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General
 3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2020
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]  
General General
The Company
Americold Realty Trust, together with its subsidiaries (ART, the Company, or we), is a real estate investment trust (REIT) organized under Maryland law.
During 2010, the Company formed a Delaware limited partnership, Americold Realty Operating Partnership, L.P. (the Operating Partnership), and transferred substantially all of its interests in entities and associated assets and liabilities to the Operating Partnership. This structure is commonly referred to as an umbrella partnership REIT or an UPREIT structure. The REIT is the sole general partner of the Operating Partnership, owning approximately 99% of the common general partnership interests as of March 31, 2020. Americold Realty Operations, Inc., a Delaware corporation and a wholly-owned subsidiary of the REIT, is the sole limited partner of the Operating Partnership, owning 1% of the common general partnership interests as of March 31, 2020. As the sole general partner of the Operating Partnership, the REIT has full, exclusive and complete responsibility and discretion in the day-to-day management and control of the Operating Partnership. The limited partners of the Operating Partnership do not have rights to replace Americold Realty Trust as the general partner nor do they have participating rights, although they do have certain protective rights. The terms “Americold,” the “Company,” “we,” “our” and “us” refer to Americold Realty Trust and all of its consolidated subsidiaries, including the Operating Partnership.
During the third quarter of 2019 and first quarter of 2020, the Company granted Operating Partnership Profit Units (OP Units) to certain members of the Board of Trustees and certain members of management of the Company, which are described further in Note 11. Upon vesting these units will represent interests in the Operating Partnership that are not owned by Americold Realty Trust. We expect that the expense associated with the vesting of the OP Units in the Operating Partnership will be immaterial to the consolidated financial statements of the Company.
On March 9, 2020, the Company filed Articles of Amendment to the Company’s Amended and Restated Declaration of Trust with the State Department of Assessments and Taxation of Maryland to increase the number of authorized common shares of beneficial interest, $0.01 par value per share, from 250,000,000 to 325,000,000. The Articles of Amendment were effective upon filing. The Company also has 25,000,000 authorized preferred shares of beneficial interest, $0.01 par value per share; however, none are issued or outstanding as of March 31, 2020 or December 31, 2019.
The Operating Partnership includes numerous qualified REIT subsidiaries (QRSs). Additionally, the Operating Partnership conducts various business activities in the United States (U.S.), Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, and Canada through several wholly-owned taxable REIT subsidiaries (TRSs).
Ownership
Initial Public Offering
On January 23, 2018, we completed an initial public offering of our common shares, or IPO, in which we issued and sold 33,350,000 of our common shares, including 4,350,000 common shares pursuant to the exercise in full of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional common shares. The common shares sold in the offering were registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Securities Act) pursuant to our Registration Statement on Form S-11 (File No. 333-221560), as amended, which was declared effective by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on January 18, 2018.
September 2018 Follow-On Public Offering
On September 18, 2018, the Company completed a follow-on public offering of 4,000,000 of its common shares at a public offering price of $24.50 per share, which generated net proceeds of approximately $92.5 million to the Company after deducting the underwriting discount and estimated offering expenses payable by the Company, and an additional 6,000,000 common shares pursuant to the 2018 forward sale agreement, which is currently expected to settle on or before September 2020. The term was extended from its original settlement of September 2019. The Company did not initially receive any proceeds from the sale of the common shares subject to the 2018 forward sale agreement that were sold by the forward purchaser or its affiliate. The Company accounts for the 2018 forward contract as equity and therefore is exempt from derivative and fair value accounting. Before the issuance of the Company’s common shares, if any, upon physical or net share settlement of the 2018 forward sale agreement, the common shares issuable upon settlement of the 2018 forward sale agreement will be reflected in its diluted earnings per share calculations using the treasury stock method. Under this method, the number of the Company’s common shares used in calculating diluted earnings per share is deemed to be increased by the excess, if any, of the number of common shares that would be issued upon full physical settlement of the 2018 forward sale agreement less the number of common shares that could be purchased by the Company in the market (based on the average market price during the period) using the proceeds receivable upon full physical settlement (based on the adjusted 2018 forward sale price at the end of the reporting period). If and when the Company physically or net share settles the 2018 forward sale agreement, the delivery of the Company’s common shares would result in an increase in the number of common shares outstanding and dilution to our earnings per share. As of March 31, 2020, the Company has not settled any portion of the 2018 forward sale agreement.
March 2019 Secondary Public Offering
In March 2019, the Company completed a secondary public offering in which certain funds affiliated with YF ART Holdings and The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (Goldman) sold their remaining interests in the Company of 38,422,583 and 8,061,228 common shares, respectively, at $27.75 per share, which included 6,063,105 shares purchased by the underwriters upon the exercise in full of their option to purchase additional shares. The selling shareholders received proceeds from the offering, which, net of underwriting fees, totaled $1.1 billion. The Company received no proceeds and incurred fees of $1.5 million related to this offering.
April 2019 Follow-On Public Offering
On April 22, 2019, the Company completed a follow-on public offering of 42,062,000 of its common shares, including 6,562,000 common shares pursuant to the exercise in full of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional common shares, at a public offering price of $29.75 per share, which generated net proceeds of approximately $1.21 billion to the Company after deducting the underwriting discount and estimated offering expenses payable by the Company, and an additional 8,250,000 common shares pursuant to the 2019 forward sale agreement. The Company did not initially receive any proceeds from the sale of the common shares subject to the 2019 forward sale agreement that were sold by the forward purchaser or its affiliate. The 2019 forward sale agreement was settled during the three months ended March 31, 2020 for proceeds of $233.6 million. The proceeds of the follow-on public offering were used to fund the purchase of Chiller Holdco, LLC ( Cloverleaf Cold Storage or Cloverleaf). The Company used the cash proceeds that we received upon settlement of the 2019 forward sale agreement on January 2, 2020 to fund a portion of the Nova Cold Logistics (Nova Cold) acquisition.
At the Market (ATM) Equity Program
On August 23, 2019, the Company entered into an equity distribution agreement pursuant to which we may sell, from time to time, up to an aggregate sales price of $500.0 million of our common shares through the ATM Equity Program. Sales of our common shares made pursuant to the ATM Equity Program may be made in negotiated transactions or transactions that are deemed to be “at the market” offerings as defined in Rule 415 under the Securities Act, including sales made directly on the NYSE, or sales made to or through a market maker other than on an exchange, or as otherwise agreed between the applicable Agent and us. Sales may also be made on a forward basis pursuant to separate forward sale agreements. We intend to use the net proceeds from sales of our common shares pursuant to the ATM Equity Program for general corporate purposes, which may include funding acquisitions and development projects. There were no common shares sold under the ATM Equity Program during the first quarter of 2020. On April 16, 2020 this ATM Equity Program was terminated and replaced with a new ATM Equity Program which is further described in Note 20, Subsequent Events.
Acquisitions and Investments in Joint Ventures
On February 1, 2019, the Company acquired PortFresh Holdings, LLC (PortFresh). The Company paid aggregate cash consideration of $35.2 million, net of cash acquired.
On May 1, 2019, the Company entered into an equity purchase agreement to acquire Cloverleaf Cold Storage (Cloverleaf). The Company refers to the completion of the acquisition of Cloverleaf pursuant to the executed purchase agreement as “the Cloverleaf Acquisition”. The Company paid aggregate cash consideration of approximately $1.24 billion. The consideration paid by the Company was funded using net proceeds from the Company’s equity offering that closed on April 22, 2019, along with funds drawn under the Company’s senior unsecured revolving credit facility.
On May 1, 2019, the Company also acquired Lanier Cold Storage (Lanier). The Company paid aggregate cash consideration of approximately $81.9 million, net of cash acquired.
On November 19, 2019, the Company acquired MHW Group Inc. (MHW). The Company paid aggregate cash consideration of approximately $50.8 million, net of cash acquired. Additionally, on this date the Company announced the acquisition of Nova Cold which closed in January 2020 for CAD $338.6 million. The Company funded the Nova Cold acquisition using a combination of equity from its April 2019 forward sale agreement, the Company’s revolving credit facility and cash on hand.
On January 2, 2020, the Company completed the purchase of all outstanding shares of Nova Cold for Canadian Dollars of $337.3 million, net of cash acquired ($259.5 million USD, net of cash acquired). The acquisition was funded utilizing proceeds from the settlement of our April 2019 forward sale agreement combined with cash drawn on our 2018 Senior Unsecured Revolving Credit Facility.
On January 2, 2020, the Company completed the purchase of all outstanding membership interests of Newport Cold for cash consideration of $56.1 million, net of cash acquired.
On March 6, 2020, the Company acquired a 14.99% ownership interest in Superfrio Armazéns Gerais S.A. (SuperFrio) for Brazil Real Dollars of 117.8 million, or approximately USD $25.7 million, inclusive of certain legal fees.
Basis of Presentation and Principles of Consolidation
The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the U.S. (GAAP) for interim financial information, and with the rules and regulations of the SEC. These unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements do not include all disclosures associated with the Company’s consolidated annual financial statements included in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, and, accordingly, should be read in conjunction with the referenced annual report. In the opinion of management, all adjustments (all of which are normal and recurring in nature) considered necessary for a fair presentation have been included. All significant intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation. Operating results for the interim periods presented are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the full year.
Use of Estimates
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of (1) assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities as of the date of the financial statements, and (2) revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates.
Significant Risks and Uncertainties
One of the most significant risks and uncertainties is the potential adverse effect of the current pandemic of the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused, and is likely to continue to cause severe economic, market and other disruptions worldwide, which could lead to material impairments of our assets, increases in our allowance for credit losses and changes in judgments in determining the fair value of our assets. Conditions in the bank lending, capital and other financial markets may deteriorate, and our access to capital and other sources of funding may become constrained or more costly, which could materially and adversely affect the availability and terms of future borrowings, renewals, re-financings and other capital raises.
The extent to which COVID-19 impacts our operations will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with any degree of confidence, including the scope, severity, duration and geographies of the outbreak, the actions taken to contain the COVID-19 pandemic or mitigate its impact as requested or mandated by governmental authorities or otherwise voluntarily taken by individuals or businesses, and the direct and indirect economic effects of the illness and containment measures, among others. As a result, we cannot at this time predict the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, liquidity, results of operations and prospects.
Reclassifications
Certain immaterial, prior period amounts have been reclassified to conform to the current period presentation on the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Shareholders’ Equity. The Condensed Consolidated Statements of Shareholders’ Equity reflects the reclassification required in the prior period to condense the amount previously classified within ‘Other’ to be classified within ‘Other comprehensive loss’, both of which are a component of Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income (Loss).