Shares in Woking-based keyboard manufacturer Alphameric Plc slumped from their official close at 22 pence to option money levels late on Wednesday after the company forecast a stunning loss of UKP11m in its current financial year which ends on March 31 and said that it was in an unsustainable financial position. However, it must be a comfort for Alphameric to know that it is now in the more than capable hands of Octagon Industries. As might be expected it hasn’t taken Dr Robb Wilmot and Dr Geoff Bristow long to decide what to do with the ailing Woking-based keyboard manufacturer Alphameric. The two consultants who trade under the name Octagon Industries were called in by Alphameric just after Christmas (CI No 1,333) after the company had announced a major restructuring (CI No 1,321). They will now remain formally in the company’s driving seat with Bristow becoming managing director with Wilmot acting as non-executive director. Alphameric will now focus on Man-Machine Interface systems that display complex information in real-time and enable the user to send commands back through the system. The company has never managed to recover from the stock market crash of 1987, but in June of last year finance director Roger Hatfield was confident that it would haul itself out of its financial mess simply by plugging away at its three core businesses: financial systems, data broadcasting and keyboard manufacture. However, the plan now looks a liitle different. The data broadcasting business comprising Bishopgate Systems and IGG Systems will now be sold to British Aerospace Plc for an initial sum of UKP2.25m. The disposal of this business should reduce Alphameric’s indebtedness of UKP8m by about UKP6m. Nevertheless the company requires working capital and so is proposing a rights issue of up to 81m shares at a rock-bottom 5 pence per share to raise UKP3.6m. Under the issue shareholders can subscribe for 18 new shares for every five held. Alphameric’s financial systems business, FTT Alphameric has invested in its new Open Trading Systems product and so is expected to do well in the long term. But within the new-look restructured Alphameric, FTT Alphameric becomes the Systems Division and will provide integrated Man-Machine Interface systems to end users. To start with it will, however, focus on the financial sector since this is the vertical market it knows well. Meanwhile, the keyboard side of Alphameric’s business will supply Man-Machine Interface components OEM in the UK, France and the US.
