November 19, 2006 - Sunday Business Post

Norkom, the Dublin software firm, is forecasting revenues of almost €25 million for this year, up 35 per cent on its performance last year.

The company, which develops anti-money laundering software for financial institutions, is also on track to increase profits by 18 per cent to about €3.4 million, according to Paul Kerley.

Paul Kerley told The Sunday Business Post that the company expects to finalise deals with a number of international financial institutions in the coming months, and this would have a positive impact on the company’s full year’s results.

“We’re on target to hit our forecasts of 35 per cent growth in revenue and 18 per cent growth in earnings,” Kerley said. Last week, Norkom announced its first results since its listing on the Alternative Investment Markets in London and the IEX in Dublin five months ago.

For the six month period ending September 30th, Norkom had revenues of €11.5 million and earnings of €2.1 million. This was a significant increase improvement in the same period last year, when it had profits from sales of €8.1 million.

Kerley said the results supported the company’s decision to wind down its customer relationship management (CRM) business and concentrate on its core market, which is anti-fraud software.

In recent months, the company has landed deals to supply Western Union and Credit Agricole, a leading French bank. Kerley said the company now had in the region of 50 customers and its software was used in more than 100 countries around the world.

“We’re pleased that we are not reliant on one region,” he said. “We operate across regions and that is a huge benefit to the company.” Kerley said Norkom was actively looking for acquisitions, with the likely targets in North America. Although no deal was imminent, he said the company was willing to spend in the region of $10 million to $15 million.

“We are out there engaging in a merger and activity programme,” he said. “We are seen as a much more attractive buyer since the IPO. We would like to think that we could do some deal next year.” The company employs about 155 people, but Kerley said that this was likely to increase, and the firm had just taken more office space at its headquarters in Dublin. It recently opened a sales office in Sydney to service the market in Asia Pacific.

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