Excelerate Energy, Inc. (EE) Q1 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us, and welcome to Excelerate Energy's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand the conference over to Craig Hicks, Vice President, Investor Relations and Strategy. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining Excelerate Energy's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. Joining me today are Steven Kobos, President and CEO; and Dana Armstrong, Chief Financial Officer. Also joining the call are Oliver Simpson, Chief Commercial Officer; and David Liner, Chief Operating Officer. Our first quarter earnings press release and presentation were published yesterday afternoon and are available on our website at ir.excelerateenergy.com. Before we begin, please note that today's discussion will include forward-looking statements, which involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. We undertake no obligation to update these statements. We'll also reference certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found at the end of the presentation. With that, it is my pleasure to pass the call over to Steven Kobos.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Before I get into the quarter, I want to take a moment to acknowledge something that goes beyond the financials. We have employees, seafarers and partners operating in and around the Arabian Gulf. Our thoughts and prayers are with them and with their families during what is a difficult and uncertain time. The safety of our people is always our top priority, and I want them to know that they have our full support. Against that backdrop, I am proud of how Excelerate performed this quarter. We delivered $122 million of adjusted EBITDA and achieved a 99.8% reliability rate across our asset portfolio. Those results reflect the strength of our contracted asset portfolio and the dedication of the teams who operate them every day. This strong performance is a direct result of how we built this business. Excelerate is a global LNG and power infrastructure company. We own and operate assets that deliver reliable downstream LNG and power solutions to countries who depend on us for their energy security. That responsibility is central to how we operate, how we invest and how we manage risk. Our operations span 4 continents, and that geographic reach translates directly into revenue and earnings diversification. It is a core reason we are able to perform across market cycles and limit the financial impact of regional disruptions. As the global energy landscape grows more complex, the ability to deliver energy safely and without interruption matters even more. That brings me to the macro environment, which provides an important context for today's discussion. As we've highlighted previously, the global LNG market is moving into a period of meaningful and sustained supply growth. Despite recent geopolitical events, approximately 200 million tons of new LNG supply will still come online between now and the end of the decade. The conflict in the Middle East is accelerating the push for greater geographic diversification of supply. This will result in even more LNG volumes reaching the market. Those volumes will only intensify the need for more regasification capacity. In recent weeks, we've heard commentary around pricing dynamics, potential project delays and market hesitation in certain regions. While those near-term dynamics are real, they should be evaluated separately from the structural need for regasification as new supply enters the market. The fact is long-term contracted LNG pricing has been and remains affordable. That is why many of the countries and markets we are targeting continue to turn to LNG as a fuel source. In this environment, Excelerate's role is clear. We provide the downstream infrastructure that connects new supply to the customers who need it most, and we do it under contract with assets we own and operate. That's the structural backdrop. Now let me walk you through how it is showing up in our operations. I'll start with the Middle East. Since the conflict began, our focus has been on the elements of the business within our direct control. We optimized our asset portfolio to protect earnings, maintain operational continuity and demonstrate the rigor our customers and investors expect. Our terminal services operations performed as we expected, and we saw limited financial impact during the quarter, in large part due to the quality of our contracts and the nature of the services we provide. The two FSRUs operating in the UAE, the Explorer and the Express are fully operational and our crews are safe. We are proud to support Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the broader UAE as a component of their energy infrastructure for more than a decade. Turning to our LNG supply agreements. In March, as a result of the conflict, we received a Force Majeure notice from QatarEnergy related to our supply agreement. We subsequently issued a corresponding FM notice to Petrobangla, our customer in Bangladesh. These agreements are structured on a back-to-back basis with delivery obligations aligned to supply commitments and supported by contractual FM protections. This structure is allowing us to manage the current disruption in an orderly way. Based on our current assessment, we expect the financial impact to be approximately $1 million per month while the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. Our commitment to the region extends beyond the UAE. Let me update you on the Iraq terminal. The fundamentals supporting this project have not changed. Iraq faces chronic power shortages and limited domestic gas processing capacity. These structural deficits are not going away. The need for scalable gas import infrastructure is as real today as it was when we signed the contract in Q4 '25. Current conditions have only heightened that need. Our customer shares the same view, and we are committed to working with them on the best path forward. What has changed is the near-term path to startup. The conflict in the Middle East has created logistical constraints that have delayed jetty reinforcement and construction of the fixed terminal infrastructure. As a result, we no longer expect the terminal to commence operations in Q3 '26 as we previously disclosed. Project startup is now expected in '27. This is a shift in timing, not a cancellation. The contract is structured as a 60-month agreement that begins once operations commence. We are taking a measured safety-first approach with construction resuming as conditions allow. Once underway, we expect approximately 6 months before operations begin. We are managing this project for the long term and remain confident in the opportunity. With the Iraq project now delayed, we have been evaluating opportunities to optimize the Excelerate Acadia, our newbuild FSRU in the near term. In early April, the Acadia was delivered successfully from Hyundai Heavy Industries. This week, we executed a 9-month time charter party agreement with Jordan's National Electric Power Company or NEPCO to deploy the Acadia to the country's existing LNG import terminal in Aqaba. The Acadia is expected to commence operations in Jordan by mid-'26, and the deal will generate roughly $20 million of adjusted EBITDA this year. The interim deployment enhances Jordan's energy security by providing additional regasification capacity and generates incremental earnings. It does this while we continue to advance the Iraq integrated import terminal. It also underscores the continued demand for our assets and the commercial resilience of our business, even amid broader regional disruption. Now let me turn to Jamaica, where our integrated platform continues to deliver. A year ago this month, we added the integrated LNG power platform in Jamaica to our asset portfolio. Jamaica is a core component of our business and one of the strongest proof points of Excelerate's strategy. In the first quarter, the Jamaica platform delivered reliability of 99%. That consistency underpins the contracted cash flows that have contributed meaningfully to our overall growth. Beyond operations, we are making commercial progress on the island. Gas volumes are growing through new customer agreements and incremental sales to existing customers. We are pleased to be a partner with the Jamaican government and look forward to advancing new opportunities in Jamaica and throughout the Caribbean. The financials this quarter reflect the operating momentum I've described. Next, Dana will take you through the numbers, our capital priorities and the updated outlook. Dana?

Thanks, Steven, and good morning, everyone. Excelerate delivered solid financial results for the first quarter. We reported net income of $50 million, a sequential increase of $11 million or up 28% as compared to the fourth quarter of 2025. Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter was $122 million, up roughly $10 million or up about 9% versus the prior quarter. The net income and adjusted EBITDA increases were driven primarily by vessel optimization and higher LNG gas and power margins. Adjusted EBITDA increased compared to the first quarter of last year due to an increase in LNG gas and power margins, mostly driven by the impact from the Jamaica acquisition. For the first quarter, maintenance CapEx was $8 million and committed growth capital was $17 million. Now let's turn to our balance sheet. As of March 31, 2026, total debt, including finance leases, was $1.3 billion with $540 million of cash and cash equivalents on hand. The full $500 million of capacity under our revolver was available as of quarter end. Net debt was $714 million and trailing net leverage was 1.5x. From a capital allocation perspective, our priorities are unchanged. We are focused on investing in accretive growth while delivering consistent shareholder returns through dividends and opportunistic share repurchases. Last week, the Board approved a quarterly dividend of $0.08 per share or $0.32 per share annualized payable on June 4, 2026. In December 2025, our Board authorized a $75 million share repurchase program, providing added flexibility to return capital while continuing to invest in our growth priorities. During the first quarter, we repurchased roughly 148,000 shares or just over $5 million of our Class A common stock at a weighted average price of $34.07 per share. With that capital framework in mind, let me walk through our updated financial outlook for the year. We have revised our full year 2026 adjusted EBITDA and committed growth capital guidance to reflect the delayed start-up of the integrated Iraq LNG import terminal. As Steven described, this is a timing shift driven by the Middle East conflict. We continue to view Iraq as an attractive opportunity and construction will resume as soon as conditions allow. Adjusted EBITDA for the full year is now expected to range between $480 million and $510 million. Consistent with that shift, we now expect 2026 committed growth capital to range between $270 million and $300 million, reflecting the deferral of certain Iraq-related construction activity into 2027. To be clear, this revised committed growth capital guidance does not yet include costs associated with our FSRU conversion. Negotiations for the conversion work are ongoing. We have signed a letter of intent with the Seatrium Shipyard in Singapore, and we'll provide additional updates once final contracts with the shipyard are executed. Our 2026 maintenance CapEx guidance is unchanged at $100 million to $110 million. With respect to dry dock timing, we continue to refine schedules through close coordination with our customers to identify the most efficient and least disruptive maintenance windows. Our current plan assumes that the Express will proceed with its scheduled dry dock at the end of its current contract in the third quarter of this year. Once that work is completed, we expect the Express will redeploy to Pakistan to substitute for the Exquisite, which is now anticipated to enter dry dock in the fourth quarter of this year. This updated outlook reflects careful planning, solid underlying fundamentals and a continued focus on building durable contracted earnings. Looking beyond 2026, the growth path through 2028 remains intact. On our February call, we outlined a framework for sequenced earnings growth through 2028, supported by a defined set of executable initiatives. While the Iraq start-up has shifted due to external factors, we maintain visibility to growth through actions within our control. First, the Express is expected to be redelivered at the expiration of its current contract. We have high confidence in redeploying that vessel at improved economics, which we expect to support incremental EBITDA in 2027. Second, our planned FSRU conversion provides an additional source of earnings growth in 2028, following completion of the conversion and commercial deployment of that vessel. This represents the next major capital deployment after Iraq and supports continued earnings expansion. Third, as Steven discussed, we are focused on driving additional growth through a range of scalable LNG solutions, including in Jamaica and the Caribbean and throughout the rest of the world. Together, these initiatives provide a sequenced pathway to extend growth through 2028 and beyond. With that, let's open up the line for questions.

[Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from the line of Elias Jossen with JPMorgan.

Just wanted to start on the supply portfolio and think about how you guys are approaching diversification going forward. Obviously, the Qatar situation is ongoing and developing, and I think you laid it out well in your opening remarks. But how should we think about your overall strategy to ensure supply in the longer term? And what options do you have there?

It's Steven. Let me jump into that. First, we like to give customers what our customers want to receive. So, some of those don't want to make it too simple. It's going to be reactive in terms of what our customers want to have their portfolio deliveries look like. Now remember, of course, we're talking about the component of LNG that we control. That's largely the integrated projects, the Iraq's when it comes online and of course, the 1 million tonnes into Bangladesh and some of the Caribbean growth. The vast majority of our earnings and our revenue, as you know, are simply the capacity payments of our infrastructure through which that unfolds. But I feel like we have good diversification already. We have from different continents, we haven't gotten into it in complete detail, but we have 4 contracts coming from divergent locations. So, I think we've done a good job so far in building up geographic diversity. Kudos to Oliver's team for that. And I think we will continue to do that, but being sensible to geographical time lines as well. So, we are taking it into account already, and we will continue to take it into account. So, I think what I want to emphasize, Eli, is what we've always said. We're pretty boring about this. We like to buy and sell on the same index. You don't see us taking commodity risks. We're determined to be that sort of boring infra provider that integrates molecules.

Yes. That's helpful color. And then maybe thinking about sort of the increased capital allocation and optionality there. Obviously, you have a really strong growth platform in Jamaica, and this is a temporary sort of situation. So, as the cash and overall flexibility builds, what should we think about as kind of the key growth priorities this year and heading into next year? And what else might we see sanctioned on the growth front?

I have a little bit of color since you mentioned Jamaica, Eli just had a very grateful for U.S. Embassy in Kingston, just hosted Excelerate for a big reception there last week for all of the Jamaica business leaders and for the Jamaican government. And then we had our Board of Directors visit our facilities there. Very proud of that platform, looking for great things from it. I would say that our view on what we've outlined for CapEx requirements in the Caribbean that we're expecting, remains intact from what we've guided you all to before. It's somewhat opportunistic. We're already seeing increased sales of gas, new customers, increased gas sales in Jamaica, but we also want, obviously, to be expanding throughout the Caribbean, adding more spokes to that hub, and we're eager to be doing that. We are doing some of that. If they're too small, we probably won't bring it to anyone's attention. When they're larger ones, we'll announce them as they write them.

And our next question comes from the line of Chris Robertson with Deutsche Bank.

Yes. Maybe to start with just following up on the conversion project here. I know Dana mentioned kind of the time line and CapEx devoted to it and some discussions there. But just thinking about it in terms of any commercial discussions or plans regarding more integrated type project, given the current volatility in the Mid East, how are you thinking about where to potentially look for a subsequent integrated project or to deploy that asset? I know it's maybe a couple of years off here, but just has anything changed in your mind about how you're strategically thinking about positioning the asset given the current situation?

Yes. Let me, this is Steven, Chris. Thanks for the question. I would say first point is, no, our strategic priorities haven't changed. The markets we like before the conflict, we still like. This is a near-term supply disruption. It is not demand destruction. So the first thing I would say is we're not pivoting from where we were out there with hunting license before the war. We continue to be in the same markets. Second thing I would say is that you will have seen with the announcement of the Iraq project and with the Jordan Charter yesterday and today, that was the first anybody heard about it. We have a number of opportunities we're pursuing in the pipeline, but you should expect moving forward, that will probably be the cadence. You will hear about them when we are announcing them. That's just the best way to commercially approach these things. So we're looking on every continent, I assure you, we're looking throughout the Caribbean, and we continue to be focused on those markets that we've highlighted before, such as South Asia and East Asia.

And our next question comes from the line of Craig Shere with Tuohy.

So on the Jamaica and Eli's question, I think you had mentioned, Steven, that you're already seeing some organic upside on the island. And there was kind of a bifurcation that maybe wasn't laid out explicitly as well about the growth opportunity in Jamaica with some incredibly low-hanging fruit with capacity utilization upside that really doesn't involve a lot of CapEx and could at least be notable in terms of EBITDA driver, combined with a larger CapEx opportunity that is accretive that could hit by decade end. Could you elaborate on the cadence of this and opportunity set, what might come even before we see tens of millions of dollars of investment?

Craig, I'm going to pass that to Oliver. I would, I don't know if I ever said very low-hanging fruit. And that sounds like the mango is actually on the ground instead of just being; look, we are seeing some early, and that's the point, Craig. If it's de minimis CapEx, it's just going to show up in performance over time, likely later in '26 on some of these. But let me hand it to Oliver. I don't think we're going to change our view on cadence of how the Caribbean unfolds.

Yes. Thanks, Craig. And yes, I think the bifurcation you speak to is correct, right? There's opportunities using the platform that we have today and some that we've been able to capitalize on already and continuing to look at those. I think when you think of the timing of those, it's really around, as this LNG wave comes on in the U.S., I'd expect to see a good correlation to the LNG coming on to some of these opportunities as the affordability of that long-term supply is able to displace the fuels in some of these markets in the region. I think some of the higher, sort of higher CapEx is also, I mean, obviously, we continue to look at that. We continue to be confident that those opportunities are the most affordable and most, sort of economical solutions for the markets we're looking at. And likely, those are shifting probably towards the later end of the scale. But we feel confident that over the period, you've got those, you've got some good opportunities in the near term and that will build, move us into some of those higher CapEx opportunities on the back end of that range.

And maybe I could also follow up on Craig's question. I think you were talking about the FSRU conversion opportunity there. But you've talked about both the opportunity to redeploy Express in 2027 and the potential Shenandoah conversion into 2028. And both those opportunities or asset redeployments potentially supporting entirely new downstream opportunities. And over time, you have mentioned a few of those from Vietnam to Bangladesh and beyond. So I guess my question is and you said, Steve, you're not going to give any more color until you actually have something commercial to announce. But is it unreasonable to think that the redeployment of these assets into '27 and '28 could combine into tens of millions of dollars of EBITDA run rate upside?

That's not unreasonable at all, Chris. This is Steven. I mean what I would say is, as we've told you, we're going to evaluate there are a lot of things you look to with your counterparty, and we're not going to dictate what the customer should want or want. We want to be a good partner for the long term. We want to be a reliable partner. And it's going to, some deals will continue to be our, I don't even like to say legacy, but just our capacity type business. Some will be integrated if we can integrate it on a predictable basis where the addition of the molecule has a payment performance that looks like our infra. So, we're going to be both and we're not going to be hidebound and just have one approach to the world. mean we feel strongly that the future of LNG is regas, regas capacity. There aren't enough of it. We are among the only ones focused on it, and it is critical for dealing with this. So, there is opportunity. There's going to continue to be opportunity. I think what you're seeing with our announcements, and I don't wish to be coy at all, but we've got teams around the world working on that pipeline. Opportunities are staggered. I'm confident that we're going to continue to have sustained growth, as Dana mentioned, sequence growth through '28. It remains intact. And I possibly have never felt better about the market, the future of regas, the future of Excelerate than we do at this moment.

And our next question comes from the line of Bobby Brooks with Northland Capital Markets.

I thought it was pretty impressive how quickly you recontracted the FSRU Acadia on that 9-month deployment in Jordan. And I think it should really remind investors of the flexibilities of these asset class. What I was curious to hear more on was sort of how quickly the conversations went from, 'okay, this Iraqi terminal is going to be delayed. Let's look and see if we can deploy the Acadia somewhere short term to actually getting that Jordan deal signed. '

Bobby, this is Steven. If our regional teams haven't been reaching out to everyone around the world every quarter, and just sharing ideas and talking with them, so they're aware of what the opportunities are, I'd be very disappointed. So, I suspect if you drill into it, the relationship and the contact has been going on for years. We just needed to activate that. So that's the virtue of having these regional teams, having the experience around the world, not being somebody who's a one-off or a 2-off. You've built the knowledge of each region and what might come up. And you point out something great, Bobby. These are floating assets. They are redeployable. They can be flexible. You can take advantage of this. If you're building a power plant somewhere in some continent and you get a slowdown, it's not like you're going to float that somewhere else. So, we love this asset class. This is partly why our investors should feel comfortable, we believe, in our ability to take advantage of the TAM that's out there in front of us.

Awesome to hear. And it was also exciting to hear the new customer agreements and growing sales to existing customers in Jamaica. Just was hoping to get a little more context of how much of an increase is that and maybe how much more opportunities you see to do more of that? And maybe just how infrastructure expansions in Jamaica would look like versus through the broader Caribbean?

Bobby, this is Oliver. I'll take that one. So, we haven't spoken specifically to the volume increase. And I think as Steven mentioned earlier, you'll sort of see that aggregation come through in sort of plan as we sort of give guidance on this. But we've seen, I think, some of the near-term gains or near-term increases have been in the Jamaican market. I think we've talked about before on the small-scale side through the trucking, it's pretty easy to just deliver incremental volumes through the platform that we have. So that's something that we continue to look at. We've got the team on the ground, knocking on the doors, chasing those opportunities, and we continue to see the growth there just that will happen just organically over the coming months and years on that. And then sort of more broadly in the region, it's really using the Jamaica platform. We've got the, the FSRU in Jamaica is a big storage tank in the Caribbean that we can use to then reach the other markets, the spokes that we have, we've spoken about. The nature of how that can be, I mean, that could be through ISO tank deliveries. It could be using the small-scale vessel we have to make deliveries to other sort of small-scale assets that we develop in the Caribbean. So, I think we're, ultimately, we're agnostic to the technology. It's all about how we get that demand, how we build up that demand. And with our technical solutions, I think we've got a wide array to meet the different needs of the different markets. I think as Steven said that we want to give the customers what they want as an energy solution. And I think that also applies to the technology solutions. It's different for each different island in the Caribbean.

And our next question comes from the line of Wade Suki with Capital One.

Just quickly, just a housekeeping item, just so I'm clear on the timing here. I think I heard you say the Express will be in dry dock in the third quarter, then moving to Pakistan in the fourth quarter with the Exquisite going into dry dock. Is that right?

Wade, this is David. Yes, that's correct. We expect, our current plan is for Express to go into dry dock at the end of the third quarter and then have a replacement for Exquisite when she comes out in around fourth quarter.

Got it. Got it. Okay. Great. And just maybe just to dovetail off Bobby's question, I think. Just thinking about the longer-term solution in Jordan, is that a possible, I know you guys don't necessarily like to speak to specific commercial opportunity, but is there an opportunity longer term in Jordan for the Express possibly after the Acadia moves on?

Wade, this is Steven. I would say once people get LNG once, and look, Jordan's had LNG for 10 years. They had 12 cargoes last year, 10 of those came from the U.S. I think they'll reach even more markets from there. And a lot of respect for what they've done. We would certainly love to be part of that. We love people who already have access to LNG because we know that people that have access to LNG inevitably want more LNG.

And our next question comes from the line of Zack Van Everen with TPH.

Maybe just following up on some of the time lines asked on the last question. With the Acadia deal starting midyear and being a 9-month contract, and then I believe you said once activity starts back up in Iraq, it will be about 6 months. If the Iraq project were to start up again in June and completed by the end of this year, could you use the Express or other flexibility to start that project? Or would you have to wait for the Acadia to complete its agreement in Jordan?

Zack, this is Steven. Man, you mentioned this very possibility last earnings cycle. And yes, I took that to heart, I have been thinking about it. I mean you have a keen insight. These are floating assets. We routinely bridge with one asset to another asset. So, I can't speak to what we're going to do here, but we routinely take advantage of the flexibility of having an asset that can float and can be redeployed. So, what I can tell you is we'll be able and we intend to serve Iraq as soon as we can stand it up. But we can't guide not knowing what the conditions are, I don't intend for us to be any more clear than Dana's in my comments that start-up would be in '27.

Got you. No, that's super helpful. And then maybe just a macro question. I know you guys mentioned the 200 million tons coming online between now and 2030. We're in that same ballpark. I'm curious where you guys stand on the global demand side. I know historically and just with your asset base, you do benefit from lower prices just with some of the markets that are more price sensitive. But do you guys have a view on the demand supply mismatch coming into the end of the decade?

I mean, Zack, that's why I'm telling everybody, we're telling everyone the future of LNG is regas. like this is supply disruption. This is not demand destruction. I mean what's TTF right now, $15 or something with 20% of the global LNG offline. This isn't what you saw in '22. This is a disruption of supply. Long-term contracted LNG is affordable. It remains affordable. I think you're going to see that movement that went to long-term contracted supply continue. There may be some geographic diversification riders that people want on top of that. But we think that the supply and the wave justifies the company we've built with the balance sheet, which can integrate a molecule because we know people are going to want this, and they're going to want it on as easy and as quick a basis as possible. And that's the company that we've built at Excelerate.

And there are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back over to Mr. Steven Kobos for closing remarks.

Thank you all for joining us today. As I just said, there is and will continue to be an enormous need for the growth of regas capacity around the world. That's why we know that the future of LNG is regas and Excelerate is the global leader.

Thank you. This concludes today's call. We thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.