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UNITED
STATES
SECURITIES
AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington,
D.C. 20549 | ||||
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FORM
8-K | ||||
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Current
Report
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Pursuant
to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
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Date
of Report (Date of earliest event reported):
April 13, 2005 | ||||
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CATERPILLAR
INC.
(Exact
name of registrant as specified in its charter)
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Delaware
(State
or other jurisdiction of incorporation)
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1-768
(Commission
File Number)
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37-0602744
(IRS
Employer Identification No.) | |||
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100
NE Adams Street, Peoria, Illinois
(Address
of principal executive offices)
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61629
(Zip
Code) | |||
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Registrant's
telephone number, including area code:
(309) 675-1000 | ||||
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Former
name or former address, if changed since last report: N/A | ||||
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Check
the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to
simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any
of the following provisions: | ||||
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o |
Written
communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR
230.425) | |||
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o |
Soliciting
material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR
230.425) | |||
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o |
Pre-commencement
communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR
240.14d-2(b)) | |||
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o |
Pre-commencement
communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR
240.13e-4(c)) | |||
Page 1
Item 8.01.
Other Events.
The following is a
prepared statement given by Chairman James W. Owens at the 2005 Annual
Stockholders' meeting held April 13, 2005. The furnishing of these materials is
not intended to constitute a representation that such furnishing is required by
Regulation FD or that the materials include material investor information that
is not otherwise publicly available. In addition, the Registrant does not assume
any obligation to update such information in the future.
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Good afternoon
again, ladies and gentlemen — and thank
you for joining us at Caterpillar’s 2005 Annual Meeting ... we appreciate
your investment in Caterpillar’s business!
Even though it’s
been nearly three months since we announced our 2004 results, I want to spend
just a moment recapping what was without a doubt one of the best years in our
company’s long, proud history.
2004 was a year of
explosive growth and largely unanticipated global demand. And together, Cat
employees, dealers, and suppliers rose to meet the challenge — setting all-time sales and profit per share
records.
Our sales increased
by over 7 billion dollars, or 33 percent, as we surpassed our 30 billion dollar
top-line goal two years ahead of schedule! Profit topped 2 billion dollars, up
85 percent compared with 2003.
These record
profits place Caterpillar in a strong financial position. Our pension plans
remain well-funded, thanks to solid investment returns and more than 600 million
dollars in contributions for the second year in a row. We’ve increased our
dividend 10 of the last 11 years — and
in 2004, we repurchased almost 7 million shares. All this is great news for our
investors and our employees.
As I look back on
Caterpillar’s incredibly successful 2004 — and look ahead to what we expect to be an even
better 2005 — I can’t think of another
company in any industry that’s better positioned to win in the global
economy.
We believe that
five elements truly separate us from comparative companies in the S&P
500 — and position us to outperform the
averages over the next few years.
First is our
established strength with products and services. Our current lineup is the
strongest and broadest in our history. Our major product lines are recognized
leaders worldwide — #1 or #2 on every
continent — and everywhere I turn,
Caterpillar people are working to make them better.
On the services
side of our business, Cat Financial and Cat Logistics are well-established
growth subsidiaries. Cat Financial has provided customer support,
diversification, and earnings stability since its formation in 1981. Today it’s
one of the largest captive finance companies in the world with receivables of
almost 20 billion dollars.
Cat Logistics has
been generating growth of 25 percent annually in revenues from external
customers, and massive opportunities remain for creative third-party logistics
providers in this 170 billion dollar global industry.
We’ve also
identified other adjacent growth areas where we plan to make substantial
investments in the future — including
Caterpillar Remanufacturing Services and our OEM Solutions Group.
The second
element that sets Caterpillar apart is our technology leadership. Our
investment in research and engineering is unequaled in our
industry.
We have hundreds of
Ph.D. scientists and researchers on our team. We’ve received more than 2,500
patents in the last five years. And we continue to invest more than 4 million
dollars in technology development each working day.
Nowhere is that
investment paying off more than on the engine side of our business, where growth
is being fueled in large part by the success of our revolutionary ACERT
Technology.
More than 185,000
Caterpillar on-highway engines featuring this clean diesel technology are on the
road today — accumulating 40 million
miles a day, delivering excellent performance, and producing dramatically
lower emissions — all with comparable
fuel economy to previous models.
I said
“dramatically,” and I want to emphasize that these new engines reduce NOx
emissions by 90 percent from comparable engines of 15 to 20 years
ago.
And today we’re
working to further refine our technology and lower NOx an additional 90 percent
by 2010. It’s an impressive “green” story for our company!
In November, we
introduced our first Cat earthmoving machine with ACERT Technology — a D8T track-type tractor — and by the end of 2005, we plan to have 45 Cat
machine models on the market featuring our clean diesel technology.
Soon, ACERT
Technology will be incorporated into almost all our Caterpillar products,
including electric power, marine, and petroleum engine
applications.
Our first machines
featuring ACERT in Europe were delivered to jobsites last month, with more on
their way. All these machines are certified and fully compliant with the
European Stage 3a emission regulations that begin to take affect in
2006 — so we are well ahead of schedule
in that part of the world.
As the regulated
world continues to grow, Caterpillar will be ready to help our customers meet
these requirements.
Our technology
leadership goes beyond ACERT and the engine business — systems integration continues to differentiate
Caterpillar machines from the competition.
Electrohydraulic
controls, integrated powertrain systems, global positioning and wireless
communication systems, sound reduction technology — these are just a few of the features coming
together to improve productivity, performance, and operator
comfort.
And, we don’t
develop technology for technology’s sake. We do it to help our customers address
the issues most important to them. We want our customers to know they can count
on Caterpillar to help them lower costs, increase productivity, simplify
operations, improve jobsite safety, and of course, meet ever-stricter regulatory
requirements.
The third
element that distinguishes Caterpillar from the competition is our
well-established global footprint —
something no one in our industry can fully match.
Our products are
sold in over 200 countries, with more than half our sales outside the United
States. We operate nearly 300 facilities in 40 countries on six
continents — and our goal is to be a
cost-effective competitor in every major currency zone.
But our global
presence doesn’t stop with our own facilities. Worldwide, there are 198 Cat
dealers — operating more than 1,600
branch stores and 1,400 Rental Stores —
and more than 400 distributors of our FG Wilson, MaK, Perkins, and Solar product
brands. We literally blanket the Earth.
Our dealer network
gives Caterpillar a local presence everywhere we do business. And our
after-sales support capabilities and coverage are unmatched in our
industry — some would say in any
industry.
That’s important,
because ultimately all business is local — and we are well-positioned to compete with local
competitors the world over.
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Number four
on the list of key Caterpillar differentiators is our unique set of market
strengths. We are exceptionally well-positioned by virtue of the markets we
serve — global mining; energy --
including oil, gas and coal; and infrastructure development, just to name the
largest.
These industries
were characterized by significant underinvestment in the post-Asian economic
crisis period of 1998 to 2002. Global economic growth returned to more robust
trend levels in late 2003, and we believe this worldwide recovery has
legs.
Real global
economic growth should average about 1 percent higher over the next five to six
years than it did for the decade that ended in 2003 — and this will require ongoing heavy investment
in the key industries Caterpillar serves!
The fifth
element that sets Caterpillar apart from the field is governance and
financial integrity. Maintaining uncompromisingly high ethical standards has
always been a hallmark of Caterpillar.
We’ve been guided
by a strong Code of Worldwide Business Conduct since 1974 — and our board has distinguished itself as a
leader in corporate governance. Its members are independent, highly qualified,
and diverse — and they have an
outstanding working rapport with management.
At Caterpillar we
have always been conservative in our financial accounting. We’re proud of the
strength of our balance sheet, investment grade credit rating, well-funded
benefit plans, and cash flow.
Our compensation
programs and stock ownership requirements clearly align executive and
stockholder interests. And we continue to work diligently to provide all our
stakeholders with the information they need to make good decisions about our
operations and the potential of our business.
I firmly believe
that these five strengths truly distinguish Caterpillar from alternative
investment opportunities and position our company for success in the coming
years.
But while we’re on
the subject of distinguishing characteristics, I’d be remiss not to spend a
minute talking about two other elements that make Caterpillar unique — 6 Sigma and people. Frankly, they’re so much a
part of our culture today that we sometimes take them for granted.
6 Sigma, for
example, has been an incredible success story for Caterpillar. It is the way we
manage our business — how we maintain
quality, eliminate waste, reduce costs, create new products and services,
develop future leaders, and help the company grow profitably.
Together with more
than 500 of our dealers and suppliers who have also deployed 6 Sigma, we are
creating the industry’s best value chain — ready from top to bottom to meet the changing
needs of those we serve.
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And at the heart of
our business, of course, are Caterpillar people. Corporations like ours don’t do
anything — our 80,000 employees
do.
Our goal is to
capture the best ideas, energy, enthusiasm, and passion of every one of our
employees around the world — and
together drive customer satisfaction with profitable, rewarding
results.
That’s what we did
in 2004, and what we expect to achieve again in 2005. As you know, we’re between
our year-end financial release and the announcement of our first-quarter
results, so I won’t be commenting on our 2005 financial outlook today. First
quarter results will be released next week (20th).
I will say, though,
that we believe our markets will continue to experience solid growth in 2005,
resulting in another all-time record year for Caterpillar.
Further, now that
we have achieved our 30 billion dollar sales and revenues milestone, we’re
staking out bold goals for the future. Later this year, we’ll roll out new
vision and mission statements for the next decade — along with a revised set of critical success
factors.
Our focus will be
on profit per share growth, which enables us to serve the needs of our three
most important stakeholders — our
customers, our employees, and our investors. Our goal is to realize profit per
share growth that is stronger than other manufacturers’ — and again I believe we’re well-positioned to
realize this ambition.
As I look to the
future, I’m excited about the challenges our global industries present because I
know Caterpillar is ready! We have the right products and services — the right technology — the right strategy — and most important, the right people to drive
our success in the future.
As investors, you
are also key to our success. I want to thank you for the vote of confidence your
investments in Caterpillar represent —
and assure you that we are committed to being good stewards of your funds. Our
entire global team is working together to transform this very good company into
a truly great one.
Again, thank you
for your interest in Caterpillar and for being here with us today. We’ll now
begin the question-and-answer period.
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Pursuant
to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant
has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned
thereunto duly authorized. | ||
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CATERPILLAR
INC. | ||
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April
13, 2005 |
By:
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/s/James
B. Buda |
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James
B. Buda | ||
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Vice
President | ||
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