ATTLEBORO – Sensata Technologies B.V. expressed confidence last week that the worst of the recession was past as the company reported a third-quarter loss.
Sensata posted a net loss of $54.02 million in the three months ended Sept. 30, compared with a profit of $72.54 million in the same period a year earlier. Revenue fell 16 percent to $302.47 million.
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Tom Wroe, Sensata’s chairman and CEO, said management was “very pleased” with the earnings report despite the loss. “The environment is a lot more positive than it was one year ago,” he said in a statement. “However, we continue to remain cautious as the global economy stabilizes.”
Wroe noted that the company’s sales were up 18 percent from the second quarter, and credited that to “end market growth, emerging market opportunities and application content growth,” as well as inventory restocking.
“We believe the worst is behind us but we will continue to monitor third-party key indicators and changes in the end markets we serve,” he said.
Sensata continued to cut costs in the third quarter, reducing expenses 18 percent to $270.24 million compared with a year earlier. The company reduced third-quarter spending on research and development 65 percent to $3.57 million, down from $10.14 million in 2008.
Sensata also has been shedding workers. The company, which had 9,324 employees at the end of 2007, has since announced plans to lay off a total of 2,051 workers worldwide. About half of those people had been let go as of June 30, the company said in a Securities & Exchange Commission filing.
Sensata ended the quarter with $198.2 million in cash on hand, up 22 percent since June 30.
“The cost actions that we previously implemented and the recent recovery in net revenue we are experiencing are driving solid margins in our business,” said Jeff Cote, Sensata’s chief financial officer.
Sensata’s sales totaled $796.9 million from January through September, off 31 percent compared with 2008. But the cost-cutting efforts managed to reduce the company’s nine-month net loss to $41.1 million, only half the $82.3 million it lost in the first nine months of 2008.
Sensata Technologies B.V. is a manufacturer of sensors and controls with about 9,000 employees worldwide. It was formed by Bain Capital Partners after the acquisition of Texas Instruments’ sensors division in April 2006. Sensata has its 438,000-square-foot U.S. headquarters in Attleboro and is incorporated in The Netherlands. Additional information is available at Sensata.com.
