Companies: ITH ��

Despite losing two large contracts in the UK to a rival, road traffic information provider ITIS enjoyed its ‘best-ever’ half year and is continuing its global crusade with launches in Belgium and South Africa.

Along with new city-wide pilot schemes in Ireland, Spain and the Czech Republic, which are expected to lead to national launches, a collaboration in Asia is targeting Japan and Taiwan. A similar agreement with an Australian mobile operator should lead to business in Singapore. The Belgian launch is the first nationwide cellular deployment outside of ITIS' core markets of the UK and Israel, and in South Africa a joint venture has been established with the Altec Netstar, the country’s largest stolen vehicle tracking company.

‘The size of the markets in Belgium and South African are smaller than the UK,’ chief executive Stuart Marks admits, ‘but we have significantly less competition.’ In the latter, the service will be introduced to the citizens of Johannesburg and then extended to Altec’s half a million customers and beyond.

In the half year to September, ITIS lifted sales and pre-tax profits 23% to �8.1m and �2.2m respectively. Of these revenues, 94% are derived from the UK, with 16 car manufacturers including Ford and 19 aftermarket and portable device specialists such as TomTom.

Big blows during the half included the loss of a contract with the Department of Transport (for the provision of journey time data to AIM rival Trafficmaster) as well as a deal with Vauxhall, events prompting a drop in the share price from 80p to below 50p.

But with a healthy bank balance boosted by strong cash generation from �11.6m to �13m and abundant foreign opportunities beginning to bud, recent share price weakness presents an opportune occasion to buy.

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