DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Dana Holding Corp. (DAN) posted a slightly narrower
fourth-quarter net loss on $102 million of prior-year
reorganization costs while the auto-parts maker's results missed
analysts' expectations as the company continues to struggle from
tumbling North American auto production.
Chairman and Chief Executive John Devine said Dana, which
emerged from bankruptcy protection in February 2008, faces a 2009
expected to be "even more challenging than 2008."
U.S. auto-parts manufacturers are suffering as auto makers
struggle with plunging sales. The drop in business, combined with a
credit crunch that has choked off access to rescue financing, could
prove disastrous for an industry already hit by bankruptcies.
Despite its exit from Chapter 11 last year, Dana has faced
trouble in the past several months: The New York Stock Exchange
warned that its stock could be delisted for trading below $1,
Standard & Poor's and Moody's Investors Service both cut the
company's credit ratings deeper into junk territory and Dana said
it will close up to 10 more plants than expected this year and
next, on the heels of 5,000 job cuts in 2008.
Dana's fourth-quarter net loss narrowed to $256 million from
$257 million a year earlier amid the 2007 bankruptcy-reorganization
costs. On a per-share basis, the latest quarter's loss was
$2.64.
Net sales tumbled 30% to $1.52 billion amid the auto-production
woes and the stronger dollar.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected a loss of $1.43 a
share on revenue of $1.72 billion.
Cost of sales exceeded net sales by $27 million in the latest
quarter. The year-earlier gross margin was 5.9%.
Dana's shares closed Friday at 31 cents and there was no
premarket trading. The stock is down 95% the past six months.
-By Mike Barris, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5658;
mike.barris@dowjones.com
