Good evening, everyone, and welcome to World Kinect's third quarter 2026 earnings conference call, which will be presented alongside our live slide presentation. Today's presentation is also available via webcast on our investor relations website. I am Braulio Medrano, Senior Director of FP&A and Investor Relations. With me on the call today is Ira Birns, Chief Executive Officer, John Rau, President, and Mike Tejada, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Now I would like to review our safe harbor statement. Certain statements made today, including comments about our expectations regarding future plans and performance, are forward-looking statements that are subject to a range of uncertainties and risks that could cause actual results to materially differ. Factors that could cause results to materially differ can be found in our most recent Form 10-K and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
We assume no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revisions to these forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. This presentation also includes certain non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures is included in our press release and can be found on our website. We will begin with several minutes of prepared remarks, which will then be followed by a question-and-answer period. At this time, I would like to introduce our Chief Executive Officer, Ira Birns.
Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We delivered another strong quarter, reflecting solid execution across the business and continued progress against the priorities we laid out at the beginning of the year. What I find particularly encouraging is what is driving our performance. We continue to strengthen the underlying earnings power of the business while also demonstrating the value of our global platform when market conditions create additional opportunities, something we have clearly experienced throughout this year. I am going to start by providing some brief comments on each of our business segments. Starting with aviation, underlying business trends remained healthy during the quarter, supported by strong commercial passenger activity, most notably in our on-airport fuel supply business in Western Europe and Latin America, as well as solid cargo growth globally.
We continue to see opportunities to expand our on-airport footprint in those markets, and we are also making progress expanding the value of our service offerings. Speaking of services, trip support has long been part of our aviation offering, and this quarter, commercial trip support services delivered strong year-over-year improvement. The addition of Universal has further strengthened and expanded our trip support capabilities in business and general aviation, providing us with greater opportunities to serve customers more broadly, deepen those relationships, and grow our participation in higher-value services. I also recently attended NBAA, the National Business Aviation Association conference in Las Vegas, where I spent time with our team and our business and general aviation customers and came away encouraged by the growing opportunities we see in this part of our business. Mike will provide some additional context on other factors that impacted aviation results during the quarter.
Turning to marine, we delivered another outstanding quarter as the business continued to outperform. That performance benefited in part from fuel prices and volatility that for much of the quarter, were higher than we had anticipated in late July when we reported second-quarter results. Ongoing volatility, schedule disruptions, and shifting trade patterns continue to create opportunities for us to help customers navigate changing trading conditions. These are precisely the types of conditions that demonstrate the value of the scale and capabilities of our global marine platform. Our extensive supply network, access to liquidity, and ability to reliably source and deliver fuel where and when customers need it allow us to help them navigate that complexity while creating additional opportunities for us to capture attractive returns.
As a matter of fact, over the years, we have successfully managed through several periods of geopolitical disruption and the resulting high fuel prices and market volatility, helping customers navigate those conditions while generating strong financial results. Of course, we remain disciplined in how we pursue those opportunities, particularly around credit, liquidity, and risk. I also recently attended SIBCON, the Singapore International Bunkering Conference, where I spent time with our team, customers, and suppliers. Those conversations also reinforced the value we bring to our customers throughout market cycles and the strength of those relationships, particularly in more challenging market environments. Turning to land, I am pleased with the continued progress we are making. We have spent considerable time over the past several years simplifying this business and sharpening our focus, and the changes we have made are already beginning to generate more attractive returns.
With that portfolio work largely behind us, the story is increasingly shifting from simplification to performance and growth. Our focus is now on driving profitable growth in our core businesses, including retail and cardlock. We see opportunities to grow our position through better execution while continuing to improve pricing, productivity, operating efficiencies, and returns. The result is a land business that is more focused, more predictable, and becoming a more meaningful contributor to our overall earnings growth. Stepping back from the individual businesses, I think there are three important takeaways from the quarter. First, the underlying earnings power of the company continues to strengthen. Our refocused portfolio, especially in land, and the continued expansion of our higher-value services in aviation, are contributing to stronger underlying earnings. Disciplined management of our cost base is also contributing to that improvement.
Our ability to capture meaningful upside when market opportunities arise, as we've seen in Marine this year, can further strengthen our earnings. Second, we are not simply focused on growing earnings, but on generating higher returns on the capital we deploy and creating greater long-term value. The progress we are seeing reflects the benefits of concentrating our resources on a more focused set of core commercial offerings. Third, we generated solid cash flow this quarter, demonstrating how our earnings performance is translating into a stronger cash flow profile. That strong cash generation further enhances our financial flexibility and our ability to invest in the business, pursue attractive opportunities, and return capital to shareholders. Taken together, stronger underlying earnings, improved returns, and strong cash conversion give us confidence in the direction of the business and our ability to create greater shareholder value over time.
As we enter the final quarter of 2026, we remain focused on execution while continuing to build the foundation for 2027 and beyond. We do recognize that some of the market conditions that benefited us this year will evolve over time, but the underlying changes we have made to the business are not dependent on those conditions. We have transformed land into a more focused business with a stronger earnings profile. We have significantly strengthened our aviation platform and expanded our higher-value service capabilities. We have a marine platform that continues to demonstrate its ability to perform well across a range of market environments. Across the company, we remain focused on disciplined capital allocation, generating higher returns on capital, and continuing to strengthen cash generation. While market volatility can create incremental opportunities for us, our objective is not to rely on volatility for growth.
It is to continue improving and growing the underlying business while maintaining the capabilities and financial strength to capitalize on opportunities when they arise. I am pleased with the progress we have made this year, and I want to thank our employees around the world for their hard work, their commitment to our customers, and for continuing to demonstrate our core values in everything they do. With that, let me turn the call over to Mike Tejada for the financial review. Thank you.
Thank you, Ira, and good evening, everyone. Before I discuss the results, I want to briefly address our use of non-GAAP financial measures. As we have stated previously, our GAAP results can include items that do not reflect our ongoing operating performance, such as restructuring and exit costs, impairments, operating results of non-core divestitures and business exits, and other non-recurring items. Reconciliations of our non-GAAP measures are available on our investor relations website and in today's webcast materials. Total non-GAAP adjustments in the third quarter were approximately $18.2 million, or $12.8 million after tax. I will now turn to our consolidated results, which exclude these non-GAAP adjustments. Building on Ira's comments, we delivered record third quarter adjusted EPS of $0.99, up 83% year-over-year.
Consolidated adjusted gross profit was $279 million, up 12% year-over-year, led by another strong quarter in marine, with gross profit increasing 131% year-over-year. Aviation continued to deliver strong commercial results, supported by a Universal Trip Support acquisition, which closed in the fourth quarter of 2025, and land's adjusted operating income in the third quarter more than doubled year-over-year, further demonstrating the benefits of our simpler, more focused portfolio. Let's take a closer look at each segment. Starting with aviation. Third quarter volume was 1.9 billion gallons, up 1% year-over-year. Gross profit was $148 million, up 4% year-over-year, driven primarily by stronger commercial fuel resale performance, as well as contributions for our expanded trip support business. These benefits were partially offset by lower gross profit in our physical inventory business, where significant price movements negatively impacted margins during the quarter.
Looking to the fourth quarter of 2026, we expect aviation to deliver strong year-over-year gross profit growth and remain relatively flat compared with the third quarter of 2026. Turning to marine, the segment delivered another strong quarter, with gross profit of $59 million, up 131% year-over-year. Volume was 3.7 million metric tons, down 8% year-over-year, reflecting continued conflict-related disruptions to shipping patterns and customer activity. Although margins have continued to moderate since the initial disruption, market prices and supply conditions continue to support increased profitability across the business. Our global supply relationships, local market knowledge, and disciplined execution enable us to respond quickly to changing conditions while remaining a trusted partner to our customers and suppliers. Looking to the fourth quarter of 2026, we expect marine gross profit to remain above the prior year level, but decline sequentially as the incremental market benefits continue to moderate.
Turning to land, we continue to realize the benefits of our simpler, more focused portfolio. Third quarter adjusted operating income was $28 million, up 102% year-over-year, and we continue to make progress towards our full-year adjusted operating margin target of 30%. Year-over-year volume and gross profit comparisons continue to reflect the impacts of the businesses we have exited and divested. Third quarter volume was 1.2 billion gallon equivalents, down 14% year-over-year, and adjusted gross profit was $72 million, down 11% year-over-year. For the quarter, our retail and cardlock businesses both delivered strong year-over-year gross profit growth, reinforcing our focus on expanding these businesses and deepening customer relationships. Through the first nine months of 2026, land adjusted operating income was more than double the full year 2025 results.
Looking to the fourth quarter of 2026, we expect land adjusted operating income to remain above the prior year level, but decline sequentially, driven principally by seasonality. Now let's turn to consolidated adjusted operating expenses, which were $176 million in the third quarter, down 3% year-over-year. The reduction principally reflects the benefits of simplifying our land portfolio, partially offset by expenses from our Universal Trip Support acquisition. Net interest expense was $31 million in the third quarter, up 90% year-over-year, but relatively flat sequentially. The year-over-year increase reflects higher average borrowings and working capital requirements during 2026. With interest rates expected to remain elevated, interest expense will continue to depend on working capital needs and how quickly we convert earnings into cash. Our adjusted effective tax rate for the third quarter of 2026 was 32%, compared with 27.4% in the third quarter of 2025.
Unfavorable discrete tax items in the quarter offset some of the favorable tax items from earlier in the year. Our adjusted year-to-date effective tax rate, however, remains well within the full-year target. Let's now turn to our outlook. Primarily reflecting our third quarter outperformance, we are raising our full-year adjusted EPS guidance to $3.52-$3.62 per share, up from $3.20-$3.40 per share. We delivered approximately $3.02 of adjusted EPS through the third quarter, and our outlook continues to reflect a measured view of market conditions for the remainder of the year. Reflecting on our original 2026 adjusted EPS guidance of $2.20-$2.40 provides a meaningful reference point for the business before the added benefits from this year's favorable market conditions. We remain focused on our strategic growth initiatives to drive long-term performance.
As we develop our 2027 outlook, we will consider our progress on these initiatives and the market environment. Turning to cash flow, we generated $175 million of operating cash flow and $164 million of free cash flow in the third quarter. Building on the focus we outlined last quarter, disciplined working capital management helped improve cash conversion while preserving financial flexibility. We remain focused on working capital discipline and generating positive cash flow over time. In closing, I'd like to highlight some key takeaways. We delivered another strong quarter with adjusted gross profit of $279 million, up 12% year-over-year, and adjusted EPS of $0.99, up 83% year-over-year. Our performance reflects strong gross profit and the benefits of our more focused portfolio. Aviation gross profit increased 4% year-over-year to $148 million, supported by a Universal Trip Support acquisition and stronger commercial fuel resale activity.
Marine gross profit increased 131% year-over-year to $59 million. Although conflict-related market benefits continue to moderate, elevated fuel prices continue to support profitability. Land adjusted operating income more than doubled year-over-year to $28 million, demonstrating the benefits of our simpler, more focused portfolio. Our retail and cardlock businesses both delivered strong gross profit growth, and we made solid progress on our full-year adjusted operating margin targets. We generated $175 million of operating cash flow and $164 million of free cash flow in the quarter. Our third quarter performance supports our third guidance increase this year, bringing our full-year adjusted EPS outlook to $3.52 to $3.62. We remain focused on growing underlying earnings, converting earnings into cash, and creating long-term shareholder value. I want to thank our teams around the world for their continued focus and execution.
With that, I'll turn the call to the operator for the Q&A session. Thank you.
As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. To remove yourself from the queue, you may press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Justin Jenkins of Raymond James. Your line is open, Justin.
Great. Thanks. Good afternoon, guys. I guess just starting on the updated guide, $0.50-$0.60 of EPS implied here for 4Q. Maybe just a little more color on what brackets that range from a macro perspective. Mike Tejada, you mentioned some of the segments headwinds into year-end, but how can we think about that in the context of pretty elevated and still volatile commodity prices?
Hey, Justin Jenkins. Thanks for the question. As we've kind of been seeing and observing each quarter this year and kind of looking forward in our guidance, we take a measured approach. Markets can change very quickly. As we know, as you saw back in March, right, when things, the conflict and disruptions started and we saw what happened with prices and volatility. So, looking forward, we did anticipate obviously some carryover, sitting here in October. However, we're taking a more measured view of things and making sure that we're really thinking through the underlying fundamentals of the business and what we can deliver on and viewing any market opportunity, if that persists as upside. But maybe taking a more measured look on how long that will persist.
Okay, that's helpful. I guess second question on the land business, seems like self-help is just paying off here in the improvements. Any specific items to call out in the third quarter? And I guess, Ira Birns, for you maybe, what inning do you think we're in here in the improvement plan on the land business?
Yeah, Justin Jenkins. We had some benefit to the market activity also impacting land as well in the third quarter. So some of the performance, obviously from the portfolio optimization and stuff that we've been doing, that is paying dividends. We saw that last quarter in a big way, and again this quarter as well. Retail and cardlock, I think, were the standouts this quarter. But especially on the cardlock side, we did see some market pickup there, which is subsiding as we saw through the end of the third quarter into the fourth quarter. So again, taking that measured approach for Q4. But it was a really strong quarter for land. The portfolio is really taking shape. We've got our objectives and everything kind of lined up really well. But yeah, it was a bit of the market and then obviously everything kind of firing all cylinders.
Hey, Justin, I'll just follow along. It's Ira. Mike hit on the important points of what impacted the third quarter in terms of your question on land in general. We've gone through a tremendous transformation of that business over the last couple of years in particular. It's been a tremendous effort on the part of the team getting through all of that, and we're now at a point where what's left is what we believe in and what we think we could grow. Considering the fact that the World Series ended last night, the inning question is an appropriate one. I would say we're barely halfway through the game. We've gotten the, call it spring training done. First couple innings this year being Q1, Q2, Q3.
There's a lot of work to do now that we can focus most specifically on driving growth in what we define as the core of this business. Q3 was a great example of what we can do with a much smaller team than we had in land and arguably a smaller P&L from a top-line standpoint, but obviously, based on the results we delivered in Q3, a much stronger bottom line. A long way to go, but we're certainly more focused, moving in the right direction. Returns are improving. As Mike mentioned earlier, we're right around the hoop in terms of our operating margin achievement, where I'm assuming many of you didn't believe we would get there as quickly as we have, considering where that number was just a short while ago. Kudos to the team.
We've talked a lot about expanding into what we call our retail business, which revolves around a C store, particularly into different models that provide us with opportunity to achieve higher margins, and it just opens ourselves up to more of the market for growth. That's exciting, and we're proceeding down that path, and we're also focusing on doing whatever we can to continue to improve our cardlock business. A great story so far, but it's still relatively early, and there's a lot of work left to do to take this land segment to where we think it could be over time.
Okay, great. Thanks. Appreciate that. I guess if I could squeeze in one more on cash flow. Looks like $ 85 million bucks or so of the working capital build in the first half of the year came back in 3Q. There is a lot of moving parts with commodities here at these levels, but any high-level thoughts on it for further working capital release in 4Q and maybe into 2027?
Yeah, as we said last quarter, this quarter, we are going to really focus in on the cash conversion and making sure that we work with our customer suppliers and maybe aim to raise some of those hurdle rates and make sure that we are valuing cash appropriately. At the onset of the, I guess, disruption we had with markets, we wanted to make sure we were there for suppliers and customers. As things have settled in, I think we can be a little bit more diligent on that, and we saw that come back in a big way in Q3. It is a high watermark. I would not necessarily think, Justin, that is going to be repeated in Q4. Obviously, we have seen prices continue to go up as well. There is impact of prices, although we have counterbalanced that as we have shown in Q3. There is a balance that can be struck there.
We want to make sure that we are there giving adequate support to our customers. Obviously, there is a lot of work that goes into the supplier side as well to manage AP and those terms too. But really making sure that we are very focused on the cash conversion, the credit we are extending as well, because that also has a knock-on effect with risk. Then obviously in this interest rate environment, we cannot lose sight of that either. So it was a good Q3. I think we are going to end the year in a good spot, but it is early days into Q4. But Q3 was definitely a high watermark.
Perfect. Thanks. I will pass it back.
Thanks, Justin.
Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference back to Ira Birns for closing remarks. Sir?
Thank you, Latiff, and thank you, everyone. Let me close by putting this year's performance in perspective. While geopolitical events have benefited our results, for sure through increased fuel prices and heightened volatility, our performance also reflects strong execution by our teams around the world, along with the work we have done to streamline World Fuel and sharpen our focus. We just talked about land with being a clear example, right? Its improvement is driven primarily by the changes we have made, along with better execution. That progress is important as we work to build more durable earnings power for the overall business. We also know that a stronger business must translate into sustainable, profitable growth. That's what it's all about.
The work we have done to reshape World Fuel has created a more focused business, better positioned to pursue that growth, but that's the foundation and certainly not the finish line. Our priority now is to build on it with disciplined execution and a clear focus on continuing to build value for our shareholders. Thanks again to my colleagues for their commitment and to our customers and shareholders for their continued trust and support. Should mention our suppliers as well. We appreciate your time this evening and your interest in World Fuel, and we look forward to discussing our full-year results and sharing our initial perspective on 2027 in February of next year. Thank you, and have a great evening.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.