The market came crashing down around UK stock market darling London Bridge Software Holdings Plc on Tuesday. With the whole market on the slide, London Bridge recorded the second-biggest percentage drop on the London stock exchange, with a fall in share value of 21.7%, or 2.672 pounds to 9.50 pounds. The company has already had its share price bludgeoned down from its yearly high of 14 pounds. But London Bridge brought in solid financial results, with mid-year net profits up 195.3% at 1.8 million pounds, and revenue up 96.7% to 8.1 million. The numbers are more than respectable even for the high-flying company, and chairman and founder Gordon Crawford said it was on target to continue delivering the same level of growth in the future. In the six-month period, it won the largest contract yet with the Department of Justice, for software from last year’s acquisition of CheckFree Corp’s RMS division. The merger with CheckFree Corp mortgage products division announced last week will give it an increase in headcount and revenue of 50% after the deal closes and is expected to make a positive contribution to earnings in the second half. But the company faces some long-term uncertainties, with European revenues only rising 10.4% in the period, against US revenues up 373.6%, although part of that – around 2.4m pounds – was due to the first-time incorporation of RMS results. Crawford maintains that the company has a strong future, evidenced by the number of contract bids it has in the pipeline, a strong order book, and the fact that it is recruiting heavily. The share price could have been due for a correction anyway, as after Tuesday’s loss the stock is still up 375% from March 1997’s original offering price of 2 pounds.
