웨스트레이크 케미칼 파트너스(WLKP) 2026년 3분기 실적 발표회: 현금흐름 및 커버리지 개선

핵심 요약

• 웨스트레이크 케미컬 파트너스는 주로 생산량 및 판매량 증가에 힘입어 2026년 3분기 순이익이 2026년 2분기 및 2025년 3분기 실적을 모두 상회한 1,600만 달러(유닛당 0.46달러)를 기록했다고 발표했다.
• 분배 가능 현금흐름(DCF)은 물량 증가와 유지보수 자본지출 감소에 힘입어 전년 동기 대비 300만 달러 증가한 1,800만 달러(유닛당 0.51달러)를 기록했다.
• 2025년 상반기 페트로 1(Petro 1) 설비 정기보수(turnaround)의 영향이 산출 대상에서 제외됨에 따라 최근 12개월 분배금 보상배율은 전분기 1.04배에서 1.09배로 개선되었다.
• 파트너십은 유닛당 0.4714달러의 분기 분배금을 선언했으며, 이는 2014년 7월 상장(IPO) 이후 삭감 없이 지급된 49회 연속 분기 분배금이다.
• 경영진은 2026년 잔여 기간 및 2027년 동안 계획된 정기보수는 없다고 밝혔다. 또한 파트너십은 연결 레버리지 비율을 약 1배 수준으로 유지했다.
• 경영진에 따르면 2026년 4분기 에틸렌 가격 상승은 제3자 대상 연간 매출 비중(약 5%)에 소폭 긍정적인 요인으로 작용할 수 있다.

핵심 재무 데이터

사업 및 영업 실적

생산량 및 판매량 증가가 파트너십 순이익의 전년 동기 대비 및 전분기 대비 개선을 견인했다. 분배 가능 현금흐름 또한 2025년 3분기 대비 유지보수 자본지출 감소의 혜택을 입었다.

경영진은 웨스트레이크와의 고정 마진 에틸렌 판매 계약이 시장 변동성 및 생산 리스크 노출을 제한한다고 강조했다. 2014년 7월 상장 이후 파트너십은 누적 분배금 보상배율을 1배 이상으로 유지해 왔으며, 분기 분배금을 최초 최소 금액인 유닛당 0.275달러 대비 71% 인상했다.

연간 매출의 약 5%는 제3자를 대상으로 발생한다. 경영진은 실적 발표 컨퍼런스 콜 당시 2026년 4분기 에틸렌 가격이 2026년 3분기 평균을 상회하고 있어 파트너십에 소폭의 긍정적 효과를 줄 가능성이 있다고 밝혔다.

경영진 전망

경영진은 2026년 잔여 기간 및 2027년에 계획된 정기보수가 없다고 밝혔다.

파트너십은 OpCo 지분 확대, 기타 적격 수익원 인수, 기존 에틸렌 시설 확장, 웨스트레이크와의 에틸렌 판매 계약상 고정 마진 인상 협상 등 4가지 잠재적 성장 동력을 계속 평가하고 있다.

현 계약은 2027년까지 유지되며 관련 논의는 2027년에 진행될 것으로 예상된다. 경영진은 웨스트레이크가 에틸렌에 대해 지급하는 기존 0.10달러 마진이 현재 조건에서는 적절하다고 설명하는 한편, 향후 협상에서 파트너십이 더 높은 가격을 요구할 것이라고 밝혔다.

리스크 및 핵심 관전 포인트

경영진은 중동 지역의 지속적인 갈등으로 인해 2026년 제3자 에틸렌 가격 변동성이 컸다고 지적했다. 제3자 매출은 연간 매출의 약 5%를 차지하므로 가격 변동이 파트너십 실적에 미치는 영향은 제한적일 수 있다.

향후 고정 마진 협상의 상대방은 웨스트레이크다. 경영진은 양사 모두 영업적 안정성에 이해관계가 있지만, 조정되는 가격은 협상 결과에 따라 달라질 것이라고 덧붙였다.

애널리스트 Q&A 주요 내용

경영진은 유지보수 지출과 유형자산 증가액이 동일하지 않음을 명확히 했다. 유지보수 지출에는 자본화된 금액과 비용으로 직접 인식되는 항목이 모두 포함될 수 있다.

페트로 1 정기보수로 인해 2025년에 상대적으로 높은 현금 유출이 발생했다. 경영진은 정기보수 비용이 정기보수 적립금을 통해 사전 적립되지만, 해당 지출은 정기보수가 발생한 해의 현금흐름표에 표기된다고 밝혔다.

에틸렌 판매 계약과 관련해 경영진은 현재의 고정 마진이 10년 이상 안정성을 제공해 왔음을 재확인했다. 파트너십은 협상이 재개되면 더 높은 가격을 추진할 계획이지만, 웨스트레이크와 파트너십이 당사자 대 당사자로 협상할 것임을 인식하고 있다.

실적 발표 컨퍼런스 콜 전문

전체 실적 발표 컨퍼런스 콜 녹취록

경영진 발표

Operator

Good afternoon. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Westlake Chemical Partners Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today, November 4, 2026.

I would now like to turn the call over to today's host, Jeff Holy, Westlake Chemical Partners' Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.

Jeffrey Holy

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Westlake Chemical Partners Third Quarter 2026 Conference Call. I'm joined today by Albert Chao, our Executive Chairman; Jean-Marc Gilson, our President and CEO; Jon Baksht, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; and other members of our management team.

During this call, we will refer to ourselves as Westlake Partners or the Partnership. References to Westlake refer to our parent company, Westlake Corporation, and references to OpCo refer to Westlake Chemical OpCo LP, a subsidiary of both Westlake and the Partnership, which owns certain olefins assets. Additionally, when we refer to distributable cash flow, we are referring to Westlake Chemical Partners' MLP distributable cash flow. Definitions of these terms are available on the Partnership's website.

Today, management is going to discuss certain topics that will contain forward-looking information that is based on management's beliefs and assumptions made by and information currently available to management. These forward-looking statements suggest predictions or expectations and thus are subject to risks or uncertainties. We encourage you to learn more about the factors that could lead our actual results to differ by reviewing the cautionary statements in our regulatory filings, which are also available on our Investor Relations website.

This morning, Westlake Partners issued a press release with details of our third quarter 2026 financial and operating results. This document is available in the Press Release section of our web page at wlkpartners.com. A replay of today's call will be available beginning 2 hours after the conclusion of this call. The replay can be accessed via the Partnership's website.

Please note that information reported on this call speaks only as of today, November 4, 2026, and therefore, you are advised that time-sensitive information may no longer be accurate as of the time of any replay. I would finally advise you that this conference call is being broadcast live through an Internet webcast system that can be accessed on our web page at wlkpartners.com.

Now I would like to turn the call over to Jean-Marc Gilson. Jean-Marc?

Jean-Marc Gilson

Thank you, Jeff. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us to discuss our third quarter 2026 results. In this morning's press release, we reported Westlake Partners' third quarter 2026 net income of $16 million, or $0.46 per unit, which was above our net income in both the second quarter of 2026 and the third quarter of 2025.

The stability of Westlake Partners' business model is consistently demonstrated through our fixed-margin ethylene sales agreement, which minimizes market volatility and other production risk. The high degree of stability in cash flow, when paired with the predictability of our business, has enabled us to deliver the long history of reliable distributions and coverage. This quarter's distribution is the 49th consecutive quarterly distribution since our IPO in July of 2014 without any reductions.

And with that, I would like now to turn over our call to Jon to provide more detail on the financials and operating results for the quarter. Jon?

Jonathan H. Baksht

Thank you, Jean-Marc, and good afternoon, everyone. In this morning's press release, we reported Westlake Partners' third quarter 2026 net income of $16 million, or $0.46 per unit. Consolidated net income, including OpCo's earnings, was $91 million on consolidated net sales of $314 million. The Partnership had distributable cash flow for the quarter of $18 million, or $0.51 per unit.

Third quarter 2026 net income for Westlake Partners of $16 million was higher than the third quarter 2025 Partnership net income, primarily due to higher production and sales volume. Distributable cash flow of $18 million for the third quarter of 2026 increased by $3 million compared to the third quarter of 2025 due to the higher production and sales volume and lower maintenance capital expenditures. On a sequential basis, net income for Westlake Partners of $16 million in the third quarter of 2026 was higher than the second quarter on higher production and sales volume. Sequentially, our trailing 12-month coverage ratio improved to 1.09x from 1.04x, reflecting the aging out of the impact of the Petro 1 turnaround that occurred in the first half of 2025.

Turning our attention to the balance sheet and cash flows. At the end of the third quarter, we had a consolidated cash balance and cash investments with Westlake through our investment management agreement totaling $113 million. Long-term debt at the end of the quarter was $400 million, of which $377 million was at the Partnership and the remaining $23 million was at the OpCo. In the third quarter of 2026, OpCo spent $12 million on capital expenditures. We maintained our strong leverage metrics with a consolidated leverage ratio of approximately 1x.

On November 2, 2026, we announced a quarterly distribution of $0.4714 per unit with respect to the third quarter of 2026. Since our IPO in 2014, the Partnership has made 49 consecutive quarterly distributions to our unitholders, and we have grown distributions 71% since the Partnership's original minimum quarterly distribution of $0.275 per unit. The Partnership's third quarter distribution will be paid on December 1, 2026, to unitholders on record on November 13, 2026.

The Partnership's predictable fee-based cash flow continues to prove beneficial in today's economic environment and is differentiated by the consistency of our earnings and cash flows. Looking back, since our IPO in July of 2014, we have maintained a cumulative distribution coverage ratio in excess of 1x. And with the Partnership's stability and cash flows, we are able to sustain our current distribution without the need to access the capital markets. For modeling purposes, we have no planned turnarounds for the remainder of 2026 or in 2027.

Now I'd like to turn the call back over to Jean-Marc to make some closing comments. Jean-Marc?

Jean-Marc Gilson

Thank you, Jon. Turning to our outlook. Third-party ethylene prices have been volatile in 2026 due largely to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Thus far, in the fourth quarter of 2026, ethylene prices have been rising and are currently higher than the average price in the third quarter of 2026, which could provide a modest benefit to the Partnership on the roughly 5% of annual sales made to third parties.

Turning to our capital structure. We maintain a strong balance sheet with conservative financial and leverage metrics. As we continue to navigate market conditions, we will evaluate opportunities via our 4 levers of growth in the future, including: increases of our ownership interest of OpCo; acquisitions of other qualified income streams; organic growth opportunities such as expansions of our current ethylene facilities; and negotiation of a higher fixed margin in our ethylene sales agreement with Westlake.

We remain focused on our ability to continue to provide long-term value and distributions to our unitholders. As always, we will continue to focus on safe operations, along with being good stewards of the environment where we work and live as part of our broader sustainability efforts.

Thank you very much for listening to our third quarter earnings call. Now I will turn the call back over to Jeff.

Jeffrey Holy

Thank you, Jean-Marc. Before we begin taking questions, I'd like to remind listeners that a replay of this teleconference will be available 2 hours after the call has ended. We will provide instructions to access the replay at the end of the call.

Grace, we will now take questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of James Altschul with Aviation Advisory Service, Inc.

질의응답

James Altschul

Actually, two questions. First of all, just now you made reference to the possibility of negotiating an increased fixed margin with Westlake. What incentive would they have to increase the margin? I mean, what's in it for them? Why would they want to do that?

Jonathan H. Baksht

The current contract we have in place is in place through 2027, and we'll have those discussions next year. As it relates to margins, I think the comment was referring to the margins that we're seeing in the marketplace. And ethylene PE margins are, currently with the current pricing in polyethylene, are constructive. And it's the third-party margins we refer to, the 5% of third-party sales.

James Altschul

Okay. Okay. Well -- but -- okay. If that's -- following on, on what you just said -- sorry. Busy day today. What incentive -- I mean, I believe when you're negotiating with Westlake, they're sort of like on both sides of the trend.

Jean-Marc Gilson

So if you refer to the $0.10 margin that Westlake is paying for ethylene, we think that this is an appropriate level right now. And considering sometimes it goes up -- I mean, the marketplace, sometimes it goes up, sometimes it goes down, the real price of ethylene. So we think that over the last more than 10 years, it has provided a stable -- I mean, some stability to the Partnership, and we intend to continue to do it like that.

James Altschul

Okay. Because I mean, Westlake is sort of on both sides of the negotiation. So they wouldn't have a lot of incentive to make the terms more favorable to the Partnership, would they?

Jean-Marc Gilson

Yes. No. I mean, it's -- now Westlake has an incentive also in having that stability in the operation. And so that's why we will continue like that right now, and there is a negotiation, and the negotiation opens and just happened last year. And so we do not intend to change anything. We'll try to negotiate higher prices, but we are two parties at the table.

James Altschul

Okay. The other thing, if you're looking to compare the cash flow statement with the reconciliation of MLP distributable cash flow to net income, the -- and the reconciliation, the number for maintenance capital expenditures is different from the additions to property, plant and equipment on the cash flow statement. Why is the discrepancy? Or is PP&E addition to property, plant and equipment separate from maintenance capital expenditures?

Jonathan H. Baksht

That's correct. So when you're thinking of maintenance expenditures, many of those will not be capitalized. And so you're thinking of that maintenance expenditure piece being both -- that cash flow number is going to include both capitalized numbers and pure expense items.

James Altschul

Okay. Okay.

Jonathan H. Baksht

And just as a reminder as well, last year, on a year-over-year basis, we did have the Petro turnaround. And so you will see higher levels on a year-over-year comparative basis on the full year set of cash flows. So that's also some of the delta when looking at it on a comparative basis.

James Altschul

Okay. And I guess, finally, am I correct in thinking that the idea is ordinarily, the turnaround expenses will be covered by what you have in the turnaround reserve?

Jonathan H. Baksht

That's correct. It's prefunded with the turnaround reserve, but you'll still see those flow through in the cash flow statement in the year of the turnaround. It's just funded from cash on the balance sheet that's already been received through the turnaround reserve.

Operator

At this time, the Q&A session has now ended. I will now turn the call back over to Jeff Holy.

Jeffrey Holy

Thank you. Thank you again for participating in today's call. We hope you'll join us for our next conference call to discuss our fourth quarter and full year 2026 results.

Operator

Thank you for participating in today's Westlake Chemical Partners Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, this call will be available for replay beginning 2 hours after the call has ended and may be accessed until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, November 18, 2026. The replay can be accessed via the Partnership website. Goodbye.