Eckoh PLC (LON:ECK) has landed a US$3.7mln US secure payment contract – its largest ever.
It takes the running total for new business this financial year to US$8mln.
The latest deal, with a large telecoms provider, runs for five years, kicking next financial year.
WATCH: CEO Philpot on why bagging their biggest deal yet is a 'validation of the last three years'
Eckoh’s software will be used in the client’s contact centres to prevent fraud and to help it comply more easily with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards.
“With a limited number of competitors and a product portfolio with a breadth and flexibility that they cannot match, we are convinced that Eckoh can become the natural choice for contact centre security,” said Nik Philpot, chief executive of the AIM-listed technology group.
“The strong progress we have made in the US this year is clear, both in terms of the value of the contracts and the quality of those future earnings, and underscores our ability to capture the scale of the opportunity and to deliver significant growth over the coming years."
Positive momentum ...
In a note to clients on Eckoh, analysts at ‘house’ broker N+1 Singer pointed out: “The positive US momentum it reported on at the time of the interims has continued with 9 wins in the year to March 2017 to date (6 at the time of the interims).
“This is the same number as that won in the previous year but the total contract value of these contracts is more than 5x what was won last year.”
They added: “The US is a very important market, being 6-7x the size that of the UK and we believe that Eckoh is well-placed, having one of the leading Secure Payments proposition in the market.”
Eckoh’s shares were up 2.7%, or 1.0p to 38.5p on the US deal news, but in the year-to-date are still down about 2%, with around a 12% drop on a one-year view.
The N+1 analysts said:: “The shares are on Mar’18 EV/EBITDA of 13.0x – we believe there are opportunities both for a re-rating and estimate upgrades with continued execution.”
-- Adds broker comment, share price --