Norbain Electronics Plc, 70% owned by chairman John Nicol, was floated on the Unlisted Securities Market in February 1984, but at the current lowly share price of 26 pence a share is valued at just UKP1.8m (CI No 1,334). Company finance director Mike Daw’s frank comment was that the share price was reflection of the company’s performance over the last few years. Since its launch on the junior market, the company has seen varying results, the first two years saw reasonable figures. Then in 1986 business lost from British Telecommunications Plc, indirectly due to its privatisation, caused a major loss. But the close of its fiscal year on April 30 1988 saw a recovery, albeit only to UKP10,000 pre-tax, on turnover of over UKP24m. The slim profit was down to very poor margins at its microcomputer arm, Norbain Computer Sales, caused by a slowing down in this market. Norbain felt that it would be better to sell this division, seeing no long term prospects for the company in this difficult area. It was sold in 1988, followed in August 1989 by the sale of the computer maintenance arm, which had been acquired in 1985 solely to support the computer sales division, and this reduced overheads considerably. Though approximately 50% of its business came from the the computer division Norbain feels that so far its divestiture has proved a beneficial move. In the first half of its 1988-89 fiscal year, it recorded pre-tax profits of UKP20,000, rising to UKP121,000 for the full year to April 30. The figures for the first half of the current fiscal will be released on January 22. Mr Daw does not see the company open to take-over bids and is happy with the company’s performance this year, though sees room for improvement. Norbain Electronics, now solely a distribution company, comprises Norbain Security and Norbain Technology. Products are in the fields of opto-electronics, sub-systems and components and include fibre optic equipment, power supplies, disk drives, closed circuit television monitors, lapsed-time recorders and access control system. It reckons it has a comfortable market niche with its security products, which now account for about 60% of the total. – Elvadia Tolputt