Americold Enters into Floating to Fixed Interest Rate Swaps

ATLANTA, GA, Dec. 05, 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 entered into interest rate swaps to fix a significant portion of the base interest rates, related to its senior unsecured term loan facilities, into the year 2027.

As a result of these transactions, the only remaining floating rate debt in the Company’s capital structure is the outstanding amounts drawn under the Company’s senior unsecured revolver.

On August 31, 2022, the Company announced it entered into an interest rate swap on $200 million of the $375 million U.S. dollar term loan A-1 facility. Based on Americold’s current credit ratings, the total fixed interest rate is 4.70%. The swap is effective as of September 23, 2022, and it matures December 29, 2023. Today, the Company announced it has entered into another interest rate swap on this $200 million tranche in order to extend the total fixed interest rate period and reduce the total fixed interest rate during the extension period. This swap is effective as of December 29, 2023 and it matures July 30, 2027. Based on Americold’s current credit ratings, the total fixed interest rate is 4.10% during the extension period on this interest rate swap.

Today, the Company announced it has entered into an interest rate swap on the remaining $175 million of the $375 million U.S. dollar term loan A-1 facility. Based on Americold’s current credit ratings, the total fixed interest rate is 4.52%. The swap is effective as of November 30, 2022, and it matures July 30, 2027.

The Company has now fixed all of its senior unsecured term loan facilities into the year 2027, including its $375 million U.S. dollar term loan A-1 facility, its $270 million U.S. dollar delayed draw term loan facility, and its CAD 250 million Canadian term loan A-2 facility. Below is a summary of the interest rate swaps and contractual interest rates for all of the Company’s senior unsecured term loan facilities:

Unsecured Term Loan Tranche	Notional Amount	Base Interest Rate Swap(4)		Contractual Interest Rate(5)		Effective Swap Dates
A-1	$200 million USD(1)(2)	3.65%		4.70%		9/23/2022 – 12/29/2023
A-1	$200 million USD(1)(3)	3.05%		4.10%		12/29/2023 – 7/30/2027
A-1	$175 million USD(3)	3.47%		4.52%		11/30/2022 – 7/30/2027
Delayed draw	$270 million USD(2)	3.05%		4.10%		11/1/2022 – 12/31/2027
A-2	CAD 250 million(2)	3.59%		4.54%		9/23/2022 – 12/31/2027

(1) For the $200 million A-1 tranche, the Company has entered into two, separate interest rate swaps. One is effective from September 23, 2022 to December 29, 2023 (announced on August 31, 2022) and one is effective from December 29, 2023 to July 30, 2027 (announced on December 5, 2022).

(2) Interest rate swap announced on August 31, 2022.

(3) Interest rate swap announced on December 5, 2022.

(4) Base Interest Rate Swap is the fixing of 1 month SOFR (USD tranches) and 1 month CDOR (CAD tranche) for the Effective Swap Dates.

(5) Contractual Interest Rate is the Base Interest Rate Swap plus Credit Spread (95 basis points, based on Americold’s current credit ratings) plus SOFR Adjustment (10 basis points, for USD tranches only).

Additionally, as previously announced, on November 1, 2022, the Company drew on its $270 million U.S. dollar delayed draw term loan facility to pay off its last significant tranche of secured, CMBS debt, which matured May 1, 2023, but was prepayable at par beginning November 1, 2022.

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