General Information

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

GENERAL INFORMATION

Nature of Business and Basis of Presentation

On December 29, 2017, Graphic Packaging International, Inc. ("GPII"), the primary operating subsidiary of Graphic Packaging Holding Company, a Delaware corporation (“GPHC”), underwent a statutory conversion and became a Delaware limited liability company. As a result, GPII’s name changed to Graphic Packaging International, LLC.

Graphic Packaging International, LLC ("GPIL" and, together with its subsidiaries, the “Company”) is committed to providing consumer packaging that makes a world of difference. The Company is a leading provider of paper-based packaging solutions for a wide variety of products to food, beverage, foodservice, and other consumer products companies. The Company operates on a global basis, is one of the largest producers of folding cartons in the United States (“U.S.”) and holds leading market positions in coated-recycled paperboard (“CRB”), coated unbleached kraft paperboard (“CUK”) and solid bleached sulfate paperboard (“SBS”).

The Company’s customers include many of the world’s most widely recognized companies and brands with prominent market positions in beverage, food, foodservice and other consumer products. The Company strives to provide its customers with packaging solutions designed to deliver marketing and performance benefits at a competitive cost by capitalizing on its low-cost paperboard mills and converting facilities, its proprietary carton and packaging designs, and its commitment to quality and service.

On January 1, 2018, GPHC, International Paper Company, a New York corporation (“IP”), Graphic Packaging International Partners, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company formerly known as Gazelle Newco LLC and a wholly owned subsidiary of GPHC (“GPIP”), and GPIL, completed a series of transactions pursuant to an agreement dated October 23, 2017, among the foregoing parties (the “Transaction Agreement”). Pursuant to the Transaction Agreement (i) a wholly owned subsidiary of GPHC transferred its ownership interest in GPIL to GPIP; (ii) IP transferred its North America Consumer Packaging (“NACP”) business to GPIP, which was then subsequently transferred to GPIL; (iii) GPIP issued membership interests to IP, and IP was admitted as a member of GPIP; and (iv) GPIL assumed certain indebtedness of IP (the "NACP Combination"). GPIL is currently wholly-owned by GPIP, which is owned by GPI Holding III, LLC, a limited liability company that is classified as a partnership for U.S. Federal income tax purposes ("GPI Holding”) and IP. GPI Holding is a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of GPHC and is the managing member of GPIP.

During 2019 and 2018, the Company distributed $247.9 million to GPIP to allow GPIP to repurchase 20.8 million partnership units from GPI Holding, which increased IP's ownership interest in GPIP from 20.5% at January 1, 2018 to 21.6% at December 31, 2019.

On January 28, 2020, GPHC announced that IP notified GPHC of its intent to begin the process of reducing its ownership interest in GPIP. Per the agreement between the parties, on January 29, 2020, GPIP purchased 15.1 million partnership units from IP for $250 million in cash. As a result, IP’s ownership interest in GPIP decreased from 21.6% to 18.3% as of January 29, 2020.

Unless otherwise negotiated by the parties, IP’s next opportunity to exchange their partnership units is 180 days from the purchase date and is limited to the lesser of $250 million or 25% of the units owned immediately following the transaction, subject to the cap on the number of units that may be exchanged for shares of GPHC's common stock. IP will have further opportunities to exchange their partnership units 180 days after each exchange date. GPHC may choose to satisfy these exchanges using shares of its common stock, cash, or a combination thereof.

The Company’s Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements include all subsidiaries in which the Company has the ability to exercise direct or indirect control over operating and financial policies. Intercompany transactions and balances are eliminated in consolidation.

In the Company’s opinion, the accompanying Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements contain all normal recurring adjustments necessary to present fairly the financial position, results of operations and cash flows for the interim periods. The Company’s year end Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet data was derived from audited financial statements. The accompanying unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements have been prepared in accordance with instructions to Form 10-Q and Rule 10-01 of Regulation S-X and do not include all the information required by accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“U.S. GAAP”) for complete financial statements. Therefore, these Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements should be read in conjunction with GPIL’s Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019. In addition, the preparation of the Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual amounts could differ from those estimates and changes in these estimates are recorded when known.

Revenue Recognition

The Company has two primary activities, the manufacturing and converting of paperboard, from which it generates revenue from contracts with customers. Revenue is disaggregated primarily by geography and type of activity as further explained in "Note 11-Segments." All reportable segments and the Australia and Pacific Rim operating segments recognize revenue under the same method, allocate transaction price using similar methods, and have similar economic factors impacting the uncertainty of revenue and related cash flows.

Revenue is recognized on the Company's annual and multi-year supply contracts when the Company satisfies the performance obligation by transferring control over the product or service to a customer, which is generally based on shipping terms and passage of title under the point-in-time method of recognition. For the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, the Company recognized $1,594.6 million and $1,501.6 million, respectively, of revenue from contracts with customers.

The transaction price allocated to each performance obligation consists of the stand alone selling price, estimates of rebates and other sales or contract renewal incentives, and cash discounts and sales returns ("Variable Consideration") and excludes sales tax. Estimates are made for Variable Consideration based on contract terms and historical experience of actual results and are applied to the performance obligations as they are satisfied. Purchases by the Company’s principal customers are manufactured and shipped with minimal lead time, therefore performance obligations are generally satisfied shortly after manufacturing and shipment. The Company uses payment terms that are consistent with industry practice.

The Company's contract assets consist primarily of contract renewal incentive payments to customers which are amortized over the period in which performance obligations related to the contract renewal are satisfied. As of March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, contract assets were $21.0 million and $24.3 million, respectively. The Company's contract liabilities consist principally of rebates, and as of March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019 were $43.7 million and $49.6 million, respectively.

The Company did not have a material amount relating to backlog orders at March 31, 2020 or December 31, 2019.

Accounts Receivable and Allowances

The Company has entered into agreements to sell, on a revolving basis, certain trade accounts receivable to third party financial institutions. Transfers under these agreements meet the requirements to be accounted for as sales in accordance with the Transfers and Servicing topic of the Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") Accounting Standards Codification (the "Codification"). The loss on sale is not material and is included in Other Expense, Net on the Condensed Consolidated Statement of Operations. The following table summarizes the activity under these programs for the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively:


	Three Months Ended
	March 31,
In millions	2020		2019
Receivables Sold and Derecognized	$	610.2	$	811.2
Proceeds Collected on Behalf of Financial Institutions	608.8		504.1
Net Proceeds Paid to Financial Institutions	(4.7)		(28.8)
Deferred Purchase Price at March 31^(a)	6.7		4.3
Pledged Receivables at March 31	263.5		144.2

^(a)Included in Other Current Assets and represents a beneficial interest in the receivables sold to the financial institutions, which is a Level 3 fair value measure.

The Company participates in supply chain financing arrangements offered by certain customers and has entered into various factoring arrangements that also qualify for sale accounting in accordance with the Transfers and Servicing topic of the FASB Codification. For the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, the Company sold receivables of approximately $72 million and $37 million, respectively, related to these factoring arrangements.

Receivables sold under all programs subject to continuing involvement, which consists principally of collection services, at March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, were approximately $563 million and $562 million, respectively.

Business Combinations and Shutdown and Other Special Charges, Net

The following table summarizes the transactions recorded in Business Combinations and Shutdown and Other Special Charges, Net in the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations:


	Three Months Ended
	March 31,
In millions	2020		2019
Charges Associated with Business Combinations	$	1.5	$	2.1
Shutdown and Other Special Charges	4.2		4.1
Exit Activities^(a)	13.0		—

Total	$	18.7	$	6.2

^(a)Relates to the Company's CRB mills and the PM1 containerboard machine exit activities (see "Note 14 — Exit Activities").

2020

On January 31, 2020, the Company acquired a folding carton facility from Quad/Graphics, Inc. ("Quad"), a commercial printing company. The converting facility is located in Omaha, Nebraska and is included in the Americas Paperboard Packaging reportable segment.

In March 2020, the Company made the decision to close the White Pigeon, Michigan CRB mill and shut down the PM1 containerboard machine in West Monroe, Louisiana. Both will be effective June 30, 2020. Charges associated with these projects are included in Exit Activities in the table above. For more information, see "Note 14 — Exit Activities."

2019

On September 24, 2019, the Company announced its plan to invest approximately $600 million in a new CRB paper machine in Kalamazoo, Michigan. In conjunction with the completion of this project, the Company currently expects to close two of its smaller CRB Mills in 2022 in order to remain capacity neutral. Charges associated with this project are included in Exit Activities in the table above. For more information, see "Note 14 — Exit Activities."

On August 1, 2019, the Company acquired substantially all the assets of Artistic Carton Company ("Artistic"), a diversified producer of folding cartons and CRB. The acquisition included two converting facilities located in Auburn, Indiana and Elgin, Illinois (included in the Americas Paperboard Packaging reportable segment) and one CRB paperboard mill located in White Pigeon, Michigan (included in the Paperboard Mills reportable segment).

Charges associated with all acquisitions are included in Charges Associated with Business Combinations in the table above. For more information regarding these acquisitions see "Note 3 — Business Combinations."

During 2019, the Company began a three-year program to dismantle and dispose of idle and abandoned assets primarily at the paperboard mills. Expected charges for this program are approximately $40 million. Charges associated with this program are included in Shutdown and Other Special Charges in the table above.

Adoption of New Accounting Standards

Effective January 1, 2020, the Company adopted Accounting Standards Update ("ASU") No. 2016-13, Financial Instruments - Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments which amends the FASB's guidance on the impairment of financial instruments. The ASU adds to U.S. GAAP an impairment model (known as the "current expected credit loss model") that is based on expected losses rather than incurred losses. The adoption of this standard did not have a material impact on the Company's financial position, results of operations and cash flows.

Effective January 1, 2020, the Company adopted ASU No. 2018-13, Fair Value Measurement (Topic 820): Disclosure Framework - Changes to the Disclosure Requirements for Fair Value Measurement. This amendment modifies the disclosure requirements on fair value measurements. The adoption of this standard did not have a material impact on the Company's financial disclosures.

Effective January 1, 2020, the Company adopted ASU No. 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. This ASU broadens the scope of Accounting Standards Codification ("ASC") 350-40 with an updated definition of a hosting arrangement and clarifies certain aspects of accounting for implementation costs incurred in a cloud computing arrangement that is a service contract. The adoption of this standard did not have a material impact on the Company's financial position, results of operations and cash flows.

Accounting Standards Not Yet Adopted

In August 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-14, Compensation - Retirement Benefits - Defined Benefit Plans - General (Subtopic 715-20); Disclosure Framework - Changes to the Disclosure Requirements for Defined Benefit Plans. This amendment removes certain disclosures that are not considered cost beneficial, clarifies certain required disclosures and adds additional disclosures. The guidance is effective for fiscal years ending after December 15, 2020 and would be applied on a retrospective basis. The Company is currently evaluating the impact this guidance will have on its related disclosures.

In December 2019, the FASB issued ASU No. 2019-12, Income Taxes (Topic 740): Simplifying the Accounting for Income Taxes. This amendment modifies ASC 740 to simplify the accounting for income taxes. The guidance is effective for fiscal years, and interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2020. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of this new guidance.

GRAPHIC PACKAGING INTERNATIONAL, LLC 10-Q