Alto Ingredients, Inc.
Q4 2020 Earnings Call Transcript

Published: 11 Mar 2021

[Operator:]

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to Alto Ingredients Fourth Quarter and Year-End Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. Please be advised that today's call is being recorded. I would now like to hand the call over to Moriah Shilton. Please go ahead.

[Moriah Shilton:]

Thank you, Michelle, and thank you all for joining us today for the Alto Ingredients’ fourth quarter and full year 2020 results conference call. On the call today are Mike Kandris, CEO; and Bryon McGregor, CFO. Mike will begin with a review of business highlights, Bryon will provide a summary of the financial and operating results, and then Mike will return to discuss Alto Ingredients’ outlook and open the call for questions.

[Mike Kandris:]

Thank you, Moriah, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. I'm excited to be with you this morning to discuss the ongoing transformation of Alto Ingredients. I'll begin with a recap of the major milestone for the past 12 months, and then turn to a discussion of the business today and our business and growth drivers in 2021 and beyond. We entered 2020 with an annual ethanol/alcohol production capacity of 605 million gallons, 14% of which, or approximately 85 million gallons was specialty alcohol produced at our Pekin, Illinois campus. Our long-standing specialty alcohol business is profitable, but results have been obscured in the past few years, and more recently by operating losses in our renewable fuel business. We reduced our ethyl alcohol annual production capacity by 55% through a combination of idling unprofitable fuel ethanol plants and selling certain undervalued production assets to stem these unsustainable losses. The majority of the proceeds from our assets sales were used to repay debt and improve the company's balance sheet. Today we have total production capacity of 450 million gallons and our operating facilities with an annual production capacity of 290 million gallons. All operating facilities are at EBITDA breakeven or better.

[Bryon McGregor:]

Thank you, Mike, I'll discuss a few financial highlights and metrics for the fourth quarter and full year 2020 and provide some thoughts on our expectations, on certain metrics for 2021. For the fourth quarter of 2020 net sales were $169 million compared to $205 million in the third quarter. The decline resulting primarily from reduced demand for transportation fuels and rationalizing our third-party trading volumes to focus on profitable geographical segments. Our trading volume reduction was tempered by an increase in fuel grade ethanol production from our Pekin campus, mostly attributable to the restart of our dry mill that remained offline due to logistical constraints caused by extended Illinois river block repairs from June through October. As Mike noted earlier, we also saw a drop in customer demand for specialty alcohol, for sanitizer as retail shelves remained overstocked with lower quality sanitizer products. Net sales were down by $189 million as compared to the same period in 2019, reflecting the idling or sale of most of our renewable fuel production. Loss available to common shareholders was $20.5 million or $0.30 per diluted share compared to income of $14.9 million or $0.24 per share in the third quarter. This loss is attributable to the impairment charges of $24.4 million associated with our western assets and their transition to assets held for sale on the balance sheet. Without these one-time impairments, we would have generated a positive net income for both the fourth quarter and the full-year. Adjusted EBITDA was positive $16.4 million bringing our second half of 2020 adjusted EBITDA to $55.3 million within our guidance. For the full year of 2020 net sales were $897 million compared to $1.4 billion in 2019, reflecting the idling of most of our renewable fuel production. Cost of goods sold was $844 million, which resulted in gross profit of $53 million for 2020 compared to a gross loss of $10 million in 2019. Cost of goods sold also included approximately $19 million in gross loss associated with our idled production. We expect these costs to be lower going forward as we implement our strategic initiatives and reposition or further monetize the idle facilities. As Mike mentioned, we currently have earmarked approximately $20 million in capital projects this year, including the $5.5 million for use to expansion. The remaining balance is intended to fund projects that will further increase our production of higher value feed as well as improve the reliability, efficiency and safety of our operations.

[Mike Kandris:]

Thank you, Bryon. As you can see, we've now built a foundation based on consumer demand. We suspended and minimized the impact of unprofitable operations and reduced operating and overhead expenses. We also believe our transformation is far from complete. With a significantly improved balance sheet we are actively developing and exploring new build and buy opportunities to grow and expand our business to further increase revenues and profitability, while maintaining and controlling expenses. We look forward to sharing more information with you regarding our plans over the coming months and years. I'd now like to open the call for Q&A. Operator?

[Operator:]

Our first question comes from Eric Stine with Craig-Hallum. Your line is open.

[Eric Stine:]

Hi, Mike. Hi, Bryon.

[Mike Kandris:]

Hey, Eric.

[Eric Stine:]

Hey. So just trying to do the math here. And I know that you're kind of separating out the volumes that are not contracted and you're also separating out ethanol. But if I do the math, I mean, it feels to me like that's basically kind of an EBITDA guide of flat year-over-year roughly, but then obviously there would be above and beyond that spot market sales that sort of thing. I mean, is that a fair way to characterize it?

[Bryon McGregor:]

I suppose, I guess that you've got to take into account all of the other factors that occurred in 2020 that is not in the numbers that I just gave you. You've got the ethanol sales. You've got other items that are impacting those results as well. I would say that it's actually an improvement, but…

[Eric Stine:]

Okay. No, that's fair. I mean, just to be conservative, I mean, just to kind of set a baseline, just doing the math on your gross margin or your gross profit guide what you talked about for SG&A, so that's a good starting point. Maybe just curious then how do we think about the rest of it? So you've got $70 million under contract at better pricing. And maybe that's the reason why it's higher year-over-year, but then in terms of the additional, well, that you brought on, it sounds like you missed the window. So that's the reason why some of that additional $30 million, the G&A facility is not under contract. That, I mean – so how should we think about the rest of that? Because clearly I mean there's a lot more volume that will contribute above and beyond whatever we judge the guide to be for 2021 just on the base.

[Mike Kandris:]

Yes, we – I think one of the things we recognized, Eric, very early on, and Bryon commented on it, we saw the slowdown in sanitizer, which was kind of leading the charge in Q2 and Q3 and really bolstered the results. And immediately, we shifted our focus to doubling down on getting the certifications, working with customers like Procter & Gamble to intensify our efforts around gaining certifications that would give us a leg-up in terms of quality and the ability to penetrate new markets. And so that is where our focus is. You are absolutely right. We had 110 million gallons going into the contract period. The GNS system came on at the end of the year. And so we have that available to us or another 70 million gallons that we will work diligently to place during the course of the year. And definitely if you think about 2022 and 2023, all those gallons will definitely be in the contract cycle, and we need to be – we will be positioned to place those gallons going forward in future years. This year will be a big effort using our certifications and customer relations to be able to see what the proper direction is, but also to place some of those gallons during the course of 2021 at higher value.

[Eric Stine:]

Got it. But maybe not some of the spot sales that you saw, and I know it was focused on hand sanitizer more in Q2 and Q3. I mean, you're still planning to make spots sales of that remaining 70 million, that's not under contract, it's just that there's variability into what markets those might go into that sort of thing in terms of deciding to not include that as part of your outlook, is that fair?

[Mike Kandris:]

That's fair. And I think a couple of markets in addition to the consumer goods that we're working hard at to penetrate, we're seeing opportunities internationally. We have some longstanding relationships and we've seen that, as you know, we have an ability to move some of that specialty alcohol internationally. When the market spiked in 2020, basically there was very little that moved into the international market. Now we see that as an opportunity to place some of that incremental capacity. Bryon, would you like to be maybe…

[Bryon McGregor:]

Eric, going in and out of that is again to just bring on the point is, is that we intend to produce that specialty alcohol, and we would expect that it would sell at a premium. But we're not framing that out for you with regards to – what’s that exactly is. It's not the same as fixed price contract.

[Eric Stine:]

No, absolutely. No, it makes total sense. And certainly, I mean, it helps obviously to have those two or the three certifications as you think about making those sales in various markets and you would command a premium sell. Okay. Then maybe just last one for me. So I guess not a surprise that you made the decision to sell some of the Western plants, it’s just a thought process, it sounds like you're just going to sell the California plants. And I know you're producing CO2 out of one of the others. What's the thinking on keeping the two, the one in Oregon and the one in Idaho?

[Mike Kandris:]

What we will continue to do is monitor where we are with both of those locations. Again, we've said publicly, we know for the long-term we have to redo some repurposing. If we are going to run those plants to make sure that we can maintain profitable operations on a consistent basis. The Magic Valley location is very unique and that it has kind of a unique market. The markets we serve out of that location typically have commanded reasonable pricing. And we're looking at things like high protein at all our dry mills, basically to take advantage of what we enjoy at our wet mill, which we've been doing for an awful long time. We're looking currently at expanding that into our dry mills where it makes sense. So it's a work in progress on Oregon and Idaho. We're going to work hard to see if there is a positive path forward. With California, we looked hard at those and basically came to the conclusion that we needed to monetize those facilities.

[Eric Stine:]

And then I'm sorry, just maybe one last one. Can you just remind us of the carrying costs, most recent carrying costs of, I guess, maybe just stick with the two in California, since those are top of mind.

[Bryon McGregor:]

Yes. On an EBITDA basis, they cost us anywhere between $200,000 and $300,000 a month each.

[Eric Stine:]

Okay. Thank you.

[Mike Kandris:]

Thanks, Eric.

[Operator:]

Our next question comes from Amit Dayal with H. C. Wainwright. Your line is open.

[Amit Dayal:]

Thank you. Good morning, Mike. Good morning, Bryon.

[Mike Kandris:]

Good morning.

[Amit Dayal:]

Hi. On the margin front, could you give us just a color on the specialty alcohol margins? And excluding ethanol, it looks like ethanol is still sort of pressuring or depressing margins that you’ve guided. It’d be nice to get a sense of what the specialty alcohol margins on a standalone basis are.

[Bryon McGregor:]

So I guess what I'd say is we're not prepared to provide for various reasons proprietary – and competitive reasons, We’re not prepared to provide that detail, but what you can see is from the information that we've given you is that on the gallons that are contracted that they'll be contributing at a minimum $60 million in gross margin or gross profit. So you can probably do the math at least then look on an aggregated basis what the contract volumes are for. And then I guess what I also emphasize is I was thinking about the question, the prior question that we got, what is it that we actually have volumes that are contracted for more than the 70 million, but we have paired that for this discussion to that 70 million gallons, because we just – you don't know what's going to happen with the sanitizer, that product is going into the sanitizer market.

[Amit Dayal:]

Understood. And with respect to the specialty alcohol business, is there any seasonality in that, Bryon? Or is it pretty just steady volumes every quarter?

[Bryon McGregor:]

There's a little bit of seasonality, but I don't think anything that you need to make adjustments for in your model.

[Amit Dayal:]

Okay. Understood. Interest payments for 2021, could you give us a sense of – I know you said that they're going to be around $14 million lower. And in that context, by 2022, will there be – will you eliminate another significant portion of debt potentially given if some of these assets seem to go through?

[Mike Kandris:]

Yes.

[Amit Dayal:]

So just trying to get a sense of what the interest burden on the company for 2021 is.

[Mike Kandris:]

So I guess, worst case scenario is we have the senior notes mature in December of this year, we certainly intend to try and pay those off earlier than expected. We're actually obligated to use the proceeds from asset sales, particularly Western asset sales for the reduction of that debt or elimination of that debt. So, yes, we would expect that to come down significantly. But even if you carry that through maturity, it's a significant – we're talking about, we made a payment in January on the senior notes of $5 million. So we're basically at a $20.5 million balance on the senior notes. And we would continue to expect to make at a minimum reductions in amortizing payments on that debt through maturity. So it's fairly – well particularly comparatively to whether it was last year, it's pretty nominal.

[Amit Dayal:]

Understood. Thank you. And just one last one on the carbon storage side, Mike, here what should we be looking for in terms of developments that need to come through for you guys to take the next steps in the moving towards maybe commercializing this opportunity?

[Mike Kandris:]

Yes. We will provide more information as we get. We're very optimistic and excited about that opportunity. Again, we're uniquely positioned from a geology standpoint and we also produce at that campus a substantial amount of CO2 that would work well with the project. We have a couple of parties that we are discussing opportunities with, when we know more we'll certainly share that with you, but we are optimistic about. It's a long-term project, make no mistake about it, but it's a real mover. If you can pull it together and again, we're uniquely positioned to take advantage of that.

[Amit Dayal:]

Understood. That's all I have guys. Thank you so much.

[Mike Kandris:]

Thanks, Amit.

[Operator:]

Our next question comes from Hamed Khorsand with BWS Financial. Your line is open.

[Hamed Khorsand:]

Hi, First I wanted to see if you encountered any competitive pressures during the contracting period and if that was resulting in any kind of pricing pressure or anything like that?

[Bryon McGregor:]

I'd say no more than, I mean it is a competitive business, right. And again, we expected as we had these discussions back in May, June, July, as we had discussions – discussed our quarterly results and then phone calls and then like. We expected that for lack of a better term, the benefits of the increased demand and the pricing that was occurring around the sanitizer product would help lift prices on the other products. And we saw that, but I would also say that, you weren't seeing the same times of premiums by the time you hit the contract period that you otherwise were seeing in May and June, which is normal, right. You would expect that these peak markets don't last long. And but I think that, we're optimistic and it's why we again made decisions early on in that contracting process, whether it was in May, in June to make sure that we are connected with customers that we thought had long-term, long standing incumbency that would allow us to continue to strengthen and deepen those relationships and not just sell one product, but multiple products.

[Mike Kandris:]

Yes. I would add just that, definitely the customer base that we're dealing with when it comes to the higher grades of alcohol, it's all about quality. It's all about process. I's all about consistency, those type of things and spending the time, energy and financial resources to get the certifications was imperative for us to be able to work with those customers, you did not see the volatility and change once you have locked in with a customer and they are satisfied that you're a key member of their supply chain and you do things the right way. And our goal is to continue to build on that, because the more you can do that, it does create an opportunity to have a long-term relationship with really key people. And when you're dealing with high quality companies, it even becomes more important.

[Hamed Khorsand:]

And what's the strategy behind getting your utilization rates up? I mean, it still remained pretty low in Q4?

[Bryon McGregor:]

When you say utilization rates, you're talking about overall production, you mean the utilization of the production capacity, I mean production versus capacity?

[Hamed Khorsand:]

Yes. The overall production capacity.

[Mike Kandris:]

Yes. I think, if you look at the way the Pekin Campus where we have 56% is specialty alcohol and we have our high value feed products, which don't want to ignore, that's a big contributor and a great piece of business for our company. That capacity is running quite well, we have a dry mill at the Pekin campus that we brought back online in Q4. That is one of the top tier producing plants. It shares, it has the benefit of being part of a campus. And it it's operating at a better than breakeven. As far as the other capacity, we just – we look at it from the standpoint of is it better to keep them idled or/and bear the idle cost or to try to run them at margins that just don't make sense. And that's – so we carefully monitor that, we look at it, daily, weekly, and that's why we decided to bring the dry mill on Pekin back on, because we saw that we could generate positive margin there. So it's a – look at it every day and we're running the capacity we know is at breakeven or better.

[Hamed Khorsand:]

All right. And my other question was on the gross profit guidance. Does that also include the corresponding ethanol sale that would be coincided with the 70 million gallons?

[Bryon McGregor:]

No. The framework that we gave you was related only to the contracted specialty alcohol.

[Hamed Khorsand:]

Okay. If you're producing 70 million of specialty alcohol, I would have to assume that you're also producing 70 million gallons of ethanol – fuel ethanol as well, right?

[Bryon McGregor:]

Yes. More or less. I mean, if you can optimize it’d be somewhere around 60

[Hamed Khorsand:]

And my final question is, I mean as far as hand sanitizer is concerned, your customers have been very much publicly talking about hand sanitizer demand being up this year versus 2019 levels, but then they're not really contracting with you? Why that kind of talk, but not really falling through with any kind of contracting with you?

[Bryon McGregor:]

Yes. I don't know – I'm not sure that I agree with the premise of the question in the context of they're not contracting with us indeed. We had in fall of last year, 110 million gallons of which we contracted materially the majority of that product. To assume that you're going to actually start up a plant in first quarter or second quarter of this year and think that you're already going to sell product is I think questionable given the current supplies and capacity in the marketplace.

[Mike Kandris:]

Yes we deal with folks that are household names in the sanitizer, hand sanitizer world. And we talked to them, we follow, we have contracted substantial amounts of their business, but it's more or less given the glut of product that's out there and a lot of the subpar product that came into the market in Q4. They're taking a wait and see look in terms of what – how much they want to contract until they see that the inventory has been liberated. And we do expect, again as we said in our remarks that once people get back out and drive, and schools, and arenas and so forth, we could see that volume go up. But we're – like in 2020, we're not rolling forward the exact same volumes of 2020. We're taking a very conservative approach.

[Hamed Khorsand:]

Okay. Thank you.

[Mike Kandris:]

Thanks Hamed.

[Operator:]

At this time, I'd like to turn the call back over to Mike Kandris for closing remarks.

[Mike Kandris:]

I want to thank everybody for joining us today, and we're excited about Alto Ingredients, the foundation we’ve built and the opportunities for growth going forward. And we look forward to speaking to you in the near future. Thank you very much.

[Operator:]

Well, ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Everyone have a great day.