[Leica] Leica Camera AG record sales and earnings; Company pays a dividend!

[jayanand at gmail.com (Jayanand Govindaraj)]

Good news. Let us hope the trend continues upward through what I am afraid
is going to be a few difficult years for the world economy.
Cheers
Jayanand

On Fri, Jul 8, 2011 at 2:14 AM, Seth Rosner <sethrosner at nycap.rr.com> 
wrote:

> Friends, I've been sufficiently busy and occasionally traveling that I
> unsubscribed some time back. But mindful of the very sharp criticism of
> Leica Camera some years ago by some LUG-ers, I had to stop in for this 
> chat.
> Six years ago, many on the list were predicting the demise of Leica, for oh
> so many different reasons - they don't know their market, atrociously
> over-priced, well, you all remember some of that invective.
>
> I was somewhat more hopeful, serving then as president of LHSA and having
> met and had an opportunity to chat at some length with Andreas Kaufmann, 
> the
> principal owner, during tghe LHSA annual meeting in Wetzlar. So I bought
> some shares in the Company, immediately had a one-for-three reverse split 
> so
> I had 1/3 the number of shares. Well over the following years, with growing
> confidence in the Company's direction, I increased my modest stake. The
> average cost of my shares in US dollars is $6.80. The share value in US
> dollars at today's close is $26. and today the Company announced that its
> sales for the 2010-2011 fiscal year were ALMOST A QUARTER BILLION EUROS!,
> almost 100 million euros above last year, and earnings were almost six 
> times
> higher than last year. Best of all, the Company will pay a dividend of Euro
> 0.30/share! That's about a 4.5% return based on my share cost! No, it's not
> near enough to finance a new 50/1,4 Summilux-ASPH! But it is some
> unbelievable turn-around, eh?
>
> I've cut and pasted today's Leica announcement:
>
> Leica Camera AG pays dividend after closing financial year with record
> sales
> Leica Camera AG, Solms, finished the 2010/2011 financial year (1 April 2010
> to 31 March
> 2011) with record sales. With total sales of ?248.8 m, the Hessian company
> with a long
> tradition of manufacturing cameras and sport optics products increased its
> sales by 57.2%
> compared to the previous year (?158.2 m). The company?s earnings before
> interest and taxes
> (EBIT) were almost six times higher. They rose from ?7.4 m in the previous
> financial year to
> ?41.5 m. The group profit was also higher than expected at ?36.3 m, more
> than 11 times
> higher than the previous year (?3.2 m). At the company?s AGM on 12 August
> 2011, the board
> and supervisory board will propose that the shareholders distribute a
> dividend of ?0.30 per
> share as a result of the positive balance. This would be the company?s
> first dividend payment
> since 1997.
> Alfred Schopf, CEO of Leica Camera AG: ?The increase in sales is primarily
> due to strong
> demand for the Leica M and Leica S camera systems. In addition, the
> products presented at
> photokina in September 2010 have also increased the momentum. Our employees
> deserve to
> be thanked for the fact that, with the most complete product range in the
> history of Leica, we
> have been able to increase sales continuously since the third quarter of
> the 2009/2010
> financial year.? According to Schopf, excellent quality and perfect service
> have top priority at
> the company. He adds: ?The result of the most recent financial year is the
> best incentive for
> Leica Camera AG to continue on our successful course. This will also
> include a high level of
> investment in the company and in product development both this year and
> next ? which
> means we expect less quickly further growth during these two financial
> years.?
>
>
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