Apc Technology Share Discussion Threads

[simon gordon] 18/7/2014 10:01

Telegraph - 17/7/14:

Consumers to fund free LED lighting for supermarkets

Households could pay millions of pounds on their energy bills to provide supermarkets and airports with free LED lighting, under energy department plans to cut the UK's power usage.

Ed Davey, the energy secretary, on Thursday announced £20m taxpayer cash for a trial scheme in which businesses will be offered funding to carry out energy efficiency improvements "like replacing old light bulbs with LEDs or improving motors and pumps".

Firms will compete for the funding in a reverse auction, and will be able to bid for the entire cost of the work to be covered, or for it to be partially subsidised. They should then enjoy cheaper energy bills as a result, Mr Davey said.

More than 300 organisations including "hospitals, airports and supermarket chains" have already express interest in the auction, the Department of Energy and Climate Change said.

The plan is intended to reduce national electricity demand, easing the risk of blackouts and averting the need for more power stations to be built. If the trial is successful, ministers will continue to offer such cash through the billpayer-funded 'capacity market'.

The market, launched later this year at an estimated cost of £13 per household per year, will pay power plants retainers to guarantee their availability and also pay businesses to temporarily reduce their usage at times of peak demand - for example by switching off fridges, or rescheduling energy-intensive works.

The new plan differs by funding permanent reductions in energy usage - measures which are likely to save businesses money rather than inconveniencing them.

DECC said that the cash would be awarded "where projects would not have happened without the upfront funding".

[tobias] 18/7/2014 09:02

Read yesterday that grants are to be given for led in store thus cancel now and await grant

[benson01] 17/7/2014 10:18

Just in case you haven't heard it

[jfishy55] 17/7/2014 09:32

Thanks for the response.

There seems to be the potential for a recovery play here with several "green flags", however there are some "red flags" too:
- I am not convinced the MRW orders will start up again (they are focusing on more profitable areas of the business, why come back to the less profitable any time soon?).
- The board did not update PIs in a timely manner. Always a concern when the board treats shareholders in such a manner.

I have decided to revisit for another look should an uptrend become established but not before.

Thanks again for your input.
JF.

[simon gordon] 17/7/2014 08:52

Hydrus,

I have also written to the Small Cap editor at the FT who writes a column called Small Talk, hopefully she will dig on the story and mention the 14 week late profit warning.

If I had the money, time and energy I'd sue APC's BoD just on principle.

[hydrus] 17/7/2014 01:36

Thanks for sharing your email Simon

[simon gordon] 16/7/2014 19:12

Commiserations Blippy.

You're bang-on about credibility.

Q1 and Q2 were strong with MRW.

Q3 began in March and MRW had the massive capex cut in March, in April APC ceased to get MRW orders.

So Q3 was a big shock to APC when your biggest customer stops ordering, if you are sitting in the Boardroom you know you've got a profit warning on your hands, there is no way you can make it back in Q4 plus your biggest customer is in the deep freeze and you can't be certain when they will defrost.

At the 30th May Interims you do the professional thing and tell the market of this problem and explain that you are confident that the 2015 forecast is still achievable, that H2 2014 was a blip, the business trend is still strong. By doing this you build credibility and give the market confidence that you are straight shooters.

EDIT

If you have a super professional BoD you inform the market as soon as MRW ceased ordering in April. It's obvious you've got a 2014 profit warning on your hands.

[blippy2] 16/7/2014 16:31

"If you buy now, you expect MRW to come back and the pipeline to materialise."

I sold today, having taken a sizeable hit on this one.

"Although APC expects shipments to resume, it is unable to give guidance on timing"

Well, that's the thing, isn't it: expects? If they're unable to give guidance, then it sounds more of a hope than a real expectation. And given that management's credibility has does been flushed down the drain as far as I'm concerned, I'm not inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.

I could be wrong - and it certainly wouldn't be the first time - but this has all the markings that down the road the shipments will still fail to materialise.

In the end, I decided that "hope" was a poor investment strategy, and that I had better cut my losses and try my luck elsewhere.

Good luck to all that remain in, though.

[simon gordon] 16/7/2014 13:01

jfishy,

Share was probably overbought in Q4 2013, then after late January 2014 many small and micro caps started trending lower.

Since then it seems that those who knew the MRW news have been selling down.

If you buy now, you expect MRW to come back and the pipeline to materialise. The M&S(?) deal today is a positive indicator and is probably why APC tried to manufacture the share price until it was in writing.

I won't touch them now as I don't trust them as far as I can spit.

Good fortune.

[jfishy55] 16/7/2014 12:41

Gents,

I have just started looking at APC as it looked good. However, I was surprised to see that the May statement was not well received - the share price perked around 6p before continuing the now 6 month downtrend.

Now, looking here on this board, the apparent failure to disclose the Morrisons cancellation of orders is perhaps something to do with the decline. However, that would not have been known until late March even by insiders from what I see here.

So, aside from the Morrisons / failure by the board to disclose issue, can anyone enlighten me on other negative issues since December?

Thanks in advance,
JF.

[simon gordon] 16/7/2014 12:34

Hydrus,

Probably never hear back from the FCA.

It looks like to me that the BoD were trying to protect the share price.

-----

[e-mail]

Here's my email to the FCA:

Dear Sir/Madam

My name is Simon Gordon, I am a Private Investor and focus on Small Cap shares listed on the LSE.

I recently bought shares in APC Technology Plc:

30/6/14 – xx,000 at 39.1p = £xxxx

01//7/14 – xx,000 at 34p = £xxxx

01/7/14 – xx,000 at 34.35p = £xxxx

Grand total xx,000 shares at £xxxx

On 17th July 2014 I sold these xx,000 shares for 27p = £xxxx, a loss of £xxxx

Losses are part and parcel of investing and trading in the stock market.

The reason I am writing is that I think I have been deceived by APC Technology.

APC Technologies biggest customer is Morrisons.

In March 2014 Morrisons hugely cut back their capital expenditure budget. I learnt today that at the beginning of April APC Technology ceased receiving orders from Morrisons. That was material news and should have been RNS'd to the market.

On 30th May 2014 APC Technology released their Interim results to the market and there was no mention of Morrisons ceasing orders.

Today, 17th July, APC Technology have informed the market via a Trading Update that Morrisons are no longer placing orders with them and admit that orders ceased at the beginning of April 2014. Why was this material news not issued in April or May 2014, why did APC wait until mid July?

I think that any investor who has bought shares since April 2014 has been misled by the board of directors at APC Technology Plc and that the company should be sanctioned for creating a false market in their shares on the LSE.

I hope that the FCA will take this matter seriously.

Yours sincerely

[hastings] 16/7/2014 12:28

Must say I concur with others this morning and added a few words, although supposed to be relaxing away.

[hydrus] 16/7/2014 10:00

Simon I think that is a very good idea, best of luck to you would really like to hear how it goes.

[sammy_smith] 16/7/2014 09:48

APC Technology Group - Trading statement

Click the link below to watch

[simon gordon] 16/7/2014 09:47

If APC were listed in the USA they'd be getting sued by any shareholder who bought in after 1st April 2014. In mid March the press were reporting of huge MRW capex cutbacks and APC now state that orders ceased at the beginning of April.

To get this off my chest I will send a letter of complaint to the CEO and cc it to the FCA. I will also send the CEO an invoice for my losses, not a hope in hell of it being paid but WTF.

[simon gordon] 16/7/2014 09:27

The share price on 8th January 2013 the day before the first notification of the MRW contact was 15.25p.

[aishah] 16/7/2014 09:25

Northland Capital Reiterate Buy stance

[proj] 16/7/2014 09:11

There you go....fell through 30p.

Suckers'/ traders rally right now.

Will be in the 20s again very soon. Then how low??

[dasv] 16/7/2014 09:00

Exactly Hydrus.

Interims were 30th May.

Considering the materiality of losing Morrisons the fact that orders had already been stopped should have been in the interims RNS.

The fact that they waited till mid July suggests they were scared of coming clean to the market.

I can't trust a management team which attempts to deceive the market by burying bad news.

I took a 20% hit this morning and now see the share price recovering, but I will stay clear now.

[hydrus] 16/7/2014 08:34

From the interims 'The Group continues to focus on widening not only its client base but also the sectors and geographies it supplies in order to reduce reliance on any one sector or customer; ...................assuming they just forgot to finish the sentence I'll help them ..........because our main customer stopped taking deliveries last month'

[webpax] 16/7/2014 08:20

Gives a positive spin (as you would expect).

[dasv] 16/7/2014 08:19

diggulden - very well put - Sandwich de merde

everything's fine - new minor contract wins, components fine.

Oh by the way our most major customer's pulling the plug (Morrisons?) and we won't meet expectations.

But we are very pleased with the way things are going

"Record shipments to Minimise's largest customer were made in the second quarter of the current financial year. However, due to the well-publicised reallocation of capital budgets at this customer, shipments ceased at the beginning of April and, whilst the Company expects them to resume in the coming months, it remains unclear as to the exact timing.

Overall, taking into account the positive impact that the broadening Minimise customer base is expected to have in the next financial year, the Board is pleased with progress to date and views the future with confidence. However, the short term reduction in shipments to our current largest customer, coupled with the fact that orders from new customers are being received a little too late to be fulfilled entirely in the current financial year, is likely to mean that revenues and profits for the current financial year will be below market expectations."

[hydrus] 16/7/2014 08:14

So they would have known about the issue when they released interims in May? If so surely they have broken some rules?! I feel sorry for holders here if that's the case and too think I was going to buy at 30p - not now