Global Partners Q4 2025 Earnings Call - Fuel Margins Boost GDSO While Wholesale Weakness Cuts DCF

Conference Call Operator: Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Global Partners’ fourth quarter and full year 2025 financial results conference call. Today’s call is being recorded. With us from Global Partners are President and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Eric Slifka; Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Gregory Hanson; Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Mark Romaine; and Chief Legal Officer, Ms. Kristin Seabrook. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Ms. Seabrook for opening remarks. Please go ahead.

Kristin Seabrook, Chief Legal Officer, Global Partners: Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. Today’s call will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities law, including projections and expectations concerning the future financial and operational performance of Global Partners. No assurances can be given that these projections will be attained or that these expectations will be met. Our assumptions and future performance are subject to a wide range of business risks, uncertainties, and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially are described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Global Partners undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements. It’s my pleasure to turn the call over to our President and Chief Executive Officer, Eric Slifka.

Eric Slifka, President and Chief Executive Officer, Global Partners: Thank you, Kristin. Good morning, everyone. Before I begin, I want to welcome Kristin to her first earnings call as our Chief Legal Officer. Kristin brings valuable business and legal experience, including her leadership roles at Pilot, and she has already made a strong impact. Her judgment and perspective will be important as we continue to execute our strategy and position Global for the future. We are very pleased to have her on our team. Our full-year performance in 2025 reflects disciplined execution of a strategy we have built and refined over many years. Higher volumes across our terminal and wholesale network, along with a double-digit increase in wholesale segment product margin, demonstrates the benefits of investments that expand capabilities and enhance the performance of our integrated network. Our GDSO segment delivered solid results.

Strong fuel margins helped partially offset a decline in volumes and lower station operations contribution, due in part to a reduced site count related to site optimization efforts. As we have said before, different parts of our business will experience different conditions at different times. What defines Global’s performance over time is the strength of our diversified and integrated platform. Our business spans supply, terminals, wholesale distribution, bunkering, and retail operations, providing multiple sources of earnings that help balance performance across cycles. Just as important is how these segments work together. Our ability to source product, move it efficiently through our terminals, supply our customers, and ultimately serve guests through our owned and operated retail sites, allows us to capture value across the system and deliver consistent, durable results. Our strategy remains focused on acquiring strategic assets, investing in our existing network, and continuously optimizing our portfolio.

On the acquisition front, the East Providence Terminal marked its first full year as part of our network in 2025 and has already exceeded our expectations. This asset expanded our storage, marine, and truck rack capabilities and strengthened our service footprint across key northeastern markets, enhancing connectivity and flexibility across our system. We also expanded our bunkering business into the Houston market through a lease at the Texas City Terminal, providing access to one of the largest refining and fuel hubs in the world and establishing a strong platform for future growth. We continue to invest in strengthening our existing portfolio. Our wholesale segment benefited from the continued growth of our terminal network, where we expanded capabilities and grew third-party volumes. We also strengthened our data and analytics infrastructure, improving operational visibility and enhancing and enabling more informed and timely decision-making across the business.

At the same time, we remained focused on optimizing our portfolio. During the year, we divested non-strategic retail locations and converted sites to higher value formats. These actions improve overall portfolio quality and position the business for more consistent performance over time. As an owner, supplier, and operator of critical energy infrastructure, we manage Global with a clear understanding how each part of the system contributes to overall performance. This perspective allows us to allocate capital with discipline, strengthen our platform, and focus on long-term cash flow generation and returns. Looking ahead, our priorities remain clear. We will continue to execute with discipline, invest in capabilities that enhance our platform, and build on the strong foundation we have established. Supported by a strong balance sheet, consistent cash flow generation, and a network built thoughtfully over time, we believe Global is well-positioned to deliver sustainable value for our unitholders.

Turning to our distribution, last month, the board approved a quarterly cash distribution of $0.76 per common unit, our 17th consecutive increase. The distribution was paid on February 13th to unitholders of record as of the close of business on February 9. With that, I’ll turn the call over to Greg for the financial review. Greg?

Gregory Hanson, Chief Financial Officer, Global Partners: Thank you, Eric, and good morning, everyone. As we review the numbers, please note that unless otherwise noted, all comparisons will be with the fourth quarter of 2024. Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2025 was $94.8 million, compared with $97.8 million. Net income for the fourth quarter was $25.1 million versus $23.9 million. Distributable Cash Flow was $38.4 million for the fourth quarter, compared with $45.7 million, and adjusted DCF was $38.8 million versus $46.1 million. The variance between the fourth quarter of 2025 versus 2024 primarily reflects less favorable market conditions in our wholesale and commercial segments, partially offset by a stronger fuel margin environment in our GDSO segment.

We continue to maintain a solid distribution coverage of 1.56 times as of December 31st, or 1.5 times after including distributions to our preferred unitholders. Turning to our segment details, GDSO product margin increased $17.7 million in the quarter to $231.3 million. Product margin from gasoline distribution increased $19.9 million to $165.6 million, primarily reflecting higher fuel margins year-over-year. On a cents per gallon basis, fuel margins increased by $0.09 to $0.45 in Q4 2025 from $0.36 in 2024, as volatility in RBOB prices during the quarter provided a favorable fuel margin environment.

Station operations product margin, which includes convenience stores and prepared food sales, sundries, and rental income, decreased by $2.2 million to $65.7 million in the fourth quarter, due in part to a lower company-operated site count as a result of the sale and conversion of certain company-operated sites. At year-end, our GDSO portfolio of fueling stations and C-stores totaled 1,524 sites. In addition, we operate or supply 67 sites under our Spring Partners retail joint venture. Turning to our wholesale segment, fourth quarter product margin decreased $21.5 million to $58.3 million. Product margin from gasoline and gasoline blend stocks decreased $10.5 million to $28.1 million, primarily reflecting less favorable market conditions than gasoline.

Product margin from distills and other oils decreased $11 million to $30.2 million, driven by less favorable market conditions. In our commercial segment, product margin decreased $2.6 million to $6 million, primarily due to less favorable market conditions in bunkering. Operating expenses decreased $3.5 million in the fourth quarter to $124.6 million, while SG&A increased $1.5 million to $80.9 million. Interest expense was $33.3 million in the fourth quarter, compared with $34.4 million in the same period in 2024. CapEx in the fourth quarter was $38.8 million, consisting of maintenance CapEx of $22.6 million and expansion CapEx of $16.2 million, primarily related to investments in our terminal and gas station business.

Full year 2025, we had $54 million in maintenance CapEx and $37.5 million in expansion CapEx. For the full year 2026, we expect maintenance CapEx in the range of $60 million-$70 million and expansion CapEx, excluding acquisitions, in the range of $75 million-$85 million. Our current CapEx estimates depend in part on the timing of project completions, the availability of equipment and labor, whether in any unforeseen events or opportunities that require additional maintenance or investment. Our balance sheet remains strong at year-end, with leverage as defined in our credit agreement as Funded Debt to EBITDA at 3.59 times and ample excess capacity in our credit facilities.

As of December 31st, we had $226.1 million borrowings outstanding on our working capital revolver and $103.5 million outstanding on our $500 million revolving credit facility. On our IR calendar, next week, we’ll be hosting one-on-one meetings at the J.P. Morgan Leveraged Finance Conference. For those of you participating, we look forward to seeing you in Miami. Let me turn the call back to Eric for his closing comments.

Eric Slifka, President and Chief Executive Officer, Global Partners: Thanks, Greg. As we look ahead, the message is simple: Global is built for durability. Our integrated footprint, scale across the liquid energy value chain, and disciplined approach to capital allow us to manage through uneven markets, adjusting as conditions evolve and leaning in when opportunities emerge. Early year cold weather conditions in the Northeast have supported solid wholesale fuel demand, our footprint is well positioned to meet that demand and serve customers reliably. With strong fundamentals, a proven operating model, and a clear strategic framework, we remain focused on disciplined execution and on enhancing value over time for our unitholders. As we start 2026, we’ve never felt more confident about the ability of our complementary assets to drive growth. With that, Greg, Mark, and I will be happy to take your questions. Operator, please open the line for Q&A.

Conference Call Operator: Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Selman Akyol with Stifel. Please proceed with your question.

Gregory Hanson, Chief Financial Officer, Global Partners: Thank you. Good morning, everybody. I’d like to start on the site optimization, you guys referenced several times. Should we think of that as being completed? I know you’re always doing some, you know, fine-tuning, but for the most part, is that done? Selman, it’s Eric Slifka. You know, look, we continue to optimize, we continue to look at what we believe is the most efficient way to run all of our locations. That is a continual process. The goal here is really to be as efficient as we possibly can throughout the entire organization. I would say that is a never-ending process.

Selman Akyol, Analyst, Stifel: Okay. Pivoting over just to your CapEx, and you guys called out, you know, it’s gonna be in terminals and GDSO. Is there any way to break that up between the two? Maybe just thoughts on where you wanna be investing or how much?

Gregory Hanson, Chief Financial Officer, Global Partners: Hey, Selman, it’s Greg. I think on the maintenance side, you know, you’ll see the little bit uptick year-over-year versus last year. That was primarily related to the terminals and the terminals we acquired over the last couple of years. That’s up a little bit overall. You know, I think our goal is hopefully to be conservative in that maintenance CapEx range we gave for guidance. I think, you know, we have a lot of efforts to drive down our capital spend through procurement, you know, on the maintenance side. On the expansion side, you know, we’ve got 3 raise and rebuilds that we’re working on on the GDSO side. That’s a decent part of that.

The major potential spend, I think, is more on the terminaling side, where we’re looking at some projects for expanding the capabilities of our terminals, expanding the throughput, expanding the logistics of them. Some of that is gonna be uncertain due to timing on permitting and contracts, but we’re seeing a real opportunity, especially around some of the terminals we’ve acquired in the last three years, to really expand the capabilities down there, either through logistics efforts or just expanding the actual capacity of the terminals.

Selman Akyol, Analyst, Stifel: That’s great to hear. Eric, in your comments, you talked about sort of the, you know, looking for growth in the Houston bunkering market. Can you expand on that? Does that tie into potentially, some of your comments in terms of the capital?

Gregory Hanson, Chief Financial Officer, Global Partners: In terms of Houston, you know, what we think is we’ve found a little bit of a niche location, and that’s specific to what we’re trying to do there. Obviously, we’re in that business throughout the Northeast. This is an expansion, and we have tankage, and we have barges and whatnot. We think we’re in a good position to deliver to the needs of that market in the specific location that we’re at. Yeah. The only thing I would add to that, Selman, is on the CapEx side related to that, it’s pretty CapEx light. It’s leased, it’s leased barges and leased terminals. You know, where there’s CapEx opportunities in Texas is around our other seven terminals that we have in the Texas market that we acquired through the Motiva acquisition.

Selman Akyol, Analyst, Stifel: Got it. Then you also referenced data analytics, and I presume that results more in cost savings than it does in revenue gains, but is there anything to expand on that?

Mark Romaine, Chief Operating Officer, Global Partners: Good morning, Selman, it’s Mark. I think it’s both. Well, actually, I think it’s a few things. First of all, I know I’m stating the obvious, but we generate a tremendous amount of data from our business, whether it be through our stores, whether it be through our terminals. Part of this is just building the infrastructure to organize that data better and make it accessible to, you know, to the people running the business. Our expectation on the benefit of that is twofold. One, it should, and is already providing efficiencies for the business, and, you know, also enhancing decision-making.

The second part of that is around the analytics side, is using that data to drive better business decisions and perhaps even embedding some, you know, AI capabilities into some modeling to help us with some of the decisions we have to make on a day in, day out basis.

Selman Akyol, Analyst, Stifel: Got it.

Gregory Hanson, Chief Financial Officer, Global Partners: The other thing I would add to that is I think, you know, I think we’re very excited about the future potential there. I will say, as it relates to 25, you know, some of the SG&A increase you see year-over-year in SG&A is related to, you know, salaries and labor related to that effort, and also, you know, an uptick in licensing subscription fees for software related to that, too. That’s somewhere where we’ve invested some of our SG&A dollars to, you know, I think, hopefully get to significant cost savings in the future and potential, hopefully helping our margins, too.

Selman Akyol, Analyst, Stifel: Got it. Then last one for me. It sounded like weather was favorable for you in Q1 in the wholesale segment. I get there’s a lot of volatility and always sort of difficult to know, but any way to sort of maybe frame up what 1Q looks like and how we should be thinking about it?

Gregory Hanson, Chief Financial Officer, Global Partners: Yeah, I mean, I don’t think It’s hard to frame up from a guidance perspective or anything. I think we just really wanted to recognize that, you know, the latter half of January into February was extremely cold in the Northeast, which led to a lot of heating degree days, which is, as you know, historically, is very helpful for our rack wholesale business in general. should give us, you know, a decent tailwind to start the year.

Selman Akyol, Analyst, Stifel: Got it. All right. Thank you very much.

Conference Call Operator: Thank you.

Selman Akyol, Analyst, Stifel: Thanks, Selman.

Conference Call Operator: Mr. Slifka, I’d like to turn the floor back over to you for closing comments.

Eric Slifka, President and Chief Executive Officer, Global Partners: Thank you for joining us this morning. We look forward to keeping you updated on our progress. Thanks so much.

Conference Call Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today’s teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation, and have a wonderful day.