The restructuring that Data Sciences Ltd underwent after Andy Roberts joined as managing director in 1993 seems to have worked as the company reported a profit of ú4.3m for the year ending September 30 compared to a loss of ú10.4m. Turnover of the Farnborough, Hampshire firm rose 11% to ú107m and borrowings were cut to ú11.6m from ú47.7m. But although the company says it is now focused, has a full order book and is looking to grow, flotation is still two years off at least. It does not believe the market is right now, and does not think that, at 4%, its return on sales is good enough for it to float yet. Most of the restructuring was completed in 1993 when around 160 staff were made redundant as seven layers of management were cut to three. Last year two loss-making divisions were sold. Champs, the hotel software section went to Misys Plc and the company sold its remaining 20% of Datashield disaster recovery division to Paris-based Sogeris SA. It also sold its stake in Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Pilot Software Inc to Dun & Bradstreet Corp for $7.8m, showing a profit on the book value. And in the autumn it raised ú33m from its existing investors with a new share issue, using it to pay off the ú32m loan note taken out when it parted company with Thorn EMI Plc in 1991. At that time the management paid ú50m cash, and the loan note; by paying off the latter early it has reduced the actual amount paid to ú67m. It has also repaid another ú39m of debt, all of which has reduced its interest payments considerably. Roberts said the company went back to its shareholders for more cash because, a company like us trades on its balance sheet and the cash injection makes its bottom line more impressive. Since 1993 it has refocued the industry sectors it targets. It has taken aerospace out of the defence business and as a separate entity contributes 6% of business. Defence, at 29% of last year’s business, is still strong, but by the end of this year, either finance, which grew 12% to 21%, or commercial, up 17% to 24%, will become its biggest market sector.
