Re: [Leica] Leica Financials Good Overall

[Dan Cardish <dcardish@microtec.net>]

Well.....their stock price is at 9 something today (Euros), which is up a
bit from a few weeks ago.  Maybe it is time to buy???

Dan C.

At 03:52 PM 08-08-00 -0500, Larry Kopitnik wrote:
>In the past, some have complained of seeing financial reports. If 
>that doesn't interest you, skip this message now. You've been warned.
>
>Leica has posted to their web site a July 28th release with the last 
>fiscal year's financial results (it can be downloaded as a pdf 
>document). And it's mostly positive news. As previsously posted to 
>the LUG, they turned a profit of almost DM 1 million, following years 
>of losses. While Chairman of the Board Cohn has met with criticism 
>here more than once, it seems to me he has earned praise. He was 
>hired to return the company to profitability and he has done exactly 
>that. The report's stated goal is to earn back over the next 3 years 
>the DM 30 million lost over the last 2 years. And already sales for 
>the first quarter of the new fiscal year are up by 20% over the first 
>quarter of last year.
>
>By product, the report says that the M system saw the largest sales 
>increase last year, up 20% to DM 83.3 million. Compact cameras were 
>up 13.8% to DM 44.3 million (they expect that segment to continue to 
>grow with the introduction of an APS camera and a new digital compact 
>camera). Minox sales were up 15.4% to DM 11.1 million.
>
>But sales for 2 product groups dropped. Slide projectors fell 16.7% 
>to DM 19.1 million. And R system sales, after falling 37% the 
>previous year, fell another 12.3% last year to DM 37.4 million. The 
>report says, "The exaggerated expectations, with which the high 
>development costs were justified, have not been fulfilled with regard 
>to the Leica R8 camera presented in 1996."
>
>By region, US sales were up 12.7% to DM 63.9 million, noting 
>specifically an increase in "sports optics products" (binoculars?). 
>European sales were steady, down just 0.2% to DM 77.7 million. Asia 
>and Australia were up 17.8% to DM 43.9 million.
>
>German sales were down 9.2% to DM 79 .0 million which, they say, "was 
>due primarily to the overproportional significance of the two 
>declining product segments of SLR cameras and projectors." To counter 
>the sales decline, Leica is increasing advertising in Germany 
>including, for the first time, TV ads.
>
>The report shows 1482 employees currently, down from 1585 a year ago, 
>and says no further layoffs are planned. But apparently the 
>restructuring was critically necessary, as the report states, 
>"Without the restructuring measures, the result would have been 
>approximately DM 13 million worse and would have resulted in a 
>situation endangering the existence of the Company."
>
>Larry
>
>