Zurn Elkay Water Solutions (ZWS) 10-K2020 FY Annual report

        This report includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include statements we make concerning our plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events, future revenues or performance, capital expenditures, financing needs and other information that is not historical information and, in particular, appear in Items 1, 1A and 7 hereof. When used in this report, the words "estimates," "expects," "anticipates," "projects," "forecasts," "plans," "believes," "foresees," "seeks," "likely," "may," "might," "will," "should," "goal," "target" or "intends" and variations of these words or similar expressions (or the negative versions of any such words) are intended to identify forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are based upon information available to us on the date of this report.

        These forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside of our control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements, including, among other things, the matters discussed in this report in the Items identified above. Some of the factors that we believe could affect our results include:

        Rexnord Corporation, a Delaware corporation incorporated in 2006, is a growth-oriented, multi-platform industrial company with what we believe are leading market shares and highly-trusted brands that serve a diverse array of global end markets. We currently operate our business in two strategic platforms — Process & Motion Control and Water Management, both of which have expanded significantly by means of acquisitions of other companies or operations; see "Acquisitions and Divestitures" below for further information as to recent transactions. Our heritage of innovation and specification have allowed us to provide highly-engineered, mission-critical solutions to customers for decades and affords us the privilege of having long-term, valued relationships with market leaders. We operate our Company in a disciplined way and the Rexnord Business System ("RBS") is our operating philosophy. Grounded in the spirit of continuous improvement, RBS creates a scalable, process-based framework that focuses on driving superior customer satisfaction and financial results by targeting world-class operating performance throughout all aspects of our business.

        Our strategy is to build the Company around global strategic platforms that participate in end markets with sustainable growth characteristics where we are, or have the opportunity to become, the industry leader. We have a track record of acquiring and integrating companies and expect to continue to pursue strategic acquisitions within our existing platforms that will expand our geographic presence, broaden our product lines and allow us to move into adjacent markets. Over time, we may add strategic platforms to our Company.

        We believe that we have one of the broadest portfolios of highly engineered, mission and project-critical Process & Motion Control products for industrial, consumer goods and aerospace applications worldwide. Our Process & Motion Control portfolio includes products and services used to safely, reliably and efficiently solve a wide range of demanding process and discrete automation and motion control applications. Our Water Management platform is a leader in the multi-billion dollar, specification-driven, commercial and institutional construction market for water management products and, to a lesser extent, the municipal water and wastewater treatment and residential construction markets. Our Water Management product portfolio includes building and site water management solutions that enhance water quality, safety, flow control and conservation.

        Our products are generally "specified" or requested by end users across both of our strategic platforms as a result of our products’ reliable performance in demanding environments, our custom application engineering capabilities and our ability to provide global customer support. Typically, our Process & Motion Control products are initially incorporated into products sold by original equipment manufacturers ("OEMs") or sold to end users as critical components in large, complex systems where the cost of failure or downtime is high, and thereafter replaced through industrial distributors as they are consumed or require replacement.

        The demand for our Water Management products is primarily driven by new commercial and institutional building construction, the retrofit of existing structures (to make them more energy and water efficient) and, to a lesser extent, new infrastructure and residential construction. We believe we have become a market leader in the industry by developing innovative products that meet the stringent third-party regulatory, building, and plumbing code requirements and by subsequently achieving specification of our products into projects and applications.

        We are led by an experienced, high-caliber management team that employs RBS as a proven operating philosophy to drive excellence and world-class performance in all aspects of our business by focusing on the "Voice of the Customer" process and ensuring superior customer satisfaction. Our footprint encompasses 46 principal Process & Motion Control manufacturing, warehouse, and repair facilities and 17 principal Water Management manufacturing and warehouse facilities located around the world which allow us to meet the needs of our increasingly global customer base as well as our distribution channel partners.

        RBS creates a scalable, process-based framework that focuses on driving superior customer satisfaction and financial results by targeting world-class operating performance throughout all aspects of our business. RBS is based on the following principles: (1) strategy deployment (a long-term strategic planning process that determines annual improvement priorities and the actions necessary to achieve those priorities); (2) measuring our performance based on customer satisfaction, or the "Voice of the Customer;" (3) involvement of all our associates in the execution of our strategy; and (4) a culture that embraces Kaizen, the Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement. We believe applying RBS can yield superior growth, quality, delivery and cost positions relative to our competition, resulting in enhanced profitability and ultimately the creation of stockholder value. As we have applied RBS over the past several years, we have experienced improvements in growth, productivity, cost reduction and asset efficiency and believe there are opportunities to continue to improve our performance as we continue to apply RBS.

        Our Process & Motion Control platform designs, manufactures, markets and services a broad range of specified, highly-engineered mechanical components used within complex systems where our customers' reliability requirements and costs of failure or downtime are high. The Process & Motion Control portfolio includes motion control products, shaft management products, aerospace components and related value-added services. Our products and services are marketed and sold globally under widely recognized brand names, including Rexnord®, Rex®, Addax®, Euroflex®, Falk®, FlatTop®, Cambridge®, Link-Belt®, Omega®, PSI®, Shafer®, Stearns®, Highfield®, Thomas®, Centa® and Tollok™.

        We sell our Process & Motion Control products and services into a diverse group of attractive end markets, including food and beverage, aerospace, mining, energy and power generation, cement and aggregates, forest and wood products, agriculture, petrochemical, marine, general industrial and automation applications.

        We have established long-term relationships with OEMs and end users serving a wide variety of industries. As a result of our long-term relationships with OEMs and end users, we have created a significant installed base for our Process & Motion Control products, which are consumed or worn in use and have a relatively predictable replacement cycle. We believe this replacement dynamic drives recurring maintenance, repair, and operations ("MRO") demand for our products. We estimate that approximately half of our Process & Motion Control net sales are to distributors, who provide an aftermarket channel to primarily serve OEM and end-user MRO demand generated by the installed base of our products through approximately 2,600 distribution points across 110 countries.

        Most of our products are critical components in large scale manufacturing processes, where the cost of component failure and resulting down-time is high. Many customer facilities have a range of requirements and applications for multiple products across our expansive product portfolio. We believe our reputation for superior quality, reliability, application expertise, and ability to meet lead time expectations are highly valued by our customers, as demonstrated by their preference to specify and purchase Rexnord products when it is time to replace an installed Rexnord product, or "like-for-like" product replacements. We believe this replacement dynamic for our products, our focus on capturing first-fit installations, our significant installed base, and our global supply chain and manufacturing footprint enables us to achieve premium pricing, world-class customer satisfaction, recurring revenue generation, and a competitive advantage.

        Our Water Management platform designs, procures, manufactures, and markets products that provide and enhance water quality, safety, flow control and conservation. The Water Management product portfolio includes professional grade water control and safety, water distribution and drainage, finish plumbing, and site works products primarily for nonresidential buildings. Our products are marketed and sold under widely recognized brand names, including Zurn®, Wilkins®, Green Turtle®, World Dryer®, StainlessDrains.com™ and JUST®.

        Over the past century, the businesses that comprise our Water Management platform have established themselves as innovators and leading designers, manufacturers and distributors of highly engineered products and solutions that control the flow, delivery, treatment and conservation of water to the institutional and commercial construction end markets and, to a lesser extent, the infrastructure and residential construction end markets. Segments of the institutional construction end market include government, healthcare, and education. Segments of the commercial construction end market include: lodging, retail, dining, sports arenas and warehouse/office. Segments of the infrastructure end market include: municipal water and wastewater and transportation. The demand for our Water Management products is primarily driven by new commercial and institutional building construction, the retrofit of existing structures (to make them more energy and water efficient) and, to a lesser extent, new infrastructure and residential construction.

        Our Water Management products are principally specification-driven and project-critical and typically represent a low percentage of the overall project cost. We believe these characteristics, coupled with our extensive distribution network, create

a high level of end-user loyalty for our products and allow us to maintain leading market shares in the majority of our product lines. We believe we have become a market leader in the industry by meeting the stringent country specific regulatory, building, and plumbing code requirements and subsequently achieving specification of our products into projects and applications. The majority of these stringent testing and regulatory approval processes are completed through the Foundation for Cross-Connection Control and Hydraulic Research at the University of Southern California, the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials ("IAPMO"), the National Sanitation Foundation ("NSF"), the Plumbing and Drainage Institute ("PDI"), the Underwriters Laboratories ("UL"), Factory Mutual ("FM") and the American Waterworks Association ("AWWA") prior to the commercialization of our products.

        Our Water Management platform has an extensive sales and marketing network spanning approximately 30 countries, which consists of approximately 1,200 independent sales representatives across 200 sales agencies. Specifically, it has been our experience that, once an architect, engineer, contractor, or owner has specified our product with satisfactory results, that person will generally continue to use our products in future projects. The inclusion of our products with project specifications, combined with our ability to innovate, engineer, and deliver products and systems that save time and money for engineers, contractors, builders and architects has resulted in growing demand for our products. Our distribution model is predicated upon maintaining high product availability near our customers. We believe that this model provides us with a competitive advantage as we are able to meet our customer demand with local inventory at significantly reduced lead times as compared to others in our industry.

        We evaluate our competitive position in our markets based on available market data, relevant benchmarks compared to our relative peer group and industry trends. We generally do not participate in segments of our served markets that have been commoditized or in applications that do not require differentiation based on product quality, reliability and innovation. In both of our platforms, we believe the end markets we serve span a broad and diverse array of commercial and industrial end markets with solid fundamental long-term growth characteristics. Despite the ongoing impact of COVID-19, we believe that there is still long-term growth potential.

        The market for Process & Motion Control products is very fragmented with most participants having single or limited product lines and serving specific geographic markets. While there are numerous competitors with limited product offerings, there are only a few national and international competitors of a size comparable to us. While we compete with certain domestic and international competitors across a portion of our product lines, we do not believe that any one competitor directly competes with us across each of our product line categories. The industry's customer base is broadly diversified across many sectors of the economy. Growth in the Process & Motion Control market is closely tied to overall growth in industrial production, which we believe has fundamental and significant long-term growth potential despite the ongoing impact of COVID-19. In addition, through innovating to meet customer demand changes and focusing on higher growth end-markets, we believe Process & Motion Control growth rates can exceed overall United States industrial production.

        The Process & Motion Control market is also characterized by the need for sophisticated engineering experience, the ability to design and produce a broad number of niche products with short lead times and long-standing customer relationships. We believe entry into our markets by competitors with lower labor costs, including foreign competitors, will be limited due to the fact that we manufacture highly specialized niche products that are critical components in large-scale manufacturing processes. In addition, we believe the industry trend of customers increasingly consolidating their vendor bases should allow Process & Motion Control, with our broad product offerings to capture additional market share.

        The markets in which our Water Management platform participates are relatively fragmented with competitors across a broad range of industries, sectors, and product lines. Although competition exists across all of our Water Management businesses, we do not believe that any one competitor directly competes with us across all of our product lines. We believe that our served markets are growing long term at relatively strong rates, and that the growing demand for water conservation, quality, and safety can potentially support market growth above that of overall United States industrial production. We believe that we can continue to grow our platform long term at rates above the growth rate of the overall market and the growth rate of our competition, by focusing our efforts and resources towards end markets that have above-average growth characteristics despite the ongoing impact of COVID-19.

        We believe the areas of the Water Management industry in which we compete are tied to growth in commercial and institutional construction, as well as, to a lesser extent, infrastructure. We believe these areas have significant long-term growth fundamentals despite the ongoing impact of COVID-19. Historically, the commercial, institutional and infrastructure construction sectors have been more stable and less vulnerable to down-cycles than the residential construction industry. Compared with residential construction cycles, downturns in infrastructure, commercial and institutional construction have been

shorter and less severe, and upturns have lasted longer and had higher peaks in terms of spending as well as units and square footage. In addition, we believe that water management manufacturers with innovative products, like ours, are able to grow at a faster pace than the broader infrastructure, commercial, and institutional construction markets, as well as mitigate cyclical downturns in market growth.

        The Water Management industry's specification-driven end-markets require manufacturers to work closely with engineers, contractors, builders and architects in local markets to design specific applications on a project-by-project basis. As a result, building and maintaining relationships with architects, engineers, contractors and builders, who specify products for use in construction projects, and having flexibility in design and product innovation are critical to compete effectively in the market. Companies with a strong network of such relationships have a competitive advantage. Specifically, it has been our experience that, once an engineer, contractor, builder, or architect has specified our product with satisfactory results, that person often will continue to use our products in future projects.

        Our Process & Motion Control products are generally critical components in the machinery or plant in which they operate, yet they typically account for a low percentage of an end user's total production cost. We believe, because the costs associated with a Process & Motion Control product failure to the end user can be substantial, end users in most of the markets we serve focus on Process & Motion Control products with superior quality, reliability, and availability, rather than considering price alone, when making a purchasing decision. We believe that the key to success in our industry is to develop and maintain a reputation for quality and reliability, as well as create and maintain an extensive distribution network, which we believe leads to a strong preference to replace products "like-for-like" while driving recurring MRO revenues and linking first-fit specifications to market share gain. Our leading Process & Motion Control brands include Rexnord®, Rex®, Addax®, Euroflex®, Falk®, FlatTop®, Cambridge®, Link-Belt®, Omega®, PSI®, Shafer®, Stearns®, Highfield®, Thomas®, Centa® and Tollok™.

         We also produce custom-engineered, application-specific miniature gearboxes and motion control assemblies and components that are supplied to a variety of end markets, including aerospace and defense, medical equipment, robotics, semiconductor, instrumentation, and satellite communications.

        We are a leading manufacturer and supplier of highly engineered mechanical power transmission components used to control, support and protect rotating shafts within machinery, process automation and discrete automation applications. Rotating shafts transmit system power to the moving elements in machinery and equipment. Our shaft management products include couplings, torque limiters, electromagnetic clutches and brakes, industrial bearings and shaft locking assemblies. Couplings are primarily used in high-speed, high-torque applications and are the interface between two shafts that permit power to be safely and efficiently transmitted from one shaft to the other. Torque limiters, clutches, and brakes are used in machinery applications to safely control shaft engagement and stopping. Industrial bearings are components that support, guide and reduce the friction of motion between fixed and moving machine parts. We primarily produce mounted bearings, which are offered in a variety of specialized housings to suit specific industrial applications, and generally command higher margins than unmounted bearings. Shaft locking assemblies are used to secure machine shafts to hubs through a mechanical interference fit that eliminates shaft backlash and improves transmission of high torques and axial loads. Our shaft management products are used in a wide range of end markets that include food and beverage, mining, energy and power generation, aggregates processing,

pulp and paper, steel, chemical, forest and wood products, construction and agricultural equipment, marine, and general industrial and automation.

        We supply our aerospace components primarily to the commercial and military aircraft end markets for use in door systems, engine accessories, engine controls, engine mounts, flight control systems, gearboxes, landing gear and rotor pitch controls. The majority of our sales are to engine and airframe OEMs that specify our aerospace bearing and mechanical seal products for their aircraft and turbine engine platforms, often based on proprietary designs, capabilities and solutions. We also supply highly specialized gears and related products through our aerospace-focused build-to-print manufacturing operations.

        Water Management products tend to be project-critical, highly-engineered and high value-add and typically are a low percentage of overall project cost. We believe the combination of these features creates a high level of end-user loyalty, reinforced by our investments in developing innovative new product solutions. Demand for these products is influenced by regulatory, building and plumbing code requirements. Many Water Management products must meet the stringent country-specific regulatory, building, and plumbing code requirements prior to the commercialization of our products (such as IAPMO, NSF, UL, FM, PDI and AWWA). In addition, many of these products must meet detailed specifications set by water management engineers, contractors, builders, and architects. Among our leading brands are Zurn® and Wilkins®.

        Our water safety, quality, and flow control products are sold under the Zurn and Wilkins brand names and encompass a wide range of valve products, distribution and drainage products and site works products. Key valve products include backflow preventers, fire system valves, pressure reducing valves and thermostatic mixing valves. These highly-specified and engineered flow control devices protect and control the potable water supply and emergency water supply within a building or site. Designed to meet the stringent requirements of independent test labs, such as the Foundation for Cross Connection Control and Hydraulic Research at USC, NSF, UL and FM, they are sold into commercial, institutional, and industrial new construction and retrofit applications as well as the fire protection, municipal water and wastewater and irrigation end markets.

        Engineered water distribution solutions that protect human health and gravity drainage products that protect the environment are sold under the Zurn brand and are typically required in the early stages of a construction or retrofit project, when potable water and non-potable water distribution and drainage systems are installed. Specification drainage products include point drains (such as roof drains and floor drains), hydrants, fixture carrier systems, and chemical drainage systems that are used to control storm water, process water and potable water in various commercial, institutional, industrial, civil and irrigation applications. Water distribution products include PEX piping, valves, fittings and installation tools. PEX tubing is manufactured from cross-linked polyethylene and is designed for high temperature and pressure fluid distribution piping applications for both potable water and radiant heating systems in the residential and nonresidential construction industries. These systems are engineered to meet stringent NSF and ASTM standards helping water professionals provide safe and efficient building and site water management solutions.

        Site works products are commonly installed within a building or on a site to manage storm water and wastewater. Linear drainage systems are used to capture and direct storm water in a wide variety of commercial, institutional, industrial and transportation infrastructure applications. Our wastewater pre-treatment products include oil and grease interceptors and separators, acid neutralization systems and remote monitoring systems and are marketed under the Zurn and Green Turtle brands. Interceptors are used to separate and capture fats, oils, and greases from wastewater before it is discharged into the municipal wastewater collection system. Our proprietary designs are primarily fabricated from fiberglass reinforced polyester, which we believe is gaining market share from traditional concrete products due to its reliability, service life, ease of service, and lowest cost of ownership. Applications include restaurants and institutional foodservice operations, office buildings, hotels, entertainment venues, schools, grocery and convenience stores, airports, vehicle service garages, and fleet operations and maintenance facilities; acid neutralization systems are primarily used in schools, hospitals and laboratories.

        Water conservation and finish plumbing products are typically required in the latter stages of a construction or retrofit project, when interior spaces are being outfitted with fixtures, valves and faucets. Zurn's finish plumbing products include manual and sensor-operated flush valves marketed under the Aquaflush®, AquaSense® and AquaVantage® names and heavy-duty commercial faucets marketed under the AquaSpec® name. Innovative water conserving fixtures are marketed under the EcoVantage® and Zurn One® names. These products are commonly used in office buildings, schools, hospitals, airports, sports facilities, convention centers, shopping malls, restaurants, and industrial production buildings. The Zurn One Systems® integrate valve and/or faucet products with fixtures into complete, easily customizable plumbing systems, and thus provide a valuable time and cost-saving means of delivering commercial and institutional bathroom fixtures. The EcoVantage fixture systems promote water-efficiency and low consumption of water that deliver savings for building owners in new construction and retrofit bathroom fixture installations.

        In fiscal 2018, we acquired World Dryer Corporation ("World Dryer"), a leading global manufacturer of commercial electric hand dryers. In fiscal 2020, we acquired Just Manufacturing Company ("Just Manufacturing") a leading manufacturer of stainless steel sinks and plumbing fixtures primarily used in institutional and commercial end markets. The combination of World Dryer’s eco-friendly hand dryers, Just Manufacturing's stainless steel product portfolio and Zurn's water-efficient plumbing products allows us to deliver more finish plumbing content to new and existing buildings.

        Mergers and acquisitions are a critical part of the Rexnord growth strategy. Our strategy is to build around our global strategic platforms by acquiring leading industrial manufacturing companies in attractive markets with businesses that we believe will benefit from RBS to increase customer satisfaction, revenue growth and operating margins. In our last three fiscal years, we have completed several acquisitions within our Process & Motion Control and Water Management platforms focused on expanding our product portfolio and global presence in the end markets we serve; those acquisitions are further described below. The respective purchase prices for these transactions are stated net of cash acquired and exclude transaction costs.

        In addition to making acquisitions, we periodically review our operations to determine whether it would be in our interest to divest of certain non-core or non-strategic businesses. Information regarding divestitures within our Water Management platforms during recent fiscal years is included below.

        Our Process & Motion Control components are either incorporated into products sold by OEMs or sold to end users for their MRO requirements either directly in certain regions or, more commonly, through industrial distributors as aftermarket products. While approximately 44% of our Process & Motion Control net sales are through our distribution partners, OEMs and end users ultimately drive the demand for our Process & Motion Control products. With approximately 2,600 distributor locations worldwide, we have one of the most extensive distribution networks in the industry.

        Rather than serving as passive conduits for delivery of product, our industrial distributors participate in the overall competitive dynamic in the Process & Motion Control industry. Industrial distributors play a role in determining which of our Process & Motion Control products are stocked at their distributor centers and branch locations and, consequently, are most readily accessible to MRO buyers, and the price at which these products are sold.

        We market our Process & Motion Control products both to OEMs and directly to end users to create preference of our products through end-user specification. We believe this customer preference is important in differentiating our Process & Motion Control products from our competitors' products and preserves our ability to create channel partnerships where distributors will recommend Rexnord products to OEMs and end users. In some instances, we have established a relationship with the end user such that we, the end user, and the end user's preferred distributor enter into a trilateral agreement whereby the distributor will purchase our Process & Motion Control products and stock them for the end user. We believe our extensive product portfolio positions us to benefit from the trend towards rationalizing suppliers by industrial distributors.

        Our water safety, quality, flow control and conservation products are sold for new construction, remodeling and retrofit applications to customers in our commercial construction, institutional, infrastructure and residential construction end markets and are distributed through independent sales representatives, plumbing wholesalers and industry-specific distributors in the waterworks, foodservice, industrial, janitorial, sanitation and siteworks industries. Our independent sales representatives work with architects, engineers, building owners and operators, contractors, and builders, to specify our water safety, quality, flow control and conservation products for their use and with wholesalers to assess and meet the needs of building contractors in construction projects. They also combine knowledge of our products’ installation methods and delivery availability with knowledge of the local markets to provide contractors with value-added service. We use approximately 1,200 independent sales representatives, along with a network of regional distribution centers and third-party warehouses, to provide our customers with same-day service and quick response times. Zurn and Wilkins benefit from strong brand recognition, which is further bolstered by a strong propensity to replace "like-for-like" products.

        In addition to our domestic Water Management manufacturing facilities, we have maintained a global network of independent sources that manufacture high quality, lower-cost component parts for our commercial, institutional, infrastructure, and residential products. These sources fabricate parts to our specifications using our proprietary designs, which enables us to focus on product engineering, assembly, testing and quality control. By closely monitoring these sources and through extensive product testing, we are able to maintain product quality and be a cost-competitive producer of commercial and institutional products.

        The majority of our new product development begins with our extensive "Voice of the Customer" operating philosophy. We have a team of approximately 380 engineers and technical employees who are organized by product line. Each of our product lines has technical staff responsible for product development and application support. The Rexnord Innovation Center provides additional support through enhanced capabilities and specialty expertise that can be utilized for product innovation and new product development. The Rexnord Innovation Center is a certified lab comprised of approximately 30 specialists that offers testing capability and design support during the development process to all of our product lines. Our existing pipeline and continued investment in new product development are expected to drive revenue growth as we address key customer needs.

        In both of our Process & Motion Control and Water Management platforms, we have demonstrated a commitment to developing technologically advanced products within the industries we serve. In the Process & Motion Control platform, we had approximately 200 United States active patents and approximately 900 active foreign patents as of March 31, 2020. In

addition, we thoroughly test our Process & Motion Control products to ensure their quality, understand their wear characteristics and improve their performance. These practices have enabled us, together with our customers, to develop reliable and functional Process & Motion Control solutions. In our Water Management platform, we had approximately 200 United States active patents and approximately 100 foreign active patents as of March 31, 2020. Product innovation is crucial in the commercial and institutional plumbing products markets because new products must continually be developed to meet specifications and regulatory demands. Zurn's plumbing products are known in the industry for such innovation.

        The principal materials used in our Process & Motion Control and Water Management manufacturing processes are commodities and components available from numerous sources. The key materials used in our Process & Motion Control manufacturing processes include: sheet, plate and bar steel, castings, forgings, high-performance engineered plastic and a variety of components. Within our Water Management platform, we purchase a broad range of materials and components throughout the world in connection with our manufacturing activities that include: bar steel, brass, castings, copper, zinc, forgings, plate steel, high-performance engineered plastic and resin. Our global sourcing strategy is to maintain alternate sources of supply for our important materials and components wherever possible within both our Process & Motion Control and Water Management platforms. Historically, we have been able to successfully source materials, and consequently are not dependent on a single source for any significant raw material or component. As a result, we believe there is a readily available supply of materials in sufficient quantity from a variety of sources to serve both our short-term and long-term requirements. Additionally, we have not experienced any significant shortage of our key materials and have not historically engaged in hedging transactions for commodity supplies. We generally purchase our materials on the open market. However, in certain situations we have found it advantageous to enter into contracts for certain commodity purchases. Although currently we are not a party to any unconditional purchase obligations, including take-or-pay contracts or through-put contracts, these contracts generally have had one to five-year terms and have contained competitive and benchmarking clauses to ensure competitive pricing.

        Our backlog of unshipped orders was $381 million and $373 million as of March 31, 2020 and March 31, 2019, respectively. As of March 31, 2020, approximately 11% of our backlog was scheduled to ship beyond March 31, 2021. Also, see Item 1A Risk Factors of this report for more information on the risks associated with backlog.

        We do not experience significant seasonality of demand for our Process & Motion Control products, although sales generally are slightly higher during our fourth fiscal quarter as our customers spend against recently approved capital budgets and perform maintenance and repairs in advance of spring and summer activity. Our Process & Motion Control end markets also do not experience significant seasonality of demand.

        Demand for our Water Management products is primarily driven by commercial and institutional construction activity, remodeling and retrofit opportunities, and to a lesser extent, new home starts as well as water and wastewater infrastructure expansion. Accordingly, weather has an impact on the seasonality of certain end markets. With the exception of our remodeling and retrofit opportunities, weather is an important variable as it significantly impacts construction. Spring and summer months in the United States and Canada represent the main construction season for increased construction in the commercial, institutional and infrastructure markets, as well as new housing starts. As a result, sales generally decrease slightly in the third and fourth fiscal quarters as compared to the first two quarters of the fiscal year. The autumn and winter months generally impede construction and installation activity.

        Our business also depends upon general economic conditions and other market factors beyond our control, and we serve customers in cyclical industries. As a result, our operating results have been, and in the future could be, negatively affected during economic downturns, including the current economic slowdown caused by COVID-19. See Item 1A Risk Factors of this report for more information on the risks associated with general economic conditions and COVID-19.

        As of March 31, 2020, we had approximately 6,800 employees, of whom approximately 3,500 were employed in the United States. Approximately 200 of our United States employees are represented by labor unions. We are currently party to three collective bargaining agreements in the United States. The remaining three collective bargaining agreements have expiration dates in November 2021, May 2022 and June 2022. Additionally, approximately 1,200 of our employees reside in Europe, where trade union membership is common. We believe we have a strong relationship with our employees, including those represented by labor unions.

        Our operations and facilities worldwide are subject to extensive laws and regulations related to pollution and the protection of the environment, health and safety, including those governing, among other things, emissions to air, discharges to water, the generation, handling, storage, treatment and disposal of hazardous wastes and other materials, and the remediation of contaminated sites. A failure by us to comply with applicable requirements or the permits required for our operations could result in civil or criminal fines, penalties, enforcement actions, third-party claims for property damage and personal injury, requirements to clean up property or to pay for the costs of cleanup or regulatory or judicial orders enjoining or curtailing operations or requiring corrective measures, including the installation of pollution control equipment or remedial actions.

        Some environmental laws and regulations impose requirements to investigate and remediate contamination on present and former owners and operators of facilities and sites, and on a potentially responsible party ("PRP") for sites to which such parties may have sent waste for disposal. Such liability can be imposed without regard to fault and, under certain circumstances, may be joint and several, resulting in one PRP being held responsible for the entire obligation. Liability may also include damages to natural resources. On occasion we are involved in such investigations and/or cleanup, and also have been or could be named as a PRP in environmental matters.

        The address of our principal executive office is 511 West Freshwater Way, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53204. Our phone number is (414) 643-3739. Our website address is www.rexnordcorporation.com. We make available free of charge, on or through our website, as soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and proxy statements on Schedule 14A, as well as amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act. Copies of any materials that we file with the SEC can also be obtained free of charge through the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. In addition, the (i) charters for the Audit, Nominating and Corporate Governance, and Compensation Committees of our Board of Directors; (ii) our Corporate Governance Guidelines; and (iii) our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics are also available on our website. We will also post any amendments to these documents, or information about any waivers granted to directors or executive officers with respect to the Code of Ethics, on our website. Our website and the information contained on or connected to that site are not incorporated by reference into this Form 10-K.

        The risks described below are not the only risks facing Rexnord. Additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to us, or those risks we currently view to be immaterial, may also materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. In addition, see Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in Item 7 for a further discussion of some of the factors that could affect future results. If any of these risks materialize, our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows could be materially and adversely affected.

        Strategic risk relates to the Company's business plans and strategies, including the risks associated with: competitive threats; the global macro-environment in which we operate; international uncertainties, including increasing tariffs or other trade protection measures as well as trade wars; restructuring initiatives; mergers and acquisitions; protection of intellectual property; and other risks, including customer concentration, reliance on independent distributors and retention of key personnel.

        We operate in highly competitive markets in both of our platforms. Some of our competitors have achieved substantially more market penetration in certain of the markets in which we operate. Some of our competitors are larger and may have greater financial and other resources than we do, and our competitors may adopt more aggressive sales policies and devote greater resources to the development, promotion and sale of their products than we do, all of which could result in a loss of customers and in turn adversely affect our results of operations.

        We operate in highly fragmented markets within the Process & Motion Control platform. As a result, we compete against numerous companies. Competition in our business lines is based on a number of considerations, including product performance, cost of transportation in the distribution of products, brand reputation, quality of client service and support, product availability and price. Additionally, some of our larger customers continue to attempt to reduce the number of vendors

from which they purchase in order to increase their efficiency. If we are not selected to become one of these preferred providers, we may lose access to certain sections of the markets in which we compete. Our customers increasingly demand a competitively priced broad product range and we must continue to develop our expertise in order to manufacture and market these products successfully. To remain competitive, we will need to invest continuously in manufacturing, customer service and support, marketing and our distribution networks. We cannot assure that we will have sufficient resources to continue to make these investments or that we will maintain our competitive position within each of the markets we serve.

        Within the Water Management platform, we compete against both large international and national rivals, as well as many regional competitors. Significant competition in any of the markets in which the Water Management platform operates could result in substantial downward pressure on product pricing and our profit margins, thereby adversely affecting the Water Management platform's financial results. Furthermore, we cannot provide assurance that we will be able to maintain or increase the current market share of our products successfully in the future.

        In order to operate more efficiently, control costs and refine our business focus, we undertake from time to time restructuring plans, which can include global facility consolidations, product rationalizations, workforce reductions and other cost reduction initiatives. We also choose to divest operations that we no longer believe are additive or complementary to our platforms or strategic direction, such as our fiscal 2019 disposition of the VAG business. These plans are intended to reduce operating costs, to modify our footprint to reflect changes in the markets we serve, to reflect changes in business focus, to strengthen focus on our core business and/or to address overall manufacturing overcapacity, including as a result of acquisitions. In addition to our announced Supply Chain Optimization and Footprint Repositioning initiatives, we may undertake further restructuring actions, workforce reductions or divestitures in the future as we evaluate our business in connection with the economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. These types of activities are complex. If we do not successfully manage our current restructuring activities, or any other restructuring activities or divestitures that we may undertake in the future, expected efficiencies, benefits and cost savings might be delayed or not realized, and our operations and business could be disrupted.

        In addition, as a result of such actions, we expect to incur restructuring expenses and other charges (including, for example, potential impairment charges related to fixed assets, goodwill and other intangibles), which may be material, and may exceed our estimates. Several factors could cause restructuring or divestiture activities to adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. These include potential disruption of our operations, customer relationships and other aspects of our business. Employee morale and productivity could also suffer or result in unwanted employee attrition. These activities require substantial management time and attention and may divert management from other important work or result in a failure to meet operational targets. Divestitures may also give rise to obligations to buyers or other parties that could have a financial effect after the transaction is completed. Moreover, we could encounter changes to, or delays in executing, any restructuring or divestiture plans, any of which could cause further disruption and additional unanticipated expense.

        The successful implementation of our business strategy requires us to continuously evolve our existing products and introduce new products to meet customers' needs in the industries we serve. Our products are characterized by stringent performance and specification requirements that mandate a high degree of manufacturing and engineering expertise. If we fail to meet these requirements, our business could be at risk. We believe that our customers rigorously evaluate their suppliers on the basis of a number of factors, including product quality, price competitiveness, technical and manufacturing expertise, development and product design capability, new product innovation, reliability and timeliness of delivery, operational flexibility, customer service and overall management. Our success will depend on our ability to continue to meet our customers' changing specifications with respect to these criteria. We cannot ensure that we will be able to address technological advances or introduce new products that may be necessary to remain competitive within our businesses. Further, such new products and technologies may create additional exposure or risk. We cannot ensure that we can adequately protect any of our own technological developments to produce a sustainable competitive advantage. Furthermore, we may be subject to business continuity risk in the event of an unexpected loss of a material facility or operation. We cannot ensure that we can adequately protect against such a loss.

        Our business operations have been adversely affected from time to time by volatility and weaknesses in the global economy and financial markets. The current economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to adversely

affect our future financial condition, results of operations and cash flows, though we are unable to predict the extent of the impact at this time due to the uncertainty regarding the duration and economic impact of the pandemic. Weak, challenging or volatile economic conditions in the end markets, businesses or geographic areas in which we sell our products are expected to reduce demand for products and result in a decrease in sales volume, which would have a negative impact on our future results of operations.

        Our financial performance depends, in large part, on conditions in the markets that we serve in the U.S. and the global economy generally. Some of the industries we serve are highly cyclical, such as the aerospace, energy and industrial equipment industries, and some industries are expected to experience greater COVID-19-related impacts than others. We have undertaken cost reduction programs as well as diversified our markets to mitigate the effects of economic downturns; however, such programs may be unsuccessful. Any sustained weakness in demand or downturn or uncertainty in the economy generally, would materially reduce our net sales and profitability.

        For example, sales to the construction industry are driven by trends in commercial and residential construction, housing starts and trends in residential repair and remodeling. Consumer confidence, employment rates, weather conditions, mortgage rates, credit standards and availability of consumer credit and income levels play a significant role in driving demand in commercial and residential construction, repair and remodeling sector. A drop or weakness in consumer confidence, prolonged adverse weather conditions, lack of availability or increased cost of credit, credit standards or unemployment could delay a recovery of commercial and residential construction levels and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows. This may express itself in substantial downward pressure on product pricing and our profit margins, thereby adversely affecting our financial results.

        Additionally, some of our products are used in the energy, mining and cement and aggregates markets. Reductions and volatility in the prices of petroleum-related products and certain other mined raw materials costs have historically adversely affected the energy and mining industries, reducing their capital investments and the demand for certain of our products. Some customers may defer or cancel anticipated expenditures, projects or expansions until such time as these projects will be profitable based on the underlying cost of commodities compared to the cost of the project. Weakness in those markets may also affect pricing of our products that are sold for use in those markets.

        Volatility and disruption of financial markets, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, could limit the ability of our customers to obtain adequate financing to maintain operations and may cause them to terminate existing purchase orders, reduce the volume of products they purchase from us in the future or impact their ability to pay their receivables. Adverse economic and financial market conditions may also cause our suppliers to be unable to meet their commitments to us or may cause suppliers to make changes in the credit terms they extend to us, such as shortening the required payment period for outstanding accounts receivable or reducing or eliminating the amount of trade credit available to us.

        Acquisitions are part of our growth strategy. We cannot ensure that we will be able to complete any such acquisition, that we will be able to successfully integrate any acquired business or operations, or that we will be able to accomplish our strategic objectives as a result of any such acquisition. Nor can we ensure that our acquisition strategies will be successfully received by customers or achieve their intended benefits.

        Acquisitions are often undertaken to improve the operating results of either or both of the acquirer and the acquired company and we cannot ensure that we will be successful in this regard. We cannot provide any assurance that we will be able to fully realize the intended benefits from our acquisitions. We have encountered, and may encounter, various risks in acquiring other companies including the possible inability to integrate an acquired business into our operations, potential failure to realize anticipated benefits, diversion of management's attention, issues in customer transitions, potential inadequacies of indemnities and other contractual remedies and unanticipated problems, risks or liabilities, including environmental, some or all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.

        Our business remains subject to certain risks associated with doing business internationally. A significant portion of our sales are international; approximately 29% of our total net sales in fiscal 2020 originated outside of the U.S. Additionally, we have significant manufacturing operations outside of the U.S. Accordingly, our future results could be harmed by a variety of factors relating to global operations, including:

        As we continue to expand our business globally, our success will depend, in large part, on our ability to anticipate and effectively manage these and other risks associated with our international operations. However, any of these factors could have a material adverse effect on our international operations and, consequently, our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.

        A substantial part of our business is concentrated with a few customers, and we have certain customers that are significant to our business. During fiscal 2020, our top 5 customers accounted for approximately 25.8% of our consolidated net sales, our largest customer accounted for less than 10% of consolidated net sales for the year ended March 31, 2020. The loss of one or more of these customers or other major customers, or a deterioration in our relationship with any of them could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.

        Our contracted backlog is comprised of future orders for our products from a broad number of customers. Defaults by any of the customers that have placed significant orders with us could have a significant adverse effect on our net sales, profitability and cash flow. Our customers may in the future default on their obligations to us due to bankruptcy, lack of liquidity, operational failure or other reasons deriving from the general economic environment or circumstances affecting those customers in particular. We believe that these risks are heightened due to the global economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. If a customer defaults on its obligations to us, it could have a material adverse effect on our backlog, business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows. As of March 31, 2020, approximately 11% of our backlog was scheduled to ship beyond March 31, 2021.

        In addition to our own direct sales force, we depend on the services of independent distributors to sell our Process & Motion Control products and provide service and aftermarket support to our OEMs and end users. We rely on an extensive distribution network, with nearly 2,600 distributor locations nationwide; however, for fiscal 2020, approximately 20% of our Process & Motion Control net sales were generated through sales to three of our key independent distributors, the largest of which accounted for 13% of Process & Motion Control net sales. Within Water Management, we depend on 1,200 independent sales representatives and approximately 60 third-party warehouses to distribute our products; however, for fiscal 2020, our three key independent distributors generated approximately 40% of our Water Management net sales with the largest accounting for 25% of Water Management net sales.

        The loss of one of our key distributors or of a substantial number of our other distributors or an increase in the distributors' sales of our competitors' products to our customers could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.

        We attempt to protect our intellectual property through a combination of patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret protection, as well as third-party nondisclosure and assignment agreements. We cannot assure that any of our applications for protection of our intellectual property rights will be approved and maintained or that our competitors will not infringe or

successfully challenge our intellectual property rights. We also rely on unpatented proprietary technology. It is possible that others will independently develop the same or similar technology or otherwise obtain access to our unpatented technology. To protect our trade secrets and other proprietary information, we require employees, consultants and advisors to enter into confidentiality agreements. We cannot assure that these agreements will provide meaningful protection for our trade secrets, know-how or other proprietary information in the event of any unauthorized use, misappropriation or disclosure. If we are unable to maintain the proprietary nature of our technologies, our ability to sustain margins on some or all of our products may be affected, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, reputation, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.

        In addition, in the ordinary course of our operations, from time to time we pursue and are pursued in potential litigation relating to the protection of certain intellectual property rights, including some of our more profitable products. An adverse ruling or other unfavorable outcome in any such litigation could have a material adverse effect on our business, reputation, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.

        As a global company with a large international footprint, we are subject to increased risk of damage or disruption to us, our employees, facilities, partners, suppliers, distributors, resellers or customers due to acts of terrorism, political conflicts, wars and weather events, in multiple locations around the world. In addition to the issues created by significant weather events, the potential for future attacks, the national and international responses to attacks or perceived threats to national security, and other actual or potential actions, conflicts or wars have created, and will continue to create, economic and political uncertainties. In addition, as a global company with headquarters and significant operations located in the U.S., actions against or by the U.S. may particularly impact our business or employees. Although it is impossible to predict the occurrences or consequences of any such events, they could result in disruptions to our operations, decreases in demand for our products, difficulty or impossibility in delivering products to our customers or receiving components from our suppliers, delays and inefficiencies in our supply chain and risks to our employees, resulting in, among other things, temporarily closed facilities, travel restrictions or longer-term disruptions, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

        Operational risk relates to risks arising from innovation, systems, processes, and external or internal events that affect the operation of our businesses. It includes product life cycle and execution; information management and data protection and security, including cyber security; supply chain and business disruption; and other risks, including human resources and employee relations.

        Our manufacturing processes depend on third parties for raw materials, in particular bar steel, brass, castings, copper, forgings, high-performance engineered plastic, plate steel, resin, sheet steel and zinc, as well as petroleum and other carbon-based fuel products. While we strive to maintain alternative sources for most raw materials, our business is subject to the risk of price fluctuations, including as a result of, or in reaction to, tariffs, import duties, or other trade protection measures instituted by the U.S. or other countries, inefficiencies in the event of a need to change our suppliers, and delays in the delivery of and potential unavailability of our raw materials. Also, trade wars could impact the cost or availability of goods or materials, both imported and domestic, or adversely affect demand for our products. Any such price fluctuations or delays, if material, could harm our profitability or operations. In addition, the loss of a substantial number of suppliers could result in material cost increases or reduce our production capacity.

        We do not typically enter into hedge transactions to reduce our exposure to purchase price risks and cannot ensure that we would be successful in recouping these increases if these risks were to materialize. In addition, if we are unable to continue to purchase our required quantities of raw materials on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, or if we are unable to maintain or enter into our purchasing contracts for our larger commodities, our business operations could be disrupted and our profitability could be impacted in a material adverse manner.

        Utilizing a phased approach, we continue to update our ERP systems across both our Process & Motion Control and Water Management platforms. If these updates are unsuccessful, we could incur substantial business interruptions, including the

inability to perform routine business transactions, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial performance. Further, these updates may not result in the benefits we intend or be implemented on a timely basis.

        In addition, we depend heavily on information technology infrastructure to manage our business objectives and operations, including our DiRXN digital productivity platform, support our customers’ requirements and protect sensitive information. There have been significant and increasing instances of data and security breaches, malicious interference with technology systems and industrial espionage involving companies in numerous industries, including cloud providers, and cyber security threats are becoming more complex. Like other companies, we have experienced these types of threats; however, to date, we have not experienced a material threat or incident. In addition, we currently have a large percentage of our workforce working remotely due to governmental order related to the COVID-19 pandemic, which may heighten these risks. While we have taken steps to maintain and enhance adequate cyber security and address these risks and uncertainties by implementing additional security technologies, internal controls, network and data center resiliency, redundancy and recovery processes and by obtaining insurance coverage, these measures may be inadequate. As a result, any inability by us to successfully manage our information systems, or respond effectively to any attack on or interference with our systems, including matters related to system and data security, privacy, reliability, compliance, performance and access, problems related to our systems caused by natural disasters, security breaches or malicious attacks, and any inability of these systems to fulfill their intended business purpose, could impede our ability to record or process orders, manufacture and ship in a timely manner, account for and collect receivables, protect sensitive data of the Company, our customers, our employees, our suppliers and other business partners, comply with our third party obligations of confidentiality and care, or otherwise carry on business in the normal course. Any such events could require significant costly remediation beyond levels covered by insurance and could cause us to lose customers and/or revenue, require us to incur significant expense to remediate, including as a result of legal or regulatory claims or proceedings, or damage our reputation, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.

        Our success depends on our ability to recruit, retain and develop highly-skilled management and key personnel. Competition for these individuals in our industry is intense and we may not be able to successfully recruit, train or retain qualified personnel, or to effectively implement successions to existing personnel. If we fail to retain and recruit the necessary personnel or arrange for successors to key personnel, our business could materially suffer.

        Demand for our Water Management products is primarily driven by commercial construction activity, remodeling and retrofit opportunities, and to a lesser extent, new home starts. Weather is an important variable affecting financial performance as it significantly impacts construction activity. Adverse weather conditions, such as prolonged periods of cold or rain, blizzards, hurricanes and other severe weather patterns, could delay or halt construction and remodeling activity, which could have a negative effect on our business. For example, an unusually severe winter can lead to reduced construction activity and magnify the seasonal decline in our Water Management net sales and earnings during the winter months. In addition, a prolonged winter season can delay construction and remodeling plans and hamper the typical seasonal increase in net sales and earnings during the spring months.

        As of March 31, 2020, we had approximately 6,800 employees. Our primary risk resides with approximately 1,200 of our employees that reside in Europe, where trade union membership is common. Although we believe that our relations with our employees are strong, if our unionized workers were to engage in a strike, work stoppage or other slowdown in the future, we could experience a significant disruption of our operations, which could interfere with our ability to deliver products on a timely basis and could have other negative effects, such as decreased productivity and increased labor costs. In addition, if a greater percentage of our workforce becomes unionized as a result of legal or regulatory changes which may make union organizing easier, or otherwise, our costs could increase and our efficiency be affected in a material adverse manner, negatively impacting our business and financial results. Further, many of our direct and indirect customers and their suppliers, and organizations responsible for shipping our products, have unionized workforces and their businesses may be impacted by

strikes, work stoppages or slowdowns, any of which, in turn, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.

        Financial risk relates to our ability to meet our financial obligations. It includes our highly leveraged capital structure, compliance with covenants related to our credit agreement and our 4.875% Senior Notes due 2025 (the "Notes"), limits on access to liquidity and restrictive credit-related agreements.

        Although we reduced our long-term debt in recent years, we are still a highly leveraged company. Our ability to generate sufficient cash flow from operations to make scheduled payments on our debt will depend on a range of economic, competitive and business factors, many of which are outside our control. Our business may not generate sufficient cash flow from operations to meet our debt service and other obligations, and currently anticipated cost savings and operating improvements may not be realized on schedule, or at all. If we are unable to meet our expenses and debt service and other obligations, we may need to refinance all or a portion of our indebtedness on or before maturity, sell assets or raise equity. We may not be able to refinance any of our indebtedness, sell assets or raise equity on commercially reasonable terms or at all, which could cause us to default on our obligations and impair our liquidity. Our inability to generate sufficient cash flow to satisfy our debt obligations or to refinance our obligations on commercially reasonable terms would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

        Our substantial indebtedness could also have other important consequences with respect to our ability to manage and grow our business successfully, including the following:

        Furthermore, a substantial portion of our indebtedness, including the senior secured credit facilities and borrowings outstanding under our accounts receivable securitization facility, bears interest at rates that fluctuate with changes in certain short-term prevailing interest rates, including the London Interbank Offered Rate ("LIBOR"). In addition, the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority announced that after 2021 it would no longer persuade or compel panel banks to submit the rates required to calculate LIBOR, and it is unclear whether the banks currently reporting information used to set LIBOR will stop doing so after 2021. Although the consequences of these developments cannot be predicted at this time, should LIBOR or an alternative index no longer be available, the rates under our variable rate indebtedness could increase and access to capital could be limited. During fiscal 2020, the agreement governing our senior security credit facility was amended to provide that if LIBOR becomes unavailable, we would work with our banks to establish an alternate rate of interest that gives due consideration to the then-prevailing market convention for determining interest rates for syndicated loans in the United States. See Item 7A, Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk for additional information on our debt that is subject to the LIBOR rate.

        Also, in spite of the limitations in our credit agreement and/or the Indenture, we may still incur significantly more debt, which could intensify the risks described above on our business, results and financial condition. For more information about our indebtedness, see Item 8, Note 11, Long-Term Debt.

Our credit agreement and the Indenture contain various covenants that limit or prohibit our ability (subject to certain exceptions), among other things, to:

The restrictions contained in the credit agreement and/or the Indenture could:

        Upon the occurrence of an event of default under the credit agreement and/or the Indenture, the lenders or the noteholders could elect to declare all amounts outstanding under the senior secured credit facilities and/or the Notes to be immediately due and payable and terminate all commitments to extend further credit. If we were unable to repay those amounts, the lenders under the senior secured credit facilities could proceed against the collateral granted to them to secure the senior secured credit facilities on a first- priority lien basis. If the lenders under the senior secured credit facilities or the noteholders accelerate the repayment of borrowings, such acceleration could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows. For a more detailed description of the limitations on our ability to incur additional indebtedness, see Item 7 Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations-Liquidity and Capital Resources.

        As of March 31, 2020, our goodwill and intangible assets totaled $1,321.9 million and $514.2 million, respectively, and represent a substantial portion of our assets. These assets result from our acquisitions, representing the excess of cost over the fair value of the tangible net assets we have acquired. We assess at least annually whether there has been impairment in the value of our goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible assets. Significant negative industry or economic trends, disruptions to our business, inability to effectively integrate acquired businesses, unexpected significant changes or planned changes to the use of our assets, changes in the structure of our business, divestitures, market capitalization declines, or increases in associated discount rates may impair our goodwill and other intangible assets. Any determination requiring the impairment of goodwill or intangible assets would negatively affect our results of operations, particularly in the period in which we take any related charges, and financial condition.

        The funded status of the defined benefit pension plans depends on such factors as asset returns, market interest rates, legislative changes and funding regulations. If the returns on the assets of any of our plans were to decline in future periods, if market interest rates were to decline, if the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation ("PBGC") were to require additional contributions to any such plans as a result of acquisitions or if other actuarial assumptions were to be modified, our future required cash contributions and pension costs to such plans could increase. Any such increases could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.

        The need to make contributions, which may be substantial, to such plans may reduce the cash available to meet our other obligations, including our obligations under our borrowing arrangements or to meet the needs of our business. In addition, the PBGC may terminate our U.S. defined benefit pension plans under limited circumstances, including in the event the PBGC concludes that the risk may increase unreasonably if such plans continue. In the event a U.S. defined benefit pension plan is terminated for any reason while it is underfunded, we could be required to make an immediate payment to the PBGC of all or a substantial portion of such plan's underfunding, as calculated by the PBGC based on its own assumptions (which might result in a larger obligation than that based on the assumptions we have used to fund such plan), and the PBGC could place a lien on material amounts of our assets.

        Legal and compliance risk relates to risks arising from conformity with external policies and procedures, government and regulatory compliance, and ongoing environment and legal proceedings. These include customer driven policies, government and regulatory requirements and environmental health and safety litigation. These types of risks may impose additional cost on us or cause us to have to change our business models or practices.

        In addition to complying with laws and applicable government regulations and requirements, prevailing industry standards, competitive pressures and/or our customers may require us to comply with further quality, social responsibility, or other business policies or standards, before customers and prospective customers commence, or continue, doing business with us. These expectations, policies and standards may be more restrictive than current laws and regulations as well as our own pre-existing policies; they may be customer-driven, established by the industry sectors in which we operate or imposed by third-party organizations or other constituencies.

        Our compliance with these policies, standards and third party certification requirements could be costly and could in some cases require us to change the way in which we operate. In addition, if we fail to comply, or if our compliance increases our costs and/or restricts our ability to do business as compared to our competitors that do not adhere to such standards, we could experience an adverse effect on our customer relationships, reputation, operations, cost structure and/or profitability.

        We are subject to U.S. federal and state, and other countries' and jurisdictions', income, payroll, property, sales and use, value added, fuel and other types of taxes. Changes in tax rates, enactment of new tax laws, revisions of tax regulations, and claims or litigation with taxing authorities may require significant judgment in determining the appropriate provision and related accruals for these taxes; and as a result, such changes could result in substantially higher taxes and, therefore, could have a significant adverse effect on our results or operations, financial conditions and liquidity.

        Currently, a significant amount of our revenue is generated from customers located outside of the United States, and a large portion of our assets and employees are located outside of the U.S. The U.S., the EU and member states along with numerous other countries have recently engaged in (and many continue to engage in) establishing fundamental changes to tax laws affecting the taxation of multinational corporations. On December 22, 2017, the U.S. government enacted the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ("U.S. Tax Reform"). U.S. Tax Reform incorporated broad and complex changes to the U.S. tax code and there have been some initial regulatory and administrative developments with respect to U.S. Tax Reform; however, we expect to continue to see future regulatory, administrative or legislative guidance in this area. The full extent of the impact remains uncertain at this time, and our current interpretations of, and assumptions regarding, U.S. Tax Reform are subject to additional regulatory or administrative developments, including any additional regulations or other guidance promulgated by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service ("IRS"). As a result, U.S. Tax Reform, including any regulations or other guidance promulgated by the IRS, and other tax laws or developments in the U.S. or other countries could have significant effects on us, some of which may be adverse and could materially and adversely impact our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows, and have a negative impact on our ability to compete in the global marketplace.

        Our operations and facilities worldwide are subject to extensive laws and regulations related to pollution and the protection of the environment, health and safety, including those governing, among other things, emissions to air, discharges to water, the generation, handling, storage, treatment and disposal of hazardous wastes and other materials, and the remediation of contaminated sites. A failure by us to comply with applicable requirements or the permits required for our operations could result in civil or criminal fines, penalties, enforcement actions, third-party claims for property damage and personal injury, requirements to clean up property or to pay for the costs of cleanup or regulatory or judicial orders enjoining or curtailing operations or requiring corrective measures, including the installation of pollution control equipment or remedial actions, as well as cause damage to our reputation.

        Some environmental laws and regulations impose requirements to investigate and remediate contamination on present and former owners and operators of facilities and sites, and on potentially responsible parties ("PRPs") for sites to which such parties may have sent waste for disposal. Such liability can be imposed without regard to fault and, under certain circumstances, may be joint and several, resulting in one PRP being held responsible for the entire obligation. Liability may also include damages to natural resources. On occasion we are involved in such investigations and/or cleanup, and also have been or could be named as a PRP in environmental matters.

        The discovery of additional contamination, including at acquired facilities, the imposition of more stringent environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, including cleanup requirements, disputes with our insurers or the insolvency of other responsible parties could require us to incur significant capital expenditures or operating costs materially in excess of our accruals. Future investigations we undertake may lead to discoveries of contamination that must be remediated, and decisions to close facilities may trigger remediation requirements that are not currently applicable. We may also face liability for alleged personal injury or property damage due to exposure to hazardous substances used or disposed of by us, contained within our current or former products, or present in the soil or groundwater at our current or former facilities. We could incur significant costs in connection with such liabilities. See Item 8, Note 18, Commitments and Contingencies for additional information.

        Certain subsidiaries are co-defendants in various lawsuits in a number of U.S. jurisdictions alleging personal injury as a result of exposure to asbestos that was used in certain components of our products. The uncertainties of litigation and the uncertainties related to insurance and indemnification coverage make it difficult to accurately predict the ultimate financial effect of these claims. If our insurance or indemnification coverage is not adequate to cover our potential financial exposure, our insurers dispute their obligations to provider coverage or the actual number or value of asbestos-related claims differs materially from our existing estimates, we could incur material costs that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.

        In addition, we may be subject to product liability claims if the use of our products, or the exposure to our products or their raw materials, is alleged to have resulted in injury or other adverse effects. We currently maintain product liability insurance coverage but we cannot assure that we will be able to obtain such insurance on commercially reasonable terms in the future, if at all, or that any such insurance will provide adequate coverage against claims. Product liability claims can be expensive to defend and can divert the attention of management and other personnel for long periods of time, regardless of the ultimate outcome. In addition, our business depends on the strong brand reputation we have developed; if this reputation is damaged as a result of a product liability claim, it may be difficult to maintain our pricing positions and market share with respect to our products. Therefore, an unsuccessful product liability defense could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows. See Item 8, Note 18, Commitments and Contingencies for additional details.

        Within Process & Motion Control, as of March 31, 2020, we had 46 principal manufacturing, warehouse and repair facilities as set forth below:

        Information with respect to our legal proceedings is contained in Item 8, Note 18, Commitments and Contingencies.

        Not applicable.

        Information about the business experience of our executive officers during at least the past five fiscal years is as follows:

        Our common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE") under the symbol "RXN." As of May 8, 2020, there was 1 holder of record of our common stock. We believe the number of beneficial owners of our common stock exceeds 1,000.

        Set forth below is a line graph comparing the cumulative total shareholder return of our common stock with the Standard & Poor's (the "S&P") 500 Index and the S&P 1500 Industrials Index for the five-year period ended March 31, 2020. The graph assumes the value of the investment in our common stock and each index was $100 on March 31, 2015 and that all dividends were reinvested. The shareholder return shown on the graph below is not necessarily indicative of future performance and the indices included do not necessarily reflect management's opinion that such indices are an appropriate measure of the relative performance of Rexnord's stock.

        The following table of selected historical financial information is based on our consolidated financial statements, including those included elsewhere in this Form 10-K. This data should be read in conjunction with Item 7, Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations and Item 8, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data. The Statements of Operations, Other Data and Balance Sheet Data are derived from our audited financial statements. Fiscal years prior to and including fiscal year 2020 ended on March 31 of the corresponding calendar year. For example, our fiscal year 2020, or fiscal 2020, means the period from April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020. Following the end of fiscal 2020, we are transitioning to a December 31 fiscal year-end date. The nine-month period from April 1, 2020, to December 31, 2020, will serve as a transition period, and we will provide one-time, nine-month transitional financial statements in a transition report on Form 10-K to be filed in 2021.

        We completed the sale of our VAG business on November 26, 2018, and, accordingly, the results of operations and financial condition associated with the VAG bushiness have been reclassified to discontinued operations for all periods presented. As a result, the following discussion of results of operations and financial condition excludes the VAG business from our Water Management platform.

        The information contained in this section is provided as a supplement to the consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this Form 10-K to help provide an understanding of our financial condition, changes in our financial condition and results of our operations. This section is organized as follows:

        We are a growth-oriented, multi-platform industrial company with what we believe are leading market shares and highly-trusted brands that serve a diverse array of global end markets. Currently, our business is comprised of two platforms, Process & Motion Control and Water Management. Our heritage of innovation and specification have allowed us to provide highly-engineered, mission-critical solutions to customers for decades and affords us the privilege of having long-term, valued relationships with market leaders. We operate our Company in a disciplined way and the Rexnord Business System ("RBS") is our operating philosophy. Grounded in the spirit of continuous improvement, RBS creates a scalable, process-based framework that focuses on driving superior customer satisfaction and financial results by targeting world-class operating performance throughout all aspects of our business.

        Our strategy is to build the Company around global strategic platforms that participate in end markets with sustainable growth characteristics where we are, or have the opportunity to become, the industry leader. We have a track record of acquiring and integrating companies and expect to continue to pursue strategic acquisitions within our existing platforms that will expand our geographic presence, broaden our product lines, and allow us to move into adjacent markets. Over time, we may add strategic platforms to our Company.

        Refer to Item 1, Business for additional information.

        The following paragraphs provide a brief description of certain items and accounting policies that appear in our financial statements and general factors that impact these items.

        The largest component of our cost of sales is cost of materials, which represented approximately 34% of net sales in fiscal 2020. The principal materials used in our Process & Motion Control manufacturing processes, which are available from numerous sources, include sheet, plate and bar steel, castings, forgings, high-performance engineered plastics and a wide variety of other components. Within Water Management, we purchase a broad range of materials and components throughout the world in connection with our manufacturing activities. Major raw materials and components include bar steel, brass, castings, copper, forgings, high-performance engineered plastic, plate steel, resin, sheet plastic and zinc. We have a strategic sourcing program to significantly reduce the number of direct and indirect suppliers we use and to lower the cost of purchased materials.

        The methods, estimates and judgments we use in applying our critical accounting policies have a significant impact on the results we report in our consolidated financial statements. We evaluate our estimates and judgments on an on-going basis. We base our estimates on historical experience and on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Our experience and assumptions form the basis for our judgments about the carrying value of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may vary from what we anticipate and different assumptions or estimates about the future could change our reported results. Within the context of these critical accounting policies, we are not currently aware of any reasonably likely event that would result in materially different amounts being reported.

        In addition to the accounting policies disclosed in Item 8, Note 2, Significant Accounting Policies to the consolidated financial statements, we believe the following accounting policies are the most critical to us in that they are important to our financial statements and they require difficult, subjective and/or complex judgments in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements.

        In some cases we have determined a certain portion of our inventories are excess or obsolete. In those cases we write down the value of those inventories to their net realizable value based upon assumptions about future demand and market conditions. If actual market conditions are less favorable than those projected by management, additional inventory write-downs may be required. The total write-down of inventories charged to expense was $4.6 million, $3.1 million and $4.3 million, during fiscal 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively.

        Our recorded goodwill and indefinite lived intangible assets are not amortized but are tested annually as of October 1 during the third quarter of each fiscal year, and more frequently if events or changes in circumstances indicate that an impairment may exist, using a discounted cash flow methodology based on future business projections and a market value approach (guideline public company comparables). We perform our goodwill impairment test by comparing the fair value of a reporting unit with its carrying amount. If the carrying amount exceeds the fair value of the reporting unit, an impairment charge is recognized for the amount by which the carrying amount exceeds the reporting unit's fair value up to the amount of the recorded goodwill. Our annual impairment test performed during fiscal 2020 indicated that the fair value of the Company's indefinite-lived intangible assets and reporting units significantly exceeded their carrying value; therefore, no impairment was present.

        In connection with our ongoing supply chain optimization and footprint repositioning initiatives, we have taken several actions to consolidate existing manufacturing facilities and rationalize our product offerings. These actions require us to assess whether the carrying amount of impacted long-lived assets will be recoverable as well as whether the remaining useful lives of such assets require adjustment. While we did not recognize any impairment charges associated with fixed assets in fiscal 2020, during fiscal 2019 and 2018 we recognized impairment charges associated with these fixed assets of $0.3 million and $0.8 million, respectively. We did not recognize any impairment charges associated with intangible assets related to these initiatives during fiscal 2020, 2019 and 2018.

        We recognize the net actuarial gains or losses in excess of unrecognized gain or loss exceeding 10 percent of the greater of the market-related value of plan assets or the plan's projected benefit obligation at re-measurement (the "corridor") in the Corporate segment operating results during the fourth quarter of each fiscal year (or upon any re-measurement date). During fiscal 2020, 2019 and 2018, we recognized non-cash actuarial (loss) gain of $(36.6) million, $0.4 million and $3.3 million, respectively, in connection with re-measurements of the plans. Net periodic benefit costs recorded on a quarterly basis are primarily comprised of service and interest cost, amortization of unrecognized prior service cost and the expected return on plan assets. See Item 8, Note 16, Retirement Benefits for additional information.

        The obligation for postretirement benefits other than pension also is actuarially determined and is affected by assumptions including the discount rate and expected future increase in per capita costs of covered postretirement health care benefits. Changes in the discount rate and differences between actual and assumed per capita health care costs may affect the recorded amount of the expense in future periods.

review and analyze various IRS Notices, proposed regulations and other pertinent information that became available during fiscal 2019. Based upon this review and analysis, as well as updates to certain financial information, we determined that the adjusted net impact of U.S. Tax Reform for fiscal 2018 was a net income tax benefit of $65.9 million (including amounts relating to the VAG business). The $0.6 million reduction from the $66.5 million net income tax benefit originally recorded in fiscal 2018 was recorded as a discrete item in the third quarter of fiscal 2019 and such adjusted net income tax benefit recorded was determined to be complete at that time.

        We assess our income tax positions and record tax liabilities for all years subject to examination based upon management’s evaluation of the facts and circumstances and information available at the reporting dates. For those income tax positions where it is more-likely-than-not, based on technical merits, that a tax benefit will be sustained upon the conclusion of an examination, we have recorded the largest amount of tax benefit having a cumulatively greater than 50% likelihood of being realized upon ultimate settlement with the applicable taxing authority, assuming that it has full knowledge of all relevant information. For those tax positions which do not meet the more-likely-than-not threshold regarding the ultimate realization of the related tax benefit, no tax benefit has been recorded in the financial statements. In addition, we provide for interest and penalties, as applicable, and record such amounts as a component of the overall income tax provision. As of March 31, 2020 and 2019, our liability for unrecognized tax benefits was $14.8 million and $21.8 million, respectively.

        We recognize deferred tax assets and liabilities based on the differences between the financial statement carrying amounts and the tax bases of assets and liabilities, net operating losses (“NOL’s”), tax credit and other carryforwards. We regularly review our deferred tax assets for recoverability and establish a valuation allowance based on historical losses, projected future taxable income and the expected timing of the reversals of existing temporary differences. As a result of this review, we established a full valuation allowance against U.S. federal and state capital loss carryforwards, as well as certain state tax credit carryforwards, and continue to maintain a partial valuation allowance against certain foreign NOL carryforwards and other related deferred tax assets, as well as certain U.S. state NOL carryforwards. As of March 31, 2020 and 2019, valuation allowances of $39.4 and $32.4 million, respectively, were recorded against our deferred tax assets. See Item 8 Note 17, Income Taxes for additional information.

        We estimate that our available insurance to cover our potential asbestos liability as of the end of fiscal 2020 is greater than our potential asbestos liability. This conclusion was reached after considering our experience in asbestos litigation, the insurance payments made to date by our insurance carriers, existing insurance policies, the industry ratings of the insurers and the advice of insurance coverage counsel with respect to applicable insurance coverage law relating to the terms and conditions of those policies. We used these same considerations when evaluating the recoverability of our receivable for insurance coverage of potential asbestos claims.

        Process & Motion Control net sales were $1,358.2 million in fiscal 2020, down 1.6% year over year. Excluding a 1% increase in sales from the acquisition of Centa China and a 2% unfavorable impact from foreign currency translation, core net sales decreased 1% year over year. Core sales growth in our aerospace and consumer-facing end-markets was offset by the impact of our ongoing product line simplification initiatives as well as softer demand across several of our industrial process end markets.

        Water Management net sales were $710.1 million in fiscal 2020, a 5.9% increase year over year. Excluding a 2% increase in net sales associated with our acquisitions of the Stainlessdrains.com and Just Manufacturing businesses, core net sales increased 4% year over year. The increase in core net sales is primarily the result of increased demand across our North American building construction end markets, partially offset by a modest impact from our ongoing product line simplification initiatives.

        Process & Motion Control income from operations in fiscal 2020 was $228.4 million, or 16.8% of net sales, as compared to $226.1 million, or 16.4% of net sales, in fiscal 2019. Income from operations as a percentage of net sales increased by 40 basis points year over year primarily due to RBS-led productivity gains, benefits from our completed footprint repositioning actions and lower year-over-year acquisition-related fair value adjustments, partially offset by higher restructuring-related costs recognized in fiscal 2020 in connection with our ongoing footprint repositioning initiatives.

        Water Management income from operations was $163.1 million in fiscal 2020, or 23.0% of net sales, compared to income from operations of $139.7 million, or 20.8% of net sales, in fiscal 2019. The 220 basis point year-over-year increase in income from operations as a percentage of net sales is primarily due to the increase in sales and benefits associated with our ongoing cost reduction and productivity initiatives and a reduction in the adjustment to state inventories at last-in-first-out cost as compared to the prior year.

        Corporate expenses were $57.2 million in fiscal 2020 and $60.2 million in fiscal 2019. The decrease in corporate expenses is primarily the result of the prior year recognition of lease facility termination costs incurred in connection with our ongoing footprint optimization actions.

        Interest expense, net was $58.6 million in fiscal 2020 compared to $69.9 million in fiscal 2019. The decrease in interest expense as compared to the prior year's period is primarily a result of the impact of lower average outstanding borrowings during fiscal 2020 following $75.0 million and $100.0 million voluntary prepayments on our term loan during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019 and the third quarter of fiscal 2020, respectively. In addition, year-over-year interest expense decreased as a result of the lower average interest rate on our term loan following the refinancing of such loan, which was completed during the third quarter of fiscal 2020. Fiscal 2019 also included the amortization of unrealized losses associated with the interest rate derivatives that matured during fiscal 2019. See Item 8, Note 11 Long-Term Debt for more information.

        During fiscal 2020, we recognized a $1.0 million gain on the extinguishment of debt, consisting of a $3.2 million gain in connection with the forgiveness of the remaining net debt associated with the New Market Tax Credit program, partially offset by a $2.2 million loss in connection with the fiscal 2020 refinancing of our term loan and a $100.0 million voluntary prepayment made on our term loan. During fiscal 2019, we recognized a $5.0 million gain in connection with the forgiveness of the net debt associated with the New Market Tax Credit program, partially offset by the recognition of $0.7 million of accelerated amortization of debt issuance costs following a voluntary prepayment on our term loan.

        Other expense, net for fiscal 2020 was $3.8 million compared to other expense, net of $1.6 million in fiscal 2019. Other expense, net consists primarily of gains and losses from foreign currency transactions and the non-service cost components of net periodic benefit costs associated with our defined benefit plans.

        Our net income from continuing operations for fiscal 2020 was $182.2 million, compared to net income from continuing operations of $189.0 million for fiscal 2019, as a result of the factors described above. Diluted net income per share from continuing operations was $1.46 for fiscal 2020, as compared to $1.53 per share for fiscal 2019.

        Water Management net sales were $670.3 million in fiscal 2018, a 9.8% increase year over year. Excluding a 1% increase from the acquisition of World Dryer and a 1% favorable impact from foreign currency translation, Water Management core net sales increased 4% during fiscal 2018. The year-over-year increase in core sales reflected favorable demand trends in our nonresidential construction end markets.

        Process & Motion Control income from operations for fiscal 2019 was $226.1 million, or 16.4% of net sales, as compared to $191.3 million, or 15.4% of net sales, in fiscal 2018. Income from operations as a percentage of net sales increased by 100 basis points year over year primarily due to the increase in core sales, RBS-led productivity gains, benefits from our footprint repositioning actions and a reduction in restructuring-related expense, partially offset by investments in innovation and market expansion initiatives.

        Water Management income from operations was $139.7 million in fiscal 2019, or 20.8% of net sales, compared to income from operations of $125.7 million, or 20.6% of net sales, in fiscal 2018. The 20 basis point year-over-year increase in income from operations as a percentage of net sales is primarily due to the benefits associated with incremental core sales and ongoing cost reduction and productivity initiatives that more than offset incremental investments in our innovation, market expansion, and cost reduction initiatives.

        Corporate expenses were $60.2 million in fiscal 2019 and $50.6 million in fiscal 2018. The increase in corporate expenses is primarily associated with the recognition of leased facility termination costs incurred in connection with our ongoing footprint optimization actions and higher year-over-year compensation related costs (primarily stock-based compensation) relative to fiscal 2018.

        Interest expense, net was $69.9 million in fiscal 2019 compared to $75.1 million in fiscal 2018. The decrease in interest expense was a result of the impact of lower outstanding borrowings in fiscal 2019 following a $75.0 million voluntary prepayment on our term loan during fiscal 2019 and the refinancing of our then-outstanding debt during fiscal 2018. See Item 8, Note 11, Long-Term Debt for more information.

        During fiscal 2019, we recognized a non-cash gain on the extinguishment of debt of $5.0 million in connection with the forgiveness of the net debt associated with the New Market Tax Credit program. This gain was partially offset by the recognition of $0.7 million of accelerated amortization of debt issuance costs in connection with the $75.0 million voluntary prepayment on our term loan during fiscal 2019. During fiscal 2018, we recognized an $11.9 million loss on the debt extinguishment associated with the fiscal 2018 debt refinancing, which was comprised of $3.9 million of refinancing related costs, as well as a non-cash write-off of unamortized debt issuance costs associated with previously outstanding debt of $8.0 million. See Item 8, Note 11, Long-Term Debt for more information.

        Other expense, net for fiscal 2019 was $1.6 million compared to other income, net of $4.4 million in fiscal 2018. Other expense (income), net consists primarily of foreign currency transaction gains and losses and the non-service cost components of net periodic benefit credits associated with our defined benefit plans. The year-over-year change is primarily driven by the reclassification of historical foreign currency translation adjustments recognized on our equity method investment in Centa China in connection with our acquisition of a controlling interest in that entity in fiscal 2019 and other foreign currency transaction losses.

        The income tax provision in fiscal 2019 was $53.4 million, or an effective tax rate of 22.4%. The effective income tax rate for fiscal 2019 was slightly above the U.S. federal statutory rate of 21% primarily due to the accrual of foreign income taxes, which are generally above the U.S. federal statutory rate, the accrual of additional taxes associated with GILTI and the accrual of various state income taxes substantially offset by the recognition of certain previously unrecognized tax benefits due to the lapse of applicable statutes of limitations, the recognition of net tax benefits associated with FDII, the recognition of excess tax benefits associated with share-based payments and the recognition of a tax benefits associated with foreign country enacted rate reductions. The income tax benefit in fiscal 2018 was $19.5 million, or an effective tax rate of (10.4)%. The income tax benefit recorded on income before income taxes was primarily due to the recognition of net income tax benefits associated with the enactment of U.S. Tax Reform (including a reduction in the effective statutory federal income tax rate to 31.55% for fiscal 2018), the recognition of net tax benefits associated with the reduction in the tax liability originally recorded on the expatriation of certain foreign branch assets and the DPAD.

        Our net income from continuing operations for fiscal 2019 was $189.0 million, compared to net income from continuing operations of $206.6 million for fiscal 2018, as a result of the factors described above. Diluted net income per share from continuing operations was $1.53 for fiscal 2019, as compared to $1.69 per share for fiscal 2018.

        Our net income attributable to Rexnord common stockholders for fiscal 2019 was $11.1 million compared to $52.7 million in fiscal 2018.  Diluted net income per share attributable to Rexnord common stockholders was $0.28 in fiscal 2019 compared to $0.62 in fiscal 2018. The loss from discontinued operations, net of tax, was $154.7 million in fiscal 2019 and $130.6 million in fiscal 2018. The year-over-year change in net income attributable to Rexnord common stockholders is primarily the result of the higher year-over-year loss from discontinued operations and the other factors described above.

        Non-GAAP financial measures are intended to supplement and not replace financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP.

        Core sales excludes the impact of acquisitions (such as the Just Manufacturing, Stainlessdrains.com, Centa and World Dryer acquisitions), divestitures (such as the VAG business) and foreign currency translation. Management believes that core sales facilitates easier and more meaningful comparisons of our net sales performance with prior and future periods and to our peers. We exclude the effect of acquisitions and divestitures because the nature, size and number of acquisitions and divestitures can vary dramatically from period to period and between us and our peers, and can also obscure underlying business trends and make comparisons of long-term performance difficult. We exclude the effect of foreign currency translation from this measure because the volatility of currency translation is not under management's control.

        EBITDA represents earnings before interest and other debt related activities, taxes, depreciation and amortization. EBITDA is presented because it is an important supplemental measure of performance and it is frequently used by analysts, investors and other interested parties in the evaluation of companies in our industry. EBITDA is also presented and compared by analysts and investors in evaluating our ability to meet debt service obligations. Other companies in our industry may calculate EBITDA differently. EBITDA is not a measurement of financial performance under U.S. GAAP and should not be considered as an alternative to cash flow from operating activities or as a measure of liquidity or an alternative to net income as indicators of operating performance or any other measures of performance derived in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Because EBITDA is calculated before recurring cash charges, including interest expense and taxes, and is not adjusted for capital expenditures or other recurring cash requirements of the business, it should not be considered as a measure of discretionary cash available to invest in the growth of the business.

        Adjusted EBITDA (as described below in "Covenant Compliance") is an important measure because, under our credit agreement, our ability to incur certain types of acquisition debt and certain types of subordinated debt, make certain types of acquisitions or asset exchanges, operate our business and make dividends or other distributions, all of which will impact our financial performance, is impacted by our Adjusted EBITDA, as our lenders measure our performance with a net first lien leverage ratio by comparing our senior secured bank indebtedness to our Adjusted EBITDA (see "Covenant Compliance" for additional discussion of this ratio, including a reconciliation to our net income). We reported net income available to Rexnord common stockholders in the year ended March 31, 2020 of $165.7 million and Adjusted EBITDA for the same period of $460.2 million. See "Covenant Compliance" for a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to GAAP net income.

        Our credit agreement, which governs our senior secured credit facilities, contains, among other provisions, restrictive covenants regarding indebtedness, payments and distributions, mergers and acquisitions, asset sales, affiliate transactions, capital expenditures and the maintenance of certain financial ratios. Payment of borrowings under the credit agreement may be accelerated if there is an event of default. Events of default include the failure to pay principal and interest when due, a material breach of a representation or warranty, certain non-payments or defaults under other indebtedness, covenant defaults, events of bankruptcy and a change of control. Certain covenants contained in the credit agreement restrict our ability to take certain actions, such as incurring additional debt or making acquisitions, if we are unable to meet a maximum total net leverage ratio of 6.75 to 1.0 as of the end of each fiscal quarter (it was 2.1 to 1.0 at March 31, 2020). Failure to comply with these covenants could limit our long-term growth prospects by hindering our ability to borrow under the revolver, to obtain future debt and/or to make acquisitions.

        The calculation of Adjusted EBITDA under our credit agreement as of March 31, 2020 is presented in the table below. However, the results of such calculation could differ in the future based on the different types of adjustments that may be included in such respective calculations at the time. 

        The table below lists our contractual obligations at March 31, 2020 by period when due:

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        We are exposed to market risk during the normal course of business from changes in foreign currency exchange rates and interest rates. The exposure to these risks is managed through a combination of normal operating and financing activities and derivative financial instruments in the form of foreign currency forward contracts to cover certain known foreign currency transactional risks. We also have historically entered into interest rate derivatives to manage interest rate fluctuations.

        Our exposure to foreign currency exchange rates relates primarily to our foreign operations. For our foreign operations, exchange rates impact the U.S. Dollar ("USD") value of our reported earnings, our investments in the subsidiaries and the intercompany transactions with the subsidiaries. See Item 1A, Risk Factors for more information.

        Approximately 29% of our sales originated outside of the United States in fiscal 2020. Revenues and expenses denominated in foreign currencies are translated into USD at the end of the fiscal period using the average exchange rates in effect during the period. Consequently, as the value of the USD changes relative to the currencies of our major markets, particularly those that are Euro-based, our reported results may vary significantly.

        Fluctuations in currency exchange rates also impact the USD amount of our stockholders' equity. The assets and liabilities of our non-U.S. subsidiaries are translated into USD at the exchange rates in effect at the end of the fiscal periods. As of March 31, 2020, stockholders' equity decreased by $24.5 million from March 31, 2019 as a result of foreign currency translation adjustments. If the USD strengthened by 10% as of March 31, 2020, the result would have decreased stockholders' equity by approximately $39.9 million.

        As we continue to expand our business globally, our success will depend, in large part, on our ability to anticipate and effectively manage these and other risks associated with our international operations. However, any of these factors could adversely affect our international operations and, consequently, our operating results.

        As of March 31, 2020, we had not entered into foreign currency forward contracts.

        We utilize a combination of short-term and long-term debt to finance our operations and are exposed to interest rate risk on a portion of these debt obligations.

        A portion of our indebtedness (approximately 59%) including indebtedness under the senior secured credit facilities, bears interest at rates that fluctuate with changes in certain short-term prevailing interest rates. As of March 31, 2020, our outstanding borrowings under the term loan facility were $620.8 million (net of $4.2 million unamortized debt issuance costs) and bore an effective interest rate of 2.74%, determined as London Interbank Offered Rate ("LIBOR") (subject to a 0% floor) plus an applicable margin of 1.75%. The weighted-average interest rate for fiscal year 2020 was 3.96% determined as LIBOR (subject to a 0% floor) plus an applicable margin of 1.75%.

        Our net income is affected by changes in market interest rates on our variable-rate obligations. As discussed above, our term loan facilities are subject to a 0% LIBOR floor. Therefore, for every 100 basis point increase in the March 31, 2020 market interest rate would increase the annual interest expense under our term loan facility by approximately $8.8 million.