Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. My name is Abby and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the New Jersey Resources Fiscal 2025 Fourth Quarter and Year-End Financial Results Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during that time, simply press star followed by the number 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star 1 a second time. Thank you, and I would now like to turn the conference over to Adam Pryor, Director of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Thank you. Welcome to New Jersey Resources Fiscal 2025 Fourth Quarter and Year-End Conference Call and Webcast. I am joined here today by Steve Westhoven, our President and CEO, Roberto Bell, our Senior Vice President and Chief financial officer, as well as other members of our senior management team. Certain statements in today's call contain estimates and other forward-looking statements within the meaning of the securities laws. We wish to caution listeners of this call that the current expectations, assumptions, and belief forming the basis of our forward-looking statements include many factors that are beyond our ability to control or estimate precisely. This could cause results to materially differ from our expectations as found on slide two. These items can also be found in the forward-looking Statements section of yesterday's earnings release, furnished on Form 8K and in our most recent Forms 10K and 10Q as filed with the SEC. We do not, by including this statement, assume any obligation to review or revise any particular forward-looking statement referenced herein in light of a future event. We will also be referring to certain non-GAAP financial measures such as net financial earnings or NFE. We believe that NFE, net financial loss, utility gross margin, financial margin, adjusted funds from operations, and adjusted debt provide a more complete understanding of our financial performance. However, these non-GAAP measures are not intended to be a substitute for GAAP. Our non-GAAP financial measures are discussed more fully in Item 7 of our 10K. The slides for today's presentation are available on our website and were furnished on our Form 8K filed yesterday. Steve will start with this year's highlights in a business unit overview, beginning on Slide 5. Roberto will then review our financial results. Then we will open it up for your questions.

With that said, I will turn the call over to our President and CEO, Steve Westhoven. Please go ahead, Steve. Thanks, Adam, and good morning, everyone. I hope you all had a chance to review our earnings materials, which include detailed disclosures on our growth prospects. I wanted to start by discussing a few highlights. We delivered excellent results in fiscal 2025, driven by strong execution and performance. For the fifth year in a row, we exceeded initial earnings guidance and long-term growth targets. After a successful 2025, there are a few key themes as we look ahead for fiscal 2026 and beyond. First, consistency and execution. We're guiding to NFVPS of 303 to 318 per share in fiscal 2026. The range is consistent with our long-term 7% to 9% growth rate, while leaving additional room for upside. Second, targeted capital deployment. We expect to invest roughly $5 billion over the next five years across the whole company, with roughly 60% allocated to our utility, New Jersey Natural Gas. To put the $5 billion into context, this represents a 40% increase compared to the CapEx spent over the last five years. Third, a healthy balance sheet anchored in disciplined financial management. We expect credit metrics to remain strong with healthy cash flows, ample liquidity, and a balanced debt maturity profile that supports long-term stability. Importantly, NJR requires no-block equity issuance to execute on its capital plan. On the next slide, we highlight a few of the key drivers that are business segments. To begin, New Jersey Natural Gas is positioned for high single-digit rate-based growth through 2030. S&T is expected to more than double net financial earnings by 2027, driven by favorable re-contracting of both Adelphia and Leaf River. And looking ahead, we recently filed with FERC a plan to increase working gas capacity by over 70% at Leaf River. And at Clean Energy Ventures, we expect to expand capacity by more than 50% over the next two years with a robust pipeline of safe harbor projects. In short, through a disciplined capital investment strategy, we have visibility to deliver sustainable growth well into the future, supported by a solid balance sheet. And we're able to achieve all this with minimal dilution. Let me turn to a brief discussion of each business unit, starting with New Jersey Natural Gas on slide seven. Our planned investments at New Jersey Natural Gas are expected to drive high single-digit rate-based growth through 2030. New Jersey Natural Gas operates within a constructive utility framework and continues to make responsible investments in safety and reliability while prioritizing affordability for our customers natural gas is by far the cheapest option for customers to eat their home energy efficiency programs such as save green further reduce usage and costs while aligning with environmental goals for example residential customers who fully participate in save green whole home offerings see a reduction of up to 30 percent in their energy usage saving hundreds of dollars in utility costs every year Moving to the next slide, storage and transportation is emerging as a key earnings growth driver for NJR. Over the next few years, we expect NFE to more than double at S&T, and this is largely driven by strong re-contracting in both the Delphi and Leaf River. These are fixed-price contracts with quality and credit-worthy counterparties. We recently reached a settlement in our FERC rate case at Adelphia. This constructive outcome enables recovery of the substantial investments and operational improvements made in recent years. While near-term earnings are set to double, we are actively pursuing organic growth opportunities for additional outside of Leaf River, which we outline on the next slide. When we acquired Leaf River in 2019, we positioned NJR as a leading service provider on the Gulf Coast, one of the highest growing energy demand centers in the United States. In addition to the prime location, the long-term value of the asset was enhanced by expansion options beyond the three existing operating caverns. Since our purchase of the asset, market demand has strengthened. Throughout fiscal 2025, we conducted a number of non-binding open seasons, which confirmed a high level of commercial interest in capacity expansion. Following this favorable response, we filed a FERC application at the end of October that included several complementary investments to increase Leaf River's working gas capacity by over 70%. They include the expansion of our existing caverns to a working gas capacity of 43 BCF by 2028, and the development of an additional fourth cavern that will bring total capacity to 55 BCF. Each phase of the investment is expected to be backed by long-term fee-based contracts, building on our already strong NFE growth. This phased approach has an inherent speed-to-market advantage that positions NJR ahead of greenfield development options. To conclude, we see considerable upside in both the near and long-term as S&T becomes a greater contributor to NJR's earnings profile. Moving to Clean Energy Ventures on slide 10, we expect to grow in-service capacity by more than 50% over the next two years. Looking ahead, we have a strong project pipeline designed to maintain investment tax credits through strategic safe harboring. This positioned CEV to deliver continued growth in five single-digit unlevered returns. So with that, I'll turn the call over to Roberta for our financial review.

Roberta. Thanks, Steve. Fiscal 2025 was an excellent year with strong energy growth, a solid balance sheet, and continued investment across our businesses. Slide 12 highlights a few fiscal 2025 accomplishments. New Jersey Natural Gas achieved a constructive outcome in its recent rate case and delivered record investments for Safe Green. Clean Energy Ventures added record new capacity. In fiscal 2025, CB placed 93 megawatts of new commercial solar capacity into service, expanding our portfolio to 479 megawatts. In addition, CD secured investment options for years to come through effective safe harboring. In storage and transportation, Adelsea received approval of settlement on its third rate case, while Leaf River advanced expansion initiatives. Energy Services achieved strong cash flow generation, and our home services business was named a road top 20 pro partner for the ninth consecutive year we also mark an important milestone 30 consecutive years of dividend increases and restoring confidence in our long-term plan on the next slide we finish the year at the top end of our guidance range which was raised earlier this year we deliver financial results ahead of expectations roughly two-thirds of total nfps came from the utility And when you exclude the net impact of the sale of our residential solar assets, that figure raises to over 70%, underscoring the stability of our earnings. Drivers of our performance include the completion of our rate case and a record year of saving investment. Additional drivers include approximately $0.30 per share from the sale of our residential solar portfolio, improved performance from our storage and transportation business, and a solid winter results from energy services. Moving to the discussion of CAPEX on slide 14, we deployed $850 million across our businesses, which I'll highlight in the next few slides. On slide 15, New Jersey natural gas represented approximately 64% of total CAPEX, with investments directed towards strengthening core infrastructure, enhancing system safety reliability, and supporting customer growth. Almost half of these investments earn recovery with minimal lag. As shown in slide 16, fiscal 2025 CAPEX for CB came in well above expectations, reflecting accelerated progress. Importantly, our capital deployment target is fully safe harbor, securing tax benefits for future capital expenditures. Building on this strong 2025, I wanted to shift our CAPEX outlook on slide 17. We're sharing a five-year CAPEX outlook of $4.8 to $5.2 billion through fiscal 2030. This represents a 40% increase over the previous five years of capital spending across our businesses. We expect that more than 60% of our total projected CAPEX will be dedicated to the utility, with CV and S&P representing the balance. Together, this investment supports our 7% to 9% long-term NFPS growth target, while maintaining a solid balance sheet, as discussed in the next slide. Strong cash generation across our businesses translates into an adjusted FFO to adjusted debt ratio that is projected to remain at around 20% for the next five years, with no block equity needed. Additionally, ample liquidity and a well-ladder debt maturity profile minimize near-term refinancing risk and preserves financial flexibility. And finally, we're initiating fiscal 2026 NFTS guidance with a range of $3.03 to $3.18 per share. The range is consistent with our long-term 7% to 9% growth rate, while leaving additional room for upside. The utility is expected to contribute approximately 70% of fiscal 2026 in ECPS, complemented by earnings growth from CED and S&T and a baseline outlook for energy services. With that, I'll turn it back to Steve for concluding remarks on slide 21.

Thanks, Roberto. Over the last 25 years, we've delivered industry-leading returns, reflecting both the quality of our utility investments and disciplined contributions from our non-utility businesses. While our infrastructure investments have been the foundation of this performance, Energy Services has complemented that strength, enhancing consolidated returns and providing flexibility to reinvest in our infrastructure businesses. To recap, fiscal 2025 was another year of solid execution, marking five consecutive years of exceeding initial earnings expectations. Our long-term growth remains anchored by our regulated utility, with clear visibility into capital spending at New Jersey Hydra Gas. Storage and transportation is set for accelerated growth, with earnings expected more than double in the near term, before we even begin to factor in those capacity expansions we highlighted earlier. Over the next two years, Clean Energy Ventures expects a 50% increase in installed capacity, and our project pipeline is secured into the future through proactive, safe harboring. NJR today stands as a balanced, diversified energy infrastructure company built for long-term stability and value creation. The outlook for fiscal 2026 and beyond is clear, well-funded, and utility anchored. As we all know, New Jersey recently had a gubernatorial election. electricity prices, and affordability issues were front and center. We understand the challenge the state is facing today, and we look forward to working with the incoming governor to meet her call for swift deployment of clean energy solutions and to continue providing affordable natural gas services to families and businesses. And finally, a sincere thank you to all NJR employees for your dedication and hard work throughout the past year.

Your commitment is the foundation for our continued success. so with that let's open the line for questions thank you and we will now begin the question and answer session if you have dialed in and would like to ask a question please press star one on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue if you would like to withdraw your question simply press star one a second time if you're called upon to ask your question and are listening via speakerphone on your device please pick up your handset and ensure that your phone is not on mute when asking your question. Again, it is star one if you would like to join the queue. And our first question comes from the line of Gabe Maureen with Mizuho. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning, everyone. Quick question. Hey, just a question maybe to start off on S&T here in Leaf River. Seems like it's a lot of positive developments. One, can you just talk about the contract renegotiations and the extent to which at this point maybe all the original contracts have rolled over and are remarketed or re-signed at market rates at this point? Or is there still more to go on that front in the years ahead? And then secondly, around the FIDing of some of the bigger expansions that you may be looking at, can you just talk about potential timing for FID'ing those projects, given the customer interest that you've seen in some of the non-binding open seasons?

Yeah, sure. So, talking about the contracts, the contract tenure at Leaf River, they've got various terms. So, we've always got contracts that are coming on and off. I would say there's probably a bias towards the longer-term contracts currently, and certainly the way the market is moving. Any contract that you're signing up for in the future, you know, is higher than the ones in the past. Remember, when we purchased that deal, the average contract rate was probably about $0.09 a decathernum per month. We're now up to almost $0.20 a decathernum per month on average. So, you know, big contract up rate there. And that's really driving, you know, the doubling of the NFE from S&T over the next few years. And then moving forward, you know, further constructive story. um the uh open season you know provided for about three times the amount of capacity that we had available and if you looked at the first filing we've got a few stages or phases of um investment and expansion um i would say before we make any investment uh we've got contracts to back it you know that's something we've talked about for for a long time and we're not going to deviate from So we've got signed contracts and certain on where the revenues are coming in to support those investments. So you can make that assumption.

So as we may turn to CV and I think a little bit more confidence in terms of the growth outlook there, can you just talk about has anything shifted on the ground in terms of your ability to start construction, how much of the 50% increase here has actually started construction or waiting on interconnects and why you think, you know, you may be past some of the delays, I think, that you may have seen in the past at the segment?

Yeah, we certainly have spent, you know, quite a bit of money. As you can imagine, the construction cycles are, you know, a little bit longer, and they go across fiscal years. So, you know, we're spending money now for projects that are beginning to be coming into service, you know, in the next fiscal year and then the fiscal year afterwards. We talked about the last call. We've saved hard, you know, quite a bit of projects, you know, a large amount of megawatts. So we've got great options moving forward. You know, I think the other thing to consider as well is that, you know, with the capacity, electric capacity shortfall, you know, in the state of New Jersey and PJM.

The question comes from the line of Jamison Ward with Jeffries. Your line is open.

Hey, guys. Congrats on another strong result. And thanks for the extra visibility with the five-year look on CapEx and on CED, which I'll maybe build off Gabe's question here. With the favourable Treasury guidelines and then, of course, all the planned investment safe harbors, what's the realistic deployment timeline? It's probably the most common inbound question we get. But as we think about that pipeline, how should we model the earnings cadence?

So for the investments, you know, we've got the capital plan that we put out there, you know, certainly, you know, I just talked about it with Gabe, you know, from a policy perspective, you know, we believe that, you know, there's going to be a lot of pressure to add as much capacity to the grid as possible. and that's favorable, you know, for our business. If you look at the amount of, you know, safe Harvard projects we have, especially over the next, you know, two years, we've got, you know, projects that are safe Harvard that are far in excess of what we need in our capital plan. So you've got some ability to accelerate that. But the capital plan that we have, you know, is the most accurate picture of what we're going to be able to achieve. And I think looking at that, you know, you can take your guidance from there.

That's terrific. I'll skip S&T because, yeah, it was a very thorough answer before. I'll just ask one more quick one on CEV and then on the overall plan. So as we think about SREX, TREX, et cetera, what's the weighted average contract life? How should we be thinking about the timeframe? That's the second most common question we get, and it's CEV-related. I think you're going to find a lot less questions after this deck. So thanks for all the information, but I'll just ask that one.

So you say from a time-related perspective that, you know, the amount of time allotted to, you know, kind of T-Rex and S-Rex and how long they live? What's the – I'm trying to get to the specifics of what you're asking.

Yeah, so just at a high level. So we model, like, a roll-off over the next few years, and the question that we get is just how confident are you in, you know, basically the numbers that you've got there. So we're just looking for a very high level, just a weighted average life remaining, right? Because, of course, the S-Rex sort of trimmed down or tailored down over the last few years. You're going to have S&T, which you were speaking to earlier, obviously doubling and picking up a lot of that slack there. So just a quick question on that and then one on the overall 2030 CapEx plan.

So I'll talk about solar just from a kind of a broader perspective. you know we just talked about it was the quickest way to bring you know capacity to the market you can see the capital that we're able to deploy over the next two years you know being significant and uh and you know potentially you know maybe be able to accelerate with certain you know policy adjustments um the you know process we have you know we've got the schedule for you know t-rex and s-rex everybody knows you know the longevity of those um i would also add that as infrastructure becomes harder to build, you know, each of these facilities, you've got the ability to, you know, repower, put in battery. You've already got an interconnect that's there as well. You've got, you know, kind of increases in, you know, class one recs, you know, that have been happening over time. So speaking to just the long-term value of these facilities, as we need more capacity, it's not going to be constructive to retire capacity. So there's going to be some expectation that you continue to operate these facilities and moving forward, and then how do you make improvement to view this as a long-term business, you know, one that's, you know.

Quick. You know, I think actually I'm good on the 4.8 to 5.2 through 2030 as well as I put through here. I was going to ask one on affordability, but I saw your slides toward the end of the deck in the appendix there. You don't want to throw it out because it's the other, as a final question, it's the other one we get. Of course, just given everything in New Jersey, you spoke to it in the prepared remarks you've got some great slides here but anything else you'd want to add as we think about the next rate case um of course you just got new rates november of 24 but as we look ahead um how should we think about your affordability efforts in new jersey specifically and that's that's it for me thank you uh thanks jameson so you know you know natural gas is the cheapest way that you can keep your home in business so we like our position when the affordability, you know, conversation comes up, you know, and, you know, like you said in the presentation, you know, we've got energy efficiency programs in Save Green.

We're able to save, you know, customers money as well. And, you know, we look forward to working with the new administration and seeing ways that we can, you know, keep the affordability story going from our company and, you know, helping our customers reduce costs as much as possible.

Terrific. Thank Thanks, James.

Question comes from the line of Eli Josen with JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning. Just wanted to start on the EPS growth outlook, seeing some kind of drivers within the Leap River storage capacity and overall S&T earnings upside.

Are there any kind of headwinds elsewhere in the business to keep the growth rate largely the same possible decline in CEV contributions, or can you just kind of frame tailwinds and headwinds for the overall range thanks yeah i'd say that you know we're an energy infrastructure energy services company and this uh country needs more energy um so we're going to make investments in order to grow that and you know you can see that reflected in our capital program so uh you know it's all it's all positive at this point and uh and you know we're at this point just looking to, you know, execute upon that plan in order to increase, you know, our earnings going forward. So, you know, confident in all those things.

Got it. Maybe just to frame it differently, is there sort of material upside from this S&T business within the growth range should you execute on some of the projects that you outlined?

I mean, there's always upside in our business. You know, we're the same business that we were last year and the year before, and we've always been able to grab some upside um in these markets you know we certainly um you know kind of normalize our expectations on a yearly basis um you know there's an ability to accelerate you know any of these infrastructure projects you know given the right you know policy initiatives so there's always an ability to upside um but you know we put together a plan that we believe is executable and uh um you know um and we hope for the best so hopefully some of those things will come through and we'll be able to execute, you know, maybe more quickly.

Great. All right. I'll leave it there. Thanks. Thanks, Julian.

And as a reminder, it is star one if you would like to ask a question. And our next question comes from the line of Travis Miller with Morningstar. Your line is open.

Good morning, guys. Thank you. Kind of a combined question here on Slides 8 and 9. how much of that increase from fiscal 2025 to 27 on 8 is the adelphia rate case versus the recontracting and leaf river and then going to slide nine is that capacity expansion trajectory also earnings trajectory i guess the you know the crux in both of those is the recontracting element So, first, that split between the Adelphia rate case and the recontracting, and then is the recontracting an extra above that capacity addition? Does that make sense?

Split it out. But, you know, there's probably, you know, more coming from the East River recontracting. I have to check those numbers. But, you know, the bottom line is that, you know, for existing assets and no capital investment, you know, we've been able to double the earnings, you know, coming from those assets. And that's really, you know, you know, driven by better contracts, higher contracts, you know, coming from the customers. So, you know, great story. You know, as far as, you know, looking at your forward growth opportunities, you know, you know, you're seeing, you know, the beginning of, you know, expansion at Leaf River. We didn't talk about it, but, you know, you still got the ability to expand a little bit at Adeltea Gateway and add more customers in that pipeline as well. So, you know, depending on how far, you know, this market goes, and I believe it is going to go far where it's going to need more and more, you know, energy and, you know, expansion of organic infrastructure, you know, it's hard to determine where it will stop, right? But certainly because we've got existing assets, we're able to expand them. And we're also able to make, you know, the investments that you see, at least in the short term. And then, you know, I would guess it's going to continue in the longer term.

Okay. Is that recontracting assumption based on today's rates at 27, that 20 cents decatherm that you mentioned? Or is there another assumption you're making on the recontracting?

No, it's not assumption, Travis. These are contracts that we have in hand. So these aren't estimates of what forward value are. These are, you know, contracts that we've got signed in our hands, you know. Okay.

Now, one high-level question. With all the capex you have and, obviously, the Leaf River, et cetera, how much capacity might you have to do more M&A in organic growth, either logistical, operational, or financial?

Yeah. I mean, you know, we're always looking to, you know, kind of bolt-on acquisitions and things that happen or, you know, assets that are available. You know, we're building these businesses, so, you know, if something comes along and it happens to fit and it fits organically, you know, we take a look at it. So we've got the capacity, you know, on our balance sheet, and, you know, we like these businesses, the infrastructure business, so, you know, we'll continue to pursue it like we have in the past.

Okay, great. I appreciate all the thoughts.

And ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our question and answer session. I will now turn the conference back over to Adam Pryor for closing remarks.

Thanks, Abby, and I'd like to thank all of you for joining us. As always, we appreciate your interest in investment in NJR and look forward to talking to all of you at Utility Week in a couple of weeks. And thanks so much. Have a good rest of your day.

This concludes today's call, and we thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.