IT firm scrambles to find $11m injection

By PETER GRIFFIN

The Australian owner of the Datareach IT development lab in Napier has until Wednesday to put together a A$10 million ($11.5 million) finance package or its operations on both sides of the Tasman will likely collapse.

Managers of Tennyson Networks have been working furiously with their financial backer, Australian investment firm Neoside, to resurrect a plan to inject capital into the company.

At a shareholders' meeting held in Melbourne on Friday, investors passed a resolution to continue with the Neoside investment plan despite the difficulties Neoside has had in honouring an agreement to supply bridging finance of up to A$2 million. Neoside has two business days to deposit almost A$10 million with Tennyson and save the company.

The timing of tomorrow's Melbourne Cup horse race means Wednesday is D-day for the directors of Tennyson and Neoside.

"The Tennyson directors have indicated to me there might be a bit of slippage and it may be Thursday," said Nick Brooke, the PricewaterhouseCoopers administrator overseeing Tennyson.

The 25 Datareach staff working on telecoms and internet products in Napier continue to work on as normal but will be on tenterhooks as Wednesday's deadline approaches.

Even if the company gets its much-needed capital, it may have to re-assemble its Australian workforce from scratch.

Brooke said Tennyson's management were still confident of receiving the money.

Last month Tennyson's shares on the Australian Stock Exchange were suspended.