Carnival PLC (CUK) SEC Quarterly Report (10-Q) for Q2 2017

(Mark One)

For the quarterly period ended May 31, 2017

OR

For the transition period from to

Commission file number: 001-9610		Commission file number: 001-15136
Carnival Corporation	Carnival plc
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)	(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Republic of Panama	England and Wales
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)	(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)
59-1562976	98-0357772
(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)	(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)
3655 N.W. 87th Avenue Miami, Florida 33178-2428	Carnival House, 100 Harbour Parade, Southampton SO15 1ST, United Kingdom
(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)	(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)
(305) 599-2600	011 44 23 8065 5000
(Registrant's telephone number, including area code)	(Registrant's telephone number, including area code)
None	None
(Former name, former address and former fiscal year, if changed since last report)	(Former name, former address and former fiscal year, if changed since last report)

Indicate by check mark whether the registrants (1) have filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrants were required to file such reports), and (2) have been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.  Yes   ☑  No  ☐    

Indicate by check mark whether the registrants have submitted electronically and posted on their corporate Web sites, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrants were required to submit and post such files).    Yes   ☑     No  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrants are large accelerated filers, accelerated filers, non-accelerated filers, smaller reporting companies, or emerging growth companies. See the definitions of "large accelerated filer," "accelerated filer," "smaller reporting company" and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. 

If emerging growth companies, indicate by check mark if the registrants have elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.    Yes  ☐    No  ☐ 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrants are shell companies (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).    Yes  ☐    No   ☑

CARNIVAL CORPORATION & PLC

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I - FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Item 1. Financial Statements .

CARNIVAL CORPORATION & PLC

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME

(UNAUDITED)

(in millions, except per share data)

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

CARNIVAL CORPORATION & PLC

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME

(UNAUDITED)

(in millions)

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

CARNIVAL CORPORATION & PLC

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(UNAUDITED)

(in millions, except par values)

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

CARNIVAL CORPORATION & PLC

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS

(UNAUDITED)

(in millions)

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

CARNIVAL CORPORATION & PLC

NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

(UNAUDITED)

NOTE 1 – General

The consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Carnival Corporation and Carnival plc and their respective subsidiaries. Together with their consolidated subsidiaries, they are referred to collectively in these consolidated financial statements and elsewhere in this joint Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q as "Carnival Corporation & plc," "our," "us" and "we."

Basis of Presentation

The Consolidated Statements of Income and the Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income for the three and six months ended May 31, 2017 and 2016 , the Consolidated Balance Sheet at May 31, 2017 and the Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the six months ended May 31, 2017 and 2016 are unaudited and, in the opinion of our management, contain all adjustments necessary for a fair statement. Our interim consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and the related notes included in the Carnival Corporation & plc 2016 joint Annual Report on Form 10-K ("Form 10-K") filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on January 30, 2017 . Our operations are seasonal and results for interim periods are not necessarily indicative of the results for the entire year.

Accounting Pronouncements

The Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") issued amended guidance regarding accounting for Interest - Imputation of Interest , which simplifies the presentation of debt issuance costs and which clarifies the presentation and subsequent measurement of debt issuance costs related to line-of-credit arrangements. The guidance requires that debt issuance costs related to a recognized debt liability be presented on the balance sheet as a direct deduction from the carrying amount of that debt liability. On December 1, 2016, we adopted this guidance using the retrospective approach and reclassified $55 million from Other Assets to Long-Term Debt on our November 30, 2016 Consolidated Balance Sheet.

The FASB issued amended guidance regarding Compensation - Stock Compensation - Improvements to Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting , which simplifies several aspects of the accounting for share-based payment transactions, including the income tax consequences, classification of awards as either equity or liabilities and classification on the statement of cash flows. On December 1, 2016, we early adopted this guidance using the modified retrospective transition method. The impact of adopting this guidance was primarily related to forfeitures and immaterial to our consolidated financial statements.

The FASB issued amended guidance regarding accounting for Intangibles - Goodwill and Other - Internal-Use Software , which clarifies the accounting for fees paid in a cloud computing arrangement. The amendments provide guidance to customers about whether a cloud computing arrangement includes a software license or if the arrangement should be accounted for as a service contract. The amendments impact the accounting for software licenses but will not change a customer's accounting for service contracts. On December 1, 2016, we adopted this guidance on a prospective basis, and it did not have a material impact to our consolidated financial statements.

The FASB issued amended guidance regarding accounting for Derivatives and Hedging - Effect of Derivative Contract Novations on Existing Hedge Accounting Relationships , which clarifies that a change in the counterparty to a derivative instrument that has been designated as a hedging instrument does not, in and of itself, require dedesignation of that hedging relationship provided that all other hedge accounting criteria continue to be met. On March 1, 2017, we early adopted this guidance on a prospective basis, and it did not have a material impact to our consolidated financial statements.

The FASB issued amended guidance regarding accounting for Derivatives and Hedging - Contingent Put and Call Options in Debt Instruments , which clarifies the requirements for assessing whether contingent call and put options that can accelerate the payment of principal on debt instruments are clearly and closely related to their debt hosts or whether the embedded call and put options should be bifurcated from the related debt instrument and accounted for separately as a derivative. This guidance is required to be adopted by us in the first quarter of 2018 and must be applied using a modified retrospective approach. Early adoption is permitted, including adoption in an interim period. We are currently evaluating the impact this guidance will have on our consolidated financial statements.

The FASB issued guidance regarding Presentation of Financial Statements - Going Concern , which requires management to evaluate, at each annual and interim reporting period, whether there are conditions or events that raise substantial doubt about the entity's ability to continue as a going concern within one year after the date the financial statements are issued and to provide related disclosures. This guidance is required to be adopted by us at November 30, 2017. Early adoption is permitted. The adoption of this guidance is not expected to have a material impact to our consolidated financial statements.

The FASB issued amended guidance regarding accounting for Revenue from Contracts with Customers , which requires an entity to recognize the amount of revenue to which it expects to be entitled for the transfer of promised goods or services to customers. When effective, this standard will replace most existing revenue recognition guidance in U.S. generally accepted accounting principles ("U.S. GAAP"). The standard also requires more detailed disclosures and provides additional guidance for transactions that were not comprehensively addressed in U.S. GAAP. This guidance is required to be adopted by us in the first quarter of 2019 by either recasting all years presented in our financial statements or by recording the impact of adoption as an adjustment to retained earnings at the beginning of the year of adoption. We are currently evaluating the impact this guidance will have on our consolidated financial statements.

The FASB issued guidance regarding Business Combinations - Clarifying the Definition of a Business , which assists entities with evaluating whether transactions should be accounted for as acquisitions (or disposals) of assets or businesses. This guidance is required to be adopted by us in the first quarter of 2019 on a prospective basis. Early adoption is permitted, including adoption in an interim period. We are currently evaluating the impact this guidance will have on our consolidated financial statements.

The FASB issued amended guidance regarding Statement of Cash Flows - Classification of Certain Cash Receipts and Cash Payments , which clarifies how certain cash receipts and cash payments are presented and classified in the statement of cash flows. The amendments are aimed at reducing the existing diversity in practice. The guidance is required to be adopted by us in the first quarter of 2019 and should be applied using a retrospective transition method for each period presented. Early adoption is permitted, including adoption in an interim period. We are currently evaluating the impact this guidance will have on our consolidated financial statements.

The FASB issued guidance regarding Statement of Cash Flows - Restricted Cash , which requires restricted cash to be presented with cash and cash equivalents in the statement of cash flows. This guidance is required to be adopted by us in the first quarter of 2019 and must be applied using a retrospective transition method to each period presented. Early adoption is permitted, including adoption in an interim period. The adoption of this guidance is not expected to have a material impact to our consolidated financial statements.

The FASB issued guidance regarding Compensation - Retirement Benefits - Improving the Presentation of Net Periodic Pension Cost and Net Periodic Postretirement Benefit Cost , which requires the bifurcation of net benefit cost. This guidance is required to be adopted by us in the first quarter of 2019. Early adoption is permitted. The adoption of this guidance is not expected to have a material impact to our consolidated financial statements.

The FASB issued guidance regarding accounting for Leases , which requires an entity to recognize both assets and liabilities arising from financing and operating leases, along with additional qualitative and quantitative disclosures. This guidance is required to be adopted by us in the first quarter of 2020. We are currently evaluating the impact this guidance will have on our consolidated financial statements.

The FASB issued guidance regarding Intangibles - Goodwill and Other - Simplifying the Accounting for Goodwill Impairment , which simplifies the accounting for goodwill impairment by removing Step 2 of the goodwill impairment test requiring a hypothetical purchase price allocation. This guidance is required to be adopted by us in the first quarter of 2021 on a prospective basis. Early adoption is permitted for any impairment tests performed after January 1, 2017. We are currently evaluating the impact this guidance will have on our consolidated financial statements.

Other

Cruise passenger ticket revenues include fees, taxes and charges collected by us from our guests. The portion of these fees, taxes and charges included in passenger ticket revenues and commissions, transportation and other costs were $136 million and $123 million and $279 million and $259 million for the three and six months ended May 31, 2017 and 2016 , respectively.

NOTE 2 – Unsecured Debt

At May 31, 2017 , our short-term borrowings included euro-denominated commercial paper of $670 million .

In January 2017, we borrowed $100 million under a floating rate bank loan, due in January 2022.

In January 2017, we entered into an approximately $800 million export credit facility, which may be drawn in euros or U.S. dollars in 2021 and will be due in semi-annual installments through 2033. The interest rate on this export credit facility can be fixed or floating, at our discretion.

In April 2017, we entered into two euro-denominated export credit facilities totaling $1.6 billion . The facilities are expected to be drawn in 2021 and 2022 and will be due in semi-annual installments through 2033 and 2034, respectively. The interest rate on these export credit facilities can be fixed or floating, at our discretion.

In May 2017, we repaid $620 million of export credit facilities prior to their 2025 and 2026 maturity dates.

In May 2017, we borrowed $367 million under an export credit facility. The facility is due in semi-annual installments through April 2028.

For the six months ended May 31, 2017 , we had borrowings of $111 million and repayments of $364 million of commercial paper with original maturities greater than three months.

We use the net proceeds from our borrowings for general corporate purposes and purchases of new ships.

NOTE 3 – Contingencies

Litigation

In the normal course of our business, various claims and lawsuits have been filed or are pending against us. Most of these claims and lawsuits are covered by insurance and the maximum amount of our liability, net of any insurance recoverables, is typically limited to our self-insurance retention levels. We believe the ultimate outcome of these claims and lawsuits will not have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements.

Contingent Obligation – Lease Out and Lease Back Type Transaction

At May 31, 2017 , we had an estimated contingent obligation of $122 million . At the inception of the lease, we paid the aggregate of the net present value of the obligation to a group of major financial institutions, who agreed to act as payment undertakers and directly pay this obligation. As a result, this contingent obligation is considered extinguished and neither the funds nor the contingent obligation have been included in our Consolidated Balance Sheets. In January 2016, we exercised our option to terminate, at no cost, this transaction as of January 2, 2018.

Contingent Obligations – Indemnifications

Some of the debt contracts we enter into include indemnification provisions obligating us to make payments to the counterparty if certain events occur. These contingencies generally relate to changes in taxes or changes in laws which increase our lender's costs. The indemnification clauses are often standard contractual terms and were entered into in the normal course of business. There are no stated or notional amounts included in the indemnification clauses, and we are not able to estimate the maximum potential amount of future payments, if any, under these indemnification clauses. We have not been required to make any material payments under such indemnification clauses in the past and we do not believe a request for material future indemnification payments is probable.

NOTE 4 – Fair Value Measurements, Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities

Fair Value Measurements

Fair value is defined as the amount that would be received for selling an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants and is measured using inputs in one of the following three categories:

Considerable judgment may be required in interpreting market data used to develop the estimates of fair value. Accordingly, certain estimates of fair value presented herein are not necessarily indicative of the amounts that could be realized in a current or future market exchange.

Financial Instruments that are not Measured at Fair Value on a Recurring Basis

The carrying values, estimated fair values and basis of valuation of our financial instrument assets and liabilities not measured at fair value on a recurring basis were as follows (in millions):

Nonfinancial Instruments that are Measured at Fair Value on a Nonrecurring Basis

Valuation of Goodwill and Other Intangibles

The reconciliation of the changes in the carrying amounts of our goodwill was as follows (in millions):

 (a) Europe, Australia & Asia ("EAA")

The reconciliation of the changes in the carrying amounts of our other intangible assets not subject to amortization, which represent trademarks, was as follows (in millions):

At July 31, 2016, we performed our annual goodwill and trademark impairment reviews and there was no impairment.

The determination of our reporting unit goodwill and trademark fair values includes numerous assumptions that are subject to various risks and uncertainties. We believe that we have made reasonable estimates and judgments. A change in the conditions, circumstances or strategy, including decisions about the allocation of new ships amongst brands and the transfer of ships between brands (influencing fair values in the future), may result in a need to recognize an impairment charge.

The reconciliation of the changes in the net carrying amounts of our other intangible assets subject to amortization, which represent port usage rights and other amortizable intangibles, was as follows (in millions):

Financial Instruments that are Measured at Fair Value on a Recurring Basis

The estimated fair value and basis of valuation of our financial instrument assets and liabilities measured at fair value on a recurring basis were as follows (in millions):

Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities

The estimated fair values of our derivative financial instruments and their location in the Consolidated Balance Sheets were as follows (in millions):

Our derivative contracts include rights of offset with our counterparties. We have elected to net certain of our derivative assets and liabilities within counterparties. The amounts recognized within assets and liabilities were as follows (in millions):

The effective gain (loss) portions of our derivatives qualifying and designated as hedging instruments recognized in other comprehensive income were as follows (in millions):

There are no credit risk related contingent features in our derivative agreements, except for bilateral credit provisions within our fuel derivative counterparty agreements. These provisions require cash collateral to be posted or received to the extent the fuel derivative fair value payable to or receivable from an individual counterparty exceeds $100 million . At May 31, 2017 and November 30, 2016 , no collateral was required to be posted to or received from our fuel derivative counterparties.

The amount of estimated cash flow hedges' unrealized gains and losses that are expected to be reclassified to earnings in the next twelve months is not significant. We have not provided additional disclosures of the impact that derivative instruments and hedging activities have on our consolidated financial statements as of May 31, 2017 and November 30, 2016 and for the three and six months ended May 31, 2017 and 2016 where such impacts were not significant.

Fuel Price Risks

Substantially all of our exposure to market risk for changes in fuel prices relates to the consumption of fuel on our ships. We have Brent call options and Brent put options, collectively referred to as zero cost collars, that establish ceiling and floor prices and mitigate a portion of our economic risk attributable to potential fuel price increases. To maximize operational flexibility we utilized derivative markets with significant trading liquidity.

Our zero cost collars are based on Brent prices whereas the actual fuel used on our ships is marine fuel. Changes in the Brent prices may not show a high degree of correlation with changes in our underlying marine fuel prices. We will not realize any economic gain or loss upon the monthly maturities of our zero cost collars unless the average monthly price of Brent is above the ceiling price or below the floor price. We believe that these zero cost collars will act as economic hedges; however, hedge accounting is not applied.

At May 31, 2017 , our outstanding fuel derivatives consisted of zero cost collars on Brent as follows:

Foreign Currency Exchange Rate Risks

Overall Strategy

We manage our exposure to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates through our normal operating and financing activities, including netting certain exposures to take advantage of any natural offsets and, when considered appropriate, through the use of derivative and non-derivative financial instruments. Our primary focus is to monitor our exposure to, and manage, the economic foreign currency exchange risks faced by our operations and realized if we exchange one currency for another. We currently only hedge certain of our ship commitments and net investments in foreign operations. The financial impacts of the hedging instruments we do employ generally offset the changes in the underlying exposures being hedged.

Operational Currency Risks

Our EAA segment operations generate significant revenues and incur significant expenses in their functional currencies, which subjects us to "foreign currency translational" risk related to these currencies. Accordingly, exchange rate fluctuations in their functional currencies against the U.S. dollar will affect our reported financial results since the reporting currency for our consolidated financial statements is the U.S. dollar. Any strengthening of the U.S. dollar against these foreign currencies has the financial statement effect of decreasing the U.S. dollar values reported for this segment's revenues and expenses. Any weakening of the U.S. dollar has the opposite effect.

Substantially all of our operations also have non-functional currency risk related to their international sales. In addition, we have a portion of our operating expenses denominated in non-functional currencies. Accordingly, we also have "foreign currency transactional" risks related to changes in the exchange rates for our revenues and expenses that are in a currency other than the functional currency. The revenues and expenses which occur in the same non-functional currencies create some degree of natural offset.

Investment Currency Risks

We consider our investments in foreign operations to be denominated in stable currencies. Our investments in foreign operations are of a long-term nature. We have $5.8 billion and $251 million of euro- and sterling-denominated debt, respectively, including the effect of foreign currency swaps, which provides an economic offset for our operations with euro and sterling functional currency. We also partially mitigate our net investment currency exposures by denominating a portion of our foreign currency intercompany payables in our foreign operations' functional currencies. 

Newbuild Currency Risks

Our shipbuilding contracts are typically denominated in euros. Our decision to hedge a non-functional currency ship commitment for our cruise brands is made on a case-by-case basis, considering the amount and duration of the exposure, market volatility, economic trends, our overall expected net cash flows by currency and other offsetting risks. We use foreign currency derivative contracts to manage foreign currency exchange rate risk for some of our ship construction payments.

At May 31, 2017 , we had foreign currency zero cost collars that are designated as cash flow hedges for a portion of euro-denominated shipyard payments for the following newbuilds:

If the spot rate is between the weighted-average ceiling and floor rates on the date of maturity, then we would not owe or receive any payments under these collars.

At May 31, 2017 , our remaining newbuild currency exchange rate risk primarily relates to euro-denominated newbuild contract payments, which represent a total unhedged commitment of $5.9 billion and substantially relates to newbuilds to be delivered during 2019 through 2022 to non-euro functional currency brands.

The cost of shipbuilding orders that we may place in the future that is denominated in a different currency than our cruise brands' will be affected by foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations. These foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations may affect our desire to order new cruise ships.

Interest Rate Risks

We manage our exposure to fluctuations in interest rates through our debt portfolio management and investment strategies. We evaluate our debt portfolio to determine whether to make periodic adjustments to the mix of fixed and floating rate debt through the use of interest rate swaps and the issuance of new debt or the early retirement of existing debt.

The composition of our debt, including the effect of foreign currency swaps and interest rate swaps, was as follows:

Concentrations of Credit Risk

As part of our ongoing control procedures, we monitor concentrations of credit risk associated with financial and other institutions with which we conduct significant business. We seek to minimize these credit risk exposures, including counterparty nonperformance primarily associated with our cash equivalents, investments, committed financing facilities, contingent obligations, derivative instruments, insurance contracts and new ship progress payment guarantees, by:

We currently believe the risk of nonperformance by any of our significant counterparties is remote. At May 31, 2017 , our exposures under foreign currency and fuel derivative contracts and interest rate swap agreements were not material.

We also monitor the creditworthiness of travel agencies and tour operators in Asia, Australia and Europe, which includes charter-hire agreements in Asia, and credit and debit card providers to which we extend credit in the normal course of our business prior to sailing. Our credit exposure also includes contingent obligations related to cash payments received directly by travel agents and tour operators for cash collected by them on cruise sales in Australia and most of Europe where we are obligated to honor our guests' cruise payments made by them to their travel agents and tour operators regardless of whether we have received these payments. Concentrations of credit risk associated with these trade receivables, charter-hire agreements and contingent obligations are not considered to be material, principally due to the large number of unrelated accounts, the nature of these contingent obligations and their short maturities. We have not experienced significant credit losses on our trade receivables, charter-hire agreements and contingent obligations. We do not normally require collateral or other security to support normal credit sales.

NOTE 5 – Segment Information

We have four reportable segments that are comprised of (1) North America, (2) EAA, (3) Cruise Support and (4) Tour and Other. Our segments are reported on the same basis as the internally reported information that is provided to our chief operating decision maker ("CODM"), who is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Carnival Corporation and Carnival plc. The CODM assesses performance and makes decisions to allocate resources for Carnival Corporation & plc based upon review of the results across all of our segments.

Our North America segment includes Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and Seabourn. Our EAA segment includes AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard, P&O Cruises (Australia) and P&O Cruises (UK). The operations of these reporting units have been aggregated into two reportable segments based on the similarity of their economic and other characteristics, including types of customers, regulatory environment, maintenance requirements, supporting systems and processes and products and services they provide. Our Cruise Support segment represents certain of our port and related facilities and other services that are provided for the benefit of our cruise brands. Our Tour and Other segment represents the hotel and transportation operations of Holland America Princess Alaska Tours and other operations.

Selected information for our segments and the reconciliation to the consolidated financial statement amounts was as follows (in millions):

A portion of the North America segment's revenues includes revenues for the tour portion of a cruise when a cruise and land tour package are sold together by Holland America Line and Princess Cruises. These intersegment tour revenues, which are also included in our Tour and Other segment, are eliminated by the North America segment's revenues and operating expenses in the line "Intersegment elimination."

NOTE 6 – Earnings Per Share

Our basic and diluted earnings per share were computed as follows (in millions, except per share data):

NOTE 7 – Shareholders' Equity

On April 6, 2017, the Boards of Directors approved a modification of the general authorization to repurchase Carnival Corporation common stock and/or Carnival plc ordinary shares (the "Repurchase Program"), which replenished the remaining authorized repurchases at the time of the approval to $1.0 billion. During the six months ended May 31, 2017 , we repurchased 2.8 million shares of Carnival plc ordinary shares for $156 million under the Repurchase Program. At May 31, 2017 , the remaining availability under the Repurchase Program was $989 million .

During the three months ended May 31, 2017, our Boards of Directors declared a dividend to holders of Carnival Corporation common stock and Carnival plc ordinary shares of $0.40 per share, which was an increase from the prior dividend of $0.35 .

NOTE 8 – Property and Equipment

In April 2017, we transferred an EAA segment 1,550 -passenger capacity ship under a bareboat charter agreement to an unrelated entity which was accounted for as a sale.

Item 2. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations .

Cautionary Note Concerning Factors That May Affect Future Results

Some of the statements, estimates or projections contained in this document are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions with respect to us, including some statements concerning future results, outlooks, plans, goals and other events which have not yet occurred. These statements are intended to qualify for the safe harbors from liability provided by Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. All statements other than statements of historical facts are statements that could be deemed forward-looking. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about our business and the industry in which we operate and the beliefs and assumptions of our management. We have tried, whenever possible, to identify these statements by using words like "will," "may," "could," "should," "would," "believe," "depends," "expect," "goal," "anticipate," "forecast," "project," "future," "intend," "plan," "estimate," "target," "indicate," "outlook" and similar expressions of future intent or the negative of such terms.

Forward-looking statements include those statements that relate to our outlook and financial position including, but not limited to, statements regarding:

Because forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, there are many factors that could cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by our forward-looking statements. This note contains important cautionary statements of the known factors that we consider could materially affect the accuracy of our forward-looking statements and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial position. It is not possible to predict or identify all such risks. There may be additional risks that we consider immaterial or which are unknown. These factors include, but are not limited to, the following: