Astronics Corporation, a leading provider of advanced technologies for global aerospace, defence and other mission-critical industries, has reported preliminary revenue and orders and announced the completion of the refinancing of its debt.
The company reported that unaudited preliminary fourth-quarter sales are expected to be in the range of US$155 million to US$160 million, exceeding the company’s earlier guidance of US$140 million to US$150 million. The midpoint of the preliminary range represents a sequential increase in sales of 20% over the third quarter of 2022 and a 35% increase over the third quarter of 2021.
Preliminary bookings in the fourth quarter are expected to be in the range of US$175 million to US$180 million.
Peter J. Gundermann, Chairman, President and CEO, commented, “We continued to see strong order flow in the fourth quarter, as we have since the middle of 2021. We expect to report another positive book-to-bill quarter and another record ending backlog. More importantly, however, we finally saw the beginning of the sales ramp required to satisfy high demand as our supply chain continues to show improvement. We expect the sales ramp to endure as we move into 2023, consistent with our earlier revenue guidance for the year of US$640 million to US$680 million.”
Astronics also announced that it has completed a financing transaction totalling US$205 million, which refinanced its previous revolving credit facility that was scheduled to mature in November 2023. The new financing consists of a US$90 million asset-based term loan and a US$115 million asset-based revolving credit facility. The term loan has a scheduled maturity of January 19, 2027, an interest rate of SOFR plus 8.75% and is collateralised primarily by real estate, fixed assets and intellectual property. The revolving credit facility has a scheduled maturity of January 19, 2026, an interest rate of SOFR plus 2.25% to 2.75% and is collateralised primarily by inventory and accounts receivable. (£1.00 = US$1.23 at time of publication).
