i-mate is a developer and supplier of high-end wireless integrated pocket pcs and smartphones, specialising in the Microsoft(R) Windows MobileTM operating system

Forecasts
Year Ending Sales (m) Pre-tax (m) EPS P/E PEG EPS Grth. Div Yield
31-Mar-06 263.00 31.37 13.19p 17.2 n/a n/a n/a 0.0%
31-Mar-07 408.85 50.60 20.54p 11.1 n/a n/a n/a 0.0%

Summary financial information

Year ended Year ended
31 March 2004 31 March 2005
$000 $000

Turnover 37,916 136,151
Gross Profit 8,158 35,057
Gross profit margin 21.5% 25.7%
Operating profit 1,851 14,350
Operating profit margin 4.9% 10.5%
Net cash inflow from operating activities 4,115 12,175

This is another strong recommendation that appeared a few days ago.

My New Tech Winner -- Revealed!
By Maynard Paton
January 17, 2006

I've found a new tech winner! Recommended for Champion Shares only last month, my choice of i-mate (LSE: IMTE) has since enjoyed a 28% rally!

In the past, I've recounted how three of the most successful flotations of 2004 were techs. The were CSR (LSE: CSR), Neteller (LSE: NLR) and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG). This table summarises the profits you could have made:

Share Flotation Price on first
day of dealings Recent price Profit
CSR February 2004 246p 1,141.5p 364%
Neteller April 2004 197p 841p 327%
Google August 2004 $100 $466.25 366%

I noted CSR, Neteller and Google had five common characteristics when they went public. I feel i-mate, a developer of smartphones and pocket PCs that joined the stock market in 2005, matches up to this tech-winner checklist:

1. Rapid sales growth: i-mate's sales growth has been remarkable. Annual turnover has zoomed from zero to $136m in less than four years and interim results published in November indicated trailing twelve-month sales were now $191m.

2. An ability to produce a profit: A small operating profit was generated in 2002/3, which had surged to $14m by 2004/5. November's half-year results indicated annual operating profits were running at $23m.

3. A good market position: Admittedly i-mate is up against a lot of big-name competition. But the company has already carved out a sizeable foothold in Australia and the Middle East and web reviews I've read suggest the products are at least on a technical and specification par with those made by rivals.

"K-JAM is their 'Labs Winner' - "No other PDA packs as much technology into such a small case, yet there is room for a keyboard as well. A simply brilliant design"

Looks like they should sell if they can get them in the shops..."

The latter was partly responsible for the recent drop in share price. The company stated:

In response to delays in the timely delivery of JAM PDAs, the Company has taken steps to meet demand forthis type of device by bringing forward the launch of the replacement device, the JAMIN, due to commence shipment in February in most markets outside of the USA.

Sales have been further affected by the sad demise of the ruler of Dubai which has resulted in cancellation of certain major marketing events in Dubai during January and February.

The Directors continue to expect to report significant year on year increases in
revenue and profit for the year to March 2006, however, the cumulative effect of
the factors detailed above is expected to result in sales and profits for the
year to March 2006 being lower than market expectations.

Although disappointed by the impact of factors outside the Company's control, the Directors remain confident that demand for its devices and growth in the marketplace remains strong.

I-Mate Plc Interim Results
RNS Number:8423T
i-mate plc
09 November 2005



9th November 2005

Interim results for the 6 months ended 30th September 2005
"Pushing the boundaries of converged devices and services"


HIGHLIGHTS


* Sales more than double, increasing by 138% to $95.1m (2004: $40.0m)

* Profit before tax increases by 226% to $12.4m (2004: $3.8m)

* Gross profit margin of 25.9 % (2004: 22.1 %)

* Operating profit margin before interest 13% (2004: 9.5%)

* Operating cash flow of $6.0m (2004: $4.0m) while investing in working
capital

* Successful launch of JASJAR , K-JAM and 1-View

* Distribution established in United States

Commenting on the results, Bernard Cragg, Chairman of i-mate plc, said:

"Strong growth, driven by a wider product range and better geographical
coverage, has resulted in further significant improvement in our first half
sales, margin and profit before tax performance. Continuing investment and
innovation in our product range, and expansion of our distribution network,
should continue to drive rapid progress. The Board remains confident in the
outlook for the remainder of the financial year."

Cazenove issued an in-line rec on 10 Jan
FY 2004/05 FY2005/06 FY2006/07 FY 2007/08
Revenue 136.2 258.8 360.6 435.7
PBT 14.4 27.2 38.8 46.2

Bell Lawrie gave the following projections
FY 2004/05 FY2005/06 FY2006/07
Revenue 136.15 265 415
PBT 14.38 31.37 50.6

Buy i-mate
Says Rob Cullum of Trendwatch.co.uk
In September last year, i-mate floated on AIM. Most people in the UK won't have heard of it. But if you live in the Middle East, Australasia or South Africa, chances are you'll recognise the name immediately.

I-mate makes combined phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) that run Windows Mobile software. These devices are sold in volume in the regions mentioned above and have just started to appear in Europe. Its product range currently consists of 7 pocket PC devices and 4 smartphones, up from 6 devices in the previous year.

Jim Morrison founded the company in 2001. Not the iconic lead singer of The Doors, but the former head of mobile products at BT Cellnet, who helped create the product that eventually became the impressive O2 xda - a product I just happen to be familiar with, as I own one!

These devices are designed and developed in collaboration with its manufacturing partner High Tech Computer Corporation. Based in Taiwan, High Tech has grown rapidly of the past few years to become the world's biggest manufacturer of PDAs.

Let's turn our attention to the financial side of i-mate. Just because the company only recently floated on AIM, don't be mislead into thinking that this is some kind of start-up. This is a very substantial and well-established operation. For the six months ended 30 September 2005, i-mate reported turnover up from $40m to $95.1m. Its interim profit was up from $3.7m to $12m. Because the majority of transactions are passed through its Dubai office, it expects to pay an overall rate of corporate tax of between 4% and 5%

Sales growth is phenomenal. Sales to the Middle East over the six-month period soared by 91% compared to the corresponding period last year, to $39.6m. Here, it was helped by the introduction of a second mobile operator in the kingdom, Mobily, which conspicuously featured i-mate's products in its new retail outlets. Sales to Australasia increased by 62% to $14.1m.

The company has only recently launched its products into a number of Western European countries including Italy, Spain, Portugal, UK, Netherlands and the Nordic countries. As a result, the most significant growth during the first half came from Europe, where sales quintupled to $30.9m, admittedly from a low base of $6.3m. It also commenced shipments to the US, with initial sales of $2.2m.




Here in the UK, sales are growing strongly, thanks to distribution by Dixons plus over 100 other retail sales partners in the UK, plus 47 corporate and system integrator partners, including Dell and Computacenter.

Just because everything looks set for rapid growth doesn't mean that i-mate is devoid of risk. No share is devoid of risk. I-mate should be inherently less risky than many relatively new companies, given that it is already a sizeable, well-established company. Even so, i-mate has already experienced one technological glitch, related to the latest version of Microsoft's ActiveSync, the program that synchronises data between mobiles and PCs. New security features in versions 4.0 and 4.1 of ActiveSync blocked the transfer of data from PCs to i-mate's products. A software patch from Microsoft cleared the problem but led to a slowdown in product shipments. I-mate says it does not expect this to have a material effect on its results.

Another risk factor is that it operates in a highly competitive market, with powerful and longer established players such as Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and the rest.

Nevertheless, stockbroker Bell Lawrie White expects profits to surge from $14.4m last year to $31.4m this year and on to $48.7m in 2007. This quite exceptional rate of growth gives a PEG of about 0.2 for this year and 0.25 for 2007. These PEGs are among the lowest on the whole stockmarket, indicating that the shares appear to be sharply undervalued, given the exceptional high rate of earnings growth.

Why do the shares appear to be so undervalued? It's not because there's a catch. In our experience, undervalued shares often sit around on the market for a long time; glaring anomalies that give the lie to the 'perfect markets hypothesis'. Indeed, it's the very existence of such anomalies that makes it possible for TrendWatch to outperform the market so consistently.

nIn our view, i-mate is undervalued for no better reason than the fact that most investors haven't discovered it yet. Given that this is a company capitalised at over 355 million pounds and growing

IMTE may have had a hickup but if we are looking for a strong growth stock, then this surely is one to be in. Profits may not quite hit the projected 31.4 million for this year, but I doubt it will fall far short of that figure.

"..stockbroker Bell Lawrie White expects profits to surge from $14.4m last year to $31.4m this year and on to $48.7m in 2007. This quite exceptional rate of growth gives a PEG of about 0.2 for this year and 0.25 for 2007. These PEGs are among the lowest on the whole stockmarket, indicating that the shares appear to be sharply undervalued, given the exceptional high rate of earnings growth."

I got a K-Jam 3 months ago and it's spot on.Got 4 full films on a 1 Gig memory card.Had no problems with it at all,having Wi/Fi built in was the main reason for buying one.

banjomick: Sounds as if we are on to a winner!

grevis,
Not a holder meself,was just a quick endorsement of the K-Jam.
Good luck

banjomick: It's a shame you're not in on these. Up 4.4% today. Cheers!

I've gone in for a 1000 shares--ready for the ride up!!

moneyplus: Well done. Hope you managed to get in at a good price. Friday showed a strong rise. Next target level is 260 to 270. Good luck!

Companies with i-mates record of growth and prospects are rare. They've already shown that they can grow markets and improve profits at the same time. Their current price presents a good buying opportunity. That blip seems to have been short lived as Friday showed a jump of nearly 9%. Incidentally that's close to the rise also seen in the shares of Cambridge Silicon radio(CSR), another tech stock that I hold, which jumped 11%. Both are producing products that are in high demand. Long may their success continue to drive their stock higher. Good luck!

I've taken this information from their last reported accounts (RNS 9 November 2005). It paints a very impressive picture!

Geographical Information

The group has one primary class of business which is the design and development
of wireless handheld devices and carrier based services for the world mobile
market. An analysis of turnover by destination, operating profit and profit
before taxation of the group by geographical segment is set out below:

(a) Turnover by destination Six months Six months Year
ended ended ended
30 September September 31 March
2005 2004 2005
(reviewed) (reviewed) (audited)
$000 $000 $000

Middle East 39,576 20,772 67,666
Australasia 14,143 8,738 21,278
Africa 6,505 2,868 8,542
Europe 30,935 6,289 35,567
North America 2,214 - 1,029
Asia 1,705 1,335 2,069

95,078 40,002 136,151


(b) Profit Six months ended Six months ended Year ended
30 September 2005 30 September 2004 31 March 2005
(reviewed) (reviewed) (audited)
Profit/ Profit/
Profit Operating (loss) Operating (loss)
Operating before profit/ before profit/ before
profit taxation (loss) taxation (loss) taxation
$000 $000 $000 $000 $000 $000


Middle East 11,544 11,558 3,320 3,320 13,491 13,491
Australasia 424 451 592 604 905 933
Europe 335 341 (117) (117) 230 230
North America 67 67 - - (269) (269)


12,370 12,417 3,795 3,807 14,357 14,385

UP nicely again this morning. Plus 9% and an MM buy has just gone through

Maximum online buy is currently 750 shares at 2.77p!

Had these on my watchlist, could be on the way back.Mentioned in the Independent on tuesday.

All quiet for some time now. Sp has taken a dive and I'm wondering if anyone is actually usiing these gadgets? Are they competition for Blackberry, or camera-phones? - I don't see what all the excitement is about....
Those that bought a year ago 2+ are looking a a severe loss with sp today abt. 50p . . . they have cash in Bank it seems, what is that "per share" I wonder....not a lot I suspect.....
Anyone?

Anyone watching this one? Interims due soon. Think if no negative surprises since pre-close announcement last month then it looks like it's near the bottom. But then again.... !!

I've just looked at the chart...Have you been drinking?...pull yourself together -):

No. My charts are giving indication possible uptrend starting..... (but will require good interims to get it going)..... They (the company) had techno foresight .... (well Jim lad the original owner did - and he's still the major shareholder) .... but had problems with third party manufacturer in Taiwan..... now have brought more things in house and reorganised product range ..... as usual, time will tell.....

The words "Risky" and "To" come to mind on this one I'm afraid, but as you say time will tell.

Well someone was busy twanging in a stream of buys in 2.5k parcels during the last half hour of trading.... Good news anticipated from Dubai HQ next week? Time will tell but await next week with interest.....

yeah ..... bloody awful graph ..... but if the latest revised product range suceeds then ..... I'm a sucker for recovery plays .... :-) No danger of going bust quite yet ..... Pre-close statement (2nd Oct) says "cash position stands at a healthy US$54 Million."

It'll be Thursday 20 December 2007 that this lot will announce their interim results for the half year ending 30 September 2007. So, await to see what they turn up ....

Well..... Interim results were expected to be dire ...... but turned out even worse than expected. Not nice for digestion at breakfast time. But on the positive side:
a) Bid price is presently only 1.75p down since yesterday. Somewhat better than might have been expected at 08.00 this morning.
b).Whoever was continuously unloading in tranches of 2,500 shares at a time recently seems to have started buying back in the 2,500 tranches today.
c).Jim M appears to have not unloaded any of his substantial holdings since it floated -even when SP was well over 5 times present level.
d).Recent technical and supplier problems are behind them for now. Future is effectively in their own hands now. So medium term it's al down to the calibre of their sales / marketing departments.

Well, the RNS just recently is dire IMHO - the suggestion that their chip-maker dispute is stopping their US-sales is a Huge Blow - and it's surprising the sp has only moved this amount - but then it's already down almost 90% from a year ago.

Survived87 - Do you use this gadget?
(ie in preference to other such products) - your input, please.

hangon .... no, don't use it ..... but knew a lot of people in the middle east who had them and found them very useful (and were happy to spend lots of $$$ on them).
seems that last RNS possibly signals the end of the company in its present form.... no integrated product line, no immediate solution, financial write-offs, dwindling cash pile. perhaps MBO to follow? followed by Dubai listing (once turmoil there subsides..... your guess is as good as mine.... perhaps the exiting management can still make money out of it.

PS: perhaps I should have also mentioned the C word ...

as in credability.....
even if latest circumstances were outside of IMTE's control, I'm surprised that they were not aware of situation when Interims came out just before Xmas....
they didn't seem to mention any such anticipated problems in the Interims....

as I said before , time will tell with this company .....
it now seems to have done so

In fairness if they've said there is a legal wrangle I guess until there is "new" evidence/solution they should keep quiet; otherwise it just rakes over old news ( and causes sp to fall futrther!)
+I agree there is an issue with competance; it looks like they've been in the sun rather too long........Psion was a similar case, I recall - always trying to catch-up the big players even though it appeared their product was superior, etc.
Pace was similar IMHO - a small player is always at a disadvantage, unless they have that "something" - which is difficult to maintain, even if they ever find it.

The common thread here is they are hi-tech and constrained by UK finances - where Banks will lend you money when you don't need it - unless it's some dodgy scam, like buying packs of sub-prime, etc. etc. where even the Best Banks never knew if they'd be repaid ( it seems!), . . . . . wash my mouth, - etc.

Hope you didn't lose on Imate.

>The common thread here is they are hi-tech and constrained by UK finances

But IMTE had plenty of cash in the bank from float .... and even after write-offs from latest cock-up then they'll still have some cash in bank. They're HQ'd in Dubai and at one time were thinking of listing in Dubai. They've had bad luck - but seems credability and product line is now shot to pieces. Lost a bit but nothing to lose sleep over as bought in as a recovery play after it had already fallen a lot..... that's life. Great potential originally and also the devices were selling like hot cakes in Gulf region when they were a private company......

Massive fall today - Yikes, this may be it!

IMHO, It is "best" to List where your factory/office is, and where your customers are.

-that way everyone knows what you are saying and customer feedback . . . . .means you match the product/service -to- customer need.

Maybe this should never have been on AIM....?
Anyone?

Anyone know why the price has dropped recently to 5p a share?? It's hard to believe when a while back the shares were widely recommended as a good buy. Are they going to go under? Sales still seem ok.

From 200p to 2p...


I-mate Plc sank further into full year loss as sales came in significantly below plan, with the company saying it has adequate capital for at least 12 months.

In a statement, i-mate, which makes Microsoft Windows-compatible mobile devices, however said the next 12 months are looking a lot better and that it will focus on cutting costs.

For the year to Mar. 31, the company's operating loss widened to 62.9 million pounds from 5.4 million pounds last year as revenues fell to 61.0 million pounds from 195.5 million pounds.

The company is also considering the merits of maintaining its listing on AIM.

SORRY FOR THE WRONG CHART ABOVE.

Today's rise 98% represents a few trades, totaling abt 4k - DYOR - but this looks like a "wild swing"....er, IMHO.
Also, there is a risk the listing could fall from AIM, as they are whinging it costs $200,000 ( yes accounts are in dollars) and they may need a new NOMAD at 100,000USD. - check the late Sept08-lengthy RNS; this is reasonably clear.

The Graph tells it all - stay away, other than if you fancy something to frame. 3 in 2006, today about a penny, or two.

They have taken investors' money under wild promises and put it in the shreader - whatever else does this fall represent?, oh deary and it looked so good.

So they are delisting later this month. Huh
Some here may point to obvious woes as the sp fell from early expectations...