IMIC - This is a low priced, turn-around play. I actually wrote this up one week ago Sunday and planed to post it here last Monday, but I was away and had some problems with my laptop. Anyway, it still looks accurate, and over the past week the stock did trend up, as did others in this sector. I will be buying in the $3 or just under range.
IMIC- A turn-around possibility. IMIC (Industri-Matematik) is a Swedish "supply chain" software company that has seen its stock price dive. This was a $30 stock last April and a $2 stock recently. The knock on supply chain and related software companies is that they are victims of Y2K - that is, customers are deferring expenditures on software enhancements/upgrades/new initiatives until the focus on Y2K is over. Sales HAVE been hurt:
"Revenues for the fiscal year ended April 30, 1999 were
$86,968,000 compared to $95,384,000 for fiscal 1998. License revenue
was $17,039,000 compared to $36,090,000 in fiscal 1998. Reported net
loss for fiscal 1999 was $(35,259,000), or $(1.09) per share, compared
to net income of $9,393,000, or $0.30 per share, in fiscal 1998."
but steps are being taken to control costs:
"Restructuring Plan Completed with Operating Costs to Be Reduced By More Than $40 Million"
Many related companies have seen their stock prices fall (SAP, ITWO, MANU, PSFT, JDEC). Many investors are not planning to focus on this sector until January, but it is quite possible that the stocks will rebound before then. MANU, as an example, dropped from nearly $65 last April to $5 this April, before rebounding to $12 recently. IMIC has not yet rebounded (well, perhaps a bit, it was just under $2 a few times recently and is around $2.75 now.)
Although the company was founded in the 1960's its IPO was 9/96: 4.4M shares @ $10 by Alex. Brown & Sons. A secondary: 11/97, 8,136,250 shares @ $20 by BT Alex. Brown.
A recent analysis showed the stock is selling for less than 1X sales and less than book value:
Mkt Cap: $76.6 mm
Revs (ttm): $87.0 mm P/Sales (ttm): 0.9
Tan Bk/Sh (Q): $2.72 P/Tan Bk (Q): 0.9
At least one manager has been buying: SVP Global Sales and Marketing and President, Americas:
John P. Geraci Jr. purchased 300,000 shares between 8/11/98 and 12/3/98 in 4 transactions at prices from $3.94 to $7.25
Shrs Out: 32.3 mm Float: 11.9 mm
Warburg Pincus Investors owns 37% of the company and two of the five board members are managing directors of Warburg. Fidelity, I believe, now owns 13%. Insiders (other than Mr. Geraci, above) own 11%.
Company has recently entered the e-commerce arena:
Industri-Matematik Launches New E-Commerce Fulfillment and Customer Service Suite
Business Wire - May 25, 1999 10:54
Industri-Matematik International Corp. (www.im.se) (NASDAQ:IMIC) today launched
Vivaldi, a suite of global fulfillment and customer service software for e-commerce. Vivaldi delivers high-powered applications specifically designed to handle the complex pull-driven supply chains and rigorous demands for customer responsiveness found in the e-commerce economy.
"The e-commerce challenge isn't Internet order-taking, it is fulfillment and customer service. That's the difference between winning and losing customers and profit or loss," said Stig Durlow, president and CEO at Industri-Matematik, a supply chain management software company. "The Internet puts an incredible amount of information and power in the hands of an already demanding customer. The result is a need for greater speed and responsiveness, more product variety, increased fulfillment complexity, and more trading partner collaboration. Going forward, e-commerce will set the back-end fulfillment and service performance benchmarks for all supply chain operations. It will create tremendous opportunities and threats, and force companies to reconsider how they do business. Those that don't adjust will lose."
"Our software has been built for pull-driven supply chain environments. Vivaldi takes these capabilities to the next level to provide powerful fulfillment and customer service solutions for e-commerce," said Durlow.
Some news:
"Beginning June 13th of 1999,
Industri-Matematik will be hosting their
5th annual Americas User Conference."
(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 26, 1999--
Fifth Annual Conference Features End-User Case Studies, Product Previews and Partner
Presentations
Industri-Matematik International Corp. (www.im.se) and (NASDAQ NM:IMIC) today announced plans for its fifth annual Americas User Conference from June 13 to 16, 1999 in Boston, Mass. at the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel. The Industri-Matematik Americas User Conference will provide customers and business partners with a first-time opportunity to see Industri-Matematik's new fulfillment and customer service capabilities for e-commerce supply chain software and provide an insightful forum for exploring the company's vision for supply chain execution. The conference will feature over 25 interactive sessions delivered by industry experts, customers and partners covering topics ranging from managing Web-based order generation to connecting customer relationship management with supply chain execution to best practices in high-volume, complex logistics.
company web site:
im.se
As always, do your own DD, and check everything.
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