GATX Corporation (GMT)’s Fourth Quarter 2014 Earnings Conference Call Transcript

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Operator
And next we will move onto Art Hatfield with Raymond James.

Art Hatfield – Raymond James
Hey goodmorning everyone. Most of my questions have been answered, but I want to follow up on the LPI question and comments. Is there a point in time and Rob you had mentioned some potential volatility and it sounds like you would say that it’s more near-term demand in the market at that given time that could create that [INAUDIBLE] But is there a time coming at some point, maybe this year or in the next year, where there is a step up in the comps and it gets more difficult to get the same level of success that you have had on the LPI over the last couple of years?

Robert C. Lyons – Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
The answer is yes, eventually. It’s really hard to tell you when that’s going to be because it changes every year. So what we say 2016 looks like will change throughout 2015, depending on what we pull forward, what were new for a year. So last year I think we said we had a different idea of what 2015’s expiring rate would be than we do right now, in fact it appears it’s going to be comparable to the rate last year. That’s why you will see the LPI increase continue to be very healthy in 2015. That rate, expiring rate is not going up yet. It will eventually, but it’s not happening in 2015.

Brian Kenney – Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
I would say Art, as when it does go up too and it starts to move up, it will be lockstep fashion, there isn’t a date certain out there where there is a sudden dramatic jump up in that expiring rate. That’s not the way that portfolio is structured.

Art Hatfield – Raymond James
And that is due to your ability to manage terms throughout the cycle? Is that a fair way to think about it?

Brian Kenney – Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer


Yes, that’s one the reasons.

Art Hatfield – Raymond James
Okay. And just real quick, on the quarter, SG&A, the step up there — and I know, Brian, you had given us guidance that that should be down year-over-year. But any way that we can kind of quantify that or think about what happened in Q4 and what that will do relative to next year?

Robert C. Lyons – Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer


Yeah, the Q4 number certainly will not be the run rate for 2015. And Brian mentioned we actually expect on a full year basis for SG&A to be little bit below where we came in, in 2014. So on a run rate basis I dial that back. And when I look at what occurred in 2014 in the fourth quarter, there is the mere end competition in benefit throughout that need to take place based on full year performance. We also had a software write down that we took for a few million dollars, and one of our business is based on some software that we will not be utilizing going forward, and a couple of other year-end items that filtered in there that won’t occur on a go forward basis. Nothing is significant but enough items that in aggregate bump that number up quite a bit. So I would expect on a quarterly basis to be back more in that $46 million, $47 million range going forward.

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