Interim turnaround at Clarity Commerce
Article Date: Nov 23 2009
Chief Executive Officer Ken Smith, Clarity Commerce
Transaction software specialist Clarity Commerce Solutions has turned a £25,000 first-half loss into pre-tax profits of £400,000.
The Basingstoke-based company, which offers ‘mission-critical’ transaction processing services for ticketing, hospitality, retail and leisure concerns, increased turnover 10 per cent to £8.8 million in the six months to September in the face of what chief executive officer Ken Smith describes as ‘challenging’ trading conditions. Finance costs for AIM-quoted Clarity fell drastically in the first six months, from almost £500,000 to £75,000 and the company continued to gain from cost cutting and restructuring.
Chairman Sir Colin Chandler, who replaced John O’Hara in August, says the company’s retail division saw a ‘further strong surge’ of business in Europe and the USA, where Clarity launched initial sites for the largest operator of membership warehouse clubs in Central America and the Caribbean. The company won new contracts with Associated Food Stores, Scoop Denmark and London Drugs, among others.
Last month, directors contributed £100,000 to a £2.7 million share placing at 40p and spent £1.5 million of the money to settle part of the deferred earn-out sums due to the vendors of an earlier acquisition MATRA Systems. With the second half year usually busier than the first, Smith says ‘we remain cautiously optimistic’.
Floated at 125p in 2000, Clarity shares fell all the way to 13.5p in the last 12 months, after a series of problems and internal upheavals. Under the present regime, there has been something of a rally and, after Growth Company Investor recommended them at their low point last December, they have risen to 38.5p, valuing the company at nearly £15 million.
Partial profit taking might be prudent, but they could rally further if progress is maintained.
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