Larry Robbins‘ Glenview Capital has added 1.0 million shares to its Manitowoc Company Inc (NYSE:MTW) holding, according to a 13D filing this week. The billionaire investor’s new position now consists of just over 9.61 million shares and constitutes 7.06% ownership of the outstanding common shares of the manufacturer of cranes and foodservice equipment. It’s worth noting also that Robbins’ position is now activist, whereas his first filing related to the holding, in March, was passive.
A graduate with honors from the Wharton School and Moore School of the University of Pennsylvania, Robbins worked for veteran investor Leon Cooperman at his fund Omega Advisors, as an analyst and partner, before he launched his own fund in February 2001. Headquartered in New York, Glenview currently has about 83 employees. The market value of the fund’s public equity portfolio stood at $21.90 billion at the end of the first quarter, with healthcare and consumer discretionary being the two major contributing sectors.
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Glenview initiated a stake in Manitowoc Company Inc (NYSE:MTW) during the first quarter, of just under 8.61 million shares. While referring to the recent hike in stake, the fund mentioned that it plans to discuss certain alternatives with the company’s management that could significantly enhance shareholder value, hence switching its position to activist. The $2.66 billion company is on track to segregate its Cranes and Foodservice businesses at some point during the first quarter of next year. The lackluster first quarter financial results of Manitowoc Company Inc (NYSE:MTW) included a net loss per share of $0.05, which was $0.03 below estimates and revenues of $752.1 million that missed the estimated mark by $10.01 million. The disappointment was rooted in the Foodservice segment due to underperformance of its KitchenCare business, which suffered from the reduced capital expenditure by large chains, particularly in Asia. Mistakes made in the past by Manitowoc Company Inc (NYSE:MTW)’s management relating to call center operations and parts-stocking issues have weighed heavily on the KitchenCare business as well and consequently led to leadership changes.
However, despite the disappointing results Manitowoc Company Inc (NYSE:MTW)’s KitchenCare business is showing signs of improvement according to results from the last quarter, in terms of improvements to KitchenCare’s fill rates, speed and accuracy. It is expected that the segment will start performing in line with management’s expectations in the second half of this year. Furthermore, on a brighter note, Manitowoc Company Inc (NYSE:MTW)’s Convotherm 4 oven and Merrychef e2 oven experienced strong demand during the first quarter.
The crane business was seasonally low during the first quarter, as is the norm for the company, but still managed to meet expectations. However, the future could pose problems as evidenced by the lesser issuance of U.S. permits, low rig count, and well starts which will negatively impact the rough-terrain and boom-truck markets. However, some of that decline could be balanced by the improvement seen in the non-residential construction in the U.S. which is providing a boost to crane utilization.
As far as Manitowoc Company Inc (NYSE:MTW)’s stock price is concerned, it is down by 11.5% year-to-date, amid a farm & construction equipment industry that has delivered unimpressive results overall, appreciating by a meager 0.39% during the same period. Among the billionaires that we track, three had investments worth $517.58 million in Manitowoc Company Inc (NYSE:MTW). Besides Robbins, Carl Icahn and James Dinan were the other two, with their respective funds having stakes of 10.58 million shares valued at $228.16 million and 8.61 million shares valued at $185.72 million.
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