Two years after printed circuit board manufacturer Kode International Plc sold its loss-making computer services business (CI No 2,556), the business has come back to bite it. At the time, it took a 744,000 pounds loss on its disposal, and a good- will write-off of 6.4m pounds, which contributed to pre-tax losses of 9.1m pounds for that year (CI No 2,621). Things looked set to change as pre-tax profits came in at 1.4m pounds in fiscal 1995. Now, a year after that, it is attributing the 34% fall in pre-tax profits to 937,000 pounds, on revenue down by 5% to 18.3m pounds to a 495,000 pounds loss on disposal of the same DCM Services Ltd (CI No 2,966). The trouble started when Kode sold DCM to Tellus Holdings Ltd in December 1994. That company then proceeded to into receivership, still owing the charged amount to Kode. But overall, the figures pleased, and the shares were trading up 7.5 pence at 112.5 pence yesterday. The Calne, UK- based company, through its Kam Circuits division, is banking its future success on its backplane manufacturing technology which it says enables a number of circuit boards to communicate with each other, and for which it believes there is a growing demand and only a small number of manufacturers to cater for it. The division won more customers in Scandinavia this year and raised the level of its South Korean orders. Kode plans to establish an Advanced Products Division of Kam, to focus on the research and development of interconnection technologies, having just won a grant from the UK Department of Trade & Industry. It is also in the process of redeveloping the site that housed the computer business and hopes it will soon start to eliminate the charges it incurs. Kamtronics, the higher volume arm that supplies boards manufactured in the Far East, faced difficult market conditions during the year, and the company is concerned that the strength of sterling will slow down export activity, despite a healthy rate of orders coming in. Kode’s gearing moved up to 52% from 47% last time and the company will pay a final dividend of 1.75 pence, up a penny, bringing the total to 2.50p.
