Parkland Fuel Corporation (Parkland), Canada's largest independent marketer of fuel and petroleum products, has announced the financial and operating results for the three and 12 months ended 31 December, 2015. All financial figures are expressed in Canadian dollars.

"Parkland has achieved another record year and we enter 2016 well positioned to deliver our 2016 guidance of CAN$235 - 265 million in Adjusted EBITDA. Our 2015 increase in Adjusted EBITDA of 17% over the prior year demonstrates our ability to continue to drive our base business operating performance and also integrate acquired businesses effectively," said Bob Espey, President and Chief Executive Officer of Parkland. "Acquisitions, coupled with our diversified business model, have enabled us to deliver another year of record results. Our unique supply capability continues to deliver synergies and add great value for our shareholders."

"Parkland's strong performance in 2015 and our confidence in our base business, position us well to fund organic growth capital. As a result, we are making some enhancements to our dividend plan," said Mike McMillan, Chief Financial Officer of Parkland.

Enhancement of the Dividend Plan

Effective 1 April 2016:

• The annual dividend will increase by five percent.
• The two percent Premium Dividend plan will be discontinued.
• The effect of these two changes provides a more favourable tax treatment for eligible Canadian shareholders. The two percent cash premium is treated as regular taxable income, whereas the five percent dividend increase benefits from the dividend tax credit.
• The regular DRIP programme will remain unchanged.

"These enhancements to our dividend plan will be beneficial for both Parkland and its shareholders. It will enable greater control over our capital structure and reduce future share dilution while providing the benefit of a dividend increase coupled with more favourable tax treatment for shareholders," said Mike McMillan, Chief Financial Officer of Parkland.

Key components of Parkland's Strategy - 2015 highlights

Grow

• Strong performance in Eastern Canada across all divisions helped to offset economic headwinds and warmer Q4 temperatures in Canada.
• Achieved 9% volume growth, delivering over 9.6 billion l of fuel and petroleum products in 2015, which was led by the Retail Fuels segment.
• Parkland delivered 17% growth in Adjusted EBITDA compared to 2014, benefitting from its diversified structure across different business lines, customers, and geographies.
• Invested organic growth capital(2) of CAN$38.8 million which is an increase of 23% over 2014. This was largely comprised of site construction and upgrading activities in the Retail segment and Parkland's US operations.

Supply

• Supply and Wholesale (formerly known as Wholesale, Supply and Distribution) delivered Adjusted EBITDA of CAN$77.4 million in 2015, an increase of 21% over 2014; demonstrating exceptional results through Parkland's ability to realise unique supply advantages through scale, buying programmes and operational efficiencies.
• Elbow River continues to demonstrate opportunistic agility providing excellent results across all three product portfolios.

Acquire

• Increased our Retail Fuels footprint by adding 169 retailer sites and 224 dealer sites in 2015 representing over 2.0 billion l of new annualised volume.
• Closed the Pioneer acquisition on June 25, 2015, where integration and synergies are exceeding expectations.
• Added an additional 11 Chevron branded service stations in British Columbia.
• Continued to expand Parkland's US market share with the addition of seven new corporate sites in the year.

Adapted from press release by Francesca Brindle

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