Elizabeth I. Loveman
Thank you, J.C. Let's get into the results for the quarter, and I'll try to keep it as straightforward as possible. Consolidated revenues were $68 million, up 30% year-over-year. That's really being driven by the utility Coal Mining segment as Mississippi Lignite Mining Company's customer returned to more normal operations after running at reduced capacity from much of last year. Both an increase in other income and a favorable change in income taxes helped to partly counterbalance the impact from operational disruptions. This combination resulted in consolidated net income of $3.3 million, down from $6 million in the prior year. Diluted earnings per share decreased 40% -- 46% year-on-year, again, reflecting those operational headwinds and last year's unusually strong comparison. EBITDA was $9.3 million versus $13.5 million in the same period last year. There's a little more color at the segment level. At the Utility Coal Mining segment, the decline in operating profit and segment adjusted EBITDA was primarily driven by unfavorable results at Mississippi Lignite Mining Company, although the cost per ton of coal delivered improved, the lower contract pricing more than offset that improvement. Looking ahead, we expect improvement in the second half of 2025 compared with the first half of the year. Still, the current formula-based contract pricing remains a headwind compared to the second half of last year, which also benefited from business interruption insurance income. Anticipated improvements in both sales price and cost per ton delivered are expected to result in a return to profitability at Mississippi Lignite Mining Company in 2026 assuming the customer power plant operations and demand stabilize and formula-based pricing improves as expected. At North American Mining, revenues net of reimbursed costs rose 3%, driven by increased part sales. However, this upside was offset by fewer tons delivered due to customer operational delays plus higher operating costs, including unexpected repairs and maintenance expenses. This resulted in a decrease in the current quarter profit and segment adjusted EBITDA. With operational efficiencies expected to improve and a growing focus on parts sales, we expect the Contract Mining segment profits to strengthen in the back half of the year with the momentum continuing into 2026. At the Minerals and Royalties segment, last year's results included a large onetime gain. Excluding that, this year's operating profit and EBITDA actually increased, thanks primarily to a 30% rise in revenues, largely due to higher natural gas prices. As J.C. mentioned, Catapult completed a new acquisition in July, expanding our mineral interest portfolio. Both this new acquisition and Catapult's equity investment should contribute more meaningfully to results starting in the second half of 2022. Adding everything together for the remainder of the year, we anticipate a substantial increase in consolidated 2025 operating profit over the first half, but full year operating profit will still fall short of last year, which included a large gain on sale. We will complete the termination of our pension plan by the end of this year. While this will trigger a noncash settlement charge, the plan is overfunded and the move will simplify our financial structure going forward. Nonetheless, the pension settlement charge and lower operating profit are expected to lead to a substantial year-over-year decrease in net income and EBITDA compared with the 2024 second half and full year. From a liquidity standpoint, at June 30, we had total debt outstanding of $95.5 million. Our total liquidity was $139.9 million, which consisted of $49.4 million of cash and $90.5 million of availability under our revolving credit facility. During the quarter, we paid $1.9 million in dividends, and as of June 30, 2025, we had $7.8 million remaining under our $20 million share repurchase program that expires at the end of this year. We are forecasting up to $86 million in capital spending this year, which is higher than we projected at the end of last quarter. Most of this is earmarked for new business development. As our returns from previous investments start to materialize, we expect cash flow to improve over the prior year and continue to increase steadily next year. With that, I'll hand it back to J.C. for closing remarks.