gretel
25 Jul 2017
Open Offer heavily oversubscribed! RNS out - great to see the Open Offer heavily oversubscribed, with 157% take-up....[link] are "exploring alternative avenues to satisfy this additional demand". Hopefully they won't succeed and this unsatisfied demand will have to find shares in the open market!
gretel
21 Jul 2017
Superb summary of investor visit FYI Kindly posted with longshanks' permission....."The new Surface Transforms factory is located in buildings that used to form part of the Eastman chemicals site in Knowsley.At first I was unsure on whether I had the right location. A glimpse past the security lodge with its zealous security guard, convinced me that the sat nav had brought me to the correct place: 100m away, in 2 meter high red letters was the company logo proudly painted on a factory wall.The building is much larger than the premises previously housing the company. There are a few offices at the "front of house" with a substantial factory floor space at the back. We were greeted in the large communal "board room" with all the board other than Kevin D'Silva on hand.We were given a thorough candid presentation of the business, the factory move and an update on the commercial prospects/game changer opportunities. Kevin Johnson did most of the talking and seemed relaxed and at home in this environment. Occasionally David Bundred chipped in the odd comment to reiterate points. After the factory tour a tasty sandwich and presentation, the company gave all attendees a copy of the Hardman broker note.For the factory tour, the visitors were split into two groups. I went with a group led by Kevin Johnson, the other group was led by David Bundred.The first stage of the tour involved a walk through demonstration of the separate manufacturing processes. All of the equipment from Ellesmere Port has been relocated and all of it was very active. We saw how the PAN material was transformed from a roll of "cloth" into its layered, processed and machined final form. Manufacturing involves some patent protected elements with other elements using more standard processes and machinery. All processes though had some level of integrated company know-how used to streamline the manufacturing process.I spoke to several of the operators on the shop floor. One I talked to had only recently joined ST having been made redundant at Bosch late last year. I asked him what he made of the company and his work. He said he really enjoyed the variety of work and the fact he was actively involved in all areas of the manufacturing process. For him Bosch is a company on the "way out" whilst ST is a company of the future. I got a similar story from the other operators - all were really motivated and enthusiastic about the business. Many are shareholders themselves and clearly want the business to be a success.I have to say though, as someone involved in heavy industry myself - I wasn't overenthusiastic about the working plant. Whilst clearly working at or close to capacity, there was a lot of inventory on view. Lots of disks in various forms being held as idle intermediate inventory awaiting the next stage in the manufacturing process.And yet - I needed a reminder that this is what is to become the SVP: the Small Volume Production cell. It is currently the only production cell.We moved through a door, and my jaw dropped.The next space can be best described as a tardis. A massive factory floor. Empty, but for the massive CVIST furnace grinning in the corner. A gaping open mouth at the front, hungry to be fed green rotors for chemical vapour infiltration. Impressive feed and exhaust pipes already fitted and, to the side, a layout drawing illustrating where all the new equipment is due to be installed. This space is a few months away from becoming OEM Cell 1. A space dedicated to efficiently churning out 20,000 disks per annum for OEM automotive customers.The scale was impressive, but so was the design. The SVP is niche - it is inefficient - it is/was a pilot plant. The OEM production cells are serious high end manufacturing scale. Production will be lean with minimal intermediate inventory. They have one OEM production cell due to be commissioned this year - but elsewhere on the site they have space allocated for four more such cells. Excluding production fro
swisspaul
14 Jul 2017
Re: Hardman initiate coverage today Together with the visit today - seems a PR offensive is underway. I hope its not being used to cover up shortfalls in the delivery of projects.As an aside I also hope the visit today goes well - apart from them hoovering up all the biscuits - after all that is my divvi!
gretel
13 Jul 2017
Hardman initiate coverage today Hardman & Co initiate coverage with a 30 page report FYI:[link]
theprior
07 Jul 2017
Blue in a sea of red The only one in my portfolio showing blue today.Means a lot to me.TP
coldascheese
06 Jul 2017
Tomorrow never comes. Unfortunately with SCE its always tomorrow,how may times have they put dates back then raise more funds to keep going. Probably best to wait until an order of significant does arrives but that looks to be at least a year away if we are lucky.
theprior
20 Jun 2017
Re: Preclose statement Snaffled a few more this morning at 15p......bargain.Patience will be rewarded in the long term and today's sp offers stunning value for money. My average now stands at about 18 so I'm a bit underwater just now, but I'm not at all worried. Looking forward to future news and increased revenue streams as relationships with oems mature.We'll beat those pesky Brembos in the end 
))TP
gretel
20 Jun 2017
Re: Preclose statement Finncap have reduced their target price to 24p.Today's update is disappointing, but from a long-term perspective not unexpected given the way the auto industry works (and aerospace come to that).It's good to see SCE organising the investor open day next month to show people just what has been achieved.SCE itself is progressing, just very slowly and with painful delays. I'm satisfied that SCE will win out in the long-run for well-rehearsed reasons of competition and quality. For those of a long-term disposition the current situation offers a buying opportunity, but I can understand those who lose patience!
theprior
20 Jun 2017
Preclose statement Mixed bag of good and bad news this morning.Long report with lots of info and a few mysterious phrases which obviously mean something to the writer but are an insult to the Plain English Society (I must get round to joining that group!)I wonder if the market will react negatively to this? Usually the word "delay" means a drop in sp. for the patient this will provide another buying opportunity I guess.I'm in for more if this happens.The game changing is taking quite a while if you think back to where we were a year ago.......TP
theprior
19 Jun 2017
Re: SCE and new Aston Martin hypercar I see AM won it's class at LeMans this yearSCE brakes ??TP
theprior
09 Jun 2017
Re: SCE and new Aston Martin hypercar Interesting to see that the Red Bull collaboration is using Cosworth (not Merc, and certainly not Renault ))TP
gretel
08 Jun 2017
SCE and new Aston Martin hypercar New article about Aston Martin's new hypercar, the Valkyrie. Looks like getting on for £500m revenues with 175 units at £2m-£3m each.......SCE confirmed once again as providing the brake discs (and Wipac will be providing the headlights and tail lights - they're part of Carclo (CAR), which I also own):[link]
theprior
17 May 2017
Interesting.. Sitting next to an Aston Martin Techie on a plane recently. We got talking about just things in general, cars, motor sport, etc, etc. Turns out he was quite impressed with the performance of certain recent tests, wink, wink.Wonder who the major German manufacturers might be ?TPNb. A M use AMG engines (Merc.!)
theprior
08 May 2017
F1 Read this earlier and then wondered why ST don't sell into the motorsport industry these days, or , do they?I seem to recall that there was no m/s revenue in the last accounts.[link]
theprior
03 May 2017
Re: Share price moving up this week Perhaps something in the air about the "early April " review ??I think we're overdue some news.TP
