Cardo Annual General Meeting
In accordance with the proposal put forward by the board of directors
and president, the meeting declared a dividend of SEK 7.00 per share.
Thursday, April 5 2001 was established as the day of record for
dividend, and payment is expected to be distributed by VPC (the
Swedish Securities Register Center) starting Tuesday, April 10 2001.
The president's address
Cardo's president and CEO Kjell Svensson devoted most of his speech
at the annual general meeting to Cardo's future and the focus on
increased growth that today characterizes the group's operations.
"Our greatest challenge and main ambition is to increase Cardo's rate
of growth. Since our introduction to the stock exchange in 1995, our
annual sales growth has stood at 11 percent after adjustment for the
effects of exchange rate movements. A good figure, but our growth
rate in recent years has been lower than the average. This is
something that we are going to change."
Cardo's growth target is an annual profitable sales growth of 15
percent. Approximately half is to come from acquisitions and the
remainder is to be organic. The group is gradually increasing its
activities in the aftermarket, where Cardo has its greatest potential
for growth.
"What our products have in common is the very fact that our
aftermarket share is considerable, both when its comes to spares and
to service. Service also generates continuous contact with the
customer, which in turn leads to increased sales of new products."
At Pump, service is being expanded by means of measures such as the
establishment of local service centers and the acquisition of small
service workshops. During the past year, this has occurred in
Germany, the Republic of Ireland, Spain, Sweden and Finland, among
other countries. More than half of Pump's turnover relates to
products for water and wastewater, and this area is attracting great
interest, not least when it comes to the aftermarket.
"The privatization of municipal and state-owned treatment works is
leading to service and maintenance being contracted out to external
suppliers to an ever increasing extent. This is generating greater
growth potential for Pump, which today operates in about a hundred
countries worldwide and is one of the leading suppliers of pumps and
mixers for water supply and wastewater treatment."
Kjell Svensson summarized developments in 2000 as being thoroughly
satisfactory. For the group as a whole, improvements were reported at
all levels of earnings.
"When it comes to market prospects for the near future, we can see
that both the USA and Europe are going to experience a slowdown. For
Cardo's part, I am convinced that we will be capable of showing
greater growth this year than that of the underlying market thanks to
the efforts we have made.
Malmö, Sweden, April 2 2001
Cardo AB (publ)
Cardo is an international engineering group with a turnover of
approximately SEK 9.8 billion in 2000. Cardo holds a strong position
in the markets for doors, pumps and rail-vehicle brake systems. Cardo
has subsidiaries in about 30 countries with the focal point resting
in western Europe, and roughly 8,000 employees.