Commercial Barge Line Company Announces Results for Quarter and Year Ended December 31, 2011
(firmenpresse) - JEFFERSONVILLE, IN -- (Marketwire) -- 02/28/12 -- Commercial Barge Line Company today announced results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2011.
Revenues for the year ended December 31, 2011 increased 18.0% over prior year revenues to $852.9 million. Transportation segment revenues increased 14.0% over prior year revenues to $721.1 million, with ton-mile volume increasing 2.7% to 34.8 billion ton-miles. Improvements in asset utilization enabled the Company to achieve such results while operating a barge fleet that was 5% smaller than the prior year. On a fuel-neutral basis, transportation revenues increased 5.5% for the year, driven by strength across most commodities, with particularly robust demand experienced in the Company's petroleum and chemical business. Grain revenues, however, offset much of the strength in other commodities as a result of a delay in the harvest, increased domestic demand and the Company's strategic decision to increase the diversification of its commodity mix in the fourth quarter. Demurrage revenues in the Company's dry cargo business for 2011 also increased over prior year levels by 18.2%, driven primarily by increased rates implemented by the Company specifically as part of the operating improvement initiatives discussed later in this release.
Revenues for the quarter ended December 31, 2011 increased 17.1% to $244.5 million. Transportation segment revenues increased by 9.1% in the quarter to $200.3 million while ton-mile volume compared to the same period of 2010 decreased 0.2%, with the increase in revenues attributable to higher fuel surcharges. On a fuel-neutral basis, transportation revenues were down 1.7% for the quarter. Fourth quarter volumes are generally heavily weighted to grain activity, and the delay in the 2011 harvest, increased domestic demand and the Company's strategic decision to increase the diversification of its commodity mix contributed to lower overall revenues compared to the prior year's fourth quarter.
Manufacturing segment revenues increased $41.8 million, or 46.4% for the year ended December 31, 2011, with 239 total barges sold in 2011 compared to 140 in the prior year. Manufacturing segment revenue increased $19.0 million, or 75.4%, in the quarter, reflecting the delivery of 77 barges to third-parties compared to 47 in the prior year period. The increase in volume experienced by the manufacturing segment during the year was the direct result of operating improvements implemented during the year that facilitated improved production yield from the Company's existing operations. The manufacturing segment's external revenue backlog at the end of 2011 of $101.2 million was comparable to the prior year's backlog.
For the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company generated operating income of $3.7 million as compared to operating income of $49.8 million for the same period in the prior year. This decline in operating income of $46.1 million between periods was the result of $65.7 million of non-comparable costs, including charges related to non-cash purchase accounting items and transition expenses directly associated with the Company's acquisition and losses associated with the extreme flooding experienced in the second quarter of 2011. For the quarter ended December 31, 2011, operating income was $22.9 million as compared to $19.7 million for the same period of the prior year. Total non-cash purchase accounting and direct acquisition expenses were $5.4 million higher in the fourth quarter of 2011 as compared to the prior year's fourth quarter.
Transportation segment operating income was $1.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2011, compared to $49.8 million for the prior year. For the manufacturing segment, operating income was $2.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2011, as compared to break-even in the prior year. Transportation segment operating income was $20.7 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2011, compared to $19.1 million for the same period in the prior year. For the manufacturing segment, operating income was $2.2 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2011, as compared to $0.5 million in the prior year period.
As a result of the magnitude of these non-comparable items, operating results of the Company are discussed herein based on Adjusted EBITDAR, which is a non-GAAP financial measure that the Company believes provides investors with a useful tool for analyzing its operating results as it eliminates the impact of certain non-comparable items. The Company has included a reconciliation of its financial results to Adjusted EBITDAR elsewhere in this release.
For the year ended December 31, 2011, Adjusted EBITDAR was $174.3 million, a 20.5% increase over $144.7 million for the prior year. The increase was predominantly driven by the realization of $43.3 million of operational improvements and by an improvement in pricing and business mix of $22.8 million. These gains were partially offset by several factors, including higher net fuel costs resulting from increased diesel prices ($7.5 million), increased fleet maintenance costs ($9.3 million) and other operating cost increases, including the impact of increased port and third-party services costs, general inflation and higher employee benefit costs ($13.2 million). In addition, the Company realized $6.5 million less in gains on the sale of assets during 2011 compared to the prior year. Year-over-year, Adjusted EBITDAR for the transportation segment was up 14.7% or $20.6 million and the manufacturing segment was up $9.0 million.
Adjusted EBITDAR for the three months ended December 31, 2011 was $60.3 million, a 6.3% increase over the prior year's total for the comparable period of $56.7 million. For the transportation segment, Adjusted EBITDAR was $55.6 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2011 compared to $54.8 million for the prior year period. For the quarter, positive earnings growth driven by strength in most commodity categories and the net benefit of operational improvements realized were partially offset by the decline in grain volumes discussed earlier. For the manufacturing segment, Adjusted EBITDAR was $4.7 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2011, compared to $1.9 million for the prior year period.
At the beginning of 2011, the Company embarked on a vigorous effort to improve its operations and profitability. Over 70 actions were identified and implemented in a wide variety of functional areas, including supply chain, logistics, operations, commercial arrangements, manufacturing processes, administration and asset management. The implementation of these operational initiatives yielded $43.3 million of earnings improvement in 2011 and $63.8 million on an annualized basis. These actions were taken not only with the objective of permanently improving the Company's cost structure but also to ensure that traffic density and asset utilization are improved upon and that the business mix is shifted further towards recurring, predictable and profitable revenues.
The Company's efforts to improve its profitability are and will remain ongoing in the future. In 2011, the operational improvements realized resulted in savings in the following categories: a reduction in personnel and support infrastructure costs of $14.6 million, a pick-up of $9.6 million due to improved commercial terms with customers, $7.7 million in improvements from renegotiating terms with vendors and other supply chain actions, $6.0 million saved by changing operating processes and implementing productivity initiatives, $4.9 million benefit from improved asset utilization and productivity levels at Jeffboat and $0.5 million in savings resulting from strategic investments made in the Company's boat fleet.
Savings associated with the specific operating improvement actions that were implemented during 2011 are expected to add an additional $20.4 million to 2012 operating results when their impact is realized during a full 12 month period. These include $4.4 million related to commercial terms, $6.2 million in supply chain savings, $2.1 million in personnel costs, $3.0 million in operating productivity and cost savings from investments made in the Company's boat fleet of $4.7 million. Giving consideration to the full annual impact of these improvements along with Adjusted EBITDAR for the year ended December 31, 2011 would have yielded a run-rate Adjusted EBITDAR of $194.7 million.
Commenting on the results, Mark Knoy, President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "We are very pleased with the operating performance of the Company as we finished 2011. Significant improvements have been driven throughout the Company's operations and have resulted in a meaningful pick-up year-over-year in Adjusted EBITDAR and an impressive run-rate Adjusted EBITDAR. We continue to see strength in the liquids business and our export coal business ended the year strong. In addition, we further strengthened our balance sheet during the fourth quarter through the generation of $76.8 million of cash from operations. Performance at Jeffboat continues to improve, through changes in production processes and a renewed focus on business mix. As a result, we achieved higher absolute throughput in the shipyard where we produced 15 more barges in the fourth quarter and 91 more barges for the year compared to the prior year periods. These gains directly resulted in a substantial improvement in the overall earnings contribution from our Jeffboat operations.
"As we look forward, we believe that the demand for our transportation services will remain solid in 2012. Increasing domestic crude oil production and historically low natural gas prices are providing an environment that we believe will continue to drive positive market conditions for our liquids business. Coal market dynamics are also suggesting that export markets will continue to provide good demand for domestic coal producers over the long-term, which will provide the Company with a strong growth opportunity. Further, we anticipate continued pressure on the supply and demand balance of overall industry hopper barge capacity which will support our significant presence in the dry cargo transportation segment. Overall, we are monitoring market conditions closely and are maintaining a disciplined approach to our operations that will allow us to continue to realize and build upon the gains we achieved in operating efficiency in 2011.
"During 2011, we invested slightly more than $72 million in net capital to support our long-term strategic objectives, including the addition of 65 new dry covered hopper barges and two liquid tank barges. As we drive our business toward improved productivity and earnings generation, we will continue to support these efforts by replacing aging and inefficient barges and strategically investing in our boat fleet provided returns justify such investments. Opportunities currently exist to invest in our boat fleet through the repowering of existing units, which drives significant fuel savings and operating efficiencies. We have identified 14 boats in our fleet that are candidates for such investments in 2012. In addition, we are pursuing a fleet optimization and investment program that could see us add as many as 220 new dry hopper barges and 45 liquid tank barges to our fleet to allow us to pursue identified growth and productivity opportunities. The plan also calls for the scrapping of nearly 400 barges and the sale of as many as 14 boats that have been made redundant largely because of the operational improvements realized in 2011. With that said, it is important to note that this type of investment program is iterative by nature and will continually be assessed by the Company in relation to prevailing and forecasted market conditions, specific commercial opportunities as well as the outcome of other strategic activities the Company is engaged in including, but not limited to, the evaluation of potential acquisitions. As a result of the proposed investment in new barges and continued strong third-party demand, Jeffboat is expected to be fully utilized throughout 2012 and into 2013, which would provide it with a stable and predictable order book. To fund these strategic efforts, we will rely on our cash flow from operations, proceeds we expect to realize from the sale of retired and excess assets, and borrowings under our revolving credit facility. In the event changes in market conditions lead us to revise our outlook, we are prepared to reduce these strategic investment levels accordingly."
For the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company had a net loss of $14.2 million, compared to a net loss $2.9 million in the prior year. For the quarter ended December 31, 2011, the Company had net income of $10.2 million, compared to a net loss of $3.1 million in the quarter ended December 31, 2010. Net income (loss) for the 2011 periods reflects the after-tax impact of those factors impacting operating income and Adjusted EBITDAR discussed above as well as the after-tax impact of lower interest expense of $1.2 million and $5.5 million for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2011.
As of December 31, 2011, our outstanding debt totaled $384.2 million, including the unamortized purchase accounting debt premium of $29.1 million. The Company was in compliance with all debt covenants on December 31, 2011 and had $318.0 million in remaining availability under its credit facility, of which $233.0 million was available for use. The credit facility has no maintenance financial covenants unless borrowing availability is generally less than $48.8 million. As of December 31, 2011, the present value of the lease payments associated with revenue generating equipment was approximately $38.4 million. Including the present value of these lease payments, the Company's total indebtedness was $422.6 million as of December 31, 2011. The ratio of funded net debt to Adjusted EBITDAR reflected an improvement to 2.3 times as of December 31, 2011 compared to 2.7 times as of December 31, 2010. This ratio shows further improvements to 2.0 times when the affect of operating improvements that are reflected in run-rate Adjusted EBITDAR are considered.
Commercial Barge Line Company, headquartered in Jeffersonville, Indiana, is an integrated marine transportation and service company operating in the United States Jones Act trades. For more information about the Company, visit the Company's website at .
This release includes certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management's present expectations and beliefs about future events. As with any projection or forecast, these statements are inherently susceptible to risks, uncertainty and changes in circumstance. Important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements and should be considered in evaluating the outlook of Commercial Barge Line Company. Risks and uncertainties are detailed from time to time in Commercial Barge Line Company's filings with the SEC, including our report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010 and our most recent Form 10-Q. Commercial Barge Line Company is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any obligation to, update or alter its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of changes, new information, subsequent events or otherwise.
Kim Durbin
Manager, Corporate Communications
812-288-1915
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