UK puts Henley on world map

By CHRIS BARTON

Henley Communications has begun a global push of its New Zealand-developed sharemarket information and charting service with a launch into Britain.

With UK partner Global Futures, some 8000 CD-roms of Henley's new Investor Suite software were given to visitors of the Sharex personal investor show in London last weekend.

The UK CD-rom also offers a 30-day free trial of some stock exchange information services which Henley expects will lead to sign ups to monthly subscriptions.

Managing director Fraser Guthrie said the sheer size of the UK market, with about 3.5 million active investors compared with about 100,000 here, provided huge opportunities for growth.

As well as launching UK web site www.henleyinvestor.co.uk, the company has set up sites for Singapore(.com.sg), Australia (.com.au) and the United States (.com) - all run and hosted from its Queen St offices. Mr Guthrie said Henley's expansion would follow the UK example. He said Henley was close to deals with partners in Singapore and Australia.

Late last year Henley sought $5 million capital for expansion but managed to raise only $1.2 million from local investors.

Shares were available at 100c each, with $3500 the minimum investment with a free option attached for each two shares bought.

Its investment statement valued the company at $20 million - determined by applying a price to sales multiple of 1.3 to Henley's forecast sales revenue of $15,675,000 from about 39,000 subscribers by the end of March 2002.

The company now has about 600 mostly New Zealand subscribers (up from 350 in February) to its service, which provides 20-minute delayed information from 20 stock exchanges worldwide together with between three and eight years of historical data on about 50,000 companies.

Customers pay $29.95 a month subscription for NZSE information rising to $79.95 for access to all global exchanges, forex and global indices.

The information downloaded via the net integrates with the company's charting and investment analysis software.

Technical director Todd Somervell said the New Zealand market had been an ideal place to develop the software which has evolved through customer feedback. The new version consists of four products: Insight for finding hot stocks, Chart for technical analysis, Portfolio for managing money and Newsagent for stock news. Considerable effort has gone into "expert assistant," a multimedia feature designed to demystify the intricacies of technical analysis to DIY investors.

"People have 20 minutes to one hour a week to deal with their share portfolio and want quick answers," said Mr Guthrie.