OREANDA-NEWS. November 29, 2017. Shell Midstream Partners, L.P. (NYSE: SHLX) entered into a purchase and sale agreement to acquire from wholly owned subsidiaries of Shell a 100% interest in five products terminals and partial interest in two Gulf of Mexico corridor pipelines and in two strategic onshore pipelines for $825 million.

The acquisition price reflects an approximate 7.9 times multiple of the assets’ forecasted 2018 adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and is expected to be immediately accretive to unitholders.  Shell Midstream Partners intends to fund the acquisition with borrowings under new and existing credit facilities. The acquisition is expected to close on or around December 1, 2017, subject to customary closing conditions. 

Highlights of the assets to be acquired:

  • A 100% interest in Triton West LLC which owns the Anacortes, Colex, Des Plaines, Portland, and Seattle products terminals.  The terminals are strategically located with take-or-pay contracts with wholly owned subsidiaries of Shell. Each contract has an initial term of 10 years with options to extend up to 20 years.  The acquisition of the products terminals builds upon Shell Midstream Partners’ strategy to access assets across Shell’s broad asset base. 
  • A 22.9% interest in Mars Oil Pipeline Company LLC (Mars) and a 22% interest in Odyssey Pipeline LLC (Odyssey).  Both Mars and Odyssey serve high growth areas of the Gulf of Mexico.  Following the closing of the transaction, Shell Midstream Partners will own 71.5% of Mars and 71% of Odyssey.  
  • A 10% interest in Explorer Pipeline Company (Explorer) and a 41.48% interest in LOCAP LLC (LOCAP).  Explorer owns a 1,830-mile products pipeline extending from Gulf Coast refineries to the upper Midwest.  LOCAP owns a 55-mile common carrier crude pipeline from the LOOP Clovelly Salt Dome facility to the active trading hub of St. James, Louisiana.   

The terms of the acquisition were approved by the conflicts committee of the Board of Directors of the General Partner of Shell Midstream Partners, which is comprised entirely of independent directors.  This committee was advised by Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. as to financial matters and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP as to legal matters. 

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ABOUT SHELL MIDSTREAM PARTNERS, L.P.

Shell Midstream Partners, headquartered in Houston, Texas, is a fee-based, growth-oriented midstream master limited partnership formed by Royal Dutch Shell plc to own, operate, develop and acquire pipelines and other midstream assets. Shell Midstream Partners' assets consist of interests in entities that own crude oil and refined products pipelines serving as key infrastructure to transport onshore and offshore crude oil production to Gulf Coast and Midwest refining markets and to deliver refined products from those markets to major demand centers, as well as interests in entities that own natural gas and refinery gas pipelines which transport offshore natural gas to market hubs and deliver refinery gas from refineries and plants to chemical sites along the Gulf Coast.

NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES

This press release includes the term Adjusted EBITDA. We believe that the presentation of Adjusted EBITDA provides useful information to investors in assessing our financial condition and results of operations. Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP supplemental financial measure that management and external users of our condensed consolidated financial statements, such as industry analysts, investors, lenders and rating agencies, may use to assess:

  • our operating performance as compared to other publicly traded partnerships in the midstream energy industry, without regard to historical cost basis or financing methods;
  • the ability of our business to generate sufficient cash to support our decision to make distributions to our unitholders;
  • our ability to incur and service debt and fund capital expenditures; and
  • the viability of acquisitions and other capital expenditure projects and the returns on investment of various investment opportunities.

The GAAP measure most directly comparable to Adjusted EBITDA is net income. This non-GAAP measure should not be considered as an alternative to GAAP net income. Adjusted EBITDA has important limitations as an analytical tool because it excludes some but not all items that affect net income. It should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. Additionally, because Adjusted EBITDA may be defined differently by other companies in our industry, our definition of Adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies, thereby diminishing its utility.

References in this press release to Adjusted EBITDA refer to net income before income taxes, net interest expense, gain or loss from disposition of fixed assets, allowance oil reduction to net realizable value, and depreciation, amortization and accretion, plus cash distributed to Shell Midstream Partners, L.P. from equity investments for the applicable period, less income from equity investments. We define Adjusted EBITDA attributable to Shell Midstream Partners as Adjusted EBITDA less Adjusted EBITDA attributable to noncontrolling interests.