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Group Managing Director says iTouch has dominant position in all their Wireless ASP markets Full article published: 11/01/2002     AVI AZULAI is Group Managing Director of iTouch PLC


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TWST: What are the strengths you are bringing to the table?

Mr. Azulai: iTouch has many strengths that it offers its customers and its investors. We have a company established in 1995 and one that was profitable until 2000, when we internationalized the business. What I mean to say is that we have a proven business model, we have a strong management team, good acquisition and integration experience as well as a fully funded business model with strong cash reserves of £32 million. As a WASP, we offer our customers the opportunity to internationalise their services, where iTouch can develop, host, distribute and bill for mobile services. We are able to measure the response to a service in a certain territory and apply it to another quickly. We are centralising our technology platforms so that we may expand our reach into new territories. As we consolidate in this market, we stand a good chance of becoming a leader in the mobile space. This will improve revenues and margins.

TWST: Are you comfortable you have the full resources within the management team to take the company forward?

Mr. Azulai: Our management team has been with us from the start, when we internationalized the business. All of them have either network operator or media company experience. The team at PLC are also highly skilled and have extensive experience in their respective roles. Lastly, the management reporting and controls that we have in place allow us to manage the business with all aspects of each operational country. This is a testament to the management of the team.

TWST: What is your impression of the investment community’s reaction to iTouch?

Mr. Azulai: I think the investment community is in the trenches at the moment really. All they are doing is looking at companies that have much bigger market capital and much bigger volumes currently traded. Most investment managers have had to reduce their head count in their small cap teams. Obviously, that has affected our share price adversely on the LSE. But in the next two years, when they do climb out of those trenches and they start looking around for the right investment opportunities, they are going to look at profitable companies; they are going to look at companies who have a dominant position; and iTouch is going to be ideally placed for that. Right now, they are not covering companies like us, even though iTouch has relatively outperformed the Techmark sector. I think they are still associating all of this to 3G problems, mobile operator debts and concern that the market is not going to takeoff. What they don’t realize is that there is still plenty to be done just in Voice and SMS. Just look at what we have today. We don’t have to get more customers on more networks. We have enough customers right now. Europe has millions of mobile customers out there. The market is there for us right now and we don’t have to wait for the introduction and uptake of future technologies. Lastly, the investment community wants to see companies that are profitable and dominant in their market sector. They will see that with iTouch over the next 12 months but by then it will cost them more to get in.

TWST: When you have the opportunity to sit down with investors, what are the three or four key points you want investors to consider when looking at taking a position in the company?

Mr. Azulai: We are the leading Wireless ASP. We are number the one Wireless ASP in all our territories except the UK. By the end of this year will be the number one Wireless ASP in UK as well. So we have a dominant position in all our markets. We have had eight straight quarters of exceeding market expectations. We have a strong cash position and we are moving towards free cash flow positive six months ahead of initial predictions. We have an international footprint that is going to attract all the right global relationships for us. And we have an experienced management team that has been with the company right from its conception and the new people are very experienced, highly skilled and motivated. We also have a good discipline of watching the bottom line.


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This interview is a small excerpt from a comprehensive interview published in The Wall Street Transcript on 11/01/02. For more information call (212) 952 7400. The Wall Street Transcript does not endorse any of the comments made by interviewees, and does not make stock recommendations.

Copyright 2002, Wall Street Transcript Corp.

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