Ball Reports 2015 Results

Ball Corporation reported full-year 2015 net earnings attributable to the corporation of $280.9 million (including net after-tax expense of $209.2 million, or $1.49 per diluted share for business consolidation costs, including economic hedging losses, in addition to debt refinancing and other costs), or $1.99 per diluted share, on sales of $8.0 billion, compared to $470.0 million, or $3.30 per diluted share, on sales of $8.6 billion in 2014. Ball’s full-year 2015 results were comparable net earnings of $490.1 million, or $3.48 per diluted share, compared to $552.8 million, or $3.88 per diluted share, in 2014.

“2015 was an incredibly busy year for Ball and our people due to the proposed offer for Rexam and bringing multiple growth capital projects on line. Our global beverage can business performed very well and our aerospace business also continued its solid program execution,” said John A. Hayes, chairman, president and CEO. “We continue to generate significant free cash flow while navigating the numerous parallel work streams to complete our proposed offer for Rexam, which we expect to close in the first half of 2016.”

Fourth quarter 2015 net earnings attributable to Ball Corporation were $55.3 million, or 39 cents per diluted share, on sales of $1.8 billion, compared to $76.0 million, or 54 cents per diluted share, on sales of $2.0 billion, in the fourth quarter of 2014. Ball’s fourth quarter 2015 results were comparable net earnings of $113.0 million, or 80 cents per diluted share, compared to $118.0 million, or 84 cents per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Metal Beverage Packaging, Americas and Asia, comparable segment operating earnings for 2015 were $510.9 million on sales of $4.2 billion, compared to $534.8 million on sales of $4.2 billion in 2014. For the fourth quarter 2015, comparable segment operating earnings were $127.5 million on sales of $1.0 billion, compared to $134.0 million on sales of $1.0 billion during the same period in 2014.

Comparable segment results for the full year were down versus 2014 largely due to continued price erosion in China. In North America and Brazil, fourth quarter volumes improved due to continued growth in specialty containers. During the fourth quarter, project start-up costs and the impact of excess industry capacity in China led to weaker year-over-year results. Early in the first quarter of 2016, the company began production on its new beverage can and end lines in Monterrey, Mexico, with a second beverage can line scheduled to start up in mid-2016.

Metal Beverage Packaging, Europe, comparable segment operating earnings in 2015 were $192.3 million on sales of $1.7 billion, compared to $222.9 million on sales of $1.9 billion in 2014. For the fourth quarter 2015, comparable segment operating earnings were $42.7 million on sales of $342.4 million, compared to $29.9 million on sales of $398.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2014.

On a constant currency basis, full-year operating earnings were up despite being unfavorably affected by project start-up costs and higher year-over-year aluminum premiums.

Metal Food & Household Products Packaging comparable segment operating earnings for 2015 were $107.7 million on sales of $1.3 billion, compared to $154.2 million on sales of $1.5 billion in 2014. For the fourth quarter of 2015, comparable segment operating earnings were $18.2 million on sales of $284.3 million, compared to $35.1 million on sales of $345.0 million in the same period of 2014.

Full-year 2015 results were lower due to the previously announced customer shift in North American steel food cans and manufacturing inefficiencies in the U.S., partially offset by continued strong performance in global aerosol packaging. During the fourth quarter, the company completed investments in Europe and India to meet the continued strong global demand for metal aerosol containers.

Aerospace and Technologies comparable segment operating earnings were $81.8 million on sales of $810.1 million in 2015, compared to $93.6 million on sales of $934.8 million in 2014. For the fourth quarter 2015, comparable segment operating earnings were $20.9 million on sales of $161.7 million, compared to $23.5 million on sales of $251.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Contracted backlog at the close of the year was $617 million; 2015 segment earnings reflected the greater number of program completions that occurred in 2014.  

“Even after spending $528 million of capital, we achieved free cash flow of $558 million in 2015, excluding cash costs for the Rexam transaction,” said Scott C. Morrison, SVP and CFO.

“Our 2015 and fourth quarter results were largely consistent with our expectations given anticipated currency translation and start-up cost headwinds. We continue to make progress on our proposed offer for Rexam and look forward to reaping the benefits of growth capital deployed in 2015 through improved performance, as well as the higher EVA dollar generation that these important investments will provide,” Hayes said.