EKT is having the turn around most companies would like to have at the beginning of the economic recovery.

The change of management and subsequent restructuring has brought the desire effect on the company fortunes, by eliminating loss making business and careful control on cost, they had managed an operating profit on all the three divisions at the Interim stage.

The good news has not finished there, as new products were introduced and were well received and the next stage will be for expansion on the Far East markets on selected niche areas of component distribution.

A 14% reduction on borrowing at a time of restructuring is very significant to the aims of the company for the future.

At 7.125p the shares have plenty of upside from now on, not only from the recovery on profits, but also from the most likely return of dividends at the final and that will be the icing on the cake for the share price.
Update
27th Oct 03 Elektron Employee Benefit Trust buys 300th shares at 6.40p
29th Oct 03 Director Richard Bulgin buys 25K at 7.25p latest

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I think its now time to sell this dog. With oil prices rising to record levels..such high energy costs will without doubt be hurting manufacturers like EKT. High oil price will have a drastic knock on effect on raw material costs and as they were already being squeezed before, you can bet your life EKT will be squeezed even more with oil price soaring. With high prices, inflation will be stoaked which will result in interest rate rises. US have raised them, Japan have raised them for the first time in 6 years.

Oil price rise will hamper world growth..and I suspect EKT could well warn that such effects will badly effect EKT's bottom line.

this isnt just about 'gasoline' prices. Oil is used to make a vast majority of products which EKT manufacture. So yes, petrol/deisel prices affect EKT.. but oil as a whole affects EKT .. not only as fuel to power their heating, machinary, distribution... but as importantly the raw materials that is derived from oil that ekt buy to make their products.

You would be deluding yourself if you think oil prices rising will not negatively affect EKT... and its not easy passing on costs to the end user......read the last rns.. they are trying to absorb the price rises and gain market share. BUT that means sacrificing margins... which effectively means hitting the bottom line.

Look.. just see the price in the past 2 years.. its gone absolutely nowhere fast... have you asked yourself why ? do you really think the market is so stupid to overlook the rosey scenario you and the rose tinted Dr, (target setter)... has put forward ?

EKT's share price is going nowhere..... all the huffing and puffing T/S aka fusebox has done for the past 2 years has proved absolutely fruitless. you are going to be very disappointed in the next 6 to 12 months as the share price will girate in a range. And heaven help you (and more so T/S) if ekt issue a warning... as at the moment with the global economy slow down (compounded by inflation and oil price rises), ekt will be no doubt affected.

If anything, one should sell this stagnant and stale dog and invest in companies that are beneficiaries of high oil prices...... oil producers and explorers.. that's where the money is being made.


STRONG SELL !!

you 100% correct Ratty.. as commodity prices increase.. they will get ever more squeezed (they have already acknowledged they are being squeezed) And to gain market share at the expense of margins is suicidal.

I am certainly sick and tired of this dog, i hold over 3% of the company and my average price is a lot higher than what it is now.... I am sitting on massive losses. And to top it all, the prospect of higher inflation, higher interest rates, higher commodity prices, slower world growth and squeezed margins make the possibility of EKT warning which really would wipe me out. I may just start to sell very soon... as my money has done nothing..... what a mistake i made buying this out and out dog !!

lol

lol

you may well laugh... i'm certainly not. I am holding over 3% and nursing losses. I bought MOB and it tanked. And bought JAS, it went bust. I bought EVS, it went bust. I bought BVC..now virtually worth naff all. So its not something to laugh at.... i really have made a dumb call buying EKT. nearly 3% of the doggy biscuits...... its done nothing for me in 2 years but give me heart ache. To top it all, holding 3% and I have nil chance of selling such amount of stock in a very illiquid stock... when will i ever learn ?..... time for my transquilisers.

Unfortunately you dont hold 3% I do.

LOL

Yes and very happy too as this nice little earner has rissen from 2p to 15p to buy in 3 years and paid me thousands in dividends as well!

sorry but you are taking the piss. it may have risen 2p to 15p in three years... but my average is well above what it is now. So fat good harping on about what its done in the past 3 years when in the past 24 months let alone 12 months its done naff all. Even taking a 4 to 5 year view.. its dropped 50%.

And the prospect of EKT of being ever more squeezed is a very real reality.... I expect them to warn sooner or later regarding this. Hence I am seriously thinking of starting to dump this dog. Although I have been ramping this sick pup for over 2 years, fat good its done me.. i am still 1000s of quid worse off... my average higher than what its now....

fusebox (barry), ignore the idiot Ron Kleet. He is a wind up merchant. I can vouch for fusebox holding 3%. And I can understand him being pissed off with the share. Good on you fusebox to realise you are holding a dud... i suggest you start selling as I think its going down further as the market feels that EKT could warn.

lol

But the facts speak for themselves.

In the same time scale ECM aint moved EKT is up from 2p to 15p Fact.

EKT nett assets are up from less than 1 million to over 6.5 million now.

Dividend paying and current growth of 15% with no intangibles and net debt.

Yes im happy with my 3% plus holding.

You guys fusebox loverat and spec7 are wind ups.

I dont know who you are, or what you are playing at. Everyone knows me on a-d-v-f-n, and knows that I am fusebox who has posted on the ekt thread for around 2 years. they know I own 3%... the RNS is there for everyone to see. I hold the stock in TD Waterhouse's nominee account.... I am now fed up with the company.... so contemplating selling my stock. Loverat and Spectrum who also post on a-d-v-f-n have just vouched for my genuineness.. you on the other hand are a fraud and a wind up merchant.

too right barry, this stock is king of all dogs. I believe the directors are entering it for crufts.. as its a favourite to win. You are wise to sell your holding..... a warning is a very strong possibility.

i sold 50k today. market makers dont want stock. had to accept 0.25p less than what was offered on the screen. Looks like I'm well and truely shafted holding over 2 million of these doggy biscuits !! Still will off load as many as I can.. even though I think the share is ready for a fall very soon.

are you barry bridge ? you'll have massive problems selling such a big amount. If the market makers find out you are consitently dumping stock they will hammer the share to oblivion. Market makers really dont want any stock, max limit today was 10,000. Good luck, you'll need it with such an illiquid share.

sold another 30k today. once more got 0.25p less.

Bought 50,000 at 13.75 the other day and another 30,000 today.

Bargain of the century.

Great tip from Red Hot Penny shares...

READ THIS
The Japanese, you will recall, were very good at borrowing the inventions of others and manufacturing quality products in very high volumes. And down in the unglamorous setting of East Molesey, I discovered a great little British company that is doing very much the same thing.

How do the following innovations sound to you? An iron that turns itself off if it has not been moved from the horizontal position for 20 seconds. A washing machine that recognises the contents of the wash and automatically sets the correct programme. A cooker hood that switches itself on when it smells fumes...

These are just some of the products that are coming our way. And they are made possible by the prevalence and affordability of the type of electronic and electromechanical components that I watched being churned out in huge numbers at the south west London factory of Arcoelectric.

Unknown in the Square Mile... just the way I like it

Along with Bulgin Components, another business that can trace its history back to the 1930s, Arcoelectric is now owned by Elektron, and run by its executive chairman, Adrian Girling. Girling, 54, could, I am sure, be in charge of a much larger company. He is an Oxford graduate, a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical Engineers. He is also a highly experienced businessman, having worked all over the world for the likes of ITT, Marconi and Spirent. He is an enthusiast for the manufacturing industry - but is frustrated, too. "Last year was hard work," he reported in May's results statement, "but great fun."

But he complained: "There are companies who do not have the channels to market enjoyed by Bulgin and Arcoelectric, who lose money, yet are valued at multiples of sales because they claim to have a unique technological business proposition."

That is not a sentence that would win prizes in a literary competition, but it does reveal one thing. Elektron does not employ a PR advisor to smarten up the prose. Which is one reason why it is virtually unknown in the City.

But the City's loss is our gain. Because this is a great story that I will take up at the start of 2003, when Girling's reputation as a fixer of problem businesses saw him dropped into a crisis...

When the going gets tough, this cost-savvy executive chairman gets going

One of Elektron's main subsidiaries was facing liquidation, and this threatened to bring down the whole group. Some swift cost-cutting and the sale or closure of three businesses saved the day, and at the end of the year Girling spotted an opportunity to repeat the trick and give the group some real scale. He bought Arcoelectric from the receiver, in exchange for 352,000 and the assumption of 1,515,000 of lease finance debt.

A property sale and leaseback, which left Andrew Perloff's Panther Securities with 15% of Elektron's equity, and a separate fund raising, put Elektron on a sound footing, and the accounts reveal that Arcoelectric contributed net assets of 2.6m and made sales of 15m last year.

So that was a smart deal and helped Elektron to achieve total sales last year of 22.5m. Elektron produces a very wide range of switches, connectors, battery and fuse holders, indicators and other electro-mechanical components that are sold all around the world. Both Bulgin and Arcoelectric publish large catalogues from which 20% of sales are made, while 45% go directly to OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) and 35% are sold through distributors such as Electrocomponents.

Elektron controls the entire production process, from tooling through to the injection moulding of plastic parts, metal forming, plating and assembly. This ensures consistent quality, quick response times and the ability to make small batches. Every hour Elektron is winding 60,000 miniature springs, some only a millimetre in diameter, and pressing 200,000 contacts and terminals. In all, it manufactures 72m components each year.

This AIM-listed marvel also pays a dividend! Buy today for 75% gains

Not all of these come from East Molesey, or from Bulgin's factory in Barking, Essex. Twenty million and 10m respectively are manufactured in Arcoelectric's factories in Tunisia and Shenzhen. Using what he describes as the "one kitchen, two restaurants" concept, Girling is gradually integrating the production capacity of Bulgin and Arcoelectric, so that orders can be met from either China, North Africa or the UK, depending on logistic costs and delivery schedules.

But he also wants Elektron to become a supplier into the domestic Chinese market. At present the Shenzhen factory can only serve the export market, but it is now being established as a "Wholly Owned Foreign Enterprise", which will permit it to sell into the vast local market.

This should accelerate the growth of sales, which was a modest 3% last year, and boost Elektron's share of what is a massive market. Global sales of switches are worth $3.8bn per year, while for connectors the figure is $25bn. Girling reckons that Elektron has about 7%-8% of the market segment that it serves, but is winning share from competitors such as Signal Lux and Molveno in Italy, Germany's Marquardt, Schurter in Switzerland and Defond from China.

Some of this is due to product innovation. Girling does "not believe in breaking new ground with high technology", and the research and development bill is minimal. But by simply using existing technology in imaginative ways, Elektron's product designers have steadily come up with new products - a recent best seller being a waterproof Bluetooth wireless connector.

My visit to Elektron's offices was enough to show me that shareholders' money is not lavished on elegant surroundings, and such tight cost control is one reason why it has bounced back from the 6m of losses run up in the two years ending 31 January 2003 to record a 0.5m pre-tax profit in 2003/4, rising to 1.5m in 2004/5 and 1.8m last year. Even more impressive was the 20% increase in shareholders' funds last year (now worth 8.3p per share) and the cash generation that saw Elektron finish the year with net cash of 443,000 and leave it poised for expansion.

RHPS Verdict: In May Elektron reported a 15% year-on-year increase in its order book, and hinted that it might make an acquisition this year. Given the successful turnaround of Bulgin and Arcoelectric, a similar move would surely be well received. Shares in this financially sound, profitable, dividend-paying and growing business trade on below eight times last year's earnings. This is ridiculous and I am setting a price target of 25p. BUY.

Finished up over 15% up in a bad market looks good.

Been a lot of buying recently over 1% traded yesterday,

Net assets have climbed considrably from 0.70p 3 years ago to 8.3p now!

Bue sky again the tip above will drive the sp forward.