Contact Information: Investor Contacts: Suzanne Craig The Blueshirt Group for SMART Modular Technologies 415-217-7722 Barry Zwarenstein Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer SMART Modular Technologies 510-624-8134
SMART Modular Technologies Repurchases and Retires $26.2 Million of Senior Secured Floating Rate Notes Due 2012
| Source: SMART Modular Technologies
NEWARK, CA--(Marketwire - October 26, 2009) - SMART Modular Technologies (WWH), Inc. ("SMART"
or the "Company") (NASDAQ : SMOD ), a leading independent manufacturer of
memory modules, solid state drives, embedded computing subsystems, and
TFT-LCD display products, today announced that it recently repurchased
$26.2 million aggregate principal amount of its senior secured floating
rate notes due 2012 (the "Notes") at a discount. Using $25 million cash on
hand, SMART paid 95.5% of the principal or face amount of the Notes to
acquire and retire such debt early. The aggregate principal amount
outstanding under the Notes is now $55.1 million, down from $81.3 million.
By using cash on hand to extinguish almost one-third of its long-term debt,
SMART expects to save $1.5 million in annual interest expense based on the
current interest rate under the Notes of approximately 5.8%. Earlier this
month, SMART reported that it had approximately $147.7 million of cash and
cash equivalents as of August 28, 2009 (the end of its fiscal 2009) and
that it had generated operating cash flow of $52.5 million during fiscal
2009.
"We took advantage of an opportunity to repurchase a portion of our
long-term debt at a discount. The repurchase utilized our excess cash to
retire debt early and is accretive to income, while reducing leverage,"
explained Barry Zwarenstein, SMART's Senior Vice President and Chief
Financial Officer. "On a long-term basis, we expect to generate positive
cash flow from operations, which will further strengthen our balance sheet
and enhance our financial flexibility."
About SMART
SMART is a leading independent designer, manufacturer and supplier of
electronic subsystems to original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs. SMART
offers more than 500 standard and custom products to OEMs engaged in the
computer, industrial, networking, gaming, telecommunications, and embedded
application markets. Taking innovations from the design stage through
manufacturing and delivery, SMART has developed a comprehensive memory
product line that includes DRAM, SRAM, and Flash memory in various form
factors. Under its Adtron brand, SMART also offers high performance, high
capacity solid state drives for enterprise, defense/aerospace, industrial
automation, medical, and transportation markets. SMART's Display Products
Group designs, manufactures, and sells thin film transistors (TFT) liquid
crystal display (LCD) solutions to customers developing casino gaming
systems as well as embedded applications such as kiosk, ATM,
point-of-service, and industrial control systems. SMART's presence in the
U.S., Europe, Asia, and Latin America enables it to provide its customers
with proven expertise in international logistics, asset management, and
supply-chain management worldwide. See www.smartm.com for more information.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements contained in this press release, including the quotations
attributed to Mr. Zwarenstein, that are not statements of historical fact,
including any statements that use the words "will," "believes,"
"anticipates," "estimates," "expects," "intends" or similar words that
describe the Company's or its management's future expectations, plans,
objectives, or goals, are "forward-looking statements" and are made
pursuant to the safe-harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include projections
regarding the Company's financial performance, including ability to
generate positive cash flow from operations, interest rates and interest
expense.
Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors that could cause the actual results of the
Company to be materially different from the historical results and/or from
any future results or outcomes expressed or implied by such forward-looking
statements. Factors that would cause or contribute to such differences
include, but are not limited to, the post-closing integration of the
businesses and product lines of SMART and Adtron, production or
manufacturing difficulties, competitive factors, new products and
technological changes, fluctuations in product prices and raw material
costs and availability, dependence upon third-party vendors, customer
demand, changes in industry standards or release plans, fluctuations in the
quarterly effective tax rate, possible increases in previously estimated
restructuring charges, lower than anticipated cash savings from
restructuring, higher anticipated costs from increasing capacity, changes
in interest rates and foreign currency exchange rates and other risks
detailed in the Company's periodic report filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission including the Company's Form 10-K for the fiscal year
ended August 29, 2008, Form 10-Q for the quarter ended November 28, 2008,
Form 10-Q for the quarter ended February 27, 2009, Form 10-Q for the
quarter ended May 29, 2009, and Proxy filed on August 6, 2009. Such risk
factors as outlined in these reports may not constitute all factors that
could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in any
forward-looking statement. The Company operates in a continually changing
business environment and new factors emerge from time to time. The Company
cannot predict such factors, nor can it assess the impact, if any, from
such factors on the Company or its results. Accordingly, forward-looking
statements should not be relied upon as a prediction of actual results. The
Company is not obligated to revise or update any forward-looking statements
in order to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date
of this press release.