2017 Annual Report
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2017 Annual Report SEABOARD CORPORATION Description of Business Seaboard Corporation and its subsidiaries (“Seaboard”) are a diverse global agribusiness and transportation company. In the United States (“U.S.”), Seaboard is primarily engaged in pork production and processing and ocean transportation. Overseas, Seaboard is primarily engaged in commodity merchandising, grain processing, sugar production and electric power generation. Seaboard also has an interest in a turkey operation in the U.S. Table of Contents Letter to Stockholders 2 Principal Locations 4 Division Summaries 5 Summary of Selected Financial Data 7 Company Perfo rmance Graph 8 Quarterly Financial Data (unaudited) 9 Management’s Discussion & Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations 10 Management’s Responsibility for Consolidated Financial Statements 23 Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting 23 Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm on Consolidated Financial Statements 24 Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm on Internal Control over Financial Reporting 25 Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income 26 Consolidated Balance Sheets 27 Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows 28 Consolidated Statements of Changes in Equity 29 Notes to Consolidated Financial St atements 30 Stockholder Information 58 This report, including information included or incorporated by reference in this report, contains certain forward-looking statements with respect to the financial condition, results of operations, plans, objectives, future performance and business of Seaboard. Forward-looking statements generally may be identified as statements that are not historical in nature and statements preceded by, followed by or that include the words: “believes,” “expects,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “anticipates,” “estimates,” “intends,” or similar expressions. In more specific terms, forward-looking statements, include, without limitation: statements concerning the projection of revenues, income or loss, capital expenditures, capital structure or other financial items, including the impact of mark-to-market accounting on operating income; statements regarding the plans and objectives of management for future operations; statements of future economic performance; statements regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of Seaboard and its management with respect to: (i) Seaboard’s ability to obtain adequate financing and liquidity; (ii) the price of feed stocks and other materials used by Seaboard; (iii) the sales price or market conditions for pork, grains, sugar, turkey and other products and services; (iv) the recorded tax effects under certain circumstances and changes in tax laws; (v) the volume of business and working capital requirements associated with the competitive trading environment for the Commodity Trading and Milling segment; (vi) the charter hire rates and fuel prices for vessels; (vii) the fuel costs and spot market prices for electricity in the Dominican Republic; (viii) the effect of the fluctuation in foreign currency exchange rates; (ix) the profitability or sales volume of any of Seaboard’s segments; (x) the anticipated costs and completion timetables for Seaboard’s scheduled capital improvements, acquisitions and dispositions; (xi) the productive capacity of facilities that are planned or under construction, and the timing of the commencement of operations at such facilities; or (xii) other trends affecting Seaboard’s financial condition or results of operations, and statements of the assumptions underlying or relating to any of the foregoing statements. This list of forward-looking statements is not exclusive. Seaboard undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions or otherwise. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or results. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors. The information contained in this report, including, without limitation, the information under the captions “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and “Letter to Stockholders” identifies important factors which could cause such differences. 2017 Annual Report 1 SEABOARD CORPORATION Letter to Stockholders As we close the books on 2017, we are thankful for another good year and eager for 2018 when we will be celebrating the 100 th year anniversary of our founding. In 1918, my grandfather Otto Bresky, together with his two brothers started a flour brokerage business in Minneapolis and Boston. In 1928 my grandfather and a partner, acquired an abandoned brewery in Kansas City, equipped it with flour milling equipment from an idled mill and began the journey toward our food and transportation business today. Over the last 100 years we have celebrated many important events as we branched out beyond the flour milling business and into a myriad of businesses in agriculture, energy and transportation. Through these many years, Seaboard has maintained a strategy of growth, both organically and through acquisition. By 2006 when I succeeded my father, Harry Bresky, net sales had reached $2.7 billion. That year I was proud to write my first letter to stockholders reflecting on my father’s 58 years of dedicated leadership and service to Seaboard. I wrote that his drive, attitude, philosophy and values helped form the company into a professional, open-minded and customer-driven organization. I ended that letter with the belief that we had a special company, a workforce of dedicated associates, and a single minded purpose-to improve and grow our businesses year after year. It remains important to me that we continue to focus on the things that matter – customer satisfaction, employee fulfillment, cost competitiveness, a humble but steadfast approach, and a culture of ethical behavior and innovation. We will continue to re-invest in our divisions and patiently wait for opportunities to invest in complementary businesses. This long term approach has provided us a degree of consistency in revenue and earnings as we achieved our fourth best year of revenue at $5.8 billion and our third best year of pre-tax income at $426 million. Over the last ten years, our combined operating income has greatly exceeded our previous 50 years combined and since 2006, our stockholders equity has more than doubled and our stock price has appreciated over 200%. Significantly, in January 2018, we acquired flour and feed milling businesses in Ivory Coast and Senegal and a cereal trading business in Monaco from the Mimran Group. After our Butterball transaction, this is the largest transaction in Seaboard’s history. These businesses span three generations of the Mimran family and we are very fortunate to take the reins from this well managed organization. Added to Seaboard’s commodity trading and milling division, this will mark the 29 th and 30 th country in which this division operates. We expect many synergies to emerge from this acquisition which poises us for further growth in the region. Operating on six continents, we are heavily reliant on world trade and changing fundamental trade patterns including fluctuating inputs and outputs, tariffs and the political winds that sometimes drive governmental policy, which will continue to have a significant impact on our businesses. I have previously cautioned of the growing tendency for governments to negatively impact our different industries when they move away from free market systems, erect trade barriers, and enact protectionist measures and regulations with intended and unintended consequences. Though these threats still exist, I am pleased by the move toward a more territorial tax system in the U.S. with the recent passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The change to a territorial system should help level the playing field when companies are evaluating decisions about where to locate new investments. Although we are still analyzing the full impact of the tax reform, I view this as a long term positive change which should allow us to be more flexible and competitive. I always warn that “past performance is no guarantee of future results” and this can be especially true for a commodity- based business like Seaboard. However, we have a strong balance sheet with total assets in excess of $5 billion and stockholder equity of over $3.4 billion. Our strong balance sheet should continue to give us the flexibility to expand and contract working capital as we see fit, remain acquisitive for the long-term, and enable us to be patient, less impulsive and more prudent in our business decisions. At our pork division, we continued to generate strong financial results despite a constantly changing economic and industry landscape. We began first shift operations in September and expect to ramp up second shift operations later this year at our new, jointly-owned pork processing plant located in Sioux City, Iowa. Since the end of 2015 we have increased our hog production operations by about 50% to help meet the supply needs of the Sioux City plant. This year we also began operating an idled biodiesel facility in St. Joseph and created a renewable natural gas facility in Guymon to generate commercial grade natural gas from plant waste water lagoons. While pork processing margins have far exceeded