BIW TECHNOLOGIES RECORDS CLOSE TO 30% GROWTH IN 2008

Eighth straight year of growth yields £1.1 million profit for UK market leader - AIM listing mooted for 2009

9 December 2008

BIW Technologies, one of the world’s leading providers of online construction project control software, increased its turnover by 27% per cent to £7.3 million in the year to 30 September 2008, with profits more than doubling to £1.1 million.

The value of unrecognised revenues in the order book is up to £12.77 million at September 2008, from £8.43 million at September 2006. In line with BIW’s software-as-a-service model (SaaS) - where subscribers typically pay annually for the software, but agree long-term deals - these are contracted revenues that apply to future years, which give visibility and resilience to the company’s forward revenues and cashflows.

BIW’s growth this year has included some notable high-profile contract wins. These included being selected to provide its SaaS system to support the design and construction of the headquarters of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle.

BIW also, earlier this year, signed a corporate agreement with Nakheel, Dubai’s leading property developer, to deliver SaaS applications to manage and deliver Nakheel’s development projects throughout the United Arab Emirates.

Nakheel’s projects include the 1.4 billion square foot Waterfront development, the internationally renowned Palm Trilogy and The World. Nakheel’s developments include more than 250 hotel projects and over the next two decades the company will provide residences accommodating around three million people. Nakheel currently has US$60 billion worth of major projects under development.

Nakheel recently announced that it had selected BIW to deliver SaaS applications to support design and construction of the Nakheel Tower, which is set to be the world’s tallest building. The Nakheel Tower, which will be over one kilometre high, is at the heart of a 10-year development: Nakheel Harbour & Tower.

One notable deal in the UK was with new build, refurbishment and fit-out contractor Interior Services Group plc (ISG), which signed a three-year corporate deal with BIW in May to use its construction collaboration platform.

ISG operates in the UK, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, and first used the BIW system on a multi-million pound project for a City of London law firm in 2001. ISG is currently using the BIW platform to support over 200 project-based staff on more than 20 projects.

The most widely used system in the UK, Europe and Middle East, the BIW platform has been deployed on over 10,000 projects. To date, it has accumulated a user base of over 110,000 users, drawn from more than 11,000 different organisations involved in the planning, procurement, design, construction and ongoing operation and maintenance of built assets.

BIW has offices in London, Dubai and India. Next year, depending on market conditions, BIW is considering an AIM listing to help fund its further expansion.

Colin Smith, CEO, BIW Technologies, comments:

“This year has been our most successful to date in terms of revenue and profits. We operate in the SaaS sector, which is recognized as being relatively recession-proof, because there is much less up front investment required from clients, its low risk and there is a faster return on investment, therefore we should do well even in these difficult economic conditions.”

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More information from:

• Paul Wilkinson, BIW head of corporate communications – tel: +44 (0)1483 712620 or mobile 07788 445920, email paul.wilkinson@biwtech.com
• Richard Evans, The Communication Group plc – tel: 0207 630 1411

Notes to editors

• Collaboration services delivered on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) basis by BIW Technologies (www.biwtech.com) were first employed in 1999 on UK construction projects for Sainsbury’s. BIW believes it is the European leader in SaaS collaboration systems for the construction and property industry, measured by numbers of users, usage and volume of data.
• The BIW supply chain integration technology has been designed specifically for construction projects or programmes. Each client is provided with a unique, project or programme-specific browser-based toolset created around a knowledge database. With this, data can be made available securely to every team member – from the earliest concepts, through detailed design, buildability studies, pre-fabrication, construction, maintenance, operation and improvement to the eventual demolition or dismantling of the facility.
• BIW customers include United Utilities, Sainsbury’s, BAA, housebuilders Crest Nicholson and the Peabody Trust, Marks & Spencer, the UK Ministry of Defence, the Wellcome Trust, O2, Mace, Bovis Lend Lease, Kajima, Gleeds and developers Nakheel, Land Securities, Ballymore and Garbe.
• BIW is a registered trademark of BIW Technologies Ltd.