Tower shares fall on second quarter loss, stock offering

LIVONIA (AP) -- Tower International shares tumbled Monday after the auto parts maker reported a $45.1 million second-quarter loss and said its largest stakeholder plans to sell 6 million of its shares in a public offering. Livonia-based Tower said its loss amounted to $2.22 per share, compared with a profit of $7.7 million, or 38 cents per share, a year ago. Excluding $66.6 million in one-time charges, Tower's adjusted profit was $1.03 per share. Revenue edged slightly higher to $555.9 million from $555 million. Analysts, on average, expected a profit of 62 cents per share on $561.6 million in revenue, according to FactSet. Tower said the 6 million shares are being sold by an affiliate of investment firm Cerberus Capital Management LP. According to FactSet, Cerberus owns 12.5 million Tower shares, an about 61 percent stake in the company. Cerberus also plans to grant the offering's underwriters -- Goldman, Sachs & Co., Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC -- a 30-day option to buy up to 900,000 more shares. Tower will not receive any proceeds from the offering. In morning trading, Tower's shares dropped $3.63, or 16 percent, to $19.37 after falling as low as $19.10 earlier in the session. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock has traded between $6 and $23.93. Tower also on Monday boosted its full-year profit outlook by 25 cents to $1.90 per share, but cut its revenue prediction by $10 million to $2.12 billion, citing unfavorable exchange rates. Analysts expect a full-year profit of $1.68 per share on $2.14 billion in revenue. Published: Wed, Jul 24, 2013