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CCS Crossword Cybersecurity Plc

5.00
0.00 (0.00%)
Last Updated: 01:00:00
Delayed by 15 minutes
Crossword Cybersecurity Investors - CCS

Crossword Cybersecurity Investors - CCS

Share Name Share Symbol Market Stock Type
Crossword Cybersecurity Plc CCS London Ordinary Share
  Price Change Price Change % Share Price Last Trade
0.00 0.00% 5.00 01:00:00
Open Price Low Price High Price Close Price Previous Close
5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00
more quote information »
Industry Sector
SOFTWARE & COMPUTER SERVICES

Top Investor Posts

Top Posts
Posted at 04/5/2021 15:56 by bandflex
I think it is just a recognition that vaccine certificates will be the next big thing in the market and CCS are likely to benefit.

Crossword working with Verifiable Credentials Ltd on its Innovate UK funded project to allow NHS laboratories to issue Covid-19 immunity certificates.

Share cap is still small and the up coming 10 for 1 share split should make the shares more liquid and attractive to retail investors.
Posted at 08/3/2021 18:00 by outlawinvestor
CCS is presenting at Proactive One2One Investor Forum on 25 March.
Posted at 17/2/2021 08:47 by outlawinvestor
Updated investor presentation - presumably prepared for recent fundraise.

hxxps://www.crosswordcybersecurity.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Crossword-Cybersecurity-Investor-Update.pdf
Posted at 28/8/2019 11:47 by aim_trader
Crossword Cyber Security will be presenting to investors at the Proactive One2One Investor Forum on Thursday 5th September in Mayfair from 6pm. For details and registration here:
Posted at 13/4/2019 07:02 by timbo003
I have a few of these having purchased shares in the last two placings (March 2018 whilst still on NEX and in December 2018 at the AIM IPO). I attended the AGM last May and wrote up a few notes which I posted on the ShareSoc meetings blog as there was zero interest on ADVFN at the time (see report below)

My shares came with EIS tax reliefs, so I will be hanging around for at least the next 2-3 years

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Crossword Cybersecurity Plc (NEX: CCS) 2018 AGM


This year’s Crossword Cybersecurity Plc (CCS) AGM was held at the offices of Shakespeare Martineau LLP, 6th Floor, 60 Gracechurch Street, London EC3V on Wednesday 30th May 2018 commencing at 3.00pm.

For investors who are unfamiliar with the company, CCS is a technology commercialisation company focusing exclusively on the cyber security sector, with the technology sourced through collaborations with Universities.

CCS was founded in March 2014 by the current CEO, Tom Ilube and then subsequently floated on the now defunct Danish GXG exchange in September 2014 at 145p/share which valued CCS at around £2.1m. The company transferred to the NEX exchange (then known as ISDX) in September 2015 (following the demise of the GXG earlier in the year). There was no fund raise to accompany the NEX IPO which is somewhat unusual, but the last fund raise on the GXG exchange had been at 190p/share in June 2015, valuing the company at around £4.5m. The most recent funding round was in March 2018 raising £2m in an oversubscribed placing and subscription at 270p/share and this corresponded to a post money valuation of approximately £10.8m. The shares are currently quoted at 330 – 400p.

Links to the company web site, the latest Annual Report and other useful information are given below:
* Web site:
* Annual report, financial year ending Dec 2017:
* Admission Document:
* Recent Interview with Tom Ilube (CEO):
* Recent Interview with Sir Richard Dearlove (Chairman):
* Recent interview with Prof. David Stupples (NED):

There were around 25 attendees at the meeting, which included a number of employee shareholders, the BOD and the usual AGM functionaries. I was the only retail shareholder present and as a result, I ended up asking most of the questions.

The Chairman, Sir Richard Dearlove, kicked off the meeting with the formal business. I just had one question for this part of the meeting which concerned resolutions 7 and 8 (allotment of shares and disapplication of pre-emption rights) where I asked what was the maximum number of shares (expressed as a percentage of the existing share capital) that could be issued if these resolutions were approved? The answer was 22%.

When it came to the voting, all 8 resolutions were passed unanimously with a show of hands. On the proxy votes, resolutions 1-6 (approval of the accounts, re-election of 4 directors and reappointment of auditors) received 100% in favour and resolution 7 and 8 received 84% in favour (16% against).

The CEO then gave a 30 minute presentation which included a brief synopsis of the previous financial year (ending Dec 2017) during which time the BOD was strengthened and a new sales force established. The headcount now includes 10 staff deployed in sales (based in the UK) and 8 in R&D (based in Poland). Group revenues doubled to £737K and 2018 has got off to a very strong start with most of the new revenue coming from Rizikon Assurance (a new B2B cybersecurity solution for medium to large enterprises) which is expected to be the main engine of growth over the next couple of years.

The presentation also included a brief outline of the company’s strategy which is to select the most promising cybersecurity technology solutions emanating from collaborating Universities and to monetize these technologies either through in-house development and subsequent product launch, or through JVs with the Universities. The company has collaborative agreements with 10 different Universities (8 UK, 1 Swiss, 1 USA) but there are no immediate plans to add more.

The main target market for resulting Cybersecurity products is medium to large Commercial Enterprises and CCS has just launched Rizikon, which is their first product arising from one of the University Collaborations. Rizikon enables a client company to monitor the cybersecurity risks and other risks such as GDPR compliance arising from their supplier base. The product is currently sold in two formats: Rizikon Standard (for SMEs) and Rizikon Assurance (for medium to large enterprises) and it is currently the only commercial software solution available which specifically addresses these particular problems.

Rizikon is supplied on a SaaS basis with a subscription charge of up to up to £30/supplier/annum for large businesses. There are an estimated 10,000 UK businesses with revenues of £25m or more and these businesses could each have between 1,000 and 5,000 suppliers, so the addressable UK market is conservatively estimated at around £300m. If Rizikon Assurance were to capture just 5% of the UK market, it could translate to revenues of circa £15m /year; furthermore, Rizikon should be suitable for roll out to many other major geographical markets, subject to making appropriate changes for each local market. The company is also actively looking at the possibility of signing on with a large partner to assist in distributing the product and this should lead to additional sales.

During the year CCS launched a major new initiative, CyberAI, which is looking at applying Artificial Intelligence to real world Cybersecurity problems. Three Universities and several large Financial Services firms are closely involved with the project and it is anticipated that the output from CyberAI will help feed the product pipeline for the next few years. The initial output comprised of a short list of initiatives which were subsequently whittled down to just one, this will be tested for Proof of Concept later this year and then hopefully undergo further development next year with the objective of ending up with a new innovative cybersecurity software product for SaaS commercialisation.

Following the presentation there was a Q&A session which lasted for 20 – 30 minutes before the meeting closed (see Q&A summary details below). After the meeting most of the attendees stayed around for coffee and biscuits and this gave me a chance to talk to some of the Senior management including the CFO and COO. I also spoke with Professor David Stupples (NED), who was responsible for the work leading up to the development of Rizikon and also the Sir Richard Dearlove (Chairman), who was the Head of MI6 from 1999 – 2004.


Q&As

Q: CCS appears to be a hybrid between a software developer deriving revenues from SaaS and an Investment company which owns equity stakes in university spinouts. As a general rule, the market tends to rate the former a lot higher than the latter, Is this reflected in your priorities?

A: Yes, we prefer to licence technology and develop it ourselves rather than take equity stakes in University spinouts, however, sometimes a University may insist on the latter. We aspire to have perhaps 6 Rizicon type products either launched, or in development in the next 3 – 4 years.

Q: You talked about taking on a large partner to assist Rizicon sales and eventually other SaaS products. What sort of companies are these large partners and can you expand on how such a partnership might work?

A: The partner could be an IT services company, or maybe one of the big four accountancy firms. One such potential partner we have spoken to is a US based IT Service Company, employing 200K staff worldwide and with a turnover of around $15Bn. Any large partner would probably want to see revenue potential of £30m – £40m before signing up. The industry norm would be to split revenues, with up to 75% going to the software developer (CCS in this case), but there would be no upfront fee payable on initiation of a partnership deal.

Q: Who are the nearest competitors and what barriers to entry are there for a new entrant in the future?

A: Rizikon is the only purpose built software in this space, the technology came from City University London and the algorithms were inspired by software used in the nuclear safety industry. The work performed to develop the software has not been published; therefore it would not be easy to reproduce. Parts of the SAP Ariba software solution are probably the closest thing there is to a competitor.

Q: Who do you target during the sales process for Rizikon?

A: Typically we talk to the Heads of Procurement, but on occasions it may be the Head of Security or Head of Quality Assurance.

Q: You talked briefly about a possible AIM IPO, this sounds like an excellent idea as it would assist liquidity as CCS shares are rarely traded on NEX and many popular online brokers will not deal in NEX shares, so what are the chances that an IPO will go ahead?

A: We are actively exploring the possibility for an AIM IPO for later this year. The likelihood of this occurring will depend on market conditions, which could be influenced by macro factors such as the outcome of Brexit negotiations.


Summary

When I acquired my CCS shares in the March 2018 placing, I knew very little about the company and there was very little time for due diligence after I was made aware of the placing opportunity, however, I do firmly believe that demand for effective cybersecurity is only ever likely to increase, as cyber criminals develop ever more innovative and sophisticated techniques to carry out their illegal activities. Furthermore, the placing shares were offered at an attractive 30% discount and they came with EIS tax reliefs, so despite my lack of background knowledge on the company, I took the decision to invest. Unfortunately (for me) the scale back on the placing shares was around 60% (presumably due to demand) so I ended up with somewhat less shares than I originally requested.

This AGM was the first opportunity I had to meet the management and to learn more about the business. The company is still at an early stage of development, it is loss making and the revenues are still small (albeit growing rapidly). However, the Management and Directors do appear very capable and the plans to grow the business seem realistic. I was pleased to learn about the intended AIM IPO later this year and assuming the switch to Aim is accompanied by another attractively priced (EIS qualifying) share placing, I will almost certainly apply for more shares in the IPO should the opportunity arise.


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Posted at 14/12/2018 09:03 by timbo003
I subscribed for a few shares in the most recent placing which accompanied the IPO on AIM (290p/share) and in the previous placing in March when they were listed on NEX (270p/share). The shares in both placings qualify for EIS tax reliefs, so HMRC will refund 30% of the purchase price (for eligble UK tax payers), it also it means that VCTs are likely to get involved (TR1s awaited).

I attended the AGM on May 30th (the only retail investor present) which was informative and posted up a few notes for the ShareSoc AGM forum:
Posted at 25/4/2010 23:58 by smarm
It's Pret a Manger.

Saw them at Master Investor show....seemed clued up and bullish (I hold).

S
Posted at 10/7/2009 15:01 by investinggarden
Buy recommendation from Growth Company Investor
Posted at 02/4/2007 08:34 by this_is_me
The statement says that the new business is still there but will be recognised in the next finiancial year. That is not a problem for investors, just for short term traders.

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