Advantage of profit is share dip

By Nicholas Bryant

Friday 11th August 2000

Greg Cross

Listed eftpos company Advantage Group reported sound annual results on Wednesday but its share price got hammered by punters led to expect a major announcement.

Advantage showed it had forged ahead in its traditional market of eftpos equipment while building revenue through acquisition as an e-commerce services provider.

It reported a net profit after tax of $3 million for the year to June 30, down on the previous year's $3.4 million, but reported what it called a "normalised profit" of $6.7 million as its final result to the Stock Exchange. The normalised profit figure included $3.7 million of goodwill related to acquisitions over the past year.

Those new businesses have given Advantage a presence in the web services market, helping other companies get into e-business.

Advantage chief executive Greg Cross said other acquisitions were on the horizon, most likely in Australia.

The company believed to be next in Advantage's sights is Whitewolf, an Australian e-solutions company whose flagship creation, website MAX, is described as an enterprise-wide e-publishing solution.

Advantage also reported strong revenue growth, generating turnover of $63.9 million up from $21.2 million in the previous year. It predicts 72% growth in revenue for the year to 2001.

Although analysts said they had been delivered good news in more detail than Advantage usually provided, many had expected a significant announcement along the lines of an alliance or acquisition, especially given the Telecom-esque lockup Advantage had organised.

When there was no big announcement Advantage's shares dropped 13c to $2.93, close to where they had been a week earlier.

Comments from our readers

No comments yet