Delek Logistics Partners (DKL) Q4 2020 Earnings Call Transcript

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Delek Logistics Partners (DKL 0.77%)
Q4 2020 Earnings Call
Feb 24, 2021, 8:30 a.m. ET

Contents:

• Prepared Remarks
• Questions and Answers
• Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the Delek Logistics' fourth-quarter 2020 earnings conference call. [Operator Instructions]. Please note, today's event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Blake Fernandez.

Please go ahead, sir.

Blake Fernandez -- Senior Vice President of Investor Relations & Market Intelligence

Good morning. I would like to thank everyone for joining us on this webcast to discuss Delek Logistics Partners' fourth-quarter 2020 financial results. Joining me on today's call will be Uzi Yemin, our general partners' chairman and CEO; and Reuven Spiegel, 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 laws.

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. Our prepared remarks are being made assuming that the earnings release has been reviewed, and we are covering less segment and market information than is incorporated into the 4Q press release. On today's call, Reuven will begin with financial overview, I will review results, and Uzi will offer a few closing strategic remarks.

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

Reuven Spiegel -- Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Blake. Our fourth-quarter performance on a year-over-year basis benefited from relatively stable baseline business operations, contribution from the recent asset dropdowns, along with business initiatives and asset optimization. Our distributable cash flow was approximately 56 million in the fourth quarter of 2020 compared to 33 million in the fourth quarter of 2019. Net income attributable to all partners increased approximately 88% over the prior-year period.

Our DCF coverage ratio was 1.41 for the fourth quarter of 2020 compared to 1.08 in the prior-year period. EBITDA was 64 million, which represents a 48% increase over the prior-year period. Based on our performance and outlook, we increased our quarterly distribution to $0.91 per limited partner unit for the quarter ended December 31, 2020. This distribution was paid on February 9, 2021 and represents a 0.6% increase from the third quarter of 2020.

This is our 31st consecutive quarterly increase and is 2.8% higher than our fourth quarter 2019 distribution. At December 31, 2020, DKL had approximately 103 million of available capacity on our 850 million credit facility. Our total debt was approximately 1 billion, and the total leverage ratio is 3.75 times, which is within the 5.5 times currently allowable under our credit facility. Finally, as a reminder, during the third quarter, we announced the elimination of the incentive distribution rights, which helped lower our cost of capital.

Now I will turn the call over to Blake to discuss the results.

Blake Fernandez -- Senior Vice President of Investor Relations & Market Intelligence

Thanks, Reuven. In our pipelines and transportation segment, the fourth-quarter 2020 contribution margin was 44 million compared to 25 million in the fourth quarter of 2019. This increase was primarily attributable to the recent asset dropdowns, including big spring gathering and trucking assets. Additionally, operating expenses decreased 10 million in the fourth quarter of 2020 from 19 million in the prior-year period.

In our wholesale marketing and terminaling segment, contribution margin was 18 million in the fourth quarter of this year compared to 17 million in the prior year. Operating expenses came in 1 million higher than the same period in 2019. During the fourth quarter of 2020, equity income from our crude oil joint ventures was approximately 6 million compared to 5 million in the prior-year period. Capital expenditures were approximately 8.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2020, which consisted of 7 million of discretionary spending and 1.5 million of sustaining maintenance.

For full-year 2021, our total gross capital expenditure forecast is 21 million, which includes 6.9 million of discretionary and 13.9 million of maintenance capital. With that, I will turn the call over to Uzi for his closing comments.

Uzi Yemin -- Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Blake, and good morning, everybody. Our fourth-quarter results rounded up a stellar year for our company as we delivered strong relative stock performance despite macro headwinds for the industry. Net income and EBITDA in the fourth quarter increased approximately 88% and 48%, respectively, versus last year. We delivered on our commitment of 5% distribution growth on a full-year basis, and we expect another five-year increase in distribution in 2021.

This is underpinned by our outlook for continued strong operational performance. We exceeded our yearend distribution coverage and leverage ratio targets earlier than expected, creating tremendous flexibility as we progress into 2021. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge that DKL went the entire year without one recordable incident, which is a real testament to our employees. With that, operator, would you please open the call for questions?

Questions & Answers:

Operator

Absolutely. [Operator Instructions] Today's first question comes from Spiro Dounis with Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.

Spiro Dounis -- Credit Suisse -- Analyst

Hey, good morning guys. First question. Just want to hit west Texas margins, if we could, and maybe tie that to RINs prices. Last quarter in 3Q, fairly strong.

I think you guys have talked about the run-up in RINs kind of driving some of that. And so, we're a little surprised in the fourth quarter when we look at the west Texas marketing margins come down as much as they did against the backdrop of RIN prices increasing. So, curious if you can address some of that variability. And then, as we look forward, RINs prices continue to be pretty strong here into the new year.

Curious what you think that means for marketing margins so far in the first quarter and into the year.

Avigal Soreq -- Chief Operating Officer

This is Avigal. I'm going to respond to that question. So, specifically around the west Texas wholesale, as you've seen, right, from the bond standpoint, we're still exactly the same as Q3. RIN is looking better.

But with that said, we had some hedging losses that were applied to Q4 that will lower the associate overall gross margin that we've seen with Exalta compared to Q3. As we're looking at Q1, the RIN is still looking fairly strong. We're still looking on the associate hedging that will be contributing to Q1. But from a RIN standpoint, we're still not seeing this improvement.

Spiro Dounis -- Credit Suisse -- Analyst

Got it. OK. So it sounds like hedging was the big driver there. Good.

OK. Next question, maybe just taking a step back. You guys are targeting 5% distribution growth again, which is great to see. Not many companies are still growing in this market.

It seems like you could easily achieve that just by working down some of your distribution coverage, but I suspect you actually want to grow EBITDA. So, could you talk a little bit about some of the growth drivers that you're looking for this year in terms of how you're going to grow EBITDA to support that distribution? And then, more broadly and kind of tethered to this, obviously you're undergoing a bit of an internal review right now at the DK level. Just curious, to the extent you can, maybe give us an indication of anything at that level that could either help or hinder your goal to grow the MLP this year.

Uzi Yemin -- Chief Executive Officer

This is Uzi. We do have several organic projects that will come to fruition in the second quarter. We're not ready to disclose them, not because we don't know them. They are very well identified, as well as the allocation.

The problem is that we want to stay competitive in these initiatives just a little more before we jump in and give that to the market. We feel very good about the 5% thing in light of these organic projects. Vis a vis, DK -- or your question about DK. Obviously, I'm not going to wear the DK hat here answering on behalf of DKL.

But one thing I do want to say even at the DK level, we have several ideas around several assets that may enhance the DKL situation. Now, obviously, we do have the Wink to Webster Pipeline that we have started to operate and will be fully operated in fourth quarter of 2021 this year. So if we decide to do a drop-down or something like that, that's obviously going to make DKL much stronger. At this point, we did -- as we said, we did park the cross springs drop down.

However, with margins improving, growth springs may become back to play. We'll see. We need to be patient and see how it plays itself. But just in a nutshell to answer your question, we don't believe that the 5% is something that will hurt both coverage or our leverage ratio because of the organic growth projects.

Spiro Dounis -- Credit Suisse -- Analyst

Perfect. That's great color. Thanks, Uzi.

Operator

[Operator instructions] And this concludes the question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to the management team for any final remarks.

Uzi Yemin -- Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. I'd like to thank my colleagues around the table, the board of directors. I'd like to thank our employees for this great year. DKL had a tremendous year with growth everywhere, EBITDA, net income, and obviously, stock performance.

We are very proud of what we achieved. But mainly, we'd like to thank you investors for your confidence in us and giving us the treatment, you gave us. Thank you. Have a great day.

Operator

[Operator signoff]

Duration: 11 minutes

Call participants:

Blake Fernandez -- Senior Vice President of Investor Relations & Market Intelligence

Reuven Spiegel -- Chief Financial Officer

Uzi Yemin -- Chief Executive Officer

Spiro Dounis -- Credit Suisse -- Analyst

Avigal Soreq -- Chief Operating Officer

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