Tupperware Brands Comments on Venezuela
January 12 2010 - 10:11AM
PR Newswire (US)
ORLANDO, Fla., Jan. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Tupperware Brands
Corporation (NYSE:TUP) - On Friday, January 8, 2010, the Venezuelan
government announced its intention to devalue its currency
(bolivar) and move to a two tier exchange structure. Although no
official rules have yet been issued, the official exchange rate is
expected to move from 2.15 to 2.60 for essential goods and 4.30 for
non-essential goods and services. Tupperware's products are
expected to fall into the non-essential classification. This change
will not have any impact on the 2009 results of the Company.
Effective with the beginning of its 2010 fiscal year, Tupperware
will account for Venezuela as hyperinflationary and will use the
exchange rate at which it expects to be able to remit dividends to
translate its earnings and month end balance sheets. This is
currently the "parallel" exchange rate that has last been quoted at
6.48 bolivars to the U.S. dollar. This rate is 67 percent worse
than the 2.15 official exchange rate used by the Company to
translate its 2009 earnings. In 2009, the Company recorded $8.4
million of pretax costs to convert, at the available parallel
exchange rate, bolivars generated by its Venezuelan business. This
cost will not recur in 2010, but conversion of the unit's earnings
at the current parallel exchange rate would have an offsetting
negative pretax translation impact on the comparison with 2009 of
approximately $8 million. As these factors are roughly offsetting,
they do not negatively impact the 2010 earnings guidance range
provided by the Company in October 2009, which included a cost to
convert bolivars at the parallel exchange rate. As of the end of
2009, the Company had approximately $5 million of net monetary
assets in Venezuela, which are of a nature that will generate
income or expense for the change in value associated with exchange
rate fluctuations versus the U.S. dollar. In 2009, the Company had
$60.1 million of sales in Venezuela, stated at the 2.15 bolivars to
U.S. dollars official exchange rate that existed throughout the
year, and produced pretax profit in Venezuela of $12.4 million at
that rate, before the $8.4 million cost of converting bolivars to
U.S. dollars described above. Chairman and CEO, Rick Goings,
commented, "We have a terrific business in Venezuela with a great
management team and sales force in place. Due to the external
environment we operate in, we've also been carefully managing our
value chain given the reality of what it costs to pay for things
from outside the country, and this has allowed us to achieve a good
return on sales in Venezuela. At the same time, we've proactively
looked in 2009 to make our cash available even when we've needed to
do that at the parallel exchange rate, which has also allowed us to
anticipate the current situation and avoid disruption in our
earnings comparisons." The Company will report its fourth quarter
and full year 2009 results on February 1, 2010 and will conduct an
analyst call on February 2, 2010. Tupperware Brands Corporation is
a portfolio of global direct selling companies, selling innovative,
premium products across multiple brands and categories through an
independent sales force of 2.4 million. Product brands and
categories include design-centric preparation, storage and serving
solutions for the kitchen and home through the Tupperware brand and
beauty and personal care products for consumers through the Armand
Dupree, Avroy Shlain, BeautiControl, Fuller Cosmetics, NaturCare,
Nutrimetics, Nuvo and Swissgarde brands. The Company's stock is
listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:TUP). Statements
contained in this release, which are not historical fact and use
predictive words such as "outlook", "expects" or "target" are
forward-looking statements. These statements involve risks and
uncertainties which include recruiting and activity of the
Company's independent sales forces, the success of new product
introductions and promotional programs, governmental approvals for
use in food containers of materials such as polycarbonate, the
success of buyers in obtaining financing or attracting tenants for
commercial and residential developments, the effects of economic
and political conditions generally and foreign exchange risk in
particular and other risks detailed in the Company's most recent
periodic report as filed in accordance with the Securities Exchange
Act of 1934. The Company does not intend to update forward-looking
information other than through its quarterly earnings releases
unless it expects diluted earnings per share for the current
quarter, excluding adjustment items, to be significantly below its
previous guidance. DATASOURCE: Tupperware Brands Corporation
CONTACT: Nicole Decker, +1-407-826-4560 Web Site:
http://www.tupperwarebrands.com/
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