Terralink mapping out big earnings

By CHRIS BARTON IT editor

Failed state-owned enterprise Terralink International is on track for $30 million in revenue this year and has just landed a $3 million mapping contract in Portugal.

The mapping business was bought in May by a consortium of Animation Research, New Zealand Aerial Mapping and software expert Mike Bundock, after the SOE was put into receivership on January 15.

The price paid by the three is still the subject of High Court suppression order following an appeal against the sale by an unsuccessful bidder. The appeal was dismissed, but during the case it was revealed a higher conditional bid of $7.5 million was rejected by receiver PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The revived company has re-employed all 240 remaining Terralink staff and is continuing existing mapping contracts in the United States and Australia, as well as new contracts in Timor and Portugal.

The company has also unveiled plans for a major "Emap" initiative, which is due to be launched in the fourth quarter of this year. The new service will combine New Zealand land information - including survey, title and valuation details - with aerial photographs available via the internet on a subscription basis.

Animation Research director Ian Taylor said the project had been under development for two years when the opportunity to buy Terralink came up.

The idea had developed from a partnership between the Dunedin-based animation company and NZ Aerial Mapping for creating 3D flyover views of golf courses, used to enhance television coverage of golf events.

The technique has since been picked up by sports animation and software company Virtual Spectator for television and internet coverage of a variety of golf events and the World Rally.

Animation Research, along with IT Capital and several others, has a shareholding in Virtual Spectator.

Mr Taylor said Emap would eventually include the ability to get a 3D image of a property. The process involves converting photographic data into a topographically accurate digital model - then "draping" the aerial photograph over the model.

NZ Aerial Mapping managing director Craig Atchison said once the Emap concept was proven in New Zealand, it would be taken to other countries.

The company has been providing aerial photographs for Government departments since 1936. Its archive of more than one million frames will enable historical views of property, such as land before and after forests have been planted.

The contract with the state-owned electricity company in Portugal will involve aerial mapping of the utility's infrastructure assets. Terralink does similar work for New Zealand utilities and local government.

Mr Atchison said Emap would for the first time bring aerial photographic overlays to utility and local government geographic information systems, providing rich detail, including street address and terrain information.

Last month, MPs holding a post-mortem on the failure of Terralink were told the Government was not the ideal owner for such a business.

Dr Bas Walker, a director who has remained with the company, told MPs that Terralink might have been a unique SOE as it was a small company with a lot of competition. It also had to change staff practices while dealing with "difficult customers", which had been hard to achieve.

Terralink went under after the Government refused a cash bailout following a $2.6 million dispute with multinational information technology company EDS.