Wynyard Group signs $4.5m contract

Craig Richardson, chief executive of the Wynyard Group.

Wynyard Group, the security software developer, has signed a three-year contract worth $4.5 million with a national security agency it didn't name to use its software for counter-terrorism and protect high value assets.

The Auckland-based company's advanced crime analytics and investigations case management applications will be implemented by a multi-national systems integration partner for a minimum contract value of $4.5 million over the initial term, it said in a statement. In May, the company signalled an expectation of wrapping up "a significant national security solution" for delivery in the second half of this year.

"Agencies are investing in our advanced analytics capability to rapidly process and analyse structured and unstructured big data from many different sources to surface actionable intelligence so they can target investigations on countering terrorism and preventing high consequence crime," chief executive Craig Richardson said.

"Governments around the world are increasingly concerned by organised crime, new generation extremist and never-before-seen cyber threats which continue to grow in frequency and severity."Yesterday,

Wynyard announced plans to hold a special shareholders' meeting where it will seek approval to raise $30 million from institutional and high-net investors, selling shares at $2 apiece or higher, a 45 percent premium to the trading price before the announcement.The shares jumped 20 percent yesterday, and were up a further 6.6 percent today, recently trading at $1.77.

Wynyard yesterday said the current share price didn't reflect the company's value, and was driven by a thinly-traded market.