Milwaukee, WI - Rexnord Corporation's Todd A. Adams, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “We're pleased with our fourth quarter results which reflect our continued ability to outperform our competition and the underlying market growth in our served markets. Core sales growth was +1% in the quarter and our adjusted EBITDA margin and free cash flow were both fourth quarter records of 21.3% and $77 million, respectively, while delivering adjusted EPS of $0.32.
“In our Process & Motion Control platform, we are seeing progression and stability in many of our end markets. For the year, we delivered a record adjusted EBITDA margin of 24.9% despite a -1% core (-3% reported) sales decline. Looking ahead, we are increasingly confident in our ability to drive long-term growth and continued strong operating performance within the platform based on the investments and progress we have made over the course of the past year around innovation, globalization and operational excellence driven through the Rexnord Business System.
“In Water Management, core sales growth was +11% for the quarter and +1% for the year, as margins expanded to 15.5% before any substantial market improvement. Over the next several years, we believe that we will continue to disproportionally benefit from a recovering non-residential construction market as well as the growth and investment in water infrastructure globally.”
Fourth Quarter Highlights
- Net sales were $540 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013 (+1% core sales, -1% impact of foreign currency translation).
- Income from operations increased 6% to $75 million year-over-year resulting in a 70 basis point increase in operating margin to 13.8%.
- Reported net income from continuing operations increased 60% to $24 million compared to the prior year; Adjusted net income increased 19% over the prior year to $32 million.
- Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations was $0.24. Fourth quarter adjusted earnings per share was $0.32.
- Adjusted EBITDA increased 2% to $115 million year-over-year resulting in a 40 basis point increase in adjusted EBITDA margin to 21.3%.
Fiscal 2013 Highlights
- Net sales were $2.005 billion for fiscal year 2013, an increase of 3% from the prior year (+4% acquisitions/divestitures, -1% impact of foreign currency translation, flat core sales).
- Income from operations increased 4% year-over-year to $255 million or 12.7% of sales.
- Reported net income from continuing operations increased 55% to $55 million compared to the prior year; Adjusted net income increased 39% over the prior year to $98 million.
- Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations was $0.55. Adjusted earnings per share was $0.98.
- Adjusted EBITDA increased 5% to $405 million year-over-year resulting in a 40 basis point increase in adjusted EBITDA margin to 20.2%.
- Free cash flow for fiscal year 2013 was $84 million net of the unfavorable non-cash impact of $18 million of excess tax benefits on stock options exercised throughout the year. Excluding the excess tax benefit impact, adjusted free cash flow was $102 million or 105% of our adjusted net income.
- Total liquidity increased over $300 million in the fiscal year reaching a record $849 million at March 31, 2013 ($524 million of cash plus $325 million of available borrowings). Net debt leverage was 3.9x as of March 31, 2013 compared to 5.3x at March 31, 2012.
Fiscal 2014 Outlook and Guidance
Adams continued, “Our initial financial guidance for our Fiscal 2014 is for core sales growth of +1% to +3%; incremental adjusted EBITDA margins of approximately 30%, an adjusted EPS range of $1.10 to $1.18 (+16% year-over-year growth at the mid-point) and free cash flow to exceed adjusted net income. For the first quarter, we anticipate sales to be in the range of $489 to $499 million and adjusted EPS in the range of $0.17 - $0.19. Qualitatively, we expect year-over-year sales growth in our second half to be higher than the first half of the year and our guidance excludes any impact from acquisitions.”
Board of Directors Review of Strategic Alternatives
The Board of Directors continues to review Rexnord's various strategic alternatives and expects to complete its review by the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2014.
Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2013 Segment Highlights
Process & Motion Control
Process & Motion Control ("PMC") net sales were $340 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013. Excluding the 1% unfavorable impact of foreign currency translation, core net sales decreased 4% year-over-year primarily due to lower year-over-year shipments to our mining end-markets and a flat to slightly down industrial MRO environment in North America.
PMC Adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter was $89 million resulting in a 26.2% Adjusted EBITDA margin.
Water Management
Water Management core and reported net sales increased 11% to $200 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013. The year-over-year sales growth in the fourth quarter was due to an increase in shipments to our global water infrastructure end-markets, as well as market share gains and increased alternative market sales in our non-residential construction end-markets.
Water Management Adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter increased 21% from the prior year to $31 million and Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of sales increased 130 basis points year-over-year to 15.3%.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
The following non-GAAP financial measures are utilized by management in comparing our operating performance on a consistent basis. We believe that these financial measures are appropriate to enhance an overall understanding of our underlying operating performance trends compared to historical and prospective periods and our peers. Management also believes that these measures are useful to investors in their analysis of our results of operations and provide improved comparability between fiscal periods. Non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered in isolation from, or as a substitute for, financial information calculated in accordance with GAAP. Investors are encouraged to review the reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures presented above to our GAAP results has been provided in the financial tables included in this press release.
Core Sales
Core sales excludes the impact of acquisitions, divestitures and foreign currency translation. Management believes that core sales facilitates easier comparisons of our net sales performance with prior and future periods and to our peers. We exclude the effect of acquisitions because the nature, size and number of acquisitions can vary dramatically from period to period and between us and our peers, and can also obscure underlying business trends and make comparisons of long-term performance difficult. We exclude the effect of foreign currency translation from this measure because the volatility of currency translation is not under management's control.
Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted Earnings Per Share
Adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share (calculated on a diluted basis) exclude actuarial gains and losses on pension and postretirement benefit obligations, restructuring and other similar costs, gains or losses on divestitures, gains or losses on extinguishment of debt, the impact of inventory fair value adjustments in connection with purchase accounting, and other non-operational, non-cash or non-recurring losses, net of their income tax impact. The tax rates used to calculate adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share is based on a transaction specific basis. We believe that adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share are useful in assessing our financial performance by excluding items that are not indicative of our core operating performance or that may obscure trends useful in evaluating our continuing results of operations.
EBITDA
EBITDA represents earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. EBITDA is presented because it is an important supplemental measure of performance and it is frequently used by analysts, investors and other interested parties in the evaluation of companies in our industry. EBITDA is also presented and compared by analysts and investors in evaluating the performance of issuers of “high yield” securities because it is a common measure of the ability to meet debt service obligations. Other companies in our industry may calculate EBITDA differently. EBITDA is not a measurement of financial performance under GAAP and should not be considered as an alternative to cash flow from operating activities or as a measure of liquidity or an alternative to net income as indicators of operating performance or any other measures of performance derived in accordance with GAAP. Because EBITDA is calculated before recurring cash charges, including interest expense and taxes, and is not adjusted for capital expenditures or other recurring cash requirements of the business, it should not be considered as a measure of discretionary cash available to invest in the growth of the business.
Adjusted EBITDA
“Adjusted EBITDA” is the term we use to describe EBITDA as defined and adjusted in our senior secured credit facilities, which is net income, adjusted for the items summarized in the table below. Adjusted EBITDA is intended to show our unleveraged, pre-tax operating results and therefore reflects our financial performance based on operational factors, excluding non-operational, non-cash or non-recurring losses or gains. Adjusted EBITDA is not a presentation made in accordance with GAAP, and our use of the term Adjusted EBITDA varies from others in our industry. This measure should not be considered as an alternative to net income, income from operations or any other performance measures derived in accordance with GAAP. Adjusted EBITDA has important limitations as an analytical tool, and you should not consider it in isolation, or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. For example, Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect: (a) our capital expenditures, future requirements for capital expenditures or contractual commitments; (b) changes in, or cash requirements for, our working capital needs; (c) the significant interest expenses, or the cash requirements necessary to service interest or principal payments, on our debt; (d) tax payments that represent a reduction in cash available to us; (e) any cash requirements for the assets being depreciated and amortized that may have to be replaced in the future; (f) management fees that may be paid to Apollo; or (g) the impact of earnings or charges resulting from matters that we and the lenders under our secured senior credit facilities may not consider indicative of our ongoing operations. In particular, our definition of Adjusted EBITDA allows us to add back certain non-cash, non-operating or non-recurring charges that are deducted in calculating net income, even though these are expenses that may recur, vary greatly and are difficult to predict and can represent the effect of long-term strategies as opposed to short-term results.
In addition, certain of these expenses can represent the reduction of cash that could be used for other corporate purposes. Further, although not included in the calculation of Adjusted EBITDA below, the measure may at times allow us to add estimated cost savings and operating synergies related to operational changes ranging from acquisitions to dispositions to restructurings and/or exclude one-time transition expenditures that we anticipate we will need to incur to realize cost savings before such savings have occurred. Further, management and various investors use the ratio of total debt less cash to Adjusted EBITDA (which includes a full pro-forma last-twelve-month impact of acquisitions), or "net debt leverage", as a measure of our financial strength and ability to incur incremental indebtedness when making key investment decisions and evaluating us against peers.
Free Cash Flow
We define Free Cash Flow as cash flow from operations less capital expenditures, and we use this metric in analyzing our ability to service and repay our debt and to forecast future periods. However, this measure does not represent funds available for investment or other discretionary uses since it does not deduct cash used to service our debt.
