IBM UK Ltd is selling off part of its shareholding in financial software house CIS Group Ltd in a share placing that will see the company quoted on the London Unlisted Securities Market. CIS, which develops dealer-credit management software, is being incorporated into a shell firm, Computerised Financial Solutions Plc, as part of a which sees 34% of the share capital placed by broker Wise Speke Ltd. IBM, which is releasing redeemable preference shares as part of a previous agreement, will retain 14.9% of the enlarged share capital, and the directors will retain 43.14%. Some 1.59m shares will be placed at 90 pence each, to raise UKP1.2m, which falls to UKP920,000 after expenses. It places Computerised Financial’s market capitalisation at UKP4.23m and the price-earnings ratio is 16.48. In addition to raising status among customers, the company wants to raise working capital to develop its second generation of credit management software, called CreditLine-Plus. This software can be licensed and can also be sold as a service through the firm’s two bureaux in Canada and the UK. The software will replace the existing bureau services, CreditLine-Industry and Credit-Line Automotive, and is expected to be available by the second quarter of 1994. The firm hopes that the software development will enable it to break into new markets in North America and continental Europe; it already has subsidiaries in Belgium, France, the US and Canada. It is also involved in the retail financial service market, producing a service which handles the monitoring and administration of consumer debt collection; previously used on behalf of RAC Insurance Brokers Ltd, the service was recently expanded to handle customer debts for Toshiba (UK) Ltd. In the six months to June 1993, Computerised Financial turned over UKP1.6m, making a profit before tax of UKP77,000 and a net profit of UKP69,000. In the whole of 1992 it made a net profit of UKP35,000 and a profit before tax of UKP37,000 on a turnover of UKP3.2m, after a bad debt of UKP255,000. A company representative said the firm may go for a full listing in the future.
