--- begin forwarded text From: Somebody To: "Bob Hettinga" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Deutsche Bank to advise NCipher Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2000 08:48:40 +0100 COMPANIES & FINANCE: UK: Deutsche Bank to advise NCipher Financial Times, Sep 11, 2000, 252 words NCipher, the Cambridge-based internet security company, will this week move closer to floating, when it announces the appointment of Deutsche Bank as financial adviser, and the expansion of its board. A public offering could see the two brothers who founded the company - Alex and Nicko van Someren - join the select band of East Anglian technology millionaires. Although NCipher de-clined to confirm a date for the flotation, analysts expect an offering later this year. The appointment of Jamie Urquhart, chief operating officer of ARM Holdings, the semiconductor chip design company, as a non-executive director is seen as improving its credentials in the city. In previous rounds of venture funding, NCipher was valued at Dollars 100m (Pounds 62m). Since then sales, led by the US, have increased sharply to Pounds 3.3m in the three months to June 30, compared with Pounds 2.2m in the preceding quarter and Pounds 4.7m for of 1999. Some 30 per cent of the company remains with employees and the founders. Analysts said the fact NCipher produces both hardware and software made it difficult to compare for valuation purposes with security software companies, such as Baltimore Technologies. Its main product is a small hardware plug-in, costing between Pounds 3,000 and Pounds 10,000 each, for computer servers which store customer details securely while accelerating encryption. Early customers were online brokerages. It is now targeting business-to- business websites and the wireless market. It has formed a partnership with Identrus, a global venture backed by eight international banks to provide services for the financial sector. Product margins are above 50 per cent, although direct competitors have to date been few, and include Rainbow Technologies, a US security specialist, and the hardware manufacturers, Hewlett-Packard and Compaq. The company does not predict profits until 2002. --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
