CaribPR Wire

Adjusted EBITDA Guidance Range Increased on Strength of Supply, International, USA and Synergy Capture

CARIBPR WIRE, CALGARY, Alberta, Aug. 01, 2019: Parkland Fuel Corporation (”Parkland”, “We”, the “Company”, or “Our”) (TSX:PKI) announced today the financial and operating results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2019. All financial figures are expressed in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted.

“The strength of Parkland’s diverse portfolio and integrated assets was on full display in the second quarter, driving outstanding results” said Bob Espey, President and Chief Executive Officer. “Our International, USA and Supply segments underpinned our performance, and we also benefited from further synergy capture including early wins within Sol. Our Canadian Retail business exhibited another quarter of strong volume and convenience store KPI’s, demonstrating the strength of our marketing program and operational execution. Our first half performance and outlook for the base business give us confidence to increase our full-year 2019 Adjusted EBITDA Guidance Range from $1,065 million to $1,165 million (± 5%). Thanks to the entire Parkland team for their hard work and continued focus on safety to deliver another strong quarter.”

Q2 2019 Highlights

• Second quarter Adjusted EBITDA was $346 million and net earnings attributable to Parkland were $105 million ($0.72 per share, basic). The strong performance was primarily driven by positive contributions from the Sol Transaction, strong Supply results due to refining margins and synergy capture, and continued execution of our US growth strategy. Excluding the impact of IFRS 16, Parkland’s Adjusted EBITDA was $315 million and net earnings were $110 million.
• Second quarter fuel and petroleum product volume was 5.5 billion litres, compared to 4.2 billion litres in Q2 2018. The increase was primarily driven by volumes from the Sol Transaction.
• Second quarter adjusted distributable cash flow increased by $17 million to $156 million (increased by $0.01 per share to $1.06 per share), resulting in an adjusted dividend payout ratio of 29%. Adjusted distributable cash flow is a non-GAAP measure, which we have amended to remove the impact of IFRS 16 such that this metric is comparable year over year.
• Growth capital expenditures attributable to Parkland were $52 million and maintenance capital expenditures attributable to Parkland were $45 million, which reflects the addition of our new International segment and higher Canada Retail and Canada Commercial growth investments.
• Completed initiatives that are expected to result in run-rate annual synergies of approximately $140 million from the 2017 Ultramar and Chevron acquisitions. We continue to expect that annual run-rate synergies from these acquisitions will reach approximately $180 million by the end of 2020.
• Total Funded Debt to Credit Facility EBITDA ratio of 2.5 times as at June 30, 2019.
• Subsequent to the quarter, on July 10, 2019, Parkland closed the private offering (the “2019 offering”) of US$500 million aggregate principal amount of senior unsecured notes due 2027 (the “2019 notes”). The 2019 notes were priced at par and bear interest at a rate of 5.875% per annum, payable semi-annually in arrears beginning January 15, 2020. Parkland used the net proceeds from the offering to: (i) repay in full its US$250 million term loan facility due 2021; and (ii) repay certain outstanding amounts borrowed under its existing revolving credit facilities.
• Total recordable injury frequency (”TRIF”), calculated on a trailing twelve-month basis, was 1.78 as at June 30, 2019 compared to 1.95 as at June 30, 2018. The reduction in our TRIF demonstrates our culture of care and drive to zero injuries and incidents in our workplace.
• On January 1, 2019, Parkland adopted IFRS 16 – Leases (”IFRS 16″). The adoption of IFRS 16 increases Adjusted EBITDA by reducing operating costs and increasing depreciation, amortization, and finance and other costs. IFRS 16 also increases Parkland’s assets and liabilities and has no overall impact to cash flow. For further information, refer to the unaudited Q2 2019 Interim Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements (”Q2 2019 FS”) and Q2 2019 Management’s Discussion and Analysis (”Q2 2019 MD&A”) for the three and six months ended June 30, 2019.

Canada Retail Highlights

• Second quarter Adjusted EBITDA was $63 million (Pre-IFRS 16: $57 million), a decrease of $25 million compared to the same period in 2018, excluding the impact of IFRS 16. The decrease in Adjusted EBITDA is primarily due to weaker retail gasoline margins across Canada, and accelerated, non-recurring marketing, general and administrative costs associated with the development of our loyalty program. Growth in volume and same-store-sales metrics demonstrate our focus on market share, operational excellence and strategic marketing programs.
• Second quarter Company volume same-store-sales growth (”SSSG”) was 0.7%, despite poor spring weather which reduced customer traffic. The strong results demonstrate the success of our network development planning strategy, strategic marketing, operational execution and promotional efforts in response to the poor weather conditions.
• Second quarter Company C-Store SSSG was 2.7%, our 14th consecutive quarter of positive Company C-Store SSSG. Growth was seen across all merchandise categories and was attributable to strong field level execution and the successful implementation of the On the Run / Marché Express store concepts, Parkland’s proprietary private label brand 59th Street Food Co., and higher forecourt to backcourt conversion rates despite poor spring weather conditions.
• Partially offsetting the decrease in Adjusted EBITDA was lower operating costs, driven by continued cost control measures and the conversion of company-owned, company-operated (”COCO”) sites to company-owned, retailer-operated (”CORO”) sites, which lowers store labour costs. We continued to evolve our retail site composition in the quarter, converting approximately 10 additional Ultramar COCO sites to CORO sites. As of June 30, 2019, we have approximately 40 Ultramar sites remaining to convert.
• Pilot results from our “Journie” loyalty program are very promising. With over six months of data, results are in-line with expectations and support our plans for our Q4 2019 launch.

Canada Commercial Highlights

• Second quarter Adjusted EBITDA was $10 million (Pre-IFRS 16: $8 million), a decrease of $10 million compared to the same period in 2018, excluding the impact of IFRS 16. The decrease in Adjusted EBITDA is due to the decline in the Alberta oil and gas sector, specifically lower rig activity, extended break-up period and production curtailments. Wet weather conditions in the eastern provinces also impacted volumes in the agricultural, forestry, and construction segments. We continue to build for growth through our regional operations centers (”ROC”) structure, growing our national fueling network and expanding our industrial propane offer. Our cardlock strategy is also evolving to be integrated with our retail network development program and aims to increase fleet card acceptance and reciprocity.
• Second quarter fuel and petroleum product volume decreased 8% relative to Q2 2018, primarily due to lower volumes from the Alberta oil and gas sector and unfavorable weather conditions in parts of Canada.

USA Highlights

• Second quarter Adjusted EBITDA was $13 million (Pre-IFRS 16: $12 million), an increase of $7 million compared to the same period in 2018, excluding the impact of IFRS 16. The increase in Adjusted EBITDA is primarily due to acquisition activity, organic growth and synergy realization. The US business also benefited from strong diesel margins by sourcing product from the Canadian market via rail.
• Parkland closed the acquisition of all the assets of Ken Bettridge Distributing Inc. (”KB Oil”) on June 1, 2019, a bulk fuel and lubricants distributor and operator of fleet fueling, convenience stores and cardlock services in Southwest Utah and Southeast Nevada. With the acquisition, Parkland added two bulk plants with cardlocks, fuel distribution through 23 trucks, nine retail stores and a small lubricants business. The acquisition of KB Oil follows on our U.S. growth strategy by establishing scale through the addition of strong local operators.
• Second quarter fuel and petroleum product volume was 394 million litres, an increase of 148 million litres compared to the same period in 2018. The increase was primarily due to acquisition activity and organic growth initiatives.

International Highlights

• Second quarter Adjusted EBITDA was $74 million (Pre-IFRS 16: $60 million), which reflects Parkland’s 75% ownership in Sol. Performance was driven by strong execution across the regions, early synergy capture, wholesale sales and corporate cost savings. We expect to exceed our initial expectations for 2019 Adjusted EBITDA in this segment and are on track to meet our synergy targets by the end of 2021.
• Second quarter fuel and petroleum product volume was 1,270 million litres, consisting of 469 million litres sold through retail channels and 801 million litres sold through commercial and wholesale channels.

Supply Highlights

• Second quarter Adjusted EBITDA was $216 million (Pre-IFRS 16: $209 million), an increase of $39 million compared to the same period in 2018, excluding the impact of IFRS 16. The increase in Adjusted EBITDA is primarily due to safe and reliable operations, strong refining crack spreads, higher refinery utilization, crude oil and diesel exports to the United States and import and blending opportunities in eastern Canada. In addition, Parkland continues to capture synergies from prior acquisitions, including the repatriation of previously exported volumes into the British Columbia market, refinery efficiencies, infrastructure optimization, economies of scale benefits and other supply initiatives. Parkland’s recently opened supply and distribution office in Houston enables Parkland to participate more effectively in global markets to support our Caribbean and US business and is integral to our supply advantage. Offsetting the increase in Adjusted EBITDA was slightly higher operating costs at the Burnaby refinery due to a third party natural gas pipeline interruption and pre-spend for the 2020 turnaround.
• Refining margins in the quarter were driven by strong refining crack spreads and high utilization rates. For the first two months of the quarter, crack spreads were primarily driven by planned and unplanned refinery outages along the west coast of the United States. In addition, Elbow River Marketing was successful in realizing opportunities to increase crude exports to the United States.
• Refinery utilization, which measures the amount of crude oil processed and converted to products in the Burnaby Refinery, was 94.9% for the second quarter, compared to 90.9% for Q2 2018, which was lower due to the turnaround at the Burnaby refinery.
• We continue to successfully co-process biofeeds (tallow and canola) at the Burnaby refinery, which helps us meet provincial and federal climate regulations and establishes Parkland as a leader in low-carbon fuel refining.

Corporate Segment Highlights

• The Corporate segment includes centralized administrative services and expenses incurred to support operations. Second quarter Adjusted EBITDA was negative $30 million (Pre-IFRS 16: negative $31 million). Marketing, general and administrative expenses increased by $2 million compared to Q2 2018, but as a percentage of total adjusted gross profit, favorably decreased to 4.0% (down from 5.3% in Q2 2018). Parkland’s objective is to manage corporate expenses tightly so that they increase at a slower pace than Parkland’s adjusted gross profit.

Consolidated Financial Overview

⁽¹⁾ Measure of segment profit. See Section 13 of the Q2 2019 MD&A.
⁽²⁾ Non-GAAP financial measure. See Section 13 of the Q2 2019 MD&A.
⁽³⁾ Calculated using the weighted average number of common shares.
⁽⁴⁾ Fuel and petroleum product volume represents external volumes only. Intersegment volumes, including volumes produced by the Burnaby Refinery and transferred to the Canada Retail and Canada Commercial segments, are excluded from this reported volume.
⁽⁵⁾ “cpl” stands for cents-per-litre and is a key performance indicator. See Section 13 of the Q2 2019 MD&A.
⁽⁶⁾ For comparative purposes, fuel and petroleum product volume, and sales and operating revenue for the three and six months ended June 30, 2018 were restated due to a change in segment presentation, resulting from a reclassification of the wholesale business from the Canada Commercial segment to the Supply segment, reflecting a change in organizational structure in the second quarter of 2019.
⁽⁷⁾ Key performance indicator. See Sections 4 and 13 of the Q2 2019 MD&A.

The following table outlines the impact of IFRS 16 on Adjusted EBITDA as reported for the three and six months ended June 30, 2019:

⁽¹⁾ Pre-IFRS 16 amounts are comparable to the reported information for the respective prior periods which was calculated under IAS 17.

Updated 2019 Outlook & Guidance Range

Parkland will remain focused on its key strategies of organic growth, building a strong supply advantage and acquiring prudently.

Our 2019 Guidance for Adjusted EBITDA attributable to Parkland, which includes the impact of IFRS 16, is increased by $100 million to $1,165 million with an anticipated variance of up to 5% (the “2019 Guidance Range”). The increase in our 2019 Guidance Range reflects our strong performance in the Supply, International and USA segments, continued synergy capture across the portfolio, a conservative outlook for retail fuel margins and lower activity levels for the Commercial segment.

In addition, the Company continues to expect approximately $200 million of growth capital expenditures and $200 million of maintenance capital expenditures in 2019. We have identified additional growth capital opportunities within the Sol business which will be evaluated for investment later in the year.

The 2019 Guidance Range includes some other key assumptions highlighted below:

• Includes Sol’s Adjusted EBITDA that is attributable to Parkland, now forecast above initial expectations
• Burnaby refining margins forecast is based on our view of future market conditions
• The performance of recently acquired businesses, general market conditions, including but not limited to fuel margins and weather, will remain substantially consistent for the remainder of 2019
• The low end of our 2019 Guidance Range accounts for potential adverse market conditions across our areas of operations, as well as the potential for lower refining margins than currently observable, while the high end of our 2019 Guidance Range accounts for greater than expected contributions from acquisition synergies, refining margins and organic growth

In addition, the factors and assumptions which contribute to Parkland’s assessment of the 2019 Guidance Range are consistent with existing Parkland disclosure and such guidance range is subject to risks and uncertainties inherent in Parkland’s business. Readers are directed to the “Risk Factors” section in the Q2 2019 MD&A and the Annual Information Form for a description of such factors, assumptions, risks and uncertainties.

Conference Call and Webcast Details

Parkland will host a webcast and conference call on Friday, August 2, 2019 at 6:30am MST (8:30am EST) to discuss the results.

To listen to the live webcast and watch the presentation, please use the following link:

https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/2050152/33EA5040C6B8F9BB492A319582DB696A

Analysts and institutional investors interested in participating in the question and answer session of the conference call may do so by calling 1-888-390-0605 (toll-free) (Conference ID: 65159943). International participants can call 1-587-880-2175 (toll) (Conference ID: 65159943).

Please connect and log in approximately 10 minutes before the beginning of the call.

The webcast will be available for replay two hours after the conference call ends at the link above. It will remain available for one year and will also be posted to www.parkland.ca.

MD&A and Consolidated Financial Statements

The Q2 2019 MD&A and Q2 2019 FS provide a detailed explanation of Parkland’s operating results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2019. An English version of these documents will be available online at www.parkland.ca and SEDAR immediately after the results are released by newswire under Parkland’s profile at www.sedar.com. French Financial Statements and MD&A will be posted to www.parkland.ca and SEDAR as soon as they become available.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking information and statements (collectively, “forward-looking statements”). When used in this news release the words “expect”, “will”, “could”, “would”, “believe”, “continue”, “pursue” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking statements with respect to, among other things, cash flow growth, run-rate synergies, private label program expansion, fuel volume growth, new business objectives, organic growth initiatives, growth of supply and trading business in the U.S. and Caribbean, Adjusted EBITDA Guidance, capital and maintenance expenditure forecasts, contribution of the Sol business and other previous acquisitions, strategic marketing and operational efforts to increase fuel volume, expected launch of marketing and loyalty programs, U.S. growth opportunities, and supply improvement and optimization and plans and objectives of or involving Parkland.

These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. No assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking statements included in this news release should not be unduly relied upon. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this news release. Parkland does not undertake any obligations to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements except as required by securities law. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of numerous risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, general economic, market and business conditions; industry capacity; competitive action by other companies; refining and marketing margins; the ability of suppliers to meet commitments; actions by governmental authorities and other regulators including but not limited to increases in taxes or restricted access to markets; changes and developments in environmental and other regulations; and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of Parkland. See also the risks and uncertainties described in “Forward-Looking Information” and “Risk Factors” included in Parkland’s Annual Information Form dated March 27, 2019 and in “Forward-Looking Information” and “Risk Factors” in the Q2 2019 MD&A and annual MD&A dated February 28, 2019, each as filed on SEDAR and available on the Parkland website at www.parkland.ca.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This news release refers to certain non-GAAP financial measures that are not determined in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (”IFRS”). Distributable cash flow, distributable cash flow per share, adjusted distributable cash flow, adjusted distributable cash flow per share, total funded debt to credit facility EBITDA ratio, dividend payout ratio and adjusted dividend payout ratio are not measures recognized under IFRS and do not have standardized meanings prescribed by IFRS. Management considers these to be important supplemental measures of Parkland’s performance and believes these measures are frequently used by securities analysts, investors and other interested parties in the evaluation of companies in our industry. See Section 13 of the Q2 2019 MD&A for a discussion of non-GAAP measures and their reconciliations to the nearest applicable IFRS measure.

Adjusted EBITDA and adjusted gross profit are measures of segment profit. See Section 13 of the Q2 2019 MD&A and Note 20 of the Q2 2019 FS for a reconciliation of these measures of segment profit. Annual synergies is a forecasted annualized measure and is considered to be forward-looking information. See Section 13 of the Q2 2019 MD&A. Investors are encouraged to evaluate each measure and the reasons Parkland considers it appropriate for supplemental analysis.

Investors are cautioned that these measures should not be construed as an alternative to net earnings determined in accordance with IFRS as an indication of Parkland’s performance. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

Effective January 1, 2019, Parkland adopted the new accounting standard, IFRS 16 – Leases (”IFRS 16″). The adoption of IFRS 16 has a significant effect on Parkland’s reported results. Due to Parkland’s selected transition method, it has not restated its prior year comparatives. Certain financial statement measures are presented excluding the impact of IFRS 16 (”Pre-IFRS 16 measures”). Refer to the Q2 2019 FS and Q2 2019 MD&A for reconciliations of Pre-IFRS 16 measures.

About Parkland Fuel Corporation

Parkland is an independent supplier and marketer of fuel and petroleum products and a leading convenience store operator. Parkland services customers across Canada, the United States, the Caribbean region and the Americas through three channels: Retail, Commercial and Wholesale. Parkland optimizes its fuel supply across these three channels by operating and leveraging a growing portfolio of supply relationships and storage infrastructure. Parkland provides trusted and locally relevant fuel brands and convenience store offerings in the communities it serves.

Parkland creates value for shareholders by focusing on its proven strategy of growing organically, realizing a supply advantage and acquiring prudently and integrating successfully. At the core of our strategy are our people, as well as our values of safety, integrity, community and respect, which are embraced across our organization.