Ralph Lauren Corporation Declares Quarterly Dividend
ABOUT
This press release and oral statements made from time to time by
representatives of the Company may contain certain "forward-looking
statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include statements
regarding, among other things, our current expectations about the
Company's future results and financial condition, revenues, store
openings and closings, employee reductions, margins, expenses and
earnings and are indicated by words or phrases such as "anticipate,"
"estimate," "expect," "project," "we believe" and similar words or
phrases. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown
risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results,
performance or achievements to be materially different from the future
results, performance or achievements expressed in or implied by such
forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based largely
on the Company's expectations and judgments and are subject to a number
of risks and uncertainties, many of which are unforeseeable and beyond
our control. The factors that could cause actual results to materially
differ include, among others: the loss of key personnel, including
Mr. Ralph Lauren, or other changes in our executive and senior
management team or to our operating structure, and our ability to
effectively transfer knowledge during periods of transition; the
potential impact to our business and future strategic direction
resulting from our transition to our new Chief Executive Officer; our
ability to successfully implement our long-term growth strategy and
achieve anticipated operating enhancements and cost reductions from our
restructuring plans; the impact to our business resulting from
investments and other costs incurred in connection with the execution of
our long-term growth strategy, including restructuring-related charges,
which may be dilutive to our earnings in the short term; our ability to
effectively manage inventory levels and the increasing pressure on our
margins in a highly promotional retail environment; the impact to our
business resulting from potential costs and obligations related to the
early closure of our stores or termination of our long-term,
non-cancellable leases; our efforts to successfully enhance, upgrade,
and/or transition our global information technology systems and
e-commerce platform; our ability to secure our facilities and systems
and those of our third-party service providers from, among other things,
cybersecurity breaches, acts of vandalism, computer viruses, or similar
Internet or email events; the impact to our business resulting from the
recently enacted U.S. tax legislation commonly referred to as the Tax
Cuts and Jobs Act, including related changes to our tax obligations and
effective tax rate in future periods, as well as the one-time
enactment-related charges that were recorded during the third quarter of
Fiscal 2018 on a provisional basis based on a reasonable estimate and
are subject to change, all of which could differ materially from our
current expectations and/or investors' expectations; changes in our tax
obligations and effective tax rate due to a variety of other factors,
including potential additional changes in U.S. or foreign tax laws and
regulations, accounting rules, or the mix and level of earnings by
jurisdiction in future periods that are not currently known or
anticipated; a variety of legal, regulatory, tax, political, and
economic risks, including risks related to the importation and
exportation of products, tariffs, and other trade barriers which our
operations are currently subject to, or may become subject to as a
result of potential changes in legislation, and other risks associated
with our international operations, such as compliance with the Foreign
Corrupt Practices Act or violations of other anti-bribery and corruption
laws prohibiting improper payments, and the burdens of complying with a
variety of foreign laws and regulations, including tax laws, trade and
labor restrictions, and related laws that may reduce the flexibility of
our business; our exposure to currency exchange rate fluctuations from
both a transactional and translational perspective; the impact to our
business resulting from increases in the costs of raw materials,
transportation, and labor; the potential impact to our business
resulting from the financial difficulties of certain of our large
wholesale customers, which may result in consolidations, liquidations,
restructurings, and other ownership changes in the retail industry, as
well as other changes in the competitive marketplace, including the
introduction of new products or pricing changes by our competitors; the
impact to our business resulting from changes in consumers' ability or
preferences to purchase premium lifestyle products that we offer for
sale and our ability to forecast consumer demand, which could result in
either a build-up or shortage of inventory; our ability to maintain our
credit profile and ratings within the financial community; our ability
to access sources of liquidity to provide for our cash needs, including
our debt obligations, tax obligations, payment of dividends, capital
expenditures, and potential repurchases of our Class A common stock, as
well as the ability of our customers, suppliers, vendors, and lenders to
access sources of liquidity to provide for their own cash needs; the
potential impact to the trading prices of our securities if our Class A
common stock share repurchase activity and/or cash dividend payments
differ from investors' expectations; the impact of the volatile state of
the global economy, stock markets, and other global economic conditions
on us, our customers, suppliers, vendors, and lenders; the impact to our
business of events of unrest and instability that are currently taking
place in certain parts of the world, as well as from any terrorist
action, retaliation, and the threat of further action or retaliation;
our ability to open new retail stores, concession shops, and e-commerce
sites in an effort to expand our direct-to-consumer presence; our
ability to continue to expand or grow our business internationally and
the impact of related changes in our customer, channel, and geographic
sales mix as a result; our ability to continue to maintain our brand
image and reputation and protect our trademarks; our intention to
introduce new products or enter into or renew alliances and exclusive
relationships; changes in the business of, and our relationships with,
major department store customers and licensing partners; the potential
impact on our operations and on our suppliers and customers resulting
from natural or man-made disasters; the impact to our business resulting
from the
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180315006266/en/
Source:
Ralph Lauren
Investor Relations:
Evren Kopelman, 212-813-7862
rl-investorrelations@ralphlauren.com
or
Corporate
Communications:
Lindsay Knoll, 212-650-4401
rl-press@ralphlauren.com