Business News
Baldwin Reports Improved Results For Fiscal 2008
Monday 18. August 2008 - Baldwin Technology Company, Inc. (AMEX: BLD), a global leader in process automation technology for the printing industry, reported net sales for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2008 of $236.3 million, an increase of $34.8 million or 17.3% over net sales of $201.5 million for the year ended June 30, 2007. Currency exchange rates favorably increased sales by $16.1 million or 8.0%.
For the fiscal fourth quarter, net sales were $65.3 million, an increase of $8.4 million or 14.8% from net sales of $56.9 million for the fourth quarter in the prior year. Currency exchange rates had a favorable impact of 10.9% or $6.2 million.
Baldwin recorded income before income taxes of $8.3M for the year versus $7.6M for the prior fiscal year. Income before income taxes was $3.3M for the fourth quarter compared to $2.2M for the fourth quarter in the previous fiscal year.
Net income for the fiscal year was $6.4 million or $0.41 per diluted share compared to $6.6 million or $0.42 per diluted share for the prior year. Net income for the years ended June 30, 2008 and 2007 included releases of deferred tax valuation allowance of $1.6 million and $2.5 million, respectively, which impacted the tax provisions and net income by the same amounts.
Fourth quarter net income was $3.1 million or $0.20 per diluted share, compared to net income of $3.6 million or $0.23 per diluted share for the comparable quarter in the prior year. Net income for the quarters ended June 30, 2008 and June 30, 2007 included releases of deferred tax asset valuation allowance of $0.4 million and $2.5 million, respectively, which impacted the tax provisions and net income by the same amounts.
This years cash flow from operations was $7.6 million compared to $4.2 million in 2007. That cash flow, coupled with disciplined management of working capital and global cash resources, allowed the Company to make $10.6 million of debt repayments.
Orders for the fiscal fourth quarter were approximately $50.4 million, an increase of 10.5% over orders of $45.6 million during the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2007. Orders for the year were $231.9 million, an increase of 18.3% compared to prior year orders of $196.0 million. Backlog as of June 30, 2008 was $48.2 million compared to $52.7 million a year earlier.
President and CEO Karl S. Puehringer said, “We are very pleased to have ended the year with our best shipment quarter in ten years; this achievement is especially noteworthy in a currently more challenging market environment. We attribute the Fiscal 2008 strong performance to the successful integration of recent acquisitions and to our success in designing and introducing products that provide value-added benefits to our customers, especially as they relate to environmental compliance, efficiency and profitability. Our consumables, parts and service revenues continue to strengthen as a result of our having the right products available for the growing world-wide installed base of Baldwin systems. Additionally, we are off to a good start in the new fiscal year with a strong order intake during the month of July, bringing our order backlog as of July 31, 2008 to $54 million.” Puehringer concluded.
John P. Jordan, Vice President and CFO, stated, “Our strategic sourcing initiatives and productivity improvements have enabled us to maintain reasonable margins in a demanding economic environment. Our focus on cost control and our restructuring initiatives enabled us to reduce OPEX to 27% of sales (vs 27.7% in fiscal year 2007), contributing to a 10% improvement in operating income over last year.
We also intensified our focus on working capital elements during the year to improve our cash management. This has resulted in strong cash generation from operations during the second half of the year.” Jordan concluded.