Marlin Midstream Partners, LP Reports Third Quarter 2013 Financial Results

HOUSTON, Oct. 30, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Marlin Midstream Partners, LP (Nasdaq:FISH), a Delaware limited partnership ("Marlin" or "the Partnership"), today announced financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2013.

On July 31, 2013, the Partnership completed the IPO of 6,875,000 common units, representing a 38.6% limited partner interest, to the public for $20.00 per common unit, less an underwriting discount of $1.20 per common unit. After the closing of the IPO, substantially all the Partnership's gross margin is generated under fee-based commercial agreements, the substantial majority of which have minimum volume commitments.

Financial statements for the third quarter of 2013 reflect one month (July) of pre-IPO results attributable to Marlin's midstream natural gas business only, and two months (August and September) of Marlin's post-IPO operations which include both the midstream natural gas business segment and the crude oil logistics business segment as the crude oil logistics business segment had no material assets or operations prior to the IPO.

"Our results for the two months following our IPO on July 31^st exceeded our expectations, reflecting the strength and potential of our strategically-located operating assets and the value of our relationships with our sponsor and affiliates," said Chairman and CEO W. Keith Maxwell III. "The majority of our gross margin is now generated from fee-based volume committed commercial agreements including a gathering and processing capacity agreement and three transloading agreements that commenced at the close of the IPO. The current quarter ending December 31st will represent the first full quarter of results reflecting these key contracts."

Mr. Maxwell continued, "Looking ahead, we see multiple avenues for growth, including the development of a number of midstream energy assets by our sponsor NuDevco Partners, LLC. For our crude oil logistics business we are considering opportunities presented to us by our sponsor to expand our transloading services in Utah to accommodate increasing demand. Marlin is well positioned overall with a business strategy based on stable cash flows, financial flexibility and disciplined growth."

Summary Third Quarter 2013 Financial Results

For the third quarter ended September 30, 2013, Marlin reported gross margin of $12.5 million compared to gross margin of $8.3 million, for the third quarter of 2012. The gross margin increase is attributable to the new crude oil logistics business segment and related contracts as well as the new gathering and processing contract entered into with AES at the closing of the IPO.

For the third quarter of 2013, net income totaled $1.9 million and adjusted EBITDA¹ was $6.7 million. Distributable cash flow¹ for the post-IPO period was $5.3 million resulting in a coverage ratio¹ of 1.31x for the period.

Using net proceeds from the upsized IPO of $125.3 million (after underwriting discount, structuring fees and other direct IPO costs), the Partnership repaid a majority of its outstanding debt and entered into a new credit facility to fund expansions, acquisitions and working capital requirements for operations and general partnership purposes. As of September 30, 2013, there was $8.5 million outstanding.

¹ Please see the tables at the end of this release for a reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP measures and calculation of the coverage ratio.

Segment Overview

Midstream Natural Gas The Partnership's primary midstream natural gas assets consist of two related natural gas processing facilities located in Panola County, Texas, a natural gas processing facility located in Tyler County, Texas, two natural gas gathering systems connected to the Panola County processing facilities, and two NGL transportation pipelines that connect the Panola County and Tyler County processing facilities to third party NGL pipelines. The gathering and processing segment provides natural gas gathering, transportation, treating and processing services and natural gas liquids transportation services.

For the third quarter ended September 30, 2013, gathering and processing segment gross margin was $10.2 million and adjusted EBITDA was $6.5 million. This compares to gathering and processing segment gross margin of $8.3 million and adjusted EBITDA of $3.4 million for the third quarter ended September 30, 2012.

Crude Oil Logistics The crude oil logistics assets consist of two crude oil transloading facilities: the Wildcat facility located in Carbon County, Utah, and the Big Horn facility, located in Big Horn County, Wyoming. Transloaders are used to unload crude oil from tanker trucks and load crude oil into railcars and temporary storage tanks. Currently, one skid transloader and two ladder transloaders are operated at the Wildcat facility, and one skid transloader and one ladder transloader are operated at the Big Horn facility.

For the third quarter ended September 30, 2013, crude oil logistics segment gross margin was $2.3 million and adjusted EBITDA was $2.1 million. Marlin's crude oil logistics assets became fully operational at July 31, 2013. As such, there are no material results of operations or material assets related to this segment for the periods prior to Marlin's IPO on July 31, 2013.

Quarterly Distribution

On October 18, 2013, the board of directors of Marlin's general partner declared a quarterly prorated cash distribution of $0.23 per unit to its partners for the third quarter ended September 30, 2013. This distribution represents the prorated amount of Marlin's full minimum quarterly distribution of $0.35 per unit for each whole quarter or $1.40 on an annualized basis, based on the number of days between the closing of the Partnership's IPO on July 31, 2013 and the end of the third quarter. The quarterly distribution will be paid on November 4, 2013 to all unitholders of record on October 29, 2013.

Capital Expenditures

For the nine months ended September 30, 2013 and 2012, Marlin incurred a total of $1.6 million and $2.1 million, respectively, for maintenance capital expenditures and incurred a total of $9.7 million and $5.9 million, respectively, for expansion capital expenditures.

Conference Call and Webcast

Marlin will host a conference call to discuss third quarter 2013 results at 12:00 p.m. CT (1:00 p.m. ET) on Thursday, October 31, 2013.

Interested parties can listen to a live webcast of the call from the Events & Presentations page of the Marlin Investor Relations website at http://investor.marlinmidstream.com/events.cfm. An archived replay of the webcast will be available for 12 months following the live presentation.

The call can be accessed live over the telephone by dialing 1-888-549-7750, or 1-480-629-9643 for international callers. The passcode for the call is 4646051. A telephonic replay of the call will be available through November 7, 2013 and can be accessed by dialing 1-800-406-7325, or 1-303-590-3030 for international callers, with conference ID number 4646051.

About Marlin

Marlin is a fee-based, growth oriented Delaware limited partnership formed to develop, own, operate and acquire midstream energy assets. Marlin currently provides natural gas gathering, transportation, treating and processing services, NGL transportation services and crude oil transloading services. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Marlin's assets include two related natural gas processing facilities located in Panola County, Texas, a natural gas processing facility located in Tyler County, Texas, two natural gas gathering systems connected to its Panola County processing facilities, two NGL transportation pipelines that connect its Panola County and Tyler County processing facilities to third party NGL pipelines and two crude oil transloading facilities containing five crude oil transloaders.

www.marlinmidstream.com

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements concerning Marlin's operations, economic performance and financial condition. These statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology including "may," "will," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "continue," or other similar words. These statements discuss future expectations, contain projections of results of operations or financial condition or include other "forward-looking" information. Although Marlin believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, the Partnership can give no assurance that such expectations will be realized.

These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations include, but are not limited to, the following risks and uncertainties:

• the volume of natural gas we gather and process and the volume of NGLs we transport;
• the volume of crude oil that we transload;
• the level of production of crude oil and natural gas and the resultant market prices of crude oil, natural gas and NGLs;
• the level of competition from other midstream natural gas companies and crude oil logistics companies in our geographic markets;
• the level of our operating expenses;
• regulatory action affecting the supply of, or demand for, crude oil or natural gas, the transportation rates we can charge on our pipelines, how we contract for services, our existing contracts, our operating costs or our operating flexibility;
• capacity charges and volumetric fees that we pay for NGL fractionation services;
• realized pricing impacts on our revenues and expenses that are directly subject to commodity price exposure;
• the creditworthiness and performance of our customers, suppliers and contract counterparties, and any material nonpayment or non-performance by one or more of these parties;
• damage to pipelines, facilities, plants, related equipment and surrounding properties caused by hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, fires, severe weather, explosions and other natural disasters and acts of terrorism including damage to third party pipelines or facilities upon which we rely for transportation services;
• outages at the processing or fractionation facilities owned by us or third parties caused by mechanical failure and maintenance, construction and other similar activities;
• leaks or accidental releases of products or other materials into the environment, whether as a result of human error or otherwise;
• the level and timing of our expansion capital expenditures and our maintenance capital expenditures;
• the cost of acquisitions, if any;
•  the level of our general and administrative expenses, including reimbursements to our general partner and its affiliates for services provided to us;
• our debt service requirements and other liabilities;
• fluctuations in our working capital needs;
• our ability to borrow funds and access capital markets;
• restrictions contained in our debt agreements;
• the amount of cash reserves established by our general partner;
• other business risks affecting our cash levels; and
• other factors discussed below and elsewhere in "Risk Factors" in our Prospectus.

Such risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. Except as required by law, Marlin undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. 

Gross Margin, Adjusted EBITDA and Distributable Cash Flow

Marlin uses gross margin, or revenues less cost of revenues, as the primary performance measure. Gross margin represents our profitability with minimal exposure to commodity price fluctuations, which we believe are not significant components of our operations. Marlin also uses adjusted EBITDA to analyze its performance and defines it as net income (loss) before interest expense (net of amounts capitalized) or interest income, Texas margin tax, non-cash equity based compensation, depreciation expense and any gain/loss from interest rate derivatives. Although Marlin has not quantified distributable cash flow on a historical basis, after the closing of the IPO Marlin intends to compute and present this measure, defined as adjusted EBITDA plus interest income, less cash paid for interest expense, Texas margin tax, and maintenance capital expenditures.

Gross margin, adjusted EBITDA and distributable cash flow are non-GAAP supplemental financial measures that management and external users of Marlin's condensed consolidated and combined financial statements, such as industry analysts, investors, commercial banks and others, may use to assess:

• the financial performance of Marlin's assets without regard to financing methods, capital structure or historical cost basis;
• the ability of Marlin's assets to generate earnings sufficient to support the decision to make cash distributions to the unitholders and our general partner;
• the ability to fund capital expenditures and incur and service debt;
• Marlin's operating performance and return on capital as compared to those of other companies in the midstream energy sector, without regard to financing or capital structure; and
• the attractiveness of capital projects and acquisitions and the overall rates of return on alternative investment opportunities.

Marlin's partnership agreement requires that, within 45 days after the end of each quarter, beginning with the quarter ending September 30, 2013, all of Marlin's available cash be distributed to unitholders of record on the applicable record date. Marlin's cash distribution for the period from the completion of the IPO through September 30, 2013 was adjusted based on the actual length of the period.

Note Regarding Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Gross margin, adjusted EBITDA, and distributable cash flow are not financial measures presented in accordance with GAAP. Marlin believes that the presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures will provide useful information to investors in assessing Marlin's financial condition and results of operations. The GAAP measure most directly comparable to gross margin is operating income. The GAAP measure most directly comparable to adjusted EBITDA and distributable cash flow is net income. These measures should not be considered as an alternative to operating income, net income, or any other measure of financial performance presented in accordance with GAAP. Each of these non-GAAP financial measures has important limitations as an analytical tool because it excludes some but not all items that affect net income. You should not consider these non-GAAP financial measures in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of Marlin's results as reported under GAAP. Additionally, because each of these non-GAAP financial measures may be defined differently by other companies in the industry, Marlin's definition of them may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies, thereby diminishing their utility.

SEGMENT INFORMATION

The Partnership's revenues are derived from two operating segments: gathering and processing, and crude oil logistics.   These segments, along with our corporate segment, are monitored separately by management for performance and are consistent with internal financial reporting. These segments have been identified based on the differing products and services, regulatory environment, and expertise required for their respective operations. 

The following table presents financial information by segment:

KEY PERFORMANCE METRICS

Management uses a variety of financial and operating metrics to analyze performance. These metrics are significant factors in assessing the results of operations and profitability and include: (i) gross margin; (ii) volume commitments and throughput volumes (including gathering, plant, and transloader throughput); (iii) operation and maintenance expenses; (iv) adjusted EBITDA; and (v) distributable cash flow. 

Gross margin is calculated as follows: 

Adjusted EBITDA is calculated as follows:

Distributable cash flow is calculated as follows: 

Coverage ratio is calculated as follows: