Hi everyone I just want to let you know that NMT Group has been chosen by T1ps.com as a "BUY" in their latest press release pointing out that they have 12.9 million cash and expecting new orders very soon.NMT group has been slimmed down and expect to be a money maker for evryone ASAP.Don't wait get on with other people to mak yourself rich.

Buy NMT
argues Mark Watson-Mitchell of WatsHot.com

Earlier this week I published on WatsHot.com a recommendation to make a highly speculative penny stock purchase of shares in NMT Group, the safety needle technology company. On that day there were a total of 285 trades in the shares with over 91 million changing hands on the day, representing over 10.4% of the Group's equity. The interest generated was sufficient to clear out a big seller of over 25 million shares who had been dragging the market for a while. Today I publish an updated version.

Five years ago this stock was trading at 127p a share. Today they can be bought for just 0.85p per share. And if you want a really speculative punt on a 'penny stock' then I suggest that you take a very close look at NMT Group . I emphasise that I own these shares. I must also stress that this is a highly speculative stock, even so you could easily turn a very quick 25% turn, if not a lot more, by taking advantage of the recent price fall. Results announced on Thursday of last week showed that the years of major losses are about to come to an end. And, more importantly, the 'cash guzzling' is over too.

Bloody Risky Needles

NMT Group is a design house and until recently a manufacturer of needle based drug delivery systems which significantly reduce the chance of needlestick injury and therefore the risk of blood borne infection. The risk of infection from a needlestick injury is very serious: Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, HIV, AIDS can be transmitted by an infected needle. The Company has designed both 1cc and 3cc retractable syringes, which are patent protected, primarily for the pharmaceutical industry. In addition, it is also working with pharmaceutical and acute care hospital medical device suppliers on the design and development of other safe needle devices.

Plant Close Down

Late last year the Group decided, in a very bold move, to close down its 'state-of-the-art' manufacturing plant in Livingstone, Scotland even though it had achieved the best operating performance in its short history supplying 1st Generation safety syringes to Hoffman La Roche for use with its anti HIV drug, Fuzeon(R). In excess of 25 million syringes were manufactured and sold during 2003 resulting in a turnover of 12.3 million pounds (2002: 2.8 million), an operating loss, before exceptional items, of 2.5 million pounds (2002: 12.4 million pounds) and a net cash outflow from operating activities of 2.1 million pounds (2002: 10.6 million pounds).

In December 2003 it was necessary to close the 1st Generation syringe manufacturing facility in Livingston due to a lack of foreseeable orders in 2004 and beyond. The Board decided that the best strategic option for the Group was to become a development and licensing business, initially exploiting the existing intellectual property for safe needle technology. Regrettably, this resulted in approximately 140 job losses, significantly reducing employee numbers from a peak, of 156 in 2003 to approximately 10 in 2004.

The Turning Point?

As far as I can see the decision to close Livingston could well turn out to be the real saviour for the Company. Its aim is now the concentrate upon its Development and Licensing functions. In 2004 the NMT Group design engineering team will be focussing on the two principal projects - the Pre-fill Needle Unit, and the 2nd Generation Safety Syringe. As well as the existing patents, additional applications on these projects are envisaged during the year to further extend the period of associated potential licence fee income.

Pre-fill Needle Unit - The proof of principle for a safe needle sheathed pre-fill syringe should be completed during the first half of 2004. It is understood that already discussions with pharmaceutical companies and leading pre-fill glass barrel providers have been most encouraging.

The commercial strategy will focus on licensing arrangements with capital investment only being financed after fixed volumes and pricing have been agreed. The NMT safe needle pre-fill technology is a flexible system that can be used with no change in clinical practice, this particular feature has been very well received by the Company's potential customers.

2nd Generation Safety Syringe - This retractable safety syringe offers a cost effective retractable syringe solution ideally suited to the large Acute Hospital and Alternate Care markets. This system features a unique filling spike, add-on needle units and a broad range of barrel sizes. In short, the second generation retractable safety syringe is everything NMT has learned over the past 5 years, in one system.

Discussions on 2nd Generation designs have taken place with several medical device companies and interest to license the technology has been shown in both the USA and Asia. The business strategy for this product will involve no capital investment commitment from NMT, but will comprise key milestone payments on licensing the technology and royalty income stream on future sales. It is believed this route represents the most attractive proposition for shareholder value and removes significant risk to NMT resources.

During 2003 it became clear that the volume penetration of retractable syringe technology within the hospital and alternate care sectors of the US market remained relatively low, and, in order to optimise the value of this technology, a quantum shift in the market dynamics is required.

However, it is also worth noting that the global syringe market remains in the region of 15 billion units used per annum and therefore one or two licensing contracts on a regional basis could in fact represent a lucrative royalty stream income for the life of the patents. NMT will continue to pursue licensing opportunities for this technology during 2004.

Outlook

Commenting on developments in 2003, Tony Fletcher, Chairman said:

"2003 was a rollercoaster year in which the Board saw the Group achieve a major increase in turnover and a move into profit on a month-on-month basis and was then forced, due to a lack of foreseeable orders, to close the manufacturing facility in Livingston. Regrettably, this resulted in the loss of approximately 140 jobs.

The Board has decided that the best strategic option for the Group is to become a development and licensing company, initially exploiting its existing intellectual property for safe needle technology. The Group now operates from a significantly reduced cost base with approximately 10 employees. "

It is now generally accepted that the market for retractable safety syringes has not developed to the size and extent originally predicted. However, it is clear that specific opportunities do exist for the Group's products, particularly for patient self administration and pre-fill needle units for pharmaceutical companies. The Board continues to believe that the Group's intellectual property will allow it to gain a share of these specialised market segments.

Prospects of securing satisfactory commercial partnerships for the Group's new products, particularly given the current interest in the pre-fill needle unit, remain positive and the Group will be concentrating on bringing commercial negotiations to a successful conclusion as its main priority in the short term. Furthermore, the Group will continue to optimise its designs to enable its new products to be manufactured in high volumes at appropriate unit cost levels.

The Group plans to expand its product portfolio and will continue to seek further opportunities which will deliver increased shareholder value.

So Where are we now?

On the face of it I see these shares as being an excellent 'punting stock' for active and alert investors.

The Group has developed a certain niche in its needle technology from which it should be able to make a lot more money from licensing that technology and earning a revenue based upon sales by third parties. Those third parties know better than NMT just how to market the needles, with the global market holding a fantastic potential for income generation. That NMT's Board has been bold and brave enough to admit that its chosen course was both wrong and costly should be applauded. The first cut is the sweetest, to have prolonged the decision could have taken the Company out entirely.

The Group has a massive stash of cash - 12.8 million pounds at the year end. However 6.3 million pounds of that will be spent on the restructuring and closing down costs associated with slashing the employee count down from 156 to just 10 today. That will significantly reduce the operating costs down to just 1.5 million a year, whilst leaving the Group with a very handsome coffer of funds for further product and marketing development.

The stemming of that guzzling cash outflow means that this Group could well now have an exciting future ahead of it. Not today, not tomorrow but in the near future this Company could come right, very right and in spades (which will of course be massively tax-free for the foreseeable future).

In one newspaper report since I published my note earlier this week it was stated that Company spokesman had highlighted that just one deal could deliver turnover of up to 2 million pounds this year, which would transform the Company's losses into a potential profit of around 500,000 pounds as the Group's operating costs had now been reduced to only 1.5 million pounds per annum. At just 0.85p to buy the shares of NMT Group do look to be a very interesting speculation on the good times to come. Oh and by the way, if you want a certain safety in your gambling it is worth noting that NMT's current market capitalisation is just 7.2 million pounds.

Backed by so much cash, operating on significantly reduced and very manageable overheads, and with an increased ability to make extremely useful (tax-free) profits from smaller deals, I have to say that NMT Group really does look a very attractive speculation at these levels. It is already talking to a number of European firms about licensing its technology. Taking a quick look at the share price chart indicates that a break above the 0.90p resistance line would lead to a quick move to trade the 1.05p level reached a couple of weeks ago. Thereafter a resting/consolidation level would be at around the 1.20p level. That leaves a lot to go for from such a small but highly liquid speculative recovery stock.

Key Data

EPIC: NMT
Market: AIM
NMS: 500,000
Spread: 0.8p - 0.85p
Market Cap: 7.2 million pounds


Mark Watson Mitchell specialises in short term trading opportunities in small caps - active investment. He argues that in the current market this is the only way to maximise returns and the recent record of naps on his website WatsHot.com with naps such as ASOS, IDN Telecom, Marchpole and Burren Energy bears this out Membership of WatsHot.com costs as little as sixty pounds and brings with it the opportunity to access t1ps.com (the website of Tom Winnifrith, Evil Knievil and with regular contributions from Nigel Wray) for just twenty five pounds. For more details of tips click here. For more details of WatsHot click here.



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Some of the shares recommended on this site will be smaller company Shares. By their nature such investments can be relatively illiquid and thus hard to trade. And that makes such investments more of a high risk than larger company shares.

Large companies sign deals for several reasons, even if we leave aside those activated by human emotions.
One good reason is for publicity - it good to be seen as a Caring company and it may be that Roche wanted just that for their (was it?) Aids programme - they had very few customers and these "Kits" would be hugely expensive -and what was the justification for supplying the drugs in NMT syringes - beats me, but if a PR stunt costs another 10% and yields 50% more PR - it's a good deal.
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You will recall Motion Media (their videophones cost 1k each) being signed-up by BT - for the deaf I think; so they could see the person phoning - as a result the shares rocketed, yet no-one asked just how many phones would be installed each month - was it seven, or seventy? The market for Deaf-people isn't large and BT had noble intentions, but the numbers were likely to be quite small.

Whenever we read about a "deal" between a Major and a Minnow - just ask who is being fooled? If the Market was huge the Major would have people working on a similar technology(etc) and would only attempt to break the Minnow's IP by grinding them down, even if it was unintentional.

As it was, both these announcements made good press and both have had little real value for investors.

If NMT is developing a second-generation syringe, it had better be good as we have already seen that the US (in particular) isn't ready for the 1st generation.
Sometimes it's knowing what "not to make" that's important and I think small co's are better advised to build-up niche products that a Major can't be bothered with (but wants!) - so there is an Easy-life, Repeat orders Customer spread and Time to develop something else.

I have a disapointing holding in NMT

is there life in nmt????????????

A huge rise today - yet trades are little over 300,000 and Buys and Sells pretty even - so how come the massive rise, or has there been a "deal" waiting in the wings for after-hours trade?
................Really is time, such activity was stopped.............

Can't say I feel much for this share, deal or no deal -looks like a crowd of duffers to me. See my Dec04 post for the full flavour, etc. compare sp and think - Do you feel Lucky?

I think something in the pipeline- although my inv is worth roughly about 12% of value- and a very long way to go !!!!!!