01.04.2010

Manitou posts €131 million loss

French based Telehandler manufacturer Manitou, has reported a loss of €131 million for 2009 but has cut its debt in half and is seeing a pick up in order intake.

Revenues for 2009 are confirmed at €684.1 million, a fall of 46 percent on 2008, this includes 10 months of Gehl numbers a like for like comparison shows revenues down 54 percent.

The company is now breaking down its revenues between Rough Terrain handling – largely telehandlers, but also regular RT Lift trucks, Industrial Material handling – largely counterbalance fork trucks and Compact Equipment mostly Gehl skid steer and other equipment.

These numbers show that Telehandler/RTF sales fell 53 percent to €485 million, while Industrial sales were down 45 percent €124 and compact equipment revenues were €75 million a fall of 66 percent.

The company says that it managed to maintain its share of the telehandler market, with construction sales very poor, particularly to the rental sector, while Agriculture held up well in the first half but fell significantly in the second half.

During the year the company almost halved its net debt to €243 million, reducing its gearing to 73 percent. It also says that it has reduced its breakeven point by around 25 percent.

The company posted a loss for the year of €131.3 million compared to a profit of €4.1 million last year. This year’s loss includes goodwill impairment and other write-downs of over €65 million.

The company says that 2010 has more strongly than it anticipated and it has started to hire staff in on a temporary basis to meet the demand. It also says that the pick up is already creating some challenges in the supply chain as some component suppliers struggle to meet deliveries. Manitou says that it does not believe that the level of the upturn is sustainable over the whole year and is still predicting single figure growth for the year.

Manitou also announced that Gehl has adopted a leaner management structure, with Dan Miller moving up to president and Serge Bosché to vice president, sales & marketing.

Chief executive Jean-Christophe Giroux,said:“2009 has been an unprecedented year for our industry and for Manitou, with the revenue divided by two and the production by four. Our financial performance therefore reflects a severe operational under activity, across all product divisions, and related one-off charges of more than €65m. But at the same time, we have repaid half of our net debt in 12 months only, we are one year ahead of our repayment schedule.”

“We have reduced our headcount by 21 percent and lowered our breakeven point by 25 percent while successfully sustaining our operational assets and talent base. Our dealer networks are weathering the storm and already shifting to new business opportunities. Even if the conditions for a real rebound remains hard to read, we now enter a new phase with a leaner organization, intact leadership and revived ambitions for our business, networks and customers.”

Vertikal Comment

There are few surprises here with much of this information reported in the preliminary revenue announcements. It is interesting though to see how the company’s telehandler sales have fared and it does confirm our predictions that there has been a levelling at the top of the telehandler market.

If Manitou has maintained its market share, as it claims, then someone else has lost considerably, given our coverage of Merlo’s numbers for 2009. Is it JCB? As a private company it only releases basic information as does Merlo, or is it JLG? Or both?

One thing is certain the telehandler market going forward is likely to be a little less ‘consolidated’ than it was at the start of the recession.

Financially Manitou looks as though it is ‘getting itself into shape’ following the Gehl debacle, a great deal faster than many expected and could be in a strong position to benefit as the market begins to pick up again.