An overhauled Reptron Electronics is still struggling to make a profit but its balance sheet looks cleaner and stronger than it has since the electronics slump began three years ago.
The Tampa electronics company said Wednesday it lost $4.1-million, or 63 cents a share, in its third quarter, which ended Sept. 30, compared with $4.4-million, or 69 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. Sales dropped 15 percent from $45.9-million to $39-million.
But the most telling and encouraging numbers dealt with Reptron's continuing operations.
Caught in a severe price war, Reptron sold its electronics distribution business in June and its memory module division in October. That left the company focused almost exclusively on its core business of making electronics components in four plants around the country.
For the third quarter, losses on those continuing operations narrowed to $845,000, or 13 cents a share, compared with $2.1-million, or 33 cents, a year ago.
Reptron's financial woes have been exacerbated by a $76-million bond payment due in August 2004 on which Reptron stopped making interest payments in January.
To escape its heavy debt load, Reptron filed a prenegotiated bankruptcy reorganization last month. The Chapter 11 filing lets the company cut its principal balance from $76-million to $30-million and cuts its interest rate, leading to $3-million-a-year savings in interest rates the next two years.
With reduced interest payments factored in, "the company would have been virtually break even" for continuing operations in its just-ended third quarter, Reptron president Paul Plante said during an earnings conference call Wednesday morning.
If the numbers were restated to reflect the refinancing of the bonds, shareholders equity would have gone from a deficit to just over $30-million.
Reptron also generated $6.3-million in cash from operations in the quarter, funds used primarily to further reduce debt.
Plante said the company does not anticipate losing any major customers as a result of the bankruptcy court case. In the third quarter, Reptron's top 10 customers represented 63 percent of its revenue; Diebold, which makes ATMs and touch-screen voting machines, was its biggest customer, accounting for 20 percent of revenue.
As with other recent conference calls, Plante did not take any questions from analysts afterward.
Reptron shares closed unchanged Wednesday at 0.18.
