Brunswick Corp. a Lake Forest, ll. maker of recreational products which put its new-technologies boating units up for sale in April, will likely get a price that's below the unit's book value. As a result, Brunswick will take an impairment charge of up to $95 million in it's fourth quarter.
Question: Does Brunswick Corp. own Merc , Triton boats and other marine produces ? Just a thought. Anyone out there please enlight me.
Modified by TritonAL 186 at 3:59 PM 12/20/2006
Navman sale in US drifts off course
Email this storyPrint this story Friday December 15, 2006
By Anne Gibson
A marine navigation display from Navman.
A marine navigation display from Navman.
Problems selling the American business which owns New Zealand high-tech firm Navman have resulted in the book value of the US company being slashed by $100 million to $137 million.
Brunswick New Technologies, which bought Navman two years ago for $108 million, could now be sold for less than its book value, its owner has warned.
Brunswick Corp, which owns BNT, cited global discounting and the increasingly competitive portable navigation device sector as two of the problems behind BNT's sale.
Brunswick, the United States marine and sports products giant listed on the New York Stock Exchange, issued the statement this week revealing that it had struck a range of difficulties selling BNT.
"Based on the performance of this operation and recent discussions with potential buyers, the company has concluded that proceeds from the sale of BNT will be less than its book value," Brunswick said.
"These conditions will result in a non-cash asset impairment charge estimated in the range of US$70 million to US$95 million in the fourth quarter, primarily driven by the portable navigation device business."
Brunswick chairman and chief executive Dusty McCoy added that the market had turned dramatically.
"Over the past two months we have experienced a significant change in the market dynamics for portable navigation device products, primarily in Europe, where Navman holds the number three market share position," he said.
"In November alone we witnessed an even greater level of price discounting which has adversely affected our PND business unit.
"Nevertheless, we are continuing with the sales process for the PND business as well as the marine electronics and fleet management units, the latter two of which continue to perform at or above expected levels, McCoy said. "We no longer view ownership of BNT as a strategic imperative and choose to free up resources to more intently focus on our core business segments - marine, fitness, bowling and billiards - and long-term strategic objectives," McCoy said.
BNT, mainly comprising Navman, had annual sales last year of US$317 million ($507 million) and Navman reported a profit of $127.2 million.
Brunswick New Technologies
* A United States-headquartered marine business.
* Main asset is Navman, founded by New Zealander Peter Maire.
* Operates in marine electronics, portable navigation device and fleet management sectors.
* Its equipment is made and sold under three brand names, These are Navman, Northstar and MX Marine.
* BNT is an amalgamation of electronics businesses based on GPS technologies.
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So they are not selling Merc nor Triton boats.
It seems strange that they can't or won't compete with the discounters, its a good product, they may not be selling enough smartcraft ready motorsor is NMEA 2000 the way to go.
For much more detail about this situation, see
http://continuouswave.com/ubb/....html
Also--this is somewhat old news. They have been trying to sell BNT for months and months. The public announcement of substantial ($70-million) losses came on December 11, 2006.
YOU!! You're THAT GUY!! The guy who wrote the funniest thing Ive read in a while!
"Before Bombardier owned Evinrude they made jet aircraft, high speed trains, as well as other recreational products.
Before Brunswick owned Mercury they made bowling pins, bowling balls, and automatic pin spotters."
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