Q1 2024 Via Renewables Inc Earnings Call

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Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the via Renewables, Inc. First quarter 'twenty 'twenty four earnings Conference call. My name is Paul and I will be your operator for today.

If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference. Please press star zero on your telephone keypad.

As a reminder, this conference is being recorded for replay purposes, and this call will be posted via renewable Inc's website I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Steven Rabalais with via renewable. Please go ahead.

Stephen Rabalais: Thank you.

Stephen Rabalais: Good morning, and welcome to Veer Renewables first quarter 2024 earnings call. This call is also being broadcast via webcast, which can be located in the Investor Relations section of our website at Zia renewables Dot com with US today from management is our CEO, Keith Maxwell and our CFO Michael Ross.

Stephen Rabalais: Please note that today's discussion may contain forward looking statements, which are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of this date.

Actual results may differ materially.

Stephen Rabalais: We urge everyone to review the Safe Harbor statement in yesterday's earnings release as well as the risk factors in our SEC filings. We undertake no obligation to update these statements as a result of future events, except as required by law.

Stephen Rabalais: In addition, we will refer to both GAAP and non-GAAP finance.

Stephen Rabalais: For information regarding our non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. Please refer to yesterday's earnings release with.

Stephen Rabalais: With that I'll turn the call Keith Maxwell our skill.

Keith Maxwell: Steven I want to walk everyone through today's call I'll begin by providing a summary of results first quarter.

Keith Maxwell: And then our CFO, Mike Rural Hospital will provide more details on the financials.

Keith Maxwell: In the first quarter, we reported adjusted EBITDA of $15 $1 million, which is a $3 $7 million a decrease from the prior year of 18 $8 million.

Speaker Change: Due to lower unit margins compounded by the mild weather, which resulted in lower gas volumes on.

Speaker Change: On a positive note we grew our customer book to 338000, <unk> compared to 335000.

Speaker Change: Our CS at the start of.

Speaker Change: The year.

Speaker Change: <unk> also increased the percentage of our customer base, our markets, which compared to the first quarter of 2023, which lowers our credit risk and bad debt exposure.

Speaker Change: Looking forward to our second quarter, we're happy to announce that we entered into an agreement to acquire approximately 12500 <unk> in our existing markets. This acquisition will be accretive to our bottom line beginning in the second quarter of this year. This marks our first customer for acquisitions since the end of 2022.

Stephen Rabalais: And we will continue to be open to any potential future tuck in acquisitions.

Stephen Rabalais: And we are committed to growing our customer base in line with long term growth strategies that concludes my prepared remarks, and now I'll turn the call over to Mike for his financial review.

Mike: Thanks, Keith Good morning in the first quarter, we achieved $15 $1 million and adjusted EBITDA compared to last year's first quarter of $18 $8 million.

Mike: Retail gross margin for the quarter was $35 $7 million compared with $43 million last year.

Mike: In our retail electricity segment gross margin was $18 $9 million compared to $25 million in the first quarter last year.

Mike: The decreased due to lower unit margins, partially offset by higher volumes due to a higher RC he can.

Stephen Rabalais: And our retail natural gas segment gross margin was $16 $2 million compared to $19 $9 million in the first quarter of last year.

Stephen Rabalais: This was due to both lower unit margins and volumes year over year.

Stephen Rabalais: G&A expenses were $17 $3 million compared to $17 2 million in the first quarter last year, primarily due to increased sales and marketing expenses and legal fees.

Stephen Rabalais: This was partially offset by a reduction in bad debt.

Stephen Rabalais: We ended the quarter at 338000, <unk> compared to 339000 <unk> to end the first quarter of 2023 and up from 335000 or <unk> on December 31 2023.

Stephen Rabalais: Our attrition was three 9%, which remained flat compared to the first quarter of 2023 due to lower attrition in our mass market book offset by an uptick in commercial attrition.

Stephen Rabalais: Our net income for the quarter was $19 $1 million or income of $1 81 per fully diluted share.

Stephen Rabalais: Compared to a net loss of $6 8 million or a loss of $1.26 per fully diluted share for the first quarter of 2023.

Stephen Rabalais: The increase was mainly due to an increase in the mark to market on our hedges that we put in place to lock in margins on our retail contracts.

Stephen Rabalais: We had a mark to market gain this quarter of $11 $2 million compared to a mark to market loss of $22 $6 million a year ago.

Stephen Rabalais: We also had reductions in net asset optimization, depreciation and interest expenses of $1 4 million one $3 million.

Stephen Rabalais: And $800000 respectively.

Stephen Rabalais: The increase in net income was partially offset by a decrease in retail gross margin and increases in income tax and G&A expenses.

Stephen Rabalais: Income tax expense increased to $4 $8 million in the first quarter of 2024 compared to a benefit of $2 million in 2023.

Stephen Rabalais: On April 15th we paid the quarterly cash dividends on our series a preferred stock on April 17th we declared a dividend in the amount of 76.051 cents per share on a preferred stock to be paid on July 15th.

Speaker Change: That's all I have.

Speaker Change: Thanks, Mike I want to thank our employees and the care and the dedication to growing and supporting via and to our suppliers and their continued support I want to thank our customers for choosing us as their energy provider.

Speaker Change: We are excited about the future if we look forward to connecting with you soon on our next call.

Speaker Change: This concludes today's conference you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

Speaker Change: Okay.

Speaker Change: Okay.

Speaker Change: Yes.

Speaker Change: Yes.