Service Corporation International (SCI), la multinazionale americana, colosso del settore funerario mondiale, ha annunciato di aver avuto un forte calo dei profitti. “La scarsa fiducia dei consumatori che ha colpito le vendite di ‘servizi cimiteriali prima del bisogno’ si è associata a uno straordinario declino dei mercati finanziari, traducendosi in un pesante effetto negativo per i nostri risultati operativi cimiteriali”, ha spiegato l’AD Tom Ryan. Per “vendite cimiteriali prima del bisogno” si intendono gli spazi per la sepoltura e altri servizi che sono stati acquistati prima della morte di una persona.
Tom Ryan, the Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer, commented on the fourth quarter of 2008:
“The negative consumer sentiment which impacted preneed cemetery sales coupled with the extraordinary decline in the financial markets had a significant negative effect on our cemetery operating results. On the bright side, our funeral operations delivered solid operating results as we would have expected as they are less sensitive to economic conditions and the financial markets.”
2009 OUTLOOK
Commenting on the Company’s 2009 outlook is Tom Ryan, the Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer:
“It is clear 2009 will be a challenging year for both SCI and the entire global economy. Comparable funeral services performed in January and February of 2009 were significantly lower as compared to the prior year. Additionally, we continue to see a difficult economic environment for the consumer and uncertain financial markets which will reduce anticipated earnings in 2009 compared to 2008. However, due to the stability of our core funeral business and our intention to diligently manage our costs and capital spending in 2009 we believe we can still generate a healthy amount of free cash flow. With approximately $150 million in cash, no significant near term debt maturities, and the predictable nature of our funeral operations, we are confident we have the financial strength, resources and people to address the task of successfully operating in a contracting market and position our Company to benefit from the market’s eventual recovery.”
