Terex Updates Record 2004 Revenues

March 7, 2005
Terex Corp. last week confirmed that net income for the full-year 2004 will meet or exceed the previously indicated range of $2.40 to $2.50 per share, excluding special items. Additionally, Terex expects to report 2004 total revenue of approximately $5 ...

Terex Corp. last week confirmed that net income for the full-year 2004 will meet or exceed the previously indicated range of $2.40 to $2.50 per share, excluding special items. Additionally, Terex expects to report 2004 total revenue of approximately $5 billion, an increase of more than 28 percent from net sales of $3.9 billion for 2003. Terex will provide detailed financial results for its full-year 2004 upon the completion of its internal review and independent audit.

Third-quarter results of operations will exceed the preliminary operating performance results previously released, reflecting the impact of capitalizing a portion of increasing commodity cost variances on inventory value.

"Overall, 2004 was a very good year for Terex, reflecting generally strengthening end markets, although some of our businesses have yet to recover," said Ronald DeFeo, Terex's chairman and chief executive officer. "For the first time in Terex's history, we recorded revenue of approximately $5 billion, and we continue to see an operating environment that is poised to produce another year of significant growth as evidenced by our backlog of approximately $989 million at the end of 2004. We have continued to focus on our balance sheet, having reduced net debt by $122 million since the end of 2003 and having achieved a net debt to total capitalization ratio in the mid 40 percent range at Dec. 31, 2004. Yet we feel we have even more opportunities ahead of us. Simply said, 2004 was a good beginning, and we remain focused and committed to delivering on our stated performance goals of $6 billion in revenue in 2006, 10 percent operating margin and a 15 percent working capital to revenue relationship.

"Unfortunately, improvements made in our businesses in 2004 were masked to some degree by challenges we faced throughout the year. Some of these challenges were of our own making, but many were clearly the result of rapidly improving economic conditions, especially in North America. The continued strong performance in our aerial work platforms segment, combined with a recovery in our mining, compact construction and tower cranes businesses, helped to partially offset significant increases in steel and component costs, meaningful currency moves against a weaker U.S. dollar, operational capacity constraint issues, production inefficiencies, and challenging end-markets in some of our other businesses. In addition, other operational issues, such as higher than expected warranty costs on certain products, asset write-downs, and margin slippage on certain truck contracts, weighed on our overall profit margins. On our self-made challenges, namely our inter-company accounting issue, we feel that the company is taking the proper steps to correct its financial control procedures and practices to ensure the integrity of our financial statements. We continue to be positive about the direction Terex is headed and remain committed to making any and all improvements that will deliver sustainable higher returns for our investors."