Wednesday 28th March 2001 |
Text too small? |
Note: Paul Cooney resigned from his position as CEO in May 2001. The company's new CEO is former Baycorp executive, Jim Boult.
Paul Cooney The biggest challenge has been the establishment of a management team focused on delivering industry leading outcomes.
The biggest challenge for the coming year is to deliver the results that the business is capable of while maintaining a focus of continuous improvement in our collection performance.
Paul Cooney Asia will be important as part of our role with Strategic Partners in other parts of the world. They expect RMG to have some representation in the region, however we remain focussed on the opportunities in the Australian and NZ markets as our prime source of growth.
Paul Cooney Comparisons seem to have focussed on the cost to Baycorp of our activities in NZ. This has misdirected the focus from the message we spread on our establishment last year. Baycorp is a well established and significant operator. In NZ we will take some market share and overtime will establish a business to rival them. At present our NZ revenues are 10% of our Group total and we expect that recent initiatives in the NZ market will grow that revenue base. The comparison of our emerging position in the NZ market is very different to that of the well established market leader.
Paul Cooney I would be surprised if they did. While it's clear that they are not ignoring us, we have not yet done any real damage to their revenue base, but this will continue to change.
Paul Cooney RMG has a well defined position in relation to the delivery of our services via the web. We already use the medium to interface with Clients, offer on-line access and reporting via the Web and will continue to innovate in this area.
Paul Cooney We are marketing to other Groups with similar profiles and have received instrumental attention for the innovation in the Power company initiative. We expect this process will be duplicated in other sectors, and that the dominance of the central database model will consequently be reduced. There remain a number of fertile opportunities for us to duplicate the model.
Paul Cooney RMG's strategy of acquisition in 2000 has been replaced with a strategy of consolidation and productivity management in 2001. We have assembled a business which has substantial potential for growth both in its own right and as a consequence of market changes. We would expect that the sector will continue to attract growth interest from investors and that RMG will be treated more consistently with the others in sector in the months ahead, following our recently released results for the year to 31/12. The results clear the way for improved performance.
Paul Cooney While acquisitions are not off the agenda, we will be careful to ensure that add value. A consolidation is being discussed and will be considered after the expiry of the options exercisable in June.
Paul Cooney All of the acquired and merged businesses now operate as part of the one group. I am sure once we have the first Annual Report available and we are able to talk to some actual numbers this confusion will dissipate.
Paul Cooney All of the acquired and merged businesses are operating as part of one group, in each of our business stream. It is now apparent that the merge process took longer than expected, contributed to by the acquisitions subsequent to the original merger, however the process is almost complete.
IT integration will be completed by July 01 but all other aspects of the businesses are now integrated.
Paul Cooney Statutory returns were lodged with the ASX and NZSE on March 16 and updated forecasts for the June half will be provided to all stakeholders in conjunction with a more detailed report with the Annual Report next month. The Board have taken the view to focus on getting our business right, rather than pursuing publicity.
Paul Cooney I think it would be fair to say that Bay and Collection House receive similar coverage. The recent success of CLH has however lead a number of brokers to make contact and support is growing.
Paul Cooney Currently 337 million shares are subject to Escrow expiring on June 20, 2001. Discussions are currently being held among some of the Vendors to determine what action they will take on this subject.
Paul Cooney That decision will be made by the Board based on the information available to it at the time. The dividend policy was not included in the Prospectus, and it is not likely that a dividend will be paid on year 1 results.
Paul Cooney The receivables management sector is an emerging one in the Australian and NZ markets. Following many years of unquestioned dominance in NZ, the Baycorp model is being challenged by us. The sector has a strong history in other parts of the world, and the growth prospect in both countries are strong.
As a product of the merger of our 22 companies, RMG is at its least valuable at the beginning of its business life and comparisons with others in the sector, supports the view that substantial upside is available.
ShareChat thanks Paul Cooney for taking part in this Investor Interview.
No comments yet