Alphameric Plc has won a data broadcast contract with the Halifax Building Society worth an initial UKP3m over 18 months and up to UKP5m in total, and accompanied the news with a cash call to shareholders for UKP9m by way of a one-for-four rights issue at 247 pence against a price in the market before the announcement of 290 pence. First call on the cash will be to reduce borrowings, which now stand at UKP3.9m as a result of heavy research and development expenditure and expansion of manufacturing. The keyboards, viewdata terminals, dealing systems and data broadcasting specialist says it expects to report pre-tax profits of UKP4.6m on sales of UKP30m for the financial year that closed on March 31.
