Americold Announces Upsizing and Extension of New Sustainability-Linked Senior Unsecured Credit Facilities

ATLANTA, GA., Aug. 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Americold Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: COLD) (“Americold” or the “Company”), the world’s largest publicly traded REIT focused on the ownership, operation, acquisition, and development of temperature-controlled warehouses, announced today it has extended and upsized its senior unsecured credit facilities from $1.5 billion to approximately $2.0 billion. The refinance closed on August 23, 2022.   The senior unsecured credit facilities enhance the Company’s strong liquidity position and extend its well-staggered debt maturity profile. Additionally, the Company plans to use a portion of the unsecured credit facilities to refinance its last significant tranche of secured, CMBS debt, which matures May 1, 2023, but is prepayable at par beginning November 1, 2022.   Americold plans to enter into interest rate swaps to fix a significant portion of the unsecured credit facilities, which will maintain pro forma fixed rate total indebtedness in line with the Company's historical levels.   Additionally, the senior unsecured credit facilities incorporate a sustainability-linked pricing component, with pricing subject to adjustment based on an annual GRESB rating.

“We are pleased to further enhance the strength and financial flexibility of our balance sheet by refinancing our senior unsecured credit facilities,” said Marc Smernoff, Americold’s Chief Financial Officer. “We have extended our overall debt duration and raised unsecured debt to pay off high coupon, secured CMBS debt. Since going public in 2018, we have been dedicated to pursuing an unsecured balance sheet structure, and this refinance puts us in position to repay our last meaningful tranche of secured debt. Additionally, we are proud to align our corporate commitment to sustainability with our financing strategy by incorporating a sustainability-linked pricing component into our senior unsecured credit facilities’ pricing structure. We greatly appreciate the support of our banking partners, and their continued confidence in our strategy and in the strong fundamentals that underpin our business model.”

The revolving credit facility is comprised of a $575 million U.S. dollar component and a $575 million U.S. dollar equivalent, multicurrency component. The revolving credit facility matures in August 2027, inclusive of two, six-month extension options. Based on Americold’s current credit ratings, the revolving credit facility bears interest at 85 basis points over the adjusted SOFR rate. Based on Americold’s current credit ratings, the revolving credit facility carries an annual facility fee of 20 basis points.

The $375 million U.S. dollar term loan A-1 facility, upsized from $175 million previously, matures in August 2027, inclusive of two, twelve-month extension options. The Company used the incremental $200 million of proceeds to repay a portion of the revolving credit facility’s U.S. dollar balance. Based on Americold’s current credit ratings, the term loan A-1 facility bears interest at 95 basis points over the adjusted SOFR rate.

The newly-raised, unfunded $270 million U.S. dollar term loan delayed draw facility matures in January 2028, and does not have any extension options. The Company expects to draw and fund the delayed draw facility on November 1, 2022, to repay the approximately $266 million of secured, CMBS debt that is prepayable at par beginning November 1, 2022. The remaining proceeds of the delayed draw facility will be used for general corporate purposes. Based on Americold’s current credit ratings, the term loan delayed draw facility bears interest at 95 basis points over the adjusted SOFR rate.

The CAD 250 million Canadian term loan A-2 facility matures in January 2028, and does not have any extension options. Based on Americold’s current credit ratings, the term loan A-2 facility bears interest at 95 basis points over the adjusted CDOR rate.

The senior unsecured credit facilities – inclusive of the revolving credit facility, the term loan A-1 facility, the term loan delayed draw facility, and the term loan A-2 facility - permit a reduction in the interest rate upon meeting certain GRESB ratings.

The Joint Bookrunners for the Senior Unsecured Credit Facilities are BofA Securities, Inc., JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., Citibank, N.A., and Royal Bank of Canada. BofA Securities, Inc., JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., Citibank, N.A., Royal Bank of Canada, Cooperatieve Rabobank U.A., New York Branch, and Truist Securities, Inc. serve as Joint Lead Arrangers. Bank of America, N.A. serves as Administrative Agent, and BofA Securities, Inc. and Cooperatieve Rabobank U.A., New York Branch serve as Sustainability Structuring Agents. JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A., Citibank, N.A., Royal Bank of Canada, Cooperatieve Rabobank U.A., and Truist Bank serve as Co-Syndication Agents. Citizens Bank, National Association, Goldman Sachs Lending Partners LLC, Huntington National Bank, PNC Bank, National Association, and Regions Bank serve as Co-Documentation Agents. Morgan Stanley Bank, N.A., AgCountry Farm Credit Services, FLCA, Compeer Financial PCA, HSBC Bank USA, N.A., and Raymond James Bank, N.A. also participated in the Facilities.

About the Company

Americold is the world’s largest publicly traded REIT focused on the ownership, operation, acquisition and development of temperature-controlled warehouses. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Americold owns and operates 249 temperature-controlled warehouses, with approximately 1.5 billion refrigerated cubic feet of storage, in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and South America. Americold’s facilities are an integral component of the supply chain connecting food producers, processors, distributors and retailers to consumers.

Forward-Looking Statements

This document contains statements about future events and expectations that constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on our beliefs, assumptions and expectations of our future financial and operating performance and growth plans, taking into account the information currently available to us. These statements are not statements of historical fact. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause our actual results to differ materially from the expectations of future results we express or imply in any forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on such statements. Factors that could contribute to these differences include the following: the impact of supply chain disruptions, including, among others, the impact on labor availability, raw material availability, manufacturing and food production; construction materials and transportation; uncertainties and risks related to public health crises, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic; adverse economic or real estate developments in our geographic markets or the temperature-controlled warehouse industry; rising interest rates and inflation in operating costs, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; general economic conditions; labor and power costs; labor shortages; risks associated with the ownership of real estate generally and temperature-controlled warehouses in particular; acquisition risks, including the failure to identify or complete attractive acquisitions or the failure of acquisitions to perform in accordance with projections and to realize anticipated cost savings and revenue improvements; our failure to realize the intended benefits from our recent acquisitions, and including synergies, or disruptions to our plans and operations or unknown or contingent liabilities related to our recent acquisitions; risks related to expansions of existing properties and developments of new properties, including failure to meet targeted completion dates and budgeted or stabilized returns within expected time frames, or at all, in respect thereof; a failure of our information technology systems, systems conversions and integrations, cybersecurity attacks or a breach of our information security systems, networks or processes could cause business disruptions or loss of confidential information; risks related to privacy and data security concerns, and data collection and transfer restrictions and related foreign regulations; defaults or non-renewals of significant customer contracts, including as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic; uncertainty of revenues, given the nature of our customer contracts; our failure to obtain necessary outside financing; risks related to, or restrictions contained in, our debt financings; decreased storage rates or increased vacancy rates; risks related to current and potential international operations and properties; difficulties in expanding our operations into new markets, including international markets; risks related to the partial ownership of properties, including as a result of our lack of control over such investments and the failure of such entities to perform in accordance with projections; our failure to maintain our status as a REIT; possible environmental liabilities, including costs, fines or penalties that may be incurred due to necessary remediation of contamination of properties presently or previously owned by us; financial market fluctuations; actions by our competitors and their increasing ability to compete with us; changes in applicable governmental regulations and tax legislation, including in the international markets; geopolitical conflicts, such as the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine; additional risks with respect to the addition of European operations and properties; changes in real estate and zoning laws and increases in real property tax rates; our relationship with our associates, including the occurrence of any work stoppages or any disputes under our collective bargaining agreements and employment related litigation; liabilities as a result of our participation in multi-employer pension plans; uninsured losses or losses in excess of our insurance coverage; the potential liabilities, costs and regulatory impacts associated with our in-house trucking services and the potential disruptions associated with our use of third-party trucking service providers to provide transportation services to our customers; the cost and time requirements as a result of our operation as a publicly traded REIT; changes in foreign currency exchange rates; the impact of anti-takeover provisions in our constituent documents and under Maryland law, which could make an acquisition of us more difficult, limit attempts by our stockholders to replace our directors and affect the price of our common stock, $0.01 par value per share, of our common stock; and the potential dilutive effect of our common stock offerings.

Words such as “anticipates,” “believes,” “continues,” “estimates,” “expects,” “goal,” “objectives,” “intends,” “may,” “opportunity,” “plans,” “potential,” “near-term,” “long-term,” “projections,” “assumptions,” “projects,” “guidance,” “forecasts,” “outlook,” “target,” “trends,” “should,” “could,” “would,” “will” and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements included in this document include, among others, statements about our plans and expectations regarding refinancing our CMBS debt, use of proceeds and hedging strategies, including entering into interest rate swaps to reduce floating rate debt exposure to historical levels. We qualify any forward-looking statements entirely by these cautionary factors. Other risks, uncertainties and factors, including those discussed under “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 and in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2022, could cause our actual results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements we make. We assume no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

Contacts:

Americold Realty Trust
Investor Relations
Telephone: 678-459-1959
Email: investor.relations@americold.com