YRC Worldwide Reports Unaudited Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2019 Results

OVERLAND PARK, Kan., Feb. 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YRC Worldwide Inc. YRCW reported consolidated operating revenue for fourth quarter 2019 of $1.160 billion and consolidated operating income of $9.8 million, which included a $10.1 million net gain on property sales. As a comparison, for the fourth quarter 2018, the Company's results included operating revenue of $1.247 billion and consolidated operating income of $55.1 million, which included a $28.1 million net gain on property disposals.

Consolidated operating revenue for the year ended December 31, 2019 was $4.871 billion and consolidated operating income of $16.2 million, which included a $13.7 million net gain on property disposals, and $8.2 million for a non-cash impairment charge related to the write-down of an intangible asset. This compares to full year 2018 consolidated operating revenue of $5.092 billion and consolidated operating income of $142.9 million, which included a $20.8 million net gain on property disposals.

Net loss for fourth quarter 2019 was $15.3 million, or $0.46 per share compared to net income of $17.5 million, or $0.52 per share, in fourth quarter 2018.  Full year net loss for 2019 was $104.0 million, or $3.13 per share, which included $11.2 million loss on extinguishment of debt associated with a refinancing of the term loan agreement, compared to net income of $20.2 million, or $0.60 per share for full year 2018.

"Despite a challenging industrial backdrop in the back half of 2019, it was a very active year for us as we kicked off our multi-year enterprise transformation strategy," said Darren Hawkins, Chief Executive Officer of YRC Worldwide Inc. "Our strategy will build on the strengths and breadth of our regional and national networks and the equally respected brand names associated with each and is intended to enhance our customer experience with the end goal of improving our profitability and cash flow."

During 2019, we completed four initial yet foundational components of that strategy:

1. Ratified a new 5-year labor contract;
2. Refinanced our term loan with improved and more flexible terms;
3. Reorganized our leadership team to streamline decision making and enhance execution across all functional areas of the organization; and
4. Completed the reorganization of the enterprise-wide sales force.

As we move into 2020, we remain intensely focused on our commitments to improve the longer-term earnings potential of this Company. The next phase of our transformation will focus on:

1. Operational Optimization:  Structurally improve the network to increase asset utilization, expand service offerings and leverage the flexibilities gained with our new labor contract.
2. Technology Migration:  Improving our customer experience, operational flexibility and ability to execute our strategic objectives by consolidating disparate company systems onto a single platform.
3. Facility Evaluation:  Rationalizing the number of physical locations in the network while maintaining geographic coverage and service levels. While we will have fewer physical locations, we will continue to cover the same geographic service areas. We expect this will increase density, reduce mileage, facilities and equipment and better serve our customers. During 2019, we met our goal of consolidating 25 service centers and continue to evaluate our facilities to meet current and future business expectations.             

"My vision is that our customers will have access to 5 brands through one network and one enterprise wide service offering. As we work through the balance of the year and early 2021, we will be laser focused on executing the initiatives that will allow us to attack the market as one," concluded Hawkins.

Financial Update

• Fourth quarter 2019 net loss was $15.3 million compared to a net income of $17.5 million in fourth quarter 2018. For full-year 2019, net loss was $104.0 million compared to net income of $20.2 million in 2018.

• On a non-GAAP basis, the Company generated consolidated Adjusted EBITDA of $47.3 million in 4Q19, compared to $77.5 million in the prior year comparable quarter. Last twelve month (LTM) consolidated Adjusted EBITDA was $210.6 million compared to $307.8 million in 2018. (as detailed in the reconciliation below)

• Investment in revenue equipment continued with $31.7 million in capital expenditures and $18.5 million in capital value equivalent in new operating leases, for a total of $50.2 million, which is equal to 4.3% of operating revenue for fourth quarter 2019. The majority of the investment was in tractors, trailers, containers and technology.

Operational Update

• The consolidated operating ratio for the 4Q19 was 99.2 compared to 95.6 in 4Q18. The operating ratio at YRC Freight was 98.4 compared to 94.9 for the same period in 2018. The Regional segment's fourth quarter 2019 operating ratio was 99.1 compared to 96.0 a year ago.

• At YRC Freight, 4Q19 less-than-truckload (LTL) revenue per hundredweight, including fuel surcharge, decreased 1.1% and LTL revenue per shipment increased 1.0% when compared to the same period in 2018.  Excluding fuel surcharge, LTL revenue per hundredweight was flat and LTL revenue per shipment increased 2.1%.

• At the Regional segment, 4Q19 LTL revenue per hundredweight, including fuel surcharge, decreased 0.7% and LTL revenue per shipment decreased 0.2% when compared to the same period in 2018. Excluding fuel surcharge, LTL revenue per hundredweight increased 0.2% and LTL revenue per shipment increased 0.7%.

• 4Q19 LTL tonnage per day decreased 6.6% at YRC Freight and decreased 7.4% at the Regional segment compared to 4Q18.

Liquidity Update

• At December 31, 2019, the Company's outstanding debt was $902.8 million, an increase of $12.8 million compared to $890.0 million as of December 31, 2018.

• The Company's available liquidity, which is comprised of cash and cash equivalents and Managed Accessibility (as detailed in the supplemental information provided below) under its ABL facility, totaled $80.4 million as of December 31, 2019 compared to $203.8 million in the prior year, a decrease of $123.4 million.

Key Segment Information – Fourth quarter 2019 compared to fourth quarter 2018

(a) Percent change based on unrounded figures and not the rounded figures presented

Key Segment Information – Full year 2019 compared to full year 2018

(a) Percent change based on unrounded figures and not the rounded figures presented

Review of Financial Results

YRC Worldwide Inc. will host a conference call with the investment community today, Tuesday February 4, 2020, beginning at 5:00 p.m. ET. 

A live audio webcast of the conference call and presentation slides will be available on YRC Worldwide Inc.'s website www.yrcw.com. A replay of the webcast will also be available at www.yrcw.com.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

EBITDA is a non-GAAP measure that reflects the company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization expense. Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP measure that reflects EBITDA, and further adjusts for letter of credit fees, equity-based compensation expense, net gains or losses on property disposals, restructuring charges, transaction costs related to issuances of debt, non-recurring consulting fees, non-cash impairment charges and the gains or losses from permitted dispositions, discontinued operations, and certain non-cash expenses, charges and losses (provided that if any of such non-cash expenses, charges or losses represents an accrual or reserve for potential cash items in any future period, the cash payment in respect thereof in such future period will be subtracted from Consolidated EBITDA in such future period to the extent paid). Adjusted EBITDA as used herein is defined as Consolidated EBITDA in our new term loan facility entered into September 11, 2019. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are used for internal management purposes as a financial measure that reflects the company's core operating performance. In addition, management uses Adjusted EBITDA to measure compliance with financial covenants in our credit facilities and to determine certain management and employee bonus compensation. We believe our presentation of EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA is useful to investors and other users as these measures represent key supplemental information our management uses to compare and evaluate our core underlying business results both on a consolidated basis and across our business segments, particularly in light of our leverage position and the capital-intensive nature of our business. Further, EBITDA is a measure that is commonly used by other companies in our industry and provides a comparison for investors to evaluate the performance of the companies in the industry. Additionally, Adjusted EBITDA helps investors to understand how the company is tracking against our financial covenant in our term loan credit agreement. However, these financial measures should not be construed as better measurements than net income, as defined by generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).

EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA have the following limitations:

• EBITDA does not reflect the interest expense or the cash requirements necessary to service interest or fund principal payments on our outstanding debt;

• Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect the interest expense or the cash requirements necessary to service interest or fund principal payments on our outstanding debt, letter of credit expenses, restructuring charges, transaction costs related to debt, non-cash charges, charges or losses (subject to the conditions above), or nonrecurring consulting fees, among other items;

• Although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the assets being depreciated and amortized will have to be replaced in the future and EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA do not reflect any cash requirements for such replacements;

• Equity-based compensation is an element of our long-term incentive compensation program for certain employees, although Adjusted EBITDA excludes employee equity-based compensation expense when presenting our ongoing operating performance for a particular period; and

• Other companies in our industry may calculate Adjusted EBITDA differently than we do, limiting its usefulness as a comparative measure.

Because of these limitations, our non-GAAP measures should not be considered a substitute for performance measures calculated in accordance with GAAP. We compensate for these limitations by relying primarily on our GAAP results and using our non-GAAP measures as secondary measures.  The company has provided reconciliations of its non-GAAP measures to GAAP net income (loss) and operating income (loss) within the supplemental financial information in this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Exchange Act. Words such as "will," "expect," "intend," "anticipate," "believe," "could," "would," "should," "may," "project," "forecast," "propose," "plan," "designed," "enable," and similar expressions which speak only as of the date the statement was made are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain, are based upon current beliefs, assumptions and expectations of Company management and current market conditions, and are subject to significant business, economic, competitive, regulatory and other risks, uncertainties and contingencies, known and unknown, many of which are beyond our control. Our future financial condition and results could differ materially from those predicted in such forward-looking statements because of a number of factors, including (without limitation) general economic factors and transportation industry-specific economic conditions; customer demand in the retail and manufacturing sectors; business risks and increasing costs associated with the transportation industry, including increasing equipment, operational and technology costs and disruption from natural disasters; competition and competitive pressure on pricing; the risk of labor disruptions or stoppages, if our relationship with our employees and unions were to deteriorate; increasing pension expense and funding obligations, subject to interest rate volatility; increasing costs relating to our self-insurance claims expenses; our ability to finance the maintenance, acquisition and replacement of revenue equipment and other necessary capital expenditures; our ability to comply and the cost of compliance with, or liability resulting from violation of, federal, state, local and foreign laws and regulations, including (without limitation) labor laws and laws and regulations regarding the environment; impediments to our operations and business resulting from anti-terrorism measures; the impact of claims and litigation expense to which we are or may become exposed; failure to realize the expected benefits and costs savings from our performance and operational improvement initiatives; our ability to attract and retain qualified drivers and increasing costs of driver compensation; a significant privacy breach or IT system disruption; risks of operating in foreign countries; our dependence on key employees; seasonality; shortages of fuel and changes in the cost of fuel or the index upon which we base our fuel surcharge and the effectiveness of our fuel surcharge program in protecting us against fuel price volatility; our ability to generate sufficient liquidity to satisfy our cash needs and future cash commitments, including (without limitation) our obligations related to our indebtedness and lease and pension funding requirements, and our ability to achieve increased cash flows through improvement in operations; limitations on our operations, our financing opportunities, potential strategic transactions, acquisitions or dispositions resulting from restrictive covenants in the documents governing our existing and future indebtedness; our failure to comply with the covenants in the documents governing our existing and future indebtedness; fluctuations in the price of our common stock; dilution from future issuances of our common stock; our intention not to pay dividends on our common stock; that we have the ability to issue preferred stock that may adversely affect the rights of holders of our common stock; and other risks and contingencies, including (without limitation) the risk factors that are included in our reports filed with the SEC, including those described under "Risk Factors" in our annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q.

About YRC Worldwide

YRC Worldwide Inc., headquartered in Overland Park, Kan., is the holding company for a portfolio of less-than-truckload (LTL) companies including Holland, New Penn, Reddaway, and YRC Freight, as well as the logistics company HNRY Logistics. Collectively, YRC Worldwide companies have one of the largest, most comprehensive logistics and LTL networks in North America with local, regional, national and international capabilities. Through their teams of experienced service professionals, YRC Worldwide companies offer industry-leading expertise in flexible supply chain solutions, ensuring customers can ship industrial, commercial and retail goods with confidence.

Please visit our website at www.yrcw.com for more information.

SOURCE:  YRC Worldwide