Irish bathroom suite specialist Qualceram Shires says it has received an expression of interest, which may lead to an offer.

The fully listed company – which has revealed annual operating profits down 70 per cent to £860,000 – is in talks with its unnamed potential suitor, but stresses that these are at ‘a very early stage’, with ‘no certainty they will lead to an offer’. Qualceram suffered a near 12 per cent turnover slide to £71 million last year, but asset disposals to compensate for restructuring and redundancy costs helped lift pre-tax profits 38 per cent to £4.2 million, and last month the company received £24 million from selling a property in County Wicklow.

Shares in Qualceram, which plunged from 160p to 70p last year, have perked up to 85p, valuing the company at £18.8 million. In the short term, they are a speculation on the outcome of the present talks.

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Qualceram	LSE	£3.88m	17.50p	0.00p
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