Emphasising once again that it is a whole lot easier to get a business into a mess than to get it up and running smoothly again, Cray Electronic Holdings Plc’s interim statement makes it clear that the mess it has to clear up is of Augean Stables proportions. Six months ago, the company did not even know it was in trouble. Then came the shock news that reported figures would have to be restated sharply downwards, now the company is having to report a net loss of UKP5.6m for the six months to October 31. The company has closed the divisional and head offices and established a new headquarters with a small, tightly-knit team in Newbury, Berkshire. That, together with reorganisations at Marcol, Ultranet, Master Systems and Lloyd Instruments, led to exceptional charges of UKP3.3m. The extraordinary charge of UKP3.3m is for the closure of a Swiss joint venture. The company is still groaning under a UKP40m burden of debt, and is preparing the J & S Marine, Cray Sonics defence businesses and parts of C&N Electrical for sale, and despite defence businesses being a drug on the market just now, says that it has seen interest from a number of quarters, and hopes to sell the units, and the Advanced Material Technology arm, during 1990. The company has indentified data communication systems and equipment, instrumentation and software as the core businesses to benefit from future investment.
