Any updates on Hymer/Roadtrek/Carado future?

[Bud]

Originally Posted by Gryphon

Thor appears to have roughly 55 million shares of stock outstanding ($3.651B market cap at a price of $66.77). The Hymer family got 2.3 million shares, so that's approximately 4% of Thor. Is that large enough to make the board pay attention to them? I don't know. And while the Hymer CEO is staying on at the company, I haven't seen anything about the Hymers getting a seat on the board, so any involvement they do have will be indirect at best.

I asked RossWilliams, no answer. Thank you and makes sense.

Bud

[RossWilliams]

"you knew more than one dealer was not doing warranty"

BS - I was responding to a specific report by one owner that one dealer had made a specific claim that warranty work was not being approved by Roadtrek. In contrast to statements by other owners that they had warranty work approved at other dealers.

"You have a habit of taking stuff out of context like my Honda quote"

What context was missing?

[Bud]

Originally Posted by RossWilliams

"you knew more than one dealer was not doing warranty"

BS - I was responding to a specific report by one owner that one dealer had made a specific claim that warranty work was not being approved by Roadtrek. In contrast to statements by other owners that they had warranty work approved at other dealers.

"You have a habit of taking stuff out of context like my Honda quote"

What context was missing?

""We know the Thor deal is done, but the rest is almost pure speculation.The German media I read from before the Thor deal said Hymer was seeking to expand either by going public or through acquisition. I think its important to remember according to the announced terms of the deal, the Hymer family mostly traded stock in EHG for stock in Thor. They aren't really out of the RV business. To the contrary, they have expanded their involvement.""

Is that speculation? You write it as though EHG has in fact expanded their involvement. But maybe I simply don't understand what the involvement is. I'm not involved in auto manufacturing even though I own Honda stock. Please explain what they are involved in?

[Learning]

Originally Posted by Gryphon

Thor appears to have roughly 55 million shares of stock outstanding ($3.651B market cap at a price of $66.77). The Hymer family got 2.3 million shares, so that's approximately 4% of Thor. Is that large enough to make the board pay attention to them? I don't know. And while the Hymer CEO is staying on at the company, I haven't seen anything about the Hymers getting a seat on the board, so any involvement they do have will be indirect at best.

For what its worth, and for context, here's a quick summary of Thor's acquisition of EHG (ex NA)

- Thor paid approx 1.5 billion Euro, or about $1.7 billion USD in cash
- Thor issued ~2.3 million shares of Thor stock (at the $66.77 per share price, that's about $154 million USD)
- Thor took on EHG debt of about $359 million USD
- so all of this totals up to about $2.2 billion (USD)

The original agreed upon purchase price was reduced by about $400 million USD, when they carved EHGNA out of the transaction. This represents the implied value of EHGNA when they agreed upon the original purchase price (not to be confused with whatever value EHGNA might be today).

So, the "family" got a ton of cash but did keep some skin in the RV game with the equity in Thor.

[ClassB4Me]

Originally Posted by Learning

So, the "family" got a ton of cash but did keep some skin in the RV game with the equity in Thor.

What I find interesting in this time of social media, no one from EHG NA (employees) are tweeting or on social media speaking about what is happening. Nothing....

It's as if they have been put on an embargo not to talk about the situation.

[Bud]

Originally Posted by ClassB4Me

What I find interesting in this time of social media, no one from EHG NA (employees) are tweeting or on social media speaking about what is happening. Nothing....

It's as if they have been put on an embargo not to talk about the situation.

Agree, interesting and maybe even positive. IF roadtrek continues and an employee has been on social media saying.....................

If someone was certain roadtrek was over, I'm guessing folks would be talking. My wild a** guess is they don't know, so why go there

Bud

[mumkin]

Originally Posted by RossWilliams

The difference between fact and rumor is this:...

For you the obvious difference is that unless Mr Hymer personally called you, it can't possibly be a fact.

At least the trustworthy employees of EHGNA might actually have received their information from the Hymer management... the people who are working with the auditors...

And, of course, as anyone who has ever worked on audits and inventories (like myself for about 15 years) knows that this type of job is pretty hard to project timelines since malfeasance is at issue.

What I find interesting in this time of social media, no one from EHG NA (employees) are tweeting or on social media speaking about what is happening. Nothing....

Not true. We have had one factory employees post here and at least 4 - one factory and 3 lower management - all of whom have reported as much as they know on Facebook. Factories paused... no parts being shipped, phone help only.

As to the reports on dealer warranty work. The major one is La Mesa, which has about 7 branches in 4 states - only accepting work on those they sold... other have to pay and try to get money back from EHGNA. (my direct experience) On the Facebook pages, at least 3 other dealers have reported the same by those whose work is stalled. Quite a few are waiting for parts that the dealers are telling them that they can't get.

[Mikedem]

I have the same concern, and spoke to the factory rep yesterday. The audit and inventory are complete as of this week, production has resumed, and warranty payments to dealers have resumed, according to this person. He was not able to provide any additional insight into the future of the company ownership, but said that it is being negotiated as we speak.

Curious as to what others are hearing.....

[crampus]

Originally Posted by Glamper

And today the online chat reps are unavailable - Feb 13, 2:30pm Canada time "No operators are currently available. Please send us an email and we will get back to you as soon as possible."

What is "Canada time"? Canada covers SIX time zones.

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by crampus

What is "Canada time"? Canada covers SIX time zones.

Including changes on the half hour and that's hard to get used to.

[<<B-Guy>>]

Originally Posted by crampus

What is "Canada time"? Canada covers SIX time zones.

Metric!

[bvanman]

Hey TTH Chris, has Hymer notified you they are back up and running and paying ! surely they would inform their dealer network ASAP after all that has been going on.

[Kim]

me too. 2017 ss agile.

[Glamper]

Today (Feb 15) had online chats with both gohymer and roadtrek.com with the objective of finding out if production had resumed, if audit completed and if we might hear something from whomever is managing NA right now. Started both chats with product question...

GoHymer Experience
- I asked if Aktiv could be ordered w/o EcoTrek, referred me to dealer
- I asked what lead time would be if I order now, referred me to dealer,
- I asked if production has resumed, referred me to dealer
- I asked if emloyees being paid, refused to answer.
- she did say they are working through the audit,but when I asked again if production had resumed she said.."I have mentioned a few times you need to contact your dealer for all of these questions, Im here to tell you differences on units and help you choose what is best for you.We are working through an audit yes but I don't have further information to provide to you" I don't know if all the Hymer reps would use same script.

RoadTrek chat experience
online chat from Roadtrek.com, I asked if we could get a Zion w/o Ecotrek, rep was much more forthcoming than Hymer rep. He said we could order Zion w/o Ecotrek and after I asked more about production/audit etc, he shared:
- Production still on hold but getting closer,
- Confirmed he is getting paid.
- Confirmed inventory has been completed.
- Said lead time would be 12 weeks or more if ordered now.
RT Rep was much more personable than Hymer rep, and when I said that we are anxious to buy but Hymer family or whomever is in charge needs to communicate before we can commit. He did not dispute that comment. Appreciated his candor. Clearly he cannot say much but Hymer rep's approach was not helpful at all.

Not sure if that is helpful, but just sharing

[Gemlake]

Hymer NA was placed into receivership today. All employees have been terminated.

https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/mobile/...R_9kKZxJnkiR8E

[booster]

Originally Posted by Gemlake

Hymer NA was placed into receivership today. All employees have been terminated.

https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/mobile/...R_9kKZxJnkiR8E

Very sad for all the employees. It certainly reinforces the idea that you can't believe anything that a company in trouble says related to their future.


If they find a buyer, and at what price, could determine the warranty on existing units going forward. The "insolvency" certainly is ominous.

[ClassB4Me]

Originally Posted by Gemlake

Hymer NA was placed into receivership today. All employees have been terminated.

https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/mobile/...R_9kKZxJnkiR8E

02.13.2019
The next time we hear from the family will be when they have found a holding company to buy what remains of EHG NA or they have chosen to put the company in receivership.

I take no joy out of predicting the outcome accurately.

The bas#$!rds that cost these people their jobs and incomes should be strung up in the city center. There are least two (now former) employees expecting their first child. For the apologist of those at the center of this mess.

Shame on You!!!

[brianh]

Well this is pretty awful, but it's not surprising. Unless the financial "irregularities" turned out to be completely fabricated, which was always a long shot, then they were going to either use CCAA (Canadian equivalent of chapter 11) to restructure and get relief from their creditors, or go into receivership. Nobody was likely to want to buy the company as-is and take on their debts. Now a buyer could acquire the company and all its assets, rehire as many of the employees as they can, and operate it as a going concern without the debt burden.

If Roadtrek was a profitable company just two years ago when Erwin Hymer acquired them - and this seems likely - then there's no reason a new buyer (Thor?) shouldn't feel confident that they could shed the new and ill-fated changes made since that acquisition, be out from under the debt that the shenanigans with the previous management created, and quickly get back to having a profitable class B manufacturer.

At least that's the best case scenario. I'll keep my fingers crossed that it plays out this way and sometime in the next couple weeks we read about how there's a buyer who plans to hire back a good number of these unfortunate people.

[mumkin]

This has always been a possibility. Now we wait for 6 weeks to see if someone decides to buy. Thor? I have no expectation of honoring our warranties.

I feel so bad for all the employees...

I do hope that charges are filed for those who caused this issue... all three of them... and any other that assisted in their thefts.

[booster]

I wonder how much of the debt is secured, as that could have a huge effect on the value for selling or liquidating, as there might not be a lot to sell.