Clean Harbors Announces Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year 2021 Financial Results

NORWELL, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Clean Harbors, Inc. (NYSE: CLH), the leading provider of environmental and industrial services throughout North America, today announced financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2021.

“The fourth quarter marked a strong close to the year for Clean Harbors and demonstrated the ongoing success of our comprehensive growth strategy,” said Alan S. McKim, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. “Favorable market dynamics for both our operating segments drove our performance – including high demand for hazardous waste disposal, industrial services and re-refined products. This positive market environment, combined with strong execution by our entire team, enabled us to exceed our guidance for both Adjusted EBITDA and adjusted free cash flow. With contributions from HydroChemPSC (“HPC”), which we acquired in October, we delivered more than $1 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time in our Company’s history.”

Fourth-Quarter Results

Revenues increased 41% to $1.12 billion from $796.2 million in the same period of 2020. Income from operations grew 33% to $82.2 million from $61.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Net income was $49.0 million, or $0.90 per diluted share. This compares with net income of $39.3 million, or $0.71 per diluted share, for the same period in 2020. Adjusted for certain items in both periods, adjusted net income was $48.6 million, or $0.89 per diluted share, for the fourth quarter of 2021, compared with adjusted net income of $35.0 million, or $0.63 per diluted share, for the same period of 2020. (See reconciliation tables below). Net income and adjusted net income results for the fourth quarter of 2021 included pre-tax integration and severance costs of $8.6 million. Comparable costs in the fourth quarter of 2020 were $1.9 million.

Adjusted EBITDA (see description below) increased 23% to $174.3 million from $141.8 million in the same period of 2020. Benefits from Canadian government assistance programs accounted for $0.3 million of contributions in the fourth quarter of 2021, compared with $5.6 million in benefits from both Canadian and U.S. government programs in the same period of 2020.

Q4 2021 Review

“Revenues in our Environmental Services segment increased 36%, reflecting the HPC acquisition, robust demand for our disposal and recycling services, and healthy growth in our Industrial Services and Field Services businesses,” McKim said. “Our incineration network utilization was 92% in the quarter, compared with 84% in the prior year, reflecting some project opportunities, as well as a focused effort to drive additional volumes and make progress on our considerable backlog. We saw a pickup in small remediation projects that drove our landfill volumes up 15%. Safety-Kleen Environmental continued its steady rebound, growing 6% through wins across its core service offerings. For the third consecutive quarter, our legacy Industrial Services business, which excludes HPC, grew substantially, rising 26% due to market demand as customers work to address deferred maintenance that resulted from the pandemic.

“Revenues in our Safety-Kleen Sustainability Solutions (SKSS) segment grew more than 60% from a year ago and Adjusted EBITDA nearly tripled,” McKim said. “As we saw throughout 2021, demand for both our base oil and blended products in the quarter drove strong pricing. We complemented that product pricing with highly effective management of our collection costs throughout our network. Waste oil gallons collected were up 14% in the quarter to 56 million gallons.”

2021 Financial Results

Clean Harbors’ revenues were $3.81 billion compared with $3.14 billion in 2020. Income from operations increased 38% to $347.9 million from $251.3 million in 2020.

Net income was $203.2 million, or $3.71 per diluted share, compared with net income of $134.8 million, or $2.42 per diluted share for 2020. Adjusted for certain items in both periods, the Company reported adjusted net income for 2021 of $199.6 million, or $3.64 per diluted share, compared with adjusted net income of $129.4 million, or $2.32 per diluted share, for 2020. (See reconciliation table below). Net income and adjusted net income results for 2021 included pre-tax integration and severance costs of $19.7 million, with the HPC acquisition representing the largest factor. Comparable costs in 2020 were $12.5 million driven by pandemic-related workforce reductions.

Adjusted EBITDA (see description below) increased 18% to $676.6 million, which included $12.0 million of benefits from government assistance programs, compared with Adjusted EBITDA of $573.8 million in 2020, which included $42.3 million of benefits from government assistance programs. The Company also generated record adjusted free cash flow of $326.3 million in 2021, a 23% increase from the prior year.

“Our results reflect the continuation of a multi-year growth trend in our revenues, Adjusted EBITDA and adjusted free cash flow generation,” McKim said. “Beyond our financial accomplishments, 2021 was a year of significant achievement for the Company, including the HPC acquisition, commencing the expansion of our incineration network in Nebraska and overcoming the deep freeze in the Southern U.S. that temporarily shut down six of our incinerators in early 2021. In addition, we addressed inflationary conditions not seen in decades with rigorous pricing initiatives and navigated the various phases of the pandemic, while generating $59 million of COVID decontamination revenue. Overall, it was another year of delivering exceptional performance for our stakeholders as we improved our ROIC for the fourth consecutive year.”

Business Outlook and Financial Guidance

“We see momentum continuing across all our key business lines, which will support our plans for profitable growth in 2022,” McKim said. “The new year began with a healthy backlog of waste streams in our disposal facilities and at customer sites, with underlying trends in regulations and U.S. manufacturing further supporting our positive view. We are seeing a robust pipeline of remediation and waste projects heading into the year; that is only likely to increase as the market contemplates its strategy to address PFAS and the government moves forward with its infrastructure spending plan.

“The outlook for our Industrial Services business is also promising, and we are excited about the prospects for HPC, which has given us a leadership position in the space,” McKim said. “HPC has a talented team with great assets including industry-leading automation technology. In the short time we’ve owned the company, the cultural fit has been excellent, and we see enormous potential to generate cross-selling and capture synergies.

“Within SKSS, we continue to see a favorable pricing environment for our sustainable lubricant products and base oil. Coupled with the effective systems we have in place to manage our waste oil collection costs and improve transportation efficiencies, we expect to maintain a healthy re-refining spread in that segment again in 2022,” McKim concluded. “Overall, we are confident that we have pricing and cost reduction strategies in place to offset inflation in full year 2022. Given the positive demand environment across North America, we expect Clean Harbors to deliver strong profitable growth and solid free cash flow this year.”

For the first quarter, Clean Harbors expects Adjusted EBITDA to increase 30%-35% from the prior year, largely due to the addition of HPC and higher profitability in the SKSS segment.

For full-year 2022, Clean Harbors expects:

• Adjusted EBITDA in the range of $765 million to $795 million. This range is based on anticipated GAAP net income in the range of $204 million to $237 million; and
• Adjusted free cash flow in the range of $250 million to $290 million, based on anticipated net cash from operating activities in the range of $560 million to $620 million.

Non-GAAP Results

Clean Harbors reports Adjusted EBITDA, which is a non-GAAP financial measure and should not be considered an alternative to net income or other measurements under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), but viewed only as a supplement to those measurements. Adjusted EBITDA is not calculated identically by all companies, and therefore the Company’s measurement of Adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies. Clean Harbors believes that Adjusted EBITDA provides additional useful information to investors since the Company’s loan covenants are based upon levels of Adjusted EBITDA achieved and management routinely evaluates the performance of its businesses based upon levels of Adjusted EBITDA. The Company defines Adjusted EBITDA in accordance with its existing revolving credit agreement, as described in the following reconciliation showing the differences between reported net income and Adjusted EBITDA for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 (in thousands, except percentages):

This press release includes a discussion of net income and earnings per share adjusted for the loss on sale of businesses and the impacts of tax-related valuation allowances and other items as identified in the reconciliations provided below. The Company believes that discussion of these additional non-GAAP measures provides investors with meaningful comparisons of current results to prior periods’ results by excluding items that the Company does not believe reflect its fundamental business performance. The following shows the difference between net income and adjusted net income, and the difference between earnings per share and adjusted earnings per share, for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 (in thousands, except per share amounts):

* For the twelve months ended December 31, 2020, other amounts include a $1.6 million benefit, or $0.03 per share, related to tax benefits from impacts of amendments to prior period tax filings.

Adjusted Free Cash Flow Reconciliation

Clean Harbors reports adjusted free cash flow, which it considers to be a measurement of liquidity that provides useful information to investors about its ability to generate cash. The Company defines adjusted free cash flow as net cash from operating activities excluding cash impacts of items derived from non-operating activities, less additions to property, plant and equipment plus proceeds from sale and disposal of fixed assets. The Company excludes cash impacts of items derived from non-operating activities such as taxes paid in connection with divestitures and in 2020 also excluded cash paid in connection with the purchase of its corporate headquarters and certain capital improvements to the site as these expenditures are considered one-time in nature. Adjusted free cash flow should not be considered an alternative to net cash from operating activities or other measurements under GAAP. Adjusted free cash flow is not calculated identically by all companies, and therefore the Company’s measurement of adjusted free cash flow may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies.

An itemized reconciliation between net cash from operating activities and adjusted free cash flow is as follows for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 (in thousands):

Adjusted EBITDA Guidance Reconciliation

An itemized reconciliation between projected GAAP net income and projected Adjusted EBITDA is as follows (in millions):

Adjusted Free Cash Flow Guidance Reconciliation

An itemized reconciliation between projected net cash from operating activities and projected adjusted free cash flow is as follows (in millions):

About Clean Harbors

Clean Harbors (NYSE: CLH) is North America’s leading provider of environmental and industrial services. The Company serves a diverse customer base, including a majority of Fortune 500 companies. Its customer base spans a number of industries, including chemical, energy and manufacturing, as well as numerous government agencies. These customers rely on Clean Harbors to deliver a broad range of services such as end-to-end hazardous waste management, emergency spill response, industrial cleaning and maintenance, and recycling services. Through its Safety-Kleen subsidiary, Clean Harbors also is North America’s largest re-refiner and recycler of used oil and a leading provider of parts washers and environmental services to commercial, industrial and automotive customers. Founded in 1980 and based in Massachusetts, Clean Harbors operates in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and India. For more information, visit www.cleanharbors.com.