Ira M. Birns
Thank you, Michael, and good evening, everyone. Before I review our second quarter operating results, I'd like to walk through several GAAP to non-GAAP adjustments recorded during the second quarter. Reconciliations are as always, on our Investor Relations website and today's webcast presentation. Our second quarter non-GAAP adjustments totaled approximately $487 million or $373 million after tax. The most significant adjustment relates to a noncash intangible asset impairment totaling $367 million within our land segment, $359 million of which is related to goodwill and $8 million related to other intangible assets in land. The goodwill impairment was driven by our reassessment of the remaining business activities within land and the related revisions to our long-term forecasts. As part of our disciplined capital allocation strategy, we continue to actively shed underperforming assets and streamline business activities that fall short of our return thresholds, enabling us to concentrate our operational focus on core activities with leverageable platforms, stronger returns and the most significant growth opportunities. $82 million of the non-GAAP adjustments relate to the sale of our U.K. land business that we completed in April. A significant portion of this overall adjustment, approximately $55 million relates to noncash unrealized foreign currency translation losses previously included within shareholders' equity. In our Marine segment, we recorded a $32 million asset impairment in the second quarter related to a physical inventory location that no longer aligns with our long-term strategic objectives. The remaining $6 million in non-GAAP adjustments principally consists of additional restructuring charges associated with the company-wide transformation, which we began in the first quarter. More specifically, these charges relate to an initiative to streamline our global finance back-office operations to enhance scalability and better support our medium- and long-term strategic objectives. Now let's turn to our second quarter operating results. And as a reminder, the following results exclude the impact of the non-GAAP adjustments that I just reviewed. On a consolidated basis, second quarter total volume was $4.2 billion, that's down 3% year-over-year, and consolidated gross profit declined 5% from last year's second quarter to $232 million. That's below the guidance range provided last quarter. While weaker- than-expected results in land were largely offset by stronger results in Aviation, consolidated gross profit came in below the range provided last quarter due largely to an unexpected unfavorable transaction tax settlement in our Marine business. While gross profit did decline 5% year-over-year, as a result of numerous strategic actions taken over the past year, adjusted operating income actually increased 11% year-over-year, demonstrating our continuing focus on improving our overall operating performance and returns. In the second quarter, our aviation volume was 1.9 billion gallons. That's up 2% year-over-year. Aviation gross profit was $138 million. That's an increase of $10 million or 8% year-over-year. This increase is principally attributable to our airport locations in Europe and our business and general aviation activities. Partially offsetting these increases is the impact of the Avinode sale, which was completed during the second quarter of last year. As we look to the seasonally strong third quarter for aviation, we expect aviation gross profit to be up meaningfully year-over-year, driven principally by our on-airport operations in Europe, but also a recent increase in government activity as well. In the second quarter, land volumes declined 7% year-over-year, primarily due to the impact of the sale of our U.K. and Brazil land businesses and also the strategic exit of certain North American operations in late 2024 as well as some softness in parts of our liquid fuels business in North America. Land gross profit was $67 million in the second quarter. That's down 17% year-over-year, again, principally related to the U.K. sale and the exit of certain North American land operations in the fourth quarter of '24, but also the impact from lower volumes in parts of our core liquid fuels business in North America that I just mentioned. Looking at the entire land business, the results we forecast in the beginning of the quarter simply did not materialize. This is due in part to the volume pressure I just mentioned, but also macroeconomic factors, which impacted our power business in Europe and even our sustainability-related products and service business activities. Looking ahead to the third quarter, we expect sequential seasonal improvement in land performance. However, year-over-year gross profit will remain lower, reflecting similar dynamics to those experienced in the second quarter, namely the impact of our portfolio changes and continued market challenges in parts of the business. We remain focused on proactively evaluating and addressing any remaining underperforming activities within the land segment, and we remain confident in our ability to further reshape our land business, which should drive improved returns and margins and a much clearer growth trajectory. In the second quarter, marine volumes declined 7% year-over-year, while gross profit decreased approximately 26%. While the volume decline was primarily related to ongoing global trade-related uncertainty, the decline in gross profit was primarily related to an unfavorable transaction tax settlement recorded in the second quarter and weaker performance at certain marine physical inventory locations in the U.S. In our core resale business, while volumes declined year-over-year, our team did a great job keeping gross profit generally flat despite what remains a quite competitive market environment. As we look to the third quarter, we expect marine gross profit to be down year- over-year, considering continuing weakness in certain physical interior locations in particular. As we look to the third quarter and with the backdrop of the related segment gross profit comments shared a moment ago, we expect consolidated gross profit to be in the range of $252 million to $262 million. Moving on to expenses. Consolidated operating expenses were $173 million in the second quarter, which is below the guidance range we provided last quarter and down 10% year-over-year. As we look ahead to the third quarter, we expect operating expenses to be in the range of $185 million to $189 million, down again year-over-year, driven in part by our recent divestitures, but also our ongoing efforts to further streamline our cost structure. We continue to maintain a disciplined approach to cost management and are actively pursuing further opportunities to streamline operations and enhance profitability, including the finance initiative I mentioned earlier. Interest expense, that was $26 million in the second quarter. That's down about 7% year-over-year and consistent with the guidance provided last quarter. For the third quarter, we expect interest expense to be in the range of $25 million to $28 million. Our second quarter adjusted effective tax rate was 11%, which was lower than anticipated going into the second quarter. This was driven in large part by the sale of the U.K. business as well as this quarter's goodwill impairment, which was largely related to our U.S. entities and impacted our global income mix. At this stage, we expect our adjusted effective tax rate for the full year to be in the range of 20% to 22%, which implies higher more normalized quarterly rates in the second half of the year. During the second quarter, we generated operating cash flow of $28 million and free cash flow of $13 million, increasing our year-to- date operating and free cash flow to $143 million and $113 million, respectively. This strong cash flow performance has enabled us to return approximately $64 million to shareholders, $45 million through share repurchases and $19 million in dividends in the first half of the year. This is evidence of our continued commitment to allocating a meaningful portion of our cash flow to buybacks and dividends to maximize shareholder value. With only $415 million of net debt currently and more than $1 billion of available liquidity, our balance sheet remains strong and liquid, enabling us to actively pursue an expanding pipeline of investment opportunities. We believe we have growing opportunities to accelerate growth in our core business activities through additional reasonably valued strategic and synergistic investments. In closing, I'd like to leave you with a few thoughts. Aviation clearly continues to shine with second quarter gross profit up 8% year-over-year, driven by strong performance at our on-airport operations in Europe and our business and general aviation activities and a strong summer season is underway. Aside from the impact of exiting certain markets and activities, land clearly underperformed our expectations going into the quarter, but contributions from our core activities were generally stable year-over-year. We are continuing to refine the land portfolio, placing a greater focus on core ratable activities with the strongest returns and greatest medium- and long-term growth opportunities. We believe these efforts position the land segment for improving performance looking forward. Marine's second quarter results were generally in line with expectations, while impacted by some weakness in certain physical inventory locations, our core resale profitability remained stable year-over-year despite competitive market conditions. Operating expenses came in below guidance for the second quarter and declined meaningfully year-over-year, reflecting our continued discipline in driving operating efficiencies, including our latest initiative intended to streamline back-office operations and finance which should pay nice dividends going forward. We generated $28 million in operating cash flow and $13 million in free cash flow during the second quarter, and we raised our quarterly dividend by 18%, and we have returned approximately $64 million to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends year-to-date. While macroeconomic and market conditions impacted portions of our business in the second quarter, we continue to take decisive steps to reshape our portfolio and focus on our most resilient, ratable and higher-return core activities that will support medium and long-term value creation. Our transformation initiatives are ongoing, and we continue our disciplined approach to managing costs. With a clear strategy, we remain committed to disciplined execution, operational efficiency and delivering sustainable returns for our shareholders. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call back over to our operator, Carmen, to begin the Q&A session.