CANONSBURG, Pa., March 29, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- CONSOL Energy Inc.
(NYSE: CEIX) announced today that it successfully completed an
amendment of its Revolving Credit Facilities (RCF), Term Loan A
(TLA) and Term Loan B (TLB). The amendment will lower CEIX's
cost of capital through improved interest rates, improve financial
and operational flexibility through various covenant changes,
enhance liquidity through a $100
million increase in revolving credit borrowing capacity and
extend maturities.
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"Since becoming a new public company in November 2017, we have reduced our debt by
approximately $158 million and
re-positioned our balance sheet to help withstand any cyclicality
of our business and take advantage of any possible growth
opportunities," said David Khani,
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of CONSOL
Energy Inc. "We believe that the combination of this refinancing,
our $110 million sweep payment on TLB
made in February and $7 million of
second lien debt repurchase in January will result in an overall
reduction of annualized interest expense by approximately
$15 million. We believe that the
amendment improved our access to capital with a broader bank group,
increased our revolving credit borrowing capacity by an additional
$100 million and extended maturities
of all our first lien debt. We believe that we have achieved
significant operational and financial flexibility to more
efficiently utilize our balance sheet for value-enhancing
transactions for our shareholders. I thank all our banking
partners, stakeholders, and investors for their continued support
and confidence in our strategy."
Some of the major highlights from the amendment include:
- Increases liquidity under RCF by $100
million in additional borrowing commitments (from
$300 million commitment to
$400 million commitment).
- Reallocates principal amounts of TLA and TLB to $100 million and $275
million, respectively, to take advantage of lower cost and
strong demand for TLA.
- Reduces annual interest rate of 50 bps on RCF and TLA, and 150
bps on TLB.
- Extends maturity dates of RCF/TLA to 2023 and TLB to 2024. New
maturity dates complement current maturity date of second lien
notes due 2025.
- Reduces mandatory annual excess cash flow sweep under TLB by
25% at all levels of leverage ratios.
- Adds an annual dividend basket of up to $50 million.
- Refreshes and expands covenants relating to capital leases,
general investments, joint venture investments and annual share
repurchases baskets.
- Reduces LIBOR floor from 1% to 0% on TLB.
- Overall effect of amendment reduces weighted average cost of
refinanced debt outstanding by 1.3%.
- 100% participation from existing lenders and addition of new
lenders in RCF demonstrates strong ongoing support from the lender
group.
CONSOL Coal Resources LP (NYSE: CCR), which is an affiliate
of CEIX, also completed an amendment to its affiliated credit
facility with CEIX to extend the maturity date under that agreement
to 2024.
PNC Capital Markets LLC acted as lead arranger for the RCF and
TLA transaction.
Citi and Credit Suisse acted as lead arrangers for the TLB
transaction.
About CONSOL Energy Inc.
CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE: CEIX) is a Canonsburg-based producer and exporter of
high-Btu bituminous thermal and crossover metallurgical coal. It
owns and operates some of the most productive longwall mining
operations in the Northern Appalachian Basin. Our flagship
operation is the Pennsylvania Mining Complex, which has the
capacity to produce approximately 28.5 million tons of coal per
year and is comprised of 3 large-scale underground mines:
Bailey, Enlow Fork, and Harvey. The company also owns and operates
the CONSOL Marine Terminal, which is located in the port of
Baltimore and has a throughput
capacity of approximately 15 million tons per year. In addition to
the ~698 million reserve tons associated with the Pennsylvania
Mining Complex, the company also controls approximately 1.6 billion
tons of greenfield thermal and metallurgical coal reserves located
in the major coal-producing basins of the eastern United States. Additional information
regarding CONSOL Energy may be found at www.consolenergy.com.
Contacts:
Investor:
Mitesh Thakkar, (724) 485-3133
miteshthakkar@consolenergy.com
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking
Statements
Certain statements in this press release are "forward-looking
statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws. With
the exception of historical matters, the matters discussed in this
press release are forward-looking statements (as defined in Section
21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended) that
involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to
differ materially from projected results. Accordingly, investors
should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as a
prediction of actual results. The forward-looking statements may
include projections and estimates concerning the timing and success
of specific projects and our future production, revenues, income
and capital spending. When we use the words "anticipate,"
"believe," "could," "continue," "estimate," "expect," "intend,"
"may," "plan," "predict," "project," "should," "will," or their
negatives, or other similar expressions, the statements which
include those words are usually forward-looking statements. When we
describe strategy that involves risks or uncertainties, we are
making forward-looking statements. We have based these
forward-looking statements on our current expectations and
assumptions about future events. While our management considers
these expectations and assumptions to be reasonable, they are
inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive,
regulatory and other risks, contingencies and uncertainties, most
of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond our
control. Specific risks, contingencies and uncertainties are
discussed in more detail in our filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements in this press
release speak only as of the date of this press release and CEIX
disclaims any intention or obligation to update publicly any
forward-looking statements, whether in response to new information,
future events, or otherwise, except as required by applicable
law.
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SOURCE CONSOL Energy Inc.