GHT.L Regulatory News (GHT)

3 Sep 2007 07:02

Gresham Computing PLC03 September 2007 3 September 2007 Gresham Computing plc ("Gresham" or the "Company") Operating and trading update and significant contract announcement Gresham Computing plc provides the following operating and trading updatetogether with news of a significant new contract for the group. Financials - accelerating our product to market In the first half of 2007 we continued the step change in our sales andmarketing investment to enable us to take our core products and solutions tomarket faster. We have more than doubled our sales and marketing team in the 12months to 30 June 2007 to over 30 people. We expect to report revenues for thesix months ended 30 June 2007 of approximately £6.4m and a loss before tax ofapproximately £1.5m. Cash at the half year was £1.1m. Interim financialstatements for the six months ended 30 June 2007 are expected to be releasedshortly. Given the strength of our existing pipeline we believe that we will begin toreap the rewards of our investment programme during the second half of 2007. Asa result, we believe that trading for the full year to December 2007 will be inline with management's expectations. We are pleased to report the following progress on a number of key initiatives. Clareti Cash Reporting Service ("CCRS") - momentum for SIBOS We assumed primary responsibility for this service from Cable & Wireless in thesecond quarter of 2006. In the 12 months to 30 June 2007 the value oftransactions has grown over 90% to in excess of US $500 billion per day onaverage, reflecting both the growth in the number of users and their increasingdata demands. As a result of the increasing data demands from service users, we have added twonew data providers since April 2007, raising the total number of providers totwenty four, of which: sixteen banks are now integrated to the hub and one bankis undergoing final acceptance testing. We now provide coverage of thefollowing thirteen currencies: AUD, CAD, EUR, GBP, HUF, JPY, NZD, PLN, SEK, THB,TRY, USD and ZAR. Requests for data from both potential and actual users is driving the additionof new providers onto the service. We are currently working with four new banksthat have been asked to provide data to the service at the request of trialusers of the service, which if successful would add a further four currencies tothe service, being: CHF, DKK, FIH and NOK. We have agreements for five "Browser bank users" and five "Direct bank users".As noted above, we are working to satisfy the requirements of prospective andexisting users and anticipate that much of this work will be evident in time forSIBOS, the international banking conference, which this year takes place inOctober in Boston, USA. In the banking sector, we note that the Bank of International Settlements issueda consultative report in July 2007 entitled "Progress in reducing foreignexchange settlement risk". The report highlights the need for the wider bankingcommunity to now more rapidly adopt solutions and controls to mitigate large,and often unknown, financial risks associated with cash movements. Our CCRSsolution is currently being used by a number of the largest banks in the worldto assist them in managing the exposures identified in this report. Clareti Payables Financing ("CPF") - significant contract CPF is our patent pending supply chain financing technology. The technology hasbeen designed and built over the last 3 years, designed out of our expertisegained through CCRS. We believe it is world class both in terms of innovationand performance. We are very pleased to announce that we have agreed contracts with a major AsiaPacific telecommunications company to provide our technology solution to market. We expect this deal to build in the short term to then deliver a materialimpact on our future earnings over the next few years. The service has been launched in Australia with a first 'FTSE sized' customerthat is now in the final stage of integration. Working alongside our partners,our expectation is that this service will be rolled out to a number of othersimilar-sized businesses in Australia over the next few years. The supply chain financing service will be provided by the telecommunicationscompany, who in turn will be working closely with a major global bank. Ourconsortium approach brings together Gresham's technology and expertise, theglobal bank's wide reaching competencies in the financial market place and anestablished telecommunications company with existing e-procurement capabilities. Gresham derives revenue on a transaction basis, following the methodology of 'software as a service'. We are pleased to be working with such highly respectedpartners each seeking a mutually beneficial result. We believe that this solution is perfectly placed to capitalise on solving theopposing needs of buyers and suppliers; namely buyers wanting to hold on totheir cash for as long as possible and suppliers who want payment as fast aspossible. By leveraging the buyer's credit rating and working with a global bankand supply chain experts, we are able to assist in unlocking working capital andproviding greater transparency of the physical and financial supply chain.Providing access to real time payment information is an effective solution andworking alongside a service provider and a bank we can provide a full servicesolution. Clareti VTL - growing the sales pipeline VTL stands for Virtual Tape Library. Clareti VTL is a data storage solution thataddresses the market need to more efficiently manage both virtual and physicalmedia (disk and tape), as well as to store and retrieve data in very large andcomplex data storage environments. While the data storage requirements of manycompanies and governmental organisations continue to grow exponentially acrossthe globe, the need to reduce energy consumption and cost per byte of datastored also increases. Clareti VTL Version 2 was released to the market for the second half of 2007.Since release, we have seen significant progress with this solution and expectto see further progress in the back half of 2007. - Ends - For further information, please contact: Gresham Computing plc +44 (0)20 7653 0200Andrew Walton-GreenFinancial Dynamics +44 (0)207 831 3113James Melville-Ross This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange