Annuity charges pull down profit as Navistar posts Q1 earnings

Trucking giant Navistar International (NAV) announced its first-quarter 2019 earnings before the opening bell on March 8, 2019.

Navistar’s quarterly net attributable profit was $11 million or $0.11 per diluted share — vs. the previous year net loss of $73 million or $0.74 per diluted share.

Revenues for the three-month period soared 28% to $2.4 billion, driven by a 50% jump in core volumes mainly based on sales of Class 6-8 trucks and buses in the United States and Canada.

The first-quarter EBITDA rose to $96 million vs. $55 million a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA increased to $173 million from $104 million last year. One-time items, such as a non-cash charge related to a Canadian pension annuity transaction of $142 million, and aggregate gains of $59 million from the sales of 70% of the Navistar Defense business and the company’s ownership interest in the JND joint venture, affected the results.

The truck and parts maker finished the first quarter with $1.24 billion in consolidated cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities and $1.19 billion in manufacturing cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities.

“We had our best first quarter since 2010 as customer acceptance of our new products translated to extended gains in our Core market share,” said Navistar CEO Troy A. Clarke.

“In addition to our ongoing growth in Class 8, our medium-duty market share grew by six points during the quarter, the largest year-over-year medium share gain in the industry,” he added.

LOOKING FORWARD

Navistar now sees industry retail deliveries of Class 6-8 trucks and buses in the United States and Canada in 2019 at 395,000 to 425,000 units, with Class 8 retail deliveries of 265,000-295,000 units.

Full-year revenue is expected to be $10.75-11.25 billion, generating an adjusted EBITDA of $850 million-900 million.

“As our ongoing improvements demonstrate, the company has strong opportunities to benefit from capturing additional market share, growing parts revenue, improving margins and further de-risking the balance sheet,” CEO Clarke weighed in.

“Given the progress made in the first quarter, and our positive outlook for the remainder of the year, we are confident that 2019 will move Navistar forward on the path to generate superior shareholder returns compared to the industry,” the Navistar chief added.

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