Welcome to the CrossAmerica Partners Fourth Quarter and Year End 2017 Earnings Call. My name is Jason and I'll be your operator. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Also please note this conference is being recorded. I'll now turn the call over to Randy Palmer, Director of Investor Relations. Mr. Palmer, you may begin.

Thank you, operator. Good morning and thank you for joining the CrossAmerica Partners year end and fourth quarter 2017 earnings call. With me today are Jeremy Bergeron, President and CEO; Evan Smith, Chief Financial Officer and other members of our Executive Leadership Team. Jeremy will provide a brief overview of CrossAmerica's operational performance and an update on current strategic initiatives and then we’ll turn the call over to Evan to discuss the financial results. At the end, we will open-up the call to questions. I should point out that today's call will follow some presentation slides that we will utilize during this morning's event. These slides are available as part of the webcast and are posted on the CrossAmerica website. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that today's call, including the question-and-answer session, may include forward-looking statements regarding expected revenue, future plans, future operational metrics, and opportunities and expectations of the organization. There can be no assurance that the management's expectations, beliefs and projections will be achieved or that actual results will not differ from expectations. Please see CrossAmerica's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including annual reports on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q for a discussion of important factors that could affect our actual results. Forward-looking statements represent the judgment of CrossAmerica's Management as of today's date and the organization disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statements. During today's call, we may also provide certain performance measures that do not conform to U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or GAAP. We’ve provided those schedules that reconcile these non-GAAP measures with our reported results on a GAAP basis as part of our earnings press release. Today's call is being webcast and a recording of this conference call will be available on the CrossAmerica website for a period of 60 days. And with that, I'll now turn the call over to Jeremy Bergeron.

Thank you, Randy. We’ve reported our year-end and fourth quarter 2017 earnings results yesterday afternoon and Evan will go through that detail on a few minutes. But first I wanted to review some of the highlights for our year-end and fourth quarter. Turn to Slide 4, I will provide a brief overview of the partnership at the end of 2017. As we look over the past twelve months, we continue to distribute over 1 billion gallons of fuel and generate gross rental income of over $85 million. We continue to hold 17.5% interest in CST Fuel Supply, which generates a $0.05 per gallon wholesale fuel margin on approximately 1.7 billion gallons distributed annually within the legacy CST network. Our operation consists of approximately 1,350 locations, controlling over 70% of these types, including owning the key rights of over 550. As you can see, we have built a significant real estate portfolio within CrossAmerica. We distribute fuel to over 96% of our properties, currently operates 71 convenient stores in the Upper Midwest market, and collect rent from non-fuel tenants at another 54 sites. On Slide 5, we recap some of our fourth quarter and year-end operating results. First as you look at the fourth quarter while we experienced a slight decline in volumes distributed, we saw 14% increase in our wholesale fuel margin per gallon, thanks to the improvement in our terms discount on our supplier contracts and our efforts to capture more of the available margin and our rack to retail price dealer contracts. These efforts results in an 11% increase in our wholesale motor fuel gross profit for the fourth quarter and also made a significant impact for us throughout the year. For the full year, our whole sale margin moved from $0.052 per gallon in 2016 to $0.057…

Thank you, Jeremy. If you’d please turn to Slide 10, I will review our fourth quarter and year end results of CrossAmerica. Today, we reported adjusted EBITDA of $29 million and distributable cash flow of nearly $22 million for the fourth quarter of 2017. For the full year of 2017, our adjusted EBITDA was $109 million with distributable cash flow at $81 million. The partnership paid a distribution of $0.6275 per unit during the fourth quarter of 2017 for a total of over $21 million resulting in a coverage ratio of 1.02 times on a paid basis, our trailing twelve month coverage was 0.97 times on a paid basis. As Jeremy touched on earlier, the growth in our wholesale business coupled with our management of our expenses had a positive impact on our overall performance for both the quarter and the year. As we have noted in the past, we received prompt paid terms discounts from our suppliers as a percentage of the total invoice on the fuel repurchase. During the fourth quarter of 2017, average crude oil prices increased 13% as compared to the same period for 2016 resulting in a positive impact on the terms discount that we received from our suppliers. It increased 17% for the full year of 2017, compared to 2016. On top of this increase, we also saw volatility in crude oil and wholesale fuel prices during the three-month period and full year of 2017, which benefited our dealer-tank wagon prices for those periods. During the quarter we saw a total benefit of nearly $2 million from a combination of supplier term discounts and the impact of improved dealer-tank wagon pricing. Finally, turning to Slide 11, I wanted to talk briefly about our historical performance. Have you looked at the first paragraph at the…

Thanks Evan. I'm sure by now most of you saw this morning's announcement in regards to the planned leadership transition here at CrossAmerica. As Gerardo Valencia will be joining the team and I'll be stepping down a CEO later this year. Whereas I would like to welcome Gerardo to this terrific organization. Gerardo brings a wealth of experience and knowledge in wholesale fuels in retail industry with 20 years at BP. I'm excited to see the positive impact that I know he will have on the partnership in growing the business for years to come. While I'm looking forward to my next challenge of Couche-Tard, I'm excited to be working closely with Gerardo in the coming months as we execute a successful transition. With that we will now open it up for questions.

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Chris Mandeville from Jeffries.

Hey guys this is actually Aaron Eisenberg on for Chris. Thanks for taking the questions.

Good morning, Aaron.

So starting off with the announcement from this morning, just curious if the appointment of Gerardo brings in a different approach or if the same strategy should be expected going forward?

It’s a fair question. Now I think as we mentioned in our prepared remarks earlier, the management team, the Board and its leader are all aligned with the strategy that we've laid out and we don't really expect any change in the overall strategy for the partnership going forward.

Understood. And then secondly given some of the storms we have observed at the beginning of the year could you talk about how volume trends have looked regionally quarter-to-date. I believe hope this has retail volumes down 4.1% year-to-date. Just kind of curious what you're seeing on that front?

Sure I mean throughout 2017 there was some weakness in certain parts of the country. I think where we saw things like tax changes. In states like New Jersey we did see a continued weakness throughout 2017. But we also had some markets that are actually up in the samestore basis and perform well like a lot of sites in the Virginia market. So it really is state by state and region by region. There was a little bit of weakness on the East Coast, but overall I think we're excited about where things are starting to trend here in 2018 as we get started.

Understood, thanks guys. Best of luck in 2018.

Thank you. And next we have Ben Bienvenu from Stephens, Inc.

Hi, thanks good morning. I want to ask about G&A expenses and operating expenses really well managed in this quarter and really all of 2017. And we're hearing a broader backdrop of wage and expense pressure across the convenience store industry and retail more broadly. Synergy seems to be one of the levers that you're pulling to manage those costs. I’m curious around the base business what are your expectations of how you intend to navigate that more inflationary environment?

Thanks Ben. Yes I mean that is kind of goes into the nature of our overall business model and kind of why we have focused heavily on the wholesale sector and growing our business with more the dealer operating model rather than the company operating model. For us as an MLP, what's important for investors we understand is a steady, dependable stream of cash flow that we can grow overtime with being very smart and diligent on acquisitions and growing the business that way. And as we mentioned or as Evan mentioned on Slide 11, I think, you see with some of the larger transactions we did back in 2014 and 2015, we took on some company operated business as well as some G&A expenses associated with it and really took an effort there in 2015 and over the past two to three years really trying to bring that down. So I think partnering with Couche-Tard going forward where we can look at acquisitions together and the company operated business sits well with their model and their very experienced way of managing expenses and managing the store combined with our opportunity to grow at the dealer channel. It's a great win for us and our investors. And we think that certainly is a right strategy in light of all the things you just mentioned.

Great. And then in your comments you alluded to future transactions with Couche-Tard that you be – to the extent that you can discuss it I'm curious should we have an expectation of those transactions involving just the fuel difference, or real estate assets, or some combination thereof depending on for market rates multiples.

Yes I think it's a combination there. I don't think we’re exclusive into one or the other. There's going to be opportunities we know out there, there are going to be deals like we had with the Jet-Pep acquisition in the fourth quarter last year, where it makes sense for both of us to go in and go after an acquisition. And we have the right home for those assets in each of our two organizations. And then we have other opportunities where it may just be a pure retail play, or just a pure wholesale play. I know we have the support of Couche-Tard to go up to those opportunities within the partnership that fits partnership well, if it’s just for the partnership benefit. And we look forward to those opportunities as well. So I don't think it's an either or approach. It’s certainly going to eb both in.

Okay great. Thanks. And best of luck.

Thanks for the appreciating.

Thanks Ben.

Thank you. And next we have Robert Balsamo from FBR & Company.

Good morning, a couple of my questions have been asked. Just on the macro that you kind of expanding on the growth strategy there and could you just give us an update on what you are seeing in the M&A market opportunities for the consolidation. And then just confirm that you don’t have interesting kind of moving outside the core competencies, we’ve seen some competitors kind of start to branch out, looking for opportunity?

Sure. So I mean, the opportunity that we see are really the deals that we’ve done over the past few years, we have focused heavily not just on growing the wholesale distribution channel through our dealer network but also ensuring we get good real estate along the way that support the rental income into the partnership that is certainly good qualified income for investors. That's allowed us to really grow that part of the business. So we spoken publicly before in terms of the types of multiples we've seen in the business. We still see those opportunities out there, you have to question about fragmentation and that certainly still is the case and we certainly like our position with Couche-Tard to be in a favorite position to really to go after those opportunities and further grow.

Thank you. And just a housekeeping you may have mentioned this, what was the $16 million tax benefit, what drove during the quarter?

This is Evan. Just with reduction of taxes from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and it’s really just reducing the deferred tax liabilities. And we could get into some minor detail, but it was noncash items, there is really just a reduction of future tax liabilities that was recognized in the fourth quarter.

Great, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Thank you. Next we have Patrick Wang from Robert W. Baird.

Hey, good morning guys.

Good morning, Pat.

Look at the unwind transaction, you mentioned the potential for cash flow improvement following that assets swap with Circle K. Should we still assume that initial asset realignment to be modestly accretive as a base case and potentially better as an upside case?

Sure. So I mean, I can't get into the specifics on this until we actually completed but I would say, as we going through when we are preparing for what they expect in 2018 that is certainly is a base case assumption for us. That we've spoken before about some of the assets and where the partnership purchased those assets previously and the types of multiples in which we've purchased those assets at from the prior drops. And really the other opportunities to acquire assets in today's market. And we said the opportunities with Couche-Tard to acquire those types of assets or more can to what's available to us in the third-party market. So if you go out with a base assumption, I think you can assume that we should see some level of betterment overall. But certainly once we able to detail that out specifically, you'll see that but I think that's a good understanding from a base case.

Okay, that's helpful. That makes sense. And then an unrelated follow-up, it looks like you had a dozen sites held-for-sale at the year end. Could you talk about your expectations around the anticipated timing of these sales and is it reasonable to assume that there more likely to be sold as a package or more as one-offs. And secondly, whether or not these sites were reporting in disc-ops in Q4?

Right. So most of those assets held-for-sale have to do with some of the announced divestitures that we are going forward, with related to FTC review of the holiday transaction by Couche-Tard, as well as our Jet-Pep transaction, right. So we're working closely with the team over Couche-Tard on looking to package those assets and get whatever the best return is on behalf of the partnership. So Evan, I don’t know if you want to comment on the last question.

Yes, those are not in discontinued operations.

Okay, got it. Thanks for that. Thank you both. And congrats, Jeremy on your new role.

Thanks, Pat.

Thanks Pat.

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Next we have Mike Gyure from Janney Montgomery.

Could you guys talk a little bit about the relationship with CST Fuel Supply, maybe how many locations that apply to kind of volumes that’s still subject to?

Sure, that is still subject to about 1.7 billion gallons on an annual basis and it was basically CST, what we refer to as their legacy network with over 1,000 stores that they were operating throughout the United States, when the spin occur from them from Valero back in 2013.

Okay. And then I don't know if you mentioned, did you give any guidance regarding the amount of growth capital, you think you need for 2018?

We've not provided that guidance yet. Typically our growth capital spend has been relatively minimal and its – I think you can look at the prior years and assume somewhat similar there’s maybe a little bit more of an uptick as we go forward in 2018 with more opportunities, but shouldn’t be anything too dramatically different.

Okay. Thanks very much.

Thanks.

Thanks Mike. Thank you. And we have no further questions in the queue. I will now turn the call back to Randy Palmer for closing comments.

Okay, operator. Thank you very much. That does complete the today’s conference call. We appreciate each of you joining us today. If you do have follow-up questions, please feel free to contact us. Thank you and have a good day.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This concludes today's conference. Thank you for participating and you may now disconnect.