Arcontech Group Regulatory News (ARC)

29 Dec 2006 07:00

Knowledge Technology Solutions PLC29 December 2006 RNS release 29 December 2006 Annual General Meeting Update At today's Annual General Meeting of Knowledge Technology Solutions PLC ("KTS"or the "Company"), the Chief Executive will outline to shareholders the maindevelopments over the year and discuss current prospects. Chief Executive's AGM Report As previously reported in our final results statement released on 4 December, weintroduced a new strategy aimed at building a broader, higher margin revenuebase. The new strategy maintains the focus on the strength and flexibility of ourtechnology, but reduces the Company's dependency on revenues derived solely frommarket data subscription services. As part of the diversification, a new area of focus has been the creation ofspecific solutions that address the requirements arising from the plannedintroduction of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, MiFID. As youmay be aware, MiFID is an EU directive aimed at creating transparency throughoutthe European Union for market participants dealing in securities and is expectedto become law from 1 November 2007. Complying with MiFID will require considerable investment from financialinstitutions, creating for KTS many revenue earning opportunities where we canwork with partners such as major investment banks and brokers to build solutionsthat not only meet MiFID's regulatory requirements, but also potentially lead totangible commercial benefits among our target partner base. Importantly, through participation in MiFID implementation forums over the last15 months, we believe we have identified separate but equally compellingopportunities among both the investing side and the securities' sales side ofthe target financial institutions, again if successful, significantly broadeningour market beyond its current revenue base. Again, as part of KTS's strategy to increase market share, we have alsointroduced MarketTerminal ON-SITE. This is a new product that provides globalbanks with customised viewing applications that are designed to improve theinterface between a bank's internally originated and derived information and theexternal data and prices sourced from a plethora of third party suppliers. MarketTerminal ON-SITE uses the same proprietary technology platform asMarketTerminal and integrates seamlessly with the bank's existinginfrastructure. It is being sold on a licence model and aimed at a new marketfor KTS - mid-tier users within major international investment banks operatingin the City of London. We are delighted that the response to MarketTerminal ON-SITE has been veryencouraging because clients have recognised it brings vital new competition to amarket traditionally dominated by just a few large data vendors. Increasedflexibility, seamless integration with existing infrastructures and immediatecost savings make MarketTerminal ON-SITE a highly attractive proposition formajor investment banks. A 'proof of concept' phase with one global investment bank has been successfullycompleted and we are looking forward to reporting to shareholders keydevelopments on this and our MiFID solutions. Looking ahead, we are pleased that our recent financing rounds have been wellsupported by new and existing shareholders. We are delighted that they share ourexcitement and belief in our new products and strategy, and the strength andtrack record of KTS's proprietary technology. With over £1.8 million in newfunds now secured, we believe we have the financing in place that will enable usto make 2007 a year which KTS strengthens considerably its position in the livefinancial data services market. Marc Pinter-Krainer, Chief Executive 29 December 2006 Contacts: Dr Marc Pinter-Krainer Neil Boom Knowledge Technology Solutions PLC Gresham PR Ltd. 020 7256 2300 020 7404 9000 Emily Morgan Barrie Newton Corporate Synergy Plc Corporate Synergy Plc 0117 933 0020 01225 424 666 Notes to Editors About Knowledge Technology Solutions PLC Knowledge Technology Solutions PLC is an innovative provider of financial marketdata application services and the company is listed on AIM, a market operated bythe London Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: KTS). Utilising its proprietary advanced technologies, KTS focuses on developing andproviding real-time market data services to the financial marketplace bydelivering essential market data and news via more cost-effective communicationschannels. KTS differentiates itself from other leading information providers as itsservices are technology driven. They are designed to run on standard PCs andlaptops without the need for any installation of dedicated hardware, software orinfrastructure, as the application runs on the server side on powerful clustersof highly resilient and secure servers. Financial professionals can log on to KTS's services by using a standardInternet connection from any geographical location across fixed and wirelessnetworks. KTS's "zero-client" application service requires no client-sidecomponents and upgrades are automatic. Other benefits include flexibility andcost savings in support and maintenance using any market data infrastructure.More than 130 client organisations currently subscribe to KTS's financialinformation service KTS MarketTerminal. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange