Gresham Regulatory News (GHT)

21 Jan 2005 07:00

Gresham Computing PLC21 January 2005 Strictly private and confidentialPre-close period business update Gresham Computing plc provides the following update to progress in the secondhalf of 2004. Progress with Cable & Wireless RTN ("CWRTN") remains encouraging. Firstsubscription revenues from the service were earned during the summer of 2004 andthe system has been live since April 2004. Four banks that committed to provide data to the service, including three of the"top 10" largest banks in the world (note 1), are now integrated and live on thesystem. Four further banks that committed to provide data to the service areexpected to be integrated and live on the system shortly. In addition, Barclayswas announced as the first subscriber for Nostro Direct, the live CWRTN datastreaming service. We have continued to make good progress in developing a number of potentiallysignificant opportunities for the group in the working capital solutions market.We are currently working in Australia with a leading communications group todevelop and deliver a solution in the bank to corporate market. We have alsocontinued to invest in research and development in our core markets. In addition, our Casablanca Java Integration Broker has been chosen by HP tosupport their Real Time Financial Services architecture and Single Customer Viewsolution - because of its ability to interoperate seamlessly with HP's Non Stopplatform to create a new generation large integration hub. For the second half of 2004 we expect a considerably improved operatingperformance compared with the second half of 2003 and similar operatingperformance to that of the first half of 2004. We also expect a significantreduction in the retained loss for the second half of 2004 compared with thatreported in the first half of 2004 after taking into account an anticipatedresearch and development tax credit. For 2004 as a whole we expect to report asignificant reduction in operating and retained losses compared with those of2003. Future outlookThe business has made significant advances in the past year. We are encouraged by the progress of CWRTN and expect continued progress towardsrealising its potential. While revenues will initially be relatively small and,as previously indicated, take a number of years to build to their fullpotential, we continue to believe that CWRTN is our most significant marketopportunity and has the potential to deliver the largest returns in the Group'shistory. Progress in 2004 has moved us considerably closer to realising thispotential. We also expect to begin to realise some of the other significant opportunitiesthat we have developed, particularly from our working capital solutions andstrengthened relationship with HP. We believe that the business is now well placed to capitalise on the strength ofthese opportunities in order to deliver positive growth in 2005 and beyond. Notes1 Measured by Capital (Source: The Banker: "Top 1000 World Banks at 31 December2003", July 2004). - Ends -For further information, please contact: Gresham Computing plcAndrew Walton-Green 01489 555500 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange