Ball Corporation. Q4 2008 Earnings Call Transcript

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2009-01-29 12:00:42.0

Tags: Call Transcript, Wachovia Corp., Earnings, Pension, Benefits, Payroll Solutions, Personal Finance, Human Resources, Seeking Alpha, Ball Corp.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions.)

Our first question comes from the line of Ghansham Panjabi from Wachovia.

Ghansham Panjabi - Wachovia

Hey, guys. Good morning.

David Hoover

Good morning.

Ghansham Panjabi - Wachovia

Hoping you can give us more color, John, on the volume outlook for Europe in the low single digits for '09. What gives us comfort on that and how does that compare on a reasonable basis, Western Europe versus Eastern Europe? Thanks.

John Hayes

Your last part of the question is, I think, the most important part. We have seen a significant slowdown in the east generally, whether you're talking about Poland, Russia, Ukraine, all the region in there, and so that's one of the main reason why we slowed down our Lublin project.

In the west, whether it's in the UK or France, and even to an extent in Germany, we are seeing volumes hold up on a relative basis. Given the continued trends we see going from two-way packaging to one-way packaging, that does favor the can, and while we don't expect a significant amount of growth, nor are we anticipating it. Currently, we think, in some of those western countries, we will see modest growth.

Ghansham Panjabi - Wachovia

Okay. And just as a measure of clarification, the $23.2 million of operating profit in metal household, that includes the $6.8 million claim? Right?

John Hayes

Correct.

Ghansham Panjabi - Wachovia

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Chris Manuel with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Chris Manuel - KeyBanc Capital Markets

Good morning, gentlemen.

David Hoover

Good morning.

Chris Manuel - KeyBanc Capital Markets

A couple of questions for you. First, Ray, a question on your free cash assumptions for 2009. Help me with some of the buckets here. If you're starting, let's say, I think at 321 base from '08, looking forward to '09, you're not going to have, I think, a mill payment recurring.

You talked about pension possibly being up a little bit, but it sounds like your CapEx down by greater than that amount. It sounds to me as though that could be a bit conservative. Are there some other pieces, potentially working capital or restructuring cash that we may be missing to help us with the rest of the puzzle?

Raymond Seabrook

Yes. Remember, the pension expense and the cash contributions are different numbers, so what I said was the expense running through our P&L is only up slightly. That will be up a couple million dollars probably in the neighborhood. We had expenses this year, probably our P&L and pension expense in 2008 probably around $69 or $70 million.

 

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