Oct. 8, 2009 (PR Newswire) -- BELOIT, Wis., Oct. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Regal Beloit Corporation (NYSE: RBC) today provided updated financial guidance for the fiscal third quarter ended September 26, 2009. Revenue is expected to decline approximately 25% as compared to the third quarter of 2008, which is consistent with the prior guidance. Fully diluted earnings per share, however, are expected to be in the range of $.80 to $.85 which is an increase from the prior expected range of $.60 to $.68.
The improvement from the prior expectations is being driven by a lower effective tax rate, lower raw material costs, the sales mix of energy efficient products and cost reductions. The current guidance for the effective tax rate is 27.0% as compared to the prior guidance of 30.0%. This change is driven by the favorable resolution of several tax matters. The reduction in the effective tax rate along with the favorability in raw material costs for the quarter are temporary in nature and are not expected to repeat in future quarters. The other favorable factors are more permanent in nature. These include sales of energy efficient products which continue to grow at an accelerated pace and the cost reductions.
Regal Beloit will be releasing third quarter financial results, followed by a conference call, on November 2, 2009. The release will include more specific information regarding the third quarter results as well as the Company's outlook for the fourth quarter. At this time, the Company expects the fourth quarter to reflect a sequential decrease in sales driven by the normal seasonal patterns and, as stated above, a normalized tax rate and less favorable raw material costs.
Regal Beloit Corporation is a leading manufacturer of mechanical and electrical motion control and power generation products serving markets throughout the world. Regal Beloit Corporation is headquartered in Beloit, Wisconsin, and has manufacturing, sales, and service facilities throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe and Asia.
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT
This Press Release contains "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements represent our management's judgment regarding future events. In many cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may," "will," "plan," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "believe," or "continue" or the negative of these terms or other similar words.
