Weboz turns away from technology

Former internet kiosk and payphone provider Weboz may get out of IT altogether after another disappointing year, to concentrate on mining.

Philip Grimaldi, executive director of Weboz, said the company was seriously considering selling out of all its remaining technology joint ventures by the end of 2004.

Weboz had been gradually stepping back from its smartcard payphone and internet kiosk investments over the past year or so to focus on copper and nickel exploration, he said.

He said the withdrawal from technology was "a little disappointing".

"[Our ventures] are probably not looking to be profitable enough," Grimaldi said. "We looked at many other IT opportunities, but we weren't able to get them off the ground, so we decided that it's too difficult at the moment."

Grimaldi said competition, increased maintenance costs and market factors had forced the decision.

A Weboz directors' report issued to the ASX on 12 January said that one rival had been offering free payphones to business outlets last year, after which Weboz' payphone sales had dried up.

Weboz also then had to cancel an order for 1,100 smartcard payphones, for which it had issued shares in March 2001, it said.

"Competitors were providing payphones free, and there was also a lot of competition from smaller players, and internet kiosks in particular have become a local market rather than a national market," Grimaldi said.

The directors' report said that the company last year had already cut staff and sought a buyer with no success.

Weboz had partly sold out of its smartcard payphone business, Pacific Payphones, instead forming a joint venture with the East Coast Telephone Company, it said.

Weboz had also disposed of another subsidiary, DynamoCards Oz, in 2003 that had not traded that year and had no net assets. No money changed hands in that deal.

Further, Weboz' internet kiosks had used older equipment which had become uneconomic to maintain, the report said.

"What we plan to do over the next 12 months is probably sell [the remaining IT assets and ventures] as well," Grimaldi said.

Weboz lost $429,873 -- including non-recurring writedowns of internet kiosks and prepaid payphones stock and development expenses of $302,840 -- in the 2002-03 fiscal year, down from $525,666 in the previous year.

Revenues from ordinary activities were $273,000, down from $2,075,000 in the 2001-02 financial year.

Meanwhile, Weboz had made a string of mining investments expected to prove more lucrative.

The company - which plans to change its name to NiCu Metals --announced a buyout of ATL Exploration for several million dollars in cash and shares on Christmas Eve, adding to its interests with Redstone Metals, Chameleon Mining and in some four prospective gold and copper licenses in Western Australia.

"Mining at the moment is quite exciting. For the next three years we've got some very good prospects," Grimaldi said.

Weboz holds a shareholders' meeting in NSW on 11 February to vote on the company's new direction and focus.