Bombed-out AIM company Synchronica (AIM: SYNC) has raised £2 million – only one month after saying it had ‘sufficient cash to meet its present needs’. Cough, cough. Its 2007 report showed losses halved at £3 million and it had previously reported raising £1.87 million at 6.25p in a prior issue.
The mobile communications specialist latest shares placement was at 7p through broker Seymour Pierce – cash which is earmarked to expand its sales and marketing operations in emerging markets that lack elaborate existing communications networks. Markets where attaching email capability to simple mobile phones could be big business. Operative word here is ‘could’.
Founder and chief executive officer Carsten Brinkschulte argues Synchronica’s Mobile Gateway 3.5 ‘push’ email and synchronisation software is ‘geared to the specific requirements of emerging markets and can deliver email to more than three billion phones worldwide’.
Brinkschulte contributed £20,000 to the latest placing. He has been trying to steer Synchronica back to health since it lost its way within ill-starred mobile services venture DAT Group.
August 2007 saw some positive news when Synchronica won a potentially lucrative contract with Sun Microsystems whilst more recently the company agreed an international marketing JV with Miami-based Brightstar, a leading distributor to mobile systems.
Originally floated at 130p back in 2004, the shares had topped out at 530p before collapsing all the way to 6.88p by June 2007. Mid-market today they were trading at 7.5p.
Recommendation: Very Speculative