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8-K - FORM 8-K - Aquilex Holdings LLCd8k.htm
Aquilex Holdings LLC    Exhibit 99.1

Press release dated November 15, 2010 reporting the company’s financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2010, and for the comparable periods in 2009.

 

11.15.10 - Aquilex Holdings LLC Reports Third Quarter 2010 Financial Results

 

Aquilex Holdings LLC (“Aquilex” or “Company”) today announced its financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2010. These results are included in Aquilex’s third quarter Form 10-Q as filed today with the SEC and posted on the Company’s website for which the link is as follows: www.aquilex.com/company/investor-relations.

 

Financial Results

 

Aquilex’s revenues for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2010 were $110.7 million and $324.0 million, respectively. For the three months ended September 30, 2010, revenues increased $17.5 million, or 18.8%, as compared to the corresponding prior year period. The increase was largely attributable to higher revenues in our SRO segment resulting from the execution of international projects. For the nine months ended September 30, 2010, revenues decreased $34.6 million, or 9.7%, as compared to the corresponding prior year period. The overall decline was primarily due to the deferral of customers’ repair and maintenance projects in the first and second quarters of 2010. Additionally, the decrease for the nine-month period was due to the impact of extremely weak demand in January and February of 2010 for cleaning services from refinery and fossil fuel power customers. These first-quarter declines were partially offset by increases of 3.1% in March 2010, 13.4% for the second quarter of 2010, and 2.9% for the third quarter of 2010, in each case as compared to the corresponding prior year period, largely due to increased demand for cleaning services related to customers’ turnaround projects.

Adjusted EBITDA (see “Note on Use of Adjusted EBITDA” below) for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2010 was $16.0 million and $44.8 million, respectively. For the three months ended September 30, 2010, Adjusted EBITDA increased $1.0 million, or 6.9%, as compared to the corresponding prior year period. The increase was largely attributable to the revenue increase of 18.8% as compared to the corresponding prior year period. The effect of this increase was partially offset by a decline in the SRO gross profit margin, which resulted from higher costs on international work; the project mix in that a greater proportion of lower margin services were provided to customers; and lower pricing on jobs. For the nine months ended September 30, 2010, Adjusted EBITDA decreased $14.3 million, or 24.1%, as compared to the corresponding prior year period. This decline resulted from both lower revenues and lower gross profit. The decrease in gross profit was largely the result of an increase in indirect and project execution costs and unfavorable Nuclear field cost management largely occurring at a nuclear plant site. Margin decreases were also caused by the increase in the proportion of revenue deriving from lower margin services provided to customers and lower pricing on jobs.

Depreciation and amortization costs for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2010, decreased $0.2 million and $0.6 million, or 4.7% and 3.7%, respectively, as compared to the corresponding prior year periods. The decrease was primarily due to asset dispositions and assets becoming fully depreciated, partially offset by depreciation of new assets acquired in 2010. Net interest expense for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2010, decreased $3.8 million and $8.7 million, or 27.5% and 20.7%, respectively, as compared to the corresponding prior year periods. The decrease was primarily attributable to a lower effective interest rate on the current capital structure of term debt and senior notes during the 2010 period. This is largely the result of the refinancing activities we undertook in December 2009 and April 2010. As a result of the April 2010 refinancing, we recognized a loss on extinguishment of $24.4 million during the second quarter of 2010 resulting from the write-off of the related deferred financing costs, original issue discount amounts and a prepayment penalty. Our effective tax rate was 28.0%, 35.8%, 18.0%, and 18.9% for the three


and nine months ended September 30, 2010 and 2009, respectively. The change in our effective tax rate is primarily attributable to changes in projected pre-tax book loss, deduction limitations for per diems for field employees, non-deductible stock based compensation, other nondeductible expenses, and the release of a portion of the ASC 740-10 (FIN 48) reserve and interest thereon. Net loss for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2010 was $2.4 million and $27.5 million, respectively.

The foregoing provides only a brief summary of our financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2010. For a more detailed discussion please refer to our third quarter 2010 Form 10-Q as filed with the SEC.

 

Third Quarter 2010 Earnings Conference Call

 

The Company will host its third quarter 2010 earnings conference call at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, November 16, 2010. You are invited to listen to the call, which is available for telephone dial-in. Aquilex President and Chief Executive Officer, L.W. Varner, Jr., and Chief Financial Officer, Jay W. Ferguson, will participate. A recording of the call will also be made available on the Aquilex website. The conference call dial-in number is (800) 676-1337. The conference call identification number is 21487501.

 

Note on Use of Adjusted EBITDA

 

Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure. We calculate Adjusted EBITDA as earnings before interest expense, depreciation and amortization, income taxes and other adjustments as described below.

EBITDA, a measure used by management to measure operating performance, is defined as net income plus interest expense (income), net, taxes, depreciation and amortization. EBITDA is not a recognized term under GAAP and does not purport to be an alternative to net income as a measure of operating performance or to cash flows from operating activities as a measure of liquidity. Additionally, EBITDA is not intended to be a measure of free cash flow available for management’s discretionary use, as it does not consider certain cash requirements such as tax payments and debt service requirements. Management believes EBITDA is helpful in highlighting trends because EBITDA excludes the results of decisions that are outside the control of operating management and can differ significantly from company to company depending on long-term strategic decisions regarding capital structure, the tax jurisdictions in which companies operate and capital investments. Management compensates for the limitations of using non-GAAP financial measures by using them to supplement GAAP results to provide a more complete understanding of the factors and trends affecting the business than GAAP results alone. Because not all companies use identical calculations, these presentations of EBITDA may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies.

Adjusted EBITDA is defined as EBITDA further adjusted to exclude certain non-cash and other specific items permitted in calculating covenant compliance in our senior secured credit agreement. We believe that the inclusions of supplementary adjustments to EBITDA applied in presenting Adjusted EBITDA are appropriate to provide additional information to investors about certain material non-cash items and other items that we do not expect to continue at the same level in the future.

We present Adjusted EBITDA because we consider it an important supplemental measure of our performance and believe it is frequently used by securities analysts, investors and other interested parties in the evaluation of companies in our industry and because these adjustments are necessary to calculate our covenant compliance under our senior secured credit agreement. You are


encouraged to evaluate each adjustment and the reasons we consider them appropriate for supplemental analysis. In evaluating Adjusted EBITDA, you should be aware that in the future we may incur expenses similar to the adjustments in this presentation. Our presentation of Adjusted EBITDA should not be construed as an inference that our future results will be unaffected by unusual or non-recurring items.

 

EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA have limitations as analytical tools, and you should not consider them in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. Some of these limitations are:

 

   

they do not reflect our cash expenditures, or future requirements, for capital expenditures or contractual commitments;

 

   

they do not reflect changes in, or cash requirements for, our working capital needs;

 

   

they do not reflect the significant interest expense, or the cash requirements necessary to service interest on our debts;

 

   

they do not reflect our income tax expense or the cash requirements to pay our taxes;

 

   

although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the assets being depreciated and amortized will often have to be replaced in the future, and EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA do not reflect any cash requirements for such replacements; and

 

   

other companies in our industry may calculate EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA differently than we do, limiting its usefulness as a comparative measure.

 

The following table provides a reconciliation of EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA to net income.

 

 

     For the three
months ended September 30,
    For the nine
months ended September 30,
 
     2010     2009     2010     2009  
     ($ in thousands)  

Net loss

   $ (2,400   $ (43,220   $ (27,530   $ (51,602

Interest expense, net

     10,034        13,838        33,237        41,902   

Income tax expense (benefit)

     (933     (9,488     (15,349     (12,038

Depreciation and amortization

     9,314        10,245        27,994        31,712   
                                

EBITDA

     16,015        (28,625     18,352        9,974   

Adjustments to EBITDA

        

Financing transaction costs (a)

     -            -            202        -       

Restructuring and process

     -            -           

improvement costs (b)

     -            464        -            4,224   

Goodwill and intangible

     -            -           

impairment loss (c)

     -            44,147        -            44,147   

Incentive units expense (d)

     308        710        1,051        1,120   

Loss on extinguishment of debt (e)

     -            -            24,424        -       

Severance costs (f)

     460        -            905        -       

Other (g)

     (782     (1,722     (92     (366
                                

Adjusted EBITDA

   $ 16,001      $ 14,974      $ 44,842      $ 59,099   
                                


(a) Reflects accounting and legal fees incurred as a result of the $225 million 11 1/8% Senior Notes offering.

 

(b) Reflects costs incurred in connection with a corporate initiative to integrate and improve our Aquilex HydroChem and Aquilex SMS businesses. Expenses in 2009 included consulting fees and costs associated with a market opportunity and sales force effectiveness study, the establishment of standard procedures for branch operations in our Industrial Cleaning segment and the consolidation of our back office operations.

 

(c) Reflects the writedown of our goodwill and intangible assets as of September 30, 2009 as a result of a valuation assessment conducted in connection with the reorganization of our reporting units. The assessment concluded that goodwill in our SRO segment had been impaired and a non-cash charge of $44.1 million was recorded as of September 30, 2009. A valuation of these assets had previously been performed in connection with the Teachers’ Acquisition on December 15, 2008.

 

(d) Reflects expenses associated with vesting of time-vested profits interest units granted to members of Aquilex management. The value of these units was determined using the Black-Scholes-Merton method and the expense recorded as a non-cash compensation charge in SG&A.

 

(e) Reflects the removal of the loss on extinguishment that resulted from prepayment penalties and the writeoff of unamortized deferred financing and original issue discount balances relating to the prior senior secured revolving credit and term loan facilities upon entering into the senior secured credit agreement on April 1, 2010.

 

(f) Reflects severance costs which were in connection with the termination and the elimination of certain executive positions.

 

(g) Amounts in 2009 and 2010 primarily reflect the impact of unrealized foreign currency transaction gains and losses.

 

Forward-looking statements

 

This press release may contain statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or results and involve risks and uncertainties, and that actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including changes in Aquilex’s business, operations, financial condition, suppliers and customers. perceptions of Aquilex among financial institutions and rating agencies, and the factors described in Aquilex’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including under the captions “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Aquilex’s Amended Registration Statement on
Form S-4, as filed on August 16, 2010, and its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Aquilex disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained herein.


About Aquilex Holdings LLC

 

Aquilex Holdings LLC is the parent of Aquilex Corporation, a leading provider of critical maintenance, repair and industrial cleaning solutions to the energy industry. Through our divisional and branch offices in the United States and Europe, we provide our services to a diverse global base of over 540 customers, primarily in the oil and gas refining, chemical and petrochemical production, fossil and nuclear power generation and waste-to-energy industries.

 

Investor Relations Contact: Jay W. Ferguson, Chief Financial Officer (404) 869-5221.