Stabilis Solutions, Inc.

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Stabilis Solutions first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode, and the floor will be open for your questions following the presentation. If you would like to ask a question at that time, press star and zero on your telephone keypad. If at any point your question has been answered, you may remove yourself from the queue simply by pressing star and two. So that others can hear your question clearly, we ask that you pick up your handset for best quality. Also, to ensure that we have time for everyone's question, we ask that you limit yourself to a single question as well as a follow-up, and then you are invited to re-signal for a question. Now it is my pleasure to turn the floor over to our host, Andy Pujala, Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Pujala, please go ahead.

Good morning, and welcome to Stabilis Solutions' first quarter 2024 results conference call. I'm Andy Pujala, Senior Vice President and CFO of Stabilis, and joining me today is our President and CEO, Westy Ballard. We issued a press release after the market closed yesterday detailing our first quarter operational and financial results. This release is publicly available in the investor relations section of our corporate website at Stabilis-Solutions.com. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that today's conference call will contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Reform Act of 1995 and other securities laws. These forward-looking statements are based on the company's expectations and beliefs as of today, May 8, 2024. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. The company undertakes no obligation to provide updates or revisions to the forward-looking statements made in today's call. Additional information concerning factors that could cause those differences is contained in our filings with the SEC and in the press release announcing our results. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Further, please note that we may refer to certain non-GAAP financial information on today's call. You can find reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP measures in our earnings press release. Today's call is being recorded and will be available for replay. With that, I'll hand the call over to Westy Ballard for his remarks.

Thank you, Andy, and good morning to everyone joining us on the call. We delivered a strong first quarter performance, building on commercial momentum demonstrated in the latter half of 2023. Net income increased 36% in the first quarter, supported by an 8% increase in LNG volume sold when compared to the year-ago period. We generated nearly $4 million in operating cash flow in the first quarter and ended the period with nearly $13 million in cash and availability under our credit agreements and a trailing 12-month net leverage ratio of 0.1 times, even after deploying significant capital toward discretionary growth investments over the past several quarters. Over the past 24 months, we've transitioned our business model toward firm, longer-term customer relationships that support higher asset utilization over sustained periods, resulting in more predictable cash flows from operations. More recently, we've announced a transformational marine bunkering supply contract, extended an agreement with a major power generation customer, and continue to expand our presence as a leading fuel supplier to the commercial space launch industry. To that end, our own liquefaction capacity is expected to be fully utilized through 2025, providing us with a high degree of visibility over the next 20 months. However, in addition to our own capacity, we maintain an extensive third-party LNG supply network, which allows us to meet ongoing incremental growth in customer demand while pursuing expansion of our internal liquefaction capacity. With our marine market, the first quarter of 2024 was our first full quarter of LNG fueling operations and related services for Carnival Corporation, representing a milestone achievement for Stabilis. This win is also a significant development for the domestic marine fueling market, representing the first ever LNG bunkering operation in the Port of Galveston, Texas. Moving forward, we will continue to enhance our logistical capabilities as the only small-scale LNG bunker provider to the marine industry capable of executing multiple modes of delivery to our bunkering customers. The focus of our efforts will be on rapidly expanding our bunkering operations directly to the waterfront of strategic ports across the continental United States. These efforts will be supported by our robust inland LNG supply and logistics network, which remains a clear competitive advantage for Stabilis for several key reasons. First, combined with our extensive experience in designing, constructing, and operating multiple liquefaction plants, it significantly de-risks greenfield expansion activities. Second, it allows us to immediately execute new bunkering contracts as we can provide LNG bunkering fuel today anywhere in the U.S. utilizing our diverse third-party LNG supply network. Third, it affords us the option to supplement waterfront LNG production on a temporary or permanent basis to support incremental demand. And finally, our operational flexibility provides our current and prospective customers the ability to consider a wide variety of trade lanes throughout the U.S., knowing they will have a reliable LNG fuel supply with Stabilis. We remain in advanced discussions with several potential marine customers currently seeking LNG as a lower-cost, cleaner-burning bunker fuel alternative for the growing inventory of LNG-fueled vessels. Given the importance of this initiative to our customers, our history of successfully executing LNG bunkering operations on three U.S. coasts gives these customers tremendous confidence in our ability to deliver an actionable, credible, best-in-class bunkering solution for their long-term needs. Within our commercial and industrial markets, we continue to capitalize on a multi-year investment cycle in infrastructure and electrification as data centers, cloud computing, emerging technologies, and emergency power needs give rise to increased demand for behind-the-meter power generation solutions. At the same time, our nation's aging electric grid lacks the reliability, capacity, and resilience to effectively support this rapid growth in power consumption. As we move closer toward a world where the electrification of everything requires reliable access to both central and remote power sources, Stabilis is uniquely equipped to provide decentralized, on-demand power through our integrated system-based solutions. For example, several weeks ago, we announced a 14-month contract extension, which solidifies our position as a leading clean fuel solutions provider for behind-the-meter energy installations and further enhances our growing position in this space. For context, the power generation sector represented approximately 25% of our total revenue in 2023, and we expect this opportunity to accelerate as domestic energy demand continues to grow over the next decade. Looking ahead, we intend to further optimize our existing asset base and supply chain while prioritizing investments in incremental capacity, infrastructure, and product offerings capable of supporting increased demand across our entire franchise, which includes our marine, power generation, aerospace, and other diverse end markets, both in the U.S. and abroad. To accomplish this, we are routinely evaluating a variety of prospective sources of capital, with heavy emphasis and focus on those partners that know our industry, know our company, and recognize the significant upside potential in our operating model. Decisions to proceed with new infrastructure investments will balance longer-term, rateable off-take agreements that de-risk our investment over a multi-year period and our comfort in assuming merchant risk to assume timely and critical infrastructure is in place to sufficiently address the rapidly advancing needs of next generation fuels like LNG. In closing, while you've heard me discuss how Stabilis is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the significant asymmetrical growth opportunity we see within last-mile clean fueling solutions across a diverse range of end markets, it's also important to highlight how we, as a micro-cap equity, provide an incredibly compelling value proposition for energy transition investors. Today, Stabilis is one of only a handful of profitable, well-capitalized, proven operators in the energy transition market, as demonstrated by our actions over the last 24 months, and more recently, as demonstrated by our strong first quarter results, which included a significant increase in available liquidity and a net leverage ratio around zero. We're patient investors building a platform for growth that, over the next decade, will continue to become the last mile fueling solutions platform of choice for a growing roster of industry-leading, high-performance brands. Like you, we are shareholders, and we're committed to driving long-term value creation. We're glad you're on this journey with us and look forward to delivering, on our next phase, a profitable growth. And with that, I will turn it over to Andy.