RUTLAND, VT — (Marketwire) — 02/29/12 — Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CWST), a regional vertically-integrated solid waste, recycling and resource management services company, today reported financial results for its third quarter fiscal year 2012, and provided updated guidance for its 2012 fiscal year.
Highlights for the quarter included:
For the quarter ended January 31, 2012, revenues were $114.6 million, up $3.0 million or 2.6 percent from the same quarter last year. Operating income was $4.4 million for the quarter, down $1.9 million from the same quarter last year. The company–s net loss attributable to common shareholders was ($24.6) million, or ($0.92) per common share for the quarter, compared to a net loss of ($6.4) million, or ($0.24) per share for the same quarter last year.
US GreenFiber LLC incurred a ($10.2) million non-cash goodwill impairment charge during the quarter. The company–s 50 percent share of this charge was recorded as a ($5.1) million pre-tax charge to loss from equity method investments. The company also recognized a ($10.7) million non-cash impairment of equity method investment charge during the quarter to write down the book value of its investment in US GreenFiber.
“Most of the core fundamentals of the business were positive in the quarter, with higher collection pricing, improving landfill volumes, and continued customer adoption of Zero-Sort® Recycling services driving higher recycling volumes,” said John W. Casella, chairman and CEO of Casella Waste Systems. “However, lower energy prices and weaker recycling commodity prices were a significant offset to our fundamental strengths.”
“As a result of the sharp drop in natural gas prices in the late fall, energy prices fell over $30 per megawatt hour at our waste-to-energy facility, leading to a $1.4 million decline in operating income year-over-year,” Casella said. “Recycling commodity prices also declined last quarter, with commodity prices down 13 percent year-over-year and down 25 percent from our second quarter to third quarter. While our hedging strategies worked as expected and absorbed much of the pricing pressure, the lower prices negatively impacted operating income by $0.7 million year-over-year. Commodity prices have rebounded from the December lows, but we still expect pricing comparisons to remain negative for the next 2 to 3 quarters.”
“Over the past couple of months we have completed important long-term strategic initiatives,” Casella said. “These accomplishments include:
“On February 8, 2012, the Massachusetts DEP issued a permit to increase the annual limit at the Southbridge Sanitary Landfill to 300,000 tons per year of municipal solid waste (MSW) from the previous annual limit of 180,960 tons per year. Also, in January we started to sell electricity from our newly constructed 1.6 megawatt per hour landfill gas-to-energy facility at the site.
“On February 22, 2012, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court reissued an opinion dismissing an appeal filed by several 10-citizen groups contesting the 2008 Site Assignment for Southbridge Sanitary Landfill. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court dismissed the appeal on its merits and stated that their decision brings final resolution to the case.
“On January 17, 2012, the Town of Bethlehem, New Hampshire voters approved a zoning change and resultant settlement of on-going litigation, allowing an expansion of approximately 1.5 million tons at our North Country Environmental Services landfill. This expansion capacity nearly doubles the remaining airspace at the facility.”
Due to the negative impact of drastically lower energy prices and protracted weakness in special waste landfill volumes, the company adjusted its fiscal year guidance in the following categories:
Revenues between $476.0 million and $482.0 million.
Adjusted EBITDA* between $100.0 million and $103.0 million.
Free Cash Flow* between $0.0 million and $3.0 million.
In addition to disclosing financial results prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in the United States (GAAP), the company also discloses earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, adjusted for accretion, depletion of landfill operating lease obligations, gain on sale of assets, development project charge write-off, as well as legal settlement charge (Adjusted EBITDA) which is a non-GAAP measure. The company also discloses Free Cash Flow, which is defined as net cash provided by operating activities, less capital expenditures attributable to growth and maintenance, less payments on landfill operating leases, less assets acquired through financing leases, plus proceeds from the sales of assets and property and equipment, plus contributions from non-controlling interest holder, which is a non-GAAP measure. Adjusted EBITDA is reconciled to net income (loss), while Free Cash Flow is reconciled to net cash provided by operating activities.
The company presents Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow because it considers them important supplemental measures of its performance and believes they are frequently used by securities analysts, investors and other interested parties in the evaluation of the company–s results. Management uses these non-GAAP measures to further understand the company–s “core operating performance.” The company believes its “core operating performance” represents its on-going performance in the ordinary course of operations. The company believes that providing Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow to investors, in addition to corresponding income statement and cash flow statement measures, affords investors the benefit of viewing its performance using the same financial metrics that the management team uses in making many key decisions and understanding how the core business and its results of operations may look in the future. The company further believes that providing this information allows its investors greater transparency and a better understanding of its core financial performance. In addition, the instruments governing the company–s indebtedness use EBITDA (with additional adjustments) to measure its compliance with covenants such as interest coverage, leverage and debt incurrence.
Non-GAAP financial measures are not in accordance with or an alternative for GAAP. Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow should not be considered in isolation from or as a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with GAAP, and may be different from Adjusted EBITDA or Free Cash Flow presented by other companies.
Casella Waste Systems, Inc., headquartered in Rutland, Vermont, provides solid waste management services consisting of collection, transfer, disposal, and recycling services in the northeastern United States. For further information, contact Ned Coletta, vice president of finance and investor relations at (802) 772-2239, or Ed Johnson, chief financial officer at (802) 772-2241, or visit the company–s website at .
The Company will host a conference call to discuss these results on Thursday, March 1, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. ET. Individuals interested in participating in the call should dial (877) 548-9590 or (720) 545-0037 at least 10 minutes before start time. The call will also be webcast; to listen, participants should visit Casella Waste Systems– website at and follow the appropriate link to the webcast. A replay of the call will be available on the company–s website, or by calling (855) 859-2056 or (404) 537-3406 (Conference ID 52843471) until 11:59 p.m. ET on Thursday, March 8, 2012.
Certain matters discussed in this press release are “forward-looking statements” intended to qualify for the safe harbors from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can generally be identified as such by the context of the statements, including words such as “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “plan,” “may,” “will,” “would,” “intend,” “estimate,” “guidance” and other similar expressions, whether in the negative or affirmative. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about the industry and markets in which we operate and management–s beliefs and assumptions. We cannot guarantee that we actually will achieve the plans, intentions, expectations or guidance disclosed in the forward-looking statements made. Such forward-looking statements, and all phases of our operations, involve a number of risks and uncertainties, any one or more of which could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in our forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include or relate to, among other things: current economic conditions that have adversely affected and may continue to adversely affect our revenues and our operating margin; we may be unable to reduce costs or increase pricing or volumes sufficiently to achieve estimated Adjusted EBITDA and other targets; landfill operations and permit status may be affected by factors outside our control; we may be required to incur capital expenditures in excess of our estimates; fluctuations in energy pricing or the commodity pricing of our recyclables may make it more difficult for us to predict our results of operations or meet our estimates; and we may incur environmental charges or asset impairments in the future. There are a number of other important risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements. These additional risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, those detailed in Item 1A, “Risk Factors” in our Form 10-K for the year ended April 30, 2011.
We undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
Note 1: Discontinued Operations
On January 23, 2011, we entered into a purchase and sale agreement and related agreements to sell non-integrated recycling assets and select intellectual property assets to a new company (the “Purchaser”) formed by Pegasus Capital Advisors, L.P. and Intersection LLC for $130,400 in gross proceeds. Pursuant to these agreements, we divested non-integrated recycling assets located outside our core operating regions of New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and northern Pennsylvania, including 17 Material Recovery Facilities (“MRFs”), one transfer station and certain related intellectual property assets. Following the transaction, we retained four integrated MRFs located in our core operating regions. As a part of the disposition, we also entered into a ten-year commodities marketing agreement with the Purchaser to market 100% of the tonnage from three of our remaining integrated MRFs.
We completed the transaction on March 1, 2011 for $134,195 in gross cash proceeds. This included an estimated $3,795 working capital and other purchase price adjustment, which was subject to further adjustment, as defined in the purchase and sale agreement. The final working capital adjustment, along with additional legal expenses related to the transaction, of $646 was recorded to gain (loss) on disposal of discontinued operations, net of income taxes in the first quarter of fiscal year 2012.
In the second quarter of fiscal year 2012, we recorded an additional working capital adjustment of $79 to gain (loss) on disposal of discontinued operations, net of income taxes, which related to our subsequent collection of receivable balances that were released to us for collection by the Purchaser.
During the third quarter of fiscal year 2011, we also completed the sale of the assets of the Trilogy Glass business for cash proceeds of $1,840.
The operating results of these operations, which relate only to prior fiscal year periods, have been reclassified from continuing to discontinued operations in the accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements. Revenues and loss before income tax provision attributable to discontinued operations for the three and nine months ended January 31, 2011 were $20,159, $1,369, $56,122, and ($323), respectively.
We allocate interest expense to discontinued operations. We have also eliminated certain immaterial inter-company activity associated with discontinued operations.
Note 2: Non – GAAP Financial Measures
In addition to disclosing financial results prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), we also disclose earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, adjusted for accretion, depletion of landfill operating lease obligations, gain on sale of assets, development project charge write-off, as well as legal settlement charges (Adjusted EBITDA) which is a non-GAAP measure. We also disclose Free Cash Flow, which is defined as net cash provided by operating activities, less capital expenditures attributable to growth and maintenance, less payments on landfill operating leases, less assets acquired through financing leases, plus proceeds from the sale of assets and property and equipment, plus contributions from the noncontrolling interest holder, which is a non-GAAP measure. Adjusted EBITDA is reconciled to net income (loss), while Free Cash Flow is reconciled to net cash provided by operating activities.
We present Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow because we consider them important supplemental measures of our performance and believe they are frequently used by securities analysts, investors and other interested parties in the evaluation of our results. Management uses these non-GAAP measures to further understand our “core operating performance.” We believe our “core operating performance” represents our on-going performance in the ordinary course of operations. We believe that providing Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow to investors, in addition to corresponding income statement and cash flow statement measures, provides investors the benefit of viewing our
performance using the same financial metrics that the management team uses in making many key decisions and understanding how the core business and its results of operations may look in the future. We further believe that providing this information allows our investors greater transparency and a better understanding of our core financial performance. In addition, the instruments governing our indebtedness use EBITDA (with additional adjustments) to measure our compliance with covenants such as interest coverage, leverage and debt incurrence.
Non-GAAP financial measures are not in accordance with, or an alternative for, GAAP in the U.S. Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow should not be considered in isolation from or as a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with GAAP in the U.S., and may be different from Adjusted EBITDA or Free Cash Flow presented by other companies.
Contact Information
Ned Coletta
Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations
(802) 772-2239
Ed Johnson
Chief Financial Officer
(802) 772-2241