AIM-listed Staffordshire-based operations management software developer eg solutions warned of a 'significant' miss on the FY numbers as – you guessed – contracts slipped to the right. Elizabeth Gooch MBE, founding CEO of the eponymous company, advised that FY revenues (to 31st Jan.) came in at £4.8m, 2% ahead of the prior year. This will be a huge disappointment given that management was ‘confident’ about hitting the numbers as recently as September (see here).
Ms Gooch also announced that privately-held Massachusetts-headquartered contact centre software firm Aspect Software Inc. has taken a near-11% stake in eg through a deeply discounted placing of 1.7m shares at 73p, vs a 107p closing price last Friday. Aspect also has warrants for a further 400,000 eg shares at 79p. Aspect will also become the exclusive distributor for eg’s software outside of EMEA, and Aspect’s software will be integrated into eg’s products. Aspect will take a non-executive seat on eg’s board.
eg’s shares had a massive spurt in early November after languishing at around 60p for the prior 12 months. One might wonder whether the market had caught wind of the discussions with Aspect and was expecting a deal to be done. If so, this may lead to another disappointment.
Founded in 1988 eg has travelled a rocky road for quite some years. Perhaps, like so many other UK software companies, the road will eventually lead to a cruise across the Atlantic.