Unitil Corporation 2026 Q2 Earnings Call

Please go ahead. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us to discuss Unitil Corporation's second quarter 2026 financial results.

Speaking on the call today will be Tom Meissner, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Dan Hurstak, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer. Also with us today are Bob Hebert, President and Chief Administrative Officer, and Todd Diggins, Chief Accounting Officer and Controller. We will discuss financial and other information on this call. As we mentioned the press release announcing today's call, we have posted information, including a presentation to the investor section of our website at unitil.com. We will refer to that information during this call. Moving to slide two. Some of the statements made during this call may be forward-looking. These statements are based on management's current expectation and are subject to risk and uncertainty, which may cause the actual results to differ materially from forecasts and projections.

We undertake no obligation to update or revise any of these statements. Additional information about the various factors that may cause actual results to differ, and our explanation of non-GAAP measures and how they reconcile to GAAP measures is contained within our news release, the slides we posted for this call, and in our most recent Form 10-Q and 10-K. I will now turn the call over to Chairman and CEO, Tom Meissner.

Great. Thanks, Chris. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. Beginning on slide three, I am pleased to report outstanding performance through the first half of the year, both operationally and financially. Yesterday, we announced another strong quarter with adjusted net income of $5.2 million, or $0.29 per share. For the first half of the year, adjusted net income was $39 million or $2.17 per share, an increase of $0.14 or nearly 7% compared to the first six months of 2025. We are fully earning our authorized returns on a trailing 12-month basis with a GAAP return on equity of 9.6%.

Given the strong results for the first half of the year, we are reaffirming our 2026 earnings guidance of $3.20 to $3.36 per share with a midpoint of $3.28. We are also reaffirming our long-term earnings guidance of 5%-7%. We have several positive business updates to share this quarter. As I'll cover in more detail on the following slide, the acquisition of the Aquarion Water Company of New Hampshire and Abenaki Water Company successfully closed on June 30th. We're excited to add these two companies to our portfolio of regulated distribution utilities. Our regulatory agenda remains active, and I'm pleased to report that the two Northern Utilities rate cases in Maine and New Hampshire are progressing as expected. Dan will provide additional details about these rate cases later during the call.

We pride ourselves on consistently delivering high-quality, reliable service to our customers. Recent customer survey results show that our customers continue to be highly satisfied with our service. Overall customer satisfaction remains high at 90%, which is slightly better than last year. Our overall customer satisfaction is the best among Northeast utilities and within the top quartile nationally. I'd also like to provide an update on our advanced metering infrastructure or AMI project that will replace all of our electric meters. This new metering system incorporates state-of-the-art smart meters that can provide near real-time information to customers and enable improved decision-making and grid optimization. The rollout in Massachusetts was completed last year with 31,000 meters replaced at a total cost of approximately $10 million, which is currently being recovered in rates.

In New Hampshire, we have already replaced 21,000 meters and expect to complete the remaining 59,000 meters by the end of 2027. Total costs for this project in New Hampshire are expected to be approximately $30 million, with a portion of that amount included in the company's next step adjustment. We believe this project will help us deliver the advanced functionality and level of service that our customers expect. Turning now to slide four. The acquisition of the two Aquarion New Hampshire water utilities closed on June 30th for a total purchase price of $55.8 million. This includes the assumption of $13.7 million of long-term debt. We purchased these companies at an attractive valuation. This acquisition will strengthen our regulated utility portfolio. We entered into a five-year operating and transition services agreement with the Aquarion Water Authority to ensure a seamless transition and integration.

Similar to the purchase of the two gas companies in Maine last year, we initially financed this transaction with a holding company term loan. We anticipate the transaction will be earnings neutral in 2026 and accretive once new distribution rates take effect. We have also entered into a non-binding letter of intent with Eversource Energy to purchase the Massachusetts Aquarion company, pending satisfaction of certain conditions, including the successful resolution of a base rate case proceeding. We're excited to welcome Aquarion's experienced, locally managed teams to Unitil. We remain committed to delivering the same high-quality service that all of our customers expect. Moving now to slide five. Natural gas continues to enjoy a significant price advantage relative to competing fuels like oil and propane. Fuel oil prices have remained substantially higher than natural gas for an extended period of time.

As I've mentioned before, Maine has the highest percentage of homes heated with fuel oil in the nation. Roughly two-thirds of Maine homes are heated with oil, propane, or kerosene, fuels that are much more expensive than natural gas. We believe natural gas conversions offer a compelling opportunity for customers to lower their energy costs while also helping states achieve their climate goals. Over the first half of the year, we've seen a 50% increase in customers calling to inquire about natural gas service compared to the same period last year. We currently have about 1,500 new customers under contract or in construction. In addition, we continue to see growth in adjusted margin across all of our natural gas companies compared to 2025. As a reminder, both Maine and New Hampshire have fuel choice statutes that preserve customers' rights to select their preferred energy source, including natural gas.

With that, I'll now pass it over to Dan, who will provide greater detail on our financial results.

Thank you, Tom. Good afternoon, everyone. I'll begin on slide six. As Tom mentioned, we announced second quarter 2026 adjusted net income of $5.2 million and adjusted earnings per share of $0.29. Through the first six months of the year, adjusted net income was approximately $39 million, or $2.17 per share, representing an increase of $5.9 million in adjusted net income or $0.14 per share compared to the same period in 2025. We are reporting adjusted earnings that exclude transaction costs related to our gas and water acquisitions, which we do not view as indicative of the company's ongoing costs and operations. The results for the first half of the year were supported by the earnings contribution from Bangor Natural Gas and Maine Natural Gas, in addition to higher distribution rates and customer growth, partially offset by higher operating expenses.

Turning to slide seven, I will discuss our electric and gas adjusted gross margins. I will begin with our electric operations. For the six months ended June 30th, 2026, electric adjusted gross margin was $61.2 million, an increase of $7.9 million, or 14.8% as compared to the same period in 2025. The increase in electric adjusted gross margin was driven by higher rates and customer growth. Higher rates were supported by the permanent rate award for our New Hampshire Electric subsidiary of $13 million, which took effect May 1st, 2026. Electric margin was also supported by performance-based rate adjustments in Fitchburg. As noted during prior calls, all our electric customers are under decoupled rates, which eliminates the dependency of distribution revenue on the volume of electricity sales. Moving to gas operations. For the six months ended June 30th, 2026, gas adjusted gross margin was $122.7 million, an increase of $14.6 million, or approximately 13.5% compared to the same period in 2025.

The increase in gas adjusted gross margin reflects the contribution from Maine Natural Gas of $8.7 million, higher rates and customer growth of $4.5 million, and colder winter weather of $1.4 million. The company added approximately 6,600 new gas customers compared to the same period in 2025, with the majority of these new customers being attributable to the acquisition of Maine Natural Gas. As of June 30th, 2026, approximately 52% of the company's gas customers were under decoupled rates, with Maine representing our only non-decoupled service area. Moving to slide eight, we provide an earnings bridge comparing the results for the first six months of 2026 to the same period in 2025.