LISLE, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 6, 2013--
SunCoke Energy Partners, L.P. (NYSE: SXCP) today announced that its
wholly-owned subsidiary executed a definitive agreement to acquire 100
percent of the ownership interest in Kanawha River Terminals LLC (“KRT”)
for $86 million. KRT is wholly-owned by Traxys North America LLC, an
international financing, marketing, distribution and trading company in
metals, minerals and mining industries. This transaction is subject to
regulatory approval and customary closing conditions and is expected to
close in fourth quarter 2013. SXCP plans to finance this acquisition
with a combination of available cash and its existing revolving credit
facility.
KRT is a leading metallurgical and thermal coal blending/handling
terminal service provider with the collective capacity to blend and
transload more than 30 million tons of coal annually. KRT owns four coal
handling facilities, the largest of which is the Ceredo Terminal located
on the Ohio River in West Virginia. This strategically located terminal
has both inbound and outbound rail logistics provided by CSX and Norfolk
Southern and the capability to offload and load barges. As a result, the
Ceredo terminal is able to serve both domestic and international export
markets. KRT’s other coal handling facilities are located on the Big
Sandy and Kanawha Rivers, as well as on Kentucky Highway 1185 near
Louisa, Kentucky. In addition, KRT owns an idled liquids terminal on the
Ohio River that has more than four million gallons of liquid storage
capacity. With its strategic river locations and convenient access to
highways and railroads, KRT can deliver products to all U.S. ports on
the Gulf Coast, East Coast and Great Lakes.
“KRT is an excellent strategic fit with SXCP and advances our position
in coal logistics,” said Fritz Henderson, Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer of SXCP. “With this acquisition, we further integrate our
cokemaking business with coal handling operations that currently support
our Middletown and Granite City cokemaking facilities. We also will
broaden our customer base to serve companies in the coal, steel and
public utility industries. We anticipate KRT’s operations will be
immediately accretive and contribute to future earnings and
distributable cash flow growth.”
In 2013, KRT is projected to handle approximately 15 million tons of
coal, 56 percent of which is anticipated to be metallurgical coal. Based
on our preliminary outlook and anticipated financing plan, KRTs
operations are expected to be accretive to SXCP’s distributable cash
flow by approximately $6 million, or $0.18 per common unit, on an
annualized basis. Assuming a targeted 50/50 debt-to-equity capital
structure for SXCP, the annualized accretion per common unit would be
approximately $0.11. This contribution is in addition to the anticipated
increase in distributable cash flow from SXCP’s previously announced
acquisition of Lakeshore Coal Handling Corporation, expected to close
later in the third quarter. SXCP plans to update its guidance for both
the KRT and Lakeshore Coal Handling Corporation acquisitions in the
fourth quarter.
ABOUT SUNCOKE ENERGY PARTNERS, L.P.
SunCoke Energy Partners, L.P. (NYSE: SXCP) is a publicly-traded master
limited partnership, which manufactures coke used in the blast furnace
production of steel. Our advanced, heat recovery cokemaking process
produces consistently high-quality coke, captures waste heat to generate
steam or electricity, and reduces environmental impacts. Our General
Partner is a wholly owned subsidiary of SunCoke Energy, Inc. (NYSE:
SXC), the largest independent producer of coke in the Americas, with 50
years of cokemaking experience and an international reputation for
leadership, innovation and environmental stewardship in our industry.
ABOUT TRAXYS
Traxys is a leading intermediary between base metal, noble alloy and
industrial mineral, energy and carbon product producers and industrial
end-users. The Company provides a full range of commercial services such
as marketing, sales, distribution, hedging, supply chain financing, raw
materials sourcing, credit risk coverage and logistics. Traxys has over
$6 billion in annual sales and more than 20 offices worldwide. For more
information please visit www.traxys.com.
FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS
Some of the statements included in this press release constitute
“forward looking statements.” Such forward-looking statements are based
on management’s beliefs and assumptions and on information currently
available. You should not put undue reliance on any forward-looking
statements. Forward-looking statements include all statements that are
not historical facts and may be identified by the use of forward looking
terminology such as the words “believe,” “expect,” “plan,” “project,”
“intend,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “continue,”
“may,” “will,” “should” or the negative of these terms or similar
expressions.
Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions.
Risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ
materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements include
economic, business, competitive and/or regulatory factors affecting
SXCP’s business, as well as uncertainties related to the outcomes of
pending or future litigation, legislation, or regulatory actions. Among
such risks are: changes in levels of production, production capacity,
pricing and/or margins for metallurgical coal and coke; variation in
availability, quality and supply of metallurgical coal used in the
cokemaking process, including as a result of non-performance by our
suppliers; changes in the marketplace that may affect supply and demand
for our metallurgical coke products, including increased exports of coke
from China and increasing competition from alternative steelmaking and
cokemaking technologies that have the potential to reduce or eliminate
the use of metallurgical coke; our dependence on, relationships with,
and other conditions affecting, our customers; severe financial hardship
or bankruptcy of one or more of our major customers, or the occurrence
of a customer default and other events affecting our ability to collect
payments from our customers; volatility and cyclical downturns in the
carbon steel industry and other industries in which our customers
operate; our ability to enter into new, or renew existing, long-term
agreements upon favorable terms for the supply of metallurgical coke to
domestic and/or foreign steel producers; our ability to develop, design,
permit, construct, start up or operate new cokemaking facilities in the
U.S.; our ability to successfully implement our international growth
strategy; our ability to consummate investments under favorable terms,
including with respect to existing cokemaking facilities, which may
utilize by-product technology, in the U.S. and Canada, and integrate
them into our existing businesses and have them perform at anticipated
levels; unanticipated developments that may negatively impact the
Partnership; receipt of regulatory approvals and compliance with
contractual obligations required in connection with the Partnership’s
operations; age of, and changes in the reliability, efficiency and
capacity of the various equipment and operating facilities used in our
cokemaking operations, and in the operations of our major customers,
business partners and/or suppliers; changes in the expected operating
levels of our assets; our ability to meet minimum volume requirements,
coal-to-coke yield standards and coke quality requirements in our coke
sales agreements; changes in the level of capital expenditures or
operating expenses, including any changes in the level of environmental
capital, operating or remediation expenditures; our ability to service
our outstanding indebtedness; our ability to comply with the
restrictions imposed by our financing arrangements; nonperformance or
force majeure by, or disputes with or changes in contract terms with,
major customers, suppliers, dealers, distributors or other business
partners; availability of skilled employees for our cokemaking
operations, and other workplace factors; effects of railroad, barge,
truck and other transportation performance and costs, including any
transportation disruptions; effects of adverse events relating to the
operation of our facilities and to the transportation and storage of
hazardous materials (including equipment malfunction, explosions, fires,
spills, and the effects of severe weather conditions); changes in the
availability and cost of equity and debt financing; impact on our
liquidity and ability to raise capital as a result of changes in the
credit ratings assigned to our indebtedness; changes in credit terms
required by our suppliers; risks related to labor relations and
workplace safety; changes in, or new, statutes, regulations,
governmental policies and taxes, or their interpretations, including
those relating to the environment; the existence of hazardous substances
or other environmental contamination on property owned or used by us;
claims of our noncompliance with any statutory and regulatory
requirements; changes in the status of, or initiation of new litigation,
arbitration, or other proceedings to which we are a party or liability
resulting from such litigation, arbitration, or other proceedings;
historical combined and consolidated financial data may not be a
reliable indicator of future results; incremental costs as a stand-alone
public company; changes in product specifications for the coke that we
produce; changes in insurance markets impacting costs and the level and
types of coverage available, and the financial ability of our insurers
to meet their obligations; changes in accounting rules and/or tax laws
or their interpretations, including the method of accounting for
inventories, leases and/or pensions; changes in financial markets
impacting pension expense and funding requirements; and effects of
geologic conditions, weather, natural disasters and other inherent risks
beyond our control. Unpredictable or unknown factors not disclosed in
this release also could have material adverse effects on forward-looking
statements.
The Partnership has included in its filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission cautionary language identifying important factors
(but not necessarily all the important factors) that could cause actual
results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking
statement made by the Partnership. For more information concerning these
factors, see the Partnership’s Securities and Exchange Commission
filings. All forward-looking statements included in this press release
are expressly qualified in their entirety by such cautionary statements.
The Partnership does not have any intention or obligation to update any
forward-looking statement (or its associated cautionary language)
whether as a result of new information or future events, after the date
of this press release except as required by applicable law.
Source: SunCoke Energy Partners, L.P.
SunCoke Energy Partners, L.P.
Investors:
Ryan
Osterholm, 630-824-1987
or
Media:
Anna
Rozenich, 630-824-1945