Plus SMS shares take mysterious leap

A mysterious rise in the shares of scandal-plagued tech company Plus SMS sent the company's market value back over $100 million yesterday - not far short of its market capitalisation before it admitted making misleading statements to investors.

Shares in the text messaging company rose as much as 13c - to 29c - giving the company a market capitalisation of slightly over $100.5 million. The rise was driven by trading of about 1 million shares, just 0.3 per cent of those issued, with a traded value of $183,164.

By yesterday's close the shares had dropped back - ending up 11c at 27c a share. That left its market capitalisation at $93.6 million, compared with $118 million before September's collapse - which followed revelations that the progress of the business had been overstated.

The company yesterday announced a new team of second-tier managers, but this is unlikely to explain an 81 per cent price spike.

Macquarie Equities investment director Arthur Lim described the price rise as "same old, same old".

"This is a company that sells itself on blue skies. Its prices in the past have moved as it is moving today," Lim said. "There is plenty of coverage now of the company, what's happened to it and some of the shenanigans that's gone on.

"So anyone that looks at the share now, the company and its share price movement, must take into consideration what's happened in the past and take heed accordingly."

Chief executive Christopher Tiensch said the new management team provided a wide range of experience that was "key to moving the company forward and unlocking value for our shareholders".

Among the appointees are commercial director Fredrik Stael von Holstein who was managing director of Spanish newspaper Metro News, while new technical director Simon Barnes was the former head of software development at bmd wireless - the Swiss company Tiensch co-founded and sold to Intrado for about US$21 million.

On Friday the company - which plans to enable companies to run global text-message campaigns and competitions using single codes - said it had signed a contract with the Democratic Republic of Congo to provide mobile data services and had been granted 10-year-long rights to use certain number ranges.

New chairman George Brooks welcomed the rise in the company's share price. "Hopefully the shareholders can see that now it's got good governance, good management and products that we can actually go and do something with, the bad news of the business should all be out and hopefully they see a way forward for it," he said.