Commitments and Contingencies

Leases

Future minimum obligations under non-cancelable operating leases having an initial or remaining term in excess of one year as of December 31, 2018 are as follows ($ in millions):



2019	$	5.8
2020	5.0
2021	4.4
2022	3.6
2023	3.0
Thereafter	8.1
Total	$	29.9

Rental expense under operating leases was $6.7 million during 2018, $6.4 million during 2017 and $6.9 million during 2016.

Other Commitments

The EP segment's PDM Industries plant has a minimum annual commitment of approximately $1.5 million per year for calcium carbonate purchases, a raw material used in the manufacturing of some paper products, which totals approximately $9.1 million through 2024. Future purchases are expected to be at levels that exceed such minimum levels under these contracts.

The Company enters into certain other immaterial contracts from time to time for the purchase of certain raw materials. The Company also enters into certain contracts for the purchase of equipment and related costs in connection with its ongoing capital projects.

The Company has agreements with an energy co-generation supplier in France whereby the supplier constructed and operates a co-generation facility at certain plants and supplies steam that is used in the operation of these plants. The Company is committed to purchasing minimum annual amounts of steam generated by these facilities under the agreements through 2030. These minimum annual commitments total approximately $7.5 million. The Company's current and expected requirements for steam at these facilities are at levels that exceed the minimum levels under the contracts.

The EP segment's Brazilian plant, SWM-B, has an agreement for the transmission and distribution of energy that covers all of the plant's consumption of electrical energy valued at approximately $3.1 million annually through 2020. Additionally, SWM-B has an agreement for natural gas valued at approximately $7.0 million annually through 2020. The French plants have contracts for natural gas to be distributed to and consumed at PdM, LTRI and St. Girons. The value of the natural gas and distribution to be provided under these contracts is estimated at approximately $3.1 million annually through 2021. Additionally, the French plants have contracts for electricity to be distributed to and consumed at PdM, LTRI and St. Girons. The value of the electricity and distribution to be provided under these contracts is estimated at approximately $6.4 million in 2019. The Spay, France plant has a contract to consume biomass at approximately $1.7 million in 2019.

The Company has certain other letters of credit, guarantees and surety bonds outstanding at December 31, 2018, which are not material either individually or in the aggregate.

Litigation

Brazil

Imposto sobre Circulação de Mercadorias e Serviços ("ICMS") a form of value-added tax in Brazil, was assessed to our Brazilian subsidiary, Schweitzer-Mauduit do Brasil Indústria e Comércio de Papel Ltda. ("SWM-B"), in December of 2000. SWM-B received two assessments from the tax authorities of the State of Rio de Janeiro (the "State") for unpaid ICMS taxes on certain raw materials from January 1995 through November 2000 (collectively, the "Raw Materials Assessments").

The Raw Materials Assessments concerned the accrual and use by SWM-B of ICMS tax credits generated from the production and sale of certain non-tobacco related grades of paper sold domestically. SWM-B has contested the Raw Materials Assessments based on Article 150, VI of the Brazilian Federal Constitution of 1988, which grants immunity from ICMS taxes to papers intended for printing books, newspapers and periodicals, or immune papers, and thus to the raw material inputs used to produce immune papers. The Federal Supreme Court decided the first Raw Materials Assessment in favor of SWM-B. SWM-B's appeal on the merits concerning Assessment 2 in the amount of approximately $11.2 million was denied by a single justice in a different chamber of the Federal Supreme Court of Brazil on April 9, 2018, and SWM-B appealed his decision to the full chamber of the Federal Supreme Court on May 11, 2018.

SWM-B received assessments from the tax authorities of the State for unpaid ICMS and Fundo Estadual de Combate à Pobreza ("FECP", a value-added tax similar to ICMS) taxes on interstate purchases of electricity. The State issued four sets of assessments against SWM-B, one for May 2006 - November 2007, a second for January 2008 - December 2010, a third for September 2011 - September 2013, which was replaced by a smaller assessment for January - June 2013, and a fourth for July 2013 - December 2017 (collectively the "Electricity Assessments"). SWM-B challenged all Electricity Assessments in administrative proceedings before the State tax council (in the first-level court Junta de Revisão Fiscal and the appellate court (the "Conselho de Contribuintes")) based on Resolution 1.610/89, which defers these taxes on electricity purchased by an "electricity-intensive consumer." In 2014, a majority of the Conselho de Contribuintes sitting en banc ruled against SWM-B in each of the first and second electricity assessments ($4.6 million and $8.4 million, respectively, based on the foreign currency exchange rate at December 31, 2018), and SWM-B is now pursuing challenges to these assessments in the State judicial system. Different chambers of the judicial court granted SWM-B preliminary injunctions against enforcement of these two assessments in the State judicial system. The Conselho de Contribuintes unanimously upheld SWMB's challenge to the third Electricity Assessment and dismissed this Electricity Assessment on technical grounds after the State admitted the tax did not apply as it had asserted. Instead, in August 2018, the State filed a revised Electricity Assessment in the amount of $0.7 million for ICMS on electricity purchased during part of 2013. In August 2018, the State filed a fourth Electricity Assessment in the amount of $9.2 million pertaining to ICMS and FECP on electricity purchased from July 2013 to December 2017. SWM-B filed challenges to these recent assessments in the first-level administrative court on the same grounds as the older cases. On December 19, 2018, the Junta de Revisão Fiscal ruled against SWM-B in the last two Electricity Assessments. SWM-B will appeal these rulings to the Conselho de Contribuintes. The State issued a new regulation effective January 1, 2018 that only specific industries are “electricity-intensive consumers,” a list that excludes paper manufacturers. SWM-B contends this regulation shows that paper manufacturers were electricity-intensive consumers eligible to defer ICMS before 2018.

SWM-B believes that both the remaining Raw Materials Assessment and the Electricity Assessments will ultimately be resolved in its favor. No liability has been recorded in our consolidated financial statements for these assessments based on our evaluation of these matters under the facts and law as presently understood. The Company can give no assurance as to the ultimate outcome of such proceedings.

France

In December 2016, the Conseil de Prud’hommes d’Orange (a French court dealing with labor matters) rendered a decision by which the Company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Schweitzer Mauduit France (“SWM France”), was ordered to pay approximately €1.3 million to 18 former employees of Malaucène Industries, another wholly owned subsidiary, on the grounds, among other things, that SWM France was a “co-employer” of the plaintiffs, and, as a result, liable for certain obligations of Malaucène Industries with respect to such employees. Malaucène Industries stopped production in 2009. The Company believes that SWM France, which is a corporate holding company and indirect corporate parent of Malaucène Industries, is not a “co-employer” of any person and that the other claims are also without merit. The Company has no liability recorded in the consolidated financial statements for this matter, believing that the chances of SWM France to reverse the decision on appeal are sufficient that no such reserve is warranted. There can be no assurance, however, that the court of appeals will decide in favor of SWM France on any of the questions pending before the court.

Environmental Matters

The Company's operations are subject to various nations' federal, state and local laws, regulations and ordinances relating to environmental matters. The nature of the Company's operations exposes it to the risk of claims with respect to various environmental matters, and there can be no assurance that material costs or liabilities will not be incurred in connection with such claims. While the Company has incurred in the past several years, and will continue to incur, capital and operating expenditures in order to comply with environmental laws and regulations, it believes that its future cost of compliance with environmental laws, regulations and ordinances, and its exposure to liability for environmental claims and its obligation to participate in the remediation and monitoring of certain hazardous waste disposal sites, will not have a material effect on its financial condition or results of operations. However, future events, such as changes in existing laws and regulations, or unknown contamination or costs of remediation of sites owned, operated or used for waste disposal by the Company (including contamination caused by prior owners and operators of such sites or other waste generators) may give rise to additional costs which could have a material effect on its financial condition or results of operations.

The Company incurs spending necessary to meet legal requirements and otherwise relating to the protection of the environment at its facilities in the United States, France, Poland, Brazil, China and Canada. For these purposes, the Company incurred total capital expenditures of $1.0 million in 2018, and expects to incur less than $1.0 million in each of 2019 and 2020, of which no material amount is the result of environmental fines or settlements. Should the Company make material changes in the operations at a facility it is possible such changes could generate environmental obligations that might require remediation or other action, the nature, extent and cost of which are not presently known. The foregoing capital expenditures are not expected to reduce the Company's ability to invest in other appropriate and necessary capital projects and are not expected to have a material adverse effect on its financial condition or results of operations.

Indemnification Matters

In connection with its spin-off from Kimberly-Clark in 1995, the Company undertook to indemnify and hold Kimberly-Clark harmless from claims and liabilities related to the businesses transferred to it that were not identified as excluded liabilities in the related agreements. As of December 31, 2018, there are no claims pending under this indemnification that the Company deems to be material.

General Matters

In the ordinary course of conducting business activities, the Company and its subsidiaries become involved in certain other judicial, administrative and regulatory proceedings involving both private parties and governmental authorities. These proceedings include insured and uninsured regulatory, employment, intellectual property, general and commercial liability, environmental and other matters. At this time, the Company does not expect any of these proceedings to have a material effect on its reputation, business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows. However, the Company can give no assurance that the results of any such proceedings will not materially affect its reputation, business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.