Good morning, and welcome to The Laclede Group First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Scott Dudley. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and welcome to our earnings conference call for the first quarter of fiscal 2013. Earlier this morning, we issued a news release announcing our financial results, and that release is available on our website at thelacledegroup.com under the News Releases tab. Today's call is scheduled for about an hour and will include a discussion of our results followed by a question-and-answer session. Prior to opening the call to questions, the operator will repeat the instructions on how to join the queue to ask a question. On the call today are Suzanne Sitherwood, President and CEO of The Laclede Group; and Mark Waltermire, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, who will each have some remarks on the quarter. Due to Suzanne being a bit under the weather this morning, Mary Kullman, our Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, will deliver the remarks that Suzanne prepared for today's call. Also in the room with us are Steve Lindsey, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Distribution Operations; Mike Spotanski, Senior Vice President and Chief Integration and Innovation Officer; and Steve Rasche, Senior Vice President of Finance and Accounting. Before we begin, let me cover our Safe Harbor statement and use of a non-GAAP earnings measure. Today's earnings conference call, including responses during the Q&A session, may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Our forward-looking statements speak only as of today, and we assume no duty to update them. Although our forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, various uncertainties and risk factors may cause future performance or results to be different than those anticipated. A description of the uncertainties and risk factors can be found in our annual report on Form 10-K and our quarterly report on Form 10-Q, which will be filed later today. In our comments on the call today, we will be discussing financial results in terms of net economic earnings, a non-GAAP measure used by management when evaluating the company's performance. Net economic earnings exclude from net income the after-tax impacts of fair value accounting and timing adjustments associated with energy-related transactions and costs related to acquisition. A full explanation of the adjustments and a reconciliation of net income to net economic earnings are contained in the news release we issued this morning. With that, I will turn the call over to Mary.

Thank you, Scott, and let me add my welcome to those who've joined us this morning. Earlier today, we announced improved operating results for our fiscal 2013 first quarter, which ended December 31. I'm pleased to note that overall, we posted a good quarter to start off the year, achieving higher earnings on both a net income and net economic earnings basis compared to last year. Our gas utility results were up, thanks to more normal weather and lower expenses. And gas marketing continued to deliver solid performance despite market conditions that remained somewhat challenging. I'll ask Mark to cover our results and financial condition in more detail, but I would like to take a few moments to discuss our performance in the broader context of our overall strategy and operational focus. At last week's annual meeting, I had the opportunity to update shareholders on our achievements and progress in moving the company onward as we pursue the many opportunities ahead of us. Since becoming CEO just over a year ago, my message has been consistent. As a company, we will be focused on the things that matter. Serving our customers well, reliably and safely, growing our company, delivering solid financial performance and positioning the Laclede Group to be even more successful in the future. On our earnings call last quarter, I talked about our strategic imperatives. I know we've outlined them before, but I want to reiterate them today because it is important to view our performance and achievements through the lens of the priorities we established: developing and investing in emerging technologies; achieving organic growth through investments in our infrastructure; acquiring businesses that fit our operating model; and leveraging our competencies. As I probably noted at the annual meeting, we have been successful in delivering against our strategy…

Thank you, Mary, and good morning, everyone. As we noted in our earnings release, we're indeed off to a positive start for fiscal 2013, and I want to review these results with you and provide an update on our recent regulatory filings and our progress in securing financing for our acquisitions of MGE and Negasco. First, let's turn to our operating results for the first quarter of fiscal 2013. You'll see in our news release and in our Form 10-Q to be filed later today that we have simplified the descriptions of our 2 main business segments. Our Gas Utility segment, formerly the Regulated Gas Distribution business, includes the utility operations of Laclede Gas at present and, going forward, will include the post-closing results of MGE and Negasco. Our other major segment has been renamed Gas Marketing. It includes our non-regulated gas marketing operations of Laclede Energy Resources, or LER. We believe these designations more clearly reflect the operations of our 2 main business segments and how we think about them. Turning to our results for the first quarter. The Laclede Group posted net income of $25.6 million or $1.14 per share -- per diluted share, up from $25.2 million or $1.12 per share last year. Excluding acquisition costs and fair value accounting adjustments, we posted consolidated net economic earnings of $1.25 per share this year, up 13% from last year. This improved performance was driven by increased earnings from the gas utility. During the quarter, we incurred pretax costs associated with our pending acquisition totaling $3.6 million, which had an after-tax impact of $0.10 per share. These costs were principally related to due diligence and professional fees associated with our successful bid to acquire MGE and Negasco that we announced in December. Acquisition-related costs are required to be expensed…

Thank you, Mark. Last quarter, I spoke about work underway to pursue another of our growth strategies, investing in emerging technologies with an initial focus on natural gas fueling stations. Last Thursday, we announced the launch of an exciting initiative called Spire to deliver natural gas fueling solutions. This is a homegrown enterprise based on thorough analysis and a wide range of customer input. In collaboration with Siemens, a global powerhouse in the energy industry, we have built a business model that meets the needs of fleet customers pursuing a natural gas fuel alternative to diesel or gasoline. Spire will have its start right here in St. Louis. We are nearing final approval of a contract to build a fueling station at Lambert Airport that will serve both commercial fleet customers and the public. Siemens will provide the design, build and engineering expertise. Laclede will own, operate, maintain and provide the fuel for the station. This initial project will serve as a springboard for other investments in NGV fueling solutions, both in St. Louis and in national markets. We are focused in this area because we believe the opportunity is big. Nationally, natural gas is beginning to be recognized as the country's fuel of choice for a number of reasons. First, natural gas is far and away the cleanest fossil fuel there is. Second, it is more affordable than other fueling options with more than 100 years of supply. And because natural gas is sourced domestically, it offers us national security. Finally, our industry enjoys an enviable record for worker and consumer safety. We are also focused on NGV fueling solutions because it leverages the expertise Laclede Gas has gained for more than 150 years in the natural gas business, including more than 3 decades of experience with natural gas…

[Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from Dan Fidell at U.S. Capitol Advisors.

I appreciate, as always, the call here and the color. Just a few follow-up questions on my side, if -- I guess the first few on a housekeeping point, I guess. Do you have the breakout in terms of the impact for the quarter from ISRS separate from the weather impact? And do you have kind of any kind of particulars in terms of how much weather drove the gain for the quarter?

This is Steve. The interest impact for the quarter was a little bit over $1 million, $1.3 million, and the weather was just a little bit less than that, about $1.1 million compared year-on-year, which I think is what you're asking.

Exactly, yes. All right. And then I guess just in more of a general question in terms of the regulatory process. Can you talk a little bit about -- just initially, I know we're only a few weeks in, but just the general reception you're seeing from regulators in both Missouri and Massachusetts and sort of how the meshing of the rate case along with the acquisition approval, how those 2 are kind of meshed together during this process? Is there -- is that kind of a unique way to go through this?

This is Suzanne. I'll take a stab as long as I have a voice, how about that? From a -- the regulatory approval process, as you noted, we filed at the Missouri PSC on January 14 and the Massachusetts Commission on January 24. We also have had initial constructive discussions with those commissions, and we thought those meetings, I guess, they were constructive. In terms of how they mesh, the filing in terms of the rate case filing, as you know, we'd have to file that case at least every 3 years, so that was just coincident of the timing. And so we don't see -- we've had that filing before. We don't see any distractions regarding the acquisition filing itself. We've filed other interest filings in the past, and the commission -- and the company has dealt with those collectively.

Great. Just in terms of the timing for the remaining piece of the approval process, hearings and such, what are the kind of next important dates as we move forward in the process, specifically in Missouri, I guess?

We don't have -- I'm looking at the team. I don't know if I've missed something here. We don't have a docket defined with the procedural schedule as of yet, but as soon as we have that, that will obviously be posted.

Great. And then maybe just a last question or 2 from me and I'll turn it over, I guess. Can you give us a little bit more color on the CNG JV with Siemens? I think very interesting moving forward, that certainly agree with your take on things in terms of the expansion opportunity here. Can you just give a little bit more color in terms of near-term impact, both from a CapEx standpoint and what you see in terms of an earnings impact kind of near term and longer term?

I'm going to turn it over to Mike, but I wanted to first thank you for your introductory comments. We're pretty excited about Spire, not because it's just something to announce. It's really because of the great work Mike and other -- Siemens have done to really listen to our customers and pull a program together that's going to meet their needs. So that's a bit of my advertisement, I guess, but I'm going to turn it over to Mike to escalate on that.

We, as we've announced, we are working towards a final approval on that Lambert station. This is infrastructure, so it does require a capital investment upfront. There will be some capital requirements, although there are some equipment lead times that will lag that capital investment somewhat. So we anticipate slow but continued growth initially. We've got a couple other prospects that we're looking at currently that we're not ready to talk about yet. But in terms of earnings, the earnings will come a little bit later in the station life, as initially we take care of some of those first expenses right out -- the first year out of the box. Again, it's dependent upon how quickly we grow and how much we grow. We'll look at a relative slow, measured growth initially as we get the collaboration set up.

The other point, Mike, in terms of these stations because they are fleet, we are looking for anchor tenants for those stations, and Mike mentioned other customers that they're looking at. So we don't plan on just going out and building stations and hope that they will come. We've got a very methodical process.

Sure. Was that kind of what you intimated in your -- the talking points about a potential large market opportunity sort of that you're working on now?

Yes, it is.

[Operator Instructions] And our next question comes from Selman Akyol at Stifel.

On your other operation expense line, it came down from the previous year, also came in below our estimates. And I was wondering if you could provide any color there?

Selman, this is Steve. The operating results for the quarter are really a continuation of the trend that we've seen over the last couple of years as we've been working real hard to improve our operating efficiency. Specific for this quarter, we saw a reduction in several key operating expense categories, some of the hard costs. Distribution and maintenance in total was down a little bit. In addition, our bad debt expense was down a little bit. That's reflective as much with the lower commodity costs as it is with the efforts we continue to deploy in that area. And then finally, I would add that the increased capital spend allows us to capitalize a little bit more of our overhead, and so that helped to reduce the overall O&M -- net O&M number that you're focusing on.

On the $115 million for 2013. I think previously you had said roughly half of that you expected to be recovered under interest?

Yes. Actually, about $62 million of the $115 million we would anticipate being recoverable under interest.

And then going back to Spire, first of all, when do you expect that station to come up and running?

The Lambert station we expect some time during the first half of fiscal 2014.

Okay. And then as you look about in moving into other, and I'm not necessarily sure, markets, if that's correct, would you continue to anticipate owning and operating all of these stations? Or would you just want to be a supplier of the natural gas? Can you talk a little bit about how you see merging this?

Our business model is that to the extent that, that's the customers' desire, that they want to preserve their capital, and we'll be willing to finance those stations for them, as well as do the design build in our collaboration with Siemens. So we would propose under that business model with the anchor tenant on the fleets that we're able to attain that we would own and operate those stations.

Okay. And then, I guess I'm also intrigued about your comments, Suzanne, on the first or last mile of pipe coming in. Can you give me more discussions around that?

Yes, Selman, I would be happy to. Our belief there is high, on the interstate pipeline grid, that there's not necessarily a desire to move certain supply into the grid or to run a piece of pipe to meet a certain customer's needs. It could be a power generator or a large manufacturing company or a small town, as an example, and so we're constantly evaluating those customers that have a potential to have natural gas delivered to them. And so if there is that opportunity, we're willing to run that economic analysis and provide that last mile of pipe, either to the customer or that first mile of pipe to get supply into the grid.

Mr. Winter, please go ahead with your question.

On the regulatory front, the merger filing, I was wondering if you guys addressed synergies at all in that filing, and if so, how?

Yes, we -- this is Suzanne, and somebody else can chime in if they want to add any color to it. But we did not. As it's very early in the process, so to try to analyze and put forward a specific number on synergies in the time of that is just not practical. We don't have enough data to be able to do that. Mike and his team, they've -- he started the team developments, and they're in the process now of starting to do some of that work. It's just too early yet, Tim.

Okay. And on the Missouri properties that you're acquiring, what sort of ROE are you seeing there as of year end?

This is Steve. I'm not sure that the year end numbers for MGE are yet available. But I will tell you that if you look back over the last couple of years, MGE has improved their earned ROE and it was really close to their authorized ROE for the last fiscal year, which would have been calendar 2011, as I recall.

[Operator Instructions] Seeing no further questions, I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Dudley for closing remarks.

Great. And thank you, everyone, for joining us today. If you have any other follow-ups, we'll be in the office to take those questions. Thanks again.

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.