Operator
Good day everyone and welcome to the Global Partners first year 2025 financial results conference call. Today's call is being recorded. All lines have been placed in listen only mode. If anyone requires operator assistance during the call, please press star zero. With us from Global Partners are President and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Eric Slifka, Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Gregory Hanson, Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Mark Romain, and Chief Legal Officer and Secretary, Mr. Sean Geary. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Mr. Geary for opening remarks. Please go ahead, sir.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Today's call will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws, including projections and expectations concerning the future financial and operational performance of global partners. No assurances can be given that these projections will be attained or that these expectations will be met. Our assumptions and future performance are subject to a wide range of business risks, uncertainties, and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially. As described in our filings, Global Partners undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements.
Now it's my pleasure to turn the call over to our President and Chief Executive Officer, Eric Slifka thank you Sean good morning everyone we had a strong first quarter across the company generating healthy year-over-year growth across our key profitability metrics product margin in our wholesale segment was up from the prior year reflecting strong execution by our teams a favorable market environment and the successful integration of additional terminal assets. Since the end of 2023, we've continued to invest in and optimize our terminal assets, expanding our midstream footprint to more efficiently serve our throughput and wholesale customers. These enhancements strengthen our ability to link refined liquid energy products with downstream markets, supporting the evolving needs of suppliers and customers in today's dynamic energy landscape. Our gasoline distribution business benefited from healthy fuel margins, supporting strong overall performance. Ongoing portfolio optimization resulted in a decrease in company operated sites, reducing our station operations product margin year on year in the quarter. By maintaining financial discipline and carefully directing our capital, we are able to invest in accretive organic growth and selective acquisition opportunities while continuing to consistently return cash to unit holders. In April, our board increased our quarterly cash distribution on common units to 74 and a half cents per unit equating to two dollars and ninety-eight cents on an annualized basis.
The distribution would will be paid May 15th to unit holders as of the close of business on may 9th with that now let me turn the call over to greg for the financial review greg thank you eric good morning everyone as i review the numbers please note that all comparisons leave with the first quarter of 2024 unless otherwise noted looking at our key profitability metrics net income for the first quarter was 18.7 million versus a net loss of 5.6 million last year. EBITDA for the first quarter increased to 91.9 million from 56.9 million, and adjusted EBITDA increased to 91.1 million from 56 million in the prior year period. Distributable cash flow was 45.7 million in the first quarter compared with 15.8 million in the prior year period, and adjusted DCF was 46.4 million compared with 16 million last year. The primary growth driver behind these results was the strong performance of our wholesale segment. it's important to provide some context for the year-over-year comparison as a reminder in q1 of 2024 certain products in our wholesale segment were negatively impacted by the timing of mark to market valuations which were then fully recovered in what was a very strong second quarter last year in contrast the timing and magnitude of mark to market impacts were minimal in q1 this year meaning our reported results more closely align with the strong performance of our core operations. TTM distribution coverage of the March 31st, 2025 was 2.03 times or 1.96 times after factoring in distributions to our preferred unit holders. Turning to our segment details, GDSO product margin increased 0.2 million to 187.9 million in the quarter. Product margin from gasoline distribution increased 4.2 million to 125.8 million, primarily reflecting higher fuel margins year over year on a cents per gallon basis fuel margins increased 2 cents to 35 cents in q125 from 33 cents in q124 station operations product margin which includes convenience store and prepared food sales sundries and rental income decreased 4 million to 62.1 million in the first quarter of 2025. the decrease was due in part to the sales and conversions of certain company operated sites, consistent with our ongoing strategy of portfolio optimization. At quarter end, we had a portfolio of 1,561 sites, a decrease of 40 sites year over year. In addition, we operated or supplied 66 sites under our Spring Partners retail joint venture. Looking at the wholesale segment, first quarter 2025 product margin increased 44.2 million to 93.6 million. Product margin from gasoline and gasoline blend stocks increased 27.4 million to $57.1 million, primarily due to more favorable market conditions in gasoline. Product margin also benefited from the 2024 acquisitions of terminals from Gulf Oil and Exxon Mobil, which were acquired in the second and fourth quarters of 2024. Product margin from distillates and other oils increased $16.8 million to $36.5 million, primarily due to more favorable market conditions in distillates and winter weather that was on average 9% colder than the prior year period commercial segment product margin increased 0.1 million to 7.1 million looking at expenses operating expenses increased 6.6 million to 126.7 million in the first quarter 25 primarily related to our terminal operations and the addition of the gulf and exxon mobile terminals in 2024. sgna expense increased 3.9 million in q1 25 to 73.7 million reflecting in part increases in long-term incentive comp, wages and benefits, and various other SG&A expenses, and a decrease in acquisition costs. Interest expense was $36 million in the first quarter of 2025, up $6.3 million from last year, primarily due to higher average balances on our credit facilities related to our terminal acquisitions in 2024. CapEx in the first quarter was $17.9 million, consisting of $9.6 million of maintenance CapEx and $8.3 million of expansion CapEx, primarily related to investments in our gasoline stations and terminals our balance sheet remains strong at March 31st with leverage as defined in our credit agreement as funded debt to EBITDA at 3.28 times an ample excess capacity in our credit facilities we had 354.7 million outstanding on the working capital revolving facility and 167 million outstanding on the revolving credit facility before I turn the call back to Eric for closing comments let me review our upcoming investor relations calendar this month we'll be participating in EIC's 22nd annual Energy Infrastructure Investor Conference, and in June, we'll be participating at the Stiefel Cross-Sector Insight Conference and the B of A Energy Credit Conference. If you're attending one or more of these events, we look forward to meeting you there. Now let me turn the call back to Eric for closing comments.
Thank you, Greg. As we look ahead, the power of our scale, the resiliency of our integrated model, and the creativity of our people position us into just not weather disruption, but to find opportunity within it. We are confident in our strategy, focused on disciplined execution, and committed to delivering long-term growth for our unit holders. Now, Greg, Mark, and I would be happy to take your questions. Operator, please open the line for Q&A.
Operator
Thank you. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Our first question comes from the line of Selman Ocule with Stiefel. Please proceed with your question.
Thank you. Good morning. Congratulations on a very nice quarter just wanted to start off with and I understand the GDSO you know the high grading of it and sort of repositioning the capital I guess into the terminals can you just maybe talk about and I know it's a continuous thing that goes on but can you just talk about the opportunity you're seeing for continuing that as well as potential acquisitions or what you're just seeing out there on the terminal side as well yeah I mean I think some you know basically we're always reviewing our retail business and we're looking at our
assets and we're looking at the most efficient or best way to operate or supply those assets it's not a static environment and we continue to look at them but as we acquire assets and operate them you know we may take decisions later on that that optimize the value that we can generate from those assets I wouldn't look at it as repositioning capital per se to terminals the way I really think of it is we're trying to be opportunistic and do what is best at that moment in time so if there are look M&A is busy it's busy at every level where that's terminal or whether that's retail. And it's really about finding the right deal that fits the company that we think competitively advantages us and allows us to make a somewhat higher return. And so those are the places we're going to continue to focus on and try to be competitive.
Got it. Thank you for that. And then me, Could you just talk a little bit about the market conditions that allowed wholesale to do so well and then currently what you're seeing in the marketplace?
Yeah, I can start. Mark and Phil on anything. I miss some minutes, Greg. A couple of things. One, it was it was a nice cold winter up here in the northeast, which definitely helped our wholesale distillate business. You know, we've had two back to back warm winters. It was nine percent colder. And then it was really the integration of our terminaling assets, the Exxon Mobile terminal in East Providence and the Gulf terminals that really added to our additional capacity on the wholesale side and allowed us to take advantage of market opportunities that were out there. So, you know, I think it was a nice normalized quarter for us. You know, I mentioned in my speaking points that, you know, last year was there was definitely some mark to market that impacted us in the first quarter of last year. So it's a tougher comparison. We didn't do as bad as it looks like last quarter. We just, in the first quarter of 24, we just got that back in 25. But I think, really, it was a nice quarter that was optimized around the integrated assets we've had on the Tourmalink side. And I don't know, Mark, if you have anything to add there.
Let me just ask, in terms of just sort of timing and tariffs and all that, was there anything, any dislocation up there in the Northeast markets where you were able to take advantage of?
Yes, Selman, it's Mark. The tariff, you know, there was a very brief period of time. it was probably two days when the tariffs applied to Canadian oil and oil from Mexico, Canadian oil specifically more relevant to us, but very brief, created some volatility, which often benefits us, but it was very short-lived and right now there's really no impact from a supply or a market condition standpoint. The only thing we're thinking about relative to how tariffs may impact us is perhaps as it starts to affect the consumer, it may have some impact on our store sales, but that's yet to be determined. I think if it's going to impact us, it'll impact us there. From a supply and a margin and optimizing the business, not a real impact. Got it. Appreciate the color.
Operator
Thank you. Mr. Slifka, there are no further questions in the queue. I'll turn the floor back to you for any final comments.
Thank you for joining us this morning. We look forward to keeping you updated on our progress. Enjoy the rest of your spring, everyone.
Operator
Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. While you may disconnect your lines at this time, thank you for your participation.
