NCipher to return ?65 million cash to shareholders

[R. A. Hettinga]

NCipher's earnings press release here:

http://www.ncipher.com/company/pr_view.php?itemid=158

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Status: RO
From: Somebody
To: "R. A. Hettinga" <rah at shipwright.com>
Subject: NCipher to return ?65 million cash to shareholders
Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2002 08:12:19 -0000

NCipher to return ?65 million cash to shareholders

11 November 2002  -  Hardware security vendor nCipher is to return ?65
million cash to shareholders as the valuation of potential acquisitions
continues to fall. The company made the announcement as cost-cutting
measures took effect to curb third quarter operating losses on declining
year-on-year revenues.

Total revenues for the quarter ended 30 September 2002 (Q3 2002) were up
1.5% to ?2.8m, from the previous quarter but 6.9% lower than a year ago.
Rising income from the US markets was countered by depressed market
conditions in EMEA and Japan.

The operating loss at ?1.7m was both lower than that reported in Q2 2002
(?2.4m), and in Q3 2001 (?2.4m).


Quarterly cash burn was also reduced to ?0.1 million, as the company cut its
headcount from 156 staff to 135 and closed two satellite offices in the US.


The company, which numbers Barclays Bank and Microsoft among its blue chip
customers, last month entered the emerging online payment processing market
with the launch of payShield, claimed to be the first hardware security
module to satisfy both the cryptographic security and performance
requirements of MasterCard SecureCode and Visa's Verified by Visa online
authentication programmes.


Reporting the results, Alex van Someren, nCipher CEO says he expects market
conditions to remain challenging in the next six months. He says the company
remains committed to its market strategy of expanding the business through
organic growth supplemented by acqusitions.


"However, market conditions and the valuations of potential acquisition
targets have changed significantly since we raised funds at our IPO," he
says. "This has resulted in nCipher holding cash in excess of the amount
required to execute our strategy; consequently the board has decided to
commence a process with a view to returning ?65million of cash to
shareholders."


Ncipher follows derivatives stock trading firm patsystems in returning
excessive cash holdings to shareholders as the tech stock boom evaporates.

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-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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