Bel Reports Second Quarter 2023 Results
GNW 26 Jul 2023 4:15 PM
WEST ORANGE, N.J., July 26, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bel Fuse Inc. (Nasdaq: BELFA and BELFB) today announced preliminary financial results for the second quarter of 2023.
Second Quarter 2023 Highlights
•Net sales of $168.8 million compared to $170.6 million in Q2-22. Non-GAAP adjusted net sales (which exclude raw material expedite fee invoicing) were $163.1 million in Q2-23, up from $161.4 million in Q2-22 •Gross profit margin of 32.9%, up from 26.6% in Q2-22•Net earnings of $27.8 million versus $17.0 million in Q2-22•Adjusted EBITDA of $28.6 million (17.0% of sales), up from $19.1 million (11.2% of sales) in Q2-22•Voluntary paydown of $40.0 million of debt•Divestment of non-core Czech business and closed sale of former headquarters building in Jersey City, New Jersey, resulting in gains of $1.1 million and $3.7 million, respectively
“This marks the seventh consecutive quarter of year-over-year gross margin improvement, driven by volume growth in key end markets and global discipline on pricing and costs. Excluding the impact of raw material expedite fees, overall sales were slightly higher in Q2-23 as compared to Q2-22. Our focus on margin expansion across the business, product and end market diversity, and capturing opportunistic growth have continued to translate into improved financial performance. We are very pleased to have achieved these results in an otherwise challenging macroeconomic environment,” said Daniel Bernstein, President and CEO.
"Within our Connectivity Solutions segment, commercial aerospace sales grew by 102% over Q2-22 to $15.9 million, a new record high for this end market. Sales into our defense end market were also strong in Q2-23 at $11.7 million, up 22% from Q2-22. Similar to Q1-23, gross margins for this segment benefited from increased volumes, better SKU management and cost savings from strategic initiatives implemented starting in 2022. We expect commercial aerospace and defense to be the primary growth drivers for this segment through the balance of the year.
"Our Power group achieved record sales this quarter of $87.1 million, largely driven by continued easing of the supply chain, allowing us to ship more product. The largest increase in revenue was seen in our front-end power products, which increased by $16.1 million in Q2-23 versus Q2-22. Additionally, eMobility power product sales continued its trend of sequential growth, reaching $8.5 million in Q2-23, an increase of 71% over Q2-22.
"Our Magnetics segment continued to be affected by our networking end customers as they work through their remaining surplus of inventory in the channel. We believe this segment is showing some early signs of rebounding as we move into Q3. As previously announced, this segment is in the process of a facility consolidation initiative in China and this project remains on schedule, targeted for completion by the end of 2023. This is the largest of four facility consolidations started in 2022, and we anticipate collective annualized cost savings of approximately $5 million to fully take effect by the first quarter of 2024,” concluded Mr. Bernstein.
Farouq Tuweiq, CFO, added "In addition to delivering solid performance during the quarter, we completed several initiatives including divesting our Czech operations, selling our former headquarters building, conducting an executive offsite, and progressing with various plant consolidations. Looking ahead to the third quarter of 2023, we expect to see yet another shift in product mix on the horizon, anticipating a slight rebound in Magnetics taking hold while our Power segment will likely normalize a bit now that many past-due orders have been shipped. Based on information available as of today, our current estimate for the third quarter is GAAP net sales in the range of $157-$165 million. We anticipate gross profit margins to largely hold at second quarter 2023 levels. We believe we are well positioned from both a technological and customer relationship perspective to capture organic growth from the secular tailwinds that are expected to benefit our industry in the near and mid-term," concluded Mr. Tuweiq.
