Durban - Bell Equipment, which manufactures and distributes heavy-duty materials handling equipment, continued its surge yesterday on the JSE, climbing a further 10c to 300c after news that it was close to forming a strategic alliance with an international operation.
Last Friday the company renewed a December cautionary which said it was in talks with parties which could affect its share price.
Since the beginning of December the counter has gained 61 percent. This is despite the fact that Bell Equipment is expected to report less than sterling results for the full year to December 1998 later in the first quarter.
Gary Bell, the group chief executive, said the company was a lot closer to finalising its international alliance, but an announcement was only expected in a few weeks.
In December Bell noted four parties in Europe and North America were interested in an alliance.
Bell said the international partner would brand Bell machines and should help it secure a larger slice of world markets.
He said, however, additional volumes which would flow from the alliance would only begin to have an effect on earnings in the third quarter of this year, and should therefore have a material effect on full-year results for December 1999.
But the effects of restructuring, which saw the curbing of some offshore operations, and a wide-ranging plan to reduce debt and return the group to profitability, would have a material effect on results for the year to December 1998.
Bell noted last year there was increasing consolidation and aggressiveness among large players in world markets. It said it did not have the resources of these players and therefore chose to compete in specific niches.
It focuses on manufacturing product niches in materials handling, mainly articulated dump trucks, manoeuvrable three wheelers and tractor/trailers.