GENESIS ENERGY, L.P. (NYSE:GEL) Files An 8-K Results of Operations and Financial ConditionItem 2.02.Results of Operations and Financial Condition
We issued a press release on February15, 2018 regarding our financial results for the quarter ended December31, 2017, and will hold a webcast conference call discussing those results on February15, 2018 at 9:30 a.m. Central time (10:30 a.m. Eastern time).A copy of this earnings press release is furnished as Exhibit 99.1 to this report. The webcast conference call will be available for replay on our website at www.genesisenergy.com for 30 days.A summary of this conference call is archived on our website.
As provided in General Instruction B.2 to Form 8-K, the information furnished in this Item 2.02 and in Exhibit 99.1 hereto shall not be deemed “filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, nor shall it be deemed incorporated by reference in any filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, except as shall be expressly provided by specific reference in such filing.
Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures
Overview
This press release and the accompanying schedules include non-generally accepted accounting principle (non-GAAP) financial measures of Adjusted EBITDA and total Available Cash before Reserves. In this press release, we also present total Segment Margin as if it were a non-GAAP measure. Our Non-GAAP measures may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies because such measures may include or exclude other specified items. The accompanying schedules provide reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable financial measures calculated in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America (GAAP). Our non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered (i) as alternatives to GAAP measures of liquidity or financial performance or (ii) as being singularly important in any particular context; they should be considered in a broad context with other quantitative and qualitative information. Our Available Cash before Reserves, Adjusted EBITDA and total Segment Margin measures are just three of the relevant data points considered from time to time.
When evaluating our performance and making decisions regarding our future direction and actions (including making discretionary payments, such as quarterly distributions) our board of directors and management team has access to a wide range of historical and forecasted qualitative and quantitative information, such as our financial statements; operational information; various non-GAAP measures; internal forecasts; credit metrics; analyst opinions; performance, liquidity and similar measures; income; cash flow; and expectations for us, and certain information regarding some of our peers. Additionally, our board of directors and management team analyze, and place different weight on, various factors from time to time. We believe that investors benefit from having access to the same financial measures being utilized by management, lenders, analysts and other market participants. We attempt to provide adequate information to allow each individual investor and other external user to reach her/his own conclusions regarding our actions without providing so much information as to overwhelm or confuse such investor or other external user.
In the fourth quarter of 2017, we revised portions of the format and definitions relating to our presentation of non-GAAP financial measures. Amounts attributable to prior periods have been recast. We believe our revised presentation:
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better aligns our non-GAAP financial measures with a broader array of criteria management uses to evaluate our performance, liquidity and other activities and conditions in light of the increasing size, diversity and complexity of our operations; |
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improves readability; and |
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provides a general format that is more consistent with many of our peers. |
The primary substantive changes in our presentation are (i) to include "gains on asset sales" (approximately $40.3 million) in Available Cash before Reserves and Adjusted EBITDA and (ii) to include the effects of a provision for certain leased assets no longer in use (approximately $12.6 million). Some of our peers exclude "gains on asset sales" from some or all of their non-GAAP financial measures and others include "proceeds from asset sales." For purposes of Available Cash before Reserves and Adjusted EBITDA, we view that portion of the cash proceeds from an asset sale that are in excess of the carrying value of our investment as cash generated by our operating activities, which can be used for discretionary purposes, similar to operating income generated by an asset.
Available Cash before Reserves
Purposes, Uses and Definition
Available Cash before Reserves, also referred to as distributable cash flow, is a quantitative standard used throughout the investment community with respect to publicly traded partnerships and is commonly used as a supplemental financial measure by management and by external users of financial statementssuch as investors, commercial banks, research analysts and rating agencies, to aid in assessing, among other things:
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the financial performance of our assets; |
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our operating performance; |
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the viability of potential projects, including our cash and overall return on alternative capital investments as compared to those of other companies in the midstream energy industry; |
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the ability of our assets to generate cash sufficient to satisfy certain non-discretionary cash requirements, including interest payments and certain maintenance capital requirements; and |
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our ability to make certain discretionary payments, such as distributions on our units, growth capital expenditures, certain maintenance capital expenditures and early payments of indebtedness. |
We define Available Cash before Reserves ("Available Cash before Reserves") as Adjusted EBITDA as adjusted for certain items, the most significant of which in the relevant reporting periods have been the sum of maintenance capital utilized, net cash interest expense and cash tax expense.
Disclosure Format Relating to Maintenance Capital
We have implemented a modified format relating to maintenance capital requirements because of our expectation that our future maintenance capital expenditures may change materially in nature (discretionary vs. non-discretionary), timing and amount from time to time. We believe that, without such modified disclosure, such changes in our maintenance capital expenditures could be confusing and potentially misleading to users of our financial information, particularly in the context of the nature and purposes of our Available Cash before Reserves measure. Our modified disclosure format provides those users with new information in the form of our maintenance capital utilized measure (which we deduct to arrive at Available Cash before Reserves). Our maintenance capital utilized measure constitutes a proxy for non-discretionary maintenance capital expenditures and it takes into consideration the relationship among maintenance capital expenditures, operating expenses and depreciation from period to period.
Maintenance Capital Requirements
Maintenance Capital Expenditures
Maintenance capital expenditures are capitalized costs that are necessary to maintain the service capability of our existing assets, including the replacement of any system component or equipment which is worn out or obsolete. Maintenance capital expenditures can be discretionary or non-discretionary, depending on the facts and circumstances.
Initially, substantially all of our maintenance capital expenditures were (a) related to our pipeline assets and similar infrastructure, (b) non-discretionary in nature and (c) immaterial in amount as compared to our Available Cash before Reserves measure. Those historical expenditures were non-discretionary (or mandatory) in nature because we had very little (if any) discretion as to whether or when we incurred them. We had to incur them in order to continue to operate the related pipelines in a safe and reliable manner and consistently with past practices. If we had not made those expenditures, we would not have been able to continue to operate all or portions of those pipelines, which would not have been economically feasible. An example of a non-discretionary (or mandatory) maintenance capital expenditure would be replacing a segment of an old pipeline because one can no longer operate that pipeline safely, legally and/or economically in the absence of such replacement.
As we exist today, a substantial amount of our maintenance capital expenditures from time to time will be (a) related to our assets other than pipelines, such as our marine vessels, trucks and similar assets, (b) discretionary in nature and (c) potentially material in amount as compared to our Available Cash before Reserves measure. Those expenditures will be discretionary (or non-mandatory) in nature because we will have significant discretion as to whether or when we incur them. We will not be forced to incur them in order to continue to operate the related assets in a safe and reliable manner. If we chose not make those expenditures, we would be able to continue to operate those assets economically, although in lieu of maintenance capital expenditures, we would incur increased operating expenses, including maintenance expenses. An example of a discretionary (or non-mandatory) maintenance capital expenditure would be replacing an older marine vessel with a new marine vessel with substantially similar specifications, even though one
could continue to economically operate the older vessel in spite of its increasing maintenance and other operating expenses.
In summary, as we continue to expand certain non-pipeline portions of our business, we are experiencing changes in the nature (discretionary vs. non-discretionary), timing and amount of our maintenance capital expenditures that merit a more detailed review and analysis than was required historically. Management’s recently increasing ability to determine if and when to incur certain maintenance capital expenditures is relevant to the manner in which we analyze aspects of our business relating to discretionary and non-discretionary expenditures. We believe it would be inappropriate to derive our Available Cash before Reserves measure by deducting discretionary maintenance capital expenditures, which we believe are similar in nature in this context to certain other discretionary expenditures, such as growth capital expenditures, distributions/dividends and equity buybacks. Unfortunately, not all maintenance capital expenditures are clearly discretionary or non-discretionary in nature. Therefore, we developed a measure, maintenance capital utilized, that we believe is more useful in the determination of Available Cash before Reserves. Our maintenance capital utilized measure, which is described in more detail below, constitutes a proxy for non-discretionary maintenance capital expenditures and it takes into consideration the relationship among maintenance capital expenditures, operating expenses and depreciation from period to period.
Maintenance Capital Utilized
We believe our maintenance capital utilized measure is the most useful quarterly maintenance capital requirements measure to use to derive our Available Cash before Reserves measure. We define our maintenance capital utilized measure as that portion of the amount of previously incurred maintenance capital expenditures that we utilize during the relevant quarter, which would be equal to the sum of the maintenance capital expenditures we have incurred for each project/component in prior quarters allocated ratably over the useful lives of those projects/components.
Because we did not initially use our maintenance capital utilized measure, our future maintenance capital utilized calculations will reflect the utilization of solely those maintenance capital expenditures incurred since December 31, 2013.
Adjusted EBITDA
Purposes, Uses and Definition
Adjusted EBITDA is commonly used as a supplemental financial measure by management and by external users of financial statements such as investors, commercial banks, research analysts and rating agencies, to aid in assessing, among other things:
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the financial performance of our assets without regard to financing methods, capital structures or historical cost basis; |
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our operating performance as compared to those of other companies in the midstream energy industry, without regard to financing and capital structure; |
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the viability of potential projects, including our cash and overall return on alternative capital investments as compared to those of other companies in the midstream energy industry; |
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the ability of our assets to generate cash sufficient to satisfy certain non-discretionary cash requirements, including interest payments and certain maintenance capital requirements; and |
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our ability to make certain discretionary payments, such as distributions on our units, growth capital expenditures, certain maintenance capital expenditures and early payments of indebtedness. |
We define Adjusted EBITDA (“Adjusted EBITDA”) as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (including impairment, write-offs, accretion and similar items, often referred to as EBITDA) after eliminating other non-cash revenues, expenses, gains, losses and charges (including any loss on asset dispositions), plus or minus certain other select items that we view as not indicative of our core operating results (collectively, "Select Items"). Although, we do not necessarily consider all of our Select Items to be non-recurring, infrequent or unusual, we believe that an understanding of these Select Items is important to the evaluation of our core operating results. The most significant Select Items in the relevant reporting periods are set forth in this press release.
Item 9.01.Financial Statements and Exhibits
(d)Exhibits
The following materials are filed as exhibits to this Current Report on Form 8-K.
GENESIS ENERGY LP ExhibitEX-99.1 2 gel021518exhibit991.htm EXHIBIT 99.1 Exhibit FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEFebruary 15,…To view the full exhibit click here
About GENESIS ENERGY, L.P. (NYSE:GEL)
Genesis Energy, L.P. is a limited partnership focused on the midstream segment of the oil and gas industry. The Company operates through five segments: Offshore Pipeline Transportation, Onshore Pipeline Transportation, Refinery Services, Marine Transportation, and Supply and Logistics. The Offshore Pipeline Transportation segment is engaged in the offshore transportation of crude oil and natural gas in the Gulf of Mexico. The Onshore Pipeline Transportation segment is engaged in the transportation of crude oil and carbon dioxide (CO2). The Refinery Services segment is involved in the processing of high sulfur (or sour) gas streams and selling the related by-product, sodium hydrosulfide (NaHS). The Marine Transportation segment provides waterborne transportation of petroleum products and crude oil throughout North America. The Supply and Logistics segment is engaged in terminaling, blending, storing, marketing, and transporting crude oil and petroleum products and CO2.