Ira Birns
Analyst · Stifel. Please proceed with your question
You’re welcome, Mike by the way and thank you. Good evening everyone. I’m pleased to report that we continue the positive momentum from 2018 in the first quarter by starting off the year with solid results. Before I get into the details, some of the highlights are as follows. Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter was $95 million. That’s an increase of $14 million or 17% compared to last year. We have now delivered year-over-year increases in adjusted EBITDA for eight consecutive quarters. We again improved the operating leverage making progress toward our goal of the 250 basis point improvement in our operating expense ratio for the full year. Adjusted earnings per share for the quarter was $0.66 including the impact of the prior period corrections, which principally related to tax referred to our earnings release. Excluding such corrections adjusted earnings per share was $0.50. And lastly, our balance sheet remains strong as our net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio fell to 1.3 times. Consolidated revenue for the first quarter was $8.7 billion down $500 million or 6% compared to the first quarter of 2018. The year-over-year decrease in revenue is principally driven by the decline in volumes in our marine and land segments. Our aviation segment volume was 1.97 billion gallons in the first quarter, effectively flat year-over-year. For the full year, we expect volume growth to be similar to the growth experience in 2018 in the aviation segment. Volume in our marine segment for the first quarter was 5.2 million metric tons, which is down 575,000 tons compared to the first quarter of last year. The volume reduction principally related to our continued efforts to exit certain low margin business activities in Asia. The marine team continues to focus on growth opportunities, which means our return thresholds including the identification and penetration of new markets. Our land segment volume was 1.3 billion gallons or gallon equivalents during the first quarter down approximately 110 million gallons or 8% compared to the first quarter of 2018. The year-over-year decline in land segment volume was principally related to our continuing efforts to reduce non-core low margin supply and trading activities in North America. Total consolidated volume for the first quarter was 4.7 billion gallons or gallon equivalents, a decrease of approximately 260 million gallons or 5% year-over-year. Please note that the following figure is excluded income – the impact of pretax non-operational items in the first quarter as well as non-operational items in periods previously reported as highlighted in our earnings release. These non-operational items principally represent restructuring and acquisition-related costs. To assist all of you and reconciling results published on our earnings release, the breakdown of these non-operational items can be found on our website on the last slide of the webcast presentation. And now on to gross profits. On a consolidated basis, gross profits for the first quarter was $251 million, an increase of $8 million or 3% compared to the first quarter of 2018. Our aviation segment contributed $114 million of gross profit in the first quarter, that’s up slightly compared to the first quarter of 2018. Strength in our government related and international fueling operations, we’re principally offset by the effects of market backwardation, our domestic supply activity during the first quarter. We expect similar sequential growth in aviation gross profit in the second quarter to the growth experience last year, principally related to normal seasonality in our core resale business and international fueling operations. The marine segment generated first quarter gross profit of $35 million, an increase of $4 million or 13% year-over-year. Our team continues to execute well with core margins and returns remaining well above the prior year. Looking ahead to the second quarter, we expect marine gross profit to be similar to the first quarter, which would again, drive solid year-over-year improvement. Our land segment delivered gross profit of $102 million in the first quarter. While land gross profit did increase sequentially, such increase was muted by yet another unseasonably warm winter in the UK. Year-over-year gross profit was essentially flat with UK down from last year’s more seasonable winter offset by increased gross profit in our Connect global energy services platform and North American commercial and industrial and retail activities. Gross profit coming from our MultiService payment solutions business was $18.9 million, an increase of $2 million or 12% compared to the first quarter of last year, reflecting the continued strength of the MultiService business model. Looking ahead to the second quarter, while we expect gross profit in the land segment to be flat to slightly lower, sequentially driven principally by seasonality, we expect solid year-over-year improvement driven principally by increasing profitability in our commercial and industrial and retail activities. Operating expenses in the first quarter, excluding bad debt expense and non-operational items were $176 million, which is an improvement of $3 million year-over-year, an improvement of $2 million sequentially. Our total operating expense ratio as a percent of gross profit improved year-over-year to 71.1% from 74.5% in the first quarter of last year and from 72.7% for the full year of 2018 and we remain focused on achieving our target of a 250 basis point improvement in our operating expense ratio for the full year 2019. And as a reminder, this target is an addition to the 425 basis point improvement in our operating expense ratio, which we achieved in 2018, a testament to the focus of our entire team globally and controlling costs better than we have done in the past. In the second quarter, we expect operating expenses, excluding bad debt and any non-operational items to be in the range of $180 million to $184 million. Adjusted EBITDA was $95 million in the first quarter, up $14 million or 17% from the first quarter of 2018. Again, this represents the eighth consecutive quarter of year-over-year improvement in EBITDA. Over this period, trailing 12-month EBITDA has increased by nearly $100 million. Adjusted income from operations for the first quarter was $73 million, up $10 million or 17% year-over-year. And first quarter non-operating expenses, which is principally comprised of interest, expense and finance charges were $19 million, effectively flat compared to last year, and I would assume interest expense to be in the same $18 million to $20 million range for the second quarter of 2019. Our adjusted effective tax rate for the first quarter was 16.6% including the effect of the correction related to a prior period discrete tax items. This is down from 19.3% in the first quarter of last year. Excluding the impact of the discrete item, our adjusted effective tax rate would have been 32.4%, slightly lower than the rates we guided to going into the first quarter. but for the balance of the year, you still expect our tax rate to be in the range of 30% to 36%. Adjusted net income for the first quarter was $45 million, an increase of $9 million or 27% when compared to the first quarter of 2018. And adjusted diluted earnings per share was $0.66 for the first quarter, an increase of 27% compared to last year, again, impacted by a lower than expected effective tax rate. Our total accounts receivable balance was $2.7 billion at quarter-end, effectively flat sequentially as well as when compared to the first quarter of 2018. We generated cash flow from operating activities of $22 million in the first quarter despite a significant increase in fuel prices from year-end to the end of the first quarter. Despite the increase in fuel prices, we further strengthen our balance sheet reducing our total debt balance below $700 million, which is down nearly $140 million year-over-year resulting in reduction of our ratio of net debt to adjusted EBITDA to 1.3 times, down from 2.2 times in the first quarter of last year. This improvement increases our capacity to invest in both organic and strategic investment opportunities, while continuing to maintain a strong balance sheet. In closing, we delivered strong results in the first quarter, well further improving our balance sheet and liquidity profile, remain focused on sharpening our portfolio business activities by divesting of additional non-core businesses and reinvesting-related proceeds in core activities, we should drive additional profitable growth. Our continued focus on cost control resulted in a significant year-over-year improvement and our operating expense ratio in the first quarter, and we remained focused on delivering a 250 basis point reduction in the ratio for the full year. These opportunities remain bound tightly together in support of our principal goals of increasing returns on capital and increasing shareholder value. I will now turn the call back over to our operator, Ash to begin the Q&A session.