Golar LNG Partners L.P. preliminary fourth quarter and financial year 2017 results

Highlights

      ·         Golar LNG Partners LP ("Golar Partners" or "the Partnership") reports net income attributable to unit holders of $25.4 million and operating income of $40.5 million for the fourth quarter of 2017.

      ·         Generated distributable cash flow of $26.0 million¹ for the fourth quarter with a distribution coverage ratio of 0.63¹.

      ·         Closed a Series A Preferred Unit offering raising net proceeds of $133.0 million.

Subsequent Events

      ·         Secured a 15-year contract for one of the Partnership's two available FSRUs.

      ·         Declared an unchanged distribution for the fourth quarter of $0.5775 per unit.

 

Financial Results Overview

Golar Partners reports net income attributable to unit holders of $25.4 million and operating income of $40.5 million for the fourth quarter of 2017 ("the fourth quarter" or "4Q"), as compared to net income attributable to unit holders of $26.5 million and operating income of $53.3 million for the third quarter of 2017 ("the third quarter" or "3Q") and net income attributable to unit holders of $71.4 million and operating income of $72.1 million for the fourth quarter of 2016.

(USD '000)	Q4 2017		Q3 2017		Q4 2016
Total Operating Revenues	90,113		105,635		114,942
Adjusted EBITDA 2	67,053		80,573		98,695
Operating Income	40,497		53,295		72,091
Non-operating Income	-		922		1,318
Interest Income	3,079		2,105		969
Interest Expense	(18,446	)	(19,876	)	(16,984	)
Other Financial Items	9,080		(2,034	)	20,556
Taxes	(4,475	)	(4,378	)	(2,822	)
Net Income attributable to Golar Partners Owners	25,355		26,543		71,443
Net Debt 3	1,069,228		1,171,153		1,264,336

As anticipated, total operating revenues decreased, from $105.6 million in the third quarter to $90.1 million in the fourth quarter. Three key events contribute to the $15.5 million decrease.  Firstly, the FSRU Golar Winter was off-hire for 52 days as a result of its scheduled dry-dock.  This was 10 days longer than originally expected due to a general strike initiated by the shipyard's workforce.  Secondly, the sub charter arrangement with Golar LNG Limited ("Golar") in respect of the carrier Golar Grand expired on November 1, 2017.  From November 2, 2017, the Partnership receives hire at a reduced daily rate direct from the vessel's oil major charterer. Thirdly, on November 30, 2017 the carrier Golar Maria completed its charter with ENI.  After repositioning, Golar Maria secured spot business at market rates for 12 days and idled for the remaining 19 days of the quarter.

Despite repositioning costs incurred by the Golar Maria, 4Q voyage and commission expenses were $1.6 million lower than 3Q.  Positioning the FSRU Golar Spirit to temporary layup contributed to the higher 3Q cost.  Operating expenses at $15.4 million were also lower than the prior quarter. Savings as a result of the FSRU Golar Spirit being in layup accounted for a significant proportion of the $1.8 million reduction.

Administrative expenses at $5.5 million were $0.5 million higher than 3Q and also higher than average expected costs. Legal and advisory costs in connection with the forthcoming Hilli Episeyo acquisition and higher than average management fees accounted for the increase.

Depreciation and amortization at $26.6 million is in line with 3Q.

Interest expense at $18.4 million for the fourth quarter was lower than the third quarter at $19.9 million.  Much of the $1.5 million decrease reflects savings following settlement of the outstanding NOK 304 million balance of the October maturing NOK 1,300 million high yield bond.

The $107 million from the put back of Golar Tundra and the additional $70 million deposited with Golar in connection with the agreement to acquire the interest in Hilli Episeyo has given rise to interest income at a rate of 5% which accounts for the increase in interest income from $2.1 million to $3.1 million in 4Q.

Other financial items recorded a gain of $9.1 million for 4Q compared to a 3Q loss of $2.0 million.  Non-cash interest rate swap gains of $9.2 million, compared to a $4.3 million gain in 3Q, were augmented by a non-cash $1.6 million gain following a decrease in the mark-to-market valuation loss of the embedded derivative liability on the earn out units in connection with the Incentive Distribution Right ("IDR") reset transaction.  A loss of $2.5 million on this derivative was recorded in 3Q.

As a result of the foregoing, 4Q distributable cash flow¹ was lower at $26.0 million compared to $41.0 million in the third quarter. As anticipated, the distribution coverage ratio¹ decreased accordingly from 1.0 in 3Q to 0.63 in 4Q.

Commercial Review

On November 1, 2017, the LNG carrier Golar Grand completed its charter with Golar.  From November 2, 2017 through to May 2019 Golar Partners will receive revenue only from the vessel's new oil major charterer. Although the new hire rate is significantly lower than the charter rate to Golar, the new charter also contains a series of options at increased rates.

On January 19, 2018 the Partnership executed a 15-year charter with an energy and logistics company for the provision of an FSRU in the Atlantic Basin. Golar Partners can nominate either of its two available FSRUs to service the contract provided that the nominated unit satisfies certain technical specifications ahead of project start-up, expected in the fourth quarter of 2018. The capital element of the charter rate will vary according to demand for regasification throughput but includes a cap and a floor that is expected to generate annual operating income before depreciation and amortization of between approximately $18 and $22 million.  The charter includes an option after three years for the charterer to terminate the contract and seek an alternative regasification solution, but only in the event that certain throughput targets have not been met. Additionally, Golar Partners will have a matching right to provide such alternative solution. The charter also includes a 5-year extension option.

The nominated FSRU is expected to remain in service for up to 15-years without dry-dock.  In the event that the Golar Freeze is selected to service this contract Golar Partners has the right to terminate its obligations under the current DUSUP charter whilst continuing to receive the capital element of the charter from DUSUP until April 2019.  Modifications and dry-docking costs for the Golar Freeze are expected to cost approximately $15.0 million.  Dry-dock, modification and re-activation costs for the Golar Spirit would be in excess of this.

An increasing number of emerging markets for LNG require smaller volumes on more flexible terms.  Demand growth within these markets is also subject to higher levels of uncertainty.  A large industrial user or small utility may represent initial anchor demand for an FSRU with the expectation that new end users will cluster around the anchor customer or that other users nearby will switch from more expensive fuels to take advantage of an FSRU's underutilized regas capacity over time. An FSRU that provides for small scale offloading also allows for other less proximate demand to be met. Excess capacity that will never be utilized on larger and more expensive newbuild FSRUs undermines this business model.  Golar Partners is in a good position to capitalize on this mid-size FSRU market with its remaining FSRU, ships available for conversion to suitably sized FSRUs and access to Golar's proven low cost conversion model. Active discussions and negotiations with other potential customers continue, which include projects to convert LNGCs to FSRUs.

Golar Partners also continues to pursue re-contracting shipping opportunities for the LNG carriers Golar Maria and Golar Mazo which completed their long-term charters on November 30, 2017 and December 29, 2017  respectively.  A dramatic reduction in prompt available vessels over the winter period meant that steam turbine vessels represented the majority of available tonnage on several occasions.  Attracted by their lower rates, traders have also favored modern steam turbine vessels from time to time.  Golar Maria and Golar Mazo have undertaken spot charters and although spot rates for these vessels have improved to levels close to $40kpd, utilization levels mean that revenues received currently cover little more than operating & voyage expenses.  A reduction in opportunities for steam vessels is expected as the shoulder period between the winter and summer season approaches.

 

Acquisitions

On August 15, 2017 the Partnership announced that it had entered into an agreement to acquire an equity interest in FLNG Hilli Episeyo.  Equivalent to 50% of the two contracted liquefaction trains, out of a total of four, the common units also include a 5% stake in any future incremental earnings generated by the currently uncontracted expansion capacity but do not include exposure to the oil linked component of Hilli's tolling fee.

FLNG Hilli Episeyo arrived in Cameroon in late November. Customs clearance, positioning, mooring hook-up and connection to the riser and umbilicals followed shortly thereafter. In early December a Notice of Readiness was tendered to Perenco and SNH. A ship-to-ship transfer of cool down LNG with the Golar Bear was completed in mid-December followed by the introduction of feed gas from the onshore processing plant. Full commissioning of the gas treatment systems is now substantially complete and they are running satisfactorily. Commissioning of the refrigerant trains continued through to February and first LNG production is expected to commence in the coming days.  Although Golar reiterates the importance of taking the time it needs to safely commission the vessel, at this time, final commissioning followed by acceptance testing remains on track for mid-April.  Subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, including the acceptance of Hilli Episeyo under its contract with Perenco and SNH, closing of the acquisition also remains on track to take place on or before April 30, 2018.

The acquisition is expected to be an accretive transaction that will substantially increase the Partnership's effective revenue backlog⁴. Distributable cash from the acquisition will be used to offset the expected reduction in earnings related to vessels with expiring contracts.

 

Operational Review

Once again the fleet performed well during the quarter achieving 100% availability for scheduled operations. After accounting for layup of the Golar Spirit and the scheduled dry-docking of the Golar Winter, utilization of 91% was recorded for the quarter.

On September 30, 2017 the FSRU Golar Winter entered a shipyard in Spain for its scheduled dry dock.  On October 5, 2017 the shipyard's workforce initiated a general strike which continued through to October 27, 2017.  This resulted in 4Q offhire increasing to 52 days, 10 more than initially anticipated.

Financing and Liquidity

As of December 31, 2017, the Partnership had cash and cash equivalents of $247.0 million and restricted cash of $182.9 million. The Partnership's total net debt³ as at December 31, 2017 was $1,069.2 million. Based on the above net debt³ amount and annualized⁵ fourth quarter 2017 Adjusted EBITDA², Golar Partners' net debt³ to Adjusted EBITDA² ratio was 4.0.  As of December 31, 2017, Golar Partners had interest rate swaps with a notional outstanding value of approximately $1,335.3 million (including swaps with a notional value of $400.0 million in connection with the Partnership's bonds) representing approximately 99% of total debt and capital lease obligations net of long-term restricted cash.

The average fixed interest rate of swaps related to bank debt is approximately 1.7% with an average remaining period to maturity of approximately 3.4 years as of December 31, 2017.

Outstanding bank debt as of December 31, 2017 was $987.6 million, which had average margins, in addition to LIBOR, of approximately 2.52%. The Partnership also has a 2020 maturing $150.0 million Norwegian USD bond with a swapped all-in rate of 6.275% and a 2021 maturing $250 million Norwegian USD bond with a swapped all-in rate of 8.194%.  At maturity on October 12, the NOK 304 million balance of the NOK 1,300 million bond and associated swap liabilities and accrued interest, collectively amounting to $54.0 million, were settled.

On October 31, 2017 the Partnership closed a 5.52 million $25.0 per unit 8.75% Series A Preferred Unit offering that raised net proceeds of $133.0 million.  As perpetual equity without a refinancing requirement, the units are treated as equity on the balance sheet. Golar Partners has the option to redeem these units at any time after five years at par.

On December 20, 2017 the Partnership initiated the sale of common and General Partner units under its ATM facility established in September 2017.  As at December 31, 2017, 145,675 common units and 2,973 General Partner units had been issued under this facility generating net proceeds of $3.3 million.

 

Corporate and Other Matters

As of December 31, 2017, there were 71,192,104 units outstanding in the Partnership. This includes 374,295 common units and 7,639 General Partner units issued on November 16 in connection with the first 50% of the IDR reset Earn-Out units and a further 145,675 common units and 2,973 General Partner units issued in connection with the Partnership's ATM facility. Of the 71,192,104 units, 22,650,429, including 1,423,843 General Partner units, were owned by Golar, representing a 31.8% interest in the Partnership.

On January 25, 2018, Golar Partners declared a distribution for the fourth quarter of $0.5775 per unit for unitholders of record on February 7, 2018.  Between January 1, 2018 and the record date a further 617,969 common units and 12,548 General Partner units were issued under the ATM facility generating net proceeds of $14.5 million.  The distribution was paid on February 14, 2018 on total units of 71,822,621.

Total outstanding options as at December 31, 2017 were 99,000.

 

Outlook

As anticipated, operating income for 1Q 2018 will be negatively impacted by an expected 54 days of scheduled seasonal offhire for the FSRU Golar Igloo, lower rates and levels of utilization achieved by the Golar Mazo and Golar Maria in the carrier spot market and a full quarter's trading by the Golar Grand at her reduced daily rate.  Coverage levels will be negatively impacted accordingly.  Having anticipated this transition period for some time, coverage levels over prior periods have been increased such that an average ratio for the last three years up to the beginning of 4Q 2017 of 1.26 was achieved.

Including share of net income in affiliates, earnings should improve in 2Q during which the Partnership looks forward to closing the acquisition of its initial equity interest in FLNG Hilli Episeyo.

Underscoring the value of the Partnership's existing assets and further underpinning the current distribution is the 15-year Atlantic FSRU contract due to commence in 4Q 2018.  This new contract is expected to contribute around $0.4 billion of effective revenue backlog⁴.  The Partnership believes that the level of interest in smaller scale LNG projects represents grounds for optimism for contracting its remaining uncontracted FSRU, however this is likely to take some time.  Promising discussions for a converted FSRU that would utilize one of the steam carriers are also ongoing.  The Partnership is planning to undertake this potential project in a joint venture with Golar Power.

The Partnership is in a transitional phase as its first vessels since IPO come off contract and redeliver into a somewhat different market. The acquisition of new assets; the Golar Eskimo in 2015 and in particular the interest in Hilli Episeyo have significantly helped to manage this transitional phase to add new contracted effective revenue backlog. The recent new 15-year FSRU contract and anticipated further new contracts are also supportive. Finally the Partnership has a solid free cash position of $247.0 million as at year end which it intends to invest in additional contracted assets as well as organic growth projects.

¹Distributable cash flow is a non-GAAP financial measure used by investors to measure the performance of master limited partnerships. Distribution coverage ratio represents the ratio of distributable cash flow to total cash distributions paid. Please see Appendix A for a reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure.

²Adjusted EBITDA: Earnings before interest, other financial items, taxes, depreciation and amortization and non-controlling interest. Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure used by investors to measure our performance. Please see Appendix A for a reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure.

³ Net Debt is a non-GAAP financial measure and is defined as short-term debt and current portion of long-term debt plus long-term debt plus obligations under capital leases less cash and cash equivalents less restricted cash. Please see Appendix A for a reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure.

⁴Revenue backlog and effective revenue backlog is defined as the contracted daily charter rate for each vessel multiplied by the number of scheduled hire days for the remaining contract term, which includes the Partnership's pro-rata share of Hilli Episeyo revenues which are expected to be recorded as "Equity in net earnings of affiliates".

⁵ Annualized means the figure for the quarter multiplied by 4.

 FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements concerning future events and Golar Partners' operations, performance and financial condition. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, any statement that may predict, forecast, indicate or imply future results, performance or achievements, and may contain the words "believe," "anticipate," "expect," "estimate," "project," "will be," "will continue," "will likely result," "plan," "intend" or words or phrases of similar meanings. These statements involve known and unknown risks and are based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond Golar Partners' control. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, but are not limited to:

·         market trends in the floating storage and regasification unit (or FSRU), liquefied natural gas (or LNG) carrier and floating liquefied natural gas vessel (or FLNG) industries, including charter rates, factors affecting supply and demand, and opportunities for the profitable operations of FSRUs, LNG carriers and FLNGs;

·         the ability of Golar LNG Partners LP ("Golar Partners," "we," "us" and "our") and Golar LNG Limited ("Golar") to retrofit vessels as FSRUs or FLNGs and the timing of the delivery and acceptance of any such retrofitted vessels by their respective charterers;

·         our ability to maintain cash distributions and the amount of any such distributions;

·         our ability to consummate the Acquisition of Hilli Episeyo on a timely basis or at all;

·         the timeliness of the Golar Hilli Episeyo commissioning and acceptance by the charterer;

·         our ability to integrate and realize the expected benefits from acquisitions and potential acquisitions, including the acquisition of an indirect interest in the entity that owns the FLNG, the Hilli Episeyo;

·         the future share of annual contracted revenues, net of operating expenses relating to the Hilli Episeyo, which we expect to be accounted for under the equity method;

·         our anticipated growth strategies;

·         the effect of a worldwide economic slowdown;

·         turmoil in the global financial markets;

·         fluctuations in currencies and interest rates;

·         general market conditions, including fluctuations in charter hire rates and vessel values;

·        changes in commodity prices;

·         the liquidity and creditworthiness of our charterers;

·         changes in our operating expenses, including drydocking and insurance costs and bunker prices;

·         our future financial condition or results of operations and future revenues and expenses;

·         the repayment of debt and settling of interest rate swaps;

·         our and Golar's ability to make additional borrowings and to access debt and equity markets;

·         planned capital expenditures and availability of capital resources to fund capital expenditures;

·         the exercise of purchase options by our charterers;

·         our ability to maintain long-term relationships with major LNG traders;

·         our ability to leverage the relationships and reputation of Golar, Golar Power Limited (or Golar Power) and OneLNG S.A. (or OneLNG^SA) in the LNG industry;

·         our ability to purchase vessels from Golar, Golar Power and OneLNG^SA in the future;

·         our continued ability to enter into long-term time charters, including our ability to re-charter FSRUs and carriers following the termination or expiration of their time charters;

·         our ability to maximize the use of our vessels, including the re-deployment or disposition of vessels no longer under long-term time charter;

·         timely purchases and deliveries of newbuilding vessels;

·         future purchase prices of newbuildings and secondhand vessels;

·         our ability to compete successfully for future chartering and newbuilding opportunities;

·         acceptance of a vessel by its charterer;

·         termination dates and extensions of charters;

·         the expected cost of, and our ability to comply with, governmental regulations, maritime self-regulatory organization standards, as well as standard regulations imposed by its charterers applicable to our business;

·         availability of skilled labor, vessel crews and management;

·         our general and administrative expenses and its fees and expenses payable under the fleet management agreements and the management and administrative services agreement;

·         the anticipated taxation of our partnership and distributions to our unitholders;

·         challenges by authorities to the tax benefits we previously obtained;

·         estimated future maintenance and replacement capital expenditures;

·         our and Golar's ability to retain key employees;

·         customers' increasing emphasis on environmental and safety concerns;

·         potential liability from any pending or future litigation;

·         potential disruption of shipping routes due to accidents, political events, piracy or acts by terrorists;

·         our business strategy and other plans and objectives for future operations; and

·         other factors listed from time to time in the reports and other documents that we file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC").

Factors may cause actual results to be materially different from those contained in any forward-looking statement. Golar Partners does not intend to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in Golar Partners' expectations with respect thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.

February 28, 2018

Golar LNG Partners L.P.

Hamilton, Bermuda

Questions should be directed to:

c/o Golar Management Ltd - +44 207 063 7900

Brian Tienzo - Chief Finance Officer

Graham Robjohns - Chief Executive Officer

Stuart Buchanan - Head of Investor Relations

This information is subject of the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.

Attachment:

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6663d06a-6091-45bc-82e8-aa5dbca4a41b