Tervita Corporation Announces Second Quarter 2020 Results

CALGARY, AB, July 29, 2020 /CNW/ - Tervita Corporation ("Tervita" or the "Company") (TSX: TEV) announced today the results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020. All financial figures are in millions of Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted.

 

"The benefits of the actions we executed early in the COVID-19 pandemic and energy collapse have been realized in our Q2 results and the preservation of our financial position. Our acute focus on cost control and optimization of our locations helped to maintain our strong and stable Adjusted EBITDA Margin excluding CEWS at 30%, consistent with last year, despite a revenue excluding energy marketing decline of 37%," said John Cooper, President and CEO. "The measures we put in place to keep our employees, customers and communities safe have allowed the business to continue without interruption and as a result of acting quickly Tervita has not had any disruptions to our services or capacity to handle our customers' requirements due to the pandemic."

 

"Continuous improvement to run the business efficiently and effectively has been a focus at Tervita since 2017. In response to the downturn we elevated our focus on streamlining the business and executed initiatives to reduce structural costs which we anticipate will produce annualized savings of $30 to $34 million. The actions we have taken up to this point have materially enhanced our resiliency and positioned us well to manage through this downturn."

 

"Looking ahead, we continue to leverage our infrastructure and create efficiencies for customers during this time of uncertainty and tight capital discipline, while remaining focused on being the top choice service provider of environmental and waste management solutions. While there is not yet much visibility emerging for the energy sector through the second half of the year, we are confident that we are well positioned to succeed when the economy recovers. I would like to thank our Tervita employees for their hard work and our customers for the opportunity to collaborate as we navigate through these unprecedented times together."

 

Outlook

 

In recent months the negative economic impact of COVID-19 and the ongoing oil price war between Russia and OPEC has had a material effect on the energy sector. In April and May a significant decline in energy prices forced some producers to shut-in volumes exceeding one million barrels per day and substantially reduce their capital programs, driving a sharp decline in drilling activity. Through June and into July the price of WTI climbed and stabilized above US$40/bbl, and more than half of the shut-in volumes have been returned to the market. We anticipate at current price levels, shut-in volumes will continue to recover more so than drilling and completions activity as producers continue to prioritize free cash flow.

 

Our Energy Services business remains strongly underpinned by production related waste volumes in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin ("WCSB"). Our production-based revenue was impacted by the large shut-in volumes in Q2, however it has recovered substantially with the return of production volumes. Assuming the continuation of the current economic conditions we anticipate that production-based volumes received at our facilities and related revenues will continue to improve. Revenue driven from drilling and completion activity has been meaningfully impacted by the steep drop in drilling activity, and we expect the recovery of these activities will remain challenged for the remainder of the year.

 

Our Industrial Services business has been less impacted by the COVID-19 downturn. As exhibited by strong Q2 results, Industrial Services is realizing the benefits of the organizational restructuring completed through 2019 and early 2020, and is demonstrating resiliency in its underlying business of providing customers integrated solutions through our full suite of service offerings. We expect our Industrial business, specifically our project-based work, to largely recover through the remainder of the year. Additionally, the Federal Government's well abandonment and site rehabilitation program provides the opportunity to materially improve results from these service lines. Our Industrial business continues to be resilient through these difficult times as it serves a wide range of customers across various sectors. Looking forward, we intend to continue growing our Industrial business as we see several business development opportunities ahead.

 

Safety

 

The health and safety of our people, our customers and the communities in which we operate remain our top priority. We have implemented our business continuity plan in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to keep employees safe and healthy, assist our customers and ensure safe operations. We also have a dedicated COVID-19 team that has been formed to manage the continuity plan, implement proactive measures and keep our people and customers updated on this evolving situation. Our employees have adapted well to working from home where possible and have implemented best practices to keep our field operations and customers safe. We are proud to announce that Tervita has not suffered any interruptions to services or our capacity to handle our customer requirements due to the pandemic outbreak.

 

Cost Reductions

 

We took immediate action following the decline of commodity prices to reduce costs and protect liquidity, and continue to expect to decrease structural costs by $30 to $34 million on an annualized basis with $22 to $26 million expected in 2020. The structural actions include items such as employee headcount reductions and location optimization throughout our network. We also implemented multiple actions to drive in-year savings, including reductions to the Board of Directors' cash retainer and executive leadership team's salary, as well as reducing discretionary spending. We remain on track with the structural cost reductions and continue to identify further in-year savings.

 

In the first quarter, we reduced our 2020 capital plan to $60 million, a 56% reduction from 2019 expenditures, with the ability to increase or decrease the capital plan in response to commodity prices and the economic environment. We continue to look for and execute opportunities to reduce costs, improve efficiencies and ensure all open and operating facilities are generating positive cash flows.

 

Through this challenging environment our priorities remain the health and safety of our people as well as providing valuable services to our customers. We continue to monitor our external environment and are well prepared to take any further action required throughout the year.

 

Government Programs

 

In response to the economic impacts from COVID-19 and low commodity prices, the Federal Government of Canada announced numerous programs to support companies through the current economic environment. We have actively pursued two of the government programs: CEWS and the $1.7 billion fund for well abandonment and site rehabilitation.

 

 

Liquidity

 

We remain focused on financial discipline and are positioned with liquidity of $232 million of cash and unutilized capacity on our credit facility. Tervita's senior secured revolving credit facility expires on June 1, 2021 and Tervita's US$590 million senior notes are not due until December 2021. We are actively working with our lenders and continue to assess various refinancing solutions. Assuming the continuation of the current economic environment, we anticipate our net debt levels will remain relatively flat throughout the remainder of the year. We will continue to live within cash flow and we expect to remain within our covenant thresholds for the remainder of the year.

 

MD&A and Financial Statements

 

The Q2 2020 MD&A, Financial Statements, and Annual Information Form, which contain additional notes and disclosures, are available on SEDAR under Tervita Corporation at www.SEDAR.com or on our website at www.tervita.com on the Investor Relations page.

 

Second Quarter 2020 Conference Call

 

Tervita will host a conference call on Thursday July 30, 2020 at 7:00 a.m. MST to discuss the second quarter results. To participate in the conference call, dial 416-764-8650 or toll free 888-664-6383. To access the simultaneous webcast, please visit www.tervita.com. For those unable to listen to the live call, a taped broadcast will be available at www.tervita.com and, until midnight MST on Thursday, August 6, 2020 by dialing 888-390-0541 and using the pass code 710606#.

 

About Tervita

 

Tervita is one of the largest waste and environmentally-focused service providers in Canada, providing a broad and integrated array of services and environmental management solutions for customers in the energy, industrial, and natural resource sectors, predominantly in Western Canada.

 

For over 40 years, Tervita has been focused on delivering safe and efficient solutions through all phases of a project while minimizing impact, maximizing returns™. Our dedicated and experienced employees are trusted sustainability partners to our clients. Safety is our top priority: it influences our actions and shapes our culture. Tervita trades on the TSX as TEV. For more information, visit www.tervita.com.