FULTON, Md. (Feb. 7, 2012) - Colfax Corporation announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2011. On a year-over-year basis, highlights for the fourth quarter and full year period include:

Fourth Quarter of 2011 (all comparisons versus the fourth quarter of 2010)

  • After $25.3 million of pre-tax expense related to the Charter acquisition, a net loss of $16.1 million (37 cents per share); adjusted net income (as defined below) of $17.6 million (40 cents per share), an increase of 4.1%
  • Net sales of $177.8 million, an increase of 6.7%
  • Operating loss of $7.6 million; adjusted operating income (as defined below) of $26.8 million, an increase of 1.1%
  • Fourth quarter orders of $153.4 million, an increase of 14.8%; organic order increase (as defined below) of 8.8%
  • Backlog of $347.2 million at period end

Full Year 2011 (all comparisons versus full year 2010)

  • Net income of $4.6 million (10 cents per share —basic and diluted); adjusted net income (as defined below) of $58.1 million ($1.31 per share), an increase of 44.5%
  • Net sales of $693.4 million, an increase of 27.9%; organic sales increase (as defined below) of 9.0%
  • Operating income of $25.9 million; adjusted operating income (as defined below) of $89.6 million, an increase of 36.2%
  • Orders for the year 2011 of $682.8 million, an increase of 28.2%; organic order increase (as defined below) of 12.2%

Adjusted net income, adjusted net income per share, adjusted operating income, organic sales growth (decline) and organic order growth are not financial measures calculated in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the U.S. ("GAAP").

Clay Kiefaber, President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "We are pleased to announce strong results for full year 2011 and a solid fourth quarter. Sales growth for the quarter was in line with our internal expectations and driven primarily by our power generation, oil and gas and general industrial end markets. Order growth for the quarter was also in line with our internal expectations and was positive on an organic basis in all end markets except general industrial.

"We made significant progress on our strategic priorities during 2011 and have reduced our cost base in fluid handling as we enter 2012. We also announced the closing of the acquisition of Charter International plc on January 13th, which is a transformational acquisition for Colfax that has increased our scale, added a new growth platform and created a truly global industry leader. We have made several critical additions to our leadership team at ESAB which will be instrumental in our efforts to rebuild this business to achieve a sustained level of excellence. We believe that we can generate in excess of $100 million of savings from these businesses over the next three years, as this organization is operating way below its collective capability.

These are still early days and we are being careful not to initiate more cost reduction projects than can be comfortably assimilated. Our view of the potential for these businesses has increased based on what we have seen so far. We continue to expect significant accretion and double digit return on invested capital within three to five years."