In a trading update the audio technology company FeONIC, which has developed a range of products which turn solid surfaces into speaker systems, has announced a first contract win by subsidiary FeONIC Transport. The deal is worth £117,000 for a retrofit project in the Far East which should develop into an ongoing programme as more and more stations are retrofitted. The company said that it has been asked to bid for the manufacture, supply and installation of trial units because the level of intelligibility that can be achieved with the specially designed FeONIC products can reach levels greatly in excess of international minimum requirements (ie you can hear them better).

Elsewhere, FeONIC’s distributors in Norway and Japan have secured contracts to supply smaller FeONIC audio drives with two key customers, as has one Italian distributor. In the UK, the firm said that larger audio drives are being incorporated on a regular basis into prestige housing projects where there is a requirement for a sophisticated but invisible home theatre and through the house audio systems. In addition, FeONIC South East Asia has made progress into government organisations in Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Singapore for several non transport compliance applications for public address systems and voice enhancement.

Initial production of Soundbug2, the follow up to flagship product Soundbug, will start in September. FeONIC said that expressions of interest have been received from Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Europe for over 10,000 pieces.

At a mid-price of 1.125p FeONIC is currently capitalised at just £0.61 million. The firm’s most recent results, for the six months to 31st January, showed sales down by 69% to £48,096, with the pre-tax loss tripling to £134,330. No balance sheet information was released with the results, with the last reported cash position being just £5,365 as at 31st July 2009 – almost a year ago! While £12,600 was raised in February this year and £10,000 was raised in June the firm has shown few signs of not being under financial pressure and for that reason we are not attracted to the shares. Sell.