California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Marty Kropelnicki: Yes, good question, Jonathan. Obviously, we keep our payout ratio pegged within a certain band. Clearly, it’s just uncertainty right now, right? We’re pinning the right case. We are pinning the cap structure. And we think one of the most important things we do as a company, besides serving customers is getting the capital on the ground, right? That’s the benefits for stockholders as we’re rolling out rate base. And so given the uncertainty that we’ve seen at the Commission, we thought it was more prudent to have a lower dividend increase this year. And keep plowing that capital back into the ground. And obviously, as things change, we’ll reevaluate that, we’ve increased the dividend every year for the past 70 some odd years. I don’t see us kind of changing directions from something like that. But we just felt it was time to be a little bit conservative until we get through these two hurdles here with the California Public Utilities Commission.

Jonathan Reeder: Okay. Thanks for that. And then, just lastly, that Lake Section, New Mexico acquisition, is there anything that you can disclose in terms of the purchase price? Or associated rate base amount there? And is that a deal that you expect to close in 2023?

Marty Kropelnicki: We think it’ll close in 2023. Obviously, we haven’t filed it yet, with the New Mexico Public Utilities Commission. When we do, we’ll be able to talk more about the purchase price. But I will say this, and Jonathan how we are from a business development standpoint. We are value buyers. We’re not interested in buying something that three, four- or five-times rate base, right? We look at the cost per connection. We look at how much headroom or availability there is to invest in that system, to bring them up to our standards, et cetera. So keep in mind when we look at all our business development efforts. We have a pretty strong value slant on how we buy things. So I think once we file the application with the Commission, we’ll be able to talk more about it.

But until then, I really can’t say what the purchase price is. Other than I would say it’s not material, it’s a 5000-connection system. It’s not really big numbers here that are going on really kind of density thing.

Operator: Our final question comes from the line of Davis Sunderland from Baird. Please proceed.

Davis Sunderland: I wanted to ask about visibility into the current supply chain environment. I know you guys mentioned maybe having an impact that was greater last quarter than this quarter. It sounds like you overcame some difficulties, but just wanted to ask maybe specifically on lead times for lead piping or anything else significant. And if you think that’s going to have any impact on the capital investment this year? And then, I have a brief follow up.

Marty Kropelnicki: Sure. Well, I think I got supply chain tattooed on my arm, which has been a key focus of what I worked on with the procurement team and the engineering team throughout the last two years. First, we’re not buying any lead pipe, we just set the record straight, there’s no lead pipe. We have seen substantial changes in lead time requirements for ductile iron, PVC, et cetera. And those look like they may have peaked in the third to fourth quarter. So ductile iron used to be able to order it, four to six weeks out and you’d be fine in a job site. In some cases, it’s up to a year lead time now. So part of what happens behind that, and I’ve met with a majority of our suppliers is, they cannot ramp up production that quickly at their plant sites.