Cardo Annual General Meeting

Cardo Annual General Meeting At Cardo AB's annual general meeting today, the following members of the board were re-elected: Tuve Johannesson, Fredrik Lundberg, Lennart Nilsson, Bengt Pettersson, Anders Rydin, Melker Schörling and Kjell Svensson. At the statutory meeting of the board after the annual general meeting, Fredrik Lundberg was appointed chairman and Lennart Nilsson vice chairman. An amendment to the articles of association was resolved to the effect that a registered public accounting firm may also be appointed as auditors. KPMG Bohlins AB was appointed as auditors with Thomas Thiel as auditor in charge. Dividend In accordance with the proposal put forward by the board of directors and president, the meeting declared a dividend of SEK 6.00 per share. Thursday, April 13 2000 was established as the day of record for dividend, and payment is expected to be distributed by VPC (Swedish Securities Register Center) starting Tuesday, April 18 2000. The president's address In the course of his speech at the annual general meeting, Cardo's president and CEO Kjell Svensson talked about the group's emphasis on growth: "Our aim is an annual growth of 15 percent. Company acquisitions will continue to be an important part of our strategy, and we intend approximately half of our growth to be provided by this means. The other half is to be generated organically." "Our growth program, C15, which stands for the groupwide target "15 percent annual profitable growth in sales", involves a sharper focus on organic growth in all parts of the group and includes a considerable expansion in service and the aftermarket, where we see the really big potential." "Door, which already has a well functioning service concept, is now upping the pace still more with the aid of increased IT support, among other things. There is still a lot to be gained as regards service of the over 1 million industrial doors we have installed over the years. At Pump, we are expanding our service activities by such means as the acquisition of service companies." "For Rail's part, we are expecting the biggest market growth in the aftermarket, and we are now improving availability and delivery accuracy for the supply of spares, service and maintenance. Through a strong local presence in the major European railway countries, Rail has a very favorable point of departure for good growth." "C15 is one tool with which to get growth going at Cardo. Another is the good cash flow we are generating within the group. For 1999, it stood at SEK 900 million after tax." "From its introduction onto the stock exchange in 1995 through 1999, Cardo has generated sufficient cash after dividends and investment in fixed assets to finance all the company acquisitions we have carried through during this period with its own funds plus the contribution provided by the disposal of the AAE shares." "Our efforts to increase organic growth will not involve any great need for new investment, and I therefore cannot see but that we shall be able to generate sufficient funds to cover ongoing growth through company acquisitions in the future too." "There is currently a lot of focus on the development of information technology in the world around us. There are perhaps those who still associate engineering companies with metal chips and oily machines and believe that this type of company derives no advantage from the technological innovations about which so much is being spoken today. But companies such as ours, i.e. users of IT as a tool, are one of the beneficiaries of the new technology. I see the most important roles of information technology as enabling business processes to be even more efficient and generating added value for both the customer and the supplier." "I venture to say that Cardo has come a long way as a user of IT. Door's IT operation is run in a separate company, Crawmator, and employs about 30 people. The staff is made up of business-oriented people who are basically highly skilled computer engineers. The company develops systems for the sales process, follow-up of strategic marketing and sales, service support, etc." New applications that we are currently testing and where IT technology is being used include doors that are so equipped that they call up the service system and report faults by themselves via the GSM network. Such doors can be used in particularly critical applications such as car-washes at gas stations. This system sometimes results in our actually being on site and repairing the door before the owner himself has discovered the fault." "When it comes to e-commerce, I can take Pump as an example. We originally opened up the opportunity of buying the company's standard pumps over the Internet for the European market, but so far it is in the USA that this purchasing option is mostly being used." Customer and service orientation are key concepts at Cardo. Our aim is to be best when it comes to understanding the customer's needs and to operate in a market-oriented manner. IT is an excellent support in this connection, and we are carefully monitoring the development of this technology and continually evaluating the possibility of using it to make our business processes more efficient and to improve our competitiveness." "We intend Cardo to be perceived as a rapidly growing service-oriented company with high profitability that offers its customers cost-effective solutions, its employees an environment that promotes development, and, above all, good growth in value for its shareholders." Financial information Cardo's first quarter interim report will be published on May 16. Malmö, Sweden, April 10 2000 Cardo AB (publ) For further information, please contact: Christer Roskvist, Head of Public Relations, phone +46 40 35 04 25, 35 04 00, mobile phone +46 708 47 41 83 Cardo is an international engineering group with a turnover of approximately SEK 9.5 billion in 1999. Cardo holds a strong position in the markets for doors, pumps and rail-vehicle brake systems. Cardo has subsidiaries in about 30 countries with the focal point resting in western Europe, and roughly 7,700 employees. ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/04/10/20000410BIT01040/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/04/10/20000410BIT01040/bit0002.pdf