A struggling Gateshead tech firm is hoping to be rescued after it received several offers for its trading subsidiary and assets.
Listed Zytronic also confirmed that managing director Mark Cambridge, who has been in post since 2006 and served the company for the past 25 years, has stepped down as planned.
Zytronic said late last year that it was considering several options including solvent liquidation or a sale following a strategic review.
A manufacturer of touch overlay sensors for interactive displays dating back to the 1940s, Zytronic appointed a new chair last year in a bid to turn around its fortunes after sales failed to recover to pre-COVID levels.
The company’s technology – manufactured in three factories in Blaydon – is used in self-service, gaming and industrial applications.
In 2019 it generated £20 million in sales. It now expects to report unaudited revenues for the financial year ended 30th September 2024 of £7.2m, a fall from £8.6m in 2023.
Several of Zytronic’s customers in North America had been affected by the bankruptcy of Aruze Gaming America, while wider overstocking due to supply chain concerns had also hit it hard.
Options on the table include the implementation of a new strategic business plan, an orderly solvent liquidation of the company’s assets, the potential sale of the company, delisting and continuing as a private company, and selling the assets and continuing as a cash shell.
Solvent liquidation is when a company chooses to wind down despite holding assets valued more highly than its debt obligations.
Zytronic said that FRP Advisory is making progress in its bid to save the company. The Zytronic board is currently reviewing a number of preliminary offers for the company’s trading subsidiary, Zytronic Displays Limited, together with preliminary offers for specific assets of the company.
It said it will provide updates to shareholders in due course. “There can be no guarantee any of these offers will progress, nor their eventual terms,” it added in a notice to the London Stock Exchange.
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