Earnings Labs

Peabody Energy Corporation (BTU)

Q3 2015 Earnings Call· Tue, Oct 27, 2015

$27.44

+2.01%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Peabody Energy Q3 Earnings Call. For the conference, all participant lines are in a listen-only mode. There will be an opportunity for your questions. Instructions will be given at that time. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. I'll turn the conference now over to Mr. Vic Svec, Senior Vice President, Global Investor and Corporate Relations. Please go ahead. Victor P. Svec - SVP-Global Investor & Corporate Relations: Okay. Thanks, Scott, and good morning, everyone. Thanks very much for taking part in the conference call for BTU. With us today are President and Chief Executive Officer Glenn Kellow, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Amy Schwetz, as well as our Senior Vice President of Finance, Walter Hawkins. We do have some forward-looking statements today. I would remind you they should be considered along with the risk factors that we note at the end of our release, as well as the MD&A section of our filed documents, and we also refer you to peabodyenergy.com for additional information. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Amy. Amy B. Schwetz - CFO, Chief Accounting Officer & Executive VP: Thanks, Vic, and good morning, everyone. Peabody's operating segments turned in solid results this past quarter with all three U.S. regions generating good margins despite lower revenues and our Australia and trading and brokerage segments outperforming the prior year. I'll begin by discussing our third quarter financial results, which highlight the recent operational improvements we have been making as well as the Patriot charge and discontinued operations. I will then review our liquidity and conclude with an update of our full-year guidance. Let's start with a review of the income statement. Third quarter revenues totaled $1.4 billion compared to…

Operator

Operator

Certainly. First, we go to the line of Michael Dudas with Sterne Agee. Please go ahead.

Michael S. Dudas - Sterne Agee CRT

Management

Good morning, everyone. Glenn L. Kellow - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Good morning, Michael.

Michael S. Dudas - Sterne Agee CRT

Management

Glenn, following up on your four tenets for how you are trying to reshape the company. Do you have any – as you look maybe from a financial standpoint, the optimal liquidity balance sheet, where the company needs to be given where the coal fundamentals you project, maybe looking out to maybe 2017 and 2018, given where you are today and I guess you can't get there quick enough to get some of these fixed payments off your books. Do you have maybe a little more granular aspect to where that might be and how that plays into your – to either accelerate or to take your time on getting the right value for assets on a sales rate basis? Amy B. Schwetz - CFO, Chief Accounting Officer & Executive VP: Sure, Michael, this is Amy. I might touch on some key points and ask Glenn to weigh in as well. But as we look at our liquidity, it's obviously an iterative process depending on where the market's at at any given point in time. So as we look at what our liquidity needs are, we're looking at what our cash flow from operations are, what our CapEx profile will be, fixed charges over time. That's why we've maintained a relatively large revolver for so many years. The $1.65 billion revolver is something that we have felt is key to our arsenal in terms of maintaining adequate liquidity for the business. So we're obviously looking forward to those fixed charges rolling off in 2016 and 2017, as you indicated, both the VEBA payments, which as indicated we have asked for some clarification around, as well as our hedges and the LBAs next year. Glenn L. Kellow - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah, in terms of the longer-term picture around deleveraging, we have often talked about our prima capital (26:16) level in terms of sort of debt multiples. And that would be certainly something that we would like to move towards over time. You did mention the four areas of focus in terms of continuing to reduce cost and I hope we're demonstrating that. There is a number of activities which I've outlined with respect to what we're thinking about with our portfolio. But I would like to emphasize we did talk about making the right deal is as important as the nature of the timing.

Michael S. Dudas - Sterne Agee CRT

Management

Can you characterize – a follow up, characterize kind of the interest and opportunities you're seeing from potential buyers in the marketplace? Is the oversupplied nature of certain projects and properties making it more difficult for you to get to that reasonable price? Glenn L. Kellow - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: I would say that that's a general statement in the industry, but I would like to say that it is asset-specific and market-specific. And I would like to reiterate that I do believe we have probably the premier coal portfolio around the globe, not only in terms of our producing assets but also we have significant land positions, infrastructure assets and reserve positions, et cetera. So I think we are seeing buyer interest for the right assets and I would say that that is also both in some of our non-core areas but also I'm talking about operating mines.

Michael S. Dudas - Sterne Agee CRT

Management

Excellent. Thank you, Amy and Glenn.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Justine Fisher with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Conor McKinnon - Goldman Sachs

Management

Hi, everyone. This is Conor McKinnon filling in for Justine. My first question was on the topic of liquidity, too. You said in the press release this quarter you provided an additional $195 million in collateral to existing surety bond providers in the form of LCs. Could you give us a little more color on that, what drove it, are there specific credit metrics that your surety providers are looking at, maybe what geographies that came in and what might drive more of the same in coming quarters? Amy B. Schwetz - CFO, Chief Accounting Officer & Executive VP: Sure, Conor. I think as you look at our surety and bank guarantee facilities, it's probably important to remember that they are bilateral agreements. So the level of collateral can vary by provider. We did have about $200 million of LC support, so surety bonds and bank guarantees, provided by the end of the quarter. As we look at our surety bonds, we have $540 million of bonds outstanding; about $80 million of that relates specifically to Patriot. About 70% of that value requested collateral during the quarter and we posted $120 million of LCs related to that exposure. We also have $365 million of bank guarantees outstanding in Australia, so about 20% of that value, or $80 million, requested collateral during the third quarter and we posted $80 million of, well, 100% collateral for those that requested. It is probably worth noting as well that in addition to that collateral posted, we have about $175 million of LCs for other obligations such as port agreements, pension support, workers' compensation, which has been in place for some time and is just a standard mechanism for doing business with some of those parties. As we look at our LCs, it obviously reduces availability under our revolver, but it's not a cash outflow.

Conor McKinnon - Goldman Sachs

Management

Great. Thank you. And then my follow-up was related to Patriot, which you touched on briefly a little bit earlier. So we know that there has been a legal dispute as part of their second filing related to the VEBA payments, which had been scheduled to be made by Peabody. Could you give us a little update there as far as what exactly the dispute is over? Amy B. Schwetz - CFO, Chief Accounting Officer & Executive VP: Sure. And I might just take this opportunity to go through Patriot in a bit more detail as well in terms of the number of moving parts that are outstanding with respect to the issue. You mentioned specifically the VEBA and credit support, which both are related to the 2013 settlement agreement as part of Patriot's first bankruptcy. In 2013 we agreed to cap certain liabilities that we had on our balance sheet already that were associated with retiree healthcare and we agreed to fund those on an accelerated basis in the total of about $310 million into a VEBA. We made two payments of roughly $165 million in total to the VEBA and there is the two remaining payments that I referenced in my remarks, $75 million in 2016 and $70 million in 2017 that we discussed. We also provided $120 million of credit support for a variety of obligations as part of the agreement. And Patriot was required to reimburse Peabody as part of that agreement. Peabody has met its obligations, as you know, both with respect to the VEBA payments and the credit support. However, Patriot has failed to reimburse us for more than $20 million of credit support that's been drawn upon. And because of this, because terms of the settlement have been breached by Patriot, we asked…

Conor McKinnon - Goldman Sachs

Management

Great. That's very helpful. That's all I had. Thanks a lot.

Operator

Operator

And next we'll go to Brian Yu with Citi. Please go ahead.

Brian Hsien Yu - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Broker

Yeah. Great, thanks. And good morning. Just first question is that you guys come out with a lower CapEx budget. I know it's a bit early for 2016, but do you see this as a sustainable level heading into next year given that since you are guiding for a bit lower production? Glenn L. Kellow - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Good morning, Brian. Yes, you'll recall that we have benefited or are benefiting from a well-capitalized platform in prior years and the team has been focused on looking to optimize and manage through a lower-capital profile. We've said because of that and the building of that position, we will be able to do the lower levels for a number of years. Having said that, we've lowered the guidance this time around and I think that is in part related to the improvement in the Australian dollar. Also the team continues to surprise on innovative ways of looking to manage capital. So maybe not quite at the levels we've lowered guidance, but at the lower levels we see those occurring for a number of years.

Brian Hsien Yu - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Broker

Okay. That's helpful. And then second is on rails. Yesterday there was one of the Eastern coal producers said that they're getting some breaks from the rails, both Eastern rail companies as well as West, to try to make their product a bit more competitive. I'm wondering if on the PRB side you guys are seeing the same thing where the rail companies are being a bit more flexible with their rates so your coal could be either more competitive to existing markets or perhaps travel a bit farther? Glenn L. Kellow - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah, I think that certainly is encouraging to hear. We actually, as you're probably aware, we don't have insight specifically into that as these are direct discussions between our utility customers and the rails. Having said that, we continue to reiterate that we believe the PRB is the most competitive of the basins with respect to both coal-on-coal competition and coal-on-gas. But it is encouraging to continue to see that. We would expect fuel surcharges to be one area that would provide opportunities, however, in the overall contract structure that would benefit our customers.

Brian Hsien Yu - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Broker

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And we'll go to Lucas Pipes with FBR. Please go ahead. Lucas N. Pipes - FBR Capital Markets & Co.: Hey, good morning, everyone, and thanks for taking my question. Glenn L. Kellow - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Good morning, Lucas. Victor P. Svec - SVP-Global Investor & Corporate Relations: Good morning. Lucas N. Pipes - FBR Capital Markets & Co.: I wanted to follow up on asset sales and to maybe focus a little bit more specifically on the U.S. market. And my question is what sort of level of interest are you seeing today? And maybe you could comment on why we haven't seen a deal yet, if there are any stumbling blocks that you could share with us in this market environment? Glenn L. Kellow - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Perhaps I'll talk about – you know I'm not going to be able to talk about specific assets or specific sorts of activities. Lucas N. Pipes - FBR Capital Markets & Co.: Yeah. Glenn L. Kellow - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: But I could perhaps give you a bit of color about what our thinking is with respect to asset sales; it's not necessarily U.S.-specific. Firstly, it would be around our strategic objectives and how well the particular asset or activity fit into that, looking at its overall growth profile of course how we look at enhancing value on a discounted cash flow and net asset value basis as we accelerate – the potential to accelerate future cash flows, the asset's cash-generation profile, our future capital needs for it, including what we would see as being bonding or collateral requirements, and how the overall transaction would support our financial objectives of optimizing liquidity and deleveraging. So as I said, we have…

Operator

Operator

Our next question is from Matthew Fields with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Please go ahead.

Matthew Fields - Bank of America

Management

Hi, everyone. I just wanted to follow up on the LC question. Can you mention sort of what jurisdictions the $195 million of LCs that you posted were related to? Amy B. Schwetz - CFO, Chief Accounting Officer & Executive VP: So this is Amy. It does depend a bit in terms of what we're looking at. With respect to the bank guarantees that, as I mentioned, we've posted $80 million of collateral related to, that is specific to Australia and the remainder is generally within the U.S.

Matthew Fields - Bank of America

Management

Okay. And then you mentioned that I guess $540 million of your surety bonds are outstanding, 70% requested additional collateral and you posted $120 million. Does that mean that we should expect the additional $260 million million that have requested it to eventually be posted? Amy B. Schwetz - CFO, Chief Accounting Officer & Executive VP: Those arrangements – with the piece of collateral that we've already provided, that has been based on negotiated terms with those specific sureties. I think as you look at time progressing, we will continue to have discussions with our surety bond providers and with our banks to provide guarantees about collateral requests and we do plan on continuing to update those as part of our reporting cycle.

Operator

Operator

And ladies and gentlemen, we have time for one more question. We'll go to Jeremy Sussman with Clarkson. Please go ahead.

Jeremy R. Sussman - Clarkson Capital Markets

Management

Yes. Hello, thanks very much for taking the question. Just first question, in terms of Australian costs, obviously very good numbers there and bringing guidance down to $50 to $52 versus $53 to $56 previously was nice to see. Can you maybe give us a breakdown of kind of currency, productivity, fuel, et cetera, in terms of I guess where costs are now versus where they were previously? Amy B. Schwetz - CFO, Chief Accounting Officer & Executive VP: Sure, Jeremy. As we look at our Australian costs, the $18 improvement, the vast majority of that is actually related to fuel and FX. And I think one of the things that differentiates us in the U.S. segment is our exposure to the lower A dollar in the current environment. The balance of that is related really to productivity improvements and mix, but sort of out-weighted towards FX and fuel.

Jeremy R. Sussman - Clarkson Capital Markets

Management

Okay. Great. And maybe just one more, can you just remind us when you can close – you've talked about potentially closing Burton, I believe, if market conditions remain weak, I guess. What would this – I guess from a timing perspective, what should we look to on this front and maybe what would this do to your overall cost profile? Or maybe put another way, what would the financial benefit be versus kind of where things are today? Thank you very much. Glenn L. Kellow - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: So thanks for raising Burton. So the Burton story has been one in which we've been restructuring that contract to try and get the best optimum outcome we can within the constraints that the contract mining activity really, really has on us. We see the ability in 2016 to evaluate the continued future of that mine and we would be looking to make a decision and talk about it in 2016. It is our highest-cost operation. It is cash negative and therefore if you back that out, both of those elements, we would expect to see an improvement as a result across the portfolio. So I don't want to take away from the team managing Burton. I think they've done a great job in terms of reducing cost. The contract renegotiations are great. It actually has very good safety performance going through the mine. I don't want to take away those factors. However, having said that, in this environment it does stick out as a mine that we'd be looking to have under a great deal of scrutiny in the portfolio.

Jeremy R. Sussman - Clarkson Capital Markets

Management

Understood. Thanks very much and good luck. Glenn L. Kellow - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And Mr. Kellow, I'll turn it back to you for any closing comments. Glenn L. Kellow - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Well, thank you, operator, and thanks to everyone for joining our call today. I would also like to extend my appreciation to the entire Peabody team for their focus on safe, productive operations and workplaces. There is no questioning the pressures from ongoing market weakness, but I'll remind you that Peabody benefits from an exceptional global asset base, strong operational performance and commitment to take a fresh look at the many dimensions of our business. Thank you for your continued interest and we look forward to discussing our progress with you as key milestones arise.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude your conference for today. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.