Higher revenues for Manitex in Q2

This was 29.5% higher than the first quarter, and 6% higher compared to the same period in 2016.

During the earnings call, transcribed by Seeking Alpha, CFO and SVP Michael Schneider said: “The revenue increase was primarily related to straight mast cranes from our Georgetown facility. Sales were up $7.7m or 51.3% on a sequential quarter basis. Additionally, we saw strength in our knuckle boom cranes from our PM facility. Sales, excluding impact of Forex, were up $2.3m or 11% on a sequential quarter basis. Additionally, we have seen expansion in our PM distribution throughout North America.”

The backlog at the end of the second quarter stood at $47.6m, representing growth of 52.1% from December 31, 2016.

David Langevin, chairman and chief executive officer of Manitex, said: “The increased order rate that began at the end of 2016 enabled us to achieve much improved results from top to bottom in the second quarter of 2017.”

Net revenues for the first six months of 2017 were $91.4 million, down from $105.6m in the same period in 2016.

Executive vice president of sales and marketing Steve Kiefer said: “The orders in the first half of the year across the industry, were more biased towards the larger cranes, about 55% of the industry orders in the first half of the year are for the 30 ton and larger cranes and only 45% for the under 30 ton crane. So, the industry has seen a slight increase in the larger cranes for the energy and utility and infrastructure and that is well-reflected in our order dynamics as well.”

In May, Manitex sold approximately half of its holdings in the ASV joint venture, using the proceeds from this transaction to pay down debt. The company maintains ownership of approximately 2.1 million shares of the now public ASV entity.

“With that behind us, we have shifted our focus to growing PM, our international knuckle boom business and recently announced the appointment of several key North American distributors for that product line subsequent to the end of the second quarter. We have begun producing PM units here in North America, and we are working diligently to integrate the entire PM operation onto the Manitex platform,” said Langevin.

Kiefer said that the newly-announced dealers have taken some initial inventory.

“And going forward, the dealer acquisition program is very aggressive or currently in various states of discussion with the number of dealers that are progressing well. I am very confident that within the next several weeks, there will be more dealer announcements, dealer conversations coming to successful conclusion and more new dealer announcements to follow,” added Kiefer.

He is confident that the company will be successful in closing deals with five more dealers in the second half of the year.

“Our outlook remains positive as supported by discussions with our customers and we look forward to a strong close to this year and continuing into 2018,” said Langevin.