Companies: PTS   

Electronic trading technology specialist Patsystems has blamed worldwide turbulence in the banking sector for a number of contract slippages and an ensuing lower level of profits for the current year.

The AIM-listed company warned that new and existing customers are holding back from spending on new technology projects at the moment, which means that ‘a number of opportunities that we had expected to conclude in the first half of the financial year will slip to the second half and a number of second-half opportunities will probably be delayed until 2009’. As a result, profits for the first six months to June are now expected to be lower than those of last year and the disappointing shortfall is not expected to be recovered in the second half.

Management now concludes that, despite some new business opportunities being close to completion, full-year profits for 2008 will be ‘at a similar level to the adjusted operating profit of £3 million that we reported in 2007’.

Patsystems' shares, which hit a 52-week peak of 30p last summer, gave up 6.25p this morning at 21p, valuing the company at just under £38 million.

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Patsystems	AIM	£27.34m	15.25p	-0.25p
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Other company articles:
Deal delays dampen Patsystems			07/08/2008
Banks weigh on Patsystems			06/06/2008
Customer wins help Patsystems			03/03/2008
Customer wins help Patsystems			11/02/2008
Futures deal for Patsystems			14/11/2007