SemGroup releases 3Q report
BY ROD WALTON World Staff Writer
Friday, May 29, 2009
5/29/09 at 4:34 AM
Complete coverage: Read all the stories and documents related to the SemGroup collapse.
SemGroup Energy Partners LP's journey back to accountability took another step forward this week when the Tulsa-based midstream energy company released its report for last year's third quarter.
The report, which is about six months late due to challenges facing the former subsidiary of bankrupt SemGroup LP, showed publicly traded SGLP with an $11.85 million net loss for the three-month period. The company's total "current assets" as of Sept. 30, however, rose to $48.8 million from only $13.9 million six months earlier.
The net loss was due to an $18 million non-cash charge related to the early vesting of units under SGLP's long-term incentive plan, a company spokesman said. SGLP, however, will not hold a conference call to expand on details.
SGLP has not had a public conference call since August and has not publicly taken questions from media and analysts since July.
The company's third-quarter results seemed to show progress despite the net loss. Earnings for the nine months ending Sept. 30 totaled $19.5 million, compared to a $20.1 million net loss in the same period a year earlier.
SGLP also announced contracts or leases on 39 of its 46 asphalt facilities. The public SemGroup offers fee-based storage, terminal and transport services in oil and asphalt.
"We believe our ability to get these facilities quickly under contract highlights the strategic location and strong industry demand for our asphalt and residual fuel oil assets," Jerry Parsons, SGLP's executive vice president for asphalt operations, said in a statement.
Twenty of those SGLP facilities are being leased to Jackson, Miss.-based Ergon Asphalt and Emulsions Inc. The sites, spread over 10 states, have allowed Ergon to double its production capacity, according to reports.
SemGroup LP spun off millions of dollars' worth of storage, terminal and pipeline assets to form SGLP and take it public in July 2007.
The parent company was once considered one of the nation's fastest growing and largest private entities, but its liquidity was sapped through a series of failed oil futures transactions, according to reports.
SemGroup LP filed for Chapter 11 protection July 22 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. The company traders, including co-founder Tom Kivisto, lost more than $2.4 billion on the oil futures market, court records indicate.
The public SGLP was not a debtor in that bankruptcy but lost a majority of the revenue it received in its throughput agreement with the parent SemGroup. The public subsidiary also fell into credit default, and hedge funds Alerian Capital Management and Manchester Securities took control of the SGLP board after the parent SemGroup defaulted on a $150 million loan.
This spring heralded some positive developments for SGLP.
The company gained a two-year credit waiver from its senior lending group and was able to borrow again.
In March, SGLP finally released its second-quarter 2008 financial results, which showed a $21.6 million profit. SGLP also received some SemMaterials storage assets in a settlement with its former parent company earlier this year.
Shares of SGLP were up to $5.45 per unit Thursday on the over-the-counter "pink sheets" electronic market. SGLP units dropped as low as 80 cents last year on Nasdaq, but the company was later delisted from that exchange due to its lack of financial reporting.
Rod Walton 581-8457
rod.walton@tulsaworld.com
