Kingston Upon Thames, UK-based Nettec will be left sitting on a cash pile of 12.6m pounds ($20.2m), which it said would now be returned to shareholders either by shutting down or going through a reverse takeover with another company.

After investing some 18m pounds ($28.8m) into the Nettec Solutions unit last November to trim its liabilities, it will now sell the unit to London, UK-based Aspect for just 600,000 pounds ($960,000). At the end of December 2002, Nettec Solutions had total assets of 698,000 pounds ($1.11m), however Aspect will not be taking on the company’s liabilities of 1.6m pounds ($2.56m), which will be retained by holding group Nettec Plc. Following the sale, the only directors of Nettec Solutions, Peter Kemkers and Thomas Nikolopulos will resign from the operation, and Nikolopulos and Jonathan Bradshaw will also resign from Nettec Plc by May 30.

Nettec has spent recent months looking for a buyer for its Nettec Solutions business, which is the only operating unit left of Nettec, following the company’s failure to achieve its target of returning the group to profitability. In a statement the company said: In light of the current economic climate and the market for services that Nettec Solutions provides, the Board does not believe Nettec Solutions can be made profitable within the Group for the foreseeable future.

During the 12 months ended December 31 2002, Nettec Solutions made a pre-tax loss of 3.5m pounds ($5.6m) compared to a pre-tax loss of 15.1m pounds ($24.2m) in 2001, on revenue that fell 33% to 4.6m pounds ($7.36m). However the division managed to decrease its debt by Nettec’s fortuitous 18m pounds ($28.8m) cash injection into the operation in November 2002, which trimmed net liabilities to 500,000 pounds ($800,000) at the end of the year.

Nettec Solutions specializes in digital TV, J2EE development and web services integration projects around corporate portal developments and content management systems sold by Stellent, Vignette, and Macromedia. The Aspect Group was founded in 1995 and its purchase of Nettec Solutions brings with it a customer roster than includes First Choice Holidays, Capita Group, AXA Investment Managers, Deutsche Bank AG, BT, and Interflora.

Source: Computerwire