Gentherm Reports Its 2014 Year-End And Fourth Quarter Results

NORTHVILLE, Mich., Feb. 24, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Gentherm (NASDAQ-GS:THRM), the global market leader and developer of innovative thermal management technologies, today announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2014.

For the 2014 full year, revenues increased 23 percent year over year to $811.3 million and net income attributable to common shareholders more than doubled from the prior year to $70.1 million.

President and CEO Daniel R. Coker said, "We believe 2014 was a great year as we achieved nearly all of the goals we set out for ourselves, especially in growing our bottom line.  Our strong top line and bottom line results for 2014 again demonstrate our ability to drive revenues and profit as we expand globally in North America, Europe and Asia. We have doubled our business in the past three years and completed an important strategic acquisition, all of which has been accomplished with internal funding.

"In recent weeks, to better serve our customers all over the world, meet the demand for our products and balance our manufacturing needs as we grow, we opened a new office in Houston and began the process of building new manufacturing facilities in Vietnam and Macedonia," Coker added. "We are working hard to integrate the manufacturing skills of Global Thermoelectric, which is now the basis of our new Gentherm Power Technologies ("GPT") group, with Gentherm's technology and scientific advancements.  We are now poised to go after business not just in Global's legacy oil and gas markets but in the industrial and mobile power generation markets as well.

"One of our long term goals is to generate 25 percent of our revenue from non-automotive markets and we believe we are beginning to make progress in achieving that goal.  In addition to our bedding and mattress business, we are moving quickly forward with investigating new opportunities in the medical, aerospace, industrial and commercial consumer markets."

2014 Year-End Financial Highlights
For 2014, revenues were $811.3 million, compared with $662.1 million in 2013.  The year-over-year revenue increase was driven by continued strong shipments of the Company's CCS systems and $24.2 million in revenue from GPT.  CCS revenue increased year over year in 2014 by $84.8 million, or 32 percent, to $347.5 million.  Seat heater revenue increased year over year by $30.7 million, or 11 percent, to $313.2 million.  The Company also had significant growth in its heated steering wheel product with a year-over-year increase of $8.1 million, or 29 percent, to $36.1 million.

Foreign currency translation of the Company's Euro-denominated revenue for 2014, which was €154.6 million compared with €141.9 million during 2013, increased the US Dollar-reported product revenue by approximately $538,000.  The average US Dollar/Euro exchange rate for 2014 was 1.3317 compared with 1.3282 for 2013.

Net income attributable to common shareholders for 2014 was $70.1 million, or $1.98 per basic share and $1.95 per diluted share, which included $1.1 million in fees and expenses associated with the acquisition of GPT.  Net income attributable to common shareholders for 2013 was $32.2 million, or $0.96 per basic share and $0.94 per diluted share.  During 2013, the Company incurred $2.4 million in fees, legal and other expenses associated with the acquisition of shares in our German subsidiary.

Further non-cash purchase accounting impacts associated with the recent acquisitions are detailed in the Acquisition Transaction Expenses, Purchase Accounting Impacts and Other Effects table accompanying the release.

Gross margin as a percentage of revenue for 2014 was 29.8 percent compared with 26.4 percent for 2013. This increase was due to a favorable change in product mix, greater coverage of fixed manufacturing costs at the higher volume levels, favorable contribution from the Company's new electronics manufacturing facility in China and foreign currency impact on production expenses in the Mexican Peso and Ukraine Hryvna.  Additionally, the Company recorded a favorable adjustment to its warranty accrual totaling $3.7 million lowering its cost of sales during 2014.The favorable product mix is primarily due to the greater sales growth in CCS products on which Gentherm has historically had better margin performance.

Adjusted EBITDA for 2014 was $131.4 million compared with Adjusted EBITDA of $81.5 million for the comparable period of the prior year, an increase of $49.8 million or 61 percent.  Adjusted EBITDA (which is a non-GAAP measure) is provided to help shareholders understand Gentherm's results of operations due to the significant amount of acquisition-related amortization recorded against the Company's earnings.  This non-GAAP financial measure should be viewed in addition to, and not as an alternative for, Gentherm's reported results prepared in accordance with GAAP.

The Company's balance sheet as of December 31, 2014, had total cash and cash equivalents of $85.7 million, total assets of $557.9 million, shareholders' equity of $294.2 million and total debt of $90.8 million.

Fourth Quarter Financial Highlights
For the 2014 fourth quarter, revenues were up 13 percent to $205.2 million from $182.3 million in the prior year period.  The year-over-year revenue increase was driven by continued strong shipments of the Company's CCS systems and $7.5 million in revenue from GPT. 

"Revenue for the fourth quarter came in as we expected," Coker said. "We were, however, unfavorably impacted by fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates including the dramatic drop in the value of the Euro which lowered our fourth quarter revenues by $4.6 million compared to 2013. Despite this, we again hit our goals and targets."

Foreign currency translation of the Company's Euro-denominated product revenue for this year's fourth quarter had an impact on its product revenue results since the average U.S. Dollar/Euro exchange rate in this year's fourth quarter was 1.2488 compared to 1.3694 in the fourth quarter of 2013.  Gentherm product revenues denominated in the Euro were €38.3 million during the fourth quarter of 2014 versus €35.8 million during the fourth quarter of 2013.  Further weakening in the Euro since the end of the 2014 fourth quarter will continue to have an unfavorable impact on our revenues during future periods.

CCS revenue in the 2014 fourth quarter, compared to the 2013 fourth quarter, increased by $16.6 million, or 22 percent, to $92.6 million.  This increase was partially the result of new program launches since the fourth quarter 2013 and strong production volumes and sales of vehicles equipped with CCS systems, particularly vehicles in the luxury segment.  Additionally, certain vehicles that have been redesigned since the 2013 fourth quarter are experiencing very strong production and sales levels, including the General Motors full size SUV platform ("K2XX") and the Jeep Grand Cherokee. 

Seat heater revenue in this year's fourth quarter decreased year over year by approximately $3.1 million, or 4 percent, to $72.5 million, reflecting the unfavorable Euro exchange rate and the impact of higher CCS volumes which sometimes contain seat heater elements.  These were partially offset by strong production volumes on General Motors' K2XX platform.  The Company also had significant sales growth of its steering wheel heater product, which increased $1.3 million, or 16 percent year over year, to $9.4 million. 

Net income attributable to common shareholders for the 2014 fourth quarter was $19.8 million, or $0.56 per basic share and $0.55 per diluted share.  Net income attributable to common shareholders for the fourth quarter of 2013 was $11.0 million, or $0.31 per basic and diluted share, which included $503,000 in fees, legal and other expenses associated with the acquisition of additional shares in our German subsidiary.  The Company did not incur any such expenses in the fourth quarter of 2014. 

Gross margin as a percentage of revenue for this year's fourth quarter increased to 30.3 percent, up from 27.2 percent for the 2013 fourth quarter. 

Adjusted EBITDA for the 2014 fourth quarter was $35.7 million, up $10.0 million or 39 percent, compared with Adjusted EBITDA of $25.6 million for the 2013 fourth quarter. 

Research and Development, Selling, General and Administrative (SG&A) Expenses
Net research and development expenses for 2014 fourth quarter and full year were up year over year $1.7 million, or 13 percent, and $7.7 million, or 15 percent, respectively, to a respective $14.7 million and $57.5 million, when compared to the prior year periods.  The increases reflect additional resources, including personnel, focused on application engineering for new production programs of existing products, development of new products and a program to develop the next generation of seat comfort products.  The increases in net research and development expenses in the 2014 fourth quarter and full year also include $276,000 and $850,000, respectively, due to the inclusion of GPT.  New product development includes automotive heated and cooled storage devices, automotive interior thermal management devices, medical thermal management devices, battery thermal management devices and other potential products. 

Selling, general and administrative expenses for the 2014 fourth quarter and full year were $22.9 million and $84.6 million, respectively.  These amounts included selling, general and administrative expenses of GPT, which was acquired during 2014, totaling $2.2 million and $6.2 million in the 2014 fourth quarter and full year, respectively.  The remaining increase in selling, general and administrative expenses totaled $1.5 million and $6.3 million, or 8 percent and 10 percent, respectively, for the 2014 fourth quarter and full year.  These increases in expenses are due to increased management incentive compensation costs, higher general legal, audit and travel costs, as well as wages and benefits costs resulting from new employee hiring and merit increases.  The additional employees are primarily related to establishing a new electronics production facility in Shenzhen, China, and increasing sales and marketing efforts aimed at supporting our current product development strategy.

Guidance
Barring unforeseen economic turbulence, including in the European market or further unfavorable fluctuations of the Euro exchange rate, the 2015 revenue growth outlook remains strong.  The Company is expecting revenue for 2015 to increase 10 to 15 percent over 2014 revenue, which was $811 million. 

Conference Call
As previously announced, Gentherm is conducting a conference call today to be broadcast live over the Internet at 11:30 AM Eastern Time to review these financial results.  The dial-in number for the call is 1-877-407-4018 or 1-201-689-8471.  The live webcast and archived replay of the call can be accessed in the Events page of the Investor section of Gentherm's website at www.gentherm.com.

About Gentherm
Gentherm (NASDAQ-GS:THRM) is a global developer and marketer of innovative thermal management technologies for a broad range of heating and cooling and temperature control applications. Automotive products include actively heated and cooled seat systems and cup holders, heated and ventilated seat systems, thermal storage bins, heated automotive interior systems (including heated seats, steering wheels, armrests and other components), cable systems and other electronic devices.  The Company's advanced technology team is developing more efficient materials for thermoelectric and systems for waste heat recovery and electrical power generation for the automotive markets that may have far-reaching applications for consumer products as well as industrial and technology markets.  Gentherm more than 9,000 employees in facilities in the U.S., Germany, Mexico, China, Canada, Japan, England, Korea, Malta, Hungary and the Ukraine.  For more information, go to www.gentherm.com.

Except for historical information contained herein, statements in this release are forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include statements regarding future sales, products, opportunities, markets, expenses and profits. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties which may cause the Company's actual results in future periods to differ materially from forecasted results. Those risks include, but are not limited to, risks that sales may not increase, additional financing requirements may not be available, new competitors may arise and adverse conditions in the industry in which the Company operates may negatively affect its results. Those and other risks are described in the Company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013 and subsequent reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), copies of which are available from the SEC or may be obtained from the Company. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, which are made as of the date hereof, even if new information becomes available in the future.

TABLES FOLLOW

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures
In evaluating its business, Gentherm considers and uses Adjusted EBITDA as a supplemental measure of its operating performance.  The Company defines Adjusted EBITDA as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, deferred financing cost amortization, transaction expenses, debt retirement expenses, unrealized currency gain or loss and unrealized revaluation of derivatives.  Management believes that Adjusted EBITDA is a meaningful measure of liquidity and the Company's ability to service debt because it provides a measure of cash available for such purposes. Management provides an Adjusted EBITDA measure so that investors will have the same financial information that management uses with the belief that it will assist investors in properly assessing the Company's performance on a period-over-period basis.

The term Adjusted EBITDA is not defined under GAAP, and is not a measure of operating income, operating performance or liquidity presented in accordance with GAAP.  Adjusted EBITDA has limitations as an analytical tool, and when assessing the Company's operating performance, investors should not consider Adjusted EBITDA in isolation, or as a substitute for net income or other consolidated income statement data prepared in accordance with GAAP.  Gentherm compensates for these limitations by relying primarily on its GAAP results and using Adjusted EBITDA only supplementally.

SOURCE Gentherm

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