EMIS confirms AIM flotation

Tags: AIM EMIS EMIS Web Government

05 Mar 2010

Health IT system supplier EMIS has announced that it expects its shares to be trading on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market by the end of this month.

The company has published its ‘pathfinder admission document’ for the planned flotation. This aims to raise £50m, with £25m in new shares issued to institutional investors and a further £25m of shares owned by existing shareholders sold to investors.

The money generated by the issue of new shares will be used to repay a £23m loan from the founder shareholders. The company expects to have a post-float market value of £200m.

The company announced its intention to float on AIM last month and the pathfinder admission document, which is used to assess the level of demand from potential investors, sets out more information about the company and its intention.

The Leeds-based firm generated at operating profit of £15.8m on revenues of £57.7m in 2009 and says it has a market share of 52.4% in the UK and 59% in England.

The document sets out the company’s strategy for growth, which it says is will be focused on targeting potential new GP practice users, providing additional products and services to GP practice nurses, rolling out EMIS Web across other extended primary, community and secondary sectors, and rolling out EMIS Web to its existing GP practices and other GP practices.

The company says EMIS Web is being trialled by non-GP users across a variety of healthcare teams in 14 primary care trusts and that it is planning for a commercial roll-out of EMIS Web to GP practices “towards the end of 2010”.

Last month, the company confirmed to EHI Primary Care that first of type testing for Release 3.0 of EMIS Web is due to begin next month.

The company said its directors were seeking admission to AIM because they believe its enhanced disclosure and corporate governance regime would give the company “even greater credibility in its discussions with government and organisations within the public sector.”

Sean Riddell, EMIS chief executive, added: “EMIS benefits from a leading market position built on a loyal customer base in response to GP practice requirements for simple to use, scalable data systems.

"A flotation on AIM will signal a new chapter in the group’s development, enabling us to further incentivise management and build on our strong position by taking advantage of the growth opportunities available to us.”

EMIS said it had been trading in line with the board’s expectations since December 2009 and intended to pay an interim dividend of £3.25m in October 2010.

Fiona Barr

EMIS to float on AIM (15 Feb 2010) (3)
EMIS Web now expected in April (16 Feb 2010)

Reader's Comments

I'll be there!

09 Mar 10 09:03

Great company and this should provide continued investment funds for company that's been delivering on promises.

Delivering on promises

09 Mar 10 17:03

EMIS have been promising new products and specifically a joined up GP/community product for a long time. The question is - how much of what they've promised actually exists now?

1999 EMIS announce GV as their flagship product to replace LV.
2002 EMIS win tender to write joined up primary care system (GP and community) for Calderdale PCT.
2003 EMIS announce PCS as their flagship product to replace LV.
2004 EMIS announce PCS Enterprise as a single centralised database for use across Primary Care.
2004 EMIS implements a single Enterprise systme for 3 Manchester PCTs.
2006 EMIS announce EMIS Web, a common clinical record to be shared by GPs and community staff
2006 EMIS to roll out EMIS Web to 100 practices after successful pilot at Calderdale and Tower Hamlets.
2008 EMIS announce EMIS Dental
2009 EMIS announce that EMIS Web will be available for full use by GPs in September or October.
2010 EMIS announce that EMIS Web will be 'commercially rolled out' at the end of 2010.

It may be that EMIS are genuinely selling shares because they want help to to expand their business; however it may also be because they have failed to move their software forward and are ready to sell up. A number of PCTs have already made their decision about EMIS and now it will be up to the stock-market.

Really?

10 Mar 10 10:03

Delivering on promises, is that a joke?

EMIS Web has been six months away for over two years. Last I heard, it was definitely going to be ready November 09. EMIS was so sure on the date, they were even inviting practices to book dates for their migrations. Now it is going to be towards the end of this year. I won’t be betting the house on it being ready by then...

EMIS's floatation

technique1973@yahoo.co.uk

09 Apr 10 15:04

True, EMIS has been promising EMIS Web for a number of years but it's worth setting that issue straight.

Firstly, this is the first software that CfH have to accredit for GPSoC from start to finish. LV, PCS, iSoft Premier, IPS Vision, TPP SystmOne were already established software packages at the old RF99 stage so formally approving them for GPSoC must have been a fair bit easier.

EMIS has to work very closely with CfH to gain accreditation. To do this there has to be 'First of Type' users who report on the software whilst using it in real time situations. To get First of Type customers on board, EMIS had approach existing users of EMIS Web in it's 'streaming' stage, where Web sits as a read-only view in the background of existing LV or PCS installs. The FoT users would have to have been streaming and looking at their data for some time in order to be in a position to put themselves forward for this stringent testing.

Now that process is about to begin, coupled with the floatation that allows further investment on what CfH are already saying 'there's nothing else comes close to EMIS Web', gives EMIS the confidence to give 2010 as the year Web is released. If it isn't 2010 then it'll be due in large part to some unforeseen issue during FoT testing and CfH's approval of Web to be released. Extra funding also allows EMIS to develop Web way beyond the requirements CfH set out for GPSoC. Once EMIS has finished getting Web to the CfH accredition, they'll then set about adding further modules that will provide even more to the end user - such as the ability to share data (outside the CfH SCR) with other organisations such as Out of Hours. Plus with extra funding EMIS can also provide free training for Web (a certain amount given the 6000+ customer base). At least one other provider (TPP's SystmOne) don't even deliver their own training - they pass on all training for their system to the PCT.

I personally can't see Sean Riddell walking away from EMIS at this stage. EMIS Web has been his baby for half a decade and he too (as he freely admits during conferences) is sick of standing in front of hundreds of users at the NUG telling them Web is coming out only for it not to.

So, it's currently going through final stages of testing with CfH. Any issues CfH or the FoT customers raise may require tweaking/development and re-testing. That's why EMIS tested to CfH standards prior to handing it over to CfH for accrediation - so that hopefully there will be few issues to iron out.

Web will come and as always, the best things come to those who wait... and wait... and wait. But it'll come and it'll revolutionise electronic healthcare records. EMIS Web by the way isn't a GP Surgery system.

Regarding the other items listed by the other reader, the following still exist.

GV - granted it never replaced LV but EMIS gained a number of new business from it and existing users of Windows based software.

The Calderdale project went ahead

PCS is still going strong. Over 1000 users including the Canadian market. Converters from Vision and iSoft were gained in the process so it can't be that bad given Vision is a very good product and the ONLY software currently at Level 4 of GPSoC.

PCS Enterprise solutions are installed in several areas around the UK very successfully.

Tower Hamlets still use EMIS Web successfully.

EMIS Dental is out and used successfully.

EMIS Web - well the above gives chapter and verse as to why it's not out yet.