Brian Valentine
Analyst · Stephens Inc
Thanks, Pat. We're now turning to our fourth quarter results on Slide #5. In the fourth quarter of 2020, the company reported net income attributable to The Andersons of $16 million or $0.48 per diluted share and adjusted net income of $19.4 million or $0.59 per diluted share on revenues of $2.5 billion. In the fourth quarter of 2019, we reported net income attributable to the company of $6.6 million or $0.19 per diluted share and adjusted net income of $18.4 million or $0.55 per diluted share on revenues of $1.9 billion. Adjusted pretax income attributable to the company increased $4.8 million year-over-year as a sizable increase in trade's performance and lower corporate expenses more than offset a small loss in Ethanol that was driven by a $6.6 million noncash mark-to-market charge, as Pat mentioned earlier. Adjusted EBITDA attributable to the company was $85 million in the fourth quarter of 2020, which was comparable to 2019 despite the impacts of the pandemic on our 2020 results. For the full year 2020, net income attributable to The Andersons was $7.7 million or $0.23 per diluted share and adjusted net income attributable to The Andersons was $2.9 million or $0.09 per diluted share on revenues of $8.2 billion. These numbers compare to reported net income of $18.3 million earned in the same period of 2019 or $0.55 per diluted share and adjusted net income attributable to the company of $43 million or $1.30 per diluted share on revenues of $8.2 billion. The year-over-year decline was largely driven by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our Ethanol business. This was offset in part by significantly better performance in our Plant Nutrient segment and considerably lower corporate expenses driven by our cost savings initiatives. Full year adjusted EBITDA was $226 million compared to 2019 full year adjusted EBITDA of $254 million. Our full year 2020 reported effective tax rate of 42% included the effects of $14.8 million in CARES Act tax benefits. Those benefits resulted in more than $39 million in tax refund requests, most of which we expect to receive in 2021. We currently believe that our 2021 effective income tax rate will be in the range of 24% to 26%, excluding the tax impact of income from the noncontrolling interest. Now we'll move on to a review of each of our 4 businesses, beginning with Trade on Slide 6. Trade reported pretax income of $28.3 million and adjusted pretax income of $29.3 million compared to a pretax loss of $19.9 million and adjusted pretax income of $17.6 million in the same period of 2019. Fourth quarter 2019 adjusted pretax income excluded approximately $40 million in asset impairment charges. Income from merchandising grains, feed products and all other commodities was strong compared to fourth quarter 2019 results due to increased market volatility. Strong export demand improved elevation margins across our network to levels not seen since 2014. Trade had adjusted EBITDA for the quarter of $45.8 million compared to adjusted EBITDA of $37.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2019. For the full year 2020, Trade recorded adjusted EBITDA of $95.5 million compared to $123.4 million for the full year of 2019. Moving to Slide 7. Ethanol reported a fourth quarter pretax loss attributable to the company of $3.5 million compared to adjusted fourth quarter 2019 pretax income attributable to the company of $8.1 million. Margins were considerably lower due to increasing corn costs that were not completely offset by higher ethanol prices. Ethanol's fourth quarter results also reflect a $6.6 million noncash mark-to-market adjustment on our forward positions. As a positive, income from high-protein feed and corn oil sales as well as Ethanol trading results were higher year-over-year. Ethanol recorded EBITDA of $16.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2020 compared with $25.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2019. Turning to Slide 8. The Plant Nutrient business recorded adjusted pretax income of $3.2 million in the fourth quarter, down slightly from $3.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2019. For the full year, Plant Nutrient recorded pretax income of $16 million, which was nearly double the 2019 result. Volumes were up more than 20% for the quarter and 15% for the full year. Plant Nutrient's EBITDA for the quarter was $10.8 million, down slightly from the fourth quarter of 2019. For the full year, adjusted EBITDA was $47.2 million, which was up 12%, primarily due to favorable weather during both the spring and fall application seasons, enabling increased fertilizer sales volumes. Turning to Slide 9. The Rail business earned adjusted pretax income of $2 million in the fourth quarter compared with pretax earnings of $4.5 million last year. The year-over-year change was driven by lower income from car sales. Rail recorded adjusted EBITDA of $13.5 million for the quarter compared with EBITDA of $17.6 million for the fourth quarter of 2019. For the full year 2020, Rail recorded EBITDA of $55.7 million compared to $65.7 million in 2019. Before Pat returns for his closing remarks, I'd like to comment briefly on some of our accomplishments in generating cash, ensuring adequate liquidity, managing capital spending and reducing our long-term debt. We generated $74.6 million and $73 million in cash from operations before working capital changes during the fourth quarters of 2020 and 2019, respectively. For the full year, we produced cash from operations before working capital changes of $200.9 million and $192.6 million in 2020 and 2019, respectively. Working capital, readily marketable inventory and short-term debt, each increased year-over-year, primarily due to higher commodity prices. Earlier this month, we amended our primary credit agreement to increase our short-term borrowing capacity by $250 million. These funds provide additional liquidity to support the recent and potential future increases in commodity prices. We spent $16.6 million net of proceeds from asset sales on capital projects during the fourth quarter and $86.8 million for the full year 2020, well beneath the $100 million target we set for the year. By comparison, for the full year 2019, we spent more than $220 million net of proceeds from asset sales on capital projects. We expect our total 2021 capital spending to be in the range of $100 million to $125 million, with approximately 60% of that amount spent on maintenance capital. We also will continue to evaluate growth projects that require spending in excess of currently planned amounts where returns exceed our hurdle rates. Long-term debt decreased by almost $100 million during 2020. We remain focused on reducing our long-term debt by an additional $200 million to $250 million and achieving our targeted long-term debt-to-EBITDA ratio of less than 2.5x by the end of 2023. And with that, I'd now like to turn things back to Pat for some comments on his early views about 2021.