Manganese Bronze, one of the main manufacturers of London black cabs, has signed an agreement with electric vehicle maker Tanfield to make battery powered taxis that should hit the streets by mid 2009.

In the pass this stock is the first to come out of a recession ? a big but.

hangon -- their total sales figures for taxis is not alot and has been dropping. Many of the cabbies who previously bought them had no real choice. They are expensive - and short of luggage space. They are a relic of a bygone era. It's all very well when newspapers and magazines quote foreigners romantically pointing to London's black cabs as a great tradition, but that's not enough to win more than a few sales.

Juzzle, I agree but I thought in London "Black Cabs" were a protected species...still they are hoping to introduce a "saloon-car" taxi so that probably spells the end for the Black cab. Pity for tourists.
Now they have moved to AIM, still no likely dividend and had some other woes...it's all rather messy.
In their recent statement there was still hope of a placing (now fallen), but no mention of TAN or electric vehicles etc. - so I conclude it was Tanfield that wanted the deal, with MNGS rather more occupied closer to home.
+ I get the impression "electric vehicles" only work at two levels: 1) very small short-journey, so the weight is mostly the passenger. and 2) somewhat larger, so the batteries are a small part of the total load. This is the "transit" style that TAN has limited sales of to date.
+However, the London cab is quite tall inside, so passengers can keep their hats on...
EDIT (20/8/10)- sp up 8%, yet Sells are 18x buys...oh deary, is this rise MM-games, or is there a large buyer lurking?

Black cab is history.

I thought of picking some of these up a few days ago....but was uncertain....rocketed up on no news....

21 October 2010

Manganese Bronze Holdings PLC ("Manganese Bronze" or the "Group"), the leading manufacturer of the distinctive London taxi, today announces its interim management statement for the period 1 July to 20 October 2010.

Current Trading

Trading in the UK continues to be impacted by the uncertain macro economic conditions, as previously reported. Despite this, UK sales for the third quarter were up 11.0% on Q3 2009 at 466 vehicles (Q3 2009: 420 vehicles). This is particularly encouraging as 2009 sales were boosted by the favourable impact of the now discontinued Government funded scrappage scheme. This quarter's performance was broadly in line with our expectations.

Interesting....perhaps a good recovery stock....

Blast it....shot up on nothing....missed this....too late..now...damn, and I spotted this at 46p....

aggggghhhhhlllll....

rf, it's on the way down again.

Are MNGS still going 'Electric' ?
Sorry, i've been out of these for a while.

patshare, late reply: Ho Ho No! if they are, thery've got Tanfield to thank, like they need a hole in the head.
Strangely, I thought I saw on TV that "black cabs" (London-style) were to be exported/built abroad because their distinctive style protected the Public from crooks (although they could steal one, I guess). I'm not aware the cab is short of "luggage space" - I thought the "front seat" space was for that.(=Juzzle's ref.).

The issue I guess is that with limited sales the LBC is expensive to build. I don't wonder that "cabbies" resent mini-cabs with a F-Focus can be in business at a fraction of the investment - also, SatNav means they don't need "the knowledge" either. Maybe exclusive-elec would do the trick, but cabbies will have to increase fares - although "free fuel" will off-set the Capital Cost, until Gov taxes that, as well.

Still it's up to MB to meet the needs of their customers; although I, for one, would prefer my wife/daughter to be entering a Black Cab, rather than .....

4 mil blackhole over last 4 yrs.

Manganese Bronze loses third of value after revealing hole in accounts


The maker of London’s black cabs, Manganese Bronze, saw a third of its value wiped out after discovering errors in its accounts that mean it will have to restate financial results.

Manganese, which was founded 113 years ago, finds itself in turmoil after the company admitted it has overstated stock and understated liabilities in financial statements.

The misstatements have been blamed on a “combination of system and procedural errors” during the introduction of a new IT system in August 2010.

A number of transactions in 2010 and 2011, and residual balances from the previous system were not transferred on to the new system, Manganese said in a stock market statement.

The errors mean at least £3.9m will have to be cut from Manganese’s profits over the last few years.

However, the company, whose taxis were used by the Spice Girls at the Closing Ceremony of the Olympics, warned the work to calculate the losses is not complete and delayed its interim results until late September.

The scale of the potential loss is significant given Manganese reported a pre-tax loss of £2.6m in 2011 and £6.3m in 2010. Its market capitalisation is now just £5m.

The Coventry-based company has already been struggling in the UK due to economic uncertainty and growing competition to its traditional TX4 taxi from manufacturers such as Nissan.

John Russell, chief executive, is in China holding talks with the company’s backers and he declined to give further comment on the future of Manganese last night.

However, in it stock market statement, the company said it “continues to enjoy the ongoing support of its bankers and Geely”. Geely is the Chinese car maker that owns 20pc of Manganese and its backing is pivotal.

Manganese has £2.8m of headroom on its banking facilities and a company spokesman said the accounting losses will not lead to a covenant breach.

However, trading remains “difficult” for Manganese and it is still trading at a loss this year.

The company said: “As announced on 17 May 2012, sales for the first half were lower than in the comparative period in 2011 and the group currently expects to report net losses for the first half that are substantially higher than reported last year.

"The group is expecting higher sales in the second half but does not know at this stage if results for the full year will be in accordance with market expectations."

Shares in Manganese fell 8.5, or 34pc, to 16.50p.

StockMarketWire.com
Shares in taxi manufacturer Manganese Bronze Holdings (LON:MNGS) were suspended after the group announced the recall of approximately 400 of its TX4 London taxis and suspension of sales of new TX4 models as a result of the discovery of a defect in the steering box.

The company says steering box is a new design from a new supplier that was introduced in production at the Group's Coventry factory in late February 2012.

Adding that discussions are being held with Geely to put in place a robust technical solution for the steering box faults.

The suspension of sales is expected have a very material and detrimental impact on the group's cash flows and the board explains it working to establish the options available to the business given the impact on working capital. Until such time that a technical solution is developed to rectify the fault, the financial position of the group remains unclear and trading in the company's shares will remain suspended.