SunCoke Energy Partners, L.P. Announces First Quarter 2019 Results

LISLE, Ill., April 24, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- SunCoke Energy Partners, L.P. (NYSE: SXCP) today reported results for the first quarter 2019.

"I would like to thank all our SunCoke employees for their commitment and dedication throughout the quarter despite facing adverse weather conditions, which impacted operations across our business during the quarter," said Mike Rippey, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of SunCoke Energy Partners, L.P.

FIRST QUARTER RESULTS

Revenues in first quarter 2019 increased $15.6 million from the prior year period, primarily reflecting the pass-through of higher coal prices in our Domestic Coke segment.

Adjusted EBITDA in the quarter decreased $1.8 million, primarily driven by adverse weather conditions, which impacted both our Domestic Coke and Logistics segments.

Net income attributable to SXCP in the first quarter 2019 was $4.5 million, down $7.7 million versus the prior year period. The decrease in the current period was driven by the operating results discussed above and higher depreciation expense driven by revisions in estimated useful lives of certain assets in our Domestic Coke segment made during the third quarter 2018.

FIRST QUARTER SEGMENT INFORMATION

Domestic Coke
Domestic Coke consists of cokemaking facilities and heat recovery operations at our Haverhill, Middletown and Granite City cokemaking facilities, located in Franklin Furnace and Middletown, Ohio, and Granite City, Illinois, respectively.

Revenues increased $14.8 million primarily reflecting the pass-through of higher coal prices.

Adjusted EBITDA decreased driven by lower coal-to-coke yields primarily due to the impact from heavy rainfalls, which elevated coal moisture levels. This decrease was partially offset by a $1.0 million benefit from the timing of planned outage costs.

Logistics
Logistics consists of the handling and mixing services of coal and other aggregates operated by SXCP at our Convent Marine Terminal ("CMT"), Lake Terminal and Kanawha River Terminals ("KRT").

Revenues were reasonably consistent with prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA decreased by $0.9 million, driven primarily by incremental high water costs at CMT during the current period.

Corporate and Other
Corporate and other expenses were $4.1 million in the first quarter 2019, which was comparable with the prior year period of $4.2 million.

2019 OUTLOOK

Our 2019 guidance is as follows:

• Adjusted EBITDA attributable to SXCP is expected to be between $215 to $225 million
• Distributable Cash Flow expect to be between $93 to $108 million
• Capital expenditures are projected to be between $55 to $60 million, expect $6 million related to completing our Granite City gas sharing project

SUNCOKE ENERGY PARTNERS, L.P.

SunCoke Energy Partners, L.P. (NYSE: SXCP) is a publicly traded master limited partnership that manufactures high-quality coke used in the blast furnace production of steel and provides export and domestic material handling services to coke, coal, steel, power and other bulk and liquids customers.  In our cokemaking business, we utilize an innovative heat-recovery technology that captures excess heat for steam or electrical power generation and have long-term, take-or-pay coke contracts that pass through commodity and certain operating costs.  Our logistics terminals have the collective capacity to mix and transload more than 40 million tons of material each year and are strategically located to reach Gulf Coast, East Coast, Great Lakes and international ports. SXCP's General Partner is a wholly owned subsidiary of SunCoke Energy, Inc. (NYSE: SXC), which has approximately 55 years of cokemaking experience serving the integrated steel industry.  To learn more about SunCoke Energy Partners, L.P., visit our website at www.suncoke.com.

DEFINITIONS

• Adjusted EBITDA represents earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization ("EBITDA"), adjusted for any loss on extinguishment of debt, changes to our contingent consideration liability related to our acquisition of CMT and/or transaction costs incurred as part of the Simplification Transaction. Adjusted EBITDA does not represent and should not be considered an alternative to net income or operating income under accounting principles generally accepted in the U.S. ("GAAP") and may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures in other businesses. Management believes Adjusted EBITDA is an important measure of the operating performance and liquidity of the Partnership's net assets and its ability to incur and service debt, fund capital expenditures and make distributions. Adjusted EBITDA provides useful information to investors because it highlights trends in our business that may not otherwise be apparent when relying solely on GAAP measures and because it eliminates items that have less bearing on our operating performance and liquidity. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are not measures calculated in accordance with GAAP, and they should not be considered an alternative to net income, operating cash flow or any other measure of financial performance presented in accordance with GAAP.
• Adjusted EBITDA attributable to SXCP equals Adjusted EBITDA less Adjusted EBITDA attributable to noncontrolling interests.
• Distributable Cash Flow equals Adjusted EBITDA plus sponsor support and Logistics deferred revenue, less net cash paid for interest expense, ongoing capital expenditures, accruals for replacement capital expenditures, and cash distributions to noncontrolling interests; plus amounts received under the Omnibus Agreement and acquisition expenses deemed to be Expansion Capital under our Partnership Agreement. Distributable Cash Flow is a non-GAAP supplemental financial measure that management and external users of SXCP's financial statements, such as industry analysts, investors, lenders and rating agencies use to assess:
• SXCP's operating performance as compared to other publicly traded partnerships, without regard to historical cost basis;
• the ability of SXCP's assets to generate sufficient cash flow to make distributions to SXCP's unitholders;
• SXCP's ability to incur and service debt and fund capital expenditures; and
• the viability of acquisitions and other capital expenditure projects and the returns on investment of various investment opportunities.

We believe that Distributable Cash Flow provides useful information to investors in assessing SXCP's financial condition and results of operations. Distributable Cash Flow should not be considered an alternative to net income, operating income, cash flows from operating activities, or any other measure of financial performance or liquidity presented in accordance with GAAP. Distributable Cash Flow has important limitations as an analytical tool because it excludes some, but not all, items that affect net income and net cash provided by operating activities and used in investing activities. Additionally, because Distributable Cash Flow may be defined differently by other companies in the industry, our definition of Distributable Cash Flow may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies, thereby diminishing its utility.

• Distributable Cash Flow Coverage Ratio equals Distributable Cash Flow divided by estimated distributions to the limited and general partners.
• Operating Cash Flow Coverage Ratio equals net cash provided by operating activities divided by total estimated distributions to the limited and general partners. Operating cash flow is generally expected to be higher than Distributable Cash Flow as Distributable Cash Flow is further reduced by certain cash reserves including capital expenditures, an investing cash flow item. Additionally, Distributable Cash Flow represents only the Partnership's share of available cash by excluding Adjusted EBITDA attributable to noncontrolling interest, while operating cash flow is reported on a consolidated basis.
• Ongoing capital expenditures ("capex") are capital expenditures made to maintain the existing operating capacity of our assets and/or to extend their useful lives. Ongoing capex also includes new equipment that improves the efficiency, reliability or effectiveness of existing assets. Ongoing capex does not include normal repairs and maintenance, which are expensed as incurred, or significant capital expenditures. For purposes of calculating distributable cash flow, the portion of ongoing capex attributable to SXCP is used.
• Replacement capital expenditures ("capex") represents an annual accrual necessary to fund SXCP's share of the estimated costs to replace or rebuild our facilities at the end of their working lives. This accrual is estimated based on the average quarterly anticipated replacement capital that we expect to incur over the long term to replace our major capital assets at the end of their working lives. The replacement capex accrual estimate will be subject to review and prospective change by SXCP's general partner at least annually and whenever an event occurs that causes a material adjustment of replacement capex, provided such change is approved by our conflicts committee.

IMPORTANT NOTICE TO INVESTORS

SXCP and SXC previously have announced the execution of a definitive merger agreement for the acquisition by SXC of all publicly held common units of SXCP. SXC has filed a registration statement on Form S-4 with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") containing a draft joint prospectus/consent statement/proxy statement of SXC and SXCP.  Once the SEC has completed its review of this filing and declared it effective, SXC and SXCP security holders are urged to read the definitive joint prospectus/consent statement/proxy statement and other documents filed with the SEC regarding the proposed transaction carefully and in their entirety when they become available because they will contain important information.  Investors may obtain a free copy of the draft joint prospectus/consent statement/proxy statement at any time and will be able to obtain a free copy of the definitive joint prospectus/consent statement/proxy statement when it becomes available, as well as other filings containing information about the proposed transaction, without charge, at the SEC's internet site (http://www.sec.gov). Copies of the definitive joint prospectus/consent statement/proxy statement when it becomes available, as well as copies of the filings with the SEC that will be incorporated by reference in such definitive joint prospectus/consent statement/proxy statement, can be obtained, without charge by directing a request either to SXC, 1011 Warrenville Road, 6th Floor, Lisle, IL 60532 USA, Attention: Investor Relations or to SXCP, 1011 Warrenville Road, 6th Floor, Lisle, IL 60532 USA, Attention: Investor Relations.

The respective directors and executive officers of SXC and SXCP may be deemed to be "participants" (as defined in Schedule 14A under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as amended) in respect of the proposed transaction. Information about SXC's directors and executive officers is available in SXC's annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018, filed with the SEC on February 15, 2019. Information about SXCP's directors and executive officers is available in SXCP's annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018 filed with the SEC on February 15, 2019. Other information regarding the participants in the solicitation and a description of their direct and indirect interests, by security holdings or otherwise, will be contained in the joint definitive prospectus/consent statement/proxy statement, when available, and other relevant materials filed with the SEC.

This communication shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or a solicitation of any vote or approval, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. No offering of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Some of the statements included in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements."  Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not historical facts and may be identified by the use of such words as "believe," "expect," "plan," "project," "intend," "anticipate," "estimate," "predict," "potential," "continue," "may," "will," "should" or the negative of these terms or similar expressions.  Forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and involve significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties (many of which are beyond the control of SXCP) that could cause actual results to differ materially.

Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, domestic and international economic, political, business, operational, competitive, regulatory, and/or market factors affecting SXCP, as well as uncertainties related to: pending or future litigation, legislation or regulatory actions; liability for remedial actions or assessments under existing or future environmental regulations; gains and losses related to acquisition, disposition or impairment of assets; recapitalizations; access to, and costs of, capital; the effects of changes in accounting rules applicable to SXCP; and changes in tax, environmental and other laws and regulations applicable to SXCP's businesses.

Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, but are based upon the current knowledge, beliefs and expectations of SXCP management, and upon assumptions by SXCP concerning future conditions, any or all of which ultimately may prove to be inaccurate.  The reader should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release.  SXCP does not intend, and expressly disclaims any obligation, to update or alter its forward-looking statements (or associated cautionary language), whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise after the date of this press release except as required by applicable law.

SXCP has included in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission cautionary language identifying important factors (but not necessarily all the important factors) that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statement made by SXCP.  For information concerning these factors, see SXCP's Securities and Exchange Commission filings such as its annual and quarterly reports and current reports on Form 8-K, copies of which are available free of charge on SXCP's website at www.suncoke.com.  All forward-looking statements included in this press release are expressly qualified in their entirety by such cautionary statements.  Unpredictable or unknown factors not discussed in this release also could have material adverse effects on forward-looking statements.

SOURCE SunCoke Energy Partners, L.P.

Related Links

http://www.suncoke.com

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