GGRAsia – Crane Co slips to 3Q loss amid legacy asbestos biz costs

Crane Co slips to 3Q loss amid legacy asbestos biz costs

Oct 25, 2022 Newsdesk Industry Talk, Latest News

Crane Holdings Co, a provider of products and services to sectors including cash handling in the casino industry, slipped to a net loss of US$59.3 million, compared to US$116.6-million net income in the same quarter a year earlier. In the second quarter this year, Crane had produced US$280.5-millon in net income.

“Third quarter 2022 GAAP net loss per share of US$1.06 included an after-tax loss of US$162 million, or US$2.89 per share, on the August divestiture of asbestos-related assets and liabilities and other special items,” said the group in a press release issued on Monday, and referring to generally-accepted accounting principles (GAAP).

For the initial nine months of 2022, cash used for operating activities included “outflows of US$591 million” related to divestiture of asbestos-related “assets and liabilities and other portfolio actions,” stated the group.

The group’s net sales for the three months to September 30 fell 8.8 percent year-on-year, to US$815.1 million.

Quarterly net sales in the payment and merchandising technologies segment narrowed by 8.4 percent year-on-year, to US$335.1 million. But quarterly operating profit in that segment rose 3.6 percent year-on-year, to US$86.7 million.

The segment represented the group’s highest single source of net sales in the three months to September 30. The next highest was process flow technologies, with US$250.0 million in net sales; then aerospace and electronics, with US$167.2 million; and finally engineered materials with US$62.8 million.

The group paid out US$26.4 million in dividends within the third quarter.

The company held US$439 million in cash as of September 30, compared to US$451 million a year earlier. Total debt was just over US$1.24 billion as of September 30, versus US$842 million in the prior-year period, with the increase related to “the August asbestos divestiture transaction”.

Rich Maue, Crane Holdings’ senior vice president and chief financial officer, gave some commentary on the plan announced in March to split off from the main group and separately list, the payment and merchandising technologies business, as “Crane NXT”.

“We expect that immediately after the early April separation Crane Co and Crane NXT, [they] will each have more than US$1 billion in acquisition capacity to further accelerate growth,” Mr Maue was cited as saying in the results filing.