NORTHVILLE, Mich., Oct. 31, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Gentherm (NASDAQ-GS:THRM), the global market leader and developer of innovative thermal management technologies, today announced financial results for the third quarter and nine months ended September 30, 2013.

"We broke $170 million in revenues for this year's third quarter, which is an all-time quarterly record for the Company, and we generated strong gross margins," said President and CEO Daniel R. Coker.  "These results were driven by solid growth in all of our major business units, which are continuing to exhibit greater strength than the overall automotive market.  We see excellent future opportunities for Gentherm, not only in terms of growth and increased market shares, but also for improved operating and cost efficiencies as we go forward."

Third Quarter Financial Highlights
Revenues for the 2013 third quarter increased 21 percent to $171.2 million from $141.1 million in the prior year's third quarter.  Revenues for the Company's Climate Control Seats™ (CCS™) segment, which represents the historical Gentherm business, increased 11 percent, while revenues for W.E.T. grew by 25 percent compared with the prior year period.

Higher CCS revenues were due to new program launches, including the Cadillac CTX and the North American variant of the Hyundai Sonata, and additional volume on programs launched during last year's third quarter, including the redesigned Land Rover Range Rover, Nissan Pathfinder and Infiniti JX.  Production volumes on existing vehicle platforms were higher in North America, but lower in Japan.  The weakness in Japan primarily reflected certain mature vehicle programs that are expected to be refreshed in the coming months.

W.E.T. revenue increases resulted from strong automotive volumes in North America and Asia and continued market penetration in the automotive cable business.  In addition, European-based sales were 12 percent higher than the prior year despite local economic weakness, partly due to the market penetration of the cable business.  Included in these amounts are W.E.T.'s climate controlled seat products that include heated and cooled as well as heated and ventilated seats which grew by 33 percent to approximately $36.0 million during the third quarter. 

Foreign currency translation of the Company's Euro denominated revenue for this year's third quarter, which was approximately €35.7 million compared with €31.9 million during the prior year period, benefited revenue results by approximately $2.6 million.  The average US Dollar/Euro exchange rate for the 2013 third quarter was 1.3244 compared with 1.2514 for the third quarter of 2012.

Net income attributable to common shareholders for the 2013 third quarter was $8.5 million, or $0.25 per basic and $0.24 per diluted share, which included $326,000 in fees, legal and other expenses associated with the acquisition of additional W.E.T. shares during this year's second quarter and subsequent squeeze-out procedures during the third quarter of this year.  There were also $1.6 million of foreign currency exchange losses recorded in the quarter. 

Adjusting for the impact of the W.E.T. acquisition transaction expenses, Gentherm would have reported net income attributable to common shareholders of $0.25 per basic and diluted share.  Net income attributable to common shareholders for the third quarter of 2012 was $2.5 million, or $0.08 per basic and diluted share, which included $421,000 of foreign currency exchange losses.

Further non-cash purchase accounting impacts associated with the W.E.T. acquisition are detailed in the Acquisition Transaction Expenses, W.E.T. Purchase Accounting Impacts and Other Effects table accompanying the release.

Gross margin as a percentage of revenue for this year's third quarter was 26.8 percent compared with 26.1 percent for the third quarter of 2012.  This increase was due to a favorable change in product mix and greater coverage of fixed manufacturing costs at the higher volume levels.

Adjusted EBITDA for the 2013 third quarter was $21.3 million compared with Adjusted EBITDA of $18.5 million for the prior year period reflecting the charges discussed previously.  Adjusted EBITDA (which is a non-GAAP measure) is provided to help shareholders understand Gentherm's results of operations due to the acquisition of W.E.T.  This non-GAAP financial measure should be viewed in addition to, and not as an alternative for, Gentherm's reported results prepared in accordance with GAAP.

The Company's balance sheet as of September 30, 2013, had total cash and cash equivalents of $36 million, total assets of $457.9 million, shareholders' equity of $215.6 million and total debt of $87.4 million.

Year-to-Date Summary
For the first nine months of 2013, revenues increased 18 percent to $479.8 million from $406.7 million in the prior year period. 

Foreign currency translation of the Company's Euro denominated revenue for the first nine months of 2013, which was approximately €106.1 million compared with €95.5 million during the prior year period, increased the US Dollar reported revenue by approximately $3.7 million.  The average US Dollar/Euro exchange rate for the first nine months of this year was 1.3172 compared with 1.2820 for the first nine months of the prior year.

Net income attributable to common shareholders for the first nine months of 2013 was $21.2 million, or $0.64 per basic share and $0.63 per diluted share, which included $1.9 million in fees, legal and other expenses associated with the acquisition of additional W.E.T. shares during the period and a $1.8 million charge related to the global reporting structure reorganization during this year's second quarter. 

Adjusting for the impact of the W.E.T. acquisition transaction expenses and the $1.8 million charge related to the global reporting structure reorganization, Gentherm would have reported net income attributable to common shareholders of $0.71 per basic share and diluted share.  Net income attributable to common shareholders for the prior year period was $8.6 million, or $0.31 per basic share and $0.30 per diluted share. 

Further non-cash purchase accounting impacts associated with the W.E.T. acquisition are detailed in the Acquisition Transaction Expenses, W.E.T. Purchase Accounting Impacts and Other Effects table accompanying the release.

Gross margin as a percentage of revenue for first nine months of 2013 was 26.1 percent compared with 25.5 percent for the first nine months of 2012. 

Adjusted EBITDA for the first nine months of 2013 was $55.9 million compared with Adjusted EBITDA of $51.7 million for the prior year period. 

Revaluation of Derivatives
For the third quarter and first nine months of this year, the Company recorded foreign currency losses of $1.6 million and $1.5 million, respectively. Gains related to the revaluation of derivative financial instruments of $217,000 and $1.2 million for the third quarter and first nine months of this year, respectively, compared with losses of $993,000 and $1.1 million for the prior year periods partially offset the 2013 third quarter and nine-month foreign currency amounts.

Research and Development, Selling, General and Administrative (SG&A) Expenses
Net research and development expenses for this year's third quarter and first nine months were up $2.5 million and $6.4 million to $12.7 million and $37.0 million, respectively, reflecting additional resources, including personnel, focused on application engineering for new production programs on existing products, development of new products, start-up costs for a new electronics production facility in Shenzhen, China, and a program to develop the next generation of seat comfort products using the best ideas and designs of the combined Gentherm and W.E.T. systems.  New product development includes automotive heated and cooled storage devices, automotive interior thermal management devices, medical thermal management devices, battery thermal management devices and other potential products.

SG&A expenses for the third quarter and first nine months of 2013, which included the above mentioned $1.8 million in reorganization charges during the 2013 second quarter, increased $1.8 million and $7.5 million, respectively, when compared to the prior year periods.  Included are higher legal, audit and travel costs, as well as wages and benefits costs resulting from new employee hiring and merit increases.  The additional employees are primarily related to establishing the new electronics production facility, increasing sales and marketing efforts aimed at supporting the Company's current product development strategy and the ongoing integration process between historical Gentherm and W.E.T.  Gentherm also incurred approximately $550,000 in incremental audit and accounting expenses driven by Sarbanes-Oxley compliance implementation for W.E.T. which began during the first and second quarter of 2012.  Gentherm believes that its selling, general and administrative costs will level off as the Company works through the integration process and implements the cost reduction initiatives enabled by this integration over the next three years.

Guidance
Barring unforeseen economic turbulence, including worsening of the European market or unfavorable fluctuations of the Euro exchange rate, the 2013 revenue growth outlook remains strong.  The Company expects that fourth quarter revenue will be slightly lower sequentially from the third quarter, but still represent a significant increase from the prior year fourth quarter.  That would set the full year growth rate at 17 percent over 2012 revenues of $555 million. 

Conference Call
As previously announced, Gentherm is conducting a conference call today to be broadcast live over the Internet at 11:30 AM Eastern Time to review these financial results.  The dial-in number for the call is 1-888-846-5003 (or 1-480-629-9856).  The live webcast and archived replay of the call can be accessed in the Events page of the Investor section of Gentherm's website at www.gentherm.com.

About Gentherm
Gentherm (NASDAQ-GS:THRM) is a global developer and marketer of innovative thermal management technologies for a broad range of heating and cooling and temperature control applications. Automotive products include actively heated and cooled seat systems and cup holders, heated and ventilated seat systems, thermal storage bins, heated automotive interior systems (including heated seats, steering wheels, armrests and other components), cable systems and other electronic devices.  The Company's advanced technology team is developing more efficient materials for thermoelectric and systems for waste heat recovery and electrical power generation for the automotive market that may have far-reaching applications for consumer products as well as industrial and technology markets.  Gentherm has more than 7,500 employees in facilities in the U.S., Germany, Mexico, China, Canada, Japan, England, Korea, Malta, Hungary and the Ukraine.  For more information, go to www.gentherm.com.

Except for historical information contained herein, statements in this release are forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  These statements include statements regarding future sales, products, opportunities, markets, expenses and profits.  Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties which may cause the Company's actual results in future periods to differ materially from forecasted results.  Those risks include, but are not limited to, risks that sales may not significantly increase, additional financing requirements may not be available, new competitors may arise and adverse conditions in the industry in which the Company operates may negatively affect its results.  Those and other risks are described in the Company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012 and subsequent reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), copies of which are available from the SEC or may be obtained from the Company.  Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, which are made as of the date hereof, even if new information becomes available in the future.

TABLES FOLLOW

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures
In evaluating its business, Gentherm considers and uses Adjusted EBITDA as a supplemental measure of its operating performance.  The Company defines Adjusted EBITDA as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, and deferred financing cost amortization, less transaction expenses, debt retirement expenses, unrealized currency gain or loss and unrealized revaluation of derivatives.  Management believes that Adjusted EBITDA is a meaningful measure of liquidity and the Company's ability to service debt because it provides a measure of cash available for such purposes. Management provides an Adjusted EBITDA measure so that investors will have the same financial information that management uses with the belief that it will assist investors in properly assessing the Company's performance on a period-over-period basis.

The term Adjusted EBITDA is not defined under GAAP, and is not a measure of operating income, operating performance or liquidity presented in accordance with GAAP.  Adjusted EBITDA has limitations as an analytical tool, and when assessing the Company's operating performance, investors should not consider Adjusted EBITDA in isolation, or as a substitute for net income or other consolidated income statement data prepared in accordance with GAAP.  Gentherm compensates for these limitations by relying primarily on its GAAP results and using Adjusted EBITDA only supplementally.

SOURCE Gentherm