GXO Logistics reports fourth quarter and full year 2021 results

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

As required by the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), we provide reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measures contained in this press release to the most directly comparable measure under GAAP, which are set forth in the financial tables below.

GXO’s non-GAAP financial measures in this press release include: adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, pro forma adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA before rent expense (“adjusted EBITDAR”), free cash flow, adjusted net income attributable to common shareholders and adjusted earnings per share (basic and diluted) (“adjusted EPS”), organic revenue, organic revenue growth, net leverage and net debt.

We believe that the above adjusted financial measures facilitate analysis of our ongoing business operations because they exclude items that may not be reflective of, or are unrelated to, GXO’s core operating performance, and may assist investors with comparisons to prior periods and assessing trends in our underlying businesses. Other companies may calculate these non-GAAP financial measures differently, and therefore our measures may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. GXO’s non-GAAP financial measures should only be used as supplemental measures of our operating performance.

Adjusted EBITDA, pro forma adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDAR, adjusted net income attributable to common shareholders and adjusted EPS include adjustments for transaction and integration costs, as well as restructuring costs and other adjustments as set forth in the financial tables below. Transaction and integration adjustments are generally incremental costs that result from an actual or planned acquisition, divestiture or spin-off and may include transaction costs, consulting fees, retention awards, internal salaries and wages (to the extent the individuals are assigned full-time to integration and transformation activities) and certain costs related to integrating and separating IT systems. Restructuring costs primarily relate to severance costs associated with business optimization initiatives.

Pro forma adjusted EBITDA includes adjustments for allocated corporate expenses and public company standalone costs. Allocated corporate expenses are those expenses that were allocated to the combined financial statements on a carve-out basis in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Public company standalone costs are estimated costs of operating GXO as a public standalone company following its spin-off from XPO Logistics, Inc. effective as of August 2, 2021 and represents the midpoint of our estimated corporate costs.

Adjusted EBITDAR excludes rent expense from adjusted EBITDA and is useful to management and investors in evaluating GXO’s performance because adjusted EBITDAR considers the performance of GXO’s operations, excluding decisions made with respect to capital investment, financing and other non-recurring charges. Adjusted EBITDAR is also a measure commonly used by management, research analysts and investors to value companies in the logistics industry. Since adjusted EBITDAR excludes interest expense and rent expense, it allows management, research analysts and investors to compare the value of different companies without regard to differences in capital structures and leasing arrangements.

We believe that free cash flow is an important measure of our ability to repay maturing debt or fund other uses of capital that we believe will enhance stockholder value. We calculate free cash flow as net cash provided by operating activities less payment for purchases of property and equipment plus proceeds from sale of property and equipment. We believe that adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, pro forma adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDAR improve comparability from period to period by removing the impact of our capital structure (interest and financing expenses), asset base (depreciation and amortization), tax impacts and other adjustments as set out in the attached tables, which management has determined are not reflective of core operating activities and thereby assist investors with assessing trends in our underlying businesses. We believe that adjusted net income attributable to GXO and adjusted EPS improve the comparability of our operating results from period to period by removing the impact of certain costs and gains, which management has determined are not reflective of our core operating activities, including amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets. We believe that organic revenue and organic revenue growth are important measures because they exclude the impact of foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations and revenue from acquired businesses. We believe that net leverage and net debt are important measures of our overall liquidity position and are calculated by removing bank overdrafts and cash and cash equivalents from our reported total debt and reported net debt as a ratio of our last twelve-month reported adjusted EBITDA.

Management uses these non-GAAP financial measures in making financial, operating and planning decisions and evaluating GXO’s ongoing performance.

With respect to our financial targets for full year 2022 adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDAR, organic revenue growth, and free cash flow, a reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the corresponding GAAP measures is not available without unreasonable effort due to the variability and complexity of the reconciling items described above that we exclude from these non-GAAP target measures. The variability of these items may have a significant impact on our future GAAP financial results and, as a result, we are unable to prepare the forward-looking statement of income, prepared in accordance with GAAP, that would be required to produce such a reconciliation.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements, including our 2022 financial targets for organic revenue growth, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDAR, free cash flow, depreciation and amortization expense and net capital expenditures; and the expected incremental revenue impact of new customer contracts in 2022. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terms such as “anticipate,” “estimate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “should,” “will,” “expect,” “objective,” “projection,” “forecast,” “goal,” “guidance,” “outlook,” “effort,” “target,” “trajectory” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terms. However, the absence of these words does not mean that the statements are not forward-looking. These forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions and analyses made by the company in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors the company believes are appropriate in the circumstances.

These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions that may cause actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause or contribute to a material difference include, but are not limited to, the risks discussed in our filings with the SEC and the following: the severity, magnitude, duration and aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic and government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, including vaccine mandates; economic conditions generally; supply chain challenges, including labor shortages; competition and pricing pressures; our ability to align our investments in capital assets, including equipment, and warehouses, to our customers’ demands; our ability to successfully integrate and realize anticipated synergies, cost savings and profit improvement opportunities with respect to acquired companies; acquisitions may be unsuccessful or result in other risks or developments that adversely affect our financial condition and results; our ability to develop and implement suitable information technology systems and prevent failures in or breaches of such systems; our ability to raise debt and equity capital; litigation; labor matters, including our ability to manage our subcontractors, and risks associated with labor disputes at our customers’ facilities and efforts by labor organizations to organize our employees; risks associated with defined benefit plans for our current and former employees; fluctuations in currency exchange rates; fluctuations in fixed and floating interest rates; issues related to our intellectual property rights; governmental regulation, including trade compliance laws, as well as changes in international trade policies and tax regimes; governmental or political actions, including the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union; natural disasters, terrorist attacks or similar incidents; a material disruption of GXO’s operations; the inability to achieve the level of revenue growth, cash generation, cost savings, improvement in profitability and margins, fiscal discipline, or strengthening of competitiveness and operations anticipated or targeted; the impact of potential cyber-attacks and information technology or data security breaches; the inability to implement technology initiatives successfully; the expected benefits of the spin-off, and uncertainties regarding the spin-off, including the risk that the spin-off will not produce the desired benefits; a determination by the IRS that the distribution or certain related spin-off transactions should be treated as taxable transactions; expected financing transactions undertaken in connection with the spin-off and risks associated with additional indebtedness; the risk that dis-synergy costs, costs of restructuring transactions and other costs incurred in connection with the spin-off will exceed our estimates; and the impact of the spin-off on our businesses, our operations, our relationships with customers, suppliers, employees and other business counterparties, and the risk that the spin-off may be more difficult, time-consuming or costly than expected, which could result in additional demands on our resources, systems, procedures and controls, disruption of our ongoing business, and diversion of management’s attention from other business concerns.

All forward-looking statements set forth in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements and there can be no assurance that the actual results or developments anticipated by us will be realized or, even if substantially realized, that they will have the expected consequences to or effects on us or our business or operations. Forward-looking statements set forth in this press release speak only as of the date hereof, and we do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances, changes in expectations or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except to the extent required by law.