Sigmex International Plc has cornered two significant orders from the European market, this time both from France, and which should add several millions to the company’s sales over the next three years. The biggest of the two is to supply Electricite de France with systems for its electricity despatch control centre and Sigmex has won the first stage, worth UKP1.1m, of the seven stage contract. Company chairman John Massey told our sister paper Technology Research Only if we really mess up this first stage will we not be awarded the subsequent stages, but we’re not waving any flags yet. The project is similar to the one the company carried out for the Central Electricity Generating Board in the UK which ended last year, and involved supplying transmission control systems for the two-tiered electricity supply of the national grid. The whole project could be worth UKP8m in sales to Sigmex over three or four years. The second contract is also French and is to supply the data analysis systems for the Ariane V booster rocket programme. The company will be supplying 30 display and data analysis systems based on its own and Gould equipment used for the development of Bulcain, the replacement booster system for the Arianne rocket project. This contract is worth UKP1.2m, most of which will be realised in the current financial year. As we forecast when we last looked at Sigmex in September (CI No 525), the company has been far too optimistic about the state of the market for its standard computer graphics products and weak sales of these have continued in the first half of the current financial year, confirmed Massey. Sigmex now looks to be capable of doing around UKP500,000 in pre-tax profits for the year to June 30, against UKP236,000 last year, placing the shares on a prospective multiple at their current 60 pence price tag of 12 times.
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