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Escher Group Holdings (ESCH) kept its "buy" rating from Panmure Gordon, with a 279p target price. The postal software developer is on track to deliver maiden full year revenues since listing of 19.2 million dollars (12.4 million pounds) for the year ending 31st December, says the broker. Panmure notes that new deals tend to come at the end of the calendar year and therefore expects several imminent contract wins to be announced. The broker adds that the shares have under-performed the FTSE All Share by 2.4% over the last few months, leaving the firm attractively valued. Escher shares were unchanged at 160p.
Commenting on today's announcement, Liam Church, Chief Executive Officer of Escher, said: "We are delighted to see Escher Group's shares trading on AIM today. The quotation provides us with a strengthened balance sheet and additional working capital to help accelerate our rate of growth. We see a number of opportunities to expand our business through leveraging our leading market position, entering new markets and rolling out Riposte TrEx, our revolutionary new digital Post Office box model."
Key strengths of the Group · Market leadership. In a market with high barriers to entry, the Group is a world-leading provider of outsourced postal counter software solutions to national post offices, of which Escher supplies 29. As far as Escher is aware, none of its competitors supplies more than three. · Growing markets. Demand for outsourced postal counter software is growing as national post offices seek to increase revenues and reduce costs. The Group's current targeted retail products projected sales pipeline is estimated at US$157 million. The estimate of targeted sales pipeline provided is based on sales that may arise further to tenders already submitted, interaction with potential customers and anticipation of tenders that may arise within a three year period. · High visibility of earnings. As at 31 May 2011, the Group had US$29 million of contracted revenues, approximately US$9 million of which relates to the period from 1 June 2011 to 31 December 2011. Lease, maintenance and support contracts often run from 5-10 years. Historically, approximately 60 per cent. of the annual sales budget is visible in January of each year. · High quality of earnings. Length of typical contract, the quasi governmental nature of Escher's customers and the geographic spread of customers all contribute to the Directors' high level of confidence in Escher's revenues. Over the past three year period, no single customer accounted for more than 17 per cent. of Escher's revenues. · Experienced management. The Executive Directors have in aggregate over 63 years of experience within, and providing services to, the postal industry. Having conducted the MBO of Escher in 2007, they have increased Continuing EBITDA from US$0.7 million in 2008 to US$4.3 million in 2010 (US$4.6 million net of one-off costs). · Proven technology. The core Riposte software is robust, reliable and adaptable. It has been running continuously for 18 years. · Multiple growth opportunities. The Group has four key opportunities for growth: incremental sales to existing customers; further penetration of the outsourced postal counter software market; the application of the Group's existing retail technology to other vertical markets and the adoption of the Group's revolutionary, message-based communications software - RiposteTrEx.
Escher Group Holdings Public Limited Company First Day of Dealings Escher Group Holdings Public Limited Company (AIM: ESCH.L, "Escher" the "Group" or the "Company"), a world leading provider of outsourced, point of sale software to the postal industry, is pleased to announce that the Company's shares have today been admitted to trading on the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange plc under the TIDM code "ESCH" and ISIN Code IE00B6SKRB38. 9,033,097 Placing Shares have been allocated to institutional investors at a price of 170 pence per share raising approximately US$25.0 million (£15.4 million) for the Company before expenses. On admission to AIM a total of 17,033,097 Ordinary Shares were in issue capitalising the Company at approximately US$47.1 million (£29.0 million) at the Placing Price. The Company's nominated adviser and broker is Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited. Background on the Group · Escher is a world leading provider of outsourced, point of sale software to the postal industry. Escher's core software, Riposte, provides a solution for postal authorities which are seeking to counteract a decrease in traditional mail volumes by widening their service offering, reducing cost and increasing efficiency. · Postal authorities' software requirements have become more complex, leading to a growing trend towards outsourcing. Riposte is already in use in 30 countries and territories worldwide. It is licensed for over 150,000 workstations. · Substantially all of Escher's existing customers are national postal authorities including An Post in Ireland, Austria Post, Deutsche Post, Norway's Posten and SAPO in South Africa. Long licence and maintenance contracts and repeat business from quasi governmental customers give Escher good visibility of high quality earnings and have increased Continuing EBITDA (as defined in the Admission Document) from US$0.7 million in 2008 to US$4.3 million in 2010 (US$4.6 million net of one-off costs). · The Company is targeting continued growth through incremental sales to existing customers, new sales within the postal industry, penetration of new vertical markets and through the launch of its revolutionary new product, RiposteTrEx.
http://investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201108080700098971L