Taiga Building Products Ltd. announces 2Q net earnings of $3.8 million and dividend reduction

Nov 07, 2007. /Lesprom Network/. Taiga Building Products Ltd. net earnings for the three months ended September 30, 2007 were $3.8 million or $0.12 per share compared to $3.1 million or $0.10 per share for the three months ended September 30, 2006. Sales revenue for the three months ended September 30, 2007 was $306.7 million compared to $305.3 million reported for the same quarter in fiscal 2007. Sales remained constant while average prices of lumber continued the trend of being lower in the quarter. OSB prices remained constant period over period. Lower commodity lumber sales were offset by an increase in sales of allied and treated wood products. For the second quarter of fiscal 2008, gross margin dollars increased by 10.4% to $34.0 million, compared to $30.8 million for the second quarter of 2007. Gross margin for the period increased to 11.1% from 10.1%. This improvement is attributed to the company's value added product mix strategy. EBITDA performance was robust, in a traditionally active quarter, at $12.7 million compared to $11.9 million in the same quarter in 2007. For the six months ended September 30, 2007, net earnings were $7.8 million or $0.24 per share compared to $4.6 million or $0.14 per share for the six months ended September 30, 2006, an increase of 69.6%. Sales revenue was $618.5 million, down 2.4% from $633.4 million for the six months ended September 30, 2006. The decline in sales is largely due to weaker lumber and OSB sales values, period over period. Gross margin for the six month period increased by 7.7% to $67.1 million compared to $62.3 million for the same period in fiscal 2007. Gross margin for the period increased to 10.8% from 9.8%. EBITDA increased by 6.4% to $26.5 million compared to $24.9 million over the previous year. Taiga is reducing its monthly dividend payment policy from $0.0213 per common share to $0.0150 per common share, starting for the month of November 2007, to be paid on December 17, 2007. Taiga will direct cash flow usage towards value adding capital expenditure opportunities and in addressing other potential liabilities. Taiga Building Products Ltd. is Canada's largest independent distributor of building products by revenue.