Beyond guidance for favorable structural cost performance in 2006, and details on material cost savings goals, no specific guidance on the extent or cadence of structural cost savings was given. In addition, the company offered only limited details on the timing of plant actions.
We are expecting PSA to beat their forecasts and to reaffirm fairly upbeat guidance for 2003. Their key markets of Britain and France are holding up well and their market share is reasonably healthy.
The company's announcement that it will not provide earnings guidance going forward, however, came as more of a surprise, making it notably more difficult to isolate and gauge the impact of restructuring.