OSLO, Norway, Dec. 4, 2000 (PRIMEZONE) - SafetyCable (OSE:SACA), Norway's innovative company within IT-Security, is executing a private placement of NOK 3.5 million. The main reason is an unexpectedly large demand for the company's theft protection cable both in Europe and in the U.S. It is therefore necessary with a substantial increase in production.
The company is executing the private placement on Wednesday Dec. 6, 2000, and has registered the business plan at the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSE).
SafetyCable's distributors in Norway, Santech Micro Group and Despec Supplies, both have delivery prognosis that are 200% above earlier estimated sale targets. These numbers are consistent with indications from the other Scandinavian countries. One of the reasons for this high demand is that 1 out of 3 companies are targets for thefts every year (according to NMH-survey). To this end both distributors and suppliers expect an increased demand for security products.
In the U.S., SafetyCable has received orders from several large suppliers, and chains of suppliers who will introduce the product in this gigantic market in the first half of 2001. These deals alone mean that the company must plan a doubling of the originally planned production volume.
That we have underestimated our sales expectations is in line with our earlier statements that our business-plan is very sober, and that it therefore is realistic that we reach our targets. I therefore don't think it will be a problem gathering the funding we need, says Knut Foseide, Managing director of SafetyCable.
The company has estimated relatively low capital needs, at first. The added capital will mainly be used to cover the demands of our home market. In addition this has been carried out in a way to best conserve the existing stockholders share in the company. The fact that there is, at this time, a strong low conjecture and low liquidity in the Norwegian Grey-market, plays a part in this. This in turn leads to underestimated value of the company in comparison to future earning potential, adds Foseide.
Several large OEM-companies (Original Equipment Manufacturers) have contacted the company for possible licensing for production, marketing and sales in the U.S., Europe and Asia. With OEM-deals the economic risk and load will be carried by the sub-contractors. It is therefore likely that the capital needs in the future will not be unpredictably high, says Foseide.
Facts about SafetyCable AS:
Established: 1998 Number of employees: 15 Goal: Industrialization and commercialization of patented technology, and related products. In addition to actively take part in other company's through part ownership or other means.
Management:
MSc. Lars Monrad-Krohn has an active role as the company's chairman of the board. Monrad-Krohn is known as the founder of Norsk Data, Mycron Data and Tiki Data among others.
Knut Foseide is the administrative director as well as the founder of the product and the company. Foseide has a broad academic background and vast experience in the field of computer technology. He has planned, developed and organized the company full time since 1998.
Product-information:
SafetyCable model 1 is a multifunction power-cable, with integrated 112 dB theft alarm, surge protector and power failure indicator. All electronics is built into the power-cables contacts, and is controlled by a micro-controller. The micro-controller sets off the alarm if the cable is unplugged from the PC or the mains, or if the cable is cut or any other attempt to "hot-wire" it. The theft warning cable is smart -- it differentiates between attempted theft and regular power failure, and with its external loop it also protects the HDD, CPU, RAM, etc. against theft. All functions are regulated with a small keyboard on one of the plugs.
SafetyCable model 2 has, in addition to model 1's features, a cable lock made from steel that locks the alarm to the PC's power supply, which can only be removed after first inputting the correct code. The safeguards the PC against break-ins, even "Hit & Run" theft.
Other products:
Ibsen firewall -- Firewall-system for optimal security, based on the operating system OpenBSD - with no remote exploits in over 3 years! Ibsen firewall is delivered as a complete firewall/router, with among other things, Virtual Private Networks (VPN) via Ipsec, and is offered for ISDN, ADSL and cable. The solution covers SMB as well as home-market's needs for network security.