Michael Monahan
Analyst · leasing costs. And just wondering how much of this will occur in 2011, versus being one-time
Thank you, Murray. Our revenue for the year was $5.4 billion, a 3% decline on both a reported and a constant currency basis and in line with the guidance we provided. Revenue was $1.4 billion for the quarter, a decline of about 1% when compared with the prior year, both on a reported and a constant currency basis. Breaking down our revenue for the quarter between U.S. and non-U.S. operations, U.S. revenue declined by about 2%. Outside the U.S., revenue on a reported basis increased 1% versus the prior year. Excluding the impact of currency, revenue outside the U.S. increased 4%. Non-U.S. operations represented 31% of total revenue. I also want to note that we had a reclass between two revenue lines during the quarter. We reclassified $4 million in revenue from rentals to financing. The revenue was associated with the bundling of fees from our meter customers to access our Purchase Power product. The reclassification was related to revenue in both 2009 and 2010. Excluding this reclassification, financing revenue would have declined 5%, a moderation from previous declines, and rentals revenue would have declined 7% in line with our recent experience. Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes, or EBIT, for the quarter was $258 million, which was about 1% higher than last year. EBIT margin was 40 basis points better than last year. We continue to see the benefits of our productivity initiatives both in the cost of revenue lines and in our selling, general and administrative costs, or SG&A. In particular, SG&A costs were reduced significantly this quarter. SG&A in the quarter declined by about $23 million when compared with the prior year. And for the first time this year, SG&A improved as a percentage of revenue, a decline of 110 basis points to 31.8% when compared to the prior year. SG&A benefited not only from our ongoing productivity initiatives, but also from lower credit losses, which we have seen throughout the year. For the year, SG&A cost declined by $36 million on a reported basis and $57 million on an organic basis. EBIT margins improved year-over-year in four of our seven business segments for the quarter and five of our seven business segments for the year. These improvements are the result of our continued focus on increasing our operating efficiency across all our business segments. Strategic Transformation is enabling us to improve the way we go to market, interact with our customers and develop new products. Plus, we are putting in new processes and systems that will make our operations more streamlined and profitable, allowing us to better leverage future revenue growth. When we add back depreciation and amortization to our adjusted EBIT, adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $330 million or $1.62 per share. Net interest expense in the quarter including financing interest was $51 million, an increase of $2 million when compared with the prior year. The average interest rate in the quarter was 4.23%, about 22 basis points higher than the prior year due to lower commercial paper balances. The effective tax rate for the quarter on adjusted earnings was 33.0%. This was higher than the tax rate on adjusted earnings last year, which was 32.1%. The higher tax rate in the quarter was the result of the mix of business between the U.S. and international operations. The average tax rate for the year on adjusted earnings was 33.2%. The GAAP tax rate for the quarter was 39.5%, and the tax rate for the year was 38.5%. Write-offs of deferred tax assets associated with stock compensation are included in these rates. Adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations for the quarter was $0.66, which was $0.02 higher than our adjusted earnings per share of $0.64 for the same period last year. Currency exchange rates did not have a significant impact on earnings for the quarter. For the year, adjusted earnings per share was $2.23, which exceeded our guidance range of $2.15 to $2.22. Currency exchange rates increased adjusted earnings per share by $0.02 for the year. GAAP earnings per share included pretax, restructuring and asset impairment charges that totaled $79 million in the quarter and $182 million for the year. This represented $0.27 per share in the quarter and $0.59 per share for the year. GAAP EPS also included a $0.03 tax charge for out-of-the-money stock options that expired during the quarter. For the year, there was a $0.13 tax charge related primarily to out-of-the-money stock options that expired during the year and to healthcare legislation that was enacted at the beginning of the year. Additionally, GAAP EPS included a $0.05 and a $0.09 per share losses from discontinued operations in the quarter and the year, respectively. Free cash flow was $289 million for the quarter and $961 million for the year, which exceeded our annual guidance of $700 million to $800 million. In comparison to the prior year, free cash flow for the year benefited from improved working capital and reduced capital expenditures. During the quarter, we returned $83 million of cash to our shareholders in the form of dividends and $320 million for the year. As noted in the press release, the Board of Directors approved an expansion of $100 million to the company's share repurchase authorization, increasing it from $50 million to $150 million, which we plan to utilize over the next 12 to 18 months. We reduced our commercial paper balances this quarter versus the third quarter by about $82 million to a balance of $50 million. About 85% of our total debt is fixed rate and 15% is floating rate. Let me now highlight a few points about our Strategic Transformation program. In the fourth quarter, we continued to accelerate the implementation of initiatives identified by our project team and have added other initiatives that we'll implement throughout 2011. During the fourth quarter, our pretax restructuring charges of $79 million included $24 million for pension and retiree medical curtailment related charges. The remaining pretax restructuring charges were largely for severance costs related to the elimination of about 340 positions across the company. We are achieving greater net savings than was originally anticipated from our Strategic Transformation program as a result of identifying incremental opportunities and disciplined implementation. Therefore, we have achieved benefits of approximately $120 million for the full year, net of system and related investments, and now expect total benefits from the program to be about $100 million more than originally targeted. We are now targeting annualized net benefits for the full program in the range of $250 million to $300 million by the end of 2011, and expect to achieve the full annualized run rate of benefits in 2012. So that concludes my remarks. Now Murray will discuss our guidance. Murray?