Hi, it's Paul here, I'm on duty this week.

Estimated timings - I intend starting fairly early, and finish time will depend on how much news there is to report on.  Update at 11:21 - OK that didn't work out as planned. I'm on the case now, please see the list of shares I'll be reporting on in the title above. Estimated completion time: 3pm. Update at 15:07 - I'm still plugging away, most of the report is now done, but I'll add a bit more. So probably finishing about 15:30.  Update at 15:19 - today's report is now finished.



Fireangel Safety Technology (LON:FA.)

Share price:  9.75p (down 24% today, at 11:26)
No. shares:  75.9m
Market cap: £7.4m

Trading update (profit warning)

FireAngel (AIM: FA.), one of Europe's leading developers and suppliers of home safety products, announces an update on trading for the year ending 31 December 2019.

This company makes smoke alarms. It has been incredibly accident-prone in recent years, with multiple seemingly self-inflicted wounds.

Revised guidance for 2019 is given today by the company;

Revenue for the year ending 31 December 2019 is now expected to be below previous market expectations in the range £44.5 million to £45.0 million and the Company's underlying operating result, before the impact of the change to straight line amortisation previously described in the Company's interim results announcement released on 24 September 2019, is expected to be a loss in the range £2.6 million to £2.9 million.  This is based on exchange rates as at the date of this announcement.


I can't find any recent broker notes. However the consensus forecast shown on Stockopedia is negative, at -£2.74m (this is after tax). Not dissimilar from the revised figure quoted by the company today.

What's gone wrong? - rather lame excuses in some cases, but at least plenty of detail is given;

  • Sales growth of c.20% has "stressed the company's processes from production right through to customer fulfilment" - does that sound like a well-managed company? No.
  • Repeatedly losing small amounts of revenue & margin
  • Sales mix in Q4 worse than expected
  • Additional costs to re-work some stock lines
  • Costly air freight charges to meet deliveries
  • Strengthening sterling


Outlook - significant opportunity to increase its gross margin higher.

2020 profit guidance reduced to £0.5m, or £4.4m EBITDA (a meaningless figure, due…

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