Australian Cobol compiler specialist Austec International Ltd is having financial difficulties following its acquisition last year of rival US company Ryan McFarland. Its bank back in Sydney has taken control of its assets, putting the parent one step away from recievership and trading in its shares has been suspended on the Sydney Stock Exchange following […]
Australian Cobol compiler specialist Austec International Ltd is having financial difficulties following its acquisition last year of rival US company Ryan McFarland. Its bank back in Sydney has taken control of its assets, putting the parent one step away from recievership and trading in its shares has been suspended on the Sydney Stock Exchange following its inability to repay a $13.8m debt. But at Austec’s 100% subsidiary in San Jose, it’s business as usual, with no plans to take the company into receivership. We are continuing to sell, and expect to see a profitable balance sheet at the end of the year, it said, adding that the process of buying Ryan McFarland had not gone as smoothly as expected. It was both more difficult and more expensive than we anticipated, and we are still feeling the aftermath. The company is currently going through a minor management reorganisation, which should be complete by the end of the month. Austec’s main product is its Austec Conformable Environment, which enables Cobol packages to be run across multiple hardware platforms and operating systems: it also recently released a version of its RM/Cobol-85 development environment for 80386 running Unix System V.3. It’s large user base – estimated at $500,000 worldwide – could make it an attractive proposition for a third party: Computer Power Group Pty bought BBJ out of receivership and may still be hungry, and Micro Focus Plc here might well see Austec’s troubles as an opportunity to pick off a competitor.
