AMERICOLD REALTY TRUST
For the period ended Dec 31, 2023. Filed Feb 29, 2024.
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FY2023 · Filed Feb 29, 2024
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Item 16. Form 10-K Summary
Not Applicable.
To the Stockholders and the Board of Directors of Americold Realty Trust, Inc. and Subsidiaries
Opinion on the Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Americold Realty Trust, Inc. and subsidiaries (the Company) as of December 31, 2023 and 2022, the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive (loss) income, equity and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2023, and the related notes and financial statement schedule listed in the Index at Item 15(b) (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company at December 31, 2023 and 2022, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2023, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.
We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2023, based on criteria established in Internal Control—Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework), and our report dated February 29, 2024 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.
Basis for Opinion
These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
Critical Audit Matter
The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current period audit of the financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective or complex judgments. The communication of the critical audit matter does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates.
Test of Goodwill for Impairment
| Description of the Matter | As more fully described in Note 2 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company evaluates the carrying value of goodwill each year as of October 1 and between annual evaluations if events occur or circumstances change that would more likely than not reduce the fair value of a reporting unit to which goodwill has been allocated below its carrying amount. As of December 31, 2023, the carrying value of the Company’s goodwill balance totaled $794.0 million, after recognizing an impairment charge related to the Europe warehouse reporting unit of $236.5 million. Auditing management’s annual goodwill quantitative impairment test involved especially subjective judgments due to the significant estimation required in determining the fair value of the Europe warehouse reporting unit to which goodwill had been allocated. In particular, the estimate of fair value is sensitive to changes in assumptions impacting the discount rate, which include the estimated equity, company and country-specific risk premiums, the use and weighting of the allowable valuation methods as well as the capital structures of the guideline companies, all of which directly impact the business enterprise value of the Europe warehouse reporting unit. |
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| How We Addressed the Matter in Our Audit | We obtained an understanding, evaluated the design and tested the operating effectiveness of controls over the Company’s goodwill impairment process. For example, we tested controls over the estimation of the fair value of the Europe warehouse reporting unit, including the Company’s controls over the valuation methodology and development of underlying assumptions used to determine the fair value of the Europe warehouse reporting unit, as well as the Company’s related sensitivity analyses. To test the estimated fair value of the Europe warehouse reporting unit, our audit procedures included, among others, assessing the valuation methodology and the underlying data used by the Company in its analysis, including testing the significant assumptions used to develop the discount rate. We compared the significant assumptions used by management to current economic trends and other relevant factors. We performed sensitivity analyses on the discount rate to evaluate the changes in the fair value of the Europe warehouse reporting unit that would result from changes in the related assumptions. We involved valuation specialists to assist in our evaluation of the valuation methodology and the significant assumptions, including the discount rate used in determining the fair value of the Europe warehouse reporting unit. |
/s/Ernst & Young LLP
We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2010.
Atlanta, Georgia
February 29, 2024
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