Carriage Services Announces Balance Sheet Recapitalization and Update to Rolling Four Quarter Outlook
- Repurchased in privately negotiated transactions approximately 80% of our
$143 .75 million 2.75% subordinated convertible notes dueMay 2021 for approximately $150 million (29.5% market value premium over par), funded by issuance of 2.8 million common shares to repurchased convertible holders at$26 .79 per share (primarily to cover short positions) and $75 million of cash from interim bank financing under our prior credit facility with our previous large bank group. - Issued $325 million of eight year 6⅝% unsecured senior notes that refinanced all outstanding bank debt (about $290 million including the
$75 million interim financing for the convertible note repurchases) under our prior secured term loan and revolving credit bank facilities dueMarch 2021 . - Put in place a new $150 million five year secured Bank Revolving Credit Facility (undrawn) on improved terms with a smaller bank group.
The above series of transactions to recapitalize our balance sheet have been the result of a two year project during which we sought and received substantial and much appreciated input from existing and potential long term institutional equity investors as well as several capital structure specialists and investment bankers. We fine-tuned our capital structure strategy for the future over the last six months and decided that we should move now in an interest rate environment that is still historically low but whose intermediate term outlook while unknowable is more likely to be up than down.
Before I lay out what our new and strengthened balance sheet and financial flexibility means for the future, let me first provide the background and motivating reasons.
Four years ago we made an 'unforced error' by
refinancing a thirty year $90 million 7% coupon hybrid convertible (at
We believe the balance sheet recapitalization outlined above has financially positioned the Company for a period of more rapid growth by selective high quality acquisitions during what we expect will be a period of more rapid consolidation of the remaining best independents in our industry compared to the last ten to fifteen years. We are now well prepared organizationally and financially for this more opportunistic industry landscape with a hugely differentiating story that offers a succession plan solution to business owners akin to them 'joining in' as a strategic partner with other elite firms while also becoming better as an operating business under the Carriage framework of Being The Best Support Services from our Houston Support Center. For this reason our pipeline of high quality acquisition candidates has been growing as our Strategic Growth Leadership Team has been actively out telling our story.
To begin this new phase of our Good To Great Journey, I am pleased to update our Rolling Four Quarter Outlook that includes a Letter of Intent on a large, high quality funeral business in a very attractive strategic market consistent with the section on Page 19 of my 2017 Shareholder Letter titled '
ROLLING FOUR QUARTER OUTLOOK - Period Ending
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(1) The Rolling Four Quarter Outlook no longer treats approximately
(2) The Rolling Four Quarter Outlook does not include one-time expenses and losses related to write-offs of remaining unamortized financing costs from the refinancing and replacement of our prior secured bank term loan and revolving credit facilities and 80% of the convertible subordinated notes, which will be reflected as Special Items in our second quarter Trend Report.
(3) The Rolling Four Quarter Outlook on Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share does not include any changes to our share count that could occur related to stock price increases and EPS dilution calculations related to our remaining convertible subordinated notes and outstanding and exercisable stock options.
Our near term annual earnings per share performance metrics have been reduced to a range of
As articulated on Page 1 of my 2017 Shareholder Letter, our goal is to grow revenue over the five year period 2018 - 2022 at a compound rate of 7 - 9%, comprised of about 2% from existing operations and 5 - 7 % from acquisitions, thereby achieving a 'Roughly Right Range' of revenue on an annualized basis of
We expect a majority of our acquisition and growth capital expenditures over the 2018 - 2022 timeframe to be funded from internally generated Free Cash Flow that over time will enable the powerful leveraging dynamics of our consolidation platform to compound the intrinsic value of CSV shares represented by book value per share at low to mid teen rates of growth. We also expect to simultaneously reduce our Total Debt to Consolidated EBITDA leverage ratio to approximately 4 - 4.5 times biased toward 4 times as a matter of policy.
Finally after 27 years we have achieved a 'grown up, vanilla/chocolate' balance sheet that better supports a
Being The Best High Performance Culture Vision of our company and which all of our leaders, employees, long term shareholders and new bondholders so richly deserve. And as Chairman of our Board and CEO, I can also happily report that we have the most qualified, aligned and engaged Senior Leadership Team and Board Members in the history of the company," concluded
About
Certain statements made herein or elsewhere by,
or on behalf of, the Company that are not historical facts are intended to be forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding any projections of earnings, revenues, asset sales, cash flow, debt levels or other financial items; any statements of the plans, strategies and objectives of management for future operations; any statements regarding future economic conditions or performance; any statements of belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing and are based on the Company's current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effect on it. The words "may", "will", "estimate", "intend", "believe", "expect", "seek", "project",
"forecast", "foresee", "should", "would", "could", "plan", "anticipate", "target", and other similar words or expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, which are generally not historical in nature. These statements are based on assumptions that the Company believes are reasonable; however, many important factors, as discussed under "Forward-Looking Statements and Cautionary Statements" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended
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