Executives
Patrick R. Stobb - Director of IR
John C. Plant - President and CEO
Joseph S. Cantie - EVP and CFO
Analysts
John Murphy - Merrill Lynch
Jonathan Steinmetz - Morgan Stanley
Chris Ceraso - Credit SuisseFB
Rod Lache - Deutsche Bank
Douglas Karson - Banc of America
Brett Hoselton - KeyBanc
TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. (TRW) Q4 FY07 Earnings Call February 21, 2008 8:30 AM ET
Operator
Good morning, and welcome to the TRW Conference Call. All lines have been placed on listen-only mode, and as a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. Presentation material for today's call was posted to the Company's website this morning at trw.com/results. Please download the material now if you have not already done so. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer period. [Operator Instructions]
I would now like to introduce to your host for today's conference call Mr. Patrick Stobb, Director of Investor Relations. Mr. Stobb, you may begin.
Patrick R. Stobb - Director of Investor Relations
Thank you, Mandy, and I would like to welcome everyone to our fourth quarter and full year 2007 conference call. Joining me are; John Plant, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Joe Cantie, our Chief Financial Officer. On today's call John will provide an overview of the financial results, and discuss other related business matters. After John's comments Joe will provide an expanded review of the financial information, and then we'll open the call to your questions.
There are a few items I would like to cover before getting started. First, today's conference call will include forward-looking statements. These statements are based on the environment as we see it today and therefore involve risks and uncertainties. I would caution you that our actual results could differ materially from the forward-looking statements made on this call.
Please refer to slide 3 of the presentation for our complete Safe Harbor statement. The risk factor section of our 2006 Form 10-K contains additional information about risks and uncertainties that could impact our business. You can access our 2006 10-K and other SEC filings by visiting the investor information section of our website at trw.com or through the SEC's website at SEC.gov. On a related matter, we expect to file our 2007 10-Q within the next day or so.
The next item, in addition to our GAAP results we will be discussing non-GAAP information that we believe is useful in evaluating the Company's operating performance. Reconciliations for these non-GAAP measures to the closest GAAP equivalent can be found in the conference call materials posted to the investor information section of our website this morning.
And finally, a replay of this call can be accessed via dial in or through a webcast on our website; replay instructions were included in our release this morning. we have not given our permission for any other recording of this call and do not approve or sanction any transcribing of the call.
This concludes my comments; I'll now turn the call over to John Plant.
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Pat, and good morning every one. I'm pleased to say that company performs well in 2007. We delivered solid operating results, and advance the strategic initiatives that are fundamental to the future of our business. The results benefited from the growing demand for vehicle safety worldwide together with the strength provided by our leading geographic and customer diversification, and of course our ability to aggressively reduce cost.
Highlights for 2007, include record sales and adjusted net earnings, solid cost flow generation with cash available after capital expenditures of $224 million. We successfully recapitalized our debt, which resulted in a financial structure that is lower cost, flexible, and has no significant near-term charges. We also pleased to complete the refinancing actions for the difficulties in the global credit markets.
Our net debt was reduced by approximately $100 million despite incurring our cash out flow of $145 million related to debt retirement, and we have made further excellent progress improving the funded status of our pension and OPEB plans.
Good execution of our cost reduction programs help to offset commodity inflation pressures that was significantly above the level we anticipated at the beginning of the year. Net new business wins for 2007, were at a level that supports our target compound annual growth rate, and we'll also further enhance our diversification going forward.
And finally, we are redefining automotive safety. In 2007, we made significant progress, leveraging our global design capabilities to push the boundaries of safety. We are developing safety systems that harness flow of data and vehicle dynamics to online, anticipates, and adapt to and ever changing driving conditions. In summary, we made good progress in 2007, and strengthen the business, which will serve us well this year and beyond.
Moving on, beginning with vehicle production by markets. Total volumes across the major markets increased during the quarter. Within these results North America production increased 1%, despite a 3% decline by the Big Tree. Europe increased 8%, led by double-digit growth in Eastern Europe, and South America was up 26%.
In Asia, China continued with its growth path with 19% increase in production during the quarter. We reported fourth quarter sales of $3.9 billion, which was an increase of 19% compared to the prior year. Excluding the effects of currency, we increased sales by 9% in the quarter.
We benefited from high product volumes globally, including above trend sales of lower margin module assembly. We posted sales growth across all regions including North America, where sales increased 9%. Operating in China and South American which are the primary locations in our rest of the world category, reported the most significant gains of some 54%.
Net earnings in the quarter, excluding the tax benefit of $11 million or $0.44 per share, which compares to an adjusted result of $0.16 per share in the prior year. With respect to the full, global industry production increased in 2007 particularly in emerging markets. However, production in North America declined the gain.
In 2007, we posted growth at each of our geographic reporting regions, resulting in sales of some $14.7 billion for the year. This represents an increase of 12% compared to 2006. Although, foreign currency translation accounted for just over half of the increase, we benefited from increased safety content in all markets, including North America, which reported sales growth of 3% for the year.
For the earnings, after excluding debt retirement expenses and the fourth quarter tax benefit were $2.28 per share, which compares favorably to the prior year adjusted result of $2.10 per share.
Moving to the next slide, since our independence, we've had a great success, capitalizing on our position as the world's preeminent safety system supplier that improving our results along the way. Today we are a significantly larger and more diverse enterprise that is reaching further into the world's great markets with a portfolio of unrivaled safety technology.
Although, we encountered significant charges related to commodity inflation and shrinking Big Three market share in North America during he last four years. We have established a consistent track record of achieving our objectives, or as we say internally doing what we said we would do. This is an important aspect of our culture. One that helps drive accountability, to all levels of the organization, and is vital to measuring the performance of the individuals and at our businesses. As we look to achieve our business objectives this year, I hope that we can once again demonstrate steady progress in 2008.
Turning now to the fourth quarter of business developments beginning with our new business summary; as I mentioned, we have been winning new business as a rate that supports, our expectation of 4% compound annual growth rate for the foreseeable future. In addition to the growth, the new business coming online, will improve our sales mix with customers that are presently underrepresented in the portfolio.
During the quarter we opened a new engineering centre in Yokohama Japan. That will house approximately 130 engineers and sales personnel. Having the facility demonstrates further commitment to support our customers in Japan. The investment thesis is not necessary for increasing production in Japan, which is already well served, but to capture more business with our Japanese customers, as they expand in Europe, China, and America.
We also opened the state-of-the-art manufacturing site in Slovakia to support our electric steering systems growth. This new facility produces precision motors for customers in Europe and Asia, and we'll have the capacity to manufacture over 3 million units annually. The new plant utilizes advance machinery and technology, thus providing a very efficient cost base.
Last year, we announced our intention to purchase certain assets in inventory from Delphi relating to breaking primarily modules, as well as at least proportion of that facility in Saginaw, Michigan. We completed the transaction in January 2008, when the investments are approximately $40 million. The Delphi business was not necessarily part of our road map for growth, but an opportunity that present itself with the appropriate conditions to make it successful.
As a result of the transaction, we expect our module sales in 2008 will increase above the level we reported in 2007. I would like to briefly address our module strategy, and the increased activity in this area. Globally, there has been a higher level of module business available primarily due to changes in the competitive landscape at the vehicle manufacturer level.
We evaluate each opportunity based upon its investment merits, and with modules they generate an attractive return for our capital employed. Based on the stages of our new business contracts, we expect module sales growth will begin to moderate after 2008.
We also formed the joint venture in India to manufacture steering wheels with Sun, which is already well positioned in the market. The venture increases our presence in the region, and will allow us to grow with an expanding automated market in India.
Also during the quarter, we developed our electric drum-in-hat park brake extending the range of our electronic park brake solutions to larger vehicles, which require a greater clamping force for parking.
In November, we announced that we will be supplying Mazda's new global small call platform with our column-drive electrically powered steering system. This system features the first application of a new generation of TRW designed and manufactured electric passed steering including column assembly. We supply all of the steering hardware and software for the system. It's fully integrated approach enables the systems focus and refined controls that ensures steering has an excellent consent to feel, and the steering system has received very positive reduced in the motor enthusiast press.
The Automotive components group reported a good improvement in profits during the quarter. Although operational challenges remained for the business, I believe the performance issues that occurred in the second half of 2007 are receding and are now largely behind us. Commodity inflation presented a significant challenge in the quarter, bringing the full year gross impact to approximately $100 million.
In our assessment, commodity inflation pressures will continue to hamper our results in 2008, nearly to the level that we've experienced in 2007. Additionally, we have a growing concern that has the Big Three volumes in North America take another sharp decline; supply base will weaken further, increasing pressure throughout the region.
We have had a very business of lord schedule during the quarter, with 78 new programs successfully launched. Among our significant launches was Citroen 2008 C5 platform. We have an array of a... an extensive array of product line upon this vehicle including, active and passive safety products.
We also launched a host of new products for the new Chevrolet Malibu including stability control, driver's airbag and steering wheel. Other launches include our slip control boost system on the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon Hybrid vehicles, as well as the calipers and the mechanical steering gears for the new Renault Kangoo, and finally we believe the company's future rests mainly on our ability to consistently develop, deliver innovative technology to the market.
TRW is truly at the forefront of active and passive, and integrated safety. And we believe our ability to design, develop, and deliver advanced products globally is second to none.
We are investing to grow, and as you see our engineering spend has increased significantly over the last four years. Our efforts are being rewarded with new products that are helping to drive our growth. For example, the products highlighted on this page together grew some 20% in 2007. These technologies and others underpin our success that's winning new business, and help to ensure future growth and sustainability. We are raising the bar make comfortable vehicle safety, and you'll hear more on this from TRW.
I'd like now to turn to our assumptions and outlook for 2008. The business plan we're gained depend heavily on the strength of our safety portfolio, our customer diversity, and our ability to achieve the appropriate level of cost reductions. For North America, we expect production will decline to approximately 14.5 million units. Within this estimate we expect Big Three production will decline significantly, and will be approximately 800,000 units lower with the majority of this occurring in the first half of the year.
Looking to Europe, we expect production to hold relatively flat for the year at nearly 22 million units. Production in South America, India, and china is expected to grow at a solid pace in 2008. In aggregates, we expect the impact of total industry production will be a negative factor for us this year, primarily due to the very sharp decline in the Big Three production in North America.
New product growth is expected to be strong in 2008, driven in part by increased sales of our leading safety technologies. Our new products are featured on the number of newer platforms, including the Fiat 500, Chevrolet Malibu, the Mazda Dimia [ph], each named car of the year in their respected markets. To reiterate we expect the commodity inflation pressures will be significant again this year.
2008 of course will be challenging. In response, we have initiated an aggressive business plan for the year, that we believe will help overcome the difficult environments, which is reflected in the outlook that we are providing today.
For 2008, we expect sales to be in the region of 15.6 to $16 billion. Considering the negative industry impact I just mentioned, and the customer pricing pressures, we expect much of the revenue growth have come from currency translation, new business contracts, and that includes a significant increase in our module sales in 2008.
We expect earnings per share to be in the range of $2.15 to $2.45 per share. Our estimate for pretax restructuring expenses is $50 million for the year. And we expect the capital expenditure to be slightly less than 40% of sales. And finally, we expect the full year effective tax rate will be in the range of 38% to 42%.
We are optimistic about the future and the growth of our prospects for safety. We believe our leading customer and geographic diversity coupled with the track record of steady performance during difficult conditions have helped us to grow stronger and better equipped to address our business objectives.
With that, I'll now hand over the call to Joe to discuss our financial results into further detail.
Joseph S. Cantie - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, John, and good morning to everyone. As you can see from the financial results we released early this morning. We had strong fourth quarter resulting in earnings for the year at the high-end of our guidance range, as well as an outstanding cash flow result.
As I look at 2007, it shows a very positive score card for us. We grew sales to a record $14.7 billion, our EBITDA increased to $1,190 million. Net earnings excluding debt retirement charges and the favorable tax adjustment increased to $2.28 per share. Our operating cash flow after capital expenditures came in at $224 million.
Our net debt is down about $100 million despite incurring $145 million of cash outflow related to our debt refinancing. And finally, we significantly improved our pension and OPEB funded status during the year, our fourth year of doing so.
Altogether a solid performance for the company, especially considering the significant headwinds relating commodity inflation and the continued Big Three market share loses in North America.
Moving onto the fourth quarter results, we reported sales of $3.9 billion, an increase of $614 million or approximately 19% when compared to last year. Now currency translation benefited the year-to-year sales comparison by $328 million. The euro are most significant translation exposure averaged 1.45 against the dollar, which was about 12% higher than the average exchange rate we experienced in the prior year.
Excluding the effects of currency translation sales improved by about 9%. This improvement was resulted from increased customer production volumes in Europe and Asia, and from the higher penetration of safety products in all markets, which also includes North America where our sales grew 9%.
In this region new content and an increased level of module sales more than offset lower Big Three volumes. Modules contributed about 100 million to the first quarter increase, as a remainder although the right decision from our return on capital standpoint module sale provide a small amount to the operating line, and therefore negatively impacted our mix of earnings between the two periods.
Our sales growth was well dispersed amongst Chassis, OSS, and Automotive Components. Similar to last quarter the only notable difference is that chassis reported the highest level of growth primarily due to the higher level of module sales.
Moving down the income statement operating income in the quarter was $149 million, which is $23 million above the previous year. Within this result restructuring and asset impairments of $90 million in 2007 were higher than last year's level of $8 million. Excluding restructuring expenses from both years operating income in the 2007 quarter increased 25% compared to the prior year.
As I just mentioned while our sales increased over $300 million from currency translation the impact to operating income was not material, after considering the net impact of our translation and transaction exposures. Let me explain this point a bit further. When we convert the financial results of our European-based Operations to our reporting currency U.S. dollars, we receive a translation benefit to our sales and earnings. Unfortunately at the profit level our transaction exposures have been prorogating this benefit.
For example, in North America, our customer is paying U.S. dollars, with the strength of the Canadian dollar now at parity our plans in Canada have Canadian dollar based costs resulting in lower profits when translated back to U.S. dollars.
We have similar situations in Europe, as the Polish zloty and Czech crowns strengthen against the euro. As a result, the net effective currency for us at the operating line has not been material, which was the case throughout 2007, and we expect will also be the case for us in 2008 based on today's cost currency rates.
Moving on, higher customer production volumes and new product growth were positives in the quarter. These factors together with solid net cost performance and improved profitability in the automotive components group more than upset cost pressures related to customer pricing and commodity inflation. The low operating income, net interest and securitization expense was $56 million, which is below last year's level of $66 million mainly due to the benefits derived from the debt refinancings, we completed earlier in the year.
As we move into 2008, we expect our quarterly interest level to be lower than our Q4 run rate as we benefit from the recent interest rate cuts. Tax expense in the 2007 quarter was $39 million. This included an $11million tax benefit that resulted from a FAS 109 adjustment related to pension and OPEB gains recorded through our comprehensive earnings. Excluding this benefit our tax expense would have been $50 million. The prior year also had a one-time tax benefit of $17 million related to the Lucas note debt retirement.
At the bottom line we posted GAAP net earnings of $0.55 per share or $0.44 after excluding the tax benefit. This is a good outcome for us and has improved from the prior year adjusted result of $0.16 per share. And finally in terms of EBITDA, we had $300 million for the quarter, which represents 12% improvement compared to $267 million last year. When excluding restructuring, the increase year-to-year is 16%.
Moving now to a brief review of the full year results; we reported sales of $14.7 billion, which is an increase of $1.6 billion or 12% compared to last year. Currency translation accounted for $856 million of the increase. The remaining variance $702 million resulted from higher vehicle production in Europe and China, and continued growth of our safety products, including above trend module sales, that together offset pricing provided to customers.
Our operating income was $624 million, which compares to $636 million last year. Excluding restructuring for both years, operating income was $675 million this year, $9 million above the 2006 result. The year-to-year improvement can be attributed to savings generated from our cost improvement and efficiency programs, including the lower pension and OPEB costs together with higher product volumes globally.
Pricing provided to customers, considerably higher commodity inflation, and a challenging first quarter offset these positives. If you recall our first quarter of last year was negatively impacted by weak production environment, a negative mix of products sold, and other unfavorable items including lower profits in our automotive components group. Positive year-to-year operating results in the remaining three quarters of 2007, helped offset the first quarter decline. The low operating income, interest expenses were $233 million in 2007 compared to $250 million in the prior year.
Charges related to the refinancing of our bonds and credit facilities in 2007 totaled $155 million. This was money well spent. The prior year had $57 million associated with the Lucas bond tender. Our GAAP tax expense in 2007 was $155 million or $166 million after excluding the FAS 109 adjustment I mentioned previously. Our effective tax rate in 2007 after excluding this benefit in debt retirement charges was 42%, which compares to an adjusted rate of 46% in 2006.
So we make good progress on this front and hope to improve again in 2008. At the bottom line, we reported net earnings of $0.88 per share, which compares to $1.71 per share last year. Net earnings excluding debt charges and tax items from both years were $2.28 per share, which compares favorably to $2.10 in 2006. And finally in terms of EBITDA as I mentioned before, we had $1,119 million in 2007 compared to $1,166 million in the prior year.
Moving now to our capital structure, fourth quarter cash provided by operations was $826 million, which compares to $397 million in 2006. The fourth quarter cash flow outcome was a good result for us and higher than expected primarily due to our ability to minimize the negative impact that growth overseas has had on our working capital. For the year net cash provided by operations was $737 million for 224 million after capital expenditures. This compares favorably to the 2006 result of $649 million or $120 million after CapEx.
Our debt-to-capital ratio improved to 50%, which compares to 56% in 2006. Ultimately our net debt at year-end was $2,345 million, which is down $98 million compared to the prior year level. This improvement is a solid achievement especially considering the fact that our debt refinancing transactions negatively impacted our debt position by 145 million.
The 2007 result represents our lowest year-end debt level since becoming an independent company five years ago. The refinancing of our bonds and bank debt in the first half of 2007 has proven to be highly beneficial to our current capital structure and one of the higher [Audio Gap] in 2007. At year-end we had over $1.5 billion in available liquidity. Additionally, as a result of the debt refinancing we have no significant debt maturities until the year 2012.
The other part of our capital structure that we focus on strongly is the funded status of our pension and OPEB plans. Since going public in 2004, we have systematically improved our under funded situation despite inflation. Our efforts have included benefit changes. We re-worked with our union and non-union facilities to being plans in line with ways [ph] economic realities. We completed a number of selected buyout programs of our OPEB liabilities at certain facilities.
Now we've also benefited from currency in favorable asset performance. In summary as the chart shows the company has made significant progress managing the funded status of these liabilities. Switching subjects now to our expectations for 2008, as our guidance indicates our prospects remain positive although tempered by the difficult industry conditions most notably in the North American market.
As john mentioned we expect sales in 2008 will be in the range of $15.6 billion to $16 billion. There are few things you need to consider when evaluating the year-to-year comparison. First, the decline in Big Three production will be significant for us especially in the first half of the year. With Big Three production expected to be down over $600,000 units or 13% in the first half alone, the impact of this lower production in customer pricing will more than offset our expected growth in Europe and Asia.
Module sales are expected to increase in 2008 primarily due to the former Delphi Saginaw business. This business in addition to the carryover growth form 2007, will increase our module sales approximately $800 million in 2008. Margins on this business, average approximately 2%, so the benefit at the operating line will be limited.
The last item to consider is also expected that currency will again provide measurable upside to our sales line this year. Similar to 2007, we do not anticipate a material benefit at the operating line. The combination of these items is expected to result, more operating margins compared to 2007, while having an immaterial effect on the absolute level of profits. Regarding cash flow for 2008, although it is difficult to call at this point, we expect free cash flow will be break-even to slightly positive. On this front our expectations of higher level of sales overseas where payment terms are presently less favorable, and an 8% decline in North American Big Three production, unfortunately add to our level of uncertainty.
Switching to the first quarter, which is stacking up to be a very difficult one especially North America, where the big three production is expected to see decline 11%, and Class A volumes are also expected to drop 50%. We expect 3.6 million units of production in North America, and 5.6 million units in the Europe. Sales for the quarter should be approximately $4 billion. This is higher then previous year primarily due to the currency and modules with very little corresponding benefit at the operating line. To give you a better perspective considering the weak production environment, another factors impacting our business operating income in the first quarter is not expect to exceed the level we posted in the prior year.
And the last couples of items to note for the quarter, our forecast for restructuring expense is about $7 million, and we expect to experience our normal seasonal quarterly cash out flow in the first quarter.
In closing, we are very pleased with the out come of our 2007 results both financially and from the operational and strategic advancements that were made. 2008 is shaping up to be a difficult year for the industry especially, North America during the first half. You can expect that we will again look to mitigate the challenges by focusing hard on our cost base, while making the appropriate investments to ensure we go our business, and remain globally competitive in the future.
We'll now move to the question-and-answer portion of the call.
Question And Answer
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer portion of today's call. [Operator Instructions]. We'll take our first question from John Murphy with Merrill Lynch.
John Murphy - Merrill Lynch
Good morning, guys.
Unidentified Company Representative
Good morning, John.
Unidentified Company Representative
Good morning.
John Murphy - Merrill Lynch
I just wondering on the sales line you guys were forecasting growth of about 7.5% in 2008, you've been outpacing your 4% forecast that are targeted CAGAR [ph] for a while now and some pretty tough macro environments and production environment. So I was just wondering... you're just being incredibly conservative here or at some point in the next two or three years the backlog looks like it's particularly weak, just trying to understand what's actually happen versus your targeted 4% growth?
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
I'll take that one John, I mean first of all, I mean it's true that over the last let say four or five years our sales have increased. Firstly, due to exclude currency, I mean but, if you do exclude currency, we have slightly trended above the 4% level. It does include of course some benefit of module sales, which we don't count in quite the same category. We have thought about moving off the single point growth give a range, so I think it's... entirely reasonable to expect that we're doing a plus or minus any particularly around that range.
At this stage I would say we still feel comfortable sticking with what we've said, but we are considering to give a range around the 4%, because it's really difficult to call. I think the thing, which we would say to you is clearly we feel confident in our sales they are going to increase into 2008, despite the difficult conditions. And we will be evaluated in a going forward. But at the moment, I'd say that the matter we put out there I think some of this fulfill good about, and we're not ready to change that at this point in time.
John Murphy - Merrill Lynch
But it's fair to say there's nothing specifically you're seeing in your out years, in your backlog that we does to believe that there will be any material change?
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
No I mean our backlog is consistent, with the things I said, which was that, we see ourselves growing. We see the diversity of our customer base further increasing, and if you recall the pie charts where we show the investor conferences are diversity of customer base, and I look at the left hand side of the chart, which includes customers like BMW, and Honda, and Hyundai, etcetera. And look at those and they clearly have been increasing, and I know just a function of both production and also our business acquisition within... with those... that our customers and indeed PSA as well. So I mean the diversity is increasing, and so we feel comfortable in that order level. And I don't think we actually shown on these slides, the final customer outcomes for 2007, yet, but basically what you're going to see first of all by region is that again, near probably a touch less depends the North America that in 2006. Certainly, a very major step-up in our rest of the world which is the... which is essentially is China, India, and Brazil. Where for the year, I mean that was a very significant increase for us, so I think as it stepped up from 10% of our sales to 13% of our sales, and a full year growth of some 39%, so that segments grown very significantly, and with the customer diversity I think we will still see the VWR [ph] is our number one customer, and then really an increasingly spread around that's.... with this let say our second... let say customer I think being around about 2 percentage point low and that... and then everybody else printing in the pie chart appropriately. So good diversity gross spread and I think we feel at this point confident with the matter we've put out. But we are considering moving to a range from something low than 4 maybe to do something about 4 because it probably more reflects reality where we are.
John Murphy - Merrill Lynch
Okay. And then just second question on electronics. I mean a lot of your other competitors or peers are pointing to some pressure that seems to be developing there although it seems like in electronics particularly in steering and breaking you guys are doing very well. I was just wondering if there are opportunities or other opportunities like this Delphi acquisition for you to further consolidate potentially electronic particularly in steering and breaking, and maybe even just win and takeover business going forward?
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
Well, I mean first of all I mean electronic is something which we consider to be important. In fact we focused the whole of our electronics in TRW into a singular organization or entity in recent times. And.... so we want to pay a lot of attention to it because it's very much enable us for many of the other mechanical devices, so where we've moved to from let say mechanical steering or hydraulics into electro-hydraulic or full electric or the same break systems where it's been either for slip control or probably park brakes so indeed the application for electronics in our market [ph] is very important thing for us. I'm not sure that many consolidation opportunities out there, but of course we are interested in them as they are there, commencer with really our philosophy, which is essentially bolt-on acquisitions rather than the transformational things.
John Murphy - Merrill Lynch
Great. Thank you very much.
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Operator
Our next question is from Jonathan Steinmetz with Morgan Stanley.
Jonathan Steinmetz - Morgan Stanley
All right. Thanks. Good morning, everyone.
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning.
Joseph S. Cantie - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Hi, Jonathan.
Jonathan Steinmetz - Morgan Stanley
I want to go a little deeper on a few of the items behind the guidance, if we could start on the commodity side, I guess you're talking about $100 million so headwind on a gross basis this year, can you talk about what commodities you're most concerned about, and do you think this is a conservative estimate just given the volatility that we've seen sort of in the last six months?
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
I'll pass that mainly across to Joe for specific numbers, I mean clearly the recent movements in iron have concern for us. I mean we've seen recently nickel receding that is nickel receded. We see magnesium have a significant uptick. So I mean you've seen yesterday the price of oils spike, yes, again so and all of the commodities, which have energy dependences in that regions etcetera. So I mean we all concerned about underlying commodity inflation, and certainly our expectations it will cost us money again in 2008, and I also commented about in my section regarding the impact upon maybe some of the tier-2 and tier-3 suppliers particularly in North American market where with the weak dollar many commodities priced in dollars that really is the points of most acute [ph] pressure I feel. So expecting it to be significant, we expect to similar to 2007, but Joe, maybe you could comment.
Joseph S. Cantie - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, I would say Jonathan in 2007, you've heard us say that was net about 100 million and three quarters of that is mainly in the areas of steel and castings, and then after that it's chemicals and oil based energy cost things like that. When we look at 2008, we expect the pressure to be in the same exact areas steel and castings. The one most notable right now is iron ore. And if you think of brakes, steering, we start with castings. And just to put some color on that in 2007 the average price per gross ton of pig iron was about $373. It currently is at $473. So we're going to have... we're expecting to have same kind of levels of inflation pressures in 08, and it's going to come from the same areas, steel and castings, first and foremost, and then chemicals, resins, oil based type commodities for us.
Jonathan Steinmetz - Morgan Stanley
Okay. And similarly, in terms of the pension and OPEB just on the expense line, I guess you file your case soon. But, what you expect the expense delta to be in, are you getting some benefit as you get sort of a return on plan assets on a higher asset base?
Joseph S. Cantie - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
That's definitely helping the funding, and the other actions that we're taking definitely helping. For 2007 when you see our K filed it will show about $184 million of funding in excess of what goes through our P&L. Gross cash is very similar to that $184 million. We do expect it to improve in 2008 slightly, and then hopefully in 2009 and beyond it will improve more than slightly.
Jonathan Steinmetz - Morgan Stanley
So, when I put all together, do have an idea what the expense line benefit is like to be on either pension and/or OPEB year-over-year, so 08 versus 07.
Joseph S. Cantie - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
08 versus 07, cash we'll probably be down, call it $10 million to $20 million between the two years. And on the expense side, the expense, the net expense will probably be down some 20 million between the two years.
Jonathan Steinmetz - Morgan Stanley
Okay. And lastly on RD&E line, I guess you guys are up to almost $900 million. Can you talk a little bit about how much... when you think back versus say 04, how much of this is currency versus underlying increase in spend? And do you see a continuation up here around the 6% of sales line, or do you get pass some major program type investments and get a chance eventually to pull this down?
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
I am not keeping the exact number currency over the five years in my head. Clearly, currency display apart in the absolute spent for sure in dollars. I think more important really is the percentage of our sales. We've taken it up from, I think about 5.3% to I think it was peaked to 6.3 in 2006, and then in 2007, it was about 6.1. We're not expecting it to increase further. I think we feel comfortable with what we've got it in the zone where it really has helped us to uplift the then like technological prowess within our safety portfolio, and it's going to be round about 6% level, maybe shading down that, so rather than increasing. But, I mean that would be answer I will give. So, I think the percentage is more relevant. So I think if you were to think the same as 07 or maybe slightly lower than that, so... and certainly lower than 06 I think 06 was a peak, and from that but I don't think going back to the 5.3% however.
Jonathan Steinmetz - Morgan Stanley
Okay. Thank you very much.
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Operator
Our next question is from Chris Ceraso with Credit Suisse.
Chris Ceraso - Credit SuisseFB
Thanks. Good morning.
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning.
Joseph S. Cantie - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Good morning.
Chris Ceraso - Credit SuisseFB
A couple of things. Can you give us a little bit more color on this module business? You said it was tie to what you purchased from Delphi, is it all GM vehicles? Is it all Chasse? Can you tell us, which vehicle specifically this module stuff is on?
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
We have... I mean basically we have some elements of module of business in Asia, but that's probably the smaller amount. And then more recently, we've had an uptick in 2007, really surrounding the price for the Chrysler minivan. And that was more of a, I'll say a single point vehicle Chris. And then for the GM thing that we talked about, I mean it's a combination of some manufacturing, and then subsequently module assembly. And that really is across an array of GM vehicles. So, I actually couldn't call all amounts but I mean almost a full range of what GM does. So you just need to blend it on the average vehicles that generators does.
Chris Ceraso - Credit SuisseFB
And the increase in 08, John, is that same vehicles, or are the new programs are coming?
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
I mean as it rolls out of 07... it was zero in'07 because as you know we completed the transaction on 3rd of January this year. So it really a starts up this year. But, the blend of vehicles that GM produced in 07 as you go into 08 very similar. We have negotiated new ongoing and replacement vehicles on the business which is... so as the current ones fall of in say 09 and 010 replacement platforms come in and that business is already secured.
Chris Ceraso - Credit SuisseFB
Okay. Joe, you mentioned in you comments that cash flow, if I remember, you said it was maybe flat in 08, and you said this had something to do with the shift business overseas. But, maybe you can give us more specific, if earnings are going to be roughly flat, you did $224 million of cash flow this year. Maybe you can walk us through why cash flow would be so much weaker in 08?
Joseph S. Cantie - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Yes. And as I said in my comments, it's a difficult one to forecast at the beginning of the year, because so much is dependent on the course of the year, and where your sales come from. As we look at 08, what you basically heard I says that North America is going to be down and Europe and Asia Pacific is going to be up. And when you look at terms in North America for receivables, they are significantly less than what they are in Europe and Asia. So from that perspective, the mix of the sales is not a good one from a working capital perspective, and that will have a draw on us if you will. So, that coupled with the business and that we've brought on. And some of the payment dates as to when they pay at the end of the year is going to cause us to have pressure on our cash flow this year.
Now, that's our best look at it, as we sit here today. Clearly, we outperformed 2007, what we were indicating, and hopefully we can repeat that. But, we are not brave enough to call that right now on February 21st.
Chris Ceraso - Credit SuisseFB
Was there anything in the 07 cash flow, especially in the fourth quarter that was unusual or one-time that unwinds, that also hurts the 08 cash flow?
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
No. I mean, the only thing which was, if you recall our third quarter conference call, we mentioned to you that there is a VAT coding error which took some of the cash out of the third quarter and put it in the fourth quarter. Excepting that, there was really nothing unusual at all. So, I think that's pretty straight forward. So, I think it very much depends upon what our final growth turns out to be in 2008, Chris, the working capital mix according to the territory just to position. And I think we've given you our best this point in time.
Joseph S. Cantie - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
And Christ, I'm going to take advantage of you asking the question just to talk about the seasonality of our cash flow as well. The calendar for 2008 is one, such that we are going to have eight more calendar days in our fourth quarter than our first quarter. We run a 5-4-4 accounting system here. So in 2008, we're cutting off our first quarter on the 28th of March as opposed to the 30th of March in 2007. So there is two days less in our first quarter, and that comes back to us in the fourth quarter. So there is two days of cash collections, and usually the OEs are paying in the last days of the month. So there will be the seasonality factor going on during the course of 2008 as it compares to 2007. So what that means is we are going to expect another really good fourth quarter cash flow for 2008, and probably even more so to the extent of the first two three quarters.
Chris Ceraso - Credit SuisseFB
Okay. Last question, as it relates to the guidance. Most of the companies that we've heard from so far have a similar view with regard to Europe, which as you say maybe flat year-to-year. Europe is particularly important for TRW. How comfortable are you that production will be flat? Where do you see the risk at that forecast?
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
Okay. First of all, if you look at the start of 2008. I mean, Chris I think you've seen that the production in the first month was just fine, and indeed sales across the piece were okay. So, I think at this point as we see... we can only look out in terms of what releases we have today for the first quarter, and those seem in a very much in line with what we've been saying. Probably the major risk might be any sort of really leakage of the current economic conditions that's we have experienced in U.S. and of course there maybe a few less exports out of Europe into the U.S. But, that that really is counterbalanced by just explosive growth in Eastern Europe for the moment, and then really a lot of exporting going on into Russia, which is particularly strong. So the movement my current thoughts are that any export weakness into North America is going to be more than offset by further strength form the oil-based currency benefits that are occurring in Russia. And just the underlying continuing strong growth in Eastern Europe, both from a GDP basis and also really from a productivity basis. So at the movement, I don't really think that there is too many risks out there, because you never know and I might regret those words in terms seeing that market six months from now.
Chris Ceraso - Credit SuisseFB
Okay. Thanks a lot.
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Operator
Our next question is form Rod Lache with Deutsche Bank.
Rod Lache - Deutsche Bank
Good morning, everyone.
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning.
Rod Lache - Deutsche Bank
Can you just give us a... two housekeeping things, the module sales grow for the full year 07 versus 06 and also your full year pension and OPEB expense 07 versus 06?
Joseph S. Cantie - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Yes. For the modules, there was 300 million, I think it was 301 million to be exact increase in modules in 07 versus 06. And there is... I am sorry, your pension question was what?
Rod Lache - Deutsche Bank
The pension OPEB expense 07 versus 06, was that declined?
Joseph S. Cantie - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
In... let me... bear with me a second here. We declined, in 07, our expense was net expense was about zero and it was roughly around $20 million or $30 million in the previous year. So, I call it approximately $30 million improvement year-on-year.
Rod Lache - Deutsche Bank
Was that just the pension or was that both?
Joseph S. Cantie - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Pension and OPEB.
Rod Lache - Deutsche Bank
Pension and OPEB. Okay. And then can you give us a sense of the payback for the $50 million of annual restructuring spending. What's the timing on the payback on that. And just elaborate a little bit on your comments regarding the distressed suppliers, is there any... are there any parameters or metrics you can provide us on how significant a risk that is, maybe as a percentage of your supply base is in distress?
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
This will deal with restructuring, I mean most of our restructuring... cash structuring, excluding the any asset impairments from that, we think that we get a payback in two years or less on cash restructuring. So we feel it's a good thing that we've been doing and set ourselves for I think to be competitive in the future. And if you know our philosophy has very much been one of continuing to do restructuring with a good line of sight, so we're expecting to restructure in 08, 09, 010, as we've been restructure in the last three to four years as well. And as you know, we included in our EBITDA, and in our earnings, as we give them out.
So, for example, our EBITDA last year, even though we grew, it suffered because of the restructuring. I think restructuring was about $20 million more. So, if you were to exclude restructuring out of our numbers than our EBITDAs and our operating earnings in fact looks quite a bit better than they already I think do look. Moving to distress supplier question. I mean, firstly the one which everybody is very familiar with the moment in the U.S. because the headlines, has been plastic. I mean fortunately for us in terms of them being a sub-suppliers I think, so their sales or products from them were around about $1 million. So as you can see, I mean over the period of time, we have managed that quite well to really have, really quite low exposure to that situation.
In terms of what may be coming, that's always very difficult to predict. We have a number of say companies on our watch list. It really was a comment borne of just the general pressure when you're seeing, I mean North America production as you know it hasn't been coming down on a straight line basis for the last six years. I mean the reduction has really accelerated in 2007 and indeed in 2008. So those sub-suppliers, which have particular exposure to the Big Three and when you've taken a further 800,000 units out in 2008, then we think that's a point of stress and we need to be careful and try to see who those maybe amongst our supply base.
So, it's a risk. It's very difficult to call out. That gives us three suppliers would cause a X. I mean and if we did have that, the probably wouldn't want to say what it was in the call either. But, I mean I think it's a comment borne of the general macro economic tracks of massive production volume decline, commodities being priced in dollars, and you've seen what we have already said about commodity inflation. So clearly to the point of stress, it's difficult to call out what the effect will be, but we do expect to deflect in 2008 somewhere.
Rod Lache - Deutsche Bank
Okay, great. Thank you.
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Operator
Our next question is from Douglas Karson with Banc of America.
Douglas Karson - Banc of America
Great, guys. Thanks. Kind of directed to liquidity and the cash you have in the balance sheet, which right now are both large. We have seen some small kind of bolt-ons.
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
Yup.
Douglas Karson - Banc of America
But nothing material. Can you update us maybe on your appetite for larger type acquisitions or additional bolt-ons, Renault was leveraged around 2.5 turns rate kind of well below your peer group on leverage. I wondering if we feel to be comfortable leverage staying at that level or should we anticipate more acquisition activity, even there is some opportunities out there?
Joseph S. Cantie - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Well, I'll let John comment on the acquisition activity. But, I would just before I hand over to him. We love liquidity. We've had that level of liquidity for several years. It is served as well to be opportunistic to improve our capital structure, and be opportunistic if we do find the acquisition that's out there. So, I use to take a lot of heat for the level of liquidity last three years. But, when you look at today's credit market, it's good to have a kind of liquidity that we have, and we certainly intend to maintain the high levels as far a M&A activity.
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
Well, first of all I'll comment on net debt-to-EBITDA ratio, and that actually go through two times for very first time, and so I think it's 1.97. So I mean that was a pleasing number to be able to report. And as you know it's come down each and every year over the last several years, and indeed the coming, it's combinations of both debt reduction and EBITDA growth. So that's good. And so I think giving further strength to our balance sheet.
With the specifics of acquisitiveness, I mean I think you've hard me say several times that we would be interested in bolt-on acquisitions. I really want to, if I am going to do anything, I want to aim at companies, which have, I will say good quality and rather than I would say poor quality, and if anything we say you've seen in the distressed area we've very much would be possibly buying a few assets here or there as you see what we did was with the Delphi Saginaw thing is plays a few machinery assets essentially. So I mean we are prepared to contemplate for the built-on acquisitions. It's... we have two or three companies on our radar screen. We maintained them on our radar screen. There are something which we want to continue to be there, and I think some of the time when there's an opportunity to buy Chrysler and want to sell as well, we're willing to step up to that and make that step. So that point we'd expect that's hopefully to be in the range or maybe the such feel and what we do with Dalphimetal and if you recall that it was sales of probably 400, 500 million, and acquisition cost that's going to 50 plus or minus. So it's not sort of order, I mean it is something slightly smaller we'd considered so we can try to be considered, but we are not seeing anything which is also outrageous at this point in time.
Douglas Karson - Banc of America
Great, and just --
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
There is willingness to consider, but it's not something which, we have Benzon, it has to fit with our strategy and you have seen already our organic growth, I think at this point is satisfactory.
Douglas Karson - Banc of America
On the mix geographically, I guess kind of Dalphimetal acquisition, and what's Anadarko over the last couple of years as continue to fall as a percent, I think it's around 30% now and you've announced the braking systems on the Mazda and other rollouts in a non-North American business. Can we see North America at the end of the decade be 25% of total. It says we model out in this become less of the North America company just to get a sense of that?
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
Certainly we're unusual in fact that's we had North America domicile, but with only 30% of our sales in North America that's... that has an unusual feature about it. But having said that, I really don't see North America declining much from where it is probably we'll have some increase because of the... of those I'll say braking sales General Motors we talked about and modules sales. I'd expect growth in certainly in China, India throughout strip anything else that's going on and yet we have strengthen year-over-year also basically accounted to percentage changing much at all maybe may if anything might go percentage point higher in North America in the next year or so. So I think have a good blend and North America is a very important part of the world for us to address and we are hoping that we continue to widen our customer exposure North America as well. So you should be anticipating at the end of the decade going at 25, I don't think.
Joseph S. Cantie - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
And I think 14.5 million vehicles build is not trend. So I'd be shocked if 14.5 is the new trend level going forward so. It's going to kick back one of these years.
Douglas Karson - Banc of America
Great. Thanks, guys.
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Operator
Our final question is from Brett Hoselton with KeyBanc.
Brett Hoselton - KeyBanc
Very nice, thank you very much. Couple of strategic questions here for you John. First of all, I'm a little bit puzzled by your entrance into the module business. I mean we've seen supplier-after-supplier-after-supplier over the past decade. If we get into the module business and then tell us that it's a terrible business to be into and I understand that you have a very strict return on invested capital approach to investing in new businesses. I am wondering what is that you see in the module business that might be different in Dana or Lear or some of these other folks that have entered into it and then decided is not really a good business to be in?
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
It's very difficult for me to comment on whether it's, I do know that Dana if I've just started with, actually normally adjust that just we entered. In fact they took the jeep, KAKK platform took in to the jeep liberty and into derivatives. So it was a walking in reverse in fact if anything going the other way but basically what we have seen on it is, we actually probably think about it differently in terms of the modules that we tend to focus on. So if you think about let say brake product which is essentially the caliper and sometimes the rotors that goes with it so I give an example on the minivan where we did or calipers front and rears and no rotors front and rears, I mean that's a very large portion of the wheel and assembly. So we are not doing big coking modules, we've seen a big hydro formed frames etcetera, and the hanging parts of it. We are trying to focus on something which is very specific to us sort of corner module whereby it really is the caliper, the rotor, the knuckle and medication is truck. So it's a very focused part as the module business in the main. So we talked about this General Motor business is very much as corner modules and nothing else. So, I mean we've never given you really a detailed description of it but really, but really if you guys think about rotor, wheel bearing, wheel speed sensors, I mean the wheel bearing and the wheel speed sensor because we don't manufacture, but the steering knuckle and the caliper and sometimes our minings. We do so, I would say you need to think about in a very specific context.
Joseph S. Cantie - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
And now I'd also add there is good return on capital and there is very little capital that's needed for this type of business, and we have... we've been modules for many, many years, and we've been very successful at it and it's been good business for us.
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
The I'd like focusing I'd say clearly if you focus in a very much it also lends strength to us to... if we were we not let say the brake caliper supply on the subsequent generation is to seek to be that caliper supplier to capture the added-value as well. So that's still behind anyway.
Brett Hoselton - KeyBanc
Yes, I guess a very --
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
We are intending that to be successful and now we'll see.
Brett Hoselton - KeyBanc
What I kind of struggled with then is that, it sounds like what you are saying is look we sell rotors, we sell calipers already and so, what we are going to do is we are going to try to capture more of that business, and I guess what I am wondering is why than is it lower margin business?
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
Because some of the parts that we buy and clearly, we don't have the added-value for manufacturing, and therefore it's an assembly added-value put for those components that we don't manufacture. And the way we call it out in fact we sell the internal parts you know, it as a module business. So we achieve those properly added-value in those module sales. That's how we categorized as well.
Brett Hoselton - KeyBanc
And so that --
Patrick R. Stobb - Director of Investor Relations
So, under the cover of that it's obviously, is there second question Brett because of the time we are very.
Brett Hoselton - KeyBanc
Well, I guess the second question would be and I got a follow-up for Patrick on some other stuffs here but the second question is strategic for you John is, you are very strong in North America, you are very strong in Europe, General Motors for examples is going to global sourcing, which requires a strong presence in Asia many of your competitors are very strong in Asia and stronger than you are. My question is how would you suggest, do you think you are going to be successful with General Motors and I think you have some examples where you are, but do you think you'd be successful General Motors as they move to more by global sourcing product or global sourcing versus some of your competitors?
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
Well given our footprints, so if you take China where we have 11 manufacturing plants now, and I think we have 22 or 24 manufacturing plants at Asia-Pacific, I mean that's a pretty significant part of our global footprint, and indeed is... and has been increasing. And we've been making investments over the last few years in over and above our also our depreciation and some folks on the markets, I mean today I think a couple of the global platforms we already do supply GM on a global basis some of that were coming out of indeed out of China.
Brett Hoselton - KeyBanc
We feel confident on.
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
I think at this point we feel, we feel okay, we are really proud ourselves on being the global manufacturer, and when we talked about the Mazda dummy [ph] vehicle I mean that is the prelude as you note to the whole new for small car platform. So if we are able to satisfy Mazda in Japan or Norway when we talked about the electric steering is just one of the products by the way on that vehicle is it not the only product, and then if you think about that platforms going to be made in... in fact we are already shipping in to China, and we always in major manufacture the product to support. The European manufacturing and manufacturing in Thailand, in Mexico, not all the countries yet to be announced to the vehicle. So if you can supply in North America or it is going to Mexico... North America is supplying here up is part of a series of Asian countries and that really demonstrates for some of our highest technologies where you truly are supporting your customer both with engineering and manufacturing on a global basis.
Brett Hoselton - KeyBanc
Very good.
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
I don't know what else to say to you. We do it today, we'll do it tomorrow and, there are no issues there.
Brett Hoselton - KeyBanc
I think I heard correctable. Thank you very much John I appreciate it.
John C. Plant - President and Chief Executive Officer
Okay. Thanks, Brett.
Joseph S. Cantie - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Thank you.
Patrick R. Stobb - Director of Investor Relations
That conclude today's call, this is Pat. I'll be available this afternoon for any additional questions. So give me call if you need... if you have any questions. Mandy, can you please close the call.
Operator
Yes sir. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference call. You may now disconnect.
Copyright policy: All transcripts on this site are the copyright of Seeking Alpha. However, we view them as an important resource for bloggers and journalists, and are excited to contribute to the democratization of financial information on the Internet. (Until now investors have had to pay thousands of dollars in subscription fees for transcripts.) So our reproduction policy is as follows: You may quote up to 400 words of any transcript on the condition that you attribute the transcript to Seeking Alpha and either link to the original transcript or to www.SeekingAlpha.com. All other use is prohibited.
THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HERE IS A TEXTUAL REPRESENTATION OF THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S CONFERENCE CALL, CONFERENCE PRESENTATION OR OTHER AUDIO PRESENTATION, AND WHILE EFFORTS ARE MADE TO PROVIDE AN ACCURATE TRANSCRIPTION, THERE MAY BE MATERIAL ERRORS, OMISSIONS, OR INACCURACIES IN THE REPORTING OF THE SUBSTANCE OF THE AUDIO PRESENTATIONS. IN NO WAY DOES SEEKING ALPHA ASSUME ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY INVESTMENT OR OTHER DECISIONS MADE BASED UPON THE INFORMATION PROVIDED ON THIS WEB SITE OR IN ANY TRANSCRIPT. USERS ARE ADVISED TO REVIEW THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S AUDIO PRESENTATION ITSELF AND THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S SEC FILINGS BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT OR OTHER DECISIONS.
If you have any additional questions about our online transcripts, please contact us at: transcripts@seekingalpha.com. Thank you!