Northwest Natural Holding Company (NYSE:NWN) Q2 2023 Earnings Conference Call August 3, 2023 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Nikki Sparley - Director of IR and Treasury

David Anderson - CEO

Brody Wilson - CFO, VP, Treasurer, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer

Kimberly Heiting - SVP of Operations & CMO

Justin Palfreyman - SVP of Strategy & Business Development

Conference Call Participants

Selman Akyol - Stifel

Operator

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the NW Natural Holdings Company Q2 2023 Earnings. [Operator Instructions]

I'd now like to hand over to Nikki Sparley to begin. Nikki, please go ahead.

Nikki Sparley

Thank you, Sach. Good morning, and welcome to our second quarter 2023 earnings call. As a reminder, some statements that will be said this morning contain forward-looking statements. They are based on management's assumptions, which may or may not occur. For a complete list of cautionary statements, refer to the language at the end of our press release.

We expect to file our 10-Q later today. As mentioned, this teleconference is being recorded and will be available on our website following the call. Please note, these calls are designed for the financial community. If you are an investor and have additional questions after the call, please contact me directly at (503) 721-2530. News media may contact David Roy at (503) 610-71-57.

Speaking this morning are David Anderson, Chief Executive Officer; and Brody Wilson, CFO, Vice President, Treasurer, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer. David and Brody have prepared remarks and then will be available, along with other members of our executive team, to answer your questions.

With that, I will turn it over to David.

David Anderson

Well, thank you, Nikki, and good morning, and welcome, everybody.

We continue to see strong financial results that are in line with our expectations and the guidance that we provided earlier this year. Brody will go through the detailed results here in a moment. This morning, I'll walk through a few economic indicators and some decarbonization initiatives at the gas utility, and then I'll wrap up with an update on our Water Company and our Renewables Company.

Turning to a few comments on the local economy. Related to our gas utility service territory, Oregon's unemployment rate was 3.5% in June, coming down from the 4.4% we saw in March of this year, and is now on par with the national rate of 3.6%. Oregon's real GDP growth was 3.8% for the first quarter of 2023, which is the latest available data. Oregon had the ninth highest real GDP growth among the states. Over the last 12 months as interest rates have risen, permits, home sales and average home prices have declined a little bit.