Scipher spends £33m float funds

FORMER Thorn EMI technology arm Scipher has spent all the £33m it raised from a £330m float in February last year and has dipped into a recently arranged overdraft.

It hopes the sale and leaseback of its headquarters, now scheduled for early 2002, will put a net £8m cash into a business that has drawn down £2m of a £5m Bank of Scotland rolling overdraft facility arranged in July.

A cost-cutting programme, which has seen 70 jobs go, has helped bring cash burn down to £500,000 a month. The target is to reach break-even by the middle of next year, about six months ahead of the original schedule.

The technology sector and computer market slowdown has delayed the signing of contracts. Even so, chairman Ken Gray was 'delighted with commercial and financial progress', and promised continuing revenue growth.

Pre-tax losses grew 49% to £8.3m on sales up 23% to £7.53m, with losses per share 42% worse at 9.1p. The shares, floated at 380p by what was then Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, fell 12 1/2p to 160p.