Foremost Income Fund Reports 2014 Results - Revised
(firmenpresse) - CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 04/01/15 -- Foremost Income Fund ("Foremost" or the "Fund") announces the financial results for the 12 months ended December 31, 2014.
OVERVIEW
The Fund is an unincorporated open end mutual fund trust conducting its business through two limited partnerships; Foremost Universal LP and Foremost Industries LP. Consistent with the Fund's focus on customer and market responsiveness, the Fund has re-defined, and rebranded its operating segments to clearly reflect the Fund's two distinct operating divisions, Foremost Energy Equipment (FEE) and Foremost Mobile Equipment (FME) from which the Fund derives its operational income. FEE's overall business is focused on the oil and gas industry and includes activity from six manufacturing sites throughout Alberta. FME manufactures off-highway large wheeled and tracked vehicles, hydrovac and vacuum trucks, equipment for custom drilling, construction, water wells, and mining sectors. FME has three manufacturing facilities located in Alberta.
MESSAGE TO UNITHOLDER'S
Present management acknowledges that 2014 was a year of important challenges driven by significant leadership changes across the Fund operations. As 2014 drew to a close it was clear that the organization had successfully navigated these challenges and I can say across the company, a great deal of enthusiasm and energy has been committed to the common goals of improving operating performance and strengthening our market presence.
The four major thrusts of our Strategic Plan released in July 2014 are now bearing fruit and include:
As is highlighted in more detail on page 8 of the Management's Discussion and Analysis, Foremost's operating performance improved such that excluding the increase in inventory allowance as well as capital asset and goodwill impairments, the Loss before income tax of $7.7 million for 2014 (compared against the nil loss for 2013), adjusted for these items, would have improved to $10.3 million ($4.3 million excluding similar items for 2013). Under this analysis, improvement in the Fund's performance of $6.0 million was mainly achieved by reducing costs that weren't adding value to our business. As an example, Administration Expenses were reduced by over $2 million, or approximately 10% for the year.
We are proud of our achievements in 2014 but we must acknowledge that even so, Foremost under-achieved against past performance at similar revenue.
As we look to the future, the entire Western Canadian marketplace is facing very daunting market conditions, with oil prices sliding to 7-year lows and capital budgets being reduced broadly across many oil and gas markets. Foremost is pleased with the breadth of our product portfolio as we are afforded diversification and we observe that the US markets hold positive demand prospects for significant parts of our Foremost Mobile Equipment (FME) division product portfolio.
Your management team is up to the challenge as we now will navigate proactively and with assertiveness to minimize the negative dimensions of the current situation while being ready to exploit opportunities that become available to us. An example of this proaction and in light of market conditions, the Board of Trustees working in conjunction with management has effective mid-April 2015, implemented an austerity measure whereby Board compensation will be reduced by 50% and CEO/VP compensation will be reduced by 12 - 15%. Further, administration and support positions at FEE locations will see a 10% work schedule and compensation reduction. We will continue to act with prudence as market conditions evolve.
Bevan May
Interim CEO and Board Chairman
Highlights from 2014
TRUST UNIT REDEMPTIONS AND DISTRIBUTIONS
The Fund redeemed 125,003 Trust Units during the year through its redemption program resulting in cash payments of $442,295 and notes payable of $428,346. During 2014, 20,000 options were exercised at a price of $8.75.
An annual Trust Unit cash distribution was made on December 30, 2014, at $0.32 per unit. This resulted in a cash payment of $5.9 million for 2014. In 2013 the Fund paid a cash distribution equal to $0.32 per unit for a total of $6.0 million.
The Trustees have determined that, as of the date of March 31, 2015 the Fund will redeem tendered Trust Units $5.65 per unit.
On behalf of the Trustees
Foremost Income Fund
Bevan May, Trustee
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENT
Certain statements in this news release may constitute "forward-looking" statements which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Fund to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. When used in this news release, such statements use words such as "may", "will", "expect", "believe", "plan" and other similar terminology. These statements include statements the Fund's intention to proceed with a Unitholders' meeting and information regarding the Trustees' views of the future prospects and tax treatment of the Fund and tax treatment of the Special Redemption, the Fund's expectations regarding the future availability of cash to meet redemption requests and the Trustee's expectations for redemption prices in December 2011 and January 2012. These statements reflect management's current expectations regarding future events and operating performance and speak only as of the date of this news release. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, including: the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions, changes in laws and regulations, increased competition, fluctuations in commodity prices and foreign exchange, and interest rates and stock market volatility.
Contacts:
Foremost Income Fund
Jackie Schenn, CA
(403) 295-5800 or toll free 1-800-661-9190 (Canada/US)
(403) 295-5832 (FAX)
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Datum: 01.04.2015 - 16:24 Uhr
Sprache: Deutsch
News-ID 382919
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CALGARY, ALBERTA
Kategorie:
Oil & Gas
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