Robert Karlovich
Analyst · UBS. Your line is open
All right, thanks Mike. So I'm going to start with improvements we made on the balance sheet, primarily around our reduction in debt balances and leverage and then go over our core results and expectations for the fourth quarter and full year. We utilized the 300 million in gross proceeds from the Glass Mountain sale to repurchase the entire $195 million balance of our 2022 senior notes, which include a make-whole payment of $17.5 million. Our rationale for focusing our attention on these notes was a combination of the higher coupon rates of those notes at 8.4% based on our current leverage. The maturity date and amortization of the notes and the relative short-time frame to reduce indebtedness prior to December 31st as well as the elimination of that secured debt from our balance sheet. Our credit facility is now the only secured debt remaining in our apple structure. Additionally, we were able to repurchase in the open market approximately 89 million of unsecured debt at an average price of 98.8% of par value with a weighted average coupon of 6.4%. While the notes repurchased have a longer tenor associated with them, the interest saving and the net discount to par made these repurchase compelling. We will close on a Retail Propane sale at the end of this quarter and we will continue to evaluate our entire capital structure in order to get most benefit for the debt reduction, whether that is in interest saving, maturities or combination of the two. We expected in our fiscal year with the compliant debt balance between 1.6 billion and 1.7 billion, which excludes the working capital facility. We also expect the working capital facility to decrease as we reduced propane and butane inventories throughout the seeding season. All these transactions vastly improved our leverage and credit profile, which will increase our financial flexibility and simplify our capital structure. Our fiscal third quarter is highlighted by the continued improvement in our Water business, volume growth on Grand Mesa and a good start to the winter heating season for our propane businesses. These trends appear to continue into our fourth quarter as Water volumes continue to grow. Crude prices have been $60 or above and remains coal in the eastern and mid-west portion of the United States. Overall, we reported adjusted EBITDA of a 123 million for the quarter and 252 million year-to-date. We had strong quarters in Water, Crude and Retail as Mike mentioned, which is made after the shortfall in refined products. While we debated somewhat adjusting our update, we did update to a range of 440 to 450, as Mike mentioned primarily driven by the hurricane and the impact that's had on our refined products, but which also includes increases in Water and Retail based on performance year-to-date and the expectations for improved results in the fourth quarter. We've reduced our crude forecast slightly due to the sales of Glass Mountain in prior year end. I want to give a little more color on results and expectations for each segment. In crude oil, the crude segment generated approximately $30 million of adjusted EBITDA this quarter with Grand Mesa contributing $43 million and $33 million on a net basis. The remainder of the Crude Logistics segment continues to operate at approximately breakeven levels, which includes funding our commitments on third-party pipeline, operating in our marine, trucking and rail businesses and our stored terminals at Cushing and on the Gulf Coast. Year-to-date, adjusted EBITDA has totaled over $86 million for this segment. These results are in line with our guidance and expectations. Financial volumes on Grand Mesa averaged about 106,000 barrels per day for the quarter and physical volume averaged about 100,000 barrels per day for the quarter, a 12% increase over the prior quarter. We expect to stay around this volume level for the fourth quarter as well. There are 26 rigs running in the DJ Basin-Niobrara and at current commodity prices and economics, we expect drilling and production to continue to increase in the basin. Prior to the sale of Glass Mountain, we funded approximately 7.3 million during the quarter for the extension into the stack, which is included in our total 49 million of invested in growth projects companywide this quarter. We are also working on a few additional crud projects including the addition of some tankage at Lucerne in the DJ to support our footprint in the basin. With the sales of Glass Mountain complete, we are making a slight change to our crude oil segment forecasted EBITDA for the fiscal year, which we are now targeting at a $120 million. Moving to Water, Water adjusted EBITDA was $35 million for the quarter, which is a run rate as Mike mentioned of a 140 million annualized. Year-to-date adjusted EBITDA for the water segment is over $84 million, and we are increasing our fiscal 2018 guidance to a $120 million. Water volumes averaged 780,000 barrels per day this quarter, a 20% increase over the prior quarter and a 53% increase over the same quarter last year. This is significant growth which has continued into the current quarter this month. Every one of our basins has shown volume increase this quarter-over-quarter with the Permian Basin continuing to set the pace. We've invested approximately 15 million of growth CapEx this quarter in the Water business and 64 million year-to-date as we have disposal capacity and gathering pipeline to support our existing and new disposal customers. Our skim oil production was over 3,600 barrels per day during the quarter within an average crude cut of 0.46% of processed water volumes. Our year-to-date skim oil has averaged approximately 2,900 barrels per day with a 0.43% crude tax. As a remainder, we have hedged approximately 90% of our expected skim oil production at just over $50 per barrel through March 2018 to limit any direct impact from crude oil pricing changes, which would include the benefits. Additionally, we have extended our hedged position now with positions out from December 2019, our average hedged price is in mid 50s and we have about half of our forecasted given volumes hedged. Moving to Liquids, our adjusted EBITDA for the Liquids segment totaled 20 million this quarter and 35 million year-to-date. As Mike mentioned, the Wholesale Propane business exceeded budget for the quarter as margins continued to improve. Based on current hitting degree days, we're expecting this division to continue to perform well in the fourth quarter with higher volumes than last year. Similar to last quarter, the Butane business benefited from increased butane prices and volumes; however, it continues to be burdened by tight margins due to railcar lease costs and significant butane supply impacting differentials. This business is lagging our plan year-to-date; however, those impacts should decrease significantly for next fiscal year, as we return railcars from lease and lower our fixed operating cost. There have been no significant changes to our performances to Sawtooth, however, we are entering the contract season for next year and are looking at multiple opportunities to increase utilization of the caverns. Based on year-to-date results and current expectations for the fourth quarter, we are updating our fiscal year '18 EBITDA guidance for the Liquids business unit to $65 million. The Retail Propane EBITDA was 35 million, which is right in line with our budget through December. December was colder than normal driven by the below freezing temperatures across the country during the last week of the month. That benefit will primarily be recognized in January for our Retail Propane. October and November were warmer than normal, however, very much in line with our budget which factored a warmer than a normal heating season. January has been colder than normal and the February and March forecast remains favorable in our core areas of operation. So far, we have seen increased volumes and we are maintaining strong margins across our footprint from our original budget. We will continue to benefit from our mid-western and specific northwest districts through the end of the March and the closing of the Retail Propane sale to DTC. Our remaining footprint will be focused on the eastern portion of the United States where we continue to grow our Propane business and serve our over 350,000 customers. We expect to have over 400,000 customers within the next three years. During the quarter, we invested approximately 11 million in acquisitions and growth capital in Retail Propane including the purchase of certain assets in Michigan from our joint venture of victory Propane. Year-to-date, we have invested growth capital of 41 million in the Retail Propane businesses. The majority of our investment over the past three years has been focused on the eastern portion of our business which we will retain going forward. We have updated our FY18 EBITDA forecast for this fiscal year based on year-to-date results and weather expectations for February and March to a $115 million, which includes an approximately $27 million contribution from the assets we are selling to DCC. Refined Products reported adjusted EBITDA of $9 million this quarter and $24 million year-to-date as we continue to face the headwinds of our position on Colonial Pipeline. The gasoline curve has been backwardated and the basis between the Gulf Coast and the New York Harbor has been highest especially since Hurricane Harvey in early September. A high Gulf Coast gasoline basis lowers the market value of the Colonial line space. While we had a slight benefit from the storm in our prior quarter, the lingering effects along with continued strong exports from the Gulf Coast has been a detriment to our margins and our inventory risk management. The lack of contango market for the upcoming seasonal change in RVP limits our ability to capitalize on approximate 4 million barrel of gasoline inventory position, which we have been able to benefit from historically. We have hedged our carry position for the fourth quarter albeit at a lower margin than we have had in the past or expected for this year. While we no longer have a direct cost related to negative Colonial line space, the current line space market does impact our business, allowing competitors access to on Colonial pipeline at low costs and impacting margins at our terminals. Mike mentioned several of our strategy to improve the results of this business, which we will continue to address. The remaining portion of our Refined Product and Renewables business is in line with our budget with strong diesel margins especially in areas like West Texas, which is tied to increased drilling activity and crude oil transportation, and the benefits to Renewables business with the extension of the fire diesel tax credits. With the impact of the current quarter and our inventory and hedge position going into the fourth quarter, we are updating our FY guidance for Refined Products to $50 million of adjusted EBITDA. Our corporate costs were 6.8 million, 21 million year-to-date and we now expect those to come in 25 million to 27 million for the entire year. Based on our updated EBITDA guidance of 440 million to 450 million and expected 1.6 billion to 1.7 billion debt balance at March 31st, after the Retail Propane sale is complete, we currently expect to be approximately four times levered on the complaint basis by our fiscal year end. This assumes no equity issuances under our ATM or otherwise and we are in compliance with our debt ratio to 12/31/17 and expected to remain in compliance base on our current guidance and expectations going forward. We declared a $0.39 per unit, $1.56 per unit annualized distribution this quarter and w expect to continue this distribution level for the quarter as we rebuild coverage and continue to de-lever the balance sheet. We have invested approximately a 156 million in growth capital so far this year, which includes about 64 million in Water, 41 million in Retail, 21 million related to Glass Mountain extension. We do not anticipate any significant CapEx or acquisitions for the remainder of this year. Our maintenance CapEx was totaled $12 million for the quarter, $27 million year-to-date. We currently expect to come in slightly over $30 million guidance. The increase in the current quarter is primarily associated with increased cost in our Water business driven by significant growth in volumes. In closing, we have made significant strides on the operational and financial front. We are reducing debt with too highly accretive asset sales and expected coverage from our fourth quarter cash flows. We expect to fund our growth capital within our coverage and continue to de-lever and grow coverage going forward. Our target leverage remains at 3.25 times and our target coverage remains at 1.3 times or better. We have growth embedded in our businesses especially as crude and liquid prices remain at current levels and volumes continue to increase across our divisions. Our Crude, Oil and Water businesses are performing at a high level. We have significant cost savings in the future improve that will improve our Liquids business and we are managing the headwinds to our Refined Products business. We look forward to a strong fourth quarter. Thank you for your interest and we would now like to open the line for questions.