24 September 2012 – interim results
The specialist brick manufacturer Michelmersh has announced its interim results covering the six months to 30 June and these have revealed lower revenues of £11.9m (2011: £12.2m) and a pre-tax loss of £84,000 (2011: profit of £105,000). Although these figures do not look very inspiring at first glance, the company has increased production with 38.1m units produced (2011: 35.6m) at lower cost than expected although the volume of bricks sold fell to 33m (2011: 36m), whilst the selling price also increased to £355 per thousand (2011: £336 per thousand). Ner debt is £842,000 lower than a year ago and this is expected to reduce further as sales of surplus land generate cash proceeds. The group now only expects to break-even for the full year but it has net assets of 60p per share and will benefit from any upturn in activity. The shares are a SPECULATIVE BUY.