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*This is the fourth post of a serie of at least 7 posts on mining & construction equipment. The first posts were about* [*Epiroc*](https://www.reddit.com/r/ValueInvesting/comments/1ni0qk3/epiroc_swedish_mining_equipment_serial_acquirer/)*,* [*Caterpillar*](https://www.reddit.com/r/ValueInvesting/comments/1nt1y65/caterpillar_post_24/) and [Sandvik](https://www.reddit.com/r/ValueInvesting/comments/1onakf7/sandvik_swedish_mining_equipment_machining_tools/)*. If you are only interested in something to buy TODAY, then no need to read this post.*
**Liebherr** is a switzerland-based company of german origin making equipment for the construction and mining industries, as well as other industries. It was founded in 1949.
The company is private and 100% family-owned. This post is mainly for comparison with public competitors. It made 15.4 B€ of income in 2024, vs 64.8 B$ for Caterpillar, 63.6 BSEK (\~7B$) for Epiroc and 122.3 BSEK (\~13.7 B$) for Sandvik
About 2/3 of the sales are construction and mining related : material handling technology, deep foundations, mining, mobile & crawler cranes, tower cranes, concrete technology and earthmoving.
About 1/3 of the sales is related to other businesses : maritime cranes, aerospace & transportation systems, gear technology & automation systems, refregirators & freezers, components and others/hôtels.
**Asset allocation**
The company is distributing about 16% of their earnings. They don't make share buybacks. The average equity ratio is 55%.
**Shareholders, Management & Board**
*Management*
There are five managing directors : 1 named in 2017, 1 named in 2019, 1 named in 2021 and 2 named in 2022. They are not members of the family, as far as I can tell
*Board*
Virtually all board members are always family members. I think this is not a good thing, as they should add external members
*Shareholders*
The Liebherr family still owns 100% of the company.
**Some numbers**
The profitability is extremely low : 2.79% (18), 3.48% (19), 0.06% (20), 4.46% (21), 0.01% (22), 2.37% (23), 1.65% (24). In average, they generate sales close to 90% of their balance sheet total of the beggining of the year. Conclusion : this is a definitely not a good company.
Some elements that can explain this low profitability might be the fact that they produce appliances for private consumers (they should prioritise professional equipement like Rational, Illinois Tool Works and Middleby), their rental activities includes equipement from other manufacturers (ex: Epiroc) and they have hotels.
**Conclusion**
The company is really bad