Learmonth & Burchett Management Systems Ltd, Central London, is looking for a placing on the Unlisted Securities Market later this year following announcement of its fiscal 1987 results for the year to April 30. It expects to report pre-tax profit of UKP1m, up 30%, on turnover up 43% at UKP7m. Chairman and co-founder Rainer Burchett says that 15% to 20% of the company will be offered in the placing, which is likely to be made before the end of the 1987, when a staff option scheme matures. Burchett sees the company growing at 30%-plus a year for the next four or five years, and it has long-term ambitions to achieve a full listing. Past sales performance has been UKP3m in 1984, UKP3.8m in 1985 and UKP4.9m in 1986. The company will use its public status to make further acquisitions in the software and consultancy fields: its revenues come from three areas, consultancy, 50%, training, 30%, and 20% in software automation products, the last growing as a result of success in the US, fuelled by an exclusive agreement with Cullinet Software Inc to distribute the company’s Auto-Mate design tool. The US market, which accounts for 20% of turnover, is expanding with the Cullinet venture and sales there should total $500,000 in the year just ending. The agreement with Cullinet rules out Learmonth signing OEM deals with other partners, but turnover will be boosted by versions of Auto-Mate for the IBM DB2 relational database and Software AG’s Adabas, both due in the spring, and Oracle and Ingres interfaces later in the year. Learmonth’s traditional markets are Government departments, with the CCTA-approved Structured Systems Analysis and Design Method, and the its commercial version, LSDM, with consultancy and training also picking up in the public sector. It claims to have 50% of the government systems analysis market in the UK, about 500 users, and is now promoting its latest software offering, LEAP, LBMS Enterprise Analysis and Planning in the UK and US. The company’s three co-founders – Learmonth & Burchett was formed in 1977 – John Connelly, Roger Learmonth, and Burchett himself, each hold 30% and it is Connelly’s holding that will be placed when the decision is made. There will be no new money for the company, because it has plenty of cash, Burchett says sufficient to fund two recent acquisitions internally. It’s early days to think of pricing yet, and the flotadion is expected to value the company at any thing from UKP1.7m to UKP2.5m, raising UKP250,000 to UKP500,000. Between 10% and 15% of the shares on offer will be reserved for the company’s 160 employees, with Connelly taking the bulk of the proceeds. Learmonth & Burchett will be using National Westminster Bank’s County Bank as its banker and broker.
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