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News

Cambridge Index Update 24th March 2006

Cambridge Index Edges Ahead.

The Cambridge Index rose 0.3% last week driven by a recovery in the share price of CSR to £10.48, but TTP Com, once one of the largest constituents, continued its decline after it announced that a major contract would not be signed before the company’s yearend on 31st March. Its shares fell 31% on the week to close at 15p and the company is to conduct a strategic review that could cover major sales. Other major moves in the Index were Tadpole down 22%, GeneMedix down 14% and Cyan Holdings down 11%. Three companies improved by 10% or more - CMR Fuel Cells, 15%, Cytomyx 11% and Bango 10%. The broad UK Indices moved ahead by just over 0.5% but the TechMARK rose only 0.1%. In the US the NASDAQ rose 0.3% but the more broadly based Standard & Poor’s Composite fell 0.3%.

TTPCom announced that it will not be able to sign the major contract expected before the end of its year but is confident that it will sign the deal in the first fiscal quarter. Consequently revenues in the second half will be materially lower than previously expected at around £17-18m well below the £31m analysts had penciled in. Losses are expected to be in the range of £14-15m, including a £ 3m provision for bad debt, and the net cash position will be impacted by the lack of the large licence fee. The company is now reviewing strategic options to ensure that the TTPCom is able to effectively exploit the market opportunities but given the run rate of losses and the remaining net cash position these options are likely to include a sale. The company has incurred a £1m restructuring charge to reduce costs, although cost reduction in addition to the 10% target will be modest as the company believes it has to continue to invest in sales opportunities for AJAR and 3G for the second half of the current year. The Board remains confident that TTP’s position in both 2G and 3G and its technology portfolio will create significant value for shareholders going forward.

Brady reported its preliminary results for the calendar year 2005. Turnover was £2.4m and gross profit £786,000 but after administrative costs of £2m there was an operating loss of £1.2m before interest and tax. The main task for 2006 according to the Chairman, Graham Simister, is to get the upgraded Trinity version 600 out to its customers so they can act as reference sites for the potential new clients. 2005 had started with a deal of optimism but did not develop as hoped. Two new Trinity customers went live in the beginning of the year and the biggest Opval customer also signed up early in the year but delays on Trinity 600, where there were issues on changes to the specification and the related dispute over the recovery of fees. New customers were waiting for a more complete version before signing up so that it is only in March 2006 that the first sale of V600 has been made. In July Brady bought Tradesoft, whose main product, Alltrade, is in physical logistics and concentrates and during the year Brady made joint proposals with two of the major systems integrators involved in the commodities producer marketplace. Subsequent to the results, Graham Simister bought 100,000 shares at 18p increasing his holding to 7.4%.

Semiconductor Company, Cyan Holdings, announced a full-year pretax loss of £2.15m on sales of £29,000 compared with a year-earlier loss of £1m but is looking for growth in 2006 and 2007. Listing has enabled the company to attract higher profile customers and build on its strategic plan for the eCOG range. 2006 will see the launch of the eCOG1X product range which will be extensive and include more industry standard peripheral interfaces, which means an even wider range of potential customers. The company is now making rapid progress in its strategy of providing ultra low power and low power, high performance, 16 and 32 bit microcontrollers supported by what it believe to be unique integrated software development tools. Its integrated approach to microcontroller development and software tools development provides benefits in the performance of both, and allows particularly effective customer support. It is a novel approach in its business area. Cyan raised £4m from the floatation and a further £2.1m form the exercise of warrants from existing shareholders. Proceeds will be largely applied to continuation of the product development programme, an increased sales effort, and the funding of working capital as customers' production quantity orders are received during this year and 2007.

Minster Pharmaceuticals, has recruited the first patients in a multi-national Phase II clinical trial of tonabersat, the Company's lead compound it bought from GlaxoSmithKline in 2001, in the prevention of migraine to the Danish Headache Centre at Glostrup Hospital, Copenhagen which will be followed by patient recruitment at centres in the U.K., Hungary and South Africa. Around 130 patients in total will be recruited to the trial, which will involve patients taking either tonabersat or placebo for three months to see if there is a reduction in the number of days patients suffer a migraine. The results of the trial are expected to be during the first quarter of 2007. Tonabersat is a new class of drugs called gap junction blockers, which are the subject of significant interest from clinicians and pharmaceutical researchers for their potential in the prevention of migraine as an alternative to current acute treatments.

LiDCO Group announced that the version 4.0 software for its LiDCOplus hemodynamic monitor will be exhibited for the first time at the 26th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (ISICEM) - in Brussels, Belgium- from 21st to 24th March 2006. This version includes a new measurement, the intrathoracic blood volume, and will also enable a number of significant other advances in the care of critically ill and major surgery patients. These include improved management of patient fluids, better oxygen delivery targeting and greater ease of use. In addition this approach, using LiDCO's technology, has been shown to save an average of £4,800 per patient treated. The full launch of the version 4.0 software is expected in the next quarter. At the ISICEM conference seven presentations from clinicians based in Europe will further support the effectiveness and clinical utility of LiDCO products.

Pursuit Dynamics, has bought the assets and certain liabilities of Brooklands Process Technology (Skerman) for a token consideration of £5,000 and the provision of a £75,000 inter-company loan to repay existing borrowings. BPT Skerman is a distributor and integrator of capital equipment and systems into the food manufacturing and beverage industries and its customer base includes some of the sector's best-known companies. Pursuit has identified a number of immediate benefits that this acquisition will make available to BPT Skerman, principally specialist management skills, balance sheet credibility and direct sales and technical support.

Artisan (U.K has made the recent land acquisitions, of one acre site, adjacent to the existing business park at St Neots in Cambridgeshire and a 1.5 acre site in St Ives Cambridgeshire for which outline planning permission for industrial units has been completed. The company also said that its subsidiary, Rippon Homes, has exchanged contracts on the acquisition of a 5.7 acre site at Lincoln for residential development. This site will act as a key site for the Lincolnshire area and the company is already assessing other smaller sites that will be effective satellites to the acquired site.

At the AGM of Domino Printing, Peter Byrom said that trading in the first four months of the year is in line with the company's expectations. They continue to have strong demand for their products. Unit sales are well ahead of the comparative period last year and, as expected, they continue to experience price erosion in certain sectors but so far 2006 has seen good market conditions in Asia. Trading in Western Europe has been more difficult. Domino’s recent acquisitions continue to perform well and are contributing positively to the results of the Group. The Group has increased its investment in new product development in 2006 and is positioned to launch a number of new products in the coming months.