Clean Harbors Announces Second-Quarter 2023 Financial Results

Clean Harbors, Inc. (“Clean Harbors”) (NYSE: CLH), the leading provider of environmental and industrial services throughout North America,today announced financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2023.

“Clean Harbors delivered a strong second-quarter performance, highlighted by the continued momentum of the Environmental Services (ES) segment,” said Eric Gerstenberg, Co-Chief Executive Officer. “The segment’s Adjusted EBITDA margin improved by 140 basis points through a combination of revenue growth, pricing initiatives and productivity gains. The profitable growth in our ES segment partly offset decreased revenue and profitability in our Safety-Kleen Sustainability Solutions (SKSS) segment, which declined due to base oil market conditions. At the same time, we posted the best second-quarter safety results in the Company’s history, registering a Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) of 0.68 to conclude a great first half in safety.”

Second-Quarter Results

Revenues increased 3% to $1.40 billion from $1.36 billion in the same period of 2022. Income from operations was $189.8 million, compared to $211.2 million in the second quarter of 2022.

Net income and adjusted net income were $115.8 million, or $2.13 per diluted share. This compared with net income of $148.2 million, or $2.71 per diluted share, for the same period in 2022. Adjusted for certain items in the 2022 period, adjusted net income in the second quarter of 2022 was $133.1 million, or $2.44 per diluted share. (See reconciliation tables below).

Adjusted EBITDA (see description below) was $287.5 million compared with $309.1 million in the same period of 2022.

Q2 2023 Segment Review

“Healthy demand across our ES segment yielded a 13% increase in Adjusted EBITDA with a 26% margin, reflecting a record level of revenue throughout our service businesses, supported by our disposal and recycling network,” said Gerstenberg. “In Q2, we capitalized on a busy spring turnaround season and solid initial contributions from our recent Thompson Industrial acquisition, leading to revenue growth of 11% in Industrial Services. Revenue in Safety-Kleen Environmental Services grew 16%, while Field Services revenue was up 7%. Within Technical Services, our incineration utilization improved sequentially to 84%, but was down from a year ago due to a higher number of maintenance days. We continued to see a healthy mix of waste volumes as our average incineration price was up 8% in the quarter while our landfill average price per ton increased 21% on strong base business.”

“During the quarter the SKSS segment set operational records collecting 64 million gallons of oil and achieving our highest Q2 base oil sales volume,” said Mike Battles, Co-Chief Executive Officer. “However, financial results in the segment were below our expectations due to unfavorable macro supply dynamics and pricing headwinds in the base oil market that included an unexpected June price decline and lower spot pricing throughout the quarter. To address the compression in our re-refining spread, we rapidly shifted from a pay-for-oil (PFO) to a charge-for-oil (CFO) pricing model while still collecting a record amount of used oil. We also maximized plant production, optimizing the economics of the business while navigating the current environment.”

Business Outlook and Financial Guidance

“We remain on track to hit our financial targets in 2023 as momentum in our ES segment continues to offset the decline in SKSS,” said Gerstenberg. “Demand within our key ES businesses has not slowed, and underlying market conditions remain positive. Industrial Services continues to be a meaningful contributor to our 2023 success, and we expect a healthy fall turnaround season. Within our disposal network, our record backlog grew again in Q2, which positions us well for the coming quarters. The buildout of our new incinerator in Kimball, Nebraska is going well as we continue to target an early 2025 opening. The project pipeline within the ES segment shows no sign of slowing. The pace of reshoring remains robust, and government infrastructure spending is just starting to register. We are also seeing customer interest in projects related to the remediation of ‘forever chemicals’ (PFAS) increase. We expect the recent authorization of PFAS incineration by the Department of Defense will support our growth in the coming years. Overall, we continue to anticipate a record year in our ES segment.”

“Within SKSS, we expect challenging market conditions to extend throughout the remainder of the year given that the summer driving season did not stabilize pricing due to global oversupply and destocking efforts by U.S. customers. Therefore, we expect base oil and blended pricing to remain under pressure in the back half of 2023. Our near-term focus will continue to be on effectively managing waste oil collection to supply our plants with the lowest cost gallons possible and running our plants efficiently, while continuing to grow overall sales volumes. Even though we are lowering our 2023 expectations for the SKSS segment again due to current market factors, we fully expect that reduction to be offset by profitable growth in ES,” Battles concluded.

For the third quarter of 2023, Clean Harbors expects its ES segment to continue to grow and perform well. Overall, the Company expects Adjusted EBITDA to decrease 7% to 9% from the prior year related to the difficult year-over-year comparison in its SKSS segment.

For full-year 2023, Clean Harbors expects:

• Adjusted EBITDA in the range of $1.02 billion to $1.06 billion or a midpoint of $1.04 billion. This range is based on anticipated GAAP net income in the range of $372 million to $408 million; and
• Adjusted free cash flow in the range of $305 million to $345 million, or a midpoint of $325 million, which includes $85 million to $90 million of spend related to the Kimball incinerator. This range is based on anticipated net cash from operating activities in the range of $705 million to $765 million.

Non-GAAP Results

Clean Harbors reports Adjusted EBITDA, which is a non-GAAP financial measure and should not be considered an alternative to net income or other measurements under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) but viewed only as a supplement to those measurements. Adjusted EBITDA is not calculated identically by all companies, and therefore the Company’s measurement of Adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies. Clean Harbors believes that Adjusted EBITDA provides additional useful information to investors since the Company’s loan covenants are based upon levels of Adjusted EBITDA achieved and management routinely evaluates the performance of its businesses based upon levels of Adjusted EBITDA. The Company defines Adjusted EBITDA in accordance with its existing revolving credit agreement, as described in the following reconciliation showing the differences between reported net income and Adjusted EBITDA for the three and six months ended June 30, 2023 and 2022 (in thousands, except percentages):

This press release includes a discussion of net income and earnings per share adjusted for the loss on early extinguishment of debt, gain on sale of business and the impacts of tax-related valuation allowances and other items as identified in the reconciliations provided below. The Company believes that discussion of these additional non-GAAP measures provides investors with meaningful comparisons of current results to prior periods’ results by excluding items that the Company does not believe reflect its fundamental business performance. The following shows the difference between net income and adjusted net income, and the difference between earnings per share and adjusted earnings per share, for the three and six months ended June 30, 2023 and 2022 (in thousands, except per share amounts):

Adjusted Free Cash Flow Reconciliation

Clean Harbors reports adjusted free cash flow, which it considers to be a measurement of liquidity that provides useful information to investors about its ability to generate cash. The Company defines adjusted free cash flow as net cash from operating activities excluding cash impacts of items derived from non-operating activities, less additions to property, plant and equipment plus proceeds from sale and disposal of fixed assets. The Company excludes cash impacts of items derived from non-operating activities. Adjusted free cash flow should not be considered an alternative to net cash from operating activities or other measurements under GAAP. Adjusted free cash flow is not calculated identically by all companies, and therefore the Company’s measurement of adjusted free cash flow may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies.

An itemized reconciliation between net cash from operating activities and adjusted free cash flow is as follows for the three and six months ended June 30, 2023 and 2022 (in thousands):

Adjusted EBITDA Guidance Reconciliation

An itemized reconciliation between projected GAAP net income and projected Adjusted EBITDA is as follows (in millions):

Adjusted Free Cash Flow Guidance Reconciliation

An itemized reconciliation between projected net cash from operating activities and projected adjusted free cash flow is as follows (in millions):

Conference Call Information

Clean Harbors will conduct a conference call for investors today at 9:00 a.m. (ET) to discuss the information contained in this press release. During the call, management will discuss Clean Harbors’ financial results, business outlook and growth strategy. Investors who wish to listen to the webcast and view the accompanying slides should visit the Investor Relations section of the Company’s website at www.cleanharbors.com. The live call also can be accessed by dialing 877.709.8155 or 201.689.8881 prior to the start time. If you are unable to listen to the live conference call, the webcast will be archived on the Company’s website.

About Clean Harbors

Clean Harbors (NYSE: CLH) is North America’s leading provider of environmental and industrial services. The Company serves a diverse customer base, including a majority of Fortune 500 companies. Its customer base spans a number of industries, including chemical, manufacturing and refining, as well as numerous government agencies. These customers rely on Clean Harbors to deliver a broad range of services such as end-to-end hazardous waste management, emergency spill response, industrial cleaning and maintenance, and recycling services. Through its Safety-Kleen subsidiary, Clean Harbors also is North America’s largest re-refiner and recycler of used oil and a leading provider of parts washers and environmental services to commercial, industrial and automotive customers. Founded in 1980 and based in Massachusetts, Clean Harbors operates in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and India. For more information, visit www.cleanharbors.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

Any statements contained herein that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by use of the words “believes,” “expects,” “intends,” “anticipates,” “plans to,” “seeks,” “should,” “estimates,” “projects,” “may,” “likely,” or similar expressions. Such statements may include, but are not limited to, statements about future financial and operating results, and other statements that are not historical facts. Such statements are based upon the beliefs and expectations of Clean Harbors’ management as of this date only and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including, without limitation, those items identified as “Risk Factors” in Clean Harbors’ most recently filed Form 10-K and Form 10-Q. Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance. Therefore, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Clean Harbors undertakes no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to these forward-looking statements other than through its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which may be viewed in the “Investors” section of Clean Harbors’ website at www.cleanharbors.com.