Sentenial to be worth over €100m in the coming years, says founder

Irish financial software group Sentenial will be worth more than €100 million in the coming years given the scope of the opportunity available to the business, claims its founder and majority shareholder.

"There's no question that's our intention and that we have the opportunity to do that," Seán Fitzgerald told The Irish Times. "We think we're only in the foothills of this."

Based in Maynooth, Sentenial announced last week plans to add 110 jobs at the 10-year-old company, 80 of them in Ireland and the balance at five offices across Europe.

It is advising many of Europe’s biggest banks and corporations on the transition to the Single Euro Payments Area (Sepa), which reaches another deadline next February.

Sepa will create a single market for cross-border payments in Europe, simplifying what is currently a fragmented process.

Bank clients include Barclays, ING, Royal Bank of Scotland, Bank of America, and all of Ireland’s clearing banks.

“We would also process a lot of the payments for the entire economy of Malta from here,” Mr Fitzgerald added.

The software group is also providing white-label processing services that banks can offer customers.

Sentenial is in a phase of strong growth. Sales last year amounted to €6 million with the company “tipping into profit”. Mr Fitzgerald expects revenues to hit about €14 million this year with profits of up to €1 million.

“We’re on that trajectory that will continue through next year,” he said. “This is a very significant investment phase for us as well.”

Sentenial has raised €7 million to date from external investors. Its chairman is Kevin Lomax, the former chair of global software group Misys, who owns “just north” of 20 per cent while the family of former businessman Feargal Quinn are also investors.

Its strong growth has attracted interest from rivals and Mr Fitzgerald said there are a number of routes it might go to bring additional funds into the business and create liquidity for shareholders.

“Our intention is to continue to build the company of significant scale and value. Unquestionably, there’s interest in the company [but] the business is not there to be sold.

“There are other options available to us . . . like a [stock market] float and the private equity option.

“Right now we are focused on this dislocation event [Sepa] happening. We have enough to think about.”