The Company believes that these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information for investors and management because they measure the Company's capacity to generate profits from its business operations, excluding the effect of acquisitions and expenses related to the rationalizing of its activities and sites that it does not consider to be part of its on-going operating results, thereby offering, when read in conjunction with the Company's GAAP financials, (i) the ability to make more meaningful period-to-period comparisons of the Company's on-going operating results, (ii) the ability to better identify trends in the Company's business and perform related trend analysis, and (iii) an easier way to compare the Company's results of operations against investor and analyst financial models and valuations, which usually exclude these items.
| Q4 2017
(US$ millions, except per share data ($)) | Gross Profit | Operating Income | Net Earnings | Corresponding EPS |
| U.S. GAAP | 1,002 | 408 | 308 | 0.34 |
| Impairment & Restructuring | 20 | 20 | ||
| Estimated Income Tax Effect | (1) | |||
| Non-U.S GAAP | 1,002 | 428 | 327 | 0.36 |
| Q3 2017
(US$ million, except per share data ($)) | Gross Profit | Operating Income | Net Earnings | Corresponding EPS |
| U.S. GAAP | 845 | 278 | 236 | 0.26 |
| Impairment & Restructuring | 14 | 14 | ||
| Estimated Income Tax Effect | (1) | |||
| Non-U.S GAAP | 845 | 292 | 249 | 0.28 |
| Q4 2016
(US$ millions, except per share data ($)) | Gross Profit | Operating Income | Net Earnings
| Corresponding EPS |
| U.S. GAAP | 698 | 129 | 112 | 0.13 |
| Impairment & Restructuring | 24 | 24 | ||
| Estimated Income Tax Effect | 1 | |||
| Non-U.S GAAP | 698 | 153 | 137 | 0.15 |
(Appendix - continued)
Net financial position: resources (debt), represents the balance between our total financial resources and our total financial debt. Our total financial resources include cash and cash equivalents, marketable securities, short-term deposits and restricted cash, and our total financial debt includes short-term borrowings, current portion of long-term debt and long-term debt, all as reported in our consolidated balance sheet. We believe our net financial position provides useful information for investors and management because it gives evidence of our global position either in terms of net indebtedness or net cash position by measuring our capital resources based on cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities and the total level of our financial indebtedness. Net financial position is not a U.S. GAAP measure.
| Net Financial Position (in US$ millions) | December 31, 2017 | September 30, 2017 | December 31, 2016 |
| Cash and cash equivalents | 1,759 | 2,188 | 1,629 |
| Marketable securities | 431 | 433 | 335 |
| Total financial resources | 2,190 | 2,621 | 1,964 |
| Short-term debt | (118) | (486) | (117) |
| Long-term debt | (1,583) | (1,689) | (1,334) |
| Total financial debt | (1,701) | (2,175) | (1,451) |
| Net financial position - Non-U.S. GAAP | 489 | 446 | 513 |
Free cash flow is defined as net cash from operating activities minus net cash from (used in) investing activities, excluding payment for purchases (proceeds from the sale of) marketable securities, short-term deposits and restricted cash. We believe free cash flow provides useful information for investors and management because it measures our capacity to generate cash from our operating and investing activities to sustain our operating activities. Free cash flow is not a U.S. GAAP measure and does not represent total cash flow since it does not include the cash flows generated by or used in financing activities. In addition, our definition of free cash flow may differ from definitions used by other companies.
