Navistar Updates Goal to Achieve $15 Billion in Revenues by 2009

Navistar International Corp., the nation's largest combined commercial truck and mid-range diesel engine producer, this week provided an update on the company's strategies and achievements,

including the outlook for 2006.
Daniel C. Ustian, Navistar chairman, president and chief executive officer, provided details about how Navistar is delivering on its goal of achieving $15 billion in revenues with 10 percent segment margins by 2009 with good returns at all points of the business cycle.
"We are aggressively implementing a plan to deliver on our commitments with great products, achieving a competitive cost structure and delivering profitable growth," Ustian said. "By leveraging what we have and utilizing what others have built, we believe we can make this strategy a reality."
Ustian reaffirmed that the company expects diluted earnings per share for fiscal year 2006 will exceed $5.38 per share and said the company plans to provide more information on a regular basis as the year progresses.
"Our company continues to capitalize on the strength of the industry and to build on our core business through growth in markets that are counter cyclical to our heavy truck business, such as the military," Ustian said.
According to Ustian, the company has introduced eight new vehicles in the past 18 months, all built off of existing platforms, giving the company the opportunity to capture additional market share in niche markets with minimal investment. In addition, the new ProStar heavy truck, which is scheduled to go into production later this year, has already received rave reviews from dealers and trade media.
Ustian added that joint ventures and collaboration with other manufacturers also give the company the ability to achieve additional scale.
"India is one of the fastest-growing truck markets today and through our joint venture with Mahindra and Mahindra, we are developing new trucks and buses for that market and we will be able to leverage our combined extensive distribution network to reach other parts of the world," Ustian said. "Our collaboration with MAN AG of Germany in the development of our own MaxxForce big-bore engine represents another key step in allowing us to control our own destiny."
"There has been much speculation about an anticipated market decline in 2007 because of increased 2006 buying ahead of the stricter emission regulations that go into effect at year end," Ustian said. "Regardless of overall market conditions, we should have an edge on the competition because we will be introducing two products that offer new and exciting features as well as improved fuel economy. The ProStar debuts at the beginning of 2007 and our MaxxForce big bore engine will debut at the end of 2007. "
Turning to current operations, Ustian said worldwide shipments of International brand medium and heavy and severe service trucks and IC brand school buses during the first six months of fiscal 2006 totaled 63,400 units, a gain of 3.7 percent over the 61,100 units in the first six months a year ago. Combined market share for the second quarter was 27 percent, the same as for all of fiscal 2005 and nearly 3 percentage points higher than in the first quarter of 2006.
International's combined share of total industry order receipts reached 32 percent in the second quarter of 2006, supporting the strong second half anticipated by the company, Ustian said.
Navistar International is the parent company of International Truck and Engine Corp. Additional information is available at: www.nav-international.com.