Divestitures |
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| Discontinued Operations and Disposal Groups [Abstract] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Divestitures |
4. Divestitures:
Performance Materials
On December 14, 2020, the Company completed the sale of its Performance Materials business to Potters Buyer, LLC (the “Purchaser”), an affiliate of The Jordan Company, L.P., for a purchase price of $650,000. The net cash proceeds to the Company from the sale were $624,256 after certain customary adjustments for indebtedness, working capital and cash at the closing of the transaction. The Company classified the proceeds within net cash provided by (used in) investing activities – continuing operations in the consolidated statements of cash flows and used the net proceeds from the sale as well as cash on hand to pay down debt and issue a special cash dividend of $1.80 per share to stockholders.
During the year ended December 31, 2021, the Company incurred transaction costs of $2,054 and stock-based compensation expense of $1,970, and an associated tax benefit of $988 related to the Performance Materials divestiture, as well as a provision to return benefit of $5,429 related to the filing of the 2020 tax returns filed in the fourth quarter of 2021, which is included in loss from discontinued operations, net of tax.
Upon the close of the transaction, the Company entered into a Transition Services Agreement with the Purchaser pursuant to which the Purchaser was receiving certain services to provide for the orderly transition of various functions and processes after the closing of the transaction. The services under the Transition Services Agreement include information technology, accounting, tax, financial services, human resources, facilities, and other administrative support services. These services were provided at cost for a period of months following the close of the transaction. The Company billed $3,314 under the Transition Services Agreement to the Purchaser during the year ended December 31, 2021. Those billings are included in selling, general and administrative expenses on the consolidated financial statements.
Additionally, in connection with the transaction, the Company entered into various supply agreements with the Purchaser. Cash flows associated with these transition services and supply agreements were not material to the Company’s results of operations.
Performance Chemicals
On February 28, 2021, the Company entered into a definitive agreement to sell its Performance Chemicals business to Sparta Aggregator L.P. (the “Buyer”), a partnership established by Koch Minerals & Trading, LLC and Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. for a purchase price of $1,100,000 subject to certain adjustments including indebtedness, cash, working capital and transaction expenses. The Company completed the sale of its Performance Chemicals business effective on August 1, 2021. The net cash proceeds to the Company from the sale were $978,449 after certain customary adjustments for indebtedness, working capital and cash at the closing of the transaction. The Company classified the proceeds within net cash provided by (used in) investing activities – continuing operations in the consolidated statements of cash flows and used the net proceeds from the sale as well as cash on hand to pay down debt and issue a special cash dividend of $3.20 per share to stockholders.
Prior to the closing of the transaction, the disposal group was tested for recoverability as of each of the balance sheet dates since meeting the discontinued operations criteria, and the Company recognized an estimated disposal loss of $109,584 during the year ended December 31, 2021, which was included in net loss from discontinued operations, net of tax on the consolidated statements of income for the respective periods.
During the year ended December 31, 2021, the Company incurred transaction costs of $35,402 and stock-based compensation expense of $5,691 in connection with the sale, which is included in loss from discontinued operations, net of tax. The final pre-tax loss on the sale of the Performance Chemicals business was $150,230, which is included in net (loss) income from discontinued operations, net of tax in the Company’s consolidated statements of income for the year ended December 31, 2021. The following is a reconciliation of the loss recorded on the sale:
In connection with the sale of the Performance Chemicals business and the related loss, as noted above, the Company has recognized a tax benefit of $37,255 within net loss from discontinued operations, net of tax on the consolidated statement of income for the year ended December 31, 2021. In March 2022, the Company made a payment to the buyer for $3,744, representing the final adjustments to the sale price. The Company classified the payment within net cash used in investing activities – continuing operations in the consolidated statements of cash flows.
During the year ended December 31, 2022, the Company recognized $3,902 of net income from discontinued operations, net of tax, related to the sale of the Performance Chemicals business for an income tax benefit upon the finalization of the Company’s U.S. income tax returns, partially offset by a tax indemnity claim resulting from the transaction.
The following table summarizes the results of discontinued operations related to Performance Chemicals for the periods presented:
(1) The Company reclassified transaction costs that were previously recorded to this line item and included those charges in the line item Loss on sale of the Performance Chemicals business during the year ended December 31, 2021.
(2) Upon the close of the transaction, the Company used a portion of the net proceeds to repay a portion of its outstanding debt amounting to $526,363. Refer to Note 16 for additional details on the repayment of outstanding debt. Prior to the Company’s debt refinancing in June 2021, the Company’s outstanding term loan facilities had required refinancing of debt with repayment provisions. As a result, interest expense has been allocated to discontinued operations on the basis of the Company’s total repayment of $526,363.
Net income attributable to the noncontrolling interest related to the Performance Chemicals business, net of tax was $333 for the year ended December 31, 2021. Net loss attributable to Ecovyst Inc., related to the Performance Chemicals business, net of tax was $(144,137) for the year ended December 31, 2021.
Financing Obligation
In connection with the divestiture of the Performance Chemicals business, the Company entered into a five-year contract manufacturing agreement effective on August 2, 2021 with PQ Silicas UK Ltd., a subsidiary of the Buyer, related to a facility in Warrington, United Kingdom. Pursuant to this agreement, the Buyer will manufacture and sell advanced silica finished good products to the Company, which are finished good products sold within the Company’s Advanced Materials & Catalysts segment. Additionally, certain machinery, equipment, and other tangible personal property assets identified in the Agreement (“Catalyst Production Assets”) owned by the Buyer will be used exclusively in the manufacture of advanced silica products for the Company. The Company did not meet the requirements for a sale-leaseback transaction as described in Accounting Standards Codification 842-40, Leases - Sale-Leaseback Transactions. Under the failed sale-leaseback accounting model, the Company is deemed under GAAP to still own the Catalyst Production Assets, which the Company must continue to reflect in its consolidated balance sheet and depreciate over the
assets’ remaining useful lives. For the year ended December 31, 2021, the Company recorded a financing obligation of £11,648 (equivalent $16,005).
The table below presents the financing obligation assets and liabilities recognized on the consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2023 and 2022:
Based on the estimated fair market value of the Catalyst Production Assets, the failed sale-leaseback accounting treatment resulted in an allocation of $16,005 of the cash proceeds from the sale to cash flows from financing activities in the consolidated statement of cash flows for the year ended December 31, 2021, due to the requirement to treat this portion of the proceeds as though it were the result of a financing obligation. The agreement has an initial term of five years, with an option to renew, as well as an “Option Bill of Sale” which provides for the transfer from the Buyer to the Company of the Catalyst Production Assets upon the Company’s exercise of a one-dollar purchase option.
Payments made to the Buyer under the contact manufacturing agreement were $8,416, $7,872 and $3,395 for the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively. Included in these payments were $2,847, $2,692 and $1,435 of principal on the financing obligation for the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively, and $266, $336 and $185 of interest on the financing obligation for the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively. Principal payments are included in financing activities and interest payments are included in operating activities on the Company’s consolidated statement of cash flows.
The remaining lease term is 2.6 years with a weighted average discount rate of 2.86% as of December 31, 2023.
Maturities of the financing obligation as of December 31, 2023 are as follows:
(1) Refer to the table above regarding the Company’s classification of financing obligation in the Company’s consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2023.
In addition to the contract manufacturing agreement noted above, the Company also entered into certain supply agreements with the Buyer, as well as a Transition Services Agreement, pursuant to which the Buyer was receiving and performing certain services to provide for the orderly transition of various functions and processes after the closing of the transaction. The services under the Transition Services Agreement include information technology, accounting, tax, financial services, human resources, facilities, and other administrative support services. These services were provided for a period of six months, which ended in January 2022. Billings under the Transition Services Agreement to the Buyer during the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 were immaterial. Those billings are included in selling, general and administrative expenses on the consolidated financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021.
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