Atlas Energy Solutions Inc.

Greetings. Welcome to Atlas Energy Solutions acquisition of High Crush and 2023 fourth quarter results. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Kyle Turlington, Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Hello, and welcome to the Atlas Energy Solutions conference call and webcast for the fourth quarter of 2023. With us today are Bud Brigham, CEO, and John Turner, President and CFO. Bud and John will be sharing their comments the company's operational financial performance for the fourth quarter and full year 2023, and insights on the acquisition of High Crush that we announced today, after which we will open the call up for Q&A. Before we begin our prepared remarks, I would like to remind everyone that this call will include forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. securities laws. Such statements are based on the current information and management expectations as of this statement and are not guarantees of future performance. Forward-looking statements involve certain risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict. As such, our actual outcomes and results could differ materially. You can learn more about these risks in the prospectus we filed with the SEC on September 12, 2023, in connection with our recent corporate reorganization, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and our other SEC filings. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and we undertake no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. We will also make reference to certain non-GAAP financial measures, such as adjusted EBITDA, adjusted free cash flow, and other operating metrics and statistics. You will find the GAAP reconciliation comments and calculations in this morning's press release. With that said, I will turn the call over to Bud Brigham.

Thank you, Kyle. Today is an exciting day, not only for Atlas, but for High Crush and their stakeholders, the Permian Basin Sand and Logistics Market, and our customers. Atlas is acquiring High Crush for $450 million, which consists of $175 million in equity, $150 million in cash, and a $125 million deferred cash payment in the form of a seller's note. The acquisition of High Crush further strengthens Atlas' position as a leading provider of profit and profit logistics in the Permian Basin. Our increased scale and enhanced offerings are tailored to meet the needs of our large-scale customers in the Permian Basin. As it relates to the importance of scale and reliability, we recently heard a high-level executive from a leading oil service company coin the phrase, quote, more sand, more barrels, unquote. And he is exactly right. With service intensity rising, scale and reliability are paramount today, with the leading-edge frat crews now pumping over 100,000 tons of sand per month. In my opinion, Atlas and High Crush have been the two most innovative prop and companies within the Permian Basin, with the rollout of High Crush's Encore mobile mines and the development of our Dune Express conveyor system, which remains on time and on budget. coupled with our innovative multi-trailer delivery solution. These disruptive offerings are currently helping to take trucks off the public roads and making the communities in the heart of the Permian Basin safer places to live and work. And we anticipate that the Dune Express will further enhance these benefits. We have the utmost respect and appreciation for what the team at High Crush has built. and we are looking forward to combining best practices from our respective organizations to help our customers become even more efficient. The $450 million acquisition of High Crust includes all its Permian Basin operations, consisting of two plants at Kermit, which share the same giant open dune as our existing Kermit facilities, seven currently deployed Encore mobile mines, of which five are in the Midland Basin and two are in the Delaware Basin, with an additional Midland Basin deployment slated for the second quarter of 2024 and a ninth deployment planned for later in 2024. Atlas is also acquiring 100% of Pronghorn Energy Services with this acquisition of High Crush, which is the leading provider of damp sand last mile solutions. We are excited to combine Pronghorn's last mile expertise with Atlas's innovative multi-trailer last mile offering. We believe that the broadened offering will be well received by our customers. The acquisition of High Crush will add 12 million tons to our production capacity, which consists of 5 million tons of dry sand production at their two permanent mines and approximately 7 million tons in the aggregate of wet sand production across their encore mines. In some pro forma, Atlas will have approximately 21 million tons of dry sand production capacity and around 7 million tons of wet sand production capacity for a total of 28 million tons of overall production capacity. This scale is unmatched in the Permian Basin. The merits of this acquisition are numerous. First and foremost, this transaction enhances our geographic footprint and customer base in the Midland Basin. logistically advantaging us to more Midland Basin operators, while also providing a complimentary damp sand offering through the Encore Mobile Mine Portfolio. This is a significant improvement in our ability to compete for work in a subset of the market in the Midland Basin. Similarly, there is little customer overlap between the two companies, and High Crush has very strong relationships with certain key operators in the Midland Basin. The broadening of our customer base as a result of the acquisition will be very beneficial, further aligning Atlas with more of the largest operators in the Permian. With the recent consolidation that has taken place in the Permian, size and scale have quickly become an absolute imperative to aptly service the development programs of these large-scale Permian operators and to help drive further efficiencies in the industry. We believe the acquisition pushes us to the forefront of industry in that regard. This acquisition adds meaningfully to Atlas's competencies, product and logistics offerings, and makes us a better organization as a whole, more fit to lead the industry from the front. Atlas and High Crush are two of the lowest cost producers of profit in the Permian Basin. This acquisition will provide us with valuable insights for optimization of our production and logistics strategies and methods to lower costs and enhance efficiency. iCrush has been one of the most innovative companies in sand and logistics, and our acquisition of its techniques, processes, and technologies should be exciting to our customers in the Permian. This transaction meaningfully increases the cash flow profile of Atlas ProForma for the acquisition, and exhibits double-digit accretion across key share metrics. We expect to fully realize $20 million in annualized synergies by 2026. We now have a potential low-cost solution to increase volumes down the Dune Express, and we accomplish this without adding new supply to the market by absorbing High Crush's Kermit operations, which sit about two miles from our plants at Kermit, where the Dune Express begins. Finally, with the acquisition of Pronghorn, we will have created the largest logistics and last mile service in the Permian, with the capacity to move more sand on a yearly basis than anyone else that we know of. The acquisition allows us to further leverage our logistics offerings with additional scale, which should also increase efficiencies. Ultimately, our scale should provide even greater growth opportunities with market share expectations that better align with our sand production share. In summary, 2024 is already set up to be a very exciting year for Atlas. First, we are just a few quarters away from the commencement of the Dune Express, which remains on time and on budget, and which should have a very positive impact on our cash flows next year. The highly accretive acquisition of High Crush provides our shareholders with greater visibility for 2024 and beyond, due to the heavily contracted nature of our combined production and our more diverse customer base. And third, and partly as a result, Atlas is uniquely positioned to match up with the growing scale of our Permian Basin customers, such that we can uniquely provide the differentiated capacity and throughput as well as the associated efficiencies and reliability that Permian operators need. Our pro forma production capacity of over 28 million tons following the completion of acquisition is easily the largest in the Permian. It also makes us the largest profit manufacturer in North America. Furthermore, this production is nearly 80% contracted for 2024. I will now turn the call over to our President and CFO, John Turner.

Thanks, Bud. And I also echo your enthusiasm for the high-crest acquisition. In addition to providing more color on the transaction, I will also provide some initial commentary on our fourth quarter 2023 standalone results and provide some initial guidance on our outlook for 2024 post-acquisition. As Bud mentioned earlier, following the closing of the acquisition, on a combined basis, we will have 28 million tons of annualized production capacity, increasing to about 29 million tons in 2025 with a full year's contribution and the benefit of these additional on-court deployments. The effective date of the transaction is February 29, 2024. As our contracting volumes and permitting activity levels remain strong and completion efficiencies continue to compound profit usage, we'd expect to continue to operate at greater than 85% to 90% utilization going forward. Taking into account high crushes contracts, we expect our sand prices for 2024 to average between $26 and $28 a ton. Assuming just over three quarters of contribution from High Crush, we expect 2024 adjusted EBITDA to range between $425 to $475 million. We expect total CapEx for 2024 to be between $335 and $360 million. This includes between $285 and $305 million. in growth CapEx consisting of $220 million for the construction of the Dune Express, between $25 and $45 million on Encore deployments, and another $40 million in other CapEx. We are forecasting maintenance CapEx for 2024 to be between $50 and $55 million. The $175 million equity component of the acquisition consideration consists of approximately $9.7 million of newly issued shares of our common stock, which amounts to just under 9% of our outstanding shares on a pro forma basis. The upfront cash portion of the consideration and the near-term capital expenditures of High Crush have been financed with a new $150 million acquisition term loan with Stonebriar Commercial Finance under an amendment to our existing credit facility, and with a draw of $50 million under our amended and upsized ABL facility. The $125 million in deferred cash consideration is secured by a seller's note, which bears interest at either 5% in cash or 7% when paid in kind at our option. The maturity of the seller's note is in 2026, but can be paid off at any time prior to that without penalty. Our net debt as of December 31st, 2023 pro forma for the acquisition and related financing is approximately $245 million, consisting of $505 million of debt less $260 million of cash. we will have a modest 0.5 net leverage ratio at closing and plan to methodically pay down debt using a portion of our significant expected free cash flow while also returning capital to shareholders as we have done consistently in the past. Our acquisition of one of the leading profit suppliers in the Permian Basin greatly enhances our ability to increase shareholder returns. As Bud highlighted earlier, Our anticipated enhanced cash flows from the acquisition supports a 5% increase in our total dividend, which is now 21 cents per share, comprised of a 16 cent per share base dividend and a 5 cent per share variable dividend. Proforma maintenance capex beyond 2024 is expected to be between $50 and $60 million annually, providing Atlas with multiple avenues to further increase shareholders' return once the remaining growth capex associated with the Dune Express and additional Encore Mines subsides. The heavily contracted nature of our operations post-acquisition reduces our cash flow volatility, and with the commissioning of the Dune Express, our ability to increase shareholders' return is strengthened by this transaction. Given the transaction structure, which includes an equity component and a deferred payment, our balance sheet and liquidity will remain healthy. The acquisition of High Press sets Atlas up to thrive in tough market conditions and positions Atlas to deliver enhanced returns in a normalized environment. I will now turn my attention to our standalone fourth quarter and full year 2023 results. 2023 was a remarkable year. We sold 18 million shares, and raised approximately $324 million in gross proceeds in our initial public offering in March. Accounting for our latest dividend amount, we will have paid out $146 million in total dividends and distributions to our investors since inception. We delivered full year total company revenue of $614 million and increased at 27% year over year. Total company adjusted EBITDA was $330 million, up 25% year over year. We achieved our first sand delivery with our assets in January, our first double trailer delivery in March, and our first triple trailer delivery in April. Our logistics revenue was $146 million of 96% year over year. We completed our new Kermit plant facility in December on time and on budget, increasing our standalone production capacity to 16 million tons, up from 10 million tons. In October, we announced a corporate reorganization transaction, or up-sea simplification, that enabled us to trade under a single class of common stock. 2024 will be another exciting year as we look forward to the integration of our new operations following completion of the high-press acquisition, the completion of the Dune Express, and the arrival of our two new state-of-the-art dredges. For the fourth quarter of 23, we reported total sales of $141 million. Our revenue from profit sales was $100 million. Our profit sales volumes were down more than expected quarter over quarter to 2.6 million tons. Aside from typical holiday and weather slowdowns, we saw our customers taking extended holiday breaks given budget exhaustion driven by efficiencies. However, we have seen our customers return to normal activity levels in the first quarter of 24. Our average sales price for the fourth quarter was $39 per ton. Moving to service sales, which is revenue generated by our logistics operation, we reported $41 million in revenues for the quarter. As of February 1st, we have taken delivery of all 120 trucks, which is up from 27 trucks from our third quarter update. In total, cost of sales excluding DD&A for the quarter decreased by $1 million to $67 million. For the fourth quarter, our per ton plant operating costs were $10.63 per ton, which is above the prior period driven by lower volumes. Further, we expect the delivery of our new specialized dredging equipment in early 2024 to provide incremental improvements in operational performance and further reductions in our mining costs once these assets are fully commissioned by the middle of this year. Royalty expenses for the quarter were down 17% to $3 million, due again to lower volumes. SG&A expense for the quarter was $14 million. Gross interest expense for the quarter was $5 million, which is offset by $3 million of interest income generated during the period, resulting in net interest expense of $2 million. We expect our interest income to decline in future quarters as we draw down on our cash reserves to a normalized level as we complete our growth projects. Depreciation, depletion, and accretion expense for the quarter was $12 million. We generated net income of $36 million for the quarter, representing a strong net income margin of 26% and earnings per share of 36 cents. Net cash provided by operating activities for the quarter was $86 million, compared to $55 million during the third quarter. Adjusted EBITDA for the period was $69 million, representing a sequential decrease of 18% and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 49%. Adjusted free cash flow, which we define as adjusted EBITDA less maintenance capex for the quarter was $57 million, representing a sequential decrease of 18% and adjusted free cash flow margin of 40%. Lastly, we spent a total of $106 million on growth projects in the fourth quarter. which includes our new permit facility, the Dune Express, our website delivery assets, and production enhancement at our existing facilities. We incurred $12 million of maintenance capex during the quarter. With that, I will now turn the call back over to Bud.

The near-term merits of this acquisition are easy to see. but the real value will be created over the next five years as the entire basin will benefit from a larger, more innovative, and more reliable profit and logistics provider. We will have the ability to supply incremental sand in a tight market, similar to the first half of 2023, and adjust production in periods of low activity, creating a more stable market for our investors and our customers. Since our inception, Atlas has looked for ways to bring profit closer to the wellside in order to lower costs and reduce traffic on public roads. We are innovators and disruptors. And with this acquisition, we're in an even better position to deliver further innovations and advancements to the most prolific shale basin in the world. That concludes our prepared remarks, and we will now let the operator open the line for questions. Thank you all for joining us on our fourth quarter call.

At this time, we will be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Please ask one question and one follow-up question and re-queue for additional questions. Our first question is from Don Crist with Johnson Race. Please proceed.

Good morning, gentlemen. You know, I think most of us were pretty surprised with the announcement this morning. But after kind of looking, stepping back and looking at it, the proximity of the Kermit Mines and the addition of the wet sand, mobile mines makes a lot of sense. In your eyes, how does this make Atlas a better company going forward, not only for 24, but, you know, 25 and 26 and beyond?

Well, thank you. And I will start with that, and John may want to add to it. But you're right. We've talked about the fact that it's been a high bar for us given our our differentiated margins and associated with that low-cost structure. But this deal is really special. As you touched on, two things. One, extremely complementary asset base. It's really a one plus one equals three transaction. That combined with the fact these guys like us have been the leading innovators. And so we share the similar cultures and values, an innovative entrepreneurial environment. So it is going to be more apparent how powerful those synergies play out or are going to become more evident over the next five years. A couple more specifics, and you've heard us say this over and over, that scale is really important. I mean, operators are demonstrating that. Scale gives you the opportunity to drop down costs, drive up margins, increase automation. And we need to match up with that. And on profit, it's about throughput and reliability associated with that scale. This gives us more redundancy in the field, more options for the operators so that we can de-bottleneck sand. We had said, you know, and that ties in with logistics, we want to be logistically advantaged to every single operator in the Permian. This is a big step forward for us in that regard, particularly in the Midland Basin. Associated with that, it's really a complementary customer base because it brings logistically advantaged assets and logistics in the Midland Basin. It brings complementary customers into our portfolio. So that's beneficial to our shareholders and customers. And last, and John may want to add to this, I mean, this is a very accretive transaction, even before, you know, all the synergies and application of best practices on our respective assets. And so we believe over time it's really going to help us to accelerate transactions. returning capital to our shareholders. John, do you want to add anything?

Yeah, I mean, Don, when we looked at the acquisition, we needed something that was going to meet both our financial and operational goals. Like Bud said, it's very complimentary on the operational side, what our goals are and what we want to accomplish. One is on the logistics front. Atlas has quietly become one of the leading logistics providers in the Permian, but when you look at what Pronghorn has as well, they are one of the largest logistics providers in the Permian. When you look at that on day one, you're going to have the largest sand and logistics crack sand provider in the Permian. It met on the operational side. There were other things that met. Like Bud said, it expands our footprint into the Midland Basin. We're You know, we'll have more sand logistically advantaged located to well sites. And then also on the Dune Express, I mean, you know, obviously, you know, there's been some questions about our plant capabilities and, you know, the ability to produce 13 million tons. I mean, the proximity of their termite mines is, will be very complimentary to what's going to happen with the Dune Express and as we get the Dune Express up and launched. And then also, you know, operationally on OpEx side, I mean, we're going to, you know, obviously there's going to be a lot of synergies on that side. And then on the financial side, I mean, this met our goals as a company. I mean, it's a very high return rate of return project, internal rate of return project, you know, less than a three-year payback, you know, on heavily contracted volumes. It's going to support any acquisition or any investment that we make in the future, whether it be this one or any other one, is going to have to really support our return profile that includes a significant return of cash to shareholders through dividends. And so, you know, this one really supports that. So, look, and I mean, over time, I mean, the larger company, you know, reduce our cost to produce is going to, you know, we're still going to have the leading margins in the industry and, I mean, across all the oilfield service companies. So, you know, we think this supports us, our future as a company going forward, our goals, and then also that for our shareholders.

Hope that helps, Don. Thank you.

Yeah. And just one kind of semi-related follow-up, you know, as you were bringing in the electric dredges this year, we had, as you know, the analyst had your costs coming down quite a bit for 2024. As you roll in the high crush assets, I don't know what their operational costs are today to produce. Can you give us a little bit of guidance around that? And is this going to increase that, you know, what we had previously?

You know, um, You know, back in 21, we were at 650 a ton when we had 100% dredge feed in our mining process. You know, that number's come up to 1030 as we increased production and our dredges couldn't keep up. You know, these two new dredges, that one is already being commissioned out there. Another one's arriving here shortly. You know, once we get those dredges incorporated into our mining operation, you know, we're expecting, you know, our long-term mining cost is going to be down in the, say, mid-sevenths dollars per ton. That's just for mining. You know, on high crush, you know, their op-ex in 23 was just over $11 a ton. Obviously, that's higher than our seven. But we do think there's going to be – I mean, we are optimistic that we're going to be able to get this number down over time. You know, for the future, the combined synergies that we've identified some modeling so far, I mean, we think – you know, 2024, we're going to be around $9 a ton. And then once we, and that's on the identified synergies, I mean, there's probably going to be other synergies that we're going to be able to accomplish. And over time, we think we're going to be able to get their costs, the entire company's cost down to around $7 a ton. So, When you look at it, I think overall, I didn't incorporate any sort of synergies from GNA or maintenance capex there. I think those costs are going to come down. So over time, I think it's going to actually be, we're going to be producing sand at a lower cost per ton than we would as a standalone.

I appreciate all the answers. I'll turn it back. You're welcome.

Our next question is from Luke Lemoine with Piper Sandler. Please proceed.

Hey, good morning. Sean, you kind of loosely alluded to it in the morning, but when you're at your current facility, you can see the two high crush mines right next door. Do you just talk about any plans to tie this into the Dune Express, and then you kind of hit on it earlier as well, but then your ability to convert the high crush mines to dredging from yellow irons?

Yeah, that's something, Luke, that we can definitely, like you said, I mean, the proximity of those mines are within two miles of our current mine. You know, that's something that we haven't fully vetted on what the cost would be, but, you know, it's something that we definitely think will be synergistic from the Dune Express point of view. Obviously, you know, connecting a mine or two mines via conveyor is going to be going to be less expensive than building, you know, bringing out an additional 5 to 6 million tons of capacity. So, yeah, we obviously see significant cost savings there. On the dredging front, that is something that we are investigating, you know, We haven't fully, you know, evaluated that, but that's something that we're definitely looking at. And, you know, I do think that, you know, we are going to have an extra dredge here at some point here pretty soon, and that's something we may run over there and see if we can then start dredge mining over on their location. They definitely do have water like we did. We just have to figure out, you know, how we're going to, if it's going to work. And, you know, but then there's other things that we may be able to do. If we can't fully dredge mine over there, I mean, the other thing is, is the dredges that we have arriving on location are going to be, they're going to be able to provide a significant amount of feed into our current mines. You know, there may be ways that we could even feed, cook those dredges up over to their feed, to their mines, and then, you know, feed their process with these dredges as well. So there's a I guess what I want to say is there's just a lot of things, a lot of opportunity here, a lot of optionality that, you know, we don't have a full handle on, but that's something that we're definitely going to be looking at over here as we progress forward.

Okay. And then on the Encore mobile mini mines, can you just talk about your opportunity and comfort with wet sand, you know, the mining operations, and maybe if you see some opportunities to kind of improve the operations as well?

Yeah, this part I might just start, but John will probably add to it. You know, I think some of you probably heard us early on. We were concerned about the challenges associated with wet sand. And obviously we've been sold out of dry sand. So, you know, we weren't particularly motivated to move that direction. It's really a credit to High Crush and their team. And again, their culture, their innovative culture, that they've really solved those challenges and doing a great job with the wet sand. So that combined with, you know, The fact that it's logistically advantaged to operators there over in the east side of the Midland Basin, particularly, made it compelling. Again, it's credit to those guys, and it's very complimentary to what we're doing. John, do you want to add to that?

I mean, you know, I do think that I agree with Bud. I think the High Crush team has done an amazing job on the wet sand front, I think, and on the logistics side as well. I think that, you know, we're going to, as a company, what we're going to do is, you know, we're going to come together and we're going to bring in the best ideas and see if there's anything that they're doing and we can apply it within, you know, in our operations. And we're also going to do the same thing or the things that we can do at their you know at their operations like say their encore mines that we're doing and automation and things like that and incorporate that in so i definitely think there's going to be some um some opportunity there as well okay uh thanks a bunch and congrats on the deal thank you our next question is from jim rollison with raymond james please proceed hey good morning guys and congrats on the on the transaction um

John, maybe can you split out just, you know, obviously you guys break out the sand side from the logistics side, the way you report financials. Maybe just, I know we don't have all the financial details yet because it's not closed, but I'd love to get just kind of a rough split of maybe revenues and EBITDA from High Crush between their actual sand operations versus the logistics so we can, you know, kind of think about that from a modeling perspective.

Hey, I'm going to let Brian answer that. Yeah, Jim, it's pretty close to 50-50. They're also very heavily weighted in the logistics business like us.

And do you think, Brian, margin-wise, is their logistics business somewhere running close to what you guys have been doing historically? Just kind of trying to ferret that part out to get to the 110 to 125 of guidance.

Yeah, very similar. Obviously, we've got a change coming up with the Dune Express to expand margins. But historically, it's pretty similar.

Yeah, you know, I might add just kind of thematically to help you think about the logistics. When you think about, and we talked about this as we were at a conference recently, and the fact that historically, you know, OpEx, 70% of OpEx has been labor, you know, man in the seat. With the Dune Express, we're completely eliminating the man-in-the-seat for that 42-mile haul into the most prolific producing province in the country. They're in the center of the Delaware, northern Delaware basin. And then we've got last mile from there. But then you look at – so that's going to be a real leapfrog forward in terms, obviously, in terms of, you know, cost structure and margin capture for us. And we'll be additive to 25. And then on top of that, you look what we're doing with the high-capacity trucking, double, triple trailering, significantly reducing the costs per ton delivered with that. And then similarly in the Midland Basin, what High Crush has been doing with the proximal Encore mines, taking trucks off the road and reducing drive time. So it's real exciting when you think about over time what we're going to be able to do to really – to change the logistics business and really move it more towards when you look at the Dune Express, it really is a midstream enterprise. And so the margin impact over time is really going to be exciting as you go forward. And you look at the margins of this company, we have a slide 14 in the investor deck that shows, I mean, nobody enjoys the margins that we do, and we trade at about half the multiple of those companies that approach us even. on the margins. So it's really exciting as you roll forward with this company, with this scale and with the complimentary assets we're adding and the innovative culture, we're going to be able to further drive down our cost structure and drive up our margins, which are already at very exciting levels. I don't know if you guys want to add to that, but.

Yeah, I think that's, thank you.

I think that's well covered. Thanks for that color bud. And then John, last thing, just on the 26 to $28 a ton, kind of full year pricing, maybe a little color, you know, when we sat here a quarter ago and you guys were kind of talking market was in the, you know, mid upper twenties to low thirties and you were still, you know, about 40% contracted, obviously on a combined basis, you guys are 80% contracted. Maybe how some color on how the high crush contracting weighed on that versus just new, you know, where the market's been with a weak market we've had going into the back half of the fourth quarter, just kind of how you ended up at this range versus where we had been historically.

Yeah, the high crush was they have a contract profile, but they were heavily contracted there at a more lower price than what we were contracted at. So really what you're seeing there is an adjustment is reflective of where their contract position is. I'd say that they're almost 100% contracted on their 24 volumes contract. And it's at a lower price than where our contract profile is. Got it.

Thanks, guys.

Our next question is from Sean Mitchell with Daniel Energy Partners. Please proceed.

Good morning, guys. Congrats on the deal. Bud, I think you addressed this a little bit in your opening comments, but can you just talk a little bit about customer overlap in particular in Kermit maybe, or in the Delaware, because obviously the Midland is somewhat new, but what's the overlap and the customer mix here in Kermit?

Well, there's not much. It's very complimentary in terms of customers, John. I don't know if there's any specific, I mean, the fact that their assets are weighted towards the Midland Basin and their logistics is weighted towards the Midland Basin and our logistics, what we've been doing Of course, with the Dune Express and the high-capacity trucking, it's really had more impact in the Delaware Basin. So it's kind of been natural, organic that we have very complementary customer bases. We've been logistically challenged on the far eastern side of the Midland Basin, given the distances to move our profit over there. So it's a very – It's very beneficial in that regard.

Yeah, I mean, like Bud said, I think there's very little overlap. Obviously, some of the largest, most of the largest produce operators in the Permian Basin, you know, I think, you know, iGress has done a great job with those customers, and, you know, those customers value those relationships just like ours do, and we look forward to, you know, maintaining those relationships going forward and serving those customers, our entire top tier customer base.

I mean, I think part of it is, you know, logistics is so key to your prop and sales. And so it's been natural that even their Kermit plant has been more weighted to the Midland Basin because that's where their logistics assets are. And we dominate the Delaware because our logistics assets are second to none in the Delaware. So it's really worked out well and very complimentary.

And, Bud or John, as you look at the combined assets or the assets of the combined company, where do you guys see maybe an opportunity for growth? I mean, what are you most excited about in terms of silos, boxes, more trailers, mobile mines? What are you most excited about when you look at the combined assets?

Maybe I'll just make a general comment. John may have some specifics. I mean, I just think it's really exciting where Atlas is positioned, particularly after this transaction that, you know, this basin and the oiling, the shale has been a significant evolution, in my view, in the early, mid-ittings. of this evolution to more of a factory-type operation. And so it's all about scale, and you're seeing that on the operator side. And on the service side, we're uniquely positioned with the scale on logistics and profit to match the scale of the operator. So there are going to be a lot of opportunities associated with this distribution network to make operators' jobs easier and to eliminate the bottlenecks, particularly on on sand in the blender, and we're uniquely positioned to do that. So I just think we're going to have a lot of opportunities to grow other green shoots that we can't even imagine right now. John, do you want to add to that?

Yeah, you know, I mean, nothing in particular other than, you know, these two companies have been really the only ones that have been investing in the fractional logistics space. significantly. As of today, we can't necessarily tell you where the future growth is going to be, but what I can assure you is that we're going to continue making those investments, working with our partners, operating partners, to make sure that efficiencies on well sites continue to improve and And overall, you know, fraction intensity is going to continue to increase, but I've mentioned that on this call. You know, we're going to be looking at opportunities to help our customers increase that intensity.

And, Sean, real quick, you talked about growth. I think one thing we're excited about is growth in distributions, which this acquisition certainly enhances that.

Absolutely. Well, guys, thanks for the time, and congrats again on the deal.

Thank you. Really appreciate it.

We have reached the end of our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for closing comments.

Yeah, we want to thank everybody for joining us for this call. This is an exciting and really transformational event in our company's history. We really look forward to following up in subsequent quarters. So thank you all very much.

Thanks, guys.

Thank you. This does conclude today's conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.