Sales at Spectel, the Irish high-tech firm that was sold last August for €85 million, topped $40 million (€31 million) in its last financial year.
According to figures just filed with the Companies' Registration Office (CRO), revenues at Dublin-based Spectel plc grew 6 per cent to $40.3 million in 2003, from €38.5 million in 2002.
The company made an operating profit of $34,000 compared with a $824,000 loss under that heading in 2002. However $602,000 in interest and loan repayments left it with a pre-tax loss of $365,000, compared to $1.2 million the previous year.
Losses carried forward at the end of the year totalled $3.2 million. The company's balance sheet shows that shareholders' funds stood at $38 million, a slight drop on the 2002 figure of $38.6 million.
Spectel develops and produces video-conferencing equipment which uses the internet to connect individuals in different locations and hold face-to-face conversations. It employs 210 people and has bases in Dublin, the US and the Far East.
Last August, US multinational Avaya agreed to buy the Irish company for €85.7 million. The deal valued the 43.4 per cent of Spectel held by its founder and chief executive, Mr Gerard Moore, at €37 million.
He was due to receive an initial payment of €14.5 million last month when the deal was completed.The agreement obliges him to remain as chief executive for a further year.
During that time he will retain 26 per cent. Once the year elapses, he will be free to leave and sell the remainder of his stake to Avaya for the price agreed in August. Mr Moore founded Spectel in 1996 when he led a management buyout of the Irish subsidiary of another US multinational, Telspec.
Four years later the company raised €12.7 million from private investors through NCB Stockbrokers. That valued the company at around €85 million.
At that time, Mr Moore said that he expected the company to float within "12 to 24 months". However, Spectel dropped those plans after the technology bubble burst and stock values plummeted in 2000 and 2001.
Since then, the company spent $640,000 on restructuring, and tightened its cost base. Total operating expenses were level at $23 million in both 2002 and 2003.
Spectel had been collaborating with its new parent, Avaya, on a number of projects before the sale. The pair operate in the same sector. Avaya has an existing Irish base in Co Wicklow, where it employs 410 people.
Last month, Avaya reported that it had revenues of $4 billion and earnings of $291 million or 63 US cent per share in the year to the end of September. During the year, it also bought a German company, Tenovis.
