Retail Decisions are market leaders in an industry which continues to grow exponentially. They produce payment fraud systems solutions for major blue chip clients globally, though the bulk of the business is currently coming from the major reatilers both in the UK and US. They are a Techmark 100 company which means that there will always be a level of institutional interest in the company. However, on top of this "forced" interest from the tracker funds there has throughout 2005 been sustained large buying from no other than Goldman Sachs and Barclays. These institutions together now have an investment of tens of millions of shares in RTD !

Website: www.redplc.comClick here to read the old thread

Shares Magazine had a cover feature back in early April entitled "ATOMIC! - Small is about to get VERY, VERY BIG - 7 stocks for the new technology revolution". It was no surprise to see Retail Decisions as part of the selection. Here's what Shares had to say: "Retail Decisions is a specialist software developer aimed at preventing credit card fraud. It owns a database of several million dodgy credit and debit card numbers against which it crosschecks transactions, but also has developed clever software which can spot strange patterns in your spending. This system is perfect for stopping phony credit card transactions. Investors could not ask for a better pure play on rising credit card crime. Perhaps the company's biggest challenge is scale but chief exec Carl Clump is attempting to address this with aquisitions, even if opportunities seem to be few and far between. In the meantime, Retail Decisions remains concentrated on developing in the card-not-present arena, where it already has fantastic experience and technology. The drive to win new customers should also be helped by the fact that it already serves so many blue-chip customers including Marks & Spencer, T-Mobile and, most recently, Federated Department Stores, the US owner of Macy's and Bloomingdales. Let's not forget, too, the company's highly profitable fuel-card business in Australia which grew 30% last year, making this year's forecast low single-digit earnings growth look on the conservative side." Retail Decisions have continued throughout 2005 to rake in very healthy profits from the Oz. fuel card business thanks to the "bonus" of high oil prices and favourable exchange rates. In addition, the extra revenue streams from new major US corporate clients will be starting to filter through. In the US, Retail Decisions appear to be chosen on many occasions over their main rival Cybersource which indicates just how well this company is doing. The demand for card-not-present (i.e. internet/phone shopping) fraud software is going to continue to grow and grow so RTD presents guaranteed success in this arena - backed up with the cash cow fuel card business which is being extended into locations other than Australia and we have a real gem of a company. Longer term target 1+.

Optomist, What is GS present stake in the company?

Fred1, 3,891,472 consolidated shares

4.99%

To cheer up Douggie,

Retail Decisions signs Australia's Harvey World Travel as gift card client
AFX


LONDON (AFX) - Retail Decisions PLC, the card issuer and card fraud prevention and payment processing group, said it has gained Harvey World Travel Ltd, an Australian travel company, as its first UK gift card client.

Gift cards are pre-paid cards that allow a pre-determined amount of money to be loaded onto a card by the purchaser that can then be used by the recipient to make one or multiple purchases.

This first UK customer win comes weeks after ReD acquired E Com Industries, an Australian electronic gift card operator, the group said.

newsdesk@afxnews.com

ak/bam

Retail Decisions PLC
28 December 2005

Date: For immediate release, Tuesday 27th December 2005



Contacts: Carl Clump, Chief Executive
Richard Amos, Finance Director
Retail Decisions plc
Tel: 01483 728 700
Website:
www.redplc.com



Alistair Mackinnon-Musson
Philip Dennis
Hudson Sandler
Tel: 020 7796 4133
Email:
red@hspr.co.uk



Retail Decisions plc

First UK Gift Card Client


Retail Decisions ('ReD'), the card issuer and a world leader in card fraud
prevention and payment processing, announces it has gained Harvey World Travel
('HWT'), a leading Australian travel company, as its first UK gift card client.

This first UK customer win comes only weeks after ReD acquired E Com Industries,
Australia's largest electronic gift card operator. As stated at the time of the
acquisition, it is ReD's aim to migrate E Com's gift card offer across other ReD
regions, particularly the UK and USA. This is the first step in executing this
strategy.

HWT will be the first company to launch a gift card into the UK travel market.
HWT has for a number of years been successfully operating a gift card offer
through E Com in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In Australia alone,
HWT has rapidly grown its gift card sales to AUD$6m in 2 years.

HWT is an international travel group listed on the Australian Stock Exchange,
with turnover of AUD$1.7bn in 2005. The group has over 500 outlets across
Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the UK.

Gift cards are pre-paid cards that allow a pre-determined amount of money to be
loaded onto a card by the purchaser that can then be used by the recipient to
make one or multiple purchases.

Gift cards enable merchants to provide a more modern consumer offer over paper
based vouchers, with better merchandising and branding opportunities, including
loyalty schemes. When combined with ReD's world leading fraud prevention and
payment processing services, ReD's gift card service also offers significant
cost savings in security and administration.

The market for stored value cards is growing rapidly. Industry research shows
that in the US, an estimated US$63 billion was spent on buying stored value
cards in 2004, which is expected to grow to US$257 billion by 2009. It is also
anticipated that around 10% of US gift sales in the 2005 Holiday Season will be
on buying gift cards (source: Giftex). The UK and European market is estimated
to be around five years behind that of the US but is expected to grow by around
30-35% annually over the next five years.

Over the last three years E Com has been highly successful in the pre-paid gift
card market in Australia and has launched more than 30 gift card schemes for
blue chip retailers such as Coles Myer and Woolworths, Australia's two largest
retailers, Dymocks, a leading Australian book-store, and Crabtree & Evelyn.
Other major travel companies in Australia using E Com's gift card technology
include Flight Centre and Travelscene Amex.

ReD acquired E Com, Australia's largest electronic gift card operator, in
December 2005. This was the second acquisition ReD made in the space of two
months, having acquired Fuelserv in November 2005, a fuel card operator in the
UK and Europe. As a result ReD has card issuing, payment processing and fraud
prevention operations across its international business units.

Commenting, Carl Clump, Chief Executive of ReD, said:

'Gaining Harvey World Travel as our first gift card client in the UK is a clear
demonstration of our ability to support clients in achieving their international
ambitions through our portfolio of card issuing, payment processing and fraud
prevention services. ReD's expertise in fraud prevention and payment processing
combined with our new pre-paid capability gives retailers an exciting,
comprehensive payment solution that will increase their revenue and customer
loyalty whilst reducing their costs and vulnerability to fraud'.

Grant Campbell, Head of Finance at HWT, added:

'Harvey World Travel is delighted to announce a market first in the travel
sector with this new service, which will provide an innovative product for our
customers and corporate clients'.

'ReD's platform greatly reduces gift card administration and costs, providing us
with a fully integrated web based management interface featuring card issuance
services, an administration centre and real-time reporting'.


- ENDS -


Notes to Editors:


ABOUT ReD


Retail Decisions (ReD) is a card issuer and a world leader in card fraud
prevention and payment processing.

ReD is international - based in the UK, US, Australia and South Africa with
representation in Japan and South America - and has over 17 years experience in
the fraud prevention market.

ReD is a niche supplier to the payments industry worldwide and is a recognised
industry leader with a blue-chip international client base. ReD's customers
come from the telecommunications, retail, travel, petroleum, banking and the
broader e-commerce sectors.

ReD's international blue-chip clients include: Wal-Mart, Macy's, Bloomingdale's,
Tesco, Texaco, Shell, Asda, Comet, Travelocity, T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile.

ReD has Fuel Card Operations in Australia, the UK and Europe.

In Australia, ReD's Fuel Card operation is the largest multi-branded card
business in that region. 'Multi-branded' - can be used in more than one brand
of filling station. ReD's cards are accepted at almost all of the 6,500 fuel
stations throughout Australia and at around 8,250 other outlets that provide
services for business drivers.

In the UK and Europe, ReD's fuel card business is the UK's second largest
operator in the independent fuel card and 'bunkering' sector by fuel volume with
over 65,000 cards in issue and around 6,300 live customer accounts. Clients
include DHL, Norfolk Line and P&O Ferry Masters, amongst others.

ReD's Fraud Prevention Operation provides services that maximise the
transactions that can be safely accepted (i.e. maximises profits) while
minimising a client's exposure to fraud. It also dramatically reduces in-house
fraud checking costs. ReD currently protects over 50,000 points of sale
globally.

In December 2005, ReD acquired E Com, Australia's largest Pre-Paid card
operator. Pre-paid cards (also known as stored value cards) are one of the
fastest growing areas in the payments market. Pre-paid cards are those payment
cards where the consumer can spend a pre-determined amount that has previously
been loaded onto the card. Pre-paid cards can be 'single use' or 're-loadable'
and can be designed for use at the outlets of a single retailer or be used at
multiple retailers (e.g. a shopping centre might issue a card that can be used
at each of the stores within its centre).


Examples of Pre-paid cards include:



o gift card schemes - which are replacing traditional gift voucher
schemes

o refund cards - to replace credit notes

o insurance claim cards - which are a convenient way for insurance
companies to re-imburse claimants

o incentive cards - which can be offered by corporates as part of
incentive schemes for staff

o pre-paid fuel cards


Benefits to merchants that adopt pre-paid card schemes are significant. For
example, gift cards enable merchants to provide a more modern consumer offering
than paper based vouchers, with better merchandising and branding opportunities.
They also provide significant operational cost savings around security,
administration and fraud prevention.


This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange LFLELBFFBD

A nice post-Christmas gift.

Serious stock buying needed now, that will move us up fast.

We need Fundy the figures man to work out the value of this development. Looks good, not sure about uptake of cards though.

Hi opto,did you see the mention in shares mag on rtd?
50% increase in online buying over xmas,quote,this is where rtd come in

Japan has been using them for some while, showed them on TV over the holidays. Big time there!

All adding strength Capetown :-)

Hi all

nice announcement though not overly unexpected - did find it amusing that the first UK client was an Australian company lol.

As for figures, as per usual with RTD contracts, it is impossible to assess quantifiably as the value (or even potential value) is not disclosed. They key to me is how are the deals structured - ie is there an upfornt payment and then a royalty charge, and if so, how big is the upfront payment and what percentage is it going forward.

Ultimately and without wanting to bore, until these deals are turned into revenue and profit growth in the annual accounts the SP growth is limited, if they can turn the contracts into turnover and profit growth, the SP will fly

Hi Fundy, are you back on board yet?

No opto

still on the sidelines - to be honest i have very little in the market at the moment (DNX being my big holding still), spending too much time and energy on betfair to do enough research and to be honest struggling to find any decently priced growth stocks when i do.

Hope you don't miss this one Fundy, it does look to have promise.

:o))......for fred ..............;o\

Fundy, Try using, if not already doing so, data mining in Sharescope, you should be able to dig out some nuggets. Perhaps even a little safer than oil spills.

It is very powerful tool.

Fred

keep meaning to get a better data mining tool, will have a look in the new year when ive got a bit more time

Fundy, Sharescope Gold will only cost you 2 bottles of reasonable plonk a month. And a talented Gentleman like you should be able to pay the year off after one month returns. Your cash flow will improve.

Fundy, Sharescope Gold will only cost you 2 bottles of reasonable plonk a month. And a talented Gentleman like you should be able to pay the year off after one month returns. Your cash flow will improve.