Impairments of Goodwill and Other Long-Lived Assets

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2020

Goodwill and Intangible Assets Disclosure [Abstract]

Impairments of Goodwill and Other Long-Lived Assets

During the three-month period ended March 31, 2020, the Company experienced disruptions in some operations from lower customer demand directly attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the Company's automotive customers temporarily ceased operations due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy resulting in the following:

•The Company’s China facilities carried out a planned shut down in conjunction with the lunar New Year in late January which was extended to late February as a result of government imposed restrictions. The facilities did not resume operations until late February and ramped back up moderately in line with customer demand. Currently, all of the Company’s plants in China are operating and all of its automotive customer plants in China have re-opened. The Company has not experienced any significant disruption it its supply chains in China since resuming operations;

•On March 20, 2020, the Company announced ramp downs at its Thermal Acoustical Solutions ("TAS") operations in North America and Europe as a direct result of customer stoppages;

•Leading economic indicators began to signal a broad economic recession and a future decline in automotive sales;

•Certain of the Company’s Performance Materials ("PM") and Technical Nonwovens ("TNW") operations with exposure to automotive end markets also experienced reductions in sales, which, in some cases, have been partially offset by increases in sales of other products. These operations also have exposure to various industrial end markets. Leading economic indicators for certain of these markets also began signaling a downturn in demand; and

•The Company's share price and market capitalization experienced a significant decline.

The Company considered the combination of the above to be triggering events that required an impairment analysis for the goodwill held at the PM and TNW reporting units, and for certain long-lived assets. Therefore, during the three-month period ended March 31, 2020, in accordance with both ASC 350 Intangibles - Goodwill and Other, and with ASC 360 Property, Plant & Equipment, the Company performed an impairment analysis of its goodwill held by the PM and TNW reporting units, and on certain of its long-lived assets (principally land, machinery and equipment, customer relationships, and buildings and improvements).

As a result of these impairment tests, the Company recorded the following impairment charges during the three-month period ended March 31, 2020:


In thousands	Performance Materials		Technical Nonwovens		Thermal Acoustical Solutions		Totals
Impairment of goodwill	$	48,671	$	—	$	—	$	48,671
Impairment of other long-lived assets	12,438		—		—		12,438
Total impairments	$	61,109	$	—	$	—	$	61,109

Goodwill

During the three-month period ended March 31, 2020, the Company performed a quantitative goodwill impairment assessment for both the PM and TNW reporting units. In the quantitative impairment assessment, the Company weighted equally both an income approach (discounted cash flow model) and a market approach to determine the fair value of the reporting units. The Company’s significant assumptions in the discounted cash flow model included, but were not limited to, future cash flow projections, the weighted average cost of capital, the terminal growth rate, and the tax rate.

Lower expected demand in automotive and other end markets due to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a reduction in sales and cash generation projections as compared to prior projections for the reporting units. Projected future cash flows includes management estimates and assumptions that are based on the best available information as of the date of the assessment. Future cash flows can be affected by numerous factors including changes in economic, industry or market conditions, changes in the underlying business or products of the reporting unit, changes in competition and changes in technology. The cash flows of the Company's reporting units can be significantly affected by the depth of the estimated decline in automotive and other end markets and our estimates of the pace and level of their recovery as well as the ability of the Company to increase production in response to the recovery.

The weighted average cost of capital for the PM reporting unit increased from 9.2 percent in the three-month period ended December 31, 2019 to 11.5 percent in the three-month period ended March 31, 2020. The weighted average cost of capital for the TNW reporting unit increased from 9.2 percent in the three-month period ended December 31, 2019 to 10.8 percent in the

three-month period ended March 31, 2020. There are inherent uncertainties and management judgment required in an analysis of goodwill impairment. The Company believes the income approach was appropriate because it provided a fair value estimate based upon the reporting unit's expected long-term operations and cash flow performance.

The Company also used a form of the market approach, which was derived from metrics of publicly traded companies or historically completed transactions of comparable businesses. The selection of comparable businesses is based on the markets in which the reporting unit operates giving consideration to risk profiles, size, geography, and diversity of products and services. The EBITDA multiples used in the market approach for both reporting units declined from the three-month period ended December 31, 2019 to the three-month period ended March 31, 2020 due to market-related changes in the industries in which these reporting units operate as a result of COVID-19.

Other assumptions included adding an implied control premium to the valuation based on estimating the fair value on a controlling basis, which was derived from research on control premiums observed in recent mergers and acquisitions in the industries in which the Company operates. The control premium for both reporting units increased by 5 percent from the three-month period ended December 31, 2019 to the three-month period ended March 31, 2020. Control premiums can be higher in periods of depressed stock prices. The Company believes the market approach was appropriate because it provided a fair value using multiples from companies with operations and economic characteristics similar to the PM reporting unit.

The Company also performed an overall reconciliation to corroborate the fair value derived from the income and market approaches to the Company's overall market capitalization. The revised projections, together with a deterioration in the inputs described above, drove a reduction in the fair value of both reporting units. As a result, the carrying value of the PM reporting unit was determined to exceed its fair value by $48.7 million, resulting in the impairment charge. After the impairment charge incurred during the three-month period ended March 31, 2020, the remaining goodwill associated with the PM reporting unit was $31.9 million. The fair value of the TNW reporting unit exceeded its carrying value and therefore no impairment was required. Any declines in financial projections, including changes to key assumptions, could have a material adverse impact on the fair value of the reporting units, and therefore could result in further impairment charges.

In the three-month period ended December 31, 2019, as part of its annual impairment assessment, the Company determined that the fair value of the PM reporting unit was less than its carrying value and recorded a goodwill impairment of $63.0 million.

Other Long-Lived Assets

During the three-month period ended March 31, 2020, the Company performed the following impairment assessments for long lived assets in accordance with ASC 360:

•As a result of the COVID 19 pandemic and the Company's action plan to address the risks associated with it, the Company accelerated certain actions. One such action was a review of a low-performing European plant within the PM segment. As a result of a strategic shift regarding this plant, the Company performed an impairment assessment on the long-lived assets of the plant. To determine the recoverability of this asset group, the Company completed an undiscounted cash flow analysis (income approach) and compared it to the asset group carrying value. The impairment test concluded that the assets were not recoverable as the resulting undiscounted cash flows were less than their carrying amount. The Company determined that the carrying value of the assets exceeded their fair value and recorded a long-lived asset impairment charge of $12.4 million.

•As a result of the temporary plant closures announced on March 20, 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic's effects on the automotive sector, the Company performed impairment assessments on the long-lived assets for its TAS plants. The Company considered each operating plant's asset group, primarily consisting of machinery and equipment, and buildings and improvements. To determine the recoverability of each asset group, the Company completed an undiscounted cash flow analysis (income approach) and compared it to each asset groups' carrying value. For two of the asset groups, the undiscounted cash flows exceeded the carrying value of the asset group so no further assessment of impairment was necessary. For two of the European plants, the undiscounted cash flows did not exceed the plants' carrying values. As part of step two of the impairment assessment, the Company used the market approach to determine fair value based on independent appraisals of the long-lived assets. The Company determined that impairment was not necessary since the fair value of the long-lived asset groups for each operating plant exceeded their carrying amounts.

There were no events or circumstances during the three-month period ended June 30, 2020 that indicated any further triggering events under ASC 360 were present. Changes in future operating results could result in a future non-cash impairment charge.

During the three-month period ended December 31, 2019, the Company determined that fair value of a certain asset group in the PM segment exceeded its carrying value and recorded a long-lived asset impairment charge of $1.2 million.