Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

The company intends to float on the London Stock Exchange-run market within the next four to six weeks and use the net proceeds as working capital and for wider growth either through strategic alliances or acquisitions of other companies, products or technologies.

CambridgeSoft is currently in the throes of rapid organic growth and saw a 50 per cent top line improvement for 2006 on the previous year and expects a further minimum of 30 per cent growth for 2007.

CambridgeSoft sees the float as a natural progression in its evolution as it targets markets with a combined annual worth exceeding £320m.

“We will invest further in R & D by hiring more staff in the UK, so there will be expansion in the Cambridge office,” said Robert Scoffin, head of CambridgeSoft’s European operation.

“CambridgeSoft has built a leading position in the scientific research market,” said Michael Tomasic, company CEO and president.
“Research is fundamental to all global pharmaceutical companies and our solutions are integral to these companies leveraging the intellectual property which they are developing, capturing and protecting on a daily basis.”

The company’s outsourcing model includes offices in Belarus and Lebanon, which provide German and French language expertise as well as technical excellence.

Together with the UK operation, which employs 20, CambridgeSoft has over 50 employees in Europe. It has 300 employees and outsourced contractors worldwide.

“We’re coming from a position when I joined in 1998 of relatively low revenue from Europe representing 10 per cent of the company,” said Scoffin. “Our long term target is 35 per cent and we’re pretty close to that already.”

“The planned placing is an important next step in our development and will allow us to accelerate growth and strengthen our position within our sector,” added Tomasic, a thought echoed by Scoffin.

“It shows a level of maturity that gives enhanced branding and respectability, especially with the top tier pharmaceuticals.”
CambridgeSoft has a strong and growing blue-chip customer base and since the beginning of 2004 has made sales to all of the top 30 largest global pharmaceutical companies.

Its integrated suite of desktop software, enterprise informatics and knowledge management products are designed to improve the productivity of scientists and researchers in the discovery, development and commercialisation of chemical and biological compounds.
These proprietary offerings create a collaborative, knowledge-driven computing environment that expedites the flow of information among scientists. reducing customers’ time-to-market for new products.

Scoffin said: “CambridgeSoft is a global company and customer base and AIM at this point is the place to be for growing companies. It doesn’t limit where investment comes from and gives us a better balance than NASDAQ which is very US-centric.”
CambridgeSoft will not be drawn on its intended list price until it has had its investor roadshow, but it will also want to return enough cash to the balance sheet following a stock buy back from a former director.

“We are also listing to give a currency for future growth, internal R & D and expand into new markets,” said Scoffin.
“Non-organic growth through acquisitions will also be considered further down the line, though there isn’t a portfolio of potential acquisitions at this moment.”

CambridgeSoft’s turnover was £11.1m in 2006, 30 per cent of that was from Europe of which 40 per cent – 12 per cent – came from the UK.