Gun crime deal hits target

Chief executive Craig Richardson. Photo / Greg Bowker

Wynyard Group hopes to gain up to 120 customers from partnership with UK consultancy.

Wynyard Group chief executive Craig Richardson says a partnership deal to deliver gun crime intelligence software for the law enforcement market could bring up to 120 new customers worldwide.

Shares in the intelligence software developer, which has about 400 clients, rose 34c to $2.84 yesterday after it announced the deal with British consultancy Arquebus Solutions.

Wynyard's value has shot up on the back of a deal in early January with a United Arab Emirates money exchange and last week the company confirmed it would meet revenue forecasts for 2013 of $21.5 million.

Wynyard shares were trading at $1.19 two weeks ago and got as high as $3.01 yesterday. On its closing price the company is worth $291.3 million.

Richardson said it was too soon to put a monetary figure on the partnership but the deal brought access to 120 more customers.

The software allows enforcement agencies to quickly connect ballistics-related data from bullets and cartridge cases to known offenders, crime networks or terrorists.

Richardson said forming new partnerships was just one of the channels Wynyard was working through to build its business.

One analyst commented, "These announcements are all relatively small, but investors are all hoping it could be the next Xero."

Richardson said there was a lot of talk about Wynyard being the next Xero but the two companies were very different. Accountancy software firm Xero was a new player attacking an established market, while Wynyard was in a high-growth new category. "There are different drivers for us to be successful."

He said the company had received a lot of interest in the past week. He had received a couple of hundred emails and calls ranging from mum and dad investors to international investors wanting to know more about the company.

Forsyth Barr analyst Blair Galpin said last week that Wynyard operated in two of the hottest technology spaces - security and big data but it was a speculative stock with a relatively short trading history.

He downgraded his recommendation from hold to reduce and gave the stock a 12-month valuation of $1.95.