ITEM 2
MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
Unless the context indicates otherwise, references to “we,” “us,” “our,” the “Company” and “Ingredion” mean Ingredion Incorporated and its consolidated subsidiaries.
Overview
We are a major supplier of high-quality food and industrial ingredient solutions to customers around the world. We have 46 manufacturing plants located in North America, South America, Asia-Pacific and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (“EMEA”), and we manage and operate our businesses at a regional level. We believe this approach provides us with a unique understanding of the cultures and product requirements in each of the geographic markets in which we operate, bringing added value to our customers. Our ingredients are used by customers in the food, beverage, brewing, and animal nutrition industries, among others.
Our new strategic growth roadmap is based on the following five growth platforms and is designed to deliver shareholder value by accelerating customer co-creation and enabling consumer-preferred innovation. Our first platform is starch-based texturizers, the second platform is clean and simple ingredients, the third platform is plant-based proteins, the fourth platform is sugar reduction and specialty sweeteners, and finally, our fifth platform is value-added food systems.
For the three months ended September 30, 2019, operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share increased from the comparable 2018 period. Our increase in earnings for the three months ended September 30, 2019, was attributable to improved price/mix and specialty volume, partially offset by foreign exchange impacts and higher raw material costs.
For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2019, we recorded $28 million and $41 million of pre-tax restructuring charges, respectively. Pre-tax restructuring charges of $14 million and $23 million were recorded for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2019, respectively, for the Cost Smart SG&A program. These costs include $8 million and $11 million, of other costs, including professional services, and $6 million and $12 million of employee-related severance for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2019, respectively. These charges were recorded primarily in our North America and South America operations, and include $1 million and $2 million of other costs associated with the Finance Transformation initiative in Latin America for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2019, respectively. We expect to continue to incur additional charges during the year related to the Cost Smart SG&A program, however, we do not expect to incur any additional restructuring costs related to the Finance Transformation initiative.
Additionally, for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2019, we recorded $14 million and $18 million, respectively, for the Cost Smart cost of sales program. During the three months ended September 30, 2019, we recorded $6 million of restructuring charges in relation to the closure of the Lane Cove, Australia production facility, consisting of $4 million of employee-related severance and $2 million of accelerated depreciation. We expect to incur an additional $10 million of restructuring costs during the remainder of 2019 and between $10 million and $12 million in 2020 in relation to the closure. Additionally, during the three months ended September 30, 2019, we recorded $4 million of employee-related expenses primarily related to the South America operations restructuring. Finally, we recorded $4 million and $8 million of other costs, including professional services, during the three and nine months ended September 30, 2019, primarily in North America including other costs of $2 million in relation to the prior year cessation of wet-milling at the Stockton, California plant. We do not expect to incur any additional costs in relation to the cessation of wet-milling at the Stockton, California plant.
Our cash provided by operating activities decreased to $490 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2019, from $579 million in the year-earlier period, primarily driven by our decrease in earnings and changes in working capital. Our cash used for financing activities was $86 million during the nine months ended September 30, 2019, compared to $497 million in the year-earlier period. This decrease was mainly driven by a reduction in repurchases of common stock and lower net payments on debt.
As previously announced on October 12, 2019, we detected suspicious activity affecting several servers within certain data centers on our network. Immediately, we took steps to identify and contain the situation, which included