Correspondence 0001193125-24-156092 from HF Sinclair Corp (DINO) (CIK 0001915657) (DINO)
HF Sinclair Corp (DINO) (CIK 0001915657)
Date: June 6, 2024 · CIK: 0001915657 · Accession: 0001193125-24-156092
AI Filing Summary & Sentiment
File numbers found in text: 001-41325
Referenced dates: May 15, 2024
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CORRESP 1 filename1.htm CORRESP Securities and Exchange Commission June 6, 2024 Page 1 HF Sinclair Corporation 2828 N. Harwood, Suite 1300 Dallas, Texas 75201 June 6, 2024 Division of Corporation Finance Office of Energy & Transportation United States Securities and Exchange Commission 100 F Street, N.E. Washington, D.C. 20549-3561 Re: HF Sinclair Corporation Form 10-K for Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2023 Form 8-K filed on February 21, 2024 File No. 001-41325 Ladies and Gentlemen: Set forth below are the responses of HF Sinclair Corporation (the “Corporation,” “we,” “us” or “our”), to the comments received from the staff of the Division of Corporation Finance (the “Staff”) of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”) by letter dated May 15, 2024, with respect to the Form 10-K for fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 (the “Form 10-K”) and Form 8-K filed on February 21, 2024. For your convenience, each response is prefaced by the exact text of the Staff’s corresponding comment in bold, italicized text. All references to page numbers and captions correspond to the Form 10-K unless otherwise specified. Capitalized terms used but not defined in this letter have the meanings ascribed to such terms in the Form 10-K. Form 10-K for Fiscal Year ended December 31, 2023 Reconciliations to Amounts Reported Under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, page 76 1. We note your reconciliation of the following non-GAAP presentations exclude the effects of “lower of cost or market inventory valuation adjustments” in the Form 10-K and in the Press Release filed under Form 8-K: A. Adjusted EBITDA, B. Refinery Segment Gross Margin and Net Operating Margin per produced barrel sold, and C. Renewable Segment Gross Margin and Net Operating Margin per produced gallon sold. Securities and Exchange Commission June 6, 2024 Page 2 It appears these inventory-related adjustments substitute individually tailored recognition and measurement methods for those of GAAP. While it may be appropriate to highlight these items in your discussion of operating results, it is unclear whether these adjustments that have the effect of changing the recognition and measurement principles required to be applied in accordance with GAAP are appropriate reconciling items for non-GAAP performance measures. Please revise or explain to us the basis for excluding lower of cost or market inventory valuation adjustments in your presentation of these non-GAAP measures. Refer to Question 100.04 of the Non-GAAP Measures Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations. We note similar issues in your Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2024. RESPONSE: The Corporation respectfully acknowledges the Staff’s comment and advises the Staff that it does not believe the exclusion of lower of cost or market inventory valuation adjustments from its non-GAAP measures of Adjusted EBITDA, Refinery gross margin and Net operating margin per produced barrel sold and Renewables gross margin and Net operating margin per produced gallon sold represent individually tailored recognition and measurement methods substituted for those of GAAP. The lower of cost or market inventory valuation adjustments are recognized and measured in accordance with GAAP, and appear on the Corporation’s income statements as a separate line item component of the Corporation’s operating costs and expenses (similar to depreciation and amortization). See, for example, the Corporation’s Consolidated Statements of Income appearing on page 85 of the Form 10-K. The Corporation’s lower of cost or market inventory valuation adjustments relate to its refining and renewable inventories, which are accounted for using the last-in, first-out inventory (“LIFO”) valuation methodology. The lower of cost or market inventory valuation adjustments are unrealized valuation adjustments applied to inventory volumes remaining in inventory at the end of the period, recorded to reflect the lower of cost or market values based on market conditions and prices at that time. As this inventory is still on the Corporation’s balance sheet at period end, the related non-cash costs incurred in the period through the lower of cost or market inventory valuation adjustment relate to costs that will be realized through the sale of inventory in future periods, and do not reflect costs related to the sale of products in the current period. We believe this adjustment is beneficial to our investors by providing them with a comparable view of our performance in the period presented unaffected by the unrealized and non-cash valuation adjustment. The Corporation has considered Question 100.04 of the Division of Corporation Finance Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations and respectfully advises the Staff that the lower of cost or market inventory valuation adjustments represent valuation adjustments, measured and recognized in accordance with GAAP, to assets that are on the Corporation’s balance sheet at period end that will be associated with future sales, whereas the non-GAAP measures reflect the realized cost associated with inventory sold in the current period. The non-GAAP measures are designed to attribute the realized cost to the current period revenue transactions, and that realized cost is not based on an individually tailored measurement method. Additionally, participants in our industry hold inventory at varying historical levels and layers of pricing under the LIFO valuation methodology, and this adjustment has historically been standard practice in our industry in order to provide management and others the ability to compare our current period performance to that of other companies in our industry. The adjustment also benefits our investors by providing results that are in alignment with publicly available “crack spread” information, which is the spread between market prices for refined products and market prices for crude oil. The U.S. Energy Information Administration provides crack spread data used by investors to evaluate refinery profit margins. Securities and Exchange Commission June 6, 2024 Page 3 Therefore, the Corporation believes that adjusting for items of this nature does not contradict Rule 100(b) of Regulation G and helps investors better understand the Corporation’s operating performance in the period. The Corporation does not believe these measures are misleading to investors, and notes that similar adjustments are made by public peer companies throughout our industry. Going forward, the Corporation will revise its description of the foregoing non-GAAP measures to clarify the nature of the inventory valuation adjustments and underlying inventory valuation methodology. Please see our response to Comment 2B below for an example of our proposed future disclosure. 2. We note you present here non-GAAP measures Refinery segment gross margin and Net operating margin per produced barrel sold, Renewable segment gross margin and Net operating margin per produced barrel sold and Marketing segment gross margin per gallon sold. Please revise to address the following: A. We note the titles of the above noted non-GAAP measures are the same as, or confusingly similar to, titles or descriptions used for GAAP financial measures. Please revise the titles or descriptions of non-GAAP measures here and throughout the filing to reflect their adjusted nature such as “Adjusted gross margin” or similar titles. Please refer to Item 10(e)(ii)(E) of Regulation S-K. B. You present Refinery gross margin, Renewables gross margin, Marketing gross margin, Refinery net operating margin per produced barrel sold and Renewables net operating margin per produced barrel sold, without also presenting the most directly comparable GAAP measure. Please expand to include a presentation of the most directly comparable US GAAP measure and reconcile to non-GAAP measures presented as required by Item 10(e)(1)(i) of Regulation S-K and Question 102.10(a) of the Non-GAAP Financial Measures Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations. We also note similar issues in your Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2024. RESPONSE: Response to Comment 2A: In future filings, the Corporation will revise its descriptions of Refinery gross margin, Renewables gross margin and Marketing gross margin to “Adjusted refinery gross margin,” “Adjusted renewables gross margin” and “Adjusted marketing gross margin,” respectively, to help avoid confusion with the GAAP measure “gross margin.” The Corporation plans to describe Refining segment net operating margin and Renewable segment net operating margin as “Adjusted refinery gross margin, less operating expenses” and “Adjusted renewables gross margin, less operating expenses,” respectively. Each of these non-GAAP measures may also be presented per produced barrel or per produced gallon. Please see the below revised descriptions and reconciliations as an example of these changes. Securities and Exchange Commission June 6, 2024 Page 4 Response to Comment 2B: The Corporation respectfully acknowledges the Staff’s comment. The Corporation considers segment gross margin as the most directly comparable GAAP measure for each of Refinery gross margin and Refining segment net operating margin per produced barrel sold, Renewables gross margin and Renewables segment net operating margin per produced gallon sold, and Marketing gross margin per gallon sold. The Corporation has considered Item 10(e)(1)(i) of Regulation S-K and plans to revise its presentation of these financial measures going forward to clarify that the most directly comparable GAAP measure is segment gross margin and present its reconciliations of the newly renamed non-GAAP measures of: • Adjusted refinery gross margin and Adjusted refinery gross margin per produced barrel sold, • Adjusted refinery gross margin, less operating expenses, per produced barrel sold, • Adjusted renewables gross margin and Adjusted renewables gross margin, per produced gallon sold, • Adjusted renewables gross margin, less operating expenses per produced gallon sold, and • Adjusted marketing gross margin and Adjusted marketing gross margin per gallon sold to reconcile from segment gross margin and to present segment gross margin per produced barrel or gallon sold, beginning with our Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ending June 30, 2024. Illustrations of our revised descriptions and reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures for the year ended December 31, 2023 are shown below. The revisions are marked with underlines to facilitate the Staff’s review. We have also revised the titles of these non-GAAP measures as described in Comment 2A above. Reconciliations of refinery operating information (non-GAAP performance measures) to amounts reported under generally accepted accounting principles in financial statements. RefineryAdjusted refinery gross margin and net operating margin are is a non-GAAP performance measures that are is used by our management and others to compare our refining performance to that of other companies in our industry. We believe these this margin measures are measure is helpful to investors in evaluating our refining performance on a relative and absolute basis, including against publicly available crack spread data. RefineryAdjusted refinery gross margin per produced barrel sold is total Refining segment revenues less total Refining segment cost of products sold, exclusive of gross margin plus lower of cost or market inventory valuation adjustments, depreciation and amortization and operating expenses, divided by sales volumes of produced refined products sold. Net operating margin per barrel sold is the difference between refinery gross margin and refinery operating expenses per produced barrel sold. These two margins do This margin measure does not include the non-cash effects of lower of cost or market inventory valuation adjustments and depreciation and amortization. Each of these component performance measures can be reconciled directly to our consolidated statements of income, which relate to volumes in inventory at the end of the period. Adjusted refinery gross margin is not a calculation provided for under US GAAP and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for Refining segment gross margin. The GAAP measure most directly comparable to Adjusted refinery gross margin is Refining segment gross margin. Other companies in our industry may not calculate these performance measures in the same manner. Securities and Exchange Commission June 6, 2024 Page 5 Reconciliation of Refining segment gross margin to Adjusted refinery gross margin to Adjusted refinery gross margin per produced barrel sold and Adjusted refinery gross margin, less operating expenses per produced barrel sold Three Months Ended March 31, 2024 2023 (In thousands, except per barrel amounts) Refining segment Sales and other revenues $ 6,204,245 $ 6,718,615 Cost of products sold (exclusive of lower of cost or market inventory adjustment) 5,474,522 5,641,131 Lower of cost or market inventory adjustment (220,558 ) — Operating expenses 472,086 501,759 Depreciation and amortization 117,370 100,083 Gross margin $ 360,825 $ 475,642 Add (subtract) lower of cost or market inventory adjustment (220,558 ) — Add operating expenses 472,086 501,759 Add depreciation and amortization 117,370 100,083 Adjusted refinery gross margin $ 729,723 $ 1,077,484 Produced barrels sold (BPD) 631,470 515,960 Gross margin per produced barrel sold $ 6.28 $ 10.24 Adjusted refinery gross margin per produced barrel sold $ 12.70 $ 23.20 Less refinery operating expenses per produced barrel sold 8.22 10.81 Adjusted refinery gross margin, less operating expenses per produced barrel sold $ 4.48 $ 12.39 Reconciliation of renewables operating information (non-GAAP performance measures) to amounts reported under generally accepted accounting principles in financial statements. Renewables Adjusted renewables gross margin and net operating margin are is a non-GAAP performance measures that are is used by our management and others to compare our renewables performance to that of other companies in our industry. We believe these this margin measures are measure is helpful to investors in evaluating our renewables performance on a relative and absolute basis. Renewables Adjusted renewables gross margin per produced gallon sold is the total Renewables segment revenues less the total Renewables segment cost of products sold, exclusive of gross margin plus lower of cost or market inventory valuation adjustments, depreciation and amortization and operating expenses, divided by sales volumes of produced renewables products sold. The net operating margin per produced gallon sold is the difference between the renewables gross margin and the renewables operating expenses per produced gallon sold. These two margins do This margin measure does not include the non-cash effects of lower of cost or market inventory valuation adjustments and depreciation and amortization. Each of these component performance measures can be reconciled directly to our consolidated statements of income, which relate to volumes in inventory at the end of the period. Adjusted renewables gross margin is not a calculation provided for under US GAAP and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for Renewables segment gross margin. The GAAP measure most directly comparable to Adjusted renewables gross margin is Renewables segment gross margin. Other companies in our industry may not calculate these performance measures in the same manner. Securities and Exchange Commission June 6, 2024 Page 6 Reconciliation of Renewables segment gross margin to Adjusted renewables gross margin to Adjusted renewables gross margin per produced gallon sol