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[February 2008]
Minerals Technologies Reports Fourth Quarter Results
Minerals Technologies Inc (New York, USA) has reported net income of US$16.8 million, for the fourth quarter 2007, compared with $10.5 million in the same period of 2006.
"As part of the realignment and restructuring program initiated in the third quarter of 2007, the company recorded additional restructuring charges of $0.14 per share in the fourth quarter," said Joseph Muscari, Chairman and CEO. "However, these charges were largely offset by the initial savings generated from that program. The benefits of the restructuring will continue into 2008 with targeted annualized future savings between $15 million and $20 million."
Fourth quarter earnings included certain favourable special items. The company recognised a business interruption insurance recovery gain of approximately US$0.10 per share and a similar amount for one-time compensation and employee benefit adjustments. In addition, the company realised favourable effects of an inventory revaluation in the fourth quarter due to the increasing cost of raw materials in the Refractories segment. This will result in higher cost of sales in the first quarter of 2008.
Fourth quarter results and all prior periods reflect the transfer of the Synsil® product line and the two plants in the Midwest that process imported ores to discontinued operations. The loss from discontinued operations was US$0.03 per share in the fourth quarter of 2007 compared with a loss of US$0.13 per share in 2006.
The company's world-wide sales in the fourth quarter increased 8% to US$274.3 million compared with US$254.8 million in the prior year. Foreign exchange had a favourable impact on sales of approximately 5 percentage points of growth. Operating income increased 7% to US$24.1 million from the US$22.4 million recorded in the same period in 2006.
For the fourth quarter, world-wide sales in the company's Specialty Minerals segment, which consists of precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) and Processed Minerals, were US$180.4 million, a 9% increase over the US$164.9 million in the same period of 2006. Foreign exchange had a favourable impact on sales for the quarter of approximately 5 percentage points of growth.
World-wide sales of PCC, which is used mainly in the manufacturing processes of the paper industry, increased 11% from US$138.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2006 to US$154.1 million in the same period of 2007.
World-wide sales of Processed Minerals products decreased slightly in the fourth quarter to US$26.3 million from US$26.4 million in the same period of the prior year. Processed Minerals products, which include ground calcium carbonate and talc, are used in the building materials, polymers, ceramics, paints and coatings, glass and other manufacturing industries.
In the company's Refractories segment, sales in the fourth quarter were US$93.9 million, a 4% increase over the US$89.9 million recorded in the fourth quarter of 2006. Foreign exchange had a favourable impact on sales of US$5.8 million for the fourth quarter.
Operating income in the fourth quarter for the Refractories segment was US$7.8 million, a 12% decrease from the US$8.9 million recorded during the same period in 2006. Included in income from operations were restructuring costs of US$2.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2007.
www.mineralstech.com
ENDS