Enterprising Investor
6 years ago
Arcosa, Inc. Begins Trading on New York Stock Exchange Under ACA Ticker Symbol (11/01/18)
DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Arcosa, Inc. (NYSE: ACA) (โArcosaโ), a growth-oriented manufacturer of infrastructure-related products and services, today marks its first day as an independent public company following its successful separation from Trinity Industries, Inc. The spin-off was effected through a pro rata distribution of all outstanding Arcosa shares to Trinityโs stockholders and is intended to qualify as a tax free distribution for federal income tax purposes.
Regular-way trading on the New York Stock Exchange begins today under the ACA ticker symbol
Arcosa President and CEO, Antonio Carrillo, commented, โArcosa is entering the public markets as a strong, independent company with established businesses serving the construction, energy, and transportation industries. A healthy, nearly-debt free balance sheet and strong operating cash flow provide us with significant resources to grow both organically and through disciplined acquisitions.
โOur stage one priorities are to grow our construction products businesses, improve margins in our energy equipment segment, and expand our transportation products businesses as our key markets recover. In particular, we expect the emerging barge recovery to give us positive momentum moving into 2019.โ
Mr. Carrillo concluded, โFinally, we are building a new company. On this journey, we are committed to establishing credibility with our many stakeholders, including the investment community, our customers and suppliers, our team members throughout the organization, and the communities in which we operate. We look forward to keeping everyone informed of our progress.โ
Reaffirms Fiscal Year 2019 Earnings Guidance
At its Investor Day on October 4, 2018, Arcosa established financial guidance for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2019, providing forecasted ranges for revenue and EBITDA. Today, Arcosa is reaffirming its annual revenue guidance of between $1.55 and $1.65 billion and its EBITDA guidance of between $180 and $195 million.
As discussed at Investor Day, the Companyโs fiscal year 2019 guidance includes:
Positives from 2018: Emerging barge recovery positively impacting the Transportation Products segment; margin improvement in the Energy Equipment segment; and continued strength in the Construction Products segment
Challenges from 2018: Between $10 and $15 million of forecasted incremental standalone public company costs and lower anticipated margins in the steel components business due to lower 2019 contractual pricing
Refer to the supplemental table that accompanies this release for a reconciliation of projected net income to EBITDA for 2019.
Executes $400 million unsecured five-year revolving credit facility
In conjunction with its establishment as a standalone company, Arcosa executed a $400 million unsecured credit facility with a maturity date of November 2023. The facility is available for general corporate purposes and includes customary terms and conditions.
โWith robust operating cash-flow generation and a strong balance sheet, Arcosa is well-positioned to execute on our strategy to grow in attractive markets where we can achieve sustainable competitive advantages, reduce the complexity and cyclicality of the overall business, and improve our return on invested capital,โ stated Scott Beasley, Arcosaโs CFO.
About Arcosa
Arcosa, Inc., headquartered in Dallas, Texas, is a growth-oriented manufacturer of infrastructure-related products and services with leading positions in construction, energy, and transportation markets. Arcosa reports its financial results in three principal business segments: the Construction Products Group, the Energy Equipment Group, and the Transportation Products Group. For more information, visit www.arcosa.com.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181101005133/en/Arcosa-Begins-Trading-New-York-Stock-Exchange
roiresearch
17 years ago
ACAH up big in p/m
closed yesterday at .31 and now trading .40 x .45 @ 8:45 am
Banks in talks to bail out ACA Capital: report
By Steve Goldstein
Last update: 6:11 a.m. EST Dec. 19, 2007
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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Banks including Merrill Lynch (MER:
Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc
ACAH, , ) , The New York Times reported, citing two people familiar with the matter. ACA has guaranteed $26 billion in mortgage securities, and the insurer's woes could force the banks to take on billions in losses they had insured against, the report said. Standard & Poor's has warned ACA that it may lose its A rating. It is unclear how much capital it would take to shore up ACA, the report added, and another solution the banks are discussing would relieve ACA of having to post collateral against its insurance contracts if the company is downgraded.
twk000jester
17 years ago
ACA maybe testing new lows....IMHO
a few snips
"...CIBC resurrected its well-worn reputation as the bank most likely to walk into a sharp object. The bank confirmed it has $9.8-billion (U.S.) worth of hedged exposure to the crumbling subprime mortgage market, and warned it could suffer "significant future losses" because of these positions. That number, which doesn't include an additional $741-million worth of unhedged exposure, was far greater than predicted, and several times higher than any of the other Canadian banks...."
"...Other analysts suggested the number could be even higher if ACA Capital Holdings Inc., a shaky bond insurer with which CIBC has $3.5-billion in exposure, tumbles into bankruptcy...."
"...What investors are focusing on, however, is $3.5-billion worth of exposure that is thought to be hedged with ACA. These assets have already declined by half in value, meaning that ACA would owe CIBC $1.7-billion. These assets have likely deteriorated even further in recent months, and the question now is how much, if any, money will ACA be able to pay...."
"...How does CIBC get this big of an exposure in the first place?" asked another analyst. "And why $3.5-billion to one counterparty? These are two massive mistakes, and they're going to pay the price...."
Link - http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20071207.RCIBC07/TPStory/Business
twk000jester
17 years ago
Subprime Rate Five-Year Fix Eyed by U.S. Regulators, Lenders
By Alison Vekshin
Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Federal regulators and U.S. lenders are focusing on five years as the duration of an interest-rate freeze on subprime mortgages, said a person familiar with negotiations aimed at stemming a surge in foreclosures.
Such an agreement would satisfy the shortest fix sought by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. That period is longer than the minimum, two- to three-year modifications suggested by Fannie Mae, the largest source of finance for American home loans. The Treasury Department's Office of Thrift Supervision advocated between three and five years.
``Five years sounds about right,'' said Douglas Elmendorf, a former Treasury and Federal Reserve Board official, and now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. ``This is a useful and important step, but it isn't a panacea.''
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is finalizing the accord as the housing recession enters its third year and threatens to undo the economic expansion. President George W. Bush and Paulson may announce the plan on Dec. 6, said two people familiar with negotiations.
Officials and company executives have spent much of the past week negotiating over how long to extend starter rates on subprime mortgages, which are usually given to people with poor or incomplete credit histories. Almost 20 percent of subprime loans end in foreclosure, more than six times the number of prime mortgages, according research by the Fed's Boston branch.
Republicans Meet Paulson
Paulson will brief House Republicans tomorrow on details of the plan, Representative Adam Putnam of Florida, the chairman of the House Republican Conference, told reporters in Washington today.
``The Treasury is pleased with the progress that we heard from mortgage-industry participants,'' Treasury spokeswoman Jennifer Zuccarelli said. She reiterated Paulson's comment yesterday that he expected an agreement by the end of the week, while declining to comment on specifics.
About 100,000 subprime loans will jump from their discounted initial rates every month for the next two years, UBS AG estimates. American home foreclosures almost doubled in October from a year earlier as subprime borrowers failed to make higher payments on adjustable-rate mortgages, Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac Inc. said on Nov. 29.
Extending Starter Rates
These mortgages usually begin with a rate of between 7 percent to 9 percent and then reset to between 11 percent and 13 percent. ``What we are talking about is having these loans modified, so they continue for a longer period of time at the starter rate,'' John Reich, director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, said in an interview in Washington yesterday.
Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke are concerned that falling home values will choke consumer spending, which has driven economic growth since the last recession ended in 2001. By heading off further deterioration in the $11.5 trillion mortgage market, officials are also aiming to stem losses on securities backed by subprime loans.
The Bush administration's efforts to forge an agreement have become more urgent as the economy falters after a third- quarter spurt. Growth may cool to an annual rate of less than 1 percent in October to December, economists say, following an expansion of 4.9 percent in the prior three months.
No `Silver Bullet'
``The number of subprime-mortgage resets is going to increase dramatically next year, and we need to make sure the capacity is there to handle it,'' Paulson said in a speech at a housing conference in Washington yesterday. While no ``silver bullet,'' rewriting a set of subprime loans would ``clearly'' ease the risks from the housing slump, he said in an interview later.
Sheila Bair, chairman of the FDIC, has been working with Paulson and has said she favors extending introductory rates for between five and seven years. The OTS, which hosted yesterday's conference suggested a freeze of between three and five years.
The cap on adjustable rates should last for at least two or three years, Fannie Mae Chief Executive Officer Daniel Mudd told reporters at the same event. ``That kind of number is what seems to make sense.''
Paulson identified four categories of subprime borrowers: those who can afford to pay adjustable-rate loans; those who don't have ``the financial wherewithal to sustain home ownership;'' those who choose to refinance their mortgages -- which he called ``the first, best option'' -- and those who can afford the introductory rate but not the adjusted one. The government is focused on helping the last category, he said.
``We are focusing on this group, determining who they are and what steps may appropriately assist them,'' he said. The plan ``does not, and will not, include spending taxpayer money on funding or subsidies for industry participants or homeowners.''
link - http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=alDRnzsykDOc&refer=home
twk000jester
17 years ago
Bush Housing Rescue Plan May Fall Short
By ALAN ZIBEL,
Posted: 2007-12-04 18:12:51
WASHINGTON (AP) - A government proposal to freeze interest rates on home loans made to borrowers with weak credit would have limited impact in stemming a surge of foreclosures, analysts say.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is hashing out the plan's details with other federal banking regulators, mortgage industry executives and investors. Details of the plan are expected later this week.
However, less than a third of $1 trillion in outstanding subprime mortgages are likely to qualify for the plan, said Guy Cecala, publisher of Bethesda, Md. trade publication Inside Mortgage Finance.
And the economic benefits are at best uncertain for many mortgage investors, Cecala added, even though he expects most players in the industry to participate- if only to avoid a tarnished reputation with the public.
Publicly opposing the plan, Cecala said, is "kind of like criticizing apple pie at this point."
Loan servicers, which collect and distribute payments to investors, are being asked to give extensions, which could range from two to seven years, for subprime mortgages due to reset at higher rates in the coming years.
The Bush administration's plan is being aimed at homeowners who are making payments on time at lower introductory mortgage rates but cannot afford a higher adjusted rate. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. estimates that 1.1 million borrowers are in that situation.
Still, many categories of risky loans aren't included in the plan at this point, other analysts noted, including loans in which borrowers used "piggyback" home equity loans to finance a home purchase and loans in which borrowers weren't required to document their income.
"Many government and policy makers feel this is a subprime problem, which is completely wrong," Friedman Billings Ramsey analyst Paul J. Miller Jr. wrote in a research note Tuesday. "The plan will not rescue the housing market."
And loan modifications, regardless of who qualifies, aren't a panacea, Miller added, estimating that about half of modified loans default anyway over the long run.
In a speech at a housing forum here Monday, Paulson said he believed the mortgage industry would implement the new program quickly.
"What was a fragmented, cumbersome process can be a coordinated effort which more quickly helps able homeowners," Paulson said, acknowledging the limits of who will qualify.
"Some of these homeowners will become renters again," he said.
President Bush said Tuesday that the mortgage industry's complexity has meant the plant has "taken a while" to develop.
"You've also got people all around the world who now own U.S. mortgages," Bush said. "And so it's a complex assignment."
Some on Wall Street warn of a flood of lawsuits if the government tries to coerce loan servicers to modify mortgages held in complex mortgage securities to modify loans, without being certain that affected investors will benefit in the long run.
"It's a real mixed bag for investors " Brian Gardner, a Washington policy analyst with Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. Some investors, he said, are likely to go along, realizing they'll take a small loss.
Others, notably speculators betting that mortgage securities will drop in value, are likely to be opposed, he said.
Meanwhile, Democrats and consumer advocates question whether the administration's efforts go far enough.
"It would be a sad irony if this attempt to correct the damage done by poor underwriting standards that extended too much credit to too many borrowers was undone by criteria that made loan modifications and workouts available to too few borrowers," four Democratic senators including Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. and Charles Schumer wrote in a letter to Paulson on Tuesday.
Democrats are pushing their own initiatives, including legislation - ardently opposed by lenders - to allow mortgages on primary residences to be modified in bankruptcy court. The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing on that proposal for Wednesday afternoon.
Consumer groups prefer that approach, saying it will help far more borrowers.
Through October, there were about 1.8 million foreclosure filings nationwide, compared with about 1.3 million in all of 2006, according to Irvine, Calif-based RealtyTrac Inc. With home loan defaults still rising, the trend is expected to worsen next year.
Meanwhile, subprime loans, which accounted for about 20 percent of mortgage loans in 2005 and 2006 have plummeted to 5 percent in the third quarter as lenders react to the spike in defaults, according to Inside Mortgage Finance statistics.
Link - http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/bush-housing-rescue-plan-may-fall-short/n20071204181209990019