Xylem increases its 2020 financial targets and reaffirms its strategy to reflect accelerated growth driven by acquisitions

Company also reaffirms full-year 2017 guidance

RYE BROOK, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr. 4, 2017-- At its Investor Day in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, Xylem (NYSE:XYL), a leading global water technology company, today will update its 2020 financial guidance and showcase the broad portfolio of smart infrastructure technologies and solutions provided by its Sensus and Visenti businesses. Xylem acquired Sensus and Visenti in October 2016. Xylem President and CEO Patrick Decker, along with other senior leadership, will provide an update on the Company’s plans to drive above-market organic growth and capture significant cost and revenue synergies through the integration of Sensus.

“The addition of Sensus is reshaping the growth and profitability profile of Xylem by expanding our smart infrastructure portfolio and increasing our exposure to faster-growing end markets and geographies,” said Mr. Decker. “With the combination of Sensus’ higher growth rate, the robust revenue synergies we expect to realize and our ongoing productivity initiatives, we now expect to deliver higher organic revenue growth and an additional 100 basis points of margin expansion by 2020 versus previous targets laid out in 2015. In addition, our ability to generate significantly more operating cash flow as well as our larger scale and leverage capacity will provide us with an additional $1.8 billion for disciplined capital deployment, which brings the total capital available for deployment from 2015 through 2020 to $5.3 billion. With our acquired businesses serving as catalysts for accelerated growth, we are well positioned to create even more value for our stakeholders.”

Xylem now projects to generate organic revenue growth of four to six percent through 2020, up from the previous forecast of three to five percent. The Company expects to achieve 400 to 500 basis points of operating margin expansion by 2020 – a 100 basis-point increase from the previous target of 300 to 400 basis points – driven by its ongoing focus on driving productivity as well as the expected impact from the cost and revenue synergies from its recent acquisitions. Xylem anticipates delivering adjusted core earnings per share growth in the mid-teen range and, with the impact of capital deployment, the growth range is projected to be in the high teens.

Xylem also announced that it will combine its Analytics, Sensus and Visenti businesses, effective second quarter 2017. As a result of this change, the Company will report the financial and operational results from these businesses as one segment. Xylem’s Water Infrastructure segment will no longer include the results of its Analytics business. The Applied Water segment remains unchanged.

Reaffirming 2017 Outlook

Xylem also reaffirmed its 2017 outlook, including full-year revenue in the range of $4.5 to $4.6 billion, up 20 to 22 percent from the 2016 results, including growth from previously announced acquisitions and projected unfavorable impacts of foreign exchange translation. On an organic basis, Xylem’s revenue growth is expected to be in the range of one to three percent, and two to four percent on a pro forma basis.

The Company continues to project full-year 2017 adjusted operating margin to be in the range of 13.2 to 13.7 percent, resulting in adjusted earnings per share of $2.20 to $2.35. This represents an increase of 8 to 16 percent from Xylem’s 2016 adjusted results. Excluding projected unfavorable impacts of foreign exchange translation, Xylem’s adjusted earnings per share growth is anticipated to be in the range of 12 to 20 percent. The Company’s adjusted operating margin and earnings outlook excludes projected integration, restructuring and realignment costs of approximately $30 million for the year. Excluding revenue, Xylem provides guidance only on a non-GAAP basis due to the inherent difficulty in forecasting certain amounts that would be included in GAAP earnings, such as discrete tax items, without unreasonable effort.

All presentations and a Q&A session at the Investor Day will be webcast live at http://investors.xyleminc.com. A replay will also be available.

About Xylem

Xylem (XYL) is a leading global water technology company committed to developing innovative technology solutions to the world’s water challenges. The Company’s products and services move, treat, analyze, monitor and return water to the environment in public utility, industrial, residential and commercial building services. With its October 2016 acquisition of Sensus, Xylem added smart metering, network technologies and advanced data analytics for water, gas and electric utilities to its portfolio of solutions. The combined Company’s nearly 16,000 employees bring broad applications expertise with a strong focus on identifying comprehensive, sustainable solutions. Headquartered in Rye Brook, New York with 2016 revenue of $3.8 billion, Xylem does business in more than 150 countries through a number of market-leading product brands.

The name Xylem is derived from classical Greek and is the tissue that transports water in plants, highlighting the engineering efficiency of our water-centric business by linking it with the best water transportation of all – that which occurs in nature. For more information, please visit us at www.xylem.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains information that may constitute “forward-looking statements.” Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. Generally, the words “anticipate,” “estimate,” “expect,” “project,” “intend,” “plan,” “forecast,” “believe,” “target,” “will,” “could,” “would,” “should” and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, which generally are not historical in nature. However, the absence of these words or similar expressions does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking.

These forward-looking statements include statements about the capitalization of Xylem Inc. (the “Company”), the Company’s restructuring and realignment, future strategic plans and other statements that describe the Company’s business strategy, outlook, objectives, plans, intentions or goals. All statements that address operating or financial performance, events or developments that we expect or anticipate will occur in the future – including statements relating to orders, revenues, operating margins and earnings per share growth, and statements expressing general views about future operating results – are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in, or reasonably inferred from, such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause results to differ materially from those anticipated include: economic, political and other risks associated with our international operations, including military actions, economic sanctions or trade embargoes that could affect customer markets, and non-compliance with laws, including foreign corrupt practice laws, export and import laws and competition laws; potential for unexpected cancellations or delays of customer orders in our reported backlog; our exposure to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; competition and pricing pressures in the markets we serve; the strength of housing and related markets; ability to retain and attract key members of management; our relationship with and the performance of our channel partners; our ability to successfully identify, complete and integrate acquisitions, including the integration of Sensus; our ability to borrow or to refinance our existing indebtedness and availability of liquidity sufficient to meet our needs; changes in the value of goodwill or intangible assets; risks relating to product defects, product liability and recalls; governmental investigations; security breaches or other disruptions of our information technology systems; litigation and contingent liabilities; and other factors set forth in Item 1A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016, and those described from time to time in subsequent reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements made herein are based on information currently available to the Company. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

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Source: Xylem

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