News Releases Details

Third Quarter 2017 Highlights

• Net income of $26.1 million
• Net income attributable to the common unitholders and general partner of $18.4 million
• Adjusted EBITDA of $58.1 million ⁽¹⁾
• Basic and diluted net income per common unit of $1.48 and $1.07, respectively

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 8, 2017-- Natural Resource Partners L.P. (NYSE:NRP) today reported third quarter 2017 net income of $26.1 million and net income attributable to the common unitholders and general partner of $18.4 million, which equated to $1.48 and $1.07 basic and diluted net income per common unit, respectively. NRP also generated Adjusted EBITDA of $58.1 million.

Craig Nunez, President and Chief Operating Officer, commented: "I am pleased with our recent performance. We continue to generate substantial amounts of cash from operations and our third quarter results have considerably improved compared to prior year levels. In addition, we continue to strengthen our balance sheet and have reduced debt $294.4 million during 2017. Compared to the prior quarter, our results were reflective of the steady performances from our Coal Royalty, Soda Ash and Construction Aggregates segments."

At the end of the third quarter, NRP had $121.2 million in cash and $111.0 million of borrowing capacity available under its credit facility. Subsequent to the end of the quarter, NRP redeemed the remaining $94.4 million of its outstanding 9.125% Senior Notes due 2018 at par and repaid $17.0 million on its credit facility. NRP's consolidated Debt-to-Adjusted EBITDA ratio now stands at 3.8x, down from 4.5x at year-end 2016 and 5.3x at year-end 2015.

NRP continues to focus on reducing its debt while maintaining sufficient liquidity to operate its businesses. NRP's goal is to achieve a leverage ratio, defined as Debt-to-EBITDA, of less than 3.0x, while maintaining minimum liquidity of $100 million, which may consist of a combination of cash and/or available borrowing capacity.

With respect to the third quarter of 2017, NRP’s Board of Directors declared a cash distribution of $0.45 per common unit and declared a distribution on NRP’s 12.0% Class A Convertible Preferred Units, one-half of which will be paid-in-kind through the issuance of additional preferred units.

Segment Information

Coal Royalty and Other

Operating income for the quarter was $38.0 million and Adjusted EBITDA was $43.3 million. For the quarter, net cash provided by operating, investing and financing activities were $44.1 million, $0.7 million and $0.5 million, respectively, and DCF was $44.8 million. NRP's Q3 2017 results represent a substantial improvement from Q3 of 2016 and are essentially flat compared to Q2 of 2017. Adjusted Coal Royalty and Other Operating Income compared to Q3 of 2016 increased 26% and excluding the impact of asset sales, DCF increased 26% and Adjusted EBITDA increased 6%. Further discussion of the key drivers for each major producing region follows:

• Appalachia: Coal royalty revenue increased $6.6 million in this region primarily as a result of increased metallurgical coal prices and production in the third quarter of 2017 as compared to the third quarter of 2016.
• Illinois Basin: Lower production in this region led to a $5.3 million decrease in coal royalty revenue, despite the increase in thermal coal prices and our royalty revenue per ton in the region. The decreased production in this region was primarily a result of the temporary relocation of certain production off of NRP's coal reserves. However, this decrease in coal royalty revenue was partially offset by a $2.4 million increase in overriding royalty revenue in this region.
• Northern Powder River Basin: Lower production in this region led to the $1.4 million decrease in coal royalty revenue, despite the modest increase in prices. The lower production was a result of decreased mining on our acreage in this region, which has a checkerboard coal reserve ownership pattern.

Soda Ash

During the third quarter of 2017, international prices for soda ash, particularly in Asia, continued to be strong, and domestic prices have improved slightly over last year. NRP received $12.3 million of cash distributions from its 49% investment in Ciner Wyoming during the period, which was unchanged from the previous quarter and from Q3 of 2016. NRP's equity in earnings from Ciner Wyoming of $9.0 million declined 16% in Q3 2017, compared to the prior year period due to temporary production issues. However, NRP's earnings from Ciner Wyoming increased 7% compared to the previous quarter as a result of the progress made to improve production efficiency at the facility.

Construction Aggregates

Operating income for the quarter was $3.3 million and Adjusted EBITDA was $6.4 million. For the quarter, net cash provided by (used in) operating and investing activities were $2.2 million and $(1.2) million, respectively, and DCF was $1.3 million. While operating performance was in line with the previous quarter, performance improved compared to Q3 2016 as a result of increased production and sales volumes, higher margins on road construction and asphalt paving projects and increased marine terminal activity. DCF was lower in Q3 2017 due to temporary timing differences in cash receipts and payments that we expect to reverse during the remainder of the year.

Corporate and Finance

Total costs in Q3 2017 were $23.8 million, which includes $20.0 million of interest expense. While these amounts were in line with the previous quarter, total corporate and financing costs decreased 14% compared to the same period last year due to lower interest expense and lower legal and consulting fees compared to amounts incurred in Q3 of 2016 in connection with NRP's recapitalization transactions.

Conference Call

A conference call will be held today at 10:00 a.m. ET. To join the conference call, dial (844) 379-6938 and provide the conference code 55454886. Investors may also listen to the call via the Investor Relations section of the NRP website at www.nrplp.com.

Audio replays of the conference call will be available for approximately one week. To access the replay, dial (855) 859-2056 and provide the conference code 55454886 or visit the Investor Relations section of NRP’s website.

Company Profile

Natural Resource Partners L.P., a master limited partnership headquartered in Houston, TX, is a diversified natural resource company that owns interests in coal, aggregates and industrial minerals across the United States. A large percentage of NRP's revenues are generated from royalties and other passive income. In addition, NRP owns a construction aggregates company and an equity investment in CinerWyoming, a trona/soda ash operation.

For additional information, please contact Kathy H. Roberts at 713-751-7555 or kroberts@nrplp.com. Further information about NRP is available on the partnership’s website at http://www.nrplp.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes “forward-looking statements” as defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included in this press release that address activities, events or developments that the partnership expects, believes or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements, including statements regarding future cash distributions to our common unitholders. These statements are based on certain assumptions made by the partnership based on its experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors it believes are appropriate in the circumstances. Such statements are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of the partnership. These risks include, but are not limited to, commodity prices; decreases in demand for coal, aggregates and industrial minerals, including trona/soda ash; changes in operating conditions and costs; production cuts by our lessees; unanticipated geologic problems; our liquidity, leverage and access to capital and financing sources; changes in the legislative or regulatory environment, and other factors detailed in Natural Resource Partners’ Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Natural Resource Partners L.P. has no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

"Adjusted EBITDA" is a non-GAAP financial measure that we define as net income (loss) from continuing operations less equity earnings from unconsolidated investment and income to non-controlling interest; plus distributions from unconsolidated investment, interest expense, debt modification expense, loss on extinguishment of debt, depreciation, depletion and amortization and asset impairments. Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered an alternative to, or more meaningful than, net income or loss, net income or loss attributable to partners, operating income, cash flows from operating activities or any other measure of financial performance presented in accordance with GAAP as measures of operating performance, liquidity or ability to service debt obligations. There are significant limitations to using Adjusted EBITDA as a measure of performance, including the inability to analyze the effect of certain recurring items that materially affect our net income (loss), the lack of comparability of results of operations of different companies and the different methods of calculating Adjusted EBITDA reported by different companies. In addition, Adjusted EBITDA presented below is not calculated or presented on the same basis as Consolidated EBITDA as defined in our partnership agreement. Adjusted EBITDA is a supplemental performance measure used by our management and by external users of our financial statements, such as investors, commercial banks, research analysts and others to assess the financial performance of our assets without regard to financing methods, capital structure or historical cost basis.

“Distributable Cash Flow” is a non-GAAP financial measure that we define as net cash provided by (used in) operating activities of continuing operations, plus returns of equity from unconsolidated investment, proceeds from sales of assets, including those included in discontinued operations, and return on long-term contract receivables (including affiliate); less maintenance capital expenditures and distributions to non-controlling interest. DCF is not a measure of financial performance under GAAP and should not be considered as an alternative to cash flows from operating, investing or financing activities. DCF may not be calculated the same for us as for other companies. DCF is a supplemental liquidity measure used by our management and by external users of our financial statements, such as investors, commercial banks, research analysts and others to assess the Partnership's ability to make cash distributions to our common and preferred unitholders and our general partner and repay debt.

“Adjusted Net Income” is a non-GAAP financial measure that we define as Net income attributable to common unitholders and general partner, plus asset impairments, loss from discontinued operations and write-off of bad debt expense; less gain on sale of assets and non-cash revenue from lease modifications. Adjusted net income should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for operating income (loss), net income (loss), cash flows provided by operating, investing and financial activities, or other income or cash flow statement data prepared in accordance with GAAP. Our management team believes Adjusted net income is useful in evaluating our financial performance because restructuring transaction expenses are one time charges, gains on asset sales are not related to the operations of our business and asset impairments and fair value adjustments for warrant liabilities are non-cash charges and excluding these from net income allows us to better compare results period-over-period. Reconciliations of Net income attributable to common unitholders and general partner to Adjusted net income are included in the table on the first page of this release.

“Adjusted Coal Royalty and Other Operating Income” is a non-GAAP financial measure that we define as Coal royalty and other operating income plus asset impairments and write-off of bad debt expense; less gains on asset sales and non-cash revenue associated with lease modifications and terminations. Adjusted coal royalty and other operating income should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for operating income (loss), net income (loss), cash flows provided by operating, investing and financial activities, or other income or cash flow statement data prepared in accordance with GAAP. Our management team believes Adjusted coal royalty and other operating income is useful in evaluating our financial performance because gains on asset sales are not related to the operations of our business and asset impairments and non-cash revenue associated with lease modifications and forfeitures are non-cash charges and excluding these from Coal royalty and other operating income allows us to better compare results period-over-period. Reconciliations of Coal royalty and other operating income to Adjusted coal royalty and other operating income are included in the tables attached to this release.

-Financial Tables, Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Measures and Recap of Metrics Follow-

Natural Resource Partners L.P.

Financial Tables

The table below presents NRP's unaudited business results by segment for the three months ended September 30, 2017 and 2016 and June 30, 2017, respectively:

Natural Resource Partners L.P.

Financial Tables

The table below presents NRP's unaudited business results by segment for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 and 2016: