Basis of Presentation

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2020

Accounting Policies [Abstract]

Basis of Presentation

BASIS OF PRESENTATION

The summarized information of Tejon Ranch Co. and its subsidiaries (the Company or Tejon), provided pursuant to Part I, Item 1 of Form 10-Q, is unaudited and reflects all adjustments which are, in the opinion of the Company’s management, necessary for a fair statement of the results for the interim period. All such adjustments are of a normal recurring nature. The Company has evaluated subsequent events through the date of issuance of its consolidated financial statements.

The periods ending September 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019 include the consolidation of Centennial Founders, LLC’s statement of operations within the resort/residential real estate development segment and statements of cash flows. The Company’s September 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019 balance sheets and statements of changes in equity and noncontrolling interests are presented on a consolidated basis, including the consolidation of Centennial Founders, LLC.

The Company has identified five reportable segments: commercial/industrial real estate development, resort/residential real estate development, mineral resources, farming, and ranch operations. Information for the Company’s reportable segments are presented in its Consolidated Statements of Operations. The Company’s reportable segments follow the same accounting policies used for the Company’s consolidated financial statements. The Company uses segment profit or loss and equity in earnings of unconsolidated joint ventures as the primary measures of profitability to evaluate operating performance and to allocate capital resources.

The results of the period reported herein are not indicative of the results to be expected for the full year due to the seasonal nature of the Company’s agricultural activities, water activities, timing of real estate sales and leasing activities. The coronavirus, COVID-19, has also brought additional uncertainty previously unseen. Historically, the Company’s largest percentages of farming revenues are recognized during the third and fourth quarters of the fiscal year. Please refer to Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations for further discussion.

For further information and a summary of significant accounting policies, refer to the Consolidated Financial Statements and notes thereto included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

Lease Concessions Related to COVID-19 Pandemic

In April 2020, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, issued a Staff Question-and-Answer, or Q&A, intending to reduce the operational challenges and complexity of accounting for leases at a time when many businesses have been ordered to close or have seen their revenue drop due to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. The FASB determined that it would be appropriate for entities to make a policy election regarding how to account for lease concessions resulting directly from COVID-19. Rather than analyzing each lease contract individually, entities can elect to account for lease concessions “as though the enforceable rights and obligations for those concessions existed, regardless of whether those enforceable rights and obligations for the concessions explicitly exist in the contract.” Accordingly, entities that choose to apply the relief provided by the FASB can either (1) apply the modification framework for these concessions in accordance with ASC Topic 840 or ASC Topic 842 as applicable or (2) account for the concessions as if they were made under the enforceable rights included in the original agreement and are thus outside of the modification framework. In making this election, an entity would not need to perform a lease-by-lease analysis to evaluate the enforceable rights and may instead simply treat the change as if the enforceable rights were included or excluded in the original agreement. The election not to apply lease modification accounting is only available when total cash flows resulting from the modified contract are “substantially the same or less” than the cash flows in the original contract.

The Company has elected to account for lease concessions outside of the modification framework based on the FASB Q&A, and is continuing to assess the impact of the Q&A in light of our ongoing negotiations with tenants. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in tenant requests for rent relief, with a majority of the requests occurring in the second quarter. As of September 30, 2020, the Company reached agreements with all of our commercial tenants on their respective rent deferral requests. For the nine months ended September 30, 2020, the Company retained 87% of rent billings and agreed to defer 13% of rent billings, or $163,000. Based on the terms of the agreements reached with our tenants, all of deferred rent will be fully repaid by the end of 2021. The Company will account for the rent receivables as if no changes to the lease contract were made, and the rent receivable for the deferral period will stay on the Company's Consolidated Balance Sheet until the rent is collected over the passage of time.

Reference Rate Reform

In March 2020, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update, or ASU No. 2020-04, "Facilitation of the Effects of Reference Rate Reform on Financial Reporting", for reference rate reform related activities that impact debt, leases, derivatives and other contracts. The pronouncement provides optional expedients for a limited period of time to ease the potential burden of accounting for reference rate reform. Specifically, the ASU permits modification of contracts within ASC Topic 470, Debt, to be accounted for by prospectively adjusting the effective interest rate when a contract is modified because of reference rate reform. It also provides exceptions to the guidance in ASC Topic 815 related to changes to critical terms of a hedging relationship: the change in reference rate will not result in de-designation of a hedging relationship if certain criteria are met. This guidance is effective for all entities as of March 12, 2020 through December 31, 2022. The Company expects to utilize this optional guidance but do not expect it to have a material effect on our consolidated financial statements.

Newly Adopted Accounting Pronouncements

Allowance for Credit Losses

In June 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-13, "Financial Instruments — Credit Losses (Topic 326)," changing the impairment model for most financial instruments by requiring companies to recognize an allowance for expected losses, rather than incurred losses as required currently by the other-than-temporary impairment model. The ASU will apply to most financial assets measured at amortized cost and certain other instruments, including trade and other receivables, loans, available-for-sale and held-to-maturity debt securities, net investments in leases, and off-balance-sheet credit exposures.

In November 2019, the FASB issued ASU No. 2019-10, changing effective dates for the new standards to give implementation relief to certain types of entities. The Company was required to adopt the new standards no later than January 1, 2023 according to ASU 2019-10, with early adoption allowed.

The Company adopted the new standards on January 1, 2020. The adoption did not have a material impact on the Company's consolidated financial statements. The Company's accounts receivable balance is primarily composed of crop receivables. Based on the short-term nature of these contracts, historical experience with current customers, periodic credit evaluations of the customers' financial conditions, the current economic environment and rent deferrals negotiated with tenants the Company believes its credit risk is minimal. With regards to marketable securities, the Company limits its investment to securities with investment grade ratings from Moody's or Standard and Poor's. As the Company does not have a current intent to sell securities and it is more likely than not that the Company will not be required to sell securities before recovery of their amortized cost basis, no allowance for credit losses was recorded.

Fair Value of Financial Instruments

In August 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-13, "Fair Value Measurement (Topic 820): Disclosure Framework - Changes to the Disclosure Requirements for Fair Value Measurement." This ASU removes certain disclosure requirements related to the fair value hierarchy, such as the disclosure of amounts and reasons for transfers between Level 1 and Level 2, and adds new disclosure requirements, such as the disclosure of the range and weighted average of significant unobservable inputs used to develop Level 3 fair value measurement. The Company adopted the new standard on January 1, 2020, and the adoption did not have a material impact on its consolidated financial statements, as the Company does not have financial instruments classified as Level 3.

Retirement Benefits

In August 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-14, "Changes to the Disclosure Requirements for Defined Benefit Plans." This ASU removes certain disclosure requirements, including the amounts in accumulated other comprehensive income expected to be recognized as components of net periodic benefit cost over the next fiscal year and the amount and timing of plan assets expected to be returned to the employer. This ASU also requires additional disclosures for the weighted average interest crediting rates for cash balance plans and explanations for significant gains and losses related to changes in the benefit plan obligation. This ASU is effective for fiscal years ending after December 15, 2020. The Company adopted the new standard on January 1, 2020, and the adoption did not have a material impact on its consolidated financial statements and related disclosures.

Please also refer to Critical Accounting Policies in Part I, Item 2 of this report for a discussion of changes to critical accounting policies.