Shares in London-based Knowledge Technology Solutions (KTS) fell 28% in morning trading after the market data technology vendor reported increased operating losses for the year ending 30 June 2005 and predicted a gloomy outlook for the year ahead.
KTS says during the year, sales increased month-on-month and resulted in a year-end turnover of £1.25m, 62% higher than last year's £770,185, although this was mainly fuelled by demand for its new international financial information service, MarketTerminal.
But costs associated with the roll out of the new product - including investment in technical and customer support staff and the cost of global data feeds required for the service - helped increase the company's operating losses to £1.1m, compared to £979,432 a year ago.
Looking ahead KTS says it plans to increase sales of MarketTerminal by targeting corporate clients with a strongly-tailored service and will also seek new growth activities and business partnerships to supplement income from desktop subscriptions. But the vendor warns that market conditions for desktop market data display applications have been challenging and will impact the firm in the year ahead.
"Vigorous competition among desktop data applications providers has created a tough trading environment," says Marc Pinter-Krainer, chief executive, KTS. "Whilst this difficult environment has reduced our expectations for next year, moving towards profitability remains of paramount importance, and revenues from additional growth opportunities will help accelerate progress."