Earnings Labs

Resources Connection, Inc. (RGP)

Q4 2010 Earnings Call· Thu, Feb 17, 2011

$4.09

-0.61%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Fourth Quarter 2010 Regency Energy Partners Earnings Conference Call. My name is Lacey, and I'll be your coordinator for today. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the presentation over to your host for today's call, Ms. Shannon Ming, Senior Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations. Please proceed.

Shannon Ming

Analyst · Barclays

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to today's call. Today, we will cover Regency's performance for the fourth quarter and full year 2010, as well as review industry trends and fundamentals. Presenting on today's call will be Mike Bradley, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Tom Long, our Chief Financial Officer. Following our prepared remarks, Regency will open the call to participants for questions. You may access the earnings release and presentation used on today’s call through Regency’s website at regencyenergy.com. Please note, we plan to file our Form 10-K by the end of day tomorrow. Today's call is being recorded and is also being broadcast live over the Internet on the Regency corporate website. An archive of the webcast and presentation will be available on the corporate website following today’s call. Slide 2 of the presentation describes our use of forward-looking statements, and lists some of the risk factors that may affect the actual results. Also included in the presentation today are various non-GAAP measures that have been reconciled back to GAAP. Before we turn the call over today to Mike, I would like to briefly state that our Regency Energy Investor Day will be on April 6. At this event, we will provide an in-depth look at our operations and discuss our growth opportunities. We hope that you will be able to join us. If you are interested in attending, please make sure to make your reservations by e-mail at ir@regencygas.com or call us at (214) 840-5477. With that, I will turn the call over to Mike Bradley, President and CEO.

Michael Bradley

Analyst · Oppenheimer

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. We're really pleased to have a chance to speak with you and are very excited about the opportunities that lie ahead. On today's call, in addition to reporting excellent fourth quarter and full-year performance of our business units, we will also discuss our strategy for building on a strong foundation that was laid in 2010. By executing on our growth strategy, including acquisitions, expansion projects and improving our financial flexibility, Regency has evolved into a more diversified midstream business and we will continue to enhance the stability of our cash flows, going forward. Let's turn now to some of the 2010 highlights. 2010 was a very active and transformational year for Regency. With the acquisition of our general partner by Energy Transfer Equity, we believe we are in a better position to facilitate growth. Energy Transfer Equity is an experienced leader in the midstream industry and is very supportive of our business objectives including our goals of raising distributions and reaching investment grade metrics. With this transaction, we believe there are opportunities for synergies between Regency and Energy Transfer, including leveraging our joint purchasing power and sharing best practices, as well as the potential to form additional partnerships through joint ventures. We're excited about this relationship and believe it will play a pivotal role in our overall success. Also this year, we introduced a new senior leadership team. Combining new talents with our existing strong management team, as well as capitalizing on opportunities with Energy Transfer, would help us does employ the best thinking across all aspects of our business. Looking at acquisition highlights. We acquired a 49.9% interest in the MEP Joint Venture, which expanded our Transportation business into the interstate pipeline market and added to our fee-based services. We…

Thomas Long

Analyst

Thanks, Mike. And we'll go ahead and start with the financial review. For the full year 2010, Regency recorded a net loss of $11 million compared to net income of $140 million for full year 2009. The variance was primarily due to a $134 million gain on asset sales recognized in the prior year related to the contribution of the Regency Intrastate Gas System to the Haynesville Joint Venture. We also recognized an $18 million loss on debt refinancing this year related to the premium paid to redeem the senior notes due 2013. Regency's fourth quarter and full year adjusted EBITDA results were very strong. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 55% from $211 million in 2009 to $327 million in 2010. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 92% from $53 million for the fourth quarter of '09 to $102 million in the fourth quarter of 2010. For our Gathering and Processing segment, volumes increased by 3% year-over-year to $1.03 million MMbtus per day in Q4 of 2010. For the full year, adjusted segment margins increased by 9% from $207 million in 2009 to $226 million in 2010. Please note that adjusted segment margins and throughput for the prior quarters have been updated to reflect the sale of our East Texas assets that occurred in July of 2010. Our NGL production increased quarter-over-quarter by 29% to approximately 29,000 barrels per day. Overall, our adjusted segment margin per MMbtu increased by 11% from $0.57 in Q4 '09 to $0.63 in Q4 2010. This increase was primarily driven by higher commodity prices. Moving on to talk about volumes, starting with North Louisiana. Comparing the fourth quarter of 2010 to the fourth quarter of '09, throughput decreased by about 15% at our Dubach facility, primarily due to declining Terryville and Cotton Valley volumes. However, we have seen…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And our first question will come from the line of Bernie Colson with Oppenheimer.

Bernard Colson

Analyst · Oppenheimer

On the South Texas assets, I was wondering if you could give us a little bit more color about what the assets are down there? And maybe is it possible that down the road we may see some processing capacity built by you guys there? I guess just a little bit more color on potential there.

Jim Holotik

Analyst · Oppenheimer

Bernie, this is Jim Holotik, I'm Chief Commercial Officer. We've got an existing footprint, consists of primarily gathering with some additional treating in the South Texas area. And we're currently moving somewhere between, I guess, we've said about $200 million a day, $250 million a day out of that area. In utilizing that, our existing assets, we are stepping into -- we're situated more in what they call the oily or the more liquid-rich Eagle Ford Shale. And not to get too much into our Investor Day presentation, but yes, we are looking to -- we just recently expanded one of our systems where we could have additional volumes out of the area. We currently have contracted for sampling[ph] and we'll be looking for just additional capacity in the future.

Bernard Colson

Analyst · Oppenheimer

I guess bigger picture-related, where do you see us in the development of that area? I guess if you want to put it in terms of what inning are we in? How many years you think we have left of development before that? Assuming the current commodity environment stays kind of consistent, any comment on that?

Jim Holotik

Analyst · Oppenheimer

I would say we're kind of in the opening innings of this. They're establishing essentially where the lines of demarcations are for the -- just dry gas, the liquid-rich gas, the more oil-producing areas. And as upon their discoveries of these new positions, there's going to be more and more call for infrastructure in the area.

Bernard Colson

Analyst · Oppenheimer

I know this is on everyone's mind, I don't know if you'll answer or not. But maybe you can give us some commentary about resumption of distribution growth and what you guys are thinking there? Maybe not?

Michael Bradley

Analyst · Oppenheimer

Bernie, our focus is to continue to improve our coverage so that we can raise the distribution and that's one of our top focus. And I think that as a Board, we look closely at it. We want to see distribution growth and create value for unitholders and that's going to be a strong focus for us. As for timing, that is something we'll evaluate on a quarter-by-quarter basis. Obviously, they're pleased with the coverage this past quarter and we've seem to be focused on improving that as we go forward.

Operator

Operator

And our next question will come from the line of Gary Stromberg with Barclays.

Gary Stromberg

Analyst · Barclays

Just on your investment grade metrics target, do you have any sense of timing on when do you think you can achieve those and have you talked to the agencies recently on that?

Shannon Ming

Analyst · Barclays

We continue to improve all of our key metrics and expect that by year end we will have all the key metrics in place that we feel are necessary for investment grade ratings. The metrics that we look at are scales with achieving EBITDA growth. A greater mix of fee-based margins, we are going to be over 80% on that as our target and maintaining a strong debt-to-EBITDA ratio of below 4x.

Gary Stromberg

Analyst · Barclays

So you think by the end of 2011, you'll basically be there?

Shannon Ming

Analyst · Barclays

Yes. We think we're there on a lot of metrics now, but by the end of 2011, we think that we'll have sufficient size as well.

Gary Stromberg

Analyst · Barclays

And have you talked to the agencies about getting upgrades here?

Shannon Ming

Analyst · Barclays

Not directly in the last few months, no.

Gary Stromberg

Analyst · Barclays

And then, Shannon, do you have any color on balance sheet at the end of the year, cash and revolver? Just for housekeeping.

Shannon Ming

Analyst · Barclays

Sure. At the end of 2010, we have $9 million of cash. We have over $500 million of available liquidity on our revolver and we had $285 million of credit outstanding on the revolver at year end. And then we have our senior notes, the $256 million of senior notes due in 2016 and then $600 million of senior notes due in 2018.

Gary Stromberg

Analyst · Barclays

Just on the hedge pricing. The year-over-year delta, do you have some sense -- can you give us some sense of what the cash flow impact would be on the hedge volumes given lower pricing on the NGLs?

Shannon Ming

Analyst · Barclays

The cash impact, I think that we're expecting it to be upwards of $20 million for an impact from 2010 to 2011.

Operator

Operator

And our next question will come from the line of John Edwards with Morgan Keegan.

John Edwards

Analyst · Morgan Keegan

Just on a follow up on Gary's question in terms of scale, I know you used to speak of $400 million as being sort of the target that the credit agencies were looking for. What are they looking for now in terms of scale?

Shannon Ming

Analyst · Morgan Keegan

John, we haven't had direct conversations with them regarding the absolute or the exact number that they're looking for. But we think that that is within the range of what they're looking for on an annualized number.

John Edwards

Analyst · Morgan Keegan

And then in terms of revenue-generating horsepower and inventory, where does that stand now, for compression?

Shannon Ming

Analyst · Morgan Keegan

We're currently at 844,000 revenue-generating horsepower for the year.

John Edwards

Analyst · Morgan Keegan

Yes, I used to talk about what you had -- in effect, had the compression in inventory. I don't mean deployed, just trying to get a sense for basically your ability to grow there without having to the deploy CapEx.

Michael Bradley

Analyst · Morgan Keegan

We currently are running about 90% on our utilization rate, so we do have room to continue to grow without spending some [ph] capital. And that's improved over the last several quarters.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from the line of Yves Siegel with Crédit Suisse.

Yves Siegel

Analyst

Just as it relates to that -- on horsepower, where do you see pricing going right now?

Thomas Long

Analyst

I think pricing today, it remains pretty competitive. I think coming out of 2009 when things turn down quite sharply, there is a surplus of horsepower, so I think competition is still pretty strong. We're seeing decent pricing and I think as the market picks up, we would expect to see pricing improve. But I'd say at this point in time, it remains pretty competitive.

Yves Siegel

Analyst

I take that to mean that pricing is not going down in this -- some expectation, you could see some improvement. Is that right?

Thomas Long

Analyst

Yes.

Yves Siegel

Analyst

And then, Tom, on the $250 million of growth CapEx, can you give a sense of how that would break down?

Thomas Long

Analyst

What we gave was, I guess, the guidance for right now, our plans are, as Michael kind of mentioned in his section, when we get to our Investor Day on April 6, we were going to do more of a drill down of that.

Yves Siegel

Analyst

In your comments, you also said that there could be potential for that number to be larger. Any sense of what kind of potential backlog you have and how much larger could that $250 million be?

Michael Bradley

Analyst · Oppenheimer

Well, I think, Yves, that we've got several projects that we are pursuing that could add significantly to that number. I'm not able to speak specifically to a project. Also, we continue to look hard at acquisitions, and so I think that there is a potential to significantly upsize that number if we're successful on some of these fronts.

Yves Siegel

Analyst

And then my last question, Mike, you've been there now several months. From your perspective, any tweaking that you've done or that you think you may want to do, going forward?

Michael Bradley

Analyst · Oppenheimer

Well, I think that the business here at Regency, the assets are very well-positioned. I think that the focus right now is, number one, is to develop I think a strong organic growth effort around some of our key assets. I mean, Eagle Ford is a prime example. We're sitting in the well-positioned area in the liquid-rich zone of Eagle Ford. Excellent opportunities in West Texas, very similar. I think obviously, we're focused, like a lot of people are, on building infrastructure and building capacity to move gas and liquids out. So I mean, that's a -- I wouldn't call that tweaking, it's just a very concentrated effort in that area. And I think the other is to look at opportunities for joint ventures. Obviously, we look at a lot of different joint ventures and at some point down the road there may be an opportunity for us and Energy Transfer to work together. But I think more than anything, is we got a great set of assets, we got a good team and we just want to continue to focus on building out those assets while looking for a good acquisition to significantly move this company forward.

Yves Siegel

Analyst

Shannon, threw out an 80% number, I think, when you're talking about investment grade metrics for fee-based, when you think about expansion and you think about growth and acquisitions, would you be willing to take down that 80% fee-based down a notch? Or do you have a comfort zone of where you want to be on a percentage of fee-based?

Michael Bradley

Analyst · Oppenheimer

Well, I think we like that level of fee-based, Yves, but it's not going to deter us from looking at good processing and gathering opportunities that would be accretive and then we could hedge effectively. So, no, that didn't stop us from looking at those kind of opportunities at all.

Operator

Operator

And our next question will come from the line of Michael Blum with Wells Fargo.

Michael Blum

Analyst · Wells Fargo

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you said in your opening remarks that you're not going to be providing EBITDA guidance, going forward. Is that right?

Michael Bradley

Analyst · Wells Fargo

That is correct.

Michael Blum

Analyst · Wells Fargo

Can you just talk about the thought process of why you decided to do that?

Michael Bradley

Analyst · Wells Fargo

I think number one is we will be consistent with the Energy Transfer practices of no guidance. I think that we are going to provide, I think some reasonable color on our growth and capital and other operational opportunities during our Investor Day meeting here in April. I also think that this continues to be a volatile environment. We see a lot of upside opportunities, but we'll move along consistently with Energy Transfer's practice.

Operator

Operator

And our next question will come from the line of James Censil [ph] with Height.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Have you looked towards getting towards investment grade and with the $250 million CapEx budget, do you foresee the need for additional equity issuance to get to investment grade in your model?

Michael Bradley

Analyst · Oppenheimer

I think, today, we have sufficient liquidity to handle the $250 million of capital. Obviously, if we look to expand and build, we'll go to capital markets and issue equity or debt that's appropriate at that time. So I think we’re -- we feel like we're in good shape.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

So you feel you can get to investment grade without additional equity issuance?

Michael Bradley

Analyst · Oppenheimer

Yes, I think metrics today look pretty good, so I mean that's...

Operator

Operator

And our next question will come from the line of Charles Sy [ph], private investor.

Unknown Speaker

Analyst

I'd like to say that I think it's terrific that you made it through the financial crisis and management changes, while maintaining the distribution, and I know it was touched on lightly, but could you tell me what you foresee in the future to some degree because the four on my calculator is getting worn out?

Michael Bradley

Analyst · Oppenheimer

I think if you look at how this company positioned itself during 2010, obviously, the Energy Transfer Equity acquisition GP, I think was a very good opportunity for this company, going forward. The addition of MEP, the expansion of rigs. And so you look at where we stand today. We ended the year with positive coverage, we continue to see good growth opportunities on our business, we're sitting in good basins. And I think as we continue you to execute well, we'll be in a position to better look at raising our distributions, going forward. I can't predict timing, but our focus is on continuing to put us in that position.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And at this time, I show we have no questions in queue. I would like to turn the call back over to Mr. Mike Bradley for any closing remarks.

Michael Bradley

Analyst · Oppenheimer

Well, again, thank you for joining us today. We really appreciate everybody's questions and interests in Regency Energy Partners. And in conclusion, we believe that Regency has excellent prospects and we'll continue an intense focus on executing on our business and operational objectives, not only to achieve continued growth, but also to be certain that the entire organization is fully invested in achieving our strategy, operating our assets safely and efficiently, and providing top-quality customer service to our clients. Again, thank, you and we look forward to talking with you more during our Investor Day in April. Have a great day. Thanks, everyone.

Operator

Operator

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This concludes your presentation. You may now disconnect. Good day, everyone.