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Cyan dive pegs SHAREtrack progress

Written by Business Weekly

Wednesday, 11 April 2007

The SHAREtrack100 – in association with PricewaterhouseCoopers – rose 0.2 per cent last week to 6870, a modest improvement that lagged behind that of the main UK indices. The SHAREtrack100 – in association with PricewaterhouseCoopers – rose 0.2 per cent last week to 6870, a modest improvement that lagged behind that of the main UK indices. Cyan Holdings was the worst performing stock with a 23 per cent fall after it announced a sharp increase in losses, despite expressing confidence that its revamped management team and a focus on China as a high-growth market would lead to success in 2007. It concluded its strategic review by appointing founder and chief executive, Paul Johnson as president and CTO, with Kenn Lamb who had been involved in the strategic review, becoming CEO from April 11. Cambridge Display Technologies was the next poorest with a 16 per cent fall giving up all of the gain of the previous week. Amino Technologies issued a trading update at its AGM saying its board was confident of meeting market expectations for the year as a whole and announcing that it would issue a more detailed statement after the 31st May half year point. While the pay-TV marketplace prepares for HD (high definition) TV services, Amino is making good progress with trials of its MPEG-4 HD products in North America. It is on track to start volume deliveries of MPEG-4 HD set-top boxes during the course of the second half of the 2007, but nevertheless the shares fell back 15 per cent in the week. The percentage gains of the best risers were surprisingly much less. Pursuit Dynamics was the strongest performer with a 12 per cent improvement after it said that the current financial year to September had begun positively and that it has made considerable progress on all fronts. Results for the first half-year are forecast to be broadly in line with expectations. AT Communications Group, up 11 per cent on the week, announced that 5.3m ordinary shares had been placed with institutional investors at a price of 37p, raising gross proceeds of £1.96m which will be used to pay down debt – already down £3.5m from the year end as a result of the sale and leaseback of the Wetherby offices of Rocom – and to provide additional working capital to support its continued growth. Subsequently the group announced that seven of its directors had bought shares at 39p. Tex Holdings, up 10 per cent on the week, reported a pre-tax profit of £907,000 in the year to December 31, compared with a profit of £312,000 for the same period in 2005 with a notable improvement in the engineering division. The division saw higher turnover and the reversal of some provisions made in the previous year, offset by a further acceleration in stock amortisation to reflect a more prudent basis. Business levels in the early months of 2007 commenced in line with expectations, the company said, with the exception of one significant contract in ADR sales. The final dividend was increased from 1p to 4p making 7p (4p) for the year.

 

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