Natural Resource Partners L.P. (NRP) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you. Hello everyone, thank you for joining us and welcome to the Natural Resource Partners LP Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. now hand the conference over to Tiffany Samas, Investor Relations. Tiffany, please go ahead.

Thank you and good morning and welcome to the natural resource partners. Second quarter 2026 conference call. Today's call is being webcast and a replay will be available on our website. Joining me today are Craig Nunez, President of the Chief Operating Officer, Chris Zolas, Chief Financial Officer, and Kevin Craig, Executive Vice President. Some of our comments today may include forward-looking statements reflecting NRP's views about future events. These matters involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to materially differ from our forward-looking statements. These risks are discussed in NRP's Form 10-K and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason. Our comments today also include non-GAAP financial measures. Additional details and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in our second quarter press release, which can be found on our website. I would like to remind everyone that we do not intend to discuss the operations or outlook for any particular Coal Lessee or detailed market fundamentals. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Craig Nunez, our President and Chief Operating Officer. Thank you, Tiffany, and good morning, everyone. NRP generated $42 million.

of free cash flow in the second quarter and 163 million of free cash flow over the last 12 months before the 39 million dollars we put to work in our sodash business back in the first quarter the The world has been noisy recently. Geopolitical conflict, shipping disruptions, tariff fights. I don't know how those will resolve. What I do know is that we paid off our bank revolver last month and have only $14 million of debt outstanding. Barring something unforeseen, we intend to raise and freeze distributions significantly in November. Coal, both metallurgical and thermal, has settled down and shown modest improvement off the lows, although I can't point to any single event that's likely to push prices sharply higher from here. not in the business of predicting commodity prices anyway. What matters more is that our mineral rights segment just keeps doing what it's done for years, reducing cash, rain or shine. Through every major coal cycle, it has been the most dependable cash generator we've ever owned. On thermal coal, if oil prices remain high, that tends to bring more associated natural gas production along with it, which puts downward pressure on thermal coal prices in North America. Cheaper oil would work the other way. Meanwhile, renewables keep getting more competitive, and that will pose a long-term headwind for thermal coal. Now so dash. The honest picture is that global supply still exceeds demand, and we don't see a quick fix. The encouraging sign is that international prices after a long and painful decline appear to have found the floor, it's a floor below most producers cost of production, which tells you the downturn still has room to run. Domestic SODASH prices have always traded at a premium to international prices due to transportation costs, trade frictions, and the value domestic customers place on reliable supply. That premium is unusually wide right now, mostly because domestic contracts get set once a year, while international prices move with speed. spot market. As a result, domestic prices haven't caught up with how far international prices have fallen. As contracts for 2027 deliveries get negotiated this year, we expect that gap to close, which means lower domestic prices ahead. We've seen this movie before. The 1999 to 2004 downturn looked a lot like today's market, and it eventually corrected as supply and demand found their way back into balance. We're starting to see hints of that with recent announcements of extended closures amounting to roughly 4% of global capacity. markets have a way of curing their own excesses given time. So to sum it up, Despite challenges for all three of our key commodities, NRP is generating strong free cash flow. We're almost debt free. And barring the unexpected, we plan to raise distribution significantly starting in November. So with that, I'll turn it over to Chris. Thank you, Craig.

In the second quarter of 2026, NRP generated $25 million of net income, $41 million of operating cash flow, and $42 million of free cash flow. Of these second quarter consolidated amounts, our mineral rights segment generated $36 million of net income and $45 million of operating and pre-cash flow. When compared to the prior year, second quarter. Mineral rights segment net income decreased by 3M primarily due to increased expense caused by revised mine plans at certain long wall, thermal coal mines that resulted in higher per ton depletion rates. This decrease in net income was partially offset by increased revenues, primarily due to increased metallurgical and thermal volumes in pricing at certain properties. Operating cash flow and free cash flow each decrease 1M as compared to the prior year period, primarily due to higher recoupments during the three months ended June 30th, 2026. Partial offset by increased cash from minimum payments during the quarter. Regarding our met thermal coal royalty mix. Metallurgical coal made up approximately 70% of our core royalty revenues and 45% of core royalty sales volumes in the 2nd quarter of 2026. Our soda ash segments second quarter net income decreased 7 million compared to prior year quarter. This decrease was driven by lower sales prices due to the oversupplied international soda ash market and weakened demand for black glass. Operating in free cash flow each decreased $5 million when compared to the prior year These decreases were due to not receiving a distribution in the second quarter of 2026 as compared to receiving a 5 million distribution in the second quarter of last year. NRP does not expect distributions from Syster Jam, Wyoming to resume until the SODASH demand rebounds or there is a significant supply response to this depressed market. Moving to our corporate and financing results, net income for the second quarter of 2026 improved $2 million, while operating cash flow and free cash flow each improved $1 million as compared to the prior year period. These improvements were due to having less debt outstanding resulted in lower interest costs and less cash paid for interest. regarding our quarterly distributions in may we paid the first quarter distribution of 75 cents per common unit and today we announced our second quarter distribution of 75 cents per common unit to be paid later this month Regarding our debt, I'm pleased and proud to report that we have now completely repaid our Opco credit facility and have one final $14 million scheduled payment due in December on our Opco Senior Notes. As a result, and as Craig mentioned earlier, we expect to be able to significantly increase NRP unit holder distributions for the next quarterly distribution to be paid in November. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Trevor, our operator for questions.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile a Q&A roster. There are no questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Craig Nunes for closing remarks.

Thank you, Trevor, and thank you everyone for joining our call today and thank you for being partners with us at NRP.

forward to talking to you next quarter. Have a good day. This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect. This live transcript is auto-generated without human intervention or review. [Call has ended.]