UGI Corporation (NYSE:UGI) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript November 17, 2023 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Tameka Morris - SD, IR

Roger Perreault - President, CEO

Sean O'Brien - CFO

Robert Beard - COO

Conference Call Participants

Gabriel Moreen - Mizuho

Cameron Taylor - Bank of America

Sarah Akers - Wells Fargo

Michael Gaugler - Janney Montgomery Scott

Operator

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the UGI Corporation’s Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

I would now like to hand the conference over to your host today, Tameka Morris, Senior Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Tameka Morris

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our fiscal 2023 fourth quarter earnings call. With me today are Roger Perreault, President and CEO; Sean O'Brien, CFO; and Bob Beard, COO.

On today's call we will review our financial results and some notable performance highlights for the year, discuss the strategic priorities and financial outlook for fiscal 2024, and conclude with a question-and-answer session.

Before we begin, let me remind you that our comments today include certain forward-looking statements, which management believes to be reasonable as of today's date only. Actual results may differ significantly, because of risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Please read our earnings release and our most recent annual and quarterly reports for an extensive list of factors that could affect results. We assume no duties to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that are different from expectations.

We will also describe our business using certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these measures to the comparable GAAP measures are available within our presentation.

Now, I'm pleased to turn the call over to Roger.

Roger Perreault

Thank you, Tameka, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate your interest in joining our call today. Fiscal 2023 was a year where we continued to see uncertainty in the macroeconomic environment, particularly with high interest rates and elevated inflation levels. Across most of our service territory, weather was significantly warmer than normal and we experienced challenges within our global LPG businesses, largely due to operational headwinds at AmeriGas and energy conservation, in Europe.

Against that backdrop, UGI reported adjusted diluted earnings per share of $2.84 for the fiscal year. The Utilities and Midstream & Marketing segments delivered record earnings and an 8% growth in EBIT over the prior year. This performance was aided by the weather normalization rider that was implemented in the fiscal first quarter and the higher gas base rates at our Pennsylvania gas utility, as well as incremental earnings for the prior year acquisitions of UGI Moraine East and Pennant.