‘Progress’ towards contracts: Gentrack

AUCKLAND: Gentrack Group, an Aucklandbased software developer for utilities and airports, says it has made ‘‘significant progress towards several new customer wins’’ in the US and Australia that will contribute to its fiscal 2019 results.

These were not expected to have a material impact on its fiscal 2018 earnings, and the company forecasted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of between $30 million and

$32 million, though ‘‘they will contribute to FY19 results and position Gentrack well for further wins in the US airport and Australian utility markets’’, it said in a statement.

Gentrack said it had been awarded a contract for its BlipTrack guestpredictability solution at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Newark, La Guardia, JFK and Stewart airports in the US. The airport operator was already a major customer for its Airport 20/20 software, Gentrack said.

It had also been awarded preferred vendor status and was entering into final contract negotiations with Orlando International Airport, and had been appointed as the preferred supplier for a ‘‘significant and growing’’ Australian utility.

Gentrack said its acquisition of UKbased Evolve Analytics, announced last month, was on track for completion. The latest purchase, for an enterprise value of about $44 million, follows the takeovers last year of UK billing and customer information systems firm Junifer Systems and European airport software developers Blip Systems and CA Plus.

Its shares slipped 1.1% to $7.15 on Friday. The stock has soared more than 51% in the past year, outperforming an

18% advance in the country’s S&P/NZX 50 index over the same period. —