Following the appointment of Jarlath McGee as chief executive officer on 5 August 2004, a thorough review of the Group's strategy and operations has been conducted.
The directors have concluded that the Company's activities should be more clearly focussed in both its Banking & Securities and Resource divisions.
Banking & Securities Division
The directors believe that considerable opportunities exist in the asset servicing sector of the banking and securities market. Asset servicing systems support trading activity by providing data to decision makers, which then update back-office systems with the results of their decisions. It is currently an area of focus for major investment institutions, as they strive for greater efficiencies in the operational systems, which help them to support those who control the assets under management.
Some suppliers of systems designed to support asset managers, such as corporate actions, reconciliations, collateral management, data management and messaging systems, tend to be smaller suppliers and consolidation of the companies operating in this area is taking place. This presents an opportunity for Mondas to use its public company status to be a consolidator of such suppliers in these specialist areas. Our aim is to produce an integrated range of products - a total solution - to global investment and fund management institutions.
A key area of growth within investment banking is securities finance, where customers are investing in systems which support integrated trading and collateral management. A number of institutions are reviewing this area with a view to simplifying and consolidating the information flow to their trading desks and the associated management of control information onto one platform.
We intend to acquire products, whether by an acquisition of intellectual property, or by corporate activity, in areas which will extend our product range, customer base, geographic reach and delivery capability and will also add to the general intellectual property base required by our target market.
The review has also identified certain non-core systems which have a clear value, but which are not part of our revised strategy. We are holding, discussions with a potential trading partner, in order to more efficiently exploit this intellectual property.
The directors believe that these actions will improve the Company's performance and efficiency, and increase its competitiveness within asset servicing for medium and large institutions.
Resource Division
Although Resource 32000 software is competing in a crowded market, this division has been successful in developing an important niche in the further education sector. The relationship announced with Pearson Phoenix in June this year, whereby Mondas will exclusively provide Pearson Phoenix with an accounting solution that will be embedded into their newly launched 'e1' education management system for schools, is designed to take Resource into the wider education market to which the Resource division remains committed. We will also seek to increase indirect sales through additional similar strategic partnerships.
The Company's recent contract wins from CSFB and Brewin Dolphin, which have an aggregate value of over £1.425million in initial licence fees, project services and support over five years, have reinforced the directors' belief in the growing demand for software solutions for corporate actions and related activities. Extending our range of software into other related areas of asset servicing should provide a more comprehensive product range, which we can offer to our target banking and securities sector. Furthermore, we intend to expand our Resource division through strategic partnerships.
The company's Annual General Meeting will take place on Friday 29 October, when an update on trading will be provided.