Vertex Energy, Inc.
Lead Plaintiff Deadline 06/12/2023
The law firm of Kirby McInerney LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama on behalf of those who acquired Vertex Energy, Inc. (“Vertex” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: VTNR) securities during the period from April 1, 2022 through August 8, 2022 (the “Class Period”). Investors have until June 12, 2023 to apply to the Court to be appointed as lead plaintiff in the lawsuit.
Vertex is an energy company focused on the production and distribution of conventional and alternative fuels.
On August 9, 2022, Vertex filed with the SEC a Form 8-K that included its second quarter 2022 earnings release and held an earnings conference call for analysts and investors. In the earnings release and on the call, Vertex disclosed the massive losses incurred at its Mobile refinery during the second quarter of 2022, a net loss for the Company of $63.8 million, and that adjusted EBITDA
for the Mobile refinery, even after adjusting for certain incurred losses, was only $63.6 million, compared to the guidance given just three months prior for EBITDA of $120-$130 million in the second quarter, a total shortfall of 50%. On this news, the price of Vertex shares declined by $6.18 per share, or approximately 44.21%, from $13.98 per share to close at $7.80 on August 9, 2022.
The lawsuit alleges that, throughout the Class Period, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose that: (i) prior to the acquisition of the Mobile refinery, defendants had entered into inventory and crack spread hedging derivatives that significantly capped the profit margins on 50% of the Mobile refinery’s expected output over the period April 1, 2022 to September 30, 2022, affecting over 6.5 million barrels of refined fuel output; (ii) prior to the acquisition of the Mobile refinery, defendants had entered into an inventory intermediation agreement with the investment bank Macquarie Group, requiring Vertex to purchase hedges to protect Macquarie’s position in holding the crude and refined inventory and resulted in Vertex incurring significant fees and inventory losses; (iii) prior to the acquisition of the Mobile refinery, defendants had entered into an inventory purchase agreement with Shell Oil as part of the Mobile acquisition agreement, requiring Vertex to purchase substantially more inventory form Shell Oil at above-market prices and triggering $13.3 million in inventory losses; (iv) immediately following the acquisition of the Mobile refinery, Vertex experienced production issues that caused significant shortfalls in refined fuel volumes and $8 million in lost profits; and (v) the purported profit margins that could be achieved at the refinery were overstated.