Shares in Gresham Computing, the software developer behind the Cable & Wireless Real Time Nostro service (CWRTN) dropped 15% after it reported a widening in first half losses.
The stock dropped to 103 pence in morning trading after it said losses increased to £783,000 for the first half ending ended 30 June 2005, from £667,000 last year, although revenue was up eight per cent to £6.6m.
The group reported a disappointing first half performance from its integration business. Progress on a project to connect a large UK bank with its corporate customers for working capital financing has been slower than anticipated, while revenues from its Casablanca integration technology have fallen "well short of expectations".
Much of Gresham's share price growth in recent times has been based around expectations of recurring revenue from the CWRTN service. But although the number of banks having now agreed to be data providers has increased to 18, the service still only has one paying customer - Barclays, which went live earlier this year.
Gresham claims interest in CWRTN was high at Sibos this month and it expects to see further growth in the number of data providers.
Andrew Walton-Green, chief executive, Gresham Computing, says: "While revenues are relatively modest and, as previously indicated, will take a number of years to build to their full potential, we expect to see increased growth in the number of subscribers as the service moves into a wider user adoption phase."
Looking ahead, Walton-Green says the group will look to divest non-core activities and also consider acquisitions that accelerate growth within core business areas.