Transactions with Affiliates

The Company enters into transactions with and pays certain costs on behalf of affiliates that are commonly controlled in order to reduce risk, reduce administrative expense, create economies of scale, create strategic alliances and supply goods and services to these related parties. The Company also sells and purchases natural gas and electricity with affiliates. The Company presents receivables and payables with the same affiliate on a net basis in the condensed combined and consolidated balance sheets as all affiliate activity is with parties under common control.

Accounts Receivable and Payable—Affiliates

The Company recorded current accounts receivable-affiliates of $1.4 million and $1.2 million as of September 30, 2015 and December 31, 2014, respectively, and current accounts payable—affiliates of $1.9 million and $1.0 million as of September 30, 2015 and December 31, 2014, respectively for certain direct billings and cost allocations for services the Company provided to affiliates and sales or purchases of natural gas and electricity with affiliates.

Prepaid Assets—Affiliates

Prior to April 2015, the Company incurred and subsequently billed or allocated costs of certain employee benefit costs of behalf of affiliates commonly controlled by NuDevco. In April 2015, the Company began prepaying NuDevco for costs of certain employee benefits to be provided through the Company’s benefit plans and recorded current prepaid assets—affiliates of $0.1 million as of September 30, 2015.

Revenues and Cost of Revenues—Affiliates

Beginning on August 1, 2013, the Company and another affiliate entered into an agreement whereby the Company purchased natural gas from the affiliate at the tailgate of the Marlin plant. Cost of revenues—affiliates, recorded in net asset optimization revenues in the condensed combined and consolidated statements of operations for the three months ended September 30, 2015 and 2014 related to this agreement were $3.4 million and $6.5 million, respectively. Cost of revenues—affiliates, recorded in net asset optimization revenues in the condensed combined and consolidated statements of operations for the nine months ended September 30, 2015 and 2014 related to this agreement were $9.6 million and $25.0 million, respectively.

The Company also purchased natural gas at a nearby third party plant inlet which was then sold to the affiliate. Revenues—affiliates, recorded in net asset optimization revenues in the condensed combined and consolidated statements of operations for the three months ended September 30, 2015 and 2014 related to these sales were $0.3 million and $3.2 million, respectively. Revenues—affiliates, recorded in net asset optimization revenues in the condensed combined and consolidated statements of operations for the nine months ended September 30, 2015 and 2014 related to these sales were $0.9 million and $10.3 million, respectively.

Additionally, the Company entered into a natural gas transportation agreement with Marlin, at Marlin’s pipeline, whereby the Company transports retail natural gas and pays the higher of (i) a minimum monthly payment or (ii) a transportation fee per MMBtu times actual volumes transported. The current transportation agreement was set to expire on February 28, 2013, but was extended for three additional years at a fixed rate per MMBtu without a minimum monthly payment. Included in the Company’s results are cost of revenues-affiliates, recorded in retail cost of revenues in the condensed combined and consolidated statements of operations related to this activity, which was less than $0.1 million for both the three and nine months ended September 30, 2015 and 2014, respectively.

Prior to the Offering, the Company also purchased electricity for an affiliate and sold the electricity to the affiliate at the same market price that the Company paid to purchase the electricity. There were no sales of electricity to the affiliate for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2015. There was no in sales of electricity to the affiliate for the three months ended September 30, 2014 and $2.2 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2014, which is recorded in retail revenues—affiliate in the condensed combined and consolidated statements of operations.

Also included in the Company’s results are cost of revenues—affiliates related to derivative instruments, recorded in net asset optimization revenues in the condensed combined and consolidated statements of operations. There was no cost of revenues—affiliates related to derivative instruments for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2015. There was no impact for the three months ended September 30, 2014 and loss of $0.6 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2014, respectively.

Cost allocations

The Company paid certain expenses on behalf of affiliates, which are reimbursed by the affiliates to the Company, including costs that can be specifically identified and certain allocated overhead costs associated with general and administrative services, including executive management, due diligence work, recurring management consulting, facilities, banking arrangements, professional fees, insurance, information services, human resources and other support departments to the affiliates. Where costs incurred on behalf of the affiliate could not be determined by specific identification for direct billing, the costs were primarily allocated to the affiliated entities based on percentage of departmental usage, wages or headcount. The total amount direct billed and allocated to affiliates was $0.6 million and $0.8 million for the three months ended September 30, 2015 and 2014, respectively, and $2.3 million and $4.1 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2015 and 2014, respectively, which is recorded as a reduction in general and administrative expenses in the condensed combined and consolidated statements of operations.

The Company pays residual commissions to an affiliate for all customers enrolled by the affiliate who pay their monthly retail gas or retail electricity bill. No commissions were paid to the affiliate for the three or nine months ended September 30, 2015. There were no commissions paid to the affiliate for the three months ended September 30, 2014. Commissions paid to the affiliate were $0.1 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2014, which is recorded in general and administrative expense in the condensed combined and consolidated statements of operations. This agreement with the affiliate was terminated in May 2014.

Member Distributions and Contributions

During the nine months ended September 30, 2015, the Company made distributions to NuDevco in connection with its holdings of units of Spark HoldCo of $11.7 million in conjunction with the payment of its fourth quarter 2014, first quarter 2015 and second quarter 2015 distributions. Additionally, during the nine months ended September 30, 2015, the Company received a contribution from NuDevco of $0.1 million as NuDevco forgave an account payable due to NuDevco that arose from the payment of withholding taxes related to the vesting of restricted stock units of certain employees of NuDevco who perform services for the Company. During the nine months ended September 30, 2014, the Company made net capital distributions to W. Keith Maxwell III of $36.4 million. In contemplation of the Company’s initial public offering, the Company entered into an agreement with an affiliate in April 2014 to permanently forgive all net outstanding accounts receivable balances from the affiliate through the Offering date. As a result, the accounts receivable balances from the affiliate have been eliminated and presented as a distribution to W. Keith Maxwell III for 2014.

Tax Receivable Agreement

Concurrently with the closing of the Offering, the Company entered into a Tax Receivable Agreement with Spark HoldCo, NuDevco Retail Holdings and NuDevco Retail. This agreement generally provides for the payment by the Company to NuDevco of 85% of the net cash savings, if any, in U.S. federal, state and local income tax or franchise tax that the Company actually realizes (or is deemed to realize in certain circumstances) in future periods as a result of (i) any tax basis increases resulting from the purchase by the Company of Spark HoldCo units from NuDevco Retail Holdings in connection with the Offering, (ii) any tax basis increases resulting from the exchange of Spark HoldCo units for shares of Class A common stock pursuant to the Exchange Right (or resulting from an exchange of Spark HoldCo units for cash pursuant to the Cash Option) and (iii) any imputed interest deemed to be paid by the Company as a result of, and additional tax basis arising from, any payments the Company makes under the Tax Receivable Agreement. The Company retains the benefit of the remaining 15% of these tax savings. See Note 10 “Taxes” for further discussion of amounts recorded in connection with the Offering.

In certain circumstances, the Company may defer or partially defer any payment due (a “TRA Payment”) to the holders of rights under the Tax Receivable Agreement, which are NuDevco Retail Holdings and NuDevco Retail. We did not meet the threshold coverage ratio required to fund the first payment to NuDevco Retail Holdings, LLC under the Tax Receivable Agreement during the four-quarter period ending September 30, 2015. As such, the initial payment under the Tax Receivable Agreement due in late 2015 will be deferred pursuant to the terms thereof.

During the five-year period commencing October 1, 2014, the Company will defer all or a portion of any TRA Payment owed pursuant to the Tax Receivable Agreement to the extent that Spark HoldCo does not generate sufficient Cash Available for Distribution (as defined below) during the four-quarter period ending September 30th of the applicable year in which the TRA Payment is to be made in an amount that equals or exceeds 130% (the “TRA Coverage Ratio”) of the Total Distributions (as defined below) paid in such four-quarter period by Spark HoldCo. For purposes of computing the TRA Coverage Ratio:


•	“Cash Available for Distribution” is generally defined as the Adjusted EBITDA of Spark HoldCo for the applicable period, less (i) cash interest paid by Spark HoldCo, (ii) capital expenditures of Spark HoldCo (exclusive of customer acquisition costs) and (iii) any taxes payable by Spark HoldCo; and

•

“Total Distributions” are defined as the aggregate distributions necessary to cause the Company to receive distributions of cash equal to (i) the targeted quarterly distribution the Company intends to pay to holders of its Class A common stock payable during the applicable four-quarter period, plus (ii) the estimated taxes payable by the Company during such four-quarter period, plus (iii) the expected TRA Payment payable during the calendar year for which the TRA Coverage Ratio is being tested.

In the event that the TRA Coverage Ratio is not satisfied in any calendar year, the Company will defer all or a portion of the TRA Payment to NuDevco under the Tax Receivable Agreement to the extent necessary to permit Spark HoldCo to satisfy the TRA Coverage Ratio (and Spark HoldCo is not required to make and will not make the pro rata distributions to its members with respect to the deferred portion of the TRA Payment). If the TRA Coverage Ratio is satisfied in any calendar year, the Company will pay NuDevco the full amount of the TRA Payment.

Following the five-year deferral period, the Company will be obligated to pay any outstanding deferred TRA Payments to the extent such deferred TRA Payments do not exceed (i) the lesser of the Company's proportionate share of aggregate Cash Available for Distribution of Spark HoldCo during the five-year deferral period or the cash distributions actually received by the Company during the five-year deferral period, reduced by (ii) the sum of (a) the aggregate target quarterly dividends (which, for the purposes of the Tax Receivable Agreement, will be $0.3625 per share per quarter) during the five-year deferral period, (b) the Company's estimated taxes during the five-year deferral period, and (c) all prior TRA Payments and (y) if with respect to the quarterly period during which the deferred TRA Payment is otherwise paid or payable, Spark HoldCo has or reasonably determines it will have amounts necessary to cause the Company to receive distributions of cash equal to the target quarterly distribution payable during that quarterly period. Any portion of the deferred TRA Payments not payable due to these limitations will no longer be payable.