11 Jan 2007 07:00
Embargoed for release at 7.00 am on 11 January 2007 Amteus plc ("Amteus", the "Company" or the "Group") Trading Update and Product Relaunch
Amteus, the provider of private and secure IP based business communications software, announces the following trading update.
Starting in late November 2006, Amteus has repositioned and relaunched both its product offering and its route to market. Amteus is now concentrating on using resellers as its route to market. Resellers have the relationship with the ultimate customer base and have immediately identified customer demand for the Company's private and secure instant messaging product ("IM"). The introduction to the market of this redefined business model, which involves changing the focus of the product offering to major on IM at a competitive price, has had an immediate and significant impact on sales order levels.
The Company now requires to raise additional working capital and is discussing with its advisers ways to do so. Meanwhile, Amteus' founder and major shareholder has agreed to provide financial support to the Company in the interim period.
Whilst secure and private IM is a part of the Company's total product suite, which includes presence control, secure sharing and transfer of files and secure VOIP (including conferencing), the Company has identified an immediate and substantial demand for Amteus' secure and private IM product. Although distribution will primarily be through resellers, the Company will retain a small direct sales force. Over a half of the new customer wins in December were to resellers who between them have many thousands of customers. The directors believe that resellers have no other comparable IM products available to them to sell in this area.
The new business model involves selling a limited number of user licences to each customer initially, with a clear upgrade path as customers widen their use of the system within their own businesses.
The new product provides:-
* All of the benefits of IM together with presence control;
* The elimination of the risk of viruses;
* The elimination of junk messaging ("SPIM");
* The achievement of immediate productivity gains as employees' use of IM can
be fully controlled and monitored;
* Full compliance - Amteus IM can record all messages for this purpose;
A fully web-enabled version of IM has also been developed and is due for launch shortly.
The directors of Amteus believe that no other IM system provides the same built in security and compliance advantages at such a competitive price.
Turnover (the majority of which is accounted for by spreading revenues over the period of the contract) in the year ended 30 September 2006 totalled ‚£37,000, compared to ‚£23,000 in the 16 month period ended 30 September 2005 and has continued to increase since the year end.
The directors expect sales volumes to increase significantly in the coming months and expect the company to reach cash breakeven in late 2007.
Michael Abrahams CBE DLChairman11 January 2007For enquiries:Amteus plc 01756 770376
Michael Abrahams (Chairman)
John East & Partners Limited 020 7628 2200
John East/Simon Clements/Johnny Townsend
Rawlings Financial 01756 770376
John Rawlings
AMTEUS PLC