DRI Corporation: On The Global Train - (NASDAQ: TBUS)

DRI Corporation (NASDAQ: TBUS), a digital communications technology leader in the global surface transportation and transit security markets, had its 4th quarter and fiscal 2009 financial results. I listened in on the conference call and learned a few interesting things about the company that could make it a real player in the upcoming years. I won’t bother going into the financial details of the call as the 10-K was released last week.

The company continued to see growth in its international business sector as it now makes up 59% of total revenues. With the economic slowdown, quick recovering areas such as India and Brazil were key players for this company to sustain profitability. Looking forward it was smart to focus on the international front as political uncertainty pertaining to transit legislation looms in the U.S. Besides the two strong sectors in India and Brazil there is one more sector which could potentially bolster this thing; Russia.

In previous calls DRI announced it had entered the Russian market, so one of the questions was, have there been any orders from there yet? Although there have been no orders and they are still in a seeding stage the potential in Russia exceeds that of the U.S. According to the CEO there are a larger number of vehicles in service in Russia at present and that doesn’t take into account for the market growth potential Russia has. The CEO went on to say that once the first order is filled they will make an announcement, but growth will be steady and they don’t expect huge ramp-ups like they say in Brazil. Lastly the company could see a little ramp-up in orders for Brazil as the Olympic Games near.

One thing I immediately noticed was the tone and demeanor in which the CEO spoke, he truly sounded like a man on a mission, like he had a chip on his shoulder. Perhaps this had something to do with the fact that the company had some difficulties meeting filing deadlines in 2009. At the very end of the call he commented on stock price and how he was not happy with it and he would be working with IR to help get this thing priced where it should be. Certainly nice to hear as an investor.