plus PPAs; Hallador has a ~$540M forward energy/capacity book and a combined forward sales position of roughly $1.3 billion including coal. Positive Sentiment: Liquidity was strengthened via a ~$57.5M January equity offering, a $25M prepaid contract completed in Q4, and a new $120M three-year senior secured credit facility (including a $75M revolver and $45M delayed draw), positioning the company to fund growth and ERAS commitments. AI Generated. May Contain Errors.Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallHallador Energy Q4 202500:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2xTranscript SectionsPresentationParticipantsPresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Good afternoon, and thank you for attending Hallador Energy's fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following our prepared remarks, we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will follow at that time. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Sean Mansouri, the company's investor relations advisor for Elevate IR. Please go ahead, Sean. Sean MansouriInvestor Relations Advisor at Elevate IR00:00:33Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. We appreciate you joining us to discuss our fourth quarter and full year 2025 results. With me today are President and CEO Brent Bilsland and CFO Todd Telesz. This afternoon, we released our fourth quarter and full year 2025 financial and operating results in a press release that is now on the Hallador investor relations website. Today, we will discuss those results as well as our perspective on current market conditions and our outlook. Following prepared remarks, we will open the call to answer your questions. Before we begin, a reminder that some of our remarks today may include forward-looking statements subject to a variety of risks, uncertainties, and assumptions contained in our filings from time to time with the SEC and are also reflected in today's press release. Sean MansouriInvestor Relations Advisor at Elevate IR00:01:30While these forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to us, if one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or if our underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those we projected or expected. In providing these remarks, Hallador has no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, unless required by law to do so. With the preliminaries out of the way, I'll turn the call over to President and CEO, Brent Bilsland. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:02:11Thank you, Sean, and thank you everyone for joining us this afternoon. Hallador delivered strong financial performance in 2025 as we continued advancing our transformation into a vertically integrated independent power producer. For the full year, total revenue increased 16% year-over-year to $469.5 million. Net income improved materially to $41.9 million. Adjusted EBITDA increased approximately threefold to $56 million. Operating cash flow increased 23% to $81.1 million. These results reflect both improving power market conditions and the operating leverage embedded in our business model. Electric sales were the primary driver of revenue growth during the year, increasing approximately 19% to $310.7 million compared to 2024. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:03:17Coal sales also increased 8% year-over-year to $148.7 million as Sunrise Coal continued to support both internal fuel needs at Merom and third-party customers. Together, these segments highlight the advantages of our integrated platform, where our coal operations provide a secure price certain fuel supply for our generation assets, while also allowing us to participate opportunistically in third-party coal markets. Operationally, our Merom power plant performed well through most of the year. In the fourth quarter, however, we experienced operational challenges with which continued into Q1 and reduced availability of the units. Due to this availability issue, we now expect consolidated first quarter of 2026 results to be similar to fourth quarter of 2025. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:04:23Maintaining high levels of reliability remains a top priority for our team, particularly as MISO increasingly depends on dispatchable resources during periods of peak demand, which is highest in the summer. As such, the generating units in question will receive a major maintenance outage beginning in May, which once complete should significantly improve performance. Sunrise Coal also delivered consistent performance throughout the year. Production optimization initiatives and disciplined cost management help improve performance across the mining complex. As part of our vertically integrated platform, Sunrise Coal provides a reliable fuel foundation for our generation assets while helping optimize our overall cost structure. Across the broader marketing environment, we continue to see strong demand for reliable dispatchable generation across the MISO region. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:05:32Electricity demand growth, combined with the prior retirement of dispatchable assets, is tightening supply conditions across the system, increasing the value of accredited capacity as utilities and load serving entities attempt to secure reliable resources throughout the Midwest. Against that backdrop, we have made progress towards selling energy and capacity at elevated prices. We have also recently received additional competitive offers to acquire our accredited capacity for over a decade in length. We are excited by what we are seeing in the market. The company is in a strong, long accredited capacity position, which appears to be getting better with time. We hope to make more announcements on this topic very soon. These robust market conditions led us to file an application in MISO's Expedited Resource Addition Study, or ERAS program. During the month of December, we were awarded one of the coveted 50 ERAS slots. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:06:45In conjunction with our application's acceptance, we funded approximately $14 million of required refundable deposits to support the potential addition of up to 515 MW of natural gas generation. The ERAS program was designed to accelerate the development of new generation resources that can help address reliability needs across the MISO system. Currently, we expect MISO to complete the study of our application in the third quarter of this year. Additionally, we are in negotiations with multiple counterparties for equipment for the project. As the project develops, we plan to share more details around the cost and potential economics of the project. If successful in our development plans, we would target the plant coming online around third quarter of 2029. This expansion would significantly increase our accredited generating capacity at the company, leveraging infrastructure that is already in place at our Merom site. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:07:57Compared with greenfield developments, the Merom interconnection offers both speed to market and certain cost advantages. Turning briefly to capital allocation, we maintained a disciplined approach throughout 2025. Capital expenditures were focused primarily on planned maintenance at the Merom facility and operational improvements across our mining operations, along with early-stage work supporting potential generation expansion at the Merom site under the ERAS program. We currently expect capital expenditures in 2026 to increase modestly compared to 2025 levels, excluding potential ERAS developments. Looking ahead, we will continue to focus on maintaining operational reliability at Merom, executing efficiently across our coal operations, and advancing the strategic initiatives that we believe can drive long-term growth for Hallador. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:09:06At the same time, we remain disciplined in how we approach new opportunities and will continue to focus on projects and commercial arrangements that we believe will most meaningfully enhance shareholder value for the long term. Before handing it over to Todd, I'd like to briefly highlight two recent additions to our board that strengthen our leadership during the next phase of Hallador's growth. In January, we welcomed Barbara Sugg to our board of directors following the retirement of longtime director David Hardie, whose more than three decades of service and support to Hallador we sincerely appreciate. Barbara previously served as President and CEO of Southwest Power Pool, where she led regional reliability and wholesale market operations across a 14-state footprint. Her industry leadership across grid operations, transmission development, and resource integration will be valuable as we continue positioning our Merom facility to support growing demand for reliable capacity. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:10:22Further, last week, we appointed Daniel Hudson to the board, expanding the board to seven members. Daniel brings deep expertise in natural gas generation, capital markets, and power asset transactions, having led or advised on more than $35 billion in strategic energy investments. As we pursue opportunities to expand generation at Merom and evaluate additional assets that can scale our power platform, we believe Daniel's background in gas-fired power development and energy infrastructure optimization will provide meaningful strategic guidance for our team. With that, I will now pass the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Todd Telesz, to take you through our financial results. Todd? Todd TeleszCFO at Hallador Energy Company00:11:18Great. Thank you, Brent, and good afternoon, everyone. I'll add my thanks for joining us today. Jumping right into our fourth quarter results. Electric sales for the fourth quarter increased 3% to $71.6 million, compared to $69.7 million in the prior year period. While coal sales increased 24% to $29.1 million for the fourth quarter, compared to $23.4 million in the prior year period. Electric sales in the fourth quarter reflect a continued electricity demand across the MISO market and stable realized pricing, partially offset by lower generation during the period due to the previously mentioned operational challenges and unit availability impacts in Q4 2025 and Q1 2026. While the unit outage has reduced dispatch for part of the fourth quarter, the plant continued to operate and serve market demand as conditions allowed. Todd TeleszCFO at Hallador Energy Company00:12:14The increase in coal sales during the fourth quarter was driven primarily by higher third-party shipments to customers, reflecting continued production optimization at Sunrise Coal and our ability to supply both internal fuel requirements at Merom and external market demand. On a consolidated basis, total operating revenue increased 8% to $102.4 million for the fourth quarter, compared to $94.7 million in the prior year period. Net loss for the fourth quarter was $0.2 million compared to a net loss of $215.8 million in the prior year period. It's worth noting that the year-ago period loss includes an approximate $215 million non-cash write-down associated with the value of our mining operations. Todd TeleszCFO at Hallador Energy Company00:13:02Operating cash flow for the fourth quarter was $8.1 million compared to $32.5 million in the prior year period, with the decrease primarily reflecting the cash receipt from a large prepaid energy forward sales contract that was received in Q4 2024. Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, which is reconciled in our earnings press release issued earlier today, increased 35% to $8.4 million for the fourth quarter, compared to $6.2 million in the prior year period. We invested $24.99 million in capital expenditures during the fourth quarter of 2025, compared to $13.8 million in the year-ago period, bringing our full year 2025 CapEx to a total of $69.2 million. Todd TeleszCFO at Hallador Energy Company00:13:52This includes the approximately $14 million of refundable deposits made in support of the ERAS gas generation project. As Brent mentioned earlier, we expect our 2026 capital expenditures to modestly increase compared to 2025, excluding any impacts of the ERAS project. As of December 31st, 2025, our forward energy and capacity sales position was $540 million compared to $571.7 million at the end of Q3, and $685.7 million at December 31, 2024. When combined with our third-party forward coal sales of $323.5 million, as well as intercompany sales to Merom, our total forward sales book as of December 31st, 2025, was approximately $1.3 billion. Now turning to the balance sheet. We had several material updates. Todd TeleszCFO at Hallador Energy Company00:14:49In Q4 of 2025, we completed a $25 million prepaid energy forward sales contract with a long-standing counterparty and raised approximately $14 million through our ATM via the issuance of just over 697,000 shares. In January of 2026, we further strengthened our capital position through a public offering of approximately 3.2 million shares of common stock priced at approximately $18 per share, generating roughly $57.5 million of gross proceeds. These proceeds are expected to support general corporate purposes, including potential deposits required for preserving key equipment necessary for our proposed natural gas generation expansion at Merom. Additionally, late last week, we closed on a new credit facility led by Texas Capital Bank, who's a new relationship for us, and Old National Bank and First Financial Bank, who have been long-standing financial partners of Hallador. Todd TeleszCFO at Hallador Energy Company00:15:48The $120 million three-year senior secured credit facilities include a $75 million revolving credit facility and a $45 million delayed draw term loan. The credit facilities also include a $25 million accordion feature. Overall, our results reflect continued progress across the business as we strengthen our financial profile while investing in the long-term growth opportunities Brent discussed earlier. With a solidified liquidity position, a meaningful forward sales book, and a disciplined capital allocation approach, we believe Hallador remains well positioned to support the continued development of our power platform and the strategic initiatives underway at Merom. With that, operator, we can now open the line for questions. Operator00:16:35Thank you so much. As a reminder, if you do have a question, simply press star one one to get in the queue and wait for your name to be announced. To remove yourself, press star one one again. One moment for our first question that comes from the line of Jeff Grampp with Northland Capital Markets. Please proceed. Jeff GramppManaging Director and Senior Research Analyst at Northland Capital Markets00:16:57Afternoon, guys. Thanks for the time. Todd TeleszCFO at Hallador Energy Company00:16:59Hey, Jeff. Jeff GramppManaging Director and Senior Research Analyst at Northland Capital Markets00:17:01With respect to maybe this longer-term PPA opportunity, Brent, what are the main kind of gating items to getting a deal done at this point? I know you can only say so much, but are we kind of in the phase where we're deciding kind of what the best offer is for the company? Is it negotiating with final parties, or what's kind of dictating timing at this point? Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:17:24Yeah, look, I don't think it's gonna be just one party. We have exchanged, you know, draft contracts with multiple parties. You know, I think what's encouraging for us is we continue to see pricing pressure move things higher. Quite frankly, the interest level that we're seeing has dramatically increased in the last four weeks. Multiple utilities, multiple industrial users. You know, we kind of view it as we're playing a game of musical chairs, and we own the last seat. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:18:06We just keep seeing more and more people enter into the room. You know, I know everybody's in a hurry to get something done, including me, but in the same breath, this keeps getting better. We're really encouraged by what we're seeing and the level of competition that, you know, we are able to engage the counterparties in. We're happy. You know, we think we're getting much closer and certainly encouraged by what we're seeing. I hope that excitement resonates. Jeff GramppManaging Director and Senior Research Analyst at Northland Capital Markets00:18:50That's super helpful. I appreciate it. That's good to hear. For my follow-up, I wanted to get a bit more details on the issues at Merom that you guys talked about. Can you just shed a little more light on what these operational issues are and should we be expecting this to impact performance until this planned outage in May? It sounded like there was gonna be a more significant kinda turnaround at that point to maybe address some of these issues. Thanks. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:19:19Yeah, no, I think we had some equipment failures in Q4. We had some equipment failures in Q1, that, you know, took the plant offline at different times for weeks at a time. Unfortunately, it was, you know, particularly in January, it was during some of the better-priced weeks, so we hate to see that. The plant's running now. You know, it has a few limitations, so it's not running at 100%, but it's running. Then we're gonna roll right into an outage. You know, this was a planned outage. It was what we call a major, so it's, you know, half the plant will be down for six months. We do that every year. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:20:09There's, you know, just a lot on the list for this particular unit that's gonna get replaced and upgraded and so a whole lot of new parts are going on. You know, we think that will help the reliability of the plant and just in time for the summer season, which I would point out is the peaking season in MISO now. Summer peaks are higher than winter peaks. Jeff GramppManaging Director and Senior Research Analyst at Northland Capital Markets00:20:37Understood. Okay. That's really helpful details. I'll turn it back. Thank you guys for the time. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:20:42Thank you, Jeff. Operator00:20:44Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Matthew Key with Texas Capital. Please proceed. Matthew KeyVP of Equity Research at Texas Capital Securities00:20:51Hey, good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for taking my questions. I wanted to talk about, you know, the target date of completion for the nat gas expansion. What are the big determining factors that, you know, dictates you hitting or missing that target date? Does this just kinda come down to getting the necessary long lead time equipment in time or, are there a little bit more complications than that? Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:21:16No. Right now we're negotiating with multiple counterparties on can we secure the equipment in the right timeframe, which we are finding equipment that the timing does work, and can we get that equipment at a price point that makes the project economic. You know, that's and then in the same breath, you know, we've got limited PPAs to support the project. We're obviously in the market to, you know, attempting to sign long-term PPAs. We like where that pricing has gone. You know, you just gotta line all that up. Then there's other players out there who are opposite of us. They have equipment and no place to go with it. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:22:02We're also talking to those counterparties to say, "Hey, does it make sense you bring your equipment, we'll bring the interconnect, PPAs, water rights, gas rights, all of that?" The thing that we're excited about is, we feel that our site, our interconnect has a speed to market advantage because of the ERAS program. Because of the ERAS program, it has, we think, a significant cost advantage over some of the other projects that we're hearing, right? We're hearing other projects that have to have $300 million of system upgrade costs, and we just don't think our project's gonna experience that. We think there's a significant advantage there. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:22:50That said, the downside to the ERAS program is it's a very quick process, and so you kinda gotta get all the elements of the deal lined up. We're working on that. Matthew KeyVP of Equity Research at Texas Capital Securities00:23:03Got it. No, that's helpful. A quick macro one for me. You know, made recent news that the EPA announced the decision to ease some, you know, the MACT's requirements for power plants. Could you maybe just help me quantify the impact that those changes would have on your business, if any, or maybe the industry more broadly? Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:23:26Yeah. A lot of plants, including ours, are already MACT compliant. That being said, there's still some ongoing costs associated with that, reporting requirements and so on. You know, I think the Trump administration in general is trying to unwind a lot of these environmental rules one at a time. You know, they're just kinda making their way down through the list. What is the impact of that? You know, overall, it makes operating a plant easier. What are the economic impacts of that? I, you know, I think it probably has more to do with longevity and less to do with, you know, are we gonna see our costs materially drop, you know, in the next quarter? Matthew KeyVP of Equity Research at Texas Capital Securities00:24:16Got it. No, that's helpful. Really appreciate the time and best of luck. Operator00:24:24Our next question comes from the line of Nick Giles with B. Riley Securities. Please proceed. Nick GilesSenior Research Analyst at B. Riley Securities00:24:33Great. Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, guys. My first question. You know, I think you've previously talked about the majority of capacity being taken down in any long-term deal, but you mentioned, Brent, that economics are only getting better. Given that you're talking to multiple parties, is there a scenario where you might announce the long-term PPAs in several tranches or should we still be, you know, expecting one kind of grand slam? Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:25:09No, I think you'll see announcements in several tranches. That's our thinking today. I mean, certainly we could see a customer step up and take a bigger block, but today that's where our head is at. That you'll see multiple bites at the apple. Nick GilesSenior Research Analyst at B. Riley Securities00:25:32Got it. Okay. Very helpful. Just in terms of pricing, you said upward pressure. I think in the past you've kind of used the forward curve as an anchor and, you know, noted that pricing could come in above that. I mean, any, you know, any rough guardrails that you could point us to, from a price perspective? I mean, should we be still thinking of something above the forward curve? If so, where do you see the forward curve today? Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:26:06Yeah. The forward curve is typically energy. Where we're really seeing the price improvement is for accredited capacity. That's the revenue stream that is going, in our opinion, dramatically higher. That really is the pinch point in the industry. The reason for that is you can get energy from renewables. It's challenging to get accredited capacity from renewables, right? Solar panels are only rated 5% of nameplate. Windmills are only rated at 15% of nameplate. Whereas coal, gas, and nukes are all rated 75%-90% of nameplate. That is typically what accreditation they're awarded. What's changed and, you know, the MISO auction is, I think, roughly two weeks from today. It's gonna be on the 26th. Some of the pricing outlooks that we're seeing in that, you know, are dramatically higher. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:27:01We'll see what that auction brings. You know, we think that we'll probably have some sales that might happen before then as well. As we get those deals across the finish line and inked, we'll report it. You'll see. You'll get a good look at what that price is. Nick GilesSenior Research Analyst at B. Riley Securities00:27:23Got it. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:27:23Also, I wanna correct something somebody just said I said incorrectly. Our unit is gonna go on outage for 60 days, not six months like I said. Just wanted to correct my statement. Nick GilesSenior Research Analyst at B. Riley Securities00:27:38Got it. Maybe just one more, if I could. I think you mentioned that CapEx could be modestly higher, excluding ERAS developments. I just wanted to clarify, are you saying that CapEx will be modestly above the kind of $70 million level, I think, which included the $14 million, or should we exclude the $14 million and kind of start at a base of $55 million? I think you see what I'm getting at. I'm just trying to make sure it's apples to apples here. Todd TeleszCFO at Hallador Energy Company00:28:10Yes, Nick. It's Todd. How are you today? I think we are looking at modestly higher than what we incurred in 2025, driven by some CapEx that was pushed out of 2025 into 2026, as well as continued investment in the VLG project. Those are probably the key drivers, and those obviously would be excluding any incremental investments in the ERAS project. Nick GilesSenior Research Analyst at B. Riley Securities00:28:37Got it. I mean, so I think last quarter the emphasis was really around the application, and now that's been accepted, deposit has been paid. Like, what are some of those developments that we should be looking out for in the context of ERAS? Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:28:58Yeah. MISO will pick up our application and begin reviewing that soon. They haven't done that just yet. Once they pick it up, I believe they'll do a public notification saying that they've picked that up, and then they've got 90 days to complete that study. At the end of that study, they come to us and say, "Okay, this is what we think it's gonna cost." We have a certain period of time to negotiate a couple items on that list. Ultimately it comes down to, "Hey, are you signing a GIA, a Generator Interconnection Agreement with MISO and committing to your project?" We think that happens sometime later in Q3. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:29:47Are you saying, "No, I'm gonna pass because, you know, we're just not gonna go forward with the project"? Your option is we would probably step into the traditional queue at that point, you know, going forward. Those are kind of the options on the table and what we think that timing looks like. Nick GilesSenior Research Analyst at B. Riley Securities00:30:10Got it. Okay. Well, hey, Brent and Todd, I really appreciate all the detail and best of luck. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:30:16Thank you, Nick. Operator00:30:19Thank you. We have a question from the line of Jake Sekelsky with Alliance Global Partners. Please proceed. Jake SekelskyManaging Director and Head of Metals and Mining Research at Alliance Global Partners00:30:27Hey, Brent and Todd. Thanks for taking the questions. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:30:30Good to see you, Jake. Jake SekelskyManaging Director and Head of Metals and Mining Research at Alliance Global Partners00:30:33With the gas expansion coming into focus, I'm just wondering how you're thinking about Sunrise Coal and that operations position in sort of the broader portfolio going forward. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:30:47Yeah. You know, Sunrise Coal results there have been good. They got their cost structure down last year, it performed really well. You know, so far so good this year as well. We're happy with the Sunrise Coal division. We're looking to contract a meaningful amount of output at the Merom Generating Station here in the near future. You know, that's gonna require fuel. I don't really see any material changes at Sunrise Coal in the near future. We still plan to take coal at the plant. The gas plant. I mean, if you look at Merom, why is it such a good site for an expansion? Merom was originally designed to be three 500 MW coal-fired units, but they only built two. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:31:44A lot of the power infrastructure that's necessary already exists at the site. You know, the line takeaway capacity from that substation is like 1.2, 1.6 GW. We're only using 1,000 or 1 GW, excuse me, 1,000 MW. All we're really proposing to do is instead of building a third coal-fired unit, the third unit will be gas units, right? Right now we're proposing CTs. You know, that's what it is in a nutshell. Hey, there's space on the line. We have property control. We have the easements in place, you know, for the gas pipeline that's only 5 mi away. We have water rights. There's good gas availability, we're told, at that location. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:32:39We think we've got really one of the better sites in the country to do such a development. That said, we still have to line up equipment, more PPAs and such to make that project viable. That's something we're negotiating on every day to see if we can make all those numbers line up. Jake SekelskyManaging Director and Head of Metals and Mining Research at Alliance Global Partners00:32:59Got it. Okay, that's helpful. Just building off that a bit, if I may. Are you still evaluating things on the M&A front? Or do you sort of feel your plate's full with the ERAS project coming into focus here over the next few quarters? Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:33:17Look, we always look at things. You know, we've bid on an asset here recently. You know, I don't think we're gonna be selected for that asset, so but we are active and so, you know, we'll just have to take the opportunities as they come. Jake SekelskyManaging Director and Head of Metals and Mining Research at Alliance Global Partners00:33:34Okay, that's helpful. That's all for me. Thanks again, guys. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:33:38Thank you. Operator00:33:39Thank you. This concludes our Q&A session. I will pass it back to Brent Bilsland for closing comments. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:33:48I just wanna thank everybody for their continued interest in Hallador and stay tuned. I think hopefully we've got exciting things to announce in the future. Thank you again. Operator00:34:00This concludes our conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.Read moreParticipantsExecutivesBrent BilslandPresident and CEOTodd TeleszCFOAnalystsJake SekelskyManaging Director and Head of Metals and Mining Research at Alliance Global PartnersJeff GramppManaging Director and Senior Research Analyst at Northland Capital MarketsMatthew KeyVP of Equity Research at Texas Capital SecuritiesNick GilesSenior Research Analyst at B. Riley SecuritiesSean MansouriInvestor Relations Advisor at Elevate IRPowered by Earnings DocumentsPress Release(8-K)Annual report(10-K) Hallador Energy Earnings HeadlinesHallador Energy Balances Short‑Term Pain With Long Wins3 hours ago | tipranks.comHallador outlines $1B-plus 12-year capacity agreement for 2028-2040, pending Indiana regulator approvalMay 6 at 10:57 PM | seekingalpha.comYour $29.97 book is free todayWhy Some Traders Skip Stocks Entirely You don't need a big account to trade options. In fact, options can give you up to 12 times the leverage of stocks — with a fraction of the capital tied up. This free guide lays it all out in plain English — from A to Z, with step-by-step examples you can follow in your own account. | Profits Run (Ad)Hallador Energy Company (HNRG) Q1 2026 Earnings Call TranscriptMay 6 at 10:57 PM | seekingalpha.comHallador Energy Forms Board Risk Oversight CommitteeMay 6 at 7:31 PM | tipranks.comHallador Energy: Q1 Earnings SnapshotMay 6 at 5:51 PM | chron.comSee More Hallador Energy Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Hallador Energy? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Hallador Energy and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About Hallador EnergyHallador Energy (NASDAQ:HNRG) is a coal producer and mine operator trading on NASDAQ under the symbol HNRG. The company’s primary business activities center on the production and sale of bituminous thermal coal. Hallador’s operations encompass two surface mines: the Shoal Creek Mine located in southwestern Indiana and the Bull Mountain Mine situated in eastern Montana. Both sites are designed to extract high-quality coal reserves for the power generation market. Hallador Energy markets its coal primarily to electric utilities and industrial customers across the United States. The company arranges transportation by rail and barge, enabling deliveries to utilities in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and Rocky Mountain regions. By focusing on reliable, long-term offtake agreements, Hallador seeks to provide its customers with consistent supply while managing inventory levels and logistics costs. Headquartered in Carmel, Indiana, Hallador Energy emphasizes operational efficiency, safety and environmental stewardship in its mining activities. The company maintains comprehensive health and safety programs and invests in equipment modernization to enhance productivity and minimize environmental impact. Hallador’s leadership team brings decades of experience in mining and energy, guiding strategic initiatives aimed at sustainable growth and compliance with evolving regulatory standards.View Hallador Energy ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Latest Articles The AI Fear Around Datadog Stock May Have Been Completely WrongAmprius Technologies Ups the Voltage on Forward OutlookWhy Lam Research Still Looks Like a Buy After a 300% RallyIonQ Just Posted a Breakout Quarter—But 1 Problem RemainsSuper Micro Surges Over 20% as Margins Soar, Sales Fall ShortNuts and Bolts AI Play Gains Momentum: Astera Labs Targets RaisedAnheuser-Busch Stock Jumps as Volume Growth Signals Turnaround Upcoming Earnings Brookfield Asset Management (5/8/2026)Enbridge (5/8/2026)Toyota Motor (5/8/2026)Ubiquiti (5/8/2026)Constellation Energy (5/11/2026)Barrick Mining (5/11/2026)Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras (5/11/2026)Simon Property Group (5/11/2026)SEA (5/12/2026)Cisco Systems (5/13/2026) Get 30 Days of MarketBeat All Access for Free Sign up for MarketBeat All Access to gain access to MarketBeat's full suite of research tools. 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PresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Good afternoon, and thank you for attending Hallador Energy's fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following our prepared remarks, we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will follow at that time. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Sean Mansouri, the company's investor relations advisor for Elevate IR. Please go ahead, Sean. Sean MansouriInvestor Relations Advisor at Elevate IR00:00:33Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. We appreciate you joining us to discuss our fourth quarter and full year 2025 results. With me today are President and CEO Brent Bilsland and CFO Todd Telesz. This afternoon, we released our fourth quarter and full year 2025 financial and operating results in a press release that is now on the Hallador investor relations website. Today, we will discuss those results as well as our perspective on current market conditions and our outlook. Following prepared remarks, we will open the call to answer your questions. Before we begin, a reminder that some of our remarks today may include forward-looking statements subject to a variety of risks, uncertainties, and assumptions contained in our filings from time to time with the SEC and are also reflected in today's press release. Sean MansouriInvestor Relations Advisor at Elevate IR00:01:30While these forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to us, if one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or if our underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those we projected or expected. In providing these remarks, Hallador has no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, unless required by law to do so. With the preliminaries out of the way, I'll turn the call over to President and CEO, Brent Bilsland. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:02:11Thank you, Sean, and thank you everyone for joining us this afternoon. Hallador delivered strong financial performance in 2025 as we continued advancing our transformation into a vertically integrated independent power producer. For the full year, total revenue increased 16% year-over-year to $469.5 million. Net income improved materially to $41.9 million. Adjusted EBITDA increased approximately threefold to $56 million. Operating cash flow increased 23% to $81.1 million. These results reflect both improving power market conditions and the operating leverage embedded in our business model. Electric sales were the primary driver of revenue growth during the year, increasing approximately 19% to $310.7 million compared to 2024. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:03:17Coal sales also increased 8% year-over-year to $148.7 million as Sunrise Coal continued to support both internal fuel needs at Merom and third-party customers. Together, these segments highlight the advantages of our integrated platform, where our coal operations provide a secure price certain fuel supply for our generation assets, while also allowing us to participate opportunistically in third-party coal markets. Operationally, our Merom power plant performed well through most of the year. In the fourth quarter, however, we experienced operational challenges with which continued into Q1 and reduced availability of the units. Due to this availability issue, we now expect consolidated first quarter of 2026 results to be similar to fourth quarter of 2025. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:04:23Maintaining high levels of reliability remains a top priority for our team, particularly as MISO increasingly depends on dispatchable resources during periods of peak demand, which is highest in the summer. As such, the generating units in question will receive a major maintenance outage beginning in May, which once complete should significantly improve performance. Sunrise Coal also delivered consistent performance throughout the year. Production optimization initiatives and disciplined cost management help improve performance across the mining complex. As part of our vertically integrated platform, Sunrise Coal provides a reliable fuel foundation for our generation assets while helping optimize our overall cost structure. Across the broader marketing environment, we continue to see strong demand for reliable dispatchable generation across the MISO region. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:05:32Electricity demand growth, combined with the prior retirement of dispatchable assets, is tightening supply conditions across the system, increasing the value of accredited capacity as utilities and load serving entities attempt to secure reliable resources throughout the Midwest. Against that backdrop, we have made progress towards selling energy and capacity at elevated prices. We have also recently received additional competitive offers to acquire our accredited capacity for over a decade in length. We are excited by what we are seeing in the market. The company is in a strong, long accredited capacity position, which appears to be getting better with time. We hope to make more announcements on this topic very soon. These robust market conditions led us to file an application in MISO's Expedited Resource Addition Study, or ERAS program. During the month of December, we were awarded one of the coveted 50 ERAS slots. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:06:45In conjunction with our application's acceptance, we funded approximately $14 million of required refundable deposits to support the potential addition of up to 515 MW of natural gas generation. The ERAS program was designed to accelerate the development of new generation resources that can help address reliability needs across the MISO system. Currently, we expect MISO to complete the study of our application in the third quarter of this year. Additionally, we are in negotiations with multiple counterparties for equipment for the project. As the project develops, we plan to share more details around the cost and potential economics of the project. If successful in our development plans, we would target the plant coming online around third quarter of 2029. This expansion would significantly increase our accredited generating capacity at the company, leveraging infrastructure that is already in place at our Merom site. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:07:57Compared with greenfield developments, the Merom interconnection offers both speed to market and certain cost advantages. Turning briefly to capital allocation, we maintained a disciplined approach throughout 2025. Capital expenditures were focused primarily on planned maintenance at the Merom facility and operational improvements across our mining operations, along with early-stage work supporting potential generation expansion at the Merom site under the ERAS program. We currently expect capital expenditures in 2026 to increase modestly compared to 2025 levels, excluding potential ERAS developments. Looking ahead, we will continue to focus on maintaining operational reliability at Merom, executing efficiently across our coal operations, and advancing the strategic initiatives that we believe can drive long-term growth for Hallador. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:09:06At the same time, we remain disciplined in how we approach new opportunities and will continue to focus on projects and commercial arrangements that we believe will most meaningfully enhance shareholder value for the long term. Before handing it over to Todd, I'd like to briefly highlight two recent additions to our board that strengthen our leadership during the next phase of Hallador's growth. In January, we welcomed Barbara Sugg to our board of directors following the retirement of longtime director David Hardie, whose more than three decades of service and support to Hallador we sincerely appreciate. Barbara previously served as President and CEO of Southwest Power Pool, where she led regional reliability and wholesale market operations across a 14-state footprint. Her industry leadership across grid operations, transmission development, and resource integration will be valuable as we continue positioning our Merom facility to support growing demand for reliable capacity. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:10:22Further, last week, we appointed Daniel Hudson to the board, expanding the board to seven members. Daniel brings deep expertise in natural gas generation, capital markets, and power asset transactions, having led or advised on more than $35 billion in strategic energy investments. As we pursue opportunities to expand generation at Merom and evaluate additional assets that can scale our power platform, we believe Daniel's background in gas-fired power development and energy infrastructure optimization will provide meaningful strategic guidance for our team. With that, I will now pass the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Todd Telesz, to take you through our financial results. Todd? Todd TeleszCFO at Hallador Energy Company00:11:18Great. Thank you, Brent, and good afternoon, everyone. I'll add my thanks for joining us today. Jumping right into our fourth quarter results. Electric sales for the fourth quarter increased 3% to $71.6 million, compared to $69.7 million in the prior year period. While coal sales increased 24% to $29.1 million for the fourth quarter, compared to $23.4 million in the prior year period. Electric sales in the fourth quarter reflect a continued electricity demand across the MISO market and stable realized pricing, partially offset by lower generation during the period due to the previously mentioned operational challenges and unit availability impacts in Q4 2025 and Q1 2026. While the unit outage has reduced dispatch for part of the fourth quarter, the plant continued to operate and serve market demand as conditions allowed. Todd TeleszCFO at Hallador Energy Company00:12:14The increase in coal sales during the fourth quarter was driven primarily by higher third-party shipments to customers, reflecting continued production optimization at Sunrise Coal and our ability to supply both internal fuel requirements at Merom and external market demand. On a consolidated basis, total operating revenue increased 8% to $102.4 million for the fourth quarter, compared to $94.7 million in the prior year period. Net loss for the fourth quarter was $0.2 million compared to a net loss of $215.8 million in the prior year period. It's worth noting that the year-ago period loss includes an approximate $215 million non-cash write-down associated with the value of our mining operations. Todd TeleszCFO at Hallador Energy Company00:13:02Operating cash flow for the fourth quarter was $8.1 million compared to $32.5 million in the prior year period, with the decrease primarily reflecting the cash receipt from a large prepaid energy forward sales contract that was received in Q4 2024. Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, which is reconciled in our earnings press release issued earlier today, increased 35% to $8.4 million for the fourth quarter, compared to $6.2 million in the prior year period. We invested $24.99 million in capital expenditures during the fourth quarter of 2025, compared to $13.8 million in the year-ago period, bringing our full year 2025 CapEx to a total of $69.2 million. Todd TeleszCFO at Hallador Energy Company00:13:52This includes the approximately $14 million of refundable deposits made in support of the ERAS gas generation project. As Brent mentioned earlier, we expect our 2026 capital expenditures to modestly increase compared to 2025, excluding any impacts of the ERAS project. As of December 31st, 2025, our forward energy and capacity sales position was $540 million compared to $571.7 million at the end of Q3, and $685.7 million at December 31, 2024. When combined with our third-party forward coal sales of $323.5 million, as well as intercompany sales to Merom, our total forward sales book as of December 31st, 2025, was approximately $1.3 billion. Now turning to the balance sheet. We had several material updates. Todd TeleszCFO at Hallador Energy Company00:14:49In Q4 of 2025, we completed a $25 million prepaid energy forward sales contract with a long-standing counterparty and raised approximately $14 million through our ATM via the issuance of just over 697,000 shares. In January of 2026, we further strengthened our capital position through a public offering of approximately 3.2 million shares of common stock priced at approximately $18 per share, generating roughly $57.5 million of gross proceeds. These proceeds are expected to support general corporate purposes, including potential deposits required for preserving key equipment necessary for our proposed natural gas generation expansion at Merom. Additionally, late last week, we closed on a new credit facility led by Texas Capital Bank, who's a new relationship for us, and Old National Bank and First Financial Bank, who have been long-standing financial partners of Hallador. Todd TeleszCFO at Hallador Energy Company00:15:48The $120 million three-year senior secured credit facilities include a $75 million revolving credit facility and a $45 million delayed draw term loan. The credit facilities also include a $25 million accordion feature. Overall, our results reflect continued progress across the business as we strengthen our financial profile while investing in the long-term growth opportunities Brent discussed earlier. With a solidified liquidity position, a meaningful forward sales book, and a disciplined capital allocation approach, we believe Hallador remains well positioned to support the continued development of our power platform and the strategic initiatives underway at Merom. With that, operator, we can now open the line for questions. Operator00:16:35Thank you so much. As a reminder, if you do have a question, simply press star one one to get in the queue and wait for your name to be announced. To remove yourself, press star one one again. One moment for our first question that comes from the line of Jeff Grampp with Northland Capital Markets. Please proceed. Jeff GramppManaging Director and Senior Research Analyst at Northland Capital Markets00:16:57Afternoon, guys. Thanks for the time. Todd TeleszCFO at Hallador Energy Company00:16:59Hey, Jeff. Jeff GramppManaging Director and Senior Research Analyst at Northland Capital Markets00:17:01With respect to maybe this longer-term PPA opportunity, Brent, what are the main kind of gating items to getting a deal done at this point? I know you can only say so much, but are we kind of in the phase where we're deciding kind of what the best offer is for the company? Is it negotiating with final parties, or what's kind of dictating timing at this point? Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:17:24Yeah, look, I don't think it's gonna be just one party. We have exchanged, you know, draft contracts with multiple parties. You know, I think what's encouraging for us is we continue to see pricing pressure move things higher. Quite frankly, the interest level that we're seeing has dramatically increased in the last four weeks. Multiple utilities, multiple industrial users. You know, we kind of view it as we're playing a game of musical chairs, and we own the last seat. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:18:06We just keep seeing more and more people enter into the room. You know, I know everybody's in a hurry to get something done, including me, but in the same breath, this keeps getting better. We're really encouraged by what we're seeing and the level of competition that, you know, we are able to engage the counterparties in. We're happy. You know, we think we're getting much closer and certainly encouraged by what we're seeing. I hope that excitement resonates. Jeff GramppManaging Director and Senior Research Analyst at Northland Capital Markets00:18:50That's super helpful. I appreciate it. That's good to hear. For my follow-up, I wanted to get a bit more details on the issues at Merom that you guys talked about. Can you just shed a little more light on what these operational issues are and should we be expecting this to impact performance until this planned outage in May? It sounded like there was gonna be a more significant kinda turnaround at that point to maybe address some of these issues. Thanks. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:19:19Yeah, no, I think we had some equipment failures in Q4. We had some equipment failures in Q1, that, you know, took the plant offline at different times for weeks at a time. Unfortunately, it was, you know, particularly in January, it was during some of the better-priced weeks, so we hate to see that. The plant's running now. You know, it has a few limitations, so it's not running at 100%, but it's running. Then we're gonna roll right into an outage. You know, this was a planned outage. It was what we call a major, so it's, you know, half the plant will be down for six months. We do that every year. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:20:09There's, you know, just a lot on the list for this particular unit that's gonna get replaced and upgraded and so a whole lot of new parts are going on. You know, we think that will help the reliability of the plant and just in time for the summer season, which I would point out is the peaking season in MISO now. Summer peaks are higher than winter peaks. Jeff GramppManaging Director and Senior Research Analyst at Northland Capital Markets00:20:37Understood. Okay. That's really helpful details. I'll turn it back. Thank you guys for the time. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:20:42Thank you, Jeff. Operator00:20:44Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Matthew Key with Texas Capital. Please proceed. Matthew KeyVP of Equity Research at Texas Capital Securities00:20:51Hey, good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for taking my questions. I wanted to talk about, you know, the target date of completion for the nat gas expansion. What are the big determining factors that, you know, dictates you hitting or missing that target date? Does this just kinda come down to getting the necessary long lead time equipment in time or, are there a little bit more complications than that? Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:21:16No. Right now we're negotiating with multiple counterparties on can we secure the equipment in the right timeframe, which we are finding equipment that the timing does work, and can we get that equipment at a price point that makes the project economic. You know, that's and then in the same breath, you know, we've got limited PPAs to support the project. We're obviously in the market to, you know, attempting to sign long-term PPAs. We like where that pricing has gone. You know, you just gotta line all that up. Then there's other players out there who are opposite of us. They have equipment and no place to go with it. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:22:02We're also talking to those counterparties to say, "Hey, does it make sense you bring your equipment, we'll bring the interconnect, PPAs, water rights, gas rights, all of that?" The thing that we're excited about is, we feel that our site, our interconnect has a speed to market advantage because of the ERAS program. Because of the ERAS program, it has, we think, a significant cost advantage over some of the other projects that we're hearing, right? We're hearing other projects that have to have $300 million of system upgrade costs, and we just don't think our project's gonna experience that. We think there's a significant advantage there. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:22:50That said, the downside to the ERAS program is it's a very quick process, and so you kinda gotta get all the elements of the deal lined up. We're working on that. Matthew KeyVP of Equity Research at Texas Capital Securities00:23:03Got it. No, that's helpful. A quick macro one for me. You know, made recent news that the EPA announced the decision to ease some, you know, the MACT's requirements for power plants. Could you maybe just help me quantify the impact that those changes would have on your business, if any, or maybe the industry more broadly? Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:23:26Yeah. A lot of plants, including ours, are already MACT compliant. That being said, there's still some ongoing costs associated with that, reporting requirements and so on. You know, I think the Trump administration in general is trying to unwind a lot of these environmental rules one at a time. You know, they're just kinda making their way down through the list. What is the impact of that? You know, overall, it makes operating a plant easier. What are the economic impacts of that? I, you know, I think it probably has more to do with longevity and less to do with, you know, are we gonna see our costs materially drop, you know, in the next quarter? Matthew KeyVP of Equity Research at Texas Capital Securities00:24:16Got it. No, that's helpful. Really appreciate the time and best of luck. Operator00:24:24Our next question comes from the line of Nick Giles with B. Riley Securities. Please proceed. Nick GilesSenior Research Analyst at B. Riley Securities00:24:33Great. Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, guys. My first question. You know, I think you've previously talked about the majority of capacity being taken down in any long-term deal, but you mentioned, Brent, that economics are only getting better. Given that you're talking to multiple parties, is there a scenario where you might announce the long-term PPAs in several tranches or should we still be, you know, expecting one kind of grand slam? Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:25:09No, I think you'll see announcements in several tranches. That's our thinking today. I mean, certainly we could see a customer step up and take a bigger block, but today that's where our head is at. That you'll see multiple bites at the apple. Nick GilesSenior Research Analyst at B. Riley Securities00:25:32Got it. Okay. Very helpful. Just in terms of pricing, you said upward pressure. I think in the past you've kind of used the forward curve as an anchor and, you know, noted that pricing could come in above that. I mean, any, you know, any rough guardrails that you could point us to, from a price perspective? I mean, should we be still thinking of something above the forward curve? If so, where do you see the forward curve today? Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:26:06Yeah. The forward curve is typically energy. Where we're really seeing the price improvement is for accredited capacity. That's the revenue stream that is going, in our opinion, dramatically higher. That really is the pinch point in the industry. The reason for that is you can get energy from renewables. It's challenging to get accredited capacity from renewables, right? Solar panels are only rated 5% of nameplate. Windmills are only rated at 15% of nameplate. Whereas coal, gas, and nukes are all rated 75%-90% of nameplate. That is typically what accreditation they're awarded. What's changed and, you know, the MISO auction is, I think, roughly two weeks from today. It's gonna be on the 26th. Some of the pricing outlooks that we're seeing in that, you know, are dramatically higher. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:27:01We'll see what that auction brings. You know, we think that we'll probably have some sales that might happen before then as well. As we get those deals across the finish line and inked, we'll report it. You'll see. You'll get a good look at what that price is. Nick GilesSenior Research Analyst at B. Riley Securities00:27:23Got it. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:27:23Also, I wanna correct something somebody just said I said incorrectly. Our unit is gonna go on outage for 60 days, not six months like I said. Just wanted to correct my statement. Nick GilesSenior Research Analyst at B. Riley Securities00:27:38Got it. Maybe just one more, if I could. I think you mentioned that CapEx could be modestly higher, excluding ERAS developments. I just wanted to clarify, are you saying that CapEx will be modestly above the kind of $70 million level, I think, which included the $14 million, or should we exclude the $14 million and kind of start at a base of $55 million? I think you see what I'm getting at. I'm just trying to make sure it's apples to apples here. Todd TeleszCFO at Hallador Energy Company00:28:10Yes, Nick. It's Todd. How are you today? I think we are looking at modestly higher than what we incurred in 2025, driven by some CapEx that was pushed out of 2025 into 2026, as well as continued investment in the VLG project. Those are probably the key drivers, and those obviously would be excluding any incremental investments in the ERAS project. Nick GilesSenior Research Analyst at B. Riley Securities00:28:37Got it. I mean, so I think last quarter the emphasis was really around the application, and now that's been accepted, deposit has been paid. Like, what are some of those developments that we should be looking out for in the context of ERAS? Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:28:58Yeah. MISO will pick up our application and begin reviewing that soon. They haven't done that just yet. Once they pick it up, I believe they'll do a public notification saying that they've picked that up, and then they've got 90 days to complete that study. At the end of that study, they come to us and say, "Okay, this is what we think it's gonna cost." We have a certain period of time to negotiate a couple items on that list. Ultimately it comes down to, "Hey, are you signing a GIA, a Generator Interconnection Agreement with MISO and committing to your project?" We think that happens sometime later in Q3. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:29:47Are you saying, "No, I'm gonna pass because, you know, we're just not gonna go forward with the project"? Your option is we would probably step into the traditional queue at that point, you know, going forward. Those are kind of the options on the table and what we think that timing looks like. Nick GilesSenior Research Analyst at B. Riley Securities00:30:10Got it. Okay. Well, hey, Brent and Todd, I really appreciate all the detail and best of luck. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:30:16Thank you, Nick. Operator00:30:19Thank you. We have a question from the line of Jake Sekelsky with Alliance Global Partners. Please proceed. Jake SekelskyManaging Director and Head of Metals and Mining Research at Alliance Global Partners00:30:27Hey, Brent and Todd. Thanks for taking the questions. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:30:30Good to see you, Jake. Jake SekelskyManaging Director and Head of Metals and Mining Research at Alliance Global Partners00:30:33With the gas expansion coming into focus, I'm just wondering how you're thinking about Sunrise Coal and that operations position in sort of the broader portfolio going forward. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:30:47Yeah. You know, Sunrise Coal results there have been good. They got their cost structure down last year, it performed really well. You know, so far so good this year as well. We're happy with the Sunrise Coal division. We're looking to contract a meaningful amount of output at the Merom Generating Station here in the near future. You know, that's gonna require fuel. I don't really see any material changes at Sunrise Coal in the near future. We still plan to take coal at the plant. The gas plant. I mean, if you look at Merom, why is it such a good site for an expansion? Merom was originally designed to be three 500 MW coal-fired units, but they only built two. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:31:44A lot of the power infrastructure that's necessary already exists at the site. You know, the line takeaway capacity from that substation is like 1.2, 1.6 GW. We're only using 1,000 or 1 GW, excuse me, 1,000 MW. All we're really proposing to do is instead of building a third coal-fired unit, the third unit will be gas units, right? Right now we're proposing CTs. You know, that's what it is in a nutshell. Hey, there's space on the line. We have property control. We have the easements in place, you know, for the gas pipeline that's only 5 mi away. We have water rights. There's good gas availability, we're told, at that location. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:32:39We think we've got really one of the better sites in the country to do such a development. That said, we still have to line up equipment, more PPAs and such to make that project viable. That's something we're negotiating on every day to see if we can make all those numbers line up. Jake SekelskyManaging Director and Head of Metals and Mining Research at Alliance Global Partners00:32:59Got it. Okay, that's helpful. Just building off that a bit, if I may. Are you still evaluating things on the M&A front? Or do you sort of feel your plate's full with the ERAS project coming into focus here over the next few quarters? Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:33:17Look, we always look at things. You know, we've bid on an asset here recently. You know, I don't think we're gonna be selected for that asset, so but we are active and so, you know, we'll just have to take the opportunities as they come. Jake SekelskyManaging Director and Head of Metals and Mining Research at Alliance Global Partners00:33:34Okay, that's helpful. That's all for me. Thanks again, guys. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:33:38Thank you. Operator00:33:39Thank you. This concludes our Q&A session. I will pass it back to Brent Bilsland for closing comments. Brent BilslandPresident and CEO at Hallador Energy Company00:33:48I just wanna thank everybody for their continued interest in Hallador and stay tuned. I think hopefully we've got exciting things to announce in the future. Thank you again. Operator00:34:00This concludes our conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.Read moreParticipantsExecutivesBrent BilslandPresident and CEOTodd TeleszCFOAnalystsJake SekelskyManaging Director and Head of Metals and Mining Research at Alliance Global PartnersJeff GramppManaging Director and Senior Research Analyst at Northland Capital MarketsMatthew KeyVP of Equity Research at Texas Capital SecuritiesNick GilesSenior Research Analyst at B. Riley SecuritiesSean MansouriInvestor Relations Advisor at Elevate IRPowered by