Kewill up after shedding loss-maker

(First Edition)

TAXABLE profits at the computer software group Kewill jumped from pounds 241,000 to pounds 1.9m as the company it unburdened itself of a loss-making German subsidiary, writes Robert Cole.

Kewill designs computer systems to handle stock, payroll and invoicing, mostly for manufacturing businesses. Weigang, a German companyacquired in 1991 and sold earlier this year, lost Kewill pounds 6m in asset write-offs and trading losses. But interim results for the six months to 30 September include no effect of Weigang which lost pounds 1.3m in the comparable period.

Ignoring Weigard, Kewill's underlying operating profits advanced by 28 per cent. John Overstall, chairman, said that investment by manufacturing companies was flat but the company had benefited from increased interest in electronic data interchange. It has sold EDI packages allowing paperless logistics to the retailers Marks & Spencer, Gateway and WH Smith. It has also signed a potentially lucrative cross-marketing agreement in Germany with computer group IBM.

Earnings per share were 10.1p compared withto losses per share last time of 3.6p. There is no dividend and the shares, quoted on the Unlisted Securities Market, fell 7p to 253p.