EAGLE ROCK ENERGY PARTNERS, L.P. - COMMON UNITS RE Reports Operating Results (10-Q)

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May 07, 2010
EAGLE ROCK ENERGY PARTNERS, L.P. - COMMON UNITS RE (EROC, Financial) filed Quarterly Report for the period ended 2010-03-31.

Eagle Rock Energy Partners, L.p. - Common Units Re has a market cap of $347.8 million; its shares were traded at around $6.37 with a P/E ratio of 17.7 and P/S ratio of 0.5. The dividend yield of Eagle Rock Energy Partners, L.p. - Common Units Re stocks is 1.6%.EROC is in the portfolios of Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies LLC.

Highlight of Business Operations:

Our Corporate Segment s revenues, which consist solely of our commodity derivatives activity, decreased to a gain of $10.8 million for the three months ended March 31, 2010, from a gain of $26.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2009. As a result of our commodity hedging activities, revenues include realized losses of $2.7 million on risk management activity that was settled during the three months ended March 31, 2010 and unrealized mark-to-market gains of $13.5 million for the three months ended March 31, 2010 as compared to realized gains of $30.8 million on risk management activity that was settled during the three months ended March 31, 2009 and unrealized mark-to-market losses of $4.5 million for the three months ended March 31, 2009. Included with our unrealized commodity derivative gains (losses) are the amortization of put premiums and other derivative costs of $2.6 million and $12.2 million during the three months ended March 31, 2010 and 2009, respectively.

General and Administrative Expenses. General and administrative expenses were $13.1 million for the three months ended March 31, 2010 as compared to $12.5 million for the three months ended March 31, 2009. Equity-based compensation expense decreased by approximately $0.4 million during the three months ended March 31, 2010 as compared to the three months ended March 31, 2009. The three months ended March 31, 2009 included an allocation of expense of $0.4 million from Eagle Rock Holdings, L.P. due to its issuance of Tier I units to one of our executives. No Tier I units were granted during the three months ended March 31, 2010. This decrease was offset by increased insurance expense of $0.3 million during the three months ended March 31, 2010 as a result of a rebate received during the three months ended March 31, 2009, a charge to bad debt expense of $0.3 million during the three months ended March 31, 2010, an increase in our contract labor and other professional services expenses of $0.1 million and a net increase in other miscellaneous expenses of $0.3 million. Included within our other professional services expenses for the three months ended March 31, 2010, are legal and other professional advisory fees of $1.0 million related to the Recapitalization and Related Transactions and the related lawsuit.

Total Other Income (Expense). Total other income (expense) includes both realized and unrealized gains and losses from our interest rate swaps. We incurred expense of $13.9 million for the three months ended March 31, 2010 as compared to $7.6 million for the three months ended March 31, 2009. During the three months ended March 31, 2010, we incurred realized losses from our interest rate swaps of $4.9 million as compared to realized losses of $3.5 million during the three months ended March 31, 2009. We also incurred unrealized mark-to-market losses of $4.8 million and unrealized mark-to-market gains of $3.1 million during the three months ended March 31, 2010 and 2009, respectively. These unrealized mark-to-market gains did not have any impact on cash activities for the period, and are excluded by definition from our calculation of Adjusted EBITDA.

As described above, for the three months ended March 31, 2010, revenues minus cost of natural gas and natural gas liquids for the Midstream Business (including the Texas Panhandle, East Texas/Louisiana, South Texas and the Gulf of Mexico Segment) increased by $18.3 million as compared to the three months ended March 31, 2009. For the three months ended March 31, 2010, revenues for our Upstream and Mineral Segments increased by $13.4 million as compared to the same period in the prior year. Our Corporate Segment s realized commodity derivatives loss increased by $33.5 million as compared to the three months ended March 31, 2009. This resulted in a decline of $1.7 million of total incremental revenues minus cost of natural gas and natural gas liquids for the three months ended March 31, 2010 as compared to the same period in the prior year. The incremental revenue amounts are adjusted to exclude the impact of unrealized commodity derivatives and the non-cash mark-to-market Upstream Segment imbalances, which are not included in the calculation of Adjusted EBITDA.

Adjusted EBITDA, for the three months ended March 31, 2010 and 2009, excludes amortization of commodity hedge costs (including, for the three months ended March 31, 2010, costs of hedge reset transactions) of $2.6 million and $12.2 million, respectively. Including these amortization costs, our Adjusted EBITDA for the three months ended March 31, 2010 and 2009 would have been $34.2 million and $28.9 million, respectively.

Cash Flows from Financing Activities. Cash flows used in financing activities during the three months ended March 31, 2010 were $18.0 million versus cash flows provided by financing activities of $10.7 during the three months ended March 31, 2009. Key differences between periods include net repayments to our revolving credit facility of $17.0 million during the three months ended March 31, 2010 as compared to net proceeds of $38.0 million from our revolving credit facility during the three months ended March 31, 2009. Distributions to members decreased to cash outflows of $1.3 million during the three months ended March 31, 2010 as compared to $31.6 million during the three months ended March 31, 2009 as a result of reducing our quarterly distribution to $0.025 from $0.41 in 2009.

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