Alliance Resource Partners, L.P. (ARLP) Q2 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Greetings, and welcome to the Alliance Resource Partners Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Cary Marshall, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Thank you, sir. You may begin.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and welcome, everyone. Earlier today, Alliance Resource Partners released its second quarter 2026 financial and operating results. We will review the quarter, discuss our outlook for the remainder of 2026 and then open the call to answer your questions. Before beginning, a reminder that some of our remarks today may include forward-looking statements, which are subject to a variety of risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained in our filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission and are also reflected in this morning's press release. While these forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to us, if one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize or if our underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those we projected or expected. In providing these remarks, the partnership has no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless required by law to do so. Finally, we will also be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures. Definitions and reconciliations of the differences between these non-GAAP financial measures and the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are contained at the end of ARLP's press release, which has been posted on our website and furnished to the SEC on Form 8-K. With that, I will begin with a review of our second quarter 2026 results, expand on our recently closed Oil & Gas Royalties acquisition and discuss our updated guidance for 2026 before turning the call over to Joe Craft, our Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, for his comments. Overall, results for the second quarter of 2026, which we refer to as the 2026 quarter, were higher on a year-over-year and sequential basis. Compared to the prior year, which we refer to as the 2025 quarter, total revenues increased to $551.6 million, net income attributable to ARLP increased 33.9% to $79.6 million or $0.61 per basic and diluted limited partner unit and adjusted EBITDA increased 14.7% to $185.7 million. Compared to the first quarter of 2026, which we refer to as the sequential quarter, total revenues increased 6.9%, net income increased $70.5 million and adjusted EBITDA increased 19.8%. These results were driven primarily by higher coal sales volumes, improved coal operating cost performance, record results from our Oil & Gas Royalties segment and higher income from our equity method investments, with net income comparisons also affected by impairment charges recorded in the prior periods. Turning to our Coal Operations segment. Total coal sales volumes were 8.6 million tons in the 2026 quarter, up 2.1% compared to the 2025 quarter and up 8.9% compared to the sequential quarter. Total coal production was 8.2 million tons, up 1.5% year-over-year and 3% sequentially. Segment adjusted EBITDA from Coal Operations was $151.7 million, up 6.9% year-over-year and 21.3% sequentially. Our average coal sales price per ton was $54.87 in the 2026 quarter, down 5.3% year-over-year and 2.7% sequentially, reflecting the expected roll-off of higher-priced legacy contracts at Tunnel Ridge and a lower percentage of Mettiki sales in Appalachia. Segment adjusted EBITDA expense per ton was $38.68, improving 6.3% year-over-year and 6.6% sequentially. This cost improvement was a key contributor to the quarter's stronger coal operating results and reflects the significant investments we have made in our mines over the past few years to ensure they can operate efficiently and at lower costs. In the Illinois Basin, coal sales volumes were 6.4 million tons, down 4.5% year-over-year and up 4.9% sequentially. Our River View complex delivered strong productivity and sales performance, helping partially offset lower Hamilton shipments associated with our planned extended longwall move during the 2026 quarter. Illinois Basin coal sales price per ton was $51.87, up modestly year-over-year and sequentially, while segment adjusted EBITDA expense per ton was $35.99. In Appalachia, coal sales volumes were 2.2 million tons, up 27.6% compared to the 2025 quarter and up 22.3% compared to the sequential quarter, primarily due to increased production at Tunnel Ridge. Appalachia coal sales price per ton declined to $63.57, reflecting the expected roll-off of higher-priced legacy contracts at Tunnel Ridge. One of the most notable highlights in the region was segment adjusted EBITDA expense per ton at $46.22, which improved 29.7% year-over-year and 25.7% sequentially due to higher productivity and improved recoveries at Tunnel Ridge. ARLP ended the 2026 quarter with total coal inventory of 0.8 million tons, down 0.3 million tons from both the 2025 quarter and the sequential quarter. Shifting to our Royalties segments. Total Royalties revenues were $69.3 million, and segment adjusted EBITDA was $51 million in the 2026 quarter. Our Oil & Gas Royalties segment delivered record quarterly revenue of $46.5 million, up 31.1% year-over-year and record segment adjusted EBITDA of $38 million, up 27.2% year-over-year. While BOE volumes of 936,000 were up 6.4% year-over-year and down 8.4% sequentially, higher average realized sales price per BOE was the main driver to the favorable variances during the 2026 quarter, increasing 22.7% year-over-year and 22.1% sequentially. Coal Royalties segment adjusted EBITDA was $13 million, up 9.7% year-over-year and 5.7% sequentially, driven by higher royalty tons sold, primarily from Tunnel Ridge and the River View complex. As it relates to our balance sheet and cash flow, as of June 30, 2026, total debt and finance leases outstanding were $590.2 million, and we had $111.2 million of cash. In anticipation of the closing of the AllDale III and IV acquisition on July 1, we drew $56 million on our revolving credit facility at quarter end to fund part of that purchase price. As a result, our total and net leverage ratios were 0.82x and 0.67x debt to trailing 12 months adjusted EBITDA. We ended the 2026 quarter with total liquidity of $424 million, which also included $312.8 million of borrowings available under our revolving credit facilities. In addition, we held 646 Bitcoins, valued at $37.8 million based upon a Bitcoin price of $58,559 per coin as of June 30, 2026, which was down 14.1% sequentially and resulted in a $6.3 million decrease in the fair value of digital assets and an impact of $0.05 per basic and diluted limited partner unit for the 2026 quarter. For the 2026 quarter, distributable cash flow was $108.2 million, and our distribution coverage ratio was 1.39x, representing a 39% increase compared to the sequential quarter. Turning to our oil and gas minerals acquisition. Subsequent to quarter end, on July 1, 2026, we completed the previously announced acquisition of certain general partner and limited partner interest in AllDale Minerals III, LP and AllDale Minerals IV, LP for $206.2 million, subject to customary post-closing adjustments. As described in our June press release, the transaction implied an aggregate gross valuation for the AllDale III and AllDale IV funds of $410 million and involved the acquisition of $306.2 million of third-party interest across the 2 funds with the difference between the gross valuation and the $306.2 million of third-party interest acquired, reflecting existing interest already owned by ARLP and Craft-related parties. ARLP acquired $206.2 million of the third-party interest, while Craft-related parties separately acquired $100 million of the AllDale III limited partner interest, and both ARLP and the Craft-related parties rolled forward their existing ownership interest. After closing the transaction, Alliance owns and controls 100% of the noneconomic general partner interest and has an approximate 61% economic interest across the 2 funds. ARLP did not acquire interest from the Craft-related parties and the entire transaction structure was reviewed and approved by our Conflicts Committee, which is comprised entirely of independent directors. The net benefit of the transaction structure to ARLP is twofold: First, participation by the Craft-related parties allowed us to complete the acquisition at its full scale while maintaining a disciplined investment level and improving our expected returns on investment capital; and second, it preserves liquidity and financial flexibility for our team to continue advancing our ground game acquisition efforts where we remain active with acquisitions exceeding $15 million in each of the last 3 quarters. We funded our $206.2 million acquisition using a combination of cash on hand, borrowings under our revolving credit facility and a new $150 million term loan at Alliance Minerals, LLC. The term loan has an 18-month maturity, scheduled amortization and bears interest at SOFR plus a pricing grid ranging from 175 to 225 basis points based on the amount of the loan outstanding. Looking forward, we expect to prioritize reducing leverage and maintaining financial flexibility while continuing to evaluate disciplined minerals acquisition opportunities. Turning to our updated 2026 guidance. We are maintaining our overall coal sales volume guidance of 33.75 million to 35.25 million tons, coal sales price guidance of $54 to $56 per ton and total segment adjusted EBITDA expense guidance of $37 to $39 per ton. We view these ranges as balanced, with any upside continuing to depend largely on summer burn activity and the pace of utility inventory draws over the remainder of the year. Contracting activity was a significant positive during the quarter, which Joe will discuss in more detail in a moment. But in short, we're essentially fully committed and priced for 2026 at the midpoint of guidance with strong momentum already building for 2027. In the Oil & Gas Royalties segment, we are increasing full year volume guidance to reflect the AllDale III and IV acquisition beginning in the third quarter of 2026. We now estimate 1.95 million to 2.05 million barrels of oil, 10 million to 10.5 million Mcf of natural gas and 1.1 million to 1.2 million barrels of natural gas liquids for the full year. Because the AllDale III and IV acquisition closed on July 1, 2026, production, revenue and income will be reported on a consolidated basis beginning in the third quarter, with amounts attributable to the Craft-related parties ownership reflected as noncontrolling interest. Combining that interest and the existing noncontrolling interest in Cavalier Minerals JV, our guidance includes an estimated $13 million to $15 million of net income attributable to noncontrolling interest, reflecting 6 months of AllDale III and IV and a full year of Cavalier. Please note, the AllDale III and IV acquisition did include hedges related to oil and gas, so we have also included a summary of the commodity derivatives that were assumed as a part of the acquisition in our earnings release. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Joe for his comments. Joe?

Thank you, Cary, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our call today. Alliance delivered a superb second quarter, highlighted by coal's improved operating performance, record Oil & Gas Royalties results and meaningful commercial transactions, headlined by our minerals acquisitions and another exceptional quarter of booking sales by our marketing team, who secured 21.2 million tons of new commitments. New domestic sales commitments totaled 18.5 million tons, spread out over the next 5 years. There was a brief period of time during the 2026 quarter when export pricing presented attractive opportunities, and we secured 2.7 million tons of export commitments over the 2026 to 2028 time period. On the production side, I want to give a shout out to all of our coal operations teams whose performance was stellar across the board. At Tunnel Ridge, our longwall move from Panel '27 to Panel '28 was the second fastest 1,200-foot face-to-face move in the mine's history, and the operation closed June with its highest shipping month since 2023. Hamilton brought its longwall back online in mid-May and has shown consistent improvements in key operating metrics and recovery yields this month have been at record levels for that coal mine. At our River View complex, strong productivity at both the Henderson mine and the River View mine have positioned us ahead of our internal production targets for both the 2026 quarter and year-to-date. Gibson South and Warrior continued to be steady performers, contributing to our outstanding results in the Illinois Basin. At MC Mining, we moved from a 4-day to a 5-day production schedule on the strength of new business secured by our marketing team, a good example of our commercial and operating teams working in tandem. With 2026 longwall moves behind us and no additional moves expected until 2027, we believe our coal operations are well positioned to meaningfully increase production and cash flow generation during the second half of the year. We also expect to see cost improvements across the portfolio as productivity gains flow through the system and our key mines operate at more normalized run rates. Our strong contracted sales book helped limit the impact of lower domestic coal demand in the first half of this year that was caused by mild weather and lower natural gas prices. As Cary mentioned, we are essentially fully committed at the midpoint of guidance, and we now have 29.4 million tons committed and priced for 2027 delivery. We believe this level of forward commitment reflects both the strategic importance of our coal supply and the confidence customers place in ARLP's ability to deliver. Turning to the broader markets. PJM capacity auction results earlier this month serve as another important reminder of the structural tightness developing in power markets. The 2028/2029 base residual auction cleared at the $325 per megawatt day cap for the third consecutive auction, while total cleared capacity remained well short of PJM's reliability requirement. We believe these results reinforce the value of dispatchable coal-fired generation needed to maintain system reliability. Recent operating conditions have already put that scarcity to the test. On July 1, PJM served a preliminary hourly peak 161.9 gigawatts and had to invoke hot weather maximum generation and load management procedures. It posted another maximum generation alert on July 15, and MISO was under a similar alert that same day with demand above 120 gigawatts. The Department of Energy has continued to lean on its Section 202(c) emergency authority to keep generation available in both markets and separately authorized PJM to draw on backup generation at data centers and other large facilities as an emergency reliability resource. In our view, these events reinforce the point we have been making: As electricity demand grows, the grid needs reliable, dispatchable baseload capacity from all existing resources. Federal policy is also acknowledging that preserving and modernizing existing coal generation can be a faster and more cost-effective way to support reliability. The DOE recently announced up to $500 million of Defense Production Act Title III funding for 13 coal-fired plants, 6 of which we sell to, aimed at improving efficiency and extending plant life. Last week, President Trump announced a major expansion of the voluntary Ratepayer Protection Pledge, which has been signed on to by most electric utilities that serve the data center build-out. The pledge is intended to prevent other electricity ratepayers from bearing the cost of electricity for data centers. Quoting America's Power, "One of the best ways to provide power for data centers is to take advantage of the existing coal fleet." They went on to say, "The existing coal fleet is being underutilized and can generate more of the electricity that is needed by data centers without incurring the cost of new power plants and expensive infrastructure that can take years to build." Turning to Oil & Gas Royalties. The segment delivered another record quarter, and the July 1 closing of the AllDale III and IV acquisition marks the next phase of growth for this platform. With this transaction, our cumulative investment in Oil & Gas Royalties now exceeds $1 billion, a significant milestone in the evolution of this platform. To repeat what I stated when we announced the transaction in June, this acquisition accelerates the continued growth of our Oil & Gas Royalties segment, adds scale and development upside across multiple U.S. basins, is anchored by a meaningful Permian position and expands our natural gas footprint with entry into the Haynesville, a resource play well-positioned to benefit from the long-term LNG export demand growth. We expect this acquisition to be immediately accretive to ARLP's free cash flow per unit, increasing our estimated distributable cash flow per unit by 8% to 9% next year. Looking ahead, our strategic priorities remain unchanged: maintaining a strong, conservatively managed balance sheet, investing with discipline in our core businesses and positioning Alliance for continued growth while delivering attractive after-tax returns to our unitholders. That concludes our prepared comments, and I'll now ask the operator to open the call for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Matthew Key with Texas Capital Securities.

I wanted to start just on capital allocation and how you guys are thinking about it for the remainder of the year. Obviously, you just executed a pretty big acquisition on the Oil & Gas Royalties segment. But I was wondering if there would be more of an appetite for incremental M&A as we progress through the remainder of 2026?

Yes. So in addition to the announcement we made July 1, we did also invest in about $16 million of oil and gas reserves during the quarter, which is, like, I think, the third quarter in a row that we've been able to do ground game acquisitions at that level. So we have included in our plan for the year, given the opportunity to continue that at that pace. We'll continue to look at other deals if they're attractive to us. In the coal space, we do have some reserve issues we're looking at. There could be some small investments that we're planning to make, and we're also looking at different things that will continue to allow us to meet our goals and objectives. We're pleased with the investment we made in the Gavin power plant. So we continue to have that on our list of things to consider as we move forward. So we feel like we're in a great position, and we do have some opportunities we're pretty excited about as we look forward with the growing energy demand due to the data center investments.

Got it. No, that's very helpful. And I just wanted to ask about volume cadence over the second half of '26. Obviously, no major longwall moves in the back half of this year. So should we be thinking 3Q, 4Q should look pretty similar from a volume and cost perspective? Or are there any kind of other moving parts we should be considering as we model the back half?

I think with Hamilton starting up mid-May, it's going to be producing at a higher run rate than what you've seen in the second quarter and the first quarter. So you're going to see probably a doubling of that production in the third quarter versus the second quarter, and that will drive costs lower for the Illinois Basin. I think that would be the major issue as you're thinking about both the third quarters, which would continue into the fourth quarter. Cary, if you have anything to add to that?

Yes. Yes, I think, Matt, as you take a look at the back half of the year, we did, what, roughly 16.5 million sales in the first half. So that implies a pickup in the back half of the year, about -- to get to the midpoint of the guidance range, another 18 million tons of sales or so. I think it's reasonable to expect that, that can be spread out pretty evenly between the last 2 quarters. As Joe mentioned, we will see a pickup in the Illinois Basin just because we'll have Hamilton back online in the back half of the year. And so that's obviously leading to a lot of that pickup in volumes. So I think when you look at the back half, it's definitely reasonable to assume just in total, kind of that volume cadence about 9 million each one of the quarters to get to the midpoint of the range.

Our next question comes from the line of Nathan Martin with Benchmark StoneX.

Congrats on closing the AllDale transaction. Maybe just following on Matt's questions for the back half of the year. We saw a pretty significant quarter-over-quarter decline in realized price per ton for the Appalachia segment. I know you guys mentioned there's increased sales mix of lower-priced Tunnel Ridge tons there. I think some reduced sales price per ton in Mettiki as well. But how should we think about the realizations in the second half? Do you expect them to kind of remain at those levels? Could they improve? Or could they get drawn down a little bit more as some of those contracts roll off that you guys talked about?

I think we're pretty stable on pricing for both the Illinois Basin and the Appalachia Basin for the rest of the year, comparable to the second quarter revenue numbers based on our contracts. It will depend on the actual timing of some of those shipments, but it should be pretty consistent with the second quarter revenues on a per ton basis.

Okay. Got it, Joe. I appreciate that. And then committed and priced 21.2 million tons that you guys said for '26, all the way out to 2031, just since last quarter, how would you categorize the pricing of those tons versus maybe your price per ton guidance for full year '26?

I'd say they're within basically where the indexes are trading today with some inflation factored in going forward. So there will be some increases to those contracts, but that would be in the Illinois Basin, mid-50s, and then Northern App mid-60s would be the price targets.

Okay. Very helpful. Appreciate that. And then I guess just one other question. Costs much better than expected, offsetting that lower pricing in Appalachia. I think, Cary, you kind of just talked about this on the previous question. But should we kind of expect those costs to remain where they are, maybe get a little bit better? It looks like just carrying them forward, we'd probably be at the lower end of the cost per ton guidance for the full year, but would appreciate any thoughts there.

Well, I think if you kind of look in the back half of the year, when you look at where our cost guidance is, it does imply to kind of get to the midpoint of where our cost guidance range is, about a 10% reduction on a going-forward basis in the back half of the year compared to what we experienced in the first half of the year. So I think that's kind of a good marker that's out there. It may be shaded a little bit more to the Illinois Basin than Appalachia, but we should see cost improvements at both of those regions going forward, somewhere in the neighborhood of that 10% of what I'm talking about or what I just mentioned previously.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Mark Reichman with NOBLE Capital Markets.

Yes. So you now have 29.4 million tons committed and priced for 2027. So you added, what, about 5.6 million tons domestically and more than doubled the exports to 2.7 million. I was just curious, what are utilities telling you about their expected coal burn over the next several years? And do you believe the increase in the electricity demand? I mean, what are your expectations for 2027 versus 2026 in terms of your overall production and sales profile?

As we look to '27, I think we will -- what we've already got embedded pretty much is Hamilton running at the second half run rate for the full year. So that should be another 1 million tons and could be a little higher depending on the market. So that's the major change. Our River View complex has been running really well. Tunnel Ridge has been running well. But I think that as we would look at it today, we're probably 1 million to 1.3 million more volume next year if things go as planned. Based on our current utilization, we do feel that the demand will be available for us. Everything is always -- market conditions, whether it's weather or natural gas prices. But data centers are coming online, so the demand will go up. And depending on what percentage coal gets versus gas will depend somewhat on gas prices, but also back to my prepared remarks, we do believe that in PJM that there is excess capacity in the coal plants. They're going to need to be called upon to meet the demand that's being discussed by all of our customers in PJM. If you listen to all their earnings calls, they talk about the pipeline that they have of data centers coming online, and they're all projecting increases 3% at least on a year-over-year basis of electric generation on an annual basis for the next 3 years or so.

You referenced the Defense Production Act Title III funding. And my understanding is that $425 million of the $500 million would fund the 12 coal plant modernization projects across Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and West Virginia. I mean, doesn't that kind of fall into your wheelhouse? I mean, are a lot of those coal-fired plants customers of yours?

6 of those 13 are customers of ours, and they're all looking to be operating well into the next decade.

Right. Now I think Matthew kind of touched on this, but how should investors kind of think about the balance between, say, debt reduction, additional royalty acquisitions, unit distributions and maybe even potential unit repurchases over the next 12 to 24 months?

Well, I think, as I mentioned, again, in my remarks, we'll look to maintain growth in the Oil & Gas Royalties segment. I think, on the coal side, we're going to continue to maintain our operations by investing the capital we need there. Our matrix will not be capital intensive, but there are some opportunities for growth there, that we may deploy some capital, and we continue to want to reward our shareholders, unitholders with very attractive after-tax returns. So we will see what develops. I think with the LNG terminals coming online, there is opportunity for natural gas prices to rise. So we're feeling good both for what we're doing on the oil and gas mineral side as well as how we're positioned in the coal industry. So we feel really good about our future.

Our next question comes from the line of Michael Mathison with Sidoti.

Congratulations on the quarter. A couple of questions about the balance sheet. It looks like inventories are down quite a bit from March and December. What drove that? And would you expect inventories to stay at this new lower level?

What primarily drove it was Hamilton in the second quarter. Again, they were not operating at -- we had that planned longwall move really for the first half, so when you look at the inventory we had built going into the year, in large part, that was to satisfy the Hamilton contracts we had. And we have had good shipments. We had over 3 million tons last month. We'll have 3 million tons this month. As Cary mentioned, we've got strong contractual commitments that should continue at that pace. So we're essentially producing, or we've got contracts already covered at what our production level is, and we do believe that there will be opportunities to maintain these inventories at this level for the rest of the year.

I think, realistically, I mean, this is anywhere from 0.5 million tons to 0.75 million tons is kind of a normal run rate, Michael. So we are kind of right in that level right now. Obviously, we'd like them to be as low as possible. But generally, that's where we will target and end up, is kind of in that range.

It's reasonable to be at 1 million. So we don't like to be above 1 million. So there -- by being under that, back to the range Cary just mentioned, we're doing a great job this year in managing our inventories.

Okay. Excellent. Also on the balance sheet, it looked like trade receivables are up quite a bit. Is that just seasonality? Or were there other factors at play?

I wouldn't say there's other factors. Well, I mean, the factors at play get to be how much you ship during that month. And so as Joe said, we had a really strong shipping month in June. And so that plays into what the receivables look like at a quarter end at a particular point in time. And so that was the biggest piece of why the trade receivables were higher.

Okay. Turning back to the income statement, what drove income in equity method investments so much higher in the quarter?

So our equity method investments, the benefit -- Joe mentioned the Gavin, our investment in the Gavin power plant, and that was one of the primary drivers. They had a really strong quarter. And so our investment in that Gavin power plant continues to be very positive. So that was one particular piece of it as well as our investment in the NGP fund. Both of those had really strong quarters. And so that's primarily what's driving what's going on in that number for the quarter. It's hard to say whether something like that is realistic each and every quarter going forward. It would obviously be great if it was. I think, in the past, we've guided that particular area to around $3 million benefit per quarter. I think that's probably a reasonable one. It will look a little different going forward, too, because we did make this AllDale III and IV acquisition, and there were some benefits from our previous investment in AllDale III that was flowing through that line item that will now go into another area. But I do think that number around $3 million a quarter is a reasonable one as we look for the balance of this year.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the floor back over to Mr. Marshall for closing comments.

Thank you, operator. And to everyone on the call, we appreciate your time this morning and also your continued support and interest in Alliance. We expect to report third quarter 2026 financial and operating results in late October, and we look forward to speaking with you then. This concludes our call for the day. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation. This does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines, and have a wonderful day.