MSL reports Q3 - loss over $5M on $189M revenue

MSL (NYSE: MSV - News) released its financial results for the third quarter of fiscal 2003. Revenues for the quarter were $189.0 million, a sequential increase of 3.7% compared to the second quarter of 2003 and a decrease of 6.3% from the same period a year ago. Net loss under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) for the third quarter of 2003 was $5.2 million, compared to a net loss of $0.7 million in the second quarter of 2003 and net loss of $8.4 million in the comparable period of the prior year. Including the impact of accretion and dividends on its convertible preferred stock, the Company reported a GAAP net loss applicable to common stockholders of $6.5 million, or $0.19 per share in the third quarter of 2003 as compared to a net loss of $1.6 million or $0.05 per share in the second quarter of 2003 and a net loss of $9.2 million, or $0.28 per share in the comparable period of the prior year. Cash EPS(1) was $(0.03) in the third quarter of 2003, compared to $(0.01) in the second quarter of 2003 and $0.03 in the comparable period a year ago. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, as adjusted (Adjusted EBITDA(2)), for the third quarter of 2003 were $5.6 million or 3.0% of revenue as compared to $5.6 million or 3.1 % of revenue in the second quarter of 2003 and $8.2 million or 4.1% of revenue in the third quarter of the prior year. At September 28, 2003, the Company had a cash balance of $54.8 million, which exceeded by $30.6 million its total debt, as compared to cash in excess of debt of $19.2 million at June 29, 2003 and $20.2 million at September 29, 2002. Net working capital days at September 28, 2003 were 42.8, an increase of 2.3 days from 40.5 days at June 29, 2003. The Company used approximately $8.9 million in cash from operations during the quarter in connection with ramping new business in the third quarter and preparing for fourth quarter production. The Company recorded $5.3 million in restructuring and other one-time charges in the quarter, consistent with prior announcements. The Company also reported it won fifteen new programs during the quarter, not including preliminary design wins. Five of the programs were wins with new customers and ten were with existing customers. "MSL remains on track to deliver on our objective of growing our business through uninterrupted delivery of value-added services in lower volume, higher mix PCBA, BTO/CTO, logistics and automated manufacturing solutions," said Bob Bradshaw, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MSL. "Our customers will benefit a great deal from Celestica's robust capabilities in design engineering, complex manufacturing and low cost solutions to accelerate MSL's service offerings. We look forward to assuring our customers a seamless transition to ensure consistency of ongoing services." The Company believes that Cash EPS and Adjusted EBITDA, both non-GAAP financial measures, provide investors with a useful view of the Company's results by isolating unusual gains, losses and charges and describing the Company's performance without them. The non-GAAP measures in this press release are reconciled to the Company's most directly comparable GAAP measures on the following pages. * (1) Cash EPS is defined as net income (loss) applicable to common stockholders before restructuring and asset writedown charges, non-recurring and unusual items, and amortization of goodwill and other intangibles, divided by diluted weighted average shares outstanding.* (2) Adjusted EBITDA is defined as earnings before net interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, restructuring and other asset write-downs, stock-based compensation and other non-recurring items as well as non-operating expenses including foreign exchange gain (loss).