NATURE OF OPERATIONS

12 Months Ended

Jul. 31, 2021

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

NATURE OF OPERATIONS

NATURE OF OPERATIONS

Steel Connect, Inc., together with its consolidated subsidiaries (the "Company"), operates through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, IWCO Direct Holdings, Inc. ("IWCO Direct" or "IWCO") and ModusLink Corporation ("ModusLink" or "Supply Chain").

IWCO Direct delivers data-driven marketing solutions for its customers. Its full range of services includes strategy, creative and execution for omnichannel marketing campaigns, along with postal logistics programs for direct mail. Through its Mail-Gard® division, IWCO Direct also offers business continuity and disaster recovery services to protect against unexpected business interruptions, along with providing print and mail outsourcing services.

ModusLink is a supply chain business process management company serving clients in markets such as consumer electronics, communications, computing, medical devices, software and retail. ModusLink designs and executes elements in its clients' global supply chains to improve speed to market, product customization, flexibility, cost, quality and service. The Company also produces and licenses an entitlement management solution for activation, provisioning, entitlement subscription, and data collection from physical goods (connected products) and digital products.

Historically, the Company has financed its operations and met its capital requirements primarily through funds generated from operations, the sale of its securities, borrowings from lending institutions and sale of facilities that were not fully utilized. The Company believes it has access to adequate resources to meet its needs for normal operating costs, capital expenditures, mandatory debt redemptions and working capital for its existing business for at least twelve months from the date of this filing. These resources include cash and cash equivalents, ModusLink's credit agreement with MidCap Financial Trust ("MidCap"), IWCO Direct's revolving credit facility and cash, if any, provided by operating activities. The Company's expectations regarding its ability to use its existing cash to continue funding its operations are based on assumptions that may prove to be inaccurate, and the Company may require capital resources sooner than currently expected. While the Company believes it will be able to access this additional liquidity based on existing information, the assumptions underlying this belief may also later prove to be inaccurate.

As of July 31, 2021 and 2020, the Company had cash and cash equivalents of $96.9 million and $75.9 million, respectively. As of July 31, 2021, the Company had a working capital deficit of $4.6 million, which includes accrued pricing liabilities and certain tax related liabilities which the Company believes will not require a cash outlay in the next twelve months. As of July 31, 2021, ModusLink had a readily available borrowing capacity under its revolving credit facility of $8.7 million. As of July 31, 2021, IWCO Direct had a readily available borrowing capacity under its revolving facility of $25.0 million. The Company believes it will generate sufficient cash to meet its debt covenants under its credit facilities to which certain of its subsidiaries are a party and that it will be able to obtain cash through its current and future credit facilities, if needed.

Impact of COVID-19

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has adversely impacted and is likely to further adversely impact nearly all aspects of our business and markets, including our workforce and the operations of our clients, suppliers, and business partners. Beginning in March 2020, when the World Health Organization categorized COVID-19 as a pandemic and the President of the United States declared the COVID-19 outbreak a national emergency, we experienced impacts to our facility operations, supply chain, availability and productivity of personnel, while also working to comply with rapidly evolving international, federal, state and local restrictions on travel and workplace health and safety. We experienced disruptions to our business continuity as a result of temporary closures of certain of ModusLink’s facilities in the third and fourth quarters of fiscal year 2020, as well as the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2021. However, these temporary closures did not have a significant impact on ModusLink’s operations. Additionally, although IWCO Direct operated as an essential business, it had reduced operating levels and labor shifts due to lower sales volume during the third quarter of fiscal year 2020.

To help combat these impacts and mitigate the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business, during fiscal year 2020 we took proactive measures by initiating cost reduction actions, including the waiver of board fees, hiring freezes, staffing and force reductions, company-wide salary reductions, bonus payment deferrals and temporary 401(k) match suspension. The temporary waiver of board fees and company-wide salary reduction actions taken in the prior fiscal year were fully restored prior to the beginning of fiscal year 2021, and the majority of salary reductions were repaid prior to the fiscal quarter ended January 31, 2021.We continue our focus on cash management and liquidity, which includes aggressive working capital management.

In addition, we aim to closely monitor the impact of COVID-19 on all aspects of our business and geographies, including its impact on our clients, employees, suppliers, vendors, business partners and distribution channels. We believe that such impacts could include, but are not limited to, the extent and severity of the impact on our customers and suppliers; the continued disruption to the demand for our businesses' products and services; the impact of the global business and economic environment on liquidity and the availability of capital; delays in payments of outstanding receivables beyond normal payment terms; supply chain disruptions; uncertain demand; and the effect of any initiatives or programs that we may undertake to address financial and operational challenges faced by our customers. The full extent to which the pandemic will directly or indirectly impact our business, results of operations and financial condition, is difficult to predict, and will depend on the duration and spread of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic (including new variants of COVID-19), its severity, the actions to contain the virus or address its impact, the timing, distribution, and efficacy of vaccines and other treatments, U.S. and foreign government actions to respond to the reduction in global economic activity, and how quickly and to what extent normal economic and operating conditions can resume. As of the filing of this Form 10-K, all of our facilities were open and able to operate at normal capacities. We will evaluate further actions if circumstances warrant while continuing to strategically support the Company’s future growth initiatives (including its Competitive Improvement Plan for IWCO Direct), sales and marketing activities and supply chain solutions and services.

Steel Holdings Expression of Interest

On November 19, 2020, the Company's Board received a preliminary, non-binding expression of interest from Steel Holdings to acquire all of the outstanding shares of common stock not already owned by Steel Holdings or its affiliates for a combination of cash and Steel Holdings 6% Series A Preferred Units, which would imply a value per share of common stock in the range of $0.65 to $0.72 per share.

The transaction, as proposed, is subject to negotiation. Any definitive agreement with respect to such transaction is subject to approval by the board of directors of Steel Holdings, the Board and shareholders. Such definitive agreement would be expected to contain customary closing conditions, including standard regulatory notifications and approvals.

As a result, we cannot predict whether the terms of such transaction will be agreed upon by Steel Holdings and the Board's special committee for recommendation to their respective boards of directors, for approval of the transaction or whether any such transactions would be approved by the requisite votes of our shareholders.

We also cannot predict the timing, final structure or other terms of any potential transaction and the terms of any such transaction may differ materially from those originally proposed by Steel Holdings. The pendency of any such proposed transaction may have had and may continue to have an adverse impact on the market price of our common stock. In addition, we expect to incur a number of non-recurring, transaction-related costs associated with negotiating the proposed transaction.