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Consolidated Water’s (CWCO) CEO Rick McTaggart on Q4 2015 Results – Earnings Call Transcript

Consolidated Water Co. Ltd. Q4 2015 Earnings Conference Call March 16, 2016 11:00 AM ET Executives Rick McTaggart – President & CEO David Sasnett – CFO Analysts Michael Gaugler – Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Steve Percoco – Lark Research John Bair – Ascend Wealth Advisors Operator Good morning. And welcome to the Consolidated Water Company’s Fourth Quarter 2015 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] After today’s presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. The information that will be provided in this conference call includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Including but not limited to statements regarding the company’s future revenues, future plans, objectives, expectations and events, assumptions and estimates. Forward-looking statements can be identified by use of the word or phrases well, likely result, are expected to, will continue, estimate, project, potential, belief, plan, anticipate, expect, intend or similar expressions and variations of such words. Statements that are not historical facts are based on the company’s current expectations, belief, assumptions, estimate, forecast and projections for its business and industry and markets related to its business. Any forward-looking statements made during this conference call are not guarantees of future performance and involves certain risks and uncertainties and assumptions which are difficult to predict. Actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed in such forward looking statement. Important factors which may affect these actual outcomes and results include without limitation tourism and weather conditions in the areas of the company served, the economies of the US and other countries in which the company conducts business, the company’s relationship with the government it serves, regulatory matters including resolution and negotiations for the renewal of the company’s retail license on Grand Cayman. The company’s ability to successfully enter new markets including Mexico, Asia and the United States and other factors including those risk factors that force under part one item 1a risk factors in the company’s annual report on Form 10-K. Any forward looking statements made during this conference call speak as of today’s date. The company expressly disclaims any obligations or undertaking to update or revise any forward looking statement made during this conference call to reflect any change in its expectations with regard there to or any change in events. Conditions or circumstances on which any forward looking statement is based except as may be required by law. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to. Rick McTaggart, CEO. Please go ahead. Rick McTaggart Thank you, Amelie. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I am traveling this week in connection with our upcoming public tender submission for our Mexico project. So my comments this quarter maybe bit brief than the normal to provide more time for your questions-and-answers. Our CFO, David Sasnett is joining me on the call this morning from our Florida office. The company’s net income increased in 2015 to approximate $7.5 million, or $0.51 per fully diluted share, net result from $6.3 million, or $0.42 per fully diluted share in 2014. This increase in net income reflects higher operating efficiencies, successful water loss mitigation efforts and construction activities that enable us to maintain our gross profit and now is essentially equal to that of 2014 despite the drop in revenues. The lower and the loss resulted from lower G&A expenses relating to our development project in Mexico. Consolidated gross profit decreased only slightly to approximately $22.9 million last year compared to $23.1 million in 2014. And again this is even more consolidated revenues fall by approximately $8.4 million over the same period. This drop in consolidated revenues is due to the significant reduction in the cost of energy introduced to concurrent of their water rates that are linked to energy prices and to a lesser extent resulted from lower water sales volume in Bahamas and Cayman Island Bulk water operations. Retail revenues declines slightly to approximate $23.3 million last year compared to approximately $24.1 million in 2014. This was due to this lower energy cost we charges to our customers. Retail gross profit in terms of dollar is actually improved slightly due to higher operating efficiencies during 2015. Negotiations with the Water Authority-Cayman for a new retail license in Grand Cayman we commenced during the third quarter of 2015 and we are meeting with them more or less on monthly basis now during the negotiations. So far the negotiation with them productive but we cannot say within the certainly when they will be completed or what the final terms of the new license would be. The current license is set to expire at the end of 2015. However, we have been informed by the Water Authority that this license has been extended through mid 2016 and they are waiting final complete order from the government. Looking at our Bulk operations. Bulk water revenues declined to approximately $31.8 million last year compared with approximately $39.2 million in 2014. And this was due to reasons mentioned earlier as well as lower tariff that we charged through Water Authority Cayman resulting from the two year extension of the North Sound operating contract early in 2015. Bulk segment gross profit fell by approximately $1 million from 2014 to 2015, this was due to higher maintenance and repair cost at Bahamas operations and also to the lower revenues in the Bahamas and Cayman Island businesses. Our service segment revenues declined about $200,000 from 2014 to 2015 but the segment generated a gross profit of approximately $280,000 last year versus a loss in 2014. And this was due to more profitable construction activity in 2015. I’d like to say a few words about our recently completed acquisition and our equity interest in Aerex Industries. We’ve known Aerex Industries for many years during the latter half of 2015. And we saw potential to acquire that business. After customary negotiations and due diligence we were able to purchase 51% ownership of Aerex in February of this year. We also had an option which is exercisable two years after the purchase for the remaining 49%. Aerex is headquartered in Fort Pierce, Florida. It’s OE manufacturer and service provider of a wide range of products and services for municipal industrial water treatment. And they surely one of our most highly respected and valued suppliers since the early 90s. We believe that Aerex’s present business as it is now is an excellent ambition to Consolidated Water and further that Aerex’s market footprint in US and its excellent reputation gives us access to new potential customers that maybe looking for build and operate type deals which have been our bread and butter for many years. We are excited about the capabilities to boost to the occasion and opportunity give up kind of this acquisition provided us and we plan to file preliminary 8-K during the April where we provide investors with more detailed financial information on Aerex and its historical acts for 2015. Now just looking at our Mexico project. As previously discussed, the deadline for submission in bids to State of Baja, California, Mexico for our proposed 100GB desalination projects in Rosarito beach is next Wednesday that’s 24. We presently engaged with our partners in completion of the tender document which is quite extensive and complicated due to the scope of the project. And we are on track to meet the submission deadline. We are confident that we resemble the strong partnership and that our proposal will constitute a highly credible and technical proven and economically attractive response to the government’s request for tender. So obviously we will keep investors — as that process, develops over the next few months. So any questions from anybody? Amelie? Question-and-Answer Session Operator [Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Michael Gaugler of Janney Montgomery Scott. Please go ahead. Michael Gaugler Good morning, Rick. Good morning, Dave. I’ll start I guess with Rosarito. Just wondering if there is any indication from your sources there as to whether or not others are planning to bid and what the potential timeline for a decision might be? Rick McTaggart Well, yes, I mean we were aware of government’s letter actively trying to develop and I guess proposals to the government and the government has indicated that they will take a decision I think by May and I am not — probably as well as the bid announcement. Michael Gaugler Okay. And then just one other here in the first quarter whether on Grand Cayman thus far, wondering how it shaping up versus last year and if there are any items affecting water volumes sales year-over-year we should be aware of? Rick McTaggart For the first quarter I mean that’s usual bid list time of the year, we get [twos and arrive] — or I haven’t seen anything inconsistent with historical sales but really we should know certainly by the — by early April and we are not — Michael Gaugler Okay. I was just wondering if there any weather disruptions. I think you had wet first quarter last year so I just kind of want to take a pass at that but otherwise that’s all I have. Operator [Operator Instructions] And the next question is from Steve Percoco of Lark Research. Please go ahead. Steve Percoco Thank you. You indicated that your development expense in Mexico could be significantly higher in 2016 presumably if you win this bid. Can you give us any idea of what they would be in 2016 and how development expenses might ramp if you are successful in the project? Rick McTaggart Actually I think we expect them to decrease compare to previous years. We are at the end of the project development phase and once we bid the project either those expenses go away because we didn’t get it or we just hope will not the case or get starting to another phase where capitalizing or other cost for truly development and actual construction once we get a contracts. I would expect the development expenses to be less than previous years. Steve Percoco Okay. Well, I guess I was just going by a statement that was made in your risk factors in the 10-K. My second question is you’ve indicated that the negotiations have been productive with the Cayman Water Authority and I was wondering I know you can’t be specific about it but can you give us any tangible signs of progress that cause you to make that statement that the negotiations have been productive. For example, have they submitted their regulatory model to you, the return on capital model to you as they had indicated they would allow back? Rick McTaggart Yes. They did. We mentioned in the K that we’ve received draft license from them, I think we said in the third quarter of last year and the negotiations have been based on that. License which we are using what they call arching of model so made in last year that we negotiate on the basis of our camp and I think that’s really what’s that’s jump started thing and it’s already — we have a common view on where we want to be at the end of this thing. So that’s why I said it has been productive. We are not — we are not at hard on the — but basically issues related to the license. This could be model point. Steve Percoco Okay. And finally I wondered if you could give us just kind of a status update on Bali. I noticed that water sales they were lower this year. Do you expect more of the same in 2016? Do you anticipate that this situation might change at all? David Sasnett Yes. First of all, Steve, this is Dave Sasnett. I want to clarify something regarding the Mexican development expenses. I think the disclosure we have in our K insisted our development expenses next year for Mexico will continue to be significant. I don’t think we said that they will be more than they were this year. We will still — we have an operation in Mexico that we established and pursue this project and the administrative cost associated with that project are going to be still hitting our financial statements. But we don’t expect the volume of the expenses that we’ve incurred in Mexico in 2016 to be comparable of what we had in previous years. As Rick said earlier, if we win the bid and start capitalizing expenses or someone else will win and we no longer be incurring expenses to pursue that project. With respect to Bali, the situation — excuse me, did you have a follow up question? Steve Percoco Well, I was just going to say that the statement that you made I believe says we expect to expand significant additional funds in 2016 to continue to pursue this project. David Sasnett And that’s correct. We will have six months at least of continued administrative expenses. And once the decision is made, those administrative expenses will either be capitalized and therefore they will not — now or we won’t win the bid and they will be terminated. Steve Percoco Okay. But even if they are capitalized they represents a cost something that potentially maybe need to be funded or may come obviously out of cash. And that’s why we are just wondering if you could give us any sense of how the expenditures might ramp up in 2016 and beyond if you are successful in the bid. David Sasnett We haven’t providing any estimate to that, Steve. Don’t feel comfortable doing that. Steve Percoco Okay. Bali? David Sasnett Well, the situation in Bali is quite simple. The Bali still has a water crisis but the economy in Bali is very weak. And as a result the hotels in the area who we do business really don’t have their financial liability at the moment to buy water from us because they are continuing to use the local fresh water aqua for wells that are on their properties to get water of very low quality, the water is nevertheless free to them. But we are holding discussions even as we speak with the government or utility, their PDAM another parties because all parties on Bali realize that the current situation can’t continue for much longer. Will that translate into water revenues for us and new contracts? We certainly hope so. But ultimately they’ve recently passed a regulation in Bali so that now it really affects all of Indonesia. So now that all these new water contract have sort to be coordinated and review by the water utility because they need some kind of master strategy for the entire island. So we are continuing to be optimistic about the long-term prospects for Bali. But on the short term we don’t see any indication that there going to be any significant increases in revenues in the short term. Hopefully at some point time these companies that we have targeted will ultimately step up and sign a long- term contracts for this. But at the moment, the economy so poor there, they are struggling to the point where they can’t afford to pay any money for water. So they are continuing to use their own wells as long as they can. Operator Our next question is from John Bair from Ascend Wealth Advisors. Please go ahead. John Bair Thank you and good morning. I was wondering if you could tell us if the Aerex acquisition will be accretive to your earnings this coming year. And what markets did they have historically served? Is it primarily domestic or do they serve markets outside of the United States? David Sasnett This is David speaking. We are going to follow 8-K as we mentioned with pro forma result for Aerex and our company. And until we do that we are not — we haven’t decided to disclose anything regarding Aerex’s results last year, whether not the acquisition will be accretive to us. So we would like — we hold to further question till we actually do our public filing. Rick would you like to talk about Aerex, its market a little bit. Rick McTaggart Yes. They primarily do business in the US and they also done business in the past in China and also Japan. So it’s mostly around island, areas of the Caribbean as well obviously it supplied its equipment over the years. So they are primarily the US market. John Bair And maybe I didn’t catch this but when do you anticipate roughly following that 8-K on the Aerex? David Sasnett Mid April I think, it’s — the deadline for filing the document is 71 days after the acquisition date of February 11. So we will file it shortly before the deadline. So maybe 70 days or so after February 11. John Bair Okay. Thank you very much. Good luck on your bid. Rick McTaggart Thank you. We need it. Operator [Operator Instructions] There are no additional questions, conclude our question-and-answer session. I’d like to the conference back over to Mr. McTaggart for any closing remarks. Rick McTaggart Yes. I just like to thank everybody for calling in today. As David mentioned we will be filing an 8-K in the Aerex acquisition in April, mid April. And I look forward hope to speaking with you all again in May when we release our first quarter results for this year. Thank you. Operator The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect. Copyright policy: All transcripts on this site are the copyright of Seeking Alpha. However, we view them as an important resource for bloggers and journalists, and are excited to contribute to the democratization of financial information on the Internet. (Until now investors have had to pay thousands of dollars in subscription fees for transcripts.) So our reproduction policy is as follows: You may quote up to 400 words of any transcript on the condition that you attribute the transcript to Seeking Alpha and either link to the original transcript or to www.SeekingAlpha.com. All other use is prohibited. 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Utility ETFs For Portfolio Stability And Income

At the tail end of the earnings season, the retail and utility sectors are the only ones with a number of companies yet to report results. As per Earnings Trend report, earnings of all the utility companies that have reported so far are down 5% year-over-year for the fourth quarter of 2015, with 21.4% of the companies beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Meanwhile, revenues are down nearly 13.3% for the quarter, with none of them surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate. The utility sector failed to impress in its fourth-quarter results with earnings and revenue miss from some of the major players in the space, including Duke Energy Corporation (NYSE: DUK ) and Dominion Resources Inc. (NYSE: D ). Although some companies like NextEra Energy (NYSE: NEE ) managed to beat on earnings, revenues came short of expectations. However, the slowdown in U.S. economic growth, Chinese market turbulence and plunging oil prices along with other factors resulted in a bearish environment, which led to demand for securities from sectors that provide a safer option. Thus, the utility sector, which is considered to be one of the safer options when the market is exhibiting a high level of volatility, managed to remain in the green over the last one month despite lackluster results. Below we have highlighted the quarterly results of the aforementioned utility companies in detail. Duke Energy Duke Energy reported adjusted earnings of 87 cents per share for the quarter that fell short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 94 cents by 7.4%. However, quarterly earnings increased by a penny year over year on the back of higher retail pricing and wholesale margins in the regulated business. Total revenue was $5,351 million, lagging the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $5,709 million by 6.3%. The company has provided 2016 earnings guidance in the range of $4.50 to $4.70 per share. Shares of the company declined 1.4% (as of February 19, 2016) since its earnings release. NextEra Energy NextEra Energy’s quarterly adjusted earnings of $1.17 per share beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.11 by 5.4%. Earnings climbed 13.6% year over year on the back of higher revenues from Florida Power & Light Company. However, revenues of $4,069 million missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.6% and decreased 12.8% from the year-ago level. NextEra reiterated its earnings guidance of $5.85-$6.35 for 2016. Shares of the company went up 7.5% since its earnings release (as of February 19, 2016). Dominion Resources Dominion Resources’ quarterly earnings of 70 cents per share lagged the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 87 cents by 19.5%. Earnings decreased 16.7% from 84 cents per share in the prior-year quarter due to mild weather conditions in its service territories, absence of a farm-out transaction and the impact of bonus depreciation. The company’s operating revenues of $2,556 million also missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $4,092 million by 37.5% and declined about 13.1% year over year. Dominion expects to earn 90 cents to $1.05 per share for the first-quarter 2016 compared with 99 cents per share in the year-ago period. The company expects earnings for 2016 in the range of $3.60 to $4.00 per share. Shares of the company fell 3.8% since its earnings release (as of February 19, 2016). ETFs in Focus Mixed results notwithstanding, many utility stocks managed to hold up gains over the past one month, sending the related ETFs higher. This has put the spotlight on utility ETFs. Below we discuss four of these ETFs having a sizeable exposure to the above stocks, holding Zacks ETF Rank #3 (Hold) with a Medium risk outlook. Utilities Select Sector SPDR (NYSEARCA: XLU ) XLU is one of the most popular products in the space with nearly $7.6 billion in AUM and average daily volume of roughly 14 million shares. The fund tracks the Utilities Select Sector Index and holds 31 stocks with NextEra Energy, Duke Energy and Dominion Resources among the top five spots with a combined exposure of nearly one-fourth of its total assets. Sector-wise, Electric Utilities (57.82%) dominates the fund followed by Multi-Utilities (38.85%). The fund charges 14 bps in investor fees per year. The ETF has posted gains of 7.3% in the past month. Vanguard Utilities ETF (NYSEARCA: VPU ) This ETF tracks the MSCI US Investable Market Utilities 25/50 Index. The fund holds 82 stocks in its basket. Duke Energy, NextEra Energy and Dominion Resources occupy the top four positions in the fund with a combined exposure of a little more than 20%. More than half of the fund’s assets are invested in Electric Utilities followed by Multi-Utilities (33.8%). The fund has amassed almost $2 billion in its asset base and trades in a moderate volume of 175,000 shares per day. The fund has a low expense ratio of 0.10%. The ETF has surged 7.6% in the last one-month period. iShares Dow Jones US Utilities (NYSEARCA: IDU ) The fund follows the Dow Jones U.S. Utilities Sector Index and holds 59 stocks in its basket. Duke Energy, NextEra Energy and Dominion Resources are placed among the top five stocks in the fund, together accounting for a share of more than 21% of total assets. On a sectoral basis, Electric Utilities (53.28%) and Multi-Utilities (34.51%) hold the top two positions in the fund. The fund manages an asset base of around $764 million and exchanges about 199,000 shares per day. It is a bit expensive with 44 bps in annual fees. IDU was up 7.5% in the last one-month period. Fidelity MSCI Utilities ETF (NYSEARCA: FUTY ) This ETF tracks the MSCI USA IMI Utilities Index. The fund holds 83 stocks in its basket. Duke Energy, NextEra Energy and Dominion Resources are among the top four in the fund with a combined exposure of a little more than 20%. More than half of the fund’s assets are invested in Electric Utilities followed by Multi-Utilities (33.8%). The fund has amassed almost $231 million in its asset base and trades in a moderate volume of 140,000 shares per day. The fund has an expense ratio of 0.12%. FUTY was up 7.5% in the last one-month period. Original Post

Clean Energy Fuels’ (CLNE) CEO Andrew Littlefair on Q4 2015 Results – Earnings Call Transcript

Operator Greetings, and welcome to the Clean Energy Fuels Fourth Quarter and Year End 2015 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I’d now like to turn the conference over to your host Mr. Tony Kritzer, Director of Investor Relations. Go ahead Mr. Kritzer. Tony Kritzer Thank you, operator. Earlier this afternoon, Clean Energy released financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ending December 31, 2015. If you did not receive the release, it is available on the Investor Relations section of the Company’s website at www.cleanenergyfuels.com, where the call is also being webcast. There will be a replay available on the website for 30 days. Before we begin, we’d like to remind you that some of the information contained in the news release and on this conference call, contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Words of expression reflecting optimism, satisfaction with current prospects, as well as words such as believe, intend, expect, plan, should, anticipate, and similar variations, identify forward-looking statements, but their absence does not mean that the statement is not forward-looking. Such forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of performance, and the Company’s actual results could differ materially from those contained in such statements. Several factors that could cause or contribute to such differences are described in detail in the Risk Factors section of the Clean Energy’s Form 10-K, filed March 3, 2015. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this release. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements or supply new information regarding the circumstances after the date of this release. The Company’s non-GAAP EPS and adjusted EBITDA will be reviewed on this call, and excludes certain expenses that the Company’s management does not believe are indicative of the Company’s core business operating results. Non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to results prepared in accordance with GAAP, and should not be considered as a substitute for, or superior to, GAAP results. The directly comparable GAAP information, reasons why management uses non-GAAP information, a definition of non-GAAP EPS and adjusted EBITDA, and a reconciliation between these non-GAAP and GAAP figures is provided in the Company’s press release, which has been furnished to the SEC on Form 8-K today. Participating on today’s call from the Company is President and Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Littlefair; and Chief Financial Officer, Bob Vreeland. And with that, I will turn the call over to Andrew. Andrew Littlefair Thank you, Tony. Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us. I’m going to keep my remarks focused on what we feel are the most important takeaways from 2015 and looking forward into 2016. For the fourth quarter, we delivered 78.3 million gallons to our customers. This is an 8% increase over the 72.4 million gallons we delivered during the fourth quarter of 2014. For the full year, we delivered 308.5 million gallons, 16% or 43-million-gallon increase. I think it’s important to remind everyone that despite the global oil price decline and the rippling effects it has caused throughout the energy industry, we’ve continued to grow our delivered volumes in every single quarter. We’re growing in the most challenging energy market in quite some time and our recurring revenue model is intact. We reported fourth quarter revenue of a $119 million which included $31 million of alternative fuel tax credit. For the full year, we reported revenue of $384 million. Revenue was down compared to last year, principally because of three reasons including lower commodity costs. While lower natural gas commodity prices are good for us and for our customers, they do impact our top line revenue. Revenues were also impacted by continued softness in the global compressor business due to lower oil prices and a strong U.S. dollar. And finally, our station construction revenues were down as compared to 2014 because we completed more station upgrade projects and fewer full stations. All total, we completed 67 station projects in 2015. It is important to note that our station construction projects tend to be cyclical between station upgrades versus full stations. And we anticipate construction revenues in 2016 to benefit from an increase of full station projects. We currently have more refuse station construction projects in the pipeline for 2016 than we’ve ever had in our history. We believe our robust construction pipeline is solid indicator that our customers continue to make investments in expanding their fleets and committed to their sustainability goals. As I’ve emphasized on previous earnings calls, natural gas fuelling is the most effective immediate solution a company can take towards achieving greater sustainability. These environmental benefits will be unmatched with the Cummins Westport Low NOx engine, especially when combined with our Redeem renewable fuel. This combination is cleaner than running an electric vehicle that is plugged into the grid. As we announced in early February, Redeem sales more than doubled in 2015 to 15 million gallons and have become an important fuel for customers like UPS, Ryder, Republic Services, and many transit agencies. Another significant point I’d like to make is that beginning in the third quarter of last year, we crossed over into positive adjusted EBITDA. We’re positive again in the fourth quarter with adjusted EBITDA of $32.9 million. Excluding the alternative fuel tax credit, our adjusted EBITDA was positive $1.9 million. Furthermore, we believe that we will continue to trend positively each quarter of 2016. Lastly, I want to provide an update on our capital structure. We finished 2015 with approximately $147 million of cash and investments on the balance sheet. Our highest and most immediate priority is to address the 2016 convertible notes, and we were paid $16 million of those notes with cash earlier this week. We expect to repay the remaining balance with the combination of cash and stock. We have also recently bought back $32.5 million of our 2018 convertible notes. Also, so far in the first quarter, we reduced our convertible debt by $92.5 million. But, I want to emphasize that we already have several incoming sources of cash including positive EBITDA, a credit line based on working capital, the alternative fuel tax credit and proceeds from our at-the-market-stock sale program. Our principal uses of cash this year will be for CapEx, interest expense, the opportunistic buyback of the 2018 convertible notes, and paying the remainder of the cash portion of the 2016 convertible notes. We believe our cash position will be about the same at the end of 2016 as it was at the end of 2015; this, even after addressing the 2016 converts and the portion of the 2018 convertible notes. Our CapEx budget for 2016 is about $25 million, which has been reduced by more than 50% from 2015. This will be a targeted only for projects for key anchor fleet customers. I want to reiterate that our business continues to grow because our largest customers continue to invest in their natural gas fleet operation. And our scale and expertise allows us to be their partner of choice across the country. We also continue to gain new customers across our markets of transit, refuse and trucking. The natural gas fuelling industry although facing current headwinds, will continue to be the most cost effective in environmentally beneficial solution for commercial fleets and is here to stay. The pressure of consumer-facing companies to reduce their carbon footprint and emission levels, only [Technical Difficulty] Operator Ladies and gentlemen, please stand by. Ladies and gentlemen, we do apologize for the inconvenience. Our speaker line has disconnected. Give us one moment, and we’ll get them right back. Sorry about that. Gentlemen, we’re back. Andrew Littlefair Good. Well, sorry everybody. It looked like our call dropped. I was just wrapping my remarks. Let me just say that our focus for 2016 is very straight forward, deleveraging the balance sheet; conserving cash; and growing volumes. And with that I’ll turn the call over to Bob. Bob Vreeland Thank you, Andrew and good afternoon to everyone. Overall we had a good fourth quarter with 8% volume growth from a year ago and positive adjusted EBITDA. As Andrew mentioned, annual volumes grew by 43 million gallons or 16.4%. We’ve seen growth in all of our sectors including refuse, transit, trucking and industrial. On our renewable natural gas, we saw decline compared to 2014 due to the sale of our Dallas biomethane plant at the end of 2014. Our revenues for the fourth quarter of 2015 and for the year were less than the same periods in 2014, which is consistent with what we have seen during the first three quarters of 2015. However, it’s important to note that we have improved our adjusted EBITDA in 2015, despite the lower revenue, in part as a result of lower commodity costs, improved operating results at our compression business, lower SG&A spending, together with gross profit margin benefits from our volume growth. Our gross profit margin per gasoline gallon equivalent for the fourth quarter including our low carbon fuel standards credits or LCFS credits was $0.28 per gallon, which compares to $0.28 per gallon in the fourth quarter of 2014. For clarification, we have included the LCFS credits in our volume related revenue and gross profit margin per gallon similar to how we include our RIN credits in our volume related revenue and margin per gallon, and will continue this approach on a go forward basis. While we have seen some pressure on fuel margins from this low oil and diesel price environment, the environmental credits or RINs in the LCFS have benefited our gross profit margin per gallon in 2015. This is testament to the fact that we have both economics associated with fuelling natural gas and additional economic benefits from the environmental attributes of our product offering. Clean Energy Compression Corp. also saw improvements in gross margin as we continue to move in to a standardized product offering. Our SG&A spending of $26.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2015 was 12% lower than a year ago and 4% lower than the third quarter. Throughout 2015, we took appropriate actions on SG&A spending, given the lower price environment and have seen a reduction each quarter. On a year-over-year basis, we have reduced SG&A by approximately $13 million or 10%. And compared to 2013, SG&A has been reduced 18% or $24 million while volumes have increased 44%. Also because we have been successful in sourcing LNG from 27 different locations across the U.S. and since we are closely monitoring and reducing our CapEx, we cancelled our $200 million credit facility with GE, which we put in place three years ago, specifically to finance the construction of two additional LNG plants. Since we never initiated construction of the LNG plants, this facility was undrawn. However, the cancellation of the credit facility meant we could cancel $4 million issued but on debts and warrants. This had the effect of the $54.9 million non-cash interest charge of Q4 and saved us around $1 million annually in cash from not having to pay standby commitment fees. Our adjusted EBITDA for fourth quarter of 2015 was $32.9 million compared to the $37.2 million in 2014, although from a comparability standpoint, 2014 included a $12 million gain from the sale of our Dallas biomethane plant. Our adjusted EBITDA has improved each quarter in 2015, crossing over the positive adjusted EBITDA in Q3 and again in Q4. We see this trend continuing into 2016. For the year, adjusted EBITDA was $27.8 million compared to $23.7 million in 2014. Keep in mind, 2014 included the $12 million gain. Regarding the alternative fuel tax credit what we refer to as VETC, we recorded $31 million of VETC revenue in December 2015, representing VETC for the full year of 2015. On a side note, we collected the $31 million last week. Going forward, in 2016, we will recognize VETC on a quarterly basis, since the tax credit is in effect through the end of 2016. As Andrew mentioned, we have reduced our convertible note debt by $92.5 million thus far in the first quarter of 2016. We utilized existing cash and established a $50 million line of credit, which has a significantly lower interest rate than the convertible debt and is collateralized by a portion of our short-term investments. With that operator, we’ll open the call for questions. Question-and-Answer Session Operator Thank you, gentlemen. At this time, will be conduction a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Rob Brown from Lake Street Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question. Rob Brown On your gallon volume growth, you had nice growth in 2015. What sort of you’re thinking on 2016, should you be able to get double-digit volume growth in 2016 as well? Andrew Littlefair Rob, we probably don’t typically quote a number on that going forward in giving guidance. But one of the strengths that we have is our recurring model. So, we’re seeing very good continuation of the strength of our refuse business and we’ve actually had some good wins in transit. And our transit customers continue to take transit buses. So, we’ll have increase in volume. I’m not going to go out on a limb right and give you exactly if it’s going to be double digits or not. But we have built in our budget a good volume growth. And I don’t know that it will hit — for years and years, we are in the 20% range, Rob, or down a little bit on last year, could be a little bit challenge compared to 2015. But I think it will be in that neighborhood because our existing customers continue to take more vehicles. Rob Brown And then, you talked about a new contract pipeline — sorry, new contraction pipeline being quite large. Can you talk sort of how many units or what industries they’re for, and maybe scope that a little bit? Andrew Littlefair We kind of have two buckets of contraction, some of our own account. And when you look at that CapEx, you have to take out — $25 million, you have take out a portion of that for some trailers that will happen at our Natural Gas Advantage subsidiary. The remainder or the majority of it’s for new stations. And those are for our account; those are station that we own. And you can figure, those stations range around $1.5 million apiece or so. Some of that money in that $25 million will go to open up our truck-stop stations, as we make some of those; we had some CNG to it and things like that. But the bulk of our construction, which should be on the par, I would say in terms of just building stations, if you think of that that way, we did, as I said in my remarks, 57 or so last year. We’ll be in that almost identical, if not up a few from that. Most of those stations will be for our customers and we sell those stations for those customers. And majority of that will be worked and we’ll do for our refuse customers. We really have seen our refuse customers across the board continue to add vehicles, add stations. As I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we kind of see the construction business ebb and flow, Republic is good example and so is Waste. But, Republic will build stations for Republic in one given year. The next year, they add another 10 or so percent of vehicles at those sites. And so, we will necessarily build more stations, will increase the size of those stations. And then the next year we typically add more stations and so goes. So, the majority of the stations that we’ll see in our construction business will go for refuse. And then we will have pretty good business this year on the transit side, some of which we announced yesterday. Rob Brown And then last question on your balance sheet. I think you said you paid down your — good chunk of your convert in the first quarter here. What’s sort of your plan? I guess it’s due in August. Do you plan to pay — kind of what’s the timing on that rest of that payment, and what’s your plan there? Andrew Littlefair What we said, Rob, is we would take care of it, before it’s due, right? We have several months. And so, it’s really a balance of using cash and stock. We would rather — to the extent, we are going to use stock, we’d like it to be at a higher price and because it therefore will be less dilutive to the Company and its shareholders. And so we will keep an eye on that. We are in very close communication, as you would imagine with those noteholders, having just sent them something $60 million. They understand what we are trying to do, as they are working with us, I think in a very cooperative fashion. And because there wasn’t really anything in those notes that would allow us to prepay. So, they are working with us. And we would like to use as much cash as possible. And so I would say, just watch us over the next several months, as we look to what the oil price does and other things. In the sort of in the summer here, we’ll begin to take care of, clean it all up. Operator Our next question comes from the line of Eric Stine from Craig Hallum. Please proceed with your question. Eric Stine Maybe just [ph] an overall market picture, I mean clearly the people on the fence are probably not doing a whole lot. But just curious, are you seeing any changes to the plans as some of the first movers, any changes in behavior from the shippers due to low oil prices? Andrew Littlefair Eric, you have it exactly the way I talk about it. I mean if you kind of break our business down and you have those customers that have been with us a long time, and I don’t see that there is — has any — hasn’t been really any chink in the armor. Those refuse customers, I mean there hasn’t been a one that has — that decided to go back to diesel. And really that’s been the case even in our over-the-road trucking customers. UPS is continuing to move forward on big deployment of natural gas trucks. But certainly, our transit customers and our refuse guys are moving forward. And I really feel like the economics are still there. We have to remind for the people on the call, let’s remember, we still have an economic proposition, not as good as it was a year ago. But we are still saving versus the other fuel. And Eric, the other I think important point is with all of this going on, with the climate change and talks in Paris, and what you see all the time is sustainability is and continues to be really important thing that these consumer companies, what we call the shippers, they are very mindful of that. And the new rule’s being talked about in California going forward, starting the next couple of years. The introduction of low NOx engines has really kind of raised the bar in terms of NOx emissions. And so, look, this isn’t lost. I spoke to the executive leadership of the American Trucking Association out here in California a month ago, and they are very mindful of fact that the bar continues to be raised in terms of them being cleaner and less carbon. So, right now, while we’re a little pressed on the economics, the payouts gone from maybe at $1 — maybe one year payback little longer to — now it’s closer to two years, we still have an economic offering. And our shipper friends are still putting pressure on our contracted carriers to look for the cleanest option. And so, you’re right. Those that were on the fence this — $1.60 diesel in the Southeast, this has been very challenging, and I understand why they continue to watch. And those people that have been invested continue to move forward with the program. Eric Stine And maybe just sticking with the emissions angle, there’s been a lot of chatter lately about pairing Redeem with the low NOx 8.9-liter that I believe is coming out next month. Just curious, I mean are there any fleet opportunities you see out there that are weighting on that engine? And then maybe any government programs whether it’s Prop 1B funding or others that fit into that? Andrew Littlefair It’s a good point, Eric. I think we really have captured fuels. In fact there was a conference, industry conference, pretty well attended out here at Long Beach couple of weeks ago where it was called game changer, and it was the introduction of this low NOx engine. And remember this engine is 90% less NOx and you compare it — I mean sorry you combine it with our Redeem product and you’re 90% less carbon. That’s really powerful. In my remarks, I said it’s even — it’s cleaner than electric vehicle. And it’s substantially cleaner than anything that’s on the books right now. So, we see that as very important thing in the future. It won’t come to the 12-liter for another couple of years in 2018. You are exactly right, that engine is now — if you are ready to order one of those engines, you go to the OEMs and that process is kind of in the works, as we speak. I think you are going to see some efforts to put these engines with that fuel in the port of LA as they continue to work on cleaning up the environment down there. There’s talk of new standards in California where a portion of renewable natural gas will be required, going forward. So, yes, I really think that for natural gas the renewable fuel is going to be an important piece, as well as this engine. I’m excited about it because it really ups the game, ups the ante for all the other competing alternative fuels. I mean the electrics can’t there on heavy duty on cost basis, and other fuels are just really miles behind. So, when we get a little help on the oil price, you’re going to be able to see really powerful economics again and this environmental advantage with the low NOx and with the low carbon fuel. Eric Stine Maybe just last one from me, just on the SG&A, just any thoughts on additional levers there; good to see that come down again, just wondering how we should think about that trending in 2016? Bob Vreeland Hi, Eric; it’s Bob. Trending, there’s room there. I don’t know that it’ll reduce every single quarter but there’s more room to — that that will trend a little bit down, probably for the whole year. Andrew Littlefair We’ve made additional trim, additional reduction. Keep in mind, we’re growing. And so there’s a limit here. I mean, as Bob mentioned for the last couple of years, we’ve grown 40% on volume or so and we’ve reduced our SG&A by 18% or whatever it is. And we’re continuing to cut this year. We’re beginning to get to the point where it’s — we’re getting kind of close to I think being at about the right level on the SG&A spending. So, I guess if you look at it going forward, if you’re doing some modeling, you’re beginning to get it about I think where you could kind of level it off, at this level. We may see it come down a little bit more. Bob Vreeland Right. And that’s just because some of the actions that we’ve taken. You haven’t seen a full year in ‘15, and so it’s not so much about taking more actions, it’s about kind of feeling the effects of what we’ve already done for a full year. But that ends up being a little bit less than say, if you were to go in and start taking some other actions. Operator Our next question comes from the line of Ian Scime with Highbridge Capital. Please proceed with your question. Ian Scime This is really just a housekeeping item. So, first off, we’re really encouraged to see the proactive measures that you guys are taking to address the balance sheet. So just a quick question on VETC. Additional $31 million that you guys got came in after quarter-end, correct? So, if I think about your pro forma cash before the debt repurchases, it’s actually closer to $180 million. Is that correct? Bob Vreeland Yes, we received that here in the last week. Ian Scime And then going forward, it’s on a quarterly basis, correct? Bob Vreeland Yes. And there is a filing piece. So, we’ll recognize it in our numbers for sure. The collection then is a little bit depending upon the U.S. government. Operator Our next question comes from the line of Pavel Molchanov from Raymond James. Please proceed with your question. Pavel Molchanov First, kind of a small housekeeping follow-up on the previous question. What was operating cash flow in Q4? It was still negative because you hadn’t collected the VETC, is that right? Bob Vreeland Yes. It was about negative 11 in Q4. Pavel Molchanov Okay, got it. Bob Vreeland So, because we were year-to-date about negative 1, and we ended 2015 at negative 12. Pavel Molchanov Okay, perfect. And then little more broadly. So, you guys have had some PR about supplying LNG fuel ships on the West Coast. There was a deal signed couple of weeks ago between Shell and Maersk to develop the LNG marine fuel market. Is that still kind of an early stage opportunity or are you actually seeing some more substance to that addressable market? Andrew Littlefair I think it’s still early. But, as I think you pointed out, it seems to continue to — we keep seeing twins pop up here and there. I think there has been a few other ship announcements on both coasts. It seems like there is a trend there but it’s slow, right? You’ve got to repower these ships, it takes time and drydock and these engines, it seems to me slow. So, I don’t think you are going to see it hockey stick here but it seems like there is more happening all the time on that front. Pavel Molchanov Okay. Is there any hope for LNG volumes because it seems like they’re on a continual downward trend for you guys? Bob Vreeland They’re a little flat, yes. but — and I would say there is hope. Yes, absolutely because… Andrew Littlefair Yes, I think so. I think you are going to see — our view is that as the adoption rate picks up — I mean it’s going to be essentially flat I think on the heavy duty trucking side. We saw — LNG was flat mainly, the trucking increased actually but it was flat because of the oil patch and where we’re selling LNG and the oil patch. So, last year that part of the business, the stationary part was down. I think that over a longer period of time, and leaving the oil patch aside and have small plants and some other things that we’ve done is that we still believe, and I know you and I have disagreed over time on this but we see that the LNG will be viable in the regular part of the business. It’s been successful. Our Raven friends who have just added more trucks here that we’ve released yesterday and we have some other customers that are doing the same. So, I think as we kind of get by this environment where it’s been relatively flat, where you see the CNG versus LNG split got 70-30 or so, I still think there is plenty of room for the LNG. So, I think and over time, as this spreads and goes into more fleets, gets a little deeper into the country and it becomes the more sleeper cast, [ph] more a regular route, you will see LNG take a good care of that market because of the advantages that it has range and weight and another things. Operator There are no further questions at this time. I’d like to turn the conference back over to Andrew Littlefair for any closing comments. Andrew Littlefair Good. Thank you, operator. And thank you all for dialing in this afternoon. We look forward to updating you all on our progress next quarter. Bye-bye. Thank you. Operator Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today’s teleconference. Thank you for your time and participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time. 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