phone call to quickstep cfo

Summary of phone call today with Quickstep CFO Peter Williams:

I called Peter today and asked him a few obvious questions in terms of an update on Company progress and the share price. He was very helpful and gave clear answers to the following, I may have transcribed some of his wording/emphasis incorrectly as I was walking through a park on my lunchtime and now I have reproduced from memory. Hence not to be viewed as investment advice etc etc.

Questions:
Q) What is the current progress with ISO certification/are there any major issues or impediments to this.

A) Peter said the original audit earlier in the year had identified some minor additional changes which were required, and these have now been completed. A reaudit has been undertaken and from Quicksteps perspective the process is now complete. The final report has been sent to the ISO head office for accreditation in Canada/America and once this was assessed they would hear back. He wasn’t sure how long this would take but indicated between 2-4 weeks was their expectation before getting a final response on accreditation.

Q) Earlier reports stated initial indications on contracts Quickstep has bidded for could be by the end of May, have they had any negative responses which have not been advised to the market as yet?

A) He stated they had not heard back either positively or negatively on any of the contract bids undertaken to date. He added this was very frustrating for them as they cannot follow-up once having lodged a bid. He did say they had been asked for additional information in some cases which had been provide and now they were waiting to hear back in all cases. He stated the current economic environment is causing contract awards to slow in all industries and the airline manufactor is no different

Q) Have Quickstep bid on any additional contracts over the April and May period since the last Qtrly report ?

A) He said a number of industry players (e.g. Boeing) would not let you bid until you were certified which was why hearing back on the ISO accreditation was key. He did say in addition that they had been visiting a number of manufacturers over the last couple of months to talk about the fact that they are ready for business and also submitted some additional tenders.

Q) Any idea why the increase in share selling activity?

A) He speculated that Maquarie may be seeling down some additional holdings not due to any identified concerns with the company itself but purely they have in an orderly manner been selling down over the last 6 months as they choose to rebalance their portfolio. He said they don’t know who/why until they get the shareholder notices in a couple of days and its not a result of any specific bad news not realised to the market as yet.

In Summary: I took it as a very positive conversation, they would obviously prefer to have got a contract already and noted that it was frustrating, however there is nothing negative I could see impacting pending accreditation, contract awards, or their existing partnership framework with EDAG, The Arabs or Vector composites. I come away happy to ignore the share price fluctuations and wait for the good news to start flowing. If I had a spare dollar (which I don’t) Id be tempted to buy some more at current prices.

Cheers
Tricky