Americold Realty Trust revealed a $1.3 billion joint venture deal with EQT, giving the beaten-down cold storage company’s stock a much needed breath of fresh air.
Americold announced the joint venture — which includes 12 cold storage facilities — will bring in about $1.1 billion in cash to pay down the firm’s debt. EQT will take a 70 percent interest, while Americold will retain a 30 percent interest and continue managing the properties day to day, according to a release announcing the deal.
The company has come under increasing pressure from activist investors pushing it to explore options to sell all or parts of the business. Americold’s stock price had fallen nearly 70 percent since 2021. After the announcement of the joint venture on Thursday, the stock jumped 17 percent.
Americold did not disclose the specific assets included in the joint venture. But sources familiar with the matter said the portfolio consists of core, high-performing properties, including facilities in Pedricktown and Logan Township, New Jersey; Dallas; and Dunkirk, New York.
The facilities span the U.S. and total 124 million cubic feet, according to the company’s announcement. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter.
Americold is betting the joint venture strategy can help chip away at its heavy debt load while also opening the door to future development opportunities. One potential pipeline project is with McCain Foods, a Canadian frozen foods company that recently agreed to a 20-year cold storage project with Americold, the company said.
Some analysts reacted positively to the news of the JV.
“The EQT JV is a private-market validation of asset value and should accelerate deleveraging,” Scotiabank in an analyst report.
Americold and the cold storage industry has suffered because of an oversupply, waning consumer demand and higher energy prices. Vacancy rates for cold storage warehouses reached a 20-year high in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing data from Newmark.
But there are signs that vacancy has reached a bottom. Americold’s economic occupancy increased from 75.7 percent in the first quarter from 74.7 in the same quarter of the previous year.
At the same time, the company’s adjusted funds from operations, a metric used to gauge a REIT’s cash flow potential — decreased to $0.29 per diluted share, down 14.7 percent from the first quarter of 2025.
The company has faced mounting scrutiny from activist investors amid those challenges. Earlier this year, Americold reached an agreement with activist Ancora Holdings Group, and appointed two new board members.
Another activist, Sieve Capital, led by Gavin Richey, is seeking to oust Americold’s chairman of the board Mark Patterson. In a recent presentation, Sieve urged shareholders to vote against Patterson and board member Andy Power, pointing to the firm’s high leverage, nearing 7.0x EBITDA by the end of 2025, as well as dismal returns from Americold’s automated warehouses.
Sieve has also drawn attention to Patterson’s performance on other REITs, including his tenure on the board of Paramount Group, a NYC-based office REIT, that is facing an SEC investigation.
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