Spark Energy, Inc. Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2019 Financial Results

HOUSTON, TX / ACCESSWIRE / March 4, 2020 / Spark Energy, Inc. ("Spark" or the "Company") (SPKE), an independent retail energy services company, today reported financial results for the year ended December 31, 2019.

Key Business Highlights

  • Recorded $25.7 million in Adjusted EBITDA, $64.3 million in Retail Gross Margin, and $0.7 million in Net Loss for the fourth quarter 2019

  • Recorded $92.4 million in Adjusted EBITDA, $220.7 million in Retail Gross Margin, and $14.2 million in Net Income for the year ended 2019

  • Total RCE count of 672,000 as of December 31, 2019

  • Average monthly attrition of 5.0% for the year ended December 31, 2019

  • Settled several significant legacy litigation items

  • Sold our Japanese joint venture for a pre-tax gain of $4.9 million, not included in Adjusted EBITDA

  • Total liquidity of $138.7 million

  • Approximately 70% of all new sales in 2019 were fully renewable electricity or carbon neutral natural gas

"2019 was a strong year for Spark and we have continued to improve the quality of our customer book by continuing to shed low margin, large C&I customers. We see the significant increase in unit margins from last year as a result of our winter and summer insurance hedging strategy. With a strong push to simplify our platform in 2019, we completed the final steps of our brand and system consolidations and achieved our goal of G&A run-rate savings. Despite record price volatility in ERCOT this summer, our insurance hedging strategy continues to prove successful supporting our expanded electricity and natural gas unit margins. Earlier in the year we terminated our Tax Receivable Agreement on very favorable terms, amended and extended our senior credit and subordinated debt facilities, and we also resolved four significant litigation and regulatory cases," said Nathan Kroeker, Spark's President and Chief Executive Officer.

Summary Fourth Quarter 2019 Financial Results

For the quarter ended December 31, 2019, Spark reported Adjusted EBITDA of $25.7 million compared to Adjusted EBITDA of $20.1 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2018. This increase was primarily due to the higher Retail Gross Margin partially offset by lower customer counts.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2019, Spark reported Retail Gross Margin of $64.3 million compared to Retail Gross Margin of $50.2 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2018. This increase is due to electricity unit margins and volumes returning to normal after a downturn in 2018, offset by lower customer counts.

Net loss for the quarter ended December 31, 2019, was $0.7 million, heavily impacted by mark to market losses in the last few days of the year, driven by a warm front at year end in our primary markets. This compares to a net loss of $15.3 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2018.