Prelude Trust Share Discussion Threads

[orange1] 23/3/2007 14:45

Talk about a blast from the past!
Axis-Shield, Factor whatever it was, The Count, Homocystine, Northwick Park, Etrade, jumpers for goalposts .......
Everything OK up there in the arctic?

Meanwhile back to the topic in hand. Although Pricer say they can supply other information apart from price the picture below shows their offering appears to be of a lower grade than ZBD's.

[hvs] 23/3/2007 14:40

So whats NEW ?

[caradog] 23/3/2007 14:38

ZBD does not have the market to itself:

[hvs] 22/3/2007 19:03

Thank you FSE,

Its looks very exciting and a sure winner.

[fse] 22/3/2007 16:47

news articles on ZBD...Qinetiq website,,, just enter ZBD





As I said I have one of their displays here in Canada. What really strikes you is the clarity.

Try the link below it should show a recent Tesco sign in much higher resolution.

[hvs] 22/3/2007 16:31

FSE,

Thank you very much. Read that but plain forgot. Looks very good for PDT's £ 6mill
investment. Could be big pay off.

[fse] 22/3/2007 16:26

>hvs @23% :)

ZBD's existing investors Prelude, QinetiQ plc, Dow Chemical Company and TTP
Venture Fund contributed 50% of the round, with the balance coming from new
investors Lansdowne UK Equity Fund and Esprit Capital Fund 1. Following this new
investment Prelude owns 22.9% of ZBD, for which it has invested #6.4million. The
Company will use the new funding to continue to strengthen its manufacturing
supply chain operations, develop its emerging business as a future major
supplier of a new generation of retail signage, and engage in international
expansion.

IPO ?

Bob Hook, who represents Prelude and Esprit on the ZBD Board added: "This is a
great result for the ZBD executive team and rewards them for a great deal of
hard work over the last two years. This cash should enable them now to begin to
build a successful global business and become a strong candidate for IPO in the
next two-year time frame."

[hvs] 22/3/2007 15:37

Think Prelude have just over 20% of ZBD , is that correct , can anyone confirm please ?

Enormous potential here. IPO is a year maybe ?

[rivaldo] 22/3/2007 11:35

Agreed. More about ZBD here too - I trust Qinetiq's judgement and they've put another £3.5m in. I like the comment about ZBD becoming a "successful global business" "well placed" for an IPO:



"QinetiQ leads GBP 10.5m funding round for ZBD Displays Ltd
(2007-03-22)
By: QinetiQ

QinetiQ has invested an additional £3.5 million in ZBD Displays Ltd, as the lead in a £10.5 million funding round. ZBD, the first spin-out from QinetiQ, was established in July 2000 to commercialise zero-power Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs). The company will use the new funding to develop its emerging business as a future major supplier of a new generation of electronic retail signage, to continue to strengthen its manufacturing supply chain operations, and engage in international expansion.

Existing investors Prelude Trust plc, the Dow Chemical Group, the TTP Venture Fund and QinetiQ Group plc contributed 50 per cent of the funding round, with the balance coming from new investors Lansdowne UK Equity Fund and Esprit Capital Fund 1.

Hal Kruth, MD QinetiQ Ventures said: "ZBD is the founding member of QinetiQ's ventures portfolio and is well on track to becoming a successful global business. This funding round will enable ZBD to gear up for widespread commercialisation of its zero-power electronic displays and ensure that it is well placed for a stock market flotation in the future."

ZBD has developed a unique bi-stable Liquid Crystal Display drawing on QinetiQ's 30 year heritage in the development of LCD technology. The company delivers 'electronic point of purchase' (epop) solutions as replacements for paper-based signage, providing dynamic wireless pricing that allows retailers to reduce product wastage, provide more information to customers and compete with online retailers. Successful pilots have been conducted with major retailers including Tesco and ZBD has established supply chain partnerships with specialist manufacturers in Europe and China.

Clive Mayne, CEO of ZBD commented: "Our focus has always been to apply our innovative technology to resolve real business issues. We have worked with some of the best known names in the retail and as a result, we have built a solution where the business benefits speak for themselves. We¿re now in a strong position to start reaping commercial benefits and this new round of funding gives us the platform to deliver our growth plans on a global level.""

[hvs] 22/3/2007 09:52

Good morning rivaldo,

PDT invested only £ 500,000 for 3.1% ,makes total company value £ 16,129.032.

£ 200 mill market cap would make me very happy. On the other hand Tribold now
has $ 15 mill cash and valued at only $ 31.5 mill. So good potential here.

[rivaldo] 22/3/2007 08:48

Yep, I wonder whether there's an IPO in the offing? Impressive web site - the news page is full of good news including top-notch Board members recently. The appointment of a CFO is always a clue that a company is growing fast and may be trying to look seriously at floating:



Tribold would have to be worth some £200m for PDT's 3.1% to be worth getting excited about, so I assume (and hope) this is more of a short-term investment.

[fse] 21/3/2007 16:10

ZBD has developed all its technology at its UK headquarters, but has established
relationships with its specialist manufacturing supply chain partners in Europe
and China, and, engaged with existing suppliers and system integrators to the
retail industry as their go to market channel partners. Early adopters are major
stores and supermarkets, including Tesco, and the CO-OP which are employing the
displays to seamlessly adopt a flexible and dynamic pricing model for Internet
price matching, improved stock control (particularly for perishable goods) and
simplifying data updates on displays with complex information content.

>Orange..... OK... not sure who is doing what with the CO OP..
will try to find out
rgds

[orange1] 21/3/2007 13:00

FSE
I was referring to Fujitsu's ILID:



"THE CO-OP SEES THE LIGHT

Walk into Bicton Heath Foodstore, Shropshire (owned by West Midlands Co-op) and you'll see a great idea at work. Every one of their 11,000 shelf-edge labels is electronic, with prices and promotional messages that change throughout the day. Customers enjoy regular happy hours and staff are serving people instead of switching labels.

So what's different? ILID: a new system from Fujitsu that uses light to send pricing signals to the labels. There are no transmitters anywhere, as the system simply modulates the light emitted by the store's existing striplights. Simple labels (around £2.50 each) receive signals directly or via reflected light and all the advantages of electronic labels are now available at a sensible price.

Dependability? Prices even change if the label falls off and is under the fixture! "

The displays are black and white.

[fse] 21/3/2007 12:50

>Orange.... Fujitsu dont have a product to compete with ZBD, they made a wrong turn, problems to do with colour and stability.
ZBD are using black & white (at the moment) which for signage is arguably better.
The screen is very clear ( I have seen one) and displays graphics very well,
Fujitsu are neverthless world leaders in larger displays.
Expect more action from ZBD, more clients etc...

[rivaldo] 21/3/2007 11:40

Ta - I wasn't 100% sure if it was as simple as that!

Nice review of DisplayLink here:


"Tuesday, March 20, 2007
USB Monitors Coming Soon

This is kind of cool. Samsung will be selling monitors that you can plug into a USB hub. No more fuss of installing a second video card into your tower, or rigging a klunky monitor switch.

The coolest part for mobile types?

DisplayLink has also licensed its technology to Toshiba, which has built it into a universal laptop docking station, and [Michael Ledzion, DisplayLink's executive VP of world-wide sales] showed a USB-DVI dongle from Taiwanese manufacturer Sunix which he said can add USB connectivity to any screen.

The same technology can be used to send video over wireless USB and Wi-Fi...

I can think of all sorts of geeky goodness with this kind of setup. Not only that, the PC may finally bridge the gap from desktop to living room without all the uber-techie hassle that "media centers" have to go through now."

[tiltonboy] 21/3/2007 08:57

riv,

It looks as if the new money has gone in at roughly the same price as the fundraising in August 2006.

PDT had a stake of 33% previously, valuing ZBD at £16.8m. Following the £10.5m of new money, ZBD is valued at £27.95m, i.e a 2.38% increase.

tiltonboy

[hvs] 21/3/2007 08:32

Looks like ZDB developing nicely and will one day give us a good return.

[orange1] 21/3/2007 08:26

Back in 2005, the Co-op were trialing the Fujitsu product.
In 2006/7 we learn that Fujitsu have entered into a partnership agreement with ZBD and the Co-op is trialing the ZBD product. All points to ZBD having a product which is potentially better than Fujitsu's.

[rivaldo] 21/3/2007 07:37

Agreed FSE - that's the point I was making about getting the right valuations.

Looks like ZBD could be a big winner now, and PDT have evidently decided they've invested enough and are happy to be diluted down now. IPOing in the next 2 years then if all goes well.

It seems ZBD have the Co-op as a client now too. I wonder - was this carried out at a premium which would increase NAV at 31/3?



"New shareholders Lansdowne and Esprit make significant investment in ZBD £10.5m fund raising

Prelude Trust plc ('Prelude'), the investment trust that specialises in high
growth technology based businesses, has invested an additional £0.5m million in
ZBD Displays Ltd ('ZBD' or 'the Company'), as part of a £10.5m million funding
round.

ZBD's existing investors Prelude, QinetiQ plc, Dow Chemical Company and TTP
Venture Fund contributed 50% of the round, with the balance coming from new
investors Lansdowne UK Equity Fund and Esprit Capital Fund 1. Following this new investment Prelude owns 22.9% of ZBD, for which it has invested £6.4million. The Company will use the new funding to continue to strengthen its manufacturing supply chain operations, develop its emerging business as a future major supplier of a new generation of retail signage, and engage in international expansion.


ZBD, which has developed a unique bi-stable Liquid-Crystal Display (LCD), was
one of the first spin-outs from the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, now
QinetiQ, in July 2000. It manufactures zero power bi-stable displays that only
require power to update the display content. Its initial target market is retail signage where ZBD, in the vanguard of a new generation of technology, offers wireless signage with unmatched optical performance, data content and battery lifetime.

ZBD has developed all its technology at its UK headquarters, but has established relationships with its specialist manufacturing supply chain partners in Europe and China, and, engaged with existing suppliers and system integrators to the retail industry as their go to market channel partners. Early adopters are major stores and supermarkets, including Tesco, and the CO-OP which are employing the displays to seamlessly adopt a flexible and dynamic pricing model for Internet price matching, improved stock control (particularly for perishable goods) and simplifying data updates on displays with complex information content.

Clive Mayne, CEO of ZBD commented: 'This major new round of funding will help us to strengthen our foothold in the UK market and build on our early success
internationally.'

Bob Hook, who represents Prelude and Esprit on the ZBD Board added: 'This is a
great result for the ZBD executive team and rewards them for a great deal of
hard work over the last two years. This cash should enable them now to begin to
build a successful global business and become a strong candidate for IPO in the
next two-year time frame.'"

[fse] 20/3/2007 23:37

>rivaldo.... thats true about getting listed but at what value.
If the value is far too cheap they run the risk of listing and getting taken out for small change. Its a real problem at the moment.

[rivaldo] 20/3/2007 22:16

Not sure I agree completely FSE. Plenty of IPOs going through despite the slowdown, just look at the AIM Schedule 1 RNS's still coming through. The problem perhaps is whether the companies are getting the valuations they're after - I suspect only good quality IPOs will succeed at present.

Tiltonboy, makes sense. OI are already achieving revenues, though how much I don't know, probably relatively small. But I could foresee OI being worth multiples of £15m in a short space of time if they replace the 115 year old test to any degree.

Some Xanadu news - short and sweet, but says it all:



"Xanadu Wireless will move to a new location

Due to growth of the company we will move to a new location. Our new address will be Catharijnesingel 30 and we will move at March 31st."

[timtom2] 20/3/2007 22:10

Trade sales may largely be to US corps. $:£ doesn't help although some of the US techs are sitting on large war chests.

[fse] 20/3/2007 16:32

Current markets are making IPO's very difficult.
I have holdings in a handful of unlisted prospects and not one of them is willing to take the plunge in this environment.
This means we are more likely to see trade sales than IPO's and even there the prices are not encouraging.

Having said all of that there are a few holdings in here that are looking just a little too hard to ignore in spite of the negative mkts so fingers crossed.

[tiltonboy] 20/3/2007 16:27

So, we have a company that has a new test, which research suggests is substantially more accurate and effective than the existing test which is 115 years old.

Question is...what share of the $1bn market can it take?

Without trying to guess, here are a couple of comparative companies:

Immunodiagnostics - T/O £8m, Mkt Cap £33m, P/E 36
BBI Holdings - T/O £6.3m, Mkt Cap £40m, P/E 40+

A 1.5% share of the market would give OI a turnover in line with the other two, and if they enjoyed similar margins, and traded on a similar P/E, then you would be looking at a market cap of around £35m.

OI are currently valued at £15m, using PDT's figures.

I would imagine that OI are easily capable of achieving a market share in excess of 1.5%, but whether they can achieve a good margin is open to question.

Any thoughts?

tiltonboy