Gary Chapman
Analyst · B. Riley. Please go ahead
Thank you and welcome everybody to our fourth quarter earnings call. You can find our earnings release and this presentation on our website at knotoffshorepartners.com. Our call today includes non-U.S. GAAP measures of distributable cash flow and adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, EBITDA. Our earnings release includes a reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures and please remember that, any forward-looking statements made during today's call are subject to risks and uncertainties that are further discussed in our annual and quarterly SEC filings. Actual events and results can differ materially from those forward-looking statements and the partnership does not have undertake a duty to update any forward-looking statements. I refer you to Slide 2 and our other SEC filings for further details. Onto Slide 3, fourth quarter 2020 highlights. The partnership is yet again able to report a very good and very stable set of quarterly results. Total revenues in the fourth quarter were $69.9 million, operating income $30.4 million and net income $24.6 million. Adjusted EBITDA was $52.9 million, distributable cash flow was $28.6 million and our coverage ratio was 1.58. This is all driven by scheduled fleet utilization of 98.6% in the quarter, allowing us to maintain and pay our 22nd consecutive quarterly distribution of $0.52 per common unit. Our crew and our operations have remained materially unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic to-date. And we've established many new procedures to do what we can to keep our colleague safe, despite the many challenges that have risen since this time last year. At the end of the quarter, the partnership had $738 million of remaining firm contracted forward revenue excluding options, up from $585 million at the end of the prior quarter. We completed the dropdown of Tove Knutsen in December without needing to issue new equity and I'll give more information on that later in the presentation. Also in December 2020, we agreed terms for sale and leaseback transaction for the Raquel Knutsen and this completed in January 2021, with a net contribution of cash to the partnership of $38 million. In the quarter, we secured new firm charter for Tordis, Vigdis and Lena vessels and again I'll give more detail shortly on that. The Windsor Knutsen was eventually redelivered to us from Shell on December 7, 2020 and subsequently we have a great commercial terms with a major oil company for a one-year fixed time charter contract for the vessel to commence in the third quarter of 2021 with further options to extend - to a further 18 months. In December 2020, the Windsor Knutsen reported a crack in its main engine block and was placed off-hire. However, we expect that our insurances will cover both the repair cost and the vast majority of the loss of hire during the period of the repair which may take as long as six months due to the manufacturing the parts, logistics and the repair itself. Loss of hire insurance is expected to provide income at approximately the level earned during the vessels prior long-term charter, expecting a 14-day deductible period under the policy which fell entirely in December 2020. Equinor did not take its next option on the Bodil Knutsen by the due date. And so, we expect that the vessel will be redelivered to us on or around April 9, 2021. Whilst the vessel has worked well for Equinor, we’re not in a position at the moment to commit to a new charter. In particular, the affect of the COVID-19 pandemic and lower oil prices haven’t helped in this regard. However, we remain in close dialogue with them and other charters and we're optimistic of finding new employment for the vessel in the near future. To Slide 4, where we set out some of the unique aspects of our business that may not always be fully appreciated, for which new investors may benefit from knowing. We're a market leader with more than 30 years of experience and investment in this business. We’re classified as a corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes. Therefore we issue Form 1099 to report our distributions and not Form K-1. Our vessels are specialized assets with limited replacement risk. And they represent critical infrastructure required by our customers to deliver oil production from projects that have significant upfront investments, long life spans and often low marginal production costs. Most of our vessels have operational flexibility, and a capable of servicing many different fields. There are high barriers to entry due to the specialist nature of our vessels. The additional capital costs required, technical specification and crew training required over and above a conventional tanker. We have a diverse set of financially strong contractual counterparties. Our contracts are fixed rate and typically one to seven years. And once in operation, they do not dependent on oil price fluctuations, and it's our customers that bear the risk of vessel utilization and operational fuel costs. Our management strategy remains to operate the business with a focus on long-term stability as far as possible, and providing our unitholders with an attractive distribution. We have diversified revenue streams meaning, we are not disproportionately dependent on any single contract. Our debt repayment profile means we are paying down around $90 million each year. And we have access to attractive debt finance through a wide portfolio of lenders. On Slide 5 the income statement, where I will highlight just a few relevant points. For the fourth quarter of 2020, we recorded total revenues of $69.9 million, which is slightly better than quarter three, mainly due to the off-hire of the Windsor Knutsen in December. Vessel operating expenses for the fourth quarter were slightly better than the third quarter, but much of that relates to timing across the fleet and full year costs were materially on budget despite higher crew costs as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Depreciation held steady and on track and general and admin costs rose slightly due to transactional activity in the fourth quarter. Interest expense for quarter four was $6.1 million, a further decrease from the prior quarter again, driven by lower LIBOR across on average across all our credit facilities that are not hedged. On Slide 6, adjusted EBITDA, adjusting for some of the non-cash volatility that comes into the income statement, we are able to report another consistent adjusted EBITDA of $52.9 million, down only slightly from $53.3 million in the second quarter. Slide 7, distributable cash flow or DCF was $28.6 million in the fourth quarter and the distribution cover at the end of the quarter showed a modest decrease to 1.58 from 1.60. And we again maintained our distribution level at $0.52 per unit equivalent to an annual distribution of $2.08. Slide 8, balance sheet. At the end of the fourth quarter, the partnership had $73.3 million in available liquidity, which consisted of cash and cash equivalents of $52.6 million and $20.7 million of capacity under our revolving credit facilities. The revolving credit facilities mature in August 2021 and September 2023. The partnership's total interest-bearing debt outstanding at December 31, 2020 was $1.036 billion and the average margin paid on the partnership's outstanding debt in the fourth quarter was approximately 2.04% over LIBOR. As of the end of the fourth quarter, the partnership had entered into various interest rate swap agreements for a total notional amount of $516 million to hedge against the interest rate risks of its variable rate borrowings. And the quarterly received interest-based on three or six-month LIBOR and pays a weighted average interest rate of 1.88% under the interest rate swap agreements, which have an average maturity of approximately 4.3 years. Onto Slide 9, I'm pleased to give you a few more details related to the dropdown of the Tove Knutsen, the picture of the new vessel it’s on the left hand side of this page. Vessel is a 153,000-deadweight ton DP2 shuttle tanker, delivered from the shipyard on September 28, 2020, but it then sailed to Brazil and undertook series of approval test for Equinor and Petrobras as are required for Brazilian operations. It then commenced on its seven-year fixed charter to Equinor on November 27, 2020. There are further 13 years of charter’s options attached and KNOP closed the purchased from KNOT on December 31, 2020. As stated, this was financed through a combination of internal cash and debt thus being non-dilutive to our existing equity unitholders. The purchase price was $117.8 million less $93.1 million of outstanding indebtedness plus or minus other items typical at closing such as working capital and fees. We also repaid $6.9 million of the indebtedness at closing leaving an aggregate of $86.3 million outstanding of the secured credit facility related to the vessel. Given the non-dilutive nature of the financing, [the both] cash contribution for the vessel will directly assist the partnership in maintaining our distribution. From an EBITDA perspective, EBITDA contribution is expected to be less than 10% of total partnership EBITDA keeping our vessel concentration risk down. And I can say that whilst we’re satisfied with the projected from the vessel, this EBITDA contribution will be slightly lower than some of our other vessels as in return we received a seven-year commitment from the charter. Onto Slide 10 an update on our contracted revenue and charter portfolio. At the end of the quarter, we had $738 million of contracted forward revenue remaining to the partnership, an average remaining charter period of 2.9 years. Customers have options to extend these charters by a further 3.1 years on average. I've already talked about the Windsor Knutsen, but here is the situation graphically. You'll see that we currently expect to have no material gaps in the vessel's income until May 2022 at the earliest and possibly up to the end of 2023 as we expect today. Bodil, I have also covered already, but it is perhaps also worth mentioning that the vessel is currently undertaking its scheduled drydock which is going well. The work is due to complete around the end of March 2021. The Fortaleza, Recife, Carmen, Hilda, Torill, Dan Cisne, the Dan Sabia, Ingrid and Raquel, we’re all unchanged on their fixed contracts. In December 2020, as I mentioned earlier the partnership secured new three-year fixed contracts for the vessels Tordis, Vigdis, and Lena with a major oil company. The commencement of these new time charters range between May and December 2023. What is hard to show on this diagram however, is that it is the partnership's choice which of the three vessels will be put forward and used under each of the three charters. This gives us much more chartering flexibility when seeking opportunities in the intervening periods. So for example the charter that is currently showing is starting in Q2, 2023 against the Tordis Knutsen could instead be matched with the Lena Knutsen. All three charters offer fixed periods of three years. However, the third charter grants cancellation options to the charterer at the end of the first and second years with penalties payable to the partnership if exercised. We're now marketing the vessels for short to mid-term charter business in the intervening period shown between the end of the vessels current fixed charter periods in 2022 and the commencement of the above mentioned new fixed charters in 2023. And this period on average is currently estimated to be 15 months for each vessel. Finally, the Brasil and Anna are unchanged and we have covered the Tove previously already. Slide 11, our sponsor KNOT, now have six vessels that could be acquired by the MLP. These have an average fixed contract period of 5.3 years with an average of a further 7.3 years extension options. This high value list of contracts continues to demonstrate the market's trust in our management team and sponsor and shows that the market is still active. Given where our unit price is still today, we have no firm plans for acquiring another vessel at this time. However, we are beginning to consider options for later in the year to assess whether a further internally finance vessel is possible that is without relying on raising new equity. Our sponsor, KNOT, has shown flexibility in this regard and we will take a prudent approach to this issue taking into consideration the long-term stability of the business. And as always, the acquisition by KNOP of any dropdown vessels in the future would be subject to the approval of our Independent Conflicts Committee as well as the Board of Directors of each of KNOP and the sponsored KNOT. Slide 12, the next couple of slides are to give a little wider context to our business. Our vessels are integral to the long-term offshore producing assets of our customers. These projects have significant upfront costs to construct and initiate. However, thereafter marginal production costs tend to be low and field life is typically measured in decades. Our shuttle tankers are critical infrastructure without which production cannot continue. And shuttle tankers - shuttle tanker charters are typically only a small component of customers’ field operating costs. For new build vessels firm charter periods are typically five to seven years and the fixed charter rate is not impacted by our customers’ utilization of the vessel, provided the vessel is fully functioning and made available, the fixed rate applies. Also voyage expenses are a charterer’s cost and this includes all fuel while the vessel is on hire. We don't have any direct exposure to the price of oil and you can see our list of customers are some of the biggest names. On Slide 13, the total global fleet of shuttle tankers today is 75; if you consider that there are over 800 VLCCs a, very large crude carriers in the world and some up to 90,000 commercial ships. This is in part why we say shuttle tankers are a niche business. There are two main geographies broadly 29 vessels operate in the North Sea, Barents Sea and 37 in offshore Brazil. A few operate in Canada and West Africa, but they're not significant in fleet terms. I also set out on this slide some of the characteristics of the two main markets, such as high operational standards and the types of contract that are most prevalent. Onto Slide 14, this is designed to demonstrate why we are confident about demand and growth in the shuttle tanker market in the coming years and why we think our business has a strong long-term outlook. The main takeaway is that we expect start-ups to outpace declines and with very competitive production and lifting costs we see both Brazil and the North Sea as not only staying in the game so to speak for many years to come, but actually growing. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has slightly flattened the growth curve in 2021 and maybe into 2022, through project delays. But growth is still expected and oil is perhaps rebounding faster today than was predicted even just a few months ago meaning growth may yet come back sooner than we anticipate. This is also not withstanding the energy transition and significant forecast growth in other forms of renewable energy, whether we reach peak oil around 2030 or not, oil is not about to leave as quickly even after this date. In acknowledgment of this, we are already taking many actions to reduce our own environmental impact and we're working to be among the best in the global shipping industry in terms of minimizing our impact and operating with the high standards and quality. You can read more on this in our latest ESG report covering 2019 which you can find on our website and we hope to have our 2020 report completed soon. Slide 15, so to begin to wrap up, our near-term priorities for the next one or two quarters are as follows. To continue to operate our vessels, safely and efficiently and to ensure, the health and safety of our crew and employees, it goes without saying. Continue to progress discussions with our lenders for refinancings that are due in August and November 2021. Secure new charter contracts for the Bodil Knutsen. My discussions are already ongoing and management are confident in the prospects for the vessel. Complete the Bodil’s drydock on time and on budget. Begin to consider options and possibilities for a further internally finance dropdown later in 2021, and continue ongoing close dialogue with our customers concerning operations and chartering and rechartering options and opportunities. Slide 16 closing with a brief summary. Another strong and stable operational quarter with 98.6% utilization for scheduled operations. Distributable cash flow of $28.6 million with coverage of 1.58% and $73.3 million in available liquidity which continues to give the partnership a degree of flexibility to manage any short to mid-term headwinds. We maintained our quarterly distribution of $0.52 for the 22nd consecutive quarter. We completed the dropdown of the Tove Knutsen in December without needing to issue new dilutive equity. We had $738 million of remaining contracted forward revenue excluding options at the end of the quarter up from $595 million and the partnership's operations are not exposed to short-term fluctuations in oil prices, the volume of oil transported or global oil storage capacity. Oil production in Brazil and the North Sea from shuttle tanker serviced fields is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. And we remain confident that the partnership is experienced enough to navigate through any short-term market uncertainty and that the shuttle tanker markets fundamentals and growth prospects remain strong and very supportive over the mid to long-term. Thank you very much for listening and that concludes the formal presentation. And I'll be happy to take any questions.