NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Sanmina-SCI Corp. (SANM) sought to head off investors' concerns after its stock plunged 21.4% Thursday, saying its balance sheet remains solid and the company stays in compliance with its borrowing agreements.
The contract electronics manufacturer's shares, having lost more than 30% of their value over the past four days, ticked up 8 cents, or 2.3%, to $3.60 in recent trading. On Tuesday, Moody's Investors Service placed about $2.59 billion worth of Sanmina's debt under review for possible downgrade, prompting the latest liquidity concerns.
Rick Ackel, Sanmina's chief financial officer, said on a conference call Thursday that the last time the San Jose company met with Moody's was in November, and that was before completing its acquisition of SCI Systems. Also, the financial forecasts Sanmina presented then was "based on the economy picking up, and that hasn't happened," Ackel said.
He added that management soon will meet with Moody's again to show the credit agency its "solid fundamentals." An analyst at Moody's was not immediately available for comment Friday.
During the conference call, Sanmina's management highlighted the strength of its balance sheet, which included about $1.1 billion in cash at the end of June, $150 million in capital available through its revolving lines of credit and $ 200 million through an asset securitization program.
Ackel said the company is in compliance with its bank covenants, which limit how much debt a company can have. "The banks are behind us and our game plan," he said.
In addition, the company expects to generate in the current quarter at least $ 100 million in operating cash flow, which represents earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. That amount should be enough to cover the cost of the acquisitions it already has announced, the company said.
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