Shares in CBT rise to high on the Nasdaq

Shares in the Irish-based software company, CBT Group, jumped to an all-time high on the Nasdaq exchange yesterday after the company announced record fourth quarter and 1997 results.

By the time the Irish market closed, the share price had gained more than $6 (£4.39) to $85.5, having earlier touched a record high of $86.

Revenue in the three months ended December 31st, 1997, grew by 71 per cent to $40.1 million while net income after acquisition costs rose by 84 per cent to $8.7 million.

The company, which has its headquarters in Clonskeagh in Dublin, said full-year revenue was up 61 per cent at $118.6 million and net income rose to $22.2 million from $11.8 million a year earlier.

CBT also announced a two-for-one split of its American Depositary Shares (ADS).

Currently, each ADS represents a half of one ordinary CBT share but after the split it will represent one fourth of each ordinary share. Each ADS holder will receive one additional ADS for each one currently owned.

CBT chairman Mr Bill McCabe said the shares were being split to boost liquidity. "There is a considerable appetite out there for the shares and with the current shares, we can't adequately meet the liquidity needs. It is primarily about increasing liquidity and bringing in new shareholders," he said.

Mr McCabe said CBT had made no decision on whether or not it would float on the Irish Stock Exchange. "We haven't reached a definitive position. We continue to consider it but we have no firm plans either way," he said.

CBT provides interactive education software to more than 1,500 companies for use in software training programmes. At year-end, its backlog or firmly contracted business which has not yet been recognised as revenue, stood at just over $110 million against $60.3 million in backlog at the end of 1996.

"We continued to grow our customer base and doubled the number of million-dollar-plus contracts over 1996, including our first multimillion-dollar contract outside the United States," Mr McCabe said.

He said CBT had also made progress on its plan to broaden its international influence with the acquisition of distributors in Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Middle East and India. Mr McCabe said 120 French and German titles were available.

In 1997, some 71 per cent of CBT's business was in the US while 29 per cent came from the rest of the world, up from 20 per cent previously.

"We are in a worldwide market and CBT's goal and desire is to exploit that market," Mr McCabe said, adding that it would continue to acquire distributors where opportunities presented themselves. It is also considering translation into Spanish and Japanese.

CBT said it was also responding to demand for Year 2000 COBOL training and had designed a comprehensive training curriculum for COBOL programming education.

COBOL is the predominant language for mainframe computers, many of which will experience problems when their internal clocks reset at midnight on December 31st, 1999.