Earnings Labs

UGI Corporation (UGI)

Q4 2014 Earnings Call· Thu, Nov 13, 2014

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning. My name is Melissa and I’ll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the UGI AmeriGas Fourth Quarter 2014 Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker’s remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions). I will not turn the conference over to Mr. Daniel Platt, Treasurer of UGI. You may begin your conference.

Daniel Platt

Management

Thanks Melissa. Good morning and thank you for joining us. As we begin, let me remind you that our comments today will include certain forward-looking statements, which management of UGI and AmeriGas believe to be reasonable as of today’s date only. Actual results may differ significantly because of risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond management’s control. You should read our Annual Reports on Form 10-K for a more extensive list of factors that could affect results. But among them are adverse weather conditions, cost volatility and availability of our energy products, increased customer conservation measures, the impact of pending and future legal proceedings, domestic and international political, regulatory and economic conditions, currency exchange rate fluctuations, the timing of development of Marcellus Shale gas production, the timing and success of our commercial initiatives and investments to grow our business, and our ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses and achieve anticipated synergies. UGI and AmeriGas undertake no obligation to release revisions to the forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after today. In addition, our remarks will reference certain non-GAAP financial measures that management believes provide useful information to investors to more effectively evaluate the year-over-year results of operations of the company. These non-GAAP financial measures are not comparable to measures used by other companies and should be considered in conjunction with performance measures such as cash flow from operating activities. With me today are Hugh Gallagher, CFO of AmeriGas Propane, Kirk Oliver, CFO of UGI Corporation, Jerry Sheridan, President and CEO of AmeriGas Propane and your host President and CEO of UGI Corporation John Walsh. John?

John Walsh

Management

Thanks Dan. Good morning and welcome to our call. I trust that you’ve all had a chance to review our press releases reporting full year results for UGI and AmeriGas. I’ll comment on our key activities, provide an overview of our full year results and FY15 guidance. And then I’ll turn it over to Kirk, who will provide you with a more detailed review of UGI’s financial performance. Jerry will follow with an overview on AmeriGas and I’ll ramp up with comments on our strategic projects and initiatives, as well as our outlook for fiscal ‘15. Our full year GAAP EPS was $1.92, while our adjusted EPS was $1.99, a 26% increase over our fiscal ‘13 adjusted EPS of a $1.58. The adjusted EPS excludes the negative impact of mark-to-market losses of $0.03 Midstream & Marketing and a penny at AmeriGas along with the negative $0.03 impact of the retroactive change in French tax legislation enacted in the first quarter of 2014. Our adjusted EPS of $1.99 is in line with our previous fiscal ‘14 guidance of $1.97 to $2.03. Our guidance for fiscal ‘15 of $1.88 to a $1.98 assumes normal weather and volatility in our service territories. This guidance reflects the underlying strength of our businesses with organic earnings growth from each of our businesses and the contribution from new investments. While we don’t expect to see a recurrence of the extraordinary margin opportunities created by the extreme volatility of the 2013, 2014 winter season, we see continued growth in the underlying earnings of our businesses. Kirk will comment in more detail on our fiscal ‘14 performance and our fiscal ‘15 outlook in a few minutes. Fiscal ‘14 was a milestone year for UGI in many fronts. The combination of cold weather in Eastern U.S., extreme volatility of…

Kirk Oliver

CFO

Thanks John. Our strong results for fiscal ‘14 were driven largely by the colder weather in the Eastern United States, which resulted in significant natural gas price volatility that benefited our midstream and marketing business. Utilities in AmeriGas also benefited from this colder weather, while our international operations offset some of this performance as they experienced a very warm winter this year. We’re recording operating income at AmeriGas of $472 million, an increase of $78 million over last year. The increase in total margin of $94 million was driven by the colder weather and modestly higher retail unit margins offset somewhat by lower margins from ancillary sales and services. Operating expenses increased by $19 million. Operating expenses for fiscal ‘13 include $27 million of Heritage transition expenses. Excluding the effects of these fiscal ‘13 Heritage expenses, operating expenses increased by $46 million this year. The increase this year was driven impart by higher distribution-related expenses associated with the higher volumes delivered and higher distribution cost caused by the supply challenges in certain regions of the U.S. during the second quarter. Jerry will discuss AmeriGas results in more detail in a few minutes. UGI International saw decline in income before taxes of nearly $29 million from a $116 million last year to $87 million for fiscal ‘14. Retail volumes were up slightly reflecting the significantly warmer weather partially offset by incremental retail gallons from BP Poland acquisition. Margin declined by $16.4 million reflecting lower margin at Antargaz of $30 million offset by slightly higher margin at Flaga due to the BP Poland acquisition, higher margin at AvantiGas and slightly stronger euro and British pound currencies. Operating expenses are up about $16 million this year driven primarily by $8.5 million of transition and acquisition-related expenses. Turning now to the natural gas side…

Jerry Sheridan

President and CEO

Thanks, Kirk. AmeriGas closed out fiscal ‘14 with the strong fourth quarter, adjusted EBITDA of $48 million was 4% above the $46 million in the last year. Volume for Q4 was up 3% over the prior year on cooler weather and product costs were generally stabled during the quarter with now probably prices averaging about a $1.04 per gallon, up 1% from the $1.03 per gallon last year. It’s worth noting that despite the fact that Q4 is typically a seasonal low point for adjusted EBITDA, our earnings profile is now substantially stronger than it was in the years before we acquired Heritage Propane when EBITDA was typically in the range of zero plus or minus $5 million. Adjusted EBITDA for the full year was a record $665 million, up 8% from the $617 million reported last year and in line with our expectations and guidance. Now looking to our growth drivers. ACE, our AmeriGas Cylinder Exchange program volume was up 5% in the quarter and 8% in fiscal 2014. The business added 1,300 new locations. In addition, marketing efforts by the ACE team, working with our retail customers helped produce same-store sales growth of 6% among the 48,000 locations across the country where you can find an AmeriGas barbecue cylinder. Our National Accounts program volume was up 14% in the quarter and up 22% for the full year. This unique propane offering for large scale customers has added over 50 customers this year and maintained a strong pipeline of new prospects. In the quarter, we completed five acquisitions, bringing the total to seven deals for the year. We’re very pleased with how the business performed during this very unusual year for weather with polar vortex events in the Central and East contrasted with very warm weather in the West. And I want to thank all of your 8,500 AmeriGas colleagues for their tireless efforts this year in helping us get to a very strong result. In closing, I’d like to mention that our leverage at 3.6 times and our distribution coverage at 1.2 times are right back to the historical levels for AmeriGas. This was our commitment following the $3 billion acquisition of Heritage Propane and we are now back to very healthy metrics as we move forward. Finally, you’ve seen in our press release that we have issued guidance for fiscal 2015 in the range of $670 million to $700 million in EBITDA, assuming normal weather. This guidance is in line with our long-term goals of 3% to 4% EBITDA growth and supports our long-term goal of 5% distribution growth annually. With that, I’ll turn the call back over to John.

John Walsh

Management

Thanks Jerry. As I noted earlier, we saw 2014 as a milestone year for the company. While our record financial performance was the most obvious milestone indicator, it’s the progress made on our strategic investments in programs that are most noteworthy element of our performance. Each of our four businesses contributed to this major progress in areas that are vital to our future. The combination of colder weather, exceptionally strong natural gas demand and the lag in pipeline capacity additions accentuated the infrastructure gap that has been emerging in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions over the past few years. Both our marketing and midstream, and utilities businesses are benefiting from the tremendous ramp up activity in the Marcellus basin and in the markets adjacent to the Marcellus. Our Gas Utility delivered record levels of customer growth adding 16,000 new residential heating customers and over 2,000 new commercial customers over the past 12 months. We launched our Get Gas program to extend the reach of our systems and attract new customers. In addition, we continued to ramp up our infrastructure replacement program with our infrastructure CapEx in fiscal ‘14 approximately 25% above fiscal ‘13. Operating income at utilities was up 20% as we benefited from the combined effect of colder weather and our expanding customer base. Our Midstream & Marketing business had an extraordinary year with operating income more than doubling. The combination of cold weather and heightened natural gas price volatility due to locational basis differentials enabled us to utilize our expanded network of assets in Marcellus. We successfully concluded the series of capital projects over the past 12 months, which include the first phase of our two phase Auburn pipeline capacity expansion and the completion of our Union Dale Lateral, a 6-mile, 12 inch pipeline serving a major in…

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions). Your first question comes from the line of Mark Barnett with Morningstar Equity. Your line is open.

Mark Barnett - Morningstar Equity

Analyst · Morningstar Equity. Your line is open

Hey good morning everyone.

John Walsh

Management

Good morning.

Mark Barnett - Morningstar Equity

Analyst · Morningstar Equity. Your line is open

A quick question on AmeriGas -- two actually if you don’t mind. With the number of acquisitions, could you give any detail on actual amount of volumes that you acquired this year?

Jerry Sheridan

President and CEO

Yes, it’s just little under 10 million gallons.

Mark Barnett - Morningstar Equity

Analyst · Morningstar Equity. Your line is open

Little under 10 million? Okay. And in general, given the bigger base and the returns you have kind of very good conservative credit metrics. Is there a number that maybe over the next couple of years you might see, maybe a little bit more activity expecting maybe after the past winter, you’d see some of the smaller players, may be shaking out a little bit given some of the supply issues. But I don’t know if you can comment on that looking forward.

Jerry Sheridan

President and CEO

I think acquisition activity in the pipeline has been relatively strong, not extraordinary but fairly normal from what we’ve seen over the last several years.

Mark Barnett - Morningstar Equity

Analyst · Morningstar Equity. Your line is open

Okay. But nothing that really -- no step change I guess from where you’ve been prior to the Heritage acquisition?

Jerry Sheridan

President and CEO

Seven deals in a year is a good year for us. We’ve had years where we did three deals, years where we do 14. So, it varies, but the pipeline remains strong and seems like it’s healthy, but not extraordinary in terms of what’s available.

Mark Barnett - Morningstar Equity

Analyst · Morningstar Equity. Your line is open

All right, thanks for that.

Operator

Operator

And there are no further questions in queue at this time.

John Walsh

Management

Okay. Well, thank you all for your time this morning. We appreciate the opportunity to bring up the speed in our fiscal year ‘14 activities. And we very much look forward to speaking with you again in January to describe our fiscal ‘15 first quarter with you. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s conference call. You may now disconnect.