I spent today at a German stock-holders meeting....in Paderborn (three hours north of Frankfurt). The company? Wincor-Nixdorf. They do ATM machines, hardware for banks, and software for finance control.
It was a curious meeting. The company clears a good profit, and pays a decent dividend. It sells for around fifty Euro a share, and the dividend for the past year is awful close to two percent.
It was a happy meeting by most standards. The CEO can brag a bit. Numbers are ok, etc.
There are two curious things.
First, we had some nut who got up at the end (they allow share-holders to say stuff....if they want), and there was a guy who claimed the company was supporting Steffi Graff's dad (former German tennis legend). Bogus stuff, but you have to allow any nut to speak.
Second, the guys predicted this oddball trend. A cashless society is not that far off. The need for ATM machine? Well....in two or three decades....it might be a lot less machines in existence. Folks will start using smart-phones, and cash will be used less and less. He pointed out....the US is the only country left which uses checks for a fair amount....which means a special device to read and validate checks, which Nixdorf sells.
The negative of the whole meeting? It was a lousy lunch.....some soup deal with bread. I'd give them two stars on that. But hey.....at least they aren't wasting a ton of money on food for the stock-holders.
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