Outgoing AMA Group Executive Director and CEO, Carl Bizon, told participants at the company’s FY 2023 financial report livestream that AMA is poised to capitalise on pricing, labour, and operational improvements achieved over the past 12 months.
AMA’s share price closed 50 per cent lower at 6¢ after trading resumed on Friday, following the company presenting its FY 2023 financial results and confirming the success of its capital raising, suggesting the market’s confidence in the business continues to decline.
Nonetheless, in responding to a question from Warren Jeffries, Senior Industrials Analyst at Canaccord Genuity, Bizon was upbeat. “If you look at the slide that details our quarter-on quarter performance as we transitioned through FY 2023, you can see that Q4 was particularly strong, and while there is a degree of seasonality around that, the results that we have achieved through July and August will give management confidence that the assumptions that we have made around the forecast and the guidance for this current financial year have merit.
“We believe that the run rate as we exit FY 2023 and into FY 2024 provides a very solid basis for the performance of the company in the coming year and also into coming years, so it has certainly been a good trading period for the last three or four months.
“Management has done a lot of work over the last 12 months to prepare for that. While month-on-month results are interesting when they appear, they are the result of a year or so of foundational work done to produce those results. Whether it was insurance pricing that we went through the pain of doing in May or June of last year, whether it was the work the operations team did to reconfigure the network, or the work that our people team has done to add labour to the business, all of those have really started to deliver results for us through Q3, Q4 of last year and certainly into Q1 as we enter FY 2024.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Jefferies also enquired about the future composition of the board following the resignations of Bizon, Chair Anthony Day and non-executive director Paul Ruiz, asking: “Is there a skills set or a capability you may be specifically looking for going forward?”
Another participant, identified only as James, also raised the subject, insisting that the board needs people with body repair experience. “I do not believe there are any people on the board that have run a panel shop or group of panel shops; this needs to change. What [is] the board doing to remedy this, as the current strategy is not appropriate,” said James.
Bizon replied that the board member selection process considers all the elements required to be a director of an ASX-listed organisation with around $1 billion turnover.
“Whilst I appreciate your comment around panel beating experience, I think that is one of the things that can be taken into consideration, but the board obviously goes through a very rigorous process to examine all of the attributes and all of the experiences and qualifications necessary to be a director of a public company when making those appointments,” he told James.
MOVING ON
In his closing remarks, Bizon said he was proud of what AMA had achieved and re-enforced his belief that better times lie ahead.
“I certainly came into the role after a year on the board under some interesting circumstances. I am incredibly proud of the work that has been done in the company during my nearly three years as CEO. I am incredibly proud of the management team that we have been able to put together and the work they’ve done with all the employees of the AMA Group, and I feel the company is absolutely poised to be everything it should be, and become everything it can be, in the years to come.”