Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (NASDAQ:CLNE) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (NASDAQ:CLNE) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript May 9, 2024

Clean Energy Fuels Corp. misses on earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $-0.08263 EPS, expectations were $-0.03. Clean Energy Fuels Corp. isn’t one of the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds at the end of the third quarter (see the details here).

Operator: Good day, everyone, and welcome to today’s Clean Energy Fuels First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, you will have the opportunity to ask questions during the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Please note this call may be recorded. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to turn the conference over to Mr. Robert Vreeland, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Robert Vreeland: Thank you, operator. Earlier this afternoon, Clean Energy released financial results for the first quarter ending March 31st, 2024. If you did not receive the release, it is available on the Investor Relations section of the company’s website at www.cleanenergyfuels.com, where the call is also being webcast. There will be a replay available on the website for 30 days. Before we begin, we’d like to remind you that some of the information contained in the news release and on this conference call contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Such forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of performance, and the company’s actual results could differ materially from those contained in such statements.

Several factors that could cause or contribute to such differences are described in detail in the Risk Factors section of the Clean Energy’s Form 10-Q filed today. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this release. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements or supply new information regarding the circumstances after the date of this release. The company’s non-GAAP EPS and adjusted EBITDA will be reviewed on this call and exclude certain expenses that the company’s management does not believe are indicative of the company’s core business operating results. Non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to results prepared in accordance with GAAP and should not be considered as a substitute for or superior to GAAP results.

The directly comparable GAAP information, reasons why management uses non-GAAP information, a definition of non-GAAP EPS and adjusted EBITDA, and a reconciliation between these non-GAAP and GAAP figures is provided in the company’s press release, which has been furnished to the SEC on Form 8-K today. With that, I will turn the call over to our President and Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Littlefair.

Andrew Littlefair: Thank you, Bob. It pleases me to say that we kicked off 2024 with a strong first quarter. Our base business of fueling fleets, constructing and maintaining stations for those fleets, and providing other services that keeps trucks, shuttles and buses operating on a clean fuel performed well. We also made good progress in our business of developing renewable natural gas dairy projects. I’ll expand with a few more details on both in a moment. The 8.6% year-over-year growth in RNG fuel volumes is a testament to the stability and growth in our base business. In addition, it reflects the significant RNG volume that is now flowing through the new state-of-the-art fueling stations that we have built and opened over the last two years, where we have an anchor customer in Amazon.

We are also seeing other vehicles begin to fuel at these stations, which helps our fuel margins. As always Bob will give you more details about our financial results, but I would be remiss in not calling out the $12.8 million in adjusted EBITDA for Q1 compared to minus $4 million of Q1 of last year. The significant upswing is attributed to the growth in our core business that I just mentioned, as well as circumstances which we found ourselves during the beginning of last year with historically high natural gas prices in California that impacted our bottom line. Our balance sheet remains strong with almost $250 million of cash and investments on hand. And you should see continued, improved adjusted EBITDA results through this year. I’d like to take a moment to address the environmental credit situation because I think some might tie the ups and downs of those prices a little too tightly to our overall business.

Of course, we’re not pleased with where the California LCFS prices have been trading as of late. During the first quarter of 2024, the federal D3 RIN prices remained strong and positively impacted our results. We have witnessed a volatile LCFS credit price for quite some time, so we went into 2024 planning for that to continue. And it’s our strong view that a higher LCFS credit price is needed over time to support the robust pace of low carbon energy investment necessary to achieve California’s emissions targets. And we believe that members of the California Air Resources Board and staff understand this and are working with all stakeholders on the solution. But like most policy matters, it requires time and process. Ultimately, we believe the compliance curve will be strengthened and will help.

Let me drill down a little further. Our fueling station and RNG distribution business generates margin from D3 RIN credits, LCFS credits, California and Oregon volumes, federal alternative fuel tax credits and margin on the fuel sale itself. Using RNG instead of diesel results in lowering fueling costs and lower emissions for our customers. It also contributes to a solid base margin for us. The credits are additive to this base margin. On the RNG production side, our dairy projects generate revenue from RIN credits, LCFS credits and RNG sales. The financial return of these projects is further enhanced by credits that will be generated under the Inflation Reduction Act through the investment tax credit and beginning in 2025, the 45Z production tax credit.

These projects produce ultra-low carbon intensity fuel for customers, while also providing a solution for our partners in the agriculture sector. Let me return to the growth in our core business for a moment, which is providing fuel and reliable services to our fleet customers. Over the last few months, we have signed agreements with municipalities across the country, demonstrates the continued confidence in the reliability and emission benefits of operating with RNG. These agreements included everything from Long Beach Transit for about 1.5 million gallons of RNG a year to operate their fleet of city buses, to the vehicles at the Port of Seattle and to Atlantic County Utilities Authority in New Jersey that is expected to use 0.5 million gallons of RNG for their waste collection vehicles.

Another deal that we just recently signed is one that I know our sales team and myself particularly proud of and that is Harris County METRO, which services the Greater Houston area. Houston Metro is one of the largest transit agencies in the country that operates their fleet of buses primarily on diesel. Well, that’s about to change, and they’re making the switch with Clean Energy. We will be building a new state-of-the-art station for up to 120 of the first buses to operate on natural gas. All told, the close to $15 million contract to construct a new station and to modify their facilities for natural gas fueling represents one of the largest transit agreements we’ve made in many years. These municipalities are on the hook by their constituents to keep the buses running on time and the trash picked up, they must depend on vehicles that operate not only sustainably, but reliably as well.

RNG is the cleanest fuel available and is the most reliable performer of any other alternative. And no other company in the country keeps those stations which provides that fuel operating better than clean energy. Another unique advantage that clean energy holds over virtually every other fuel provider is that we now produce our own ultra-low carbon RNG at dairies. This is in addition to the approximately 78 different offtake agreements we have with RNG suppliers provide the largest natural gas fueling infrastructure in North America. We deliver RNG to 454 different stations daily and RNG now represents 88% of the transportation fuel we sell. This allows us to give RNG customers the greatest level of assurance that they will receive in this clean fuel without interruption.

Others try to match one RNG production project with one contract fleet customer. The customers, especially national fleets, want to know that providers and operators of their stations have a portfolio of supply in case there is interruption in any one supplier. No other company provides that confidence the way Clean Energy does. In fact, we recently won the deal to service Fort Collins Transit by beating out 12 other competitors, including two global energy majors, because of the agency’s confidence in our ability to keep the RNG flowing 24/7. And we apply this strength across all transportation sectors, whether it’s for municipalities or the world’s largest logistics operators like UPS, for which we provide RNG in over 25 states, and Amazon, for which we have constructed 19 state-of-the-art RNG stations over the last several years that provide fast-fill and time-fill options for thousands of heavy duty trucks.

On a daily basis, Amazon trucks are fueling at Clean Energy stations in 26 different states. We feel good in our positioning at this critical time as the Cummins X15N engine hits the heavy duty truck market. Reviews of the new engine by those fleets that have been testing it have remained stellar. Pivoting to our RNG production business. We’ve had a busy first part of the year completing a series of digester projects and dairies across the Midwest with our partner, BP. These projects began injecting RNG into the pipeline a few months later than what we had originally hoped, but we remain pleased with the overall outcome and continue to learn with every project. 2023 was one of the worst markets in decades for our friends in the US dairy business.

Combination of low milk prices and high feed costs created very challenging financial conditions for dairy farms, including some of the farms we partner with for our RNG projects. To that point, a dairy in Idaho that hosts one of our 50-50 joint venture projects with BP filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April. The proceedings are at an early stage, so we’re not able to comment on the details of the process, but we are, of course, monitoring the situation very closely. Importantly, the dairy is still operating while the reorganization proceeds. And our RNG project creates an important operational, environmental and financial solution for the farm once the project is completed. Despite some challenges, our view on dairy RNG remains intact.

These long-term projects produce the lowest carbon fuel for the customers. And they provide an important solution for our farm partners, all while capturing methane from animal waste and removing it from the atmosphere. As an example of our commitment to adding to our low carbon RNG supply, I’m pleased to say that we are expanding our current relationship with Maas Energy Works with whom we have RNG offtake contracts by signing a new development partnership to construct RNG digesters at a handful of dairies across the country. Daryl Maas and his team are some of the best developers in the business and we’re excited about this development agreement. But we just signed it yesterday, so we will be formally announcing it with a press release early next week with more details.

The other recent partnership that we have formalized is with Frank Brand, owner of South Fork Dairy in Dimmitt, Texas. You might remember it’s Frank’s Dairy that experienced a tragic fire last year. Frank lived up to his reputation as one of the best in the business by overcoming this horrible situation, rebuilding his barn and replacing his large herd in less than a year. He is also committed to working with Clean Energy and building an RNG digester for all the business and environmental reasons it allows. We couldn’t be prouder to call Frank our partner. I hope I’ve left you with the impression that we remain optimistic about our future. The fundamentals of our business of producing and selling RNG to the transportation industry is strong and growing, despite some external forces that might not always seem to go our way.

We believe we put the best team in place to execute our strategy and they prove that every day. And with that I’ll turn the call over to Bob.

Robert Vreeland: Thank you, Andrew, and good afternoon to everyone. We had a solid first quarter of 2024 with revenue of $103.7 million, a GAAP loss of $0.08 per share, non-GAAP loss of $0.01 a share and adjusted EBITDA of $12.8 million. All the earnings metrics are much improved from a year ago and were better than our expectations for the first quarter of 2024. Recall that the first quarter of 2023 was significantly impacted by the historically high natural gas prices in California, which ultimately was a drag on earnings, but was a big positive on revenue since much of that increase in gas costs was reflected in our pricing to customers. That’s actually the main reason you see a year-over-year decline in our revenues because of that run up in the natural gas costs in California last year.

Having said that, our net results for the first quarter of 2024 certainly got off to a better start than a year ago, which puts us in a good position to remain confident in maintaining our annual guidance for 2024. First quarter results for 2024 can be summed up by saying we had continued growth in RNG volumes. RIN revenues exceeded our expectations, which helped to offset certain LCFS credit sales that moved into the second quarter. We experienced lower net losses than expected from our RNG equity method investments, while the rest of the business, including our underlying fuel margins performed in line with expectations. To shed some light on this. In the first quarter of 2024, the upside in RIN revenue was principally due to an average RIN price realized of $3.12 plus we saw better net economics to us from our RNG supply offtakes.

Our LCFS revenues were slightly negative for the first quarter of 2024 because we sold $2.25 million of LCFS credits in the first week of April that we ordinarily would have sold within the first quarter. Those LCFS revenues of $2.25 million will show up in our second quarter results. We would expect to get back into a normal LCFS credit sale timing cadence for the end of the second quarter with a plan to transact all of our LCFS sales in the second quarter. And finally, the lower net loss than expected from our RNG equity method investments is principally related to the timing of finalizing construction and placing the dairy projects into service and the ramp-up of operations. We ended the first quarter with approximately $249 million — $250 million in unrestricted cash and investments.

We maintain our capital expenditure guidance of $60 million for our distribution business. We are raising our forecast for our dairy RNG investments to $120 million up from $100 million principally due to the Mass Energy RNG deal that Andrew mentioned. With that, operator, please open the call to questions.

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Q&A Session

Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions] And our first question will come from Eric Stine with Craig-Hallum.

Eric Stine: Hi, Andrew. Hi, Bob.

Andrew Littlefair: Hi.

Robert Vreeland: Hi, Eric.

Eric Stine: Hey. So just starting with the 15 liter, I know that Cummins has had some pretty nice targets out there for adoption here in ’24, ’25 and ’26. And I know we’re getting closer, OEMs starting to talk about production dates and that sort of thing. Just curious what your thoughts are, what you’re hearing and kind of what your expectation is throughout the remainder of ’24 and then ’25, ’26?

Andrew Littlefair: Yeah, Eric, I don’t have any fuel right at this point with the numbers, and I’m guessing you’ll have to get those from Cummins. I have been recently to Cummins, I mean, and one of the things that impressed me is back in Indiana, one of the things is they’re very pleased and excited about this engine. They really feel like the technology and what they’ve been able to bring this engine is really impressive and so they’re excited. So that makes me excited. I do know as we keep up with customers that are testing the engines, the feedback continues to be very strong and the excitement high. So the expectation is that, that is going to be very well received as those orders begin to come in. One update is some of the validation units is kind of a term of art in the engine business is the next batch of trucks has been built coming down the line and those engines are now making their way to customers.

In fact, we’ll get one here shortly that we’ll be using to for our customers. And our customers, if it’s any indication, Eric, we booked that truck out in one-week and two-week test for real loads, real deliveries for product, for our customers in those trucks for the next several months. So the excitement, I think, is good for this product. And I’m just hoping that we’ll know more here in the early part of the summer of how these orders are going.

Eric Stine: Got it. And I won’t ask you, which I have in the past, about maybe future plans with Amazon, but maybe you could talk about, you mentioned some of the volumes you’re starting to see at those Amazon stations from other fleets. I’m curious again, coming back to the 15 liter, how do that [indiscernible] end of those conversations?

Andrew Littlefair: That’s obviously those stations have been built with time-fill, if you’re familiar with for the Amazon trucks. And of course Amazon avails themselves to the fast-fill as well. But each of those stations has pumps kind of on the front part of those facilities that can fuel outside fleets. And it’s been nice to be — see for instance, the other day, I have a picture that one of our salesmen sent me from San Bernardino, which is large station has, I think, almost 200 Amazon trucks added out in the Inland Empire. And there were four different unrelated heavy-duty vehicles from other fleets. So, we’re beginning to see that happen. And of course, the X15N will be important to this, right? Because as those other 15 liter — the trucks become available to other fleets, these locations are all in the perfect area.

That’s why they’ve been put there by Amazon. They’re in warehouse districts. And so it should be very well suited as these engines come to market. So we’re glad to see that. We’re beginning to see those volumes ramp up and it’s as we hoped.

Eric Stine: All right. Thank you very much.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question will come from Manav Gupta with UBS.

Manav Gupta: Good morning, guys. Congrats on a [Technical Difficulty] start to the year. My first question is policy related. If 45Z is implemented in the current form, then you with negative CI RNG could be a major beneficiary of it. Just trying to understand I think 40E guidance is out, 40V guidance is out. But anything you have heard on 45Z? Is the plan still that it goes into 2025. So if you could help us understand the impact on you and what you are hearing in terms of when the government could be out with it?

Robert Vreeland: You’re breaking up a little bit, Manav. But if I understood your question. It’s about 45Z. It’s all about Z. Nothing about 45B. Okay. So Z is, you know, we’ve — in fact I was at a conference earlier this week where John Podesta, who is responsible at the White House for kind of shepherding all of the IRA, actually talked about that they’re moving through these different things at Treasury. And so, it’s our understanding that 45Z should come out here sometime later this year. I’m hoping earlier is better, sometimes maybe later this summer, but we haven’t really heard anything definitive, Manav, so far.

Manav Gupta: Perfect. A quick follow up.

Andrew Littlefair: Yeah. Go ahead, Manav.

Manav Gupta: So a quick follow-up there would be can you update us on the number of dairies you already have online? And how should we think about modeling the number of dairies online by year-end 2024?

Andrew Littlefair: We have five dairies that are injecting gas right now, and the sixth one is completed, but we’re just going through kind of a punch list with the farmers. That would make six. So by the end of the year, those first five should be all producing and injecting and creating credits. The sixth one could slip into 2025. And that’s really for no other reason, Manav, other than just the length of time that it takes to get through the certification process. Otherwise, those first five are storing gas as we speak.

Manav Gupta: Thank you. I’ll turn it over. Thank you.

Andrew Littlefair: Yeah.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Rob Brown with Lake Street Capital markets.

Rob Brown: Good afternoon.

Andrew Littlefair: Hey, Rob.

Rob Brown: On the Maas Energy partnership, additional development, I guess, in RNG. Are they focused on different areas or different geographies or what sort of the piece that that partnership has?

Andrew Littlefair: Maas is really one of the biggest and best developer. He’s got 60 projects and so we’re very excited. We work closely with Daryl and have for a long time. As I mentioned in my remarks, we’re taking gas RNG from him now. These projects will be scattered out in seven different states. There’s actually six projects, but the way that the dairies align themselves will actually be in seven states. I’d say for the most part, it’s Midwest and in the South. And so, we’re excited about that. I’m going to try to hold off getting into all the detail on that because we’re going to talk a lot more about that next week. But it’s an exciting development, and it should kind of goose our development program.

Rob Brown: Okay, thank you. And then on the Amazon rollout, how many more stations are sort of set to go there or in the original, I guess, first wave?

Andrew Littlefair: There’s two more to go. And there one is real close and the other is waiting on. I won’t bore you with it, Rob, but it’s — we’re waiting on a Northern California city to approve stormwater. And as soon as we get that done and that one will be ready to roll. So we’ve made good progress on that. We’ve completed the 17 of 19, actually, we’ve completed more that were. But of the original 19, we’ve got 17 completed.

Rob Brown: Okay. Thank you. I’ll turn it over.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Derrick Whitfield with Stifel.

Derrick Whitfield: Hey. Good afternoon, all, and thanks for your time.

Andrew Littlefair: Good afternoon.

Derrick Whitfield: Regarding the Maas partnership, and I get you guys want to hold off on the details at some level. First, congrats on that, because as you mentioned, he’s one of the more active developers in the industry. But maybe specific to Clean, how should we think about the partnership’s implications to your development approach and cost? Like, are you guys going to do more of the covered lagoon versus complete mix? And again just trying to understand the application and how it could potentially change your cost structure.

Andrew Littlefair: Well, one, I think Daryl is a proven cost-effective developer and we’ve seen that over time. He’s no nonsense type listed operator. So we like that. These dairies will be smaller and many of them will be covered lagoons. And so, I think, it’ll be a little bit different than some of the ones that we’ve recently completed, but Daryl has awful a lot of experience on that and we’re looking forward to working with them on it.

Derrick Whitfield: And as my follow-up, could you perhaps update us on the project pipeline? I know that it’s been fairly steady and you guys are working to convert that, but any color that you can provide just on the depth of advanced type developments that you guys have right now, that would be greatly appreciated.

Andrew Littlefair: Well, obviously, this Maas thing factors into that, and these projects ebb and flow. But I’d say one of the things, the pipeline is robust and a lot of the projects that we’ve had over the last year, year and a half continue to be looked at, kind of continue to wrestle with. But look, as we look at the pricing of the low-carbon fuel credit and other sort of uncertainties that worked into it, some of these projects don’t look as attractive as they once did. So, we happen to think that all come around, the cost of some of these projects as we all know and the time to market has been somewhat challenging for certain of these projects. And so these projects haven’t gone away. It’s just whether or not those are where we wanted to deploy our precious capital right now.

And so, when we get an opportunity to do like a Maas program with the structure you’ll see next week, we think that’s kind of moves to the top of our pipeline list. And so we continue to know that we need more RNG. The industry needs more RNG. We want to be good stewards of capital, though, as we launch these projects. Of course, the one that I mentioned in my remarks is Frank Brand. Now that one we sort of talked about, but that’s getting ready to go into production and so we’re busy.

Derrick Whitfield: Terrific. Thanks for your time.

Andrew Littlefair: Well, I should say production with Frank Brand, it’s going into construction, yeah.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Matthew Blair with TPH.

Matthew Blair: Thank you, and good afternoon.

Andrew Littlefair: Hey, Matthew.

Matthew Blair: You mentioned the first quarter was better than your expectations, which we thought was pretty impressive considering the LCFS credits that slipped into the second quarter. Was anything from the second quarter or back half of the year pulled in to the first quarter? And then — you — okay no. And you reiterated your guidance. So I guess all things equal, this would make you feel more confident about hitting the 2024 guidance. Is that the right read through?

Robert Vreeland: Yes.

Andrew Littlefair: We have volatility there, right. What I think it points to a little bit, especially with the LCFS going into the second quarter is it shows the underlying business, fueling business strong, healthy.

Matthew Blair: Indeed. And then do you have an update on the Total JV? I believe that your six current dairy RNG projects, I think, they’re all with BP. Is that correct? And could you provide an update on how things are going with the Total JV? We saw that they’re working with another counterparty as well. So where do things stand with Total?

Andrew Littlefair: Yeah. So we have one project that was our first project with Total. In fact, our Board of Directors is going to — out to inspect that next week. It’s in the Texas panhandle. We’re pleased with that. Our partner there, Dairyman Rocky. So that one’s producing well. We continue to, as we just discussed earlier a couple of questions ago, we have pipeline, so we work, we show different deals to our partners. And of course, we do that with Total. And so, I’m sure that here in the near future, there’ll be some that’ll kind of go into the Total column.

Matthew Blair: Great. Thanks for your comments.

Andrew Littlefair: Okay. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question will come from Betty Zhang with Scotiabank.

Betty Zhang: Thanks. Hey, Andrew. Hey, Bob.

Andrew Littlefair: Hi, Betty.

Betty Zhang: First question on LCFS. I’m just curious what you guys are seeing there. Is the expectations still that we’ll be getting the updated program starting in 2025?

Andrew Littlefair: Yeah, Betty, look, this has been a difficult one to pin down in terms of timeline. But our view is, and we’re working very closely with CARB staff, CARB Board members and the industry is. We tend to believe — we believe that the program that we got a preview of at the last meeting should come before the Board probably July. And if all goes well, then it would be adopted for implementation in 2025. And we believe that’ll include kind of the 9% step down the accelerator in terms of rationing down the compliance curve depending on market conditions and some of the other more constructive points that we’ve talked about before in terms of constructive interpretations on avoids methane and book and claim and some of those things that used were a little up in the air earlier in this process, but we need to get this done. I think that’s the view of staff as well.