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[July 2002]
30% Increase in Earnings for AMCOL
AMCOL International Corporation (Arlington Heights, IL, USA) reported second quarter 2002 income of US$4.1 million, compared with US$3 million for the second quarter 2001. Net sales totalled US$78.5 million for Q2 2002 as against US$69.7 million for Q2 2001.For the six-month period ended 30 June 2002, net sales from continuing operations were US$135.9 million, slightly above the US$134.1 million for the first half of 2001.
President and CEO Larry Washow said: "We are pleased with the strength of this quarter's earnings over the difficult first quarter of 2002. Both the minerals and environmental segments reported higher sales and operating profits in year-over-year second quarter comparisons.
"In our minerals segment we saw improvements in sales and operating profit which were largely due to our acquisition of Colin Stewart Minchem (CSM), a leading UK mineral processing company. CSM, which we acquired effective from May 1, was accretive to earnings as planned and contributed approximately $.01 per share in the second quarter.
"The Building Materials Group and Lining Technologies Group in our environmental segment both performed well for the second quarter, contributing to the 13 per cent increase in environmental's operating profit in year-over-year second quarter comparisons."
The minerals segment, which accounted for around 56% of consolidated net sales in Q2 2002, reported increased sales and operating profit of 24% and 18% respectively. Mineral sales for the quarter increased US$8.7 million, of which approximately 50% was attributed to CSM. Overhead associated with CSM also accounted for a majority of the 23% increase in general, selling and administrative expenses over the prior year quarter.
Minerals segment brands include American Colloid Company and Volclay International and AMCOL is a leading producer of bentonite. The minerals segment is involved in mining, processing and distributing bentonite and also products with similar applications to various industrial and consumer markets world-wide.
AMCOL's newest venture (not reporting) is Nanocor, in the field of nanocomposite technologies. The Corporation is positioned to capitalise on a proprietary technology that disperses nanoscale particles of chemically modified clays into plastic resins, improving strength, heat stability and barrier properties.
ENDS