2009′s 2Q report released
Consistent with overall global activity, our Q2 report shows Orderly Intake at €26.2 million, down 29.1% compared to Q1 2008. On a rolling 12-month basis, Order Intake of €133.0 million is only slightly lower than the 2008 level, but 8.6% lower than Q1 2009.
The Order Book of €44.5 million is just barely (.3%) higher than the level at Q2 2008. As such, we remain a step ahead of our industry’s economic trends and are prepared to gain momentum in the second half of 2009.
I have just quickly read the report and a Press media report. From what I read, Cavotec expected this downturn due to the current climate and forsees a lift in 2nd quarter.
Prior to this quarter I was pleased when I heard that that Cavotec was exercising caution and performing internal cutbacks. I note from the report that Cav is now considering paying back these saving to all employees. Is this prudent to discuss this yet as Cavotec is not entirely ‘out of the woods’ yet – and in a bigger picture the overall world markets are not?
Besides, with the share price wallowing at a near 52 week low I feel that most shareholders, that are not part of the ‘good chunk of the company owned by employees,’ are not feeling as radiant. On a smaller note they did not receive dividend payments.
Congratualations on the positive steps that the company has received in the last few weeks but as private shareholders we have not seen anything concrete as yet to cheer about, on a share price basis.
regards
Hi Robbie,
Thanks for the email, and for taking the time to follow the reports about Cavotec.
I would ask that you not read into too much of Alan’s quote, as it more of a paraphrase and a combination of a few things he and I spoke about. We made this exact same comment at the AGM and with the same caveats that while ‘we’d love to pay back’ our salary cuts, we don¹t know if / when we could due to the cloudy vision of where invoiced sales will be for the rest of the 2009. As I also mentioned to Alan, it is this same unpredictability of sales invoiced which has disallowed us from thus far giving final invoiced sales guidance to the market for 31 December 2009. We know and see the big opportunity projects on the horizon, but they are not booked yet, which means the clock from ‘order to delivery / revenue’ hasn¹t started ticking on them yet.
Additionally, my comment about the ‘good chunk of the company still being owned by employees’ was made exactly in reference to why we all volunteered to cut our own salaries…because we knew it was in the best interest of the long-term value of the company. In this, we were acting exactly in line with all of our shareholders – either internal or external.
Even with between 5% and 10% less salaries throughout the company, I can assure you our people are ‘working harder for less money’ in every country we are in. We’re out there in front of customers, negotiating with suppliers and informing the airline industry and ports & maritime regulation authorities why and how our technologies will make their global operations safer, cleaner, and more efficient. There aren¹t many banner headlines to discuss with the market right now, but it’s the behind the scenes work we are doing that will be our ace-in-the-hole when the economic duress subsides. We’re mopping up all of the bread and butter little orders, while simultaneously tracking other larger opportunities that will bring a big smile to all of our faces when they come to fruition.
While we have no direct control over the share price, and while we share your awareness of its current 52-week-minimum-level value, we do believe that Cavotec is beating the market right now in terms of our relative financial performance (versus competitors and some customers) and certainly in terms of maintaining vigilance with ket market players. Such intangible value should, in my personal opinion, turn into tangible economic value for all shareholders when ‘the world’ is ready to put risk capital back into the equity markets.
Kind regards,
John J. Polatz
Excellent site