Overview

Belden Inc. (the Company, us, we, or our) is a leading global supplier of network infrastructure solutions built around two global businesses - Enterprise Solutions and Industrial Automation Solutions. Our comprehensive portfolio of solutions enables customers to transmit and secure data, sound, and video for mission critical applications across complex enterprise and industrial environments.

We strive for operational excellence through the execution of our Belden Business System, which includes three areas of focus: Lean enterprise initiatives, our Market Delivery System, and our Talent Management System. Through operational excellence we generate free cash flow on an annual basis. We utilize the cash flow generated by our business to fuel our continued transformation and generate shareholder value. We believe our business system, balance across markets and geographies, systematic go-to-market approach, extensive portfolio of innovative solutions, commitment to Lean principles, and improving margins present a unique value proposition for shareholders.

We use a set of tools and processes that are designed to continuously improve business performance in the critical areas of quality, delivery, cost, and innovation. We consider revenue growth, Adjusted EBITDA margin, free cash flows, and return on invested capital to be our key operating performance indicators. We also seek to acquire businesses that we believe can help us achieve these objectives.

Trends and Events

The following trends and events during 2022 have had varying effects on our financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

Pandemic

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) a pandemic. Since the beginning of the pandemic, our foremost focus has been on the health and safety of our employees and customers. In response to the outbreak, to protect the health and safety of our employees, we modified practices at our manufacturing locations and offices to adhere to guidance from the WHO, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other local health and governmental authorities with respect to social distancing, physical separation, personal protective equipment and sanitization. In light of variant mutations of the virus, even as vaccinations become more prevalent and more employees return to our offices, many of these safeguards will continue.

Our suppliers, distributors, and other partners have similarly had their operations disrupted, and in regions of the world where infection rates have remained high, human suffering and market disruptions have persisted. We will continue to actively monitor the situation and may take further actions that alter our business operations as may be required by local or foreign governmental authorities, or that we determine are in the best interests of our employees and customers.

Foreign Currency

Our exposure to currency rate fluctuations primarily relates to exchange rate movements between the U.S. dollar and the euro, Canadian dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Chinese yuan, Mexican peso, Australian dollar, British pound, Indian rupee and Swiss franc. Generally, as the U.S. dollar strengthens against these foreign currencies, our revenues and earnings are negatively impacted as our foreign denominated revenues and earnings are translated into U.S. dollars at a lower rate. Conversely, as the U.S. dollar weakens against foreign currencies, our revenues and earnings are positively impacted. Approximately 43% of our consolidated revenues during the quarter ended October 2, 2022 were to customers outside of the U.S.

In addition to the translation impact described above, currency rate fluctuations have an economic impact on our financial results. As the U.S. dollar strengthens or weakens against foreign currencies, it results in a relative price increase or decrease for certain of our products that are priced in U.S. dollars in a foreign location.

Inflation

During periods of inflation, if we are unable to raise prices timely and sufficiently to recover our material costs, our earnings could decline. Furthermore, inflation may impact labor, energy, and other costs. We are mindful of ongoing inflationary pressures and as a result, proactively implement selling price increases and cost control measures.




                                      -25-

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Commodity Prices

Our operating results can be affected by changes in prices of commodities, primarily copper and compounds, which are components in some of the products we sell. Generally, as the costs of inventory purchases increase due to higher commodity prices, we raise selling prices to customers to cover the increase in costs, resulting in higher sales revenue but a lower gross profit percentage. Conversely, a decrease in commodity prices would result in lower sales revenue but a higher gross profit percentage. Selling prices of our products are affected by many factors, including end market demand, capacity utilization, overall economic conditions, and commodity prices. There is no exact measure of the effect of changing commodity prices, as there are thousands of transactions in any given quarter, each of which has various factors involved in the individual pricing decisions. Therefore, all references to the effect of copper prices or other commodity prices are estimates.

Channel Inventory

Our operating results also can be affected by the levels of Belden products purchased and held as inventory by our channel partners and customers. Our channel partners and customers purchase and hold the products they bought from us in their inventory in order to meet the service and on-time delivery requirements of their customers. Generally, as our channel partners and customers change the level of products they buy from us and hold in their inventory, it impacts our revenues. Comparisons of our results between periods can be impacted by changes in the levels of channel inventory. We use information provided to us by our channel partners and make certain assumptions based on our sales to them to determine the amount of products they bought from us and hold in their inventory. As such, all references to the effect of channel inventory changes are estimates.

Market Growth and Market Share

The markets in which we operate can generally be characterized as highly competitive and highly fragmented, with many players. We monitor available data regarding market growth, including independent market research reports, publicly available indices, and the financial results of our direct and indirect peer companies, in order to estimate the extent to which our served markets grew or contracted during a particular period. We expect that our unit sales volume will increase or decrease consistently with the market growth rate. Our strategic goal is to utilize our Market Delivery System to target faster growing geographies, applications, and trends within our end markets, in order to achieve growth that is higher than the general market growth rate. To the extent that we exceed the market growth rates, we consider it to be the result of capturing market share.

Tripwire Divestiture

During the nine months ended October 2, 2022, we sold Tripwire for gross cash consideration of $350 million and recognized a loss on disposal of discontinued operations, net of tax of $5.4 million and $9.9 million during the three and nine months ended October 2, 2022. See Note 5.

Debt Repurchase

During the nine months ended October 2, 2022, we repurchased all of the €200.0 million aggregate principal amount of 4.125% senior subordinated notes previously due 2026. We recognized a $6.4 million loss on debt extinguishment for the premiums paid to the bond holders to retire the 2026 Notes and for the unamortized debt issuance costs on the 2026 Notes that we were required to write-off. See Note 13.

Acquisitions

During the nine months ended October 2, 2022, we completed three acquisitions. On January 17, 2022, we acquired Macmon for $41.9 million, net of cash acquired. Macmon, based in Berlin, Germany, is a leading provider of products and services that secure network infrastructure in a variety of mission critical industries. On March 3, 2022, we acquired NetModule for $23.5 million, net of cash acquired. NetModule, based in Bern, Switzerland, is a leading provider of reliable, fast and secure wireless network infrastructures through advanced capabilities in 5G and WiFi6 technologies in a variety of mission critical industries with a strong focus on mass transit and intelligent traffic systems within the transportation vertical. On April 15, 2022, we acquired CAI for $19.0 million, net of cash acquired. CAI is headquartered in Anniston, Alabama and designs, manufactures, and sells a range of plug-in radio frequency filters used in outside plant hybrid fiber-coax nodes. The results of operations of each acquisition have been included in our results of operations from their respective acquisition dates. The three acquisitions were not material to our results of operations. Macmon and NetModule are included in the Industrial Automation Solutions segment, and CAI is included in the Enterprise Solutions segment. All three acquisitions were funded with cash on hand. See Note 3.





                                      -26-

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Share Repurchase Program

During the three months ended October 2, 2022, we repurchased 1.2 million shares of our common stock for an aggregate cost of $69.8 million at an average price per share of $59.84. During the nine months ended October 2, 2022, we repurchased 2.4 million shares of our common stock for an aggregate cost of $136.4 million at an average price per share of $57.50. See Note 18.

Gain on Sale of Asset

During the three and nine months ended October 2, 2022, we sold certain real estate in the United States for $42.2 million, net of transaction costs and recognized a $37.9 million pre-tax gain on sale. This gain on sale was excluded from Segment EBITDA of our Industrial Automation Solutions segment. See Note 11.

Equity Method Investment

During the nine months ended October 2, 2022, we invested $20.0 million in Litmus for a noncontrolling ownership interest. Litmus provides critical data connectivity needed to monitor, visualize, analyze, and integrate industrial data. We account for this investment using the equity method of accounting. See Note 1.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

We have no off-balance sheet arrangements that have or are reasonably likely to have a current or future effect on our financial condition, results of operations, or cash flows that are or would be considered material to investors.

Critical Accounting Policies

During the nine months ended October 2, 2022:

•We did not change any of our existing critical accounting policies from those listed in our 2021 Annual Report on Form 10-K; •No existing accounting policies became critical accounting policies because of an increase in the materiality of associated transactions or changes in the circumstances to which associated judgments and estimates relate; and •There were no significant changes in the manner in which critical accounting policies were applied or in which related judgments and estimates were developed.

© Edgar Online, source Glimpses