CatchMark Announces Third Quarter 2021 Results

ATLANTA, Nov. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CatchMark Timber Trust, Inc. (NYSE: CTT) today reported third quarter 2021 results.

Brian M. Davis, CatchMark's President and CEO, said: "CatchMark expects to exceed full-year 2021 net income guidance and is on track to generate Adjusted EBITDA at the top-end of full-year guidance. Once again, we achieved solid quarterly operating results highlighted by significantly higher year-over-year timber sales pricing for both pulpwood and sawtimber, which continues to hold premiums over market averages in our premier U.S. South timberland markets. These pricing advantages mostly compensated for lower total harvest volume year-over-year as a result of wet weather conditions in the U.S. South and recent large timberland dispositions, notably the Bandon disposition in the Pacific Northwest. Looking exclusively at the U.S. South where CatchMark focuses its operations, timber sales revenue was comparable year-over-year despite the weather-related harvest delays. Timberland sales for 2021, which were heavily weighted to this year's second quarter, have already met full-year targets and we expect to achieve the midpoint of full-year guidance.  Investment management results also are in line with targets.

Davis added: "Record quarterly net income and earnings per share resulted from a gain recognized on successful execution of the Bandon large disposition. Proceeds from the Bandon sale and recent Triple T redemption used to repay debt further improved CatchMark's capital position and our credit facilities provide ample liquidity to pursue our growth strategy. As of now, our capital recycling program, involving large dispositions, has concluded. Our attention focuses on a disciplined approach to acquisitions that will seek to increase our scale of prime timberlands in the U.S. South's premier mill markets where we already operate a robust platform. We also are looking to sustain our industry-leading Harvest EBITDA per-acre and market pricing premiums, while maintaining stable per-acre merchantable inventory. In addition, we are moving forward with the value realization of our environmental initiatives — involving carbon sequestration, mitigation bank credits, and solar energy — capitalizing on the increasing demand to meet climate challenges. Overall, the economic and market fundamentals supporting our business growth remain strong, including housing, household formation, current product pricing and outlook, and demand for wood products."

Third Quarter 2021 Results

The following table summarizes the current quarter and comparable prior year period results:

Business Segments Overview

Harvest Operations

Significant levels of new housing starts and home remodeling activity, particularly in the U.S. South, have maintained robust demand for timber products in the premier mill markets where CatchMark concentrates its operations. New sawmills in the region continue to come on-line which should increase production levels in coming quarters and support pricing for CatchMark harvests — both sawtimber and pulpwood.

Lower overall harvest volumes and revenues year-over-year resulted primarily from the Bandon large disposition, completed in early August, and weather-related issues in the U.S. South.

Strong pricing in both pulpwood and sawtimber in the U.S. South offset an 11% harvest reduction in the region, due to wet conditions, and resulted in a 1% increase in regional timber sales revenues year-over-year to $15.5 million.

U.S. South:

• Despite the weather-related harvest reduction and recent timberland large dispositions, increased timber sales revenue in the U.S. South year-over-year reflected CatchMark registering significant increases in realized stumpage prices for both pulpwood and sawtimber.
• CatchMark's U.S. South pulpwood and sawtimber stumpage prices were 8% and 11%, respectively, above the prior year quarter at 38% and 16% premiums to TimberMart-South south-wide averages. Negotiated delivered wood sales price increases also helped maintain stumpage values by offsetting increased logging and hauling rates due to higher fuel and labor costs.

Pacific Northwest:

• Timber sales revenue from the Pacific Northwest decreased 86% due to the Bandon disposition. CatchMark had completed 90% of planned full-year harvests in the region at the time of the transaction.

Todd Reitz, Chief Resources Officer, said: "Staying nimble to meet changing customer needs and product mix, given challenging weather conditions, was key during the quarter. Frequent rain events put extra pressure on production and customer raw material inventories, adding pricing tension for spot market deals. Our delivered wood model gave us an edge in competition to meet logging capacity and managing costs. We are well positioned in superior markets with our prime timberlands and expect to have a solid fourth quarter, and are on course to achieve the midpoint of our full-year harvest volume guidance, as our mill customers are running very well with no mill quotas for deliveries."

Real Estate 

Timberland Sales:  

• CatchMark sold 1,000 acres for $2.1 million, compared to 1,200 acres for $2.4 million in third quarter 2020.
• Lower Real Estate EBITDA resulted from selling 17% fewer acres at a comparable price per acre.
• Acres sold had a lower average merchantable timber stocking than the portfolio average — 32 tons per acre versus 41 tons per acre.
• Through the third quarter, CatchMark had already exceeded the lower range of full-year guidance for timberland sales, having sold 7,100 acres for $13.1 million with transactions concentrated in the second quarter.

Large Dispositions: 

CatchMark completed the large disposition of its wholly-owned Bandon timberlands, comprising 18,100 acres in Oregon, for $100 million, or $5,536 per acre, and recognized a gain of $23.4 million. The timberlands were purchased in 2018 for $4,916 per acre. Proceeds of $95.4 million from the sale were used to pay down CatchMark's outstanding debt balance on the Multi-Draw Term Facility and Term Loan A-3.

Investment Management 

On October 14, 2021, in connection with CatchMark's agreement to redeem its common equity interest in Triple T for $35 million, the Triple T asset management agreement terminated and was replaced by a transition services agreement, effective September 1, 2021. Under the transition services agreement, CatchMark will provide transition services to Triple T through March 2022 in exchange for $5 million in cash.

For the third quarter, asset management fees were comparable year-over-year and included a $0.2 million promote earned from the Dawsonville Bluffs joint venture for exceeding investment return hurdles generated by strong returns on wetland mitigation credit sales.

Investment Management EBITDA decreased by $0.7 million year-over-year primarily due to a $0.6 million decrease in Adjusted EBITDA from Dawsonville Bluffs.

CAPITAL POSITION AND SHARE REPURCHASES

CatchMark amended its existing credit agreement to establish a $68.6 million revolver feature on Term Loan A-3 and extend the maturity date of the existing Revolving Credit Facility from 2022 to 2026. The new revolver feature allows CatchMark to retain its borrowing capacity after using $95.4 million of Bandon disposition proceeds to repay debt.

Following the debt repayments with proceeds from the Bandon disposition and Triple T redemption, CatchMark had increased its liquidity from $180.0 million at the end of the second quarter to $278.2 million — comprised of $24.6 million in cash and $253.6 million of borrowing capacity with an extremely attractive cost of debt at 2.92% as of October 15, 2021.

No share repurchases were made under CatchMark's share repurchase program during the quarter and $13.7 million remains available under the program as of September 30, 2021.

Chief Financial Officer Ursula Godoy-Arbelaez, said: "After executing our capital recycling program and following our exit from Triple T, CatchMark has ample liquidity and is in a solid capital position to move ahead with our planned growth initiatives. Our $300 million of debt outstanding has a competitive cost under three percent with no near-term maturities and we are well within our financial covenants. Most importantly, we are well positioned to continue to cover our dividends from cash available for distribution within our historical payout ratio of 75% to 85%."

Covered Dividend

• During the third quarter, CatchMark paid $6.5 million of distributions to stockholders, fully covered by net cash provided by operating activities. Year-to-date, $19.7 million of capital has been returned to shareholders, which was fully covered by net cash provided by operating activities.
• On October 15, 2021, CatchMark declared a cash dividend of $0.075 per share for common stockholders of record as of November 30, 2021, payable on December 15, 2021.

Conference Call

The company will host a conference call and live webcast at 10 a.m. ET on Friday, November 5, 2021 to discuss these results. Investors may listen to the conference call by dialing 1-888-347-1165 for U.S/Canada and 1-412-902-4276 for international callers. Participants should ask to be joined into the CatchMark call. Access to the live webcast is available at www.catchmark.com or here. A replay of this webcast will be archived on the company's website immediately after the call.

About CatchMark

CatchMark (NYSE: CTT) seeks to deliver consistent and growing per share cash flow from disciplined acquisitions and superior management of prime timberlands located in high demand U.S. mill markets. Concentrating on maximizing cash flows throughout business cycles, the company strategically harvests its high-quality timberlands to produce durable revenue growth and takes advantage of proximate mill markets, which provide a reliable outlet for merchantable inventory. Headquartered in Atlanta and focused exclusively on timberland ownership and management, CatchMark began operations in 2007 and owns interests in 370,100 acres* of timberlands located in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. For more information, visit www.catchmark.com.
* As of October 15, 2021

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such forward-looking statements can generally be identified by our use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "will," "expect," "intend," "anticipate," "estimate," "believe," "continue," or other similar words. However, the absence of these or similar words or expressions does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance and are based on certain assumptions, discuss future expectations, describe plans and strategies, contain projections of results of operations or of financial condition or state other forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, our expectations with respect to exceeding or meeting full-year 2021 guidance for net income and Adjusted EBITDA, respectively, our expectations with respect to our growth strategy, including making acquisitions and environmental initiatives, and our expectations with respect to fourth quarter harvest volumes. Risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, that (i) the supply of timberlands available for acquisition that meet our investment criteria may be less than we currently anticipate; (ii) we may be unsuccessful in winning bids for timberland that are sold through an auction process; (iii) we may not be able to access external sources of capital at attractive rates or at all; (iv) potential increases in interest rates could have a negative impact on our business; (v) timber prices may not increase at the rate we currently anticipate or could decline, which would negatively impact our revenues; (vi) we may not generate the harvest volumes from our timberlands that we currently anticipate; (vii) the demand for our timber may not increase at the rate we currently anticipate or could decline due to changes in general economic and business conditions in the geographic regions where our timberlands are located, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures taken as a response thereto; (viii) a downturn in the real estate market, including decreases in demand and valuations, may adversely impact our ability to generate income and cash flow from sales of higher-and-better use properties; (ix) we may not be able to make large dispositions of timberland in capital recycling transactions at prices that are attractive to us or at all; (x) our dividends are not guaranteed and are subject to change; (xi) the markets for carbon sequestration credits, wetlands mitigation banking and solar projects are still developing and we maybe unsuccessful in generating the revenues from environmental initiatives that we currently expect or in the timeframe anticipated; (xii) our share repurchase program may not be successful in improving stockholder value over the long-term; (xiii) our joint venture strategy may not enable us to access non-dilutive capital and enhance our ability to make acquisitions; and (xiv) the factors described in Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. We undertake no obligation to update our forward-looking statements, except as required by law. 

SOURCE CatchMark Timber Trust, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.catchmark.com