Amiad Water Systems Share Discussion Threads

[cerrito] 02/4/2009 15:27

I see house broker Panmure reiterate sell recommendation with a 100p target
down from 110 p when they initiated their sell recommendation last December.
Not all that much information given out today but what there is suggests the modest share price increase we saw today is in order.
Good to see they have managed to keep their working capital under control and the overall bullish outlook statement but at the same time I can see why they cut the dividend albeit modestly as they do not have all that much flexibility to do the acquisitions they are talking about.
Anyone have access to the Panmure note?
I will probably go back in but would prefer to see what Panmures say about them.

[hashertu] 27/3/2009 09:27

Tacked on the end of the board change RNS, Wednesday and today.
Results 2 April where turnover expected to be up at least 26%.

[rathkum] 14/1/2009 11:50

Appears to be two buys of 4,429,442 @ £1.4238 each. Interesting

[prenvest] 14/1/2009 11:22

Anyone know of any significance in large volume of shares traded today? 8.8m according to advfn!

[piedro] 29/12/2008 10:40

NAVPS = 60.71p

Many companies, some profitable, are being priced at less than their NAVPS.

[melody9999] 28/12/2008 08:45

so broker dictates the price of the share then? Forward EPS of 13.7P at current share price mean PE of 8 - still not that cheap in this market if uncertainty in growth and high gearing - could fall further.

[pugugly] 12/12/2008 12:05

12Dec2008-Amiad Filtration falls; Panmure downgrades
-------------------------------------------------------------
Shares in Amiad Filtration Systems, the supplier of water filters
and filtration systems, fall 6.7 percent after Panmure Gordon cuts its
recommendation to "sell" from "buy" amid increasing uncertainty over new project
work during 2009.
Panmure cuts its 2009 EPS estimate by 33 percent to 13.7 pence and slashes
its target price to 110 pence from 250 pence.

[melody9999] 11/12/2008 17:17

Thanks Smarm - guess the CFO has some early priorities!

[smarm] 11/12/2008 15:04

melody - broker downgrade....Panmure worrying that new project won't emerge in 2009 and points to its high gearing (54% on ADVFN) and long tail of receivables (275 days on ADVFN).

[melody9999] 11/12/2008 14:40

Hmm - change in CFO always a concern. But as this was signalled back in Sep, do not understand the market reaction. Is there a rumour doing the rounds? or is it still fallout concerning the Icelandic shareholder? Answers on a postcard pls!

[williebiz] 01/11/2008 19:38

Hang on in there, can buy @ 100p soon

[rathkum] 01/11/2008 19:24

melody9999

I nearly got carried away when they hit 176p on one of those big down days but thankfully my broker was unable to execute at that price.

The market turmoil has shaken me and I am on the sideline for now. I see a phase 2 of the October carnage hitting us sometime down the road.

The other concern I have is the state of health of 25% Icelandic shareholder Artoka. Their portfolio consist of mostly small cap companies which are well down. The kind of problems Iceland is undergoing at the moment,I hope they are not forced to liquidate their portfolio. Seems unlikely but .......

[melody9999] 31/10/2008 23:49

guess you have that now Rathkum. still buying?

[rathkum] 11/10/2008 17:18

Any further weakness and this dividend pay stock becomes very tempting. Come on,lets have a shake out and I will accumulate more.

[cerrito] 11/10/2008 16:46

Was interested to see that the Icelandic group Atorka have increased their shareholding by a small margin... assumed that they would be the weak link

[rathkum] 15/9/2008 19:02

Panmure Gordon today raised their target to 250p from 205p.

[stegrego] 15/9/2008 17:34

Amiad Filtration Systems - BUY
Companies: AFS
15/09/2008
Backed here at 139.5p a little over a year ago, Amiad, the producer and supplier of water filters and filtration systems, is enjoying heady growth in all its main territories.

Supplying products for the industrial, municipal and irrigation markets, the company is reaping the benefits of increasing global investment in water treatment and filtration systems that improve clean water supply and availability.

Interim results for the half to June proved very strong, with pre-tax profits flowing 47% higher to US$5.4m (£3m), as turnover gushed 44% north to $39.5m (£22.1m).

Strongly cash generative, Amiad closed the half with increased cash balances of $6.5m, increased from $4.1m at the year-end.

Highlights of the half included strong orders from the industrial and municipal sectors across Europe, Australia and North America, while East Asia provided a growth hot spot.

Amiad also continued to make inroads into the industrial sectors of India and China, while projects in Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine continued to progress well.

More recently, the company has secured contracts in new territories including Chile, where its automatic self-cleaning screen filters have been selected for use in the mining industry, as well as the Philippines, for a project using microfiber technology for use in municipal drinking water.

With management predicting 'significant' growth for 2008 versus 2007, analysts are now looking for growth in earnings per share from last year's 12.7p to 17.7p, placing the shares on a prospective multiple of 12.6.

We still feel that is a rather modest rating for a business with considerable balance sheet strength exhibiting such growth rates. Keep buying.

[cerrito] 15/9/2008 08:26

Only two smallish blemishes on an excellent set of results were
comment on tightening margins although that will be helped by any increase in the US$ and the fact that with the growth cash generated from operations fell from $5m in the second half of last year to break even this year.

[cerrito] 09/9/2008 23:40

and of course we have the full benefit of the sterling devaluation

[m.t.glass] 09/9/2008 11:38

Half-year results coming next Monday, 15 Sept

[chester] 09/9/2008 10:33

The chart is starting to look quite good here.

[celeritas] 13/8/2008 14:23

Missed this bit of news

New Amiad AMF Self-Cleaning Microfiber Filter Ideal For Oil And Gas Production
August 5, 2008
Amiad Filtration Systems proudly introduces its new AMF Automatic Microfiber filtration system, a revolutionary automatic self-cleaning system that delivers filtration in the 2-to-20-micron range without consumable media - eliminating filter aids, cartridges and bag filters as well as the associated labor and disposal costs.

Fine microfibers wound around grooved plastic spools capture suspended and colloidal foulants, including both organic and inorganic particles.

The Amiad AMF is designed to perform well in oil and gas production for filtering produced water, as well as service water from either fresh or seawater sources. Cleaner produced water and service water can significantly extend the life of injection wells and equipment.

The Amiad AMF can also be used as part of a multi-stage filtration system for treating supply water or wastewater, protecting expensive membranes and dramatically reducing the need for time- and chemical-intensive membrane cleaning. In fact, installing an Amiad AMF upstream of an RO membrane can reduce membrane cleaning by a factor of four, according to Amiad vice president of sales and marketing Jim Lauria.

Extremely compact, the Amiad AMF's minimal size and weight footprint delivers fine filtration with automatic self-cleaning, minimal maintenance, and no cartridges to replace. Back-wash is far more water- and energy-efficient than with other filtration technologies, and is conducted without breaking the integrity of the filtration.

"The AMF system is a perfect extension of our Clean Water/Clean Technology philosophy," says Lauria. "It helps reduce chemical use, minimize back-flush, reduce footprint and lower energy costs. Those attributes show up on the environmental and economic bottom lines."

SOURCE: Amiad Filtration Systems

[cerrito] 30/7/2008 23:25

As I have just bought shares went to the AGM
Rather liked them and their way of doing things. The CEO seemed to have his feet on the ground and given the fast expansion good that they have a stable management team with common values.
The Kibbutz if obviously the key and stable shareholder. Was told that the Atorka group was in there for the long term though wish I knew more about them..10 minutes on google did not lead me anywhere..they are the kind of company which in the current environment could well have a need to raise cash though as I say as I know nothing about them that could be and probably is mere supposition.
One specific concern I had was with bad debts but told they averaged 1 to 2%.
Will look to buy more.

[rathkum] 30/7/2008 13:15

Thanks for the article,interesting read.

[celeritas] 30/7/2008 12:54

Blooming Deserts Turn Israeli Water Industry Into Money Magnet

By Tal Barak

July 30 (Bloomberg) -- At the end of a road winding through Israel's Negev desert, the entrance to Kibbutz Hatzerim is flanked by jojoba shrubs jutting from the arid earth.

The grove is the result of drip irrigation developed by Israeli engineer Simcha Blass in the 1960s that enabled the kibbutzniks to farm the desert. The company they started, Netafim Ltd., has sold the product in 110 countries from Germany to Peru.

``The founders were living in the middle of the desert and saw one agricultural failure after the other,'' Naty Barak, 64, a director at Netafim, said at the kibbutz visitors center. ``Back then it was their problem, but now it's a global necessity.''

Today, some 300 Israeli companies make equipment to deliver water or purify it with lasers or diffusion, putting them in a position to profit as climate change, population growth and food shortages strain supplies. With agriculture accounting for about two-thirds of global water use, the Israeli government predicts overseas sales of the technology will top $10 billion by 2017.

As a result, the businesses are attracting investors. Amiad Filtration Systems Ltd., which will help manage sewage treatment at the Beijing Olympics, is up 49 percent in the past year in London, giving it a market value of about $75 million.

Deere & Co., the world's largest maker of tractors and combines, on June 5 agreed to buy Israel's Plastro Irrigation Systems Ltd., Netafim's main competitor in agricultural irrigation, for an undisclosed sum.

`Track Record'

More than 1.1 billion people, mostly in Africa and Asia, don't have clean drinking water, according to the World Health Organization. Global food prices, meanwhile, surged 57 percent in March from a year earlier, United Nations data show.

``There is a growing lack of water in the world, and people are realizing now that it's an issue that's gaining momentum,'' said Nir Belzer, managing partner of Tel Aviv-based Gaon Agro Industries Ltd.'s $65 million clean-technology fund. ``In Israel, there's already a track record for water companies.''

Belzer's fund invested in closely held Desalitech Ltd., a Tel Aviv-based company that invented a way to take salt out of water using 20 percent less energy than standard reverse osmosis.

Amiad, founded 45 years ago on a kibbutz, developed what it calls ``suction scanning,'' a new way of filtering pollutants from water. It has a contract to remove iron from drinking water in Ramenskoye, a town near Moscow.

Atlantium Technologies Ltd. uses ultraviolet light to zap deadly organisms, a method employed by Coca-Cola Co.

`Conservative Market'

Two-thirds of Israel is desert. In the Arava region, south of Hatzerim, the average annual rainfall is less than 50 millimeters (2 inches). Wastewater there is cleaned for drip irrigation to grow fruit and vegetables, 80 percent of which are exported to Europe, Barak said.

Israel's Water Authority started a countrywide campaign in July to conserve resources as the Sea of Galilee, the main source of drinking water, dries up.

Israeli companies still face challenges finding investors and developing sales. While demand for water is high, few customers are willing to commit to new products, said Oded Distel, director at the Ministry of Industry, Trade & Labor.

``Israeli water-technology companies are dealing with a very conservative market that isn't always tempted to try the most innovative solutions,'' Distel said. ``Municipalities around the world are hesitant to try a new technology.''

With Netafim's system, farmers bury pipelines underground, allowing them to drip water and fertilizers directly onto the roots of their crops through devices that control the pressure and quality of the liquid.

Going Global

The company expects to double sales within a few years, according to Chief Executive Officer Ofer Bloch. Sales increased 25 percent to $500 million in 2007.

``An amazing agronomic knowledge has developed in Israel in the past 40 years, which we are now selling to the world,'' Bloch, 48, said at his Tel Aviv office.

One Netafim customer, Sociedad Agricola Drokasa SA in Peru, uses 10,000 miles of drip irrigation hoses. The company, known as Agrokasa, picked Netafim 12 years ago when starting production of avocados, asparagus and grapes.

``We contacted Netafim because we weren't just looking for hose, plastic or dripper suppliers, we were looking for a partner in technology,'' Jose Chlimper, Agrokasa's chief, said by telephone from the company's base in Lima.

The global water industry, which includes waste treatment, valves, pumps, filtration and desalination equipment, is worth about $400 billion, according to Francesca McCann, an analyst at Stanford Group Co., a Washington-based research company.

``There was little incentive to conserve water, but now with rising commodity prices and the climate change, that will boost demand for more efficient technologies,'' McCann said.

The market will reach $537 billion by 2010, according to Israel's Ministry of Industry, Trade & Labor.

At Kibbutz Hatzerim, surrounded by grass and trees, Barak displayed the first adapted hose used on the site.

``About 60 years ago, there was nothing here, only a dry wasteland,'' said Barak, a kibbutznik for four decades. ``This was the start of the development of a serious industry.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Tal Barak in Tel Aviv at [e-mail]