CADCentre Ltd has experienced its third consecutive year of cheerful profitability after several years of lossmaking as a government funded research establishment. Operating profits to 31 March 1989 rose by 90%, reaching UKP750,000, and turnover increased by 18% to UKP7.8m from last year’s figure of UKP6.6m. CADCentre was established 22 years ago, during Tony Benn’s white heat of technology phase, but by 1983, it was reporting losses of UKP2.7m. The company was privatised in the same year, and since then, says it has seen an average annual growth of 25%. It received further government funding of UKP375,000 to see it through the initial transitional period and to meet residual contracts or government obligations, and the payback period is due to run for another 18 months. CADCentre, which is 49% owned by STC via ICL, paid just over UKP1m in September 1988 to acquire software developer, Isopipe Ltd. The two had previously cooperated with the Dutch chemical giant Akzo to develop CADCentre’s PDMS process plant design software. However they subsequently targeted similar markets and CADCentre found itself paying significant royalties to Isopipe. Since the acquisition, net turnover after royalties has grown by almost UKP1m. CADCentre has a two overseas subsidiaries, one in Hong Kong, and the other in the US, both of which were established several years ago to protect the CADCentre name. CADCentre (Far East) Ltd, is virtually a oneman operation, with all licensing done from the UK. However, the company says that Japan is one of its best markets, and 46% of sales in the last year were to overseas customers. CADCentre Inc, based in Houston, Texas has been trading since July 1987, and now employs around a dozen people. It contributes $250,000 to group turnover, and is currently negotiating a contract which would increase that figure to $1m. Following a rights issue in April 1987, the company’s share profile underwent some changes. It raised UKP197,500 via 158,000 shares to launch a new product, but the French company SIA took the opportunity to sell its 30% shareholding. ICL subsequently increased its shareholding from 40% to a rather intimidating 49% – CADCentre maintains that it doesn’t want to be subsumed into the STC family. The University of Cambridge also upped its holding to 38% from 15%; the balance is held by the W S Atkins engineering consultancy. CADCentre has a distribution agreement with Hewlett-Packard, and a vendor logo agreement with IBM. It says further agreements are imminent, and expects to make several announcements in the next 10 days.
