LONDON (Alliance News) - Transense Technology said Tuesday it narrowed its pretax loss as it saw revenue more than double in the half-year ended December 31.
The technology company, which produces sensor systems, posted its maiden earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation profit of GBP20,000, up from a loss of GBP910,000 in the previous year.
Transense said it was well positioned to deliver on market expectations for the full-year to June 2013, as it had good forward visibility of sales in the second-half and picked up new orders in January.
"This solid and growing sales pipeline combined with a strong balance sheet should allow the company to scale rapidly over the next few years," said Chief Executive Officer Graham Storey in a statement.
The company saw good revenue growth from its Translogic division as increased tyre and fuel costs drove demand for its iTrack Tyre Temperature and Pressure Monitoring Systems in the mining and commercial vehicle industries. Storey told Alliance News that this trend is expected to continue, as mining companies adopt this system to improve cost efficiency and protect expensive equipment.
In its IntelliSAW business, however, sales have not been at the level the company expected at its current stage of development. The company recently won a supply agreement with Siemens India, and opened offices in Shanghai, China, Bogota and Columbia to strengthen its market presence.
"When we're dealing with Peru or Ecuador, we have a guy whose based in Bogota who can be there quickly, he speaks the language," said Storey. "People generally feel more comfortable with the fact that they can see we've made an investment in Latin America, in China, we're committed."
A key issue for the business is the rigorous testing and approvals needed to switch existing monitoring systems.
"It definitely means that when people want to start pilots we can be there and commission them much more quickly, I think that helps," Storey said.
Storey recently visited and had meetings in the Middle East, and said that there's money to invest in infrastructure there that other countries don't have.
"We have a pilot that was started nearly two years ago, the engineers love the information their getting, they've been applying again and again to roll out the system- they've been told they will, but there's no budget," Storey said.
"Another leg is to operate in territories where budgets are a little more plentiful," Storey said.
The deal with Samsung is a tipping point for the division, Storey said. "That first significant sale is really, really hard work- once you've made it things become easier." Following the deal with Siemens in India to install its IntelliSAW temperature monitoring equipment it has had enquiries from Siemens in Europe, OE's in Brazil and has seen interest in America.
"A lot of the hard work with IntelliSaw has already been done, we expect the sales side of things to pick up quite sharply from here on," Storey said.
Shares in Transense were trading up 11% at 7.20 pence Tuesday afternoon.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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Transense (TRT)