Anzeige
Mehr »
Login
Freitag, 29.03.2024 Börsentäglich über 12.000 News von 687 internationalen Medien

Indizes

Kurs

%
News
24 h / 7 T
Aufrufe
7 Tage

Aktien

Kurs

%
News
24 h / 7 T
Aufrufe
7 Tage

Xetra-Orderbuch

Fonds

Kurs

%

Devisen

Kurs

%

Rohstoffe

Kurs

%

Themen

Kurs

%

Erweiterte Suche
Dow Jones News
194 Leser
Artikel bewerten:
(0)

EQS-News: Report on Schaffner Holding AG by Research Dynamics: Management Change Update

EQS Group-News: Research Dynamics / Key word(s): Research Update 
Report on Schaffner Holding AG by Research Dynamics: Management Change 
Update 
 
2016-07-18 / 07:00 
 
*This report is published by Research Dynamics, an independent research 
boutique 
 
Interim management to guide through challenging times* 
 
*CEO Alexander Hagemann leaving with immediate effect* 
On Friday, 15 July 2016, Schaffner announced the leaving of the long-term 
CEO of the Group, Alexander Hagemann, with immediate effect. He is said to 
pursue new challenges outside of the company. Ad interim, the Group's CFO 
Kurt Ledermann, who has been with the company for more than 8 years, will 
take over as CEO. Thus, the Group Executive Committee will consist of Kurt 
Ledermann, CEO ad interim, Ah Bee Goh, Chief Operating Officer, and Guido 
Schlegelmilch, Head of the EMC - Schaffner's largest - division. Kurt 
Ledermann seems predestined to take on the ad interim CEO role, since in 
addition to his finance and accounting background he also holds a degree in 
Electrical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH. 
To manage the additional function, he will be supported by his long-term 
deputy CFO, Christian Herren. No news regarding the search of a successor 
was provided, but we believe that given that the Power Magnetics division 
has been at an interregnum stage for some time (and "ad interim" managed by 
Alexander Hagemann), a joint personnel decision might be envisaged. 
 
*Resignation not a total surprise* 
Strategically, the Group has moved into the right direction during the 
9-year tenure of CEO Hagemann - purposefully building up the PM division by 
internal and external growth, expanding into Asian and North American 
markets to reduce the dependency on Europe and thus driving internalization 
of the Group, focusing on lean manufacturing, etc. However, operationally 
the Group had been facing unexpected challenges for various (external) 
reasons such as unfavourable FX developments, postponed or cancelled 
projects, wage inflation, etc. over the past years, hence missing to achieve 
its own guidance more than once and disappointing with the results. Thus, 
while being crucial in the strategic development of the Group, the 
bottom-line results that management under Alexander Hagemann presented were 
lacklustre in the last 5 years, except for FY2014. We could well imagine 
that some investors were not satisfied with this performance. 
 
*"Strategy 2020" maintained, but short-term focus on internal projects * 
Just recently, on occasion of its Investors' Day on 8 June 2016, Schaffner 
management maintained the targets set out under the Vision 2020, with the 
Group's EBITA margin to reach more than 8% within the next 24 months and 
organic revenue growth above 5%. However, the revenue target originally set 
at CHF 400 million looks increasingly challenging to reach, given that in 
the short-term management focus is on internal projects, not external 
growth. 
 
In the interim, we believe that the daily operations would not be too 
affected by the leaving of the long-term CEO as also under the Executive 
Management Committee now in place, the priority should remain on cutting 
costs, firstly by consolidating production facilities and cutting overheads. 
Secondly, the Group is transferring more of production (mostly from 
Shanghai) to its Thailand factory, which is the lowest cost production 
facility for the company, while at the same time continuing with one factory 
each in the US, Europe, China and Thailand in order to have customer 
proximity. With these ongoing initiatives, Schaffner aims to reduce 
production and overhead costs by CHF 6 million annually. 
 
The above short-term measures, together with the "ad interim" situation, 
make the acquisition part of the Strategy 2020 over the next 12 months more 
unlikely, unless an opportunity would present itself unexpectedly. While it 
may also take as long as a year to solve the CEO succession, we believe that 
with successful execution on the cost cutting side investors might be 
increasingly interested in the stock again that seems to have bottomed out 
following last year's disappointing results. 
 
*Valuation* 
The company continues on its restructuring path, and this change looks to be 
a part of the overall process. The transitory phase and the one-off 
restructuring expenses have significantly impacted 2016's profitability. 
Thus, we value the company based on its 2017E earnings. Looking on a PE 
basis, the stock is trading mostly in line with its 3-year historical 
average. Compared to peers, Schaffner is trading at a premium to its product 
as well as industry peers 2017 PE median. However, the company is trading at 
a sharp discount to its industry peers median 2017 EV/EBITDA (though at a 
slight premium to product peers). We believe Schaffner will come out 
stronger and much more leaner post the restructuring phase and this discount 
to industry peers on EV/EBITDA is unwarranted. 
 
Additional features: 
 
Document: http://n.eqs.com/c/fncls.ssp?u=TWGUTKTGHS [1] 
Document title: Schaffner_Management Change_17.7.2016 
 
2016-07-18 This Corporate News was distributed by Tensid EQS AG. www.eqs.com 
483069 2016-07-18 
 
 
1: http://public-cockpit.eqs.com/cgi-bin/fncls.ssp?fn=redirect&url=3c31a261bc17d8df934cec216435c2b1&application_id=483069&site_id=vwd&application_name=news 
 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 18, 2016 01:00 ET (05:00 GMT)

Großer Dividenden-Report 2024 von Dr. Dennis Riedl
Der kostenlose Dividenden-Report zeigt ganz genau, wo Sie in diesem Jahr zuschlagen können. Das sind die Favoriten von Börsenprofi Dr. Dennis Riedl
Jetzt hier klicken
© 2016 Dow Jones News
Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befürwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgültigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich möglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere über die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.