Axalta Coating Systems announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2015.

“Axalta finished the year with a strong fourth quarter performance, highlighted by 4.5% net sales growth year-over-year excluding currency and continued margin improvement,” said Charles W. Shaver, Axalta’s chairman and chief executive officer. “Our team executed well on our core goal of delivering consistent and profitable growth throughout the quarter and the year despite headwinds from unfavorable currency exchange rates and economic pressures in emerging economies. We are proud of this progress, and expect to continue to build on this in 2016.”

Shaver added, “We continued to make substantial progress towards optimizing our cost structure in 2015, nearly completing our Fit-For-Growth initiative while beginning to realize productivity savings from The Axalta Way. We also largely completed four major capital projects, each of which has been executed on time and on budget. We remain confident in our ability to exceed end-market growth and drive further improvements to our operating model despite uneven global macro demand and exchange rate pressures. We are encouraged that our end-markets remain stable in the aggregate, and our commercial progress has been strong as we grow market share with our existing customers and win new customers with our industry leading coatings solutions.”


Net sales of $1.0 billion for the fourth quarter of 2015 increased 4.5% year-over-year excluding unfavorable foreign currency translation (decreased 7.0% as-reported). Net sales growth was driven by 3.9% volume increases, indicating continued underlying strength in our global coatings end-markets. Higher average selling prices in the quarter added 0.6% to net sales, while unfavorable foreign currency translation more than offset the volume and price gains.

Adjusted EBITDA of $212.8 million for the fourth quarter grew 4.0% from $204.7 million in Q4 2014, while Adjusted EBITDA margins in the quarter expanded to 21.2% from 19.0% last year. Margin improvement was driven by increased volumes, favorable product mix and pricing, as well as lower input costs and savings from our operating improvement initiatives. These factors were partially offset by negative foreign currency translation.

Net sales in Performance Coatings for Q4 2015 were $588.5 million, a 4.8% year-over-year increase excluding foreign currency translation (decrease of 8.1% as-reported). Net sales growth drivers included volume growth of 3.6% and higher average selling prices of 1.2% in the period, more than offset by 12.9% unfavorable foreign currency translation. Refinish end-market Q4 net sales increased 4.8% on a constant currency basis (decreased 9.6% as-reported), while our Industrial end-market grew 4.6% excluding the impact of currency (decreased 4.2% as-reported).

The Performance Coatings segment generated Adjusted EBITDA of $130.9 million in the fourth quarter, a 5.1% year-over-year decrease. Positive volume and pricing contributions, coupled with variable cost savings, were more than offset by negative foreign currency translation. Segment Adjusted EBITDA margin of 22.2% in Q4 2015 reflected a 70 basis point increase compared to the corresponding prior year quarter.

The Transportation Coatings segment reported net sales of $415.1 million in the fourth quarter, a 4.2% increase excluding foreign currency translation versus fourth quarter 2014 (decrease of 5.3% as-reported). Volume and price generated 4.2% net sales growth, offset by 9.5% unfavorable foreign currency translation versus the prior year. Light Vehicle net sales increased 5.5% on a constant currency basis year-over-year (decreased 3.7% as-reported). Commercial Vehicle net sales declined slightly by 0.5% on a constant currency basis versus last year (decreased 10.9% as-reported). Demand trends in Transportation Coatings were fairly consistent with the third quarter of 2015, though China saw a rebound of automotive production after the notable drop in the third quarter. North America and EMEA continued to drive growth in Light Vehicle, partially offset by ongoing weaker demand in South America.

The Transportation Coatings segment generated Adjusted EBITDA of $81.9 million in Q4 2015, an increase of 22.6% compared to the fourth quarter of 2014, with positive volume, mix and variable cost contributions partially offset by unfavorable foreign currency translation. Segment Adjusted EBITDA margin of 19.7% in Q4 2015 represented a significant increase from 15.2% in the prior year quarter.