HA Sustainable Infrastructure Capital, Inc. 2026 Q2 Earnings Call

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon to everyone joining us today for HASI's second quarter 2026 conference call. Earlier this afternoon, HASI distributed a press release reporting our second quarter 2026 results, a copy of which is available on our website, along with the slide presentation we will be referring to today. This conference call is being webcast live on the investor relations page of our website, where a replay will be available later today. Some of the comments made in this call are forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties described in the Risk Factors section of the company's Form 10-K and other filings with the SEC. Actual results may differ materially from those stated. Today's discussion also includes some non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures is available in our earnings release and presentation.

Joining us on the call today are Jeff Lipson, the company's President and CEO, as well as Chuck Melko, our Chief Financial Officer. Also available for Q&A is Susan Nickey, our Chief Client Officer. To kick things off, I will turn it over to our President and CEO, Jeff Lipson, who will begin on slide three.

Jeff? Thank you, Aaron. Welcome to our second quarter 2026 earnings call.

We are pleased to report another strong quarter, including excellent results across all key metrics for the first half of 2026, as our business model of providing capital to energy transition projects with programmatic clients continues to be effective and resulted in more than $1 billion of new investments in the second quarter. Adjusted earnings per share in the quarter was $0.75, up 25% year-over-year, enabled by growth in portfolio revenue, fee income, and gain on sale revenue. We also expanded our investment margins and maintained our capital efficiency with zero ATM issuance. Adjusted return on equity exceeded 15% for the second quarter in a row. Through the first half of 2026, adjusted recurring net investment income grew 27% year-over-year to $208 million.

As of quarter end, our managed assets were $17.6 billion, up 20% year-over-year. Encouraged by these exceptional results and our confidence in the outlook for new investment activity, fee income, portfolio yield, and our cost of debt, we are increasing our 2028 adjusted EPS guidance to a range of $3.55-$3.65, up from $3.50-$3.60, and affirming our guidance for adjusted ROE of greater than 17% in 2028. Turning to slide four, we highlight three catalysts that have been integral to driving growth in our assets and income. First is our exceptionally robust investment activity of greater than $1.7 billion year-to-date, underpinned by ongoing demand for new power capacity throughout the economy. Second is the success of our expansive funding platform, which is providing a continuous pool of flexible capital from multiple sources.

This includes our CCH1 co-investment vehicle, which has opened our access to infrastructure fund capital. Since achieving investment-grade ratings a couple years ago, we now have access not only to the deep investment-grade bond market, but also the junior subordinated debt market as well. All this is further supplemented by the flexibility provided by our short-term debt programs, in particular, our successful commercial paper program that is backed by our revolving credit facility, which we recently upsized to $2.25 billion. In combination, all these elements have helped elevate HASI into a new category as a capital provider, facilitating our ability to execute larger transactions for our clients.

Third is the steady progress we have made in reducing our cost of capital, enabled by the improvement in our debt spreads as we have become a frequent issuer in the investment-grade debt market, a highly effective hedging program, and a reduction of new equity issuance with zero ATM so far this year. Now I will dive a little deeper into each of these themes. Turning to slide five, it all starts first and foremost with demand, which is driving heightened investment activity for power infrastructure in general and clean energy infrastructure in particular. Although recent headlines tend to focus on less favorable aspects of renewables development, such as permitting and reduction of incentives, the underlying economic trends are actually quite favorable. Renewables remain the most cost-effective solution and the fastest to market to meet the growing demand for new capacity.

Lazard's recent levelized cost of energy report details that solar and wind remain the low-cost sources on an unsubsidized basis, even after accounting for the impact of inflation and tariffs. Renewables comprise more than three-quarters of the net new U.S. generation capacity expected to be added to the grid over the next decade. Therefore, renewables are no longer a niche, but an integral component of the electric grid today. The chart on the left side of this slide does a great job of capturing this trend As May 2026 was the first time ever that solar generation was higher than coal generation. On the right side of the slide, the chart shows the forecast for new electric generation capacity over the next decade by source.

New renewables capacity is expected to grow from just under 150 gigawatts over the next five years to 168 gigawatts over the five years beginning 2031, even after the sunset of the ITC. This forecast notably does not come from a clean energy focused researcher or advocate, but rather from EIA, which is the technology agnostic division of the DOE. In summary, demand for renewables continues to grow and the outlook remains strong even in a post-ITC world. Hundreds of billions of dollars of long-term capital will be needed to meet this demand over the next decade. Turning to slide six, as we announced last November, HASI closed a $1.2 billion investment in SunZia, the largest clean energy infrastructure project in the Western Hemisphere to date, developed and majority owned by Pattern Energy. In July, we completed the funding of our investment in this project.

As the chart on the left displays, SunZia is single-handedly having a transformational impact on California's grid, driving peak wind generation to a new CAISO record. In another fascinating data point displayed in the chart on the right, solar and wind generated 44% of the state's electricity generation through the first half of 2026. Turning to slide seven, I would like to pivot and discuss our margins in light of the recent increase in long-term interest rates. We have demonstrated our ability to remain profitable in all interest rate environments over several years. Since 2021, base rates have risen by approximately 300 basis points. We've been able to offset that increase with a comparable increase in our investment returns. Over the same period, our debt spreads have improved by more than 140 basis points.

The resulting impact of these factors has been both margin and ROE expansion in our business. If rates continue to rise, we remain confident in our ability to manage this risk. Turning to slide eight, our pipeline remains above $6.5 billion, even after closing more than $1 billion of new investments in Q2. This pipeline is supported by the major macro tailwinds driving energy markets today, including the strong demand for power and the corresponding demand for utility scale renewables as mentioned earlier. Higher retail electricity rates, increasing battery attachment rates, and greater than 450 renewable natural gas facilities under construction or in development. On slide nine, in addition to all of our ongoing success investing in wind, solar, storage, and renewable natural gas, I wanted to highlight our objective of continuing to expand and diversify our investment platform.

These emerging asset classes have several consistent attributes with our historical core asset classes, including environmental impact, proven technologies, and contracted cash flows with high quality off-takers. The transportation component of our business has grown into a more meaningful contributor over the last few years with more than $325 million of cumulative new investments. We also closed our first water infrastructure project investment in the third quarter and expect to see additional opportunities in that sector. We have a few interesting projects in the sustainable agriculture sector in our pipeline that we are optimistic can become another diversification opportunity over time. These investments will provide additional paths to portfolio diversification and accelerated growth while reinforcing the non-cyclical and resilient traits of the HASI business model. One final item before I turn it over to Chuck. Our SunStrong and NeoGenix affiliates continue to perform within our expectations.

With that, I'll ask Chuck to discuss our Q2 results in greater detail.