AEA Technology Plc struggled to find its way in its first year out of the state sector but now the UK technology services and engineering software company is moving forward strongly. Revenues are up 16.6% at 308.4 million pounds ($516.6) for the year through March 31 and net income has bounded forward by 60% to 19.9 million pounds ($33.3m). The company embraces an odd mixture of activities with some useful patents on lithium ion batteries used to power mobile devices, expertise to help clean up the mess at Russia’s Chernobyl nuclear reactor and to make Britain’s trains run on time, and engineering software that is starting to make a big impact in the US market. As if this wasn’t enough, the company is anxious to identify new products it can bring to market that fit in with its existing businesses and has a checkbook ready for inventors with the right ideas. The company needs to move fast because its patents on lithium ion batteries – a market that has been growing by 300% a year – expire by the year 2000. AEA is reluctant to say what they are currently worth but is now pinning its hopes on a lithium polymer replacement, though bringing this to market could be up to four years away. The big growth has come from the US market where sales leapt from 13.9 million pounds to 30.6 million pounds and this was fueled by a good performance on the engineering software side. The world market for engineering software is currently worth around $3bn and AEA, which has been in the market since 1979, made two sizeable acquisitions last year and must be looking for further opportunities to fill gaps in its product line. AEA may appear to have a strange patchwork of activities but they are all in strongly growing markets and the shares, which have been one of the strongest performers this year, climbed another 9 pence to 855 pence on the results.
