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Text: These statements include expectations and assumptions regarding the partnership's future operations and financial performance, including expectations and assumptions related to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Actual results could differ materially, and the partnership undertakes no obligation to update these statements based on subsequent events.
During today's call, we will also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA and distributable cash flow as adjusted.
In the third quarter, Sunoco continued to demonstrate the strength of its business model with strong financial results in a period of continuing economic recovery.
For the third quarter of 2021, the partnership recorded net income of $104 million.
Adjusted EBITDA was $198 million compared to $189 million in the third quarter of 2020.
Volumes were approximately two billion gallons, a sequential increase of 2% from the second quarter.
Year-over-year volumes increased 6.4%.
Fuel margin was $0.113 per gallon versus $0.121 per gallon in the third quarter of 2020.
Total operating expenses in the third quarter were up as expected compared to the second quarter at $113 million versus $102 million and were flat to the third quarter of 2020.
Third quarter distributable cash flow as adjusted was $146 million, yielding a current quarter coverage ratio of 1.68 times and a trailing 12-month coverage ratio of 1.43 times, consistent with our long-term target of a minimum of 1.40 times.
On October 25, we declared an $0.8255 per unit distribution, consistent with last quarter.
We continue to maintain a stable and secure distribution for our unitholders, which remains the number one pillar behind our capital allocation strategy.
Leverage at the end of the quarter was 4.05 times, which we expect to increase minimally with the closing of the NuStar acquisition.
Leverage is expected to trend lower toward our 4.0 times target as we move into next year.
Our 2021 full year EBITDA guidance remains $725 million to $765 million, excluding the NuStar and Cato acquisitions.
As anticipated, second half expenses are trending higher than the first half.
However, we expect the full year to come in below our previously guided range due to the extension of many of our 2020 cost-cutting initiatives throughout the first half of 2021.
We are reducing full year 2021 operating expense guidance to $425 million to $435 million compared to our previous guidance of $440 million to $450 million.
Finally, we continue to expect maintenance capital of $45 million and growth capital expenditures of approximately $150 million.
Next, with respect to the recently closed expansions to our midstream business, given the size and timing of the closing of these acquisitions, they will have only a modest impact to 2021 adjusted EBITDA and have been excluded from that guidance.
In the fourth quarter, we took advantage of bond market conditions to derisk our balance sheet and reduce our financing costs.
In October, we issued $800 million of 4.5% senior notes due 2030, using the proceeds to redeem $800 million of our existing 5.5% senior notes due 2026.
The transactions lower our interest rate on this debt by 100 basis points while extending the maturity date by approximately four years.
We will continue to take prudent and proactive measures to strengthen our financial position when opportunities like this arise.
The third quarter's strong results, the recently closed acquisitions, and our opportunistic refinancing demonstrate our commitment to maintaining Sunoco's solid financial foundation and to increasing value to our stakeholders through a strategy of disciplined capital investment and balance sheet management.
Our strong third quarter results were driven by better volume performance, continued strength in margins and continued discipline on expenses.
Volume for the quarter was up over 6% from last year, but the more relevant comparison continues to be performance relative to 2019.
On that basis, we were off about 7% from the third quarter of 2019.
So far, in the fourth quarter, our volumes continue to be in the same range relative to 2019 once you factor in the JC Nolan ramp-up in the fourth quarter of that year.
The third quarter showed improvement versus the first half of the year.
RBOB prices were generally flat from the beginning of the quarter to the end of the quarter, but the increased volatility coupled with our continual gross profit optimization strategies and elevated breakeven margins helped our margins remain solidly within our full year 2021 guidance range.
The final piece of our strong financial performance was continued expense control and discipline.
As Dylan mentioned earlier, we expect second half expenses to be higher than the first half.
Some of the higher spending in the second half of the year is due to timing, and some of it is related to our decisions to defer bringing costs back into the business with a challenging start to the year.
As the margin environment improved through this year, we are more comfortable returning some of our expenses to a more sustainable level going forward.
Before turning it over to Joe, I want to briefly touch on a few more topics.
It seems that over the last few months, the topics of inflation, supply chain challenges and labor shortages have been increasingly visible and discussed.
We have not been immune to any of these challenges.
We have felt the impacts of inflation and incorporated the impact into our forward views on expenses.
Over the last few years, we have demonstrated our ability to control expenses and increase efficiency.
Going forward, we remain committed to delivering an efficient and lean expense structure.
We've also put into place strategies to adequately deal with longer supply chains.
We continue to be proactive in addressing our labor challenges and have been successful at maintaining a team to deliver for our customers.
An important thing to remember is that every one of these issues continues to support higher-than-historic breakeven margins.
Finally, a brief update on our growth efforts.
Our Brownsville terminal remains on track for completion and commissioning by the end of the first quarter.
The project team has done a great job keeping schedule and costs in line even in the face of some of the industry headwinds, I just discussed.
And our integration efforts for the NuStar and Cato acquisitions are well underway.
If anything, we have been excited by some of the additional commercial opportunities we have uncovered in the first month of ownership.
I will wrap up by stating that we will continue to focus on what we can control and what drove this quarter's results, gross profit optimization, growth of our core business and solid and efficient operations.
We delivered a strong third quarter.
Fuel volumes grew roughly 2% versus the second quarter of this year, while our fuel margins remained very healthy.
And just as importantly, we continue to control costs and manage our balance sheet.
Quarter after quarter, we have demonstrated the durability of our business.
Looking toward the fourth quarter, RBOB prices increased rapidly through most of October with a moderate pullback during the last week of the month.
Even if the challenging headwind environment continues, we expect to have a solid fourth quarter.
Fuel margins should remain healthy given higher industry breakevens and fuel volume should remain steady with normal seasonality.
As for full year 2021, we expect to deliver on our adjusted EBITDA guidance.
As we look out further to 2022, you should expect us to have another good year.
We will provide detailed guidance in December.
Moving on to growth.
We continue to strengthen our business by growing our midstream assets.
The NuStar and Cato acquisitions as well as the Brownsville project helped diversify and vertically integrate our business.
It also provides us a more enhanced platform for fuel distribution growth.
Financially, we executed these transactions at very attractive valuations, especially after adding synergies.
On the fuel distribution side, we will continue to grow organically as well as capitalize on acquisition opportunities.
As we continue to grow, we will build on our history of maintaining financial discipline, which means protecting the security of our distributions while also protecting our balance sheet.

user
excluding any impact in 2021 from recently closed acquisitions, co continues to expect fy 2021 adjusted ebitda of $725 million to $765 million.

assistant