MeadWestvaco Corporation Q1 2009 Earnings Call Transcript

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2009-04-29 11:27:17.0

Tags: Pickup, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Call Transcript, Earnings, Food & Beverage, Personal Finance, Operational Accounting, Manufacturing, Finance, Seeking Alpha, MeadWestvaco Corp.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

Yes. (Operator instructions) The first one is from Claudia Hueston. She is with J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.

Claudia Hueston – J.P. Morgan

Thank you very much. Good morning.

John Luke

Good morning, Claudia.

Claudia Hueston – J.P. Morgan

I was hoping you could just elaborate a little bit on the pickup you’ve seen in March and April across your businesses, and then particularly across your geographies if you are seeing anything different in your non-US businesses or the export market.

John Luke

Yes. Claudia, I’ll turn it over to Jim and Mark to comment a bit more definitively on this. I think that it’s fair to say that whether it is, as Jim commented at the outset, a little bit of pickup that reflects a reversal of some of the destocking, whether it reflects an early pickup and demand, we are certainly seeing this in the North American markets. But it is way too early to predict that this is anything other than a few data points in our markets. I think as we move through the quarter, we and others across this industry and the broad range of industries participating in this economy will be able to discern whether there is substance to it. But Jim, you might want to just put a little bit more color on some of the specifics behind the comment.

Jim Buzzard

Sure. Thanks, John. Clearly, we begin to see an uptick from a seasonal standpoint in the second quarter. Our beverage business begins to improve, which impacts both our converting operations and our mill-based businesses. And as John said, I think we clearly are seeing the impact of some lower destocking. We also were impacted in the first quarter by some pre-buying as we moved pricing in a couple of markets as well. So we did see some effects slip into Q4 of last year. In terms of geographies, I think it’s fairly balanced. We are seeing our emerging markets performing better, certainly than Europe and North America, which still remain fairly weak. As John said, this is really a three or four-week phenomenon that we are looking at and still much too early for us to make a call on where this is heading.

Claudia Hueston – J.P. Morgan

Okay. That’s great, helpful. Thank you. And then I just wanted to confirm, I think you had said positive free cash flow for the year. You defined free cash flow is after dividends. Am I right on that front?

 

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