RS2 Software p.l.c. held its fifth Annual General Meeting on Wednesday 12th June 2013 at the [Westin Dragonara, St. Julian’s].
Addressing shareholders at its 5th Annual General Meeting on Wednesday 12th June 2013, Mario Schembri, Chairman of RS2 Software p.l.c. highlighted the progress of the business in the development of its product and services, specifically the development of the BankWORKS solution that provides card processing capability to clients in more than 28 countries around the world.
The group, which is currently celebrating 25 years in the business of providing the BankWORKS software solution to banks, financial institutions and card processing companies is seen as a leading technology company in Malta - signified by the opening of its new Mosta Headquarters in September 2012, during which Mr Schembri highlighted RS2’s importance as a contributor to technology job creation in Malta.
Radi El Haj, Chief Executive Officer, emphasised on the expertise and commitment of the company’s management and employees and the reputation of BankWORKS in the industry making RS2 one of the world leaders in the transaction processing arena and becoming an ambassador of the island for this type of business.
Key highlights in the presentation delivered by Radi El Haj’s, Chief Executive Officer, centred around the establishment and launch of RS2 Smart Processing Ltd (a wholly owned subsidiary of RS2 Software p.l.c.), inaugurated by the honourable Prime Minister Dr Joseph Muscat. The new company will enable the business to generate regular monthly income from the provision of hosted managed services and how the service business extends RS2’s business enabling it to capitalise on new market opportunities as banks seek to address their balance sheets and reduce capital investment whilst expanding the service footprints. Seen as a key area of growth for the group, the managed services business is hosted by IBM in Madrid and Frankfurt, is fully certified by the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Council, and went live in April 2013.
Furthermore Mr El Haj expanded on a Company Announcement previously published by the company that a potential strategic investor is interested in acquiring a substantial shareholding in RS2. Mr El Haj thanked the management, the board of directors and the employees for their outstanding support to the business which led to a very successful year resulting in the best performance the company has achieved to date.
Fiona Ciappara Cascun, Chief Financial Officer of RS2 Software p.l.c. summarised the performance of the business over the course of 2012, highlighting a 21% (year on year) increase in revenues and a gross profit margin of 46% making RS2 Software p.l.c. a strong performer in its market with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) at €4,489,000 up by €1.2 million year-on-year (37% increase). Ms Ciappara Cascun went on to explain that business revenues are continuing to grow but are also becoming broader and more evenly split across; licence fees, service fees, comprehensive packages & maintenance fees (43%, 32%, and 26% respectively). Ms Ciappara Cascun rounded off her summary of the company’s financial performance in 2012, by highlighting that in the period ending 31 December 2012 the balance sheet of RS2 Software p.l.c. had grown by €2.3 million an increase just shy of 15% to which she commented was a very solid achievement in a year that was ostensibly a year of investment and service expansion demonstrating the underlying quality of RS2’s strategy.
During the AGM, the directors recommended to the shareholders a dividend of €1,000,000 equating to €0.02c5 per share, and a bonus issue of one share for every 16 shares held currently creating 2.5 million shares at a nominal value of €500,000 taken out of the share premium reserve thereby not affecting retained earnings for future dividend payments.