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WCAA > SEC Filings for WCAA > Form 10-Q on 7-Aug-2008All Recent SEC Filings

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Form 10-Q for WCA WASTE CORP


7-Aug-2008

Quarterly Report


ITEM 2. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS.

The following discussion should be read in conjunction with the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included elsewhere in this quarterly report on Form 10-Q. In addition, reference should be made to our audited consolidated financial statements and notes thereto and related "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" included in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007 as filed with the SEC on March 5, 2008. The discussion below contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. For additional information regarding some of these risks and uncertainties, please read "Risk Factors and Cautionary Statement About Forward-Looking Statements" included elsewhere in this quarterly report on Form 10-Q. Unless the context requires otherwise, references in this quarterly report on Form 10-Q to "WCA Waste," "we," "us" or "our" refer to WCA Waste Corporation on a consolidated basis.

Overview

We are a vertically integrated, non-hazardous solid waste management company providing non-hazardous solid waste collection, transfer, processing, and disposal services in the south and central regions of the United States. As of June 30, 2008, we served approximately 327,000 commercial, industrial and residential collection customers and 5,000 landfill and transfer station customers in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. We currently own and/or operate 24 landfills, 27 collection operations and 23 transfer stations/materials recovery facilities (MRFs). Of these facilities, two transfer stations and two landfills are fully permitted but not yet opened, and one transfer station is idle. Additionally, we currently operate but do not own two of the transfer stations.

Acquisition Strategy

Our future growth will significantly depend on successful implementation of our strategy of acquisitions in our existing markets and selected additional markets. In markets where we already own a landfill, we intend to focus on expanding our presence by acquiring companies that also operate in that market or in adjacent markets ("tuck-in" acquisitions). Tuck-in acquisitions should allow growth in revenue and increase market share and enable disposal internalization and consolidation of duplicative facilities and functions to maximize cost efficiencies and economies of scale. We will typically seek to enter a new market by acquiring a permitted landfill in that market. Upon acquiring a landfill in a new market, we then intend to expand our operations by acquiring collection and/or transfer operations and internalizing waste into the landfill.

We intend to pursue our acquisition strategy primarily with cash on hand and available capacity under our $175 million revolving credit facility. We may also issue additional debt, and/or additional equity, including common stock or preferred stock, in connection with acquisitions. As of June 30, 2008, we had approximately $128.1 million available under our existing credit facility.

Since completing our initial public offering in June 2004 through the six months ended June 30, 2008, we have completed 32 acquisitions. The purchase price for these acquisitions consisted of approximately $225.7 million of cash, $1.3 million of prepaid airspace, $6.1 million of convertible debt, $11.9 million of assumed debt (net of $0.5 million of debt discount), $4.4 million of assumed deferred tax liabilities and 1,726,336 shares of our common stock, less a note receivable valued at $7.2 million. The note receivable was a $10.5 million non-interest bearing promissory note with payments to us in the amount of $125,000 per month for 84 months through June 2014. In May 2008, the Company sold the note receivable for approximately $6.2 million.

During the three and six months ended June 30, 2008, we acquired certain collection routes from Maguire Disposal, Inc. The purchase price for this acquisition was approximately $0.3 million of cash. Information concerning our acquisitions may be found in our previously filed periodic and current reports and in note 2 to the condensed consolidated financial statements included in Item 1 of this report.


Table of Contents

The following sets forth additional information regarding our acquisitions since our initial public offering:

                                                  Completion
Company              Location            Region   Date         Operations
Texas                Houston, TX         II       July 13,     Collection
Environmental                                     2004
Waste
Ashley Trash         Springfield, MO     I        August 17,   Collection
Service                                           2004
Power Waste          Birmingham, AL      III      August 31,   Collection
                                                  2004
Blount Recycling     Birmingham, AL      III      September    Collection,
                                                  3, 2004      Landfill & Transfer
                                                               Station
Translift, Inc.      Little Rock, AR     II       September    Collection
                                                  17, 2004
Rural Disposal,      Willow Springs,     I        November     Collection
Inc.                 MO                           12, 2004
Trash Away, Inc.     Piedmont, SC        IV       November     Collection &
                                                  30, 2004     Transfer Station
Gecko Investments    St. Louis, MO       I        January      Collection &
(Eagle Ridge)                                     11, 2005     Landfill
MRR Southern, LLC    High                IV       April 1,     Landfill, Transfer
                     Point/Raleigh, NC            2005         Station & MRF
Triangle             Raleigh, NC         IV       May 16,      Collection
Environmental                                     2005
Foster Ferguson      El Dorado           I        May 16,      Collection
                     Springs, MO                  2005
Triad Waste          High Point, NC      IV       May 31,      Collection
                                                  2005
Proper Disposal      Chanute, KS         I        May 31,      Collection
                                                  2005
Fort Meade           Fort Meade, FL      III      October 3,   Landfill
Landfill                                          2005
Meyer & Gabbert      Sarasota/Arcadia,   III      October 3,   Collection,
                     FL                           2005         Landfill & Transfer
                                                               Station
Pendergrass Refuse   Springfield, MO     I        October 4,   Collection
                                                  2005
Andy's Hauling       Sarasota, FL        III      October      Collection
                                                  21, 2005
Transit Waste        Durango,            V        February     Collection &
                     CO/Bloomfield, NM            10, 2006     Landfill
Fort Myers           Fort Myers, FL      III      August 10,   Transfer Station
Transfer Station                                  2006
(*)
WCA of St. Lucie,    St. Lucie, FL       III      October 2,   Transfer Station
LLC                                               2006
Sunrise Disposal,    Springfield, MO     I        December     Collection
LLC                                               28, 2006
Southwest            Fort Myers, FL      III      January 3,   Collection
Dumpster, Inc. (*)                                2007
American Waste,      Oklahoma City, OK   V        February     Collection &
Inc.                                              21, 2007     Landfill
Klean Way            Springfield, MO     I        March 30,    Collection
Disposal, Inc.                                    2007
Carpenter Waste      Oklahoma City, OK   V        May 31,      Collection
Systems, LLC                                      2007
Fort Bend Regional   Houston, TX         II       June 29,     Collection,
Landfill                                          2007         Landfill & Transfer
                                                               Station
Big Red              Ardmore, OK         V        August 14,   Collection
Containers, Inc.                                  2007
Roll-Off Rentals     Huntsville, AL      III      September    Collection
                                                  4, 2007
Waste Pro            Houston, TX         II       October 1,   Collection
Services, LLC                                     2007
DH Griffin           Greensboro, NC      IV       October 1,   Collection
Container                                         2007
Services, LLC
DH Griffin           Raleigh, NC         IV       October 1,   Collection
Container of                                      2007
Raleigh, LLC
Maguire Disposal,    Oklahoma City, OK   V        January 2,   Collection
Inc.                                              2008

(*) These assets were exchanged as part of the consideration for the acquisition of Fort Bend Regional Landfill.

After an acquisition is completed, we incur integration expenses related to (i) incorporating newly-acquired truck fleets into our preventative maintenance program, (ii) testing new employees to comply with Department of Transportation regulations, (iii) implementing our safety program, (iv) re-routing trucks and equipment to assure maximization of routing efficiencies and disposal internalization, and (v) converting customers to our billing system. We generally expect that the costs of acquiring and integrating an acquired business will be incurred primarily during the first 12 months after acquisition. Synergies from tuck-in acquisitions can also take as long as 12 months to be realized.

General Review of Results for the Three and Six Months Ended June 30, 2008

Our operations consist of the collection, transfer, processing and disposal of non-hazardous solid waste. Our revenue is generated primarily from our landfill disposal services and our collection operations provided to residential, commercial and roll-off customers. Internalization refers to the disposal of collected waste into the landfills we own. All collected waste must ultimately be processed or disposed of, with landfills being the main depository for such waste. Generally, the most cost efficient collection services occur within a 35-mile operating radius from the disposal site (up to 100 miles if a transfer station is used). Collection companies that do not own a landfill within such range from their collection routes will usually have to dispose of the waste they collect in landfills owned by third parties. Thus, owning a landfill in a market area increases internalization which increases operating margins, improves operating cash flows and provides substantial leverage in the waste management business. Our internalization for the three and six months ended June 30, 2008 was 74.6% and 74.7%, respectively.


Table of Contents

The following table reflects our revenue segmentation (before elimination of intercompany revenue) for the three and six months ended June 30, 2008 and 2007:

                               Three Months Ended          Six Months Ended
                                    June 30,                   June 30,
                                2008          2007         2008         2007
Collection                         51.1 %       50.7 %        51.5 %      50.5 %
Disposal                           29.7 %       30.8 %        30.3 %      30.6 %
Transfer and other                 19.2 %       18.5 %        18.2 %      18.9 %
Total uneliminated revenue        100.0 %      100.0 %       100.0 %     100.0 %

The following table reflects our total revenue by source for the three and six months ended June 30, 2008 and 2007 (dollars in thousands):

                              Three Months                Six Months
                             Ended June 30,             Ended June 30,
                            2008         2007         2008          2007
Collection:
Residential               $ 12,360     $ 10,339     $  24,277     $ 19,220
Commercial                   5,122        4,891         9,993        9,278
Roll-off                    15,287       13,428        29,498       25,229
Total collection            32,769       28,658        63,768       53,727
Disposal                    19,079       17,410        37,448       32,481
Less Intercompany            7,694        6,654        15,156       12,235
Disposal, net               11,385       10,756        22,292       20,246
Transfer and other          12,327       10,477        22,552       20,064
Less Intercompany            3,735        3,691         7,029        7,210
Transfer and other, net      8,592        6,786        15,523       12,854
Total revenue             $ 52,746     $ 46,200     $ 101,583     $ 86,827

Please read note 12 to our condensed consolidated financial statements included in Item 1 of this report for certain geographic information related to our operations.

Costs of services include, but are not limited to, labor, fuel and other operating expenses, equipment maintenance, disposal fees paid to third-party disposal facilities, insurance premiums and claims expense, selling expenses, wages and salaries of field personnel located at operating facilities, third-party transportation expense and state and local waste taxes. We are self-insured for a portion of our general liability, workers' compensation and automobile liability. The frequency and amount of claims or incidents could vary significantly from quarter-to-quarter and/or year-to-year, resulting in increased volatility of our costs of services.

General and administrative expenses include the salaries and benefits of our corporate management, certain centralized reporting, information technology and cash management costs and other overhead costs associated with our corporate office.

Depreciation and amortization expense includes depreciation of fixed assets over their estimated useful lives using the straight-line method and amortization of landfill costs and asset retirement costs based on the consumption of airspace.

We capitalize third-party expenditures related to pending acquisitions, such as legal, engineering, and accounting expenses, and certain direct expenditures such as travel costs. We expense indirect acquisition costs, such as salaries, commissions and other corporate services, as we incur them. We routinely evaluate all capitalized costs, and expense those related to projects that we believe are not likely to succeed.


Table of Contents

Forward-Looking Statements and Non-GAAP Measures

As indicated in "Risk Factors and Cautionary Statement About Forward-Looking Statements" this report contains forward-looking statements, all of which are qualified by the risk factors and other statements set forth in that section.

Our management evaluates our performance based on non-GAAP measures, of which the primary performance measure is EBITDA. EBITDA consists of earnings (net income or loss) available to common stockholders before preferred stock dividend, interest expense (including gains (losses) on interest rate swap agreements as well as write-off of deferred financing costs and debt discount), income tax expense, depreciation and amortization, and loss on disposition of note receivable. We also compute EBITDA before the cumulative effect of change in accounting principle and before considering the effect of discontinued operations as the effect of these items is not relevant to our ongoing operations. We also use these same measures when evaluating potential acquisition candidates.

We believe EBITDA is useful to an investor in evaluating our operating performance because:

· it is widely used by investors in our industry to measure a company's operating performance without regard to items such as interest expense, depreciation and amortization, which can vary substantially from company to company depending upon accounting methods and book value of assets, financing methods, capital structure and the method by which assets were acquired;

· it helps investors more meaningfully evaluate and compare the results of our operations from period to period by removing the impact of our capital structure (primarily interest charges from our outstanding debt and the impact of our interest rate swap agreements and payment-in-kind (PIK) dividend) and asset base (primarily depreciation and amortization of our landfills and vehicles) from our operating results; and

· it helps investors identify items that are within our operational control. Depreciation charges, while a component of operating income, are fixed at the time of the asset purchase in accordance with the depreciable lives of the related asset and as such are not a directly controllable period operating charge.

Our management uses EBITDA:

· as a measure of operating performance because it assists us in comparing our performance on a consistent basis as it removes the impact of our capital structure and asset base from our operating results;

· as one method to estimate a purchase price (often expressed as a multiple of EBITDA) for solid waste companies we intend to acquire. The appropriate EBITDA multiple will vary from acquisition to acquisition depending on factors such as the size of the operation, the type of operation, the anticipated growth in the market, the strategic location of the operation in its market as well as other considerations;

· in presentations to our board of directors to enable them to have the same consistent measurement basis of operating performance used by management;

· as a measure for planning and forecasting overall expectations and for evaluating actual results against such expectations;

· in evaluations of field operations since it represents operational performance and takes into account financial measures within the control of the field operating units;

· as a component of incentive cash bonuses paid to our executive officers and other employees;

· to assess compliance with financial ratios and covenants included in our credit agreements; and

· in communications with investors, lenders, and others, concerning our financial performance.


Table of Contents

The following presents a reconciliation of our total EBITDA to net income (loss) available to common stockholders (dollars in thousands):

                                                Three Months                 Six Months
                                               Ended June 30,              Ended June 30,
                                             2008          2007          2008          2007
Total EBITDA                               $  13,553     $  12,413     $  25,100     $  24,295
Depreciation and amortization                 (6,909 )      (6,096 )     (13,400 )     (11,285 )
Interest expense, net                         (4,609 )      (4,190 )      (9,143 )      (7,966 )
Realized loss on interest rate swap           (1,116 )        (110 )      (1,423 )        (215 )
Unrealized gain on interest rate swap          4,809         2,336           516         1,808
Loss on disposition of note receivable          (326 )           -          (326 )           -
Income tax provision                          (2,526 )      (1,747 )        (800 )      (2,709 )
Accrued payment-in-kind dividend on
preferred stock                               (1,011 )        (961 )      (2,016 )      (1,915 )
Net income (loss) available to common
stockholders                               $   1,865     $   1,645     $  (1,492 )   $   2,013

Our EBITDA, as we define it, may not be comparable to similarly titled measures employed by other companies and is not a measure of performance calculated in accordance with GAAP. EBITDA should not be considered in isolation or as substitutes for operating income, net income or loss, cash flows provided by operating, investing and financing activities, or other income or cash flow statement data prepared in accordance with GAAP.

Results of Operations

Three Months Ended June 30, 2008 Compared to Three Months Ended June 30, 2007

The following table sets forth the components of operating income (loss) by
major operating segments (Region I: Kansas, Missouri; Region II: Arkansas,
Texas; Region III: Alabama, Florida; Region IV: North Carolina, South Carolina,
Tennessee; Region V: Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma) for the three months ended
June 30, 2008 and 2007 and the changes between the segments for each category
(dollars in thousands):

                      Region I       Region II       Region III       Region IV       Region V       Corporate       Total       % of Revenue
Three months ended
June 30, 2008:
Revenue               $  13,668     $    21,706     $      5,261     $     6,166     $    5,945     $         -     $ 52,746             100.0
Cost of services          9,885          13,948            3,905           4,251          4,592               -       36,581              69.4
Depreciation and
amortization              1,387           2,217            1,048           1,139            983             135        6,909              13.1
General and
administrative              844           1,406              480             432            452            (909 )      2,705               5.1
Operating income
(loss)                $   1,552     $     4,135     $       (172 )   $       344     $      (82 )   $       774     $  6,551              12.4
Three months ended
June 30, 2007:
Revenue               $  13,497     $    13,897     $      8,349     $     5,528     $    4,929     $         -     $ 46,200             100.0
Cost of services          9,323           8,798            5,430           3,306          3,922               -       30,779              66.6
Depreciation and
amortization              1,363           1,433            1,310           1,005            875             110        6,096              13.2
General and
administrative              987             910              649             399             95              95        3,135               6.8
Operating income
(loss)                $   1,824     $     2,756     $        960     $       818     $       37     $      (205 )   $  6,190              13.4
Increase/(decrease)
in 2008 compared to
2007:
Revenue               $     171     $     7,809     $     (3,088 )   $       638     $    1,016     $         -     $  6,546
Cost of services            562           5,150           (1,525 )           945            670               -        5,802
Depreciation and
amortization                 24             784             (262 )           134            108              25          813
General and
administrative             (143 )           496             (169 )            33            357          (1,004 )       (430 )
Operating income
(loss)                $    (272 )   $     1,379     $     (1,132 )   $      (474 )   $     (119 )   $       979     $    361


Table of Contents

Revenue. Total revenue for the three months ended June 30, 2008 increased $6.5 million, or 14.2%, to $52.7 million from $46.2 million for the three months ended June 30, 2007. Our growth in revenue between the periods has been primarily driven by acquisitions. We estimated that acquisitions contributed $3.9 million of the increase while internal volume decreased $0.9 million, operational price increases contributed $1.8 million, and pricing from fuel surcharges contributed $1.7 million. The above table reflects the total increase in revenue in each operating region. The financial results of completed acquisitions are generally blended with existing operations and do not have separate financial information available with the exception of new regions acquired which can be analyzed individually. The revenue increase of $7.8 million in Region II was primarily attributed to the volume and price increases associated with new collection and hauling contracts in our Texas residential operations as well as the acquisition of a landfill and a transfer station in late June of 2007. Revenue in Region III decreased $3.1 million primarily as a result of general economic conditions in Florida and the divestitures of a transfer station and collection operations in Fort Myers, Florida. We estimate that the Oklahoma operations contributed $0.8 million of the increase in revenue in Region V. The increase was mainly the result of additional volume brought by the tuck-in acquisitions. For more information on the factors affecting our estimates, please see "-Acquisition Strategy" above.

Cost of services. Total cost of services for the three months ended June 30, 2008 increased $5.8 million, or 18.9%, to $36.6 million from $30.8 million for the three months ended June 30, 2007. We believe that our acquisition program accounted for most of the increase in cost of services. Fuel prices, which increased 56.3% nationally from the three months ended June 30, 2007 to the three months ended June 30, 2008, contributed to the largest non-acquisition related increase in cost of services. Other factors of the increase included labor and disposal costs. For acquisitions within our existing markets, the acquired entities are merged into our existing operations and those results are indistinguishable from the remainder of the operations. As indicated above, Region II experienced growth through either acquisition or expanded volumes and reflected a corresponding increase in its cost of services. Region II had an estimated $5.2 million increase in cost of services due to the rapid growth of Texas residential collection operations and the acquisition of Fort Bend Regional Landfill at the end of June 2007. More employees and vehicles were added in this region, which caused the increase in labor, insurance, fuel and vehicle-related costs. In addition, third party disposal and hauling costs increased as we disposed of more residential waste to a third party landfill and contracted third party hauling operations to transport waste from our transfer station to the landfill acquired in 2007. Cost of services in Region III decreased $1.5 million as a result of the decrease in revenue in Florida. The estimated $0.9 million increase in cost of services in Region IV was primarily attributed to the increase in labor, fuel and vehicle-related costs associated with the tuck-in acquisitions in North Carolina in 2007. For more information on the factors affecting our estimates, please see "-Acquisition Strategy" above.

Overall cost of services increased to 69.4% of revenue for the three months ended June 30, 2008 from 66.6% during the same period last year. Increases in operating costs as a percentage of revenue were primarily attributable to higher fuel, outside repairs and landfill site maintenance costs. Diesel fuel costs as a percentage of revenue increased from 7.0% for the three months ended June 30, 2007 to 10.7% for the three months ended June 30, 2008. In addition, there is a lag between the actual increase in fuel costs and the recovery through fuel surcharges. Other than periodic volatility in fuel prices, inflation has not materially affected our operations.

Depreciation and amortization. Depreciation and amortization expense for the . . .

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