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Water Tower Research is a leading equity research firm that provides research on micro, small and mid cap companies.

Water Tower Research was founded by Wall Street veterans after witnessing a fundamental shift in the investment research industry with the result being a declining knowledge base among investors, a lack of awareness and a shrinking pool of fundamental research being conducted on companies across the small-cap and micro-cap spectrum. The same issues are now increasingly occurring in the mid-cap space. This sea change within the investment community is impacting not only the companies themselves but also current shareholders and potential investors. With significantly less active sell-side sponsorship by Wall Street, a substantial information gap has developed between companies and various constituents in the financial community. The net result is fewer channels for insight and information to flow between companies and investors.

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Rayonier Advanced Materials / Equity Bottom-Up

<div><ul><li>Pricing reset gains credibility. Cellulose Specialties pricing increased another 8% sequentially to $2,193/MT in 2Q26, up 21% Y/Y, while shipments recovered 19% from 1Q26 to 86K MT.</li><li>The simultaneous improvement in price and volume provides the first meaningful evidence that RYAM can preserve the economics of its 2026 pricing reset while gradually rebuilding shipments, although volumes remained 23% below the prior year.</li><li>Underlying demand looks better than reported volumes.</li></ul></div>

Pricing reset gains credibility. Cellulose Specialties pricing increased another 8% sequentially to $2,193/MT in 2Q26, up 21% Y/Y, while shipments recovered 19% from 1Q26 to 86K MT.The simultaneous improvement in price and volume provides the first meaningful evidence that RYAM can preserve the economics of its 2026 pricing reset while gradually rebuilding shipments, although volumes remained 23% below the prior year.Underlying demand looks better than reported volumes.

RYAM: From Pricing Reset to Volume Recovery; Testing the New HPC Economics

<ul><li>2Q26 results exceed expectations. RYAM Q2 results exceeded expectations, with sales increasing 11% Y/Y to $376MM and adjusted EBITDA rising 43% to $40MM as higher Cellulose Specialties pricing, improved operating rates, and lower manufacturing costs more than offset continued volume headwinds.</li><li>While Paperboard &amp; High Yield Pulp remained challenged, the quarter demonstrated that the company’s Cellulose Specialties pricing strategy is beginning to translate into improved earnings as volume leverage returns.</li><li>Recovery shifts into the next phase. With Cellulose Specialties pricing now largely reset, the operating recovery story increasingly depends on higher volumes, improved product mix, and stronger cash generation. </li></ul>

2Q26 results exceed expectations. RYAM Q2 results exceeded expectations, with sales increasing 11% Y/Y to $376MM and adjusted EBITDA rising 43% to $40MM as higher Cellulose Specialties pricing, improved operating rates, and lower manufacturing costs more than offset continued volume headwinds.While Paperboard &amp; High Yield Pulp remained challenged, the quarter demonstrated that the company’s Cellulose Specialties pricing strategy is beginning to translate into improved earnings as volume leverage returns.Recovery shifts into the next phase. With Cellulose Specialties pricing now largely reset, the operating recovery story increasingly depends on higher volumes, improved product mix, and stronger cash generation. 

RYAM: Operational Momentum Builds as Strategic Review Continues

<ul><li>Strategic process gains credibility. AIP/Lightship’s amended Schedule 13D confirms that the investor has entered into a customary confidentiality and standstill agreement in connection with RYAM’s strategic alternatives review. </li><li>The agreement provides access to due diligence and positions the investor to potentially submit one or more acquisition or recapitalization proposals.</li><li>Importantly, the filing suggests the standstill is procedural rather than restrictive, preserving AIP/Lightship’s ability to participate in a sale process if invited.</li></ul>

Strategic process gains credibility. AIP/Lightship’s amended Schedule 13D confirms that the investor has entered into a customary confidentiality and standstill agreement in connection with RYAM’s strategic alternatives review. The agreement provides access to due diligence and positions the investor to potentially submit one or more acquisition or recapitalization proposals.Importantly, the filing suggests the standstill is procedural rather than restrictive, preserving AIP/Lightship’s ability to participate in a sale process if invited.

RYAM: Trade Policy Strengthens Pricing Backdrop as Strategic Review Moves Forward

<div><ul><li>1Q26 results modestly ahead of expectations despite weak Y/Y comparisons.</li><li> RYAM reported 1Q26 adjusted EBITDA of $8MM, above the near-zero outlook implied on the 4Q25 call, as stronger-than-expected HPC performance and lower corporate costs partially offset weakness in Paperboard &amp; HYP.</li><li>CS pricing increased 17% Y/Y, although lower specialty volumes, acetate destocking, softer ethers demand, and weaker commodity mix pressured overall profitability.</li></ul></div>

1Q26 results modestly ahead of expectations despite weak Y/Y comparisons. RYAM reported 1Q26 adjusted EBITDA of $8MM, above the near-zero outlook implied on the 4Q25 call, as stronger-than-expected HPC performance and lower corporate costs partially offset weakness in Paperboard &amp; HYP.CS pricing increased 17% Y/Y, although lower specialty volumes, acetate destocking, softer ethers demand, and weaker commodity mix pressured overall profitability.

RYAM: Sequential Recovery Building as Pricing, Mix, and Cash Flow Begin to Improve

<ul><li>CEO announces plans to retire. On December 10, 2025, RYAM announced that CEO and President De Lyle Bloomquist will retire as soon as a new CEO is hired and will leave the company’s Board of Directors prior to the Board’s Annual Meeting, which is scheduled for May 2026. </li><li>Bloomquist came out of retirement to take an active management (CEO) role at RYAM in May 2022 and has been instrumental in shaping the company’s strategy of pivoting it away from its commodity cellulosics business toward specialty cellulosics applications and emphasizing value over volume.</li><li>Under his leadership, the company embarked on its biomaterials strategy of expanding its product offering beyond cellulosics into higher-value, faster-growing opportunities in bioethanol, prebiotics, and tall oil production and successfully created the BioNova JV to fund the initiative and accelerate infrastructure buildout and go-to-market strategy for Biomaterials’ Portfolio 1 slate of products.</li></ul>

CEO announces plans to retire. On December 10, 2025, RYAM announced that CEO and President De Lyle Bloomquist will retire as soon as a new CEO is hired and will leave the company’s Board of Directors prior to the Board’s Annual Meeting, which is scheduled for May 2026. Bloomquist came out of retirement to take an active management (CEO) role at RYAM in May 2022 and has been instrumental in shaping the company’s strategy of pivoting it away from its commodity cellulosics business toward specialty cellulosics applications and emphasizing value over volume.Under his leadership, the company embarked on its biomaterials strategy of expanding its product offering beyond cellulosics into higher-value, faster-growing opportunities in bioethanol, prebiotics, and tall oil production and successfully created the BioNova JV to fund the initiative and accelerate infrastructure buildout and go-to-market strategy for Biomaterials’ Portfolio 1 slate of products.

RYAM: CEO Change Could Bring Strategy Refinement

United States

Rayonier Advanced Materials Inc operates as a performance fibers business. The company produces specialty cellulose fibers using proprietary cellulose chemistry knowledge and manufacturing processes.

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Rayonier Advanced Materials (RYAM US)

RYAM: From Pricing Reset to Volume Recovery; Testing the New HPC Economics

Cellulose Specialties pricing increased another 8% sequentially to $2,193/MT in 2Q26, up 21% Y/Y, while shipments recovered 19% from 1Q26 to 86K MT.

Water Tower Research

RYAM: Operational Momentum Builds as Strategic Review Continues

2Q26 results exceed expectations. RYAM Q2 results exceeded expectations, with sales increasing 11% Y/Y to $376MM and adjusted EBITDA rising 43% to...

Water Tower Research

RYAM: Trade Policy Strengthens Pricing Backdrop as Strategic Review Moves Forward

Strategic process gains credibility. AIP/Lightship’s amended Schedule 13D confirms that the investor has entered into a customary confidentiality...

Water Tower Research

RYAM: Sequential Recovery Building as Pricing, Mix, and Cash Flow Begin to Improve

CS pricing increased 17% Y/Y, although lower specialty volumes, acetate destocking, softer ethers demand, and weaker commodity mix pressured...

Water Tower Research

RYAM: CEO Change Could Bring Strategy Refinement

On December 10, 2025, RYAM announced that CEO and President De Lyle Bloomquist will retire as soon as a new CEO is hired...

Water Tower Research

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