London, W1-based engineering software company Learmonth & Burchett Management Systems Plc is back in profit, with booming software sales here and abroad, and is looking to strengthen its balance sheet by announcing a one in four rights issue at 100 pence to raise UKP3.8m, underwritten by County NatWest. Some UKP1.4m of cash generated will be […]
London, W1-based engineering software company Learmonth & Burchett Management Systems Plc is back in profit, with booming software sales here and abroad, and is looking to strengthen its balance sheet by announcing a one in four rights issue at 100 pence to raise UKP3.8m, underwritten by County NatWest. Some UKP1.4m of cash generated will be used to reduce borrowings; the remainder will be put towards expanding the company’s US operations. Learmonth & Burchett has already opened new offices in New Jersey and New York and is planning more in California and another undisclosed site. It says it plans to open others at a rate of one per quarter until it reaches optimum coverage. At present, the US contributes around 25% of group turnover but the company reckons that, by 1995, US revenues will likely account for the majority of its profits. Overseas sales, including US contributions, account for around 40% of group turnover with 5% coming from Europe; 10% from Australia and the Far East. European operations, which have expanded into Eastern Europe, saw the fastest growth this time, reporting a 150% increase. Future investment in Europe will most likely take the form of joint ventures, the company says. It admits that the performance of its training division has been ‘depressed’ and its consultancy arm turned in ‘flat’ results – there were no figures – but it is confident that an upturn is round the corner. Most of its new recruits – its this year has seen the company’s largest ever intake of graduates have joined as consultants. However, the software division has more than compensated for difficulties elsewhere in the company. Sales have continued to grow with major new contracts won from British Rail, Post Office Counters, the National Health Service and London Underground in the UK and from PepsiCo, Mazda, Heinz, NCR Corp and Compaq Computer Corp in the US. The company has continued to update its products and is to beta test a new client-server engineering tool in the New Year. Chairman Rainer Burchett, in an upbeat statement, said that the company’s software products were increasing market share and that he believed the group would, continue to make good progress.
