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[gsands] 20/9/2007 11:07

Text book:

[gsands] 20/9/2007 10:19

ARC International

46p Unchanged

Questor says Buy

IT IS easy to confuse ARC International and ARM Holdings. Both companies license the intellectual property for chips in consumer electronics and there is, of course, just one small letter to distinguish them. But while ARM has built up a staggering 90pc market share of the mobile phone market and equally dominant positions across the range of consumer electronics, ARC fell from grace during the technology bust and has yet to return to profit.

That said, things are looking up for the underdog. ARC last week signed a breakthrough deal with chip-maker Intel, which sees it licensing its IP for a range of products to the US giant for a number of years.

It is thought the products will be used mostly in wireless chipsets, a market that some houses predict could more than double to sales of nearly 480m by 2010. Digital consumer devices, after all, are hardly going to go away and the explosion in the sector means that by that time ARC's house broker Landsbanki estimates that the deal could generate £3m in annual royalty revenues.

It is part of a turnaround that really commenced in 2004, and since then ARC's customer base has increased by 60pc and new customers were contracted to pay a royalty for each device shipped, compared with rather more unfavourable terms in contracts signed before that date which provide for a royalty on only around half of chips supplied.

The most recent deal came after a winning set of first-half results in August. Royalites improved 85pc and the company announced a $15m (£7.5m) licensing agreement with a mysterious unnamed consumer electronics company thought to be Samsung.

Broadcom also extended its licensing agreement with ARC for the technology behind high-volume multimedia applications

for another 10 years.

ARC is still making a loss – of £1.5m in the first half – so can't be judged on a price/earnings basis, although analysts expect the company to return to the black on a pre-tax level next year. In terms of its enterprise value over sales, it looks cheap compared with its peers, on just 2.4 times this year, compared with Imagination Technologies on four times and ARM on six.

There are still plenty of risks – some new products may fail to generate sales, while customers could demand more expensive support than the market has currently factored in. However, Arc remains an interesting buying opportunity as the former dotcom darling finally seems to be coming of age.

So far the stock has remained below the radar, suggesting plenty of upside for investors who get in now.

[bigbigdave] 20/9/2007 10:15

Tipped as a buy in the Telegraph today.

[gsands] 20/9/2007 01:49

US semiconductor index:

[gsands] 20/9/2007 01:33

Intel going well:

[gsands] 20/9/2007 01:31

Looks poised to run:

[gsands] 19/9/2007 13:55

Does anyone have L2 info on this one please?

Thanks in advance.

[chavitravi] 18/9/2007 14:32

Thanks for that apeksa, very interesting. Lets hope others find it so.

[holmess] 11/9/2007 07:36

Now THAT is a nice agreement!

[chavitravi] 07/8/2007 17:07

Somebody else must have reads the same as you, it would seem to have done some good. Roll on the 56p. Added. there you have it, Legal & General, Herald Investment Trust have Registered further interest. Two good names. There was some late on but can't see what as my streamer isn't working for some reason, can't see volumes.

[chavitravi] 07/8/2007 13:02

I reckon so, though I can't see a price on SanDisk, is it LSE quoted?

[grahamburn] 06/8/2007 21:48

Noted this from Market Insider this evening:

The news Arc licencee SanDisk is teaming up with rival Hynix to create a shared flash memory facility to increase output has prompted Bridgewell to restate its buy recommendation up to 56p.

which one presumes relates to Arc and not SanDisk!

[chavitravi] 03/8/2007 12:54

Is every one feeling a little better now? I think there is a realisation that this is something to get into early as it as high potential with its uniqueness especially in the medical market in regard to power save, no one else can do it.

[njl53] 02/8/2007 18:52

what happened at midday to start the rise??

[chavitravi] 02/8/2007 17:07

Ho ye of little faith. LOL. Dead easy to laugh now hay. I'm just starting to dry out a bit now after the sweats. Change me pants as well.

[bonio10000] 02/8/2007 14:52

LOL !!!!!!

There you go - i'll exit door left.

[chavitravi] 02/8/2007 10:30

Point taken.

[bonio10000] 02/8/2007 10:18

In the absence of company transforming deals - it seems it is all slowly slowly on the ARK front.

Problem is how many of those who bought in at 40p + are going to wait another 2-3 years? If they keep dripping it will keep falling.

All the deals are great long term - but short term they aren;t the company that seems to be able to pull a huge deal to take it from loss making to profitable in a short space of time.

I have to say i like it - but cannot buy in at this level as I just think that even if I consider it undervalued, it will go lower.

No ramp or deramp in there - just what I think.

[singsing] 02/8/2007 10:16

bonio,
You have a point there.