WMX Technologies Inc. reported that fourth-quarter earnings slumped 75 percent after special charges, to $49.6 million, or 10 cents a share, from $205.7 million, or 42 cents a share, a year earlier.
But the quarterly income was cut by a pretax charge of $194.6 million taken by its Waste Management International PLC subsidiary.
In addition, the company said its Rust International Inc. unit began to exit several lines of business in the fourth quarter to concentrate on environmental and infrastructure engineering and related businesses.
Excluding discontinued operations, profits in the quarter declined 46 percent, to $110 million, or 23 cents a share.
The Oak Brook environmental-services company said revenues for the quarter were up almost 2 percent, to $2.54 billion from $2.5 billion.
For the year, WMX reported its net income fell 23 percent, to $603.8 million, or $1.24 a share, from $784.3 million, or $1.62 a share. Revenue for the year was up 7 percent, to $10.2 billion from $9.5 billion.
WMX Chairman and CEO Dean Buntrock said the steps were taken to increase returns on assets and, “We expect to continue to review assets or businesses that do not add value to our company’s lines of business, and steps will be taken to turn these assets into cash.”
