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RPM International F1Q08 (Qtr End 8/31/07) Earnings Call Transcript

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2007-10-03 12:31:21.0

Tags: RPM International Inc.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

Your first question comes from Jeff Zekauskas - JP Morgan.

Silka for Jeff Zekauskas - JP Morgan

Can you discuss the monthly trend that you’ve seen in the industrial construction market going from June/July to August, what you’ve seen in September so far?

Frank C. Sullivan

We really don’t provide guidance from one month to the next. I can tell you that in heavier industry areas like petrochemical, marine, power generation, infrastructure we are seeing as robust growth as we’ve seen in a long time. Very solid, double-digit core revenue growth and we expect that to continue.

In the commercial markets our expectation was, and we think it will come true, that the markets will be impacted by the significant slowdown in the residential construction market. We’re seeing slowing in some of our businesses that in prior years might be growing at high single or low double-digit rates to middle-digit rates and we to be positive for the year for a number of reasons related to RPM. We expect that to continue to slow down and our expectations for the second half of the year is that product lines, for instance Tremco sealants would be relatively flat as a result of slowing in commercial construction markets as opposed to industrial.

Silka for Jeff Zekauskas - JP Morgan

How big is the commercial piece out of your industrial?

Frank C. Sullivan

I would guess -- and this is just a guess -- but as far as we can tell our exposure to commercial construction is in the $300 million to $500 million range and that’s on a global basis. We had previously communicated that our direct exposure to residential new construction is about $100 million and then the balance of RPM products are really focused on renovation, repair and maintenance. I think you can see and you will see it reflected in our results versus some of our peers. We are facing many of the same challenges, we just don’t have the same exposure to either the housing market or more cyclical OEM cycles or OEM customers.

Silka for Jeff Zekauskas - JP Morgan

What you just said is what you expect for the commercial construction market in the second half is for the volumes to be flat, or is that an estimate for the full year?

Frank C. Sullivan

In the second half we see it slowing down and to your earlier question, it’s an area for us that has gone from a year ago high single-digit, low double-digit growth rates to middle single-digit growth rates. I think by the end of the year it will at that level or slowing more.

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