CTT Systems - CEO set to retire in April 2022
Torbjörn Johansson to retire at then 64 years of age… …after being CEO at CTT since 1997 Unfortunate but understandable Mr. Johansson has been integral to CTT’s growth journey Somewhat to our surprise, CEO Torbjörn Johansson has announced his intention to retire on 1 April 2022, the same year he will turn 64 years old. The announcement was made well in advance in order to provide the board with plenty of time to plan for a successor. In our view, Mr.
Johansson has been key in transforming CTT from a small unprofitable R&D company to the monopolistic global aero supplier that it is today. Upon his retirement, Mr. Johansson will have been CEO at CTT for 25 years (started as CEO in 1997, head of technology in 1996).
Determined that CTT will have recovered before Apr-22 While today’s decision was understandable, we find it unfortunate that Mr. Johansson announces his intention to retire at a time when near-to-medium term visibility is still clouded due to the ongoing pandemic. However, Mr.
Johansson states that he is fully determined to lead CTT through the current crisis and believes that at the time of his retirement, CTT will be well under way towards a recovery. Q4 report tomorrow (9 Feb), at 08:30 CET We expect CTT to report Q4 sales of SEK 37m, -47% y-o-y organically, at the lower end of the company’s guidance for sales of SEK 35-45m. We expect a gradual return in aftermarket sales to mitigate some of the overall volume shortfall and negative FX (-9%) effects, resulting in an EBIT of SEK 5m, -77% y-o-y, for a margin of 13% (29%).
Although recent flight traffic data points to a delayed pace of recovery, we hope to hear that the utilisation of modern aircraft (B787, A350) that are relevant to CTT will continue to improve, thereby supporting aftermarket sales. The CTT stock is up 30% L3M, vs. the Carnegie Smallcap index at 11% and is now trading at 14x EV/EBIT ‘22e.
This is ~50% lower than our selection of Nordic IT/medtech peers and 15% lower th.
