Head N.V. reported their fourth quarter results, and apparently they were below what their shareholders expected. During a conference call with Analysts, shareholders and the media that I covered this week, Head's CEO, Johan Eliasch butted heads with a few shareholders...
Rupert Heinrich Stahler
Yes, I do have a couple of questions. First, greetings to Mr. Eliasch and Mr. Bernhardt. My name is Rupert Heinrich Stahler. So before I'm going to ask a couple of questions, I would like to thank all of the successful top professional athletes of Head. I ask you Mr. Eliasch, do our athletes deserve that the annual report of Head is prepared unlovingly and colorless like it was the last two years. What I mean, for a Company which wants to be successful in the leisure and sports business, an annual report without a single picture is embarrassing and, in my opinion, nearly ridiculous. So Mr. Eliasch, will you improve our annual report 2006, or must we understand it in such a way that you perhaps don't appreciate your shareholders very much? So that is my question, my first question, please.
Johan Eliasch
Well, the answer to that is that if you go onto our website, there are plenty of athletes and all kinds of information. And in today's world, people usually go onto websites to look at annual reports.
Rupert Heinrich Stahler
So, then I have but one more question, Mr. Eliasch. Do you really think that we had a strong year? Of course, there was a certain improvement in terms of operating profits, but we still have an EBIT margin of only 5.45%. So in my opinion, that is rather weak, for sure it is not strong enough. So my clear question is what is your personal goal for our operating profit margin for 2007 and, of course, for the next years to come, please?
Johan Eliasch
Well, I don't have a crystal ball, so I can't give you -- I can't give you a clear statement on that. And also there are legal boundaries which restricts that kind of information. That is the first thing. Secondly, I think you probably heard my statement with regards to 2007, and that is that it is going to be tough conditions. It is too early to tell and it is not possible to speculate at this early stage what the rest of the year might have.
After a series of other questions that dug into Head's independent auditors, sales by region, and stock options, the same shareholder asked one final question...
Rupert Heinrich Stahler
Okay. Next question. It is what it is. Very interesting. Question number seven. I have one more technical question to Mr. Bernhardt. In August 2006, the Company transferred some 237,000 shares with an original cost of -- let me have a look -- EUR 0.5 million -- to Mr. Eliasch and family. Did we obtain any capital gains from this transaction?
Johan Eliasch
This administers the total of the option plans of the participants and of the stock option plans. It is not...
Ralf Bernhart (Head NV CFO)
This stock thing does not belong to Mr. Eliasch or his family.
Johan Eliasch
Yes, it does not belong to me -- if you read the annual report -- but maybe you haven't read it because we haven't put pictures into it...
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