Edwin Johnson
Analyst · JPMorgan
Thank you, John. Good morning, everyone. We finished the year in line with the revised guidance that we gave after the last quarter. I'm happy to go through a brief overview of the quarter but would like to spend a little more time on where we are strategically and walk through our thinking on the fiscal '13 guidance.
On a consolidated basis, revenue came in at $109.2 million, about the same as the fourth quarter last year, with Solid Waste revenues up $2.4 million, offset by a decline in our brokerage revenue of $1.4 million and Recycling revenue of another $1.4 million.
Commodity prices were down 13.4% as compared to this time last year, and this was partially offset by volume increases due to our continued success with our Zero-Sort offering. Growth in Solid Waste revenue was driven primarily by the success of our core pricing program as our division managers continue to be price leaders, yielding 2.3% from the market.
On the third quarter call, we talked about the unexpected problems that we were experiencing as a result of the residual effect of the rain from Tropical Storm Lee and Hurricane Irene on our landfills. Although the storms were in August, directly take cost and the indirect order problems caused by the excess moisture in the landfills spiked our operating cost in the third quarter. We're pleased to report that we were successful in getting all that under control, and our cost of ops dropped from $81.4 million last quarter to $77.5 million this quarter. This compares to $79.9 million in the fourth quarter of last year as our continuing efforts to reduce cost and improve operating efficiency are now more evident.
SG&A decreased by about $3 million compared to last year, primarily salaries and bonuses, but is up from the third quarter due to equity-based comp adjustments.
John mentioned our ongoing efforts to sell Maine Energy, our refuse-derived fuel plant. In accordance with GAAP, we are taking a noncash impairment charge in the quarter to write down the plant to anticipated fair value to be received on the sale. Adjusting for that and other unusual items this year and last, as laid out in the table at the back of the press release, operating income improved $800,000 from the fourth quarter last year to $2.9 million. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter came in at $19.9 million, up from $18.3 million last year.
Now I'd like to spend some time walking through our guidance, as this should provide you with a clear picture of current trends and our thoughts on the timing of some of our more significant strategic initiatives. Perhaps the most important thing to discuss upfront is 2 potentially significant things that are not reflected on our guidance. We have not reflected the sale of Maine Energy or the refinancing of our 11% second lien notes. Maine Energy has been included in our guidance as a continuing operation at current low power prices, albeit at a reduced capital cost. As we have disclosed, we are in meaningful discussions regarding the sale of this plant to our host community partner. The transaction is complex and the timing is somewhat out of our control as it requires a political process to run its course. Due to the delicate nature of the matter, we are not commenting on any details at this time. If and when the sale occurs, we will disclose the final details of the transaction and offer a revision to our guidance.
Similarly, the timing of the second lien note refinance has become less certain. These notes are first callable after July 15 at 105.5, a premium of $9.9 million, and callable at par on or after July 15, 2013. Our original estimates were cash a interest savings of over $10 million, worth the one-time charge of the premium. The markets have moved against us, hopefully temporarily, and the premium now exceeds one year of the cash interest benefit.
Over the past 2 years, we've been very disciplined on making sound financial decisions for our shareholders, so as much as we would like to lower interest cost now, it is not prudent to rush into a significantly negative NPV trade that would make us pay for it in the long run. We continue to monitor the market, and we'll complete a transaction when the benefit exceeds the cost. The refinancing has not been reflected on our cash flow guidance and again, we will disclose the transaction when it occurs and restate guidance at that time.
Our revenue guidance for 2013 is fairly flat at $482 million to $492 million. Not as bad as it looks, though, when you break out the pieces. $4 million less in major account revenue due to the waste management acquisition of Oakleaf. Fortunately, this was real low-margin business. $2.5 million to $4 million less in Recycling revenue due to commodity pricing. This assumes a continuing weak market. No improvement in disposal pricing, which is more market driven, but continued success with our yield management system on the collection side. And no acquisitions, except for rollover effects, are in the guidance as we only reflect acquisitions after completion.
One major driver and potential upside is the landfill volumes. During this past year, we saw declines in special waste due to a lack of government-backed projects. Before that, it was the loss of construction and demolition material. Some of this was offset by drill cuttings, but we've seen a decline in those volumes and have had to forecast accordingly. A positive is that our permit increases in Southbridge and Chemung are in locations that are easy to find volume and should start to benefit from price improvement over the next few years. Due to timing concerns, this pricing benefit is not reflected in our 2013 guidance.
I should note here that our guidance assumes a slow start to the year. The early end to winter weather brought forward many customer projects normally scheduled for spring into March and April. And accordingly, roll-off work and landfill volumes fell off in May, where we would normally see them. We expect Q1 revenue to come in roughly $4 million to $5 million below the first quarter of last year and adjusted EBITDA to be down $2 million to $3 million.
With that analysis of the guided revenue, we can quickly take it down to EBITDA and cash flow. On fairly flat revenue, EBITDA benefits from continued positive collection pricing and volume increases at Chemung and Southbridge, offset by the percentage of the commodity price declines, hit the bottom line, which is about 35% due to our naturally hedged position. The loss of major account revenue does not have much of an EBITDA effect. Free cash flow further benefits from reduced capital requirements. The cash flow guidance reflects our estimate of $45.5 million in cash interest cost and about $500,000 in cash taxes.
The long-term strategic picture remains strong. We still believe that our landfills are perfectly located both in markets where disposal supply is on the decline and in locations to take advantage of the direct and indirect benefits of the Marcellus Shale drilling activity in Pennsylvania and in New York at some time in the future. Natural gas prices have slowed the drilling activity in Pennsylvania, but we certainly believe this will change as our economy shifts towards this clean and abundant North American fuel.
Southbridge is still on track to benefit from an additional 105,000-ton-per-year increase, and its permit is scheduled to occur next winter. And we still anticipate this volume will eventually be filled internally after the expiration of our put-or-pay agreement in Peabody at the end of calendar 2014.
One last comment on our 2 investments that John described as noncore, RecycleBank and GreenFiber. We continue to look to monetize these assets but have not had success to date, so I'd like to point out our thinking. RecycleBank has interesting prospects and could be a significant value at some time in the future. As it is only on the books for about $4 million and does not take any management time or any further investment, we feel we can be patient.
GreenFiber continues to struggle with the depressed housing market, but that market is now starting to show positive signs and they have some interesting product developments about to go into test marketing.
The management team has done an excellent job, and although we have had to invest some cash this past year, we do not expect any significant further cash requirements. Like RecycleBank, there are no meaningful offers on the table at this time, and it seems prudent to be patient. We wrote our investment down in the third quarter and currently have only about $6.5 million on the balance sheet.
That concludes our overview of the quarter and guidance for 2013. I'd like to now turn it back to the operator to open the lines for any questions you might have on the quarter or our strategy going forward.