Transense Technologies Share Discussion Threads

[puffintickler] 25/11/2016 08:26

Yes indeed, thanks for sharing that timbo. Nothing to boost the price unfortunately.

[piggyinthemiddle] 25/11/2016 08:07

Thanks for that,quite comprehensive.

[timbo003] 25/11/2016 02:16

This year’s Transense Technologies AGM was held on Wednesday 23rd November 2016 commencing at 14.00 at the company Broker’s HQ (Finncap, 60 New Broad Street, London, EC2M 1JJ).

For Investors who are unfamiliar with the company. Transense Technology (TRT) is an Aim listed Technology SME with two main trading divisions:

SAWsense: Sensor systems for measuring torque, temperature and pressure, wirelessly and without the need for batteries.
Translogik: Innovative tyre management solutions for the OTR (Off-the-Road) and commercial vehicle markets

The current market cap is approximately £9.5m with the shares priced at around 100p/share (post consolidation), they had net cash of around £3.6m (June 30th) following the sale of Intellisaw (their third business division) earlier this year to Emerson for net proceeds of £2.9m. The directors stated in the AR that they should now have enough cash to get through to break even.

Links to the main web site, the annual Report and AGM resolutions are here:

Web site:
Annual Report:
AGM Resolutions:

There were around 20 attendees at the AGM, including five ordinary shareholders and the board of directors. David Ford (Chairman) kicked off the meeting by first explaining that there would be no AGM presentation this year as they now intend to give twice yearly presentations to shareholders soon after the release of the interim and the final results (probably in March and September). The Chairman then read out a trading statement that had been issued earlier in the day and he stated that there was not much more he could add at this stage. We moved on to the resolutions, these were uncontroversial with the exception of resolution 6, which concerned a proposed 50 to 1 share consolidation. There were a few questions on the resolutions before voting which mainly concerned resolution 6 (see details below).

All the resolutions were passed with a majority of >99% in favour with the exception of resolution 6 (the proposed 50 to 1 share consolidation) which was passed by a majority of just under 99%. The total votes cast for each resolution represented approximately 15% of the shares in issue. I commented that it was best practice to publish the details of the proxy votes following the meeting, the Chairman stated that they could do this; however, there has been nothing forthcoming (so far).

We then moved on to a Q&A session, which lasted for around 30 minutes, brief details of this session and the questions on the AGM resolutions are summarised below (note: Q&As are paraphrased, they are not a verbatim account)


Q: The company has seen a large decrease in share price over the last few years (70 fold decrease since 2007, but relatively stable since the last placing in June 2015) so does the share register now show a large number of shareholders with very small holdings?
A: Yes

Q: Given the company’s strong cash position, could it consider a tender offer to take some of the small shareholders out with no dealing costs? This sort of exercise has been conducted by other companies with a long tail of small shareholdings, for example Ingenta (previously called Publishing Technology). It would simplify the register and cut down on admin costs.
A: This is something we could consider after we have received court approval for a reduction in capital which is scheduled to take place towards the end of December.

Q: What is going to happen if shareholders have fractional entitlements to a share following consolidation (i.e. their pre-consolidation number is no divisible by 50)?
A: Fractional entitlements will be aggregated, and then retained (or sold) for the benefit of the company (this assumes proceeds of the sale of fractional entitlements for each shareholder does not exceed £1).

Q: There are no photographs of the Directors in the annual report, which one of you is responsible for sales and marketing? Many tech firms fail because their BODs are full of technical experts and accountants and there is no one concentrating on marketing.
A: The CEO is the director responsible for Sales and Marketing and there are 11 people in the organisation designated to these roles (answered by Graham Storey CEO).

Q: Why has it taken so long to get to where you are now (within sight of breakeven and sustained profitability)? You have been developing these products and loss making since I became a shareholder in 2005, why should we now believe it would be any difference going forward?
A: We originally just focused on automobile applications of our technologies; it typically takes 20 years to get a new technology into the finished product within the auto industry. Surface acoustic wireless (SAW) transmission for sensors was just a concept when we started working on it. We are now a great deal more diversified (industrial aviation, marine, mining etc.) and these industries are generally much faster than the auto industry when adopting new technologies.

Q: Mining is cyclical, in the past potential mining customers have been too busy to evaluate our systems, or in a downturn, there is not enough business to justify spending money on new systems. Itrack II has just been launched and it is claiming some success, would we have had the same interest if we had launched at a nadir in mining (15 months ago)?
A: Miners are now much more aware of our Itrack system than they were a couple of years ago and they seem genuinely impressed with the savings it can produce, for example, JB Spence issued their own (independent) report which stated they were saving £1.2m in tyres as a result of employing Itrack. Operators are beginning to realise the largest cost savings are through reduction in production down time, rather than reduced tyre replacement costs.

Q: Who are your main competitors for the TranslogiK division?
A: for TranslogiK it is probably two tyre manufacturers (Bridgestone and Michelin) and the main non-tyre manufacturer competitor for mining applications is Rimex (who own Tyresense).


Q: Who are the main competitors for the SAWsense division?
A: There are not any competitors at this stage.

Q: What about someone like Perpetuum (held by Kings Arms Yard VCT) who use vibration harvesting to power wireless sensors for railway applications, especially bearing wear? Perpetuum have a nice SaaS recurring revenue model.


A: Perpettum are not on our radar screen, although will take a quick look. There are three other ways to power moving sensors: an external power source (battery), induction, or vibration. Batteries require recharging or replacement when exhausted, induction requires an adjacent power source and would not be suitable for hostile environments, and vibrational energy harvesters require continuous vibration to supply continuous power for uninterrupted transmission from a sensor. SAWsense sensors do not have these limitations and they can reliably function continuously in extreme environments.

Q: What are the main threats to the business?
A: No time to go into detail now, but there should be a SWOT analysis on the web site.

Q: Can the sensors work in all environments, for example in environments where there could be ingress of water or oil?
A: The SAWsense sensors are sealed hermetically, so there can be no fluid ingress.

Q: Are Emerson pleased with the Intellisaw acquisition? Could we leverage the relationship with an “intel inside” sort of branding on their switchgear boxes?
A: We are still in regular contact with Emerson; the two companies are mutually supportive.

Q: Are we now cash flow positive?
A: We were last year due to the sale of Intellisaw to Emerson and an upfront payment on the General Elestric deal (royalties to follow if adopted).
Q: Do we charge potential customers to use our product in their field trials?
A: That used to be our policy, but it is much easier to get the product trialled if we provide it free of charge.

Q: When you started off, why did you just look at automobile applications, why not industrial, as it appears to be much quicker (and easier)?
A: When we acquired the licence to use the SAW technology, it excluded industrial applications; the original patents expired in 2013, so that is when we started looking seriously at industrial applications.

Q: How does you IP break down into patents, know how, trade secrets, software algorithms etc.
A: All of the above, we have patents and 10 years of “know how” on something which is very difficult to develop. When we out-licence it is bundled altogether, but inevitably, trade secrets will become less secret despite confidentiality clauses.

Q: Historically Transense have traded on a large spread, one argument put forward in favour of the share consolidation was that it should reduce the spread, some other small AIM companies have paid brokers/market makers to make a tight spread. Why don’t you consider that?
A: finncap are the company brokers and they are also market makers, they generally run a flat book on Transense (answered by finncap).

[glavey] 24/11/2016 21:39

Oh, look on the bright side, things could be worse...
The IIs will be along tomorrow.

[piggyinthemiddle] 24/11/2016 16:14

it`s the hope that kills you..

[gary38] 24/11/2016 15:46

What's to like from a company that has not delivered leaving investors holdings worth a faction of original investment.

[glavey] 24/11/2016 14:52

Anyone want to wager how long it'll be before it drops below the last raising price?

Of course, that's not bad news as people will be able to add so much cheaper. :-)

And if it were to reach previous highs you'll be holding at £350/sh, What's not to like?

[gary38] 24/11/2016 14:20

100% Rob .TRT have taken my investment with no hope of getting back my money if it drops tomorrow l will cut my losses and move on with a loss of £8000

[gary38] 24/11/2016 14:17

1.9p 10% drop what a con .Very poor Management not interested in the small share holder only in their wages.

[robards] 24/11/2016 14:17

The irrational power of gravity.

At 2p it doesn't feel like there is much more room to fall, but at 100p...

[gary38] 24/11/2016 14:10

Dropped below 2p and l will keep tracking this as price was before to see where we are as new low for a long time .This is a con and seen this before.I brought at 8.3p so to get back to where l got in the price will have to go up over 400%.

[globe] 24/11/2016 13:55

*¥awn* *¥awn* *¥awn*

[sojourno] 24/11/2016 12:39

Funky char, obviously a trial run for a GM launch! ;-)
Pity we cant chart MCAP really...

[gnnmartin] 24/11/2016 11:40

Good to see TRT as a 50 bagger. :-)

I went to the AGM. No news, as expected, but I came away undiscouraged.

[cheap] 24/11/2016 10:05

Well I for one certainly appreciate a nice tight spread of 10 whole pennies whatever the share price may be.

[dieseltaylor] 24/11/2016 10:02

It is hard to think that the iTrack II with the reputation and installation base of the iTrack I behind it will be anything other than well appreciated. There are some very large named users and no mine manager can ignore this for ever.

There are other players but given we won those Australian trials we can assume our product is good - and it is not tied to any tyre manufacturer.

I am looking forward to 2017 particularly as we have money in the Bank. And if there are rentals as well as purchases the cash stream is always nice to have.

[amt] 24/11/2016 09:16

Yes consolidation is a great way to hide the share price disaster of the past. Having said that the future looks positive.

[lord garry] 24/11/2016 08:55

I have been an investor in trt for 15 years. The worst of that period is in the last 7 years. The age profile of trt shareholders was over 55 ten years ago. Most of them are now retired and this BOD has dealt them a heavy hand. All we've had is heavy dilutions which the bod now regrets, hence the consolidation; having protected their own income and lifestyle with investors' fund, without providing any shareholders' reward. But this consolidation is not sincere. At 50:1 it's designed to cover up the failures of the past, boost the Bod's ego, possibly wipe out existing shareholders if it doesn't go to plan, and perhaps raise more funds in future, if they are so stupid.

If however they are sincere and trt has finally turned the corner, after so many years and so much dilutions and destruction of value, the right time for consolidation is not now, but to wait for the share price to appreciate 10 - 15 pence and then do a consolidation of 10:1. As long as the bod have no clue about how aim works and is mainly interested in its selfish ambitions, it will set the cart before the horse.
Now the deal is done and I sincerely hope it pans out well for the sake of fellow long suffering shareholders.

[spursspurs] 24/11/2016 08:25

Well, thats some consolidation, I now have no shares according to TD :(

[kenone] 24/11/2016 08:18

Always said it would be a £ by Xmas !

[timbo003] 24/11/2016 08:10

Top of the leader board this morning folks!

It was a useful AGM, I will write up a notes later today.

[amt] 23/11/2016 20:53

So turover heading for about 1m per 6 months. Looks like cash burn of under 1 m per year so barring some disaster enough cash to last for 4 or 5 years. Its now a question of whether they can generate some decent itrack sales.

[digger2779] 23/11/2016 15:54

Now there's a surprise. Just watch the consolidated shares take a bath courtesy of your friendly mm's :)

[major courtenay] 23/11/2016 10:24

I had hoped to make it, but it's looking less likely. Would anyone going be able to ask a question? (Either formally or informally). Page 6 of the agm presentation 2015 had a sort of Venn diagram showing the total market of 40,000 haul trucks - being the target market for Itrack. 2.5% of that market would be break even for us (if I understand the diagram correctly). Could anyone ask the progress on achieving that 2.5% target? MTIA. MC

[gnnmartin] 23/11/2016 09:32

It is as encouraging as one could reasonably expect. Good to know they have pilots in progress.