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Buckeye Partners L PÂ (BPL)
Q1Â 2019 Earnings Call
May. 10, 2019, 11:00 a.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Buckeye Partners 2019 First Quarter Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will follow at that time. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded.
I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference Mr. Kevin Goodwin, Vice President and Treasurer. Mr. Goodwin, you may begin.
Kevin Goodwin -- Vice President, Treasurer, Corporate Finance, Investor Relations
Thank you, Josh, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Buckeye's Financial Results Conference Call for the First Quarter of 2019.
On this morning's conference call, Clark Smith, our Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, will provide additional information on the transaction with IFM Investors that we announced this morning. Following Clark's comments, Keith St.Clair, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, will review our financial results for the quarter. Also on the call, this morning are Bob Malecky, Executive Vice President and President of Domestic Pipelines and Terminals; Khalid Muslih, Executive Vice President and President of Global Marine Terminals; Bill Hollis, Senior Vice President and President of Buckeye Services; Todd Russo, Senior Vice President and General Counsel; and Gary Bohnsack, Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer. After our prepared remarks, we will take your questions.
We would like to remind everyone that we may make comments on the call that could be construed as forward-looking statements as defined by the SEC, including statements regarding our target leverage and coverage ratios and the transaction with IFM Investors. Future results are subject to numerous contingencies, many of which are outside of our control. Any forward-looking statements we make are qualified by the risk factors and other information set forth in our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018, which is filed with the SEC and available on the Buckeye website at www.buckeye.com. We undertake no obligation to revise our forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after today.
In addition, during the call, we will be discussing Buckeye's adjusted EBITDA and certain other non-GAAP measures. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in the press release issued this morning, which is available on the Investor Center section of the Buckeye's website.
With that, I will turn the call over to our Chairman, President and CEO, Clark Smith.
Clark C. Smith -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Kevin, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining our call today. As Kevin mentioned, we are very excited to be announcing that we have agreed to be acquired by entities affiliated with IFM in Melbourne, Australia-based investor-owned fund manager for $41.50 per unit, the all-cash transaction is valued at $10.3 billion enterprise value and $6.5 billion equity value. IFM is one of the leading and largest global infrastructure investors with $90 billion of assets under management, they represent more than 15 million pension fund members and have considerable expertise in global infrastructure including several energy investments in the US.
Before we talk more specifically about our transaction, I'd like to take this opportunity to announce that we will publish our first annual Environmental, Social, Governance or ESG report next month. This report will provide insight into Buckeye's ongoing commitment and approach to sustainable, responsible and ethical practices. It will provide additional information about who we are, how we operate, our focus on safety and environmental stewardship, and how we give back to our communities.
The report will also highlight our commitment to minimizing our environmental impact and maintaining the integrity of our assets with industry-leading maintenance processes and technology. We look forward to sharing this report with you in conjunction with our Annual Unitholder Meeting in June.
Turning now to this morning's announcement. We believe that this also provides both attractive and immediate value for unitholders. Our proposed transaction with IFM is the culmination of a comprehensive strategic review of our asset portfolio and financial strategy that we launched in 2018. This review resulted in the sale of a package of domestic refined product pipeline and terminal assets as well as our VTTI equity interest. The goal of this review was to enhance the stability of our business to drive long-term returns for our unitholders and we are confident that the actions we took were definitive steps in the right direction to meet those objectives. IFM's offer represents a significant premium of 31.9% since November 1, 2018, which was the last trading day prior to our announcement of certain strategic actions being taken as a result of this review and a premium of 27.5% over yesterday's closing price.
We believe that the trends toward more stability and self-funding in the public equity markets, as weaken public company multiples and resulted in an undervaluation of Buckeye's assets. On the other hand, there has been strong interest from private equity in infrastructure funds in midstream assets, which has resulted in attractive multiples of many recent private transactions.
We benefited from that interest ourselves last year, as reflected in the premium multiples we were able to achieve on our asset sales. The dislocation between private market assets and public valuations, continues to grow in the midstream space, and the transaction with IFM will allow our unitholders to take advantage of that disconnect.
We are continuously evaluating options to maximize value for our unitholders, following a detailed review of IFMs' offer in our position in the public markets. Our board and senior leadership team unanimously concluded that IFMs' offer is in the best interest of Buckeye.
To summarize, this offer delivers immediate and enhanced value for our unitholders, at an attractive premium over both our unit price prior to the announcement of our strategic actions in November 2018, as well as our current unit price. We believe this offer more appropriately reflect the fair value of our underlying assets compared to our public market valuation, providing that all cash offer to our unitholders, mitigates the risk and exposure to the uncertainty of public valuations of MLP.
Unitholders will continue to be entitled to receive regular quarterly cash distributions, declared by the Buckeye Board, that are paid on a date prior to the closing of the transaction, but not thereafter. We believe that partnering with IFM in this transaction leaves Buckeye well positioned to continue to operate over the long term for the benefit of our partners as well as for our customers, our employees and our communities. We look forward to partnering with IFM on the next stage of Buckeye's growth.
In terms of next steps, we expect to file a proxy statement in the coming weeks and we'll then hold a unitholder vote on the transaction. The transaction is subject to unitholder in regulatory approvals, as well as other customary closing conditions as is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Before we get to your questions about our transaction. I'll ask Keith to discuss our first quarter results.
Keith E. St.Clair -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Clark, and good morning, everyone. I'll now discuss the details of our financial results. I'm pleased to report that for the first quarter of 2019, there was another strong quarter for Buckeye. Our financial results once again demonstrated the stability of our diversified asset portfolio. Overall, we exceeded our plan for the quarter and saw solid growth across a number of our locations.
For the first quarter, we reported net income attributable to Buckeye of $80.8 million compared to $112.4 million for the first quarter of 2018. Net income attributable to Buckeye unitholders was $0.52 per diluted unit for the first quarter of 2019, compared to $0.74 per diluted unit for the same period last year. The diluted weighted average number of units outstanding during the quarter was $154.5 million compared to $149.5 million last year.
This increase was primarily due to the January 2018 issuance of Class C PIK units, which converted to common units during the third quarter of 2018. On a consolidated basis, we reported first quarter 2019 adjusted EBITDA, which is our primary measure of financial performance of $216.4 million compared to $261.7 million for the first quarter of '18.
It is important to note that the 2018 results included a contribution of $43.6 million from assets divested in the fourth quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019. The adjusted EBITDA for our Domestic Pipelines and Terminals segment totaled $135.9 million for the quarter, a reduction of $4.7 million compared to the prior year.
After adjusting for the impact of the divested assets, adjusted EBITDA was up approximately $4.4 million year-over-year. This segment benefited from a FERC index rate increase granted in July of 2018 and from increases applied to our market-based and settlement-based pipelines effective in January of 2019.
These drove increased revenue on many of our systems. We also benefited from higher butane blending volumes compared to the first quarter of 2018, and lower operating expenses during the quarter compared to last year. This segment did see lower storage revenues during the quarter due primarily to weaker refined product storage market conditions during the period.
Our average pipeline transportation volumes to 1.36 million barrels per day, or an increase of 1.2% compared to an average of 1.34 million barrels per day in the first quarter of 2018. The first quarter of 2018 has been adjusted to exclude the volumes associated with the domestic asset package divested as part of our strategic review.
Pipeline volumes were stronger across many of our systems, particularly in the Northeast, where demand for distillate grew meaningfully and demand for jet fuel volumes remained strong, gasoline volumes also increased year-over-year due to strong demand in the markets served by our systems. Excluding the volumes associated with the divested assets, average terminal throughput volumes grew by 1.5% during the quarter, totaling 1.28 million barrels per day across our portfolio. This increase was primarily driven by strong demand for distillate and crude volumes, particularly in our Midwest and Southeast regions.
Turning now to our Global Marine segment, it produced adjusted EBITDA of $75.5 million for the quarter compared to $117.4 million last year. This decrease was primarily due to the sale of our equity interest in VTTI, which contributed adjusted EBITDA of $34.5 million to the 2018 first quarter results. This segment also continued to face challenging market conditions in segregated storage in the Caribbean and the New York harbor.
Average utilization across all of our marine storage assets based on total capacity was 75% for the first quarter of 2019, compared to 83% for the same period last year. The favorable contribution for Buckeye Texas Partners year-over-year reflects consistent operating performance, annual fee escalations and a full quarter's contribution from the 20% minority interest we acquired in April of 2018.
Our Merchant Services segment reported adjusted EBITDA of $5 million for the first quarter of 2019, compared to $3.7 million last year. This increase was driven by favorable spreads particularly in the distillate market, partially offset by lower rack margins. The Merchant Services segment continues to drive incremental throughput and utilization across Buckeye's asset base and again achieved a record quarterly contribution to the overall Buckeye umbrella of just over $14.5 million.
Now, turning to our balance sheet. In January of 2019, we utilized the $975 million of proceeds from the VTTI sale to repay outstanding borrowings including the $250 million term loan and borrowings outstanding on our revolving credit facility. In addition, in February of 2019, we repaid the $275 million principal outstanding under our 5.5% senior notes using proceeds from this sale as well as funds available under our credit facility.
As a result of this retirement, we incurred a $4 million loss primarily consisting of a make whole (ph) payment and an amortized financing costs. At the end of the first quarter of 2019, we had $1.5 million in cash and cash equivalents, and approximately $3.7 billion in long-term debt. We also had $152 million outstanding on our credit facility, of which $137.6 million is reflected as short-term debt as it supports our Merchant Services segments working capital requirements.
We have $1.35 billion of incremental liquidity available on our revolving credit facility and our total debt to trailing 12 months, adjusted EBITDA based on the credit facility calculation was 3.65 times.
Distributable cash flow for the first quarter of 2019 was $144.5 million compared to $169.2 million last year. The decrease in distributable cash flow was driven by the reduced EBITDA contribution for our business segments, including the impact of the asset divestitures, partially offset by lower interest and debt expense as a result of the recent debt repayments, as well as decreases in maintenance capital expenditures year-over-year.
The first quarter distribution to unitholders will be $0.75 per unit and our distribution coverage ratio based on distributions declared on units outstanding at the end of the quarter was 1.24 times. Buckeye's maintenance capital spending for the first quarter of 2019 totaled $23.4 million compared to $28.2 million last year, we would expect maintenance capital for the year to be within the range of $110 million to $125 million.
Return capital spending for the quarter was $80.1 million and we anticipate our total 2019 spend on return capital projects to be between approximately $310 million and $345 million. This includes estimated capital contributions to fund our 50% share of the capital investment in the South Texas Gateway joint venture.
The increase from our prior quarter estimate, in growth capital is primarily driven by customer -- continued customer interest and commitments that we've seen in our South Texas Gateway project, which has resulted in further expansion of the facilities capacity, as well as a growing backlog of growth capital investment opportunities, that we've seen across our portfolio of assets.
That concludes my comments on the quarter, and we'll now open the call for questions.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Shneur Gershuni of UBS. You may proceed with your question.
Shneur Gershuni -- UBS -- Analyst
Hi, good morning, everyone. Big news today.
Clark C. Smith -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Shneur Gershuni -- UBS -- Analyst
Was just wondering if you can sort of talk about the process a little bit. You mentioned that was robust, but were there any other offers, was it a competitive process? And if you can share your thoughts on why sell now versus your comments in the past about a recovery in the second half of this year and growth into 2020, in terms of getting the right valuation for the company?
Clark C. Smith -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, Shneur, this is Clark. We're going to explain more about the process in the proxy that will be files in a couple of weeks, so I'm going to refer to that for pretty in-depth analysis or discussion, but the process really began with our strategic review last year. We look at, as you know, a comprehensive set of options for the company, which included all opportunities to improve value for our unitholders. We just think when you see the -- what you're going to see in the proxy in terms of the value we're receiving upfront, the significant premium against our outlook going forward, we feel like this is the best option for our company.
Shneur Gershuni -- UBS -- Analyst
Okay, fair enough. Kind of a few technical questions here. Are there any limits on your distributions that are being declared until the merger closes, could we see one, two or three distributions. Just wondering if you can sort of talk about any limitations that you have on it?
Clark C. Smith -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Well, the only limitations I mentioned in my remarks is we're going to be paying the distribution is ordinary course until absolutely the deal closes and that'll cease. So you'll see ordinary course distributions made until the close happens.
Shneur Gershuni -- UBS -- Analyst
Okay, great. And then from a ratings perspective, do you expect that -- will you remain investment grade as part of this new company? Or is that subject to review?
Keith E. St.Clair -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
You know that will depend largely Shneur here on how ultimately Buckeye's capital -- the capitalized on a go-forward basis. So I really don't have any comments on that because that's again, it's going to be dependent upon the acquirer and now they like to capitalize the business.
Shneur Gershuni -- UBS -- Analyst
Great. And one final question, I recognize, you're obviously focused on this transaction and where you go from there. But in event you continue to stand-alone. What's your view on CapEx or where you see it for 2019 and for 2020? Has anything changed in terms of things that you wanted to add to the backlog and so forth?
Keith E. St.Clair -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Well, we just communicated, in my remarks we said $310 million to $345 million for 2019 and that includes any contributions that we would make here to the South Texas Gateway joint venture. And I think it'd be reasonable to assume that for 2020, sort of consistent with kind of past practice, we'd be looking at growth capital spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 million to $400 million.
Shneur Gershuni -- UBS -- Analyst
Great. Thank you very much guys.
Clark C. Smith -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Shneur.
Operator
Thank you. And our next question comes from Theresa Chen of Barclays. You may proceed with your question.
Theresa Chen -- Barclays Capital -- Analyst
Good morning. Congratulations on the announcement today.
Clark C. Smith -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Theresa Chen -- Barclays Capital -- Analyst
So related to the distributions, so just to be crystal clear, if the fourth quarter transaction closed, timeline remains intact, does that mean you will definitely be paying the August distribution and then the November distribution will be TBT -- TBD depending on when exactly the transaction closes in the fourth quarter?
Clark C. Smith -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Just to make sure, we understand the question Theresa, you're saying, if we have a fourth quarter close, will we pay the August distribution, is that...
Theresa Chen -- Barclays Capital -- Analyst
Well, you'll be definitely paying the August distribution and the fourth quarter -- or the fourth quarter to be paid -- the distribution to be paid in the fourth quarter for the third quarter, will it be dependent on exactly when the transaction closes, either October, November or December?
Clark C. Smith -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Yes, the August distribution will be paid, assuming a fourth quarter close, and then the payment of the fourth quarter distribution will be dependent on the timing of the close.
Theresa Chen -- Barclays Capital -- Analyst
Great. And in terms of the regulatory approval timeline, can you outline what kind of hurdles you're looking to pass and when, and if there's anything unique we should consider for the transaction, given the buyer?
Keith E. St.Clair -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
No, it's customary regulatory approvals, we're going to be approved from the Pennsylvania PUC union authorities...
Clark C. Smith -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
We'll have 8-K (ph) so we'll also have -- approval will be required.
Keith E. St.Clair -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
(inaudible) approval there's still question of whether that's required or not.
Clark C. Smith -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
It's customary closing regulations and regulatory approvals to reach nothing out of the extraordinary there.
Keith E. St.Clair -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Right.
Theresa Chen -- Barclays Capital -- Analyst
Got it. Thank you very much.
Clark C. Smith -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Theresa.
Operator
Thank you. And our next question comes from Jeremy Tonet of JP Morgan. You may proceed with your question.
Jeremy Tonet -- JP Morgan -- Analyst
Just want to start off, Clark, Keith, and team, congratulation on this transaction.
Clark C. Smith -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Jeremy.
Jeremy Tonet -- JP Morgan -- Analyst
Want to just touch a little bit more of the details, and if you could disclose, if there is a breakup fee involved that the deal were to not happen for some reason?
Clark C. Smith -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
There is a break fee, Jeremy, it's a 2% break fee.
Jeremy Tonet -- JP Morgan -- Analyst
That's helpful. Thanks.
Keith E. St.Clair -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Just what we laid out in that -- we'll file the merger agreement after the close of the market today and it will address the break fee.
Clark C. Smith -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, and it's 2% of equity, just to be clear.
Keith E. St.Clair -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
There is no negotiable.
Jeremy Tonet -- JP Morgan -- Analyst
Okay, got it. And I don't know if you're able to touch on this, but as far as how IFM is able to deliver this cash. Do they have the funds there? Or do they need to go out and raise funds in the credit markets? Or is there anything that you can say on that end as far as visibility to that payment?
Clark C. Smith -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
What I will say is this, Jeremy, there are no financing contingencies, let's just leave it at that.
Jeremy Tonet -- JP Morgan -- Analyst
Fair enough. I'll stop there. Thank you.
Clark C. Smith -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Jeremy.
Operator
Thank you. And our next question comes from Sunil Sibal of Seaport Global. You may proceed with your question.
Sunil Sibal -- Seaport Global Securities -- Analyst
Hi, good morning, guys and congratulations on the transaction.
Clark C. Smith -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Sunil Sibal -- Seaport Global Securities -- Analyst
Yeah, Just wanted to touch upon something which some of the other midstream players have talked about, especially in terms of attracting new business, investment grade ratings, have been kind of talked about a fair bit in that regard, and I think when you did your strategic review, you also kind of highlighted that, not just from a cost of capital perspective, but beyond that. I was wondering if you could touch upon that, especially as your business mix has changed with the acquisitions that you saw you've done. Do you think investment grade rating is important from a new business perspective too and any color you can provide there would be helpful?
Clark C. Smith -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Again, as far as maintaining investment grade credit rating, that's going to be contingent upon, how the new owner elects to capitalize the business. Certainly, as we continue to operate on a stand-alone basis, that's something we certainly want to maintain and as -- is very important to us, as a public -- as a publicly traded MLP, it will be up to our new auditors to determine again how they're going to capitalize the company going forward in the implications of that on the investment-grade rating.
Sunil Sibal -- Seaport Global Securities -- Analyst
Okay. Then are there any change of control provisions in any of your debt securities that are outstanding, including the press?
Clark C. Smith -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
There are no -- the only issue that we would have relative to a change in control, will be our revolving credit facility. All of the bonds, would remain outstanding.
Sunil Sibal -- Seaport Global Securities -- Analyst
Okay, got it. That's all I had. Thanks for the clarity, guys.
Clark C. Smith -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from Tristan Richardson of SunTrust. You may proceed with your question.
Tristan Richardson -- SunTrust Robinson Humphrey -- Analyst
Hey, Good morning, guys. Just a quick question on thinking about large global infrastructure buyers, and incentives and do you think that -- you guys mentioned that this started with the strategic review last year. Do you think that your actions in the strategic review enhanced discussions or made discussions more positive with the range of potential acquirers throughout the process?
Clark C. Smith -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, I think the discussions, Tristan, did help. I think the actions we took, that we announced in the third quarter, also showed the company was repositioned itself to be a more stable and could fit under a self-funding umbrella. But at the same time, we're always looking to try and maximize value for the unitholders and this opportunity turn out to be one that we thought was extremely positive.
Tristan Richardson -- SunTrust Robinson Humphrey -- Analyst
Absolutely. Thank you, guys. Last one for me. Can we expect to see you in Las Vegas next week?
Clark C. Smith -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
No, we can't do that. We won't be there.
Tristan Richardson -- SunTrust Robinson Humphrey -- Analyst
Thank you guys very much.
Clark C. Smith -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Okay. You feel the same like us.
Operator
Thank you. And our next question comes from Adam Breit of SunTrust. You may proceed with your question.
Adam Breit -- SunTrust Robinson Humphrey -- Analyst
Yeah. Hey, good morning, guys. Just real quick one. Was this deal previewed at all with the rating agencies either by you or by IFM? And who is kind of interfacing with the rating agencies going forward here, while this deals being closed?
Clark C. Smith -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
I can't really make any comments that we regarding any conversations that we or the acquirer had with the rating agencies. Not at this point.
Adam Breit -- SunTrust Robinson Humphrey -- Analyst
Got it. That's all I had. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. And I'm not showing any further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back over to Clark Smith for any further remarks.
Clark C. Smith -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Josh. And thanks again everyone for joining us today. We are confident that our go private deal with IFM is the right transaction, at the right time, with the right partner at an attractive price for our unitholders. For now until close, it's business as usual at Buckeye with a continued focus on safety and compliance, project execution and capital discipline. Have a great weekend.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference. This does conclude today's program, and you may all disconnect. Everyone, have a wonderful day.
Duration: 28 minutes
Call participants:
Operator
Kevin Goodwin -- Vice President, Treasurer, Corporate Finance, Investor Relations
Clark C. Smith -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Keith E. St.Clair -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Shneur Gershuni -- UBS -- Analyst
Theresa Chen -- Barclays Capital -- Analyst
Jeremy Tonet -- JP Morgan -- Analyst
Sunil Sibal -- Seaport Global Securities -- Analyst
Tristan Richardson -- SunTrust Robinson Humphrey -- Analyst
Adam Breit -- SunTrust Robinson Humphrey -- Analyst
