SHARE PUNT OF THE WEEK

WHO IS IT? Scisys designs bespoke computer software for companies in a range of industries, including the media, broadcast, space, government and defence.

It provides a wide variety of services including space systems, radio production technology, IT for boats and the marine sector, and GPS and location services.

Clients include the Ministry of Defence, the lifeboat charity RNLI, Interflora and the European Space Agency.

WHAT’S THE LATEST? In February it announced it had won a £1.6m contract to support the polar system earth observation programme run by the European satellite organisation EUMETSAT.

A big step came in November last year, when Scisys’s shares rocketed after it paid £9.7m for German firm Annova, which supplies newsroom software to major public and commercial broadcasters across Europe, and has a 12-year digital radio contract with the BBC.

In its 2016 results, Scisys reported that its profit had risen to £3.2m from £0.8m in 2015, while revenues rose 27pc to £45.7m.

WHO BACKS IT? Scisys’s biggest shareholder is its non-executive chairman Michael Love, who owns a 14.8pc stake.

It is also backed by London-based investor Herald Investment Management, which specialises in the media, telecommunications and technology sectors.

WHY YOU SHOULD INVEST The contract with the BBC is a significant one. The firm said it expects the impressive growth seen last year to continue in 2017, and will continue to look for more acquisition opportunities.

So with the stock still looking quite cheap, it could be worth a punt before the announcement of further large-scale acquisitions.

…AND WHY YOU SHOULDN’T In June 2015 the firm lost a lot of its value when it issued a profit warning after learning that one of its key projects would be more expensive and complex than first thought.

Although it has since recovered, this sort of major blip shows how tech firms operating in highly complex sectors can be hit hard by a single problem.