Kalamazoo Computer Group Plc has not exactly had an easy year, and following the breakdown of talks with Lynx Holdings Plc about a possible acquisition of the whole business by Lynx (CI No 3,187), it has sold its security print division to the Adare Printing Group Plc. Kalamazoo, which has suffered poor results in its traditional print division for some time (CI No 2,798), saw net income for the year to March down 20% at $5.3m, on revenue that rose 17% to $129m. The company says it has undertaken a major repositioning in the last 12 months and is focusing heavily on international growth. Kalamazoo restructured into three divisions, the International Computer division, the UK Computer division and the Security Print division, which it is selling to Adare for $19.9m cash. The group now seems to be focusing on its automotive business, which it strengthened in the year with the acquisitions of Datapoint Corp’s European Automotive Systems Division (CI No 2,932), and 25% of IT2000, a dealer management systems provider in Denmark. In March, the acquisitive company bought CFS International Inc, which trades in the UK through its subsidiary Coin Financial Systems Ltd for $19.9m. The International computer division, which provides automotive systems outside the UK, performed strongly in the year. UK computer division performance was disappointing, but the group says this was due to increased investment in new products. Kalamazoo suffered particularly from a breach of accounting procedures in the business solutions unit, which provides manufacturing and accounting systems for medium-sized businesses. The breach resulted in profits being overstated by $2m. The company also saw slow progress in its Kalamazoo Answer division (CI No 2,941). Chairman Robert Jordan expects the first half of this year to suffer from these adverse conditions, but says the second half should be satisfactory. Figures were calculated at a rate of $1.658 to the pound.
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