One of Australia’s largest software companies, Brisbane-based Mincom Pty Ltd, has postponed its proposed Nadsaq float from this year until the second half of next year at the earliest because millennium bug concerns have slowed sales in its core enterprise software market.
Mincom’s chief executive David Merson, said: Whether we go to the market next year will depend on how things mature over that period. Analysts tend to say second, third or fourth quarter next year things will start to ramp up again. He said potential customers’ budgets were largely committed to Y2K remediation rather than new projects.
Mincom, which predicts revenue of about $180m this year, was hoping to raise A$50m ($33m) from the listing. In preparation for the float, it has already laid off 10% of its staff and sold its oil software and services division.
The company derives 60% of its income from overseas and wants the Nasdaq listing both to help position itself as a global player and to avoid an undervalued local listing which could make it a takeover target for a US-based competitor. Its international customers include firms in the mining, defense, utilities, transportation and manufacturing industries.
