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Title:

Conference Call

Entities:

BASF AG; ChevronTexaco Corp.; Lubrizol Corp.; Joanne Wanstreet; Charlie Cooley; John Ahern

Date:

2003

Size:

Preview shows 8KB of 55KB total

Price:

$43

ID:

#224294

 

 

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Start of Preview


                              LUBRIZOL CORPORATION

July 22, 2003
12:00 p.m. CDT


Moderator Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to
the Second Quarter Earnings conference. At this time all
participants are in a listen-only mode. Later we will conduct a
question and answer session, and the instructions will be given
at that time. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. I
would now like to turn the conference over to our host, Joanne
Wanstreet, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

J. Wanstreet Thank you for joining us today, July 22, 2003, for discussion of
our second quarter results, which were released this morning.
This call is being Web cast by CCBN.com and will be available for
replay beginning about 6:00 p.m. eastern time today and for the
next 30 days. You can access the replay through the investor
relations page of our Internet site, www.lubrizol.com.

We want to remind everyone that this Web cast contains
time-sensitive information that is accurate only as of today. Any
redistribution, retransmission, or reproduction of this call
without written company consent is prohibited.

Participating in the call with me today are Charlie Cooley, our
Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and John Ahern, our
Controller. Charlie Cooley will discuss the quarter's results and
our outlook for the rest of the year. We will then open the lines
for questions and discussion.

Before I turn it over to Charlie, I need to remind you that some
of the information to be furnished in today's session will
constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking
statements are those focused on future plans, objectives, or
performance, as opposed to historical items.

We remind you that actual results could differ materially from
the results projected or referenced in these forward-looking
statements. Some factors that could cause actual results to
differ from those in the forward-looking statements are contained
in the management discussion and analysis in our 2002 annual
report to shareholders that is part of our 10-K report. With
that, I will turn it over to Charlie Cooley.

C. Cooley Good afternoon, and welcome to Lubrizol's Second Quarter Earnings
teleconference. Earnings for the quarter, excluding restructuring
charges, were in the upper end of our range of guidance. Currency
was a major positive factor this quarter. In addition, we're
particularly pleased that we've been able to pass through price
increases in response to higher material costs, even in this
lackluster economy. Furthermore, our industrial businesses
continued to perform well this quarter.

This morning we announced that earnings for the second quarter
were $0.57 per share, which included a restructuring charge of
$0.05 per share. The relevant comparison to last year's second
quarter would exclude this restructuring charge; and so on this
basis, earnings were $0.62 compared to $0.67 in the strong second
quarter of 2002. Currency, higher price mix, and acquisitions
positively affected earnings for the quarter, but these factors
were more than offset by lower volume from lubricant additives,
higher material costs, and a higher tax rate compared to the
second quarter last year.

For the first six months of the year earnings were $1.07 per
share, which included a restructuring charge of $0.09 per share.
Again, the relevant comparison to last year excludes the 2003
restructuring charge, as well as



{PAGE}



2002's write-off of goodwill related to a required accounting
change. On this basis, earnings were down $0.09 per share or 7%.

Consolidated revenues for the quarter were $514.7 million, which
was a new record for quarterly revenues. This quarter's
restructuring charge of $3.5 million pre tax, or $0.05 per share,
consisted of two parts. The first part relates to restructuring
activities at our Bromborough, England facility, which consisted
of equipment write-offs and severance costs of $2.8 million.

You will recall that we began restructuring this intermediate
production and blending facility in the first quarter. We
estimate that the Bromborough restructuring will be completed by
year end, with an additional cost of less than $0.5 million,
which is in line with the estimates I gave you at last quarter's
conference call.

The second part of the restructuring charge consisted of $700,000
for a voluntary separation program for about 60 people at our
India joint venture. Annualized savings from the combined
restructuring initiatives are projected to be approximately $4.5
million.

Now I'll walk through the various components of our financial
statements, beginning with the components of revenue.
Consolidated shipment volume for the second quarter was down 9%
from the second quarter of 2002. Volume for the quarter included
a shift in our viscosity modifier product line from liquid
polymers to a higher-value concentrated solid form. Setting aside
the impact of the viscosity modifier mix change, which
predominantly affected fluid technologies for transportation,
shipment volume was down 6% compared to second quarter of 2002.
Acquisitions, primarily Dock Resins, contributed one-half percent
of volume for the quarter, now that it's been more than a full
year since we closed the 2002 acquisition of Chemron. I'll
elaborate on volume when I discuss segment results.

By region, comparing the second quarter 2003 to the second
quarter 2002, consolidated shipment volume was down 9% in North
America, 10% in Europe/Africa zone, 9% in Asia Pacific Mid East,
and 2% in Latin America. All regions were affected by the shift
to solid viscosity modifiers, so the effects were mostly seen in
North America and Europe. SARS and a month-long truck strike in
India affected Asia Pacific volumes.

Now I'll turn to the other components of revenue for the second
quarter. Combined price mix was up 4.5% compared to the second
quarter of 2002. I mentioned that we've been successful with
price increases; however, we believe mix had the greater impact
on revenues. We've been reporting price and mix as one combined

 

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