Americold Realty Trust Completes Refinancing of Unsecured Credit Facility
Staff Report From Metro Atlanta CEO
Tuesday, April 14th, 2020
Americold Realty Trust (NYSE: COLD) (the “Company” or “Americold”), the world’s largest publicly traded REIT focused on the ownership, operation, acquisition, and development of temperature-controlled warehouses, announced that the Company has completed the refinancing of its unsecured credit facility.
“We are pleased to announce the completion of this key refinancing, which accomplished several important objectives including reducing our cost of capital, extending our debt duration, and enhancing our already strong liquidity position. Importantly, we were able to access incremental capital by expanding and rebalancing our facility to include USD $425 million and CAD $250 million term loans. The CAD term loan creates a natural hedge for our recent Nova Cold acquisition,” stated Marc Smernoff, Chief Financial Officer of Americold Realty Trust.
“With this new financing, our balance sheet is more flexible and better positioned than ever, with plenty of liquidity as we continue to integrate our announced acquisitions and execute on our development pipeline of mission critical, temperature controlled infrastructure. We were very pleased with the overwhelming support from our banking group and we appreciate their continued partnership.”
The Company refinanced its $800 million multicurrency revolving line of credit and expanded its facility to include USD $425 million and CAD $250 million term loans. The new revolver and term loan’s maturity were extended, inclusive of extension options, to 2025, which increased the Company’s total real estate debt duration to 6.8 years as of December 31, 2019, pro forma for this refinancing. Additionally, the Company tightened the credit spread on the revolver and term loans by five basis points, and increased flexibility by improving financial covenants.
With the completion of this financing and inclusive of the funding for all announced developments and acquisitions, the Company’s total liquidity, consisting of cash, revolver and equity forwards exceeds $1 billion.
This new credit facility is being led by BofA Securities, Inc., JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., Citibank, N.A., Royal Bank Of Canada, Coöperatieve Rabobank U.A., New York Branch and Suntrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc. as Joint Lead Arrangers. BBVA USA, Citizens Bank, National Association, Goldman Sachs Lending Partners LLC, Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc., Regions Bank and U.S. Bank National Association are serving as Documentation Agents. Agcountry Farm Credit Services FLCA and Compeer Financial, PCA are additional participants.