Companies: APC   

Final results from APC, the electronics distributor and services provider, are due out on 30 January and could well be worth looking out for. The figures themselves will not make particularly appetising reading, given that the group has released two profit warnings. Indeed brokers expect around £800,000 of losses. But the announcement of the sale of the company's telecommunications components division (its major historical loss-maker) to US group BelFuse for $5.5m (£3.5m) makes the shares look, potentially, undervalued. Investors would probably be right to view this as a troubled company conducting a fire sale of assets, but the sale price does not look bad, given that the assets of the disposed business were valued in APC's books at £2.9m and net assets at the interim stage were £3.6m (with no goodwill). Further corporate activity looks likely following the recent move to Aim. Speculative buy.