Keith Johnson – Vice President of Investor Relations Assaf Ginzburg – Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Danny Norris – Chief Accounting Officer Ezra Uzi Yemin – President and Chief Executive Officer.
Mark Reichman – Simmons & Company Richard Roberts – Howard Weil Cory Garcia – Raymond James & Associates, Inc. .
Good morning. My name is Alisa, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time I would like to welcome everyone to the Delek Logistics Partners Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers’ remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session.
(Operator Instructions) Thank you. Keith Johnson, you may begin your conference..
Thank you, Alisa. Good morning. I would like to thank everyone for joining us on this webcast to discuss Delek Logistics Partners’ second quarter 2014 financial results. Joining me on today’s call will be Uzi Yemin, our General Partners, Chairman and CEO; Assi Ginzburg, our CFO; Danny Norris, CAO, and other members of our management team.
As a reminder, this conference call may contain forward-looking statements as that term is defined under Federal Securities Laws. For this purpose, any statements made during this call that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements.
Without limiting the foregoing, the words believes, anticipates, plans, expects and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. You are cautioned that these statements may be affected by important factors set forth in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and in our latest earnings release.
As a result, actual operations or results may differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
Today’s call is being recorded and will be available for replay beginning today and ending November 10, 2014 by dialing 855-859-2056 with a confirmation ID number 73527504. An online replay may also be accessed for the next 90 days at the partnership’s website at deleklogistics.com.
Last night, we distributed a press release that provide the summary of our second quarter 2014 results. This press release is available on our corporate website and through various news outlets.
On today’s call, Assi will begin with a few financial comments and Danny will review our financial performance, then Uzi will offer a few closing strategic remarks. With that, I’ll turn the call over to Assi..
Thanks, Keith. Delek Logistics had a record second quarter as it benefit from improved margin in our West Texas marketing business, higher volume on asset supporting Delek US' El Dorado refinery, and from drop downs completed over the past year.
Our DCF was $24 million and EBITDA was $27 million for the second quarter 2014, which is an increase from a DCF of $12.8 million and EBITDA of $15 million in the second quarter 2013. We ended the quarter with a DCF coverage ratio of approximately two times.
Based on our performance, we recently announced an increased P&L quarterly distribution to $47.05 per unit for the quarter ended June 30, 2014, which is an increase of 11.7% from our first quarter 2014 distribution. This will be our sixth consecutive increase and is a 20.3% higher than our second quarter 2013 distribution of $39.5 per unit.
Now, I will turn the call over to Danny to discuss the financial results..
Thank you, Assi. For the second quarter 2014, Delek Logistics reported net income attributable to all partners of $21.8 million or $0.87 per diluted limited partner unit, compared to income attributable to all partners of $11.8 million or $0.47 per diluted limited partner unit in the prior-year period.
Improved performance compared to the second quarter of 2013 was driven by strong margins in our West Texas wholesale business and several acquisitions completed during the past year. In addition to acquisitions higher volumes on the Lion Pipeline System contribute to better performance as well.
As a result contribution margin increased to $30.2 million in the second quarter of 2014 from $16.1 million in the prior year period. Now I will spend a few minutes discussing our two reporting segments.
Second quarter 2014 contribution margin in our Pipeline and Transportation segment improved to $14.2 million on a year-over-year basis compared to $8.9 million in the second quarter of 2013.
The improvement was primarily attributable to storage fees from the Tyler tank farm purchased in July of 2013, and the El Dorado tank farm acquired in February of 2014. Also, during the quarter volumes on the Lion Pipeline System increased year-over-year as Delek US' El Dorado refinery processed and shipped higher volumes accrued in finished product.
Following the turnaround completed at that refinery in the first quarter of 2014. Contribution margin in our Wholesale Marketing and Terminalling segment was $16 million in the second quarter of 2014, compared to $7.2 million in the second quarter of 2013.
The higher margin in our West Texas wholesale business improved our contribution margin by approximately $6.5 million on a year-over-year basis.
In addition, contribution from the Tyler, Texas terminal, the addition of the North Little Rock, Arkansas terminal and the El Dorado, Arkansas terminal or other factors contributing to the improvement versus the second quarter of 2013.
In our West Texas wholesale business volume was 17,450 barrels per day in the second quarter 2014 compared to 19,100 barrels per day in the prior year period. The gross margin was $6.52 per barrel in the second quarter of 2014, compared to $2.20 per barrel in the second quarter of 2013.
Gross margin per barrel in the second quarter of 2014 benefited from a favorable supply demand balance in the region created by refinery downtime related to turnaround work during the period.
The margin per barrel in the second quarter included approximately $1.1 million or $0.68 per barrel from RINs generated in our ongoing ethanol blending activities. This compares to a gross margin than included $2.1 million or $1.23 per barrel from RINs in the second quarter of 2013.
Terminalling throughput volume of 98,962 barrels per day during the quarter increased on a year-over-year basis from 13,961 barrels per day in the second quarter of 2013 due to acquisitions completed in the past year.
During the second quarter volume per day under our East Texas marketing agreement was approximately 61,230 barrels per day compared to approximately 64,970 barrels per day in the second quarter of 2013. As of June 30, 2014, Delek Logistics had a cash balance of $2.4 million and total debt was $239 million.
We ended the quarter with approximately $147.5 million of unused availability under our $400 million credit facility. Capital expenditures were approximately $1 million in the second quarter of 2014, which included no CapEx reimbursement under our omnibus agreement with Delek US.
Maintenance capital expenditures were approximately $800,000 and discretionary projects were approximately $200,000. Total capital expenditures for 2014 are expected to be $13.1 million, compared to $5.3 million in 2013.
This increased from 2013 is associated with the acquisitions completed over the past year and additional capital expenditures for growth. The decrease from our previous estimate of $18.5 million to 2014 was related to timing of growth related projects.
The 2014 capital expenditure amount consisted of $7.5 million of maintenance and $5.5 million of growth projects. With that, I will turn the call over to Uzi for his closing comments..
Thank you, Danny. Our operations performed very well during the second quarter, and coupled with the growth we achieved over the past year with an increase of 86% in our EBITDA and 88% increase in this year on a year-over-year basis.
This growth gave us the foundation to substantially increase our quarterly distribution for the second quarter and have a current yield of 5.5%. We continue to focus on growing our operation.
Through this effort were identified projects dropped down in organic growth together with third-party opportunities that we believe will result in $25 million to $35 million of annual EBITDA by the beginning of 2015.
This growth can be achieved with an estimated investment of $80 million to $85 million of capital, which can be financed with our existing availability on our revolver. We continue to believe that we will achieve our goal of an annualized run rate of $150 million of EBITDA by the end of 2015.
Our operational performance and financial position combined with identified growth project should allow us to continue to grow our distribution by at least 15% per year in the future.
With that Alisa, could you please open the call for questions?.
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Mark Reichman with Simmons & Company. Your line is open..
Thank you. Good morning. I just wanted to Assaf you can maybe expand a little bit or on the wholesale marketing and terminaling segment results, in particular your ability to capture the higher contribution margin per barrel.
Just if you could maybe just provide a little more color on that in specifics and then also kind of what your expectations are for the remainder of the year on that segment?.
Well, obviously we are very happy with the performance of this segment. The three factors that help us in that regard, the first one is the ethanol blending program. We have very good, without going into many details a very good ethanol blending we actually buying ethanol ahead of time and enjoy the acquisition in the market.
And then because of the fact that these terminal belongs to us, we can blend it ourselves and enjoy the great margin. As long as ethanol is in the future cheap as it is, we will continue to benefit from that. Also, the RINs obviously we maintain flexibility and we collect the RINs.
The third one is during the second quarter there was some turnaround activity in the area and another refinery and that our position. So two are the first factors.
Could you talk about that in a little more detail? It sounds like – just talking a little bit about the refineries, kind of what you did to exploit the pricing, and then kind of what is your ability or what your expectations to do that going forward with would be?.
Well, it’s still too early to say. I am going to tell you though that we believe that historical margins in that area and because of the demand in that area or with all the activities around the drilling. We believe that the historical margins don’t reflect anymore, but it use to be. Now, it doesn’t mean that we can achieve $6.50 every quarter.
But for the most part because of the demand, because of the ethanol blending, because of the fact that we capture the RINs and we have the terminals in very strategic areas. We think that the margins will go higher versus what it used to be in the past.
Now it’s still too early to say are we going to achieve $6? Probably not, but we are going to be higher than historical margins..
Okay, just kind of there is a backdrop. With regard to the distribution policy, you raised the distribution pretty significantly when you declared in the second quarter distribution. Even with I guess the positive benefit of the commodity pricing with respect to the crude oil, the marketing, you still would be able to justify that.
But I was just wondering kind of how you are thinking about that kind of going forward in terms of whether you pass on the majority of the cash flow growth or how you are weighing that against holding some cash back to either pay down debt, fund future capital investment or acquisitions, and whether you might look for maybe a little more – maybe less lumpiness in the distribution growth trajectory.
So just kind of how you are thinking about the distribution policy..
Well, first of all, all these are great questions. I will start from the end and then I’ll get you to the answer that you need. And I am not going to go around it. We have another $25 million to $35 million of EBITDA that we believe we can get within the next few months.
These $25 million to $35 million don’t require – usually when you see drop down people do them at 8 times to 10 times. Most of this growth is basically already embedded in the asset we have. We mentioned earlier that in order to achieve this $25 million to $35 million, we only need $80 million to $85 million of did.
So, basically if you think the run rate at these number and the fact that I think that the leverage we have is 2.6 times EBITDA and the outlook is so bright that we are willing to say that if in the past, our target was double-digit i.e. 10% 11%. Now we are targeting at least 15% growth in distribution. And we mentioned at earlier.
Obviously, we have the dry powder to continue do acquisitions. We said all along these acquisitions exist, we’re talking to several people the target is not more than 8 times to 10 times EBITDA which we believe is achievable as well.
So, very bright future and we believe that the 150 EBITDA target that we had year and half ago, when we started is very achievable we said when we thought that we need to double the EBITDA within a year and a half and we actually double the EBITDA because of that where we felt comfortable to increase distribution by more than 20% we’re comfortable to say now we’re targeting at least 15% going forward..
Great, I appreciate that. Thank you very much..
Thank you Mark..
Your next question comes from the line of Richard Roberts from Howard Weil. Your line is open..
Hi, good morning, guys..
Good morning, Rich..
A couple for me, Uzi. So the remaining assets still at Delek to drop down I believe are the Tyler crude tank and the El Dorado rail terminal.
Should we expect those to come as one package or separately? Then can you give us any update maybe on when you might get those done?.
We say that we’re planning we said all along that we’re planning to drop them down when they mature this is coming in the next few months let me be clear, we can drop them down today but we want to show sustainable growth probably in the next few months the ideas today is to drop them down together. .
Okay, great, thanks.
Is it safe to say at this point, maybe just from your previous comments, that you have identified everything internally that you need to do to get to the $150 million run rate by the end of next year? Or are you still looking to secure a couple of things?.
We do need to obviously – we need to if you will feel.
But do we have a clear road map to $150 million yes we do we actually had it few months ago, so we have clear path and we know we are how we are going to get to $150 million our next target is to increase that and we will come probably with new targets within the next few months how to go over and behind the $150 million..
That's great, thanks. Then maybe just one small follow-up.
On the solid gathering system volumes declining in the quarter, was there anything unique going on in the quarter there? And I guess how should we think about volumes there going forward?.
Yes, there was something really unique in this quarter and I’m saying it with a smile, midland was $10 under obviously when you have midland $10 under, our sponsor, if you will prefer to bring these barrels and not to bring the local barrels. .
That makes sense. Great, Uzi. Thanks so much, I appreciate it. .
Thank you..
(Operator Instructions) Your next question comes from line of Cory Garcia with Raymond James. Your line is open..
Good morning, fellows. Great quarter.
Just circling back to sort of the organic project backlog, just to clarify, the implied EBITDA uplift of $25 million to $35 million that excludes the $5 million to $10 million of sort of drop-down-ready assets, or does that include that?.
That these numbers are inside that $25 million to $35 million..
Okay, okay. So it would be a little bit less on organic growth.
Is there anything from a timing perspective that we should keep an eye out? Any particular projects that will come online over the next year to really see a step change if you will? Or is it is just going to be a gradual sort of increase and building of EBITDA over time?.
We are targeting the first part of next year. So within the next year all this need to be completed..
Okay, great. And kind of off-topic I guess; saw some news that the Pegasus Pipeline was restarting just last month.
Does that have any real impact on sort of your guys' assets or is that completely independent and kind of moves past you guys?.
There is no impact on our assets..
Okay perfect. Thanks again for the color..
Thank you, Cory..
There are no further questions at this time..
Well, Alisa, again thank you for helping us this morning. I would like to thank our employees who helped creating this, we think, amazing work. I would like to thank our – my colleague around the table and obviously I would like to thank each one of you for being part of the call. Thanks. Have a great day..
This concludes today’s conference call. You may now disconnect..