Trading up
WHEN a product is designed to be used on the major trading exchanges of the world, it does no harm to have as your initial customers the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade, the two largest futures and options exchanges in the United States, and also to include the London Metals Exchange.
That is what London-based CMS WebView, the data collection and distribution group, is able to claim in its sales pitch.
And it intends making good use of the references that those exchanges are willing to provide. CMS, which was formed to provide commodity trading data to the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (Liffe), was the object of a management buy-out in 1997.
Since then, much time and effort has been spent in developing the product in what has been a tough market.
But chief executive, Bob Antell, believes the doors he has been pushing against for so long are beginning to open on both sides of the Atlantic and he is ready to put his head above the parapet for the first time.
It can be no coincidence that since announcing a first half loss of ?116,000 in mid-September, he has appointed Gresham, a leading financial public relations agency, to spread his message. Since that appointment in October, CMS shares have soared from 1.5p to 13p, which should be good enough to pay Gresham?s fees for a few months.
Mr Antell plans to go on the sales offensive in the new year, opening a Chicago or New York office to back up the London operations. All this will need money, so I would not be surprised if a fund-raising exercise was being planned, though this would entail the founding directors having their share stake diluted to below 50% for the first time.
But I?m sure they would rather hold a third of the shares at 13p than more than 50% at 1.5p.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/business/articles/timid70803