Verso Corp: Bankruptcy Reorg, Cheap Valuation

Verso Corporation (VRS) is a paper producer, primarily of coated papers used in magazines, catalogs, direct mailings, and other commercial applications.  They operate 8 paper mills, most of which are in the upper midwest.  This is a business in secular decline, shrinking mid-single digits annually the past five years as all media shifts to digital formats.  Verso was created by Apollo Global in a $1.4B 2006 leveraged buyout of International Paper's coated paper business, shortly afterwards the industry began to decline and Verso was sub-scale and had too much debt to compete.

In January 2014, Verso announced they would attempt to fix the scale problem and agreed to purchase competitor NewPage for another $1.4B.  The deal was heavily scrutinized by the Department of Justice fearing a monopoly in the coated paper market, all while both businesses were struggling and needed the combination to cut an estimated $175MM in costs.  Eventually the combined company agreed to sell 2 paper mills to appease regulators for $74MM and the deal was completed, but not in time to save Verso which filed for bankruptcy this past January with $2.8B in debt.  In July, Verso emerged from bankruptcy eliminating $2.4B in debt leaving it with $371MM split between an asset-back line and a term loan.  The former Verso and NewPage creditors became the equity shareholders and the company resumed trading under the symbol VRS.

After a company emerges from bankruptcy, the new equity is often in the hands of disinterested owners, the former debt holders, and similar to a spinoff there's no IPO road show to get investors excited.  The dream scenario is when a good business over-leverages themselves and a temporary setback in their business pushes them into bankruptcy while the underlying business is solid with long term growth prospects.  That's not the case here with Verso, the paper business is a declining commodity industry with high fixed costs and a variable priced end product that also has to compete against foreign producers benefiting from the strong dollar and lower labor costs.  But a cheap price can overcome a lot of flaws and Verso's equity is priced very cheaply.

Verso's management provided financial projections out to 2020 as part of the bankruptcy process, here's a link to the entire docket but I found the disclosure statement filed 5/10/16 to be the most helpful.

Verso expects to earn $145MM in 2017, it's current market cap is $404MM, so it's trading at a forward multiple of under 3 times earnings.  But P/E is probably not the best measure for Verso, they have a significant pension liability at $565MM that needs to be funded.

Verso expects to generate approximately $70MM annually in free cash flow after making pension plan contributions which works out to a 17% free cash flow yield.

PJT Partners, a 2015 Blackrock spinoff, was Verso's financial advisor through the process and provided their own valuation analysis.

A $700MM market cap would equal $20.35 per share (75% higher than today's $11.50) and value Verso at ~5x earnings, 10% free cash flow yield, and about ~4.4x EBITDA before pension contributions.  Sounds like valuations for other declining industries like newspapers and terrestrial radio stations.  Cheap and very reasonable even for a terrible business like coated paper.

The company is currently searching for a new CEO who would presumably have freshly struck options at today's depressed prices and a mandate for change, they wouldn't be tied to any of the decisions of previous management and could accelerate a shift to more profitable and less commodity specialty papers.  The ill-fated NewPage acquisition had strategic merit, the industry needs to consolidate and take capacity out of the system, Verso just had the wrong balance sheet and not enough time to experience the cost synergies of the merger.  By eliminating $200+MM of interest payments and realizing $175MM in cost synergies, new Verso should be more agile and able to adjust their business to the industry's realities.

Verso isn't a business you want to hold long term, I view this as a Graham cigar butt trade, get one last puff to the upside and move on to another one.

Risks:

• High fixed costs, variable input/outpost costs - Verso's input costs (timber, pulp, energy) are all highly variable and it's a price taker in their end coated paper markets, pair those dynamics with a high fixed cost expense base (expensive to maintain mills, unionized labor force) and a lot could go wrong.  A $25 change in pricing per ton would wipe out their entire annual EBITDA.
• Paper industry is in secular decline - Demand for paper decline 10% from 2012 to 2015, expected to decline another 4% in 2016, and likely will continue to decline at a similar pace for the foreseeable future.
• Verso hasn't been profitable since 2009 - I'm somewhat relying on management's financial projections and assuming they'll be able to come close to meeting those expectations which would be a significant turnaround from their results prior to bankruptcy.
• Continued strong US dollar - many of Verso's competitors are foreign, a strong dollar makes Verso's paper less competitive both domestically and in overseas markets.

Disclosure: I own shares of VRS