Ronald T. Hundzinski
Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities
Thank you, James, and good day, everyone. Before I begin reviewing the financials, I would like to also commend all of our employees for their hard work and congratulate them on a great quarter. Now on to our financials. James already provided a detailed review of our sales performance in the quarter. In summary, sales were down 5% from a year ago or up 3%, excluding the impact of foreign currency and the Wahler acquisition. Working down the income statement. Gross profit as a percentage of sales was 21.6% in the quarter, up 20 basis points from 21.4% a year ago. During the same period, SG&A as a percentage of sales was 8.5%, also up 20 basis points from a year ago. R&D spending, which is included in SG&A, was at 3.8% of sales in the quarter. Operating income in the quarter was $216 million. Excluding $12 million restructuring charges and an $11 million gain related to a buyout of a joint venture partner, operating income was $261 million or 13.1% of sales. Excluding restructuring charges taken in the quarter of 2014, this is in line with the same period a year ago. Excluding the nonrecurring items previously discussed as well as the impact of foreign currency and the Wahler acquisition, our year-over-year incremental margin was about 25%, well above our long-term mid-teens incremental margin target. Very strong performance considering the cost of 2 new plants in China, several other plant expansions and restructuring related inefficiencies in both segments. Note that our new plants in China will be up and running and the Drivetrain restructuring will be completed by the beginning of 2016. Both should boost our performance. As you look further down the income statement, equity and affiliate earnings was about $9 million in the quarter, in line with last year. This represents the performance of NSK-Warner, our 50-50 joint venture in Japan, which sells transmission components to our Japanese customers in Japan and China, as well as TEL, our turbocharger joint venture in India. Interest expense and finance charges were $10 million in the quarter, up slightly from a year ago. Provision for income taxes in the quarter on a reported basis was $72 million. However, this included a $4 million benefit from the restructuring charge and other tax adjustments. Excluding the benefit, the provision for income taxes was $76 million, which is an effective tax rate of about 29% in the quarter. Our estimated effective tax rate for the full year is approximately 29%. Net earnings attributable to noncontrolling interest were just under $9 million in the quarter, up from $8 million in the first quarter [Audio Gap] partner's share in the earnings performance of our Korean and Chinese consolidated joint ventures. That brings us back to net earnings, which were $179 million in the quarter. Excluding nonrecurring items, net earnings were $177 million or $0.78 per share, our outstanding performance for the company. Note that weaker foreign currencies lowered earnings by about $0.09 per share in the quarter. Now let's take a closer look at operating segments in the quarter. As James said earlier, reported Engine segment sales were just under $1.4 billion in the quarter. Excluding currency and Wahler, Engine segment sales growth was 6% compared to same period a year ago. On a reported basis, adjusted EBIT for the Engine segment was 16.7% of sales. Excluding currency and Wahler, adjusted EBIT for the Engine segment was 17.1% of sales, up 70 basis points from 16.4% reported a year ago. Excluding currency and Wahler, the Engine segment's year-over-year incremental margin was 29%, excellent performance for the Engine segment. The restructuring plan for Wahler is on target. The remaining charges will be recorded over the next 2 years or so, after which Wahler is expected to be a double-digit margin business. In the Drivetrain segment, reported sales were about $611 million in the quarter. Excluding currency, sales declined about 2% compared with the same period a year ago. Similar in the past 2 quarters, Drivetrain was impacted by a planned slow ramp-up of a major program by a North American customer in the quarter. We expect the volumes for this program to return to normal levels by the second half of 2015. On a reported basis, adjusted EBIT was 11.6% of sales. Excluding currency, adjusted EBIT was 11.3% of sales. Excluding currency, the Drivetrain segment's year-over-year decremental margin was 36% in the first quarter. To keep this in perspective, Drivetrain lost $5 million of adjusted EBIT on a $15 million decline in sales. That means the segment was only $2 million shy of our target decremental margin of 20%. Please note that the Drivetrain is managing through a cost associated with our new DCT component plant in Taicang, China and restructuring-related inefficiencies. The Drivetrain restructuring plan is also on target with regard to both timing and cost. We still expect to have the relocations completed by the end of 2015, after which, Drivetrain will be in a much better competitive position in Europe. Not let's take a look at our balance sheet and cash flow. We generated $33 million of net cash from operating activities in the first quarter of 2015, down slightly from $46 million a year ago. The decrease was primarily related to lower net earnings due to weaker foreign currencies. Capital spending was $140 million in the quarter, up $14 million from a year ago. The increase was driven by capital required to support our strong backlog of new net business. Free cash flow, which we define as net cash from operating activities less capital spending, was an outflow of $107 million in the quarter, which is typical seasonal occurrence for us. Our investment in working capital ramps up in the first quarter to match higher levels of business activity compared with the end of the year. Looking at the balance sheet itself. Balance sheet debt increased by $498 million at the end of the first quarter compared to 2015 -- '14. Cash increased by $238 million during the same period. The $260 million increase in net debt was primarily due to capital expenditures, a dividend payment to our shareholders and share repurchases. Our net debt-to-capital ratio was 18.4% at the end of the first quarter 2015, up from 12.8% at the end of 2014. Net debt-to-EBITDA at the end of the year on a trailing 12-month basis was 0.6. Our capital structure remains in excellent shape. Now I'd like to discuss our updated guidance for 2015. James reviewed our guidance to the high level, I'll discuss some of the finer points. We expect sales growth of a negative 4% to 0, which is down from 2% to 6% previously. As James mentioned earlier, the change in sales growth guidance is entirely related to weakening foreign currencies. Our full year dollar-to-euro exchange rate assumption is now between $1.05 to $1.10, down from $1.20 previously. We also have lowered our exchange rate assumptions for several other currencies, including the Brazilian real, Japanese yen, the Korea won, Mexican peso and the Swedish kroner. The impact of these new assumptions translates to approximately $500 million less in revenue this year. Excluding currency, our sales growth is still expected to be 9.5% to 12%, which is unchanged from our previous guidance. We now expect EPS within a range of $3.10 to $3.30 per diluted share in 2015, down from $3.35 to $3.55 per diluted share previously. This change in EPS guidance is also heavily influenced by currency, but includes additional interest expense from our $1 billion bond offering. Of the $0.25 change in EPS guidance, $0.20 is related to currency and $0.05 is related to the net impact of higher interest expense, offset by share repurchases. We expect our share repurchase program to gain momentum over the remainder of the year. Our operating income margin guidance is unchanged, which is above 13%, which implies a mid-teens incremental margin, excluding noncomparables in line with our long-term target. In conclusion, we continue to be confident in our ability to execute in any market. This company has demonstrated a heightened focus on efficiency and cost. This focus resulted -- results in highly efficient growth, record margins in each of the last 4 years. With our strong organic growth and operations performing at a very high level, 2015 should be another great year for BorgWarner. As we look beyond 2015, we intend to execute our growth plan, yielding high single to low double-digit growth and to efficiently convert our sales growth to profits. The future is bright for BorgWarner. With that, I'd like to turn the call back over to Ken.