Telemetrix Plc, another of those companies that went public in the mid-1980s, quickly ran into trouble, and are now being treated as a shell by a new band of investors, is beginning to show signs of the new strategy bearing fruit, with a mid-term pre-tax profit of UKP1.48m against a UKP540,000 loss last time – but the fact that this is not the company we were talking about last year is underlined by the fact that turnover for the half was UKP19m, where the Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire firm reported only UKP4.5m of business this time last year. The core business of making graphics terminals saw only a modest increase in revenues but had a particularly strong performance in West Germany. But clearly it is still problematic and appropriate associations are still being sought. The US acquisition, GTI Corp, where Telemetrix holds 53%, was a significant contributor, doing $1.7m pre-tax for the first half of 1989, and doing a deal with Corning Inc on low-temperature sealing glass used by the semiconductor industry. Since the period ended, as well as the acquisition of Trend Group the other day, taking the company into telecommunications products, ZeTex Plc, in which Telemetrix holds 95.3%, bought the discrete components business of Plessey Semiconductors Ltd. ZeTex is now running at annual turnover of UKP12m. Telemetrix is operated as the European vehicle of Allied Electronics Corp Pty Ltd of South Africa, the majority shareholder in the London-quoted company.
