General Assembly Schilthornbahn AG Held
The 60th Annual General Meeting of the Schilthornbahn AG took place in Mürren. After two years without the physical presence of the shareholders, the meeting took place again this year in the usual setting. A total of 540 shareholders (196 of them on site) with 25,180 votes (65.4 percent of the share capital) attended.
On Friday, June 17, 2022, the Schilthornbahn AG Annual General Meeting took place for the 60th time in the Alpine Sports Center in Mürren. The meeting took place again this year in the presence of 196 shareholders. The company looks back with reluctance on the two years of pandemic-related restrictions:
Fiscal year 2021 - Another year to forget
After a year with a drop in sales of more than 40 percent and a massive loss of 4 million francs in 2020, the 2021 financial year was also a year to forget. Again significantly influenced by the pandemic and a rainy and cold summer, ordinary sales increased slightly to one million more than in the previous year. This is primarily due to the positive development in winter sports. In addition, the annual loss was limited from around 3.9 million francs to 750,000 francs thanks to the hardship case compensation applied for and received.
The five-month lockdown has left deep scars and corresponding losses in hotels and restaurants. The same applies to the shops. Excursion traffic could not experience an upswing in the summer due to the weather. Only a beautiful autumn and a successful and early start to the winter season thanks to the snow depot in the Engetal showed a trend reversal. Despite these mostly negative facts, "the entire organization with all employees in the various functions under the leadership of Director Christoph Egger has shown great resilience," praises the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Johannes Stöckli, in his review of the year.
An important event in June 2021 was the relocation of management and marketing from Interlaken to Stechelberg. This step brought closer to the guests and to the company. Due to the pandemic-related change in the number of guests and in consumer behavior, the existing offer was supplemented with numerous new offers in excursion traffic and winter sports. There were various changes and innovations in the management team. The company reported regularly.
Business of the 60th General Assembly
The annual report with the 2021 financial statements and the appropriation of the balance sheet loss were accepted. Discharge was granted to the Board of Directors.
Choose:
The auditors, KPMG AG, were re-elected for a further one-year term.
Price development share:
The development of the share price reflects the unfortunate framework conditions mercilessly. In the current year, the share remains stable at a low level. The positive forecasts for tourism and the potential of the SCHILTHORNBAHN 20XX railway project make us optimistic overall.
Dividend:
The rules on hardship compensation only allow dividends to be paid out again in 2025, provided that no repayment is made.
Fiscal year 2022 – trend reversal has arrived
Die wichtigen internationalen Reisemärkte haben die COVID-Massnahmen weitgehend aufgehoben und funktionieren wieder. Ein Nachholbedarf für Reisen ist festzustellen. «Die Besucherzahlen zeigen ein erfreuliches Bild», freut sich Christoph Egger, Direktor der Schilthornbahn, «einzig der für uns wichtige Markt China ist weiterhin ein Fragezeichen, Grenzöffnungen im Herbst dieses Jahres sind aber denkbar». Nichtsdestotrotz: Die Besucherzahlen sind bereits wieder auf dem Vor-Pandemie-Niveau. Dank höherer Durchschnittserträge wirken sich diese Entwicklungen in den Ertragszahlen noch positiver aus. Ebenso konnten mit den 78. Internationalen Inferno-Rennen, der Telemark Weltmeisterschaft oder dem Whitestyle Open bereits wieder Grossanlässe durchgeführt werden.
In the summer of 2022, the first stage of water supply will be carried out. The time-consuming transport of fresh water in tanks with the cable car cabins will no longer be necessary in the future.
There is an important change in the use of the James Bond 007 brand: after more than four years of negotiations, a valid license agreement was signed on January 1, 2022 with the owners of the rights to James Bond 007, Danjaq Inc. and Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer Studios, completed. This secures and clarifies the use of rights by the Schilthornbahn AG. The agreement massively restricts the use of the trademark. In addition, the calculation of a payback applies to the rail frequencies, gastronomy and merchandising income generated by 007.
Project SCHILTHORN RAILWAY 20XX
Before the General Assembly, the ground-breaking ceremony for the large-scale SCHILTHORNBAHN 20XX project took place on Birg with invited guests. The financing of the hundred-million project is largely secured. 40 percent for the first Stechelberg-Mürren section comes from public funds. Another 40 percent from fixed credit agreements and 20 percent from own funds. Nevertheless, there are substantial risks: unstable world politics, rising inflation, high raw material and energy prices as well as delivery and energy supply bottlenecks characterize future developments in the construction project. The company strives to find good solutions in partnership with companies. Any postponement of one or the other sub-project or of projects that are not directly linked to the major 20XX project are conceivable.
