GEO GROUP INC - Annual Report: 2022 (Form 10-K)

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

Form 10-K

(Mark One)

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022

OR

For the transition period from to

Commission file number: 1-14260

The GEO Group, Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (561) 893-0101

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).

Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☒

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No ☒

The aggregate market value of the 121,363,108 voting and non-voting shares of common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant as of June 30, 2022 (based on the last reported sales price of such stock on the New York Stock Exchange on such date, the last business day of the registrant's quarter ended June 30, 2022 of $6.60 per share) was approximately $0.8 billion.

As of February 22, 2023, the registrant had 124,113,704 shares of common stock outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Auditor Firm Id: 248 Auditor Name: Grant Thornton LLP Auditor Location: Miami, Florida, United States of America

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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PART I

Item 1. Business

As used in this report, the terms “we,” “us,” “our,” “GEO” and the “Company” refer to The GEO Group, Inc., its consolidated subsidiaries and its unconsolidated affiliates, unless otherwise expressly stated or the context otherwise requires.

General

We specialize in the ownership, leasing and management of secure facilities, processing centers and reentry facilities and the provision of community-based services in the United States, Australia and South Africa. We own, lease and operate a broad range of secure facilities including maximum, medium and minimum-security facilities, processing centers, as well as community-based reentry facilities. We develop new facilities based on contract awards, using our project development expertise and experience to design, construct and finance what we believe are state-of-the-art facilities. We provide innovative technologies, industry-leading monitoring services, and evidence-based supervision and treatment programs for community-based programs. We also provide secure transportation services domestically and in the United Kingdom through our joint venture GEOAmey PECS Ltd. (“GEOAmey”). As of December 31, 2022, our worldwide operations included the management and/or ownership of approximately 82,000 beds at 102 secure and community-based facilities, including idle facilities, and also includes the provision of reentry and electronic monitoring and supervision services for more than 500,000 individuals, including over 195,000 individuals through an array of technology products including radio frequency, GPS, and alcohol monitoring devices.

We provide a diversified scope of services on behalf of our government agency partners:

GEO operated as a real estate investment trust ("REIT") from January 1, 2013 through December 31, 2020. As a REIT, GEO provided services and conducted other business activities through taxable REIT subsidiaries ("TRSs"). A TRS is a subsidiary of a REIT that is subject to applicable corporate income tax rates and certain qualification requirements. GEO’s use of TRSs permitted us to engage in certain business activities in which the REIT could not engage directly, so long as those activities were conducted in entities that elected to be treated as TRSs under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, and enabled GEO to, among other things, provide correctional services at facilities it owns and at facilities owned by its government partners. A TRS is not subject to the distribution requirements applicable to REITs so it may retain income generated by its operations for reinvestment.

On December 2, 2021, we announced that our Board of Directors ("Board") unanimously approved a plan to terminate GEO’s REIT election and become a taxable C Corporation, effective for the year ended December 31, 2021. As a result, we are no longer required to operate under REIT rules, including the requirement to distribute at least 90% of REIT taxable income to our stockholders, which provides us with greater flexibility to use our free cash flow. Effective January 1, 2021, we are subject to federal and state income taxes on our taxable income at applicable tax rates and we are no longer entitled to a tax deduction for dividends paid. GEO operated as a REIT for the 2020 tax year, and existing REIT requirements and limitations, including those established by GEO’s organizational documents, remained in place until December 31, 2020. The Board also voted unanimously to discontinue our quarterly dividend payment and prioritize allocating GEO’s free cash flow to reduce debt.

As a result of GEO’s Board announcing the change in corporate structure to a taxable C Corporation in fiscal year 2021, we incurred a one-time, non-cash deferred tax charge of approximately $70.8 million during the fourth quarter of 2021. We also incurred approximately $29.3 million in incremental income tax expense in the fourth quarter of 2021 due to the resulting higher corporate tax rate for all of 2021, including a catch-up tax expense of approximately $16.8 million in connection with the first three quarters of 2021.

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Business Segments

We conduct our business through four reportable business segments: our U.S. Secure Services segment; our Electronic Monitoring and Supervision Services segment; our Reentry Services segment and our International Services segment. We have identified these four reportable segments to reflect our current view that we operate four distinct business lines, each of which constitutes a material part of our overall business. We have determined that our previously reportable business segment, Facility Construction and Design, no longer qualifies as a reportable segment as it no longer meets certain quantitative thresholds and has been aggregated with our International Services reportable business segment below. In addition, we appointed a new Chief Executive Officer, the chief operating decision maker, during fiscal 2021. Based on changes to the way our chief operating decision maker views the business and financial results used to allocate resources to our electronic monitoring & supervision services operations, along with the growth of the business, we will report the electronic monitoring and supervision services operation as a separate reportable segment. This new segment will be presented as Electronic Monitoring and Supervision Services. Previously, the electronic monitoring and supervision services operations were included in our GEO Care reportable segment. In addition, the GEO Care reportable segment was renamed Reentry Services and will include services provided to adults for residential and non-residential treatment, educational and community-based programs, pre-release and half-way house programs.

Our U.S. Secure Services segment primarily encompasses our U.S.-based public-private partnership secure services business. Our Electronic Monitoring and Supervision Services segment, which conducts its services in the U.S., consists of our electronic monitoring and supervision services. Our Reentry Services segment consists of various community-based and reentry services. Our International Services segment primarily consists of our public-private partnership secure services operations in Australia and South Africa. Financial information about these segments for years 2022, 2021 and 2020 is contained in Note 15 — Business Segments and Geographic Information included in the notes to our audited consolidated financial statements included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Recent Developments

Asset Divestiture

Effective September 20, 2022, we executed a Share and Unit Sale and Purchase Agreement ("SPA") for the sale of our equity investment interest in the government-owned Ravenhall Correctional Centre ("Centre") project in Australia for approximately $84 million in gross proceeds, pre-tax to an unrelated third party. In accordance with the SPA, we sold our shares/units in GEO Australasia Holdings Pty Ltd, GEO Australasia Finance Holdings Pty Ltd and GEO Australasia Finance Holding Trust, our former wholly owned subsidiaries. These subsidiaries held the contract receivable and related non-recourse debt which were transferred to the buyer and are no longer an asset or outstanding obligation of GEO. These subsidiaries also held restricted cash that was also transferred to the buyer. We continue to manage the operations of the Centre on behalf of the State of Victoria. As a result of the sale, we recorded a gain of approximately $29.3 million, pre-tax. The proceeds, along with available cash on hand, were used to repay all of the remaining outstanding principal of our Term Loan B and its newly issued Tranche 3 Loans. Refer to Note 12 - Debt of the Notes to the audited consolidated financial statements included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for further discussion.

Contract Developments

Effective April 6, 2022, Delaware County, Pennsylvania took over management of the managed-only George W. Hill Correctional

Facility.

Our contract with the BOP for our company-owned North Lake Correctional Facility in Michigan expired at the

end of September 2022. As of December 31, 2022, we no longer have any contracts with the BOP for secure correctional facilities.

We received a contract extension with the USMS extending to September 2023 for our company-leased Western Region Detention Facility in California.

In October 2022, we signed a five-year contract renewal for the 780-bed Florence West Correctional and Rehabilitation Facility in Arizona.

In December 2022, we signed a two-year contract renewal for the 3,400-bed Kingman Correctional and Rehabilitation Facility in Arizona.

During the fourth quarter of 2022, we were notified by the USMS of the agency's intent to exercise the five-year contract option period for our 768-bed Robert Deyton Facility in Georgia.

During the fourth quarter of 2022, we renewed five residential reentry contracts, including four contracts with the BOP.

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On January 9, 2023, we announced that our Australian subsidiary, GEO Australia, had entered into a contract with the Department of Justice and Community Safety in the State of Victoria for delivery of primary health services across thirteen public prisons. The contract will commence on July 1, 2023 and is expected to generate approximately $33 million in incremental annualized revenue for GEO.

Idle Facilities

In our Secure Services segment, as of December 31, 2022, we are marketing 10,922 vacant beds with a net book value of approximately $306 million at seven of our idle facilities to potential customers. In our Reentry Services segment, as of December 31, 2022, we are marketing 2,139 vacant beds with a net book value of approximately $43 million at four of our idle facilities to potential customers. The combined annual carrying cost of these idle facilities in 2022 is estimated to be $32.8 million, including depreciation expense of $16.5 million. With the exception of a contract pending due diligence for one of our reentry facilities, we currently do not have any firm commitments or agreements in place to activate these facilities but have ongoing contact with several potential customers. Historically, some facilities have been idle for multiple years before they received a new contract award. The per diem rates that we charge our clients often vary by contract across our portfolio. However, if the eleven idle facilities in our Secure Services and Reentry Services segments were to be activated using our Secure Services and Reentry Services average per diem rate in 2022 (calculated as revenue divided by the number of mandays) and based on the average occupancy rate in our facilities for 2022, we would expect to receive annual incremental revenue of approximately $360 million and an increase in annual earnings per share of approximately $.35 to $.40 per share based on our average operating margin.

Quality of Operations

We operate each facility in accordance with our company-wide policies and procedures and with the standards and guidelines required under the relevant management contract. For many facilities, the standards and guidelines include those established by the American Correctional Association (“ACA”). The ACA is an independent organization of corrections professionals, which establishes correctional facility standards and guidelines that are generally acknowledged as a benchmark by governmental agencies responsible for correctional facilities. Many of our contracts in the United States require us to seek and maintain ACA accreditation for our facilities. We have sought and received ACA accreditation and re-accreditation for all such facilities. We achieved a median re-accreditation score of 100% as of December 31, 2022. Approximately 53% of our 2022 U.S. Secure Services revenue was derived from ACA accredited facilities for the year ended December 31, 2022. We have been successful in achieving and maintaining accreditation under the National Commission on Correctional Health Care ("NCCHC") in a majority of the facilities that we currently operate. The NCCHC accreditation is a voluntary process which we have used to establish comprehensive health care policies and procedures to meet and adhere to the ACA standards. The NCCHC standards, in most cases, exceed ACA Health Care Standards and we have achieved this accreditation at 20 of our U.S. Secure Services facilities and at one reentry services location. Additionally, B.I. Incorporated ("BI") has achieved a certification for ISO 9001:2008 for the design, production, installation and servicing of products and services produced by the electronic monitoring business units, including electronic home arrest and electronic monitoring technology products and monitoring services, installation services, and automated caseload management services.

Corporate Social Responsibility

In October 2022, we issued our fourth Human Rights and Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) report. The Human Rights and ESG report builds on the important milestone we achieved in 2013 when our Board adopted a Global Human Rights Policy by providing disclosures related to how we inform our employees of our commitment to respecting human rights; the criteria we use to assess human rights performance; and our contract compliance program, remedies to shortcomings in human rights performance, and independent verification of our performance by third party organizations. The Human Rights and ESG report also addresses criteria, based on recognized ESG reporting standards, related to the development of our employees; our efforts to advance environmental sustainability in the construction and operation of our facilities; and our adherence to ethical governance practices throughout our company. The report covers the year ended December 31, 2021 with supporting data from 2019-2021 where possible. The report showcases, among other items, our company wide awareness and training programs, our commitment to a safe and humane environment for everyone in our care, employee diversity, addressing recidivism through our GEO Continuum of Care, our engagement efforts with our stakeholders, oversight and contract compliance, conservation measures and enhanced environmental sustainability efforts.

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The ESG report was prepared with reference to the GRI Standards related to General Disclosures, Economic Topics, Environmental Topics and Social Topics based on the Global Reporting Initiative, or GRI, issued by the Global Sustainability Standards Board and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. GRI is an international independent standards organization created to help business, government and other organizations understand and communicate how their operations affect issues of global importance, such as human rights, corruption and climate change. We have referenced the GRI Standards and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights as we have recognized the need for a transparent and disciplined enterprise-wide approach. In our pursuit of this approach, we have begun with the following set of ongoing objectives:

The ESG report may be accessed on our website under "Investors-Latest Reports-Latest ESG Report." The information included in the Human Rights and ESG report is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Business Development Overview

Our primary potential customers include: governmental agencies responsible for local, state and federal secure facilities in the United States; governmental agencies responsible for secure facilities in Australia and South Africa; federal, state and local government agencies in the United States responsible for reentry services for adult offenders; federal, state and local government agencies responsible for monitoring community-based parolees, probationers and pretrial defendants; and other foreign governmental agencies. We achieve organic growth through competitive bidding that begins with the issuance by a government agency of a request for proposal, or RFP. We primarily rely on the RFP process for organic growth in our U.S. and international secure services operations as well as in our reentry services and electronic monitoring and supervision services business.

For our facility management contracts, our state and local experience has been that a period of approximately 60 to 90 days is generally required from the issuance of a request for proposal to the submission of our response to the request for proposal; that between one and four months elapse between the submission of our response and the agency’s award of a contract; and that between one and four months elapse between the award of a contract and the commencement of facility construction or management of the facility, as applicable.

For our facility management contracts, our federal experience has been that a period of approximately 60 to 90 days is generally required from the issuance of a request for proposal to the submission of our response to the request for proposal; that between 12 and 18 months elapse between the submission of our response and the agency’s award of a contract; and that between four and 18 weeks elapse between the award of a contract and the commencement of facility construction or management of the facility, as applicable.

If the local, state or federal facility for which an award has been made must be constructed, our experience is that construction usually takes between nine and 24 months to complete, depending on the size and complexity of the project. Therefore, management of a newly constructed facility typically commences between 10 and 28 months after the governmental agency’s award.

For the services provided by BI, local, state and federal experience has been that a period of approximately 30 to 90 days is generally required from the issuance of an RFP or Invitation to Bid, or ITB, to the submission of our response; that between one and three months elapse between the submission of our response and the agency’s award of a contract; and that between one and three months elapse between the award of a contract and the commencement of a program or the implementation of program operations, as applicable.

The term of our local, state and federal contracts range from one to five years and some contracts include provisions for optional renewal terms beyond the initial contract term. Contracts can, and are periodically, extended beyond the initial contract term and optional renewal terms through alternative procurement processes including sole source justification processes, cooperative procurement vehicles and agency decisions to add extension time periods.

We believe that our long operating history and reputation have earned us credibility with both existing and prospective customers when bidding on new facility management contracts or when renewing existing contracts.

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We also plan to leverage our experience and scale of service offerings to expand the range of public-private partnership services that we provide. We have engaged and intend in the future to engage independent consultants to assist us in developing public-private partnership opportunities and in responding to requests for proposals, monitoring the legislative and business climate, and maintaining relationships with existing customers.

Facility Design, Construction and Finance

We offer governmental agencies consultation and management services relating to the design and construction of new secure facilities and the redesign and renovation of older facilities including facilities we own, lease or manage as well as facilities we do not own, lease or manage. Domestically, as of December 31, 2022, we have provided services for the design and construction of approximately 20 facilities and for the redesign, renovation and expansion of approximately 21 facilities.

Contracts to design and construct or to redesign and renovate facilities may be financed in a variety of ways. Governmental agencies may finance the construction of such facilities through any of the following methods:

We may also act as a source of financing or as a facilitator with respect to the financing of the construction of a facility. In these cases, the construction of such facilities may be financed through various methods including the following:

If the project is financed using direct governmental appropriations, with proceeds of the sale of bonds or other obligations issued prior to the award of the project, then financing is in place when the contract relating to the construction or renovation project is executed. If the project is financed using project-specific tax-exempt bonds or other obligations, the construction contract is generally subject to the sale of such bonds or obligations. Generally, substantial expenditures for construction will not be made on such a project until the tax-exempt bonds or other obligations are sold; and, if such bonds or obligations are not sold, construction and therefore, management of the facility, may either be delayed until alternative financing is procured or the development of the project will be suspended or entirely canceled. If the project is self-financed by us, then financing is generally in place prior to the commencement of construction.

Under our construction and design management contracts, we generally agree to be responsible for overall project development and completion. We typically act as the primary developer on construction contracts for facilities and subcontract with bonded National and/or Regional Design Build Contractors. Where possible, we subcontract with construction companies that we have worked with previously. We make use of an in-house staff of architects and operational experts from various service disciplines (e.g. security, medical service, food service, programs and facility maintenance) as part of the team that participates from conceptual design through final construction of the project. The staff coordinates all aspects of the development with subcontractors and provides site-specific services.

When designing a facility, our architects use, with appropriate modifications, prototype designs we have used in developing prior projects. We believe that the use of these designs allows us to reduce the potential of cost overruns and construction delays, thus controlling costs both to construct and to manage the facility. Our facility designs also maintain security because they increase the area under direct surveillance by correctional officers and make use of additional electronic surveillance.

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Competitive Strengths

Long-Term Relationships with High-Quality Government Customers

We have developed long-term relationships with our federal, state and other governmental customers, which we believe enhance our ability to win new contracts and retain existing business. We have provided secure management services to the United States Federal Government for 36 years, the State of California for 34 years, the State of Texas for approximately 35 years, various Australian state government entities for 31 years and the State of Florida for approximately 29 years. These customers accounted for approximately 78% of our consolidated revenues for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022.

Recurring Revenue with Strong Cash Flow

Our revenue base has historically been derived from our long-term customer relationships. We have historically been able to expand our revenue base by continuing to reinvest our strong operating cash flow into expansionary projects and through strategic acquisitions that provide scale and further enhance our service offerings. Our consolidated revenues have grown to approximately $2.4 billion in 2022. We expect our operating cash flow to be well in excess of our anticipated annual maintenance capital expenditure needs, which would provide us significant flexibility for the repayment of indebtedness.

Sizeable International Business

Our international infrastructure, which leverages our operational excellence in the U.S., allows us to aggressively target foreign opportunities that our U.S. based competitors without overseas operations may have difficulty pursuing. We currently have international operations in Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom. Our international services business generated approximately $187.2 million of revenues, representing approximately 8% of our consolidated revenues for the year ended December 31, 2022. We believe we are well positioned to continue benefiting from foreign governments’ initiatives to enter into public-private partnerships for secure services.

Experienced, Proven Senior Management Team

Our Executive Chairman and founder, George C. Zoley, Ph.D., has provided senior leadership for our Company for 38 years and has established a track record of growth and profitability. Under his leadership and guidance, our annual consolidated revenues from operations have grown from $207.0 million in 1997 to approximately $2.4 billion in 2022. Dr. Zoley is one of the pioneers of the industry, having developed and opened what we believe to be one of the first public-private partnership secure services facilities in the U.S. in 1986. Our Chief Executive Officer, Jose Gordo has over 21 years of experience in business management, private equity, corporate finance and business law and a long history of working with GEO. Our Chief Financial Officer, Brian R. Evans, has been with our Company for over 22 years and led our recent dispositions, our review and analysis with the Board of our corporate tax structure, and our financing activities. Our top seven senior executives have an average tenure with our Company of approximately 10 years.

Business Strategies

Provide High Quality, Comprehensive Services and Cost Savings Throughout the Corrections Lifecycle

Our objective is to provide federal, state and local governmental agencies with a comprehensive offering of high quality, essential services at a lower cost than they themselves could achieve. We believe government agencies facing budgetary constraints will increasingly seek to outsource a greater proportion of their correctional needs to reliable providers that can enhance quality of service at a reduced cost. We believe our expanded and diversified service offerings uniquely position us to bundle our high-quality services and provide a comprehensive continuum of care for our clients, which we believe will lead to lower cost outcomes for our clients and larger scale business opportunities for us.

Maintain Disciplined Operating Approach

We refrain from pursuing contracts that we do not believe will yield attractive profit margins in relation to the associated operational risks. In addition, although we engage in facility development from time to time without having a corresponding management contract award in place, we endeavor to do so only where we have determined that there is medium to long-term client demand for a facility in that geographical area. We have also elected not to enter certain international markets with a history of economic and political instability. We believe that our strategy of emphasizing lower risk and higher profit opportunities helps us to consistently deliver strong operational performance, lower our costs and increase our overall profitability.

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Pursue International Growth Opportunities

As a global provider of public-private partnership secure services, we are able to capitalize on opportunities to operate existing or new facilities on behalf of foreign governments. We have seen increased business development opportunities including opportunities to cross sell our expanded service offerings in recent years in the international markets in which we operate. We will continue to actively bid on new international projects in our current markets and in new markets that fit our target profile for profitability and operational risk.

Intellectual Property and Patents

We have numerous United States and foreign patents issued as well as a number of United States patents pending in the electronic monitoring space. We believe these patents protect our intellectual property rights and provide us with a competitive advantage by seeking to prevent our competitors from duplicating our technology and/or products in the electronic monitoring line of business. The remaining duration of our patents range from 18 months to 20 years.

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Facilities and Day Reporting Centers

The following table summarizes certain information with respect to our U.S. and international secure services facilities and our reentry services facilities. The information in the table includes the facilities that we (or a subsidiary or joint venture of GEO) owned, operated under a management contract, had an agreement to provide services, had an award to manage or was in the process of constructing or expanding during the year ended December 31, 2022:

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