VW’s all-electric car plans causes Carclo share price fall

CARCLO’S share price closed down 14% last night, having fallen as much as 24% in intra-day trading, after warning of delays caused by VW Group’s changing plans.

The share price dropped 20p to 126.5p, which knocked £15m off the company’s value, followed the Ossett-based group’s announcement that its full-year performance would be “marginally below” expectations.

VW has decided its flagship luxury vehicle, scheduled to launch in 2017, will be all-electric, which could have an impact on the lighting design – which is Carclo’s interest in the project – and also affect the timing of anticipated revenues.

Carclo generated nearly 40% of its £107m revenues last year from its LED technologies and precision engineering division, which makes lighting and control systems for the automotive and aerospace industries. Its largest division, technical plastics, contributes almost all of the rest of the group’s income.

Despite the market’s concerns, Carclo’s trading update was mostly positive as first-half trading had been “well ahead” of a year earlier. Its facility in Taicang, China, is now complete and the group said it is close to finalising plans to double the size of its site in Bangalore, India.