Hollyfrontier corporation reports quarterly net
income
Dallas--(business wire)--hollyfrontier corporation (nyse:hfc) (“hollyfrontier” or the “company”) today reported a fourth quarter net loss attributable to hollyfrontier stockholders of $43.9 million or $(0.24) per diluted share for the quarter ended december 31, 2015, compared to a net loss of $222.2 million or $(1.13) per diluted share for the quarter ended december 31, 2014. included in the current quarter results was a non-cash inventory valuation charge that decreased after-tax earnings by $88.0 million or $0.48 per share compared to $244.0 million or $1.25 per share for the quarter ended december 31, 2014. excluding this inventory valuation charge, after-tax earnings were $44.1 million, or $0.24 per share compared to $21.8 million, or $0.12 per share for the quarter ended december 31, 2014. net income attributable to our stockholders (exclusive of fourth quarter 2015 and 2014 inventory valuation charges) increased by $22.3 million for the quarter compared to the same period of 2014. this increase principally reflects lower operating costs and increased sales volumes, partially offset by a decrease in refining margins. for the fourth quarter, crude oil charges averaged 407,000 barrels per day ("bpd") and production levels averaged approximately 421,000 bpd. on a per barrel basis, consolidated refinery gross margin was $9.91 per produced barrel compared to $10.76 for the fourth quarter of 2014. total operating expenses for the quarter were $285.2 million compared to $318.4 million for the fourth quarter of last year. hollyfrontier’s president & ceo, george damiris, commented, “we have begun to see the benefits from the successful execution of our business improvement plan in our 2015 results. for the year, our reliability and process safety initiatives drove our refinery utilization rate to 97.6%, the highest level achieved since our merger and a 6% increase compared to our 2014 utilization rate of 91.7%. additionally, improved operational reliability, our cost management initiative and lower natural gas costs contributed to a 7% reduction in operating expenses compared to 2014. strong operational performance, improved realized margins and lower operating costs drove a 74% increase in earnings per share compared to 2014 (exclusive of inventory valuation charges).” for the fourth quarter of 2015, net cash provided by operations totaled $76.3 million. during the period, we declared a regular dividend of $0.33 per share to shareholders totaling approximately $60.1 million and spent $261.1 million on stock repurchases. at december 31, 2015, our combined balance of cash and short-term investments totaled $210.6 million, and our consolidated debt was $1.0 billion. our debt, exclusive of holly energy partners' debt which is nonrecourse to hollyfrontier, was $31.3 million at december 31, 2015. we had no cash borrowings or outstanding principal under the hollyfrontier credit facility during the quarter. the company has scheduled a webcast conference call for today, february 24, 2016, at 8:30 am eastern time to discuss fourth quarter financial results. this webcast may be accessed at: https://event.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1089438. an audio archive of this webcast will be available using the above noted link through march 9, 2016. hollyfrontier corporation, headquartered in dallas, texas, is an independent petroleum refiner and marketer that produces high-value light products such as gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel and other specialty products. hollyfrontier operates through its subsidiaries a 135,000 barrels per stream day (“bpsd”) refinery located in el dorado, kansas, two refinery facilities with a combined capacity of 125,000 bpsd located in tulsa, oklahoma, a 100,000 bpsd refinery located in artesia, new mexico, a 52,000 bpsd refinery located in cheyenne, wyoming and a 31,000 bpsd refinery in woods cross, utah. hollyfrontier markets its refined products principally in the southwest u.s., the rocky mountains extending into the pacific northwest and in other neighboring plains states. a subsidiary of hollyfrontier also owns a 39% interest (including the general partner interest) in holly energy partners, l.p. the following is a “safe harbor” statement under the private securities litigation reform act of 1995: the statements in this press release relating to matters that are not historical facts are “forward-looking statements” based on management’s beliefs and assumptions using currently available information and expectations as of the date hereof, are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks and uncertainties, including those contained in our filings with the securities and exchange commission. although we believe that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot assure you that our expectations will prove correct. therefore, actual outcomes and results could materially differ from what is expressed, implied or forecast in such statements. any differences could be caused by a number of factors, including, but not limited to, risks and uncertainties with respect to the actions of actual or potential competitive suppliers of refined petroleum products in the company’s markets, the demand for and supply of crude oil and refined products, the spread between market prices for refined products and market prices for crude oil, the possibility of constraints on the transportation of refined products, the possibility of inefficiencies, curtailments or shutdowns in refinery operations or pipelines, effects of governmental and environmental regulations and policies, the availability and cost of financing to the company, the effectiveness of the company’s capital investments and marketing strategies, the company’s efficiency in carrying out construction projects, the ability of the company to acquire refined product operations or pipeline and terminal operations on acceptable terms and to integrate any future acquired operations, the possibility of terrorist attacks and the consequences of any such attacks, general economic conditions and other financial, operational and legal risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in the company’s securities and exchange commission filings. the forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made and, other than as required by law, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. results of operations financial data (all information in this release is unaudited) three months endeddecember 31, years endeddecember 31, $ (6,526,407 ) (33 )% (7,677 ) balance sheet data segment information our operations are organized into two reportable segments, refining and hep. our operations that are not included in the refining and hep segments are included in corporate and other. intersegment transactions are eliminated in our consolidated financial statements and are included in consolidations and eliminations. the refining segment includes the operations of our el dorado, tulsa, navajo, cheyenne and woods cross refineries and hfc asphalt (aggregated as a reportable segment). refining activities involve the purchase and refining of crude oil and wholesale and branded marketing of refined products, such as gasoline, diesel fuel and jet fuel. these petroleum products are primarily marketed in the mid-continent, southwest and rocky mountain regions of the united states. additionally, the refining segment includes specialty lubricant products produced at our tulsa refineries that are marketed throughout north america and are distributed in central and south america. hfc asphalt operates various terminals in arizona, new mexico and oklahoma. the hep segment involves all of the operations of hep, a consolidated variable interest entity, which owns and operates logistics assets consisting of petroleum product and crude oil pipelines, terminals, tankage, loading rack facilities and refinery process units in the mid-continent, southwest and rocky mountain regions of the united states. the hep segment also includes a 75% interest in unev pipeline (an hep consolidated subsidiary) and 50% and 25% ownership interests in frontier pipeline and slc pipeline, respectively. revenues from the hep segment are earned through transactions with unaffiliated parties for pipeline transportation, rental and terminalling operations as well as revenues relating to pipeline transportation services provided for our refining operations. due to certain basis differences, our reported amounts for the hep segment may not agree to amounts reported in hep's periodic public filings. corporateand other consolidationsandeliminations consolidatedtotal refining operating data the following tables set forth information, including non-gaap performance measures about our refinery operations. the cost of products and refinery gross and net operating margins do not include the non-cash effects of lower of cost or market inventory valuation adjustments and depreciation and amortization. reconciliations to amounts reported under gaap are provided under “reconciliations to amounts reported under generally accepted accounting principles” below. three months endeddecember 31, years endeddecember 31, three months endeddecember 31, years endeddecember 31, three months endeddecember 31, years endeddecember 31, three months endeddecember 31, years endeddecember 31, reconciliations to amounts reported under generally accepted accounting principles reconciliations of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (“ebitda”) to amounts reported under generally accepted accounting principles in financial statements. earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, which we refer to as ebitda, is calculated as net income (loss) attributable to hollyfrontier stockholders plus (i) interest expense, net of interest income, (ii) income tax provision, and (iii) depreciation and amortization. ebitda is not a calculation provided for under accounting principles generally accepted in the united states; however, the amounts included in the ebitda calculation are derived from amounts included in our consolidated financial statements. ebitda should not be considered as an alternative to net income or operating income as an indication of our operating performance or as an alternative to operating cash flow as a measure of liquidity. ebitda is not necessarily comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies. ebitda is presented here because it is a widely used financial indicator used by investors and analysts to measure performance. ebitda is also used by our management for internal analysis and as a basis for financial covenants. set forth below is our calculation of ebitda. three months endeddecember 31, years endeddecember 31, (1) includes loss on early extinguishment of debt of $1.4 million and $7.7 million for the years ended december 31, 2015 and 2014, respectively. reconciliations of refinery operating information (non-gaap performance measures) to amounts reported under generally accepted accounting principles in financial statements. refinery gross margin and net operating margin are non-gaap performance measures that are used by our management and others to compare our refining performance to that of other companies in our industry. we believe these margin measures are helpful to investors in evaluating our refining performance on a relative and absolute basis. refinery gross margin per barrel is the difference between average net sales price and average cost of produced refined products. net operating margin per barrel is the difference between refinery gross margin and refinery operating expenses per barrel of produced refined products. these two margins do not include the non-cash effects of lower of cost or market inventory valuation adjustments and depreciation and amortization. each of these component performance measures can be reconciled directly to our consolidated statements of income. other companies in our industry may not calculate these performance measures in the same manner. refinery gross and net operating margins below are reconciliations to our consolidated statements of income for (i) net sales, cost of products sold (exclusive of lower of cost or market inventory valuation adjustment) and operating expenses, in each case averaged per produced barrel sold, and (ii) net operating margin and refinery gross margin. due to rounding of reported numbers, some amounts may not calculate exactly. reconciliation of produced refined product sales to total sales and other revenues three months endeddecember 31, years endeddecember 31, reconciliation of average cost of products per produced barrel sold to cost of products sold (exclusive of lower of cost or market inventory valuation adjustment) three months endeddecember 31, years endeddecember 31, reconciliation of average refinery operating expenses per produced barrel sold to total operating expenses three months endeddecember 31, years endeddecember 31, reconciliation of net operating margin per barrel to refinery gross margin per barrel to total sales and other revenues three months endeddecember 31, years endeddecember 31,
