ITT Net Drops 34% in Year, 37% in 4th Quarter
ITT Corp., which has undertaken a major divestiture program, said Tuesday that its profits fro all of 1984 declined 34% from 1983, while its fourth-quarter profits fell 37% from a year earlier.
The conglomerate cited “difficult conditions” in several business areas, including insurance, forest products and communications equipment.
For the full year, net income came to $448 million, compared to $675 million in 1983, ITT said. Revenue rose 5.2% to $19.6 billion from $18.6 billion.
Net income for the three-month period ended Dec. 31, 1984, totaled $175 million, compared to a profit of $278 million in the same period a year ago, the company said. Revenue rose 3.5% to $5.4 billion from $5.2 billion.
“These results reflect the difficult conditions we faced furing the year in the property and casualty insurance business, forest products and in certain communications equipment markets,” said Rand V. Araskog, chairman, president and chief executive.
“In addition, we elected to provide reserves for certain operations and businesses that have incurred losses for some time and show limited prospects for a turnaround,” he said. The company has been divesting itself of several units to concentrate on communications, insurance, financial services and industrial technology operations. In January, the company said it would be seeking to sell several units for a total of about $1.7 billion.
“This program is proceeding well, with approximately $300 million under contract or closed and with active discussions under way for the sale of several other companies on the divestiture list,” Araskog said.
Included in the 1984 income is a $124-million gain from the sale of ITT Continental Banking Co. to Ralston Purina Co. in the fourth quarter, the company said.
ITT said net income for both periods was reduced by about $76 million, reflecting a provision for the sale if ITT’s telecommunications manufacturing facilities in Argentina and the questionable future of its consumer products companies in several countries in southern Africa and its nuclear piping equipment manufacturing plants in North Carolina, Kentucky and Ohio.
The year’s net income also included a gain of $55 million from an increase in value of ITT’s investment in Standard Telephones & Cables PLC, which arose from Standard’s acquisition in the third quarter of ICL PLC, a British computer manufacturer.
