Approximately $400 million of rated debt
Toronto, May 12, 2021 -- Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") assigned a Baa3 rating to Rayonier
L.P.'s proposed $400 million senior unsecured
notes. Rayonier Inc guarantees Rayonier L.P.'s
debt (together, "Rayonier"). Rayonier's
ratings are unchanged. The outlook remains stable. Rayonier
intends to use the proceeds of this offering to repay its $250
million incremental term loan facility and general corporate purposes,
which may include the repayment of the 3.75% $325
million senior unsecured notes due April 2022 at or prior to maturity.
"The notes issuance is leverage neutral and Rayonier's existing
ratings remain unchanged, reflecting our expectation that company
will maintain strong asset coverage and that leverage will decline to
below 4.5x over the next 12 to 18 months" said Ed Sustar,
Senior Vice President with Moody's.
Assignments:
..Issuer: Rayonier, L.P.
....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture,
Assigned Baa3
RATINGS RATIONALE
Rayonier (Baa3) benefits from 1) its productive timberlands with very
strong timber asset value coverage (Moody's estimate of the company's
timberland value relative to its adjusted debt of 3.4x December
2020), 2) stable earnings with high adjusted EBITDA margins (41%
December 2020) and 3) strong liquidity, including the company's
significant unencumbered land ownership that can be readily sold to augment
liquidity. Rayonier receives two notches of lift to its credit
rating attributed to the company's strong timberland value relative to
its debt. The company's timberland holdings provide significant
financial flexibility by generating recurring operating earnings,
offering debt reduction capabilities and enhancing liquidity.
Rayonier is constrained by 1) its modest free cash flow due to the high
dividend payout requirements of a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT),
2) limited scale and product diversification relative to its peers,
and 3) high leverage (5x December 2020, excluding large timber dispositions),
which we expect will decline slightly to below 4.5x over the next
12 to 18 months.
Rayonier has strong liquidity with about $400 million of sources
and essentially no debt maturities in 2021. As of March 31,
2021 Rayonier had cash on hand of approximately $80 million,
and essentially full availability under its $300 million revolving
credit facility (matures in April 2025). Moody's estimates that
Rayonier will generate about $15 million of free cash flow (after
dividends) over the next 12 months. We expect Rayonier will be
in compliance with its financial covenants. If needed, the
company could sell non-core assets (such as its Timber Funds business)
or some of its timberland to augment liquidity..
The stable outlook reflects our expectation that Rayonier will maintain
strong timber asset coverage as the company's leverage improves to below
4.5x in the next 12 to 18 months. Operating earnings will
improve as the company fully integrates the May 2020 acquisition of Pope
Resources and from incremental sales volumes from the company's New Zealand
and Pacific Northwest segments. We expect sawlog prices to increase
modestly in 2021 (compared to 2020) in the regions where Rayonier operates.
Rayonier's principal business is growing trees, which is an environmental
benefit through carbon capture. Rayonier estimated that the net
amount of carbon sequestered by its forests (after harvesting and corporate
and forestry-related emissions) in 2019 was about 5.7 million
tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents. The company is exposed to
social risks such as labor relations and health and safety issues.
The company has established expertise in complying with these risks and
has incorporated procedures to address them in their operational planning
and business models.
Rayonier is a public company with well-established governance structures.
As a REIT, the company regularly distributes a significant portion
of its cash flow to its shareholders. Rayonier's significant asset
coverage and management's commitment to maintaining an investment grade
credit profile are important underlying factors for the company's Baa3
rating.
FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE OF THE RATING
Factors that could lead to an upgrade
» further growth in Rayonier's size and product diversity
» maintenance of strong timberland coverage: timberland asset
value/debt coverage above 2x (3.4x as of December 2020)
» adjusted debt to EBITDA (excluding large timberland dispositions)
approaching 3x (5x as of December 2020) on a sustainable basis
Factors that could lead to a downgrade
» timberland asset value/debt coverage declines below 1.5x
(3.4x as of December 2020)
» adjusted debt to EBITDA (excluding large timberland dispositions)
will be sustained above 4.5x (5x as of December 2020)
» material asset encumbrances or significant asset sales
Headquartered in Wildlight, Florida, Rayonier is a Real Estate
Investment Trust (REIT) that owns, leases or manages about 2.7
million acres of timberland in the US South, Pacific Northwest and
New Zealand (through a 77% interest in Matariki Forestry Group).
The principal methodology used in this rating was Paper and Forest Products
Industry published in October 2018 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1105007.
Alternatively, please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com
for a copy of this methodology.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
For further specification of Moody's key rating assumptions and
sensitivity analysis, see the sections Methodology Assumptions and
Sensitivity to Assumptions in the disclosure form. Moody's
Rating Symbols and Definitions can be found at: https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_79004.
For ratings issued on a program, series, category/class of
debt or security this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures
in relation to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the
same series, category/class of debt, security or pursuant
to a program for which the ratings are derived exclusively from existing
ratings in accordance with Moody's rating practices. For ratings
issued on a support provider, this announcement provides certain
regulatory disclosures in relation to the credit rating action on the
support provider and in relation to each particular credit rating action
for securities that derive their credit ratings from the support provider's
credit rating. For provisional ratings, this announcement
provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the provisional
rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive rating that may
be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt, in each
case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed prior
to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would have
affected the rating. For further information please see the ratings
tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.
For any affected securities or rated entities receiving direct credit
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and whose ratings may change as a result of this credit rating action,
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if applicable to jurisdiction: Ancillary Services, Disclosure
to rated entity, Disclosure from rated entity.
The rating has been disclosed to the rated entity or its designated agent(s)
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for Designating and Assigning Unsolicited Credit Ratings available on
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Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit
rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating
review.
Moody's general principles for assessing environmental, social
and governance (ESG) risks in our credit analysis can be found at http://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1263068.
The Global Scale Credit Rating on this Credit Rating Announcement was
issued by one of Moody's affiliates outside the EU and is endorsed
by Moody's Deutschland GmbH, An der Welle 5, Frankfurt
am Main 60322, Germany, in accordance with Art.4 paragraph
3 of the Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 on Credit Rating Agencies.
Further information on the EU endorsement status and on the Moody's
office that issued the credit rating is available on www.moodys.com.
The Global Scale Credit Rating on this Credit Rating Announcement was
issued by one of Moody's affiliates outside the UK and is endorsed
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Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to
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Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com
for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.
Ed Sustar
Senior Vice President
Corporate Finance Group
Moody's Canada Inc.
70 York Street
Suite 1400
Toronto, ON M5J 1S9
Canada
JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376
Client Service: 1 212 553 1653
Donald S. Carter, CFA
MD - Corporate Finance
Corporate Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376
Client Service: 1 212 553 1653
Releasing Office:
Moody's Canada Inc.
70 York Street
Suite 1400
Toronto, ON M5J 1S9
Canada
JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376
Client Service: 1 212 553 1653