A 45% reduction in operating expenses helped UK online financial services software vendor Intelligent Environments to narrow annual losses for 2002, despite recording a 14% drop in revenue compared to the previous year.
In its preliminary results statement for the 12 months ended 31 December 2002, iE has reported a pre-tax loss of £2.9 million, down from £7 million in 2001. Operating expenses were reduced by 45% from the previous year as the company shut down its US business and cut 38 jobs from the payroll.
Group revenues for 2002 are down 14% from previous year - due primarily to withdrawal from US market - at £2.7 million. European revenues are up 11% compared to 2001, at £2.6 million. Support and maintenance revenues are up 46% at £0.9 million
The vendor, which raised £2.2 million in March 2002 and a further £0.2 million in December 2002, ended the year with a cash float of £.05 million, up from £0.3 million in 2001.
R&D expenditure for 2002 came in at £0.9 million as the company upgraded its core banking software products to Microsoft's .NET platform and built and launched a .NET Converter toolkit for its Application Manager product.
Clive Richards, chairman, comments: "We are optimistic of completing the financial recovery of the group. The cost base is now below £3 million on an annual basis and we believe that achieving our targets of profitability and remaining cash positive are realistic."
He says the company does not anticipate any major recovery in software investment in the next 12 months, despite a "significant pick up" in orders in the first four months of 2003.