CommSoft and WDT help Strathmore to profit

By Phil Boeyen, ShareChat Business News Editor

Friday 13th October 2000

Internet and technology investment company, Strathmore has reported a $2.7 million tax-paid profit for the year to the end of July compared with a $2 million loss last year.

Strathmore says the profit comes from the trading performance of telco software company, CommSoft, the partial sale of its investment in CommSoft, and the sale of Wellington Drive Technologies.

Chief financial officer, Peter Saunders, says the company's equity grew ten-fold during the year from $3.5 million to $33.2 million.

"The company is an order of magnitude bigger and this growth has been due as much to the growth in the value of its investments as it has been to the capital raising we undertook. We raised $16 million during the year, returned $12.5 million by way of the share buyback and still have a $33 million company at the end of the year."

After completion of the buyback, half of that $33 million value is represented by Strathmore's most mature investment, the 16 per cent holding in CommSoft. This investment had been acquired at a cost of $2.9 million.

The company also reported earnings per share of 2 cents, compared with a loss of 9 cents per share the previous year. Current reported net asset per share are 16 cents.

Executive chairman, Phil Norman, says the company has made nine investments since September last year, and recognizes the difficulty investors face in understanding all of its businesses. He says the company is committed to providing substantially more information on its investment portfolio through the Annual Report, which is to be released in late October.

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