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Fairmount's Proppant Segment Sees 40% Upswing in Demand

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   |    Tuesday,November 11,2014

Fairmount Santrol announced results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2014.

Highlights:

  • Quarterly Revenue of $373.5 Million Up 41% Over Prior Year
  • Net Income of $54.1 Million, or $0.32 Per Diluted Share, More Than Double Prior Year; Adjusted Earnings Per Diluted Share of $0.35, Up 52% Over Prior Year
  • Adjusted EBITDA of $116.9 Million Up 42% Over Same Period Last Year
  • Raw Sand Volumes Up 37%, Coated Proppant Volumes Up 51% Over Prior Year
  • Company Expects 2014 Full-Year Adjusted EBITDA in the Range of $390 Million to $395 Million

Jenniffer Deckard, president and chief executive officer, commented: "We are very pleased to report record results in our first earnings announcement since becoming a publicly traded company on October 3. In the third quarter, our proppant solutions business drove performance, achieving record levels in both volumes and profits. We remain focused on growing our business and creating value for our shareholders by increasing sand capacity and efficiencies, developing industry-leading resin and coating technologies, enhancing our logistics network, and building upon our commitment to sustainable development."

Third-Quarter 2014 Results

Third-quarter revenue totaled $373.5 million, up 41% from $265.7 million for the same period last year. The increase in quarterly revenue was primarily due to increased sales volumes in the Company's Proppant Solutions segment. Overall sales volumes increased to 2.6 million tons for the quarter, a 28% increase compared with 2.0 million tons in the third quarter of 2013. The overall volume growth was driven by the Proppant Solutions segment as industry dynamics accelerated demand in the marketplace for both raw sand and resin-coated proppants.

Adjusted EBITDA was $116.9 million, an increase of 42% compared with $82.1 million during this period last year and an increase of almost 20% sequentially over the second quarter of 2014.

Business Segments

Fairmount Santrol operates two business segments based on the primary end markets the Company serves -- Proppant Solutions and Industrial and Recreational Products (I&R). These complementary businesses sell to a wide range of customers across multiple end markets. This allows the Company to maximize both operating efficiencies and the recovery of its reserve base within its mining operations. Together, these segments offer a broad and innovative product suite that addresses more than 90% of the proppant market and multiple industrial end markets.

Proppant Solutions Segment

The Proppant Solutions business includes the mining, processing and distributing of high-performance sand and sand-based value-added (coated) proppants to the oil and gas exploration and production industry to enhance well productivity in hydraulic fracturing operations. Proppants are sized particles that are designed to hold fractures open after a hydraulic fracturing treatment. Resin-coated proppants provide proppant flowback resistance and greater strength to enhance conductivity at greater depths and closure stresses. The Proppant Solutions segment accounted for approximately 90% of the Company's revenue in the third quarter of 2014.

Total volumes in the quarter for this segment were 1.9 million tons, up 40% from 1.4 million tons a year ago and up 10% sequentially from 1.8 million tons in the second quarter of 2014. Raw sand proppant volumes in the third quarter were 1.5 million tons compared with 1.1 million tons last year and a sequential increase of 11% from 1.4 million tons in the second quarter of 2014. Coated proppant volumes during the quarter were 0.40 million tons, an increase of 51% over volumes of 0.27 million tons in the third quarter of 2013 and a sequential increase of 7% from 0.37 million tons in the second quarter of 2014.

Volume increases in the Proppant Solutions segment are being driven by strong market conditions for both raw sand and resin-coated proppants. Increased well counts and proppant intensity are driving unprecedented demand for both high-quality raw sand and resin-coated proppants. Additionally, well conditions and depths are driving further demand for the performance-enhancing properties of the Company's resin-coated proppants. Further, the Company's investments in additional processing capacity and logistics capabilities have well positioned Fairmount Santrol to capitalize on the growth in demand.

Proppant Solutions revenues for the quarter totaled $340.7 million, up 47% compared with $232.2 million for the same period in 2013, and a sequential increase of 13% from the second quarter of 2014. The significant increase in revenues reflects the increased volumes for both raw sand and resin-coated proppants noted above as well as the cumulative effect of price increases realized on raw sand in 2014. The Company also saw increased volumes in resin-coated proppants driven by the Company's strategic placement of new terminals in the Permian basin and by continued demand for the characteristics provided by the Company's curable specialty products.

Segment contribution margin was $125.1 million versus $82.4 million in the third quarter of 2013, an increase of 52%.

Industrial and Recreational Products Segment

The I&R segment provides high-quality sand and coated products, strong technical leadership and applications knowledge to the foundry, building products, sports and recreation, glassmaking and filtration industries.

Volume sold during the quarter totaled approximately 638,300 tons compared with approximately 632,000 tons sold in the third quarter of 2013.

I&R revenue for the quarter totaled $32.8 million compared with $33.5 million in the same period in 2013.

Segment contribution margin was $10.0 million versus $10.1 million in the third quarter of 2013.

Additional Operational Highlights

  • Three terminals added -- During the third quarter, the Company opened three new terminals. The Ada and Altus Oklahoma terminals are both in the mid-continent region bringing us to eight proppant terminals in that region. In addition, Fairmount Santrol opened a new terminal in Ohio, which is barge capable and serves the northeast region. All of these new terminals help improve logistics for the Company's customers by positioning product supply closer to the wellhead. These new additions bring the Company's total number of terminals serving all US basins to 49.
  • Illinois capacity expansion -- In mid-October, Fairmount Santrol announced it had received a favorable permit ruling from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency that gives the Company the option to expand the sand mining, processing and coating capacity of its Wedron, Illinois, operations. The permit ruling provides the Company with flexibility to expand the facility's sand capacity over the next 18 months from its current 4.4 million tons per year by up to an additional 3.5 million tons and allows for increased coating capacity for its value-added products. The Company will add 0.5 million tons of that newly permitted sand mining and processing capacity by January 2015 at the Wedron, Illinois facility.
  • Missouri facility operations -- The Company also expects to begin full-scale operations at its Brewer, Missouri sand facility by January 2015, providing an additional 1.0 million tons per year of Northern White sand processing capacity.

Financial Results

For the third quarter, net income was $54.1 million, or $0.32 per diluted share, compared with net income of $24.7 million, or $0.15 per diluted share, for the same period a year ago. Adjusted earnings per diluted share were $0.35, an increase of 52% over adjusted earnings per diluted share of $0.23 for the third quarter of last year. The increase in earnings was primarily due to a 37% increase in raw sand proppant volumes and a 51% increase in coated proppant volumes. The comparison of net income and earnings per share for the third quarters of 2014 and 2013 was impacted by a number of non-operating charges in both periods, which are provided in the accompanying table. Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter of 2014 was $116.9 million, up 42% over third-quarter 2013 Adjusted EBITDA of $82.1 million.

Capital Update

As of September 30, 2014, the Company had $45.1 million in cash and cash equivalents and $113.5 million available under its credit facilities. Total long-term debt at September 30, 2014 was $1.25 billion. The Company's leverage ratio was 3.47 at September 30, 2014 compared with 4.28 a year ago. Capital expenditures in the third quarter totaled $25.9 million and were associated with the completion of the Company's unit train capacity expansions and investments in additional sand processing and Propel SSP production capacities.

Business Outlook

For the full-year 2014, the Company expects to report Adjusted EBITDA in the range of $390 million to $395 million, an increase of 33% to 35% over 2013 Adjusted EBITDA of $293 million. "Based on robust current demand levels and feedback from customers, we are confident in meeting our full-year projections for a record 2014," Deckard said. "We will continue to monitor the market closely as we complete our planning process for 2015, and we will share our expectations for next year in our fourth-quarter earnings release and conference call in early February."