Supplier Wabco Reports Solid Quarter, Year
Parts supplier Wabco Holdings Inc. reported strong earnings and revenues in the fourth quarter and for full year 2017.
Brussels, Belgium-based Wabco is a supplier of advanced driver assistance, braking, steering and stability control systems plus automated manual transmissions. Wabco operates in 40 countries.
Quarterly net income for the period ended Dec. 31 was $168.3 million, or $3.12 per diluted share. In the 2016 period, net income was $63.1 million, or $1.15.
For the year, net income hit $406.1 million, or $7.50. That compared with $233 million, or $3.98, in the 2016 period.
“In 2017, we continued to increase Wabco content onboard vehicles through further adoption of our safety and efficiency technologies in both mature and emerging markets,” Wabco Chairman and CEO Jacques Esculier said in a company release.
Fourth-quarter sales jumped to $934.1 million, up 30.9% compared with a year earlier. For the full year, sales improved to a record $3.3 billion, up 17.6% from the 2016 period.
At the same time, research, development and engineering expenses dipped in the fourth quarter but rose to $147 million for the year, up from $135.2 million in 2016.
In the quarter Wabco added two large acquisitions — R.H. Sheppard with its advanced steering technologies and it took full ownership of the Meritor Wabco joint venture in North America.
Wabco last year also made a $10 million strategic investment in Nikola Motor Co., a developer of hydrogen-electric Class 8 trucks and other vehicles, vehicle components, energy storage systems and electric vehicle drivetrains.
