Michael Pistauer, CFO of Montana Aerospace, was a guest on TeleZüri's "CEO Talk" (available in German) on 29 June 2021. After the successful IPO on the Swiss stock exchange in mid-May 2021, the value of the company, which along with Varta and Aluflexpack belongs to the Montana Tech Components AG industrial group of the major Austrian shareholder Michael Tojner, is around CHF 1.6 billion. In an interview with host Martin Spieler, Michael Pistauer presented the company's further growth plans, mentions current challenges and describes the strengths of Switzerland as a business location.
Montana Aerospace has raised capital through the IPO with the aim of making acquisitions and growing. On the one hand, the growth is to be organic: plants with an area of 80,000 and 40,000 square metres are being built in Romania and Vietnam respectively. On the other hand, interesting partners are to be acquired and integrated. The company wants to double its turnover to 1.2 billion euros in the next 3 to 5 years and aims for an operating margin of 20 percent.
At the group level, it is not excluded that there will be further IPOs. However, Pistauer is cautious: "Who knows what tomorrow will bring? I can't say that today. We are happy to have achieved a very big goal with Montana Aerospace, an intermediate step. We still have a lot of plans, perhaps also with the Swiss stock exchange again." For him, the advantages of an IPO in Switzerland are clear: the Swiss stock exchange is still very personal, one knows the companies and what they do. In addition, there is an excellent investor audience here. "We are very happy," says Pistauer.
The Swiss company, based in Reinach in the canton of Aargau, supplies world-renowned aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing and Airbus with light metal constructions of up to 20 metres in length for aircraft wings or fuselages. Montana Aerospace has 28 locations on 4 continents and employs almost 5000 people.