AMSTRAD shareholders who gave the thumbs down to founder and chairman
Alan Sugar's 30p cash buy-out strategy should be looking a touch more
cheerful at present.
Against market fears of losses of anything up to #20m, the consumer
electronics company has come out with half-time figures showing a swing
from losses of #12m into a pre-tax profit of #5.61m on turnover #7m
higher at #202m.
The interim dividend has been halved to 0.2p but that is considerably
better than what seemed likely when shareholders said ''no'' to Mr Sugar
in Decmeber and then saw their shares decline to around 24p. Last night,
they closed 4p firmer at 29p. Mr Sugar's dividend on his holding is
worth #410,000.
Encouragingly, Amstrad is still asset rich with cash of #112m and an
underlying value per share of 46p.
The trading side has benefited from better than expected sales of
satellite dishes and other related equipment which with ''reasonable''
growth in fax machines managed to offset the pressure on personal
computer margins.
Mr Sugar had said in December that he would shrink the company with
the general belief being that it would be the PC side that would bear
the brunt as this is a sector where competition is just too fierce for
comfort. But so far, there has not been a substantial amount of
rationalisation.
Despite his reluctance to lead a flock of fairly devoted supporters,
Mr Sugar may still deliver them to comparative comfort if they are
patient.
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