Raymarine

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Sad news about Raymarine in the financial papers. It appears they have had a poor year and expect 2009 to be worse, Shares dropping in value!!!

Always found it to be good kit
 
Your news is very old! The financial papers are bloody worthless and as usual stiring things up again!

The latest news is that they have a good relationship with the banks, will still sell 130 mill worth of stuff this year and remain the biggest supplier to the leisure market.

[ QUOTE ]
24 December 2008


RAYMARINE PLC ("RAYMARINE" OR "THE GROUP")


PRE-CLOSE TRADING UPDATE


Raymarine plc, a global leader in the supply of electronic products to the leisure marine market, today issues a pre-close trading update in respect of the year ending 31 December 2008. The Group intends to announce its preliminary results on 2 March 2009.


There has been no change in the Board's expectations of trading since the Interim Management Statement (IMS) issued on 19 November. The Group has reached agreement with its banks to extend its credit facilities.


For the 11 months ended 30 November 2008 Group sales were £123.3 million (2007: £126.0 million). For the year as a whole it is expected that sales will be in the mid-£130 millions (2007: £140.7 million). On a like for like basis, removing incremental sales contributions from acquired distributors and foreign exchange gains, this will represent a decline of approximately 13% on the prior year.


At the EBITA level the Group expects trading results to be in line with market expectations as adjusted to include the impairment charge referred to below. As announced in the recent IMS, in anticipation of a difficult economic environment in 2009 the Board intends to take a non-cash charge in 2008 of approximately £1.5m to impair a small proportion of product development costs. A cash restructuring charge of approximately £1.2m will also be made in 2008 in respect of the redundancies the Group has already announced.


The Group's policy is to draw down its borrowings in foreign currencies, mainly Euros and US Dollars, to the extent necessary to hedge translation movements on its assets denominated in the corresponding foreign currencies. As a consequence of the recent sharp depreciation of Sterling, the translation of the Group's foreign currency borrowings will increase net debt when restated in Sterling, although this increase will be largely matched by an increase also in the value of the Group's foreign assets. Depending on foreign exchange rates at the year end, the Group's closing net debt is therefore likely to be approximately £94 million when translated into Sterling although the underlying trading movements in net debt are in line with expectations. To the extent that the long term assets and liabilities do not perfectly match, the foreign exchange translation movements are charged against earnings through the interest line. These are set to increase by approximately £1.5m, also as a result of the recent fall in Sterling.


The Group has now reached agreement with its banks to extend its credit facilities. These multi-currency facilities, on which security has been given, comprise US$75 million plus €56.5 million (in total equivalent to approximately £103.1m). The portion of these facilities drawn down will now be charged at a margin of 375 basis points above the applicable LIBOR rate and will be governed by amended covenant definitions and limits designed to give the Group headroom appropriate to the current outlook. The new facilities will remain in place until 31 March 2010 and discussions are continuing with regard to a further extension.


As stated in the Group's Interim Management Statement on 19 November, the economic outlook for 2009 remains uncertain. The Group's markets are likely to be weaker during 2009 than in 2008 taken as a whole. This should be offset to a degree by the significant number of new product launches scheduled for 2009, including the new C series multi-function display range, which should support the overall level of sales. The new A series chart plotter range was successfully launched in November, with nearly 3,000 units shipped and/or ordered to date. A new range of next generation course computers was also launched in November, and further important new products to be launched in early 2009 include a larger colour autopilot and instrument display and the Digital Ethernet Radome radar.


Against the difficult economic background, Raymarine continues to maintain its prominent position in the market place as the premium brand with market-leading technology and a worldwide distribution network.

[/ QUOTE ]

In fact their shares climbed towards close of play today. What more do you want from them?

Personally I wish they would pull finger and implement Serial over IP on the e series so that I could mux lots of stuff into the display.
 
Totally agree. Forecast of £130 millions of sales has to sustained the infrastructure of the company and service £103 millions of debt. I don't understand company finance and don't know their profit margin but that looks impossible to me. I think I better send off my Tridata for repair pretty quickly (again - pity their stuff isn't reliable - 3rd repair in 7 years).
 
EBITDA is in the order of £24m so net debt fully drawn £103m is only 4.3x. I say "only": that's a lot, but managable. Reflects the company's prior private equity ownership. The £103m is the size of the facility - it isn't fully drawn.

They'd better not go bust till they've supplied the last 1% (but a critical 1% - the connecting cables!) of my order :-)
 
Raymarine make good gear and it all hangs together quite well, but Garmin still edge them on ease of use, software quality, and integration with PC passage planning. Garmin's revenue of $3bn dwarf Raymarine, and now that Garmin have entered the complete spectrum of marine leisure networking and instrumentation, they are well placed to become the leader in that segment also. Compare a Garmin 50xx series with a Raymarine E-Series and initially both products seem comparable, but the garmin is just so much easier to use and excels in the software depth as well as superior cartography. Now Garmin are including preloaded charts on most of their products, how can their compeditors deal with that. The time is fast approaching when electronic charts will become free, with optional subscription update service replaceing current revenue streams for chart vendors. Garmin controlling both the hardware and content are best place to take advantage of seemless electronic updates of marine charts and a subscription system.

Garmin is the iPod of marine gear - cooler by far, and BlueChart the google of charts
 
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