A.M. Castle & Co. saw its loss narrow to $29.86 million, or $0.92 a share for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2016. In the previous year period, the company reported a loss of $120.57 million, or $5.11 a share. On an adjusted basis, net loss for the quarter was $18.92 million, when compared with $28.76 million in the last year period. Revenue during the quarter dropped 14.17 percent to $113.72 million from $132.50 million in the previous year period. Gross margin for the quarter period stood at positive 14.28 percent as compared to a negative 27.83 percent for the previous year period. Operating margin for the quarter stood at negative 20.65 percent as compared to a negative 82.60 percent for the previous year period.
Operating loss for the quarter was $23.48 million, compared with an operating loss of $109.44 million in the previous year period.
However, the adjusted EBITDA for the quarter stood at negative $10.84 million compared to negative $14.82 million in the prior year second quarter. At the same time, adjusted EBITDA margin stood at negative 9.53 percent for the quarter compared to negative 11.19 percent in the last year period.
President and chief executive officer Steve Scheinkman commented, "Today marks another important milestone in A.M. Castle’s return to leadership in the specialty metals industry. Since May 2015, our new management team and employees at all levels of our organization have successfully restructured the Company’s operations. Our strategic restructuring plan focused on two essential thrusts. The first was our branch management initiative, designed to improve the value proposition we delivered to our customers by driving more resources, capabilities, and accountability down to the branch level, bringing our branches closer to our customers and making them responsive to customers’ evolving needs. The second was accelerating our cash generation capabilities, by more efficiently managing our inventory and selling some of our real estate and other non-core assets. In August 2016, we spoke about the completion of the operational portion of this plan, but its full realization was only seen very recently, as our organization drove positive adjusted EBITDA during each month of the first quarter of 2017 for the first time in more than three years."
Operating cash flow remains negative
A.M. Castle & Co. has spent $34.96 million cash to meet operating activities during the year as against cash outgo of $22.13 million in the last year. Cash flow from investing activities was $76.92 million for the year, up 277.40 percent or $56.54 million, when compared with the last year.
The company has spent $16.48 million cash to carry out financing activities during the year as against cash inflow of $5.57 million in the last year period.
Cash and cash equivalents stood at $35.62 million as on Dec. 31, 2016, up 220.94 percent or $24.52 million from $11.10 million on Dec. 31, 2015.
Working capital declines
A.M. Castle & Co. has witnessed a decline in the working capital over the last year. It stood at $203.90 million as at Dec. 31, 2016, down 20.48 percent or $52.50 million from $256.40 million on Dec. 31, 2015. Current ratio was at 4.83 as on Dec. 31, 2016, up from 3.79 on Dec. 31, 2015.
Debt comes down
A.M. Castle & Co. has recorded a decline in total debt over the last one year. It stood at $286.60 million as on Dec. 31, 2016, down 9.77 percent or $31.03 million from $317.63 million on Dec. 31, 2015. Total debt was 87.02 percent of total assets as on Dec. 31, 2016, compared with 63.82 percent on Dec. 31, 2015. Disclaimer: Please note that this is an auto-generated article. IRIS does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of any information and is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of such information. IRIS especially states that it has no financial liability whatsoever to any user on account of the use of information provided on its website. For queries contact: editor@irisindia.net
