Zamano doubles revenue in 2007

ZAMANO, the Dublin-listed developer of premium rate text message services and mobile phone applications, saw revenues double in 2007.

The company saw revenues grow to €24.7 million from €12.3m in 2006, boosted by two acquisitions. The takeover of Eirbourne and Red Circle helped lift pre-tax profits from €2.45m to €3m.

Earnings per share rose by 15% to 4.6 cents.

Chief executive John O’Shea said in a statement that 2007 was a “transformational” year for the company and, following the acquisitions it now operated, both consumer and business markets with sales split roughly evenly.

The company said it was confident of continued growth in 2008, with market share gains expected in Ireland, Britain, Australia and the US.

Zamano said it ended the year with €12.1m in cash in the bank, though most of this will be used this year to make payments to the former owners of Eirbourne and Red Circle.

About half of the cash is earmarked for the former owners of Eirbourne as part of the terms of the takeover of the company was performance related.

The deferred payment to the former owners of Red Circle will not be as high as Zamano had initially announced as that business did not meet agreed financial results to trigger the €7.2m payment.

Zamano added it “remains pleased with the opportunity and the strategic logic of the acquisition”.

Shares in Zamano fell nearly 5% despite the positive results, which were ahead of broker forecasts.

NCB Stockbrokers said in a research note: “These are another strong set of results from Zamano, with EPS ahead of our (and the market’s) expectations. The firm remains confident on the outlook for 2008, and we are likely to upgrade forecasts modestly as the strong performance in 2007 is offset somewhat by sterling weakness and lower than expected revenues at Red Circle.”