Financial Information by Segment

3 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

Segment Reporting [Abstract]

Financial Information by Segment

N. Financial Information by Segment

The Company identifies a business as an operating segment if: i) it engages in business activities from which it may earn revenues and incur expenses; ii) its operating results are regularly reviewed by the Chief Operating Decision Maker (“CODM”), who is Cabot’s President and Chief Executive Officer, to make decisions about resources to be allocated to the segment and assess its performance; and iii) it has available discrete financial information. The Company has determined that all of its businesses are operating segments. The CODM reviews financial information at the operating segment level to allocate resources and to assess the operating results and financial performance for each operating segment. Operating segments are aggregated into a reportable segment if the operating segments are determined to have similar economic characteristics and if the operating segments are similar in the following areas: i) nature of products and services; ii) nature of production processes; iii) type or class of customer for their products and services; iv) methods used to distribute the products or provide services; and v) if applicable, the nature of the regulatory environment.

The Company has four reportable segments: Reinforcement Materials, Performance Chemicals, Purification Solutions and Specialty Fluids.

The Reinforcement Materials segment represents the rubber blacks and elastomer composites product lines.

The Performance Chemicals segment combines the specialty carbons and compounds and inkjet colorants product lines into the Specialty Carbons and Formulations business, and combines the fumed metal oxides and aerogel product lines into the Metal Oxides business. These businesses are similar in terms of economic characteristics, nature of products, processes, customer class and product distribution methods, and, therefore, have been aggregated into one reportable segment. The net sales from each of these businesses for the three months ended December 31, 2016 and 2015 were as follows:

	Three Months Ended
	December 31,
	2016		2015
	(Dollars in millions)
Specialty Carbons and Formulations	$	138	$	140
Metal Oxides		67		67
Total Performance Chemicals	$	205	$	207

The Purification Solutions segment represents the Company’s activated carbon business and the Specialty Fluids segment includes cesium formate oil and gas drilling fluids and high-purity fine cesium chemicals product lines.

Reportable segment Income (loss) from continuing operation before taxes and equity in earnings from affiliated companies (“Segment EBIT”) is presented for each reportable segment in the financial information by reportable segment table below. Segment EBIT excludes certain items, meaning items management does not consider representative of on-going operating segment results. In addition, Segment EBIT includes Equity in earnings of affiliated companies, net of tax, the full operating results of a contractual joint venture in Purification Solutions, royalties, Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests, net of tax, and discounting charges for certain Notes receivable, but excludes Interest expense, foreign currency transaction gains and losses, interest income, dividend income, unearned revenue, the effects of LIFO accounting for inventory, general unallocated expense and unallocated corporate costs.

Financial information by reportable segment is as follows:

	Reinforcement Materials		Performance Chemicals		Purification Solutions			Specialty Fluids		Segment Total		Unallocated and Other(1)			Consolidated Total
	(Dollars in millions)
Three Months Ended December 31, 2016
Revenues from external customers(2)	$	295	$	205	$	69		$	11	$	580	$	31		$	611
Income (loss) from continuing operations    before taxes and equity in earnings from    affiliated companies(3)	$	40	$	49	$	4		$	2	$	95	$	(22	)	$	73
Three Months Ended December 31, 2015
Revenues from external customers(2)	$	288	$	207	$	66		$	7	$	568	$	35		$	603
Income (loss) from continuing operations    before taxes and equity in earnings from    affiliated companies(3)	$	26	$	50	$	(5	)	$	—	$	71	$	(79	)	$	(8	)

⁽¹⁾ Unallocated and Other includes certain items and eliminations necessary to reflect management’s reporting of operating segment results. These items are reflective of the segment reporting presented to the CODM.

⁽²⁾ Revenue from external customers that are categorized as Unallocated and Other reflects royalties, other operating revenues, external shipping and handling fees, the impact of unearned revenue, the removal of 100% of the sales of an equity method affiliate and discounting charges for certain Notes receivable. Details are provided in the table below:

	Three Months Ended
	December 31,
	2016		2015
	(Dollars in millions)
Royalties, other operating revenues, the impact of    unearned revenue, the removal of 100% of the sales of an    equity method affiliate and discounting charges for    certain notes receivable	$	5	$	9
Shipping and handling fees		26		26
Total	$	31	$	35

⁽³⁾ Income (loss) from continuing operations before taxes and equity in earnings from affiliated companies that are categorized as Unallocated and Other includes:

	Three Months Ended
	December 31,
	2016			2015
	(Dollars in millions)
Interest expense	$	(13	)	$	(13	)
Total certain items, pre-tax(a)		—			(58	)
Unallocated corporate costs(b)		(12	)		(13	)
General unallocated income (expense)(c)		5			5
Less: Equity in earnings of affiliated companies, net of tax(d)		(2	)		—
Total	$	(22	)	$	(79	)

^(a) Certain items areitems of expense and income that management does not consider representative of the Company’s fundamental on-going segment results and they are, therefore, excluded from Segment EBIT. Certain items, pre-tax, for the three months ended December 31, 2016 included charges of less than $1 million. Certain items, pre-tax, for the three months ended December 31, 2015 included charges of $48 million related to global restructuring activities, $8 million related to foreign currency loss on the devaluation of the Argentine peso, and $2 million related to legal and environmental matters and reserves.

^(b) Unallocated corporate costs are costs that are not controlled by the segments and primarily benefit corporate interests.

^(c) General unallocated income (expense) consists of gains (losses) arising from foreign currency transactions, net of other foreign currency risk management activities, the impact of accounting for certain inventory on a LIFO basis, the profit or loss related to the corporate adjustment for unearned revenue, and the impact of including the full operating results of an equity affiliate in Purification Solutions Segment EBIT.

^(d) Equity in earnings of affiliated companies, net of tax, is included in Segment EBIT and is removed in Unallocated and other to reconcile to income (loss) from operations before taxes and equity in earnings from affiliated companies.