Innospec Checkup

"As of March 31, 2010, Innospec had $67.5 million in cash and cash equivalents, $22. million more than its total debt of $45.0 million." (see here for the prior post).

"As of June 30, 2010, Innospec had $77.0 million in cash and cash equivalents, $30.0 million more than its total debt of $47.0 million." (see here for the prior post).

As reported by the company earlier this week (see here):

"As of September 30, 2010, Innospec had $101.5 million in cash and cash equivalents, $53.5 million more than its total debt of $48 million."

As evident from the above, Innospec's cash coffers continue to grow and business is doing well. The company's President and CEO “We are pleased to report strong earnings growth as well as excellent cash generation for the third quarter of 2010. All three of our business segments again performed well, generating double-digit increases in operating income."

Why does any of this matter?

Because in March 2010, Innospec (see here) agreed to pay $40.2 million in combined DOJ/SEC/SFO fines and penalties for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other laws.

However, it could have been worse.

The SEC release (see here) notes that Innospec, without admitting or denying the SEC's allegations, was ordered to pay $60,071,613 in disgorgement, but because of Innospec's "sworn Statement of Financial Condition" all but $11,200,000 of that disgorgement was waived.

The release states that "[b]ased on its financial condition, Innospec offered to pay a reduced criminal fine of $14.1 million to the DOJ and a criminal fine of $12.7 million to the SFO. Innospec will pay $2.2 million to OFAC for unrelated conduct concerning allegations of violations of the Cuban Assets Control Regulations."

In other words, Innospec got a pass on approximately $50 million.

Innospec's "Inability to Pay" is also noted in the DOJ's plea agreement (see here).

In other Innospec news, the company's most recent 10-Q filing (see here) suggests that the company expects its compliance monitor to cost $3.9 million (see pg. 22).

This prior post discussed the civil complaint, based on the DOJ and SEC's allegations, filed against Innospec by a competitor alleging violations of
the Robinson-Patman Act and the Virginia Antitrust Act as well as the Virginia Business Conspiracy Act.

Here is what Innospec had to say about this litigation in its recent filing:

"On July 23, 2010, NewMarket Corporation and its subsidiary, Afton Chemical Corporation (collectively, “NewMarket”), filed a civil complaint against the Company and its subsidiary, Alcor Chemie Vertriebs GmbH (“Alcor”), in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The complaint makes certain claims against the Company and Alcor with respect to alleged violations of provisions of the Robinson-Patman Act, the Virginia Antitrust Act and the Virginia Business Conspiracy Act as a result of alleged actions involving officials in Iraq and Indonesia pertaining to securing sales of the Company’s tetra ethyl lead (TEL) fuel additive, to the apparent detriment of the plaintiffs and their sales of a competing non-lead based fuel additive. The complaint seeks treble damages of an unspecified amount, plus attorneys’ fees, costs and expenses. The factual allegations underlying the complaint appear to relate to the same matters that were the subject of the Company’s recently-disclosed resolution with the DOJ, SEC, OFAC and SFO. On September 22, 2010, the Company filed a motion to dismiss. On October 4, 2010, NewMarket filed an amended complaint incorporating the Sherman Act and related claims in addition to its previous claims. The Company filed its response to the amended complaint and a separate motion to dismiss on October 29, 2010. The Company believes both the complaint and amended complaint are without merit and intends to defend them vigorously, but because of uncertainties associated with the ultimate outcome of these complaints and the costs to the Company of responding to them, we cannot assure you that the ultimate costs and damages, if any, that may be imposed upon us will not have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial position and cash flows. As at September 30, 2010 we had accrued $0.5 million in respect of probable future legal expenses and provided no additional accruals in respect of this matter."