Companies: SCO   

Video telecommunications player Scotty Group sounds enthusiastic about order prospects after reducing its annual loss by 28 per cent to £3.9 million.

AIM-quoted Scotty, which recruited aviation specialist Lord Trefgarne as chairman in November, lifted turnover 57 per cent to £6.44 million in the year to July. The Bristol-based company, steered by chief executive officer Kurt Kerschat, focused on two core markets, government aviation and ‘telehealth’, and won its first significant order from Eurocopter.

This could be worth an estimated £4.6 million with additional follow-on orders expected, says Scotty. The company also clinched an agreement with Germany’s Diamond Airborne Sensing, part of the world's second-biggest light aeroplane maker, to install its equipment for security, surveillance and government work.

In February, Scotty won a ‘substantial’ initial order from India for a telecare package to improve a private hospital chain’s after-treatment, using videophones, call centres and equipment for monitoring patients’ health. After some delays, the company says it expects deliveries will start shortly.

Scotty has been operating a ‘major’ telehealth system in Holland since 2005 and says new orders have recently come in from a Dutch state-funded consortium. Trefgarne cites recent orders from Europe and Asia and says the first five months of the current financial year have brought ‘cash-positive trading’.

A £2 million placing in April at 1.25p, handled by broker HB Corporate, helped ease the cash position but the stock market remains cautious. At 1.389p, down 0.10p this morning, Scotty shares have collapsed from 15.75p in 2004 and value the company at £13.8 million.