17th Mar 2006 12:34
Advanced Smartcard Technologies plc17 March 2006 ADVANCED SMARTCARD TECHNOLOGIES ANNOUNCES SUCCESSFUL FUND RAISING AS EXPANSION GATHERS PACE Advanced Smartcard Technologies plc, ("SMRT") the Scottish based software groupspecialising in smartcard technology, is pleased to announce that it has raised£848,990 by way of a placing of 28,299,666 new shares in the company at 3 penceper share. The Placing was oversubscribed. The new shares represent approximately 14.3 per cent of the Company's issuedshare capital prior to the placing. The new shares will be admitted on 22 March2006. The proceeds of the placing will provide additional financial resources tofurther support the Company's expansion as it continues to enhance product offerings and develop sales outlets for its smartcard software products. Background The business was founded in 2000 and, since then, it has providedsmartcard-based technology into a wide variety of applications. AdvancedSmartcard Technologies has developed its own Multefile(TM) technology which is set to radically improve how smartcards are deployed and used and, bring realbenefit for smartcard issuers and users. The Company's Multefile(TM) software operates the smartcard chip as well as thesoftware on terminals and the interfaces to other computer systems. Applicationsof smartcard technology include a wide range of user markets such as transport,ID, healthcare, finance and local and national government departments andblue-chip companies. Multefile(TM) enables card issuers to design, implement and change one or moreapplications themselves. It allows for cards to be updated and corrected afterthey have been issued, simply and efficiently. It ends the need to withdraw andre-issue smartcards even when significant changes need to be made, and it is notlimited to any particular type, or combination, of smartcard applications. Reasons for the Placing Since its Admission to AIM, the Company has made good progress in raisingawareness of its software products to a number of both private sector and publicsector customers who are operating smartcard based systems. As a direct resultthere are a number of major potential customers who have indicated that AdvancedSmartcard Technologies' Multefile(TM) software is likely to be their preferredchoice to integrate into their systems. The proceeds from the placing willenable the Company to invest in the development of its ability to be able totake advantage of these new opportunities. Since the start of the year, the three main markets where the Company'ssmartcard software is making significant progress is in combatingcounterfeiting, biometric security systems and using smartcard systems as partof medical records management. Anti-counterfeiting is a new market for theCompany and they have now penetrated considerably further into the latter twoareas. The current funding will allow the Company to exploit these markets morefully. In the aspect of the fight against counterfeiting, the Company was contracted byITI Techmedia in late 2005 to undertake research into various aspects ofmachine-readable security tags. The ITI Techmedia programme, launched publicly in April 2005, aims to develop atechnology platform for the encoding, writing and detection of machine-readablesecurity tags, controlled by an end-to-end Trust Management System. Theobjective is to develop a system that will provide varying degrees of productsecurity and allow solutions to be offered to the market at a price commensuratewith the product being protected. Independent figures on the current value of the market for counterfeit goodsestimate it to have reached US$ 700 billion worldwide, and with this number onlyexpected to grow, brand owners are actively seeking ways to defend theirproducts. Smartcard based technology will be used in the fight for global brandprotection. The tags can be attached to goods - anything from CDs, DVDs,perfumes, pharmaceutical supplies and designer clothing to engineeringcomponents. David Braddock, Managing Director of Advanced Smartcard Technologies said: "Since we came to the market in December, we have made encouraging progress inpromoting our software products to a number of customers. We have alreadysecured additional orders in our priority markets and the strengthening demandis substantiating our market proposition. We have also been recognised asachieving a number of milestones in the integrity and security of our software.This is an extremely important step in helping us to add to our reputation withpotential customers. " I am delighted with the reception we have enjoyed from investors. We haveworked hard to attract a balance of both national and local investors. Lookingforward, we have a bright future. I am confident that we will continue to reportfurther firm orders for our Multefile(TM) smartcard products. We have a number of positive initiatives in the pipeline and we look forward to updatingshareholders on our continued progress soon." SVS Securities is acting as Corporate Broker to the Company, ARM CorporateFinance is the Nominated Adviser. -ends- Date: 17 March 2006 For further information contact: Advanced Smartcard Technologies plc 01355 268521David Braddock, Managing DirectorStephen Naylor, Finance Director SVS Securities 020 7638 5600Ian CallawayPeter Manfield cityPROFILE 020 7448 3244Simon Courtenay ARM Corporate Finance 020 7512 0191Nick Harris NOTES TO EDITORS About Advanced Smartcard Technologies plc ("SMRT", "The Company") Advanced Smartcard Technologies plc, through its wholly owned subsidiary EcebsLimited, is a profit making, software company operating in the dynamic andexpanding smartcard arena. SMRT listed on AIM in December 2005. The Company provides smartcard technology to a wide range of user marketsincluding transport, ID, finance and local and national government departmentsand blue-chip companies. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
SMRT.L