Member Info for Hedgehog100

"Key security industry trends in 2023

... Ready to get ahead of these trends?

Grosvenor Technology are a market leader in global access control & human capital management solutions- with more than 30 years of innovative engineering experience. We deliver much more than just secure, smart environments. We create bespoke solutions tailored to an organisation’s working practices and our solutions help to protect your personnel and guarantee the safety of your critical assets.

If you would like to learn more about how we could help you get ahead of the latest trends and protect your bottom line, contact the Grosvenor Technology team today for more information."

https://www.grosvenortechnology.com/insights/key-security-industry-trends-in-2023/

"Key security industry trends in 2023

... 3. Biometric entrance control will set the standard in physical security

When it comes to entrance control, the last few decades have seen us move a long way from keys, pin codes, and ID cards. It’s now more commonly the case that organizations are instead relying on biometric solutions to manage it, such as facial recognition systems that unlock doors as an authorised user approaches them.

Biometric systems bring with them many advantages and as well as offering 1:N identification, they are well positioned to be an integral part of multifactor authentication solution. They’re more efficient because they can verify in less than a second and they’re more secure because they are much harder to trick or counterfeit (Spoof). These and other factors are going to see biometrics proliferate within entrance control during the next few years.

4. ‘Zero trust’ moving into the physical world

The term ‘zero trust’ is often used in cybersecurity to describe a philosophy of “never trust, always verify”—in other words, it eliminates the concept of trust from an organization’s network and forces everyone, no matter who they are, to verify their credentials.

This concept is gradually making its way into the realm of physical security and access control as the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to blur the lines between physical and cyber security. Indeed, with more physical security devices connected over the Internet than ever before, cybersecurity has become an immense challenge for the physical security industry, and it’s concepts like zero trust that will help firms stay ahead of threat factors.

5. More of a focus on privacy protection

The COVID-19 pandemic had huge implications for privacy, and the use of tracking technology and other data-driven tools by governments worldwide has led to consumers being understandably more concerned about it. Given that the number one goal of any physical security solution is to protect your people and assets, you shouldn’t underestimate the role your organization now plays in building public trust.

The heightened sensitivities of the public around privacy means that the physical security industry is now having to do more to address it and find appropriate solutions. For organizations that see this as an opportunity rather than a challenge, privacy could prove to be the driving force behind forward-thinking strategies, such as privacy-first system design, and become a catalyst for further growth. ..."

https://www.grosvenortechnology.com/insights/key-security-industry-trends-in-2023/

From the website of Grosvenor Technology, NWT's Human Capital Management (HCM) and access control subsidiary, an excellent article by GT's MD:-

"Insights | Company News

Key security industry trends in 2023

As we have entered a new year, now is a good time to look at some of the trends that are shaping the security industry and consider what these might mean for incumbents.

Colin Leatherbarrow
Managing Director

The security industry today is very different from how it was just a few years ago, and it continues to redefine itself. Moving away from mere security considerations in isolation, factors such as technology, interoperability, artificial intelligence, sustainability, and more are shaping today’s industry.

As we have entered a new year, now is a good time to look at some of the trends that are shaping the security industry and consider what these might mean for incumbents.

1. Artificial intelligence will continue to lead the way

According to recent figures, AI in the security market was valued at US$5.08 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach US$14.18 billion by 2026. Indeed, for several years running, artificial intelligence (AI) has been the predominant trend as companies continue to leverage its advanced capabilities for functions such as facial recognition, video surveillance, audio analytics, and more.

More recently, we have seen a shift towards AI being used as a preventative rather than a reactive measure, meaning that security teams can stop incidents taking place in the first place thanks to things like predictive analytics and machine learning.

2. Cloud-based services will become more essential

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the move towards cloud-based security and monitoring. According to a recent report by Calipsa, 75% of businesses surveyed said that they are now using cloud-based video analytics for security purposes, an increase of 8% when compared with 2020.

Cloud technology enables organizations to become more agile in their approach to security, putting them in a better position to respond to emerging challenges and scale their approach with organizational growth. It’s also far more adaptable than legacy security solutions. For example, cloud-based identity management technology can be integrated with the latest developments in biometric access control in real-time to enable faster and more secure authentication. ..."

https://www.grosvenortechnology.com/insights/key-security-industry-trends-in-2023/

Sèmè oilfield Benin operating licence:-
A production sharing contract being negotiated that could give ZEN a revenue share of USS100M.+ p.a., at great profit margins.

ZEN have 3 months to negotiate a Production Sharing Contract ("PSC") for the Benin project from 10th. January, so we can expect it to be finalised by Easter, which is not long away.

A very likely near term PSC that could give ZEN a revenue share of USS100M.+ p.a., at great profit margins, is clearly huge, so there's every reason to be very positive about the impact of it being finalised.

And I expect lots of other positive news between now and then too.

The majority of big gains from a penny share do tend to be achieved within a relatively short time period, compared to its overall period of trading.

The problem is that no one has yet devised a method for accurately predicting in advance when those periods for a share will occur.

That is why it pays to wait patiently, and no obsess about every tiny fluctuation up or down.

From the legendary Jesse Livermore:-

"Throughout all my years of investing I've found that the big money was never made in the buying or the selling. The big money was made in the waiting."

If you look at the posting on this board in November 2020, you will see that Mls was bashing ZEN at 0.35p, just before it rapidly quadrupled by the end of December:-

https://www.lse.co.uk/ShareChat.asp?ShareTicker=ZEN&share=Zenith-Energy&page=260

So personally I think he should apologise for the hundreds of per cent of gains that he may have cost some people.

And talk of 'no real news' is clearly lying, and in my opinion is market abuse!

ZEN have 3 months to negotiate a Production Sharing Contract ("PSC") for the Benin project from 10th. January, so we can expect it to be finalised by Easter, which is not long away.

I expect lots of other positive news between now and then too.

PAUL1DEANO Posts: 2,355 Price: 0.775 No Opinion
RE: BUYS 26 Jan 2023 17:18
" ... Italy is a roaring success. ..."

PAUL1DEANO Posts: 2,355 Price: 0.775 No Opinion
RE: BUYS 26 Jan 2023 11:49
" ... our Italian operations keep us treading water. ..."

Paul,

Your postings here are starting to sound like a rather bizarre stream of consciousness ...

If Grosvenor Technology is spun-out of NWT in a US floatation, then this should be a key to an immediate and immense unlocking of its value.

GT's £14.56M. of revenues last year equates to c. US$18M. at current exchange rates, and growing rapidly, so it has both the size and growth prospects to command a quite generous tech-style rating.

Which in US terms could equate to a few or several US$10s of millions of valuation.

And if it delivers upon its growth prospects, then that could rise to hundreds of millions during this decade.

Informed investors would doubtless view GT status as a spin-out as a major bull point, as spin-outs on average greatly outperform the market as a whole:-

"Spin-Offs Outperforming The Market This Year

Joe Cornell Contributor

Mar 5, 2019, 10:38am EST

You can beat the Street. At a time when many professional investors lament that the proliferation of ETFs and widespread use of screening techniques have made it harder to find bargains in the stock market, one simple investing approach continues to outperform: spin-offs.

Spin-offs have long been a fruitful investment area; a number of academic studies show that they historically have generated far better returns than the overall stock market. A spin-off occurs when a corporation issues stock in a subsidiary to its shareholders to create a new public company. A related corporate event is an IPO carve-out, through which a company sells the public a stake in a unit, while retaining the rest of the division. (Sometimes, the remainder is later distributed to shareholders).

The Bloomberg U.S. Spin-Off Index, composed of companies spun off from larger companies within the past three years, has outperformed the broader market by nine percentage points since the start of the year through Tuesday (February 26th). The 35 member index contains equities with a value over $1 billion that were spun-off from U.S. companies. ..."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joecornell/2019/03/05/spin-offs-outperforming-the-market-this-year/#25c2920033bb

A variant of the option of selling NWT's Safetell subsidiary would be to spin-out NWT's Grosvenor Technology subsidiary as an independent listed company.

This should be comparatively simple to do, and indeed GT already has its own independent website (as indeed does Safetell), which is very impressive:-
https://www.grosvenortechnology.com/

And GT looks ideal for a US listing, generating over half (£8.7M. of £14.56M.) of its revenues last year in North America.

Indeed GT's Human Capital Management (HCM) arm actually has its own North American website:-

"Human Capital Management

People and data management to suit every environment and budget

Get in touch North American website"

http://www.grosvenortechnology.com/human-capital-management/

"THE GT8 IS HERE

GT8 with Touchless Facial Recognition

Your people. Their data. We help you manage both.

Secure data collection, collation, processing and dissemination is at the heart of GT Clocks’ offering. Put simply, we help turn diverse data into real information while increasing security, ensuring compliance and reducing time and cost for our partners

GT Clocks serves the Human Capital Management (HCM) market in North America and across the globe. We provide hardware, software, and services to create solutions that match the most complex needs of HCM solutions providers and end-users – from SMBs to Global Enterprises.

Trusted by some of the world’s biggest brands, we have created a cloud-enabled software suite of services that provides complete confidence when handling the sensitive data of people and processes."

https://gtclocks.com/

ZEN's transformational Tunisia-Yemen-Benin projects:-

• Tunisia:-
During the six months ended September 30, 2022, the Company produced 90,591 barrels of oil from its Tunisian assets (2021 - 94,662 barrels).
At an oil price of c. US£100/barrel, this level of production could have a sale value of c. US$18M. p.a.
Production costs are c. CAD$38 per barrel, = USS28.5/barrel at current exchange rates.

• Acquisition of OMV Yemen:-
An acquisition underway that could give ZEN a near term share of the profit, after Yemen corporate tax, of c. US$50M. p.a.

• Sèmè oilfield Benin operating licence:-
A production sharing contract being negotiated that could give ZEN a revenue share of USS100M.+, at great profit margins.

ZEN also has very profitable Italian electricity and gas operation, and two months ago reported a group half year pre-tax profit, on revenues up nearly 500%.

So potential near term group profit of c. US$100M./p.a. could realistically be achievable.

Another regulatory driver for NWT, to the EU time clock judgement, is biometric data privacy requirement: e.g. the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), and U.S. regulation:-

23rd Jan 2023 7:00 am RNS Final Results

" ... In an increasingly risk-aware enterprise environment, we have been working hard to broaden our reach and reputation as a trusted security partner, becoming a go-to brand for customers who are seeking this control to simplify the growing complexity of security and compliance requirements in the intersection between physical and digital worlds. ..."

https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/NWT/final-results-fjybevmguogyzsg.html

10-09-2021 07:00 Final Results

" ... Managing data privacy and security

Another element of building a strong reputation is how we manage data privacy and data security, in particular biometric data, such as fingerprints and face identification. In the US, there are different rules for biometric data capture and what you can do with it, depending on which state you are in, while in Europe and the UK, we have to adhere to General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR") rules.

It is complex, which is why we have also invested significantly in our workflow management of biometric data. That has meant gathering the consent of people for using their data in the US and Europe, and ensuring that we have annual penetration testing of our systems - both our timeclocks and our Cloud platforms. We are dealing with this ahead of any potential Federal legislation in the US, reassuring our customers that we are secure, and future proofing our systems. ..."

https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/newmark_security/news/rns/story/w6p3v7x

"Biometric Information Privacy Act

... Proposed Federal Regulation

The National Biometric Information Privacy Act

On October 3, 2020, Senator Jeff Merkley introduced the National Biometric Information Privacy Act of 2020 (Senate Bill 4400).[11] While the Act contains provisions similar to BIPA [12] it is more expansive than BIPA.[13] If passed, the Bill would be the first of its kind to regulate biometric information on a national scale.[14] ..."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biometric_Information_Privacy_Act

An interesting article from the Protime website, about a relatively recent EU judgement that should help demand for NWT's products & services:-

"The European Court of Justice broadens the spectrum of the time clock

17 September 2019

Soon, all member states of the European Union will have to put in place a recording system for the working hours of their employees.

A real earthquake in the European world of work

Last May, the European Court of Justice delivered its judgement: from now on, the employers of the member states of the European Union must be able to measure the time performed by their employees. The judgement was delivered following an appeal lodged by a Spanish trade union against Deutsche Bank. The goal? To ensure the protection of workers, by limiting the abuse of unpaid overtime.

Each EU country will, therefore, have to define the implementation of this new law and generalise the establishment of a time-recording system. In Belgium, where a labour law has been in place since 1971, the use of a time clock is not yet an obligation. Changes are to be seen within Belgian companies, both from an equipment perspective as well as its operation.

A judgement that is favourable to workers, but also employers

Despite the feedback received about time management, mostly compared to the policing of employees via time clocks, the real advantages are numerous, both for the workers as well as the employers. Time management also shows up in much more numerous and varied forms than the good old punch clock.

Time recording; a prevention and wellness tool ...

Better experiences for employees ...

The improvement of HR processes ...

A productivity gain ...

No more mobility problems ...

... employers need to put in place new time management solutions and pay the costs. ..."

https://www.protime.eu/en-gb/news/european-court-justice-broadens-spectrum-time-clock

And Protime also offers its hardware as a rental model, which is an ideal complement to NWT's targeting of greater recurring revenues:-

"To maximize flexibility we offer our hardware both in purchase as in rental. The rental (Hardware as a Service or HaaS) model offers additional benefits like permanent online monitoring and quick repair or replacement."

https://www.protime.eu/en-gb/solutions/access/hardware

"Generating long-term, recurring revenue streams is part of an overarching strategy that is dedicated to building a business that has stability and sustainability at its core."

https://newmarksecurity.com/about-us/our-market/

Like NWT, Protime looks to be strong on the provision of biometric technology solutions:-

"Is biometrics an asset to your company?

21 September 2022

... Is biometrics indispensable now?

Not necessarily, but it does have several relatively attractive advantages:

A real convenience for its users: the risk of forgetting one's head or hands remains very low.

Maximised security because it is practically impossible to falsify. No more risk of losing or having your access badge stolen.

Save time because you don't have to worry about remembering or resetting passwords. ..."

https://www.protime.eu/en-gb/news/biometrics-asset-your-company

" ... Newmark plans to continue its strategy of investing heavily in research and development allowing the Company to stay ahead of the curve and ensure the highest levels of secure technologies for its customers. The Company is continually innovating in fields such as biometrics, cloud services and mobile authentication to ensure its products are at the forefront of the sectors it operates in. ... "

https://newmarksecurity.com/about-us/our-strategy/

Thanks for the background on Highlander.

Anglo African Oil & Gas (AAOG) floated nearly six years ago, at 20p/share:-

6th Mar 2017 8:28 am RNS Admission to AIM and First Day of Dealings
" ... placing of 50,000,000 Ordinary Shares at a price of 20 pence per share ..."
https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/AAOG/admission-to-aim-and-first-day-of-dealings-9ch55voz0guoec6.html

It was then suspended in November 2020 at 0.3p/share; and delisted in May 2021.

It is still lingering on as an unlisted shell company with large tax losses.
But it last accounts filed were for the year ended 31.12.2020:-
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/04140379/filing-history

NWT's Grosvenor Technology subsidiary is one of just two of Protime's partners that are shown on Protime's website.

And the other, SD Worx Group (which has an equity stake in Protime), is a large multinational company:-

"A close network of partners

Protime focusses on its core business: time

To bring added value, we understand we have to look beyond our own specialization and cooperate with a network of well selected partners. Although our software solutions are integrated with hundreds of different applications, there are some partnerships that pop out.

SD Worx Group

Protime is a proud daughter of the SD Worx group since 2011. ..."

"Grosvenor Technology

Protime works in partnership with Grosvenor Technology for hardware solutions in the fields of access control and workforce management solutions."

https://www.protime.eu/en-gb/about-us/partners

"The facts and figures
We have 75+ years of expertise in HR & Payroll
We employ 6,800+ HR Professionals
We serve 5 million+ employees every month
We send out 5,000+ temp workers every day
We serve a client base of over 82,000
We cover 150+ countries worldwide
We are present in 22 countries
We achieved a consolidated turnover of EUR 870 million in 2021"

https://www.sdworx.com/en-en/about-sd-worx/annual-reports

What a feather in NWT's cap, to be highlighted with this sort of public endorsement, and alongside a multinational.

23rd Jan 2023 7:00 am RNS Final Results

" ... We have developed for Protime, our largest European partner, an additional functionality within our Android feature set that enables them to adopt the new GT8 time clock. ..."

https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/NWT/final-results-fjybevmguogyzsg.html

Protime looks like a top partner for NWT to have:-

"Birth and growth

Founded in 1995, Protime is today a European market leader in time registration and personnel planning.

Our tools are now used in almost 40 countries. ..."

"Our vision

To be great place to work ...

To be the number one provider of time management solutions in Europe ..."

https://www.protime.eu/en-gb/about-us/our-story

pjml5337 Posts: 11 Price: 0.475 No Opinion
Congo 2 Sep '20
"Highlander have you got shares in zen and what’s your thoughts please
Thanks in advance"
https://www.lse.co.uk/ShareChat.asp?ShareTicker=ZEN&share=Zenith-Energy&page=296

Highlander was before my time here.
I've looked back though, and though Highlander is referenced, I can't see any posts from him ... albeit I haven't checked every page.

Could such posts have been removed for some reason, and why might that be?

And what's happened to Highlander himself?!

Thanks Dab.

Funny that you should mention sexiness, because I've just noticed this on the website of Protime, a large NWT partner:-

"Software can be sexy."
https://www.protime.eu/en-gb

25th Jan 2023 7:00 am RNS MOU-2 Drilling Update
" ... Re-evaluation of drilling mud programme required for unexpected geological formation before re-entry is considered. ..."
https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/PRD/mou-2-drilling-update-f241mhv45qamtio.html

LSE % Losers Top Lists
EPIC Name %
PRD Predator Oil & Gas -61%

Another O&G sector drilling disappointment today.

And another reminder of the risks of punting on drilling results.

As I said here two days ago:-

"As regards punting on drilling results:-
Look at some of the 'dusters' and crashed s.p.s last year, e.g. ADV (Advance Energy) and EME (Empyrean Energy).
Why gamble, when with ZEN we already know the oil is there?"

CLON (Clontarf) was another good (or rather bad) example from last year.