KEMET Reports Preliminary Fourth Quarter And Fiscal Year 2015 Results

GREENVILLE, S.C., May 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- KEMET Corporation (the "Company") (NYSE: KEM), a leading global supplier of electronic components, today reported preliminary results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended March 31, 2015.

Net sales of $193.7 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 decreased 3.8% from net sales of $201.3 million for the prior quarter ended December 31, 2014, and decreased 10.2% compared to net sales of $215.8 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2014.  For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2015 net sales were $823.2 million compared to $833.7 million for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2014.

The U.S. GAAP net loss for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 was $19.8 million, or $0.44 loss per basic and diluted share, compared to a net loss for the quarter ended March 31, 2014 of $14.4 million or $0.32 loss per basic and diluted share.  For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2015, the net loss was $14.1 million, or $0.31 loss per diluted share compared to a net loss of $68.5 million, or $1.52 loss per diluted share for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2014.

The non-U.S. GAAP Adjusted net loss for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 was $1.6 million or $0.04 loss per basic and diluted share, compared to a non-U.S. GAAP Adjusted net income of $1.7 million or $0.03 per diluted share for the quarter ended March 31, 2014.  For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2015, the non-U.S. GAAP net income was $7.0 million, or $0.13 per diluted share compared to a net loss of $17.5 million, or $0.39 loss per basic and diluted share for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2014.

"We entered this fiscal year focused on improving Adjusted operating income and cash flow and we are pleased that our Adjusted operating income improved over $30.5 million compared to our prior fiscal year even with some currency headwinds in the last two quarters," stated Per Loof, KEMET's Chief Executive Officer.  "As we adjust to the reality of a strong U.S. dollar we believe we have positioned our cost structure to allow us to continue a trend of improving our Adjusted operating income for our next fiscal year as well," continued Loof.

The net income (loss) for the quarters ended March 31, 2015 and 2014 include various items affecting comparability as denoted in the U.S. GAAP to Non-U.S. GAAP reconciliation table included hereafter.

About KEMET

The Company's common stock is listed on the NYSE under the ticker symbol "KEM" (NYSE: KEM).  At the Investor Relations section of our web site at http://www.kemet.com/IR, users may subscribe to KEMET news releases and find additional information about our Company.  KEMET applies world class service and quality to deliver industry leading, high performance capacitance solutions to its customers around the world and offers the world's most complete line of surface mount and through-hole capacitor technologies across tantalum, ceramic, film, aluminum, electrolytic, and paper dielectrics. Additional information about KEMET can be found at http://www.kemet.com.

QUIET PERIOD

Beginning July 1, 2015, we will observe a quiet period during which the information provided in this news release and annual report on Form 10-K will no longer constitute our current expectations. During the quiet period, this information should be considered to be historical, applying prior to the quiet period only and not subject to update by management. The quiet period will extend until the day when our next quarterly earnings release is published.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT ON FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain statements included herein contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws about the Company's financial condition and results of operations that are based on management's current expectations, estimates and projections about the markets, in which the Company operates, as well as management's beliefs and assumptions. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," variations of such words and other similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions, which are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in, or implied by, such forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect management's judgment only as of the date hereof. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly any of these forward-looking statements to reflect new information, future events or otherwise.

Factors that may cause the actual outcomes 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) continued net losses could impact our ability to realize current operating plans and could materially adversely affect our liquidity and our ability to continue to operate; (iii) adverse economic conditions could cause the write down of long-lived assets or goodwill; (iv) an increase in the cost or a decrease in the availability of our principal or single-sourced purchased materials; (v) changes in the competitive environment; (vi) uncertainty of the timing of customer product qualifications in heavily regulated industries; (vii) economic, political, or regulatory changes in the countries in which we operate; (viii) difficulties, delays or unexpected costs in completing the restructuring plans; (ix) equity method investment in NEC TOKIN exposes us to a variety of risks; (x) possible acquisition of NEC TOKIN may not achieve all of the anticipated results; (xi) acquisitions and other strategic transactions expose us to a variety of risks; (xii) our business could be negatively impacted by increased regulatory scrutiny and litigation (xiii) inability to attract, train and retain effective employees and management; (xiv) inability to develop innovative products to maintain customer relationships and offset potential price erosion in older products; (xv) exposure to claims alleging product defects; (xvi) the impact of laws and regulations that apply to our business, including those relating to environmental matters; (xvii) the impact of international laws relating to trade, export controls and foreign corrupt practices; (xviii) volatility of financial and credit markets affecting our access to capital; (xix) the need to reduce the total costs of our products to remain competitive; (xx) potential limitation on the use of net operating losses to offset possible future taxable income; (xxi) restrictions in our debt agreements that limit our flexibility in operating our business; (xxii) failure of our information technology systems to function properly or our failure to control unauthorized access to our systems may cause business disruptions; and (xxiii) additional exercise of the warrant by K Equity which could potentially result in the existence of a significant stockholder who could seek to influence our corporate decisions.

Non-U.S. GAAP Financial Measures

In this news release, the Company makes reference to certain Non-U.S. GAAP financial measures, including "Adjusted gross margin", "Adjusted operating income", "Adjusted net income (loss)", "Adjusted net income (loss) per share" and "Adjusted EBITDA".  Management believes that investors may find it useful to review the Company's financial results as adjusted to exclude items as determined by management.

Adjusted Gross Margin

Adjusted gross margin represents net sales less cost of sales excluding adjustments which are outlined in the quantitative reconciliation provided below.  Management uses Adjusted gross margin to facilitate our analysis and understanding of our business operations and believes that Adjusted gross margin is useful to investors because it provides a supplemental way to understand the underlying operating performance of the Company.  Adjusted gross margin should not be considered as an alternative to gross margin or any other performance measure derived in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

The following table provides a reconciliation from U.S. GAAP Gross margin to Non-U.S. GAAP Adjusted gross margin (amounts in thousands):

Adjusted Operating Income

Adjusted operating income represents operating income (loss), excluding adjustments which are outlined in the quantitative reconciliation provided below. We use Adjusted operating income to facilitate our analysis and understanding of our business operations and believe that Adjusted operating income is useful to investors because it provides a supplemental way to understand our underlying operating performance. Adjusted operating income should not be considered as an alternative to operating income or any other performance measure derived in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

Adjusted operating income is calculated as follows (amounts in thousands):

Adjusted Net Income (Loss) and Adjusted Net Income (Loss) Per Share

"Adjusted net income (loss)" and "Adjusted net income (loss) per share" represent net income (loss) and net income (loss) per share excluding adjustments which are outlined in the quantitative reconciliation provided below.  Management believes that these Non-U.S. GAAP financial measures are useful to investors because they provide a supplemental way to understand the underlying operating performance of the Company.  Management uses these Non-U.S. GAAP financial measures to evaluate operating performance.  Non-U.S. GAAP financial measures should not be considered as an alternative to net income, operating income or any other performance measures derived in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

The following table provides reconciliation from U.S. GAAP net income (loss) to Non-U.S. GAAP adjusted net income (loss):

Adjusted EBITDA

Adjusted EBITDA represents net income (loss) before net interest expense, income tax expense, and depreciation and amortization expense, adjusted to exclude certain item which are outlined in the quantitative reconciliation provided below.  We use Adjusted EBITDA to monitor and evaluate our operating performance and to facilitate internal and external comparisons of the historical operating performance of our business.  We present Adjusted EBITDA as a supplemental measure of our performance and ability to service debt.  We also present Adjusted EBITDA because we believe such measure is frequently used by securities analysts, investors and other interested parties in the evaluation of companies in our industry.

We believe Adjusted EBITDA is an appropriate supplemental measure of debt service capacity, because cash expenditures on interest are, by definition, available to pay interest, and tax expense is inversely correlated to interest expense because tax expense goes down as deductible interest expense goes up; depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges. The other adjustments to arrive at Adjusted EBITDA are excluded in order to better reflect our continuing operations.

In evaluating Adjusted EBITDA, you should be aware that in the future we may incur expenses similar to the adjustments noted below.  Our presentation of Adjusted EBITDA should not be construed as an inference that our future results will be unaffected by these types of adjustments.  Adjusted EBITDA is not a measurement of our financial performance under U.S. GAAP and should not be considered as an alternative to net income, operating income or any other performance measures derived in accordance with U.S. GAAP or as an alternative to cash flow from operating activities as a measure of our liquidity.

Our Adjusted EBITDA measure has limitations as an analytical tool, and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under U.S. GAAP.  Some of these limitations are:

• it does not reflect our cash expenditures, future requirements for capital expenditures or contractual commitments;
• it does not reflect changes in, or cash requirements for, our working capital needs;
• it does not reflect the significant interest expense or the cash requirements necessary to service interest or principal payment on our debt;
• although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the assets being depreciated and amortized will often have to be replaced in the future, and our Adjusted EBITDA measure does not reflect any cash requirements for such replacements;
• it is not adjusted for all non-cash income or expense items that are reflected in our statements of cash flows;
• it does not reflect the impact of earnings or charges resulting from matters we consider not to be indicative of our ongoing operations;
• it does not reflect limitations on or costs related to transferring earnings from our subsidiaries to us; and
• other companies in our industry may calculate this measure differently than we do, limiting its usefulness as a comparative measure.

Because of these limitations, Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered as a measure of discretionary cash available to us to invest in the growth of our business or as a measure of cash that will be available to us to meet our obligations.  You should compensate for these limitations by relying primarily on our U.S. GAAP results and using Adjusted EBITDA only supplementally.

The following table provides a reconciliation from U.S. GAAP net income (loss) to Adjusted EBITDA (amounts in thousands):

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SOURCE KEMET Corporation

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