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| KEM > SEC Filings for KEM > Form 10-Q on 8-Feb-2013 | All Recent SEC Filings |
8-Feb-2013
Quarterly Report
This report contains certain statements that are forward-looking within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Actual outcomes and results may differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, our forward-looking statements. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates" and other similar expressions or future or conditional verbs such as "will," "should," "would" and "could" are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Readers of this report should not rely solely on the forward-looking statements and should consider all uncertainties and risks throughout this report as well as those discussed under Part I, Item 1A of the Company's 2012 Annual Report. The statements are representative only as of the date they are made, and we undertook no obligation to update any forward-looking statement.
All forward-looking statements, by their nature, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Our actual future results may differ materially from those set forth in our forward-looking statements. We face risks that are inherent in the businesses and the market places in which we operate. While management believes these forward-looking statements are accurate and reasonable, uncertainties, risks and factors, including those described below, could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements.
Factors that may cause actual outcome and results to differ materially from
those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements include, but
are not necessarily limited to, the following: (i) adverse economic conditions
could impact our ability to realize operating plans if the demand for our
products declines, and such conditions could adversely affect our liquidity and
ability to continue to operate; (ii) adverse economic conditions could cause the
write down of long-lived assets or goodwill; (iii) an increase in the cost or a
decrease in the availability of our raw materials; (iv) changes in the
competitive environment; (v) uncertainty of the timing of customer product
qualifications in heavily regulated industries; (vi) changes in economic,
political, or regulatory environment in the countries in which we operate;
(vii) difficulties, delays or unexpected costs in completing the restructuring
plan; (viii) equity method investments expose us to a variety of risks;
(ix) acquisitions and other strategic transactions expose us to a variety of
risks; (x) the inability to attract, train and retain effective employees and
management; (xi) the inability to develop innovative products to maintain
customer relationships and offset potential price erosion in older products;
(xii) exposure to claims alleging product defects; (xiii) the impact of laws and
regulations that apply to our business, including those relating to
environmental matters; (xiv) the impact of international laws relating to trade,
export controls and foreign corrupt practices; (xv) volatility of financial and
credit markets affecting our access to capital; (xvi) the need to reduce the
total costs of our products to remain competitive; (xvii) potential limitation
on the use of net operating losses to offset possible future taxable income;
(xviii) restrictions in our debt agreements that limit our flexibility in
operating our business; and (xix) additional exercise of the warrant by K
Equity, LLC which could potentially result in the existence of a significant
stockholder who could seek to influence our corporate decisions.
Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial also may impair our business operations and could cause actual results to differ materially from those included, contemplated or implied by the forward-looking statements made in this report, and the reader should not consider the above list of factors to be a complete set of all potential risks or uncertainties.
The following discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations are based on the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements included herein. Our significant accounting policies are described in Note 1 to the consolidated financial statements in our 2012 Annual Report. Our critical accounting policies are described under the caption "Critical Accounting Policies" in Item 7 of our 2012 Annual Report.
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles ("U.S. GAAP") requires management to make estimates, assumptions, and judgments based on historical data and other assumptions that management believes are reasonable. These estimates and assumptions affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements. In addition, they affect the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period.
Our judgments are based on management's assessment as to the effect certain estimates, assumptions, or future trends or events may have on the financial condition and results of operations reported in the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements. It is important that readers of these unaudited financial statements understand that actual results could differ from these estimates, assumptions, and judgments.
Business Overview
We are a leading global manufacturer of a wide variety of capacitors. Capacitors are fundamental components of most electronic circuits and are found in communication systems, data processing equipment, personal computers, cellular phones, automotive electronic systems, defense and aerospace systems, consumer electronics, power management systems and many other electronic devices and systems. Capacitors are typically used to filter out interference, smooth the output of power supplies, block the flow of direct current while allowing alternating current to pass and for many other purposes.
We manufacture a broad line of tantalum, multilayer ceramic, solid and electrolytic aluminum and film and paper capacitors in many different sizes and configurations using a variety of raw materials. Our product line consists of over 250,000 distinct part configurations distinguished by various attributes, such as dielectric (or insulating) material, configuration, encapsulation, capacitance level and tolerance, performance characteristics and packaging. Because most of our customers have multiple capacitance requirements, often within each of their products, our broad product offering allows us to meet the majority of those needs independent of application and end use. In fiscal year 2012, we shipped approximately 32 billion capacitors and in the nine months ended December 31, 2012, we shipped approximately 24 billion capacitors. We believe the long-term demand for various types of capacitors we offer will grow on a regional and global basis due to a variety of factors, including increasing demand for and complexity of electronic products, growing demand for technology in emerging markets and the ongoing development of new solutions for energy generation and conservation.
We operate 22 production facilities and employ approximately 9,800 employees worldwide. We manufacture capacitors in Europe, North America, and Asia. Commodity manufacturing in the United States has been substantially relocated to our lower-cost manufacturing facilities in Mexico and China. Production that remains in the United States focuses primarily on early-stage manufacturing of new products and other specialty products for which customers are predominantly located in North America. For the nine months ended December 31, 2012 and 2011, our consolidated net sales were $639.9 million and $774.2 million, respectively.
We are organized into three business groups: Tantalum, Ceramic, and Film and Electrolytic. The Film and Electrolytic Business Group ("Film and Electrolytic") includes a machinery division located in Italy that provides automation solutions for the manufacture, processing and assembly of; metalized films, film/foil and electrolytic capacitors; and designs, assembles; and installs automation solutions for the production of energy storage devices. Each business group is responsible for the operations of certain manufacturing sites as well as all related research and development efforts. The sales and marketing functions are shared by each of the business groups and the costs of these functions are allocated to the business groups.
Our Competitive Strengths
We believe that we benefit from the following competitive strengths:
Strong Customer Relationships. We have a large and diverse customer base. We believe that our emphasis on quality control and history of performance establishes loyalty with original equipment manufacturers ("OEMs"), electronics manufacturing services providers ("EMSs") and distributors. Our customer base includes most of the world's major electronics OEMs (including Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc., Apple Inc., Bosch Group, Cisco Systems, Inc., Continental AG, Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company, International Business Machines Corporation, Intel Corporation, Motorola, Inc., Nokia Corporation, and TRW Automotive), EMSs (including Celestica Inc., Elcoteq SE, Flextronics International LTD, Jabil Circuit, Inc. and Sanmina-SCI Corporation) and distributors (including TTI, Inc., Arrow Electronics, Inc. and Avnet, Inc.). Our strong, extensive and efficient worldwide distribution network is one of our differentiating factors. We believe our ability to provide innovative and flexible service offerings, superior customer support and focus on speed-to-market result in a more rewarding customer experience, earning us a high degree of customer loyalty.
Breadth of Our Diversified Product Offering and Markets. We believe that we have the most complete line of primary capacitor types, across a full spectrum of dielectric materials including tantalum, ceramic, solid and electrolytic aluminum, film and paper. As a result, we believe we can satisfy virtually all of our customers' capacitance needs, thereby strengthening our position as their supplier of choice. We sell our products into a wide range of different end markets, including computing, industrial, telecommunications, transportation, consumer, defense and healthcare markets across all geographic regions. No single end market segment accounted for more than 30% and only one customer, TTI, Inc., accounted for more than 10% of our net sales in the nine months ended December 31, 2012. Our largest customer is a distributor, and no single end use customer accounted for more than 8% of our net sales in the nine months ended December 31, 2012. We believe that well-balanced product, geographic and customer diversification help us mitigate some of the negative financial impact through economic cycles.
Leading Market Positions and Operating Scale. Based on net sales, we believe that we are the largest manufacturer of tantalum capacitors in the world and one of the largest manufacturers of direct current film capacitors in the world; we have a
significant market position in the specialty ceramic and custom wet aluminum electrolytic markets. We believe that our leading market positions and operating scale allow us to realize production efficiencies, leverage economies of scale and capitalize on growth opportunities in the global capacitor market.
Strong Presence in Specialty Products. We engage in design collaboration with our customers in order to meet their specific needs and provide them with customized products satisfying their engineering specifications. During the nine months ended December 31, 2012 and 2011, respectively, specialty products accounted for 41.1% and 39.1% of our revenue. By allocating an increasing portion of our management resources and research and development investment to specialty products, we have established ourselves as one of the leading innovators in this fast growing emerging segment of the market, which includes healthcare, renewable energy, telecommunication infrastructure, and oil and gas. For example, in August 2009, we were selected as one of thirty companies to receive a grant from the Department of Energy. Our $15.1 million award has enabled us to produce film capacitors within the United States to support alternative energy products and green technologies such as hybrid electric drive vehicles. Producing these parts in the United States will allow us to compete effectively in the alternative energy market domestically. We began production in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2012.
Low-Cost Production. We believe we have some of the lowest cost production facilities in the industry. Many of our key customers have relocated their production facilities to Asia, particularly China. We believe our manufacturing facilities in China have low production costs and are in close proximity to the large and growing Chinese market; in addition, we have the ability to increase capacity and change product mix to meet our customers' needs. We believe our operations in Mexico are among the most cost-efficient in the world. In addition, we believe our manufacturing facility in Bulgaria has low production costs; in the second quarter of fiscal year 2013 we expanded our manufacturing to Macedonia, which we believe will also have low production costs.
Our Brand. Founded by Union Carbide in 1919 as KEMET Laboratories, we believe that we have established a reputation as a high quality, efficient and affordable partner that sets our customers' needs as the top priority. This has allowed us to successfully attract loyal clientele and enabled us to expand our operations and market share over the past few years. We believe our commitment to addressing the needs of the industry in which we operate has differentiated us from our competitors and established us as the "Easy-To-Buy-From" company.
Our People. We believe that we have successfully developed a unique corporate culture based on innovation, customer focus and commitment. We have a strong, highly experienced and committed team in each of our markets. Many of our professionals have developed unparalleled experience in building leadership positions in new markets, as well as successfully integrating acquisitions. Our 16 member executive management team has an average of over 15 years of experience with us and an average of 25 years of experience in the manufacturing industry.
Business Strategy
Our strategy is to use our position as a leading, high-quality manufacturer of capacitors to capitalize on the increasingly demanding requirements of our customers. Key elements of our strategy include:
One KEMET Campaign. We continue to focus on improving our business capabilities through various initiatives that all fall under our One KEMET campaign. The One KEMET campaign aims to ensure that we, as a company, are focused on the same goals and working with the same processes and systems to ensure consistent quality and service. This effort was launched to ensure that as we continue to grow, we not only remain grounded in our core principles but that we also use those principles, operating procedures and systems as the foundation from which to expand. These initiatives include our global Oracle software implementation, which we expect to complete in the first half of fiscal year 2014, our Lean and Six Sigma culture evolution and our global customer accounts management program, which is now implemented and will be expanding.
Develop Our Significant Customer Relationships and Industry Presence. We intend to continue to be responsive to our customers' needs and requirements and to make order entry and fulfillment easier, faster, more flexible and more reliable for our customers by focusing on building products around customers' needs, by giving decision making authority to customer-facing personnel and by providing purpose-built systems and processes, such as our Easy-To-Buy-From order entry system.
Continue to Pursue Low-Cost Production Strategy. We continue to evaluate and are actively pursuing measures that will allow us to maintain our position as a low-cost producer of capacitors with facilities close to our customers. We have shifted and will continue to shift production to low cost locations in order to reduce material and labor costs. We plan to expand our manufacturing in Macedonia which we believe will have low production costs. Additionally, we are focused on developing more cost-efficient manufacturing equipment and processes, designing manufacturing plants for more efficient production and reducing work-in-process ("WIP") inventory by building products from start to finish in one factory. Furthermore, we continue to implement the Lean and Six Sigma methodology to drive towards zero product defects so that quality remains a given in the minds of our customers.
Leverage Our Technological Competence and Expand Our Leadership in Specialty Products. We continue to leverage our technological competence to introduce new products in a timely and cost-efficient manner and generate an increasing portion of our sales from new and customized solutions to meet our customers' varied and evolving capacitor needs as well as to improve financial performance. We believe that by continuing to build on our strength in the higher growth and higher margin specialty segments of the capacitor market, we will be well-positioned to achieve our long-term growth objectives while also improving our profitability. During the third quarter of fiscal year 2013, we introduced 399 new products of which 84 were first to market, and specialty products accounted for 41.1% of our revenue over this period.
Further Expand Our Broad Capacitance Capabilities. We identify ourselves as "The Capacitance Company" and strive to be the supplier of choice for all our customers' capacitance needs across the full spectrum of dielectric materials including tantalum, ceramic, solid and electrolytic aluminum, film and paper. While we believe we have the most complete line of capacitor technologies across these primary capacitor types, we intend to continue to research and pursue additional capacitance technologies and solutions in order to maximize the breadth of our product offerings.
Selectively Target Complementary Acquisitions and Equity Investments. As strategic opportunities are identified, we will evaluate and possibly pursue them if they would enable us to enhance our competitive position and expand our market presence. Our strategy is to acquire complementary capacitor and other related businesses that would allow us to leverage our business model, potentially including those involved in other passive components that are synergistic with our customers' technologies and our current product offerings. For example, on February 21, 2012, the Company completed its acquisition of Niotan Incorporated (whose name was subsequently changed to KEMET Blue Powder Corporation ("Blue Powder")), a leading manufacturer of tantalum powders, from an affiliate of Denham Capital Management LP. In addition, on February 1, 2013 we acquired a 34% economic interest in NEC TOKIN Corporation ("NT"), a manufacturer of tantalum capacitors and electro-magnetic, electro-mechanical and access devices.
Promote the KEMET Brand Globally. We are focused on promoting the KEMET brand globally by highlighting the high-quality and high reliability of our products and our superior customer service. We will continue to market our products to new and existing customers around the world in order to expand our business. We continue to be recognized by our customers as a leading global supplier. For example, in calendar year 2012 we received Rockwell Collins' "Top Supplier Award" and in calendar year 2011, we received the "Supplier of the Year Award" from TTI, Inc. and from Arrow Electronics, Inc., both of which are electronics distributors.
Global Sales & Marketing Strategy. Our motto "Think Global Act Local" describes our approach to sales and marketing. Each of our three sales regions (North America and South America ("Americas"), Europe, Middle East and Africa ("EMEA") and Asia and Pacific Rim ("APAC")) has account managers, field application engineers and strategic marketing managers in the region. In addition, we also have local customer and quality-control support in each region. This organizational structure allows us to respond to the needs of our customers on a timely basis and in their native language. The regions are managed locally and report to a senior manager who is on the KEMET Leadership Team. Furthermore, this organizational structure ensures the efficient communication of our global goals and strategies and allows us to serve the language, cultural and other region-specific needs of our customers.
Recent Developments and Trends
Despite declining sales over the past three fiscal quarters, our efforts to reduce our fixed costs across the entire company have been successful, and we have seen gross margin as a percentage of sales improve from 14.4% in the first quarter of fiscal year 2013 to 17.1% in the third quarter of fiscal year 2013.
We have continued to shift production to lower cost locations and to restructure our operations. Through our recent acquisition and equity investment activity we believe we can enhance our competitive position. These trends are described in more detail below.
Shift to Lower Cost Production
In September 2012 we began production in Skopje, Macedonia; this facility will allow for a significant reduction in cost while increasing our total production capability. In addition, we initiated the relocation of some of our Film and Electrolytic manufacturing operations to our manufacturing facility in Evora, Portugal.
Impairment Charge
Consistent with prior years, we performed our annual impairment test of goodwill and indefinite lived assets as of May 31st. Due to reduced earnings and cash flows caused by macro-economic factors and excess capacity issues in our industry, we revised our
earnings forecast; as a result, we recorded a $1.1 million goodwill impairment charge in the second quarter of fiscal year 2013, which represents all of the goodwill related to the KEMET Foil Manufacturing, LLC ("KEMET Foil") reporting unit.
Write Down of Long-Lived Assets
During the third quarter of fiscal year 2013 and corresponding with a restructuring of our Tantalum operations in the Evora, Portugal manufacturing facility, we incurred impairment charges totaling $3.1 million. This restructuring is expected to be completed during the quarter ending March 31, 2014. As a part of our ongoing commitment to expand our polymer capacity we will be moving Tantalum manufacturing operations from the Evora, Portugal facility to a manufacturing facility in Mexico and the equipment in Portugal will be disposed. We used an income approach to estimate the fair value of the assets to be disposed.
During the second quarter of fiscal year 2013 and in connection with the consolidation of two Film and Electrolytic manufacturing facilities within Italy, we incurred impairment charges totaling $4.2 million. Appraisals for these manufacturing facilities indicated there was a decrease in market value and, therefore, the carrying amounts of these manufacturing facilities were reviewed for recoverability. It was determined that the carrying amounts of the manufacturing facilities were not recoverable since they exceeded the sum of the undiscounted cash flows expected to result from the use and eventual disposition of the asset (asset group). The impairment was measured as the amount by which the carrying amount of a long-lived asset (asset group) exceeded its fair value.
Issuance of 10.5% Senior Notes Add-On
On March 27, 2012 and April 3, 2012, the Company completed the sale of $110.0 million and $15.0 million aggregate principal amount of its 10.5% Senior Notes due 2018, respectively, at an issue price of 105.5% of the principal amount plus accrued interest from November 1, 2011. The Senior Notes were issued as additional notes under the indenture, dated May 5, 2010, among the Company, the guarantors party thereto and Wilmington Trust Company, as trustee.
Equity Investment
On July 11, 2012, we received antitrust clearance from the European Commission under the European Union Merger Regulation for our previously announced intent to acquire a 34% economic interest in NT by KEMET Electronics Corporation ("KEC"), our wholly owned subsidiary, for $50.0 million. On January 2, 2013, we announced that KEC received regulatory clearance from the Anti-monopoly Bureau of the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China for KEC's proposed acquisition of a 34% interest in NT. All required governmental approvals to complete the transaction have now been obtained. The closing of the transaction occurred on February 1, 2013. We will account for the equity investment using the equity method in a non-consolidated variable interest entity since we do not have the power to direct significant activities of NT.
Advance
On August 28, 2012, we entered into an agreement, as amended on the same date (the "Agreement"), with an original equipment manufacturer (the "OEM") pursuant to which the OEM agreed to advance us $24.0 million (the "Advance Payment"). The Agreement provides that on a monthly-basis starting eight months following the receipt of the Advance Payment, we will pay the OEM an amount equal to a percentage of the aggregate purchase price of the capacitors sold to the OEM the preceding month, not to exceed $1.0 million per month. Pursuant to the terms of the Agreement, the percentage of the aggregate purchase price of capacitors sold to the OEM that will be used to repay the Advance Payment could double under certain circumstances described therein. Thirty-two months after the date of the Advance Payment, the remaining outstanding balance, if any, is due in full. Pursuant to the terms of the Agreement, we delivered to the OEM an irrevocable standby letter of credit in the amount of $16.0 million on October 8, 2012 which reduced our availability under the Loan and Security Agreement. On October 22, 2012 we received the Advance Payment from the OEM.
Restructuring
On July 25, 2012, we committed to a global restructuring plan to respond to the continued economic slowdown and in the quarter ended September 30, 2012 we incurred a $7.5 million charge to earnings related to termination benefits. On October 26, 2012, we expanded the global restructuring plan to include additional headcount reductions, and in the quarter ended December 31, 2012 we incurred an additional $3.4 million charge to earnings related to termination benefits. As a result of the restructuring of our Evora, Portugal plant, we expect to incur additional termination related expenses through March 31, 2014.
Outlook
For the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2013, we expect net sales to be consistent with the quarter ended December 31, 2012. We expect to incur capital expenditures in the range of $7.0 million to $9.0 million and Selling, General and Administrative ("SG&A") costs to decrease between $0.3 million to $0.5 million.
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