Some might recall that one poster here, Zaaczaac, put forward similar arguments back in early March, suggesting that this company might be positioned to thrive in the pandemic environment.
Considering the substantial increase in forward orders evident in the announcement yesterday, you'd have to conclude that Zaac's argument was probably correct: the bad news has translated into good news for us, or 'Glück im Unglück', as the Germans say.
The jump in forward orders represents an increase of circa 83%, compared to the last quarter of 2019.
While this jump isn't without precedent- the company reported a 94% increase in forward orders between the first and second quarter of 2019- it stands out all the same, particularly when you compare the latest figure against those of the preceding three quarters.
With the latest numbers indicating that the current pestilential environment is be proving to be more a boon than a burden for this company, it would be reasonable to assume that the share price is headed back to where it was prior to the coronavirus-induced share price crash.
Bear in mind that the share price hit a multi-year high as recently as the 17th of February, sitting at 0.330 per share at the close of that day. If Vmoto's sales are now starting to get a bolster from the contagion fears around the globe, the logical implication would be that the share price is probably set to exceed the high seen back in February. This thinking was presumably behind the aggressive buying activity yesterday.
That said, I don't think the coronavirus factor alone explains the strong forward orders. Recently, the company seems to have expanded its global footprint, moving into three key regions:
Central/Eastern Europe: Since late 2019, the Super Soco brand seems to have gained some traction in countries such as Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. The shift into this part of Europe was timely, as most Central and Eastern European countries haven't been quite as severely impacted by the virus as the European countries further to the west. Hungarians, in particular, seem to be obsessed with Super Soco bikes, with some Hungarians enthusiasts apparently making their own customised versions of the bikes.
Japan/Taiwan: As is evident from the images in the last page of the latest announcement, the TC Max was launched in Taiwan at the start of the year, and the Japanese launch took place in March. Japan, as the second most populous developed nation in the world, could be a significant source of new orders for this company in future.
The Americas: Super Soco bikes seems to be increasingly popular in a number of 'Latin American' countries: Mexcio, Brazil, and particularly Colombia. That last country, Colombia has lately started to emerge as a major source of Google searches for various Super Soco bikes.
Anyway, I suspect these three regions might account for a large chunk of those 7,245 international orders noted in the announcement.
Finally, some here might be interested in a list I noticed in a French report earlier this month on the rather dismal registration figures for the 25 most popular brands of motorised two-wheelers in France, from the start of the year until the end of April.
Note the 'minus' in front of almost every model of motorbike listed below- no wonder the unit sales for the first quarter of this year were so mediocre.
The sea of red in the list below isn't a pretty sight, but all the same, shareholders in this company might be interested in scrolling down to the end of the list.
Ranking of brands since the beginning of the year, and their progress:
(20min delay)