Twickenham link confounds accountants

This week SinterCast is in Twickenham, south-west London. A month ago it was in Lucerne, Switzerland. The Swedes, however, will tell you that it never left Stockholm, writes Michael Harrison.

But wherever it is, the company has never made a penny in profit. Confused? Then spare a thought for the forensic accountants trying to track the byzantine share dealings of Peter Young.

SinterCast, is one of the myriad high-technology stocks bought into by Mr Young's European Growth Trust. Last week, much to everyone's amazement, including that of Sintercast, Morgan Grenfell emerged as its majority 58 per cent shareholder.

Though listed on the Stockholm bourse, SinterCast's head offices are on the ninth floor of an office block half a mile from Twickenham rugby ground.

It moved there from Lucerne at the beginning of August to be nearer its markets. The company, which was founded by two Swedish entrepreneurs in 1983, has developed a patented process used in the manufacture of cast iron products mainly for the car industry.

Hyundai of Korea has signed an agreement to evaluate the process and SinterCast has installed it system in a large US foundry but executives will cheerfully tell you it has never made a profit in 13 years. In 1995 it lost 65m Swedish crowns (pounds 6.3m) on sales of 766,000 crowns but that never daunted Mr Young.