Tiny Qonnectis is at present in an embryonic stage, but seems to have an interesting product with great potential. Their flagship product connects energy and water meters to the Internet via Qonnectis' own server and users' website, providing 24-hour real-time accessibility as well as the opportunity for instant data comparison and updates as frequently as every 15 minutes. This avoids the costs of traditional meter-reading methods (i.e. reading by eye or the more recent "drive-by" technology). The new technology has already saved one early customer a reported 180,000 after it spotted a water leak and alerted the user. Early adopters include utilities such as Scottish Water and Generale des Eaux Lyon, plus public sector clients such as the NHS, the RAF and various District Councils (the list is numerous, so please see QTI's press releases for the whole picture). In November 2005 QTI announced a distribution deal with Compteurs Farnier of France, providing potential access to the USA and Canada in addition to the French market.

The business case for QTI seems strong: the product is inexpensive and provides cost savings both in terms of labour-saving and of cutting wastage. Sales include an element of subscription on a five-year basis; it seems logical that satisfied customers will both increase their number of meters in use and come back for further subscriptions after the five-year period has elapsed. The potential market is huge. The real question is, when will QTI achieve break-even?

CEO Mike Tapia previously built up the Talisman remote/drive-by meter-reading business, which was then sold to Severn Trent Water Co around 1997.

Does anyone have any figures on the Talisman sale, or perhaps on Compteurs Farnier? It would be good to get some idea of the current market.


EDIT: New charts added, 21Dec2007.

I'm almost resigned to that now jmac... a fully realised 95% loss unless some gem of a customer thinks its worth what I originally hoped it would be!
If it comes to pass, the only winners will be the directors whose salaries will have amounted to a substantial part of the drop in MC over the last few years!

Interim results due out this week?

25th January 2007
'We announced at the beginning of last month that trading since the year end (30/06) has been encouraging.

(Growth...has been significant, with sales and margins in the first half expected to be well in excess of those achieved in the same period last year, and also ahead of the last full financial year ending 30th June 2006)

A further update will be provided in the 2007 Interim Results,
which are due to be announced in March.

5th February 2007
Qonnectis plc announces that, following successful field trials of pre-production units, it has received initial orders for a new product from a major UK water utility to a value of 73,000.

JMAC, results ought to be out by end of March if previous years are anything to go by.

hope it's good news . . . .

ST - on the basis of the statements issued since the 06 final results came out I would have expected indications of a significant improvement in turnover and profitability. However since the end of January share sales have exceeded shares bought by about 4m so am not so sure. Maybe the market has got it wrong....

Difficult to call, JMAC. I guess a few punters must be disappointed with the performance. I agree that there ought to be an upturn in turnover, but how big that is likely to be is another thing altogether.

Watching and waiting . . . .

A bit of a drop this morning: QTI Bid: 0.375p Offer: 0.5p Change: -0.0625

618,000 traded.

I hope this is a pre-results tree-shake!

Qonnectis plc
28 March 2007


QONNECTIS PLC

INTERIM RESULTS FOR THE SIX MONTHS ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2006


Qonnectis plc ('Qonnectis' or 'the Company'; stock code: QTI), a market leader
in multi-utility smart metering, announces its unaudited interim results for the
six months ended 31 December 2006, a period of continued progress.


Highlights:


Turnover increased by 141% to 161,185. (H1 2006: 66,983; FY 2006:
109,425);
Gross margin increased to 66% (H1 2006: 57%; FY 2006: 29%);
Significant new client wins, repeat orders continue to increase;
Strengthening key client relationships whilst founding new ones;
Production of units incorporating new technology;
Loss per share 0.23p (H1 2006: 0.25p; FY 2006: 0.51p)


Commenting on the results, Chairman, Richard Taylor said:


'The Company has continued to make progress. Once again turnover has increased
sharply, the gross margin has further improved, we continue to expand the client
base and increase the level of repeat business. The monies raised during the
period have been used to expand our marketing resources, primarily, and we are
beginning to see the benefits of this. In addition, we are excited by the pace
of development of our partnership with a major UK water company for the
production of units incorporating new technology for leakage control and
monitoring applications. The progress made in the period shows every sign of
being sustained in the second half of FY 2007.'

Bid: 0.5p Offer: 0.75p up 42.6%

Looks as if turnover for FY 2007 will be well in excess of 300k i.e. 3x FY 2006

Amazing though that one fifth of a penny represents a 42% rise !!!
I don't think I am going to get rich anytime soon with this one.

Look after the fifths of a penny and the pennies.....

588,082 shares traded so far - all buys at 0.7p

Glad to see the results are pointing in the right direction. The rate of growth is fantastic in itself - but really we need ten times the current t/o! The company's Achilles heel is the small amount of cash in the bank.

Nice to see the amount of shares traded this morning, but it's still barely more than 4,000-worth of stock.

There was no mention of the big pub deal, which I thought was supposed to lead to a big increase in turnover. Maybe the pubs are too busy with implementing the smoking ban . . .

Also no mention of a possible fundraising. Could be tactical: the board waiting until the SP rises a bit before announcing a placing at the higheer SP.

Continuing to hang on in there. PDYOR, etc.

The results were rather better than I expected although I agree there is still some way to go. According to my calculations they need to be turning over 1.5m-2m to break even but their sales seem to be gathering momentum so that may not take so long.
Any idea who the 'major water company' referred to in the RNS is?

From the interims:

The relationship with Scottish Water has gone from strength to strength and included an order to the value of 56,000 for 'iStaq' data loggers and web services.

With such big contracts, QTI should become profitable, when?

SM - I don't think the company referred to in connection with the new technology for leakage control is Scottish Water - the latter's smart meter service uses the standard data loggers. It's probably one of the following:
Anglian Water Services Ltd
Dwr Cymru Cyfyngedig (Welsh Water)
Northumbrian Water Ltd
Severn Trent Water Ltd
South West Water Ltd
Southern Water Services Ltd
Thames Water Utilities Ltd
United Utilities Water Plc
Wessex Water Services Ltd
Yorkshire Water Services Ltd

Could be Severn Trent, with whom the ceo of QTI has past associations but Thames Water has had a lot of bad publicity concerning leaks so it may well be them - QTI is based in the Thames Water area.

jma, if that is the case, then even better!

Kazik, they'll need a lot more of those "big contracts" to break the 2 million turnover that they apparently need in order to break even.

Up again today, 1.4 mil traded. QTI Bid: 0.625p Offer: 0.875p Change: 0.125

Which is about 11k worth!

All but two trades were buys so the upwards pressure on the sp has been maintained. So far there have not been any 0.5m+ trades since the interims came out.
Be interesting to see if tomorrow's IC has any comment.

Up again, Bid: 0.75p Offer: 1.00p Shares traded 883k