DUBLIN, Ireland and DALLAS, May 28, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Trintech Group PLC (Nasdaq:TTPA) (Prime Standard (Regulated Market):TTP), a leading provider of secure payment infrastructure solutions, today announced first quarter revenues of $10.2 million and a basic and diluted net loss per equivalent American Depositary Share (ADS) of ($0.04) as calculated in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), compared with a basic and diluted net loss per ADS of ($0.75) for the first quarter last year.
Non-GAAP pro forma reporting excludes amortization, depreciation, stock compensation, restructuring charges, acquisition adjustments and inventory write downs. The pro forma net loss per equivalent ADS for the first quarter was ($0.06) compared to ($0.29) in the corresponding quarter last year.
Highlights
-- Ninth consecutive quarter of declining pro forma operating
expenses, which fell strongly by 30% in Q1, compared to the
corresponding period last year.
-- Pro forma basic and diluted net loss per equivalent ADS
declined 78% in Q1, compared to the corresponding period last
year. Pro forma basic and diluted net loss per ADS for the
quarter ended April 30, 2003 was $(0.06) compared with pro
forma basic and diluted net loss per ADS of $(0.29) for the
corresponding quarter ended April 30, 2002.
-- Cash usage was $2.9 million for Q1 with Trintech's balance
sheet remaining strong with closing cash and cash equivalent
balances of $42.8 million. This includes expenditure of
$454,000 in respect of the Share Buyback Programme.
Cyril McGuire, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer commenting on the results said: "Trintech's performance remains on track with stabilizing revenue, controlling costs and building a platform for profitable growth. These were solid results in line with market expectations, in what continues to be a difficult macro-environment with continued softness in IT spending. Our main priority continues to be right sizing the Company for future growth and returning to profitability in the near term. Our cash position is strong and management is fully committed to building revenue in our core business divisions with the discipline required for solid, consistent and profitable growth."
Recent highlights include:
-- In April, Trintech announced that it had entered into a
partnership with Paymentech, the leading transaction processor
in North America to streamline transaction management and
reconciliation. Trintech partnered with Paymentech to link
Paymentech's transaction processing capabilities with ReconNET's
industry-standard, enterprise-wide transaction reconciliation
system to deliver a best-of-breed solution to the market. The
partnership provides a seamless integration that enables customers
to quickly identify and resolve payment card exceptions, reduce
unnecessary write-off losses, and improve efficiencies.
-- In Febuary, Trintech announced that Citibank Card
Acceptance, one of Europe's largest acquirers of Visa and
MasterCard/Eurocard transactions, had deployed PayWare Resolve to
manage chargebacks from all its merchant accounts in Europe.
-- In April, Trintech announced that it was the first company
to receive Acquirer approval for its integrated point-of-sale EMV
chip and PIN solution. Trintech's PayWare SmartPIN solution is
being implemented by Retail Business Solutions (RBS) at Wilkinson,
one of the UK's largest home and garden high street retailers. This
integrated point-of sale (IPOS) solution has now been certified by
Streamline, the UK's largest acquirer of card payments. Wilkinson
is the first UK IPOS retailer to secure end-to-end bank
certification for chip and PIN transaction processing, and are
participating in the Northampton Chip and PIN town trial, which
started on May 19. Once the trial is completed, Wilkinson plans to
implement PayWare SmartPIN in over 200 stores across the UK.
-- In April, Trintech announced that An PostTS S.A. in Spain
had implemented an end-to-end mobile top-up solution based on
Trintech's industry-leading prepaid technology solution.
Trintech is supplying the prepay-enabled Compact 9400i POS
terminals for installation at several thousand locations across
Spain. This follows an earlier installation of PayWare PrePay
at the An PostTS S.A. headquarters in Madrid and PostTS UK's
head office in Crewe, England. An PostTS S.A. and PostTS UK are
wholly-owned subsidiaries of Ireland's postal service, An Post,
which is rapidly taking a leading position across Europe in
online transaction services.
-- In March, Trintech announced that it had partnered with ncs
Inc. to deliver secure point-of-sale payments using credit card
information stored on a mobile phone. The new technology was
demonstrated at this year's CeBIT Tradeshow in Hannover Germany
and showed the ncs software seamlessly interacting with Trintech
POS terminals. The mobile payment technology developed by ncs Inc.
securely stores numerous credit cards using Triple DES encryption
on any German mobile phone.
-- In April, Trintech announced that Watford F.C. the Nationwide
First Division football club, had selected Trintech's latest
PayWare Merchant solution to automate the processing of
ticket sales. Watford F.C. has deployed Trintech's PayWare solution
at the club's headquarters in Watford, Hertfordshire. The
server-based solution will manage all card transactions from all
the club's ticket sale operations. By selecting Trintech's PayWare
solution, Watford F.C. has a proven solution which reduces costs,
eases reconciliation and speeds up transaction times. Furthermore,
the implementation of PayWare at Watford F.C will enable the club
to migrate to Chip and PIN enabled transactions, a transactional
standard being backed by banking institutions, set to be in place
by 2005.
-- In March, Trintech announced at the CeBIT tradeshow, that
EVS GmbH had selected PayWare 9400i POS terminals with GPRS,
General Packet Radio Service. EVS, based in Trier-Fohren in
Germany, is the world's first Prepay Service Provider to deploy
wireless terminals across Europe, including Belgium, Luxembourg,
Ireland, Poland, Austria and Germany.
-- In March, Trintech announced that Transact GmbH had
selected Trintech's PayWare Compact 9200i terminals to enable the
secure electronic top-up of prepaid mobile phones. The agreement
provides Transact with a complete mobile phone top-up solution that
efficiently and cost-effectively integrates with the company's
existing systems.
-- In March, Trintech announced the release of ReconNET 6.5,
the latest version of the industry-standard deposit verification
and reconciliation solution. The release further broadens the
capabilities of ReconNET across the entire spectrum of treasury and
cash management, with new features like Advanced ACH and the
web-enabled Remote Researcher.
-- In March, Trintech announced that Brodos AG, Germany's
leading telecommunications service provider, had selected
Trintech's POS terminals for the roll-out of electronic prepaid
mobile phone services in Germany and beyond. This agreement enables
Brodos to extend its front-end family of successful CashUp
applications to include POS Terminals.
Results Overview:
Trintech Group plc's first quarter revenue increased 2% to $10.2 million compared with $10.1 million for the corresponding quarter last year. Q1 product revenue increased by 43% this quarter to $2.6 million as compared with the corresponding quarter last year.
Software license revenue increased 6% to $5.5 million this quarter as compared to the corresponding quarter last year. Service revenue decreased 30% to $2.1 million this quarter as compared to the corresponding quarter last year. Total pro forma operating expenses decreased by 30% to $6 .7 million this quarter as compared to the corresponding quarter last year.
Pro forma gross margin for the first quarter was $5.6 million, an increase from $4.9 million in the corresponding quarter, last fiscal year. GAAP gross margin for the first quarter was $5.3 million, an increase from $2.7 million in the corresponding quarter, last fiscal year.
"Trintech is taking the measured steps required to turn the corner in terms of our ability to generate improved margins, cashflow and profits. In Q1, we increased our pro forma gross margins to 55% from 49% for Q1 last year. We are dedicated to differentiating our solutions and financial model so as to bolster our market presence and build earnings momentum. This will provide the foundation for sustained profitability and enhanced shareholder value," said Paul Byrne, Chief Financial Officer.
Trintech will host a conference call to discuss its financials results and business outlook beginning at 15:30hrs (UK Time) today, May 28, 2003. Please see advisory below for information on the call.
A web simulcast of Trintech's conference call reviewing our performance for Q1 fiscal year 2004 and our business outlook for Q2 and fiscal year 2004 will be broadcast live today, Wednesday May 28, 2003 at 15:30hrs (UK Time), 10:30hrs (NY Time) and 07:30hrs (CA Time) and thereafter for 10 days at www.trintech.com. An instant telephone replay will also be available for 10 days by dialing T: +44 1452 550 000 and entering the following access number (142037 #).
About Trintech
Founded in 1987, Trintech is a leading provider of secure electronic payment infrastructure solutions for card-based transactions for traditional commerce, eCommerce and mobile commerce. The company offers a complete range of payment software products for credit, debit, commercial and procurement card applications, as well as being a world leader in the deployment of payment solutions for Internet commerce that are fully compliant to industry security standards. Trintech's range of scalable open systems architecture solutions for UNIX(R) and Windows NT(TM) platforms covers consumer, merchant and financial institution requirements for traditional payments and the emerging world of electronic commerce. Trintech can be contacted in the US at 15851 Dallas Parkway, Suite 940, Addison, TX 75001 (T. +1-972-701-9802), Ireland at Trintech Building, South County Business Park, Leopardstown, Dublin 18 (T: +353-1-207-4000), and Germany at Siemenstrasse 20, 63263 Neu-Isenburg (T:+49 6102 7850). www.trintech.com.
This press release contains "forward looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Any "forward looking statements" in this press release are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those stated. "Forward looking statements" in this press release include statements, among others, relating to Trintech's ability to reach profitability and the timeframe for reaching it, Trintech's ability to build the foundation for sustained profitability and enhance shareholder value, the timeframe for the implementation of the Chip and PIN transactional standard, the likelihood, size and timing of the implementation of the PayWare SmartPIN trial and the countries in which EVS and Brodos AG may roll out Trintech's POS terminals to their respective markets. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include the ability of Trintech to generate synergies from the continued integration of acquisitions, the ability of its customers to fulfill their commitments to adopt Trintech's payment technology, the availability of financial resources to continue investment in research and development and sales and marketing programs, the growth of the payment software market, Trintech's ability to develop, market and sell eCommerce software, the market acceptance of the security standards for eCommerce payment transactions, the ability to improve and expand the functionality of products, the ability to develop strategic relationships, the ability to react to rapid technological change rapidly, the ability to resize the organization, reduce costs, consolidate locations, combine operations and eliminate redundancies in the organization, the effects of macroeconomic uncertainty on the demand for Trintech's products, delays for any reason in the implementation of PayWare SmartPIN, and changes by Brodos in its planned roll-out of Trintech's POS terminals. Actual performance may also be affected by other factors more fully discussed in Trintech's Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2003, filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (www.sec.gov). Lastly, Trintech assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
The full press release (including tables) can be downloaded from the following link: http://reports.huginonline.com/905696/118752.pdf