SEC Company Response from AVONDALE INC (CIK 0000911634) — Apr 26, 2005
AVONDALE INC (CIK 0000911634)
Date: April 26, 2005 · CIK: 0000911634 · Accession: 0000950144-05-004353
AI Filing Summary & Sentiment
Referenced dates: March 29, 2005
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April 26, 2005
Mr. Andrew Blume
Securities and Exchange Commission
Division of Corporation Finance
450 Fifth Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20549
Re: Avondale Incorporated - Form 10-K for the Fiscal Year Ended
August 27, 2004, Filed November 12, 2004 (File No. 33-68412) and
Form 10-Q for the Thirteen Weeks Ended November 26, 2004, Filed
January 7, 2005 (File No. 33-68412) (the "Reports")
Dear Mr. Blume:
This letter sets forth the responses of Avondale Incorporated (the
"Company") to the comments of the staff (the "Staff") of the Securities and
Exchange Commission (the "Commission") with regard to the above-referenced
Reports. The Staff's comments were provided to the Company in a letter dated
March 29, 2005.
In connection with responding to these comments, the Company
acknowledges that:
o the Company is responsible for the adequacy and accuracy of
the disclosure in its filings;
o Staff comments or changes to disclosure in response to Staff
comments in the filings reviewed by the Staff do not foreclose
the Commission from taking any action with respect to the
filing; and
o the Company may not assert Staff comments as a defense in any
proceeding initiated by the Commission or any person under the
federal securities laws of the United States.
General
1. Where a comment below requests additional disclosures or other
revisions to be made, these revisions should be included in your future
filings, as applicable.
Response
The Company will conform future filings as applicable.
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Mr. Andrew Blume
Securities and Exchange Commission
Page 2
FORM 10-K FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDED AUGUST 27, 2004
Item 6. Selected Financial Data, page 14
2. We note that you disclose Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure
that is used to determine compliance with certain covenants of your
debt and receivables securitization agreements. Please revise your
disclosure to discuss (1) the materiality of the agreements and the
related covenants, (2) the amounts or limits required for compliance
with the covenants, and (3) the actual or reasonably likely effects of
compliance or non-compliance with the covenants on your financial
condition and liquidity. See Question 10 of the SEC's Frequently Asked
Questions Regarding the Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures (the
Non-GAAP FAQ), available on our website at www.sec.gov.
Response
The Company will revise its disclosure in future filings to include the
information requested. The Company notes pages 29 and 30 of its Form
10-Q report for the thirteen weeks ended February 25, 2005 incorporated
such revisions.
3. Each time you present the measure Adjusted EBITDA, please also present
alongside the measure your cash flows from operating, investing and
financing activities. Refer to Question 12 of the Non-GAAP FAQ.
Response
The Company will revise its disclosure of Adjusted EBITDA in future
filings to include cash flows from operating, investing and financing
activities. The Company notes that pages 29 and 30 of its Form 10-Q
report for the thirteen weeks ended February 25, 2005 incorporated such
disclosures.
4. Please tell us whether the ratio of Adjusted EBITDA to interest
expense, net and discount and expenses on sale of receivables is also
one of your material debt covenants. If so, please add a footnote to
the table describing how you calculate the ratio and also provide
disclosure similar to the disclosure we have requested above with
respect to your presentation of Adjusted EBITDA. Refer to Question 10
of the Non-GAAP FAQ for additional information. If not, please tell us
supplementally why you believe you are permitted to include this
measure in your filing in light of the prohibitions in Item 10(e) of
Regulation S-K. Ensure your supplemental response is clear in terms of
the usefulness of this non-GAAP measure and how the measure is used by
management.
Response
As described on pages 29 and 30 of the Company's Form 10-Q report for
the thirteen weeks ended February 25, 2005, the Company' revolving
credit facility, accounts
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Mr. Andrew Blume
Securities and Exchange Commission
Page 3
receivable securitization facility, equipment note, senior floating
rate notes due 2012 and senior subordinated notes due 2013 include
similar financial covenants, generally including an interest coverage
ratio, a fixed charge coverage ratio and minimum Adjusted EBITDA that
are calculated based on the Company's Adjusted EBITDA. Under the most
restrictive of these financial covenants applicable to fiscal 2005, the
Company must maintain an interest coverage ratio greater than 2.0, a
fixed charge coverage ratio greater than 1.50 and minimum annual
Adjusted EBITDA of greater than $45.0 million. The Company has
historically presented financial ratios in its annual reports on Form
10-K. To the extent that the Company presents these ratios in future
filings, it will clarify how the ratios are calculated and how the
ratios are used in measuring compliance with the Company's material
debt and financing agreements in accordance with Question 10 of the
Non-GAAP FAQ. The Company believes these financial covenants are
material to its financial condition as failure to comply with one of
these covenants may limit the incurrence of additional indebtedness or
trigger events of default.
Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results
of Operation, page 16
5. On page 9 you disclose that you have established reserves for certain
"significant" environmental projects. Due to the significance of these
environmental projects, we feel that additional detailed disclosures in
MD&A and in the financial statement footnotes regarding the judgments
and assumptions underlying the recognition and measurement of the
liabilities are necessary to inform readers fully regarding the range
of reasonably possible outcomes that could have a material effect on
your financial condition, results of operations, or liquidity. For
example, as discussed in paragraph 9 of SFAS 5, we believe that the
amounts accrued for each matter should be disclosed. To the extent it
is reasonably possible you will incur losses in excess of recorded
amounts related to this or other contingent liabilities, please provide
the applicable disclosures in accordance with SFAS 5, including the
amount or range of reasonably possible losses in excess of recorded
amounts. Alternatively, if no amount of loss in excess of recorded
amounts is believed to be reasonably possible, please state this in
your disclosure. Please note that the term reasonably possible, as
described in paragraph .160 of SOP 96-1, spans a significant range
starting from remote and ending with probable. Other disclosures, as
further described in SAB Topic 5-Y, may be necessary, including (but
not limited to):
o The circumstances affecting the reliability and precision of loss
estimates;
o The extent to which unasserted claims are reflected in the accruals
or may affect the magnitude of the contingency;
o Whether, and to what extent, losses may be recoverable from third
parties;
o The timing of payments of accrued and unrecognized amounts;
o The material components of the accruals and significant assumptions
underlying estimates;
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Mr. Andrew Blume
Securities and Exchange Commission
Page 4
o The recurring costs of managing hazardous substances and pollutions
in ongoing operations;
o Mandated expenditures to remediate previously contaminated sites,
and;
o Other infrequent or non-recurring clean-up expenditures that can be
anticipated, but which are not required in the present
circumstances.
See the guidance provided in SFAS 5, SAB Topic 5-Y, and SOP 96-1. Show
us supplementally what the revised disclosures would look like for the
historical periods presented.
Response
The Company has identified those environmental matters where it is
probable that expenditures will be required, including a pond with
certain contamination and land previously used as a landfill, both
acquired in a 1996 transaction, and various other minor environmental
matters that are expected to be resolved by much smaller expenditures.
The expected losses for these environmental matters have been fully
reserved and are not deemed material to the consolidated financial
statements. If more costly remediation measures are necessary than
those believed to be probable based on current facts and circumstances,
actual costs may exceed the reserves provided. However, based on the
information currently available, management does not believe that the
outcome of these matters will have a material adverse effect on the
Company's future results of operations or financial condition. In
response to the Staff's comment, the Company provided additional
disclosure in its Form 10-Q report for the thirteen weeks ended
February 25, 2005. See footnote 8 of the financial statements on page
10 and in Part I, Item 2 on page 21. The Company also agrees that it
will include similar disclosure, as applicable, in future filings.
Results of Operations, page 17
6. Where you describe two or more business reasons that contributed to a
material change in a financial statement line item between periods,
please quantify, where possible, the extent to which each change
contributed to the overall change in that line item. For example, with
respect to the overall change in operating income from fiscal year 2002
to 2003 please quantify the extent to which the changes are
attributable to the various contributing factors, such as declines in
unit volume, reductions in unit cost absorption and operating
efficiencies, and lower raw material costs. Please also supplementally
tell us why you discuss the $2.5 million restructuring charge as a
reason for the decline in operating income when the restructuring
charge of $7.0 million in fiscal year 2002 was much greater. See Item
303(a) of Regulation S-K and SEC Release No. 33-8350.
Response
Given the many dynamic factors that may affect the Company's product
costs, the Company believes that disclosure at the level suggested by
the Staff would require the
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Mr. Andrew Blume
Securities and Exchange Commission
Page 5
inclusion of information in MD&A that is not material to a debt
holder's understanding of the Company's results of operations. In
addition, the Company is concerned that detailed reporting of specific
raw material and other unit costs would result in a competitive
disadvantage for the Company. The Company will provide additional
disclosure in future filings to the extent material.
In response to the Staff's comments concerning the $2.5 million of
restructuring charges in fiscal 2003, the Company agrees that
discussion of restructuring charges, which added further understanding
in earlier quarter-to-quarter comparisons in the Form 10-Q reports,
could have been omitted from the MD&A in the Form 10-K report for the
year ended August 27, 2004.
7. Where you identify intermediate causes of changes in your operating
results, also describe the reasons underlying the intermediate causes.
For example, you indicate that the change in operating income from
fiscal year 2003 to 2004 is due to a significant increase in raw
material costs. While this information is beneficial to the reader, you
do not explain why these raw material costs increased. A discussion of
the relevant factors and trends that led to the increased costs would
be beneficial to the reader. Additionally, we note your statement that
reductions in raw material costs are expected to yield improvements in
margins during fiscal 2005. Please elaborate your disclosures to
indicate your reasoning for this and other similar predictions. See SEC
Release No. 33-8350.
Response
Fluctuations in the Company's raw material costs primarily reflect
fluctuations in the market prices of cotton, polyester fiber, yarns and
greige fabrics. Cotton is an agricultural commodity. Its supply and
quality, which affect prevailing market prices, are subject to the
forces of nature. The market price of cotton is also subject to the
effects of worldwide demand for cotton textile products, including
shifts in demand between domestic and foreign users, and speculative
investments in the cotton commodity market. Polyester fiber, which is
derived from petroleum by-products, is subject to the effects of world
oil prices, and to the extent it may be used as a substitute for
cotton, may be affected indirectly by the market price of cotton. The
Company's costs of yarns and greige fabrics are affected by the market
price of cotton and polyester fiber, as well as the level of market
demand for these products. Another important element affecting the
Company's raw material costs is its ability to shift sourcing of
certain yarn and greige fabric products to internal production of
Company-owned facilities, thereby shifting the form of raw materials
consumed, from yarns or greige fabrics to basic raw fibers. This
ability to shift between external and internal sources is affected by
the utilization level of the Company's productive capacity, the mix of
products manufactured having unique raw material needs and the relative
purchase price of yarns and greige fabrics versus the Company's
internal costs.
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Mr. Andrew Blume
Securities and Exchange Commission
Page 6
The predominant factors affecting the costs of all raw materials
consumed by the Company are beyond its control, and cannot be predicted
with certainty. The Company relies on published sources, including
industry trade groups, US government agencies and commodity brokers,
for an indication of the general direction of market prices. The
Company's disclosure that future periods are likely to see an increase
or decrease in raw material costs is based on the average outlook of
these sources. That assumption is further evaluated against the
Company's perceived ability to maintain or enhance its product p