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Martin Midstream Partners L.P. (MMLP)

Q3 2012 Earnings Call· Tue, Nov 6, 2012

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Martin Midstream Partners LP Third Quarter 2012 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to your host for today, Mr. Bob Bondurant. Sir, you may begin.

Robert D. Bondurant

Analyst

Thank you, Ben. Let everyone know who's on the call today, we have Ruben Martin, President and Chief Executive Officer; Joe McCreery, Vice President of Finance and Head of our Investor Relations; and Wes Martin, Vice President of Business Development. Before we get started with the financial and operational results for the third quarter, I need to make this disclaimer. Certain statements made during this conference call may be forward-looking statements relating to financial forecasts, future performance and our ability to make distributions to unitholders. We report our financial results in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and use certain non-GAAP financial measures within the meanings of SEC Regulation G, such as distributable cash flow and earnings before interest, taxes, and depreciation. We use these measures because we believe it provides users of our financial information with meaningful comparisons between current results and prior-reported results, and it can be a meaningful measure of the partnership's cash available to pay distributions. Distributable cash flow should not be considered an alternative to cash flow from operating activities. Furthermore, distributable cash flow is not a measure of financial performance or liquidity under GAAP and should not be considered, in isolation, as an indicator of our performance. We also included in our press release issued yesterday a reconciliation of distributable cash flow to the most comparable GAAP financial measure. Our earnings press release and third quarter 10-Q is available at our website, www.martinmidstream.com. Now I'd like to discuss our third quarter performance. For the third quarter, as a result of the sale of our Prism assets to CenterPoint Energy, we are continuing to report our financial performance segregated between continuing operations and discontinued operations. Our continuing operations are what remain after the sale of the Prism assets, and our discontinued operations information reflects the…

Joe McCreery

Analyst

Thanks, Bob. I'll start with our normal walk-through of the debt components of the balance sheet, then we'll highlight the activities that impacted our liquidity position during the quarter. I'll conclude with a discussion of the recent M&A activities of the partnership. So here we go. At September 30, 2012, the partnership had funded debt of approximately $256 million. This consisted of approximately $173 million of senior unsecured notes, and approximately $77 million drawn under our $400 million revolving credit facility, and approximately $6 million of capital lease obligations. Thus, the partnership's available liquidity on September 30 was $323 million. For the third quarter 2012, our bank compliant leverage ratios, defined as senior secured indebtedness to adjusted EBITDA and total indebtedness to adjusted EBITDA, were 0.75x and 2.32x respectively. Additionally, our bank compliant interest coverage ratio, defined as adjusted EBITDA to consolidated interest expense, was 4.21x. Looking at the balance sheet, our total funded debt to total capitalization was 38.4%, which is significantly lower than the June 30 quarter, primarily as a result of the pay down under the revolving credit facility associated with the divestiture of our natural gas gathering and processing assets. In all, at September 30, the partner was in full -- partnership was in full compliance of all banking covenants, financial or otherwise. As of Friday, November 2, the current amount borrowed under our revolving credit facility was $355 million. This large swing in borrowing is attributed to 2 large acquisitions executed in early October, and the larger amounts of working capital related to our NGL activity, primarily butane inventories. Before I move on and discuss the acquisitions in detail, let me take a moment to further educate on the NGL strategy Bob spoke about and provide some level of guidance as it pertains to the…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And our first question today comes from the line of James Spicer. James Spicer - Wells Fargo & Company: Just wondering, how much project financing debt is currently down at Cardinal today?

Joe McCreery

Analyst

James, this is Joe. There are 3 separate project financings for the 3 developmental projects. There's a $125 million facility at Arcadia, a $125 million facility at Perryville and a $115 million facility at Cadeville. James Spicer - Wells Fargo & Company: Okay. And then you mentioned that the project financing would increase by $30 million to $40 million over the next 12 months or so?

Joe McCreery

Analyst

That's the additional capital we'll need to spend above what's the project financial level. So that's, in fact, the equity contributions required to finish the projects. James Spicer - Wells Fargo & Company: Okay. Got it. And I guess just a broader question with regard to the balance sheets. Pro forma for these transactions leverages much higher than it has been in the past. What are your thoughts on the current levels of leverage? Do you feel comfortable where things are? Is there any need in your mind to delever the balance sheet?

Joe McCreery

Analyst

I think as we look at it, the leverage has kind of crept outside of what we kind of historically had as our operating boundaries. So on that basis, I think there is some balance sheet improvement that could take place. James Spicer - Wells Fargo & Company: Okay, and how do you envision that happening and over what period of time?

Joe McCreery

Analyst

Yes, I think it's likely that we would be in a position to issue equity in the next couple of quarters, certainly.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Ethan Bellamy of Robert W. Baird. Ethan H. Bellamy - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division: What is the end game for Cardinal? When is -- in terms of Energy Capital's position, when does their fund expire? And what do you see strategically happening there?

Robert D. Bondurant

Analyst

Wes, go ahead.

Wes Martin

Analyst

This is Wes. Yes, I'll take that. In terms of ECP and their fund expiring, I don't want to get into partner issues. I think you can -- I think the fund was originally started in 2006 or 2007, so you can extrapolate there using sort of a historical private equity model as to potential liquidity events or rationalization or monetization of their position. But again, we haven't been given any indication as to specifically anything imminent from their perspective. And I think, long-term, as we've indicated to them, assuming certain fundamentals in gas storage and making certain assumptions, I think we would like to have that position or own that position. But it's not anything imminent at this point. And -- But ultimately, I think we would like to own that entire position, assuming the accretion is there and the price is right. Ethan H. Bellamy - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division: Okay. The fundamentals in gas storage are better than they were earlier this year, but they're not great. How are the fundamentals in your view? To what levels historically do you expect it to get in, say, '13, in terms intrinsic economics in gas storage?

Wes Martin

Analyst

Yes, where we stand today, I think we're a little bit unique from the position or standpoint that we contracted a lot of the capacity back in 2008 and 2009, some of this new capacity that's coming along this next summer. So we've got contracts in place at Cadeville, that's a 10-year contract, sort of a 2011, 2010, '11 type of rates, long-term deal there. We've got -- at Perryville, that's fully -- the 8-plus Bcf that's coming online next summer is fully contracted for 5 years. So we've got a lot of that new capacity online contracted. In terms of fundamentals, I think you're right. I think where we are today is obviously not where we would like to be. But I think long-term, what we see is higher barriers to entry in that business, less capacity growth, and assets that are strategically located, like ours, in high points of liquidity, we think are long-term solid assets that we want to own. And again, sort of the concept there is to have fee-based assets, long-term contracts in nature. And as Joe mentioned, we're weighted average right now at about a 7-year contract rate, given all the new capacity coming online. So we're cognizant and understand the current markets. We're somewhat protected due to some contracts that we entered into back in 2008. I would also add that, longer-term, we do see a more -- more of a return to sort of your historical gas storage rates. And really what we've modeled out is sort of that in 2015 and beyond. So we're weathering effectively, call it 2 to 3 years here of sort of what we would say is just short-term weakness, but we do expect a return to closer to historical norms in 2015 and beyond. Ethan H. Bellamy - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division: And am I thinking about this correctly, that in terms of the various businesses that you guys are involved in, and you guys have your fingers in a lot of pies, that this is potentially the biggest growth vertical for you?

Wes Martin

Analyst

I would say, yes, in terms of just absolute distributions and cash flow being received, you know, these are all long lead-time projects. We've been investing in this for a long period of time, both through the parent company and the public company. So I think in terms of absolute numbers, yes, I think that's right. We'll see a significant pickup of distributions. As Joe mentioned, we're in that $20 million to $30 million range. And depending upon some other stuff we're looking at, that could be -- it could be higher. So yes, I'd say it's a significant piece. I'm not sure if it's, overall, given some of these organic growth projects that we're either contemplating right now or that we haven't necessarily announced, I don't know if it's going to be bigger than those, but it's definitely a significant piece.

Robert D. Bondurant

Analyst

Yes, let me add to that, too. Wes is right. It definitely is a significant portion of the future, but we do have some other projects and some other both organic growth and potential acquisitions that are of that size or better. And so, we've got a lot of different things going. And you said it right when you talked about the diversity and so forth, because we do have a lot of different sources of income and drivers of our income and cash flow. And so diversity is the best thing. So really, with what we've sold out of our Natural Gas division and with this coming on in our Natural Gas division, we're still an extremely diverse type company. And the other acquisitions and the other types of things that we're looking at organic growth are in areas that are different from this.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Selman Akyol from Stifel, Nicolaus. Selman Akyol - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc., Research Division: Couple quick questions, if I may. First of all, can you just remind us, how much do you guys have all tied up in Cardinal right now or in natural gas storage?

Wes Martin

Analyst

Yes, this is Wes. Assuming the $150 million purchase price and then sort of the reduction of IDRs, let's call that net sort of $132 million, not taking into account sort of present value concept, but call it $132 million there. We bought Monroe for roughly $60 million was our piece, and then we also additionally made about $15 million to $18 million -- I think about $18 million of additional capital contribution. So if you add all that up, I think that comes up to roughly $220 million, I think, if my math's right there. Selman Akyol - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc., Research Division: All right, and that's prior to the additional $30 million to $40 million, that you need to invest over the next 24 months?

Wes Martin

Analyst

That's correct. And one thing I just want to clarify. In terms of our indication of distributions from Cardinal, that's sort of a 2015 expectation number -- expected number. We will continue to, we believe, grow those cash flows over time as we put on low cost sort of expansion at Perryville. So that's not a full development number, the $20 million to $30 million Joe's indicated. So I just want to make sure that when you're looking at investment multiples, there's additional upside there that's not reflected that we ultimately believe will be rationalized. Selman Akyol - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc., Research Division: Fair enough. And then on that $132 million, you netted the $18 million against that, correct?

Wes Martin

Analyst

Correct.

Joe McCreery

Analyst

Right. Selman Akyol - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc., Research Division: Okay. Then just as I'm sort of thinking about rowing forward here into the fourth quarter, on your fifth and sixth storage tanks that are coming on, the 100,000s, when is that going to happen in the quarter or has it already?

Joe McCreery

Analyst

It already happened.

Wes Martin

Analyst

Yes. In November, the sixth one came on in November. Selman Akyol - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc., Research Division: All right. And then on the fertilizer side, I think you said cash flow of $4 million versus $9.9 million in the prior year. Was that really all due to pricing?

Robert D. Bondurant

Analyst

It's the prior period, the second quarter. So -- See, it's a demand function. [indiscernible] They go into a fall fill here in the next 3 months to where they'll start filling up and getting ready for the springtime. But basically, you've -- everything they've taken in the fall and in the spring, then they're through that, and so you're in a lull period as they harvest and those kind of things. And then they'll come back in the fall -- fall period. It's not as good as March, but it is kind of a kicker toward the end of the year.

Operator

Operator

And I'm showing no further questions in queue.

Robert D. Bondurant

Analyst

Okay, great. Well, thanks for calling in and we appreciate your interest in the company. I'll leave it with the fact that we did have a better-than-expected above budget third quarter. We're seeing strength through all of our continuing operations. And we really do believe that the diversity helps. I think that was brought up on the call before and it really seems to be working in our situation here. We've had a successful divestiture of the Prism gathering and processing, and we reallocated those funds. So with the 2 extra drop-downs, that will help our distributions increases and it provides a lot of long-term growth. We believe the packaging business has a lot of potential long-term upside and a lot of long-term growth with some consolidation in that business. And more importantly, I think after almost 4 years of distraction for management, we've settled our litigation problems, and so we are pushing forward. That distraction is gone, and we're all very, very excited about it and really looking forward to going forward. We appreciate all, everyone, and we appreciate all your trust in MMLP. Thank you for dialing in.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program, and you may all disconnect. Have a great rest of the day.