Rexnord Corporation First Quarter Fiscal 2015 Results

Rexnord Corporation (NYSE:RXN):

First Quarter Highlights

• Net sales were $510 million
• Income from operations was $58 million or 11% of net sales
• Adjusted EBITDA was $93 million or 18% of net sales
• Diluted earnings per share was $0.11, including a $10 million non-cash, non-recurring tax restructuring charge
• Excluding Mill Products (1), net sales increased 2% year over year (-1% core sales, +3% acquisitions). Mill Products' contribution to earnings per share in the quarter was immaterial
• Adjusted earnings per share, excluding Mill Products, increased 18% from the prior year to $0.26
• Total liquidity was $646 million ($311 million of cash plus $335 million of available borrowings)
• Completed acquisition of Green Turtle Technologies, expanding our Water Management platform product offering

Todd A. Adams, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “Results were in line with our expectations for the first quarter, as we continued to focus on creating value in a generally stable market environment. We are pleased with our recent acquisitions that contributed 3 points of growth this quarter, and our acquisition pipeline continues to be quite active. Looking forward to the second quarter, we expect our core growth to accelerate to 4% - 6% as both platforms benefit from our progress on strategic growth initiatives and, in aggregate, relatively stable to improving end-markets."

"In our Process & Motion Control platform (“PMC”), demand trends remained generally stable across most of our end markets. Positively, we believe we are now past the inflection point in our bulk material handling end markets, and we expect our growth rates to improve going forward. We continue to leverage the Rexnord Business System to drive margin expansion across the platform, enabling us to continue to invest in our growth strategies and deliver 100 basis points of year-over-year expansion in our adjusted EBITDA margin in the quarter."

"In Water Management, we delivered the strong sequential improvement in profit margins outlined last quarter and remain confident that our adjusted EBITDA margin can expand by at least 200 basis points in fiscal 2015. Our core growth rate was moderated temporarily by strong water infrastructure project shipments in the prior year quarter, but core growth rates for our products that serve non-residential construction markets remained robust, our order backlog has increased, and overall demand fundamentals remain favorable. Green Turtle adds incremental growth potential, as we leverage its leading product technology across our broader distribution footprint in recovering non-residential construction markets."

(1) Mill Products represents our non-core ring gear and pinion product line, for which we are exploring strategic alternatives and, therefore, have excluded from our financial guidance.

Second Quarter and Fiscal 2015 Outlook and Guidance

Adams continued, “We expect second quarter 2015 net sales to be $540 - $550 million. From an earnings perspective, we anticipate adjusted earnings per share will be in the range of $0.38 - $0.41. For the 2015 fiscal year, we are affirming our previously issued guidance for +3% to +5% core growth and for adjusted earnings per share in the range of $1.60-1.70. Our second quarter and fiscal year 2015 guidance continues to exclude Mill Products.”

First Quarter Fiscal 2015 Segment Highlights

Process & Motion Control

PMC net sales decreased 3% year-over-year to $305 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2015. Excluding the $8.5 million year-over-year decline related to Mill Products, PMC net sales decreased 1% as a 3% increase in net sales from acquisitions was offset by a 4% decline in core net sales due to the expected decline in sales to our bulk material handling end-markets driven by the lower backlog going into fiscal 2015.

Income from operations (GAAP) for the first quarter of fiscal 2015 was $48.3 million. Operating income margin was 15.9% and declined by 40 basis points year-over-year as lower Mill Products volume, incremental restructuring charges, and acquisition-related inventory fair value adjustments combined to create a 140 basis point drag and offset the 100 basis point increase in our margin from core operational improvements.

Adjusted EBITDA, excluding Mill Products, in the first quarter was $70 million. Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of net sales increased 100 basis points year-over-year to 23.4% as a result of our continuous operating improvement initiatives.

Water Management

Water Management net sales increased 6% from the prior year to $205 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2015, reflecting core growth of +4% and a +2% impact from acquisitions.

Income from operations (GAAP) was $18.5 million. Operating income margin was 9.0%, down 60 basis points year-over-year and reflecting incremental restructuring charges, acquisition-related inventory fair value adjustments, and less favorable sales mix in our water infrastructure shipments.

Adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter was $30 million, representing a 360 basis point sequential increase to 14.7% of net sales and reflecting improved operating performance driven by productivity gains, cost reduction, and efficiencies delivered by the Rexnord Business System.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

The following non-GAAP financial measures are utilized by management in comparing our operating performance on a consistent basis. We believe that these financial measures are appropriate to enhance an overall understanding of our underlying operating performance trends compared to historical and prospective periods and our peers. Management also believes that these measures are useful to investors in their analysis of our results of operations and provide improved comparability between fiscal periods. Non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered in isolation from, or as a substitute for, financial information calculated in accordance with GAAP. Investors are encouraged to review the reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures presented above to our GAAP results has been provided in the financial tables included in this press release.

Core Sales

Core sales excludes the impact of acquisitions, divestitures (including our non-core product line, Mill Products) and foreign currency translation. Management believes that core sales facilitates easier comparison of our net sales performance with prior and future periods and to our peers. We exclude the effect of acquisitions because the nature, size and number of acquisitions can vary dramatically from period to period and between us and our peers, and can also obscure underlying business trends and make comparisons of long-term performance difficult. We exclude the effect of foreign currency translation from this measure because the volatility of currency translation is not under management's control.

Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted Earnings Per Share

Adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share (calculated on a diluted basis) exclude actuarial gains and losses on pension and postretirement benefit obligations, restructuring and other similar costs, gains or losses on divestitures, gains or losses on extinguishment of debt, the impact of inventory fair value adjustments in connection with purchase accounting, and other non-operational, non-cash or non-recurring losses, net of their income tax impact. The tax rates used to calculate adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share is based on a transaction specific basis. We believe that adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share are useful in assessing our financial performance by excluding items that are not indicative of our core operating performance or that may obscure trends useful in evaluating our continuing results of operations.

EBITDA

EBITDA represents earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. EBITDA is presented because it is an important supplemental measure of performance and it is frequently used by analysts, investors and other interested parties in the evaluation of companies in our industry. EBITDA is also presented and compared by analysts and investors in evaluating our ability to meet debt service obligations. Other companies in our industry may calculate EBITDA differently. EBITDA is not a measurement of financial performance under GAAP and should not be considered as an alternative to cash flow from operating activities or as a measure of liquidity or an alternative to net income as indicators of operating performance or any other measures of performance derived in accordance with GAAP. Because EBITDA is calculated before recurring cash charges, including interest expense and taxes, and is not adjusted for capital expenditures or other recurring cash requirements of the business, it should not be considered as a measure of discretionary cash available to invest in the growth of the business.

Adjusted EBITDA

“Adjusted EBITDA” is the term we use to describe EBITDA as defined and adjusted in our credit agreement, which is net income (or income from operations for our segments), adjusted for the items summarized in the table below. Adjusted EBITDA is intended to show our unleveraged, pre-tax operating results and therefore reflects our financial performance based on operational factors, excluding non-operational, non-cash or non-recurring losses or gains. Adjusted EBITDA is not a presentation made in accordance with GAAP, and our use of the term Adjusted EBITDA varies from others in our industry. This measure should not be considered as an alternative to net income, income from operations or any other performance measures derived in accordance with GAAP. Adjusted EBITDA has important limitations as an analytical tool, and you should not consider it in isolation, or as a substitute for, analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. For example, Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect: (a) our capital expenditures, future requirements for capital expenditures or contractual commitments; (b) changes in, or cash requirements for, our working capital needs; (c) the significant interest expenses, or the cash requirements necessary to service interest or principal payments, on our debt; (d) tax payments that represent a reduction in cash available to us; (e) any cash requirements for the assets being depreciated and amortized that may have to be replaced in the future; or (f) the impact of earnings or charges resulting from matters that we and the lenders under our secured senior credit facilities may not consider indicative of our ongoing operations. In particular, our definition of Adjusted EBITDA allows us to add back certain non-cash, non-operating or non-recurring charges that are deducted in calculating net income, even though these are expenses that may recur, vary greatly and are difficult to predict and can represent the effect of long-term strategies as opposed to short-term results.

In addition, certain of these expenses can represent the reduction of cash that could be used for other corporate purposes. Further, although not included in the calculation of Adjusted EBITDA below, the measure may at times allow us to add estimated cost savings and operating synergies related to operational changes ranging from acquisitions to dispositions to restructurings and/or exclude one-time transition expenditures that we anticipate we will need to incur to realize cost savings before such savings have occurred. Further, management and various investors use the ratio of total debt less cash to Adjusted EBITDA (which includes a full pro-forma last-twelve-month impact of acquisitions), or "net debt leverage", as a measure of our financial strength and ability to incur incremental indebtedness when making key investment decisions and evaluating us against peers.

Free Cash Flow

We define Free Cash Flow as cash flow from operations less capital expenditures plus the excess tax benefit on stock option exercises, and we use this metric in analyzing our ability to service and repay our debt and to forecast future periods. However, this measure does not represent funds available for investment or other discretionary uses since it does not deduct cash used to service our debt.

About Rexnord

Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Rexnord is comprised of two strategic platforms, Process & Motion Control and Water Management, with approximately 7,400 employees worldwide. The Process & Motion Control platform designs, manufactures, markets and services specified, highly-engineered mechanical components used within complex systems. The Water Management platform designs, procures, manufactures and markets products that provide and enhance water quality, safety, flow control and conservation. Additional information about the Company can be found at www.rexnord.com.

Conference Call Details

Rexnord will hold a conference call on Wednesday, August 6, 2014 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time to discuss its fiscal 2015 first quarter results and provide a general business update. Rexnord President and CEO, Todd Adams, and Senior Vice President and CFO, Mark Peterson, will co-host the call. The conference call can be accessed via telephone as follows:

A live webcast of the call will also be available on the investor relations section of the Company's website. Please go to the website (www.rexnord.com) at least fifteen minutes prior to the start of the call to register, download and install any necessary audio software.

If you are unable to participate during the live teleconference, a replay of the conference call will be available from 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, August 6, 2014 until 11:30 p.m. Eastern Time, August 20, 2014. To access the replay, please dial 888-843-7419 (domestic) or 630-652-3042 (international) with access code 3774 8142#.

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Statements

Information in this release may involve outlook, expectations, beliefs, plans, intentions, strategies or other statements regarding the future, which are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. All forward-looking statements included in this release are based upon information available to Rexnord Corporation as of the date of the release, and Rexnord Corporation assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. The statements in this release are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results could differ materially from current expectations. Numerous factors could cause or contribute to such differences. Please refer to "Risk Factors" and "Cautionary Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" in the Company's Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2014 as well as the Company's annual, quarterly and current reports filed on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a further discussion of the factors and risks associated with the business.