Andrew Littlefair
Analyst · Craig-Hallum. Please state your question
Thank you, Tony. Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us. The third quarter of this year is once again a very good one, showing continued growth in volume and revenue and more importantly was the fifth consecutive quarter in which we reported positive adjusted EBITDA. Our growth stems from several factors and the most fundamentals of municipalities, states or profit companies and other organizations continue to seek an alternative fuel that comes at a stable low price and most importantly is cleaner. Governments continue to strive for ways to clean up the air for their constituents and companies want to meet their own sustainability goals through the use of alternative fuels. More often than not that fuels natural gas because these organizations understand that natural gas fueling is the cleanest, most economical and scalable solution for fleet vehicles available today. And no other company provides them the quality and variety of fuels and services than Clean Energy. If there's any doubt that the moves natural gas is not contained to gain momentum then one only has to look at the number of fueling stations that we have built or expands in the first three quarters of this year. We have completed 44 station projects thus far and are on pace to complete 19 more by the end of the year. Allow me to highlight a few of the stations that we opened in the third quarter. In October, I had the honor in participating the grand opening of the state-of-the-art CNG fueling station we built for FedEx in Oklahoma City. Station is currently fueling 100 of their Class-8 CNG trucks and FedEx has said that they plan to add at least another 75 heavy duty trucks as they grow their fleet at that location. This impressive station has four fast fueling lanes as well as a time fuel station, which has six zones and eighteen hoses using Clean Energy’s new clean CNG compressors. These compressors produce the cleanest downstream gas ensuring cleaner combustion at the vehicle. This design dispensed approximately 2.5 million gallons of CNG per year. Joining me at the event were Oklahoma Governor, Mary Fallin; FedEx Chairman and CEO, Fred Smith; and our co-founder Boone Pickens. I believe their attendance signifies the growing importance of natural gas fuel for the State of Oklahoma and FedEx, one of the largest and most sophisticated logistics companies in the world. Fred has been a leader in pushing for the entire country to become more secure through energy independence and is doing his part by making sure FedEx operates at the most efficient and sustainable level. Transitioning a portion of FedEx – FedEx’s freight fleet to a fuel that will substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions is an example of that commitment. Additionally, we believe are nationwide network stations, expertise and skilled service technicians ideally positions us to fully support FedEx as we anticipate their expansion with natural gas fueling in their fleet. Our public station network is growing. We also opened a new LNG station of five Washington and just outside of Tacoma, a station located on Interstate five completes a key transportation quarter in the northwest and enables our fleet customers to operate along the entire west coast from Seattle all the way down to San Diego. In our core markets, we continue to see growth as well. Earlier this quarter, we announced that we were awarded a contract for Washington Metro Area Transit Authority, which provides transit services for more than 4 million people throughout the nation's capital. We now operate two of their transit stations that fuel over 580 CNG buses and represent about six million gallons annually. 2016 is shaping up to be one of our strongest years in the Refuse sector. We are on target to complete 34 station projects and our Refuse volume is tracking to grow 16% over 2015. You’ve heard a speak about our renewable natural gas offering Redeem for a few years now, but I can't overemphasize the role that it is playing in giving companies transit authorities and municipalities the ability to achieve their sustainability goals. Because it has 70% less carbon than diesel customers are increasingly contracting with us to guarantee a supply of Redeem. Redeem’s volume doubled from 2014 to 2015 and is on pace through three quarters of this year to grow 20% while contributing $11.3 million in revenue in the third quarter. We have expanded Redeem’s footprint from California to other states and are currently in discussions with some of the country's biggest brands to add their fleets to UPS, City of Santa Monica Republic Services and others that call Redeem the renewable fuel choice. As I look at what's happening in the clean air policy arena, I cannot help to be impressed. We were at the forefront of several developing public policy initiatives that are very bullish for the advancement of natural gas vehicles as a cleaner alternative. Clean Energy lead a coalition effort to help pass S.B.32 in California which not only protects the low carbon fuel standard, it also requires the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, 40% below 1990 levels by the year 2030. This put stability in the clean air program for another decade. We are also successful in helping with the passage of AB1613, which resulted in the appropriation of a $150 million for more sustainable heavy duty vehicles and off road equipment. A portion of which will be specifically allocated for low NOx trucks. We are working with the California Air Resources Board on their proposed state implementation plan to promote the adoption of 900,000 medium and heavy duty trucks to low NOx over the next 15 years. In addition, 50% of the fuel must be renewable like our Redeem fuel. This is probably the largest and most significant piece of alternative fuel natural gas friendly policy to ever be proposed. This plan recognizes the threat NOx poses to air quality and the impact cleaner trucks and fuel could have on it. The good news is that solution is currently available with the Cummins-Westport 8.9 low NOx mission engine and soon to be followed by the 12 liter and 6.7 liter. Additionally even more immediate is the new comprehensive Clean Air Action Plan being developed by the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to improve the air quality in one of the busiest ports systems in the country. We spearheaded the initial Clean Truck Program in the port back in 2008 which helped launch natural gas fueling in the heavy duty trucking market. Now due to stricter air quality mandates and the aging truck fleet, the ports are embarking on the next phase of the Clean Air Action Plan. We anticipate that deploying thousands of new trucks powered by the near zero NOx engines and fueled with low carbon renewable natural gas will be an instrumental part of this ambitious plan. We'll keep you posted as this continues to develop over the next few months I am very encouraged not only by the enormous impact these programs should have on the adoption of cleaner running trucks in California but as with many other progressive environmental initiatives spearheaded by California, we often see similar Clean Air Programs adopted in other states. In the last few earnings calls I told you that our primary focus for 2016 would be to deleverage, the balance sheet conserve cash and grow our volumes. On the last call I reported that we’ve retired the remaining balance of convertible notes that were outstanding and due at the end of August. To-date this year we have reduced our convertible debt by $215 million. We continued our deleveraging effort this quarter by paying down $50 million dollars of a working capital line. At the end of the quarter, we had $119 million in cash and short term investments on our balance sheet and less than $5 million of current debt. Our next principal payment on our convertible debt is not until July of 2018. And we will continue to look for opportunistic ways to reduce or refinance our debt. Finally we continue to be as efficient as possible, we’ve reduced our SG&A by 7% year-over-year, while increasing our margin per gallon almost 14% over the third quarter of last year. For the year our CapEx budget should be than $25 million, which will be more than a 50% reduction from last year. So I'm optimistic as we continue to execute our plan to grow our business, reduce our debt and conserve cash. And with that and for more numbers, I'll turn the call over to Bob.