Ira Birns
Analyst · Bank of America. Your line is open
Thank you, Mike. Good evening, everyone, and please be prepared for my fulsome update. As Mike discussed, we really produced exceptional results in the third quarter across all of our business segments. Aviation continued its rebound from the pandemic with strong year-over-year growth in international markets, and generally strong seasonality throughout the business. Marine again posted extremely strong results. And lastly, our land segment also delivered solid results on the back of strong results in Flyers combined with year-over-year growth across the broader land platform. Before I review our third quarter results, please note that the following figures exclude the impact of non-operational items highlighted our earnings release. We actually did not have any such costs of this quarter, but we did book an adjustment of approximately $700,000 after tax in this year’s third quarter for restructuring costs which we had previously approved, which have not been utilized. You can find the breakdown of the non-operational items, which were last year’s third quarter, as well as this quarter’s adjustment on our website at the end of today’s webcast presentation. I’ll get into the details in a moment, but first, I would again like to summarize a few more key financial highlights. A 30% year-over-year increase in average fuel prices and a 10% increase in overall volume drove consolidated revenue to $15.7 billion in the third quarter, up 88% year-over-year, bringing our year-to-date revenue through the third quarter to $45 billion. Volume again grew year-over-year across all 3 of our business segments with international commercial aviation passenger volumes in particular, continuing to rebound and land segment volumes again benefiting from the additional ratable volume associated with Flyers Energy. Adjusted third quarter net income and earnings per share were $42 million and $0.67 per share, respectively. This represents our highest level of quarterly earnings per share in more than 2 years. And lastly, adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter was $123 million. That’s an increase of $59 million, or 92% compared to the third quarter of 2021. And now the broader details. Third quarter volume in our aviation segment was 1.8 billion gallons, that’s an increase of 11% year-over-year. The year-over-year volume increase resulted principally from the ongoing recovery in commercial passenger activity, again, particularly in international markets, which have been lagging the recovery in North America. Overall, we are back to approximately 82% of pre-pandemic volumes globally, up from approximately 69% at the end of last year. Volume in our marine segments for the third quarter was 4.8 million metric tons that’s up slightly year-over-year. Dry bulk and tanker markets remain strong during the third quarter partially offset by pressure into container markets as inflationary headwinds opposed challenges for this particular sector. Our land segment volume was 1.5 billion gallons or gallon equivalents during the third quarter, that’s an increase of 17% compared to the third quarter of last year. The year-over-year volume increase was principally driven by volume associated with the Flyers transaction, which continues to deliver solid performance, as well as increased activity in World Connect’s natural gas and power activities. Consolidated gross profit for the third quarter was $322 million, that’s an increase of 63% year-over-year. Our aviation segment performed extremely well during its seasonally strongest quarter. Generating gross profit of $130 million, that’s an increase of 15% year-over-year, and a very significant rebound from the second quarter. As mentioned on last quarter’s call, our team did an outstanding job renegotiating fuel contracts during the second quarter, this minimize the impact of backwardation in the third quarter, and significantly reduce such risks going forward, driving greater readability in our aviation results. As we begin the final stretch of 2022, the fourth quarter will experience as traditional seasonal decline from the strong summer season in the third quarter. Notwithstanding this normal seasonal decline, full year volume should still be up approximately 20% year-over-year, and considering the significant impact of backwardation in the second quarter, reasonably strong operating results for the full year as well. Next, the marine segment continue to perform tremendously well in the third quarter, benefiting from high bunker fuel prices, continued fuel price volatility, as well as the impact of inflation and interest rates, which tend to constrain broader credit availability in the market. This resulted in quarterly gross profit of $75 million. That’s nearly 3.5 times the amount of gross profit generated in the prior year. The marine team continues to do an outstanding job optimizing the volatile and credit constrained marketplace, while continuing to manage working capital and related risks with excellence. As we look ahead to the fourth quarter, with bunker fuel prices down approximately 30% for average prices during the second and third quarters. The fourth quarter is currently not expected to be quite as strong as the third quarter. However, we expect marine’s fourth quarter results to again significantly exceed the prior year. And lastly, our land segment delivered gross profit of $118 million in the third quarter, that’s up 88% year-over-year, principally as a result of the Flyers acquisition, as well as improved year-over-year results across the land platform, including World Connect. As we look ahead to the fourth quarter with Flyers seasonal strength in the third quarter now being part of the equation. While we expect fourth quarter operating results to experience a seasonal uptick in the UK, overall land operating results are only expected to increase modestly from the third quarter. However, year-over-year results will obviously remain significantly higher, principally related to Flyers. Core operating expenses were $221 million in the third quarter. This represents a significant year-over-year increase principally related to increase cash and equity based incentive compensation related in part to the record level of quarterly gross profit delivered in the third quarter compared to the third quarter of 2021, when variable compensation was down significantly driven by the ongoing impacts of the pandemic last year. And the year-over-year variance was also impacted by the operating expenses associated with Flyers Energy that obviously were not in our numbers in 2021. Despite the operating expense increase, considering the very strong gross profit contribution this year, our operating margin as a percentage of gross profit actually increased significantly both sequentially, and year-over-year in the third quarter, to the highest level we have seen since the pandemic began. Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, with the expected decline in gross profit related to seasonality and lower fuel prices. We expect core operating expenses to fall back to the range more consistent with the second quarter of this year, somewhere between $198 million and $204 million. However, our quarterly operating margin should remain well ahead of the prior year once again. Bad debt expense in the third quarter was $1.4 million. Our credit and collections teams continue to manage our accounts receivable portfolio remarkably well during a period of continued economic uncertainty. Adjusted EBITDA, as I mentioned earlier, was a record $123 million in the third quarter, representing an increase of 92% year-over-year. Trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA is now $329 million, that’s up nearly 50% year-over-year, benefiting principally from the addition of Flyers and a significant increase in profitability in our marine segment in 2022. Our interest expense increased to $34 million in the third quarter, principally related to the sharp rise in interest rates, with short-term borrowing rates increased by approximately 1.5% during the third quarter. With a further rate hike expected next week, we expect our fourth quarter interest expense to be somewhat higher than the third quarter, despite continued efforts to optimize working capital and borrowing levels and look for as many ways as possible to reduce our interest expense going forward. Our effective tax rate for the third quarter was 3.2% flat with prior year’s third quarter and flat with our expectations for the fourth quarter. Our effective tax rate for the full year is now expected to be somewhere between 21% and 23%, which is down from 26% in 2021. We generated $259 million of operating cash flow in the third quarter, driven principally by lower fuel prices, which declined approximately 15% from the second quarter, and record adjusted EBITDA generated during the quarter. This contributed to a reduction in our net debt position to just under $430 million, further strengthening our balance sheet and liquidity profile. Simply put, we delivered phenomenal results across the business in the third quarter. Despite the macroeconomic challenges that prevailed. Aviation continues to rebound from the pandemic, and it’s recovered nicely from the backwardation impact in the second quarter. Marine delivered another solid quarter – very solid quarter, and land performed well across the business. On the back of record gross profit and solid cash flow, our operating margin was strong, and our quarterly return on invested capital exceeded 10% for the first time since 2019. While we’ve experienced a sequential seasonal decline in the fourth quarter from a record gross profit performance in the third quarter, our full year results will reflect the significant recovery for 2021. Our team worked very hard through unprecedented circumstances during 2020 and 2021, to ensure we were well prepared to execute for our customers and suppliers who depend on us as markets recovered, and 2022 is a testament to such efforts. Also, our balance sheet and liquidity profile has further strengthened, providing us with significant liquidity to support organic growth and fund the acquisition opportunities. In our core fuels business where many higher margin, higher return opportunities still remain, as well as invest in World Connect, and are growing suite of products and services that support our customers and their energy transition journeys. Thank you very much. I’d like to now turn the call back to our operator, Victor, for Q&A.