Kudelski: Bank raises price target
November 3, 2011
By Chris Forrester
The past week has been tough for Swiss-based TV encryption specialists Kudelski, which announced 270 staff lay-offs (9 per cent of the workforce) and a need to trim costs.
The planned remedial action has gone down well with the market, with analysts at investment bank Goldman Sachs raising Kudelski’s price target from SFr 8.50 to SFr 11.50. UBS took a similar view, raising their price target to SFr9.5.
Meanwhile, CEO Andre Kudelski, speaking to the Le Temps newspaper, called for the Swiss government to create tax breaks for the nation’s manufacturing sector which is not helped by the high-value Swiss Franc.
Under a cost-saving strategy which kicks in by the second-half of 2012, the company, which is based near Lausanne, also reduces its executive board and plans annual spending cuts of SFr90 million ($102.4m).