Dublin-quoted travel software provider Datalex has reported a preliminary pretax loss of $2.1 million (€1.36 million) for 2007 largely due to a $1.2 million restructuring charge and the weakness of the dollar.
Revenues at the company increased to $31 million from $26.6 million in 2006 when it reported a profit of $1.1 million.
Chief executive Cormac Whelan said that despite the restructuring plan which was implemented in the first half of the year "further sharp weakening of the dollar [ in the second half of the year] continued to impact negatively on the cost base".
Datalex is moving its customers to its e-commerce software Travel Distribution Platform (TDP) which provides recurring revenues based on the number of transactions they carry out. This year it will release a new edition of TDP which will have functions for offline distribution channels such as call centres and points of sale.
Transaction revenues grew 26 per cent this year to $7.5 million.
During the year Aer Lingus, South African Airways, Saudi Arabian Airlines and Aerovias de Mexico moved to the TDP platform. Datalex also expanded its presence in the travel agency sector by signing up Flight Centre, one of the world's largest agents.
Datalex's software was used to process more than 10 million flights last year and said it expects this to "grow substantially over the coming years".
The company finished the year with $19.2 million in cash balances. This was down from $29.4 million a year earlier due to a $6.7 million in product development and an in net trade receivables of $6 million. Datalex had 160 staff at year-end with 80 of these based in Dublin and the remainder at offices in the UK, The Netherlands and the US.
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