POPEZ Pope Resources

Pope Resources (Nasdaq:POPEZ) reported net income of $4.1 million, or 87 cents per diluted ownership unit, on revenues of $15.3 million for the third quarter ended September 30, 2005. This compares to net income of $1.4 million, or 30 cents per diluted ownership unit, on revenues of $8.1 million, for the same period in 2004. Net income for the nine months ended September 30, 2005, totaled $12.8 million, or $2.70 per diluted ownership unit, on revenues of $48.1 million. Net income for the corresponding period in 2004 totaled $9.4 million, or $2.04 per diluted ownership unit, on revenues of $31.7 million. Earnings before interest, income tax, depreciation, depletion, and amortization (EBITDDA) for the quarter ended September 30, 2005, was $7.6 million, compared to $3.2 million for the third quarter of 2004. For the nine months ended September 30, 2005, EBITDDA was $25.5 million, compared to $15.8 million for year-to-date 2004 results. "On the continued strength in our core log markets, rural residential real estate land sales, and a major third-party timberland management contract, we enjoyed outstanding third quarter results," said David L. Nunes, President and CEO. "On top of already strong first and second quarter results, this year is shaping up to be one of the best years in the partnership's 20-year history." In the current quarter our Fee Timber segment has benefited from a 12% increase in average log prices from the corresponding quarter in 2004. On a year-to-date basis, average log prices are up 10% over last year. In addition, a timberland acquisition that closed in late 2004 contributed 7 million board feet (MMBF) of additional harvest in the third quarter relative to the prior year's third quarter and 15 MMBF on a year-to-date basis as compared to 2004. While this incremental volume carries a higher depletion expense due to having a separate depletion pool, the Fee Timber segment nevertheless generated $1.7 million of higher operating income in the current quarter as compared to the prior year. On a year-to-date basis, the Fee Timber segment generated $1.2 million more operating income as compared to 2004. Throughout 2005, the Real Estate segment has enjoyed a surge of buyer interest in rural residential lots. The Real Estate segment has worked diligently over the past year to first identify and then bring to market a pipeline of such properties. Sales of these rural residential lots, which consist of a mix of properties in the historic Real Estate land portfolio and properties recently transferred from the Fee Timber portfolio, totaled $1.1 million in the current quarter and $3.1 million year-to-date. These sales propelled Real Estate operating income to $0.5 million in the current quarter and $1.3 million year-to-date. This compares to an operating loss of $0.3 million in the third quarter of 2004 and operating income of $0.7 million for the prior year-to-date. The Timberland Management & Consulting segment, which began serving a new timberland management customer in January 2005, generated operating income of $0.4 million in the current quarter compared to breakeven results for the prior year. On a year-to-date basis, this segment has generated $2.1 million of operating income compared to an operating loss of $0.6 million in the prior year. The primary driver behind the improvement in year-to-date EBITDDA is an increase in timber harvested as a result of a timberland acquisition in late 2004. Year-to-date harvest volumes have increased almost 15 million board feet (MMBF), or 29%, from a year ago. However, because the volume from this acquisition has its own separate depletion pool, the increased harvest related to this acquisition has less of an impact to earnings as compared to the impact on EBITDDA. Results for 2005's fourth quarter will not approach those of the first three quarters since we have harvested 83% of the target volume for 2005 in the first nine months. The financial and statistical schedules attached to this earnings release provide selected detail on individual segment results and operating statistics. About Pope Resources Pope Resources, a publicly traded limited partnership, and its subsidiaries Olympic Resource Management and Olympic Property Group, own or manage over 640,000 acres of timberland and development property in Washington and Oregon. In addition, we provide forestry consulting and timberland investment management services to third-party owners and managers of timberland in Washington, Oregon, and California. The company and its predecessor companies have owned and managed timberlands and development properties for more than 150 years. Additional information on the company can be found at www.orm.com. The contents of our website are not incorporated into this release or into our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This press release contains a number of projections and statements about our expected financial condition, operating results, business plans and objectives. These statements reflect management's estimates based on current goals and its expectations about future developments. Because these statements describe our goals, objectives, and anticipated performance, they are inherently uncertain, and some or all of these statements may not come to pass. Accordingly, they should not be interpreted as promises of future management actions or financial performance. Our future actions and actual performance will vary from current expectations and under various circumstances the results of these variations may be material and adverse. Some of the factors that may cause actual operating results and financial condition to fall short of expectations include factors that affect our ability to anticipate and respond adequately to fluctuations in the market prices for our products; environmental and land use regulations that limit our ability to harvest timber and develop property; labor, equipment and transportation costs that affect our net income; and economic conditions that affect consumer demand for our products and the prices we receive for them. Other factors are set forth in that part of our Annual Report on Form 10-K entitled "Management's Discussion & Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operation -- Risks and Uncertainties." Other issues that may have an adverse and material impact on our business, operating results, and financial condition include those risks and uncertainties discussed in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements in this release are made only as of the date shown above, and we cannot undertake to update these statements. Management considers earnings (net income or loss) before interest expense, income taxes, depreciation, depletion and amortization (EBITDDA) to be a relevant and meaningful indicator of liquidity and earnings performance commonly used by investors, financial analysts and others in evaluating companies in its industry and, as such, has provided this information in addition to the generally accepted accounting principle-based presentation of net income or loss and cash from operations. In that context, "depletion" refers to a measure of the cost of timber harvested. -0- *T Pope Resources, A Delaware Limited Partnership Unaudited CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (all amounts in $000's except income per unit) Three months ended Nine months ended Sept. 30, Sept. 30, 2005 2004 2005 2004 Revenues $ 15,312 $ 8,051 $ 48,099 $ 31,671 Costs and expenses: Cost of sales (6,631) (3,269) (21,845) (11,885) Operating expenses (3,860) (2,723) (10,667) (8,206) ------- ------- -------- -------- Operating income 4,821 2,059 15,587 11,580 Interest, net (586) (698) (1,938) (2,224) ------- ------- -------- -------- Income before income taxes and minority interest 4,235 1,361 13,649 9,356 Income tax benefit/(provision) (52) - (562) - ------- ------- -------- -------- Income before minority interest 4,183 1,361 13,087 9,356 Minority interest (46) - (275) - ------- ------- -------- -------- Net income $ 4,137 $ 1,361 $ 12,812 $ 9,356 ======= ======= ======== ======== Average units outstanding -- Basic (000's) 4,621 4,522 4,593 4,520 Average units outstanding -- Diluted (000's) 4,773 4,608 4,742 4,588 Basic net income per unit $ 0.90 $ 0.30 $ 2.79 $ 2.07 Diluted net income per unit $ 0.87 $ 0.30 $ 2.70 $ 2.04 CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (all amounts in $000's) September 30, December 31, 2005 2004 Assets: Cash $ 3,009 $ 757 Short-term investments 14,000 - Other current assets 6,772 2,073 Roads and timber 53,779 62,684 Properties and equipment 25,735 27,999 Other assets 877 1,355 ------------ ------------ Total $ 104,172 $ 94,868 ============ ============ Liabilities and partners' capital: Current liabilities $ 5,045 $ 5,935 Long-term debt, excluding current portion 32,308 34,164 Other long-term liabilities 211 236 ------------ ------------ Total liabilities 37,564 40,335 Partners' capital 66,608 54,533 ------------ ------------ Total $ 104,172 $ 94,868 ============ ============ RECONCILIATION BETWEEN NET INCOME AND EBITDDA (all amounts in $000's) Three months ended Nine months ended 30-Sep-05 30-Sep-04 30-Sep-05 30-Sep-04 Net income $ 4,137 $ 1,361 $ 12,812 $ 9,356 Added back: Interest, net 586 698 1,938 2,224 Income tax provision 52 - 562 - Depletion 2,623 975 9,689 3,740 Depreciation and amortization 163 165 482 507 ------ ------ ------- ------- EBITDDA $ 7,561 $ 3,199 $ 25,483 $ 15,827 ====== ====== ======= ======= RECONCILIATION BETWEEN CASH FROM OPERATIONS AND EBITDDA (all amounts in $000's) Three months ended Nine months ended 30-Sep-05 30-Sep-04 30-Sep-05 30-Sep-04 Cash from operations $ 9,439 $ 2,763 $ 22,253 $ 15,510 Added back: Change in working capital - 237 1,249 - Interest, net 586 698 1,938 2,224 Deferred profit 10 - 695 - Income tax expense 52 - 562 - Other - 2 - 1 Less: Change in working capital (2,217) - - (1,328) Deferred profit - (465) - (540) Deferred taxes (84) - (594) - Minority interest (46) - (275) - Cost of land sold (178) (36) (344) (40) Other (1) - (1) - ------- ------ ------- ------- EBITDDA $ 7,561 $ 3,199 $ 25,483 $ 15,827 ======= ====== ======= ======= SEGMENT INFORMATION (all amounts in $000's) Three months ended Nine months ended Sept. 30, Sept. 30, 2005 2004 2005 2004 Revenues: Fee Timber $ 12,347 $ 7,215 $ 39,230 $ 27,995 Timberland Management & Consulting (TM&C) 1,666 477 5,123 999 Real Estate 1,299 359 3,746 2,677 ------- ------ ------- ------- Total $ 15,312 $ 8,051 $ 48,099 $ 31,671 ------- ------ ------- ------- EBITDDA: Fee Timber $ 7,489 $ 4,055 $ 24,490 $ 17,359 TM&C 419 (41) 2,129 (500) Real Estate 457 (246) 1,458 815 General & administrative and minority interest (804) (569) (2,594) (1,847) ------- ------ ------- ------- Total $ 7,561 $ 3,199 $ 25,483 $ 15,827 ------- ------ ------- ------- Depreciation, depletion and amortization: Fee Timber $ 2,735 $ 997 $ 9,764 $ 3,798 TM&C 26 22 74 66 Real Estate (39) 30 135 114 General & administrative 64 91 198 269 ------- ------ ------- ------- Total $ 2,786 $ 1,140 $ 10,171 $ 4,247 ------- ------ ------- ------- Operating income/(loss): Fee Timber $ 4,754 $ 3,058 $ 14,726 $ 13,561 TM&C 393 (63) 2,055 (566) Real Estate 496 (276) 1,323 701 General & administrative (822) (660) (2,517) (2,116) ------- ------ ------- ------- Total $ 4,821 $ 2,059 $ 15,587 $ 11,580 ------- ------ ------- ------- SELECTED STATISTICS Three months ended Nine months ended 30-Sep-05 30-Sep-04 30-Sep-05 30-Sep-04 Log sale volumes (thousand board feet): Export conifer 2,123 550 7,596 7,732 Domestic conifer 14,115 9,236 45,253 33,455 Pulp conifer 2,655 2,807 8,590 8,226 Hardwoods 1,649 716 4,466 1,803 -------- -------- -------- -------- Total 20,542 13,309 65,905 51,216 ======== ======== ======== ======== Average price realizations (per thousand board feet): Export conifer $ 683 $ 695 $ 675 $ 655 Domestic conifer 626 591 629 568 Pulp conifer 211 226 211 227 Hardwoods 643 564 612 570 Overall 580 517 579 526 Owned acres 117,585 112,240 117,585 112,240 Acres under management 527,316 5,316 527,316 5,316 Capital expenditures ($000's) 932 395 2,624 2,311 Depletion ($000's) 2,623 975 9,689 3,740 Depreciation ($000's) 163 165 482 507 Debt to total capitalization 34% 40% 34% 40% QUARTER TO QUARTER COMPARISONS (Amounts in $000's except per unit data) Q3 2005 vs. Q3 2004 Q3 2005 vs. Q2 2005 Total Per Total Per Diluted Diluted Unit Unit Net income: 3rd Quarter 2005 $ 4,137 $ 0.87 $ 4,137 $ 0.87 2nd Quarter 2005 4,069 0.86 3rd Quarter 2004 1,361 0.30 ------- ------- ------- ------- Variance $ 2,776 $ 0.57 $ 68 $ 0.01 Detail of earnings variance: Fee Timber Log price realizations (A) $ 838 $ 0.17 $ 67 $ 0.01 Log volumes (B) 4,188 0.83 (1,059) (0.18) Production costs (1,630) (0.32) 123 0.02 Depletion (1,648) (0.33) 600 0.10 Other Fee Timber (52) (0.01) 93 0.02 Timberland Management & Consulting Management fee changes 176 0.04 (279) (0.05) Other Timberland Mgmnt & Consulting 280 0.06 (148) (0.03) Real Estate - - Land sales 829 0.16 273 0.05 Environmental remediation liability 63 0.01 - - Other Real Estate (120) (0.02) 31 0.01 General & administrative costs (162) (0.03) 25 - Interest expense 29 0.01 (1) - Other (taxes, minority int., interest inc.) (15) - 343 0.06 ------- ------- ------- ------- Total change in earnings $ 2,776 $ 0.57 $ 68 $ 0.01 ======= ======= ======= ======= (A) Price variance calculated by multiplying change in average price by prior period volume. (B) Volume variance calculated by multiplying change in volume by current average price. *T