Operator
Operator
At this time, I will like to welcome everyone to the Williams Controls host fourth quarter 2007 results conference call. (Operator Instructions) Thank you. Mr. Bunday, you may begin your conference.
Curtiss-Wright Corporation (CW)
Q4 2007 Earnings Call· Tue, Feb 12, 2008
$699.84
-0.88%
Same-Day
+0.02%
1 Week
+0.46%
1 Month
-10.47%
vs S&P
-6.48%
Operator
Operator
At this time, I will like to welcome everyone to the Williams Controls host fourth quarter 2007 results conference call. (Operator Instructions) Thank you. Mr. Bunday, you may begin your conference.
Dennis Bunday
Management
Thank you and good afternoon, everyone. I know as we have a number of people on the call this afternoon and on behalf of Pat and myself, I would like to welcome all of our special guests who have logged in, especially Clark W. Griswold and his cousin Eddie. Now, welcome to our fourth quarter and yearend fiscal 2007 conference call. Before we begin, you should note that the following discussions and responses to questions reflect management's views as of today, December 12, 2007, and may include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Information concerning risk factors and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially is included in our filings with the SEC, including our 2007 annual report on Form 10-K, our fiscal 2007 quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and our fiscal 2007 current reports on Form 8-K. Specific factors that may cause a difference include, but are not limited to availability of adequate working capital, domestic and international competitive pressures, increased governmental regulation, increased cost of material and labor and general economic conditions in the United States and abroad. I will now turn the call over to Pat Cavanagh for his comments on the quarter and the full year.
Pat Cavanagh
Management
Thanks, Dennis. Good afternoon, everyone, and happy holidays. Welcome to our fourth quarter and fiscal year end conference call. This morning we released financial results for our fiscal fourth quarter and year end. Sales for the fourth quarter were $16.4 million, down $3.4 million from $19.8 million in the year ago quarter, but up from last quarter. Earnings were $0.20 per diluted share versus $0.37 for the year ago quarter. Sales for the fiscal year were $68.9 million, down $5.7 million from fiscal 2006. Earnings were $1.03 versus $1.25 per diluted share a year ago. Our NAFTA heavy truck sales were down $10.5 million from fiscal 2006, while sales in the first and second quarters of 2007 were strong, reflecting the 2006 prebuy, our third and fourth quarters reflected weaker than anticipated sales in this downturn. Our NAFTA heavy truck sales were also negatively impacted by almost $1.1 million as a result of an unfavorable product mix caused by product introduction delays at one of our customers. As a result, our sales win for the NAFTA heavy truck market dropped 36% on a year-over-year basis. During the year, our international and off-road sales increased approximately $5 million, offsetting the severity of the NAFTA truck market downturn. As many of you know, our strategy over the last three years has been to maintain our position in the NAFTA heavy truck market while growing our sales in the international and off-road markets. This strategy has allowed us to diversify our business and allowed us to be solidly profitable in this significant NAFTA truck market downturn. We expect the NAFTA truck market downturn will be temporary, rebounding in 2009 in front of the 2010 emission changes. Our heavy truck and off-road markets performed well in Europe this year, growing 15% year-over-year to $13.6…
Dennis Bunday
Management
Thank you, Pat. Sales for the 2007 fourth quarter were $16.4 million compared to $19.8 million of the fourth quarter of last year. The deeper than expected decline in NAFTA truck build rates led to a $4.5 million reduction in sales for our NAFTA truck customers compared to last year's fourth quarter. This 57% NAFTA decline was entirely the result of volume declines and some mixed changes. There were no significant per unit price changes or changes in our share of this market driving this decline. Offsetting the lower sales to our NAFTA truck customers was 9% higher sales in Asia and Europe, 21% higher NAFTA off-road sales and 26% higher sales to our NAFTA bus customers. Full year sales were $68.9 million, down 7.7% from the record $74.6 million in 2006. As was the case in the fourth quarter, the year-over-year sales decline was entirely the result of volume declines and mixed changes to our NAFTA truck customers. Sales to this group declined $10.5 million for the full year. On a positive side, as was the case in the fourth quarter, sales in all of our other primary markets were up on a year-over-year basis. Asian sales were up 15.4% with sales to China alone almost doubling. European sales were also up 15.4% on generally higher truck sales and some market share gains by our customers. Additionally, NAFTA off-road sales were up 15.6% and sales for our US bus applications rose 17% due to the penetration of our adjustable pedals into this market. Overall the non-NAFTA truck sales gains offset about half of the decline from NAFTA truck. Net income for 2007 fourth quarter was $1.5 million of $0.20 per diluted share, down from $2.8 million or 37% per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2006. In the…
Operator
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of John Nobile with Taglich Brothers.
John Nobile - Taglich Brothers
Analyst
Good afternoon and I just want to thank you, lot of my questions are actually, already in your comments, but in regard to the manufacturing plant in India, which I believe you said was in late 2008, you anticipated being completed. What type of CapEx can we expect from this project?
Pat Cavanagh
Management
John, we're going to start out by leasing our facility there. And as we go forward we'll decide on final strategy, but right now I think the CapEx is going to be minimal.
John Nobile - Taglich Brothers
Analyst
All right. And leasing could continue for many years going forward?
Pat Cavanagh
Management
Well, it depends on how the market develops. We're quite excited about the Indian market. We think that we're in real south position there right now. And our production equipments and that kind of thing would be brought into that plant. Production volumes will be lower, obviously than what we're doing in China right now. So, it's not going to be a large CapEx expenditure, but we will lease for a while and then make final determination on what we think we're going to need. I could absolutely see us leasing for two years.
John Nobile - Taglich Brothers
Analyst
Okay. I just wanted to back up to earlier comments: did you say that industry estimates were calling for NAFTA sales in 2008, I believe calendar or is that your fiscal year?
Pat Cavanagh
Management
John, what I typically do is I put all of those kinds of figures in our fiscal year format. And if you go look at 2007, we had at the end of 2006, which was very, very strong and the carry over into the first quarter of 2007, so the first half of our fiscal year was very, very strong, the second half was lower than any of the analyst had predicted, it was quite a difficult time, the last two quarters of our 2007. And if I look forward, the current estimate, and some of these are very recent, show that they do not expect to rebound, of any significance in 2008, for the truck market. So, we expect that in our fiscal year, if the current estimate fall in, and they are estimates, it could be in a low 400,000 range from around 400 and we figured in our fiscal 2007 we had 484,000 heavy trucks build, we think in 2008 it’s probably going to be in the low 400,000 range.
John Nobile - Taglich Brothers
Analyst
Okay, thank you.
Operator
Operator
(Operator Instructions) We have no questions at this time.
Pat Cavanagh
Management
Okay. Well if there are no other questions, this concludes our year-end conference call. And I would like to thank everyone for attending today.
Dennis Bunday
Management
Thank you. Happy holidays.
Operator
Operator
This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.