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Altra Industrial Motion Corp (AIMC)
Q4Â 2019 Earnings Call
Feb 13, 2020, 10:00 a.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. And welcome to the Altra Industrial Motion Q4 2019 Earnings Call.
[Operator Instructions]
I would now like to turn the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. David Calusdian. Please go ahead.
David Calusdian -- Investor Relations
Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the call. To help you follow management's discussion on this call, there will be referencing slides that are posted to the altramotion.com website under Events and Presentations in the Investor Relations section.
Please turn to Slide 3.
During the call, management will be making forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and investors must recognize that events could differ significantly from management's expectations. Please refer to the risks, uncertainties and other factors described in the company's quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and Annual Report on Form 10-K, and in the company's other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by applicable law, Altra Industrial Motion Corp. does not intend to update or alter its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
On today's call, management will refer to non-GAAP diluted earnings per share, non-GAAP income from operations, non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA margin, non-GAAP organic sales, non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP operating working capital, non-GAAP net debt and non-GAAP free cash flow. These metrics exclude certain items discussed in our slide presentation and in our press release under the heading Discussion of Non-GAAP Financial Measures, and any other items that management believes should be excluded when reviewing continuing operations. The reconciliations of Altra's non-GAAP measures to the comparable GAAP measures are available in the financial tables of the Q4 2019 financial results press release on Altra's website.
Please turn to Slide 4.
With me today are Chief Executive Officer, Carl Christenson, and Chief Financial Officer, Christian Storch.
I'll now turn the call over to Carl.
Carl R. Christenson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, David. Good morning, everyone.
Please turn to Slide 5. 2019 was a pivotal year for Altra. By executing on our strategic priorities of integrating the Altra and A&S businesses, de-levering our balance sheet, capturing synergies and managing costs, we solidified our foundation as a premier industrial company, while delivering solid operational results. Against the backdrop of a challenging market environment, the Altra team stayed focused and executed extremely well.
For the full-year, we met our guidance on the top line with revenue of $1.834 billion and exceeded our bottom line guidance with non-GAAP EPS of $2.86 for the year.
Our fourth quarter performance was highlighted by strong operating performance, even though we continued to face top-line headwinds. Revenue of $441.9 million for the quarter, reflects softness in several markets we serve, including factory automation and specialty machinery and the transportation markets, as well as a difficult comparison with the fourth quarter of 2018.
Even with the 6% decline in revenue, we had a solid operating performance in Q4. Net income was $37.3 million, or $0.58 per diluted share, compared with a loss of $5 million or $0.08 for the year-ago quarter. We grew non-GAAP earnings per share by 2% to $0.66 per diluted share, and expanded non-GAAP gross margin by 20 basis points to 35.6%.
Now, please turn to Slide 6. 2019 was a year of tremendous strategic accomplishment for Altra. Before I review the Q4 market dynamics, I would like to share a few strategic highlights from the year. In 2019, we achieved best-in-class cash management, yielding a total of $201.7 million of free cash flow. We paid down a total of $130 million of debt and exited the year with 3.8 times net debt to non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA.
We also made exceptional progress with the integration of the A&S and legacy Altra businesses in 2019. We completed the tactical integration of the A&S operations into Altra's structure, ahead of schedule, and began to integrate our world-class business system across the entire organization. By developing and utilizing best practices, both the A&S and legacy Altra businesses are making great progress.
For example, Altra's strengths in operational excellence and continuous improvement, and A&S's strengths in policy deployment, supply chain management and organic growth, are enabling the Altra team to deliver extraordinary results. We believe we have only skimmed the surface in capturing the potential our combined business system presents and there is tremendous value creation opportunity ahead.
We also exceeded our expectations in delivering on cost synergies with $15 million of synergies captured in 2019, keeping us well on track to reach our target of $52 million of synergies by year four. As part of our synergy efforts, we made meaningful progress with our supply chain optimizations to capture both indirect and direct cost savings. We also successfully completed three facility consolidations in 2019, and have planning under way for additional consolidations. We're confident that we have a very strong foundation in place to build upon and are excited for the opportunities that lie ahead.
Please turn to Slide 7 to review our end markets.
Starting first with a closer look at the more notable market headwinds, faced in the fourth quarter. Sales into the transportation market were up slightly on a sequential basis, but down mid-single digits compared to a year-ago quarter, as a result of the continued decline in the heavy duty or Class 8 truck market, most notably in North America. Class 8 sales into China were slightly better than expected this quarter, as the demand for one of our customers' natural gas engines resulted in strong shipments in Q4.
We continue to expect our sales into the global Class 8 truck market to be down approximately 20% or $40 million in 2020, when compared with 2019. It is not yet clear to what extent the coronavirus will impact our transportation business, but we continue to monitor the situation closely and will adjust this expectation as appropriate. As a reminder, historically, the typical downcycle for heavy duty trucks has been about 1.5 years to two years, followed by a three-year to four-year upcycle. We'll remain focused on managing costs during the decline and believe we will be well-positioned for the upturn. In addition, we remain very optimistic about the future growth opportunities we have with the new technology that our Class 8 truck business is developing to provide safer braking systems, improved fuel efficiency and lowered emissions.
Fourth quarter sales in factory automation and specialty machinery were down low-double digits year-over-year, as we faced the same factors that have impacted these markets over the past several quarters: tough year-over-year comps, de-stocking and softness in China.
Looking forward, we believe that the overall market segment should be one of the first to emerge from the downturn. We also remain very confident that this is a market, where we are well-positioned to capitalize on great long-term secular growth opportunities.
Metals declined by mid-single digits, as the ongoing slowing in the automotive industry and fewer capital projects were only partially offset by stable aftermarket demand. We expect the metals market to improve in the second half of the year, as industrial activity is expected to return to growth.
Our core distribution business was down mid-single digits, as sales to our distributors continued to be impacted by the sluggish general industrial economy, and there was some continued de-stocking in the quarter. We expect these conditions to prevail through at least the first half of the year.
Turf and garden was down mid-single digits, due to the weather and the resulting inventory hangover at our customers and the big box retail outlets. We expect turf and garden demand in 2020 to be similar to 2019. Ag was down double-digits in Q4, due to weather and the effects of the ongoing trade dispute with China. Demand in the ag markets will continue to be highly dependent on the trade dynamics between China and the U.S., including what occurrs from the recently signed Phase 1 trade agreement.
On the positive side, we also continued to experience strong demand in several key markets. The medical market was up low-single digits in Q4 and mid-single digits for the year, supported by a strong surgical and diagnostics business. We expect the medical markets to be a growth engine for us in 2020, with sales expected up mid-single digits for the year.
In energy, strength across wind, oil and gas and power generation, supported low-single-digit growth in Q4 and low-double-digit growth for the year. Within energy, renewables were up mid-single digits, due largely to strength in wind. Oil and gas declined year-over-year, due largely to tough comps in the year-ago quarter. On a sequential basis, oil and gas was up mid-single digits and grew low-single digits for the year. The outlook is for this segment of the market to continue to be choppy and challenging. Looking forward, we expect the overall energy market to be relatively flat in 2020.
The mining market was up double digits in Q4, compared to last year, as a result of very strong aftermarket parts activity. We have also started to see signs of increased project work with some of our OEMs. And aerospace and defense performed well again, up low-single digits year-over-year and sequentially, as moderate defense declines were offset by strong commercial demand. For the full year, the aerospace and defense markets were up double digits. In 2020, we expect to see ongoing strength in these markets. This is particularly the case in defense with expected increases in the defense budget, as well as commercial aerospace, where we are still in the middle of a very strong cycle.
We want to note that our exposure to the 737 MAX is very limited. From a macro perspective, the overall industrial environment remains cautious, due in part to uncertainty surrounding the trade war and the effectiveness of the Phase 1 U.S.-China trade agreement, the secondary impacts of the tariffs, and most recently the coronavirus. As a result, we continue to take a cautious view on 2020, as Christian will cover when he reviews our 2020 guidance after his review of the financial results.
On the top of everyone's mind is the COVID-19 or coronavirus. As you know, the situation in China is changing rapidly and highly uncertain. China accounts for approximately 9% of our revenues and we have approximately 1,000 employees in the country. Our top priority is to make sure our employees are safe. And so far, we are not aware that any of our employees have been diagnosed with the virus. As we ramp up production and other activities, we are taking appropriate precautions to protect our employees. Most of our production facilities are running at 30% to 50% on capacity and ramping up. Our supply chain in China serves both our Chinese operations and our operations around the world. Our supply chain teams are working hard to develop countermeasures to potential disruptions with material and component suppliers, as well as logistics.
Obviously, the potential impact on the overall economy and our revenues is highly uncertain. However, we have attempted to quantify the impact on our business, and Christian will describe this in a few moments, when he provides our guidance for 2020. We, like all other companies, are monitoring the situation closely.
With that, I'll turn the call over to Christian.
Christian Storch -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Carl. And good morning, everyone.
Please turn to Slide 8. We once again delivered solid operational results for the quarter, although sales were again affected by the macro factors that Carl described. Before I review the results, I would like to remind you that Q4 of 2018 was the first quarter that we reported financials for the A&S and Altra combination.
Highlights of our fourth quarter 2019 performance are: fourth quarter free cash flow of $58.2 million and $201.7 million for the fiscal year was at the high end of our expectations; operating working capital declined $14.4 million, when compared to the end of the third quarter, contributing to the free cash flow generation in the quarter.
Looking at the top line, fourth quarter sales were $441.9 million, and were in line with our expectations, and compared with sales of $469.2 million in the same quarter last year. Organic sales were down 4.8% year-over-year. Foreign exchange rates had a negative effect of 100 basis points, while price had a strong positive impact of 140 basis points. Excluding the effects of foreign exchange, net sales for the PTT segment were down 3.1%, while net sales for the A&S segment decreased 6.5%.
In the fourth quarter, sales declined 16.9% in North America and 14.1% in Europe, and were up 12.3% in Asia and the rest of the world. Excluding the impact of foreign exchange, sales in Europe were down approximately 11.3%, and up 13.2% in China. The provision for income taxes in the fourth quarter of 2019, on a normalized basis, was 22.6%. Non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA was $89.4 million for the forth quarter or 20.2% of net sales.
Please turn to Slide 9.
In terms of cash, our top priority continues to be paying down debt and de-levering the balance sheet, following the A&S combination. As planned, we paid down $40 million of debt in the fourth quarter, bringing the total to $130 million for 2019, and $150 million, since acquiring the A&S segment. We exited the year with a leverage of 3.8 times net debt to adjusted non-GAAP EBITDA. Capital investments totaled $51.7 million for the year, with nearly $15 million for the quarter, as we continued to reduce capital expenditure this year from previously planned levels. Depreciation and amortization totaled $128.4 million for the year and $32 million in the fourth quarter.
In response to the market downturn, we initiated steps in 2019 to accelerate synergies and cost reductions, including headcount reductions in all geographies and facility consolidations. As a result, we achieved our target synergies, including cost out actions of $15 million for 2019, and a year-end exit run rate of $26 million.
Now, please turn to Slide 10 for a review of our outlook for 2020. Today, we are providing our guidance for full-year 2020 to reflect our expectations, given ongoing market softness. We expect annual sales in the range of $1.72 billion to $1.77 billion, with tougher comps in the first half of the year. This guidance reflects the fact that we continue to expect exchange rate headwinds into 2020.
The guidance also includes our current best estimate of the revenue impact related to the coronavirus. We currently estimate that that impact to be between $10 million and $50 million. We recognized that the situation is quite fluid. And as a result, it is very difficult to predict when all factories, suppliers and customers will be fully operational again. While we initially expected first quarter sales to be sequentially modestly higher than in the fourth quarter, we now expect revenues to be sequentially lower, due to the impact of the manufacturing and supply chain disruptions caused by the virus.
As previously indicated, following the A&S combination, we began to exclude acquisition-related amortization, net of tax from non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP EPS. We expect non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA in the range of $340 million to $360 million. We expect to pay down up to $150 million of debt in 2020, with net debt to non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA leverage of approximately 3.5 times to 3.7 times exiting the year, and free cash flow of up to $200 million. We expect GAAP diluted EPS in the range of $1.53 to $1.67 and non-GAAP diluted EPS in the range of $2.40 to $2.60.
We expect depreciation and amortization to be in the range of $125 million to $132 million, and capital expenditures in the range of $45 million to $50 million. We expect our normalized tax rate for the full year to be in the range of 22% to 24%.
With that, I would turn the discussion back to Carl.
Carl R. Christenson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Christian. And please turn to Slide 11.
Before we wrap up, I would like to leave you with our strategic priorities for 2020. First, we remain laser-focused on leveraging the power of the new Altra and capturing synergies in support of our $52 million synergy target. This includes an ongoing focus on supply chain optimization, value engineering, facility consolidations, and further development of our world-class business system. We're also starting to shift our attention to capturing sales synergies and expect to see more traction in this area as we move through the year.
Second, we will continue to prioritize cash generation and debt paydown to expediently de-lever to our target range of two times to three times net debt to adjusted EBITDA and strengthen the balance sheet. And finally, we will step-up our focus on evaluating where we are dedicating our resources to ensure we are well-positioned to capitalize on high-growth opportunities for Altra. This includes dedicating resources to support emerging opportunities like IoT and enhancing our e-commerce capabilities, as well as investing in management training programs that empower our leaders to execute on our strategy.
We remain extremely excited about the future prospects for Altra. We are taking the actions needed to de-lever on our promise as a premier industrial company. We have a world-class team, a great portfolio of products and proven ability to deliver strong results even through challenging market conditions. We're confident that the work we are doing to drive cost out of the business and manage the balance sheet positions Altra to have very strong operating leverage, when the market turns. We look forward to keeping you updated.
And with that, I'd like to turn it back to the operator to open the call to your questions. Amy?
Questions and Answers:
Operator
[Operator Instructions]
Your first question today comes from the line of Jeff Hammond of KeyBanc. Your line is open.
Jeff Hammond -- KeyBanc -- Analyst
Good morning, guys.
Carl R. Christenson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning.
Jeff Hammond -- KeyBanc -- Analyst
Hey. So, great job on free cash flow. Really good performance in 4Q and the second half. Can you just speak to what you think your free cash flow is going to look like in 2020 within the context of the guide? And how much debt you think you can pay down in the year?
Christian Storch -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
We think that there is a very good chance that free cash flow will be, in line with 2019, about $200 million. And the reason for that is that, in 2019, we made payments to Fortive related to working capital adjustments and excess cash repayments of almost $30 million, that will not repeat in 2020. So, that cash will be available to pay down debt. And as a result, we think that we can hit as much as $150 million of debt paydown in 2020.
Jeff Hammond -- KeyBanc -- Analyst
Okay, great. And then, looks like your truck assumptions haven't changed at all, versus three months ago. Can you just talk about if there is any big variances in any of the end markets in terms of how you're thinking about them versus three months ago, when you laid out the framework?
And also just to clarify -- just the coronavirus, did you say $10 million to $50 million or $10 million to $15 million?
Carl R. Christenson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
$10 million to $50 million.
Christian Storch -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
$10 million to $50 million.
Carl R. Christenson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
And I'll elaborate on that, if you want me to, Jeff, after Christian answers the first part of your question.
Christian Storch -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
So, the assumptions for Class 8 trucks, as you said, are very similar to three months ago. We are assuming that North America will cycle down about 30% year-over-year, Europe about 11%, that might be a little bit more than three months ago. And, this is all ex-coronavirus, that China will be up 1%. Japan and Korea will be up meaningfully, so that, that business will overall be down about 20%, and causing about 200 basis points of the year-over-year top-line decline that we're guiding to.
China has been very strong for us in the first quarter and in January. But, the coronavirus will have an impact in the first quarter, potentially in the second quarter, and what we don't know is yet to what extent those lost revenues we will be able to recover in subsequent quarters or to what extent those revenues will be lost. That is unclear at this point.
Jeff Hammond -- KeyBanc -- Analyst
And is there any other end markets that you feel a lot different versus three months ago and maybe just speak to factory automation?
Christian Storch -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
So, for factory automation, ex-coronavirus, we assume a very modest low-single-digit sales increase year-over-year. Europe, I think is still very weak. But North America, we are a little bit more optimistic than we were three months ago. And then, the coronavirus will have an impact on the China business, but at least in the first two quarters, again we don't know to what extent those revenues can be recovered in subsequent quarters.
Jeff Hammond -- KeyBanc -- Analyst
Yes. And Carl, if you want to just speak to the range on the coronavirus and kind of expand on how you came together with that forecast?
Carl R. Christenson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yes, I think there is -- the way we looked at it was we have our sales in China that we produce in China. We have our sales in North America or from other regions of the world that we produce in other regions of world and then sell into China. And then, we have components that we purchase in China or produce in China for sales in the rest of the world. So, it's a very complicated picture, when you look at the logistics and disruptions in the supply chain. So, we're still working through that. Our teams are still very aggressively looking at how can we mitigate and countermeasure any disruptions in those supply chains and the sales channels.
And I think some of the big questions, we have, are how much will we recover in the back half of the year, how much impact will there be in the second quarter, one, will the virus start to be reduced or the number of cases be reduced, so that transportation etc., can get back to normal in China. And those are just unknowns right now. We don't know that. So, when we look at the worst-case scenario of losing, we may be potentially losing some significant sales in the second quarter too. That's how we get to that $50 million number, with essentially no backfill in the back half of the year.
Behind the expectation is that China will provide some stimulus to try to recover some of that loss business in the back half of the year, but how effective that is and when the virus actually starts to reduce is just too bigger question marks for us to put a narrower band on the range.
Jeff Hammond -- KeyBanc -- Analyst
Thanks.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Jake Jarnigo of Baird. Your line is open.
Jake Jarnigo -- Baird -- Analyst
Good morning, everyone.
Carl R. Christenson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning.
Jake Jarnigo -- Baird -- Analyst
Just tailing on the coronavirus talks, I guess, bridging kind of where you put the 2020 guide from last quarter in that 2% to 4% decline range, and now the new guide looks kind of roughly basically a 1% below that. Is essentially that bridge kind of just embedding what may come from the coronavirus impact, that $10 million to $50 million amount? Or is there some incremental weakness that you have assumed in that as well?
Christian Storch -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
No. So, ex-coronavirus, we are thinking revenue is going to be down 2.5% to 4%. So, that's inside of the range that we previously provided as part of the third quarter, when we initiated top-line guidance for 2020. So, nothing overall has changed. And so, the incremental revenue decline is all due to the coronavirus.
Jake Jarnigo -- Baird -- Analyst
Got it. Perfect. That makes sense. And then secondly, on factory automation space again, you commented that you expect this segment to be one of the first end-markets to kind of come out of this bottom. I assume a lot of that is to do with, kind of, comp-related, that one was kind of the first to go down. But I guess, what do you guys look at kind of on a forward basis, to maybe get a gauge of where that demand could come from and when?
Carl R. Christenson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
So, we look at some of the industry statistics that are published for semicon, and then also, automation equipment. And there are numbers published out there by third party that we follow. And then, we also look at -- we'd stay very close to the customers and try to see what the customers have for demand and inventory and how they're working through the inventories. And then, where[Phonetic] the actual demand is coming in. So, a lot of it's direct contact with the customers.
Jake Jarnigo -- Baird -- Analyst
Got it. That makes sense. And then, one more question. Shifting to the synergy side and it sounds like everything is on track there. You've been going to give about kind of giving a quarterly update there, as far as how those cadence through 2020? So, we have a $26 million exiting rate from 2019. Can you kind of go over again what we should be kind of embedding from an incremental standpoint for 2020 has been[Phonetic]?
Christian Storch -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
Yes. So, we believe that the exit run rate in 2020 will be $30 million. So, an incremental $4 million that we realize in year.
Jake Jarnigo -- Baird -- Analyst
Got it. Okay. And then, does that embed those non-repeating cost outs like what's associated with the fair a lot of[Phonetic] employees and kind of that variable comps, that's probably going to not be so low, like it was this year. Is that embedded within that incremental $4 million?
Carl R. Christenson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
No. What's embedded in that is some of the restructuring benefits that we realized. So, those would be permanent headcount reductions, but not, so lows.
Jake Jarnigo -- Baird -- Analyst
Okay. Perfect. That's what I needed. I'll jump on the queue.
Carl R. Christenson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Operator
And your next question comes from the line of John Franzreb of Sidoti. Your line is open.
John Franzreb -- Sidoti -- Analyst
Yes, guys. Just going back to the guidance on the coronavirus, what percentage are you kind of thinking about of that revenue hits the first quarter versus what you expect maybe will bleed into the second quarter? And for you, what end-markets are the most vulnerable?
Christian Storch -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
So, we think top-line impact on the first quarter will be somewhere between $10 million and $50 million[Phonetic]. We think there is more uncertainty about the second quarter that it could be about the same magnitude, maybe slightly higher. And then, the question is, right now, we are assuming that in Q3 and Q4, we will be back to a normal situation and the high end of the guidance, that $50 million range would assume that we're going to still see, in the third quarter, some negative impacts.
John Franzreb -- Sidoti -- Analyst
Christian, why it would be higher potentially in the second quarter versus the first quarter?
Christian Storch -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
So, when we look at, we had a good January, for instance. And then, we will be able to ramp up production, but we don't know whether our customers are going to be ready to what extent they're going to be ready to accept shipments as we go through the second quarter.
Carl R. Christenson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Right. And also our suppliers. So, there is big question marks on the whole supply chain. And then, are our suppliers going be able to get the raw material that they needed. We have a few suppliers in the Hubei province, Wuhan area, but even other suppliers across the rest of the country. There is some concern about how quickly they can ramp up. And then, what's the logistics going to be to get product, looking at the flow rate we need.
Christian Storch -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
On the supply chain side, with a lot of our Chinese suppliers, we work with vendor-managed inventory, that means they have inventory in the U.S. that they're holding for us. So, we'll be fine, at least for most components here for a while. And so, it's a question, how that can be replenished and how quickly that can be replenished. And that would affect the second quarter.
John Franzreb -- Sidoti -- Analyst
Okay. All right.
Carl R. Christenson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
So, if the virus rate starts to decline and supply chain starts to move again, it should be a minimal impact. But if this drags out, it could be significant. We just wanted to point that out.
John Franzreb -- Sidoti -- Analyst
As you mentioned, it's certainly a fluid discussion. Did you mention what markets can hit you potentially by the greatest factor?
Carl R. Christenson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
So, within China, we have four facilities. One is dedicated to wind, one is dedicated to the Class 8 trucks, one is dedicated to factory automation, and one is dedicated to essentially all braking solutions. And if I look at the wind business, that's up and running 80%, but it relies on very few customers, and that situation is fluid. The brake business, so if I look at what is that's most at risk, as far the Class 8 trucks and wind in China would be the two big ones that would be at risk in China. And then, back here, the turf and garden business would buy probably a higher percentage of components for those products in China than our other products. And there's probably, we've got -- that operates with minimal inventories going into the build season is probably another one domestically that would be at risk.
Christian Storch -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
And so, lot of the mitigation efforts are around in-sourcing and making those products at our own facilities to the extent possible.
John Franzreb -- Sidoti -- Analyst
Okay. And just to make sure I heard this correctly, did you say embedded in your 2020 outlook is 1% transportation growth in Class 8 trucks in Asia?
Christian Storch -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
In Japan and Korea.
John Franzreb -- Sidoti -- Analyst
Oh, it's in Japan and Korea.
Christian Storch -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
With Japan and Korea, very strong, and then the rest of the world. So, this includes Japan, Korea, rest of the world.
Carl R. Christenson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Within that, Japan and Korea are very strong, up like 6% or 7%. And then, modestly down for the rest of the world, outside of China, North America, Japan and Korea.
John Franzreb -- Sidoti -- Analyst
Great. Got it. Okay. Thanks for taking my questions guys. I'll get back into queue.
Carl R. Christenson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Christian Storch -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
Alright. Thanks, John.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Jeff Hammond. Your line is open.
Jeff Hammond -- KeyBanc -- Analyst
Hey, guys. Just on the segments, should we think about the organic growth any differently between the two segments? And then, just in terms of your synergies, I know, you've been getting some on the core business versus like -- how should we think about margin trajectory in each of the segments?
Christian Storch -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
Yeah. So, ex-coronavirus, we think A&S, where core growth will be down about 2.7%, while the PTT side will be down about 1.3%. Or the coronavirus will be split between the segments. We haven't got that far yet.
Carl R. Christenson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, we haven't got that far yet.
And then from a margin perspective, we do think that the PTT side will see some modest margin expansion next year, while we do see some continued decline in margins on the A&S side.
Jeff Hammond -- KeyBanc -- Analyst
Okay, perfect. Thanks.
Christian Storch -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
And that's mainly due to Class 8 trucks.
Operator
And there are no further questions in queue at this time. I'll turn the call back to the presenters.
Carl R. Christenson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Okay. Thank you, Amy. And thank you all for joining us today. And we look forward to meeting with many of you in the next few months, as we go on the road to discuss the Altra story. Thank you and have a great day.
Operator
[Operator Closing Remarks]
Duration: 38 minutes
Call participants:
David Calusdian -- Investor Relations
Carl R. Christenson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Christian Storch -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
Jeff Hammond -- KeyBanc -- Analyst
Jake Jarnigo -- Baird -- Analyst
John Franzreb -- Sidoti -- Analyst
