Good day, and welcome to the Bel Fuse Inc. fourth quarter and full year 2021 results Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Jean Young from Three Part Advisors. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Emma, and good morning, everyone. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that this conference call contains certain forward-looking statements regarding the company's expected operating and financial performance for future periods. These statements are based on the company's current expectations. Actual results for future periods may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements due to a number of risks and other factors. Additional information about factors that could potentially impact our financial results is included in yesterday's press release and is discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and our subsequent quarterly reports and other filings with the SEC from time to time. We may also discuss non-GAAP results during this call, and reconciliations of our GAAP results to non-GAAP results have been included in our press release.
Our press release and our SEC filings are all available at the IR section of our website. Joining us on the call today is Dan Bernstein, President and CEO, Farouq Tuweiq, CFO, and Lynn Hutkin, Director of Financial Reporting. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Dan.
Thank you, Jean, and all of you for joining our call today. Our team at Bel has performed extremely well. In these challenging times, they have embraced our efforts to improve the company. I would like to thank every associate for their hard work and dedication to Bel for enabling us to have one of our best quarters in recent memory. We achieved our fourth quarters of strong year-over-year sales growth, with new record highs in both quarterly bookings and in our backlog of orders at quarter end. This increase in demand is across each of our three product groups and the majority of our end markets. Our backlog remains at an all-time high, totaling $468 million at December 31st. In 2021, we launched 1,800 new standard part numbers into the channel. This will bode well for us for our future growth.
Our acquisition of RMS and EOS, completed last year, are fully integrated and have contributed to Bel's bottom line through combined net earnings of $1.9 million in 2021. CUI acquired in late 2019 continues to be a strong performer with sales growth of 29% from 2020- 2021. On the cost side, we continue to navigate direct and indirect supply chain challenges, including those related to raw material, logistics, labor availability, retention, and overall inflation. Last year, we concluded our four-year ERP conversion project, combining five systems into one. We have transitioned from a functional use of the system to data analytics and now have better visibility on margins by SKU. Although still in the early stages of adaptation, this data has quickly become the foundation of our day-to-day business decisions on how best to allocate our sales, engineering, and manufacturing resources.
Overall, we invested $7 million in the ERP conversion and have recognized annual cost savings of $2 million. With our legacy systems now fully integrated, we will utilize our internal resources to migrate our recent acquisitions onto the new system as well. Last quarter, we appointed Jacqueline Brito to our board, and she has proved to be a very valuable addition. As with many companies, Bel has been challenged with associate retention and job satisfaction. With Jackie's strong background in human resource development, she has been tasked with doing a cultural assessment of the company and to identify areas for improvement. This assessment is completed, and we are implementing the recommendations to enhance the associates' experience at Bel. In furthering our commitment to becoming a better corporate citizen, we've implemented two new programs in 2022 around community engagement, charitable contributions aligned with our values.
Associates will now be provided with time paid off to volunteer within the communities, and Bel will be donating and matching contributions to local charitable organizations of choice. I'm very proud of the progress we made throughout the company, and we will continue to continue on our journey in 2022 to make sure Bel is the best it can be for our associates, stakeholders and customers, and communities in which we work in. I would like now to turn the call over to Lynn for the financial update.
Thank you, Dan. As Dan mentioned, Q4 was very strong with year-over-year growth seen across each of our product groups. Overall, fourth quarter sales were $147 million, an increase of 27% from fourth quarter of 2020. Gross margin for the quarter increased to 26.7% as compared to 25.3% a year prior. By product group, Power Solutions and Protection sales were $58.7 million, up 12% from last year's fourth quarter. The largest contributing factor to power sales growth during the quarter related to our 2021 acquisition of EOS, which generated sales of $4.6 million in the fourth quarter. Other notable growth came from sales of our circuit protection products, which were up $2 million or 46% from Q4 2020.
Sales through our CUI business and into the eMobility end market also remained strong in the fourth quarter. These areas of growth were offset in part by a $1.5 million decline in our custom modules product line, which we continue to exit, that low margin business. Future year-over-year variances related to this exit should be minimal going forward. Gross margin for this group was 30.9% for the fourth quarter, a 320 basis point improvement from Q4 2020, driven by a favorable shift in product mix. Our Power Solutions and Protection group finished the year with a healthy book-to-bill ratio of 1.7 and a robust backlog of orders of $240 million, an increase of 270% from the 2020 year-end.
Turning to our Connectivity Solutions group, sales were $43.6 million, an increase of 27% from last year's fourth quarter, with the continued rebound of commercial aerospace end market, which improved by $3 million or 140% from last year's fourth quarter. To provide some context on where we are in the ramp in commercial aerospace, sales into that end market were $30 million in 2018. They were as low as $12 million in 2020 and increased to just under $18 million in 2021. Fourth quarter bookings in commercial aerospace were $7.7 million, which was equivalent to the full year of 2020 bookings for that end market. Sales of connectivity products through our higher-margin distribution channels remained strong for the fourth quarter, reflecting a 46% increase from last year's fourth quarter.
Military sales continued to be challenged this past quarter, resulting in a 24% decrease in the defense end market. Gross margin for this group came in at 23.7% for the fourth quarter of 2021, up slightly from the fourth quarter of 2020. The Connectivity Solutions group closed out the year with a book-to-bill ratio of 1.2 and a backlog of orders of $85 million, an increase of 79% from the 2020 year-end. Lastly, our Magnetic Solutions group had Q4 sales of $44.8 million, up 52% from last year's fourth quarter, led by higher demand for our integrated connector modules that are used in next-generation switching applications. Gross margin for this group declined to 22.9% for the fourth quarter from 23.3% a year prior.
These products are primarily manufactured in China, where wage rates have increased and margins have been further impacted by the unfavorable shift in exchange rate of the Chinese renminbi versus the U.S. dollar. We've estimated a 50 basis points impact on fourth quarter 2021 margin related to FX alone. Our Magnetic Solutions group finished the year with a book-to-bill ratio of 1.6 and $143 million of orders, which are largely scheduled to ship in 2022. This represents a 233% increase in backlog since the 2020 year-end. Our selling, general, and administrative expenses were $21.9 million or 14.9% of sales, up $2.3 million from a dollar perspective from the fourth quarter, but down as a percentage of sales.
Of the dollar increase, $1.4 million related to the inclusion of SG&A expenses for EOS, which was acquired in March 2021. Turning to balance sheet and cash flow items, we ended the year with a cash balance of $61.8 million, a reduction of $23.2 million from the 2020 year-end balance. Our working capital increased by $24.3 million from December 31st, 2020. We saw a $13 million increase in our accounts receivable balance due to sales growth experienced during the second half of 2021 versus the same period of 2020. Our DSO improved slightly from 57 days at December 31st, 2020 to 54 days at December 31st, 2021. Inventories increased by $34 million as we have been purchasing a higher volume of raw materials to accommodate the increase in demand from our customers.
This, in turn, resulted in a similar increase in our accounts receivable balance since December 2020. In addition to changes in working capital, other items impacting cash flows for the year included net payments of approximately $17 million for acquisitions, capital expenditures of $9.4 million, debt payments of $4.3 million, dividend payments of $3.4 million, and interest payments of $2.1 million. We also received $7.3 million in proceeds from the sale of properties during 2021. I'll now turn the call over to Farouq for items that we see impacting us in 2022. Farouq?
Thanks, Lynn. Good morning, everyone. There are a few items that I wanted to touch upon as we focus and look out towards 2022. With regard to pricing, we continue to monitor the impact of supply chain concerns, raw material sourcing, and the overall cost of doing business to ensure we're responding in an appropriate and effective manner. As of today, we have implemented another round of price increases that started in late fourth quarter of 2021 and continue through Q1 this year. Furthermore, we have implemented various price processes and procedures that will allow us to react to the dynamic market in a more expeditious and targeted manner. Looking at 2022, first quarter margins have historically had downward pressure due to production inefficiencies related to Chinese New Year.
That said, we do expect to see favorable impacts of our initiatives as we progress throughout the year. On the supply chain side, our best estimate at this stage is that shipping, logistics, and procurement of raw materials will all remain a challenge throughout 2022, as it seems as if it's a little bit of a new norm. This will remain a key area and focus for our sourcing team and various other teams around the world. We're also keeping a close eye on all things COVID at the local operating levels given we are exposed to a number of regulations in the various countries which we operate in. As Lynn mentioned earlier, our financials are impacted each year with fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, particularly the Chinese renminbi and Mexican peso, as those are the currencies in which a large percentage of our labor is paid.
This past year, we meaningfully expanded our forex hedging program to mitigate financial impact related to these currencies, as well as initiating for the first time an interest rate swap. On the interest rate swap, we moved roughly $60 million from being variable rate to fixed. That is our view that interest rates will climb over the term of the revolver. As a reminder, we put this in place in Q4, and with some of the things that we saw and some of the messaging coming out of the Federal Reserve, we think this will suit us well. While these are simple programs, the idea here is to really minimize operational variability and provide us with better visibility into pricing and operations and take a couple of variables or minimize the impact there as well.
On the M&A side, the market has really seen aggressive valuations in the recent history, and we expect that to be the same in the near- term, representing a challenge for us. With that said, we are continuously on the hunt for new opportunities, and as things come our way that makes sense, we will act upon it. As Dan stated, we're focused on and committed to demonstrable margin improvement across the business and are taking a targeted approach with appropriate sequence. We're examining various aspects of our business down to the SKU level and up to our operational footprint. As we embark on these initiatives, we do expect to incur some upfront one-time investments. We will be sharing more details as things develop in the coming quarters. Please keep in mind this will be an ongoing process with plans for a stronger company.
With that, I'll turn over to Dan. Dan?
Thank you. Emma, can you please open up the call for questions?
Certainly. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question over the telephone, please signal by pressing star one. Please ensure that the mute function on your telephone is switched off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. Again, to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one on your telephone. We will pause for just a moment to allow everyone an opportunity to signal for questions. I'll take our first question now from Theodore O'Neill from Litchfield Hills Research. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and congratulations on the good quarter. Question for you. Given what's happening in Ukraine, I just have to ask about your operations in Slovakia, if you're seeing any impact there. Are you planning for logistics issues either in that area or in the operations in nearby?
I think we do have operations in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and throughout Eastern Europe and Central Europe. There's a tremendous concern of what's gonna happen. At this point, I think we're roughly about 350 miles from the border. It is a concern. However, at this time, we are keeping a watchful eye on it. And it is a concern mostly for the people and their families in the area and the uncertainty that it brings to everybody.
We're seeing some companies that are redesigning products to use components from, you know, multiple sources, and I'm wondering if that's impacting you at all.
No, I think everybody, you know, realized, you know, in the past, you know, started with SARS and now with COVID, that you can't be overly dependent on one country or one source. Everybody, I think throughout our industry are trying to get a minimum of two to three sources. However, you know, we're doing the same thing, you know, trying to diversify, you know, A, our production, where we're getting parts from, and then B, having multiple sources from different locations. It has been a slower process than what we would like.
Okay, thank you very much.
Thank you. As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one on your telephone. That's star one to ask a question. We'll now go to our next question now from Hendi Susanto from Gabelli Funds.
Good morning, Dan, Farouq, and Lynn.
Morning.
Thank you for the information on the commercial aerospace. Dan, in terms of backlog, any data point that can help us to somewhat like forecast our expectation for commercial aerospace sales in 2022?
When it comes to forecasting and those questions, I'm gonna pass it on to Farouq or Lynn, who would wanna grab that one.
Yeah. Hendi, the question is specifically on how much commercial air backlog we're sitting on right now?
I think the question is how much.
Backlog and then.
What revenue?
Yeah. Revenue-wise, like, and then the pace of the recovery in commercial aerospace.
Got it. Lynn, you know, feel free to jump in here, you know, from maybe just to kind of recap what was said. In 2018 commercial aerospace, we had roughly $30 million of sales. In 2020 it went all the way down to $12 million, and in 2021 we were back up to $18 million. We're still off from that $30 million mark in 2018. The other thing I would say, this is obviously legacy Bel numbers. Now with RMS, the equation has changed a little bit. We do expect that to be north of there. The ramp is pretty steep. I'd say it's taking a lot of time from the connectivity folks perspective. We don't. I don't know, Lynn, if you would have a number on that handy.
I don't have a backlog number, but to give you some perspective, sales into commercial aerospace, and these are, this wouldn't include anything through distribution, but it was, as I mentioned, just under $18 million for 2021. From a bookings perspective, it was just about $20.5 million of bookings that were received in 2021. Q4 bookings was $7.7 million, which, you know, definitely indicates that we are on an increased path here. I do not have the bookings or what is scheduled to ship specific to that end market. I think we do continue to see growth there.
No, I think we can say, you know, based on the readings that we've done in commercial aerospace, that we think things will get back to the pre-COVID level, not this year, but in 2023 it should be back to pre-COVID level of commercial aerospace building.
That's very helpful. Farouq, given the, let's say like strong demonstration of gross margin improvement, like how you manage like gross margin despite of supply chain constraint, any qualitative guidance that you can share with gross margin expectation for 2022?
Yeah, sure, Henry. You're right, it is a challenge because, you know, in addition to just regular way business, there's a lot of obviously geopolitical issues and supply chain issues and all this kind of stuff, so it does remain a challenge. To Dan's earlier comment, now one of the nice things of having an ERP system is we're able to identify down to the SKU level and part number where the issue is so we can be targeted. We've introduced some processes internally where we can identify it earlier and address it on the front end. The idea is more being proactive. We've also put in various procedures where if things get out of hand down the road, we'll be able to address it. It's really about our ability to pass things on.
We're also taking another strategic look on where we think we can take market share and/or lean into some of our higher-margin business. As we look out to 2022, obviously some of the challenges do continue with the inflationary pressures. We're addressing a lot of these things, and I'd say we are addressing them and should be fully addressed, assuming the world holds in Q1 here. Coming out of Q1, we should have put things in place that will stabilize and lead us to something a little bit better. As we look out specifically to maybe Q1, we do expect to be ahead of last year Q1. Obviously Q4 was a very high-growth quarter for us, and Q1 is historically a little bit weaker for us.
We'll be somewhere between last year Q1 and where we were in Q4 on the margin side. Obviously, as we'd also said, we're trying to up the gross margin, and I think we'll see some of the benefits of that throughout this coming year. As we go through the year, we'll be sharing a little bit more specifics on what's being done on that front.
Just to add a little bit more color to that. You know, historically, when we quote a customer, it's 90 days, we would never change pricing on backlog. Quotes would be firm for 30 days. All our customers have received a letter stating, based on the current conditions, if our raw materials change quickly, we will have to change our pricing and quoting, you know, at the same time, and we have to change backlog. Historically, we could have orders on the books for six months, see a price increase and not be able to make a change. Now we can make any for any backlog order, we have the ability to change an order within 30 days, and any open quote, we have the ability to change immediately.
Again, a much more, you know, proactive approach and moving a lot quicker than we have in the past to deal with the changing environment we're living in today.
That sounds very positive then. Thank you. My last question is on the eMobility. Any particular geography and markets?
Lynn? You know.
All right.
I think maybe Lynn can go over the backlog. Are you allowed to discuss the backlog, Lynn, or no? I think just from an overall standpoint from a marketplace, we're really focused on niche markets, you know, not high vol for our power group, which is a driving force in EV. We look at, you know, smaller companies, you know, retrofitting vans, retrofitting trucks, not for GM or those type of companies. However, when it comes to our circuit protection group, because it's not as the pricing is not as aggressive, we service all EV vehicles with our circuit protection group, and we have seen some nice growth through there in those markets. Lynn, you wanna just follow up on EV?
Yeah, sure. I can share that. Sales within our EV market did go up by over $6 million from 2020. We are starting to see some continued growth there. It's always been a relatively small dollar amount, but we're starting to see the pickup there. From a bookings perspective, bookings increased by $47 million from 2020 to 2021 in this end market. And a lot of that, I think, is, you know, related to North America, European eMobility applications as Dan mentioned.
It's concentrated in North America and Europe, and then China market is not a big portion of that?
Not from the power side, but from the circuit protection side.
I see. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much, and then all the best for 2022.
Thank you. As we have no further questions at this time, I'd like to turn the conference back to your management team for any additional or closing remarks.
Yeah. I'd just like to thank everybody for joining our call today. We appreciate your time and looking forward to reporting in April.
Thank you. This will conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. Ladies and gentlemen, you may now disconnect.