Koppers Signs Agreement to Acquire Brown Wood Preserving

News provided by

Feb 28, 2024, 07:55 ET

Represents Growth, Market Expansion and Scale in Utility Pole Business

PITTSBURGH, Feb. 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Koppers Holdings Inc. (NYSE: KOP), an integrated global provider of treated wood products, wood treatment chemicals, and carbon compounds, today announced that Koppers Utility and Industrial Products Inc. (UIP), a wholly owned subsidiary of Koppers Holdings, signed an agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of Brown Wood Preserving Company, Inc. and certain of its affiliates (Brown Wood) for approximately $100 million in cash. Brown Wood manufactures and sells pressure-treated wood utility poles. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2024, subject to customary closing conditions.

Commenting on the transaction, James Sullivan, President and Chief Operating Officer of Koppers said, "I am really pleased to add the Brown Wood group to the Koppers team. Together, we will be able to bring even greater capabilities to our customer base while growing our geographic reach. I am excited to see the results of this combination in the Koppers portfolio and the positive impact it will have on the profitability of our now larger global utility business."

Chief Executive Officer Leroy Ball added, "The acquisition of Brown Wood is the logical next step to our announced intentions to focus on growing our utility pole treatment business through both organic and inorganic means. While this likely will not add materially to 2024 results due to timing and integration costs, all things equal, it should enable Koppers to achieve 2025 adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of between $315 million and $325 million."

Founded in 1929, Brown Wood is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. The company has approximately 100 employees, serving customers primarily in the Midwest and Southeast regions of the United States, with locations in Kennedy, Alabama, and Mathiston, Mississippi.

Terms of Transaction

Under the terms of the transaction, Koppers is acquiring Brown Wood for a base purchase price of $100 million in cash, subject to certain closing adjustments, and plans to finance the acquisition through cash and borrowing capacity. Brown Wood will be operated as part of Koppers Utility and Industrial Products upon closing.

About Koppers

Koppers, with corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is an integrated global provider of treated wood products, wood treatment chemicals, and carbon compounds. Our products and services are used in a variety of niche applications in a diverse range of end markets, including the railroad, specialty chemical, utility, residential lumber, agriculture, aluminum, steel, rubber, and construction industries. We serve our customers through a comprehensive global manufacturing and distribution network, with facilities located in North America, South America, Australasia, and Europe. The stock of Koppers Holdings Inc. is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "KOP."

For more information, visit: www.koppers.com. Inquiries from the media should be directed to Ms. Jessica Franklin Black at [email protected] or 412-227-2025. Inquiries from the investment community should be directed to Ms. Quynh McGuire at [email protected] or 412-227-2049.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This press release contains certain non-GAAP financial measures. Koppers believes that adjusted EBITDA provides information useful to investors in understanding the underlying operational performance of the company, its business and performance trends, and facilitate comparisons between periods and with other corporations in similar industries. The exclusion of certain items permits evaluation and a comparison of results for ongoing business operations, and it is on this basis that Koppers management internally assesses the company's performance. In addition, the Board of Directors and executive management team use adjusted EBITDA as a performance measure under the company's annual incentive plans and for certain performance share units granted to management.

Although Koppers believes that these non-GAAP financial measures enhance investors' understanding of its business and performance, these non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered an alternative to GAAP basis financial measures and should be read in conjunction with the relevant GAAP financial measure. Other companies in a similar industry may define or calculate these measures differently than the company, limiting their usefulness as comparative measures. Because of these limitations, these non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered in isolation or as substitutes for performance measures calculated in accordance with GAAP.

Koppers does not provide reconciliations of guidance for adjusted EBITDA to the comparable GAAP measure, in reliance on the unreasonable efforts exception. Koppers is unable, without unreasonable efforts, to forecast certain items required to develop meaningful comparable GAAP financial measures. These items include, but are not limited to, restructuring and impairment charges, acquisition-related costs, mark-to-market commodity hedging, and LIFO adjustments that are difficult to forecast for a GAAP estimate and may be significant.

Safe Harbor Statement

Certain statements in this press release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and may include, but are not limited to, statements about sales levels, acquisitions, restructuring, declines in the value of Koppers assets and the effect of any resulting impairment charges, profitability and anticipated expenses and cash outflows. All forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties.

All statements contained herein that are not clearly historical in nature are forward-looking, and words such as "outlook," "guidance," "forecast," "believe," "anticipate," "expect," "estimate," "may," "will," "should," "continue," "plan," "potential," "intend," "likely," or other similar words or phrases are generally intended to identify forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement contained herein, in other press releases, written statements or other documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or in Koppers communications and discussions with investors and analysts in the normal course of business through meetings, phone calls and conference calls, regarding future dividends, expectations with respect to sales, earnings, cash flows, operating efficiencies, restructurings, the benefits of acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures or other matters as well as financings and debt reduction, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and contingencies.

Many of these risks, uncertainties and contingencies are beyond our control, and may cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from anticipated results, performance, or achievements. Factors that might affect such forward-looking statements include, among other things, the impact of changes in commodity prices, such as oil and copper, on product margins; general economic and business conditions; potential difficulties in protecting our intellectual property; the ratings on our debt and our ability to repay or refinance our outstanding indebtedness as it matures; our ability to operate within the limitations of our debt covenants; unexpected business disruptions; potential impairment of our goodwill and/or long-lived assets; demand for Koppers goods and services; competitive conditions; capital market conditions, including interest rates, borrowing costs and foreign currency rate fluctuations; availability and fluctuations in the prices of key raw materials; disruptions and inefficiencies in the supply chain; economic, political and environmental conditions in international markets; changes in laws; the impact of environmental laws and regulations; parties' failure to perform their indemnity obligations to us; unfavorable resolution of claims against us, as well as those discussed more fully elsewhere in this release and in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Koppers, particularly our latest annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent filings by Koppers with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statements in this release speak only as of the date of this release, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after that date or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.