Subscription period from September 26 to 28. Stock-exchange candidate
Hexmac sees itself way ahead of the competition.
Hexmac is a small provider of Internet software that has seen
itself as a developer until now. The listing is planned to help
Hexmac sell its product on the international market as well.
Handelsblatt,
13.9.2000 ant Frankfurt/M.
Still waters run deep. This is certainly true
of the Leonberg-based software company Hexmac. Founded in 1993,
this company has been quietly developing products for years, concentrating
on creating top quality software for the combination of editorial
content and Internet shopping opportunities, as the Director of
Finance Michael K�hnl points out.
Today, this company counts the operators of some of the most popular
sites on the Internet as its customers and yet only generated sales
last year of DM 1.8 million. "The time has come to commercialize
the company", says K�hnl with regard to the company's plan to go
public on the Neuer Markt at the beginning of October.
In order to raise the current sales to DM 7.1 million this year
and up to almost DM 60 million by the year 2003, a large share of
the capital generated by the listing is to go towards the build
up of a sales team that will market the product Hexbase Publishing
System (HPS), not only in Germany, but subsequently also in the
rest of Europe, Asia and the USA.
In addition to placing emphasis on direct sales, the company is
also putting an increasing amount of faith in sales partners that
are specialized in the service business, which is less lucrative
for Hexmac than the product business.
The stock exchange candidate knows that it will have to spend some
money to implement its growth plans. After a balanced result in
1999, K�hnl expects a pretax and pre-interest (EBIT) loss for the
current year of almost DM 4.7 million. In 2001, start-up costs for
the market entries in Great Britain, Scandinavia other core European
markets will burden the earnings to such an extent that this loss
may increase to up to DM 8.6 million.
Break even is planned for 2002, followed by a profit of DM 7.5
million the following year. One hurdle to the realization of the
strategy could be the search for qualified personnel. By the year
2003 the payroll is planned to increase from its current 55 employees
to 277. A stock option program and enthusiasm for the product's
chances will help K�hnl attract new staff.
While the Hexmac software is behind the Focus Online, Bild Online
and TV Today websites, the USA-listed Hexmac competitor Vignette
has Spiegel online and TV Spielfilm as its customers.
According to the Technology Director Dieter Pfenning, the main
difference between HPS and the competition is that it enables the
administration of content and e-commerce processes with one software
product: "Our competitors from both fields are currently entering
into numerous co-operations with companies from the other field,
in order to be able to offer both." Pfenning estimates the development
time required for this - that is, Hexmac's lead - to be 6 to 9 months.
Hexmac WKN: 522 761
Industry: Internet
Stock market tier: Neuer Markt
Valuation: appr. 19 bis 22€
Max. no. of shares: 1,3 Mill.
Max. shares owned privately: 42%
Subscription period: Sept. 26 to 28, 2000
Initial listing: Oct. 2, 2000
Consortium leader: Hypo-Vereinsbank
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