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| Reported Earnings per Share were $1.01, including Acquisition Integration Costs |
NEW YORK, Apr 24, 2015 - (ACN Newswire) - Minerals Technologies Inc. (NYSE: MTX) today reported first quarter earnings per share of $1.07, excluding integration costs related to the acquisition of AMCOL International, an 84-percent increase over the $0.58 earnings per share for the same period in 2014. Reported earnings per share were $1.01, including acquisition-related costs, for the first quarter of 2015.
Highlights:
- Acquisition Highly Accretive
- Synergies Tracking Well Ahead of Target
- Operating Income Increased 121%
- Operating Margin of 14.0%-20% Improvement
- New 100,000-Ton Satellite Paper PCC Contract in China
- Two New Commercial Agreements for FulFill(R) PCC High Filler Products
- $40 Million Debt Reduction in the First Quarter
"Minerals Technologies posted a solid financial performance for the first quarter, especially in light of the challenges presented by low oil prices and the slowdown in the steel industry," said chairman and chief executive officer Joseph C. Muscari. "We saw strong contribution in earnings from the three new business units, and continued to track well ahead of our synergies target. In addition, we paid down $40 million in debt."
Operating income, excluding special items, was $63.3 million, a 121-percent increase over the $28.7 million in the prior year and was 14.0 percent of sales. The company's worldwide sales increased 85 percent to $453.3 million from $244.4 million in the same period in 2014. Foreign exchange had an unfavorable impact on sales of $17.6 million. Operating income as reported increased 154 percent to $59.9 million from $23.6 million in the first quarter of 2014.
First quarter worldwide sales for the Specialty Minerals segment, which consists of the precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) and Processed Minerals product lines, decreased 4 percent to $154.0 million. Foreign exchange had an unfavorable impact on sales of approximately $6.5 million or 4 percent. The segment's income from operations increased 7 percent to $23.1 million, and was 15.0 percent of sales. Foreign exchange had an unfavorable impact on segment operating income of $1.4 million or 6 percent.
Worldwide sales of PCC, which is used mainly in the manufacturing processes of the paper industry, decreased to $121.7 million from the prior year. This decline was primarily attributable to the impact of foreign exchange and two paper mill closures that occurred in the first quarter of 2014.
"Our Paper PCC business has had several recent significant advances. We signed a contract for a new 100,000-ton satellite PCC plant with the Sun Paper Group in China that also includes a provision for Sun to evaluate our FulFill(R) PCC High Filler products. This will bring our total number of satellite PCC plants in China to 10," said Mr. Muscari. "We also signed commercial agreements with a North American papermaker to use our FulFill(R) V-426 technology and with a European paper company to deploy FulFill(R) E-325. We now have 20 agreements with paper mills around the world to use this cost-saving technology."
Processed Minerals products first quarter sales increased 6 percent over the prior year to $32.3 million. Talc and the ground calcium carbonate product lines increased sales over the prior year 3 percent and 8 percent, respectively. Processed Minerals are used in the building materials, polymers, ceramics, paints and coatings, glass and other manufacturing industries.
First quarter sales in the Refractories segment, which provides products and services primarily to the worldwide steel industry, decreased 13 percent to $73.9 million compared with the first quarter of 2014. Foreign exchange had an unfavorable impact on sales growth of 6 percentage points. The Refractories segment recorded operating income of $8.3 million, or 11.2 percent of sales. The decrease in sales and operating income in the segment was driven by lower steel capacity utilization in North America and Europe and to foreign exchange.
The newly acquired business segments - Performance Materials, Construction Technologies and Energy Services - contributed to the solid financial performance.
Sales in the Performance Materials segment were $127.9 million, with operating income of $23.8 million, representing 18.6 percent of sales. Strong results were achieved in all three product lines within the segment.
Sales in the Construction Technologies segment were $38.9 million for the quarter with an operating income of $4.1 million, which represents operating income margin of 10.5 percent. Building Materials had a strong first quarter in North America but was partially offset by seasonal weakness in Environmental Products.
The Energy Services segment generated sales of $58.6 million for the first quarter, with operating income of $5.8 million and a 9.9 percent operating income margin. The offshore filtration and well testing product lines performed well in the first quarter. However, the segment continues to aggressively reduce costs to offset significant overcapacity in onshore oil and gas services caused by the oil price decline, particularly within Coil Tubing.
"Our first quarter financial performance provides us with a good start for 2015," said Mr. Muscari. "Going forward, we will be closely monitoring the business situation in the Energy Services and Refractories segments and making adjustments as necessary. We will also continue to be focused on integrating the new businesses, achieving additional synergies, and executing our strategies of geographic expansion and new product innovation."
Minerals Technologies will sponsor a conference call tomorrow, April 24, 2015 at 11 a.m. The conference call will be broadcast live on the company web site: www.mineralstech.com.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This press release may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which describe or are based on current expectations. Actual results may differ materially from these expectations. In addition, any statements that are not historical fact (including statements containing the words "believes," "plans," "anticipates," "expects," "estimates," and similar expressions) should also be considered to be forward-looking statements. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Forward-looking statements in this document should be evaluated together with the many uncertainties that affect our businesses, particularly those mentioned in the risk factors and other cautionary statements in our 2014 Annual Report on Form 10-K and in our other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
For further information about Minerals Technologies Inc. look on the internet at http://www.mineralstech.com
Contact:
Rick B. Honey
+1-212-878-1831
MTX First Quarter 2015 Financials: http://hugin.info/147757/R/1913991/683889.xls
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This announcement is distributed by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions on behalf of NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions clients.
The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.
Source: Minerals Technologies Inc via Globenewswire
Topic: Earnings
Source: Minerals Technologies Inc.
https://www.acnnewswire.com
From the Asia Corporate News Network
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