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Text: With us on the call today are Michael Kasbar, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Ira Birns, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
If not, you can access the release on our website.
Before we get started, I would like to review World Fuel's Safe Harbor statement.
A description of the risk factors that could cause results to materially differ from these projections can be found in World Fuel's most recent Form 10-K and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
As with prior conference calls, we ask that members of the media and individual private investors on the line participate in listen-only mode.
I hope that you're all doing well, while continuing to stay safe and healthy.
We obviously have some very exciting news to talk about this evening regarding the definitive agreement to acquire the Flyers Energy Group that we just announced, which Ira and I will cover after Ira's financial review.
Flyers is an ideal addition to our US land business and will significantly contribute to the scale and density of our commercial and industrial platform in the US, more about this exciting news later.
Overall, our business performed well in the third quarter as we witnessed some encouraging trends, primarily in our aviation segment where commercial passenger activity continue to increase both domestically with activity climbing to more than 80% of its pre-pandemic levels and internationally where easing travel restrictions have led to increased activity in Europe and Asia.
We continue to make strides in expanding our aviation service network and comprehensive offering.
In marine, market conditions remain challenging in the third quarter compounded by the fact that we did not have the benefit from certain seasonal business we have generated in prior years.
However, we have begun seeing improvement in certain markets such as the cruise sector where activity continues to recover with more ships sailing monthly.
We also recently concluded a term LNG bunker supply agreement on the US West Coast demonstrating our ability to provide a broader range of energy solutions and cleaner marine fuels.
And lastly, we are continuing to build a stronger foundation in our land segment by remaining laser focused on enhancing our core product and service offerings and meeting the evolving demands of our customers throughout the world including recently developing a multiyear carbon offset program for a large cruise operator facilitated by World Connect, our gas power and sustainability business.
In addition to continuing to invest in the commercial and industrial ground fuels market in North America, our inorganic focus will also include World Connect activities tailed [Phonetic] by our growing global base, customer base effectively navigate the energy transition.
Before I walk through our third quarter results, please note that the following figures exclude the impact of non-operational items netting only $1 million this quarter, which principally related to acquisition divestiture and restructuring related adjustments in expenses.
Now let's continue with third quarter financial highlights.
Adjusted third quarter net income and earnings per share were $23 million and $0.36 per share, respectively.
Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter was $63 million.
And volume continue to improve across all of our business segments as markets continue to recover.
With third quarter consolidated volume up 9% sequentially and 23% year-over-year.
We generated positive cash flow from operations of $83 million during the third quarter contributing to our net cash position of $282 million.
This was our 14th consecutive quarter of positive operating cash flow totaling approximately $1.4 billion over such period.
And now I'm going to get into our financial results in greater detail.
So, let's jump back to the volume.
Aviation segment volume was 1.7 billion gallons in the third quarter, an increase of 21% sequentially, consistent with the growth forecast provided on our second quarter call and an increase of 63% compared to the third quarter of 2020.
We experienced volume increases both sequentially and year-over-year in our commercial passenger and business in general aviation operations.
The year-over-year volume increases resulted from the continuing recovery in air travel and the sequential increase was driven by both the general economic recovery and traditional summer seasonality.
Volume in our marine segment for the third quarter was 4.8 million metric tons, an increase of 4% sequentially and 9% year-over-year.
We experienced increases in core resale activity during the third quarter in marine.
And although we may see some disruption from the supply chain bottlenecks at certain ports, marine activity should benefit from the ongoing economic recovery possibly higher fuel prices as well as we head into 2022.
Our land segment volume was 1.3 billion gallons or gallon equivalents during the third quarter.
That's practically flat sequentially, but an increase of 4% year-over-year.
The year-over-year volume increased spend across much of our North American retail and commercial industrial operations and our Connect business continues to post solid year-over-year growth driven by an increasing demand for our energy management and sustainability offerings.
Consolidated volume for the third quarter was 4.2 billion gallons or gallon equivalents, an increase of 9% sequentially and 23% year-over-year driven by the significant rebound in aviation activity.
Consolidated gross profit for the third quarter was $197 million, an increase of 7% sequentially and 3% year-over-year.
Our aviation segment contributed $113 million of gross profit in the third quarter.
That's up 28% sequentially and 19% year-over-year.
As previously noted, the year-over-year increase in gross profit generally related to the continued rebound in core activity, partially offset by the reduction in government-related activity in Afghanistan, where as you already know, all activities ceased a part of the final troop withdrawal during the third quarter.
Our team in Afghanistan did an amazing job over the past 10 years.
All of our employees made it out of the region safely and we will be forever grateful for their dedication and valuable contribution to our business.
Most particularly, Derek McRobbie and his team who stuck it out [Phonetic] until the very end supporting the evacuation missions on the ground at Kabul Airport.
As we look ahead to the fourth quarter, we expect aviation gross profit to decrease sequentially, principally driven by the traditional seasonal decline in activity and the conclusion of activity in Afghanistan.
However, we expect continued increases in both volume and gross profit on a year-over-year basis.
The marine segment generated third quarter gross profit of $22 million down 4% sequentially and 31% year-over-year.
Despite the year-over-year increase in volume and marine.
Gross profit declined as a result of lower margins in our core business driven by continued competitive market pressure and the loss of some seasonal business we had benefited from in the past.
As we look ahead to the fourth quarter, we expect Marine gross profit to modestly increase both sequentially and year-over-year driven by some signs of improving marketing conditions in our core business.
Our land segment delivered gross profit of $63 million in the third quarter, a seasonal decline of 15% sequentially and a decline of 4% year-over-year when excluding MultiService from last year's results.
We experienced a year-over-year decline in gross profit from our Core Commercial and Industrial business activity in North America driven principally by current supply chain disruptions which had temporarily eroded margins due to increased transportation costs.
We also experienced a year-over-year decline from government-related activity, again as a result of the conclusion of activity in Afghanistan.
These declines were offset by increases in the North American retail business and power activity in Europe where related markets have been strengthening.
Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, we anticipate land gross profit will increase principally related to seasonal activity in the UK.
Core operating expenses which exclude bad debt expense were $153 million in the third quarter.
Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, we expect core operating expenses excluding bad debt expense to be in the range of $156 million to $160 million.
After experiencing elevated losses during the front end of the pandemic, we continue to manage our broad portfolio of receivables exceptionally well with bad debt expense near zero in the third quarter.
Again, adjusted EBITDA was $63 million in the third quarter, that's up 6% sequentially but down slightly compared to last year's third quarter.
Interest expense in the third quarter was $10 million, which is effectively flat year-over-year and fourth quarter interest expense should be about the same in the range of $10 million to $11 million.
And our adjusted effective tax rate for the third quarter was just under 31% and we expect the fourth quarter effective tax rate to be about the same.
Despite rising prices and volume, we generated $83 million of operating cash flow during the third quarter, our 14th consecutive quarter of positive operating cash flow.
This further strengthen our balance sheet resulting in a net cash position of $282 million at quarter end at a total cash position of nearly $800 million.
We also repurchased 750,000 shares of our common stock during the quarter, demonstrating our continued commitment to drive additional shareholder value through both buybacks and dividends.
Before we move on to discussion of the Flyers Energy acquisition, let's sum up the quarter.
Aviation's continuing recovery contributed to a strong quarter and we see continued growth opportunities across all three of our business segments as the economic recovery continues.
We generated strong operating cash flow in a sharply rising price environment contributing to an ending cash position of nearly $800 million setting us up well for the Flyers acquisition, but also for the additional growth opportunities ahead.
The world around us is changing rapidly and we're excited about organic and inorganic growth opportunities that will support our customers' evolving needs throughout the world.
As we've been repeating for some time now, we've been sharpening our portfolio of business activity strategically shedding non-core activities and we indicated that we were focused on investing in and growing our core commercial and industrial land business in North America as well as our increasingly relevant natural gas, power and sustainability platform.
With today's announcement of the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire Flyers Energy, we are taking a very significant step in this direction.
This acquisition will add significant scale and density to our North American land platform.
We are very excited about it and we think that it's a watershed turning point for the Company that will position us for growth for many years to come.
Ira will now review the transaction in greater detail.
The remaining $100 million we paid in two equal $50 million instalments upon the first and second anniversaries of closing.
The cash portion of the upfront purchase price will principally be paid with cash on hand.
Again, we had $796 million of cash at end of September, with the remainder to be drawn under our revolving credit facility.
The transaction is expected to be significantly accretive to margins, earnings per share and cash flow and is expected to close within 60 to 90 days subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval.
Flyers which has been very successfully operated by the Dwelle family for decades is based in Auburn, California and distributes diesel, renewable fuels, lubricants and gasoline to more than 12,000 small to medium sized commercial and industrial and retail customers spanning 20 states.
Estimated volume for 2021 is $850 million gallons with forecasted 2021 revenue and gross profit of $2.4 billion and $135 million respectively.
We really look forward to welcoming the talented and experienced Flyers team to World Fuel.
They are a great bunch of people.
Flyers are the national fleet fueling network consisting of approximately 200 card lock sites which are operated by Flyers and an additional 200 third-party sites, which are part of their national network.
Card locks are effectively unmanned fuel sites serving commercial trucking fleets providing 24 hour access 365 days per year.
Flyers operates a stable and ratable low cost business model with a loyal and growing commercial customer base.
While their card lock operation is clearly their largest segment, Flyers also operates a small retail distribution business which will expand the World Fuel network to more than 2,000 retail locations nationwide and they also operate a wholesale diesel and lubricants business.
As we have stated repeatedly over time, we have been strategically focused on sharpening our portfolio of activities in our land segment.
Just two years ago, before the pandemic began, our land segment was fragmented without significant upscale in our core activities that being our North American commercial, industrial and retail activity and our growing gas power and sustainability activities.
These combined business activities represented less than 50% of total land gross profit back in 2019 before the start of the pandemic.
If you fast forward to our new run rate upon closing this transaction, these core activities will represent more than 80% of land gross profit and the overall land business will represent a greater percentage of our global franchise driving greater scale synergies and operating leverage.
The transaction will also expand our North American platform to more than 30,000 commercial and industrial customers, customers to whom we can support with options to purchase lower carbon renewable fuels.
Flyers already distributes renewable diesel at several card lock locations and we will look to continue growing renewable fuels distribution across our combined networks.
Speaking of our combined networks, this transaction will provide our North American land business with a national platform, which significantly improves scale.
We will be significantly expanding our card lock network, which is a low cost operating model driving above average returns accretive to our overall returns in our land business.
The transaction will provide regional density in California, Arizona and Nevada and will strengthen our density in the Rockies and Midwest.
The transaction also brings us a truly best-in-class management team poised to join with us to drive further growth and significantly enhance our land segments' shareholder value contribution.
Again Flyers is a stable, ratable and growing business with a low risk portfolio of customers at a seasoned management team with significant industry experience, which will strengthen and expand our North American land platform.
The transaction will also heighten our opportunity to participate in the growing low carbon renewables market.
We also believe that there remains a strong pipeline of additional investment opportunities, which can drive even further growth and operating efficiencies down the road.
Flyers will also improve the overall tax efficiency of our Company by adding substantial US profitability to our consolidated results.
And this strategic transaction will also drive a step change in the ratability of our global business, making our results easier to understand and forecast.
This is especially true in our land business, which we know hasn't always been the easiest to understand.
That will be fewer moving parts, more ratability and improving margins, contributing significantly to earnings per share and cash flow, a very exciting and important step forward in our longer term growth journey.
While this will indeed be the largest acquisition in the history of our Company, the substantial cash flow we have generated over the past three to four years combined with the cash generated from the sale of MultiService last year allows us to complete this transaction largely with cash on hand, leaving us with a strong and liquid balance sheet post-acquisition to support organic growth as well as further investments in core business activities principally on North American land and global gas power and sustainability business providing a more exciting experience for our global team of nearly 5,000 professionals and driving greater value to our shareholders.

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q3 adjusted earnings per share $0.36.
qtrly revenue $8,350.9 million versus $4,482.7 million.

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