Keith Johnson - VP, IR Kevin Kremke - EVP & CFO Ezra Yemin - Chairman & CEO.

Analysts:.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to today's Delek Logistics Partners' third quarter earnings call. [Operator Instructions]. And now please welcome Mr. Keith Johnson. Sir, the floor is yours..

Thank you, Grace. Good morning. I would like to thank, everyone, for joining us on this webcast to discuss DKL's Third Quarter 2018 Financial Results. Joining me on today's call will be Uzi Yemin, our General Partners' Chairman and CEO; Kevin Kremke, CFO, as well as 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 law. 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 believe, anticipates, plans, expects and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. You're 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.

In addition to reporting financial results in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, we report certain non-GAAP financial results.

Investors are encouraged to review the reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the comparable GAAP results, which can be found in the press release, which is posted on the Investor Relations section of our website. On today's call, Kevin will begin with a financial overview, then Uzi will offer a few closing strategic remarks.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Kevin..

Thanks, Keith. We had a strong third quarter performance. Our results enabled us to continue to maintain a high distributable cash flow coverage ratio.

The benefit from the Big Spring logistics assets acquired effective March 1, 2018, the year-over-year increase in the West Texas gross margin and improved performance from the Paline Pipeline drove the third quarter 2018 improvement compared to the prior year period.

Our distributable cash flow increased by 50% to approximately $32.4 million in the third quarter of 2018 compared to $21.6 million in the third quarter of last year. Our DCF coverage ratio was 1.25x for the third quarter of this year, which is an increase from 0.97x in the prior year period.

EBITDA increased by 45% to $43 million compared to $29.7 million in the prior year period. Based on our performance, we increased our quarterly distribution to $0.79 per limited partner unit for the quarter ended September 30.

This distribution is to be paid on November 9 to unitholders of record as of November 2 and is a 2.6% increase from our second quarter 2018 distribution per unit. This is our 23rd consecutive quarterly increase and is 10.5% higher than our third quarter 2017 distribution per unit.

At September 30, 2018, DKL had approximately $317 million of available capacity on our $850 million credit facility. Our total debt was approximately $777 million and the total leverage ratio of 4.5x is well within the 5.5x currently allowable under our credit facility.

This leverage ratio is elevated in the third quarter of 2018 by a combination of higher cash balance and intercompany receivable at the end of the third quarter. If we adjust for the higher cash balance and the effect of the intercompany receivable, the leverage would have been closer to 4.1x.

And based on our current forecast, we believe that our leverage should be in the range of 4.1 to 4.3x by year-end. I wanted to highlight that at the end of September 2018, the credit facility commitments were increased from $700 million to $850 million, and the maturity was extended to September of 2023 from the previous maturity of December 2019.

This is part of the reason that we carried a higher cash balance than in the past. For the third quarter, Delek Logistics reported net income attributable to all partners of $23.3 million, which compares to $16.9 million in the prior year period.

Limited Partners' interest in net income was $16.7 million or $0.68 per unit compared to $12.2 million or $0.50 per unit in the prior year period. Next, I will review our operating segments.

In our Pipelines and Transportation segment, the third quarter 2018 contribution margin was $25.2 million compared to $17.5 million in the third quarter of last year. This increase was primarily attributable to improved performance from the Big Spring acquisition and the Paline Pipeline.

Operating expenses increased to $9.5 million in the third quarter of 2018 from $8.6 million in the prior year period, primarily due to the acquisition. In our Wholesale Marketing and Terminalling segment, the contribution margin was $17.9 million in the third quarter of this year, which was an increase from $13.3 million in the prior year period.

This increase was primarily due to the Big Spring acquisition and an improvement in the West Texas gross margin. Operating expenses increased to $5.9 million in the third quarter of 2018 from $2.1 million in the prior year period, again primarily due to the acquisition.

Our West Texas wholesale gross margin was $4.65 per barrel in the third quarter of 2018 compared to $4 per barrel in the third quarter of the prior year. Throughput in West Texas was 12,200 barrels per day compared to just under 13,000 barrels per day in the prior year.

We'll continue to see strong margins in West Texas into the fourth quarter, as drilling activity in the Permian Basin has increased. During October, the gross margin in West Texas averaged approximately $5.65 per barrel and volumes averaged approximately 11,700 barrels per day.

During the third quarter of 2018, our equity income from our joint venture crude oil pipelines was approximately $1.9 million compared to income of $1.6 million in the prior year period. Capital expenditures were approximately $3 million in the third quarter of this year and included $600,000 of discretionary spending and $2.4 million of maintenance.

During the third quarter of 2018, approximately $1.3 million was reimbursed by Delek US. For full year 2018, our total gross CapEx forecast is $11.6 million, which includes $4.6 million of discretionary and $7 million of maintenance capital before reimbursement by Delek US.

We expect approximately $2.5 million of the maintenance CapEx to be reimbursed in 2018. With that, I'll turn the call over to Uzi for his closing comments..

Thank you, Kevin, and good morning. Over the last 6 months, we have generated $88 million of EBITDA. This has been supported by our Permian Basin platform we have developed. This consists of a -- the Big Spring logistics assets, the West Texas wholesale business and the Paline Pipeline.

In addition, we have benefited from the high utilization rate in the Delek US assets we support. We continue to explore opportunities to grow in the Permian Basin through organic and third-party opportunities.

By partnering with our sponsor Delek US, we're evaluating options to further support their Permian crude needs as they continue to increase the amount of crude oil that they are generating -- I'm sorry, that they are gathering.

With Delek's announcement of its Big Spring gathering system and its proposed interest in the PGC long-haul crude oil pipeline, its logistics assets base continue to grow.

In addition, Delek US has logistics assets at the Krotz Springs refinery that can be a future potential drop-down with the ability to generate $30 million to $40 million -- $30 million to $34 million of annual EBITDA.

We recently extended our credit facility and expect an improving leverage ratio that put us in a better position to fund potential drop-down in 2019 and moving forward. With this strategy, we believe that we should be able to create long-term value for our unitholders.

This should continue to support our annual distribution growth per limited partner unit of at least 10% through 2019, while maintaining appropriate distribution coverage.

With that, Grace, will you open the call for questions?.

Operator:.

Thank you. I'd like to thank everybody on this call listening to us. Also, I'd like to thank you for your continuous support within -- with our company. I'd like to thank my colleagues around the table, the Board of Directors, obviously investors for your support. And mainly, I'd like to thank our employees who make this company the great company it is.

Thank you, and have a great day..

Ladies and gentlemen, we thank you all for your participation. That concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect. Have a great day..