Superior Plus (TSE:SPB) reported second-quarter adjusted EBITDA of $36.8 million, up 10% from a year earlier, as record results at its Certarus compressed natural gas business and stronger Canadian propane performance offset weakness in U.S. propane.
Adjusted EBITDA per share rose about 40% to $0.07, which the company attributed to higher EBITDA and a lower share count. Adjusted net loss per share was $0.25, unchanged from the prior-year quarter. Free cash flow was negative $35 million, $2.6 million below the prior year, reflecting increased capital investment for contracted data center work and the timing of tax payments.
Certarus Posts Record Volumes and EBITDA
Certarus generated second-quarter adjusted EBITDA of $33.6 million, an increase of 23% from the same period in 2025. The business recorded its highest second-quarter and first-half volumes, supported by growth in industrial and data center activity.
MacDonald said industrial volumes increased approximately 50% during the quarter, driven by new data center business, power-generation customers and mining activity. He said the company’s data center opportunity pipeline is “substantially larger” than it was a year ago, although some initial projects have taken longer than expected to begin. Those delays have also created longer-duration work in certain cases, according to the company.
The company said it secured another data center contract since the first quarter. Dale Winger, president of Certarus, said the newly awarded project initially has a term of less than one year and will require a few mobile storage units. He added that Certarus’ first data center contract was awarded in the third quarter of 2025 and that the company has delivered gas reliably to that project.
Certarus’ network now includes 23 hubs across North America. A Utah hub opened in May and has become one of the company’s highest-volume locations, MacDonald said. A Houston hub is expected to begin gas flow in the third quarter of 2026, while a California location is planned to follow later in the year.
While wellsite pricing remained below year-ago levels, management said pricing has been stable for four consecutive quarters. Winger said the business has maintained market share, produced record wellsite volumes during the first half and improved its safety performance. He also pointed to nine consecutive weeks of year-over-year rig-count increases after a prolonged period of declines, though he said larger public producers had not yet announced material increases in capital spending or activity.
Mobile Fleet Fueling Launches With Houston Contract
Superior Plus also announced the launch of a Mobile CNG Fleet Fueling business, designed to provide on-site fueling for operators of natural-gas-powered truck fleets. The company’s first agreement is a two-year contract to fuel roughly 100 Class 8 natural gas trucks for an unnamed global logistics company from the Houston hub.
Management said the offering allows fleet owners to avoid investing in permanent fueling infrastructure or sending drivers to off-site stations. Certarus will use its existing mobile storage units and deploy equipment to reduce gas pressure and enable rapid truck fueling at customer locations.
MacDonald said the fleet-fueling business has a different commercial profile from Certarus’ wellsite business because it can provide a more permanent solution. He said its margin potential is more attractive than the wellsite business, though the company is pricing the service to remain competitive with retail fueling alternatives.
Winger said the new business is not expected to create a notable financial drag during its ramp-up because it can use Certarus’ existing hub and mobile-storage infrastructure. The company said the initial fleet-fueling contract fits within its existing capital expenditure plan.
Propane Results Reflect Seasonal Dynamics
U.S. propane adjusted EBITDA was negative $5.1 million, compared with break-even results a year earlier. Chief Financial Officer Grier Colter said the decline was primarily caused by lower retail sales volumes after the company exited the first quarter with higher customer tank levels.
Canadian propane adjusted EBITDA increased 25% to $15.7 million. Colter cited favorable carbon-credit pricing, strong market differentials and improvements in procurement strategy. He said carbon-credit pricing contributed roughly $2 million of year-over-year benefit in the quarter, but management does not expect the overall benefit to increase and anticipates it could be flat to modestly lower over time.
The company’s Superior Delivers propane transformation program contributed $5 million in the second quarter and $17 million year to date, according to Colter. The second-quarter contribution was primarily tied to margin optimization and more sophisticated supply management.
MacDonald said the propane turnaround is progressing but is taking longer than initially expected. The company is preparing for the heating season through proactive tank fills, delivery planning, call-center training, routing optimization and customer retention efforts.
Guidance and Capital Spending Maintained
Superior Plus reaffirmed its expectation for 2% EBITDA growth in 2026 and continued to forecast approximately 5% year-over-year EBITDA growth in 2027, when new data center work is expected to begin contributing.
- Total 2026 capital expenditures are expected to remain at $230 million.
- Capital spending on CNG equipment is expected to accelerate in the third and fourth quarters to support a major data center contract anticipated to begin in 2027.
- Leverage was 3.6 times at the end of the second quarter and is expected to reach 4.0 times by year-end as the company invests in CNG growth opportunities.
- The company expects 2027 capital expenditures to remain elevated at levels similar to 2026, subject to an update next February.
Colter said Superior Plus repurchased about 34 million shares, or 14% of its outstanding float, since November 2024 for roughly $233 million at an average price below $7 per share. The company did not buy back shares in the second quarter, as it shifted capital allocation toward Certarus growth projects.
About Superior Plus (TSE:SPB)
Superior is a leading North American distributor of propane, compressed natural gas, renewable energy and related products and services, servicing approximately 770,000 customer locations in the U.S. and Canada. Through its primary businesses, propane distribution and CNG, RNG and hydrogen distribution, Superior safely delivers clean burning fuels to residential, commercial, utility, agricultural and industrial customers not connected to a pipeline. By displacing more carbon intensive fuels, Superior is a leader in the energy transition and helping customers lower operating costs and improve environmental performance.
