Rayonier announces capital structure realignment plan

Rayonier announced an asset disposition and capital structure realignment plan targeting $1 billion of select asset sales over the next 18 months. The proceeds of the asset sales will be used to reduce the Company’s leverage to less than or equal to3.0x Net Debt / Adjusted EBITDA* and return meaningful capital to shareholders. The Plan is intended to enhance shareholder value by capturing the significant disparity between public and private timberland values and reducing the level of debt the Company maintains in a higher interest rate environment. The Plan will also improve the Company’s competitive positioning by divesting less strategic assets and concentrating capital in markets with the strongest cash flow attributes and most favorable long-term growth prospects. The Company today announced the first step toward effectuating the Plan with the sale of 55,000 acres in Oregon for $242 million. “Rayonier remains committed to its nimble, value-added capital allocation strategy,” said David Nunes, Chief Executive Officer. “The disconnect between private market timberland values and the Company’s public market valuation is at an historically wide level, and the plan announced today will allow us to take advantage of this opportunity to create value for our shareholders as well as right-size our leverage to the current market environment. Our portfolio scale and pure-play timber REIT structure afford us the flexibility to take these initiatives, and we are confident that they will result in meaningful value accretion for our shareholders.”