From The Blade - Toledo, OH

An ailing automotive industry nationwide steered Toledo's largest corporation into a $739 million loss last year on declining sales.

Dana Corp., which makes axles and other parts mostly for pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles, said in regulatory filing yesterday that its results loss in 2006 was an improvement over 2005, when it lost $1.6 billion.

The firm filed for bankruptcy protection a year ago amid cash-flow problems. It has sales of $8.5 billion last year, down from $8.6 billion the year before. Excluded from the report filed yesterday are the value of operations recently sold or to be sold; the firm a year ago reported total revenues for 2005 of $10.1 billion.

Sean Egan, managing director of Egan-Jones Ratings Co., of Haverford, PA, said the Fortune 500 firm's operating loss is substantial. "They have to have positive operating earnings, and they're not right now," he said.

The filing, disclosing year-end finances much later than most companies, also revealed that Chief Executive Mike Burns will receive a salary of $1.035 million and total compensation of $2.89 million, and Chief Financial Officer Kenneth Hiltz is being paid $125,000 a month, plus is compensated for out-of-pocket expenses and receives company-paid living quarters.

Executive compensation, although not an increase for Burns from 2006, was reported as the company is negotiating with its unions to slash 6,500 factory workers' pay by about a third and to their retirement health care benefits. Company-paid benefits for 9,700 nonunion retirees will be stopped in July, in return for an initial $25 million fund set up to cover some expenses.

The company said in bankruptcy court it needs to save $405 million to $540 million annually to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Of that amount, $100 million to $150 million would be from retiree benefits and an additional $60 million to $90 million from labor costs.

Dana has said in court that its U.S. operations lost $2 billion over the past five years.

But retirees have said the firm made promises to people who worked for it for decades, and now the firm wants to renege.

The company has about 19,000 U.S. workers, including 2,040 in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan.

For the fourth quarter last year, it said it lost $229 million on sales of $2 billion, compared with a loss of $379 million on sales of $2 billion a year earlier.

The year-end loss included a $148 million adjustment to lower the value of its 30 percent stake in Getrag, a transmission maker in Germany. The company sold its interest in that firm this month for $205 million.

Dana said in its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that its U.S. operations had significant losses and were consuming large amounts of cash.

Its most pressing problems, it said, are car-maker projections for cuts in production, particularly SUVs and pickups.

The company has taken steps to improve its finances such as repricing or rejecting unprofitable contracts, which could boost profits by up to $225 million; further cuts in labor costs, saving up to $90 million; and closing four more plants this year, saving up to $80 million.

Dana's planned cuts are "brutal, but the unfortunate fact is, they need to be brutal in order to be an ongoing entity," said Egan said.

Workers and retirees have objected to bonuses that senior company executives are entitled to under a court ruling. The ruling allows Burns up to $5.5 million in annual bonuses during the bankruptcy and five other executives collectively up to $7 million a year.

The latest filing detailed executive pay for last year. In addition to his salary, Burns had non-equity incentive compensation of $1.03 million, $597,222 in changed pension and deferred compensation, and other compensation of $221,778.

The last category included $88,726 for tax reimbursements, $83,480 for supplemental life insurance, and undisclosed amounts for such expenses as personal financial planning, use of a company car for part of the year, an allowance for a car, use of company airplanes, costs for home security, Internet access at home, contributions to his 401(k) account, and life insurance costs.

Hiltz, the finance officer, was hired four days after the bankruptcy filing and is a managing director of AlixPartners LLP, a financial advisory firm in suburban Detroit that specializes in corporate turnarounds.

The new regulatory filing also indicated that an SEC investigation into Dana's restatement of five years' worth of earnings in December, 2005, is ongoing and that its accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, found material weaknesses in the auto supplier's internal controls.

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