February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Harry Keaney
Trintech, a Dublin-based software company, is expected to be the latest Irish company to go public.
Trintech’s initial public offering, on the NASDAQ exchange, is scheduled for this Thursday. The company plans to sell off 5.8 million American depository shares through Deutsche Bank and Alex Brown. The offer range for the shares is expected to be $10 to $12.
Trintech, founded in 1987, is in the business for encryption for the use of credit cards to make payments for transactions on the internet. Germany is the company’s largest market. In the six months to July 31, about 29 percent of revenues came from Which, a subsidiary of U.S. giant Tyco. In the same period, four customers, including Bank of Ireland, accounted for 48 percent of sales.
The company has posted losses in seven of its last nine quarters, and losses of $4.6 million in the first six months of this year.
It has had heavy expenditure in research and development and expansion programs.
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Brothers Cyril and John McGuire will own 36 percent of the company after the offering.
It is not unusual that e-commerce companies launching IPOs are loss-makers. Interest in e-commerce, particularly security and encryption, is an all-time high. Although Trintech is not expected to make a profit for at least two years, the potential in its business could be enormous, some market analysts believe.