kontron

gefunden auf http://www.kontron.com/cgi-bin/shnews.pl?id=968153883

Investor[Tue, Sep 5 2000 ]  

Kontron on course for global expansion:
Supplier of miniaturised computers raises sales forecast for 2000 to ? 107.8 million / Sales and profits will be double the 1999 figures / Strate-gic investments in the USA, Taiwan, and Germany contribute to aim of world market leadership / High rate of new orders from booming telecom and datacom industry.
 ...

Eching / Munich, 31st August 2000. Kontron Embedded Computers AG, one of the world?s leading suppliers of miniaturised computers which has been listed onthe Neuer Markt of the  Frankfurt Stock Exchange since the beginning of April, is on course for global growth and  expansion. As the company?s management announced at a press conference in Munich,  they are expecting total turnover in the 2000 financial year to come to ? 107.8 million, which  will be more than double last year?s level. At the time of the stock exchange floatation in   April this year, total turnover for the current year was forecast to be no more than ? 82.3   million. According to Kontron, profit for the year is expected to come to about ? 10.9 million,  likewise double the 1999 figure (? 5.65 million). Return on sales will be around the same level   as last year, at 10.1 percent. It proved possible to balance out increases in materials costs in   the semi-conductor field by making costs savings in the administrative area. This Echingen   company is expecting earnings per share to be (? 0.91). The main factor contributing to sales growth, it was reported, was the extraordinarily high level of new orders from the booming   telecom and datacom industry, which produced consolidated new orders in the first half of   2000 of ? 51.8 million, almost four times the level a year earlier (? 13.1 million). This means   that Kontron is growing considerably faster than the total embedded-computer market   although this is itself noted for its enormous growth and a break-neck rate of consolidation.   The five leading companies had a combined market share of about 25 percent, but this is  ex-pected to rise to 50 percent within a few years. Hannes Niederhauser, Managing  Director of Kontron, said: ?At the time of our stock exchange floatation we were in No. 4  position on the market, this year we will be No. 3, and with the acquisitions we are currently making we will be No. 2 in 2001. Our aim of world market leadership will then be within reach.?

Powerful growth and major orders in the telecom / Internet field

Telecommunications and the Internet currently represent Kontron?s main engine of growth.   This field is giving it about 70 percent of all its sales, and seven out of its ten top customers,   including Agilent / Hewlett Packard (glass fibre systems), Ericsson (base-stations for mobile   telephones , GN Nettest (also base--stations for mobile telephones), Intel Networking  (Internet data encryption) and Juniper (data router). The latest major order, worth over ? 10   million, was placed in August by the Nortel company Alteon Websystems. The Kontron   Embedded Computer will be integrated into the latest Internet switch / krypto system from  Nortel. This order will be completed before the end of the 2000 financial year.  


Strategic acquisitions in the USA, Taiwan, and Germany

In August this year, Kontron was able to complete three strategic acquisitions which will  permanently strengthen its international market position. By taking over Fieldworks Inc., of   Minnesota, a company quoted on Nasdaq, Mr Nieder-hauser says that Kontron will become  one of ?the very strong big boys? in the US market in the field of mobile embedded   Computers, possibly the world mar-ket leader. As Managing Director of Kontron, Mr  Niederhauser believes that synergy effects in the development and production fields will very  quickly bring the American company into profit. In the first half of this year, Fieldworks achieved sales of about ?10 million and a loss of ? 6.1 million. Total turnover for the 2000 financial year is forecast to reach about ? 24 million. By the end of this year, Kontron will have  lifted it out of the loss-making zone and is aiming to increase its sales revenue by adding  Kontron products to its existing sales net-work and its gross profits by reducing costs,  transferring the production of some products to Germany, and introducing lean management.


Presence in Asia

With an 8-percent holding in Taiwan Mycomp Corp. (TMC), Taipeh, Kontron has taken the first decisive step towards gaining a foothold in the prospering Asian market, having already  established itself in Europe and the USA. Kontron will have taken over majority control of  TMC by the spring of 2001 at the latest. The company had been founded in the early 1980,  and specialises in the devel-opment and production of embedded computer boards for logistics, transport, and automation systems. It achieved turnover last year of more than ? 51  mil-lion, about 15 percent of which came from Japan and another 15 percent from China. With immediate effect, TMC?s production capacity and logistics and pur-chasing capability   is to be available to Kontron as part of an overall supply chain management strategy.  ?Increased production capacity and lower costs are one aspect, but even more important for us is the successful entry into the attractive Asian market,? says Mr Niederhauser. Up to now, TMC has been exclusively producing basic technology with thin margins, but Kontron?s  integration strategy provides for this location achieving greater added value with sophisticated ap-plication technology.


Powerful growth in Germany and Europe

Kontron took over Pep Modular Computer GmbH, of Kaufbeuren, with effect from 1st September. This is one of Germany?s biggest and most traditional com-panies in the field of embedded computer technology. Its 220 employees gen-erated sales turnover last year of about ? 30 million. Kontron has paid a pur-chase price of ?14 million to the sole previous  shareholder, the Bayerische Landesbank. ?Pep specialises in the development and  production of embedded computer boards for automation and logistics systems, an important business field for us with a great future and good margins which we intend to expand,? says  Mr Niederhauser as justification for this commitment. The Kontron man-agement board   believes that the new acquisitions in the last four months of this year will bring it out of its   present phase of minor losses into break-even, and that profits will flow from 2001 onwards.  The acquisition of Pep will be reflected in Kontron?s total turnover for 2000 with about an   extra ? 11 million. Kontron intends to extend Pep?s already excellent international sales   network further. As Mr Niederhauser says, ?This network is currently still causing extremely  high sales costs, 30 percent of sales. Integrating Pep into the Kontron Group means that we  can make greater use of this network for all Kontron products, and can thus reduce its cost  level to about 10 percent of total sales.?


A global presence with three business divisions

Kontron?s latest acquisitions are connected with its overall strategy, the aims of which are on  the one hand to establish a geographical presence on the main markets of the world and on the other hand to diversify the three fields of busi-ness. In addition to the currently most important field of telecommunications, with the Teknor centre of competence in Canada, the  fields of mobile embed-ded computer and logistics with its centre of competence at  Fieldworks, in the USA, and of automation, the centre of competence for which is Pep, in Kauf-beuren, are set to grow more rapidly in the coming years. Automation, which currently accounts for 13 percent, will grow to about 25 percent in 2003, and mobile embedded  computers from its current 12 percent to about 18 percent. Accordingly, the proportion   accounted for by telecommunications will fall from its present 73 to 57 percent in 2003.   Geographically as well, Kontron intends to stand on ?three strong pillars?. Asia in particular,  at the moment relatively insignificant, should be contributing over 20 percent to total sales by 2003, and Europe will by then be achieving 35 per-cent, against 44 percent at the moment,  and North America 43 percent com-pared with 55 percent.


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sicherlich wird kontron in zukunft weiter ein hohes wachstum aufweisen. allein die tatsache, dass die high speed router von juniper networks z.t. auf komponenten von kontron aufbauen sollte fuer die qualiteat und weiteres wachtumspotential von kontron sprechen. auch die base-stationen, an denen  ericcson durch die umruestung auf umts verdienen sollte, kommen indirekt kontron zu gute.

allerdings ist kontron momentan sehr hoch bewertet. weiterhin scheint sein aktienkurs unaufhaltsam gen himmel zu streben. nicht dass ich etwas dagegen einzuwenden haette.  allerdings stellt sich mir die frage, wie lange dass noch so weitergehen wird, wann es zu umfangreichen gewinnmitnahmen kommt. im vergeleich zu jumptec ist kontron mittlerweile um einiges hoeher bewertet, hat aber sicherlich auf die besseren wachstumschancen.

meine frage ist nun folgende:
ist eine heftige kurskorrektur bei starken gewinnmitnahmen zu erwarten?
ist es dann nicht besser, ebenfallst (auch wenn eichel sich freut) vom kontron-zug abzuspringen, um dann am naechsten bahnhof erster klasse wieder zuzusteigen?


alia

 

das der Anstieg noch anhalten wird. Hier könnten die Chartanalystem mal weiterhelfen.  

ich denke auch, dass es erst mal so weitergehen wird. aber mehr als 25% sollten erst mal nicht drin sein. aber bei steigenden kursen werden titel immer gern empfohlen. und so steigen sie weiter und frischen mein taschengeld auf;-)
ich moechte mich keineswegs beklagen. aber 240% machen gierig. als kontron noch bei 100 stand dachte ich noch ein ein langzeitinvestment. jetzt denk ich ueber gewinnmitnahmen (spaeter) und einen einstieg, nachdem die kurse gefallen sind, nach.

alia