Comfort Systems USA announced second-quarter 2002 net income from continuing operations of $5.20 million, or 13 cents per diluted share, compared to 2001 second-quarter income of $1.22 million, or 3 cents per diluted share. Revenues for the quarter were $211.90 million, compared to $227.67 in 2001.
“We posted a strong recovery in our results during the second quarter despite continuing sluggishness in the economy and in our industry,” said Bill Murdy, Comfort Systems’ chairman and CEO. “We resumed a very healthy level of free cash flow during the quarter and have reduced our debt to its lowest level since shortly after we went public five years ago.”
Comfort Systems reported a net loss of $212.5 million, or $5.56 per diluted share, for the fist half of 2002. This is compared to a net income of $4.4 million, or 12 cents per diluted share, for the first half of 2001. The six months' results include two significant charges for unusual items -- one relating to the adoption of a new accounting standard for reporting of goodwill and other intangible assets, and another relating to the company's sale of 19 operations to EMCOR Group in March.
The company received $9.5 million during the quarter from the EMCOR Group in connection with the final accounting of the net assets of the operations sold to EMCOR earlier this year. Based on these developments as well as positive cash flow, Comfort Systems has reduced its total debt by almost 50 percent to $26 million.
The company also executed a settlement on receivables with Kmart Corp. based on Kmart’s bankruptcy filing in January 2002. Based in this settlement, the company reduced its estimated loss in connection with the Kmart receivables by $800,000 before taxes during the second quarter.
