21.04.2005

Haulotte revenues soar

Pinguely-Haulotte has announced first quarter revenues to the end of March 2005 of €80 million, compared to €46.7 million for the same period in 2004. The first quarter is typically the weakest of the year for Haulotte.

Sales for the quarter include revenues from UK Platforms, which were not included in first quarter 2004 results.This added €4.6 million to the result. On a like for like comparison, revenues were €75.5 an increase of 61 percent.

UK platforms was acquired at the end of the first quarter 2004, and so subsequent reports will automatically be on a like for like basis.

A further affect on the revenue numbers compared to 2004 arise from the adoption of the new French GAP rules, without this change revenues would have been €85.4 million compared to the €52.8million reported last year, an improvement of 62%.

The main change resulting from the new rules is the treatment of capital repayments on back-to-back customer lease agreements. In the past these payments were counted as revenue, even though the revenue had already been booked on receipt of the original funding. In effect double counting such revenues.
These payments are no longer treated as revenues.

Outlook:

Haulotte say that its order book, demonstrates a strong pick up in the aerial lift market, with a Backlog 50 percent higher than this time last year. In spite of this the company is holding to its forecasts to a 15 to 20 percent improvement in revenues and profitability.
Alexandre Saubot, CEO of Haulotte told Vertikal.Net that at this stage it is only one quarter, if the second quarter continues at the same pace then of course it might be prudent to improve the full year projections. At this time though he preffered to remain cautious.