Bell Micro eyes stock market return

Watt: Bell is definitely through the worst

Bell Micro is one step closer to relisting on the stock market after completing another stage in its financial accounting restatement plans.

The distributor today filed its annual report for the years ended 31 December 2007 and 2008 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Turnover for 2008 stood at $3.6bn (£2.17bn), a drop of nine per cent from 2007 ($3.9bn), and net lossses stood at $74.8m due to goodwill impairments and professional fees in connection with accounting-related investigations and restatement. Net loss in 2007 was $72.1m.

Speaking to CRN, Graeme Watt, global distribution president at Bell Micro, said the firm is on track to file its first and second quarter 2009 financials by September.

“This means we will be current by September,” he said.

In the statement the company said its operating results have “improved dramatically” in 2009, having realised significant reductions in professional fees, goodwill impairments, other operating expenses and foreign exchange losses compared with 2008 levels.

Watt said the firm was “definitely through the worst” and can start to raise its head above the parapet and look at relisting.

“We are much leaner and fitter coming out of this now and the costs of this process are in pretty sharp decline. We can now throw all our energy into delivering a forward-looking strategy,” he said. “I would also like to take the opportunity to thank and recognise our extremely strong relationship with both banks and suppliers. This has been extremely important to us and will remain important going forward.

“We have been looking forward to this moment for quite a while,” he said.

Don Bell, chief executive of Bell, said in a statement: “We are pleased to have a difficult restatement and audit process and to return our attention to growing our business profitably. The process has been thorough, and we have made significant improvement to our financial controls and processes.

“We plan to resume our regular on time SEC Form 10-Q filing schedule in the third quarter. Coupled with being up to date on Q1 and Q2, this will take us one step closer to our goal of relisting on a national stock exchange. I would like to thank the many diligent Bell employees who have contributed to the resolution of these issues, and all of our employees for their continued execution during a challenging period.”

Looking forward, Bell said: "Bell Micro remains committed to its objective of being one of the leading suppliers of computing and storage systems, subsystems and components globally. We can now focus on executing our business plan and realising our company's potential. Our focus on computing and storage solutions for the broad market, as well as selected vertical markets including medical, video, security and surveillance, and telecom, ideally positions us for future profitable growth. We remain committed to our goal of achieving two per cent pre-tax profits, and we will strive to achieve this objective in 2010."