There is no doubt that Alastair Lukies is the right man for the top job at mobile banking player Monitise. His easy charm when being interviewed on stage by the BBC’s Political Editor, Nick Robinson, at the excellent Intellect Cobalt Conference last week almost had me rushing out to buy shares in the company! In fact I had met Lukies not long after he had co-founded Monitise while it was still being ‘incubated’ under the benign wings of the erstwhile Morse (whose ex-CEO, Duncan McIntyre, is non-exec chairman). I was rather captivated by the story then, too.
On the face of it, Monitise has been a great British success story, certainly so for investors who have seen its share price increase ten-fold over the past four years. But I keep having to drag myself back to the fact that Montise has yet to make a profit, and there’s still no clear sign when that might happen (see Still no sign of profit date at Monitise). I fully accept that start-ups require an investment phase and that mobile commerce is still very much a land-grab market. But Monitise is ten years old – hardly a start-up any more.
At the same conference last week I urged the audience not to confuse great companies with great stocks (see Great Companies vs Great Stocks). It is possible for companies to be both, and it would give me great pleasure to see Monitise wear both crowns. I’m just not clear in my own mind when – indeed if – that time might come.