Spectra shares drop fifth of value after client cancels programme

Shares in Spectra Systems declined sharply on Thursday after the group revealed that a G8 central bank customer has decided to cancel a programme on which Spectra had been working. The customer, which had been funding the materials and sensor development for a new generation technology, the incorporation of which by the central bank had been successfully trialled. The company said it would continue to own all of the developed intellectual property, specific covert materials and sensor designs developed under the programme, and that the specific materials and data would be unclassified, enabling them for use with another central bank customer. Spectra Chief Exectuive, Nabil Lawandy, said: "The manner in which this programme came to an abrupt halt is gravely disappointing and a loss to the central bank which has spent over $1MM in development of materials and sensor design [...] We are now free to take this fully completed technology to other central banks as a ready package paid for by the central bank rather than shareholders. We will pursue this aggressively."In the meantime, this will have minimal impact on market expectations as only negligible revenues relating thereto had been anticipated in such expectations. In addition, this decision by the G8 central bank is not expected to have any impact on current generation business with the central bank to whom we will continue to deliver upgraded sensors throughout the year."The group added that it was "delighted" to report that phosphour sales had recovered to previous levels.The share price fell 20.83% to 19p by 12:47 Thursday. NR