The magnitude of the adverse impact that federal budget pressures will have on future funding for our defense programs is unknown.

The access equipment market is highly cyclical and impacted (i)by the strength of economies in general, (ii)by residential and non-residential construction spending, (iii)by the ability of rental companies to obtain third-party financing to purchase revenue generating assets, (iv)by capital expenditures of rental companies in general, including the rate at which they replace aged rental equipment, which is impacted in part by historical purchase levels, including lower levels of purchasing during the Great Recession, which we believe contributed to a decrease in access equipment sales from fiscal 2015 to fiscal 2017, (v)by the timing of engine emissions standards changes, and (vi)by other factors, including oil and gas related activity. The ready-mix concrete market that we serve is highly cyclical and impacted by the strength of the economy generally, by the number of housing starts and by other factors that may have an effect on the level of concrete placement activity, either regionally or nationally. Refuse collection vehicle markets are also cyclical and impacted by the strength of economies in general, by municipal tax receipts and by the size and timing of capital expenditures, including replacement demand, by large waste haulers. Fire& emergency markets are cyclical later in an economic downturn and are impacted by the economy generally and by municipal tax receipts and capital expenditures.

Lower U.S. housing starts since fiscal 2008 have negatively impacted sales volumes for our concrete placement products as compared to historical levels. Despite continued modest U.S. construction growth, concrete mixer customers have maintained a cautious approach to fleet replacement/expansion, generally wanting to confirm that construction activity in the U.S. will support solid fleet utilization. A lack of sustained improvement in residential and non-residential construction spending generally may result in our inability to achieve our sales expectations or cause future weakness in demand for our products. We cannot provide any assurance that the housing recovery will not progress even more slowly than what we or the market expect. If the housing recovery progresses more slowly than what we or the market expect, then there could be an adverse effect on our net sales, financial condition, profitability and/or cash flows.

Our dependency on contracts with U.S. and foreign government agencies subjects us to a variety of risks that could materially reduce our revenues or profits.

We are dependent on U.S. and foreign government contracts for a substantial portion of our business. Approximately 20% of our sales in fiscal 2017 were to the DoD. That business is subject to the following risks, among others, that could have a material adverse effect on our operating performance:

· Limit our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business and the markets we serve; and

· Limit our ability to pursue strategic acquisitions that may become available in our markets or otherwise capitalize on business opportunities if we had additional borrowing capacity.

Security breaches and other disruptions could compromise our information and expose us to liability, which could cause our business and reputation to suffer.

We use our information systems to collect and store confidential and sensitive data, including information about our business, our customers and our employees. As technology continues to evolve, we anticipate that we will collect and store even more data in the future and that our systems will increasingly use remote communication features that are sensitive to both willful and unintentional security breaches. Much of our value relative to our competitors is derived from our confidential business information, including vehicle designs, proprietary technology and trade secrets, and to the extent the confidentiality of such information is compromised, we may lose our competitive advantage and our vehicle sales may suffer.

We also collect, retain and use personal information, including data we gather from customers for product development and marketing purposes, and data we obtain from employees. In the event of a breach in security that allows third parties access to this personal information, we are subject to a variety of ever-changing laws on a global basis that require us to provide notification to the data owners, and that subject us to lawsuits, fines and other means of regulatory enforcement. Depending on the function involved, a breach in security may lead to customers purchasing vehicles from our competitors, subject us to lawsuits, fines and other means of regulatory enforcement or harm employee morale.

Our objective is to expand international operations and sales, the conduct of which subjects us to risks that may have a material adverse effect on our business.

Expanding international operations and sales is a significant part of our growth strategy. International operations and sales are subject to various risks, including political, religious and economic instability, local labor market conditions, the imposition of foreign tariffs and other trade barriers, the impact of foreign government regulations and the effects of income and withholding taxes, sporadic order patterns, governmental expropriation, uncertainties or delays in collection of accounts receivable and differences in business practices. We may incur increased costs, including increased supply chain costs, and experience delays or disruptions in production schedules, product deliveries or payments in connection with international manufacturing and sales that could cause loss of revenues and earnings. Among other things, there are additional logistical requirements associated with international sales, which increase the amount of time between the completion of vehicle production and our ability to recognize related revenue. In addition, expansion into foreign markets requires the establishment of distribution networks and may require modification of products to meet local requirements or preferences. Establishment of distribution networks or modification to the design of our products to meet local requirements and preferences may take longer or be more costly than we anticipate and could have a material adverse effect on our ability to achieve international sales growth. Some of these international sales require financing to enable potential customers to make purchases. Availability of financing to non-U.S. customers depends in part on the U.S. Export-Import Bank. If U.S. Export-Import Bank authorization financing is not secured for certain transactions, we may not be able to effectively compete for international sales against foreign competitors who are able to benefit from direct or indirect financial support from governments where they have operations. In addition, our entry into certain markets that we wish to enter may require us to establish a joint venture. Identifying an appropriate joint venture partner and creating a joint venture could be more time consuming, more costly and more difficult than we anticipate.

As a result of our international operations and sales, we are subject to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and other laws that prohibit improper payments or offers of payments to foreign governments and their officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. Our international activities create the risk of unauthorized payments or offers of payments in violation of the FCPA by one of our employees, consultants, sales agents or distributors, because these parties are not always subject to our control. Any violations of the FCPA could result in significant fines, criminal sanctions against us or our employees, and prohibitions on the conduct of our business, including our business with the U.S. government. We are also increasingly subject to export control regulations, including, without limitation, the United States Export Administration Regulations and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. Unfavorable changes in the political, regulatory or business climate could have a material adverse effect on our net sales, financial condition, profitability and/or cash flows.

Our results could be adversely affected by severe weather, natural disasters, and other events in the locations in which we or our customers or suppliers operate.

We have manufacturing and other operations in locations prone to severe weather and natural disasters, including earthquakes, hurricanes or tsunamis that could disrupt our operations. Our suppliers and customers also have operations in such locations. Severe weather or a natural disaster that results in a prolonged disruption to our operations, or the operations of our customers or suppliers could delay delivery of parts, materials or components to us or sales to our customers and could have a material adverse effect on our net sales, financial condition, profitability and/or cash flows.

Concrete mixer and access equipment sales also are seasonal with the majority of such sales occurring in the spring and summer months, which constitute the traditional construction season in the Northern hemisphere. The timing of orders for the traditional construction season in the Northern hemisphere can be impacted by weather conditions.

Changes in the tax regimes and related government policies and regulations in the countries in which we operate could adversely affect our results and our effective tax rate.

As a multinational corporation, we are subject to various taxes in both U.S. and non-U.S. jurisdictions. Due to economic and political conditions, tax laws, regulations and rates in these various jurisdictions may be subject to significant change. Our future effective income tax rate could be affected by changes in the mix of earnings in countries with differing statutory tax rates, changes in the valuation of deferred tax assets or changes in tax laws or their interpretation. Recent developments, including potential U.S. tax reform discussions, the European Commission’s investigations of illegal state aid as well as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development project on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting may result in changes to long-standing tax principles, which could adversely affect our effective tax rate or result in higher cash tax liabilities. Increases in our effective tax rate or tax liabilities could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, profitability and/or cash flows.

Changes in regulations could adversely affect our business.

Both our products and the operation of our manufacturing facilities are subject to statutory and regulatory requirements. These include environmental requirements applicable to manufacturing and vehicle emissions, government contracting regulations and domestic and international trade regulations. A significant change to these regulatory requirements could substantially increase manufacturing costs or impact the size or timing of demand for our products, all of which could make our business results more variable.

In particular, many scientists, legislators and others attribute climate change to increased levels of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, which has led to significant legislative and regulatory efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Congress has previously considered and may in the future implement restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions through a cap-and-trade system under which emitters would be required to buy allowances to offset emissions of greenhouse gas. In addition, several states, including states where we have manufacturing plants, are considering various greenhouse gas registration and reduction programs. Our manufacturing plants use energy, including electricity and natural gas, and certain of our plants emit amounts of greenhouse gas that may be affected by these legislative and regulatory efforts. Greenhouse gas regulation could increase the price of the electricity we purchase, increase costs for our use of natural gas, potentially restrict access to or the use of natural gas, require us to purchase allowances to offset our own emissions or result in an overall increase in our costs of raw materials, any one of which could increase our costs, reduce our competitiveness in a global economy or otherwise negatively affect our business, operations or financial results.

SEC disclosure requirements impose inquiry, diligence and disclosure obligations with respect to “conflict minerals,” defined as tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold, that are necessary to the functionality of a product manufactured, or contracted to be manufactured, by an SEC reporting company. Certain of these minerals are used extensively in components manufactured by our suppliers (or in components incorporated by our suppliers into components supplied to us) for use in our vehicles or other products. Our supply chain is very complex and multifaceted. We have encountered significant difficulty in determining the country of origin or the source and chain

of custody for all “conflict minerals” used in our products. We may face reputational challenges if we are unable to verify the country of origin or the source and chain of custody for all “conflict minerals” used in our products or if we are unable to disclose that our products are “conflict free.” Implementation of these rulesmay also affect the sourcing and availability of some minerals necessary to the manufacture of our products and may affect the availability and price of “conflict minerals” capable of certification as “conflict free.” Accordingly, we may incur significant costs as a consequence of these rules, which may adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. Other laws or regulations impacting our supply chain, such as the UK Modern Slavery Act, may have similar consequences.

Our financial statements are subject to changes in accounting standards that could adversely impact our profitability or financial position.

Our financial statements are subject to the application of generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America, which are periodically revised and/or expanded. Accordingly, from time to time, we must adopt new or revised accounting standards that recognized authoritative bodies, including the Financial Accounting Standards Board, have issued. Recently, accounting standard setters issued new guidance that further interprets or seeks to revise accounting pronouncements related to revenue recognition and lease accounting and issued new standards expanding disclosures. We discuss the impact of accounting pronouncements that have been issued but not yet implemented in our annual and quarterly reports on Form10-K and Form10-Q. We do not provide an assessment of proposed standards, as such proposals are subject to change through the exposure process and, therefore, we cannot meaningfully assess their effects on our financial statements. It is possible that accounting standards we must adopt in the future could change the current accounting treatment that we apply to our consolidated financial statements and that such changes could have a material adverse effect on our reported results of operations and/or financial condition.

Disruptions within our dealer network could adversely affect our business.

Although we sell the majority of our products directly to the end user, we market, sell and service products through a network of independent dealers in the fire& emergency segment and in a limited number of markets for the access equipment and commercial segments. As a result, our business with respect to these products is influenced by our ability to establish and manage new and existing relationships with dealers. While we have relatively low turnover of dealers, from time to time, we or a dealer may choose to terminate the relationship as a result of difficulties that our independent dealers experience in operating their businesses due to economic conditions or other factors, or as a result of an alleged failure by us or an independent dealer to comply with the terms of our dealer agreement. We do not believe our business is dependent on any single dealer, the loss of which would have a sustained material adverse effect upon our business. However, disruption of dealer coverage within a specific state or other geographic market could cause difficulties in marketing, selling or servicing our products and have an adverse effect on our business, operating results or financial condition.

In addition, our ability to terminate our relationship with a dealer is limited due to state dealer laws, which generally provide that a manufacturer may not terminate or refuse to renew a dealer agreement unless it has first provided the dealer with required notices. Under many state laws, dealers may protest termination notices or petition for relief from termination actions. Responding to these protests and petitions may cause us to incur costs and, in some instances, could lead to litigation resulting in lost opportunities with other dealers or lost sales opportunities, which may have an adverse effect on our business, operating results or financial condition.

OSHKOSH CORP Exhibit
EX-99.1 2 a17-24670_1ex99d1.htm EX-99.1 Exhibit 99.1       For more information,…
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