Westrock Coffee Company (NASDAQ: WEST) (“Westrock Coffee” or the
“Company”) today announced that it has entered into definitive
agreements with affiliates of HF Capital, LLC and the Herbert Hunt
family to make aggregate equity investments of $75.0 million in the
Company through the purchase of 7,500,000 shares of Company common
stock at a price of $10.00 per share. The transactions are expected
to close in August 2023, subject to the satisfaction of customary
closing conditions, including, in the case of the investment by HF
Capital, termination or expiration of the waiting period under the
Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976.
The Company also announced it has amended its
existing $400 million credit agreement to (i) increase the
Company’s total net leverage financial covenant for a period of
time not to exceed April 1, 2025, and (ii) to raise the minimum
interest coverage ratio from 1.50x to 2.00x.
Scott T. Ford, CEO and Co-founder stated, “We
are excited to announce both a follow-on $50.0 million equity
investment by HF Capital, one of the original investors in our
go-public transaction, and a $25.0 million equity investment by the
Herbert Hunt family, a new investor who was excited for the
opportunity to partner with our team as we expand our extract and
ready-to-drink (“RTD”) capabilities. In addition, we are pleased to
announce an amendment to our credit facility that allows us greater
access to our revolver as we continue to build out our Conway,
Arkansas extract and RTD facility. Together, the equity investments
and credit agreement amendment form part of a capital plan that
allows us to not only complete the previously announced Phase 1 and
2 expansions, which consist of high-speed can and glass bottle
lines, a multi-serve bottle line, and bag-in-box and bulk lines,
but now, two additional can lines and an industry leading product
development lab and FDA certified pilot plant to develop coffee,
tea, and other beverages including dairy and plant-based milks to
support our customers’ innovation needs. The expansion of our
extracts and RTD business in Conway is the gateway to future EBITDA
expansion and remains our top strategic priority and key enabler of
future growth.”
Andrew Seamons, Chief Investment Officer at HF
Capital, commented, “Our agreement to make this additional
investment further validates our belief in Westrock Coffee’s
strategy to capitalize on the strong demand for extracts and RTD as
a growing consumer category, and on the ability of the Westrock
Coffee team to deliver on that strategy.”
Wells Fargo Securities served as a Capital
Markets Advisor to Westrock Coffee. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen &
Katz served as legal counsel to Westrock Coffee, and Bass, Berry
& Sims served as legal counsel to HF Capital.
2023 Outlook
The Company is updating its 2023 outlook for
Adjusted EBITDA to now reflect flat to up 10% growth over 2022 from
10% to 25% previously.
Chris Pledger, the Company’s CFO said, “This
change in near term guidance is driven by external factors, such as
product launch delays by certain customers in response to
macro-economic uncertainty, and internal factors, such as the
challenges we’ve experienced scaling our single-serve platform in
the face of equipment delays in the first half of the year, and
investments we are making to build out the infrastructure to
support the launch of our extract and RTD facility. While we
believe that the combination of these factors warrants a change in
our full-year 2023 guidance, we expect new customer wins, continued
improvement in the performance of our single-serve platform, and
the growth in our extract and RTD business to drive a strong back
half of 2023 and to accelerate considerably with the launch of our
extracts and RTD facility in 2024.”
This guidance is an estimate of what the Company
believes is realizable as of the date of this release, and actual
results may vary from this guidance and the variations may be
material. Management will provide additional details regarding the
2023 outlook on the second quarter 2023 earnings results call.
The Company is not readily able to provide a
reconciliation of forecasted Adjusted EBITDA to forecasted GAAP net
income without unreasonable effort because certain items that
impact such figures are uncertain or outside the Company’s control
and cannot be reasonably predicted. Such items include the impacts
of non-cash gains or losses resulting from mark-to-market
adjustments of derivatives and the change in fair value of warrant
liabilities, among others.
Inclusion in Russell
Indices
The Company also announced today that as part of
the annual Russell stock indices reconstitution, Westrock Coffee
Company, under the ticker WEST, has been selected for inclusion in
the Russell 3000® and Russell 2000® indices effective after the US
market opened on June 26, 2023.
For more information on the Russell indices,
please visit the FTSE Russell website.
About Westrock Coffee
Company
Westrock Coffee is a leading integrated coffee,
tea, flavors, extracts, and ingredients solutions provider in the
U.S., providing coffee sourcing, supply chain management, product
development, roasting, packaging, and distribution services to the
retail, foodservice and restaurant, convenience store and travel
center, non-commercial, CPG, and hospitality industries around the
world. With offices in 10 countries, the Company sources coffee and
tea from 35 origin countries. For more information, please visit
www.investors.westrockcoffee.com.
About HF Capital
HF Capital invests capital on behalf of the
Haslam family, based in Knoxville, Tennessee. This includes direct
investments in operating companies as well as investment
commitments to exceptional managers of liquid and illiquid
investments across a spectrum of asset classes and geographies. Jim
A. Haslam II, the family’s patriarch, founded Pilot Company in
1958. Today, Pilot is owned by the Haslam family and Berkshire
Hathaway.
Securities Act Disclosure
The securities being issued and sold in the
equity investment transactions have not been registered under the
Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), or the
securities laws of any state, and may not be offered or sold in the
United States, except pursuant to an effective registration
statement or an applicable exemption from the registration
requirements of the Securities Act.
This press release shall not constitute an offer
to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities
described herein, nor shall there be any offer, solicitation or
sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such
offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release that
are not historical facts are forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as
amended from time to time. Forward-looking statements generally are
accompanied by words such as "believe," "may," "will," "estimate,"
"continue," "anticipate," "intend," "expect," "should," "would,"
"plan," "predict," "potential," "seem," "seek," "future,"
"outlook," and similar expressions that predict or indicate future
events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters,
but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is
not forward-looking. These forward-looking statements include, but
are not limited to, certain plans, expectations, goals,
projections, and statements about the timing and benefits of the
build-out of the Company's Conway, Arkansas manufacturing facility
and distribution center, the plans, objections, expectations, and
intentions of Westrock Coffee, the expected timing for the closing
of the equity investment transactions, Westrock’s 2023 outlook and
other statements that are not historical facts. These statements
are based on various assumptions, whether or not identified in this
communication, and on the current expectations of the management of
Westrock Coffee as of the date hereof and are not predictions of
actual performance. These forward-looking statements are provided
for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to serve as and
should not be relied on by an investor, or others, as a guarantee,
an assurance, a prediction, or a definitive statement of fact or
probability. Actual events and circumstances are difficult or
impossible to predict and will differ from assumptions. Many actual
events and circumstances are beyond the control of Westrock Coffee.
These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks
and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, risks related to
the satisfaction or waiver of the conditions to closing the
proposed equity investment transactions (including the failure to
obtain the necessary regulatory clearance) on the anticipated
timeframe or at all including the possibility that the proposed
transaction does not close; negative effects of this announcement
or the consummation of the proposed investment on the market price
of Westrock Coffee’s common stock and/or operating results; changes
in domestic and foreign business, market, financial, political, and
legal conditions; risks relating to the uncertainty of the
projected financial information with respect to Westrock Coffee;
risks related to the rollout of Westrock Coffee's business and the
timing of expected business milestones; the effects of competition
on Westrock Coffee's business; the ability of Westrock Coffee to
issue equity or equity-linked securities or obtain debt financing
in the future; the risk that Westrock Coffee fails to fully realize
the potential benefits of acquisitions or has difficulty
successfully integrating acquired companies; the availability of
equipment and the timely performance by suppliers involved with the
build-out of the Conway, Arkansas manufacturing facility and
distribution center; the loss of significant customers; and those
factors discussed in Westrock Coffee’s annual report on Form 10-K,
under the heading “Item 1A. Risk Factors”, and other documents
Westrock Coffee has filed, or will file, with the SEC. If any of
these risks materialize or our assumptions prove incorrect, actual
results could differ materially from the results implied by these
forward-looking statements. There may be additional risks that
Westrock Coffee does not presently know, or that Westrock Coffee
currently believes are immaterial, that could also cause actual
results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking
statements. In addition, the forward-looking statements reflect
Westrock Coffee's expectations, plans, or forecasts of future
events and views as of the date of this communication. Westrock
Coffee anticipates that subsequent events and developments will
cause Westrock Coffee's assessments to change. However, while
Westrock Coffee may elect to update these forward-looking
statements at some point in the future, Westrock Coffee
specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These
forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as a
representation of Westrock Coffee's assessments as of any date
subsequent to the date of this communication. Accordingly, undue
reliance should not be placed upon the forward-looking
statements.
Contacts
Media:
ICR for Westrock Coffee: Westrock@icrinc.com
Investor Contact:
ICR for Westrock Coffee: WestrockCoffeeIR@icrinc.com
Westrock Coffee (NASDAQ:WEST)
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Westrock Coffee (NASDAQ:WEST)
過去 株価チャート
から 12 2023 まで 12 2024