Aim investors should abide by the adage that if something looks too good to be true, it usually is.

On the other hand, there are some amazing stories that cannot be easily assimilated. They take a lot of time to seep into the market’s consciousness.

The founders of Zenergy realised that it would take longer than usual to explain their high-temperature superconductors to potential investors. “We need to meet them two or three times to give them an understanding,” says Jens Müller, chief executive.

So the company arrived on Aim via a simple introduction in August 2006, when the shares were 84p. The first placing in April last year raised £6m at 140p and the second in December raised a further £10m at 280p. The company now boasts M&G, Axa and Fidelity among its shareholders.

This week it reported maiden preliminary results. However, revenues of €268,000 and operating losses of €5.2m (£4.1m) give outside observers little idea as to what is exciting the company’s backers.

High-temperature superconductors are not new but they are only just reaching the commercialisation stage.

A recent note from Charles Stanley, an independent broker, says the company “occupies a very strong position within the market for HTS systems and HTS wires and coils, and is recognised as such within the industry. To date the group has secured significant funding in the form of government grants and equity investment totalling over €73m to develop its HTS technology and expertise in HTS systems integration”.

HTS replaces copper in electrical systems. It is cheaper and enables a reduction in carbon dioxide, it suffers no electrical losses and carries 100 times the power density.

Last year Zenergy produced the world’s first HTS induction heater, which will be delivered this quarter to Weser Alu in Germany, where it will be used to heat billets of aluminium ready for extrusion. The company has also adapted the technology for copper. It claims the induction heater is twice the efficiency of existing technology at a competitive capital cost.

However, that is only one string to its bow. The company is working in the US on fault current limiters, which protect grids from blackouts. It has received grants from the US Department of Energy and the California Energy Commission.

It is also working with Eon on supplying HTS coils for the next stage of generators for hydro-electric power stations. In addition it is developing much lighter but higher-powered generators for use in wind farms.

Finally, it has an exclusive five-year collaboration agreement with ThyssenKrupp for the development of 2G wire and coil technology. Basically, it is planning the first industrial production of nickel tape coated with its ceramic HTS.

Zenergy was formed from pioneering HTS companies in Germany, Australia and the US. The results statement talks of an “amalgamation achieved with great success and with a level of harmonious efficiency only conferred in instances where the merging assets are highly complementary and the end market opportunities so sizable”.

Such hyperbole may be ill-advised, even when almost half your 60 employees have PhDs or higher degrees. Then again, they might just know what they are talking about.

Ambitious aim

Zenergy is only one of the companies on Aim where a quick glance at the figures prompts the immediate reaction: why on earth does this business want a quote?

Another is Asia Distribution Solutions, which last week reported sales of £520,000 and profits of £127,000 for the period from April 10 to December 31 last year. Its market capitalisation is £6m.

By any definition it is an early stage business. It raised no funds when it joined Aim in November and the shares have since fallen from 25p to 20½p, with a bid price of 18p and an offer price of 23p.

But perhaps the cynical view should be pushed aside. Aim was established to help small, enterprising companies grow, and Asia Distribution Solutions is nothing if not ambitious.

The chairman is Michael Kingshott, who was one of the founders of the Sally Line of ferries that used to ply the channel between England and France. The ferries turned over about £480m a year in duty-free booze and it is that expertise that Mr Kingshott is bringing to bear on the growing Chinese thirst for good wine.

The chief executive is Steve Wong, who spent 10 years developing PepsiCo’s operations in China.

The plan is to create one of China’s first national drinks and snacks distribution chains. Mr Kingshott says that many Chinese hoteliers at present take four to five different deliveries a day, so there is plenty of scope to improve efficiencies.

The company already has links with Heineken, Tiger Beer, Snapple and Carrefour, as well as a wine mall in Shanghai. It also has a joint bottling venture with the Chinese government.

In addition it has managed to use its paper to acquire a couple of small distributors as it starts to spread its tentacles throughout China. Yet at the back of my mind lingers the old story about how rich you could get by selling everyone in China a Mars bar every week. No-one appears to have succeeded in doing so.

david.blackwell@ft.com