The vendor says the value of Initial Licence Fees (ILF) during Q4 2003 represented 43% of full year signings. Temenos says many of the new contracts continued the shift towards larger deals, made possible by the launch of new flagship product T24, and Temenos Corebanking, the Tier 1 retail solution.

Fourth quarter targets were exceeded in South America, CIS and in the Middle East; and were slightly below target in Asia Pacific and in Europe.

ILF signings comprised 86% new licences and 14% upgrade sales to existing customers compared to 81% and 19% for the full year.

During the quarter, new single and multiple site licence contracts were signed with Menatep St. Petersburg in Russia, with IBM Mexico on behalf of Banco del Ahorro Nacional y Servicios Financieros, Turkish Bank (UK) Ltd. in London, SwaziBank in Swaziland, South Africa, Capital Bank International Limited in Lagos, Nigeria and Banco Ve Por Mas Institucion de Banca Multiple in Mexico.

Temenos says strong cash flow generation for the quarter of $13.5 million has allowed the repayment of $5 million debt and an improvement in net cash position from $13.9 million to $26.6 million over the course of 2003.

Describing the business climate as "challenging", the firm says it will nonetheless exceed its Q1 2004 signings target of $9 million "driven by strong performance in the retail bank sector which shows significant signals of growth".

Temenos has reconfirmed guidance for 2003 of revenues of $145 million, EBITDA of $25 million and EBIT of $10 million.

Looking forward, the firm has set revenue targets in the range of $150 million to $160 million for 2004 and earnings before tax of $15-$20 million.