Greg,
I am as anxious as you to see the next earnings. In fact, I was so curious that I phoned today at the head office to ask them a few questions. First of all, the next earnings will come a little later than last year, the 12th (or 19th, I am not sure because I did not take any notes) of February.
The reason for the delay is that the president of the company is in Europe, working almost full time over there. Officially, he is still straightening things out at Look Voyages, but he may also be looking for an acquisition in Europe. The man I talked to acknowledged that the latter is a long shot they are working on since a year...
Business is going according to prior expectations at Look Voyages. In fact, I learned that there might be some good news coming for this subsidiary: there is a rumor over there that one of the two big French voyagists may file for bankrupcy. It would leave some more room for Look...
Of course, the investor relations department would not tell me why the stock price was going up. It might be because the next earnings are expected to be good, is the official answer...
Transat makes no secret that there is some pressure on prices right now on one destination: Florida. There is an over-capacity to this destination this winter. With the Canadian dollar being so low, the airlines have no choice but cut the prices. Therefore, I suppose that it is prudent to expect that the company won't do any money over there in the coming months. Fortunately, though, Transat does most of its business on other destinations in the South; those destinations are not affected by this war price.
The disaster we are going through is a factor that may be a nuisance to Transat activities. The company has been forced to slow down reservations last week and it is hard, for now, to anticipate how many people will cancell their travel. Those are the breaks and we will have to live with them... Thank God, TRZ does not business exclusively in Quebec, so the other markets won't be affected at all.
Among the good factors working for us right now, the cost of petrol is a big one. The spokeman could not give me any figures, but he recognized the fact that current prices are a plus.
That's it for today Greg.
Best regards,
Marc |
