General Cable Reports Fourth Quarter Results; EPS of $0.67
General Cable Corporation (NYSE:BGC) reported today revenues and
earnings for the fourth quarter. Revenues were $925.3 million compared
to $617.5 million in the prior year. Net income applicable to common
shareholders for the fourth quarter of 2006 was $35.3 million compared
to a net loss of $3.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2005. Earnings
per share on a diluted basis for the fourth quarter ended December 31,
2006 was $0.67 compared to a loss per share of $0.08 in the fourth
quarter of 2005. In the fourth quarter of 2005, the Company recorded a
charge of $16.3 million related to the preferred share conversion,
including conversion transaction costs and the conversion premium, and
a pre-tax gain of $0.5 million related to the facility closures
undertaken during 2005. Excluding the impact of the fourth quarter
preferred stock conversion and the gain related to plant
rationalizations, earnings per share applicable to shareholders of the
Company's common stock on a diluted per share basis for the fourth
quarter ended December 31, 2005 were $0.29.
Fourth Quarter Highlights
-- Increased year-over-year fourth quarter operating margins by
250 basis points, on a metal-adjusted basis.
-- Completed a $355 million convertible bond offering at less
than 1% coupon; entered into separate hedge and warrant
transactions to mitigate shareholder dilution.
-- Booked a $70 million high voltage underground energy project
in the United States.
-- Extended a major telecommunications contract two years,
approximately $65 million per year.
Fourth Quarter Results
Net sales for the fourth quarter of 2006 were $925.3 million, and
represent an increase of $161.2 million or 21% compared to the fourth
quarter of 2005 on a metal-adjusted basis. Metal pounds sold increased
9% versus the fourth quarter of 2005. Acquired businesses added $138.7
million of net sales during the fourth quarter of 2006. The average
price per pound of copper in the fourth quarter was $3.19, a decrease
of $0.35, or 10% from the third quarter of 2006, and an increase of
$1.16 or 57% from the fourth quarter of 2005. The average price per
pound of aluminum in the fourth quarter was $1.28, an increase of
$0.09, or 8% from the third quarter of 2006, and $0.29 or 29% from the
fourth quarter of 2005.
Fourth quarter 2006 operating income was $57.5 million compared to
fourth quarter 2005 adjusted operating income of $28.5 million, an
increase of $29.0 million or 102%. Operating earnings as a percent of
net revenues were 6.2% in the fourth quarter of 2006, an increase of
approximately 250 basis points from the adjusted operating earnings
percentage of 3.7% in the fourth quarter of 2005.
Major Market Update
Net sales for the Company's global electric utility business were
up 44% on a metal-adjusted basis from the fourth quarter of 2005 with
acquired revenues contributing about 32 points of the growth, or $85
million. North American transmission cable volumes, as measured by
metal pounds sold, were up 67% in the fourth quarter of 2006 compared
to 2005. "This is now the fourth consecutive quarter that we have
reported North American transmission cable growth of more than 20%,"
said Gregory B. Kenny, President and Chief Executive Officer of
General Cable. "Combined with the tremendous growth we are
experiencing in underground high-voltage systems, this clearly
suggests that the electric transmission grid problems in North America
and Europe are starting to be addressed. I believe this is the start
of a long-term trend." Operating earnings for the Company's global
electric utility businesses were up 63% to $33.3 million in the fourth
quarter of 2006 versus 2005. As a percentage of metal adjusted
revenues, operating margins grew about 100 basis points to 8.7% in the
fourth quarter of 2006 compared to 2005. "The Company recently
announced a $70 million dollar high-voltage award to be completed over
the next two years. Additionally, the Company has continued to win a
number of smaller projects that have led to a rapidly building backlog
for high-voltage systems, both underground and aerial. We are
addressing the growing backlog as well as other distribution and
electrical infrastructure throughput constraints with an investment
program that will exceed depreciation in the near term. This includes
the continued modernization of the Silec facility in France. With
capacity utilization expected to remain high, the Company built
inventory for utility products during the seasonally slower winter
months ahead of the 2007 construction season," Kenny said.
Net sales for the Company's global electrical infrastructure
business were up 27% on a metal-adjusted basis from the fourth quarter
of 2005 with acquired revenues contributing about 20 points of the
growth, or $46 million. Operating earnings for the Company's
electrical infrastructure businesses were up eight-fold to $14.8
million in the fourth quarter of 2006 versus 2005. As a percentage of
metal-adjusted revenue, operating margins grew about 420 basis points
to 5.0% in the fourth quarter of 2006 compared to 2005. The increase
in operating margins for the Company's global electrical
infrastructure business is primarily a result of increasing end-market
demand, particularly in the global mining, oil, gas, and petrochemical
markets, and increased pricing for the Company's products in these
markets. In addition, increasing utilization in North America and the
resulting manufacturing leverage have significantly benefited our
North American electrical infrastructure business. Operating margins
for the North American electrical infrastructure business have
improved over 1000 basis points to 7.6% in the fourth quarter of 2006
from a negative 2.9% in the fourth quarter of 2005. "The European
market experienced some distributor inventory rebalancing during the
fourth quarter, particularly for low voltage construction cable. To
properly balance this short term demand disruption and the resulting
growth in inventory, we extended the normal holiday shutdown period
for one of our Spanish facilities. The shutdown contributed to an
inventory build, primarily of raw materials, which we expect will be
liquidated quickly," Kenny said.
In the communications market, demand for high-bandwidth data
networking cables continues to accelerate. Despite some customer
inventory reductions taking place in the channel during the fourth
quarter, net sales for networking cables were up 40% in the fourth
quarter of 2006 compared to 2005. This increase is a result of
improved end market demand, increased market prices and a continuing
mix shift toward higher end networking products. In addition, we have
added specialty shielded networking cables acquired from Silec, which
added about 11 points of the growth. The mix of products continues to
improve, with increasing demand for both shielded and unshielded
10-gigahertz products while volumes of low-end data cables have
moderated or declined. As a result of this growing demand, richer
product mix and higher pricing, operating margins in the networking
segment have improved by 820 basis points to 2.6% in the fourth
quarter of 2006 compared to a negative 5.6% in 2005.
Telecommunications cable demand continues to be volatile. During
the fourth quarter, major North American telecommunications companies
reduced orders dramatically. Compared to volumes in the fourth quarter
of 2005, these reductions were approximately 25% to 75% and led to
unplanned increases in inventories. While some of this sales volume
reduction was anticipated, the Company believes that much of it
relates to the early exhaustion of capital budgets by the RBOC's due
in part to higher copper prices and relatively strong cable purchases
in the first half of 2006. While it is early in the first quarter,
bookings are beginning to improve from the fourth quarter and the
Company expects sales volumes to increase sequentially. The Company is
continuing to reduce inventories of telecommunications cables, which
is factored into our first quarter 2007 earnings outlook.
Selling, general and administrative expenses in the fourth quarter
of 2006 were $64.4 million compared to $43.1 million in the fourth
quarter of 2005. This increase is due principally to the addition of
Silec and Beru, both of which were acquired in late 2005, and ECN
which was acquired in August of 2006. We also recorded increased
variable selling expenses on higher revenues. Selling, general and
administrative expenses were 7.0% and 5.6% of metal-adjusted net sales
in the fourth quarter of 2006 and 2005, respectively.
The Company's effective tax rate for 2006 was 32.4%; lower than
the expected full year rate of 36.5%. This reduction was due primarily
to the release of deferred state and international tax valuation
allowances resulting from the Company's strong domestic and
international pre-tax earnings. The required cumulative adjustments
resulted in an effective tax rate of 29.1% in the fourth quarter of
2006.
Preferred Stock Dividend
In accordance with the terms of the Company's 5.75% Series A
Convertible Redeemable Preferred Stock, the Board of Directors has
declared a regular quarterly preferred stock dividend of approximately
$0.72 per share. The dividend is payable on February 26, 2007 to
preferred stockholders of record as of the close of business on
January 31, 2007. The Company expects the quarterly dividend payment
to approximate $0.1 million.
First Quarter 2007 Outlook
Commenting on the outlook for the first quarter of 2007, Kenny
said, "We expect to see strong demand for all our products utilized in
energy exploration, production, transmission, and distribution.
Backlogs are growing and market pricing continues to strengthen. In
this regard, our acquisitions of energy transmission and distribution
specialists, Silec and ECN, have proven to be timely. In addition, we
are right on target with respect to the synergies identified. Because
of the late fourth quarter reduction in copper prices, some of our
distribution partners appear to have reduced their inventory profile.
We expect stocking activity to pick up throughout the quarter.
Overall, for the first quarter we expect revenues between $950 million
and $1 billion and fully diluted earnings per share of $0.75 or
higher," Kenny concluded.
General Cable will discuss fourth quarter results on a conference
call and webcast at 8:30 a.m. ET tomorrow, February 8. For more
information please see our website at www.generalcable.com.
With nearly $3.7 billion of revenues and 7,700 employees, General
Cable (NYSE:BGC) is a global leader in the development, design,
manufacture, marketing and distribution of copper, aluminum and fiber
optic wire and cable products for the energy, industrial, and
communications markets. Visit our website at www.generalcable.com.
Certain statements in this press release, including without
limitation, statements regarding future financial results and
performance, plans and objectives, capital expenditures and the
Company's or management's beliefs, expectations or opinions, are
forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from
those statements as a result of factors, risks and uncertainties over
which the Company has no control. Such factors include the economic
strength and competitive nature of the geographic markets that the
Company serves; economic, political and other risks of maintaining
facilities and selling products in foreign countries; changes in
industry standards and regulatory requirements; advancing
technologies, such as fiber optic and wireless technologies;
volatility in the price of copper and other raw materials, as well as
fuel and energy and the Company's ability to reflect such volatility
in its selling prices; interruption of supplies from the Company's key
suppliers; the failure to negotiate extensions of the Company's labor
agreements on acceptable terms; the Company's ability to increase
manufacturing capacity and achieve productivity improvements; the
Company's dependence upon distributors and retailers for non-exclusive
sales of certain of the Company's products; pricing pressures in the
Company's end markets; the Company's ability to maintain the
uncommitted accounts payable or accounts receivable financing
arrangements in its European operations; the impact of any additional
charges in connection with plant closures and the Company's inventory
accounting practices; the impact of certain asbestos litigation,
unexpected judgments or settlements and environmental liabilities; the
ability to successfully identify, finance and integrate acquisitions;
the impact of terrorist attacks or acts of war which may affect the
markets in which the Company operates; the Company's ability to retain
key employees; the Company's ability to service debt requirements and
maintain adequate domestic and international credit facilities and
credit lines; the impact on the Company's operating results of its
pension accounting practices; the Company's ability to avoid
limitations on utilization of net losses for income tax purposes;
volatility in the market price of the Company's common stock all of
which are more fully discussed in the Company's Report on Form 10-K/A
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on November 8, 2006,
as well as periodic reports filed with the Commission.