Lorry maker Tatra posts

CZK 571m loss in 2008 CTK | 29 June 2009 Koprivnice, June 26 (CTK) – Czech lorry maker Tatra sank into a loss of Kc571.731m last year due to the global financial crisis while posting a record net profit worth Kc859m in 2007, the annual general meeting (AGM) decided Friday. Tatra will pay Kc393m to partially cover last year’s loss from the previous retained profit. The remaining Kc197.7m will be left as a loss from previous years, the AGM decided. Tatra had so many contracts in the first half of 2008 that it hardly managed to produce all the lorries that were ordered. However, in the second half of 2008 as a result of the economic crisis, customers started losing interest in Tatra’s products as an extremely strong crown made them very expensive. Last year, Tatra sold 1,962 units, a drop of 491 against 2007. Sales reached Kc5.945bn in 2008, similarly as in 2007, when sales were worth Kc5.938bn. Last year, consolidated revenues of the Tatra group grew by Kc168m year-on-year to Kc7.869bn. Its economic performance sank into a loss worth nearly Kc712m. In 2007, a group of firms controlled by Tatra posted a profit worth Kc901m. Tatra, located in Koprivnice, northern Moravia, dismissed hundreds of employees due to the crisis. At end-May 2009, the group employed around 3,100 people, compared to 4,400 employed in August 2008. Sales this year will fall by some 40 percent and the company will stay in red figures, CEO Ronald Adams told CTK after the general meeting. Due to lack of orders, it will dismiss a further 500 people. In its group, Tatra wants to keep only 2,600 jobs. This target number is to be reached by the end of this year. Tatra cannot afford to be employing people for which it has no work, Adams explained. Tatra has over 200 unsold lorries, some four times more than it should have, he added. Workforce will be cut by 40 percent in total and sales will be lower by the same percentage or even more, Adams noted. Tatra will probably not be able to cope with its losses this year. It is cutting costs but these are losses from the past periods. The biggest fall in orders was in Russia where Tatra had the highest number of commercial clients, but they stopped importing lorries due to the economic crisis. Russia imported roughly 700 lorries from Tatra last year and only around 100 this year. Tatra keeps going now only thanks to orders from India and domestic orders. Orders fell by 40 percent in total, sales director Jiri Polman added. In 2006, Tatra was taken over by four Czech and foreign investors, represented by former supervisory board member and current board of directors chairman Ronald Adams. Their company Black River holds a 51-percent stake in Tatra and small shareholders own around 8 percent. Czech Text: http://www.financninoviny.cz/zpravodajstvi/zpravy/automobilka-tatra-se-propadla-do-ztraty-571-mil-ze-zisku-859-mil/384985