Item 2.02. Results of Operations and Financial Condition
We issued a press release on
As provided in General Instruction B.2 to Form 8-K, the information furnished in
this Item 2.02 and in Exhibit 99.1 hereto shall not be deemed "filed" for
purposes of Section 18 of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended,
nor shall it be deemed incorporated by reference in any filing with the
Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures Overview
This press release and the accompanying schedules include non-generally accepted
accounting principle (non-GAAP) financial measures of Adjusted EBITDA and total
Available Cash before Reserves. In this press release, we also present total
Segment Margin as if it were a non-GAAP measure. Our non-GAAP measures may not
be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies because such
measures may include or exclude other specified items. The accompanying
schedules provide reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to their
most directly comparable financial measures calculated in accordance with
generally accepted accounting principles in
When evaluating our performance and making decisions regarding our future direction and actions (including making discretionary payments, such as quarterly distributions) our board of directors and management team have access to a wide range of historical and forecasted qualitative and quantitative information, such as our financial statements; operational information; various non-GAAP measures; internal forecasts; credit metrics; analyst opinions; performance; liquidity and similar measures; income; cash flow expectations for us; and certain information regarding some of our peers. Additionally, our board of directors and management team analyze, and place different weight on, various factors from time to time. We believe that investors benefit from having access to the same financial measures being utilized by management, lenders, analysts and other market participants. We attempt to provide adequate information to allow each individual investor and other external user to reach her/his own conclusions regarding our actions without providing so much information as to overwhelm or confuse such investor or other external user.
Available Cash before Reserves
Purposes, Uses and Definition
Available Cash before Reserves, often referred to by others as distributable cash flow, is a quantitative standard used throughout the investment community with respect to publicly traded partnerships and is commonly used as a supplemental financial measure by management and by external users of financial statements such as investors, commercial banks, research analysts and rating agencies, to aid in assessing, among other things:
(1)the financial performance of our assets;
(2)our operating performance;
(3)the viability of potential projects, including our cash and overall return on alternative capital investments as compared to those of other companies in the midstream energy industry;
(4)the ability of our assets to generate cash sufficient to satisfy certain non-discretionary cash requirements, including interest payments and certain maintenance capital requirements; and
(5)our ability to make certain discretionary payments, such as distributions on our preferred and common units, growth capital expenditures, certain maintenance capital expenditures and early payments of indebtedness.
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We define Available Cash before Reserves ("Available Cash before Reserves") as Adjusted EBITDA adjusted for certain items, the most significant of which in the relevant reporting periods have been the sum of maintenance capital utilized, net interest expense, cash tax expense and cash distributions paid to our Class A convertible preferred unitholders.
Disclosure Format Relating to
We use a modified format relating to maintenance capital requirements because our maintenance capital expenditures vary materially in nature (discretionary vs. non-discretionary), timing and amount from time to time. We believe that, without such modified disclosure, such changes in our maintenance capital expenditures could be confusing and potentially misleading to users of our financial information, particularly in the context of the nature and purposes of our Available Cash before Reserves measure. Our modified disclosure format provides those users with information in the form of our maintenance capital utilized measure (which we deduct to arrive at Available Cash before Reserves). Our maintenance capital utilized measure constitutes a proxy for non-discretionary maintenance capital expenditures and it takes into consideration the relationship among maintenance capital expenditures, operating expenses and depreciation from period to period.
Maintenance Capital Requirements
Maintenance Capital Expenditures
Maintenance capital expenditures are capitalized costs that are necessary to maintain the service capability of our existing assets, including the replacement of any system component or equipment which is worn out or obsolete. Maintenance capital expenditures can be discretionary or non-discretionary, depending on the facts and circumstances.
Prior to 2014, substantially all of our maintenance capital expenditures were (a) related to our pipeline assets and similar infrastructure, (b) non-discretionary in nature and (c) immaterial in amount as compared to our Available Cash before Reserves measure. Those historical expenditures were non-discretionary (or mandatory) in nature because we had very little (if any) discretion as to whether or when we incurred them. We had to incur them in order to continue to operate the related pipelines in a safe and reliable manner and consistently with past practices. If we had not made those expenditures, we would not have been able to continue to operate all or portions of those pipelines, which would not have been economically feasible. An example of a non-discretionary (or mandatory) maintenance capital expenditure would be replacing a segment of an old pipeline because one can no longer operate that pipeline safely, legally and/or economically in the absence of such replacement.
Beginning with 2014, we believe a substantial amount of our maintenance capital expenditures from time to time will be (a) related to our assets other than pipelines, such as our marine vessels, trucks and similar assets, (b) discretionary in nature and (c) potentially material in amount as compared to our Available Cash before Reserves measure. Those expenditures will be discretionary (or non-mandatory) in nature because we will have significant discretion as to whether or when we incur them. We will not be forced to incur them in order to continue to operate the related assets in a safe and reliable manner. If we chose not make those expenditures, we would be able to continue to operate those assets economically, although in lieu of maintenance capital expenditures, we would incur increased operating expenses, including maintenance expenses. An example of a discretionary (or non-mandatory) maintenance capital expenditure would be replacing an older marine vessel with a new marine vessel with substantially similar specifications, even though one could continue to economically operate the older vessel in spite of its increasing maintenance and other operating expenses.
In summary, as we continue to expand certain non-pipeline portions of our business, we are experiencing changes in the nature (discretionary vs. non-discretionary), timing and amount of our maintenance capital expenditures that merit a more detailed review and analysis than was required historically. Management's increasing ability to determine if and when to incur certain maintenance capital expenditures is relevant to the manner in which we analyze aspects of our business relating to discretionary and non-discretionary expenditures. We believe it would be inappropriate to derive our Available Cash before Reserves measure by deducting discretionary maintenance capital expenditures, which we believe are similar in nature in this context to certain other discretionary expenditures, such as growth capital expenditures, distributions/dividends and equity buybacks. Unfortunately, not all maintenance capital expenditures are clearly discretionary or non-discretionary in nature. Therefore, we developed a measure, maintenance capital utilized, that we believe is more useful in the determination of Available Cash before Reserves.
Maintenance Capital Utilized
We believe our maintenance capital utilized measure is the most useful quarterly maintenance capital requirements measure to use to derive our Available Cash before Reserves measure. We define our maintenance capital utilized measure as that portion of the amount of previously incurred maintenance capital expenditures that we utilize during the relevant quarter, which would be equal to the sum of the maintenance capital expenditures we have incurred for each project/component in prior quarters allocated ratably over the useful lives of those projects/components.
Our maintenance capital utilized measure constitutes a proxy for non-discretionary maintenance capital expenditures and it takes into consideration the relationship among maintenance capital expenditures, operating expenses and depreciation
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from period to period. Because we did not use our maintenance capital utilized
measure before 2014, our maintenance capital utilized calculations will reflect
the utilization of solely those maintenance capital expenditures incurred since
Adjusted EBITDA Purposes, Uses and Definition
Adjusted EBITDA is commonly used as a supplemental financial measure by management and by external users of financial statements such as investors, commercial banks, research analysts and rating agencies, to aid in assessing, among other things:
(1)the financial performance of our assets without regard to financing methods, capital structures or historical cost basis;
(2)our operating performance as compared to those of other companies in the midstream energy industry, without regard to financing and capital structure;
(3)the viability of potential projects, including our cash and overall return on alternative capital investments as compared to those of other companies in the midstream energy industry;
(4)the ability of our assets to generate cash sufficient to satisfy certain non-discretionary cash requirements, including interest payments and certain maintenance capital requirements; and
(5)our ability to make certain discretionary payments, such as distributions on our preferred and common units, growth capital expenditures, certain maintenance capital expenditures and early payments of indebtedness.
We define Adjusted EBITDA ("Adjusted EBITDA") as Net income (loss) attributable
to
Item 9.01. Financial Statements and Exhibits
(d) Exhibits
The following materials are filed as exhibits to this Current Report on Form 8-K. Exhibit No. Description 99.1 Genesis Energy, L.P. press release, dated May 4 , 2023. 104 Cover Page Interactive Data File (formatted as Inline XBRL).
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