06.08.2014

Manitex hits new records

Boom truck and crane producer Manitex has reported record revenues and profits for its first half and second quarter.

Total revenues for the first six months were $131 million, over seven percent up on the same period last year. Pre-tax profits for the period improved 11 percent to $7.2 million.

Looking at the second quarter revenues totalled $68.4 million over nine percent up on last year, while pre-tax profits increased almost 14 percent to $4.4 million. The order book/backlog at the end of June was $102.5 million up from $77 million at the start of the year.

Chief Executive David Langevin said: “While our quarterly results were slightly below plan, we continued to grow our revenues to new highs with solid bottom line net income while EBITDA margins were in-line with our historic levels. The strategic direction we’ve taken to expand our product portfolio and diversify our revenue sources through in-house development and acquisitions continues to serve us well. We saw gradual improvement in demand from Europe produce improved order intake and product sales. Our backlog is up, though modestly, and unit production too, has moved higher compared to a year ago”.

“We are excited about our recently announced pending acquisition of PM Group, and look forward to completing the acquisition and as we move forward, producing increased revenues and profits for our shareholders. While the transaction is not anticipated to close until the fourth quarter, we look forward to emerging from 2014 as a much larger and stronger entity and moving on into 2015 we will be growing into a new stage in our development from a base in excess of $350 million in pro-forma run-rate revenues.”

Vertikal Comment

Another decent set up of numbers from Manitex, which is set to grow substantially with the addition of PM group. With this and the recent addition of Valla, the company is now becoming bigger in Italy and Europe than in North America. A most unusual scenario.

So far the company has apparently managed some tricky overseas acquisitions exceptionally well, PM is of a different scale, and one cannot but wonder if it might be over stretching its relatively small management team and resources. Hopefully this will not prove to be one acquisition too far.