By Kimberly Chin
GEO Group Inc. said its board has approved a plan to end its real-estate investment trust status to become a taxable C corporation by the end of the year.
The company said its board has been evaluating its corporate tax structure and REIT status, which it said it was doing in April.
As a result of the change, the company will incur a one-time deferred tax charge of about $75 million and an additional $34 million in incremental income-tax expenses during the fourth quarter, it said.
GEO Group said it now expects to report a loss attributable to the company of about $69 million during the quarter, and an adjusted net profit between 29 cents and 31 cents a share when excluding the tax-related restructuring items. Adjusted funds from operations, an industry metric, is expected to be between 58 cents and 60 cents a share, it said.
For the full year, GEO Group now forecasts net profit attributable to the company of around $70 million to $72 million. On an adjusted basis, it said it expects per-share earnings of around $1.14 to $1.16 a share and AFFO in the range of $2.30 to $2.32 a share.
The change in corporate tax structure will give the company more flexibility to allocate free cash flow to cut down its debt. GEO Group had reduced around $175 million in net recourse debt in the first three quarters of the year. Last year, it cut its debt by about $100 million.
In addition to paring down its debt and deleveraging, the company will also evaluate potential sales of its assets and businesses as well as capital structure alternatives, it said.
"Following our objective of net recourse debt reduction, we expect to allocate free cash flow to fund quality growth opportunities and potentially return capital to shareholders in the future," Executive Chairman George Zoley said.
The board will also discontinue GEO Group's quarterly dividend, the company said.
Write to Kimberly Chin at kimberly.chin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 02, 2021 06:47 ET (11:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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