UTi Posts Wider-than-expected Loss In Q4; Revenues Down, Meets View

(RTTNews) - Supply chain services company UTi Worldwide, Inc. (UTIW) reported Monday a narrower net loss in its fourth quarter, despite lower revenues. Adjusted loss per share, however, was wider than analysts' estimate, while revenues met their view.

The company said its audited financial statements were issued with no going concern qualification for all periods presented.

For the fourth quarter, net loss attributable to the company was $50.72 million or $0.48 per share, compared to last year's loss of $142.82 million or $1.38 per share.

The latest quarter results included severance and other costs of $7.3 million or $0.07 per share, and an after-tax write-off of $4.5 million, or $0.04 per share, in bad debt related to customer bankruptcies. Further, the firm said it recorded additional tax expense exceeding its normalized tax rate by $22.9 million or $0.22 per share.

Excluding items, adjusted net loss attributable to UTi Worldwide totaled $16.1 million or $0.15 per share, compared to prior year's loss of $13.36 million or $0.13 per share.

On average, 11 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected loss per share of $0.11 for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.

Earnings before interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization or EBITDA, as adjusted for the items, totaled $14.1 million, compared to $17.1 million last year.

Quarterly revenues declined 2.1 percent to $1.08 billion from $1.10 billion reported last year, while eight analysts estimated revenues of $1.08 billion.

Net revenues, ie. revenues minus purchased transportation costs, were $370 million, down 0.3 percent from prior year's $371.1 million. On an organic basis, revenues went up 1.7 percent and net revenues up 4.5 percent year-over-year.

Chief Executive Officer Eric Kirchner said, "Results in the fiscal 2014 fourth quarter continued to reflect a lackluster global economy and difficult operating conditions. While we experienced increased activity in both business segments during the fourth quarter, pricing pressure continued to weigh on margins. Operating expenses were higher in the fourth quarter primarily because of increased amortization, severance expenses and temporary deployment costs related to the roll-out of the new systems. We were able to partially offset these higher costs through expense reduction measures."

The company added that it continues to target completion of the system deployment in the third quarter of fiscal 2015 and still expect $75-95 million in annualized gross pre-tax cost savings by the end of fiscal 2015. Of these, approximately $50 million were in place at the end of fiscal 2014.

Uti shares closed Friday's trading at $11.26, up $0.14 or 1.26 percent.