Manitex Reports Revenue Increase for Third Quarter

November 18, 2008 – Manitex International, Bridgeview, Ill., reports its revenue in the third quarter of 2008 increased 7.3 percent to $28.5 million, despite challenges in the marketplace and boom trucks at their lowest level since 1993.

 

“We are pleased to report that the company has gained market share in the traditional boom truck markets,” said David Langevin, chairman and CEO of Manitex. “Our higher tonnage products are also allowing us to cross over and benefit from the strong demand for truck cranes.”

 

Recent acquisitions of Crane and Machinery and Schaeff have further diversified Manitex’s product portfolio, which Langevin said has added scale to its existing replacement parts business, which can accelerate penetration into international markets.

 

Net sales for the quarter were $28.5 million, compared to $26.6 million in the three months ended September 30, 2007. The increase in net revenue is due to an increase in crane sales of $2.7 million, which was offset by a decrease of $0.8 million in forklift and specialized carrier revenues. Approximately 60 percent of the increase in crane revenues is attributed to an increase in chassis sales with the remaining increase the result of growth in both part sales and crane revenues excluding chassis. Higher tonnage cranes showed continued increases over the same period of 2007.

 

Higher materials costs, including steel, continues to impact profits, and as a result, Manitex’s margins declined for both the third quarter and year-to-date periods. The company addressed the impact of the material cost through a recent surcharge, as well as through aggressive pursuit of reductions from existing suppliers, resourcing to new lower cost suppliers, and operational performance improvements.

 

Due to the credit crisis and the uncertainty of the market, Langevin said Manitex has reduced the level of debt in its business, improved its credit availability, and strengthened its balance sheet. “In the face of these difficult times, we have remained profitable, and our backlog at the end of the third quarter was $39.2 million,” he said. “We will continue to take the appropriate actions to ensure our activity rates and working capital levels in all businesses are aligned to market demand for our products and have initiated immediate actions to achieve these."

 

During the third quarter of 2008, Manitex incurred severance costs of $236,000 in connection with activities to improve manufacturing performance and align production to activity levels at its Manitex Liftking division. These actions will have a future beneficial impact on performance at this division.

 

The company completed the quarter with $23.3 million in working capital and a current ratio (defined as current assets divided by current liabilities) of 2.2 to 1. Working capital increased in the quarter principally due to receivables from higher levels of sales and inventory of raw material and finished goods including chassis. Total outstanding debt increased to $26.2 million at September 30, 2008, from $25.0 million at December 31, 2007. Shareholder's equity as of September 30, 2008 increased 12.3 percent to $34.5 million from $30.7 million as of December 31, 2007.

"During the third quarter, our crane business continued to move us forward despite a weak market, due in part to continued demand from oil, gas and energy infrastructure development,” said Andrew Rooke, Manitex International president and COO. “Our material-handling markets were down, but the Noble acquisition continues to offset some commercial forklift weakness at Liftking. Our international distributorships are actively marketing our products but as with any new product or market launch, they must overcome longer sales cycles. We believe the response to our attendance in September at the Russian ConExpo show indicates the opportunity for us in these markets.”