Q4 2025 Earnings Call — February 26, 2026
Management: Tric growth we anticipate for both virgin and regenerated sulfuric acid, and we expect favorable contractual pricing for regenerated sulfuric acid and stable pricing for virgin sulfuric acid. In 2025, U.S. refineries underwent extensive maintenance, including our customers. This year, we expect our refining customers to run at high utilization, benefiting from favorable outlet economics. With less planned customer downtime than in 2025, we anticipate higher sales for our regeneration services in 2026. We are also anticipating higher sales of virgin sulfuric acid in 2026, with demand growing in mining, which accounts for 20 to 25 percent of our sulfuric acid sales, and with the incremental contribution of the Wagamon sulfuric acid assets we acquired last year. However, we remain cautious about the near-term outlook for the nylon applications and some of the industrial applications we serve. Our sales into the nylon end use account for approximately 20 to 25 percent of our virgin sulfuric acid sales. For 2026, we currently expect sales into the nylon end use to be relatively flat compared to 2025.
And while the balance of our industrial exposures are diversified, further weakening of macro factors could translate into softer demand in some areas. The integration of the Wagamon sulfuric acid production assets acquired in May of last year has enhanced our supply network, allowing us to meet anticipated growth in demand for this year. Looking ahead, we anticipate that mining demand for sulfuric acid, especially for copper, will continue to increase to support energy infrastructure and data center development. Furthermore, as many traditional high-grade ores are depleted, solvent extraction electrowinning processing of copper, which utilizes sulfuric acid for mineral extraction, is expected to become more prevalent. ECOVIST is well positioned to support expanding mining applications. Accordingly, we are investing approximately $20 million in growth capital in the Gulf Coast region for projects aimed at increasing storage capacity and improving rail logistics, thereby strengthening our ability to serve the evolving needs of the mining industry.
Lastly, the long-term outlook for our Chem32 Ex-Situ Catalyst activation business remains positive, with future growth supported by the recently completed expansion at our Orange, Texas site.
Executive Name (Title): I'll now turn the call over to Mike, who will review our financial results.
Executive Name (Title): Thank you, Kurt, and good morning. We closed out the year with a solid financial performance in the fourth quarter, delivering full-year adjusted EBITDA of $172 million, ahead of our previously provided guidance.
As a reminder, with the divestiture of the advanced materials and catalyst segment at the end of the year, the results for the business are reported in discontinued operations for all periods.
My comments this morning pertain to the reported results from continuing operations. Our strong fourth quarter results were driven by continued sales growth in both volume and pricing, resulting in adjusted EBITDA of $51 million, 8% ahead of the prior year. We generated $78 million of free cash flow, of which we used $20 million in the fourth quarter for share repurchases. And with the proceeds from the sale of the AM&C business, we paid down $465 million of our term loan, resulting in a 1.2 times net leverage ratio, leaving $265 million of available liquidity. Diving a bit deeper into the numbers, fourth quarter sales were $199 million, up $51 million, or 34%. Excluding the $28 million impact of higher sulfur cost, pass-through, and price, sales were up 15%. In the fourth quarter, regeneration services sales volume continued to be adversely affected by unplanned and extended customer downtime. However, this was more than offset by higher sales of virgin sulfuric acid, including the contribution from the acquired Wageman assets, and favorable contractual pricing for regeneration services.
The 8% increase in adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter reflects the favorable volume and price impact at the sales level, partially offset by higher planned fixed manufacturing costs, including incremental costs of the acquired Wageman assets. While the adjusted EBITDA margin decreased 630 basis points compared to the fourth quarter of 2024, this reduction primarily reflects a significant increase in sulfur costs, which we passed through with no material impact on adjusted EBITDA. The pass-through effect accounts for approximately 500 basis points of the period-over-period decrease in margin. Turning to the adjusted EBITDA bridge, I will highlight the major components of the change in adjusted EBITDA for the quarter. As previously noted, sulfur costs in the fourth quarter were approximately $28 million compared to the year-ago quarter, with the pass-through having no material impact on adjusted EBITDA. Our price-cost impact was a positive $8 million for the fourth quarter, primarily driven by favorable contractual pricing in our regeneration services business.
And while we had lower regeneration services volume in the quarter due to unplanned and extended customer downtime, higher volume from our virgin sulfuric acid asset sales, including the contribution from our Wagamon acquisition, drove the nearly $6 million volume benefit in adjusted EBITDA. Other costs increased approximately $11 million, with the majority of which reflect incremental fixed costs associated with the acquired Wagamon assets, along with higher planned manufacturing costs associated with general inflation.
Executive Name (Title): As we move to cash and debt on the next slide, for the year, we generated adjusted free cash flow of $78 million, which included both continuing and discontinued operations. We utilized our cash generation to execute on our capital allocation strategy, including the $41 million acquisition of our Wagamon sulfuric asset assets and share repurchases aggregating $47 million for the full year. We currently have approximately $183 million remaining under our share repurchase authorization. As part of the divestiture of the advanced materials and catalyst segment, we used $465 million of the net proceeds to pay down our term loan, resulting in outstanding debt of $397 million and net debt of approximately $200 million, leading to a net debt leverage ratio of 1.2 times and $265 million of available liquidity. With our significantly reduced leverage, our ample liquidity, and in light of our historic cash generation capability, we believe that we have significant flexibility as we look to fund our growth initiatives, both organic and inorganic, and continue to return capital to shareholders through an active share repurchase program.
Executive Name (Title): Turning to our 2026 outlook, as Curt noted, our expectations for 2026 include higher sales volume for both virgin sulfuric acid, driven by higher projected mining demand, and higher volume for regeneration sulfuric acid, as we expect less customer downtime compared to 2025. However, we remain cautious about the near-term outlook for global macroeconomic activity and the potential for weakness in some industrial applications for virgin sulfuric acid and sales of oleum grades used in the production of nylon precursors. We also anticipate continued favorable contractual pricing in regeneration services. Sulfur costs are expected to be up significantly this year, with an estimated pass-through impact on sales of approximately $125 million compared to 2025. With the higher expected volume, price, and the pass-through of higher sulfur costs, we currently anticipate full-year sales to be in the range of $860 to $940 million. As we have previously discussed, we expect higher turnaround activity at our manufacturing plants in 2026, in part due to the addition of the Wagaman assets.
Given the scope and number of turnarounds planned for the year, we expect turnaround costs to be higher by approximately $8 million in 2026. With the favorable volume and price impact at the sales level, partially offset by higher manufacturing and transportation costs, including additional turnaround costs, we expect full-year adjusted EBITDA to fall in the range of $175 to $195 million. With our capital allocation strategy to continue to grow our business, we are opportunistically investing growth capital in 2026, including the funding of a number of projects to de-bottleneck assets and accelerate organic growth. These include the ongoing expansion of tank storage and adding additional rail capacity in the Gulf Coast. As a result of these growth projects, we expect higher capital expenditures this year will be approximately $20 million higher, resulting in a range of $80 to $90 million.
As a result of the higher growth capital spending, as well as an expected $10 million increase in working capital, driven by the impact of higher sulfur costs on inventory and accounts payable and the associated pass-through impact on sales and accounts receivable, we expect adjusted free cash flow to be in the range of $35 to $55 million. In addition, with a significant reduction in our term loan, we expect interest expense to be approximately $18 to $22 million in 2026. With our current cash balance, and expected free cash flow generation, we plan to continue to execute on our capital allocation strategy, driving value for shareholders through growth opportunities and further share repurchases in 2026.
Executive Name (Title): As we move to the next slide, I'll provide some directional guidance by quarter for next year. As you will recall, our results for the first quarter of 2025 reflected significant planned customer downtime as well as higher level of planned turnaround activity at our sites. While we have an active turnaround schedule in the first quarter, increasing our expected turnaround cost, with three of our seven planned turnarounds, we do not expect the same negative impact on sales volume for the customer downtime. For the first quarter, we expect continued favorable contractual pricing, and we expect increased volume for virgin sulfuric acid. As a result, we expect first quarter adjusted EBITDA to be up $8 to $13 million compared to the first quarter of 2025. And, as has been our usual practice, our presentation slides include some commentary around our quarterly directional guidance for the balance of the year. We expect the second and third quarters to be peak quarters for adjusted EBITDA consistent with historical experience driven by high alkylate demand and regeneration activity during the summer driving season. We have also provided our current expectations for turnaround cadence by quarter for the year. As we have previously noted, the cost for individual turnarounds can vary by site and scope, and the timing is subject to change.
Executive Name (Title): I'll now turn the call back to Kirk for some closing remarks.
Management: Thank you, Mike. We are extremely pleased with our progress in 2025, and I want to thank my Ecoviz colleagues for their efforts in supporting our customers, delivering on our commercial objectives, and for their contributions as we continue to implement our strategic plan. In a challenging demand environment, our business demonstrated resilience in 2025. Sales of virgin sulfuric acid increased in part driven by the acquisition of our Wagamon sulfuric acid assets. And as the integration of the Wagamon site continues, we are benefiting from the positive network effect Wagamon's assets have on the reach and capability of our supply chain. Although our regeneration services business was adversely affected by a significant number of unplanned and extended customer outages in 2025, the favorable business fundamentals of our regeneration services business remain unchanged in terms of demand driven by high refinery utilization, the critical role we continue to play in our customers' production of alkylate, and the value represented by alkylate economics.
In 2026, we are expecting growth for both our virgin sulfuric acid sales and for our regeneration services business, with stable pricing expected for virgin sulfuric acid and continued positive contractual pricing for regeneration services. Moreover, as we look beyond 2026, we believe the demand outlook remains positive for all of our businesses. The divestiture of the advanced materials and catalyst business at year-end represents a transformative event in our ongoing portfolio optimization. As we move forward, driving growth for the eco-services platform, we will do so with a more stable and predictable business profile, a significantly strengthened balance sheet, and with a cash generation capability and liquidity position that we anticipate will provide for significant capital allocation flexibility. This year, we are increasing our capital budget to support targeted organic growth projects that we believe will enhance our capabilities in servicing customers. Key initiatives include expanding Gulf Coast storage and optimizing logistics, which will strengthen our service offering for mining clients. These projects are scheduled for completion in the first half of 2027.
We plan to take a disciplined approach towards inorganic growth, prioritizing accretive acquisitions that extend our reach to customers and end segments. Concurrently, we remain committed to returning capital to stockholders through an active share repurchase program. In 2025, we repurchased approximately $50 million in common stock. During the first quarter of 2026, we plan to continue this strategy with an additional repurchases totaling between $25 million and $40 million. As the year progresses, we expect to execute our capital allocation strategy consistently. In summary, our focus this year will remain on driving profitable growth, positioning Ecovist for future opportunities, and optimizing value for the benefit of our stockholders.
Management:
At this time, I will ask the operator to open the line for questions.
Operator: Thank you, Mr. Bidding. Ladies and gentlemen,
at this time, if you do have a question, please press star 1 at this time.
To leave the queue at any time, you can press star 2. Once again, that is star 1 to ask a question.
Analyst Name (Firm): We'll go first today to John McNulty of BMO Capital Markets.
Analyst (Firm): Yeah, good morning. Thanks for taking my question, and congratulations on a solid year. Just wanted to dig into Wagamon, the Wagamon opportunities a little bit more. So you've had the asset for a bit of time, you've made some investments in it. I guess, can you help us to think about how much capacity that's freed up for you and as a result, how much growth you could necessarily get without having to put in much capacity or incremental capacity? Because it sounds like you're even further trying to unlock some flexibility with the storage increase and the rail increase. So I guess, can you help us to contextualize all this?
Management: Sure. Thanks for the question, John. So the Wagamon Sulfuric acid assets that we added last year, of course, added roughly around 10% of volume to the overall network. So it came along with its own customer book and sales, which we're obviously servicing. What we're really seeing, I think, the positive network effect is it's a force multiplier, really, with our Gulf Coast network, where all the sites now can back each other up and in terms of turnarounds and so forth, and enable themselves to take advantage of additional opportunities that they may have had to pass on if they were on their own. So it's filled the cracks in in terms of the supply network and allows us to take advantage of more opportunities. It also comes, and I think we talked about it last year, it's our only site that has a deepwater vessel dock. We actually did export a ship of sulfuric acid there. So it adds a lot of capability to our overall site. And as we move forward, the way we look at our Gulf Coast network and the investments that we're making is we're clearly one who we see the rising tide on the mining demand. So we're making additional investments that we talked about on our logistics and storage capabilities, which are going to be Houston-based, but the Wagamon assets and the production that that brings allows us to service more of the Gulf Coast assets with that plant and focus the Houston production more to the west. Does that make sense?
Analyst (Firm): Yeah, no, completely. No, that definitely helps. And then I guess... On the regen contract pricing lift that we should be thinking about in 2026, I guess, can you help us to quantify that a little bit? It sounds like you were getting some benefits in 2025. It sounds like that's a continual kind of repricing. But how should we think about the lift in 2026?
Management: Yeah, John, thanks for the question. This is Mike. Yeah, it's going to be a similar lift. I think as we've talked in the past, every year the contractual agreements that we have start to roll off. It's usually between 15% and 20% a year. It just depends on the size of the customers and how they shape up and, you know, with basic costs going up, you know, with the inflation and how the contracts are structured, you know, with indexing and other factors, it does provide a benefit. So it is a continued benefit similar to what we saw this year that we're going to extend into next year. And, again, it just depends on timing of when some of those customer contracts come up and when they're put in place.
Analyst (Firm): Got it. Thanks very much for the call.
Management: Certainly. Thank you.
Analyst Name (Firm): We'll go next now to Patrick Cunningham of Citi.
Analyst (Firm): Hi, good morning. Just regarding the weakness that you're citing in industrial applications, nylon, obviously we've seen some pretty promising indicators with US PMI inflecting, maybe nylons bottoming out, but are there any specific applications that you want to call out or factors that you would highlight which is giving you some caution here?
Management: Patrick, thank you for the question. I don't think there's anything specifically. As you know, sulfuric acid is the most widely used chemical in the world, and it's our basket of what we call industrial uses, spans a very wide spectrum of folks using it for anything from chloralkali and chloralkali production to nylon, to other petrochemicals. So there's a lot of different things and a lot of different drivers there. We just see some caution in some of those areas. I don't think it's over-caution or real worry. It's just we service such a wide and diverse basket of folks there that could be impacted by any of the global things going on between tariffs or some of the downturns in some of the chemical end markets. So it's just a general concern, sense of caution in that space. For us, our biggest one, as you referred to, nylon, as we've clearly pointed out, we expect to be roughly on par with where we were in 2025, so we don't really project any degradation there.
Analyst (Firm): Perfect. And then just as you think about CapEx or investment on a go-forward basis, it seems like there's a lot you may want to do or need to do to meet long-term mining demand. I guess, how do the economics of, you know, greenfield versus debottlenecking compare to current acquisition multiples for existing virgin facilities?
Management: Yeah, you know, that's a great question. I think the way we've treated over the past, I would say, 10 or 15 years, the demand for sulfuric acid from the mining sector has risen, and our supply into the mining segment has risen. We've met that through, you know, a campaign of de-bottlenecking our sites from both a production standpoint as well as a logistics standpoint. We're going to continue to do that. So, you know, as that rising tide happens with the mining, we're able to stay ahead of it by making the logistics process and storage investments that we just talked about in Houston. The Wagamon acquisition was a part of that as well. It adds additional capability and capacity into our Gulf Coast system, which enables us to further service that. And going forward, we're going to kind of continue that pattern, right, where we've got some additional de-bottlenecking that we can do. We can leverage more of Wagamon's production to stay ahead of the demand there.
Analyst (Firm): Thank you so much.
Management: Thank you.
Analyst Name (Firm): We'll next now to Alexey Yefermov of KeyBank Capital Markets.
Analyst (Firm): Thanks. Good morning, everyone. I just wanted to follow up on the same subject, the expansion that you're undertaking in 26th. Is it tied to any specific ramp at your customers in mining or elsewhere that you anticipate? In other words, do you have contracts or some sort of indication from your customers that they'll need additional volumes this year or next that you're trying to address? Or is this just a more general view that you're trying to get ahead of the growth that you anticipate, but maybe not as specific of a customer?
Management: Thanks for the question, Oleski. I mean, we've been actually, believe it or not, the eco-services legacy business has been serving the mining sector since 1894, so we've got really long-term relationships with some of the major mines out there. So, we see their forward demand, and based on what we've been doing and how we've grown with them, again, over the last 10 or 15 years, and seen that rising demand coming for sulfuric acid, specifically as it relates to copper. So we're confident that the demand will be there, and we feel it's appropriate for us to add this additional capacity and capacity logistics to meet that growing demand long-term. We have, you know, obviously long-term relationships with those customers, have been servicing a lot of these mines. You know, it's a mixed bag of additional demand from existing mines to there's actually some new projects that have come online, right, that are it's all, you know, it's a mixed bag of what's driving that additional demand coming from our plants in the Gulf Coast.
Analyst (Firm): Thank you. And as a follow-up, how would you characterize the current state of the merchant asset market, either right now or if you have a view on 26? Is the market sort of long, tight, or about balanced from supply to demand perspective?
Management: Yeah, that's a good question. I would say it's, you know, in a balanced, you know, a balanced position. I think we talked about in our call, we see pricing as being stable. So there are certain segments of the market, as we talked about, things related to industrials, which is all over the board in terms of the different end-use applications. Some of those are up. Some of those may be down. I'd say it's a push in general. Other sectors that use sulfuric, like mining, are obviously rising. So, but, you know, on the whole, our view, I would say, at this point, and as we look at certainly as we said on the call, as we see pricing, it's being stable. So I would say it's leaning towards a balanced market. However, you know, the long-term trend certainly, as you look at things like mining, we projected, you know, growing demand there.
Analyst (Firm): Thanks a lot.
Management: Thank you.
Analyst Name (Firm): We'll go next now to David Begleiter with Deutsche Bank.
Analyst (Firm): Thank you. Good morning. Kurt, on your full year guidance, the low end looks maybe a little conservative. What would you need to see to get to the low end of the range? And conversely, what type of drivers would you need, would you expect to see to get to the high end or above that range for the year?
Management: Thank you for the question. I think, you know, starting at the high end of the range, you know, I would say if there's a lift in things like virgin acid pricing, just referring to the previous question, that comes about because of demand growing and it pushing upward pressure on pricing, certainly in the virgin sulfuric acid market. Our outlook on regeneration, as we talked about, there's less customer outages this year. We expect a pretty healthy year in terms of regeneration. So I don't think there's really... There will be tremendous movement on that because that's expected to run at pretty high utilization. So I would say upper end is going to be the virgin acid and if there's some positivity in things like pricing or spot volumes that become available. And then on the low end, which again we don't expect, that largely would be driven by things like unplanned customer outages similar to what we had last year or potentially a macroeconomic event that causes a deterioration in either pricing or volumes on virgin sulfuric acid.
Analyst (Firm): Very clear.
Management: And Kurt, now with the balance sheet restored to strength, how do you see Ecovist in three to five years? Where do you want to be? Where do you want to go? And from an inorganic standpoint, in terms of M&A, what could be additive to the portfolio that you're looking at today or maybe down the road?
Management: Thank you. Yeah, thanks for the question. So, you know, the board and the management team are obviously carefully looking at our capital allocation priorities as we focus on maximizing a value for our shareholders over the long run. So, you know, number one, that's going to entail us investing in organic growth as we see the opportunities in front of us. We talked about mining and other spaces. Our long-term view on sulfuric acid and the sulfur molecule is that the demand for it will grow, and so we want to make investments there and continue to be a leading supplier in that space. Number two, you know, we're looking for accretive bolt-on acquisitions, right, that make sense that are either adjacent to us from a chemistry standpoint or a service standpoint so we can further service our existing customers or the existing industries that we service in a better way. So growth through, you know, sensible and accretive acquisitions to become bigger. And then finally, you know, as we've talked about with our flexible capital allocation strategy is, you know, we still, you know, we see value in share repurchases as well as a tool. So we'll continue to lean into that. So we're really going to be, it's a flexible strategy that allows us to, you know, push in all three of those directions, which we think can, you know, help us drive better value for shareholders over the long run.
Analyst (Firm): Thank you.
Management: Thank you.
Analyst Name (Firm): We go next now to Ahmed Korsand at BWS Financial.
Analyst (Firm): Hi. Sorry if I missed this, but are you done with the investments you need to make at Wagamon?
Management: Thank you for the question. Good talking, Ahmed. No, so we're – We've owned the site now for really about nine months, so the integration is going well. We talked about it's had certainly a positive network effect on our ability to supply our customers in the Gulf Coast, but there are still some additional investments that we want to make from an operating standpoint and an integration standpoint. The site is going to have a maintenance outage this quarter where there will be some investments made, and we expect that there will be further investments necessary in the near future as we further integrate it and try to raise the operating rate on the location.
Analyst (Firm): Okay. And then let's say if this nylon or industrial end markets are as weak as you're expecting, are you able to deliver the sulfuric acid to mining that might be a little bit higher in demand, or are your contracts pretty much fixed on volume?
Management: The answer is we have some flexibility to move around. We generally get pretty good and accurate forecasts from our customers, from not only mining and, you know, some of the other sectors in terms of industrial. You know, as we've talked about before, and I know, you know, people have followed the company, most of our virgin sulfuric acid businesses, you know, 100% supply contracts. So we have very close relationships with our customers. They provide us great forecasts into what they're going to do. So that helps us plan as we look at our year and say where we're going to place our volume. But if there is a downturn or something that goes on that's unexpected, yes, we do have the ability to place some additional product into different, you know, end-use segments and move things around, you know, whether it's into mining or other industrial segments that may be in the Gulf Coast, we do have the ability to move that, you know, probably not all of it, but, you know, some portion thereof.
Analyst (Firm): Okay. Thank you.
Management: Thank you.
Analyst Name (Firm): We'll go next now to Lawrence Alexander of Jefferies.
Analyst (Firm): Good morning. Can you give a sense now that the higher level view on your M&A opportunity sets, when you look at the landscape in terms of other assets producing sulfuric acid, is there any titration in terms of the quality of the assets? Can you separate out the market in terms of the addressable versus the assets that you would just, you know, like is it 30%, 40% of the market that you would just have no interest in, or is it basically potentially all of interest?
Management: Yeah, thank you. Thank you for the question. I think we have interest. You know, we're pretty broad in terms of assets. Our sulfuric acid and the end uses we service, we service a pretty broad swath of the market. So we're not just a regeneration sulfuric acid producer or just a virgin sulfuric acid producer like some of the others are out there. So we would generally be interested in all those types of assets because we'd have use for both since we're a leader in both spaces. But I would also say that extends to other sulfur chemistries as well, where we do have some exposure in terms of making sulfur derivatives for water treatment or various things where the sulfur molecules are important, as well as services. Obviously, the regeneration services, our hazardous waste services business, our Chem 32 businesses are all very high-value service businesses that expanding further into those spaces would also be of interest.
Management: Thank you.
Operator: And ladies and gentlemen, just a quick reminder, any further questions today, please press star 1
at this time, and we will pause for just one moment to allow everyone a chance to join the queue.
Operator: And gentlemen, it appears we have no further questions in queue
at this time.
So this does conclude the EcoVist fourth quarter 2025 earnings call and webcast. Thank you for your time and participation. You may disconnect at any time.