Norkom group’s profits stall at €1.6m
According to newly-filed accounts for the company, which counts Denis O’Brien and Independent News & Media’s Gavin O’Reilly among its directors, turnover was up over the year by 24%.
Turnover for the 12-month period was €12.1m, including sales of €1.14m from acquisitions. In late 2004 Norkom bought Dutch firm Data4S for around €5.6m. The company said in its latest accounts that the takeover “joined two of the strong performing companies in the risk management and compliance software” sector.
The company said 2005 was the third consecutive year of profitability and it has signed a number of major deals with the likes of Rabobank, Credit Suisse and Travelex.
During the year Norkom also managed to increase the proportion of revenues coming from international operations. Ireland contributed just 9% to group revenues in 2005, down from 22% in 2004. Just over a third of sales were generated in the US with the rest earned in Europe.
“The group continues to close significant deals with international banks since its fiscal year end and anticipates strong revenue growth in fiscal 2006,” the company said.
Even though Norkom continued to make profit in 2005, it did little to reduce retained losses, standing at €29.2m at the end to last March.
Having shed half its workforce at one stage in recent years, the number of people employed by Norkom increased by eight to 75 at the end of March 2005. This increased added €875,000 to staff costs. A further 20 joined Norkom’s workforce following the takeover of Data4S.
The company’s directors - chief executive Paul Kerley, Mr O’Brien, Mr O’Reilly, Shane Reihill, John Tracey, Kieran Nagle and Luc Philips - shared remuneration of €391,479, an increase of over €4,000.
