Pacer International reports smaller 1Q net loss

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Pacer International

Pacer International Inc., an asset-light North American freight transportation and logistics services provider, on Wednesday, May 5, reported financial results for the three-month period ended March 31:
• Revenues increased $5.1 million to $363.7 million compared to $358.6 million.
• Income from operations increased $223.7 million to income of $0.6 million compared to a loss of $223.1 million. Excluding a 2009 first-quarter goodwill impairment charge of $200.4 million and $1.4 million and $1.2 million of severance expense in the 2010 and 2009 quarters, respectively, adjusted income from operations increased $23.5 million to adjusted income of $2.0 million from a 2009 adjusted loss of $21.5 million.
• Net income (loss) increased from a loss of $177.4 million to a net loss of $0.5 million. Excluding the impact of the goodwill impairment charge in 2009 and severance charges in both periods, adjusted net income increased $12.9 million to an adjusted income of $0.4 million from an adjusted loss of $12.5 million.
• Cash provided by operating activities increased $27.6 million to $0.5 million from a use of cash of $27.1 million.
• Intermodal segment income from operations increased $189.3 million to income of $5.7 million compared to an operating loss of $183.6 million. The 2009 amount includes the $169.0 million pre-tax goodwill impairment charge; excluding the charge and $0.2 million and $0.7 million of severance expense in the 2010 and 2009 quarters, respectively, adjusted income from operations increased $19.8 million to an adjusted income of $5.9 million from an adjusted loss of $13.9 million.
• Logistics segment income from operations increased $34.4 million to a loss of $0.3 million compared to a loss of $34.7 million. The 2009 amount includes the $31.4 million pre-tax goodwill impairment charge; excluding the charge and $0.5 million of severance expense in the 2009 quarter, loss from operations decreased $2.5 million from a $2.8 million adjusted loss.

“We are encouraged by our performance during the first quarter of 2010 given that the economic environment continued to be challenging, particularly during the first half of the quarter,” said John J. Hafferty, chief financial officer of Pacer, based in Concord, Calif. “Pacer’s operating income and cash flow remained positive for the quarter and improved significantly compared to the first quarter of 2009. We increased cash from operations by $27.6 million while reducing SG&A expenses by 21.3 percent compared to the 2009 quarter. Since the first quarter of 2009, through numerous cost-saving efforts, we have reduced SG&A by $42 million on an annualized basis. We will continue to take action designed to further improve our cost structure, profitability and reduce debt.”

Daniel W. Avramovich, chairman and chief executive officer, said Pacer continued to focus on its direct to end-customer integrated service model during the first quarter. “We made changes within our executive leadership team to facilitate our ongoing transformation and are pleased with the 11.2 percent growth in our retail intermodal volume during the first quarter of 2010 versus the first quarter of 2009,” Avramovich said. “Pacer is well positioned for future growth without significantly increasing the size of our organization due to productivity-enhancing initiatives that have been and continue to be implemented.”