Gresham Technologies Share Discussion Threads

[richjp] 19/12/2016 14:14

According to the capital markets presentation on 5th October one of the objectives that stood out for Q4 was to "Close additional Tier 1 key customer win (s)". Note the possible plural. Tier 1 for GHT has always referred to banking clients, which as far as I can see are still their primary target market.

These are the sort of deals I feel that might merit an RNS, not a medium sized deal in insurance. So what has happened to the Tier 1 prospects? It is a bold statement to say that you are going to close one or more key accounts in the near future. It suggests that the customers may already have decided to go ahead and that discussions are possibly already at the contract negotiation stage, yet we have heard nothing.

All somewhat perplexing.

[double double] 19/12/2016 13:47

I think they have not announced all the wins in H2 and that is my beef with them. Only they know why last win was announced. Perhaps the word "minimum" "£1.1m" was the differentiator of the last client win announcement.

[amt] 19/12/2016 13:39

Ok looks like 3 but maybe one or two short of whats needed to get the very demanding H2 numbers.

[double double] 19/12/2016 13:35

GHT have created unnecessary confusion. They have not signed ONE client in H2, they hid the July/August update in the interims, heres the paragraph:

As anticipated, since 1 July 2016 the Group has signed a North American Tier 1 bank and expects to be able to recognise revenue from this important new win later in the second half of the year once contracted milestones have been achieved. Additionally, Gresham has secured a CTC licence upgrade from an existing global investment bank customer enabling it to extend the use of the technology into new areas, including the replacement of legacy incumbent solutions. This agreement provides for an increase in recurring licence fees and a pricing framework for the bank to deploy additional data integrity controls onto the platform. The Group has also commenced a chargeable pilot project with a UK Tier 1 bank for a new use case for the Clareti platform.

[amt] 19/12/2016 13:06

I am out for the timebeing. On reflection since they need a very impressive H2 after the dissapointing H1 they should have reported 4 or 5 wins and all we have is one. I hope they are not turning into one of those companies that makes lots of bullish statements but doesnt match that with the financials. They did that a bit at H1 so that made me a bit suspicious. A second profit warning would see the share price back to 60p so I decided not to risk it. Besides appart from a takeover I cannot see the results being outstanding so no point in risking it.

[schytalk] 18/12/2016 21:49

The sentiment on this thread is that the GHT communication strategy is a mess. Overdue to be sorted, an orderly market is not in operation.

[double double] 18/12/2016 21:09

PS. Looking at the graph do we have higher highs and higher lows in the last month or so?

[double double] 18/12/2016 21:08

I have never seen so many weekend postings here.

Hopefully the last announcement was not meant to indicate how the company has performed over the last 4 months. July/August update tucked away inside the interims did show some client wins in H2. I have no doubt there are other wins in the last 4 months we have yet to know about. Only GHT know why this one has been singled out.

GHT share price reacts well in advance and so far it is not crashing but stagnant, we are only a couple of weeks away from YE.

My frustration is their policy on announcements and how it could create confusion. And it has.

[gnnmartin] 18/12/2016 14:37

I'm a bit risk averse at the moment and likely to need cash, so I sold 15,000 GHT shares after this announcement. I too think it seems to say they have made less progress than we might have hoped. I had expected this to make a confident move into higher ground, and it may well still do that. I only have 4000 left, which I am unlikely to sell unless something spookier emerges.

[gottafly] 18/12/2016 09:54

Just thought I would remind folks of what Gresham said at the Capital Markets day on 5th October.

Q4 2016
© 2016 Gresham Computing plc
• Manage legacy revenues
• Extend CTC usage in global customer base
• Close additional Tier 1 “key customer” win(s)
• Win further Clareti-as-a-Service sales
• Break out in North America market
• Build Clareti ARM pipeline in global transaction banks
• Launch Clareti Loan Control • Prepare ground for Clareti Data Accelerator launch
• Make a success of C24 integration
• Look for further opportunity to scale on Gresham’s Group business platform in 2017

So I would suggest that if there had been no additional key customer wins in H2, effectively since it is 18th December the half year is over, then surely this would have affected numbers and would presumably have resulted in some form of statement/trading update.

The Capital markets presentation is available in full on the GHT website - Investors/Shareholder Information. It talks about four revenue streams - Clareti Transaction Control, Accounts Receiveable Management, Loan Control, Data Accelerator. Whilst Insurance is mention as part of the industries targeted (others are Inv Banking/Cap Markets, Core Banking, Clearing/Cards/Payments) it is vertually absent.

Agree the information flow from GHT needs great improvement for us poor shareholders to make sense of things, but could it be this was a 'surprise' win in an industry sector, which for now at least, is becoming material as regards current performance.

As always DYOR but surely this is a positive, or was meant to be a positive, announcement.

[jadeticl3] 17/12/2016 19:49

Well regular posters have all had our two pennyworth, but the market appears to support our view--that this announcement is not unambiguously good news. If it were intended to be good news there should have been more elucidation.

[richjp] 17/12/2016 19:31

If the company thought it was strategic I think they should have said that it was viewed as strategic and also explained why that was so.

I don't think the broker had anything to do with it either. That suggestion is just clutching at straws

[gottafly] 17/12/2016 18:02

richjp agree it does not make sense but neither did the Capital Markets RNS. As previously stated I sense N1Singer influence here but why, that is what we would all like to see. In my view the order must be strategic otherwise no announcement would be necessary. Overall very strange but I am sure there is an answer somewhere.

[richjp] 17/12/2016 17:11

You can add my name to the distinctly underwhelmed.

I do not think this order is strategic in any way. They already have other insurance customers. They also already have cloud users, plus the fact that the order value is not particularly high over the life of the contract.

This would only make sense to me if they plan to announce other orders between now and the trading update expected in late January, although that to me would be a strange way to go about things.

This does suggest that they have nothing better to announce, although that would be odd given the optimism expressed at the half year results.

I am afraid this does not make sense.

[amt] 17/12/2016 06:56

Si its either very good news or very bad news. Its increased risk considerably.

[schytalk] 15/12/2016 22:50

dd, agree it is confusing but the fact it was a full RNS means N1 and the GHT board view it as significant. I repeat that the RNS around the Capital Markets was very strange with N1 seemingly believing they had to do a full RNS to say nothing was being released. This has all the marks of being very very careful but why, makes no sense but there must be a reason since N1Singer are not daft.

I think we all agree that the information flow from GHT is very low key, dare I say poor. It is not just RNS, news is scarce but interesting this is also the case. I have tried to fill the gap somewhat and I have a little idea about how I can publish a C24 customer list, watch this space!

[double double] 15/12/2016 21:46

This is why I have been having a go at the company for what seems like 2 years about the way they communicated information to shareholders and lack of it.

I cannot believe they have signed up only 1 client since last update. The reason for this RNS cannot be it is a big client as already stated here, £1.1 over seven years is not significant. This is not their first client in the insurance sector.

Ironic for a company who claims to make sense of information for clients and in real time; 1. rarely provides information to shareholders; 2. provides information leaving the reader more confused.

If they read these boards, I think the message today to the Company is clear, we are all confused about the Company's policy towards RNS announcements. Please get a grip!

[crazycanuck] 15/12/2016 20:53

I'm puzzled as well. 1.1 mil over 7 years is not quite what I was hoping to read. Certainly no surprise that the market just ignored it.

[schytalk] 15/12/2016 19:48

jadeeticl3 it is indeed my understanding that Gresham have decided to cease to post RNS Reach statements (non regulatory) for new contract wins, because contract wins are becoming ordinary business. This announcement is a full RNS and is regulatory i.e. the news is determined as so significant an RNS is required to inform the market. The last full RNS for a single contract win , also in insurance, was 7th April 2015.

I see this as extremely good news and suspect that the contract was signed a little earlier than expected and was indeed 'planned' for the new year.

So why significant:-

Well a pretty tasty minimum £1.1 million

Another major insurance client making four insurance clients in total, I am on record no here for saying that CTC is far more than a solution for banks

Deployed as a service using the Clareti cloud which could/should be an explosive mechanism (quick to implement especially now C24 is on board) for rapid growth.

The only strange wording I see is the reference to planned revenue for the current year, by planned I presume it means expected and that this contract win revenue has been added to the previously expected revenue i.e. we are looking at over performance here.

This whole announcement has the feel of being N1Singer driven much like the RNS as regards the Capital Markets Day which said that no new material information will be released!

I don't believe there is any reason to be negative about this announcement and all other indications show Gresham trading strongly. We are extremely close to the GHT December year end so all revenue for this year must pretty much be accounted for. If this were simply making up the numbers of the published forecast (remember N1Singer have uplifted it) there would be no need to do a regulatory RNS. I repeat this is good news although wrapped up in some confusing 'broker speak' and was published because N1Singer considered it necessary.

As always DYOR.

[jadeticl3] 15/12/2016 12:48

On this site we have debated the pros and cons of what we thought was the company's policy on announcements. I thought we had concluded that they were being conservative rather than announce each contract as it was signed. Thus I expected that they were signing contracts, some large others not so large but all would be revealed at the next set of results. Now, this announcement of a single contract must mean it is the only one since the previous announcement, otherwise it does not make sense to announce only one of several. To me, then, this is a disappointment rather than a reason to celebrate. This would be the first time I have been disappointed by such an announcement, but I have to say I was expecting more judging from the language rather than the specifics of the previous statement. Or am I not thinking straight?

[jadeticl3] 15/12/2016 12:01

Must admit this puzzles me.

[amt] 15/12/2016 08:09

Have to admit it does seem odd that they havent announced other deals in the last months. Perhaps there havent been any. Anyway brilliant news today and no profit warning so must be in for a cracking h2 to meet targets.

[double double] 15/12/2016 07:27

Pleased with it but one announcement all of a sudden. Could have added more about q3 and h2 as of now.

[amt] 15/12/2016 07:12

Great news out with another significant Clareti win.