Hiab Oyj (HIAB) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to the Cargotec Conference Call. We've had some exciting news today. Cargotec announced the appointment of Casimir Lindholm as the new President and CEO of Cargotec as of April 1. My name is Carina Geber-Teir. And with me in the studio, I have Casimir Lindholm. And on the line, we have our Chair of the Board, Jaakko Eskola. I will first hand over to our Chair, Mr. Eskola, and then we will continue with a short note from Casimir Lindholm in home. After Casimir's note, we will have a Q&A session. But right now, over to Jaakko Eskola.

Thank you, Carina, and good afternoon, everybody, and very sunny regards from London. As Carina said, the Cargotec Board of Directors has appointed Casimir Lindholm as Cargotec's new President and CEO as of April 2023. Until which date, Cargotec's current President and CEO, Mika Vehvilainen, will hold his position. And before moving to Casimir, I would first like to use this moment and thank Mika Vehvilainen, our current CEO -- President and CEO for all the years he has been with Cargotec and really thank him for his leadership and outstanding contribution to our business during all these quite interesting and challenging years. And then to Casimir, Casimir Lindholm has held CEO positions both in Eltel and Lemminkäinen and many board memberships, bringing experience and wealth of doing business to Cargotec. Casimir Lindholm has been a member of the Cargotec Board of Directors since 2021. And due to his appointment, he will no longer be available for reelection in Cargotec AGM on 23rd of March 2023. As I already said, Casimir has an experience on leading listed companies in Finland and he has a proven track record on reshaping businesses. And the Board feels, of course, that he's membership in Cargotec Board of Directors is an advantage, providing knowledge and understanding of Cargotec's business and a strategic direction and the work to develop the company to its full potential continues. And the Board of Directors is confident that under Casimir's leadership, Cargotec will continue to drive value for our shareholders and customers. Now I will hand back to Carina or directly to Casimir, please.

Thank you, Jaakko. Yes, so my name is Casimir Lindholm. I'm 51 years old. And as our Chairman pointed out, I've been working for the last 10 years in stock-listed companies, Lemminkäinen, Finnish stock-listed company and Eltel, Swedish stock listed company, and board memberships in companies like Varma, Uponor, YIT and now for the last 2 years, Cargotec. I've been, as a Board member in Cargotec been part of the strategy process. So from a Board perspective, strategy perspective, I think I know the company fairly well. I fully believe in the strategy regarding seeking for profitable growth and also solving our customers' sustainability challenges. Cargotec has 3 different businesses, very strong brands in Hiab, Kalmar and MacGregor, all in a bit different positions and in different stages regarding their development. But all in all, good plans for all the 3 of them. And for business plan '23 and onwards, I firmly believe in those plans. Regarding what comes to leadership style, been living in Sweden for 12 years during my professional career, and I think that has had well shaped me as a manager, I think between being a classical Finnish CEO and a classical Swedish one in theory, maybe I'm somewhere there in the middle. I believe in empowerment. I believe in making decisions as close to the market customer and production as possible. So that journey that Cargotec started last year regarding bringing more power to the businesses and more decision-making to the businesses that journey will continue. So that's a short introduction regarding who I am. And why I strongly feel for Cargotec and of course, very honored to be given this position at this interesting time in Cargotec development.

Thank you, Casimir, and thank you, Jaakko. I think it's time to open up the lines and ask for any questions that we have.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Tomi Marcus Railo from DNB.

Hi, Jaakko and Casimir, it's Tomi from DNB. I think -- firstly, this question goes to Jaakko. If you could tell me a little bit about the process. It seems like quite rapid quick sort of process. Did you consider out other names more like outside company? And maybe Casimir, have you been asked or did you show your willingness for the position? That's my first question.

Thank you, Tomi. Of course, this has been a very normal process as you have in listed companies. The Board, of course, values and looks at the management every year and all the time. And in this case, we used and we were supported by outside external headhunter also. Casimir was well known to the Board. So that was probably 1 reason why it was -- or looks like a fast decision. The Board knows Casimir very well and -- but at the same time, we had the normal amount of external, internal candidates.

And to Casimir, just briefly maybe what are the experiences you can bring and also not to bring from your years in Eltel and Lemminkäinen .

Well, first of all, it's a different situation here compared to Lemminkäinen , Eltel. They were both turnaround cases. So that's different. But I would say, all in all, during my career, especially the last 10 years as top-listed CEO, I've been through many different situations and developments, both on the M&A side, both on the growth side, but also in turnaround situations. So there's a lot of different situation, a lot of different experience that I will bring to Cargotec. And of course, also the board assignments during the years have given perspective, a lot of strategy work that is also important for this role. Then on what maybe or not what to bring is probably, during the years, I have seen situation where we basically maybe move too fast. And I mean, speed is of essence, but control is also very important in whatever you do as a company and maybe seeing situations where things have been moving too fast. And then afterwards, you have to sort things out, so to speak.