TC PipeLines, LP announces 2020 second quarter financial results

HOUSTON, Aug. 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — TC PipeLines, LP (NYSE: TCP) (the Partnership) today reported net income attributable to controlling interests of $57 million and distributable cash flow of $55 million for the three months ended June 30, 2020.

“In the second quarter of 2020, our diversified portfolio of assets generated the kind of dependable results that our unitholders expect and rely upon,” said Nathan Brown, president of TC PipeLines, GP, Inc. “Our critical infrastructure was highly utilized, as demand for our transportation services was largely unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the prudent operatorship of our assets through this time of crisis permitted us to continue to provide uninterrupted energy to millions of Americans and businesses. The take-or-pay nature of our shipper contracts largely insulates us from short-term volatility associated with the ups and downs of volume throughput and commodity prices, underpinning the resilience and stability of our pure natural gas midstream business.

“We remain focused on the health and safety of employees, contractors and the communities in which we operate and on maintaining the reliability of our systems,” added Brown. “We continued to advance our suite of organic growth projects. PNGTS’ PXP project is on track to be fully in-service this November and our Westbrook, GTN and Tuscarora XPress projects are all progressing as planned. As well, we successfully refinanced GTN’s senior notes back in June, upsizing the offering to provide the necessary funding for the GTN XPress project, a notable achievement given the uncertainty in today’s financial markets.

“Looking ahead, we will continue to conservatively manage our financial position and self-fund our ongoing capital expenditures. We believe we are well positioned to continue to expand and enhance our existing infrastructure and to create value for our unitholders well into the future,” concluded Brown.

Second quarter highlights (unaudited)

Generated net income attributable to controlling interests of $57 million;

Paid cash distributions of $47 million;

Declared cash distribution of $0.65 per common unit for the second quarter of 2020;

Generated Adjusted EBITDA of $110 million and distributable cash flow of $55 million;

Maintained no outstanding balance on our Senior Credit Facility;

Continued permitting, engineering and construction activities on our PNGTS, GTN XPress and Tuscarora XPress projects;

Continued to progress North Baja XPress and Iroquois’ ExC project;

GTN issued $175 million of 10-year fixed rate Senior Notes and established a 3-year Private Shelf Facility for an additional $75 million, thereby refinancing maturing debt and securing the funding for its GTN XPress project;

Extended the maturity date for Tuscarora’s $23 million term loan to August 2021;

Great Lakes’ credit rating was upgraded by two notches by Standard and Poor’s to BBB+/Stable; and

PNGTS credit rating was upgraded by one notch by Fitch to BBB+/Stable.

The Partnership’s financial highlights for the second quarter of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019 were:

Net income per common unit is computed by dividing net income attributable to controlling interests, after deduction of net income attributable to TC PipeLines GP, Inc. (the General Partner), by the weighted average number of common units outstanding. Refer to the “Financial Summary-Consolidated Statements of Operations” section of this release.

EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Distributable Cashflow are non-GAAP financial measures. Refer to the description of these non-GAAP financial measures in the section of this release entitled “Non-GAAP Measures” and the Supplemental Schedule for further detail, including a reconciliation to the comparable GAAP measures.

Reflects distributions allocable to Class B units in the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018 and paid in the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019, respectively.

Recent business developments: