Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/05/13
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Not good, I'm afraid. Currently Leica stock is currently trading at about DM31. It was listed at DM47 on Sept.19, 96. It rose to a high of DM54.50 in fiscal '97. The stock was oversubscribed 18 times during its IPO. The stock is listed at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Why? Very likely the effects of the Asian financial and currency crisis. I have a copy of the 1996/97 annual report. It mentioned that in fiscal year ended March 31, 97 sales to the Far East accounted for almost 24% of the total group sales. This was up from 18.7% for the previous year. The US accounted for 13.1%, Germany 35.7% and Europe (excluding Germany) 25.5%. Total sales in FY '97 ended March 31 was DM265,777,000. The M still accounted for 28.3% of the total sales vs. 24.3% for R. But this has to be seen against the previous year (95/96) when the M accounted for 29.2% of total sales against 17.8% for the R. Therefore, the R sales have increased more rapidly. This was due to the introduction of the R8 and according to the report, large volumes of R7. The results for FY ending March 31, 98 should be available. It would be interesting to see the changes in sales to the various regions as well as by product lines. By the way, this annual report has beautiful photographs from many Leica photographers, such as Luis Castenada, HCB, Mario Algaze, etc. Therefore, Lugers, where do you want to invest your money? Leica stock or cameras and lenses:)? Regards, N.S.Ng