29 July 1999: US-based Owens-Illinois Inc. met second-quarter earnings expectations it previously predicted lower and said third-quarter earnings would be below the year-ago period due to demand probl…
29 July 1999: US-based Owens-Illinois Inc. met second-quarter earnings expectations it previously predicted lower and said third-quarter earnings would be below the year-ago period due to demand problems overseas. The company, a Toledo, Ohio-based maker of glass containers and plastics packaging, said it earned 61 cents a share in the quarter from operations, in line with analysts“ expectations, according to First Call Corp. That excluded an unusual gain relating to the sale of some assets and charges for restructuring some European and South American operations. Owens-Illinois said in April that it expected second-quarter results below the 1998 second quarter. Including special items, the company earned US$ 110.9 million, or 67 cents a share, down 4% from the US$ 115 million, or 75 cents a share, it earned in the year-ago quarter. The year-ago quarter also included 9 cents of extraordinary charges. “While many of our businesses performed well, our second quarter results were hurt by the continuation of unusually weak economic conditions in markets served by our operations in South America and Europe,” chairman and chief executive Joseph Lemieux said in a prepared statement. Owens-Illinois said it would also likely again earn less in the third quarter than it did in last year“s third quarter, citing adverse economic conditions in South America and Eastern Europe, as well as weak demand in the rest of Europe. In the third quarter of 1998, the company earned US$ 113.6 million, or 69 cents a share. Analysts have been expecting Owens-Illinois to earn 68 cents in this year“s third quarter. In the second quarter, Owens-Illinois had US$ 1.52 billion in revenues, up 6% from US$ 1.43 billion in the year-ago quarter.