Focus Solutions celebrated its fifth AIM anniversary in style, producing a first profit (as a listed company) for the year to March. The group, which specialises in providing software solutions to the retail finance markets, converted a £382,000 loss into a £26,000 profit before tax. Total revenues increased just £43,000 to £5.4m. However, underlying sales growth was actually strong with progress being masked by the waning influence of a one-off contract with Norwich Union. In 2003/04 this project contributed £1.7m of turnover, last year that figure fell to only £250,000. While the comparatively low margin Norwich Union deal has all but run its course, there have been plenty of impressive contract wins (including an initial £1.7m order from Zurich Financial Services) to counteract the shortfall. Sales to the mortgage, retail banking and insurance markets have risen steadily and chief executive John Streets expects further advances in these sectors as regulation tightens. Interest is also beginning to surround ‘Goal’, the technology underpinning Focus’ retail finance offers, and several third parties are said to be considering developing their own products based on this platform. For 2005/06 Stuart Lunn of house broker Seymour Pierce forecasts a £400,000 profit (before tax and goodwill) on £6.6m of sales and with 1.3p of earnings. This places the shares on a prospective p/e 21.9 – not especially cheap, although things are moving in the right direction.

Focus Solutions	AIM	£7.96m	27.00p	0.00p
Click here for interactive charting
Other company articles:
Focus Solutions			04/03/2008
Focus Solutions			15/06/2007
Tech Watch by Elliott Davis			19/06/2006
Focus Solutions			15/06/2005
Focus Solutions			21/10/2002