Five ASX-listed tech companies you should know

THE AUSTRALIAN ICON

Hills Limited

Went public: 30 June 1962
2013 revenue: $507.6 million
Current share price: $1.71 
CEO: Edward Pretty

Who are they?

The Australian brand famous for the clothes hoist is nowadays focusing on more digital concerns as Hills Limited. The integrator says its range of solutions now cover “security and access control, health, audio visual, automation, communications and mobility”.

The transformation has been deliberately carried out in recent years, with the company aiming to earn 75 percent of revenue from ICT and 20-25 percent from services by June 2016. Hills posted $507.6 million in revenue for the 2013 financial year and has offices in Sydney and Adelaide.

Why should I care?

Although it suffered a loss of $94 million in 2013, Hills was in the process of stemming the bleeding by offloading some “non-core” business lines to buyers such as Bluescope Steel. The move worked a treat, with a profit of $15 million ushered in the half year to 31 December 2013.

Hills has made headlines in the channel this year for an exclusive distribution deal for a home sensor system, resale deal for a “technician-in-a-box” solution, and its Lan 1 brand becoming the second distributor in Australia for security vendor Sophos.

What do they say?

"We have built a strong reputation with our security practice in Australia and we are very excited to be working with Sophos to provide its best-in-class products to our channel partners," said Daniel Lee, Hills head of CCTV, Surveillance and IT.

THE FIGHTER

Invigor

Went public: 3 December 1999
2013 revenue: $38 million
Share price: 6.5 cents
CEO: Gary Cohen

Who are they?

Invigor is an Australian digital solutions provider and IT investment house with offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Chennai, India. The company deals in big data projects, creating solutions for clients to assist in their understanding of internal data and analyse how the business operates.

Why should I care?

The leadership team is dominated by the Cohens - chairman and CEO Gary, finance director Gregory, and CTO Dr Brian Cohen. Brian and Gary own Marcel Equity, which has a significant stake in Invigor. Radio and television personality Vic Lorusso is also a board member.

This year Invigor has seemingly pulled off a sensational turnaround in fortunes since positing an almost $16 million net loss for 2013.

In a former life, Invigor was known as Hyro and in 2012 the board sold its assets to US company KIT Digital. However, the transaction was never properly completed with KIT Digital running into financial trouble. A dispute followed between the two parties, with the buyer eventually filing for bankruptcy.

Despite the Cohens stepping in to rebuild Invigor, the costs of the legal battle mounted. Last year the company reaped a revenue increase of 40 percent to $38 million but still copped a net loss of $15.95 million. The board warned in the annual report that if further funding could not be found Invigor “will have difficulty continuing to operate as a going concern”.

An injection of cash this year has rejuvenated the outfit. Invigor took over the company led by the web entrepreneurs behind Menulog and GetPrice (and retaining their know-how), acquired Search Results Group, invested in My Verified ID and opened a new development centre in Chennai, India.

The latest earnings guidance released to the ASX last month stated that the company expects EBITDA to break even in the second half of 2014, while forecasting $2.5 million EBITDA for 2015.

What do they say?

“We've been really focused on building our own business since we took over from the former board,” chairman and chief executive Gary Cohen told CRN last month.

“We are bringing together strong projects. Look out for some clever announcements and transformative work from us in the coming period. Big data is the main game, but there will be plenty of complementary work.”