WestRock Co - Quarter Report: 2020 March (Form 10-Q)

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

Form 10-Q

For the quarterly period ended March 31, 2020

or

For the transition period from               to             

Commission File Number 001-38736

WestRock Company

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)

Registrant’s Telephone Number, Including Area Code: (770) 448-2193

N/A

(Former Name, Former Address and Former Fiscal Year, if Changed Since Last Report.)

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

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 is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐   No ☒

Indicate the number of shares outstanding of each of the issuer’s classes of common stock, as of the latest practicable date:

WESTROCK COMPANY

INDEX

2

PART I: FINANCIAL INFORMATION

WESTROCK COMPANY

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME

(Unaudited)

See Accompanying Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

3

WESTROCK COMPANY

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME

(Unaudited)

See Accompanying Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

4

WESTROCK COMPANY

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(Unaudited)

See Accompanying Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

5

WESTROCK COMPANY

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF EQUITY

(Unaudited)

6

See Accompanying Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

7

WESTROCK COMPANY

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS

(Unaudited)

8

The adoption of ASC 842, Leases, resulted in recognition of non-cash right-of-use assets (“ROU”) and non-cash operating lease liabilities. See “Note 13. Leases” for more information on the impact of this adoption.

Supplemental schedule of non-cash investing and financing activities:

Liabilities assumed in the six months ended March 31, 2019 primarily relate to the KapStone Acquisition (as hereinafter defined). See “Note 3. Acquisitions” for more information.

See Accompanying Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

9

WESTROCK COMPANY

NOTES TO CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

For the Three and Six Month Periods Ended March 31, 2020

(Unaudited)

Unless the context otherwise requires, “we”, “us”, “our”, “WestRock” and “the Company” refer to the business of WestRock Company, its wholly-owned subsidiaries and its partially-owned consolidated subsidiaries.

We are a multinational provider of paper and packaging solutions for consumer and corrugated packaging markets. We partner with our customers to provide differentiated paper and packaging solutions that help them win in the marketplace. Our team members support customers around the world from our operating and business locations in North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Basis of Presentation

Our independent registered public accounting firm has not audited our accompanying interim financial statements. We derived the condensed consolidated balance sheet at September 30, 2019 from the audited consolidated financial statements included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2019 (the “Fiscal 2019 Form 10-K”). In the opinion of our management, the condensed consolidated financial statements reflect all adjustments, which are of a normal recurring nature, necessary for a fair presentation of our statements of income for the three and six months ended March 31, 2020 and March 31, 2019, our statements of comprehensive income for the three and six months ended March 31, 2020 and March 31, 2019, our balance sheets at March 31, 2020 and September 30, 2019, our statements of cash flows for the six months ended March 31, 2020 and March 31, 2019, and our statements of equity for the three and six months ended March 31, 2020 and March 31, 2019.

We have condensed or omitted certain notes and other information from the interim financial statements presented in this report. Therefore, these interim financial statements should be read in conjunction with the Fiscal 2019 Form 10-K. The results for the three and six months ended March 31, 2020 are not necessarily indicative of results that may be expected for the full year.

Reclassifications and Adjustments

During the second quarter of fiscal 2020, we evaluated our revolving credit facilities and determined that for certain facilities the borrowings and repayments should be presented gross instead of net on the condensed consolidated statements of cash flow and corrected the presentation of the prior year by an immaterial amount.

COVID-19 Pandemic

The global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic (“COVID-19”) continues to evolve rapidly. The extent of its effect on our operational and financial performance will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with confidence, including the duration, scope and severity of the pandemic, the actions taken to contain or mitigate its impact, and the direct and indirect economic effects of the pandemic and related containment measures, among others.

At March 31, 2020, we evaluated the current economic environment, including our current assessment of the impact of COVID-19, and we believe that there were no indicators of impairment of our long-lived assets, including goodwill that required a quantitative test to be performed. Our estimates involve numerous assumptions about the future growth and potential volatility in revenues and costs, capital expenditures, industry and global economic factors, interest rate environment and future business strategy. Accordingly, our accounting estimates may materially change from period to period due to changing market factors, including those driven by COVID-19. We will continue to monitor future events, changes in circumstances and the potential impact thereof. If actual results are not consistent with our assumptions and estimates, we may be exposed to impairment losses that could be material.

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Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements (Unaudited) (Continued)

Significant Accounting Policies

See “Note 1. Description of Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements section in the Fiscal 2019 Form 10-K for a summary of our significant accounting policies.

Recent Accounting Developments

New Accounting Standards — Recently Adopted

In February 2018, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2018-02, “Income Statement – Reporting Comprehensive Income (Topic 220): Reclassification of Certain Tax Effects from Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income”. The amendments in this update provide financial statement preparers with an option to reclassify stranded tax effects within accumulated other comprehensive income to retained earnings in the period of adoption or retrospectively in each period in which the effect of the change in the U.S. federal corporate income tax rate in the U.S. government enacted comprehensive tax legislation commonly referred to as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Tax Act”) (or portion thereof) is recorded. We adopted the provisions of this ASU on October 1, 2019. Upon adoption, we elected to reclassify stranded tax effects of the Tax Act within accumulated other comprehensive income to retained earnings. The reclassification of stranded tax effects from accumulated other comprehensive income increased retained earnings by $73.4 million, all of which related to our employee benefit plans.

In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-02 “Leases”, which is codified in Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 842 “Leases” (“ASC 842”) and supersedes current lease guidance in ASC 840 “Leases”. This ASU requires lessees to put a ROU asset and lease liability on their balance sheet for operating and financing leases that have a term of more than one year. Expense will be recognized in the income statement similar to current accounting guidance. For lessors, this ASU modifies the classification criteria and the accounting for sales-type and direct financing leases. Entities will need to disclose qualitative and quantitative information about their leases, including characteristics and amounts recognized in the financial statements. We adopted the provisions of ASC 842 on October 1, 2019 using the modified retrospective approach and, as a result, did not restate prior periods. See “Note 13. Leases” for additional details. 

New Accounting Standards — Recently Issued

See “Note 1. Description of Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies — New Accounting Standards — Recently Issued” of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements section of the Fiscal 2019 Form 10-K for information on new accounting standards issued prior to the beginning of fiscal 2020 but not yet adopted and where we do not expect that the adoption will have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements. Below is a description of new accounting standards for which we (i) are in the process of evaluating the impact on our consolidated financial statements, (ii) have determined that the new standard could have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements or (iii) have determined since the Fiscal 2019 Form 10-K that we do not expect the adoption of the new standard will have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements. We have not elected to early adopt any of the new accounting standards described below to the extent early adoption is permitted.

In March 2020, the FASB issued ASU 2020-04 “Reference Rate Reform (Topic 848): Facilitation of the Effects of Reference Rate Reform on Financial Reporting”. This ASU provides temporary optional expedients and exceptions for applying Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”) guidance on contract modifications and hedge accounting to ease the financial reporting burdens of the expected market transition from the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) and other interbank offered rates to alternative reference rates, such as the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”). The ASU can be adopted after its issuance date through December 31, 2022. We are currently evaluating the impact of this ASU.

In December 2019, the FASB issued ASU 2019-12 “Income Taxes (Topic 740): Simplifying the Accounting for Income Taxes”. This ASU simplifies the accounting for income taxes by removing certain exceptions to the general principles in Topic 740 under GAAP. This ASU also improves consistent application of and simplifies GAAP for other areas of Topic 740 by clarifying and amending existing guidance. This ASU is effective for fiscal

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Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements (Unaudited) (Continued)

years beginning after December 15, 2020 and interim periods within those fiscal years. Early adoption is permitted. We are currently evaluating the impact of this ASU.

In October 2018, the FASB issued ASU 2018-17 “Consolidation: Targeted Improvements to Related Party Guidance for Variable Interest Entities.” This ASU changes how entities evaluate decision-making fees under the variable interest entity guidance. To determine whether decision-making fees represent a variable interest, an entity considers indirect interests held through related parties under common control on a proportionate basis, rather than in their entirety, as currently required under GAAP. This ASU is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2019 and interim periods within those fiscal years. Early adoption is permitted. We do not expect the adoption of this ASU to have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements.

In October 2018, the FASB issued ASU 2018-18 “Collaborative Arrangements (Topic 808): Clarifying the Interaction Between Topic 808 and Topic 606”, which provides targeted amendments to ASC 808, “Collaborative

arrangements” (“ASC 808”) and ASC 606 “Revenue from Contracts with Customers” (“ASC 606”). The amendments in this ASU require transactions between participants in a collaborative arrangement to be accounted for under ASC 606 when the counterparty is a customer. This ASU precludes an entity from presenting consideration from a transaction in a collaborative arrangement as revenue from contracts with customers if the counterparty is not a customer for that transaction. This ASU also amends ASC 808 to refer to the unit-of-account guidance in ASC 606 and requires it to be used only when assessing whether a transaction is in scope of ASC 606. This ASU is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2019 and interim periods within those fiscal years. Early adoption is permitted. We do not expect the adoption of this ASU to have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements.

In August 2018, the FASB issued ASU 2018-15 “Intangibles – Goodwill and Other – Internal-Use Software (Subtopic 350-40): Customer’s Accounting for Implementation Costs Incurred in a Cloud Computing Arrangement That Is a Service Contract”. The amendments in this ASU align the requirements for capitalizing implementation costs incurred in a hosting arrangement that is a service contract with the requirements for capitalizing implementation costs incurred to develop or obtain internal-use software (and hosting arrangements that include an internal-use software license). The accounting for the service element of a hosting arrangement that is a service contract is not affected by these amendments. The provisions may be adopted prospectively or retrospectively. This ASU is effective for fiscal years, including interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2019. Early adoption is permitted. We are currently evaluating the impact of this ASU.

In August 2018, the FASB issued ASU 2018-14 “Compensation – Retirement Benefits – Defined Benefit Plans – General (Subtopic 715-20): Changes to the Disclosure Requirements for Defined Benefit Plans”. The amendments in this ASU modify the disclosure requirements for employers that sponsor defined benefit pension or other postretirement plans to remove disclosures that no longer are considered cost beneficial, clarify the specific requirements of disclosures and add disclosure requirements identified as relevant. These provisions will be applied retrospectively. This ASU is effective for fiscal years ending after December 15, 2020. Early adoption is permitted. We are currently evaluating the impact of this ASU.

In June 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-13 “Financial Instruments – Credit losses: Measurement of Credit Losses on financial Instruments (Topic 326)” (“ASU 2016-13”), which modifies the measurement of expected credit losses of certain financial instruments. The ASU is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2019, including interim periods within those fiscal years, and will be applied as a cumulative effect adjustment to retained earnings as of the beginning of the first reporting period for which the guidance is effective. In April 2019, the FASB issued ASU 2019-04 “Codification Improvements to Topic 326, Financial Instruments – Credit Losses, Topic 815, Derivatives and Hedging, and Topic 825, Financial Instruments” (“ASU 2019-04”), which addresses issues related to accrued interest receivable balances, recoveries, variable interest rates and prepayments, among other things. In May 2019, the FASB issued ASU 2019-05 “Financial Instruments – Credit Losses (Topic 326): Targeted Transition Relief” (“ASU 2019-05”), which provides targeted transition relief allowing entities to make an irrevocable one-time election upon adoption of the new credit losses standard to measure financial assets previously measured at amortized cost (except held-to-maturity securities) using the fair value option. In November 2019, the FASB issued ASU 2019-11 “Codification Improvements to Topic 326, Financial Instruments – Credit Losses” (“ASU 2019-11”), which makes certain narrow-scope amendments to Topic 326, including allowing entities to exclude accrued interest amounts from various required disclosures under Topic 326. In February 2020, the FASB issued ASU 2020-02 “Financial Instruments – Credit Losses (Topic 326) and Leases (Topic 842)” (“ASU 2020-02”), which adds and amends paragraphs in the Accounting Standards Codification to reflect the issuance of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 119

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Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements (Unaudited) (Continued)

primarily related to the new credit losses standard. The provisions of ASU 2019-04, ASU 2019-05, ASU 2019-11 and ASU 2020-02 related to Topic 326 are effective concurrent with the adoption of ASU 2016-13. We are currently evaluating the impact of these ASUs.

Disaggregated Revenue

ASC 606 requires that we disaggregate revenue from contracts with customers into categories that depict how the nature, amount, timing and uncertainty of revenue and cash flows are affected by economic factors. The tables below disaggregate our revenue by geographical market and product type (segment). Net sales are attributed to geographical markets based on the location of the seller.

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Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements (Unaudited) (Continued)

Revenue Contract Balances

Contract assets are rights to consideration in exchange for goods that we have transferred to a customer when that right is conditional on something other than the passage of time. Contract assets are reduced when title and risk of loss passes to the customer. Contract liabilities represent obligations to transfer goods or services to a customer for which we have received consideration. Contract liabilities are reduced once control of the goods is transferred to the customer.

The opening and closing balances of our contract assets and contract liabilities are as follows. Contract assets and contract liabilities are aggregated within Other current assets and Other current liabilities, respectively, on the condensed consolidated balance sheet.

We account for acquisitions in accordance with ASC 805, “Business Combinations”. The estimated fair values of all assets acquired and liabilities assumed in acquisitions are provisional and may be revised as a result of additional information obtained during the measurement period of up to one year from the acquisition date. See “Note 3. Acquisitions and Investment” of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements section in the Fiscal 2019 Form 10-K for information about our prior year acquisitions and investments. For the three and six months ended March 31, 2020, no changes to our fiscal 2019 provisional fair value estimates of assets and liabilities assumed in acquisitions, where the measurement period was open at the beginning of the fiscal year, have been significant, and we do not anticipate future changes to these amounts to be significant.

 KapStone Acquisition

On November 2, 2018, pursuant to the Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Merger Agreement”), dated as of January 28, 2018, among WRKCo Inc. (formerly known as WestRock Company), which we refer to as “WRKCo”, KapStone Paper and Packaging Corporation (“KapStone”), the Company (formerly known as Whiskey Holdco, Inc.), Whiskey Merger Sub, Inc. and Kola Merger Sub, Inc., the Company acquired all of the outstanding shares of KapStone through a transaction in which: (i) Whiskey Merger Sub, Inc. merged with and into WRKCo, with WRKCo surviving the merger as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company and (ii) Kola Merger Sub, Inc. merged with and into KapStone, with KapStone surviving the merger as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company (collectively, the “KapStone Acquisition”). Effective as of the effective time of the KapStone Acquisition (the “Effective Time”), Whiskey Holdco, Inc. changed its name to “WestRock Company” and WRKCo changed its name to “WRKCo Inc.”

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Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements (Unaudited) (Continued)

KapStone is a leading North American producer and distributor of containerboard, corrugated products and specialty papers, including liner and medium containerboard, kraft papers and saturating kraft. KapStone also owns Victory Packaging, a packaging solutions distribution company with facilities in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. We have included the financial results of KapStone in our Corrugated Packaging segment since the date of the KapStone Acquisition.

Pursuant to the KapStone Acquisition, at the Effective Time, (a) each issued and outstanding share of common stock, par value $0.01 per share, of WRKCo was converted into one share of common stock, par value $0.01 per share, of the Company (“Company common stock”) and (b) each issued and outstanding share of common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, of KapStone (“KapStone common stock”) (other than shares of KapStone common stock owned by (i) KapStone or any of its subsidiaries or (ii) any KapStone stockholder who properly exercised appraisal rights with respect to its shares of KapStone common stock in accordance with Section 262 of the Delaware General Corporation Law) was automatically canceled and converted into the right to receive (1) $35.00 per share in cash, without interest (the “Cash Consideration”), or, at the election of the holder of such share of KapStone common stock, (2) 0.4981 shares of Company common stock (the “Stock Consideration”) and cash in lieu of fractional shares, subject to proration procedures designed to ensure that the Stock Consideration would be received in respect of no more than 25% of the shares of KapStone common stock issued and outstanding immediately prior to the Effective Time (the “Maximum Stock Amount”). Each share of KapStone common stock in respect of which a valid election of Stock Consideration was not made by 5:00 p.m. New York City time on September 5, 2018 was converted into the right to receive the Cash Consideration. KapStone stockholders elected to receive Stock Consideration that was less than the Maximum Stock Amount and no proration was required.

The consideration for the KapStone Acquisition was $4.9 billion including debt assumed, a long-term financing obligation and assumed equity awards. As a result, KapStone stockholders received in the aggregate approximately $3.3 billion in cash and 1.6 million shares of WestRock common stock with a value of $70.1 million, or approximately 0.6% of the issued and outstanding shares of WestRock common stock immediately following the Effective Time. Pursuant to the Merger Agreement, at the Effective Time, the Company assumed any outstanding awards granted under the equity-based incentive plans of WRKCo and KapStone (including the shares underlying such awards), the award agreements evidencing the grants of such awards and, in the case of the WRKCo equity-based incentive plans, the remaining shares available for issuance under the applicable plan, in each case subject to adjustments to such awards in the manner set forth in the Merger Agreement. Included in the consideration was $70.8 million related to outstanding KapStone equity awards that were replaced with WestRock equity awards with identical terms for pre-combination service. The amount related to post-combination service will be expensed over the remaining service period of the awards.

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Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements (Unaudited) (Continued)

The following table summarizes the fair values of the assets acquired and liabilities assumed in the KapStone Acquisition by major class of assets and liabilities as of the acquisition date, as well as adjustments made during fiscal 2019 and fiscal 2020 (referred to as “measurement period adjustments”) (in millions):

The fair value assigned to goodwill is primarily attributable to buyer-specific synergies expected to arise after the KapStone Acquisition (e.g., enhanced geographic reach of the combined organization, increased vertical integration and other synergistic opportunities) and the assembled work force of KapStone, as well as from establishing deferred tax liabilities for the assets and liabilities acquired. The goodwill and intangible assets resulting from the KapStone Acquisition will not be amortizable for tax purposes.

The following table summarizes the weighted average life and the fair value of intangible assets recognized in the KapStone Acquisition, excluding goodwill (in millions, except lives):

None of the intangible assets have significant residual value. The intangible assets are being amortized over estimated useful lives ranging from one to 20 years based on a straight-line basis because the amortization pattern was not reliably determinable.

Summary of Restructuring and Other Initiatives

We recorded pre-tax restructuring and other costs of $16.4 million and $46.5 million for the three and six months ended March 31, 2020 and $34.8 million and $89.2 million for the three and six months ended March 31, 2019. These amounts are not comparable since the timing and scope of the individual actions associated with

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Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements (Unaudited) (Continued)

each restructuring, acquisition, divestiture or integration can vary. We present our restructuring and other costs in more detail below.

The following table summarizes our Restructuring and other costs (in millions):