Atlantic Global's float on Aim last year following a £1.6 million Seymour Pierce-backed fundraising was a rather low-key affair. Atlantic slipped quietly onto the market with a value of £5.2 million – a prudent price tag for a venture that made £314,000 on sales of £1.2 million in 2001.

But since then the shares have run up from 25p to 37p, making Altantic one of the very few newcomers in the past 18 months to trade above its issue price. The reason for this is quite simple: the market has rewarded the company for setting, and then hitting, reasonable business targets.

Atlantic's core activity is the supply of business management software under the ADEO brand. As with most profitable software ventures, its suite of products has been created to enable large (and small) corporations to run aspects of their operations more efficiently to cut costs and improve margins.

The company has three areas of expertise. It supplies a project and resource planning tool; a time-and-expense tracking tool; and contact and issue management software.

What differentiates Atlantic from many of its peers is the fact that its software is reasonably priced and easy to use. Finance director Rupert Hutton says: 'We don't charge massive upfront costs on implementation. After various tests and pilot schemes, we sell clients "activation" keys to each of our three modules. This can cost £1,000–2,500. After that, clients pay £105–£55 for each employee that uses it. It's a simple, cost-effective pricing structure for a simple-to-use and easily scaleable product.'

On top of licence income, Atlantic levies a service charge and supplies associated consultancy services.

In the past six months, the simplicity and efficiency of the software package provoked Norwich Union Life Services to sign a three-year licensing deal. Other new blue-chip clients include Logica, Virgin, NEC and Eclipse Petroleum.

Atlantic also signed up its first 'alliance partner' in the shape of Morgan Hill Consultants, and Hutton made positive noises about various other software modules that are under development in association with a large pharmaceutical company. The implication is that, if these developments proceed as hoped, a whole new revenue stream could be opened up.

On the back of the strong half-time results (profits of £284,000 on sales of £860,000), house broker Seymour Pierce – in the shape of analyst Lorne Daniel – is now expecting the company to generate full-year sales of around £1.9 million and profits in the region of £873,000. Earnings per share are slated to reach 2.8p.

Daniel says the company's sales conversion rate is impressive and, with product launches already complete and more in the pipeline, the numbers should be easily met. 'The group is weighted to the second half, but we are happy with our forecast. Even after the share price rise of the past 12 months, Atlantic is trading on a prospective p/e of just 13.2 for 2002. We are long-term buyers of the stock.'